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ground. Dead weight was something I rarely dealt
with. When I killed people, they didn t need to be
moved around and though she hadn t perished,
she sure as hell wasn t helping me at all.
A voice shouted through a speaker in Russian
just to the right.
Do you speak English? I asked.
I do, he replied in a thick accent. I asked
Who the fuck is it? But since we ve already broken
the ice a little, I ll ask you nicer. Who the fuck are
you and what the fuck do you want?
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Caitlin West
Subtle, I mumbled. I m looking for Alexei
Diminov. A friend of mine, Joseph Konrad, used
to do business here. I was hoping I could pick up
where he left off.
I ve never heard of this Konrad person before
and, more importantly, you didn t answer my
question, so you get one more chance before you
can get the hell off of my porch. Who are you?
My name is Ardan Boyle. Glad to meet you,
can you let us the fuck in already?
The door opened and Alexei poked his head
out. His pictures didn t do him justice and he
looked younger than online, probably between
twenty and twenty-five at the most. His black hair
was curled wildly about his head and a patchy
beard marred his cheeks and chin.
The ratty t-shirt he wore was of some rock band
with a difficult to read font. An olive green army
jacket went on top and his black shorts were
crudely cut off just below the knees, revealing a
little bit of his calves before the scuffed up combat
boots covered the rest of him.
He scrutinized us both for a moment before
stepping aside.
What happened to your chick?
She got shot, I replied. Do you have
somewhere I can tend to the wound?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don t know what kind of
place your friend Konrad said this was, but it s not
a triage clinic. You need to take her to a hospital.
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Recollection
Yeah, I m here with a victim of a gunshot
wound because we re in a hospital kind of
situation. I let the sarcasm roll. This place is
shady and while you might not get a lot of this
type of thing, I know you ve had it before. Just
direct me to the back so I can properly bandage
her up and then we ll talk about the business
we re about to conduct that will get you a lot of
money.
Since you put it so eloquently, come on back.
The shop was much larger than I anticipated
and seemed to span the entire basement of the
building. My first impression was that I was
observing one of the finest examples of controlled
chaos to be found in a business front. Products
were definitely placed in some meaningful way,
but what it might have been, I couldn t guess.
Here you go. He stepped aside as we reached
a small office in the back. A twin sized bed was
resting in the corner with the covers bunched up
in a ball at the foot. I set Megan down, silently
apologizing for the fact that it looked far from
clean. You need something to help, no?
Antiseptic?
If you have it, yeah, and don t worry, I ll pay
for that too.
Bah! He waved his hand dismissively and
moved into a little bathroom. This on the house.
We don t charge to bandage up beautiful young
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Caitlin West
ladies. What is it that brought you here beside
her?
I ve got a little old tech I was hoping you
could help me with& you or maybe your father. I
examined Megan s wound and winced. It looked a
lot worse than I initially had thought. The entry
point was bruised and swollen. I knew she d have
to see a doctor soon but I hoped that we could buy
us some time.
What kind? I learned much from my father.
He taught me everything about computers and
then I went to university. Got my degree and
minored in music. I was spectacular student, I
must say. He came out with a tray full of medical
supplies. Alcohol, a tiny knife, antiseptic, and
bandages, not to mention a lighter and some
antibiotics. I looked up at him suspiciously.
I thought this wasn t the kind of place people
came for medical help.
Of course it is, he replied. My friends get in
trouble all the time, they come here to get fixed
up. Your friend, she seems just fine. Clean it and
dress it, she should be right as rain.
You don t know a lot about bullet wounds if
that s what you think, I replied. Do you have a
pair of tweezers? I m going to need them.
Ah, yes. I knew I forgot something.
When he came back with them, I had him shine
a flashlight on the wound before I went to work. I
dipped the tweezers in alcohol and used the
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Recollection
lighter to sterilize them before scrutinizing the
gunshot for any debris that might ve entered the
wound. Sure enough, just below the surface I
found a chunk of her coat.
There were six pieces in all and when I finished
pulling them out, she was bleeding pretty bad
again. I cleaned it thoroughly before applying a
bandage. Alexei helped me secure it tightly, then
we picked up all the stuff in silence and moved
out of the room to let her rest.
Thank you, I said. I owe you one.
Nah, we re good. You show me the other
business now so I can make lots of money, yes?
I pulled out the zip disk. I need a device that
can read this. Do you have a drive?
Oh, old school, man, I like it. Yeah, my dad
kept tons of old shit. He loved it. I have a legacy
section over in the corner. Let s go look.
He showed me a veritable graveyard of
technology, devices so old I didn t even recognize
them from when I was a kid. Most of the stuff was
junk, but a few things were still in their boxes,
brand new and having never been opened. He
offered no guarantee that it would work, but they
were in better condition than some of the used
stuff.
We keep all this stuff so we can scavenge
together whatever we need. I can build drives if
necessary. I hope it won t be. We ll try this one.
He grabbed a zip drive and brought it back up to
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Caitlin West
the front, setting it down on a workbench. This
has a SCSI interface, very old and totally useless
now that Firewire and USB 3.0 are so prominent.
Anyway, we ll plug this into my old computer
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