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Noys Conspiracy was baptized in fire that night. It was bittersweet to be part of the song. I loved someone bringing new ideas to the band. I loved to see how different dancers would make a piece their own. Although I had to improvise my lines, I enjoyed pushing boundaries. We often communicated in song. The data miners were notoriously bad at picking up on symbolism and innuendo, so it was not out of place for Mr. D to communicate to one of us onstage. There was nothing unusual about Mr. D making the words to a song advance a purpose or cause, or to comment on something currently in the news. Communication was one of his strong points. But I felt that if he would bring Christine into the dialogue literally, I could bring her into the dialogue physically to counter his argument. I knew that Christine could do Burning Man from her auditions. I decided to load a song I had seen her do before, rather than step out on the thin ice of Total Recall. When Mr. D and me were done with Noys Conspiracy I loaded Burning Man into the main playback board. I was catching a lot of heat for doing it too. I felt like we were going to light up the sky, or burn down the house.
None of the proper homework had been done on Christine. I had only known her a couple of days. To put her on the deck, without bringing the family into the process, was an insult to everyone else who had been put through their paces before. Noys Conspiracy was still echoing through the sound system when I abruptly stopped the show. I was wireless so I addressed the audience, “Tonight we have a very special surprise for you.” I watched the computer screen while I rapped at the crowd. I hit the car salesman/preacher hype. “Yes, tonight before your open hearts and yearning minds, we will sacrifice our entire future rights to the planet so you can afford this new car!” The sampler plays back applause.
The crowd is familiar with the auto/preacher. He never seems to have sold enough cars. He is one of my MC characters. I often whip him out to make impromptu recitations. He is a time buying device. I got the song loading and glance up at the board. Megan had the next entrances according to the song list. I saw nothing but daggers flying from her general direction. Michelle had a look of astonishment. Mr. D was behind one of the screens. He was not looking up. He looked like he was praying.
“I know how much having this beautiful machine means to you. The image reflected in the paint is all you can hope for. Clean, Cool, Confident, Courageous.” The Preacher was loquacious. “Why, I even made this car in your image.” Loaded completely. “Perfect. The pride of the Almighty. Made by the omniscient hand of God! Look at the curves, breath taking. She handles like a well oiled machine. She moves like clockwork. Let me introduce you to your savior.” Da Preacher got a little carried away when he smelled a sale. “IT is your new slave machine... Christine!”
I didn’t know how the story would unfold from here. I guess if Christine had been one of IT, she would have played her part the same way, but I thought that I had cleared her of suspicion by leaving her exposed on stage. I had declared her in front of the whole crew. Surely they would see how ridiculous their suspicions were. Christine would dance into destiny. She hadn’t run. She hadn’t tried to kill everyone in the room. So far so good. I new she could pull off Burning Man, and win everyone’s confidence, like she had won mine. I was wrong.
The blow back was very harsh. I could feel the pressure drop while Christine was dancing. No sooner were Christine and I done with the Burning Man, than the repercussions were felt. Everyone in the production regrouped behind the stage while we were doing the song. when playback was over the Chain Gang loop started playing. I knew the next move was Megan’s, she was waiting backstage to pounce. The Chain Gang loop was a band message, one of our private announcements. Everyone in the production was required backstage. It would not be pretty. I had seen her look, Megan reminded me of Medusa. Mr. D looked like he would have used a stake on me if one was handy. I told Christine to roll, I had to patch things up. I told her I thought I was helping, but there was a lot I needed to explain to my band. They hadn’t liked my stunt with her. I told her I had stretched the rules. They were waiting back stage for an explanation. She would only complicate things at this point. I would have to catch up with her later.
The endless loop was a bit irritating . It wasn’t something we used lightly. The audience was filtering out of the club, because this was one of the private signals that was more or less understood by everybody. Whenever a technical problem held us up, the Chain Gang would be put right on. The braves saw Christine head for the door and half of them did likewise. I guess they thought nothing could top Burning Man. The most fantastic creature had just conquered the stage, nothing we did was going to beat what they had just seen. They followed Christine out of the club like fish after a lure. I hated that I couldn’t leave right away too. As Christine made her way to the doors of the club, I felt like Ahab watching the wake of the Great White Whale.
