aim.
'There is one other thing that might help placate the prefect s daughter when we get her away from here.'
'What's that?'
'Those two little butterfly women. They might help take her mind off her injuries.'
Billy looked at Reave as though he had gone crazy. What the hell was he up to now?
Buzznoose, however, was at the stage where he would agree to anything. 'Sure, sure, whatever you say.'
While the slaver was away making the arrangements, one of his minders moved to get Renatta from the cage. Billy waved him away. 'I'll get her.'
He let himself into the cube. When he reached up and loosened Renatta's manacles, she sagged against him.
'I thought you were never going to get here.'
Billy spoke to her in a voice that was too low for the minders to hear. 'Can you walk?'
'Sure, if you just give me a minute,'
'Did they hurt you badly?'
'I've been through worse in the Caverns, and that was supposed to be fun.'
The duplicates were solemnly watching through two thicknesses of plexiglass.
'Can you keep your mouth shut and make like a princess?' Billy asked.
'If that's what you want. I heard the conversation. These cubes aren't soundproof. You've got a lot of nerve for a damage case, Billy Oblivion.'
Billy looked smugly modest. 'I was just on a roll.'
He helped her down from the cube and waved to the minders. 'Get her some clothes. Quickly, now.'
As Renatta dressed, Buzznoose returned with the cash and the two butterfly girls, who looked extremely apprehensive as they were handed over to Reave.
'I'll see you out,' the slaver offered.
Billy stopped him. 'Don't bother. We'll find our own way. You start to arrange the dispersal of those duplicates.'
As they walked away, the duplicates, despite the drugs they had been given, set up a desperate clamor. On the stairs leading up from the basement Renatta whispered to Billy.
'We've got to get out of here real fast. It won't be too long before those duplicates decide to tell the slaver who we all really are.'
'Why should they do that?'
'Pure spite at being left behind.'
'How do you know that?'
'It's what I'd do, and they're exact copies of me.'
They filed past a very surprised looking door minder. Reave was carrying the two butterfly girls. Once they were out of the door and around the first corner, he set them down.
'Okay, beat it.'
The two butterfly girls looked at him in blank amazement. They spoke in unison in high melodic voices.
'What are you talking about?'
It was Reave's turn to be surprised. 'I'm setting you free. You can go. I've rescued you. Get out of here before Buzz-noose's goons come after us trying to make trouble.'
'Are you crazy? We can't survive out here around normals. We're tailored pets. Someone has to look after us. If you put us down here, we could be eaten by a cat, or worse. Life's tough when you're only eighteen inches tall. You ought to try it sometime. It ain't just singing Mothra.'
'I can't look after you.'
'Then you're an asshole. You know what we're going to have to do?'
Reave shook his head. The butterfly girls looked at him with expressions of complete contempt.
'We're going to have to hide out in a drain or somewhere until things have cooled down, and then we'll have to go back to Buzznoose, and he'll punish us. We need an owner, goddamn it, not a fucking white knight.'
Before Reave could say anything, Renatta raised the alarm.
'Here's trouble right now.'
A knot of what could only be Buzznoose's goons, reinforced by some of the neighborhood lowlife, came running around the corner. There were maybe a dozen of them, all carrying powerclubs or shockbillies. Only a few were armed with projectile weapons, but those few were more than enough to start a spattering of particle beams and bullets hissing and whining around Renatta and the DNA Cowboys.
The quarry scattered in different directions. Billy crouched, preparing to take off running; Renatta dived into a doorway; the Minstrel Boy whipped out his Colt, returned fire, and dived for cover. The butterfly girls disappeared into a culvert. Only Reave stood his ground.
'I'm tired of taking shit from everyone who wants to hand it out!' he roared. 'Come on! Let's fuck them up!'
Both his pistols were out, and he had laid down a one-man fusillade. The Minstrel Boy lay flat, shooting with care. Reave was still roaring defiance.
'Firepower, boyos! Nothing beats firepower!'
He kept on firing, flamboyantly spinning his pistols. Three of Buzznoose's men went down in the first burst. The others slowed up considerably. It was one thing to beat up a trio of con men, totally another to face down a seemingly crazy, heavily armed gunman. The Minstrel Boy was getting to his feet. Firing as they went, he and Reave slowly advanced on their pursuers. Billy brought up the rear, the goon squad was still out of range of his little needler.
The Minstrel Boy squared his shoulders as the Colt bucked in his hand. The old feeling was back. They were standing tall again, reckless and dangerous gods. They did not give a damn. Bullets hummed past them and beams flashed, but the bad guys could not touch them. They had the aura, the big, old three-way aura that would not let them be touched, just like in the old days. Two more of Buzznoose's men went down, and the others took to their heels. Reave kept walking and firing. He picked off one more before he and the Minstrel Boy lowered their weapons.
Reave pushed back his plumed hat and cracked a broad grin. 'Damn me, but that feels a whole lot better.'
The Minstrel Boy spun his pistol and dropped it into its holster. 'Damn me, but it does.'
Reave glanced wolfishly at Billy. 'That was some con you ran back there, Billy boy. You had him going with that prefect of Garth shit. I didn't know you had it in you anymore.'
Billy shrugged. In fact, he was desperately tired, but he refused to let anyone know that. 'Hell, it's easy running a con. You don't have to be yourself. You're anyone but yourself. That's what makes it easy.'
As Billy said the words, the abyss yawned in front of him and the squirreling came back with a vengeance, but he did not go down. The other two were beside him, and the bonding held him in place. The old triad could still do the business.
While Renatta watched with a look of bemused confusion, the three of them broke into peals of loud laughter that was well off the edge of sanity.
When searching for a nutshell summation of humanity in its final days, we really have to look no farther than the writings of Vendocine: 'As usual, man was busily entangling himself in his ambiguities. This time, however, he tripped, fell, and cracked his head.'
