I felt like sighing, "What sort of help does she need? I am not about to go spy on an ex or something dumb like that."
He took a moment to answer, and he kept his eyes firmly on the phone he had placed on the table. I felt very apprehensive, there was no chance in hell I would do P.I. legwork.
"She wants us to steal something back for her," He said and looked at me.
"Well, that's a little bit more interesting. What does she want us to steal?" I asked.
"Nanites," He said. "She stole them but someone stole it from her, and she wants them back."
At least, it wouldn't be boring. I looked at Asher, who shrugged. I shook my head and looked back at Denny. I didn't need Asher's help to decide.
“Ok, but only this once Denny, I don’t want to get sucked into helping people.”
“There are worse things than being in the business of using our skills to the benefit of ourselves and others.”
“Hah, services for hire?"
He shrugged and got up, "Got anything better to do?" He said as he dialed Viv, our client.
––––––––
As he stepped into the rift, Asher Bain took a good long look around. Home, the word held a barb that still stung. Many years had passed since he had stepped foot on his family farm. A family that was once considered proud and noble famed for producing some of the finest vintages the galaxy had known.
Now, it was all gone, their name unknown. Only a select few still knew the name Bain; none alive remembered a lost son. The youngest in the family line, the last hope. That died when he disappeared.
Asher checked on the tiny plants and was pleased to find them vibrant. They were thriving; the soil was fertile still, as he knew it would be. The fields had rested long enough to regain their potency. The secret behind the Bain fame had been in the soil.
He stood and took his mobile out of his pocket, unlocked it and navigated to the dialer. A number that would only work on this side, on this beautiful planet know to humans as Proxima Centauri.
"Yes?"
"It's done," Asher said.
"Good; keep her close," Richard Taylor said. "And protect her Asher, she is precious."
"You don't need to tell me what I already know," Asher said and hung up.
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Preview of Book 2, Nanite Storm:
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One
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“You lied to me, Eliza.”
Denny’s tone was accusing, I didn’t blame him, but he was wrong. I sighed and closed my eyes; they stung from staring at the same building for hours. It was early and the night stretched out in front of us. It promised to be hellishly long.
“I didn’t lie, Denny, I told you it would be boring and yet, you insisted on coming with.”
“Boring yes, but you didn’t say it would be fucking boring!” He screamed at me.
“Dude, chill out.”
One of us had to be calm, and it certainly wasn’t going to be him. He was acting like a child. I had little patience for kids, I liked them well enough but couldn’t handle being around any.
Of course, I had eighty plus years to cultivate my stance on the matter. I never had any, and my sole experience came from watching from the sidelines.
A universal fact seemed that bored children were annoying and that they liked sharing the pain. Denny wasn’t a child and certainly not mine.
But he was the closest thing to family I had left. A grandson, though not of my blood he meant as much to me as if we shared that connection.
Add to the fact that I destroyed his carefully crafted lie of a life and killed him, I owed him some patience. But, he was hitting my last nerve and amping up for more.
“Fuckity, fuck,”
“Go for a bloody walk,” I ground out between tightly clenched teeth, “Please,” I added in an attempt to soften my irritation.
He got out and slammed the door behind him. Little snot, I thought as he walked away. I opened all the windows; I could do with the fresh air, and it might cool my mood a bit.
I peered at the building again; we had parked up the road from it, tucked behind a big van. More nondescript than our SUV, so my initial thoughts were cops on a stakeout. But so far no one had entered or exited so perhaps it was just a van parked for the night.
My life would be way too easy if that was the case, but I could claim that I was a P.I. on a stake out with a rookie if there were cops inside. Of course, I wasn’t a bloody investigator, the badge I had was a forgery.
When we took on this ‘case’ for Viv, it was in payment for her help, not to start a business. Denny felt otherwise and was keen on getting cards printed and even went as far as looking at stationery for our new offices.
That came to an end rather quickly; I refused to go that far. It wasn’t the start of a new business venture, I had zero interest in stalking cheating spouses and the other shit P.I.’s seemingly dealt with during their jobs.
It was a means to an end; the end being the task app hacked. The Man hid many things, and if we could get just a peek into their system, we could perhaps get a hint on their endgame.
Not that I had any plans about putting a stop to their endgame, but a heads up to when that would happen could be handy. That way, I could plan when I needed to bunker down.
And that was the only thing I knew for sure, that eventually their endgame would involve an end to the world as people knew it. Perhaps the world to follow would be a better one, but that was wishful thinking.
Something Denny felt was a possibility, but Asher and I both knew he was naive. But neither of us wanted to spoil that for him. Just because we were old and cynical, it didn’t mean we had to ruin his dreams.
Denny’s life as a conman should have made him more cynical than either of us, but after he had woken up from his faked death, he appeared more optimistic. He certainly seemed keen on making a new life for himself.
But, way too eager to drag me into it with him.
There were suddenly too many people in my life, and it felt crowded as of late. Two weeks and three days since I last had to go for an injection. A period filled with more happiness than ever before and more frustration than the entire eighty-three years prior.
Immortality had many pitfalls, and with my particular choice of immortality, the price had been steep. Daily tasks for the Man that eventually included more torture and murder than even the most zealous serial killer could endure.
And yet, endure it I did. Not gracefully by the end and I had severely compartmentalized the situation. For days after Asher’s first cup of tea, I couldn’t stop crying.
This mysterious man granted true immortality to me, and I still wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse. My body detoxed, and come off the cocktail that made up Shi as administered by the Man.
It was horrible, I felt great in general, but it was as if a fog lifted. I saw clearly for the first time in many years, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.
My tears could never wash away all the horror of my past, horror inflicted by my hands upon hapless victims. Victims of the Man, same as me, but I still had a life, unlike those poor souls.
My hands trembled in my lap, and these were thoughts that I shouldn’t indulge just then. I rubbed my hands together and gave them a once-over. No liver spots, nor any other signs of age.
It took some time for the trembling to stop and my concentration strained. I missed Denny all of a sudden; his childishness would be a welcome change just then.
I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I failed the first step of surveillance; I wasn’t looking out for my quarry. And so it was a hell of a surprise when I saw the very thief I was staking out going down the same alley Denny had gone down.
“Fuckity, fuck,” I muttered and got out.
Swiftly and quietly I locked the car and made my way across the road. I kept a fair bit of distance between us, making sure he didn�
��t see me. The darkness and general disgusting nature of the alley made it easier.
I could hide whenever he cautiously peered over his shoulder. Rubbish that I was happy not to see afforded the perfect cover when this happened. I couldn’t see Denny and for a stupid moment, I hoped he had left the alley and was wondering the street on the other side.
I ought to know better by now, though. A shot rang out, and feet slapped the road hard as someone ran away.
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Shi: A Dark Adventure into Living Forever Page 17