Free Death Wish by Lindsey Menges

drop the used tissue in the wastebasket next to my feet.
“That’s right; barely more than a blink of the eye, and a surface wound is completely healed. Before the Life Chip, do you know how long an injury like that would have taken to heal?”
“Actually, I do,” she answers, a look of interest in her eye. “It would have taken a few days for it to completely heal, but even then there might have been a small scar.”
I widen my eyes in surprise. “Wow, that’s…exactly right. How did you know that?”
She blushes and looks down. “I — um, I like studying. The — the Old World. It’s interesting.”
I laugh. “You should meet my boyfriend. You two would have a lot to talk about. But yes, you’re right. A wound like that would have taken a day or so to completely heal, but even then the skin would be somewhat marred. But with the Life Chip, what would normally take days to heal takes only seconds. ” I smile at Robin. “Any questions?”
She starts to shake her head, but then pauses before speaking up in a quizzical voice.
“No, not about that, all of the Life Chip stuff makes sense. But, I still don’t understand why Godparents are able to kill people. Wouldn’t the Life Chips just heal any injuries immediately?”
I smile and tap my nose, one of Harrison’s Old World gestures that means she asked just the right question. “You’ve got it, Robin. Any efforts we make at completing Wishes would be futile while the Life Chip is there. So that’s how Godparents complete Death Wishes: we remove the Chip.”
    *
    Hours later, with the daylight outside dimming, we still sit in my office while Robin reviews what she has learned today. She speaks in a slightly monotone voice, like a student testing herself on material for an upcoming exam.
“Okay, so the Life Chip is right below the base of the skull. The skin above this area is reinforced with a special material at birth so that no one will die accidentally if this area is injured. In order to kill people—”
I raise my hand and stop her. “Actually, Robin, we don’t use the word ‘kill’.”
“What?” She looks confused again. “But that doesn’t... I mean, that’s what we’re doing, isn’t it?”
I shake my head.
“No. See, the word ‘kill’ implies the Old World crime of murder. And because the only people who die are the ones who asked to die, we aren’t killing anyone. The Godparents are essentially tools; we’re a means to an end. So we don’t say ‘kill’, we say ‘complete the Wishes’.”
Robin nods. I don’t think she completely understands or agrees, but we’ve been here so long that I’m sure she just wants to agree and go home. I know I’m ready for the long day to be over. I hold back a yawn while she continues, fantasizing about the cup of coffee I’m going to get when we’re done.
“So, in order to complete Wishes, Godparents must remove the Life Chip. To do this, we use the Life Chip Extractors.”
At this she holds up the instrument I gave to her at the beginning of our meeting. She presses the small silver button in the middle, and a shiny blade pops out of the end.
“The blades are made of a certain type of metal that can cut through the reinforced skin, so we slice at this section using the blade.”
She clicks the button again, the knife retracts, and a claw-like device replaces it.
“Next, we force the claw into the incision, which grips the Life Chip, and we pull it free which severs its connection to the spinal cord. This is essentially the same as cutting off the brain from the rest of the body. The body begins shutting down, and after a few moments the client dies.” She looks up. “Did I get it right?”
I nod and clap my hands. “Great job! Wow, you got that really quickly. It took Harrison much longer to catch on.” I smile and she grins.
“So Robin,” I say, glancing at the clock hanging above the door, “that’s all I had planned for today. Do you have any more questions before we call it a