“Things have changed.”
“Indeed.” The skull’s ghastly grin seemed even more amused than before, but I was sure it was my mind playing tricks on me.
“Who… ” I hesitated as the name lodged in my throat. I swallowed hard. “Who was Maxine?”
“Ah. So Natalie dropped the ace on you. A definite sign of desperation on her part. That’s good news. It indicates she’s not as confident as she’d like you to believe.”
“Who was she, Hunter?”
The silence stretched so long I thought he had severed the connection. A fly buzzed by my ear and circled around the stiff’s skeletal head before settling on its cheekbone. The room was a humid box smothered with the nearly overwhelming scent of rotten meat. Beads of sweat beaded on my forehead. I wanted to cover my nose and get the hell away from there, but anticipation held me in my seat opposite a tricked-out corpse because I had to know.
I had to know.
“Maxine is a subject best spoken of in person. We’ll discuss that later. For now, have a drink.”
I picked up the bottle of absinthe. “I don’t think I’ll be toasting with your corpse buddy, Hunter. Last time you slipped me a Mickey that had me swimming with the fairies in a river that didn’t exist.”
“The side effects of the nanoaccelerator process vary from person to person, but they aren’t life threatening. Have that drink, Mick. I believe you’re going to need it.”
I took a closer look at the swirling green contents. “Wait a minute. You’re saying this juice is laced with nanomachines?”
“That’s correct. Think of the last time I supplied you with the same. You were wounded from a gunshot wound. After the drink that wasn’t so much of an issue, was it?”
I tilted my Bogart back as I considered it. “Well ain’t that a kick in the head. Why didn’t you just say so at the time?”
“I have my reasons.”
The cameras observed as I poured a shot and dropped in a sugar cube to sweeten the taste. Not that I was a sissy or anything, but absinthe wasn’t my drink of choice. It tasted like a liquid version of black licorice plucked from the tread of a well-worn shoe.
I downed the shot and slammed the glass bottoms-up in front of the stiff. “Please tell me I don’t have to take another.”
“One shot will have to suffice. Make sure to keep the bottle. What remains is all you have left. The nanomachines were constructed to match with your biology, and will destroy anyone else. The late Dr. Faraday created the serum for you, but most of it was lost when you destroyed his lab. I was able to recover only one capsule. The machines only operate when in contact with alcohol, so I deposited it in the absinthe.”
“You think you could’ve found a nastier drink? Why not gin or bourbon or something?”
“I’m not the drinking connoisseur, obviously. I worked with what I had available at the time.”
I rubbed my chin as I stared at the bottle. “Dr. Faraday worked for the United Havens for a long time. That would make this Service tech, huh? Figures. Can’t get away no matter how I try.”
“A benefit reserved for only their top agents, as insurance. A lot of time and work goes into the training of an agent like me, Mick. The added durability justifies the effort spent.”
“Why—” I winced as the room span and my vision blurred in hues of lime. “Why do you keep saying ‘me’ when you talk about the past? That’s my history you’re talking about, Hunter. My memories. You’re a machine. Not a human. Not me. A machine.”
“At one time that might have been true.” The corpse grew larger, swelling in width and height. It struck the ceiling, scattering tiny green fairies that fluttered in agitated circles. A skeletal finger pointed my direction. “Not anymore. Like you, I have evolved into my own person. You underestimated the genius of Dr. Faraday. The man was light years ahead of his time. The obstructions that separate man from godhood were only rice paper to the sledgehammer of his intellect. What he did, what he created when he combined your memories to my digital consciousness — it’s never been accomplished before. I am something the world has not beheld until now.”
He leaned forward, exhaling tainted breath on my face. The cameras in his eyes flickered with emerald strobe lights. “I am alive, Mick Trubble. What you were is what lives within me: all the tragedy and hopelessness of your existence. You wanted to die, did you know that? You were a weak, pathetic excuse of a man, mortally terrified of the woman that kept you squirming under her boot heel. You hated her almost as much as you hated yourself. Do you still want to embrace death, Mick? It can be arranged. Taking a life is so easy. You know that all too well. In the time it takes to blink, you can simply cease to exist.”
I staggered backward, overturning the chair in slow motion as I fumbled for the holster under my arm. My mouth opened in a noiseless roar as I raised the Mean Ol’ Broad at the towering specter that filled the entire room. Green lightning flashed from the muzzle as I squeezed off. The stiff shuddered as the slugs struck, toppling backward in a limp display of wildly flailing limbs. I flipped the table over, somehow catching the absinthe bottle before it struck the floor. My chest heaved as I peered over the table edge, but the giant corpse lay still.
“Mick?”
I turned, sweeping the Broad at the glowing figure that hovered in the doorway. The fairy wore Natasha’s face and spoke with her voice. A hulking brute followed her, some misshapen ogre who scanned the room with a feral expression.
“Stay back — or you’ll get the same as your pal here. I mean it.” My finger twitched on the trigger.
The fairy flooded the room with light as she approached, her hand cautiously extended. “Mick, it’s me. Natasha. Natasha and Benny. You remember us, don’t you? Mick?”
I squeezed my eyes shut with a groan. When I opened them, Natasha and Benny stood in front of me with concerned looks on their faces. The bullet-riddled corpse lay a few yards away, once again just a normal stiff. I scrubbed my face with my hand.
“Absinthe. Damn the stuff.”
Benny slowly slid his handgun back in his jacket holster. “What the hell, Mick? We heard you shout and then the gunfire started…”
“—and your first thought was to bring Natasha into the line of fire?” I shakily stood, still trying to get my bearings. “Smooth move, Ace.”
Benny’s expression darkened. “She jumped outta the ride before I could grab her, Mick. Look, I ain’t in the habit of watching dames. You want her in diapers, you better call a babysitter.”
“I don’t need you to look out for me, Mick.” Natasha’s face was set in that defiant expression dames get when they want to make their point. “Excuse me for being concerned about you.”
“That’s the point — you don’t need to be concerned about me.” My voice boomed in the near-empty house. “This is what I do, sweetheart. This is my job. And I can’t do it with your getaway sticks running in the direction of the gunfire, got it?”
Natasha flinched at my tone, but to her credit she didn’t crumple. “You’re the one who got me in this mess in the first place, Mick.” She placed her fists on her hips and let me have it. “You told me to come with you, remember? I could be at my apartment minding my own business.”
I threw up my arms. “That’s because you aren’t safe anywhere else. I don’t like it any more than you do. But you gotta do what I say or you’ll end up getting shredded by a stray slug before the day is out. Pipe that?”
“Look, I hate to interrupt a lover’s spat and all but… ” Benny took an uneasy glance around the room. “Who the hell were you shooting at, Mick? This bum’s been dead for days.”