Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,68
The choice is supposed to be made before I ever enter into the picture.”
“Well, let me help you out,” I grated. “If you pull that trigger, you’ll be dead long before you can reach me.”
“Hmm…” was the man’s reply. “Perhaps. But Ms. Chan would no longer be with us. I’m confident in the strength of my backups, Mr. Langston. Are you?”
Damn. I had hoped that if he was an independent contractor, he might not know the depths to which Genetechnic had gone to eliminate us. He knew I couldn’t risk Chan’s life. The microwave emitter was no coincidence. I saw the barest hint of fear on Chan’s face, now, breaking through the mask of her resolve.
“Fine,” I said. “You got us there.” I kept the gun leveled on him. “But if you’re here to kill us both, erase us both, I’d be a special kind of stupid to let you. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just take the shot now, and hope I drop you before you can hit the firing stud on that emitter.” I saw Chan tense as I said the words, getting ready to try to break clear from the assassin. Good.
“I’ll give you two, Mr. Langston. First, I don’t need to push a firing stud. The microwave emitter is slaved to my agent, and if my functions go offline, it will fire. A dead-man’s switch, if you will.”
Fuck. That meant I couldn’t just take the shot. I’d have to wait for Chan to try and break clear, and the odds of that… well, I was learning that Chan was one of the best around at what she did, but hand-to-hand combat with assassins didn’t seem to be in her wheelhouse. “Great,” I muttered. “And number two?”
“I think I’ve decided not to kill you after all.”
I heard the words, but I’d have to be a bigger fool than I was to accept them at face value. “Great,” I said with false enthusiasm. “In that case, I’m sure you’ll have no problem releasing ‘Ms. Chan,’” I tried to say the name with the sort of offhand casualness that the assassin was throwing around. “As a sign of good faith, you understand.”
His smile broadened. “Ah. As to that, I don’t expect you to take me at my word just yet. And I’m afraid you might do something hasty. So, no, I won’t be releasing Ms. Chan. And, should either of you try anything, I will, of course, re-evaluate my decision. Quickly. And with prejudice.”
“I’m not exactly inclined to take you at your word, either, Mr.…” I trailed off. I had no idea what the assassin’s name was.
“No. You wouldn’t be, would you?” he asked, not bothering to answer my implied question. “Fair enough. We can stay just like this while I tell you why I’ve decided to go the… less messy route.” He looked at me expectantly. I couldn’t imagine anything he said making me trust him one iota more, but a little extra time couldn’t hurt. Right now, he was holding all the cards. But deep-space salvage taught you that things could change in a big damn hurry.
“Go ahead,” I said, keeping the gun leveled at him. Not for the first time, I wished that Chan was in her original coil. At least that way the bad guy to hostage mass ratio would be more in my favor if I had to take the shot.
“Very well,” the killer smiled. “I’m going to make a few assumptions based on my new mission parameters. Do let me know if I start to get too far ahead of you, okay?”
The words dripped condescension, and I almost took the shot out of spite. Instead, I grit my teeth and said, “I’ll try to keep up.”
“Do that. Genetechnic has established a rough timeline for you over the past several months, Mr. Langston. Ms. Chan,” he gave her a slight nudge with the microwave emitter, “did a better job of covering her tracks in those early days. I suppose it’s to be expected. I wonder if the crew of the Persephone knew just what caliber of criminal they were associating with.” He sounded almost impressed. No. Not impressed. It was more… professional respect. I’d learned over the past few months just how good a hacker Chan was, but she must have been even better than I’d thought to pull that tone out of a megacorp’s cleaner. Not that I’d let the assassin know that. I kept quiet and kept my sights as