“No matter what happens, don’t look down.”
Siri stood on the sharp edge of a platform overlooking most of the city. The building towered high above the streets; it actually was one of the tallest in the city itself, surpassed only by the Tower of Eyes. The Tower of Eyes was not actually a tower made up of eyeballs, but it saw everything as though it were made up of eyeballs. She was not sure what this particular building was called, or what its purpose was. All she knew was that it had a lovely marble interior and a very long elevator ride up to the place upon which she stood. She wished she could have entered the building under better circumstances, but the man had pressed the barrel of the gun to her side ever since she had gotten off the monorail train in Theremin Station. Now, she was trapped.
“What do you want from me?” she asked him. She did not look at him; that would require turning around, and she did not want to remind herself of the weapon he gripped in his hand.
“Everything,” the man replied. “I want to know everything about Rennan Praecjer. He is the man that will kill me one day. I want to prevent that from happening.”
The words made her spine stiffen. “Rennan would never kill anybody,” she said in as calm a voice as she could muster. “He’s a good person. He won’t kill you.”
“This is where you are wrong, Siri. Yes, of course I know your name,” he added in response to her second stiffening.”I’ve seen the future. And I know that Rennan will kill me unless we stop him. He will go away, far away, for a very long time afterward. And then he will look for you, because you will be next.”
Siri flattened her mouth into a straight line. This was getting a little ridiculous. The only feasible way out of this particular situation was to comply with the demands for information that the stranger had. Maybe she would give him good information, maybe it would be false. She had not decided upon that quite yet. His claims seemed a little far-fetched for her taste. How could anybody see the future with enough certainty to drive a woman to the edge of a tall tower in the middle of a city with a gun to her back? She simply did not understand the situation fully enough for her own comfort, and needed to know more. “What is your name, sir?” she asked in a very polite tone.
The man smiled. “My name is Daniel Finn.”
“What is your occupation, Mr. Finn?”
“I’m an intel man. The best around, as far as I can tell.”
“Can you explain to me how an intel man has enough time to do this variety of interrogation, sir?”
“No, I cannot. Sorry.” He shrugged. The stiff fabric of his shirt rustled crisply in the strong wind at the top of the tower. Siri’s hair had escaped from beneath the heavy white scarf and danced uncontrollably about her face.
“I will cooperate with you,” she said, still not sure if she actually would or not. “But can we please find a more agreeable setting to do this in? My face is becoming blistered by the wind, and I’m not very comfortable up here. I’d be a better help for you if I was comfortable, Mr. Finn.”
Finn chuckled. “That’s fine,” he said. “I’ve lowered my gun, you can turn around now.”
Siri turned and looked at the man. He was bald, but bald by choice and not by affliction. She could see tiny stumps of hair all across his scalp. He was neatly dressed in a pea coat, with a tie visible underneath the collar of his white shirt. The gun he carried was small, easily concealed, but still as deadly as any other, she knew. Rennan carried one very similar to it when he was working. The man stood a good foot or so taller than she, but had a generally warm face. It was as though his face was simply made for smiling. She was not sure if that was supposed to comfort her, or make her feel more uneasy than she already did.
Finn held out a hand, gloved in black leather, and she took it. She stepped away from the precipice and together they walked back toward the elevator. They stepped into the finely crafted box and the doors closed behind them silently. Finn pressed a button and the elevator began to descend back to the ground floor.
“First things first,” she said. “How is it that you are so sure that Rennan Praecjer is the man who will kill you?”
“I’m afraid that’s another trade secret, Siri. You understand.” Finn smiled.
“I would feel a lot better about giving you information if I knew I could trust the source of your confidence, Mr. Finn.”
“This is not about your clear conscience, my dear. This is about my life, and your life too, at this point.”
“This is also about the life of a man who I love,” she argued. “This is not about my clear conscience, this is about my willingness to give you good information. Who says I will give you anything worth your while if you don’t meet my demands in the same fashion that I am meeting yours?”
“This is not a negotiation, Siri.”
“Oh, but it is, Mr. Finn. Everything in life is a negotiation. Life is nothing more than a finely balanced game of catch. I will throw something your way if you throw something mine. So long as we both have something to hold, the world will remain balanced like the scales of justice. If not, then the world will tumble down into a maelstrom of chaos and where will we be left but to swim through that veritable shithole to try and find dry, stable land again?”
“You have an interesting view of the world, dear. I unfortunately disagree. I believe the world is in the hands of those who hold your precious little scales. Whoever it is that holds the scales also holds life in the balance. Right now, I hold the scales. I know what happens next. You do not.”
“But I would like to. Just tell me your goddamn source.”
“Maybe after some more time, I will,” Finn grinned.
The elevator stopped. The doors slid open once more.
Finn nudged Siri in the side with the barrel of the small gun, urging her forward. She shuffled out of the capsule and back into the grand marble foyer. The receptionists’ table indicated that the location was a hotel of some sort. Two girls stood behind it, pretty girls, with tight blouses and short skirts. She did not like how all of the people in any sort of hospitality industry on this planet wore tight clothing to show off their “assets.” It made it hard for just anybody to take up a receptionist’s job anymore—you not only had to be of the proper mindset but you needed a good body as well—which seemed counterintuitive to how she was told things used to be. Maybe her conservative mindset showed that she was raised on Earth, where things tended to be a little bit more up-tight. The skin-tight fashion has stemmed from the tightness of the space travel suits that the first pilgrims had worn out of this planet. They had not known that the planet had already been settled as a hub of all civilizations with the capability of interstellar travel, but other species welcomed them with open arms. Rennan was born of this planet. He knew it inside and out. Siri was born on Earth and migrated here only a few years ago. She still did not understand this culture. Soemtimes she regretted coming out here. Other times she regretted not coming out sooner. Today she was of the former state of mind.
Finn escorted her over to a private sitting room against the wall. The foor of this room slid upward to cordon them off from the rest of the lobby. The door blocked out all of the chatter from the conversations of the patrons outside the room.
“Now,” Siri said, folding her hands on the table. “I believe you owe me an explanation, Mr. Finn.”
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