Memetic Drift - J.N. Chaney Page 0,12

the packages over, and the door to Thomas’s room closed once again.

Andrea looked slightly worried. “I’m not sure he’s been out of that room at all since you left for Italy.”

“I’m sure he’ll come out when he gets hungry.” I wasn’t worried about Thomas Young. The man might be a bit strange, but I was sure he knew better than to starve himself to death.

I went back out to the living room and sat down.

“Aren’t you going to have a shower before we go out?” asked Raven, fitting the last piece of her sniper rifle back together.

“I suppose I’d better.”

She put the rifle down and turned to look at me, her eyebrows raised. Apparently she wanted her drink and she didn’t want to wait for it.

“Alright, alright. I’m going now.”

“Thank you, Tycho,” was her singsong reply, and she started stripping her backup gun.

Not that we went out all that soon after my shower, because Raven apparently had quite an elaborate procedure for getting ready to go out. I was waiting for her for something like forty-five minutes. By the time she was ready, I had drifted off on the couch.

“Tycho.” I heard my name, opened my eyes, and saw her standing there.

I blinked a few times to get the sleep out of my eyes, got a good look at her at last, and said, “Whoa.”

Her curly hair hung down loosely around her shoulders, and she wore diamond earrings, a black jacket, and a leather skirt. She smiled. “You’re sweet. But don’t get any ideas, mister. I always dress up nice when I’m going out.”

“Hey, I’m not saying anything. Just whoa.”

“Uh-huh. Get your ass off that couch. We have some drinking to do.”

I swung my feet over onto the floor and stood. “So, where are we going?”

“A place called the Emerald City a few blocks from here. Nice bar.”

“Works for me.”

We took the elevator downstairs and left through the main entrance. Raven slipped an arm through mine as we walked. I couldn’t tell what she was trying to do here, but her warning not to get any ideas was already lost on me. She was watching the night life of the city, and everything about her seemed so alive and vibrant. It was easy to forget that she killed people for a living. Then again, so did I.

“You’re not saying much,” she commented.

“I’m just thinking. It’s a strange sort of job we have.”

“That’s for sure. Anyone else would be in prison for doing what we do. Turn left up here.”

We turned at the corner, and she pointed up at the buildings as we walked past. “I’ve been doing this for so long now, I can’t walk past a building and just see a building. You know what I mean? All I can see are the good vantage points, the fields of fire. This job changes you. It turns you into a different person.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about. For me, it wasn’t sniper nests though. “Whenever I look at a building, I imagine running the rooftop. Jumping to the next building. Fighting on the move.”

“That’s how it is. How do you feel about it?”

“It’s funny you should ask that, because I was just thinking about that when I was back on Mars.”

“We’ll turn up here.”

We turned right and came to a street with a row of nightclubs. About a block down the street, I spotted the glowing green sign for Emerald City. “I think I’m getting used to it. I think I’m embracing it.”

She nodded. “Yeah. That’s what happens. You resist it at first, but it rewrites your character.” The words she said were almost melancholy, but her tone didn’t sound sad at all. Her voice was perfectly joyful. Like she had figured out who she was here, and she was fine with that.

We reached the Emerald City, and the bright green light from the sign lit up her face.

“What are you looking at?” she asked me playfully.

“Have you ever been here before?” I asked, changing the topic.

She opened the door and led me inside. “Yes, but I was working then.”

What did she mean by that, exactly? That she was tracking a target, asking questions of the people who worked here? Or that she was up on the roof with her sniper rifle?

She laughed. “I’m kidding, Tycho. Come on, they have booths in the back.”

She led me through the dimly lit bar and we sat down across from each other. A waitress came over, smiled when she saw us,