Hard and dirty work and her mind tried to slip away but her training brought it back.  She dove down and in, down and in, until she touched the inner ramparts of that other mind.  Once there she had to remind herself that not all was shadow for she found herself in a very dark place indeed. Thoughts roiled up around the slender thread of consciousness which was her self.  She could not direct the woman's thoughts.  She could only observe and try to remember enough of who she really was not to get lost, to get out in one piece.  She found purpose here, purpose with a deep red tangle of emotion shot through it.  Someone, some male wanted something and this woman was loyal.  Political?  Suix were the opposite of political.  Religious?

Close.  They had a path which they clung to against logic.  She stopped fighting the turbid stream of thought and just rode it out.  Like a slow trip through a full sewer.  Something about a 3D performance and a televideo studio. The rock group, Guelph, was cutting a ThreeDee hologram in Kingston's Studio One.

   Brandywine heard the word, "Snuff", as if it had been spoken in her ear.  What was going to happen?  Who was going to perform?  She struggled to pull out and, for a short minute panicked.  Then, she found herself outside, staring at the Suix who were staring back at her.  She pulled herself together.


    "Flashback!" she exclaimed.  The Suix turned away from her in disgust.  LSD was an drug they did not use.  All LSD trips were bad trips for them.  Anybody who had used it was not a potential Suix.  She staggered up and went in search of Auriel, He was alone in the tiny cubicle which was his Office.

     "Simple," he said.  "These people are failed suicides.  They are conning themselves that they can do the dirty deed if the go public on live 3D."  His mouth formed a grimace of distaste.

     "Why suicide?" Brandy stroked her red_gold hair as she often did when she was puzzled.

     "Because it is religious with them.  Because all their friends are gone.  Because they want to lie in a common grave with all their friends."  Auriel seemed for a moment to identify with the Suix and their lost cause.

     "What do they do for laughs?" Brandy spread her hands in an attitude of questioning.

     "Beats me,"  Auriel shrugged.  "One of those pseudo black leather and chain groups is cutting a Three_Dee.  They wear their pentagrams upside down."  

     "Downside __ upside, doesn't make any difference.  They're still not smart enough to spell Baphomet.  How are the Suix getting in?"

     "They're background for the ThreeDee."

     "And if they snuff themselves out?"

     "They get paid extra.  It's in their contract"

     "You're kidding."  She watched his face and there was no smile at all.  "You're not kidding.  How the hell are they going to spend it?"

     "Full media funeral."

     "That's pretty extreme."


     "Their 'religion' also promises that they will be reincarnated as their best dream.  Some want to be rock stars, others want power or certainty.  Name the dream.  Die, and be the dream."

"Auriel, I need their histories back to High School.  The whole Suix grouping was never that large, so it won't be too hard to find.  I need their biographies, especially the dead ones who were close to our own targets in the here