Lauren Beukes - Zoo City

Thanks to my meticulous and highly critical readers: Sarah Lotz, Sam Wilson, Zukiswa Wanner, Lindiwe Nkutha, Verashni Pillay, Nechama Brodie, Charlie Human, Louis Greenberg and my husband, Matthew Brown – you all helped make this book what it is.

Genius illustrators John Picacio and Joey Hifi created the two most beautiful covers in the world for the international and South African editions of the book respectively. They're both incredible in different ways, and both artists took time out of their insane schedules to do the work. I'm grateful.

Marc "Marco" Gascoigne and Lee Harris at Angry Robot, and Pete van der Woude and Maggie Davey at Jacana have been exceptional and brilliant people to work with, as has been my editor, Helen Moffett.

Finally, thanks to my family and friends – especially to Matthew and Keitu – for making everything worth it.

About the Author

Lauren Beukes is a writer, TV scriptwriter and recovering journalist (although she occasionally falls off the wagon). She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town under André Brink, but she got her real education in ten years of freelance journalism, learning really useful skills like how to pole-dance and make traditional sorghum beer. For the sake of a story, she's jumped out of planes and into shark-infested waters, and got to hang out with teen vampires, township vigilantes, AIDS activists and homeless sex workers among other interesting folk.

She lives in Cape Town with her husband and daughter.

www.moxyland.com

EXTRA.

MOXYLAND WINNERS.

Extras

Moxyland Short Story Winners

Last summer Angry Robot ran a competition in association with Authonomy.com to write a short story based around Lauren Beuke's debut novel, Moxyland. The winning three entries – as judged by Lauren, herself – are presented here. These stories may be read without having enjoyed Moxyland, but we think you'll get the most out of them if you've read the novel. So go read it. We'll wait.

The Minutes // Sam Wilson

INATEC BIOLOGICA INC.

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

For viewing by legal entities with Corporate Status (CS) A+ or above only.

PLEASE SHRED ALL PHYSICAL COPIES AFTER IMMEDIATE USE in accordance with company policy, 223rd Rev. #464. Failure to observe company policy will result in salary suspension, downgrading of employee status, and curtailed network access.

Minutes created by FACILIT4TOR PRO version 4.01 (licensed copy 10876-12).

Copyright © FACILIT4TOR INC. 2019. You may not distribute, copy, print, scan, etc. these minutes or parts thereof without written permission from FACILIT4TOR INC. For detailed legal information, visit facilit4tor.law.

MINUTES OF MEETING #4586 Ref. 32

Dated 27-09-2019

ATTENDING: (5)

List By Corporate Status.

Nwabisa Mthini, Vice president of marketing, Ghost Inc. (subsidiary of Praetorian Global)

Harold Brown, Legal Division: Corporate relations, Inatec Biologica

Jacques du Plessis, Corporate alignment official, Actisponse Private Security (Police Affiliated)

Busisiwe Zono, Liaison, Vukani Media

Jules Dyonashe, Bioinformatics Applications Div, Inatec Biologica

ABSENT: (None)

START TIME: 21.45

– Automatic reading of minutes of previous meeting by FACILIT4TOR PRO is cancelled at 0:07.

– Brown (Inatec) thanks all present for attending.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc) tells Brown (Inatec) to cut the bullshit.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc) reminds all present of the details of the enhanced branding campaign for the soft drink Ghost. Salient points are:

1) Vukani Media, in association with Inatec Biologica, was contracted to enhance the branding of the soft drink Ghost.

2) The enhancement was to include cellular-level biological modification of Ghost Inc.'s brand ambassadors.

3) The modification was to bring the brand ambassadors in line with the Ghost brand, as laid out in the Ghost Inc. Brand Bible Version 5.5 (Doc 564. Not found in archive).

4) The key phrases of the Ghost brand are: Youth, Aspiration, Peergroup Bonding, and Safe (pro-consumption) Creativity. – Mthini (Ghost Inc.) tells Du Plessis (Actisponse) to play Media File #13-586 [not found in archive].

[ SUMMARY OF MEDIA FILE #13-586

OPENING TITLE TEXT: "Broadcasting From A Little Pink Spaceship Orbiting Your Anus, It's The Toby Show!"

Footage cuts to a young man wearing a pair of sunglasses. His head is half-shaved. He is wearing an open BabyStrange jacket with no shirt beneath, leather chaps, and a pair of boxer shorts printed with a black-and-white image of female pudenda.

The man, who appears intoxicated, narrates a clearly fictitious experience he had escaping from a police holding cell. The narration is punctuated as the man swigs from a family-sized bottle of Ghost.

This story is interspersed throughout by video clips of sex scenes recorded on a BabyStrange jacket, in which the young man has coitus with a variety of women of different nationalities, in a variety of positions. Although these clips are not directly related the narration, they are tangentially connected to the action described. For instance, a description of the young man cutting through some prison bars with a metal file is illustrated by close-up footage of a penis being thrust repeatedly between a pair of breasts.

Each shot in some way includes the soft drink Ghost, or Ghostthemed memorabilia, often in an inserted capacity.

At least three participants in the video clips are recognisable social figures, media rated B+ and above. They include 17 year old pop starlet ‹NAME REDACTED›, Luxury Travel Presenter ‹NAME REDACTED›, and ‹NAME REDACTED›, the socialite daughter of ‹NAME AND GOVERNMENT POSITION REDACTED›.

The fictional account of the escape cumulates in the man skewering his captors through their hearts with his own engorged penis, and carrying them around "like a kebab." ]

– Du Plessis (Actisponse) calls up a still frame from Media File #13-586

(Frame 2:41:15) revealing a bioluminescent marker on Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION›'s arm. The marker is the corporate logo of Ghost Inc.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) suggests that everyone involved in the branding exercise should be subject to immediate dismissal and disconnect.

– Du Plessis (Actisponse) reports that Media File #13-586 has been downloaded 3,566,143 times in the last 6 months, giving it a pop culture profile of B (Underground – High Popularity).

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) states that, together with other video files from the same source, this media file has irrevocably damaged the brand of the soft drink Ghost.

– Zono (Vukani Media) claims that the man in the footage, Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION›, is not, and never was, an officially selected brand ambassador for Ghost, and his actions are not the responsibility of Vukani Media or any of its affiliates.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) says that he doesn't give three shades of shit if Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION› is an official brand ambassador or not. He is clearly a by-product of the branding program.

– Brown (Inatec) asks Dyonashe (Inatec) if it is possible that a nonbrand ambassador could have been subject to cellular level branding.

– SILENCE (17 secs) during which Dyonashe (Inatec) flips through the print-outs in front of him.

– Dyonashe (Inatec) says that he cannot answer fully, as the branding brief contained elements that were classified at level A++. However, the therapies involved did have a contagious component, as specifically requested by Ghost Inc.

– IMPOSSIBLE TO PARSE NEXT SECTION. Multiple persons speaking simultaneously. (23 secs).

– Brown (Inatec) asks if he is correct in understanding that Ghost Inc. and Inatec Biologica have been collaborating on an infectious virus to spread addiction to a soft drink.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) demands silence, as no one in the room has clearance to speculate on company policy.

– Zono (Vukani Media) asks when Vukani Media was going to be notified about this.

– Du Plessis (Actisponse) activates a taser-nightstick.

– SILENCE. (4 secs).

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) tells everyone to focus on the matter at hand, which is that Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION› is damaging the Ghost brand.

– Du Plessis (Actisponse) offers his company's expertise in swift and discrete removal of individuals.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) explains that Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION› has important family connections. Removing him would risk upsetting the monopolistic détente.

– Dyonashe (Inatec) asks if he can offer a solution. Mthini (Ghost Inc.) grants him the floor.

– Dyonashe (Inatec) explains that people who are modified by the Ghost branding are not addicted to Ghost per se, but to specific marker chemicals that are not found in any other drink. If another drink could be made with stronger concentrations of those chemicals, the brand ambassadors would almost certainly switch allegiance. – Du Plessis (Actisponse) suggests that they mix the marker chemicals with cyanide.

– Dyonashe (Inatec) proposes a new beverage line from Ghost Inc., to lure unsavoury elements away from the brand.

– Zono (Vukani Media) suggests that Ghost Inc. can do better. Toby ‹FULL NAME REDACTED AT REQUEST OF CORPORATE RELATIONS DIVISION› has a wide and influential reach. If Ghost Inc. creates a new drink, they can play off Toby's bad-boy image and underground fan base to get an immediate consumer following. A whole new brand could be created around Toby.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) says he will propose the idea to his superiors.

– Zono (Vukani Media) suggests the brand names "Ghost – Barbed Wire" or "Ghost – Battery Acid", and requests a royalty fee if either brand name is used.

– Brown (Inatec) points out that using Toby as a brand icon will upset the carefully cultivated social landscape.

– Mthini (Ghost Inc.) agrees that Toby as a mainstream icon could trigger a new wave of counter-culture, and such waves are notoriously difficult for corporations to steer. A new counter-culture would be extremely damaging for all the companies who are gearing their products towards a conservative and homogenous youth culture.

– Zono (Vukani Media) agrees that it's true, but it will only be damaging for the companies that aren't ready for it, and Ghost Inc., Vukani Media, Actisponse and Inatec will be. As long as this meeting remains confidential, the four companies will be the only ones prepared for a youth culture upheaval. They will be prepared to gear their products towards a cynical, hedonistic, antisocial culture. While others companies fall, they will ride Toby's wave into a bright and glorious future. And if Toby wants to throw Molotov cocktails, they'll be right there to sell them to him.

@nother // Bryan Steele

››SysRun: Pluslife

››Plugin/Cnapce: run

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››Pluslife/Cnapce online ››Enter Password

My mates, both IRL and streaming, always say that a persona's password needs to be special and private. Something different for every account or prog. Something that no one will ever be able to acci-hack, especially not some low-tech lifejock with a score to settle with people like me. Yeah, I run my plugins on the bill of some big daddy corporate, but show me a half-cooked simp that wouldn't do the same damn thing if the contract msgd their way.

So yeah, passwords. I have a dodgy memory on the best of days, popping pills just to keep my focus, which makes my having several passwords for my lives a lost cause. So, I keep one password. One, easy to mem, password. It's a joke really, how it came about.

››Password: @nother

From my days of misspent youth. When a prog asked "Enter another password" for sec-proof reasons, I did. I entered "@nother" password. I was a clever little shit. Now I am stuck with it. For all my progs and accounts. SIM, CV, Grande…Pluslife. Especially Pluslife. My "@nother" life.

››Password accepted ››Welcome! to Pluslife, user Cnapce

Pluslife. Where I work. The bigwig queue-cutters and chequechasers that keep me fed and roofed IRL hired me. Some kind of experimental prog that they needed beta'd. Beta'd? More like Omega'd at this point. Two years of running this deal for them, and do I know anything new about the prog? Nope. Not that I care. I'm never jonesing for black-makt shit, my weekly install keeps me sony. I have a roof over my nob in both lives, all paid up and looking swank.

All I have to do is find the users on my daily lister, that's all. The corp feeds me the IDs of Pluslifers and I use this topline tech to hack them out and get my avvie to where they are. It is a sugar deal, really. I get all the time in the box as I want, so long as I'm surfing around for these users, and I get to see the net from all over. Last week I was sifting the code for some user in Kenya handled "And3rson" and I spent most of a day checking Ken-makt. Got a sweet deal on some Twarez for my ma, too. Then And3rson happened by the shopsite and I pulled his plug. The next day, I was in Oslo, skiing the pixel moguls and searching out "Doktor_Mow". They are both disconnect now. That's my gig. Adminning the people on my lister. I sever the links. Go ahead. Call me a wager. Call me a corporate bitchcat. The money is good, and now I don't have to run quests and odd-jobs to get it. And my SIM don't know any difference.

I never know exactly what they did, my listers. I get brief notes, that's all. Illegals, rot-users, corp-debtors, hacktavists or fragged SIMs. But srsly, who cares? I find 'em, meet 'em, then fry 'em. The warez I get to use is toplined now, designer nano, on-site support? What else can a user ask for?

Oh, wait. Today's lister is cooked and inboxing right now.

››Lister 08.099/

›››User ID: CS44 (delinquent account)

›››User ID: cranque (suspected hack)

›››User ID: Malessa77 (account sharing)

›››User ID: LthreethreeT (account sharing)

›››Location: Sydney

Sydney? That's the fucking tops. I've never been. Well, IRL anyways. A good four-pop like this should take me most of the week. Let's see. We get to start off with what? A delinquent account. Old user, probably. They stop paying their bill, get defused, whatever. Their avatar was logged in when they went DQ, so now I get to go clean up the server.