Posted on May 22, 2008
Stimulus
I hit him. Teeth sprayed. “Again,” I said.
“No…”
“Again.”
He shook his head. I hit him—more teeth.
“Okay.” The words were thick. His mouth bubbled. “Goddamn it, stop, okay?”
I held up my fist. Levett talked.
I left him there: broken, beaten, alive—and better than he deserved.
****
“You’re sure?” Legerwood’s eyes were wide. He leaned across his desk. “Tonight?”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s what he told me.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
****
A dog was tearing at the wall. I walked by, shoved it away. “Get,” I said. It barked—and ran.
I walked a quarter mile, followed the slope upward. Levett had told me all he knew—and did it without most of his teeth. I was impressed.
Up ahead, at the eatery and drinking den, is where he’d met them. Four guys, one woman—all high, he’d said. Levett didn’t get high himself. He couldn’t stand the smell when users scraped the stuff. But these junkies had funding. The pay would be good.
****
“They’re not here.”
“Where’d they go?”
“The hell should I know? Really, you think I pay attention to these people? That I care where they go and what they do? I don’t. Long as they pay me, I sure as hell don’t.”
“They gonna come back?”
“I don’t know that, either. Damn, man, I just give them drinks.”
“Do they usually come back?”
“Uh huh. Sure.”
“How often?”
“Every couple of days, okay? Now can I get back to it? I got thirsty customers.”
****
Every couple of days: too long. Levett said they’d do it tonight.
I went outside. The dog was back. I shooed it and it ran.
****
“Nah, I ain’t seem ‘em. Lady, you said?”
“One lady, yeah. And four men. Five altogether.”
“Five of ‘em? All in one group like that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. They could be alone, too.”
“I ain’t seen ‘em.”
I held up a sketch of Levett. “How about him?”
She held it close. She squinted. She gave it back. “I seen him.”
“When?”
“This morning. Or last night.” She shrugged.
“Who was he with?”
“Two big guys, real ugly, and– Hey! There was with a lady, too.”
I dug for a coin. I held it out to her. She stared. “You’ve seen them before?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Who are they?”
She gave me their names. I gave her the money.
****
Six hours. Ten at most. A dearth of time to stop total destruction.
****
Legerwood couldn’t help. More resources would raise questions. More men would spook them.
I had to find the conspirators–the terrorists. I had to do it alone.
Five hours.
****
A squat shack, pressed against the wall. Rust mixed with seepage where they joined.
A woman leaned against the side, hands in her pockets, chewing.
I could smell it. Decay.
I shot her. She fell. The fat came out of her mouth and bounced in the dirt.
I ran to the door. Voices from inside. Men.
I toed it open–just a little. Four of them, around a table. A bundle on the warped wood.
That was it.
One leaned forward, reached into the sack. He fumbled a moment, then twisted something inside.
The bundle shook. It glowed. The men stood up.
I slid the door open, pushed into the room. Stayed low.
Another man carried it to the wall, slid it into a hole they’d cut. The edges sucked shut around it.
I shot them. Four shots, four bodies. Too quick for them to do a damn thing.
****
The hole throbbed. I reached inside. The sack was a foot deep. I pulled.
It stuck.
I could feel it. Vibrations. Heat. The wall writhed around me. The ground shook.
No time. None.
I pulled. It came free and fell out onto the floor. I stomped it to paste under my feet.
****
The news said it was quake. An unexplained rupture beneath the surface.
I knew better. Muscles creaking to life. Organs shifting. Not a quake but an awakening.
But I’d caught it in time–stopped the processes.
Our world–our vessel–still slept.
