KOP Killer Read Online Free Page B

Gone was the burden of the mission.
    I couldn’t believe I’d missed it all these years. The secret to life was so simple. All this time, all I’d had to do was surrender.
    Dizzy with euphoria, I dropped my piece and stepped out into the glorious insanity.
    Heading into the eye of the storm, I stole a look over my shoulder. My bewildered crew members watched me go. Nobody made a move to stop me. They didn’t care if I got myself killed. I’d be doing them a favor.
    I’d be doing myself a favor.
    My senses were alive, my skin tingling. I felt the winter breeze pull at my hair. I felt the battered pavement under my soles. It was beautiful, really, the way the pits and ripples dipped and arched, like somebody had made a sculpture just for the feet to appreciate. Shattering ceramics sprayed my legs. I turned toward where they exploded. Even in the low light, they looked like starbursts. The last few stragglers stumbled about, some of them bloodied, all of them covering their heads. A brandy bottle exploded nearby, the spray jumping high enough to dot my cheek. I smelled cinnamon and cumin and anise, the flaming spice shop exuding odors like a magnificent stew.
    I closed my eyes, savoring the aroma.
    I reached for the sky, inviting the worst, and waited for the end.

three
    A PRIL 21, 2789
    A LAUNCHING spacecraft rattled the windows. My lids peeled open. I was on my sofa, and curiously, I was still alive.
    How long had I been here? The emptiness had hold of me now. It wasn’t so bad, really. I couldn’t feel anything when it held me. I just wanted to sleep. In fact, I should be sleeping right now. I closed my eyes and shut out this godforsaken world.
    *   *   *
    My phone jingled. Had to be Maggie. I’d blocked all other calls.
    I wondered if it was day or night. It didn’t much matter, but I was curious. The Big Sleep could really screw with your sense of time.
    I let the phone take a message. Maggie’s holo lit up the room. I could see colors moving through my eyelids.
    “Juno, it’s me. It’s Maggie. Hey, I’m running late for dinner.”
    Nighttime. Definitely nighttime.
    “Listen, can we push it back a half hour? Let me know.”
    Right. Dinner. Forgot about that. Lucky she called or I would’ve been a no-show. I fumbled for the phone, and in order to keep my half-asleep voice under wraps, I texted a response: No problem. And then I unblocked other calls.
    I checked the time. Fuck me. Even with the extra half hour, I didn’t have much time to get ready. I dropped my feet to the floor and stretched my arms up for the ceiling, my muscles aching, my head still swimming with the tail end of a fading buzz.
    I lifted myself off the sofa and stumbled down the hall without looking at the bedroom door. I didn’t go in there anymore. Too much Niki in there—clothes, shoes, jewelry, hairbrushes with long strands of black hair trapped in the bristles, her hair. And the smells, the perfumes and creams and lotions. No, I didn’t go in there anymore. I couldn’t.
    Making it to the can, I watered the mold-lined bowl, then stepped into the shower and started rinsing away the stink of an all-night booze binge. A bandage washed off my bicep. I looked at the gouge on my arm. Not bad. It should heal up nicely if I could keep it clean. Amazing that was the only damage. Deluski and Lumbela were the ones who’d saved me. Lumbela paid the price, his melon taking a hit from what looked like a flying teacup. The resulting spray of shattering ceramic peppered my arm, one shard taking a good slice.
    I remembered them pulling me back to the alley, both of them ducking, me walking upright, lost in a world of my own.
    Upon reaching the alley, I remembered catching a whiff of Maria’s perfume, and it was as if somebody had cracked smelling salts under my nose. Snapped out of my desperate trance, I slowly became aware of my wide-eyed, white-faced crew.
    Stunned and confused, I had no idea how to feel. Happy I’d been saved? Angry