immechanica by E. F. Coleman

Author:E. F. Coleman [Coleman, E. F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luminastra Press
Published: 2023-03-15T07:00:00+00:00

14

Tomorrow We Declare War

He might die, you know, Anna’s voice said in Nadine’s ear.

“I know.” Nadine glanced over at Jake. He looked back at her and managed the barest ghost of a smile. His breathing came fast and shallow. “I’m working on it.”

Maybe you should go faster.

“Maybe if I get busted by a traffic enforcement drone, he’ll definitely die and then we’ll both be fucked.”

Did you mean what you said about me to that ogre?

“Every word.”

You know I was a criminal, right?

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out early on.”

I’m sorry I didn’t open up to you sooner.

“I’m sorry too. I really have to drive now.” Nadine gripped the wheel until her knuckles turned white. She kept one eye on the blue wedge spearing its way through the digitized version of LA’s streets, watching the ETA tick down, keeping just slightly over the speed limit, not enough to catch the attention of a wandering enforcement drone.

I don’t remember you cursing this much before.

“I don’t remember having conversations in my head with my dead girlfriend before. Uncharted territory for both of us.” She reached out to squeeze Jake’s good arm. “Don’t die,” she told him. “If you die I’ll never speak to you again.”

You sure? Anna said.

Nadine said nothing.

Thirteen minutes and forty-six seconds after Nadine’s call to Dr. Abdullah, she pulled into the parking lot of a long, low structure, more an architectural appendage tacked onto a strip mall than a building in its own right. A silver Volvo sat in front of it, the only car in an otherwise vacant lot. He stood next to the car in a business suit, wearing an expression distinctly south of happy. “Dr. Abdullah,” Nadine said. “Thank you.”

“Fazel. Please.”

“Fazel.” Nadine looked up at the illuminated sign above the dark door. “A veterinary clinic. You took me to a veterinary clinic.”

“You said no hospital.”

“He said no hospital.” She opened the passenger door. “Help me get him out.”

Nadine took Jake’s feet, which were saturated with blood. It pooled into the floorboards of the Mini. Fazel hooked an arm across Jake’s chest and helped lever him out of the car. “What happened?” he said.

“That is a very long story I have neither the time nor the inclination to get into,” Nadine said. “Can you help him?”

“I don’t know yet.” Fazel opened the door with a key from his pocket. “Get him in here.”

“How do you have a key to this place?”

He smiled thinly. “This too is a very long story.” He dragged a black shapeless bag with a long nylon strap from the back of his car, slung it over his shoulder. Nadine supported Jake as he limped into the clinic. Fazel elbowed open a door in the back of the small, linoleum-tiled waiting room. LED panels in the ceiling came on. They wrestled Jake onto a large steel table, gleaming in the glow of the lights.

Fazel took a pair of bandage shears from a drawer, moving with the unthinking confidence of one who knew the layout of the place like an extension of his own self.

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