Two Skies Before Night by Robert Gryn

Author:Robert Gryn [Gryn, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781942392071
Published: 2018-12-06T23:00:00+00:00

BOOK TWO

THE INNOCENT

Chapter Fourteen

A Face Among Them

Lang awoke to Avocette’s face. She looked down at him, her features statuesque in the hard shadows. The sparse light came from somewhere outside his view. Lang thought at first he was in her apartment; then he jumped as he remembered he had been shot. He tried to sit up, but Avocette restrained him. He didn’t struggle against her hands on his shoulders.

“It’s okay,” she said. “You’re okay.”

“Bastard shot me.”

“You’ve been out for a while. Maybe a day.”

“Shit. Where is he?”

“He left with Smoke, to make their rounds.”

“What?”

“They bring water to the people here. They try at least once a day to get as many as they can to drink.”

“The ghosted? What a waste.”

“I tried it myself. If you offer it to them, they’ll drink. Enoko said they fade away if no one pays attention. They just turn to mist.”

“It’s just a reflex, the drinking. Now, help me up.”

“You should rest.”

“He shot me with a ghost gun, didn’t he?”

“He missed on purpose, or so he says.”

“Crazy old man,” Lang said, feeling his face with his fingers. He couldn’t feel anything around his eyes or the bridge of his nose. “Scarred, didn’t it?”

Avocette drew a line across her eyes with her finger. “I’m sorry, but it doesn’t look too bad.”

“When I find him, I’ll show him how not to miss.”

“Edac, please. He was trying to help.”

“Help? So I could join his little harem out there?”

“He said that you of all people would benefit, that you would see more with the ‘illusion of life,’ I think he called it, removed from your eyes.”

“Son of a… he left you here cause he knew I would kill him, didn’t he?”

“Edac, please. Tell me I wasn’t wrong about you.”

“What?”

“When we met, I saw the pain in your eyes, when you looked at Clarity’s body. You hide it well, with your tough words, but I’ve seen so many men with cold eyes. Yours were on fire.”

“I’ve killed people.”

“But you remember.”

Lang thought back to the high-rise farm. He had almost killed a man there and ghosted two. “Not enough.”

“No, it’s never enough.”

“I’ve killed five people in my life. All while on duty and all deserved it.”

“And how many of the people out there did you shoot?”

“Seventeen.”

“Wouldn’t it be something if those people could come back?”

“But they can’t, just like the dead. Thinking they can is childish.”

“Clarity came back,” Avocette said.

“We don’t know that. And that’s different.”

“I’m just saying, everything is possible.”

“You’ve been listening to that old fool too much.”

“You know, I should be furious at you.”

“What? Why?”

“You brought a raid on the only place I’ve been able to hold a job. You almost got me shot, and then you dragged me through the sewers, ruining my best dress.”

“I didn’t drag you… I’m sorry. You’re right. If had known you worked there—”

“You wouldn’t have come? I barely know you and I don’t believe that.”

“I would’ve waited. Reve would’ve understood.”

“Your partner?”

“Shit, I completely forgot about her.”

“She was at the club?”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t find her when the shooting started.

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