Read Online Abyss (Songs of Megiddo) by Daniel Klieve - Free Book Online Page A

Pueblo...?” Dio murmured, confused. He looked out the car’s tinted window, scanning blearily.
    “No. It’s under it.” Smoke replied; presumably sarcastically – her tone flat and cold – not bothering to look at either of them.
    “What's your problem?” Yvonne asked. Dio was surprised at how she asked it – not to mention that she asked it – her voice light; as if any potential answer was going to amuse her.
    “Ex -fucking-scuse me?” Smoke returned acidly, turning to look straight at Yvonne, who simply snorted.
    “Y ou’re not frightening, you know. I’m sure you get all sorts of respect from the rank-and-file, but...lady? Save it for the tourists.” She paused, looking to Dio: “Americans say that, right? ‘Save it for the tourists’?” Dio nodded.
    “Yeah. Americans say that.” he confirmed.
    “Do you two know what they call you?” Smoke cocked her head, laughing a cruel, knowing little laugh.
    “Us specifically, or...?” Yvonne sat back in her seat, shooting her a look that said: ‘c’mon; let’s see what you’ve got’.
    “All the intakes.” Smoke clarified. “Fucking ‘lab-rats’. Care to hazard a guess at why the fuck that might be?”
    “Oh come on.” Yvonne spat. “We’re Israeli . What do you think of ‘lab-rats’, Dio?”
    “I’ve heard worse. Much worse.” Dio shrugged.
    “ Palestinian toddlers can do better than that.”
    “Gold star for effort, though...” Dio smirked. Yvonne’s attention snapped to him – mildly shocked – and remained there; eyes glued disapprovingly towards his.
    “ Ya’boozdinak...” Yvonne muttered in Hebrew: “Ata dibeel...”: ‘holy crap...you idiot...’.
    “What? What’d I say?” Dio’s brow knotte d in confusion. He was well aware that Yvonne typically – as a rule, in fact – only spoke in Hebrew when she was angry, or having a particularly strong emotional reaction to something. It was one of her many and myriad attempts to embrace her new life, and to push back against her old one. For Dio – for this reason and others – the understanding ensured that hearing Yvonne’s tongue making those sounds was both a very rare event, and a deeply disconcerting one.
    “I’m guessing you didn’t take ‘history’ in school, then? Crack a fucking book, kid. Seriously.” Smoke shook her head. Dio glared at her: beyond the mockery in her voice, the tangible amusement playing across her face looked...wrong on her. In a brief moment of commonality before remembering that they – apparently – hated one another, Dio caught Yvonne and Smoke sharing a bemused, incredulous eye roll.
    “ Hrmn.” he growled under his breath; confused and embarrassed...though completely oblivious as to why.
    “ Anyway. It’s the fucking implication,” Smoke sighed, returning to her point. “Lab-rats: expendable? Interchangeable? Marked for fucking testing? Not...really...Human? I’d have thought, given your heritage ,” She sounded the word out – ‘heh...rit...ij’ – like she was speaking to very small children: “You’d have the instinct, if not the fucking brains, to find something dark enough there to make you want to run a mile. Or ten-fucking-thousand of ‘em, more like.” She paused, sneering dismissively at Dio: “But I guess shit-for-brains here kinda just illustrated the contrary with an extreme level of fucking efficacy, didn’t he?”
    “What do you mean, ‘ heritage’?” Yvonne asked. Dio thought he knew. And – from the look in her eye – he concluded that Yvonne knew, as well. But he could see that she wanted to make absolutely sure – to hear Smoke explicitly use all of the necessary words together in a single sentence – before deciding whether or not to attempt to tear Smoke’s throat out. Dio was surprised to discover that, for the first time since meeting Yvonne – and since beginning to consider, as he had, many times, what the outcome of a physical confrontation between her and another individual