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“Hail, citizen,” Monte said. “You’re under
arrest for harboring a fugitive from justice. If you allow us to take him
peacefully, then most if not all charges will be dropped.” Glancing around, he
smirked. “It has been noted that the flesh of animals has been cooked and
consumed in this residence.”
Jim slumped. He gave Kat a helpless glance and let
Benny slide to the floor. Then he kicked Monte in the groin. The armor held, but
the Harvester flinched, and three stiff fingers drove into his eye socket. Monte
sighed, dropping to the floor and a faint shudder rippled through the muscles of
his face as Death stalked his soul.
Kat snatched up his gun and fired twice. Sidir and
Carlisle lost their heads in a burst of steam and scorched flesh. Their weapons
clattered in the floor.
Jim reached for Monte.
“No,” Kat said. “We have to go –”
“They’ll have us in a flash, lady.” Pulling away
Monte’s belt, he strapped it over his waist, then took the other two, putting
one on Benny and tossing the other at Kat.
“Think this will work?” she asked, putting the
belt on.
“So long as it registers a life, it will.” He was
going through their pockets now, pulling out wallets and creds. Credit cards
went in the recycler.
“Hey.” Kat jumped at him, but to her sorrow, the
recycler chattered to life, reducing the plastic and metallic chips to reusable
components. “We’re going to need money. We could have sold them –”
“Too dangerous.” Jim tugged at the Velcro straps
of the uniform. “Help me undress them.” His hands slipped. With a grimace,
he wiped the blood and ichor off on the floor.
With Benny sprawled on the floor behind them, they
stripped the Harvesters and a small saw soon had them in pieces. A fan whispered
to life, drawing out the dental office reek of scorched bone. The parts went
into the recycler and the bones rattled for a moment before being ground to a
coarse paste. Tiny domes zipped around Benny. In moments the cleaning ‘bot had the
floor stripped of blood and bone dust and the ugly green tiles shining with
fresh wax.
Kat dressed Benny in a uniform while Jim mopped up the
floor with straight bleach.
“I’m going to get fined for excessive water
use,” he said, letting the mop slide down into the teeth of the recycler.
“The extra protein in the tank might get me another fine.”
Kat giggled and blinked. She pulled down the helmet
shield. A loud gasp shot from under the rim.
“Man, I can key in your life history.” Scowling,
she said, “You were with the FBI? And
UN International Security? How could that be?”
Dressing swiftly, Jim laughed. “A long time back. I
wouldn’t take the oath, so I was canned. Very politely, I might add.”
Pulling the helmet on, he flipped the shield down. Voice muffled by the shield,
he said, “And what can this tell me of my beloved Katarina? Hm, interesting
pictures. You worked your way through med school as a -”
“An honest, almost moral working girl.” She rapped
him on the head and pushed the shield up. Jim winked and tried to pull it down
again. Eyes snapping, Kat said, “Not one more be-damned thing, boy.”
Her eyes softened and she pressed forward to give him
a small kiss. It wasn't much, just a light brush of warm, full lips against his.
“There.” She winked. “That should keep your mind
on business, snoop.”
Jaws sagging, Jim stared at her. He grinned. “Man,
but this thing has no give. Do you know that a woody is a very painful thing to
have in this suit?”
Smiling, she winked again, this time it was slow, lewd
and Jim groaned.
“Not my concern. Harvesters have to have all that
removed so there’s no temptation.”
A grimace on his face, Jim shuddered. “Lucky
them.”
One gloved knuckle tapped the crotch of Jim’s armor.
He tensed, wincing when she slapped it. He stepped back to glower at her.
“If I spank you, it will be a problem.”
“Promises, promises,” she said. “OK, let’s git
it gone, big man.”
“Hm.” Jim glanced over the apartment.
“Got something we need?”
“What? No,” he said, a fresh grimace working its
way over his face. “’Possessions possess you.’ Nothing here I want but
you. Computer?”
“Sir?”
“Delete, destroy, burn.”
“All, sir?”
“Damn. Too late to send it all to the office. Every
byte.”
“Good-bye, sir. It was nice knowing you.”
Benny hanging between them, they dragged him down to
the truck. As they left the block the guards had a large car trapped in the
overhang. With heavy spikes up before and behind each set of tires and a steel
wall on either side to stop the man from getting out, the car was going nowhere
until the dogs finished sniffing for bombs and contraband. The man in the
passenger side of the car was arguing with a lot of harsh language, and the
guards moved a lot slower than normally. The driver, though, was scowling at the
Harvester van.
Turning off into a maze of alleys and then into the
darkness of ruins, they lost sight of the blockhouses.
Shots rang out, sparks shattering the damp calm of the
night.
Punching at the computer, Jim grinned at a worried
Kat.
“Friggin raiders,” he said, then had to shout it
over the rattle of slugs and the shattering racket of birdshot.
Her eyes widened. She checked the load in a side arm,
paused, and held it up for Jim to see.
“Geezis, lady.” Awe in his voice, he said,
“Magnum .357.”
“Yeah, but a hand-job.”
Shocked, he stared for a moment, then a minor
explosion rocked the van, shrapnel clattering over the left side ports.
“God, that was close.” Kat peered into the mirror
but it was gone in the blast. The van bounced and rattled. “Did we lose a
tire?”
“Solid tires,” Jim told her, fighting to keep the
van on the road and out of the brush and rubble. “Fire retardant. Meat wagons
are fully armored. No prob.”
An innocent look on his face, he glanced at the .357,
saying, “Hand job?”
“Huh? Oh, that’s what my father called hand-made
guns. Somebody with a good eye and a metal lathe made this.” She gave it a
critical once over. “Not too bad. You might say it’s my inheritance from Dr.
Stern.”
Black powder dynamite went up in a flash of red, but
the windshield compensated by darkening, then clearing. Men leaped and danced to
the side. The van’s machineguns chattered away.
Scowling at the window, Kat snapped off the guns.
“Hey!” Jim scowled at her.
“Dummies,” Kat said, pointing at rags and stick
figures. “They’re trying to get us to use up the ammo.”
“Smart girl.”
“You forgot to add beautiful,” she said, peering
into a range finder. “Wow, this rig has it all.”
“Big business in body parts, and, for that matter,
feed for the zoo animals.” Jim chuckled and Kat straightened, glaring at him.
“What?”
Her tones said he was a jerk, but with a little
reservation.
“I was trying to think of a way that you wouldn’t
be beautiful.”
One elegant eyebrow rose and Jim said,
“Couldn’t.”
Voice at its driest, she said, “Smart boy.”
“Yep.”
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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