She slowed as she got closer to the doorway. Creeping down the hall, she stopped about ten feet away and slammed the beer bottle against the wall, to turn it into a jagged weapon.
It didn’t break.
She tried it again. It just bounced.
What the—?
She smacked the bottle against the wall again, and again. It just kind of made a hollow bonking sound. What the hell do they make these bottles out of?
“What are you doing?”
A confused Wu was standing outside the door to the humidor, clutching his left arm, the hand dangling at a gut-churning angle. Carlton stepped out of the room behind him, holding Zoey’s necklace. She stopped bonking the beer bottle.
“I was looking for that!”
Wu silenced her with a head shake, then nodded toward the room behind him. She moved to where she could see inside, noting on the way that Wu now had a reddish-brown stain of corpse ooze on his shirt and neck, and a few wriggling maggots strewn across his chest. The corpse was flat on its back, the holographic face showing some confusion as it found the mechanism suddenly unresponsive. Stench Machine was sniffing the corpse and Zoey leaned in and picked him up before he could start eating it.
Zoey knew why Wu had silenced her. Whoever was operating Tilley was about to figure out that the implants had been remotely disabled—the big tactical secret Will had continually lectured them about keeping.
Zoey looked around and quickly said, “He, uh, stopped moving. I think it’s … cats. The technology doesn’t work near cats.”
Wu said, “I managed to dislodge the Raiden capacitor with my blade, before we went down. We were fortunate.”
“Right, right,” she murmured, going along with this much better lie. “The power source is usually located in the, uh … butt … area.”
The holographic face said, “There you are, cow.”
“I have to admit,” replied Zoey, “if this was all a prank, you absolutely win Halloween.”
Will Blackwater walked up behind them, looking extremely confused. Zoey watched him scan the room and it was kind of alarming how quickly the confusion dissipated.
“Someone operated the corpse remotely,” he said. He looked the holographic face in the eye. “Who are you?”
“I am The Blowback.”
Zoey said, “Great, do you have a name?”
“First name ‘The,’ last name ‘Blowback.’”
“Oh. Of course. And your gimmick is you murder people and turn them into puppets? Is that just for your own amusement or do you have some other goal in mind?”
“Your feigned ignorance does not impress me.”
“We know this is that Tilley kid. Did you kill him?”
“Dexter Tilley’s murdered corpse was found Tuesday morning missing its eyes, stomach, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and testicles. Among other parts. He was found in the parking garage of Fort Fortuna.”
That was a hotel and casino Zoey owned. The largest one, in fact. It was shaped like a sprawling medieval castle and its dining area featured entire animals being roasted over open flame, served by scantily clad wenches. Otherwise the only way it was period-accurate was that a lot of men probably contracted flesh-rotting diseases there.
Zoey said, “So you killed him to, what, send a message to me?”
The holographic face said, “Spare me. We know who you are. All of you.”
“Wait, are you saying we killed him? Did you not watch us go out of our way to not do that like a month ago? Even though he totally deserved it? You, meanwhile, have just shown yourself to at the very least be capable of nonconsensual corpse puppetry.”
“The very next night after Dexter Tilley was found missing his organs, your estate hosted a dinner party.”
“Uh … probably? My life is a never-ending stream of banquets and functions with people I’m told are important. It’s the main reason I secretly suspect that I died a year ago and am actually in Hell.”
“I am sure you ate well that night.”
“Is that a fat joke? You’re losing me.”
“It is very interesting,” said the holographic face, “how every time you and your people plan a feast, another corpse is discovered missing key pieces. Which of you ate his liver? Or do you share it? I hear it’s the best part.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re crazy.”
Will said, “Just turn it off.”
To the corpse, Zoey said, “Not that you’re going to listen to anything I say, but while my deceased father was undoubtedly a pile of hot garbage shaped like a person, he wasn’t that kind of garbage, and neither are we. Nobody is eating people over here. Especially not this kid. You think we gave him a good construction job just to make him taste better? The added muscle would just make him stringy.”
“Like the rest of your team, you are a skilled liar.”
“I’m really not.”
“Tilley was one of us.”
Will said, “One of what?”
“The Blowback. We know you killed this man and partook of his flesh in order to send a message, to try to quell the uprising. It has only birthed in us a new resolve.”
Zoey said, “Wait, is your ‘uprising’ just all of those twenty-year-old dudes who keep mooing at me at public appearances? You think we cannibalized somebody in response to that? To the mooing?”
“You deny now, because you are afraid. You will soon have greater reason to be. The bounty went up on the Skin Wall one minute ago. One million dollars for evidence of your complicity in Tilley’s murder. Sleep well.”
The hologram disappeared, leaving only the slack, gray face behind. Even now, Zoey barely recognized the man.
Wu went to Zoey. “Are you all right?”
“Your hand is barely attached. Go tell the sedan to drive you to the hospital.” To Will, she said, “We need to do something with that body. Does the city still do that?”
The machinery of justice existed in Tabula Ra$a, but was about 10 percent of what was needed. There was a coroner’s office that tried to process the obvious murders but it usually took a bribe to get your case to the front of the line.
Wu, who had made no move to leave for the hospital, said, “They claimed he was their friend, but were willing to defile his body like this? I don’t understand these people.”
Zoey said, “Actually, if I get taken out one of these days, I want you to do exactly this with my body. Rig me up and unleash me on my enemies. Stick a flamethrower inside so I breathe fire. We need to notify his family, so they can arrange a funeral. And to let them know that we’re going to find who killed him.”
Will said, “We are?”
Zoey said, “It’s the right thing to do. Also, it kind of sounds like we have to. Wu, if you don’t go to the hospital right now, I’m breaking your other arm.”
Wu reluctantly left and Carlton went to go get a mop. Will made like he was going to call someone about the body, but Zoey put her hand over his phone.
He met her eyes. “What?”
“Did you do this?”
“Did I do what?”
“Did you decide to finish the job on Tilley? Like you said you wanted?”
“And steal his organs? No.”
She studied his face. “If you did it, because you thought it was safer, or whatever, just tell me. I won’t be happy, but it’s better than us running around in circles trying to answer a question you already know the answer to.”