Early to Death, Early to Rise - Kim Harrison [40]
Shoe, stop! I thought, screaming into his brain, but he stood before the computer and shoved the chair back and fidgeted, waiting. God! Could the piece of crap be any slower?
Finally the disc finished and the drawer slid open. I reached for it, and though I couldn’t see it, I knew he was smiling at the image of the dripping black bird. He jammed it into a back pocket, and a flood of emotion slipped into me.
He was so out of here. He’d known him his entire life, and this was how he was treated? They’d all know tomorrow at school. He’d be sure everyone knew who was responsible for everything. And his so-called friend could curl up and die, for all he cared.
Shoe! I exclaimed, but a heavier wash of tinted blue obscured my vision.
The world seemed to turn inside out, and I floundered. Again I was lost in the black fabric of time, lit from the bright line of a million conscious thoughts. A flash of blue intruded, and with a pinpoint of explosion, I was back. Sort of.
I don’t feel so good,I thought, and then a wave of satisfaction I didn’t know the source of swallowed everything else. I couldn’t see anything. A blue so deep it was almost black hazed my vision until that was all there was, but I knew I was in someone’s mind. They were comfortable, and I could feel a heartbeat…smell food. My fingers were greasy, and I felt a pang of hunger when I realized I was eating something salty.
As if coming through a blanket, I could hear a TV sitcom, the only thing clear being the laugh track. Behind it was a woman’s voice, the sound of the pauses and hesitations making me think she was on the phone.
“No,” she said. “They won’t let anyone in, especially the volunteers. They’re the top suspects, but the entire hospital is under investigation.”
I felt my chest move as I chuckled, a flush of satisfaction making me both happy and angry. Shoe was pleased, but I was mad. Not that he could tell.
But this hasn’t happened yet,I thought, thinking I must be farther out into the future, because the only thing that was clear were voices. That and my hunger. Man, I’d missed that, and my mouth watered as I felt myself crunch down on a chip.
“No!” the woman said, sounding appalled. “Three people died. It took them an unreal four hours to even know they had a problem. They could have lost twice that many. They think maybe it’s a disgruntled employee. The firewall didn’t catch it because someone put it there. It wasn’t through the internet.”
Shoe, you are slime,I thought as he chuckled, shoving chips into his mouth and turning the TV down so he could hear better. I couldn’t see the remote, but I could feel it. And why was it that sound traveled better through time than vision?
“Yes, an inside job,” the woman was saying. “And they’re going to get the little perp.”
Instead of fear, I felt pleasure. It was all Shoe, of course, and I tried to give him a headache. Here I thought he was an okay guy, but being in his head had cured me of that.
“They’ve got the disc,” she said. “Tracked it to the terminal it came in on. All they need to do now is match it to the computer that burned it. Isn’t that something?” she said loudly. “Yes, they can do that. Like matching the ballistics of a bullet. They’re only interviewing people right now, but the search warrants will come. You know they will. The idiot put a label on it. It might be a kid, since the same thing happened at the school yesterday.”
My lips moved, and I heard a whispered, “Ooooh, I’m gonna get your ass busted.”
Shoe! I exclaimed into my mind, but it was only a dream, a possibility—it hadn’t even happened yet—and I felt a surge of frustration when every single sound cycled down to a pinpoint of bluish black until there was nothing, no voices, no touch…nothing.
For an instant I hung there, not knowing what was going to happen next.
And then I gasped as the world flashed