Gunwitch: Rebirth

by Niall Teasdale

  Melch gave a grunt which almost sounded like he was accepting the comment. ‘Not on the street,’ he grumbled. ‘We’d be wondering where the bullet holes came from by now.’

  ~~~

  ‘How’s she been?’ Annette asked, closing her apartment door behind her.

  Sarah looked up from the magazine she was reading and smiled. ‘Good as gold.’ Her attention turned to Terri, sitting on the floor with a couple of toys and apparently perfectly happy. ‘We went to the shops and picked up a few groceries. I bought a magazine. And you’re really sure you can afford to have me babysitting while you’re out working?’

  ‘Mister Marlow provided quite enough cash to pay Jenny’s medical bills, provide some childcare, and take care of a few other bits and pieces. How’s your schedule?’

  Sarah giggled. ‘That sounds awfully efficient. I don’t think I’ve ever had a schedule before. The only date I don’t want to miss is Friday lunchtime.’

  ‘Oh, that blonde businesswoman who picks you up?’

  ‘Uh-huh. She always tips well and, well, I enjoy being with her. She gives a damn.’

  ‘I’ll make sure I’m back here for then. I checked with the hospital. Jenny’s still unconscious, but she’s improving.’

  Terri looked up from her toys at that. ‘Mommy’s going to be okay?’

  Sitting down on the bed to take off her boots, Annette nodded. ‘Looks like it, hun. We won’t know for sure until she wakes up. She’s still asleep for now.’ It had, in fact, been touch and go. While Annette had been out destroying the man who had infected Jenny in the first place, Doctor Mitre had been fighting to keep Jenny’s organs from failing. His battle had been significantly longer than Annette’s, but he had won it, maybe more decisively than she had.

  ‘Can I see her soon?’

  ‘I’m not sure. As soon as she wakes up, we’ll all go to see her, okay?’

  Terri returned her attention to her toys. ‘Yes.’

  Greenland District, 13/3/2117.

  Burial was reserved for state heroes in Utopia City. Annette suspected that the same was not quite true for the Long Island Enclave, but she felt it was appropriate that the Clement family had a plot reserved in a cemetery in Greenland and that Kerry was being buried there.

  He had died on duty, and the LIPD was making sure he was sent out with the full ritual. The coffin had an honour guard of uniformed LIPD officers, several of them Annette recognised from Queens. One she did not know, but from her looks, Annette guessed that this was Kerry’s niece, standing ramrod straight beside her mother and trying with all her strength to hold the tears back. Kerry’s sister was not bothering to try.

  Annette watched from the cover of a tree a dozen metres from the grave. The weather had decided to suit the sombre mood and a steady drizzle was soaking everything from a grey sky. The tree provided a little shelter, but mostly Annette suspected that a hooker at a cop’s funeral was not entirely proper. She waited for the coffin to be lowered and for the crowd to leave the scene before she walked over to look down at her friend’s final resting place.

  She had spotted a cart by the entrance to the cemetery selling flowers and on impulse she had bought something. Now, she tossed the single red rose down onto the coffin and whispered, ‘I got him for you, Kerry. Maybe you wouldn’t have approved of the way I did it, but I got him. He won’t be doing anything to anyone else.’

  She was not expecting a reply, standing there with the rain soaking into her hair, so the voice came as something of a surprise. ‘You must be Louise.’

  Looking around, Annette saw Kerry’s sister walking up to stand beside her. The resemblance was obvious: the Clement genes were apparently strong ones. ‘Yes, I’m Louise.’

  ‘Kerry mentioned you. I’m Gillian, his sister.’

  ‘He mentioned you, not by name, but… I’m sorry, I should go.’

  ‘No. Please stay. I came out to be alone with him for a minute, but now I’m here…’ Gillian managed a weak smile. ‘I don’t know whether you knew, but he had a bit of a crush on you. I know he was going to ask you out.’

  ‘I knew. We hadn’t quite got to the dating stage, but I knew.’

  ‘He was taking his time with you. It wasn’t like him so I could tell he wanted to do it right. He used to say “you have to take chances because you could be dead tomorrow.”’

  ‘Huh. I kind of wish he’d just gone for it.’

  ‘I’m sure he does too.’

  Silence fell as they ran out of things to say, but they kept on standing there, looking down at the coffin, saying goodbye to friend and brother until the chill from the rain drove them away.

  Queens District, 15/3/2117.

  Jenny was sitting up in bed. She looked weak and pale, but she was awake and really happy to see Terri. She was still wired into several monitors, but the tubes had been removed from her veins. She looked a slightly better colour just from having her daughter in her arms.

  One indication that things were not entirely right was the light level. The shades were drawn over the window and the room lights were set on low. Jenny’s eyes were oversensitive to bright lights and the weather had turned almost unseasonably warm and bright.

  ‘Doctor Mitre says that I’m probably stuck with the light sensitivity and the white-as-a-sheet look,’ Jenny said. ‘There’s no sign of it changing.’

  Annette nodded: she had got the full story from Mitre the previous day. ‘There may be some other complications from the illness, but you’re clear of the nanovirus. You’re not infectious.’

  ‘That’s something at least.’

  ‘Uh-huh, but I think it’s time to consider an alternative profession.’ Annette flicked a glance at the child nestled against Jenny. ‘Maybe something where you could spend more time with Terri.’

  Jenny frowned. ‘That would be great, but I don’t know how to do much else. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this’ – she indicated the room around her – ‘never mind anything–’

  ‘That’s taken care of,’ Annette interrupted. ‘Mister Marlow made a generous contribution to ensure your recovery before closing down his little cult for good.’

  ‘Oh. Well, I’ve relatives, an aunt and uncle, in Nova Scotia. Maybe we could–’

  Annette smiled. ‘That’s settled then. When you’re recovered, we’ll make arrangements for you to move up there. Now, I have some other arrangements to make. Mister Marlow’s goodwill payment is going to let me get my workshop going too.’

  ‘Mister Marlow was a generous man,’ Sarah said, smirking just a little.

  ‘Sure was. I’ll see you and Terri later. Right now, I have a contract to sign.’

  17/3/2117.

  Annette opened her eyes and there was the usual slight flicker as her optical processors engaged and began feeding signals to her brain. Other senses kicked in and she became aware that Terri was not in bed with her, but a quick check revealed the child sitting on the floor beside Mickey’s basket. Mickey, it turned out, was a pretty good babysitter, so long as it did not involve preparing food or other tasks involving opposable thumbs. Smiling, Annette moved to slip her legs out of the bed, and groaned.

  The previous night had been lucrative. A pair of fairly well-off students at the Long Island Education Centre in Sky City had decided to give a friend of theirs a really great birthday. They had been quite imaginative. Annette had been thankful for her gymnastics training, and they had paid really well, but now she was paying for it. A shower would probably help. That and a couple of months of physical therapy. Well, the latter was not happening, but she could at least take a break…

  ‘Hey, hun, how do you fancy a trip to the beach?’

  Terri took a break from tormenting the eternally tolerant Mickey and looked up. ‘Can I have ice cream?’

  ‘Sure. Why not?’ Annette started, slowly, for the shower.

  ‘Okay then,’ Terri said. Annette had the distinct impression that someone around here was being played and it might well be her.
<
br />   ~~~

  Sarah and Mickey met Annette and Terri outside the hospital after Jenny had been visited. She was doing well and Mitre expected her to be ready to leave on Saturday. In a way, that made the beach trip more important because Terri would be leaving them soon.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ Sarah asked. ‘I mean, are you sure we can both afford a day off? You could go and I’ll–’

  ‘Nope,’ Annette said. ‘We’re all going to the beach. It’s warm enough and I haven’t seen this Coney Island place yet, and between what I made last night and the money from Marlow, I’m quite sure we can take a day out of it. Besides, you have to grab these chances to have a life. You could be dead tomorrow.’

  ‘Okay… Nice reasoning, but okay.’

  ‘We’ll walk up to Queens South Station, but we need to do a little shopping first. I need a bikini or something. Terri will need a swimsuit.’

  ‘We’ll wait until we get to the beach. There are a couple of places there that do swimwear at a reasonable price.’

  ‘I bow before your superior knowledge,’ Annette said, grinning. ‘You did remember to bring your suit?’

  ‘I brought a bikini. It’s pink.’

  ‘Somehow I knew it would be.’

  Coney Island.

  Apparently, Coney Island had once been a sort of amusement park beside the beach. There was a metal plaque bolted to the side of the concrete bunker that housed the station. Everything intended to stick around for any length of time was housed in a concrete bunker. The amusement park, wherever it had been, had fallen to the storms which swept in from the Atlantic far too frequently. The beach had been reinforced with concrete piers, but they still had to restore it every year or two.

  ‘They keep it going so that the poor folks in Queens and Brooklyn stay away from the better beaches,’ Sarah opined as they waited for Terri to select an ice cream flavour.

  ‘That’s kind of cynical for you,’ Annette said.

  ‘I have my moments of clarity. I never knew ice cream was such a serious subject.’

  Sarah had immediately selected rum and raisin, though the probability of there being actual rum involved was low. Annette had gone for chocolate chip. Terri, however, had to consider every flavour before making her choice.

  ‘How about,’ Annette said, ‘I get you a selection tub of all the flavours?’

  Terri looked at her for a second, thinking. Then she said, ‘Okay.’

  ‘I think you just got played,’ Sarah said.

  Annette nodded. ‘I’ve been feeling like that all morning.’

  Ice cream purchased, and Terri already demonstrating considerable skill with a tiny plastic spoon, they set off to make camp. Mickey’s paws were barely on the sand before he determined that a gathering of gulls down the beach were an imminent threat and made it his mission to bring these criminal masterminds to justice. Terri took time out from eating ice cream to giggle at that.

  ‘Control your dog, Louise,’ Sarah said, grinning.

  ‘He’s never going to catch any of them,’ Annette replied. ‘If he wants to run around like a maniac while I relax in the sun, that’s his problem.’

  ‘It is kind of warm for this time of year. We’ll have a storm by the end of the week.’ Sarah rolled a blanket out onto the sand as she spoke. They were not too close to the water and not too close to the promenade at the top of the beach, and just close enough to one of the piers that the slight breeze was blocked. Perfect.

  Annette put Terri down on the blanket. The child was already dressed in her new swimsuit, a pink one with huge daisy flowers printed on it, which she seemed to like. ‘I always thought you were an optimist.’

  ‘Well… I suppose I am, but I’ve lived here long enough to know that this kind of weather at this time of year is leading up to a storm.’

  Annette gave a shrug. ‘Meteorology isn’t one of my subjects.’

  Sarah giggled. ‘And here I thought you knew everything.’

  ‘You’re not too old to spank, young lady.’

  Wriggling out of her skirt, Sarah looked over her shoulder, grinning like someone who was enjoying herself for the first time in months. ‘I thought you’d had enough kinky last night.’ To emphasise the point, she waggled her butt at Annette.

  ‘Where on Earth did you get that bikini? What’s it made of, dental floss?’

  ‘A client bought it for me. He’s got this big penthouse apartment in Sky City, with a pool, and he liked me to wander around in this and go swimming. Which is something I won’t be doing today because you can see everything when it gets wet, but it’s the only bikini I’ve got.’ Sarah’s top went next, revealing a bra which was actually more substantial than Annette had expected. ‘Anyway, quit talking like you’re ancient. You’re not that much older than me.’

  ‘No…’ Annette considered the comment. ‘A couple of years. Sometimes I feel older.’ She began to remove her own clothes, having kept the bikini she had bought on under them.

  ‘Not today though, right?’

  ‘Well…’ Annette looked around at their growing encampment. They had invested in a little plastic bucket and spade for Terri. Sandcastles were a likely feature of the future. There was nothing to do but lie in the sun and play, maybe swim – though Annette was not too sure of her own suit’s integrity upon exposure to water – and generally act like there was nothing to worry about. ‘No. Not today.’

  ~~~

  It was midweek and the beach’s population was not huge. There was enough shift work in the enclave, especially among the residents of Queens District, that several families had decided to get out of the house. Annette suspected that they were expecting the same storm as Sarah, and maybe a bad April to go with it.

  It was, primarily, families. Annette could not see a mother alone with her children anywhere in their section of the beach. There always seemed to be a man on hand. One of them had a weapon, a shotgun no less, on hand and it seemed fairly likely that the same was true of everyone. Annette had one of her pistols and a couple of spare magazines hidden away in her sports bag.

  However, there seemed to be no immediate reason for the vigilance. Annette had brought her pistol out of habit more than anything. The sun was warm, Terri was doing her best to make a sandcastle out of dry sand, Mickey was still chasing gulls, and Annette felt she could relax. The midday sun was warm on her skin with the breeze kept off her. The Sea Wall held the noise of the city back well and there was not much sound from around her. A few childish giggles, the odd adult laugh, the distant sound of the waves on the sand. Warm and comfortable, Annette closed her eyes and let the world slip away around her…

  Until a combination of sounds dragged her back to reality. There was a harsh, male laugh and there was the odd compression sound of a boot on a pile of sand. And there were a pair of Cyber-Kings standing over Terri and grinning. One of them, the one who had trodden on Terri’s sandcastle, was a moderately big guy with a face which had been hit one too many times but was holding onto attractive by its fingernails. He was the senior member of the gang: his left arm was of the grabber hand and exposed wires variety and he had managed to lay claim to leather jeans. His companion was younger, taller, slimmer, and better-looking, but he had yet to be fitted with any cybernetics and appeared to have decided to make up for it with dyed blue hair and a long fringe which could only have maintained its swept-up-and-back look through judicious use of glue. They both had the arrogance of gang members, however.

  Annette looked at them through her sunglasses for a second and checked on Terri. The copper-haired girl was, characteristically, neither crying nor making a fuss. If anything, she looked bemused that anyone would have destroyed her architectural masterpiece. The girl was an absolute gem. However, she was too close to the men and Annette was going to have to try alternative approaches before resorting to violence.

  ‘Are you two seriously trying to make me believe that you get your jollies kicking over kids’ sandcastles?’ Annette asked, propping herself
up on her elbows.

  The man with the metal arm raised it. ‘We’re Cyber-Kings. This is our turf and we do what we want here.’

  Annette stretched her back, slowly, and then got to her feet, smoothly, and stepped closer. ‘Yeah, but you’re Cyber-Kings. You’re cybernetic warriors, rulers of the street. Shouldn’t you be in Brooklyn somewhere, fighting for the right to party?’

  ‘Blow me.’

  ‘I doubt you can afford me.’ Annette slipped her shades off and looked the man in the eyes. ‘Being serious, you guys are letting the side down. Cyborgs shouldn’t be picking on kids. It’s demeaning. You guys are giving us a bad name.’

  Both men stared at her for a second or two. Metal Arm finally managed, ‘Did you do that t’ yourself?’

  Annette grinned. ‘It’s hard to do surgery on your own eyes. I designed and built them. I had a surgeon put them in, along with a few other parts.’

  ‘That’s so hot,’ Blue Hair drawled.

  ‘It’s good work,’ Metal Arm agreed. He stepped out of Terri’s sand pile as he did so, and Annette knew she had them. ‘We have t’ make do with what we can scrounge.’ He sounded rather defensive about it now that he had seen Annette’s eyes.

  ‘It’s not the parts,’ Annette said, ‘it’s how you wear them, which should be with pride and style. I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of your choice in fashion. Bit more of a classic casual girl myself, though I do wear leather for work. But the point is that you make your choices and you own them. Can’t fault that. So what’s with the bullying four-year-olds thing?’

  ‘Well…’

  Blue Hair managed to come up with, ‘We, um…’

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ Annette said. Turning, she walked back to her bag and bent at the hips to retrieve her wallet. Extracting two ten-dollar bills, she turned to find the two Cyber-Kings looking slightly flushed and wide-eyed. She held out the money to Blue Hair. ‘Okay, you go up the beach to the ice cream place. Terri will have a selection tub, Sarah and I will have rum and raisin. Get whatever you want for you and your friend.’

  ‘We get some too?’