Selected Short Stories Featuring Ghost Dust

by Nicolas Wilson

candidate for NuMan. If you got yourself killed, it would cost that much, mostly gene sequencing, really, to find a replacement. At that price I’d be tempted to take a bullet for you.”

  “You mean you wouldn’t?” I asked, unnerved by the entire line of thought.

  “Not consciously. I mean, I’m security, so there’s a chance I would, just on instinct, but if I had the time to think about it, about the lousy pension and almost insignificant life insurance my wife would get out of the deal, I’m not sure I’d step between you and a gun. Especially anything with a big bore.”

  “Isn’t part of being security making me feel secure?”

  “Nope. We got head-shrinkers for that.” He opened a metal-barred door with his badge. “And this will be your temporary home, where- shit.” The room, full of monitors and sensors and desk-space for five was empty, and from the papers and spilled coffee had been emptied in a hurry. Zoomed in on the big monitor in the center of the room was a pile of security staff on top of a man, before they were abruptly thrown off. The man had scaly green skin, and a too-wide mouth. In the corner of the monitor was the name “REX” in big white block letters. Cross turned to me. “You stay here.”

  He started for the door, but I interrupted him. “Am I safer at the deserted security station, or with you?”

  “Point taken,” he said. “Just hold back, all right. Rex is a pussy cat, for the most part, but sometimes his instincts can get the better of him. He knows not to chew on me- but instinctually he might see you as fresh meat.”

  We crossed through the checkpoint into another hall, and Cross ran to where the hall bent like an L and told me “Hug this wall.” He ran around the corner, and I peeked to see. The other security were lying on the ground, mostly mumbling and grumbling, communicating in sharp whispers, probably about making another run at Rex, who was standing at the end of the hall, swishing his big reptile tail. “Stand down, idiots,” Cross said. “Rex, you need to sit down, Indian style. I’m making the request exactly once.”

  A moment passed, and Cross retrieved a taser from his belt, and fired the prongs into Rex’s crotch. “I will tase your testicles, Rex. We’ve had this stand-off before, remember? And you remember how that ended, right?” Rex let out a roar- louder than should have come out of a man (though I guess my gram’s dog barks louder than should come out of an animal I could punt thirty yards). “Can’t say I didn’t try to be reasonable.” Rex reared back, like he was about to make a dash for Cross, then the electricity kicked him off his feet, and he clattered onto the floor.

  “Help me,” said Cross. I looked around, and none of the other security staff were to their feet yet, so I ran towards him. “He’ll only stay out a few minutes. By then he’ll probably be back to his old self, but still, I’d like to get him into one of the holding cells just to be sure.” We each took an arm over our shoulders. He was heavier than a normal man, but not by much, though he was slick, and smelled, and I must have wrinkled my nose. “Like a Gardner snake, right? Anyway, it’s just down this hall. Rex knows he has these rages, so he tries to keep himself in proximity to the cells, just in case.”

  “So he isn’t usually a terrible lizard?” Cross didn’t dignify that with a response, and I guess he didn’t need to, since we were at the cell. We lowered Rex onto the bed, and Padden came in over the intercom.

  “One of our visitors has been attacked. I need ambulatory response at my location, and a security detail as well. The building will be locked down. Please evacuate your work stations as a group to the nearest checkpoint and wait for lockdown to be over.”

  Rex stirred, and Cross stepped back quick, reaching for his baton. “Cross? Damnit, my balls hurt.” He seemed to know what that meant. “I hurt anybody this time?”

  Cross hustled me out of the cage and locked it. “Far as I saw all you bruised was egos. Any idea what’s up with the alarm?” I looked at Rex, whom I’d assumed had caused it until Padden’s announcement.

  “Huh-uh, though that might explain why I hulked out on your guys.”

  “I keep telling tech they need to silence horns and strobes at your location, but the tracker seems to want to keep you in several rooms at once. I think we have the creative minds to launch a burrito into space, but not the technical wherewithal to microwave one.”

  “One small step for burrito, one giant leap for burritokind,” Rex said, and for the first time seemed to notice me. “So this is the new guy? Mind if I talk with him a sec. I know I’ve already made an ass of myself for a first impression, but-” Cross raised his hands and backed around the corner.

  “I’ll be kicking my guys’ asses for forgetting their tasers if either of you needs me.”

  “Can’t believe he asked me about the alarm. That’s completely racist, or at least speciest. They always suspect the lizard.”

  I smiled; “You do piss in the coffee.”

  “Dale has a big mouth, though nobody ever suspects me of that.”

  “But you were taking on all comers when I got here.”

  “Yeah, sometimes when I get excited, and the lizard brain takes over. Leopard lizards are cannibals, too, so that probably doesn’t help.” He leaned in closer. “And also- can I tell you something? I have a clutch of eggs hidden in the building.”

  “But-”

  “I’m a guy? Yep. Apparently something went screwy with the mutation process, and I ended up chimeric- part female leopard lizard and part human male. I’m kind of wigged about telling Dr. Padden, plus, I don’t think they’d let me keep my eggs. How fucked up is that, that I’m worried about my freak eggs? I know logically I shouldn’t care, but they’re my eggs, you know?” I squinted at him.

  “Don’t take that the wrong way: I’m not saying I regret being a part of the project, there are just sacrifices and occasional turmoil. And sometimes weirdness. Like Amy- Amanda Panda, she’s my opposite number, arctic deserts rather than hot ones- basically lives in a big freezer all the time. At least I can walk around, you know, so long as I bundle up.”

  “Ame’s actually pretty cute for a big girl. She really has polar bear genetics, but I guess out in the world she was into the goth scene, so she dyes her fur black, but rather than just be a big black polar bear she dyes it in varying panda patterns. But you probably won’t meet her today, because there’s a lot of work that goes into entering her pen, since it has to be kept real cold- well, you know, that and the alarm thing.”

  My eyes narrowed. “You don’t know the way out of here, do you?”

  Rex began to panic. “I didn’t mean it. It’s actually pretty great here. All the food you can eat, porn and video games you could want. Plus it’s really fucking cool. I look like a tiny dinosaur, man. I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone’s- okay, maybe Brad Pitt’s, I mean Angelina and Jennifer Anniston, plus all that money, but I’m only human, you know?” He swallowed, and his eyes darted from side to side. “Please don’t freak just because I'm a big neurotic lizard, man.”

  “I’m not leaving,” I tried to reassure him. “But I think someone else is- and I think that someone is the reason Amber's dead.”

  “Oh.” Rex didn’t get it; he was still convinced he’d talked me out of sticking around, and that he was going to be a pariah because of it. He pointed half-heartedly down the hall and said, “left at the end, through the double doors and you’re there.”

  “Rex,” I said, “I’m not leaving. I’ll be back.” I put my hand through the bars, and he shook it. “I’ll see you around.” He smiled like he wasn’t sure he could trust me, but really wanted to.

  I ran down the hall. Cross and his men must have gone back to the checkpoint, because they weren't there.

  I played a hunch, and ran in what I thought was the direction of the front doors. So much time had passed, I was sure I would be too late, or that I was just paranoid and there wouldn't be anbody there. I burst through the double doors, then I stopped where I was. I couldn't breathe. I wasn't alone, and I wasn't prepared for t
he person who was there with me.

  Colonel Sherman was a few feet from the main entrance, holding a briefcase. I wanted to do something cool or intimidating, like chamber a round in the pistol so he knew I was there and wouldn’t let him leave, but before I could even touch the slide (or safety) he turned to face me.

  “Newman,” he said, and there was almost a smile on his face. “I’m glad it’s you. Most everyone else would have shot me already, but you, you’ll at least listen.” He took several steps towards me. “I didn’t want Ms. Prentice to die,” he said. I pointed the gun up enough that he knew to stop walking towards me.

  He raised his hands up, not enough that he was surrendering, but enough to show me he wasn't aggressive. “Her telomeres gave her 88 years,” he said grimly, “but she was dying- Huntington’s. She had an ax to grind- believed this project was a waste of money and genius, and that we should have been spending that money on fighting diseases like hers. I don’t know as I disagree with that, being frank, but I tried to tell her it weren’t the government that would suffer, hell, probably not even the research. But the subjects, yourself and the others. How do you think society at large would react to someone like Rex? Persecution ain’t even the half of it. I tried to bribe her. I tried to threaten her. Til it came out that the only thing to