Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester Read Online Free PDF Page A

doing you any favors,” the man warned.
    “Best you put it to some better use. I got some ideas about that…”
    “When Mars has oceans.”
    “Ooh!” one of the younger boys said.
    “She told you, I think.”
    The big man turned on his smaller companion.
    “Shut up,” he demanded, and then he noticed Bester, still watching.
    “I thought I told you to keep walking, you old scab.”
    “The zoo was closed today,” Bester replied.
    “I didn’t get to see the ape house, so I’m making do.”
    The big man blinked as if he didn’t understand, then strode menacingly toward Bester.
    “You ain’t from around here, I don’t think. Cause if you were, you wouldn’t still be standing there. And you sure as hell wouldn’t be mouthing off to me.”
    Bester smiled.
    “Please know, I find you truly terrifying. The fact that it only takes five of you to threaten such a dangerous young woman-well, it puts me in awe. I wouldn’t dream of crossing you.”
    The man grabbed him by the collar and lifted, his face reddening. Bester glanced down at the fist knotted in his shirt.
    “That’s expensive material,” he said, calmly.
    The man pulled back his other fist, and Bester watched it, unblinking. He could kill the fellow, of course, without lifting a finger, but not without arousing suspicion. Still…
    “Put him down, Jem,” a new voice said.
    “Put him down right now.” Bester couldn’t see who was talking.
    Jem could, however, and his face set in a sort of sullen resignation. He hesitated for a moment, then lowered Bester back to the street.
    “There ain’t nothin’ goin’ on here, Lucien,” he grunted.
    “Not a damn thing.”
    “I’ll be the judge of that.”
    Al turned slightly, so that he could see that the new voice belonged to a policeman, a stocky fellow in his early forties.
    “Have you got a complaint?” the policeman asked Bester.
    Bester smiled at Jem, then turned back to the policeman.
    “Yes. This man doesn’t smell good at all. Other than that, everything is just fine.”
    The cop looked him up and down, made a disgusted noise.
    “Louise?” he asked.
    She hesitated for a moment.
    “No,” she said.
    “See?” Jem said.
    “So why don’t you go bother someone else?”
    “Why don’t you?” the policeman said.
    “Run along.” Jem glared at him, then shrugged.
    “Come on, boys. We’ve got business elsewhere, anyhow.”
    He directed a nasty look at Bester.
    “Nice to meet you, grandpa,” he said.
    “Too bad you’re just passing through.”
    “It is a shame,” Bester agreed.
    “I’ll miss your stimulating conversation.”
    As he watched them leave, he sent out tendrils of psi, just enough to know their signatures, to recognize them in the dark. The cop, meanwhile, was confronting the woman.
    “Louise, I can’t do anything for you unless you make an accusation.”
    “You know l can’t do that, Lucien. I have to live here. And suppose you managed to arrest Jem and his bunch and keep them-not that I think you could, but just suppose. Another bunch would just move in, and they would take care of me in advance, so I wouldn’t repeat my mistake with them.”
    “Then pay them what they ask. Otherwise-well-I can’t be here twenty-four hours a day.”
    “I know that, Lucien,” she said.
    “Though I could be here more than I am,” he hinted.
    “I know that, too.” She sighed.
    “You know I’m grateful, Lucien, but I’m just not… “
    She suddenly noticed that Bester was still there.
    “What are you waiting for? Do you want some of my money, too?”
    “No.”
    “I don’t know who you are, but you shouldn’t have gotten involved. They’re like sharks, those men. A little blood and then the frenzy. Why you want to commit suicide, I don’t know, but go do it someplace else.”
    Bester shrugged.
    “Listen,” the cop said to him.
    “You could help, here. I know Jem was attacking you. Louise is being stubborn, but you don’t live around here. If you could swear out a