Memorymakers Read Online Free PDF Page A

eyes. And from her orbs flowed the bright purple and yellow liquid of her embidium, containing all of her childhood memories. It was a swirling, pungent-smelling mixture of these colors, with each hue retaining its integrity. The mixture was luminous, as if a light burned from each molecule, and it ran in such abundance that quickly it overflowed the container.
    The girl’s face lost vitality, and she slumped, but without falling from her seat. Carefully, to avoid contaminating the extraction, Squick sealed the container and packaged it for shipment to Director Jabu. Then he cleaned up the overflow and wiped the girl’s face and eyes clean with a white, chemically treated cloth.
    Moments later, the van’s robot arm dumped a limp, nearly lifeless form in the grass and weeds of a vacant lot.
    As he backed his van away, Squick caught a brief glimpse of the child’s silent body in his rearview mirror. “It’s a lousy world,” he muttered and suppressed speculation about the child’s future. Nevertheless, he drove off feeling less than satisfied with this particular extraction.
    Twenty-three minutes later, he pulled his vehicle into the parking garage of the condominium complex he called home and saw another condo owner, a Gween he had talked to a few times. He waved at the man and forced his mouth upward into a smile while his thoughts took a downward direction. The guy’s a jerk, but it’s a good idea to keep on his good side. After all, he did give me that tip on the stock market. You never know when you need a favor from someone. It’s the way life is—a series of favors given, favors taken. The objective is to get more than you give.
    “Going to the pool party tonight?” the man shouted. “It’s a bring-your-own-bottle thing. Lots of goodies gonna be there, food and you-know-what.”
    “Maybe I will,” answered Squick, though he entertained doubts about fraternizing too closely with Gweens, particularly this one. Since childhood Squick had made many Gween friends, but on his own terms. That had been particularly easy to do in his former residence, a duplex shared with an elderly lady. Now he lived in a complex that overflowed with amenities and Gweens. Gweens who wanted him to swim in the pool, dance in the dance room, exercise in the health room, play cards or billiards in the entertainment room. He’d only lived here a few weeks and so far had managed to maintain his privacy. Obviously that wouldn’t last forever. Sooner or later he was going to have to socialize with the other tenants. Tonight was probably as good a time as ever. He groaned and punched the button for the elevator that would take him to his floor.
    A pretty Gweenwoman stood inside, one who lived in his section of the complex. He’d noticed her long legs the day he’d moved in. Now he paid closer attention to the rest of her anatomy. Squick smiled, this time with sincerity. There was something exciting about Gweenwomen. Forbidden fruit, taboo stuff. He licked his lips nervously. You didn’t marry a Gween, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t appreciate one. This one exuded the right pheromones, as the scientists put it, the proper chemistry to stimulate a response in the opposite sex—Gween or Ch’Var. “Hello there,” he said. “Have you heard about the pool party tonight?”
    “I’ve baked a cake for it,” she answered in a little-girl voice and looked up at him with large, blue eyes. For a moment Squick saw in her features the race of the child he’d just dumped in an empty field. A small depression settled over him like a cloud, and he decided to skip the party. Anyway, tomorrow was going to be a long day, another extraction to make. Maybe more than one. This risk-taking was beginning to drain him. What if Gween authorities finally caught up with him?
    Shittah loomed.

Chapter 3

    A Ch’Var cannot reveal the secrets of his race. If he attempts to speak them, his throat constricts and parches dry and hot so that he is