knees, a cold gun against my skin, being told that I would be punished again. My hands twitched at my sides. I remembered, and I wanted revenge.
“Kieth,” he said, reaching down into the bottom of the cart. “Ty Kieth. Odd name, don’t you think? But then those people are always clever. Always clever, and never smart. ”
The name hung in the air. I knew Ty Kieth. I’d known Ty Kieth for years. He’d been there when I’d taken down the Electric Church, and he’d helped me build the beginnings of my organization in Manhattan, setting up security nets and communication systems. I knew the nose-wiggling, bald-headed bastard.
And I knew he wasn’t who I was looking for. Ty Kieth was capable of a lot of things, but he would never have spent his time building something like this unless he’d been forced to—or been paid an awful lot of yen for his troubles. All Ty Kieth wanted to do was fiddle with shit in his lab in peace. When he’d left New York a few years before, there hadn’t been any amount of money or begging that could convince him to stay: he’d had research to do.
Ty Kieth in Paris, I thought. Good enough for a start.
“Thank you, Doc,” I said, waving Jabali forward. “I’m sorry I had to—”
The older man turned away from the cart, and I paused. He was holding a gun on us. It was bright and shiny, brand-new, and looked like it had never been fired before. It was a new Roon model; to my eye it looked like it cost about sixty thousand yen. I was the richest man I knew and I’d never seen a gun that expensive before.
Terries held it as if it might explode at any time, but he had his finger in the right place, so I chose to stay still and not take chances.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cates,” he said, smiling. “You’re the only reason I’m not dying.” He shrugged. “I can’t let you leave. ”
XI
Day Five: A Certain Freedom in
Being Completely Fucked
Deciding not to make things worse, I stayed still—besides, the doctor’s gun was pointed at me. Jabali and I had more or less unconsciously followed your best practice and kept far apart, and now he took advantage of the gap by yanking out his own piece and covering the good doctor with it.
“Doc,” he said, “don’t pull a fucking rod unless you mean to use it. You don’t mean to use it. That makes you a shithead.”
Jabali glanced at me. I didn’t look at him, but I gave a curt little shake of the head. I didn’t want to kill the Doc; I was killing enough people on a daily basis as it was. The wail of the emergency Vid announcement continued to buzz around us, muffled by concrete and glass, and I put my hands up carefully.
Hesitation wasn’t attractive in a Gunner. Hesitation got you killed, and a feeling of unease filled me like black jelly.
“I’m sorry,” Terries said smoothly, shrugging. He was used to being in charge, you could tell. He thought having the gun in his hand made him in charge again. A moment before he’d been shaken, hesitant, cowed, and now he was grinning at me as if one of us hadn’t killed nearly sixty people, killed them while looking them in the eye. “If you walk out the door, I am on a rapid countdown to a horrible death.”
“You have my blood sample,” I pointed out. “You can work with that. You don’t need me to work on this.”
He nodded. “Perhaps, Mr. Cates. That’s a small sample, though. And we don’t know the behavior of these nanobots. Perhaps they are tuned to your biorhythmic signature and will revert if you are not within close proximity. Perhaps they go inert or self-destruct if they detect they are not in a live biological system.” He shrugged. “Mr. Cates, letting you walk out of here would be akin to suicide.”
“So, you want to just keep me pasted to your side for the foreseeable future?” I smiled. “What’s next, asking me to tie myself up?”
Jabali snorted. Terries smiled, and when he started to move his free hand in a shell gesture all my instincts lit
“Kieth,” he said, reaching down into the bottom of the cart. “Ty Kieth. Odd name, don’t you think? But then those people are always clever. Always clever, and never smart. ”
The name hung in the air. I knew Ty Kieth. I’d known Ty Kieth for years. He’d been there when I’d taken down the Electric Church, and he’d helped me build the beginnings of my organization in Manhattan, setting up security nets and communication systems. I knew the nose-wiggling, bald-headed bastard.
And I knew he wasn’t who I was looking for. Ty Kieth was capable of a lot of things, but he would never have spent his time building something like this unless he’d been forced to—or been paid an awful lot of yen for his troubles. All Ty Kieth wanted to do was fiddle with shit in his lab in peace. When he’d left New York a few years before, there hadn’t been any amount of money or begging that could convince him to stay: he’d had research to do.
Ty Kieth in Paris, I thought. Good enough for a start.
“Thank you, Doc,” I said, waving Jabali forward. “I’m sorry I had to—”
The older man turned away from the cart, and I paused. He was holding a gun on us. It was bright and shiny, brand-new, and looked like it had never been fired before. It was a new Roon model; to my eye it looked like it cost about sixty thousand yen. I was the richest man I knew and I’d never seen a gun that expensive before.
Terries held it as if it might explode at any time, but he had his finger in the right place, so I chose to stay still and not take chances.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cates,” he said, smiling. “You’re the only reason I’m not dying.” He shrugged. “I can’t let you leave. ”
XI
Day Five: A Certain Freedom in
Being Completely Fucked
Deciding not to make things worse, I stayed still—besides, the doctor’s gun was pointed at me. Jabali and I had more or less unconsciously followed your best practice and kept far apart, and now he took advantage of the gap by yanking out his own piece and covering the good doctor with it.
“Doc,” he said, “don’t pull a fucking rod unless you mean to use it. You don’t mean to use it. That makes you a shithead.”
Jabali glanced at me. I didn’t look at him, but I gave a curt little shake of the head. I didn’t want to kill the Doc; I was killing enough people on a daily basis as it was. The wail of the emergency Vid announcement continued to buzz around us, muffled by concrete and glass, and I put my hands up carefully.
Hesitation wasn’t attractive in a Gunner. Hesitation got you killed, and a feeling of unease filled me like black jelly.
“I’m sorry,” Terries said smoothly, shrugging. He was used to being in charge, you could tell. He thought having the gun in his hand made him in charge again. A moment before he’d been shaken, hesitant, cowed, and now he was grinning at me as if one of us hadn’t killed nearly sixty people, killed them while looking them in the eye. “If you walk out the door, I am on a rapid countdown to a horrible death.”
“You have my blood sample,” I pointed out. “You can work with that. You don’t need me to work on this.”
He nodded. “Perhaps, Mr. Cates. That’s a small sample, though. And we don’t know the behavior of these nanobots. Perhaps they are tuned to your biorhythmic signature and will revert if you are not within close proximity. Perhaps they go inert or self-destruct if they detect they are not in a live biological system.” He shrugged. “Mr. Cates, letting you walk out of here would be akin to suicide.”
“So, you want to just keep me pasted to your side for the foreseeable future?” I smiled. “What’s next, asking me to tie myself up?”
Jabali snorted. Terries smiled, and when he started to move his free hand in a shell gesture all my instincts lit
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