Sirens, page 37
four hours.' She took the pen from him, wrote across the pad.
"Thanks.' ', how's the girl?' ', well, it's a bit too early to say yet.
There are a number of tests ...' ' she conscious?' sno.1 "Christv Chris
said. ' old was she?'Daina asked. ' ID said seventeen,' the doctor said,
getting up. ' remember when I was that young,' Nigel joked. But no
onelaughed. ''t forget the Tylenol, Miss. Whitney. Take them right
away.' He nodded to those around him, threaded his way out 322 crowded
room. 4 5 staring at the white tablets in her open K' Daina said Chris
gave her a glass of champagne and she downed with it. ' Silka was
there,' she said, handing him the glass. ck had nothin' t' do with it,'
Chris said. ' were his ment during th' concert. Think I'd leave you
unpro- ? s ...'It was Benno's voice. a long time Chris kept his eyes on
Daina. ler's outside with his team of marketing VPs- We take those
pictures now.' s, Benno, dont you have any feeling for what's going ?
That girl -' t.'s either that or well have them hovering around us all
.'ll leave it up to you and Nigel, huh?' ris gave a deep sigh, closed
his eyes. t's go, man,' Nigel said. gotta go for a minute,' he told her.
' stay here with -9 ey want her in the shots, Chris.' Benno's voice was
gentle. don't give a damn what they wantv He rounded on the ger. ' know
what you cn tell those leeches, you less bastard! They just want their
snouts next to ours. -'emnol' ris -' yway, it's up t'th'lady ...' aina
smiled. ' show must go on, right?' She saw the on Chris' face. ''s all
right.' She put a hand alongside eek. ''m all right.' dy to roll,' Silka
said.
"Almost.' He turned to them from osition beside the limo driver.
"Ready?' t might have been D-Day morning, filled with the stink sion and
the gleam of oiled steel. ris sat very close to Daina, holding her hand.
They had showered and while Chris had changed, she had spent time
reapplying makeup. front of them, the enormous doors began to rise and
made a visual sweep of all the electronically locked doors 323 of the
car. ' we go,' he said, turning away from thern. The limo began to roll.
Down the ramp and out the door into the seething night. ' could make out
the wooden barricades and the police patrolling their small strip of
space before the lapping sea of kids began, rocking and rolling, pushing
and shoving, over- lapping the pavement like an abnormally high tide.
Past the grey sawhorses, they were immediately engulfed In the writhing
mass of bodies. Girls leaped on the long hood of the limo while the
policemen tried vainly to pry them off. Balled fists pounded
frighteningly against all the glass interfaces and heads were jammed up
against the sides. A girl with heavily mascaraed eyes and feathered
beads in her braided hair, opened her mouth, lasciviously, licked at the
glass w th her tongue as if it were her lover's body; kept it up until
unseen hands dragged her away but the window remained streaked with her
saliva. Noises assailed them through the Continental's soundproofing
like the howling of a distant wind. A girl crawled up on the hood,
digging a space for herself and, spreading her legs, ground the crotch
of her skin-tight jeans against the windshield. Her lacquer-tipped
fingers scrabbled at the fly-front as she attempted to push them off her
hips. Nigel leaned forward away from Tie, gripped the edge the frame of
the glass partition. ''mon baby,' he chanted. ', ooh take it off V ''s
gonna do it,' the driver said. ' ' some bleedin' encouragement, man,'
Nigel said. They all stared. The jeans were moving slowly down her hips.
Down and down amid all that writhing confused mclee. The car jounced on
its heavy springs, swayed drunkenly back and forth as the hail of fists
continued to beat on its top and sides in ancient rhythm. ' ... Pthe
driver said. ' looka that." Nigel grinned like a cat. ' knickers.' The
jeans had been pushed down so far they could see the beginning fringe of
the girl's pubic hair as she continued to grind herself against the
glass. Her fingers went into the tight V and she began to stroke
herself. ', hey.' Nigel pushed at Silka's shoulder. ' ' in 324 ! Ha hav
,,said nothing, looked away at another part of the ocean. driver pounded
on his horn. , what you doin'?' Nigel was bouncing up and down seat. ''t
disturb her now.
She's gettin' off.' ' nuthin gonna bother her,' the driver grunted as he
to punch at the wheel. t the force of numbers continued to climb as if
on a graph g the energy still to be spent this night. Embedded in of
some expensive creature, safe within the steel yet unsafe because no one
knew to what extent this could rise. rattled in its frame; they saw
rather than heard the of the crowd, giving them an eerie quality, a
nightgiven life. e girl on the windscreen had somehow disappeared, ctd
by four others. The time for individuals had gone. the community held
sway and Daina thought of Woodof some other time when there was no
thought of war g the generation. and arms pumping, eyes staring, the
swirl of clothes, heavy press of a blanket of bodies, entombing them in
a ctive embrace. And all they could do was sit and watch pen before
their eyes like the onset of a fatal accident: were fillld by a lurid
fascination not to do anything but it all in. ' what?' Nigel had turned
around, was staring at ''know what?' He raised his arms, extended them
until yed fingers, his palms damp with sweat, pressed against aut,
vibrating fabric of the litno's ceiling. ''s all our own ion.' His eyes
went wide. '! Yeah, yeah, yeah!' began to jump up and down in that
confined space. Up down. Up and down and then, jutting out one finger,
ssed a stud. The window on that side slithered down and lunged forward
at all that mob with a great fearsome ssion on his face.
He screamed like a banshee and they *led, scattered and began to run.
oments later the police sirens began their electronic 325 The entire
rear of Loveisaliquid had been cordoned off witil plum velvet ropes on
brass stanchions. It was upstairs on the restaurant's balcony whose
front overlooked the lower level -with its immense blondwood bar and
whose glass-walled r r gave out on a view of the city from twenty-five
storeys up. There was Coit Tower, the Transamerica pyramid and, far to
the left, the floodlit Golden Gate, as pinkly orange as a sunrise. Tube
lighting in blue and green neon ran around the edges of the walls at
bottom and top. High ferris swished and swayed wit people's passing like
old-time film cowboys. The sharp scent of juniper was in the air. '
thing always start small,' Chris said in her ear as flashbulbs popped.
Everyone stared at their passing, even the normally nonchalant, who
thought themselves above it all. ' th' best of intentions of course.' He
moved her throu the packed room. ' is still chic an' we don't like t' be
bothered.' He laughed easily. ''s our excuse.' ' Kerr! Hey, outa my
way!' They heard him over the pulse of the music, the chatter of voices
filling the vicinity. Daina, turning her head slightly, saw a dark blur
emerging from out of the dense throng at the back of the restaurant. ',
Chris!' The crowd parted like sheep prodded with a stick and Daina could
see the wide flat face, the long shaggy hair gleaming dully. Flash of
white skin and black beard as he moved towards them. ', Chris I' He
smiled. His arms were outstretched, broad shoulders brushing aside the
last of the people like flies off a horse's coat. He had a chest like an
ironworker. ' know this guy?' Silka said in Chris' ear. Chris shook his
head negatively and Silka said something to him. Chris took one step
back, taking Daina with him, and tile enormous bulk of Silka was between
them and the young man.
He crashed into Silka's body with shuddering force, his arms flailing.
Silka, seeming not to move at all, brought his right forearm up,
deflecting the other's fist to the side. Now they could see there was a
gun in it. ' me at him,' the bearded man said. He seemed quite calm.
"I'm going to kill him.' And tried to raise his arm. 326 Silka moved so
that he faced the attack with just his and, with great fluidity,
extended his hands. They sword edges as they drove between the other
man's that they exploded outward, expending the force of turn in this
harmless way. He took the gun off the e on,' Silka said softly. ''s go,
punk. You've no here.' t d'you know about it,' the bearded man said.
"You're hired hand.' His lips curled in an odd smile. ' ry, that's all.
Just following orders.' The smile as he lunged forward, trying again to
get past Silka s and Daina. came in swinging from the hip with both
fists, holding ws in and his knuckles high, as men who are the best st
canny street fighters will do. expected Silka to come to the traditional
defensive but the big man did no such thing. Instead of moving e boxer's
crouch, he straightened his left leg as he slid ard along the limited
space on the crowded floor. could see the bunching of Silka's muscles as
they in tension, as he brought the power flooding through Almost
imperceptibly, his right shoe left the floor, g with appalling force
into the juncture of the bearded leading ankle and instep. e man cried
out in pain and shock and, in trying to right If, managed only to twist
himself off balance. Silka's hand rose only to the level of his chest;
the hand, fingers iff as boards, slashed edge on into the bearded man's
um so that all the breath whooshed out of him like a sed balloon. Ika
scooped up his limp form and disappeared into the ing throng. The entire
manoeuvre had taken no more a couple of seconds. mediately, Chris turned
away. He clutched at her; his felt cold and clammy. ',' he hissed.
"It's the Lennon all over again!' He was shivering and Daina put her
around his shoulders. ' do they want from us?' he to no one. ' do they
want t' blow us away?' he led him up the spiral staircase, rimmed in
pale 327 pink as if it were a strand of angel's hair. Music vibrated
the steps of their ascent, buzzing through their legs. ' many people
now,' he whispered. ' always end up invitin' th'world.' They sat in a
comer near the windows, with Nile and Tie and Nigel, on a lipstick-red
leather banquette, sipping Dom Perignon'73. Clots of photographers
roamed the place like greedy remoras sliding along a sleek shark's side,
catching sniffs of Bianca Jagger and David Bowie, Norman Mailer, on the
West Coast doing research for his next book, Bill Graham, once rock's
greatest promoter. But always they came back to Daina until Chris
laughed, said like a bee in her ear, ''s gonna hate you. She and Bianca,
y'know - very heavy. But you ... Ali!' On the other side of her, Nile
stared at a plate filled with undulating pasta rimmed with steamed
oysters still in their shells as if it were some alien artifact.
"Nile,'Daina said.'You okay?' '.' He leaned his head back against the
cool leather, closed his enormous eyes. She saw for the first time how
long his lashes were. ',' he said, ' inside. Too many nights runnin' all
invoutta one another like a stream down t' th' sea, uhm. hum.' ' d1you
do it to yourself F '?' ' the nose candy; all the ... horse ...' ')
little girl. If you only knew.' His eyes came open, stared into hers. '
that you don't, though. It ain't gotcha yet. Don't let it. Hummm. Why's
' it's the only thing keeps me runnin' at all any more. You got t'stoke
those fires with w g, hatever it takes t' make thin s run. Drugs in my
veins like blood." He shrugged, smiled. ' what, right? Who gives a fuck
any more. Ah, whoever did?' His hands came out and two long delicate
surgeon's fingers turned the mounded plate in front of him around and
around as if it were a sculpture he could not decide to place. ' ha.
S'only dangerous when it's outta control an' the night screams in an'
tears you apart. Till thenies a blanket that gets you through. Through
an' through ..." "It's out of control, Nile,' she said softly. ' always
is, don't 328 know that?' lips pared back and his large white teeth
clacked er warningly. ''t go judgin' me. The way I live my ... I chose.
Chose it all. My music ... my life. All one. there ever was for me.'
"But now that you have everything you want ,'Ah! S'all shit. Don't you
know that?
Ha. Right. Life's unhappy. -What makes my music ... what it is.' He ed
away, out past the squeezed figures as overpainted as i actors, to the
starless sky over the city. ' that ... what's there ... unseen.
Never t'know certain things, er. Why the music's there in the first
place ... s'only for existing .. wanted to reply but Chris was pulling
at her hand, Ing her away, saying, ''s Fonda. Now's the time oduce me.'
aina drank a great deal and ate almost nothing. She talked and, it
seemed, the more she talked the thirstier she got. , was always someone
at her side to refill her galss with pagne - nothing but the Dom
Perignon. ie came towards her through the pall, parting the curtain 4
oise, music, unmindful of the web of drifting conversations
monologuesposmg as conversations. ",Darling,' T ie said in her awesome,
husky voice, ' you g a good time?' as if she were this party's hostess.
She j@ked her slim cool arm around Daina's. led her towards the ows. '
used to hate parties like these,' she said. ' ..k:bours of wheedling and
cajoling to got him to show up. I had ve him, dress him, brush his hair,
make him up.' Her eyes opaque in the neon light, double-lidded. Windows
il did not blink. ' do you know what, after all that?' felt hypnotized
by that unwavering gaze. ' would into that crowded room and be turned
on. His body felt 9, numbed, but his mind flashed on it all. I'd look in
eyes and see the explosion there, the dark burning, a ma *hm. t,,-,,ge
fire that would not go out until so many hours later even the inveterate
partygoers like Chris and Ian would ,jong gone and only the two of us
were left conscious.' *@Tie had closed in and her long fingers, wrapped
around fima9s wrist, gave her power a physical presence. For an 329
instant, Daina felt a slight shiver of fear crawling down her spine.
Then it was gone. ' you knew all that already didn't youp Daina shook
her head. ' didn't.' Tie's face was close to hers. She could smell her
breath, sweet and slightly musky, her perfume, mixed with her sweat,
tangy and harsh but not unpleasant. In fact, just the opposite - like an
animal's. Daina closed her eyes, gave a shuddering exhalation. ''t lie,
darling,' Tie whispered. ' know that you know., Daina's eyes flew open,
encountered Tie's piercing gaze so close she started. ' what?' ' Jon.
Don't be coy, darling." She wagged one upraised finger. ''s no sin to
know. Only a mistake.
Someone made a mistake, that's all.' ' are you talking abou ' you were
part of the inner circle, it would be different.' Tie went on as if
Daina. had not said a word. ' you're an outsider. With no power here.
And you'll have no power, do you understand?' ' don't understand a thi
"It all began with Maggie, you see.' A smile was frozen across her lips
and her fingers were now painful as they gripped Daina's wrist more
tightly., ' tried to gain the power; she tried to break in ... to do
more than was ... expected of her. She had ideas, wouldn't listen to the
warnings.' The voice had thickened subtly in the last few moments until
it was filled with venom. ' she was an outsider just as you are an
outsider. She broke the laws and was destroyed.' ' Godp Daina twisted
away from her grip, ' are you saying?' Her eyes were wide and fear
flooded her veins like ice water. She found she was trembling.
"You don't want to know anything about it. It's none of your concern."
"It is my concern!' she cried. ' was my best friend!' Oblivious to the
turned faces, the running feet, the renewed jostling all around them.
Flashbulbs went off amid the rising babble of voices. Tie's cheeks went
hot pink as the blood rushed into them ... A small secret smile broke
out over her wide lips, the neon . g her teeth to dazzle. Abruptly she
turned and slid ' the crowd. moment, Daina stood rooted to the spot.
Then, almost ively, she sprang after Tie, pushing her way through illing
throng, past Mailer and Jerry Brown and Tom . But the bulking crowd
