"It's a bit early for that, isn't it?"
"Special occasion," I insist. It always helps to inebriate your
opponent, to give yourself any edge over him that you can when it comes
to reflexes. "I know how attached people can get to certain ways of
doing things. The comfort of the familiar." I look at my glass
thoughtfully. "I think it's time to make a clean break." I get
another glass, pour another shot, and hand it to him. Raising my
glass, I declare a toast. "To the future."
Mike has a dubious look in his eye like he knows I'm up to _something_,
just not what. For a manager, he sure lacks vision. He looks out the
window at the ant-like people all those floors below, oblivious to the
woman pointing a high powered laser rifle straight at him from the next
block along, and raises his glass. "To--"
Despite giving my new business partner the order to fire, the laser
burst still somehow makes me jump. I've never seen it up close before.
On the receiving end, it's deadly silent, the only sound being the
sloshed gurgles of the target. The smell, on the other hand, is
overwhelming--searing flesh with a hint of burnt cotton from his shirt.
The great thing about biometrics is that they still work when the
person's dead. With the help of Mike's eyes and fingers, it takes me
less than five minutes to drain his bank accounts--both his company's
and his own. _Nothing personal_.
Sitting on a bench in the local park, I take a second to close my eyes
and just listen to the birds. I open them again just in time to see a
young woman waving at me as she walks towards me. To an outside
observer, she looks like she could be my identical twin. I wave back,
smiling as I watch her familiar mannerisms from an unfamiliar point of
view.
She sits down beside me. "How long do you reckon we've got 'til
someone realises what happened to Mike?"
I shrug. "A few hours, maybe. Long enough to get a few things from
our flat, move the money to a safe account, and walk away."
"Ah, yes, the money." She smiles sweetly, a smile I've never seen
outside of a mirror before. "What do you figure we should do with it?"
"I say we take what's owed to us, enough to start a new life, and give
the rest to Jon Russell's charity. He did bring about this turn of
events, in a weird sort of way."
She nods. "I guess so." After a few seconds' silent reflection, she
turns to look at me. "And us?"
"I've been thinking about that," I say. "I think we could continue to
do what we're doing, only freelance. If you're up for it, I mean.
We'd have to really start trusting each other, but at least we'd get to
choose our clients, and we'd get to stay human. Well, you would,
anyway."
That smile again, turning into a broad grin. "Twin assassins? No one
would see it coming. It's a hell of an edge."
"Exactly." I smile back at my new business partner. Maybe things
didn't turn out so bad after all.