even they wouldn’t turn a blind eye on attempted murder under the dome.
“So,” she said, at last, “what’s it going to be?”
“You make a persuasive argument, Mrs. Wilkins,” I said in the most reasonable tone I could muster under the circumstances. And then, without changing my facial expression in the slightest, I pulled the trigger.
I wondered if a transfer’s time sense ever slows down, or if it is always perfectly quartz-crystal timed. Certainly, time seemed to attenuate for me then. I swear I could actually see the bullet as it followed its trajectory from my gun, covering the three meters between the barrel and—
And not, of course, Cassandra’s torso.
Nor her head.
She was right; I probably couldn’t harm her that way.
No, instead, I’d aimed past her, at the table on which the faux Pickover was lying on his back. Specifically, I’d aimed at the place where the thick nylon band that crossed over his torso, pinning his arms, was anchored on the right-hand side—the point where it made a taut diagonal line between where it was attached to the side of the table and the top of Pickover’s arm.
The bullet sliced through the band, cutting it in two. The long portion, freed of tension, flew up and over his torso like a snake that had just had 40,000 volts pumped through it.
Cassandra’s eyes went wide in astonishment that I’d missed her, and her head swung around. The report of the bullet was still ringing in my ears, but I swear I could also hear the zzzzinnnng! of the restraining band snapping free. To be hypersensitive to pain, I figured you’d have to have decent reaction times, and I hoped that Pickover had been smart enough to note in advance my slight deviation of aim before I fired.
And, indeed, no sooner were his arms free than he sat bolt upright—his legs were still restrained—and grabbed one of Cassandra’s arms, pulling her toward him. I leapt in the meager Martian gravity. Most of Cassandra’s body was made of lightweight composites and synthetic materials, but I was still good old flesh and blood: I outmassed her by at least thirty kilos. My impact propelled her backward, and she slammed against the table’s side. Pickover shot out his other arm, grabbing Cassandra’s second arm, pinning her backside against the edge of the table. I struggled to regain a sure footing, then brought my gun up to her right temple.
“All right, sweetheart,” I said. “Do you really want to test how strong your artificial skull is?”
Cassandra’s mouth was open; had she still been biological, she’d probably have been gasping for breath. But her heartless chest was perfectly still. “You can’t just shoot me,” she said.
“Why not? Pickover here will doubtless back me up when I say it was self-defense, won’t you, Pickover?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
“In fact,” I said, “you, me, this Pickover, and the other Pickover are the only ones who know where the Alpha Deposit is. I think the three of us would be better off without you on the scene anymore.”
“You won’t get away with it,” said Cassandra. “You can’t.”
“I’ve gotten away with plenty over the years,” I said. “I don’t see that coming to an end.” I cocked the hammer, just for fun.
“Look,” she said, “there’s no need for this. We can all share in the wealth. There’s plenty to go around.”
“Except you don’t have any rightful claim to it,” said Pickover. “You stole this copy of my mind, and you committed torture. And you want to be rewarded for that?”
“Pickover’s right,” I said. “It’s his treasure, not yours.”
“It’s humanity’s treasure,” corrected Pickover. “It belongs to all mankind.”
“But I’m your client,” Cassandra said to me.
“So’s he. At least, the legal version of him is.”
Cassandra sounded desperate. “But—but that’s a conflict of interest!”
“So sue me.”
She shook her head in disgust. “You’re just in this for yourself!”
I shrugged amiably and then pressed the barrel even tighter against her artificial head. “Aren’t we all?”
“Shoot her,” said Pickover. I looked at him. He was still holding her upper arms, pressing them in close to her torso. If he’d been biological, the twisting of his torso to accommodate doing that probably would have been quite uncomfortable. Actually, now that I thought of it, given his heightened sensitivity to pain, even this artificial version was probably hurting from twisting that way. But apparently this was a pain he was happy to endure.
“Do you really want me to do that?” I said. “I mean, I can understand, after what she did