Free Dead Set by Richard Kadrey

You’re right about that, she thought. But if you only knew the rest.
    â€œI’m a little mixed up about some of what’s going on right now,” she said. “When I work this out, maybe I’ll tell you all about it. Okay?” She looked up at Absynthe and the girl’s face was more serious than Zoe had expected. “I’m going to have to tell someone and my mom is totally out of the question.”
    Absynthe nodded. “Moms are like that. First they kill you with kindness, and then they ground your ass.” She nodded to the nearby exit. “Run off to your secret rendezvous that’s not what I think. But remember that when you’re done you owe me a story.”
    â€œDeal,” said Zoe.
    Absynthe gave Zoe the appraising look again. “You know,” she said, “you’re cuter than I think you want to be. I was considering luring you out here and kissing you, but it seems like maybe you have enough going on right now.”
    Zoe blinked at the girl a couple of times. “Oh. Yeah. I think I do.”
    Absynthe smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re safe. For now.”
    â€œUh. Okay,” Zoe said, trying not to look as surprised and confused as she felt.
    â€œGo see your sugar daddy,” said Absynthe, waving her hand toward the street.
    Zoe started back along the cul-de-sac. Halfway down she spun on her heels. Absynthe was puffing away on her cigarette and looking at her. “Wait a minute,” Zoe said. “Older guys turn weird? And now you want to kiss me? I think you owe me a story, too.”
    Absynthe laughed. “Deal.”

 

    Five
    T he day was hot and bright. Zoe walked to Emmett’s on autopilot, not paying attention to where she was going, knowing her feet would find the way. Her mouth was dry and her pulse pounded in her temples.
    Then, as always—as if the store found her instead of her finding the store—she was there. She pushed her way inside, welcoming the sensation of being swallowed by the cool darkness.
    When her eyes adjusted to the light, she spotted Emmett near the back of the store. He had piles of LPs stacked on top of the record bins and was sorting them into their proper slots.
    â€œYou came back,” he said conversationally, not looking up from his work.
    â€œSure. Why wouldn’t I?”
    Emmett pulled one of the white record dividers toward him, then hefted a pile of battered old Johnny Cash albums into the empty space behind it in the bin. “You’d be surprised at how many people, once they’ve had a taste of a loved one’s real, undiluted life, never set foot in here again.”
    â€œNot me,” said Zoe, shaking her head. “I want to see my dad.”
    â€œDid you bring what I asked for?”
    Zoe reached into her pocket, removed the chimp tooth, and held it out. She seemed to finally have caught the man’s full attention because he put down the records and came to her. Zoe made sure to stand in the darkest part of the store. She didn’t want Emmett to get too good a look at the tooth until she was already under the Animagraph’s spell. She didn’t have any real idea about how the machine worked, but she was fairly certain that it wasn’t something you could just turn off with the flick of a switch, even if you realized that you’d been slipped a counterfeit molar.
    Emmett plucked the tooth from Zoe’s open palm. He held it up before his eyes, like a jeweler appraising a diamond. “Ohhh. A grown-up one,” he said. “How lovely. Thank you, Zoe.”
    She nodded, her throat tight, her heart hammering, waiting for him to figure out her trick. But he didn’t. Emmett beamed at her like her parents would do when she’d brought home straight A’s.
    â€œCan we do it now?” Zoe asked.
    â€œOf course.” Emmett led the way to the back of the store and held the beaded curtain open for Zoe like a doorman.