Free Halfskin by Tony Bertauski

added. "I've been thinking, about our last game, where I went wrong... I have to be honest, I was cheating."
    "I know."
    "I know you know." George touched up the pieces, centering them in each of their squares. "But I figured I should come clean. I was using a machine to beat you and that's not fair. I'm here as a man, as a human being—" He thumped his chest. "—to redeem the spirit of Man!"
    George muttered a little pep talk. He clapped his hands and asked what color Nix wanted. Nix balked so George took white.
    "The good guys," he said, and moved Queen's pawn two spaces.
    Nix went to the sink, splashed water on his face. He wiped his scalp, the back of his neck. Dabbed himself dry with a hand towel. He just realized that, in his dreams, he had hair. I had hair, before. And now I'm this.
    I've forgotten what I look like.
    "Come on, already." George looked at his watch. "I go on shift in an hour and you're over there making yourself pretty. You ain't got a date, halfskin, and I ain't easy to look at, either. So let's go."
    George wasn't a bad guy. Maybe not good, but not bad. Nix felt a pang of guilt for what he was about to do to him.
    But George was his ticket.
    It needed punched.
     
     
     
     
    M0THER
    Historic Pitch
     
    Jonny Miser took the ball from the catcher halfway between the mound and home plate. He chickenwinged his glove under his right arm and rubbed the new off the ball with both hands. He made one loop around the pitcher's mound, careful not to touch the dirt until he was back around the front.
    Bad luck, if he did.
    Wrigley Field fans were on their feet. Even the fans on the rooftops were up and waving and whistling and shouting. He wiped the sweat off his forehead.
    It was hot for October.
    He blinked, focused on the scoreboard. A one-run lead. Three balls, two strikes. He looked around the diamond, St. Louis Cardinal base runners looked back from all three bags.
    Last game of the season. Win, you're in.
    The sort of pressure Jonny loved.
    He couldn't hear the crowd. The voices blended together in a blur of white noise. The whole world was watching. People were on the edges of their seats at home, on their feet in the bars across the nation, all of them ready to watch Jonny Miser close out the St. Louis Cardinals to win the division.
    It was all up to Jonny.
    He did hear one of the voices. The one in his head.
    Don't blow this.
    He toed the rubber, digging his cleats into the divot. He wedged the side of his foot against it and looked at the catcher. His arm dangled at his side, the surgically-repaired elbow tingling.
    He shook off the first pitch. Took the next one.
    The heat.
    Jonny would propel his team into the playoffs by blowing a fastball past the batter. Put it all into this pitch, the last one of the season.
    It would also be the last one of his career.
    Jonny Miser went into his stretch, the crowd frenzied, the batter waving his bat, the umpire crouched behind the catcher.
    He kicked his leg.
    He threw the historic pitch.
    The umpire never called it. He stumbled, eventually falling on his back. He never saw it.
    The sound of the ball was described as a wet gunshot that shattered the catcher's hand. If it missed the glove, it would've ended his life.
    It was later explained that the Tommy John surgery performed earlier that year utilized a small amount of biomites to repair tendons in Jonny Miser's arm. The low levels were monitored by the league and remained at less than 1%. However, it was later explained the biomites responded to elevated levels of cortisol and norepinephrine—stress hormones—and induced an immediate proliferation. In minutes, the biomite population had consumed his arm.
    Impossible, said nanobiometric engineers.
    The pitch was clocked at 204 mph.
     
     
     
     
    14
     
    Cali unpacked.
    Avery's clothes were on top. She placed them in the empty drawers, all the shirts nicely folded and cleaned. All perfectly stacked. Next, she took hers out, placed them in the larger