Chapter 11 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 11 — Tipid; fifty thousand

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ceasefire · Previous: Chapter 10 — Hamed's club; the small wedding · Next: Chapter 12 — The base camp; Tina · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

“Can I keep this?” Tipid asked his attorney.

Summary

The Tipid interlude: a crest poisoner with a key in his blood-covered hands, shaking in a zero zone — Cassio dead by his own knife against illusions, Horatio dead because the key let only one out and Tipid chose himself. The man opposite is not his attorney but Damien, telling him it is solars later, his contract is done with perfect marks, his brain has lesions the Viceroys can repair for most of his pension, and a new not-for-conquest for destitute former crawlers is sending someone to take him. 'Home? Where is that?' Horatio had a wife and a child who had taken deals; Tipid had nobody, and still chose himself. He negotiated an extra season to keep the key, snaps the chain, and throws it away. His card: Poisoner, Crest, top level 96, deal at the start of the twelfth, guide and poisoners' instructor, spent his pension and a loan on his brain, retired to a crest waste-management company, author of the fourth edition. 'Current status: Colonel in the Princess Posse Faction Wars team.'

Louis, Katia, Bautista and Samantha take Party Planner to the base; Drick tries to teach Ferdinand the warlord menus; Britney stays for a lesson in the city defence system, which includes two enormous diggers and a way to use the buildings themselves. Shanty Town, Carl explains, would be a liability once the truce ends, and its separate defence system is now theirs; Donut wants the bowler on a charge pillow and the lightning drained from the turban. Long Haul cancels Donut's sponsorship for a 'conflict of interest', with an auction to follow. In the Meadowlark saferoom stand two crest with purple dots and pink outlines: Rosetta Thag, Crest Barn Burner, level 60, Colonel — her floral tattoo now glowing — and a scalped, sun-leathered older man whose name knocks Carl back into the door: Tipid, Crest Liquid Dervish, level 60, Colonel. 'Are there more?' 'A few more.' Florin: just over fifty thousand former crawlers. Tipid holds Carl's forehead to his: 'We've been watching, and we couldn't watch anymore.' Rosetta smacks Carl on the forehead as 'a self-correcting measure', kisses both cheeks — 'Comrade' — puts an ice-cold hand on the Bedlam Bride tattoo, and in chat, because 'they're still listening', demands the last sliver of toraline, Shi Maria's ink, the orc hunter's credit chit Donut carries, access to the saferoom and the bomber's studio, and four million gold; the eye blinks under her touch. Tipid's hour-long short story: the surgery and its debt; Dr Porthus Hu of the Crawler Project, whose campaigning made released crawlers Syndicate citizens with healthcare and housing (Mistress Tiatha, drunk, says that is for new crawlers only and the old guard will be bled); the Open Intellect Pacifist Network, smaller, dedicated to ending the crawl, whose Paulie stunt helped get it branded terrorist, so they scattered and Hu's whereabouts are unknown — 'now that we're in the game, there is nothing they can do'; Hu's idea to refit a garbage freighter as a liner and call for volunteers, who came even after the protections went off. Three bune wave on their way to Mordecai. The mercenary package: level 60, a non-permanent race and class, no gear, no achievements, but every one a tenner who has survived a Faction Wars, a Land War or a Battle Royale, and Justice Light knows traps better than anyone. The catch: every other team has taken about 20,000 armed Hired Mercenaries of its own, who kept their gear but not race or class — 150,000 new enemies, and a bumpy first week.

Characters

• Tipid — The interlude's key and the man who threw it away; now a colonel with Murder Tornado.
• Rosetta Thagra — A slap, two kisses, and demands whispered in chat; the tattoo under her hand.
• Carl — Knocked into a door by a name; This is what you built
• Princess Donut — Her sponsorship cancelled; 'a straight Samantha […] Sex addict Samantha. But, you know, bald.'
• Porthus — Dr Hu, whereabouts unknown, who refitted a garbage freighter.
• Florin — Delivers the number.
• Mistress Tiatha — Drunk and right about who gets citizenship.
• Louis and Firas — Louis leaves his wife of an hour for a test flight.

Locations

• Meadow Lark (party) — The saferoom where the former crawlers wait.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Two authors in the room; a third in hiding; the fourth edition's key.
• The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network — Fugitives, safe inside the game; Hu's idea, Hu's absence.
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — Rosetta wants the ink and the toraline, and says nothing aloud.
• Sponsorship — Long Haul withdraws for conflict of interest; an auction to come.
• Faction Wars — Fifty thousand at level 60 against a hundred and fifty thousand with pulse rifles.