Read Online Slab City Blues - The Collected Stories: All Five Stories in One Volume by Anthony Ryan - Free Book Online
Authors: Anthony Ryan
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Meatballs turns up with Satomi here. You kill him and the security, hack up the bodies and take her back here to play house.”
Choi just smiled and tweaked Satomi’s nose, drawing a strange rasping giggle. “She can’t laugh,” she explained. “Or talk. They made her without vocal chords. The courier had a data stick with all the details. They took a little girl and made her into a narcotics production facility.”
I remembered Ricci’s call. “Her blood.”
“Yes. Her endocrine system has been altered to synthesise Blues. The perfect courier. She’s worth billions. And she will never grow old, they took her ageing genes. But she will die, eventually. Blues is a carcinogen, even now she shows early signs of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She has perhaps another two years.”
“That why you didn’t run?”
Choi looked at me squarely and I noted a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Where would I run to? I knew who they would send after us.” Her voice was a little strained and her hands trembled as they cradled the girl, who now seemed to be sliding into sleep. My eyes flicked to the half-empty tea bowl.
“Choi…”
“My name is Matsuke Hiroka,” she said. “I know we have not exactly been friends Inspector, but I am glad you are here to witness my final act. I have lived a life of deceit, crime and violence. And now I have a chance to give it meaning.” She held Satomi closer. “If they take her they might save her. Save her for the life they made her for.”
An urgent whisper from Joe hissed in my ear. “Movement outside. Counting four so far.”
“I can get you out of here,” I told Choi. “Get treatment for her…”
“There is no treatment.” Her eyelids were drooping but she forced them open, fixing me with an imploring glare. “Consuela worried for you during the war, did you know that? Not for your life but for your soul. The many lives you took, your fierceness. She worried that with the war over there would be no place for you, no path to redemption. But here you are, no less fierce but a force for good. You have your redemption, Alex. Let me have mine.”
Joe again, “Getting pretty busy down here, Inspector.”
Choi closed her eyes and began to sing, soft, melodious, that old Bob Marley tune again. Satomi shifted a little in her arms, rested her head against Choi’s breast, her lips moved as she tried to sing along.
“I’ll be right down,” I told Joe.
*
Nina Laredo was waiting outside, alone in the middle of the street. The nightly sweat-rain was starting to ease off and the holo-lights reflected off the slick paving like scattered jewels. There were a few hirelings lurking in the corners and no doubt a few more I couldn’t see.
“Wait for the signal,” I instructed Joe. “Then lay down fire on the right flank. Concentrate on the rooftops.”
“What’s the signal?”
“It’ll be hard to miss.” I went outside.
“Inspector,” Nina greeted me with the usual professional courtesy, keeping her H&K flechette carbine pointed at the ground. “I am instructed to permit you to vacate the vicinity peaceful-”
I quick-drew the Sig and shot her in the stomach. After that things are pretty hazy.
*
The Heavenly Garden Shoot Out (or Massacre depending on who’s telling the story) has since become something of a Yang-Side legend, a story to scare infant crims at bedtime. All about how the big bad Demon gut-shot the most feared hired gun on the Slab, took a flechette burst in the face as she went down but that only seemed to piss him off. There are lurid and improbable tales of extraordinary marksmanship as he went on to pick off the snipers on the rooftops with single shots to the head then engage the survivors in hand-to-hand combat. The ending varies a little but most agree he had to be prevented from further abusing the corpse of Nina Laredo by a large fellow Demon who knocked him unconscious.
Whether or not any of this is true I can’t tell you. I honestly
Choi just smiled and tweaked Satomi’s nose, drawing a strange rasping giggle. “She can’t laugh,” she explained. “Or talk. They made her without vocal chords. The courier had a data stick with all the details. They took a little girl and made her into a narcotics production facility.”
I remembered Ricci’s call. “Her blood.”
“Yes. Her endocrine system has been altered to synthesise Blues. The perfect courier. She’s worth billions. And she will never grow old, they took her ageing genes. But she will die, eventually. Blues is a carcinogen, even now she shows early signs of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She has perhaps another two years.”
“That why you didn’t run?”
Choi looked at me squarely and I noted a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Where would I run to? I knew who they would send after us.” Her voice was a little strained and her hands trembled as they cradled the girl, who now seemed to be sliding into sleep. My eyes flicked to the half-empty tea bowl.
“Choi…”
“My name is Matsuke Hiroka,” she said. “I know we have not exactly been friends Inspector, but I am glad you are here to witness my final act. I have lived a life of deceit, crime and violence. And now I have a chance to give it meaning.” She held Satomi closer. “If they take her they might save her. Save her for the life they made her for.”
An urgent whisper from Joe hissed in my ear. “Movement outside. Counting four so far.”
“I can get you out of here,” I told Choi. “Get treatment for her…”
“There is no treatment.” Her eyelids were drooping but she forced them open, fixing me with an imploring glare. “Consuela worried for you during the war, did you know that? Not for your life but for your soul. The many lives you took, your fierceness. She worried that with the war over there would be no place for you, no path to redemption. But here you are, no less fierce but a force for good. You have your redemption, Alex. Let me have mine.”
Joe again, “Getting pretty busy down here, Inspector.”
Choi closed her eyes and began to sing, soft, melodious, that old Bob Marley tune again. Satomi shifted a little in her arms, rested her head against Choi’s breast, her lips moved as she tried to sing along.
“I’ll be right down,” I told Joe.
*
Nina Laredo was waiting outside, alone in the middle of the street. The nightly sweat-rain was starting to ease off and the holo-lights reflected off the slick paving like scattered jewels. There were a few hirelings lurking in the corners and no doubt a few more I couldn’t see.
“Wait for the signal,” I instructed Joe. “Then lay down fire on the right flank. Concentrate on the rooftops.”
“What’s the signal?”
“It’ll be hard to miss.” I went outside.
“Inspector,” Nina greeted me with the usual professional courtesy, keeping her H&K flechette carbine pointed at the ground. “I am instructed to permit you to vacate the vicinity peaceful-”
I quick-drew the Sig and shot her in the stomach. After that things are pretty hazy.
*
The Heavenly Garden Shoot Out (or Massacre depending on who’s telling the story) has since become something of a Yang-Side legend, a story to scare infant crims at bedtime. All about how the big bad Demon gut-shot the most feared hired gun on the Slab, took a flechette burst in the face as she went down but that only seemed to piss him off. There are lurid and improbable tales of extraordinary marksmanship as he went on to pick off the snipers on the rooftops with single shots to the head then engage the survivors in hand-to-hand combat. The ending varies a little but most agree he had to be prevented from further abusing the corpse of Nina Laredo by a large fellow Demon who knocked him unconscious.
Whether or not any of this is true I can’t tell you. I honestly
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