The Complete Karma Trilogy Read Free

than he had thought it was, so he vaulted over the ledge and turned in midair. He hoped to land directly behind the kid, where he could just pick him up and hopefully make it back onto the platform before dying.
    The kid was still lying on the ground, body across the tracks, stunned and looking into the lights of the train that was only twenty feet away. Will landed awkwardly on one of the track rails, his ankle twisting slightly so that he dropped to his knees. Desperately he tried picking the kid up by a leg and a shoulder, and heaving him up onto the platform. And for the most part it worked, although he accidentally hit its head against the concrete barrier on the way up. But he did save him, after all. And before Will could do anything else, the train hit him from the side.
    The next piece of consciousness he had was sitting in the back of an Emergency Helicar, two men talking over his body. His legs were a giant, searing pain that he could hardly comprehend the intensity of. It was so much pain that it became abstract, something else entirely. He waved at it.
    He wasn’t much aware of what they were doing, but one of the men had taken Will’s Karma Card out of his pocket and put it into some kind of reader, and was saying to the other, “How much do you think it was worth, a Good Work like that? Want to place bets before I read it?”
    “That’s at least two thousand, no doubt about it,” the other said.
    “It would be quite a laugh if it wasn’t in the system at all, wouldn’t it? That does happen sometimes,” the first man said. “You think you’re doing the world the greatest favor it’s ever received and it turns out you get nothing for it, that’s always a laugh. I’m sure this guy would think it was funny. I’m putting my money on… two thousand and one.” He then pressed a few buttons on the reader, and looked surprised at the machine’s response. “A solid three thousand,” he said. “I know he nearly died over it, but that’s still quite a bit for one Good Work. Either way, I was closer.”
    “Yeah, congratulations,” said the other.
    The fact that Will was on an Emergency Helicar boded well for him. The people that responded to the accident had decided that it was at least possible he would be selected, otherwise they would have just sent him on another subway to the closest hospital and wished him the best. It was at least possible. In the end it was the decision of Karma and Karma alone, but he was feeling fairly confident, when he was coherent enough to feel at all. He drifted out again.
    The next moment he was in a Medachine, and he could smell burning. It was working on his legs below him. Whatever it was doing, he didn’t feel like burning was necessary. It seemed rather inappropriate. He realized then that there was pain in other places, that he couldn’t move his right arm, and that the entire length of his back itched horribly. Outside the glass of the machine he could just barely make out several men that had tablets in their hands, all staring at him. That time it felt like sleep that he went toward.
    When he finally woke up completely, he was in a white room with another man that seemed to expect that he would be conscious, because right away the man began to speak. “You have been selected by Karma to represent the World Government as an officer of the law. I’m sure you are aware of what that means for you, and with your Karma Record I assume you knew that it was bound to be the case, but as a formality I will say the rest.
    “All your personal belongings are currently being moved to your new residence at 4973 West Hampshire. No need to remember the address, you’ll find it on your Karma Card. All rates for Good Works of which you are the agent are henceforth to be doubled, in accord with your new position. Starting tomorrow you are to report at 6 a.m. World Time for training, which is to be completed within a month. And congratulations. The entire world could