Mike v2.0 (A Firesetter Short Story) Read Online Free PDF

you
repair it? Maybe, you can patch it until we get somewhere. Weld it
together. You know, with that finger thing.”
    “I suppose I could,” Mike demurred. “Although,
you are also completely out of fluid. Did you happen to bring any
spare?”
    “I didn’t have any,” Steve snapped
again.
    “Of course not.”
    “In case you didn’t notice, it’s not like in
the old days. There’s been a huge recession or depression or
whatever. Spare parts and transmission fluids just aren’t around.
It would probably take me a year of searching junk yards for a
part, and I didn’t have time. The kid needs medical
care.”
    Mike made a snorting sound, as if he didn’t
believe Steve’s excuse.
    “Come on, dude,” Steve begged. “Please help us
out. Just this once? That’s my grandkid over there. We’ve got to
get him fixed up. Hey! You could cure him, while you’re at
it!”
    Now, Mike made a humming sound, and his weight
shifted on the floor. “Yes, I could do that as well, but then, you
would owe me. Actually, you already owe me quite a lot.”
    “Uh oh.”
    Mike snickered. “I would have to
collect.”
    Steve gasped as if all the air had been sucked
from his lungs. “Not the kid. Come on, dude. Please tell me not the
kid.”
    Mike shook his head, his hair rustling softly
as it rubbed against his shoulders. It sounded long, much longer
than mine.
    “Me, then. It’s me. That’s why you’re
here.”
    “Indeed. I must be paid.”
    “Kari-fa.” Steve exhaled the word along with
his breath. “You’ve been waiting to do this, haven’t you? You’re
probably enjoying this.”
    “Not really. You think too highly of
yourself.” A whiff of fire crackled, followed by the scent of fresh
tobacco turning to ash. Mike was smoking a cigarette.
    “Give me one of those,” Steve coughed, and a
second cig was lit. I could hear him inhale deeply, before hacking
a few more times.
    “That’s what did you in, you know,” Mike said,
conversationally. “Smoking. Lung cancer and all that.”
    “Yeah, whatever. Come on. Let’s get
below.”
    Steve and Mike headed down the hallway, where
they released a latch that opened a hatch in the floor. From there,
Mike scaled a ladder to the plane’s lower bay, followed by Steve,
who began to cough at every step.
    “Wait!” I cried, fumbling to unbuckle the
safety belt. I didn’t want to stay up there all by myself. “Wait
for me, Steve! I’m coming, too.”
    “What for? There’s nothing you can do here.”
His voice echoed up the ladder well, bouncing off the spaceplane’s
narrow, metal walls. “Go back and sit down, junior. Remember,
you’re ill.”
    “No. I want to help.” Whether it was the fear
of being left alone, or Mike’s lesson had sunk in, I realized I
wanted, and I needed to be useful. “Please, isn’t there something I
can do?”
    “Go to the galley and get some water bottles,”
Mike ordered. “Find the coffee pot and some straws. Bring them to
me.”
    “Coffee?” Steve scoffed. “It’s hardly time for
breakfast. Cut the kid some slack and let him sit. He just got out
of the hospital a few minutes ago.” Now, Steve began to cough.
“Kari-fa! What have you done to me? I can hardly
breathe!”
    “I didn’t do anything. I told you, you did it
all yourself.”
    “I was fine until you showed up.”
    “Actually, you weren’t. Go on, Mike. We have
only a little time.”
    “Okay, Mike,” I replied, and quickly rose to
my feet, almost immediately tripping and falling on my
face.
    “Use your other senses, Mike. There is more to
sight than what you see before your eyes.”
    “How?”
    No one answered as something in the engine
room began to buzz. So, I fumbled my way forward to where I guessed
the galley would be, stretching my hands out in front of me to keep
from colliding with the walls. Finding the cockpit door straight
ahead, and the forward boarding ladder just to the right. On the
left, I discovered a counter with a small fridge beneath
it.
    I