Chapter Eleven
A Bottle of Rum
Kino took a swig from the bottle of rum and planted it firmly between her legs. She sat Indian style on the floor of her apartment. Boxer was sprawled on her couch holding an pack of ice on his head. It was somewhere in the early morning hours.
"Okay, I think I have it straight. You, Trevor, and two other runners went on a run. On the way out you tripped security. Trevor was hit, right? You saw corporate security moving in with drones. A door closed, keeping you from rescuing him. So, based on that, you did not actually see him die. You just saw what you thought were his last moments."
"So, our first theory. Trevor was beaten up pretty bad and taken prisoner. The corporation decided to shit him into experimentation since he already had cyberware implanted. What resulted was that freakish monster that we ran into at the Stuffer Shack. Right? That sounds pretty ludicrous. I mean, how can someone have that much metal and not know who that are?"
"Conditioning, brainwashing, hell I don't know." Boxer replied, never moving the ice from his forehead.
"What about all nonsense Grubber talked about? All that talk about spirits and stuff."
Boxer took an ice cube and slipped it between his tusks, crunching it loudly. "I didn't understand a word of it. Grubber always did talk too much. Way too damned much. Only woreds I caught were aura, it being trapped, and something about butterflies."
"I don't remember him mentioning butterflies."
"Scratch the butterflies then."
Kino ponder a moment, rubbing her finger across the top of the bottle. "I don't know that many mages, but I know one or two shamans that say a person's aura is the same thing as a person's spirit."
"I thought you didn't believe in that drek?"
"I'm a idealist."
"Yeah? Sorry, I'm a realist. I look at the serious side of things. Musing about the inner secrets of life isn't going to help much if Frankenstein shows up again."
"But, Boxer, if that really is your brother, why don't you try to talk to it?"
Boxer grunted, chewing on his ice cube.
"You talk try talking to him. I got a good look at his eyes in the Stuffer Shack. I didn't see anything in there that said anything about him wanting to hold a witty conversation over a cup of Joe. Specially when Joe was going to be me. I'd be torn in half before I could shit my pants."
Kino sighed, gazing across the scuffed floor of her apartment. She should really thing about getting a better place. At least one where the cockroaches didn't wear combat boots. "If it is your brother, you should be able to reason with it, you know."
"He doesn't want to reason."
"You should at least-"
"Drop it already, Kino."
To her credit she dropped it. The two of them sat in silence for a while. Boxer with his ice cubes, Kino with her bottle of rum, and a cockroach scurrying across the floor in search of a meal. The six-legged freak was completely oblivious to them.
"The answer's obvious isn't it?" Kino said, breaking the silence. "What we have to do?"
"Yeah." Boxer agreed. "Kill him before it kills us. Rule of thumb in the shadows, ain't it? Easier said than done. How do you kill a devil?"
"I might have one thing. If I can hit him I'm sure it will kill it. Tear it up at the very least." She shrugged. "And everything within twenty meters."
Boxer rolled over, propping himself up with his arm. His tone said he was a little surprised. "Kino, you have a rocket?"
"Two, actually. High-Explosive. Surplus from the Desert Wars."
"Where are they?"
"I mounted them on a drone."
"Where's the drone?"
"In my van."
"Where's the van?" Boxer groaned, feeling like he was going through every step of the trail just to get a simple answer.
"Snohomish." She checked the time. "I can pick it up in a few hours."
Boxer thumbed his tusk. "I don't know."
"Hey, you're right, Box. Talking isn't going to settle anything. I mean, the only way to get it out of our hair is to blow it to lots of little pieces. I'm not facing Tall, Dark, and Gruesome down again. Not after the Stuffer Shack. Let me go get my gear. I'll put an end to it."
Boxer laid back on the couch.
"Come on, Boxer!" Kino grabbed his hand and pulled, trying to get the ork moving. "I don't want to run around the rest of my life, which will probably be short the way things are going, hiding from that thing! Let's go take it out. Yes, it will be noisy and there'll be a lot of explosions and a hell of a lot of attention, but at least it'll be dead!"
Boxer stayed put, no matter how hard she pulled.
"Get up!"
"You want to use those rockets? Those things are expensive."
Kino stopped pulling for a moment. "Yeah, well. What's the point in buying them if you're not going to use them? That's like having a third wheel on a bicycle."
"I'm fragged."
"Not yet you aren't. Now get up."
"No I mean I'm tired."
"Huh?"
"We've been going all day. Let's sleep on it, okay? Get a few hours rest. Then we'll go get your van."
"So we're going to go through with it? Kill it, I mean?"
"Yeah. No more running. We'll give the direct approach a shot. Try to get some sleep."
Kino dropped his hand. "Yeah, well. Sleep, huh?"
Boxer grunted and rolled over, putting his back to her. "You can do it right?"
"With the two rockets, yes." Kino sounded confident. "We only have two shots, but it should be more than enough. At the very least it will several cripple it's metal hide."
"Then I guess we got nothing to worry about. We'll take a nap, then get the van, and put a hole in the world."
Kino crossed her arms, glancing down the hallway towards the bedroom. She hadn't really noticed it until now, but she was very tired. The events of the past day, the distant ache in her nose and her stomach drained her. A few hours of rest would do them both some good.
"Okay, but don't leave without me."
"Where am I going to go? I can't fly a drone." Boxer said with his face buried in the cushions.
Kino smiled a little. "Right, goodnight, Boxer." Kino strolled down the hallway to the bedroom.
As she left Boxer started thinking. He thought it would be easy to get to sleep, but the questions in his mind would not let rest come. He tossed and turned for a while, trying to get comfortable. On the edge of sleep his mind still wide awake. Even though his eyes were too heavy to open. It was when he was replaying their conversation in his mind that he noticed something. Whenever Tall, Dark, and Gruesome was mentioned Kino had always referred to the monster as 'It'. Boxer had called the beast 'Him'. Funny, Boxer didn't notice that at the time. Why had he referred to the beast like that? It wasn't like the thing looked, or even remotely acted, like it was human.
What if it was? What if Grubber was right? Maybe Trevor was somewhere inside, screaming to get out, but trapped in a state that wasn't exactly life or death.
Boxer suddenly opened his eyes with a shock.
That was how the monster knew where to find Grubber. Trevor knew where Grubber lived. Trevor also knew how Boxer worked his drop boxes. That explained how he was waiting at the Stuffer Shack when he arrived. That metal monster had his brother inside. At least part of him. It had all the memories Boxer's brother had. It knew where he would go, where he would hide. It knew about his life.
Boxer sat up in a cold sweat. He knew where Trevor was going.
He swung off the couch and snatched up his boots. He paused only for a moment, tilting his head in the direction of the bedroom where he could hear Kino's faint snoring. As quietly as he dared, he pulled out his cellphone and hit the speed dial. His sister answered.
"Dee? I need a favor and I don't need any questions."
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