New to Grim Khonsu? Cick on the button below for an introduction.
The story so far: Grim Khonsu is a serialised sci-fi detective noir story, set aboard a vast generation ship. With the Perons all together, Grim has revealed Xavier’s secret — that he’s infected himself with an artificial sentience, and that it’s taking him over. He’s also exposed Xavier and Indrana Cordray’s parts in the murder of Lin Leven-Jacobson. But there’s also the murder of the Damsel to consider — and Grim accuses Aveline Peron of this deed.
She doesn’t take this well. Aveline pulls a gun, aims at everyone in the room. With the gun pointed at Xavier Peron, Aveline shoots.
The tingling of detachment increased as Aveline squeezed the trigger, but I didn’t move. She had the power set mid. At this range, the shot would slam Xavier off his chair, and he’d feel like a bunch of thugs had used him as a punch-bag. The force might crack or break a rib, would leave him with bruising, but nothing fatal.
But I hadn’t accounted for Colville. As Aveline fired he threw himself forward, between her and Xavier.
The blast hit him in the chest. It wasn’t point-blank, but it was close. The force threw him back, onto the side of Xavier’s chair. The chair jerked and spun. Xavier clung on as Colville tumbled to the floor.
I sat and watched.
Aveline stood frozen, that little Priton still in a two-hand grip. Her mouth hung open almost as wide as her eyes. Indrana, rigid, face shock-pale, gasped. Natuche stumbled to her feet, knuckle-white hands gripping the table.
Xavier slid from his seat and cradled Colville, the quiet guy’s head against his chest, one hand stroking the side of his face, the other hovering over the wound. The scorch-mark was a fist-sized stain on Colville’s shirt, steaming and dark.
Colville coughed up red phlegm.
“Xav? It … it hurts.”
Aveline dropped the gun. “Is he...” She swallowed, hard.
Xavier ignored her. “I can help you, Col,” he said. He lifted his hand from the man’s wound, brushed his fingers across the man’s chest, stroked his cheek. His fingers left a smear of red.
Then he closed his hand around Colville’s throat.
Colville’s eyes bulged.
Natuche gasped. “What the fuck?”
Xavier squeezed. Colville’s body jerked. He croaked, and his eyes bulged. Xavier shuffled, brought his other hand around to Colville’s neck. He squeezed tighter and pushed, hard enough that Colville’s head cracked against the floor. Xavier lifted the man’s head, brought it down again. And again.
There was a whine, not quite a cry. I wasn’t sure if it was coming from Aveline or from Natuche. Maybe it came from Indrana. None of them could move.
This wasn’t my fight. The gurgling and strangulated spluttering from Colville, sickening as it was, ebbed away with each crack of his skull against the solid, expensive flooring of the Peron’s work-room. A dark stain grew beneath Colville’s matted hair. His spluttering faded away, replaced by Xavier’s low growl. The man’s arms bulged as his fingers crushed Colville’s throat.
When he finally released Colville, Xavier’s knuckles were white. His arms trembled as he straightened his back. He reached a hand onto Colville’s chest then bent down, lips touching the man’s forehead, his nose, his mouth.
“No more pain, my friend,” he whispered as he straightened up. He brought a hand down on Colville’s face and gently closed the dead man’s eyes.
Natuche broke her paralysis. She rose to her feet, pale knuckles pressing down on the table. “What the fuck have you done, Xavier?”
“I removed his pain.”
“You fucking killed him!”
Xavier shook his head. “The blast did that. All I did was hasten the end”
The dark patch around Colville’s head oozed outwards. Deep red marks ran across his neck.
Natuche stabbed a trembling finger at Aveline. “You! You did this.”
“I never meant to.” Aveline’s voice was somewhere between a whisper and a whimper. The blaster lay a step away from her.
“No. You meant to shoot Xavier, you crazy, stupid fucking bitch.”
Aveline shook her head. It wasn’t a denial. It was a refusal to accept reality. Her gaze remained fixed on the stiff.
There was a moment of silence.
“You know how hard it is to crush someone’s throat?” I asked.
Natuche spun to face me. Aveline’s gaze remained fixed on Colville’s still-warm body.
“Doesn’t take physical strength,” I said. “Not if you get the grip right. But the will to stop someone breathing, that’s the hard part. To consciously end another’s life through persistent pressure takes commitment. Most sane people don’t have it in them.”
Xavier stood. “You’re making insinuations again. This isn’t the time.”
“You think we should wait for his body to grow cold?”
“I did what I could to end my friend’s suffering.”
I shook my head. “Wound wasn’t fatal. House medikit would’ve stabilised him until medics arrived. And I reckon the Xavier you used to be knew that. But it was overruled by that artificial sentience. Reckon it saw Colville as a weak link, thought he might talk when the medics pumped him full of narcos for the pain. Couldn’t run the risk of being discovered, so it got rid of the problem.”
He didn’t respond. He stood by the body, eyes cast down. He breathed steadily and deeply.
“He never called for medical assistance,” Lola said in my ear. “Natuche tried, but Xavier’s blocked outbound signals.”
Xavier, or whatever was inside him.
Aveline still stood rigid, still stared down at Colville. But Indrana had shuffled closer to Xavier. I couldn’t recall seeing her stand, but she wasn’t that tall anyway, and there was no sound from her clothing or her shoes as she took another step. Her right hand slipped into a pocket.
Something told me I had to play for time.
“You ever think you made a mistake, Xavier? Not talking about Colville, although that was a mistake. Talking about the whole live trial thing. You reckon you were a bit hasty, should’ve done more lab testing? Or maybe there was something off in the original research. Know Lin was good, but she wasn’t perfect. Kill-switch shows that. Sure, she wasn’t involved in the tech directly, but it was based on her research, right? Only, it messes with people’s judgements. Known two people under the influence, and they both screwed up. Have to wonder if that would’ve happened if they’d been thinking clearly.”
Indrana shuffled closer to Xavier. He turned his head and glared at me. His fists balled by his thighs.
“So I’ve gotta wonder what that sentience is doing to you,” I continued. “Lashing out at clients like Donal Korda, having Lin killed because she didn’t like what you were doing, trying to have me killed because I was nosing around too much. Don’t reckon the old Xavier Peron would’ve done any of that. Wouldn’t even have considered that kind of violence. And now, you’ve killed the one person in this arrangement who’s been totally loyal to you. Definitely not like the old Xavier. Sounds like someone else to me.”
Indrana stood directly behind Xavier now, and her hand slipped into her pocket. The fabric shifted as she grabbed something.
Xavier shook his head. “You know nothing.” His voice started calm, but as he talked he grew louder. “Nothing! You’re in over your head, Grim. You make wild accusations, but you don’t see the importance of this. You don’t understand the breakthrough. You don’t see the potential! And your interference is a serious problem.”
He lunged. Aveline shrieked and jumped back, but he wasn’t going for her. He dipped, scooping her gun from the floor. He stood tall and grinned as he thumbed the weapon’s controls like he’d done it too many times before.
“Full power,” he said as he showed me the dangerous end. “The distance across this table is negligible. A shot to the stomach would be agony, but you’d probably survive. A head-shot, though — not even that bloody stupid hat of yours would protect you. And if the shot doesn’t finish you, it’ll knock you down and give me enough time to get round there and finish the job.”
“You’re rambling.” I stood. The dissociation meant my body didn’t shake. I felt my inner self step back, let my body take over. The tingling was a comfort. “Never a good sign, pal.”
Indrana stepped closer to Xavier. I saw what she held in her hand.
“Your project’s failing,” I said. “That’s why you needed to off Lin. That’s why you’ve been using folk like Donal Korda as punch-bags. That’s why you’ve had your people dealing with Alley low-lives. It’s why you murdered Colville. And you think smoking my brain with that little gun’s going to help?”
“I’m doing what needs doing.”
“No. You’re doing what that infection tells you to do. Not to protect yourself, but to protect it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then let’s have a second opinion, from someone deep inside this screw-up of yours. San Cordray?”
Her name acted like a switch. She jerked and blinked.
Xavier didn’t look at her. He kept his gaze fixed on me. So he didn’t notice that she’d lifted her hand, the one that held the thing from her pocket.
“My colleague will confirm everything I say,” Xavier said. “She believes in the project.”
“Sure she does. But she’s not stupid. Knows how to play the risks, does your assistant. And I reckon she knows when the whole thing’s a bust. Reckon she knows when to end things.”
There was a flicker of uncertainty in Xavier’s eyes. I never looked directly at Indrana, but he must’ve sensed her presence behind him. He started to turn.
And that’s when she stabbed the needle into his thigh. She pressed the plunger then jumped back. Xavier cried out and swung. His hand struck Indrana’s cheek. She staggered, flung a hand to the wall to steady herself.
Xavier looked down. The syringe hung from his thigh, the reservoir empty. He pulled it free and held it up. He still had the gun in his right hand.
“What have you done, Indrana?” His voice slurred. The right side of his face hung loose, the mouth drooping.
“What he said.” She pushed away from the wall and stood strong, straight back and squared shoulders. The left side of her face was dark from the slap.
Xavier growled and fired the Priton.
At the same time, my body pounced. I flew over the table. I clamped a hand over Xavier’s wrist and twisted, enough that the shot streaked past Indrana’s shoulder, left a sizzling stain on the wall. Momentum carried me into Xavier and we went down. He didn’t offer much resistance.
I rolled, snatched the gun from his hand, jumped to my feet. Stepped back, beside Indrana. She breathed fast and shallow.
Xavier Peron — or what used to be Xavier Peron — growled and tried to stand, but his legs gave way. He massaged his thigh as his growls became gurgles. His hand jerked as he convulsed. Flickering eyes turned to Inrdana.
He spoke, but the words rolled together, became a void of meaningless, cracked pitches. Dribble ran down his chin, and he convulsed some more. His hand slapped his thigh, and his legs kicked out.
We watched him convulse. Nobody moved to help him. Nobody spoke.
After a couple of minutes he stopped moving and lay still, his eyes closed.