Eternal Life Inc. Read Online Free PDF

into the ground.”
    Roger waved his cigarette in casual dismissal. “All in good time, Harry, all in good time,” he replied with a show of good-natured forbearance, but his eyes were as sharp as broken glass.
    “Well, in the meantime,” Harry retorted, “stop waving that god-damned cigarette around like some fat-assed Tinkerbelle spreading fairy dust. I know you gotta show the world what a big man you are by not giving a damn about your body. Dissolution is the new status symbol of the rich and famous, the latest fashion pose for the beautiful people who can afford to change bodies as easily as other people change clothes. But I already know what a big man you are, so please spare me the cigarette smoke and other fashion props.”
    “My, my, my, what a little prude we’ve become,” Roger sniggered. “What’s the matter? Worried about your health? Now that your contract’s run out, maybe you should be. Well, let me put your mind at rest, Harry. As long as I’m CEO, there will always be a monitor on your ka and a clone waiting for you here at Eternal Life. I mean your policyholder number 001, the symbol of Eternal Life. How would it look if we let you down?
    “By the way,” Roger said off-handedly as he studied the large, gold, fire-opal signet ring he wore on his little finger. It was engraved with the Eternal Life logo of a rising Phoenix. The company had given it to him as a wedding present. “Susan sends her love.” He took a last drag on his cigarette and leaned overand stubbed it out in the saucer that covered a glass of water on Harry’s night table. “She was wondering why we don’t see you anymore.” He squinted at Harry from the corner of his eye. “Why is that, Harry?”
    “You son of a bitch,” Harry snarled. It surprised him every time how easily the old wounds could be torn open.

5
    Losing It
    Even after seven years, the nightmare memories still ripped apart his sleep and left him screaming in the dark, covered in a cold sweat. Seven years ago, he had everything a man could want. He was at the top of his career, the brightest star in the New Hollywood galaxy, rich, famous, and head over heels in love. Susan wasn’t even part of the New Hollywood dream machine. Instead, she was a law school graduate, intelligent, beautiful, and witty, and on top of that, she loved him. They were living a beautiful dream that they thought would last forever, but it took only one night to blow it all away. He didn’t want to think about it but once he started he couldn’t stop.
    They went to a party at an exclusive country club. The producers of his latest film wanted to celebrate its success. As usual, he drank too much. None of these new, sophisticated designer drugs or electronic pleasure implants for Harry Neumann. No, he preferred his poison traditional, straight up, and out of a bottle. He quickly reached the stage in his drinking that gave him a loud-mouthed, belligerent belief in his own infallibility and superhuman prowess. He was ready to take on any man in the place and more than willing to let them know it.
    Unfortunately, someone took him up on his challenge and suggested a cannonball run down through the Sinks, the sunken heart of old Los Angeles. It was the newest sport among the jaded New Hollywood elite, and its aura of old-time outlaw daring and macho bravado would have appealed to Harry even if he had not been drunk.
    Strictly speaking, the races were illegal but the police never interfered. In fact, they tried to keep out of the coastal channels altogether. For the most part, the Sinks were a lawless, half-sunkenruin inhabited by a witch’s brew of pirates, Slavers, Seraphim religious fanatics, and renegade Tongs. A high-speed grav-car race through the twisted, rubble-strewn waterways, even in daylight, was close to suicidal folly, and no one had ever tried it at night.
    Susan begged him not to do it. He was in no condition to drive, she said. If he didn’t get killed in a crash,