The Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys by Mick Farren

Author:Mick Farren
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, English, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345358080
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1989-05-14T17:00:00+00:00

When searching for a nutshell summation of humanity in its final days, we really have to look no farther than the writings of Vendocine: 'As usual, man was busily entangling himself in his ambiguities. This time, however, he tripped, fell, and cracked his head.'

— Pressdra Vishnstria

The Human Comedy, Volume 15:

You 're Dead and I'm Not

CHAPTER TEN

THERE WAS SOMEONE BEATING ON THE DOOR. THE MINSTREL Boy struggled out of an ocean of deep sleep and dreams that were filled with unfocused rushing. The beating on the door continued. He was suddenly very awake. His hand was under the pillow, snakelike, closing around the Colt. He deliberately kept his voice slurred and blurred. 'Who is it? What do you want?'

'Will you please open this door — right now!'

Goddamn it to hell. It was official. The Minstrel Boy threw back the covers. Had that bastard Buzznoose lodged a complaint? He swung his legs over the side of the bed with a groan. Officialdom was beating on the door again.

'Open this door or we'll break it down.'

The Minstrel Boy stood up, fighting off what had the makings of a blinding headache. 'Okay, okay, I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't go nuts.'

The suite was a disaster area. Some hours earlier it had seen the final throes of a very bizarre celebration of Renatta de Luxe's regained freedom, so bizarre, in fact, that he still could not really believe a lot of what had happened. It had started with Renatta demanding, after a few drinks, to know why they had not rescued at least two of the duplicates that the slaver had made of her. 'Then you could have had one of me each.' That had produced the obvious comment that one of her was quite enough. From then on, through the rest of the night, things had escalated as Renatta had determinedly sought to prove that one of her was indeed quite enough for all three of them. The affair had culminated with the ingestion of a gourmet pyschedelic with the fanciful name Infamy. That had been followed by a prolonged bout of erotic contortions that spanned most of the spectrum of what could be achieved by three men and one woman acting in harmony. It appeared to be a new phase or at least a new interlude in the already complicated relationship between Renatta and the DNA Cowboys. As far as the Minstrel Boy was concerned, it was a development that only deepened the mystery of what exactly it was she wanted from them.

Fresh pounding on the door brought him forcibly back to the present.

'Give me a break, will you?'

The Minstrel Boy placed the gun out of sight but within easy reach; then he unlocked and opened the door. Three militiamen and a purple-robed bureaucrat were standing there. The militiamen were armed with lightweight bolt throwers and looked hair-trigger nervous. The Minstrel Boy was certain that they were there to arrest him.

'What do you want? I was sleeping.'

The bureaucrat looked past him at the wreckage of the suite with disapprovingly pursed lips.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.