Spin State - Chris Moriarty [82]
“Fuck no! You know how she graded us? She gave an exam with one problem on it, one problem that takes like three hours to solve, and I get it back and there’s one fucking sentence written on it: ‘Oops, you lost the mass of the universe. C minus.’ Like my whole exam was some kind of fucking joke to her. You lost the mass of the universe? I mean, what the fuck does that mean, anyway?”
“I think it means she had a sense of humor and you don’t,” Li said. “So. What did your favorite physics professor have you doing in the mine?”
Kintz shrugged sullenly. “Standing around mostly. Security, I guess. Fuck if I know.”
Li drew on her cigarette and watched him in silence. “Did you know Sharifi was murdered?” she asked finally.
“I might have heard something like that.”
“And did you know that you’re the last person who saw her alive? Other than Voyt. Oh, but someone killed him too.”
“So what?”
“So if I were you, I’d be busy thinking about how many ways I could bend over for the investigating officer and keep myself out of trouble.”
“Jeez, lighten up! I fucking work for you, in case you forgot. Why don’t you go round up the usual suspects?”
“Unfortunately the usual suspects weren’t down in the mine. You were. And I want to know what Haas had you doing down there.”
Kintz stared. Then he kicked his chair back on two legs and laughed a laugh that set Li’s teeth on edge.
“You don’t know shit,” he said. “They hung you out to dry. You’re in fucking free fall, and you’re just too blind to see it.”
Li flicked out her left arm as fast as her internals would go. It hurt like hell, but the special effects were worth it. To anyone watching it would have looked like Kintz’s coffee had simply fallen off the table and into his lap. Before Kintz realized what had happened, Li was on her feet and coming around the table right behind the coffee.
“Gosh!” she said, patting at the front of his pants with a napkin. “You spilled on yourself. Hope it wasn’t too hot.”
Kintz stood up and backed away from the table a step or two but let Li keep swatting at him with the napkin. He looked like he was still trying to catch up with his coffee. He was also now standing with his back against the wall and Li’s body between him and the rest of the tables. Li smiled, grabbed him where it counted, and lifted.
“Have I mentioned that you’re really pissing me off?” she asked.
Kintz’s face contorted, but his eyes didn’t drop away from hers. Worse, as pain drained the blood from his neck and face, Li saw the dense network of ceramsteel filament woven through flesh and muscle.
She almost dropped him in surprise.
Well, that explained where he’d taken Sharifi’s classes. The only thing that didn’t add up was why the Corps had put this waste of skin through Alba. Or how an ex-Peacekeeper had washed up as Haas’s errand boy. Either Kintz was working for internal affairs—impossible—or he’d screwed up so badly the Corps couldn’t risk the publicity of a dishonorable discharge.
Yet another reason to keep a close eye on him. As if she needed one.
“You’re no better than me,” Kintz said, pain and hatred battling in his voice. “I was on Gilead. I know just what kind of fucking hero you are. I know you.”
Li let go and backed away as if he’d stung her.
“Yeah,” Kintz said. “I was there. And when the memory wipe didn’t take they washed me out. For doing the same thing you did. For doing less than you did. What do you think of that, Major? Only you weren’t a major then, were you? That was your reward for doing their dirty work.” He laughed. “Or don’t you like to talk about it?”
Li shrugged. It took every bit of willpower she had, but she did it.
“Look,” she said. “I don’t give a shit what you think you remember or what lies you need to tell yourself to get by. We can either keep standing here insulting each other, or you can tell me something that’ll make me leave. Which is it gonna be, Kintz? And while we’re on the topic of Gilead, why don’t you think about what happened to the