Husk Read Free Page A

screen. Miller’s handsome, grinning face is always easy on the eyes.
    ‘I was hoping you were available for a drink or twotonight. Shit, you’re probably already unconscious,you popular bastard … give me a call when you get this and you’ve got a little free time on your hands.’
    I sigh, wishing I’d been available. Scheduling my social life has become increasingly difficult with demand for my services going up so much in recent months. I play Miller’s second message. He’s smiling in this one too, although it doesn’t look sincere. Voice seems more serious. He’s allbusiness, and I can’t help but think it has unsettling undertones.
    ‘Hey, Rhodes, I’m just letting you know that I’ll be covering one of your regulars for a few days. A last-minute request came in for you, but you’re already booked.’ He forces a laugh. ‘I’m not encroaching on your territory or anything, buddy. Baxter’s orders, that’s all. The client is awfully adamant that they have a rental thisweekend.’
    Miller hesitates, opens his mouth as if wanting to say something else, rethinks whatever’s on his mind and shrugs it off.
    ‘Take care, stay safe, we’ll talk soon,’ he says instead and hangs up.
    I appreciate Miller’s honesty, though he of all people should know me better than that. A lot of Husks can get territorial with their clients, but I’d like to think I’m not one of them. My Liaisontells me my next appointment is fast approaching. Don’t have time to call my friend back. I leave Craig in the apartment to play with the new HG, making my way to a five-star restaurant where I plan to eat an authentic and thoroughly nourishing meal before upload. Steak and vitaminized potatoes are my go-tomeal, with whatever vegetables are in season, if Canada or Mexico is feeling kind enoughto ship them our way at inflated costs. I eat real beef too, not the lab-grown shit. It’s expensive, but the benefits to my body are undeniable. Meal supplements and nutrition spread aren’t consumed by the likes of my clients. The gap between what I am and what they once were must be closed as much as possible. It helps ensure quick rehiring. Healthy eating, clean living, maintaining peak physicalcondition: a Husk’s recipe for success. The damage is done only by those who pay for the privilege. Lately, I’ve had trouble sticking to the rules.
    Husking isn’t an exact science. There are more than a few outfits trying to make a go of it these days. At best it’s a pharmaceutically controlled time-share split personality of sorts. At worst it’s a rough descent into a drug-addled kind of dissociativedisorder. Thankfully, I’m employed by Solace Strategies, working with the best, for the best.

2
    I catch a cab to JFK International less than forty-five minutes before my flight. It takes me only minutes to get through an airport. Manufactured credentials allow me to bypass biometric, backscatter and retina scanners. Security personnel are only permittedto x-ray luggage and put me through a metal detector. I’m not obliged to answer any of the TSA’s questions. If they persist, the same people who influence the departments that create my identification can not only have them fired, but ruined in the process. All evidence seems to suggest diplomatic immunity, but that’s not what it is, at least not the diplomat part. For all intents and purposes,I’m almost bulletproof when it comes to law enforcement.
    The direct flight from New York to Las Vegas is only four hours. Regardless, I fly premium first class. The clients wouldn’t have it any other way. They want the merchandise kept comfortable. I pass on the champagne and Panamanian cigars, even turn down the offer of a mile-high-club membership from one of the finer-looking stewardesses.I have to keep myself in check, be on my best behaviour. To make that easier, I sleep most of the journey and wake up refreshed upon landing.
    Outside the arrivals terminal of McCarran