Suspect Zero Read Online Free

man.”
    “When the wolf smells chicken he knows it’s dinnertime.”
    The killer made two more sudden turns.
    “Here,” said the brunette.
    “Here? Here seems downright impolite.”
    Julia pointed at dim lights ahead. “Club Wasteland’s right up there by the corner.”
    The killer squinted.
    “Really? Well I’ll be damned. I’ve been driving these streets for days and never noticed. Looks like fun. Wish I’d known about it earlier.”
    “It’s probably not your kind of place,” said the blonde.
    “Don’t judge a book by its cover, girls. You never know who you’re going to meet on a night like this.” He let the hammer down on the gun and pushed it back under his leg.
    “Open the door for the young ladies, Gabe.”
    Gabriel leaned forward as the three girls slid out from behind him and stepped down into the street. Julia gave his thigh a squeeze as she left.
    “Thanks, mister,” she called.
    “My pleasure, girls. You have a nice time tonight. Take a walk on the wild side for me and the boy.”
    “We’ll do our best,” Julia said.
    “Hey Gabe,” called the blonde.
    He looked at her. Penny stared back.
    “Yeah?” he said.
    She smiled at him. “Good luck with the pissing lessons.”
    The girl laughed and the killer joined in. Gabriel pulled the door closed.
    They pulled away and when Gabriel looked out the window the girls waved to him and blew kisses. He gave them a small wave back.
    He turned to the killer.
    “You let them go.”
    Suspect Zero slid the gun from beneath his leg and put it back in his pocket.
    “You noticed that, did you?”
    “You had your gun out.”
    “And you had your knife. You waiting for an engraved invitation?”
    Gabriel stared ahead not knowing what to say.
    Suspect Zero backhanded him gently on the arm.
    “I was just messing with you,” said the killer. “I wasn’t going to hurt ’em. Bunch of drunk girls? Too obvious. Too easy. We’re the random factor made flesh. What we do transcends regular people’s notions of reason, which means some get to live and others die and no one but us knows why. Tonight those girls’ll run wild and tomorrow they’ll hear about what happened at the warehouse back yonder. They’ll tell their friends that they were stranded right by there. How they could have run into the killers if a couple of friendly fags hadn’t picked them up. See what I’m saying? Knowing how close they came, each of those girls carries a little piece of us with them and when they tell their friends about tonight they’ll pass it on to them. And then they’ll pass it on. That’s how legends start. That’s the beginning of immortality.”
    Gabriel looked at the killer hard, like he’d never seen him before.
    “Immortality? All these fucking rules? This isn’t fun. When does it get to be fun?”
    “Fun? You think this is Pac-Man? This is work. The work. We can take joy in it, try to make each kill as lively as possible, but fun and games aren’t why we’re here.”
    It’s why I’m here, Gabriel thought. His stomach burned. This isn’t what he’d been looking for at all. Finding Suspect Zero, getting him at arm’s length from his blade wasn’t going to be like this. It was supposed to be perfect black madness. Racing engines, burning cars and the road boiling under their feet. Dice with devil heads and a landscape of pale skin with sticky red tracings like all the roads they would travel, crushing the weak, the stupid and the innocent under their wheels. And when he’d taken what he could from the man, there’d be the explosion of pleasure when he ripped Dad’s Ka-Bar across the older man’s throat and took the truck as his prize. That’s how it was supposed to be. Instead, here I am with a scrawny, fucked-up old Ward Cleaver. I swear to God, one more piece of advice and the knife comes out. He didn’t need this “Killing for Dummies” bullshit.
    Gabriel asked, “How do you choose them?”
    “We can talk business later. You