Painkiller Read Free

trickle is easily attributable to governmental incompetence—”
    “And these are the people who want a monopoly on the use of force,” Reed said, shaking his head.
    “You said you would stop,” Kat moaned her eyes rolled. “And … also, another thing,” she slurred, and turned to look right at me, “Why did I follow you up here so I could work for like two months before we all quit? I left Hollywood behind, you know—”
    “I thought you start filming on the new season of your show next month?” Augustus asked, frowning.
    Kat either didn’t hear him or ignored him. Probably the former. “Whyyyyyy?” She put her hands in the air like she was asking the heavens.
    I stared her down. “Because you were sick of soulless, materialistic wandering and wanted to serve a higher purpose than just showing your sculpted ass on television and trying to contrive ‘storylines’ to mine pointless drama out of your life for the sake of entertaining people.” I paused.
    She stared at me through cloudy, drunken eyes then broke into a lazy smile. “You really think my ass is sculpted? Everyone else always calls it ‘bony,’ but I’ve been working on it and—”
    “I propose a toast,” Reed said, cutting her off, raising his mug.
    “—I was thinking about maybe getting ass implants, but—”
    “Kat,” I said, trying to stifle her. I looked at Reed.
    Reed’s eyes were glimmering, thick with the emotion of the moment. “In honor of our last week working together in glorious cause … to us, the line between the metahuman world and humanity. May whoever follows us do as much or more good as we did.”
    I frowned. “Well, that’s awfully chipper.”
    He gave me a cool grin. “Would you prefer they do oh-so-much worse? Chaos and destruction in the streets and all that?”
    I thought about it for a second. “Honestly … yes. I want to see the agency fall apart without me so that they know how badly they screwed up by wanting me out. I want President Gerry Harmon to be calling every day for the next year apologizing and telling me he’ll move the agency back to Minnesota or do whatever I want as long as I’ll come back and do my job again. Yes, I want chaos in the streets and cataclysms in the sky and the world to fall apart without me.” I pursed my lips. “I mean, I don’t really want any of that, not really, but … on a very basic, emotional level … yes, I want that. I want to be needed, to feel like all these years I put into carrying this thing on my back weren’t a waste.”
    “You’ve done a lot of good,” Kat said, a hint of regret on her face behind those flushed cheeks.
    “You’ve saved the world,” Augustus said, lifting his own mug. “Ain’t nobody can take that away from you.”
    “It is true,” Dr. Perugini said, nodding. “No one may ever really know it, or thank you for it, or care that you’re gone, but—”
    Reed cut in over her with a fake laugh. “Honey … maybe try and help instead?”
    She gave him daggers. “I am helping.”
    “So what are you going to do, Sienna?” Ariadne asked me, looking forlornly over her mug. Her new one was already half empty and she wasn’t really much of a beer drinker.
    I stopped with my mug halfway to my mouth. “I’m …”
    “Excuse me?” came a polite voice from behind me. I turned to see a middle-aged Asian man looking down at me, a polite expression of reserve upon his face that tended toward a faint smile. “You’re Sienna Nealon, correct?”
    “Oh, for crying out—” I put down my beer. “Who are you with? The EPA, right? You want me to cease and desist with setting things on fire?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “My name is Jonathan Chang. I’m a lawyer with the firm of Rothman, Curtis and Chang, here in Minneapolis.”
    “Oh, really?” I picked up my mug again and held it at the ready, staring at Mr. Chang with a wary eye. “Who’s suing me this time?”
    His faint smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. “You