The Old Reactor Read Online Free Page B

hard.”
    “They said I might get a coat in about a month. The shortage should be over soon.”
    “Don’t bother. They just say that. You’ll never get one.”
    “The scrapple is good here,” Salmonella said. “I really, really like it.”
    “They make it with pigeon, you know,” Udo said.
    “Whatever it is, I like it.”
    In the alleyway, outside the back door of the deli, a kitchen worker dipped pigeons into hot water to loosen the feathers for plucking then dressed the birds and tossed them into a bucket.
    Udo shrugged. “Moldenke…you want to kill a jelly or two?”
    “I’ve never tried it.”
    “It’s a sublime experience. They’re out there by the Old Reactor like herds of wildebeests. I pop them all the time.” Udo hooked a thumb behind his canvas belt. “Didn’t they tell you? You get time off for every ear valve you bring in. They got a valve return office in Point Blast.”
    “No, they didn’t tell me that. And it wasn’t in the brochures either.”
    “Well, let me tell you. Cutting off those valves is pretty disgusting. The stuff that squirts out’ll make you gag. It’s got cadaverine in it, and it smells like a dead body.”
    For Moldenke, the idea of killing jellies and cutting off their valves wholesale seemed a little distasteful. Besides, his sentence was indeterminate. How could he shave time from that?
    “He’s my daddy, but I don’t love him for the way he loves killing jellies,” Salmonella said. “It makes me sick.”
    Udo raised his open hand. “I’ll slap you if you don’t shut down that tongue of yours.”
    Salmonella folded her arms and looked away.
    When Saposcat’s doors finally opened, the three new acquaintances were seated at a booth. Udo’s tightly wrapped package rested beside him.
    A waitress took orders.
    Moldenke said, “The mud fish, please.”
    Salmonella ordered scrapple with a side of fried kerd and a glass of green soda.
    Udo waived the waitress off. “A bowl of meal, that’s all.”
    Moldenke said, “I’m told new arrivals can get a streetcar outside that goes to the downtown, to the west side. I think I’ll catch it. That’s where I’ll be going. It’s the address they gave me at relocation.”
    Udo shook his head. “You’ll wait all day. I’ve got my motor parked around the corner.” He indicated the wrapped package. “We came here to get a new water tube for it, shipped in from Bunkerville. We’re driving back to Altobello. You want to ride with us?”
    Salmonella said, “I’m warning you. He’s going to stop at the Old Reactor and shoot some jellies. He’ll try to make you do it too.”
    “You want to shoot one, Moldenke? I got extra weapons.”
    “I wouldn’t know what part to aim at.”
    “Not at the belly and not at the head,” Udo said. “Huge stinking mess. They’ve got one gel sack inside the skull and eight in the belly. The one in the skull is what squirts out when you cut a valve. You don’t want to puncture any of those. Aim for the upper chest. There’s no sacks there. There’s a heart. Some kind of heart.”
    Moldenke wasn’t moved. “Thank you anyway. I think I’ll maybe stay here in Point Blast, get a job net mending or working on the docks. It might be nice, close to the sea, the salty air, the sound of the waves.”
    Udo laughed. “Forget that. The menders and the dock workers formed a union, years of dues and apprenticeship before you get in. Nobody stays on the Point long. It’s just a port. You come here to get things, you go back to the City. How long you here for?”
    “Don’t know.”
    “What offense?”
    “Desecrating a grave. You?”
    “I spit at the mayor’s wife twenty years ago. Same deal: indeterminate. Salmonella was born here. She’s freeborn.”
    Salmonella bared her teeth. “That’s why I’ve got these blue spots.”
    “Most freeborn have the spots,” Udo said. “Nobody knows why.”
    Salmonella said, “Freedom’s fun. I can do anything. I don’t care about the spots