Joe Pitt 1 - Already Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

towel.
    --So what are you saying, Phil, you saying I'm wrong here? I'm lying?
    --Aw, no, man, no. I know you know what you know and all. If you're sayin' Mr. Predo knew
     somethin', well, he musta known it. All I'm sayin' is, he didn't never get it from me. I'm
     just sayin' I didn't ever call the guy at all. I got off the phone with you I figured
     maybe you'd be slipping me some coin later, so I went out lookin' ta score. You know me. I
     didn't never even get it in my head to call Mr. Predo or none of them guys. You tell me
     there's a carrier? Well, hell, I just figure you must be probably takin' care of it for
     the Coalition anyway. No change in it for me if I give them a call, now is there? So why'd
     I call them? Huh, Joe, why'd I call them?
    He's doing his best to come across sincere, looking me in the eyes, his pupils pinned out
     from whatever kind of bennies he got his hands on tonight.
    --How much money you got on you, Phil?
    --Well, uh.
    He pulls the bills I gave him out of his breast pocket and counts them.
    --Looks like I got about fifty here.

Joe Pitt 1 - Already Dead
    --What other money?
    He pats at his pockets, gives me a hopeless look and shrugs his shoulders. I squat down
     and put my face close to his.
    --You might be close to getting off the hook here, Phil. I suggest that now is not the time
     to start fucking with me.
    He nods and starts digging into his pockets, turning them inside out. A handful of change,
     his hair goop, a pack of Dentyne, a baggie full of about twenty little black capsules, and
     a small wad of cash all spill out onto his lap. I grab the cash and give it a quick count.
     Hundred and eighty bucks. I hold the bills in front of his face.
    --I'm giving this to Billy, toward what you owe him.
    --Sure, sure, I mean, that's what I had it on me for was ta give ta Billy for what I owe
     him.
    I stand up.
    --Yeah, right. Do what you want with the fifty, that's for the phone call. But pay Billy
     off before Monday.
    --Yeah, before Monday, no sweat, Joe.
    I bend over, pick Philip's comb up off the floor and toss it at him.
    --Fix your hair, Philip, it looks like crap.
    Walking past the bar I get Billy's attention and slip him the buck eighty. He counts it
     and smiles. --S'more than I thought he'd cough up.
    --Yeah. He'll come through with the rest by Monday. He don't, give me a call.
    --Thanks, Joe. Ya gonna stay, start runnin' up that tab? Got some sweet Betties in here
     t'night. I could maybe hook ya up.
    --Thanks anyway, Billy, I got work to do.
    He nods and waves and gets back to shaking martinis. I squeeze through the crowd, out the
     door and onto the hot street.
    The problem with Philip is, even when he's telling the truth, it looks like lying. But he
     has a point. The Coalition wants to keep an eye on me they got better ways of doing it
     than him. They really want to keep an eye on me they'll send someone down here far more
     subtle and dangerous. Then again, a hundred eighty is a lot of cash for him to be packing,
     and he would have needed more to score the speed he was carrying. He got that money
     somewhere. Damn it. He's dirty on something, but I don't have time to dig it out right
     now. The carrier is still out there and I don't know any more than I did before. Except
     that maybe I do.
    If Philip is telling the truth, then Predo is keeping an eye on me some other way. Which
     means the Coalition is keeping tabs on me personally, or the whole neighborhood, or both.
     Which means something is going on down here. And I don't have any idea what it is. My only
     move is to try and find the carrier, just like they want me to. So I go home and get my
     guns.
    Killing a zombie isn't complicated, it's just hard. The first problem is that the damn
     things are not quite alive in the first place. Or not quite dead. I'm not really sure
     which it is. The way it is, these things, they've been infected with a flesh-eating
     bacteria. This bacteria is