John Shirley by Anonymous

Author:Anonymous
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zinepal

“Did anything follow you two?” asked the blond man in black. the man was talking to “Destin” but looking at Kiln.

“No,” the android said, his eyelamps switching off. “Unless it’s beyond my monitoring capacity.”

Destin and Kiln had just stepped off the thin path, into a moonlit clearing. Kiln was sticky with sweat; his face itched where twigs had whipped at it; nettles stung the back of his hands. But there was a kind of electricity in his blood—he felt more alive than he had in years.

The fox-faced man’s blond beard was close-clipped into baroque curlicues along his jawline. He was a lean man in a black simuleather outfit, like the ancient motorcycle gangs but without insignia. He leaned, arms crossed, apparently against a bush—then Kiln realized the stranger was leaning against one of the bucketlike soloflights, between its horizontal rotors, its surfaces treated with cammiepix which duplicated the backdrop of trees and brush.. On his hip was what appeared to be some sort of projectile weapon in a long narrow holster. Kiln had never seen a hand weapon except in holos and museums.

“I’m supposed to believe you’re not a government agent?” Kiln asked.

“You’re supposed to believe I’m Skysmash. That’s the name I go under. Collectively we call ourselves The Distroff Riders. Distroff took extreme, bold, illegal methods to save the world—now we do it our own way, from our own direction. Come with us, and you’ll also believe we are exactly the same crew that turned your car into a carnival ride today, my friend,” said the bearded man in a silky voice, blue eyes glittering with humor. “There’s another soloflight up on the hilltop, above the clearing—you see it? Just enough room in it for you and our programmed boy-spy here…”

“You’re letting me see your face—suppose I want to turn you in later? Do you…”

“Kill you? No. We have access to 24 hour Blot.”

“Memory erasing enzymes? Those are—”

“Illegal, yes.” Skysmash said the word illegal with something like reverence. “It’ll only blot your memory back 24 hours. No great harm. But hopefully we won’t need it.”

“Because hopefully—what?”

“Hopefully…you’ll join us.”

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