eXistenZ Read Online Free Page B

response but he too began humming, emphasizing the important notes, urging Pikul and everyone else to join in. Soon the whole room was humming along.
    Everyone in the room, that is, except Noel Dichter. Pikul, never at ease with community singing, had started to glance around the room nervously, and within moments he noticed what Dichter was doing.
    The young man had moved to the edge of the platform and was fumbling with the catches of his vinyl pod case. As the flap swung open, Pikul saw the fleshy mass of an old game-pod resting inside. At first he thought Dichter was going to take it out, but to his amazement he saw the man thrust his fingers straight into the resilient organic mass of the pod.
    Moments later he pulled it back out, but now he was holding something small and irregularly shaped.
    At first sight Pikul thought it was the half-decayed cadaver of a small animal, like a large rat or a small dog. It was made of bone and gristle and had fragments of furry flesh attached to it. Dichter used his free hand to strip away a few pieces of the gelatinous game-pod flesh still clinging to it. He held it up briefly to his eyes, checking or inspecting it.
    At the front of the object was an animal’s bony mouth, or snout; the little jaw was fixed open to form a rigid O. Behind this was a bulge of bony carapace, mostly blocked in by the remains of flesh or fur; Pikul could see several small bones inside, braced together like precision levers in a tiny machine. At the back, where Dichter was holding the thing, was a rigid hind leg.
    Dichter held this the way he would hold the grip of a handgun. A spread of tiny foot bones formed the butt of the handle. His finger curled around a dislocated knee as if it were a trigger.
    He was aiming it at Allegra Geller as he stepped up on the platform.
    Pikul shouted at Wittold Levi, waving his arm wildly. “He’s carrying a gun, a goddamn gun!”
    Levi appeared to be blissed out, swaying as the corporate hymn surged through the air. Pikul dived away from him, launching himself through the crowd.
    Dichter held the cadaver-gun in both hands and was advancing on Allegra.
    “Death to eXistenZ!” he shouted. “Death to Antenna Research! Death to the vile demoness Allegra Geller!”
    Uselessly, Pikul yelled, “Don’t do it!”
    He was scrambling up on to the dais as he shrieked this, and the shout succeeded in momentarily distracting Dichter. The young man glanced back to see what was happening, but instantly turned on Allegra again.
    He raised the cadaver-gun.
    He fired!
    A loud explosion shocked everyone to silence. Allegra Geller took the full force of the bullet. She was twisted around in her chair by the impact and thrown backward to the floor. The chair spun around, landed across her and happened to be in place as Dichter fired again. This time the bullet hit the upturned underside of the chair and was deflected away from her. It zinged through the air and ricocheted from an overhead lamp shade.
    As Allegra fell, the neural surge communicated itself to the other players hooked into her game-pod.
    They all gasped, thrust their heads back, swayed back and forth perilously on their chairs.
    Allegra was still conscious, but was sprawling painfully on the hard surface of the platform. The bullet had buried itself in her shoulder. She pressed her good hand against it, trying to ease the pain. Otherwise she lay still, watching in terror through half-opened eyes. She was breathing harshly, letting out whimpers of pain.
    On their chairs, twenty-one other players clutched their shoulders.
    Pikul’s dash across the stage was completed as he launched himself into a flying tackle. He brought Dichter crashing to the floor. Dichter fired twice more as they fell together, hitting the two participants closest to Allegra. Both flew backward from their chairs and fell to the wooden floor.
    Pikul used his security wand at last, repeatedly whacking Dichter across the face, neck, and arms. Each blow