I halted, fighting the urge to rip his face off. “What have you done?”
“My associate, Dr. Coursey, has implanted a small bomb in Vicki’s molar. I press this button, it blows her head off.”
“You’re bluffing.” I turned to my wife. “Vicki?”
She nodded slowly. “He attached something to my tooth.”
“It won’t actually blow her head off,” Dr. Coursey said. He had a German accent. “Just blow a big hole in her neck, tearing through the carotid artery. I’ve done trial runs on several dissys. Death occurs within twenty seconds.”
My desire to tear both of them limb from limb wrestled with the need to control my rage. Through clenched teeth I managed to say, “What do you want?”
Alter-Talon smiled, and it was an ugly thing to behold. He tossed the black detonator to Dr. Coursey, then raised one of his gloved hands. Using the other, he peeled the glove off.
The odor hit me before he even finished. Rotting meat, even worse than I’d smelled in the biorecycle chute. When he tossed the glove away, I saw his fingers and couldn’t help but flinch at the sight. The flesh was infected, sloughing off in strips. In the case of his thumb, the bone protruded from his skin.
“To start with,” Alter-Talon said, “I want your hands.”
FIFTY-FOUR
I stared, trying to make sense of what he’d just said.
“My hands?”
Talon wiggled his ruined fingers, one of the nails falling off. “My other hand is even worse. This is my sixth set of transplants. It always ends in the same way. My body rejects the cadaver donors, and they begin to rot while still attached. Can you guess where I lost them?”
I thought back, years ago, to the bomb I defused under the snack table at the retirement home. I nodded.
“You pulled the red wire,” Alter-Talon said. “I pulled the blue. Shredded my hands all the way up to my elbows.”
I followed his line of thinking. “And the donors don’t work, so you looked for a perfect genetic match.”
“I searched the multiverse for one, and found you.”
This went beyond my mentor just being crazy from steroid abuse. “Sata didn’t find you randomly,” I stated.
“No. I found him. I killed Aunt Zelda for him, and destroyed Boise because he asked me to.”
“Boise wasn’t destroyed. It was sucked into a wormhole and sent to a planet filled with dinosaurs.”
“On your earth, it was. In my parallel universe, I sent it to an earth without any atmosphere. They’re all dead.”
“You lousy SMF,” I said, clenching my fists.
“So the people of our Boise are still alive?” Vicki asked. Alter-Talon shrugged. “I guess. Those who haven’t been eaten yet.”
I shook my head, amazed. “And you did all of this, just for my hands?”
“It’s actually more than that. After all these years of taking higher and higher doses of experimental immunosuppressant drugs, my body has begun to reject more than just the transplants. Both of my feet are now rotting. And so is a part very near and dear to me.”
He patted his groin.
“So you want my hands, my feet… and my junk?” Dr. Coursey patted the metal table. “We’ll make you as comfortable as possible during the procedure. If you cooperate, we’re even willing to let you live. Both you, and your wife.”
“Maybe you’ll have better luck with cadaver parts than I’ve had,” Alter-Talon said.
I stared at Vicki. She seemed scared, and sad, but also determined.
“Don’t do it,” she said. “He’s a lunatic who killed half a million people.”
“I can’t let you die, Vicki.”
“A half million, Talon. I’m not worth it. Neither of us are.”
“You’re worth more to me than everyone else on the planet put together, Vicki.”
“We’re both going to die anyway, Talon. I couldn’t bear knowing this psycho was running around free, committing genocide.”
“I promise, no more genocide,” Alter-Talon said. “Cross my heart.” He dragged a bloody fingertip over his chest. “Besides, you really don’t have a choice. The nanopoison in your system will kill you unless I give you the antidote. I’m going to get your parts, alive or dead. I hold all the cards here.”
This was going to end badly, no matter how it ended. But if there was even the slightest chance I could save Vicki’s life, I’d do it. Even if it meant living without hands, feet, and Talon Jr.
“I love you,” I said to her.
“How much?”
“More than anything else.”
“Promise me something, then,” she implored.
“Anything.”
“Promise me if, given the choice, you’d save Boise over me.”
“Vicki…”
“Half a million are already dead. Don’t let it be a million. Please. Not because of me.”
Her eyes got teary. Mine probably did, too.
“I promise,” I said.
Vicki lifted up her chin, tilting her head to the right. Her gaze was rock-steady. I understood what she wanted. Though it made me sick, I gave her a nod.
“You know what you have to do,” my wife said. “Make it count.”
Without dwelling on it, I threw a haymaker, cracking her in the jaw with everything I had. Then I spun around and kicked Alter-Talon in the face, knocking him backward.
He staggered, then caught his footing.
“Kill the bitch!” he screamed.
I turned. Dr. Coursey lifted up the detonator, his thumb pressing the button just as a small white projectile- trailing a thin line of blood-hit him in the face.
The bomb Vicki spit at him exploded with the sound of a firecracker, but packed considerably more power. Dr. Coursey fell, but both hands weren’t enough to stop the geyser erupting from the hole in his neck.
I faced Alter-Talon again, but he was already running toward Vicki, the TEV off his chest and clenched in his hand.
“This isn’t over,” he said. He held the device at arm’s length, pointing it toward himself and my wife.
Vicki and I locked eyes.
Just as I cried out, “No!” he and Vicki imploded, vanishing into a wormhole.
Alter-Talon’s TEV dropped to the floor.
I stared at the space where they’d disappeared, wondering what to do next. My knuckles still hurt from punching the woman I loved. Dr. Coursey coughed, gagged, and bled out on the floor of the brewery.
I picked up Alter-Talon’s TEV. Like Sata’s, it reflected light in a prism, and lacked dials and controls. But I’d learned how to use it while free-falling. I could follow Vicki and Alter-Talon into his world, and get her back.
Just as I was getting ready to mentally tune in to the octeract point, I caught myself and touched the TEV on my chest. This one was programmed to transport matter to the dinosaur planet. I’d promised Vicki, only a few seconds ago, that, if given the chance, I’d save Boise over her.
I wasn’t one to break my promises. And if I went after her, without trying to return Boise to this universe, she’d never forgive me.
WTF was I supposed to do? Save the woman I loved, or sacrifice her life, and mine (since the poison was
