Free Embracing the Shadows by Gavin Green Page A

inebriation is a wise combination."
    Viggo and Skala stepped out of the room into
the dark staircase and then disappeared. As soon as they were gone,
I went down to the kitchen and dunked my head in the sink that I
filled with cold water and ice. My commander and his scion returned
sooner than I would've liked, but by then my senses were clearer
and I was wide awake.
    Huddled together, we all void-walked into a
dark corner of the first Deviant den that Viggo brought me to. It
was the one that was a mix of cavern and studio apartment. It was
as I remembered it; wires clamped all over the walls, the bed
sitting back in a natural recess of stone, an array of electronic
equipment, and the iron submarine-style doors on either end. The
only new addition was the Deviant called Skin setting up a
camcorder on a tripod.
    "Hey, kid," he said with an easy smile.
"Stepped in some more shit, did ya now?"
    I wasn't sure how to reply to that, so I
didn't. Skala handed Skin a clear CD case. Viggo explained to me
that Mr. O'Shaughnessy had been asked to help because of his audio
and video expertise. Footage of 'my' crime had just been borrowed
from an evidence room, copied and returned. Besides studying that
new copy, Skin was going to access Gwen's security camera files and
cross-reference for any possible matches of everyone in the
database.
    But first, a video was going to be made of me
moving around for the purpose of contrasting my shape and gait
patterns with whoever the real killer was. The concept felt vaguely
gay.
    "Couldn't you and Mr. Skala just have kept
the original, sir?" I asked while Skin filmed me walking and
carrying a heavy area rug on my shoulder. "With no evidence,
there's no case."
    Viggo shook his head. "Copies have
undoubtedly already been made. I do not know how many or where they
might be, so retrieval is impossible."
    I set the rug down with a sigh. "I'll never
have anything like a normal life again, will I, sir?"
    "For what purpose, Mr. Beck?" Skala asked
from a nearby reading table he was sitting at. "Do you truly wish
to resume your place among the ignorant cattle? Consider where you
are, what you've seen, and your newfound abilities. All because you
have been shown the true, dark reality. How many others of the vast
herd of shuffling bovines are as fortunate as you? It should be
your privilege to knowingly be in the presence of immortal beings."
He frowned at me. "Normal life? What an insulting regression."
    Viggo scowled at his progeny. Skin kept his
head down and busied himself with the video equipment. I kept my
lips tight, fighting the urge to point out that billions of human
'cattle' unknowingly kept Skala and all his kind in check. Even
though humans didn't know they held that power, the hemos did. The
only reasons I didn't point that out were because Viggo wouldn't
take kindly to my lip, and that I didn't have those billions of
people right there to back me up.

    ANSWERS
    Twenty minutes later, I sat on the edge of
the bed feeling like a liability. Viggo and Skin were busy studying
computer screens and talking among themselves, leaving no room for
a third set of eyes. Skala remained at the reading table, flipping
through the pages of a thick book. Rather than sitting there like a
useless piece of shit and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to
get some answers of my own.
    I sat across from Skala, rested my elbows on
the table, and waited until he looked up from his book. "Not to be
a bother, sir," I said, "but I was wondering what I did to piss you
off."
    He raised a cracked eyebrow in mild surprise.
"I would rather call it continuous resentment. If I were angry with
you, Mr. Beck, you certainly would not be allowed to converse with
me."
    "Okay, fine, you feel continuous resentment
toward me, whatever that means. I'd like to know how I earned it.
I've got enough enemies as it is, Mr. Skala - I don't want my
commander's scion as another."
    Skala pushed his book aside, leaned forward
on the table and said,