Unhaunting The Hours Read Online Free Page B

gave it second thought. I couldn’t tell
if was Major Tuck this time or just my own frustration with this
mess, but I stared him down and said,
    “ You’re a cop, Balder. Tell
me you haven’t done it yourself. It’s your job to spy on people –
isn’t that most of what police work is these days? Have you ever
taken a peek that wasn’t exactly obligatory?”
    “ Sack it, George. Here’s the
thing. We need your help to find him. I’m sure he knows who you
are, so you’ll hook him for us.”
    I paused. Then I said, “This morning I
was on the train and the only other passenger was a guy who watched
me until I left. But he didn’t look like me.”
    Balder nodded. He flipped a blurred
photo at me. It was the guy.
    I said, “So you’ve got him. What am
here I for?”
    “ You’re not afraid of this
dude? Knowing what you know?”
    I didn’t respond. Balder took the photo
back, but as it went away I noticed something odd about it. One
side of the man’s face drooped. The man on the train hadn’t been
that way, so this photo was either more recent or older. My brains
searched for theories, and it came up with this: the deformity
indicated a botched surgery. Balder had made him a suspect because
he knew “our mutual friend” might’ve attempted to alter his face.
And this alteration was clearly a back alley job.
    I stood and said, “Go find him
now.”
    “ It’s not simple. As you
say, these chaps are invisible. We canvassed homeless shelters and
employers known to harbor illegals. Nothing. Here’s my hope. The
docs say the suspect changed himself about two weeks ago, to cover
up an older injury or surgery.”
    Right. Clone farms implant time-release
hormone capsules inside their products. Clones grow up fast. Even
if my twin’s two-dollar face job was just a couple years old, his
aging face would make it disintegrate and require
repairs.
    Balder said, “My profiler doesn’t think
the jimmy wants to frame you, because he’s so ballsed up that the
idea wouldn’t occur to him. Likely is, he just wants to butcher
you. Case studies show that’s what mentally unstable clones do.
Damn hormones - I don’t know. Do you follow? So I want him to find
you. Trust me. It’s in your best interest. But he doesn’t waste
time, so let’s move.”
    “ You really think he wants
to kill me?”
    “ What difference does it
make? If all he wants is to borrow your boxers, I’ve still got him.
But look, he’s gone to all the trouble to cut himself, because he’s
got such and such a dementia. What do you think he wants from
you?”
    “ Dementia.” I said. “You
think it’s genetic?”
    That made Balder stop short. He put his
hand over his mouth, the way some people do when they’re thinking
of a way to say something unfriendly.
    He said, “It’s usually got a lot do
with childhood trauma. Sexual abuse, that kind of thing. I’d
shudder to think of who raised him. But do I look like your shrink,
George? I’m sorry I can’t help you. I really am. But you’re not
very homicidal at the moment – not any more barking mad than the
rest of us, at least – so let’s drop it. Time’s wasting, and you
can do all the soul searching you want in 48 hours. Now – listen. I
had a plan, but now I’ve got a new one – given this.”
    He grabbed the side of my face. He
pushed the hair aside, revealing the silver neural connector socket
above my ear.
    He said, “I’ll get it checked out to
make sure it’s operational. Then we’ll fire it up.”
     
    I jerked my head away and said, “I
didn’t say anything about that.”
    “ If you want to live, I’m
not sure you’ve got a choice. Trust me, this will work much better
than what I had in mind originally.”
    * * * *
    “ Where’d you get this guy,
Balder?”
    I said, “I’m right here; why not ask
me?”
    I was sitting in a tiny windowless
room, on a cushy table covered with paper. A doctor had something
plugged into me, and he was watching the output on a