“Sheesh
what a fuck up.” Doil is leaning over the stained table in
interview room 1. I am seated on the other side trying to dodge the
spittle. A paper cup of stale coffee spins across the floor as he
vents his anger on the inanimate contents of the room. His face is
almost purple with popping eyes. I have lots to say, but instinct
tells me that now is not the time. I Joe Coolz, keep my mouth
buttoned and my head down. I know that Veronica will be taken good
care of, but it is a step backwards. Every time she she is wounded
presumed dead the clock clicks forward to the end of the Universe. I
want to ask Doil about the cook, as she is now in IGBI custody, is
she being given the full revival treatment or just enough to question
her? She may not have anything to do with queering the pitch. She may
just be a time tourist playing a part. A classy broad slumming it for
kicks. Then I get my answers.
“Fucking Smith,” says Doil.
“I knew he was a wrong un.” I say
“Smith is on our side but not on our wavelength. His job is to upset people, to get at them. Well he has certainly done that. Smith put the cook in there, she is one of his humanoid pals prossed up to look like a cook. The fucking slimeball, did all this without telling us. He says she was planted to get some truths and to try and spot some anomaly in the set up that was stopping us getting the result we want. Well fuck me didn't we have enough personnel there ? Veronica, you, Getz, the bull by the door, me. How many is that? Five. Five fucking IGBI operatives.” He kicks the waste basket and lights up a Camel.
“Where is Smith now?” I ask.
“Up his own fucking ass.” says Doil. I realise that I am not going to get any sense out of him until he calms down so I try my wrist band, and a nano sec of ecstasy later I am back on the black spot, with Red behind the control panel. This is my normality.
***************
After I have been checked by Red for missing parts I head for my apartment. What surprises has Brian in store for me? I could just beam in, but I take a walk through Mars City's Central Park, it is modelled on the Bois de Boulogne in Paris circa 1900, the folks who first settled Mars built everything to resemble something on Earth. Just 'cos they'd wrecked it. The Poplar trees rustle in the breeze and the air smells of newly mown grass. Some air boarders glide past in the regulation air boarding uniform of flesh coloured ones's and coloured stars covering the naughty bits. One built like a burlesque dancer loops the loop and pulls to a halt blacking my path. Is this a shakedown? Her blood red lips pucker into a kiss and she blows it at me.
“Hi Joe, remember me?”
“Should I?”
“I was in the cradle next to you at Mars Infirmary.”
“Thirty years is a long time, do you have a name?”
“Sure Jenny Coolz, I'm your twin sister.”
This must be some kind of hustle. I don't have a sister, twin or not. I'm an only child, mother died in childbirth, father unknown.
“Nice try Lady, loop the loop in front of some other sucker.” She stands her ground.
“Look at me don't you see yourself in me?”
I'm beat I've had a hard day saving the Universe and I just wanted a quiet stroll home to a hot reviving shower and a large drink. But no I get accosted by some nutter who thinks she is my sister.
“ Ok I'll indulge you for a moment. Why take thirty years to get in touch?” She shrugs,
“I was waiting for you to make the first move.”
“It's a funny way to make contact, here.” I wave a hand around at the park. “That I am rarely in.”
“I knew it was you as soon as I saw you, it is fate.”
“What do you really want – money?”
“She laughs, O.K, it's not true, but you are Joe Coolz, aren't you and I was with you at birth. My mother breast fed you, so we are sort of related.”
“ Your mother was my wet nurse. This is even more absurd than you being my twin.”
She gives me a look then a 360 degree spin on her air board. She is a very pleasant sight, all pink limbs and blue stars.
“We share the same birthday and we shared my mothers milk, so we are sort of twins.”
She takes off into some aerial acrobatics, twisting and looping showing off her body, then returns to hover in front of me again. Impressive stuff, and not only her tush.
I think what the hell, you only live once and the end of the Universe is nigh, so I ask her back to my place.
****************
Scrap Ships R Us is making me very rich. What with Brian's surprising business acumen and Zeno, the public face, the business is booming. I am so rich that I practically own the Bank of Uranus. Still what is money if the end of the Universe is nigh. Jenny is in the shower and I am waiting for a report back from the IGBI. She may be one of Smith's plants. She is beautiful with a perfect body, but so have all humanoids. I am getting cynical, too much hanging around with Bureau agents and criminals. Humanoids are perfect replicas of the human race except they can't reproduce, but I am not testing this out in case she isn't. I'm not ready for parenthood yet. I get a 'for my eyes' only vid.DELETE ON READING: NOT COPYABLE, WILL SELF DESTUCT AFTER 1 MINUTE.
Jenny Wizz
Professional dancer and air boarder.
Born: 9 11 40007 Mars City Infirmary
Educated: Mars High School. Mars Academy of Performing Arts.
Seconded IGIA Date:1 1 40017, Programmed Sleeper.
I am staring at the screen when it goes blank, my minute is up. What does programmed sleeper mean? Is it that she doesn't know she is an IGIA agent or that she does know but not as yet in action? And what is more to the point does the IGIA want with me. From time immemorial Going back to the CIA and the FBI they don't see eye to eye.
“Don't ask me.” says Brian, reading my thoughts.
I throw her out and phone the agency to see if there is any work.
“Fucking Smith,” says Doil.
“I knew he was a wrong un.” I say
“Smith is on our side but not on our wavelength. His job is to upset people, to get at them. Well he has certainly done that. Smith put the cook in there, she is one of his humanoid pals prossed up to look like a cook. The fucking slimeball, did all this without telling us. He says she was planted to get some truths and to try and spot some anomaly in the set up that was stopping us getting the result we want. Well fuck me didn't we have enough personnel there ? Veronica, you, Getz, the bull by the door, me. How many is that? Five. Five fucking IGBI operatives.” He kicks the waste basket and lights up a Camel.
“Where is Smith now?” I ask.
“Up his own fucking ass.” says Doil. I realise that I am not going to get any sense out of him until he calms down so I try my wrist band, and a nano sec of ecstasy later I am back on the black spot, with Red behind the control panel. This is my normality.
***************
After I have been checked by Red for missing parts I head for my apartment. What surprises has Brian in store for me? I could just beam in, but I take a walk through Mars City's Central Park, it is modelled on the Bois de Boulogne in Paris circa 1900, the folks who first settled Mars built everything to resemble something on Earth. Just 'cos they'd wrecked it. The Poplar trees rustle in the breeze and the air smells of newly mown grass. Some air boarders glide past in the regulation air boarding uniform of flesh coloured ones's and coloured stars covering the naughty bits. One built like a burlesque dancer loops the loop and pulls to a halt blacking my path. Is this a shakedown? Her blood red lips pucker into a kiss and she blows it at me.
“Hi Joe, remember me?”
“Should I?”
“I was in the cradle next to you at Mars Infirmary.”
“Thirty years is a long time, do you have a name?”
“Sure Jenny Coolz, I'm your twin sister.”
This must be some kind of hustle. I don't have a sister, twin or not. I'm an only child, mother died in childbirth, father unknown.
“Nice try Lady, loop the loop in front of some other sucker.” She stands her ground.
“Look at me don't you see yourself in me?”
I'm beat I've had a hard day saving the Universe and I just wanted a quiet stroll home to a hot reviving shower and a large drink. But no I get accosted by some nutter who thinks she is my sister.
“ Ok I'll indulge you for a moment. Why take thirty years to get in touch?” She shrugs,
“I was waiting for you to make the first move.”
“It's a funny way to make contact, here.” I wave a hand around at the park. “That I am rarely in.”
“I knew it was you as soon as I saw you, it is fate.”
“What do you really want – money?”
“She laughs, O.K, it's not true, but you are Joe Coolz, aren't you and I was with you at birth. My mother breast fed you, so we are sort of related.”
“ Your mother was my wet nurse. This is even more absurd than you being my twin.”
She gives me a look then a 360 degree spin on her air board. She is a very pleasant sight, all pink limbs and blue stars.
“We share the same birthday and we shared my mothers milk, so we are sort of twins.”
She takes off into some aerial acrobatics, twisting and looping showing off her body, then returns to hover in front of me again. Impressive stuff, and not only her tush.
I think what the hell, you only live once and the end of the Universe is nigh, so I ask her back to my place.
****************
Scrap Ships R Us is making me very rich. What with Brian's surprising business acumen and Zeno, the public face, the business is booming. I am so rich that I practically own the Bank of Uranus. Still what is money if the end of the Universe is nigh. Jenny is in the shower and I am waiting for a report back from the IGBI. She may be one of Smith's plants. She is beautiful with a perfect body, but so have all humanoids. I am getting cynical, too much hanging around with Bureau agents and criminals. Humanoids are perfect replicas of the human race except they can't reproduce, but I am not testing this out in case she isn't. I'm not ready for parenthood yet. I get a 'for my eyes' only vid.DELETE ON READING: NOT COPYABLE, WILL SELF DESTUCT AFTER 1 MINUTE.
Jenny Wizz
Professional dancer and air boarder.
Born: 9 11 40007 Mars City Infirmary
Educated: Mars High School. Mars Academy of Performing Arts.
Seconded IGIA Date:1 1 40017, Programmed Sleeper.
I am staring at the screen when it goes blank, my minute is up. What does programmed sleeper mean? Is it that she doesn't know she is an IGIA agent or that she does know but not as yet in action? And what is more to the point does the IGIA want with me. From time immemorial Going back to the CIA and the FBI they don't see eye to eye.
“Don't ask me.” says Brian, reading my thoughts.
I throw her out and phone the agency to see if there is any work.
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