Free Predators and Prey: A Short Story by Christopher Holliday

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
    Rizzo's
looking mean tonight. He's razor sharp, edged out on something expensive and
illegal. He wants to do a deal and doesn't realize I'm out of the business. It's
not going to make him happy.
    "Back
off," I say, but he's having none of it. He grins as he stalks towards me,
chromium incisors reflecting the glare from neon signs over dark alley doors.
Black, wet hair is pasted to his skull from the warm drizzle, looking as dark
and sticky as the aftermath of a nasty scalp wound.
    "I
know, Jimbo . I know." He's grinning wide, wafflestomper boots going stomp-splash, stomp-splash, as he
draws ever closer. "I know you're holding. Let's have some."
    "Listen,
Rizzo," I say, raising a hand and backing a few steps away, "I left
home to get away from this shit. Give me some space . . . it's not that kind of
town."
    He
stops, shallow black ripples spreading from his firmly planted feet. "Not
that kind of town?" He cocks his head back, raises an eyebrow. "Look
around, Jimbo . It's exactly that kind of town."
    He
snaps his fingers, and two bully-boys separate from the darkness behind him,
stalking to his side. " Tweedle -dee and Tweedle-dum are going to help you find what I'm looking
for." They start toward me, two genetic freaks who obviously couldn't
memorize plays or they'd be making bank in the Trinary Football League. I'm
still in decent shape; street- muling sniffware kept me quick and lean. But each of these guys
out-masses me by half again and more.
    "Wait,"
I say, holding up one finger. Like that's going to stop them. They ignore me,
grab me one to an arm, lift me off the ground. With
their free hands they each give me a rough and thorough pat-down, none too
careful in the sensitive areas, either.
    They
pull my wallet, pull my comcard . I haven't a thing
else on me.
    "Clean,
Rizzo," Dum says.
    Rizzo
folds his arms across his chest. " Jimbo , you're
not carrying the old fashioned way, are you?" He gestures with one hand
and the Tweedles drop me. "It's really not worth
the cavity search, is it?"
    The
thought gives me the willies. "Rizzo, I told you, I'm out of the business.
I—"
    "No
one's ever out of the business, Jimbo . You've been
here two months. I know you must have connections." He pulls up a wet
sleeve, checks his watch. "Two hours. Two hours and you call me on the
card and I'll tell you where to bring it." He crosses the distance between
us in three quick steps, reaches up to pinch my cheek. I'm not foolish enough
to raise a hand to stop him. Not with the Tweedles here.
    "Because
if I don't get any," he pinches harder, twisting, "the only thing
that's going to keep me happy will be dicing you into little, tiny pieces. After the cavity
search, of course." The Tweedles laugh.
Rizzo saw my flinch. Not one to miss an opportunity like that; not Rizzo.
    "Let's
go, girls," he says, and they start to walk away. Rizzo tosses one last
dig over his shoulder, "Maybe you should have run a little farther, Jimmy. . . dug your hidey-hole a little deeper."
    It's
the first thing he's been right about all night.

 
 
    " Kye ," says Duncan when I enter his lab and hang my wet
jacket on a hook. A few of the indiginies hiss, chirp,
or make completely improbable noises at me from their wall cages.
    " Kye ," I reply, hiding my contempt for the Xeno standard greeting.
    He's
got a Parron on the bench in front of him, chest cavity open and flaps pinned
back, probing it's innards under the lamp. It's a nasty critter with a
wingspread no larger than my hand, four taloned claws, leathery wings, a beak like a snapping turtle, and one hellacious
appetite.
    "What's
eating you?" he says, flipping up the magnifying goggles against his
shaved head, giving me a glance when he notices I'm pacing the lab.
    "The
past just caught up with me. A Gothic scumbag, just a minor
acquaintance from back in York. By coincidence or bad karma, he's
relocated here. Transit and Colonization must be taking just about anyone