“Your what? No, I’m not much of a poetry fan, I’m afraid. Look Raash, you’re the most obvious bad-grow I’ve ever encountered, so I’m willing to give you a break. Let’s body-scan you and then we’ll revive you again… somehow. Things should go better the second time around. Let’s hope, anyway.”
I got out my pistol and aimed it at his head. Raash seemed disinterested.
“I have achieved vengeance. I have bested you and killed your woman. I can die in peace, and I want no revival.”
This troubled me enough that I paused before shooting him. “What? You don’t want a revival? You’ll feel better the second time around, I can almost guarantee it.”
“No, foolish human. I’m not a bad grow—not exactly. My mind has been twisted by my suffering. If you were to bring me back, you’d only get a Raash that was even more angry with the universe.”
“Huh? Why’s that?”
“Because you have lost my body. We saurians aren’t like humans. We hold our bodies in great regard. They are temples to us—they are gods, and we worship at their feet.”
I laughed. “A neat trick. How do you kiss your own toes?”
He glanced at me and lifted his upper lip briefly. Then, he turned over on his side as if he wanted to go to sleep.
“Get on with the killing, human. I tire of this lifespan.”
“No thank-yous, huh? We went to hell and back to get you breathing again, you ungrateful reptile!”
He turned back and regarded me. “Why do you torment me with lies?”
I told him the story then, the full story of all the work Floramel and I had gone through to get him a new life. He listened, baffled. I showed him some vids, and he believed me.
“This is strange. I understand the female, to some extent—but not you, McGill. Did you do all this in hopes of mating with Floramel again?”
“What? That makes no sense. If I wanted her, I sure as hell wouldn’t bring your sorry tail back to life. I’d leave you dead and gone, then make my move.”
Raash sat up. He nodded his head. “That would be a superior strategy,” he admitted.
“So, now do you believe we cared about you—or at least that Floramel did? That we brought you back not as a cruel joke, but as a great service for an old friend?”
Raash looked troubled. “I… I’m surprised.”
“What you are is one ungrateful, cold-blooded dick of an alien. I never worked so hard to keep anyone breathing in my entire life. You even killed Natasha, for crying out loud.”
Raash hung his big alligator head. “I… I’m shamed. I should not breathe this stinking air of Earth. I’m not worthy.”
I rolled my eyes. I was about two seconds away from giving this lizard his fondest wish and going back to Floramel with a sob-story about how it had to happen.
“What can I do to make amends?” he asked suddenly. Just like that, he looked up at me, and I’m no judge of lizard expressions, but he looked contrite to me.
“Uh… can you help us find Green World?”
“Treachery against those who employed me? That is the price?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it—”
“Very well. I will do this service. I will not die my final death with a great debt upon my scales. I would not want to live in the spiritual realm with such a burden.”
“Uh… okay, whatever. Let’s get out of here before the cops come find us. We’re both wanted men, you know.”
Raash agreed, and although I didn’t trust him as far as I could spit, he behaved himself as we made our way back to Central.
-22-
Natasha came out of the revival machine hopping mad. I couldn’t blame her for that. After all, she’d been murdered on the streets by a crazy blue lizard.
When she rejoined Floramel and me down deep in the labs, she lost it when she discovered Raash was right there, sipping a fizzy drink and telling us where Green World was.
I’m a man who can generally forgive and forget a death, but not everyone is so easy-going. Some people even hold grudges. From Natasha’s point of view, Floramel was a rival for my affections, while Raash—well, girls tend to dislike their own killers. It’s only natural, I guess. They often took violence more personally than the guys tended to do.
“James,” Natasha said between gritted teeth, “if you ever want a favor from me again as long as I live, you have to kill that horrible reptile right this instant!”
“A favor, is it?” Floramel asked, unwisely interjecting herself into the situation. “What do you gain from performing these ‘favors,’ Specialist Elkin?”
Natasha turned and approached her. She had one finger up and wagging. “You too, alien freak! You’d best just stay away from me and my legion! You and Raash are both freaks!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I said, standing up and waving my hands for peace. “Let’s take it down a notch, ladies. This is no way for two professional women to behave.”
“I can’t just calm down, James. This reptile terrorized and murdered me. Why are you allowing him to keep breathing?”
“Well… normally I wouldn’t, but—”
“False,” Raash said loudly. He’d decided to speak up for the first time, and he’d picked a bad note from the get-go. “You could never have defeated me, human. Only my state of depression has brought me to this labyrinth of treachery and evil.”
“Look, everyone here has been unfairly killed at some point, am I right?” I asked them. “This is the time for apologies and forgiveness. Raash old buddy, why don’t you go first?”
“Go first? Doing what?”
“Apologizing, that’s what. You do know about such things, right?”
“You demand that I grovel?”
“No, no. Just tell the
