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Speaker 1: After the Revolution. Richardson, Republic of Texas, twenty seventy, Chapter one.

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Speaker 1: Manny Manny smiled the way the British journalist's face blanched

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Speaker 1: as the old Toyota hit the pothole. Reggie wasn't used

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Speaker 1: to bad roads, cars driven by actual humans, or the

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Speaker 1: way the heavy metal of the gun mountain the truck

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Speaker 1: bed made the aluminum frame groan that was all familiar

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Speaker 1: to mannye He'd grown up in Siadad de Muerta, back

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Speaker 1: before the lake would blast, back when people had still

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Speaker 1: called it Dallas. The truck's driver veered around the bloated

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Speaker 1: corpse of a large dog lying in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the road. Reggie gripped the truck bed with white knuckles

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Speaker 1: and eyed the swaying amo belt of the twenty millimeter

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Speaker 1: cannon like it was a coiled snake. The gunner, Mannie's

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Speaker 1: cousin Alejandro, grinned down at the journalist. The suspension's a

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Speaker 1: little focked, yeh. The Briton nodded and turned greener. When

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Speaker 1: the technical hid another pothole, Manny supposed he should offer

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Speaker 1: a comfort in word to the man. That would be

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Speaker 1: good business, but a louder part of him looked at

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Speaker 1: Reggie's brand new boots and thought he can stand a

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Speaker 1: little less comfort. The journalists would brag about this ride

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Speaker 1: for months once he got home. Escorting reporters from the

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Speaker 1: safety of Austin to the sundry hotspots of the Old

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Speaker 1: Metroplex was not Manny's ideal career. Two years ago, he'd

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Speaker 1: been working on a bachelor's in business administration from the

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Speaker 1: University of Austin. The plan had been to get a

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Speaker 1: job with Ages Biosystems, then charm his way into a

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Speaker 1: working visa and a gig in the California Republic. But

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Speaker 1: the fighting had started up again and ruined all that.

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Speaker 1: The culprit this time was the Heavenly Kingdom, a loose

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Speaker 1: assortment of Christian extremist militias. They'd boiled out from the

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Speaker 1: suburbs of the Old Metroplex and all but broken the

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Speaker 1: Republic of Texas. The Autonomous City of Austin had stabilized

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Speaker 1: the situation with the help of an alliance of leftist

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Speaker 1: Texan militias the Secular Defense forces. Beating them back had

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Speaker 1: cost a lot in blood and time, and forced man

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Speaker 1: to change every plan he'd ever had for his life.

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Speaker 1: So he'd embraced the situation and started his own business,

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Speaker 1: hiring on some friends as employees. Together they'd built the

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Speaker 1: best network of stringers in North Texas. His boys fed

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Speaker 1: him video contacts and news updates, and he sold what

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Speaker 1: he could to the big foreign media conglomerates. In a

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Speaker 1: couple more months, he'd have enough saved up that he

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Speaker 1: could fuck off, fly to Europe and apply for a

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Speaker 1: refugee visa. Myons are pretty good as long as the

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Speaker 1: war doesn't end too soon. The technical rolled to a

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Speaker 1: creaky stop in front of a checkpoint that had clearly

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Speaker 1: been erected within the last few days. It was just

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Speaker 1: a collapsible electronic gate and two sandbag emplacements on either

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Speaker 1: side of the battered highway. A street sign nearby announced

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Speaker 1: that they were on the edge of Richardson, formerly a

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Speaker 1: suburb of Dallas and currently a forward position of the

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Speaker 1: People's Protection Army. A local anarchist militia manny could see

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Speaker 1: the p PA's red black triangle emblem stitched onto the

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Speaker 1: jackets of the soldiers guarding the checkpoint. One of the

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Speaker 1: p p A men walked up to the driver's side

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Speaker 1: window and started chatting with Philip. The driver. Phil and

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Speaker 1: Manny's cousin Alejandro were both with the Citizens Front, a

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Speaker 1: more or less a political militia from the suburbs of Austin.

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Speaker 1: Both militias co existed under the broad umbrella of the

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Speaker 1: Secular Defense Forces. The SDF had been organized by the

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Speaker 1: Canadian government to lump all of North Texas's palatable militant

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Speaker 1: groups into a single package that could be conveniently armed.

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Speaker 1: While the first guard talk with Philip, his partner did

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Speaker 1: a circuit around the back of the truck. The man

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Speaker 1: was big, bulging, with muscles so sculpted and prominent they

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Speaker 1: had to be vat grown, and he moved with the

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Speaker 1: twitchy ungrace of a man who replaced his nervous system

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Speaker 1: with circuitry. His weapon was a very old, very battered

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Speaker 1: a R fifteen with an M two four three grenade

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Speaker 1: launcher below the barrel. The latter was old U S

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Speaker 1: military gear. The former had been someone's toy before the

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Speaker 1: revolution gave America's half billion civilian guns a new riis

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Speaker 1: on debt. The man moved back to the barricades when

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Speaker 1: he had finished his lap. Reggie looked up at any

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Speaker 1: and asked was he a was he chromed? Many smiled.

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Speaker 1: That was always one of the first questions as soon

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Speaker 1: as any foreign journal saw a trooper with a large

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Speaker 1: enough billed skin with an off shade, or who just

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Speaker 1: moved a little too fast to seem completely right. Anything

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Speaker 1: beyond basic aesthetic and medical modifications were banned in civilized

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Speaker 1: countries like the UK. The real chrome, the implants that

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Speaker 1: would let a man lift a truck or take a

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Speaker 1: rocket to the belly that ship was locked up tight.

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Speaker 1: A few national militaries even used the stuff these days,

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Speaker 1: not after the revolution. He's got some vat grown muscles,

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Speaker 1: Manny said, in an off handed way that suggested such

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Speaker 1: things were common aftermarket nerves too. Probably his stuff is

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Speaker 1: low grade, that's why it's so visible. Reggie nodded. His

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Speaker 1: eyes stayed locked on the big man. He was quiet

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Speaker 1: for a while before he spoke again. You just live

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Speaker 1: right alongside them, don't you, Manny shrugged. Everybody's got something

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Speaker 1: out here and the wet wears. But lets us hold

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Speaker 1: back the martyrs. They own the whole city if it

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Speaker 1: weren't or half fats like him. The journalists nodded, and

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Speaker 1: his gaze stayed fixed upon the militiaman until a troubled

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Speaker 1: look crossed his face. He glanced back to Manny. Are

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Speaker 1: you a chromed Reggie asked. Manny smiled, I don't expect

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Speaker 1: either of us as stock Sabienah, but I doubt I've

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Speaker 1: got anything you don't. Reggie seemed somewhat comforted by this.

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Speaker 1: Most of what I've read about the really heavy moths

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Speaker 1: says they cause a lot of well unstable behavior. That's why,

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Speaker 1: that's why this city such a ship hole, Manny asked.

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Speaker 1: The journalist had the grace to blush. Manny looked away

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Speaker 1: for a moment. His eyes landed on the bones of

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Speaker 1: three large public housing buildings. A barrel bomb had detonated

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Speaker 1: in the center of the courtyard. All three shared. It

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Speaker 1: had peeled away the walls, some of the floors, and

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Speaker 1: the resulting firestorm had burned up everything that wasn't concrete, steel,

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Speaker 1: or rebar For just a moment, Manny felt bad about

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Speaker 1: hoping the war hung on. In other six months, the

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Speaker 1: old government blamed a lot on roided up veterans with

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Speaker 1: military grade mods. He told Reggie, most was just propaganda,

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Speaker 1: fear mongering. People were pissed. After twenty years of plague, disaster,

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Speaker 1: and poverty. Manny shrugged. It's true, though a lot of

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Speaker 1: chromed up vets turned on the government. You can't make

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Speaker 1: men into gods and expect them to keep fighting from men,

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Speaker 1: Reggie pointed back to the bolding militiaman, I take it,

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Speaker 1: muscles there is pretty far from a god. Nah, Manny laughed.

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Speaker 1: He's just a guy with too much meat money. Gods

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Speaker 1: don't man check points. The Brit was excited. Now. These

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Speaker 1: were the questions he'd wanted to ask since they met yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Do you know where some of those people are? Reggie

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Speaker 1: couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. Could we

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Speaker 1: talk to them? Manny didn't have any of those contacts,

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Speaker 1: nor did he know any other fixers who did. He

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Speaker 1: tried to let the Brit down easy. Most of those

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Speaker 1: folks live ah on the road in between the civilized

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Speaker 1: parts of Texas and the Republic of California. Oh. Reggie

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Speaker 1: looked disappointed. The truck rolled past the wreckage of an

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Speaker 1: old Catholic school. It bore signs of being fortified, destroyed,

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Speaker 1: re fortified, and redestroyed several times. The Brit was inches

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Speaker 1: from asking another question when The gate man waved them on,

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Speaker 1: and the battered Toyota farted its way into drive, belching

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Speaker 1: and complaining, past a network of potholes until it hit

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Speaker 1: a relatively straight chunk of asphalt. Only a few minutes

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Speaker 1: now heife. Manny said, the p PA's forward position is

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Speaker 1: about five minutes out. He'll be in the ship then,

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Speaker 1: or at least should adjacent. The journalist's face washed over

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Speaker 1: in an even mix of anxiety and pride. One of

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Speaker 1: the first lessons Manny had learned at this job was

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Speaker 1: that phrases like the ship made rich gringo writers unreasonably excited.

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Speaker 1: An excited journalists always called Manny the next time they

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Speaker 1: were in country. Giving white kids in caffie as a

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Speaker 1: lifetime of bragging rights for surviving a couple of days

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Speaker 1: in his home killed his soul just a little bit,

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Speaker 1: But Manny pushed down the anger and told himself that

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Speaker 1: a chip on the shoulder was a lot less useful

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Speaker 1: than money in the bank. The Technical rolled off the

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Speaker 1: old highway. Manny could see twenty three and Spring Valley

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Speaker 1: Road and blasmed on a weather beaten bullets garred sign.

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Speaker 1: The Technical pulled to the right. The guns swayed in

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Speaker 1: its mount. Manny couldn't help smiling as the brit instinctively

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Speaker 1: pulled away from it. They rolled up to what had

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Speaker 1: once been a strip mall and was now a forward

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Speaker 1: operating base for the People's Protection Army. An old laundromat,

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Speaker 1: a bookstore, and a half dozen restaurants now had their

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Speaker 1: roofs ringed with barbed wire and machine gun emplacements. Manny

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Speaker 1: could see a line of bullet hole stitched across three

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Speaker 1: of the shops. None of the windows were intact, but

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Speaker 1: otherwise the buildings had weathered the war rather well. Three

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Speaker 1: M one howitzers were parked next to a taco shop

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Speaker 1: that had once served the local college, kid's beer and

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Speaker 1: sheep grub. There was a flagpole out in front of

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Speaker 1: the shop, and from it hung the blue and white

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Speaker 1: starburst flag of the SDF. Three men in uniforms stood

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Speaker 1: waiting as the old Toyota rolled to a stop and

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Speaker 1: Manny and Reggie disembarked. Two of the men were officers

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Speaker 1: in the p P, A Colonel Jacob Milgram and Major

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Speaker 1: Deshaun Clark. Milgram was a boring, tight lipped nerdy type,

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Speaker 1: but Deshaun was one of Manny's favorite sources. He was

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Speaker 1: an old infantry guy, a consummate rawler with a face

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Speaker 1: full of scars and three published books of poetry to

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Speaker 1: his name. He actually had a base of international fans,

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Speaker 1: mostly in Spain. The third man was Hamid Mohammed, an

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Speaker 1: adviser from Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds had been giving aid

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Speaker 1: to the Sundry militias of the Secular Defense Forces for

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Speaker 1: years now. Manny considered Hamid almost a local. He shook

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Speaker 1: hands with Jacob, since Manny knew De Shaun better. He

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Speaker 1: met the man with a full embrace and used it

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Speaker 1: as an opportunity to palm the major a packet of

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Speaker 1: his favorite cigarettes. Deshaun gave him a wink and a smile.

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Speaker 1: Manny shook Hamid's hand next, and then kissed him on

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Speaker 1: the cheek. Hamid returned the kiss, clapped him on the shoulder,

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Speaker 1: and said, Emmanuel, my friend, you really should get out

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Speaker 1: of this business. One of these days you'll come up

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Speaker 1: here and it won't be safe. Manny frowned a little

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Speaker 1: at the use of his birth name, but he didn't

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Speaker 1: make an issue out of the matter. There's still a

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Speaker 1: war on right, he smiled. At Hamid. He'll get that

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Speaker 1: ship under control. Maybe I'll work a straight job again.

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Speaker 1: Not too soon, though, he thought. The least this work

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Speaker 1: can do was last long enough to get me out

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Speaker 1: of Texas. Hamide smiled back, and Manny introduced Reggie to

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Speaker 1: the officers. The journalist was clearly awkward in that special

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Speaker 1: way Manny had come to expect from new war correspondents.

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Speaker 1: It was the norm for young writers to be intimidated

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Speaker 1: by grizzled military men. Some of them got over that

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Speaker 1: Manny had worked with a middle aged dr Spiegel reporter

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Speaker 1: last week could probably take in as much incoming fire

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Speaker 1: as Major Clark. Colonel Milgram led them into the militarized

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Speaker 1: taco shop. A brief blast of nostalgia squeezed Manny's lungs.

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Speaker 1: The place had obviously been closed since the revolution. The

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Speaker 1: drink specials and meal prices printed on the wall were

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Speaker 1: given in U S dollars, a currency as dead as

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Speaker 1: the last American president. Many recognized ads for bands and

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Speaker 1: movies he remembered from his childhood. The glass facade had

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Speaker 1: shattered years ago. The kitchen had been gutted and replaced

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Speaker 1: by wall length screens displaying maps, of the city. At

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Speaker 1: least a dozen uniformed men and women milled around the

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Speaker 1: space in small groups. He and Reggie sat down at

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Speaker 1: a long picnic table with Hamide and the two officers.

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Speaker 1: Reggie set his camera up on the table. It was

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Speaker 1: just a small silver sphere, but Manny knew it could

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00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,520
Speaker 1: record everything happening around it at a higher resolution than

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00:11:07,559 --> 00:11:11,160
Speaker 1: the human eye, and orderly brought in three beers, shinier

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00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:13,720
Speaker 1: box from Austin and one dark brown tea and a

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00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,959
Speaker 1: glass cup for hamade. The brit raised his glass in

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00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,800
Speaker 1: a friendly salute, thank you for meeting with me, and

219
00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,719
Speaker 1: then he started to ask questions. Manny leaned back in

220
00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,120
Speaker 1: his chair and enjoyed a long gulp of cold beer.

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00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,240
Speaker 1: If he wasn't needed to translate, he generally checked out

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00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:31,160
Speaker 1: during interviews. He used the free time to activate his

223
00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,120
Speaker 1: deck and check in on the two stringers he had

224
00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:36,319
Speaker 1: working right now. David Allenby was up in Addison today

225
00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,199
Speaker 1: taking a Californian documentary crew on a tour of an

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00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,319
Speaker 1: STF training facility. He'd messaged Manny to let him know

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00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:46,120
Speaker 1: they'd gotten through the checkpoints without any issue. Oscar Martinez

228
00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:48,640
Speaker 1: didn't have any journalists with him. He was embedded with

229
00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:51,720
Speaker 1: a Republic of Texas police unit, getting footage from inside

230
00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,480
Speaker 1: a neighborhood that had recently been liberated from the Heavenly Kingdom.

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00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:58,200
Speaker 1: There were no new messages from Oscar. His last check

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Speaker 1: in had been the night before. It was probably nothing,

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00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:03,800
Speaker 1: but it concerned Manning. Nonetheless, what if Oscar got a

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00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:06,760
Speaker 1: better offer for his footage. He'd always been loyal before,

235
00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:09,760
Speaker 1: but if that funk from the Guardian had gotten to him.

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00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 1: I'm interested in the Abrams Road bombing, Reggie told the colonel,

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00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:16,120
Speaker 1: and Manny's attentions swung back to his reporter. That's an

238
00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:18,840
Speaker 1: odd thing to ask about. The bombing had occurred two

239
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,200
Speaker 1: weeks back. It had been big news for a couple

240
00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:23,679
Speaker 1: of hours. Manny had paid one of his contacts and

241
00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:25,600
Speaker 1: Ross a Front for a video of a walk through

242
00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,720
Speaker 1: of the wreckage. It had brought in about three grand profit.

243
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Speaker 1: The Abrams Road bombing was not a martyrdom operation. Colonel

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00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:37,400
Speaker 1: Milgram sounded almost angry, terribly sorry. Reggie said, you're right,

245
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:41,120
Speaker 1: of course, there was no driver, so no martyr right right,

246
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,040
Speaker 1: Deshaun Clark said. He pulled a folded piece of white

247
00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:46,360
Speaker 1: paper out of his pocket, opened it up, and smoothed

248
00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:48,360
Speaker 1: it out on the table. It was a map of

249
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,320
Speaker 1: the df W area, color coded to show the positions

250
00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:54,400
Speaker 1: of the various militias in the region. We operate eight

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00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,360
Speaker 1: checkpoints on that part of the Richardson line, DeShawn said,

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00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,640
Speaker 1: as he pointed to each one. Five of them border

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Speaker 1: republ controlled territory. The traffic from there is mostly autonomous,

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00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:07,040
Speaker 1: and those vehicles slaved themselves to our traffic management system

255
00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:10,559
Speaker 1: before they can enter our territory. The other three checkpoints

256
00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:13,760
Speaker 1: border territory controlled by the martyrs. They don't see much

257
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:17,400
Speaker 1: traffic and they're all heavily manned. Reggie was quiet for

258
00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: a few seconds. Manny could almost hear the gears turning

259
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:21,960
Speaker 1: in the journalist's head as he struggled to find the

260
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:24,720
Speaker 1: words for his next question. Would it be fair to

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00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:28,880
Speaker 1: say the autonomous checkpoints are less secure? Then, Deshaun smiled

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00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:32,680
Speaker 1: a thin, quiet smile amid grimace. Colonel Milgram responded in

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00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:36,480
Speaker 1: a terse voice, the autonomous checkpoints have fewer defenders, but

264
00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,560
Speaker 1: they border Republic territory. The martyrs haven't pulled off an

265
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:43,040
Speaker 1: attack on one in quite some time. Was abrams Road

266
00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:46,080
Speaker 1: not on such attack. Reggie looked eager now like a hound,

267
00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:49,640
Speaker 1: following assent, we don't know who bombed Abram's road. Colonel

268
00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:52,560
Speaker 1: Milgram said, no one's taken credit, but we doubt it

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00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,520
Speaker 1: was the martyrs. Why the journalist asked, Manny leaned in

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00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:58,720
Speaker 1: a little interested in spite of himself, at where this

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00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,680
Speaker 1: was all going to lead, perhaps, Amid said, you should

272
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,000
Speaker 1: read a bit more about this heavenly kingdom. They reject

273
00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,600
Speaker 1: all autonomous technology. They even use remote human pilots for

274
00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,920
Speaker 1: their drones, like it's two thousand and fucking three. That's

275
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:17,120
Speaker 1: why our skies are always clear. We jammed them. Reggie asked,

276
00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:19,680
Speaker 1: is it possible they found some way to hack your

277
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:24,240
Speaker 1: defense system? Amid laughed, we bought this system from the Israelis.

278
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:26,440
Speaker 1: If you're telling me one of the Martyrs brigades has

279
00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:28,640
Speaker 1: a hacker who can crack that, then I'm the King

280
00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,680
Speaker 1: of Albuquerque. But something still went wrong, Reggie insisted, amid

281
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:38,520
Speaker 1: smile turned cold. This is war, mister Reggie. It's mostly

282
00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:42,480
Speaker 1: things going wrong. That's where the line of questions petered out.

283
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 1: Reggie asked them for access to the security footage from

284
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,520
Speaker 1: the destroyed checkpoint, and Colonel Milgram agreed to send it over.

285
00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:51,960
Speaker 1: We'd like to speak to the survivors as well, if possible,

286
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,240
Speaker 1: Mannie interjected, not waiting to see if the journalist would ask.

287
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:57,960
Speaker 1: He knew those men were all stationed behind the line now,

288
00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:00,120
Speaker 1: which would make for a safer, easier rest of the

289
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,520
Speaker 1: day than heading up to the wire, of course, Colonel

290
00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,440
Speaker 1: Milgram said, with a smile to Manny. They said their goodbyes,

291
00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,080
Speaker 1: and then Major Clark walked them out to their waiting Toyota.

292
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:11,720
Speaker 1: The Texas heat hit like an oven as they exited,

293
00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:13,800
Speaker 1: and Mannie was glad they'd be spending most of the

294
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,840
Speaker 1: rest of their day in doors. Deshaun clapped a hand

295
00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,360
Speaker 1: on Manny's shoulder as he lit one of his new cigarettes.

296
00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,240
Speaker 1: It's good to see you, Emmanuel, he said, and then

297
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,600
Speaker 1: he smiled at Reggie, and it's nice to meet you,

298
00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:27,280
Speaker 1: my British friend. I'm sorry you've come to the front

299
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 1: at a boring time, why, Reggie asked, Because this Deshaun

300
00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,240
Speaker 1: gestured at the gun emplacements and loitering militiamen of the

301
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:39,840
Speaker 1: command post. This is not war, not really. Your job

302
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 1: is to help your people, children of peace and plenty

303
00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,880
Speaker 1: understand what is going on here. You must teach them

304
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 1: the language of war, and to paraphrase a dead poet,

305
00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:51,560
Speaker 1: the language of war is a language made of blood.

306
00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,120
Speaker 1: To be spoken, it must be earned. There was an

307
00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:57,560
Speaker 1: awkward pause, A little of the blood drained from the

308
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:01,120
Speaker 1: journalist's face. Hugh Nutty, Old fuck, Manny thought, with more

309
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,800
Speaker 1: amusement than fear. Classic de Shaun, he said, and laughed.

310
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,440
Speaker 1: To ease the tension. The major bid them both a

311
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: good day, hugged Manny, and sauntered off back to the

312
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,320
Speaker 1: command post. Smoke from his cigarette curled up into the

313
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,320
Speaker 1: air behind him as he walked. Manny's eyes lingered on

314
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:18,560
Speaker 1: it for a second before he turned back to Reggie.

315
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:21,560
Speaker 1: Ready to go, he asked Jipper as he could manage.

316
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,880
Speaker 1: Three hours, a handful of interviews, and one short drive later,

317
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,240
Speaker 1: Manny and Reggie arrived at their home for the night.

318
00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,840
Speaker 1: The Richardson Autonomous Project, once a Walmart, now a twenty

319
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,520
Speaker 1: two year old experiment and sustainable urban living. The project

320
00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:40,960
Speaker 1: was the furthest island of civilization on the SDF side

321
00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,800
Speaker 1: of the front. It's militias steadfastly refused to involve themselves

322
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,960
Speaker 1: in the region's greater conflicts. They'd been targeted a few

323
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,800
Speaker 1: times by the Heavenly Kingdom. The SDF, by contrast, left

324
00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:54,400
Speaker 1: them alone, so when a fixer like Manny found himself

325
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of the L B J Freeway

326
00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:00,400
Speaker 1: after dark, he could usually trust the project to provide food, booze,

327
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:04,720
Speaker 1: and shelter for a price. Of course, sleeping arrangements in

328
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,360
Speaker 1: the project were broadly communal. The bulk of the old

329
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:10,040
Speaker 1: walmart had been converted into an indoor meadow, with grow

330
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,800
Speaker 1: lights hanging from the rafters and a wide, lush field

331
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,280
Speaker 1: of native grass sprawling across most of the inhabited space.

332
00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,280
Speaker 1: Fruit trees, bushes full of berries, cannabis, plants, and copses

333
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,320
Speaker 1: of bamboo lined the edges of the space. The center

334
00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,159
Speaker 1: of the field was dominated by a large circular kitchen

335
00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:30,119
Speaker 1: surrounded by a handsome oaken bar. Table tables, gazebos, and

336
00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:33,360
Speaker 1: sundry personal structures dotted the field, along with a pair

337
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,480
Speaker 1: of dance floors. Reggie's face lit up when he saw

338
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:38,879
Speaker 1: the bar. By the time Manny had dropped off their

339
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:41,040
Speaker 1: bags and paid Charlie and the driver for the night,

340
00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:44,560
Speaker 1: the journalist was already three beers in the brit wasn't

341
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:48,040
Speaker 1: precisely drunk or sober, but at that productive twilight in between,

342
00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:51,640
Speaker 1: he'd unrolled a portable screen and had a holographic display up,

343
00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,240
Speaker 1: looping four separate sections of the security footage Colonel Milgrim

344
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:59,320
Speaker 1: had sent over. The journalist alternated between typing furiously scrawling

345
00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:01,760
Speaker 1: notes in his lurnal, and taking huge gulps of something

346
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,320
Speaker 1: brown and foamy. He stopped working when he saw a

347
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,760
Speaker 1: Manny approach and waved him into the adjacent seat. Hey, brother,

348
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,520
Speaker 1: check this out. Manny pulled up a seat and the

349
00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,439
Speaker 1: journalist directed his attention to a six second loop of

350
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,080
Speaker 1: footage from immediately after the bombing. It showed two man

351
00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:20,240
Speaker 1: size silhouettes standing on top of an old garage. Many

352
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:23,000
Speaker 1: remembered the building. It stood maybe two hundred meters from

353
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,320
Speaker 1: the Abrams Road checkpoint. One of the silhouettes had a rifle,

354
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,639
Speaker 1: the other held a short squat tube that Manny recognized

355
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:34,400
Speaker 1: as a camera lens. Notice anything, spotters, Manny said, Probably

356
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 1: trying to get a kill count. No man, look at

357
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,240
Speaker 1: where he's pointed at. Kut's not looking at any post.

358
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,520
Speaker 1: He's looking straight back deeper into the old town, and

359
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:44,600
Speaker 1: I'll bet you he's high up enough to be staring

360
00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:48,600
Speaker 1: right at Colonel Milgram's command post. Manny looked again. He

361
00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:52,159
Speaker 1: thought about the angle. Okay, so what, he asked, You

362
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:54,399
Speaker 1: think this was a probing attack for some big action.

363
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:58,679
Speaker 1: The journalist shrugged. Maybe it's something new, is what interests me.

364
00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,399
Speaker 1: Two years of modern them operations that all look more

365
00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:03,879
Speaker 1: or less the same, and now this weird one, an

366
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,640
Speaker 1: autonomous vehicle bomb from a group of fanatics who think

367
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: autonomous vehicles of the devil. Yeah, Manny agreed, that does

368
00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 1: seem weird. The bartender walked up and offered Manny his

369
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,920
Speaker 1: pick of the finest liquor in this particular war zone.

370
00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,160
Speaker 1: Manny ordered a Shiner. It was the one beer drinker

371
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,560
Speaker 1: could find across both the Republic of Texas and the

372
00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 1: Austin Autonomous Region. He looked back at the looping footage.

373
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:29,080
Speaker 1: They both watched it twice more. Then Reggie spoke up again.

374
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,160
Speaker 1: What have you heard about pasta, Mike, he asked. Manny

375
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,439
Speaker 1: stiffened a little bit at the name. He had heard it,

376
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,120
Speaker 1: of course, vague stories of rioting in Kansas, A fundamentalist

377
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,760
Speaker 1: uprising inside the southernmost territories of the United Christian States.

378
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:45,720
Speaker 1: He hadn't thought much about it at first, but two

379
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,920
Speaker 1: years ago Pastor Mike had moved to Texas, shortly before

380
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,919
Speaker 1: the Heavenly Kingdom had declared itself. It was hard to

381
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 1: say what role exactly the preacher played in the organization,

382
00:19:55,359 --> 00:19:58,919
Speaker 1: but he was certainly its most visible face. I know

383
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,359
Speaker 1: who he is, Manny said. I know the Republic led

384
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:03,480
Speaker 1: him in because they thought his followers might provide a

385
00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,600
Speaker 1: buffer against Austin's influence. I know that blew the funk

386
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,919
Speaker 1: up in their faces. Manny took a long drink and continued,

387
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 1: that's an old story around here, the Republic using those

388
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,080
Speaker 1: gond fondling nut fucks to push back against the leftists.

389
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,679
Speaker 1: The journalist raised an eyebrow, and Manny instantly regretted his

390
00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 1: crude response. He didn't really care about religion one way

391
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,920
Speaker 1: or the other, but whenever he came out to the front,

392
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 1: it was hard not to get a little angry, especially

393
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:30,920
Speaker 1: after a drink. Sorry, he said, it's been a long day.

394
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 1: Reggie looked down, coughed, and took a sip. He looked

395
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,800
Speaker 1: back at Manny, took another sip and said, you know,

396
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,879
Speaker 1: that's another subject I'd rather like to cover, what Manny asked,

397
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,320
Speaker 1: anti Christian sentiment in North America. Manny grunted and looked

398
00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 1: down at his drink. The brit barreled on, You're not

399
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:50,920
Speaker 1: the first North American I've heard express anger towards Christians,

400
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,720
Speaker 1: he said, in California, Cascadia, the North American Federation. I've

401
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 1: just seen a lot of hate. Look, Manny interrupted me.

402
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,080
Speaker 1: I'm a man of piece, I of everybody, but this

403
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: continent has been torn apart and bleeding for the last

404
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 1: twenty years. A lot of people hate Christians. The ones

405
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,240
Speaker 1: that don't hate Christians hate leftists, and everybody outside the

406
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: American Federation hates capitalists, hate, hate hate. Manny took a

407
00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,160
Speaker 1: gulp of his beer and set it down a little

408
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 1: harder than he'd intended. He looked Reggie in the eye

409
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 1: and finished, There's exactly one thing all the broken bits

410
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,400
Speaker 1: of this continent have in common. Hate. The journalist arched

411
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,959
Speaker 1: an eyebrow at Manny and returned the gaze. He had

412
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,040
Speaker 1: the look of a man peering into the enclosure of

413
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:35,000
Speaker 1: a particularly exotic zoo animal. Manny wanted to resent it,

414
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 1: but he'd been doing this job long enough to know

415
00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 1: this was just how journalists looked at people. Reggie downed

416
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,200
Speaker 1: his drink. He reached a hand up to signal the bartender,

417
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,639
Speaker 1: and then looked back at Manny. Can I buy you

418
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 1: another round? Manny shook his head, no, thanks, I'm tired

419
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 1: and I don't want to drag us at the front tomorrow.

420
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,280
Speaker 1: He downed the last of his beer, bid Reggie a

421
00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:56,200
Speaker 1: good night, and headed over to the spot of turf

422
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: where he'd set up his sleeping bag and gear. He

423
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 1: popped off his shoes, his pains in his shirt, and

424
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,479
Speaker 1: rubbed himself down with a handful of wet naps. Then

425
00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 1: he grabbed a night shirt and swept pants from his

426
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:09,679
Speaker 1: bag and slipped them on. Manny considered clean pajamas a necessity.

427
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 1: He fired up his deck again. Once he was swaddled

428
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 1: in his sleeping bag. There was a juttering start, and

429
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,760
Speaker 1: then the corners of his vision were populated by a

430
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: series of small, partly translucent screens. Each one bulged with updates,

431
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:24,120
Speaker 1: friends asking about his weekend plans, spam from his college,

432
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 1: notifications about the new video uploads, and headlines from the

433
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: local news. David had messaged him twice more to let

434
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:32,800
Speaker 1: him know he and his journalists were headed back to Austin,

435
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:37,520
Speaker 1: and then that they'd arrived. Oscar still hadn't responded. Manny's

436
00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: initial concern was over his loyalty. I got that fucker

437
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: started as a stringer. If he sold that video and

438
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 1: cutting me out of the deal, I'm going to going

439
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,160
Speaker 1: to But the longer he thought about Oscar, the more

440
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 1: Manny worried something might have happened. He'd been working in

441
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 1: Plano today, You're a very stable chunk of the front,

442
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,320
Speaker 1: but this far out, almost anything could happen. Many closed

443
00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: his eyes, sighed, and tried to purge the anxiety from

444
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: his mind. There was nothing to do now other than

445
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:04,359
Speaker 1: get to sleep so he could wake up tomorrow and

446
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: make more money. That thought prompted Manny to pull open

447
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 1: his banking app and check on the status of his

448
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,919
Speaker 1: savings account. The numbers glowed fat and happy, and the

449
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,520
Speaker 1: space in front of his head another five months in

450
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: the field, maybe six, Then I buy that plane ticket.

451
00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:21,119
Speaker 1: He started to think about the pictures he'd seen of

452
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,240
Speaker 1: Dublin and Berlin and Barcelona, all the places he thought

453
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,239
Speaker 1: he might live if this war would just hang on

454
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:29,679
Speaker 1: a little longer. He soon fell asleep and slept pretty

455
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 1: well until the first mortar landed. Chapter two, Rowland. He

456
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 1: woke up suddenly aware of two equally pressing problems. The

457
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 1: acids worn off and eight people are here to kill me.

458
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: Both of these facts concerned him equally. He couldn't remember

459
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: his name or where exactly he was, which made the

460
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,440
Speaker 1: impending kilty all the more concerning. He opened his eyes.

461
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,920
Speaker 1: His vision was blurry and unfocused. His head felt filled

462
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: with sand Roland, Oh ship, that's my name. Roland wondered

463
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,640
Speaker 1: how long he'd been asleep. He reflexively triggered his deck

464
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 1: before the dim firing of a synapse reminded him that

465
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: he'd permanently disabled his data connection well a long time ago,

466
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: five million, two or twenty six thousand minutes. His hindbrain,

467
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 1: what Roland called the acres of microscopic processors and data banks,

468
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 1: spun into his blood. Spat the knowledge out, unbidden into

469
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,679
Speaker 1: his conscious mind. Roland tried to curse, but wound up

470
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 1: spitting out a wad of brackish flim Instead. His eyes

471
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: settled on a quarter full bottle of fungus whiskey. He

472
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 1: grabbed it, drained it and rooted around on the table

473
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: where he'd found it until his digging turned up a

474
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:46,359
Speaker 1: sheet of acid. He ripped the sheet in half, ate

475
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 1: one half and pasted the other on his sweat damp chest.

476
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: Roland's brain didn't wait for the acid to do its job.

477
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 1: Nanomachines couriered the lysurgic diethyl acid directly to his synapses.

478
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: The drugs took cold in a matter of seconds. Asked,

479
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: had softened the world around him. His hindbrain's running commentary

480
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,159
Speaker 1: faded into a sort of generalized hyper awareness of the

481
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: world around him. He sighed, relaxed, and remembered a woman

482
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: hovered over him, her hands on his shoulders, her knees

483
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: on either side of his body. Sweat dripped down from

484
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,360
Speaker 1: her short black hair onto his face and chest. Her

485
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,919
Speaker 1: pupils were the size of dinner plates. She smelled like

486
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,680
Speaker 1: acid and desire. She smiled, revealing a row of damascus

487
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: steel teeth. Roland pulled himself out of the memory. He

488
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: felt the strike team advance. His hindbrain generated a map

489
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: of the approaching assassins. They were still a solid minute

490
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: from his hovel. There were six men and two women

491
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,879
Speaker 1: on the team. If he'd wanted. A micro second's focus

492
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,400
Speaker 1: could have told him which members of the group were vegetarians,

493
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 1: where two of the team were on their minstrel cycles,

494
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: and how recently each of their firearms had been cleaned

495
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: and oiled. But Roland didn't care about that information. He

496
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: was trying to remember where he'd left his gun. The

497
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: one room hut Roland occupied was best described as squalid.

498
00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 1: He knew he'd lived there for quite a long time,

499
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: although he wasn't sure if the home was his in

500
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,880
Speaker 1: any legal sense of the word. It's one room held

501
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 1: a filthy mattress, a hot plate, several dozen empty bottles

502
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: of liquor, and a tinkling carpet of spent whippets. A

503
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: large knife was embedded in the door. Roland couldn't remember

504
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 1: why he knew he'd had a gun at one point,

505
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,440
Speaker 1: even though he couldn't currently find it. He stood up,

506
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 1: still wobbly from the massive dose of g h B

507
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,840
Speaker 1: he'd taken with his nightly tequila, and started kicking at

508
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: the piles of bottles and drug paraphernalia in the hope

509
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: that one of them might contain his gun. He found

510
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: some bullets. After a few seconds search at the bottom

511
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: of a folger's coffee tin that was half filled with marijuana.

512
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,639
Speaker 1: Next to the tin was a large metal bowl of

513
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 1: stagnant water. Roland glanced in and caught sight of his

514
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: own reflection. His black skin looked ashen and clammy, unusually pale,

515
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: he thought, but he didn't recall enough about himself to

516
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,200
Speaker 1: know if that was really true. His face was long

517
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: and drawn, with wide, jutting cheekbones and apache uneven beard.

518
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: His head was covered in stubble. The center of his

519
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: face was dominated by a crooked, heavily scarred nose. Roland

520
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: had no recollection of why it was scarred, but he

521
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: knew the injury must have happened back before the army

522
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 1: filled with chrome. He turned away from his reflection and

523
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: continued to search through the house, scattering food and crusted plates,

524
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 1: empty coke bags, an old fashioned print pornography into even

525
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: less organized piles. No dice that I pawn it, he wondered,

526
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 1: as his machine assisted adetic memory ward. With his profound intoxication,

527
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: Roland was now conscious enough to remember that not remembering

528
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: much was pretty normal for him, and he should really

529
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: worry more about the assassin's coming to kill him. Oh

530
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: shit right, The strike team was just fifty meters out now.

531
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: He felt a gust of wind and in the same

532
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: way felt as two of the men began to assemble

533
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: a large sound cannon behind a rocky hill that faced

534
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: his hovel. He guessed it was a Callahan Mark thirty eight.

535
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: Roland didn't know how he knew the weapon's name, but

536
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 1: he knew it could burn out even his armored synapses

537
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: with a few seconds of continuous fire. One man was

538
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: on over watch for the Llahan team. He carried a

539
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: two bore Ruger Fauscion anti vehicular rifle. The mingling odors

540
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: of fierce sweat and baby formula wafting off him triggered

541
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:12,399
Speaker 1: since memories of someone holding a newborn infant, Roland guessed

542
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 1: the man must have a kid back home, a kid

543
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: he's scared of leaving fatherless of some chromed out asset

544
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: had phileas him. That was useful data. He filed it

545
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: away in the chunk of his brain least likely to

546
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 1: lose that information. Over the next four seconds. Roland's memory

547
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 1: was real good in four second chunks. Over the next

548
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,479
Speaker 1: pico second, he caught equally informative whiffs of the others.

549
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 1: It was enough to suggest that two of the women

550
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: in the main assault team were lovers, and they'd both

551
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 1: had Millspeck's subdermal armor implanted recently. The acrid scent of

552
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: fresh suitures hung heavy in the air around them. Roland

553
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: could also tell that one of the men in the

554
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: assault party took heavy testosterone supplements, either because of a

555
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: genetic abnormality or because he'd been assigned female at birth.

556
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: The fourth man was moderately addicted to Ephedric's and writing

557
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: into battle on a high stimulant wave. The last member

558
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: of the assault team was the only one to give

559
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: Roland any pause. He could guess the man's height and

560
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: weight six ft five hundred and forty pounds from the

561
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: sound of his footfalls. Roland could smell the sig Sour

562
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: five hundred submachine gun in his hands, but otherwise the

563
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 1: man was a sensory blank, no sweat, no hydraulics, and

564
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 1: black to thermographic sensors. The man was chromed not so

565
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: heavily as Rowland, of course, but the competent and well

566
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: armed squad he led might be enough to narrow the gap.

567
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: We're in the shooting shit, shit, shit, did I leave

568
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,479
Speaker 1: that gun? The static balance in the air changed as

569
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: the Overwatch team warmed up their sound cannon. The assault

570
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: team was close, now barely a hundred feet out, waiting

571
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: in the cover provided by several large bowlders at the

572
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: base of the rise that held Roland's ramshackle home. He

573
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: knew how this fight would go. They'd unleashed the Callahan

574
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: for a good five seconds while the Killed Team moved

575
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: into position and kicked in the door next the big

576
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 1: bruiser and the two women would enter, while the remainder

577
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: of the Assault team fanned out to cover the sides.

578
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 1: Textbook post human Killed Team tactics. He thought he didn't

579
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: actually remember any of the fights this conclusion was based on,

580
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: but he'd clearly lived through similar encounters, and if he

581
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,719
Speaker 1: trusted his body and hind brain, he would again. Roland

582
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: finished searching the apocalyptic ruin that was his kitchen sink.

583
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: The pile of plates had been large enough to hide

584
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: a short barrel, a R ten, but his gun wasn't

585
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: there either. Fuck nuts, he cursed. The profanity brought a

586
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: tiny serotonin spike, and Roland felt himself calm down, even

587
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: as the noose tightened around him. His combat wet wear

588
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: did most of its work in the moments before meat

589
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: met metal, so Roland closed his eyes, slumped his shoulders,

590
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 1: and relaxed while it cross indexed his memories of past

591
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: firefights with his current sensory data. A moment later, Roland

592
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: was presented with three potential counter assault strategies. He selected

593
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: the one that sounded like the most fun. The Callahan fired,

594
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: blanketing his home and much of the area beyond it

595
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: in a web of noise designed to assault and eventually

596
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 1: fry the synapses of anyone dumb enough to stand too

597
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 1: long in its wake. Payne lashed from Roland's inner ear

598
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: and arked out to every nerve in his body. It

599
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,479
Speaker 1: would have been enough to leave a strong man curled

600
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: on the ground, shifting his guts out, but Roland just

601
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 1: felt a distant ache. His experience of the damage was

602
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: more akin to seeing the check engine light on a

603
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 1: car than true agony. He was aware that if he

604
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: waited too long, the sonic weapon would blow out the

605
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: pain dampners on his spinal nerve gates. Lucky for him,

606
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: the assault team didn't wait that long. Roland felt the

607
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: big man arc his leg up to kick in the door.

608
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: He crumpled in and Roland lunged left. This helped him

609
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,959
Speaker 1: avoid the first spray of covering fire. As the chrombed

610
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: man and both women barreled inside, Roland flung himself into

611
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 1: the hovel's main structural support beam, which ran up the

612
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: building's left wall. He hit it with the rough speed

613
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 1: and force of a light truck going twenty miles an hour.

614
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: His momentum carried him and half the left wall into

615
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:51,480
Speaker 1: the rocky ground outside. Roland's filthy little home tottered and swayed.

616
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: It collapsed, first on the left side and then on

617
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: the right. As the whole structure failed. Roland was already

618
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:58,720
Speaker 1: up with a jagged piece of two by four in

619
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 1: his hands. He the Ephedric's addict holding down the left flame.

620
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:04,959
Speaker 1: The man got two shots off, and to his credit,

621
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: both hit right where Roland's original heart had been, and

622
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: then Roland was on him. He shoved the wood into

623
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,600
Speaker 1: the meat of the man's face. It gouged off enough

624
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:15,480
Speaker 1: flesh to philippine glass and shattered the poor fellow's jaw.

625
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: He went down hard. Roland smelled the familiar scent of

626
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: antihimiragic nanomachines. As they rushed to save the man's life,

627
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: he caught a slight sour whiff of the cheap clotting

628
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: agents in the man's blood. Roland guessed it was Traumax brand,

629
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: which was convenient. Traumax had based their whole line off

630
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: a piece of Brazilian military wet wear that itself was

631
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 1: based on a crude synthesis of horseshoe crab blood. The

632
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: organs worked well enough unless you happen to be an

633
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: amphetamine attitude suffered massive tissue damage, then your Traumax unit

634
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: would flood your synapses with adenocene to knock you out

635
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: rather than risk pushing more amphetamines on your stressed heart.

636
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 1: Something in the smell of the man's blood set off

637
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: a powerful sense memory buried deep in Roland's hipocampus vine

638
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 1: slashing his face, boiling jungle heat in his is connecting

639
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: with the face of a heavily armed young woman. Her

640
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: orbital bone broke into the blow. He smelled her blood

641
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 1: meat the air, and she dropped, dropped, dropped. The memory

642
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 1: flashed by, free of context, and the time it took

643
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 1: the other man to hit the ground. It was frustrating

644
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: to only remember the what of an action, and not

645
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,719
Speaker 1: the why or the after. It was like knowing how

646
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: to ride a bike without remembering who taught you and when.

647
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 1: Only for everything. Roland found it somewhat unsettling. A twelve

648
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: gage slug hit him in the first It dug deep,

649
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 1: hit reinforced bone, and stopped. The little machines in Roland's

650
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: blood were already cutting it apart by the time he

651
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: stopped musing and bounded over to the other flank man.

652
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,240
Speaker 1: Roland chucked the two by four hard as he ran.

653
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: The wood impacted above the assassin's temple with an audible crack,

654
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: shattering the man's sphenoid bone. The battle drugs started to

655
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:52,640
Speaker 1: trickle into Roland's synapses. Now a cocktail of endorphins, oxytocin, serotonin,

656
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: and epinephrin concocted to make violence as addictive as a

657
00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 1: fat rock of crystal meth, Roland instantly wanted more. He

658
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: knew he could trigger a greater dose by stomping on

659
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: the downed man's skull and ending his life. He fought

660
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: down the arge and instead grabbed the man's a a

661
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 1: thirty two combat shotgun, and rolled for cover behind a

662
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: red rock boulder. He was almost fast enough, but either

663
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,440
Speaker 1: the overwatch man had some aftermarket parts, Roland hadn't smelled,

664
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: or all the hardcore drug abuse had done long term

665
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 1: damage to his reflexes. Maybe no more crack binges. Roland

666
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: fought as a massive two bore slug to most of

667
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 1: his left shoulder out into the desert behind him. Roland

668
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,320
Speaker 1: belted out several funkwords as pain flooded the banks of

669
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 1: his dampners, and just that second, with truly exquisite timing,

670
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: the Callahan crew swiveled their weapon round and poured sonic

671
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: fire at him from above. For refraction of a second,

672
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 1: everything went dark. Roland's world was riotous, red pain, and

673
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 1: little else. If his body had required the input of

674
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 1: his conscious mind, he would have been in a real pickle.

675
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 1: During the milliseconds it took for his dampners to cut

676
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 1: through the pain hayes, Roland's body dove ten feet to

677
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: the left enough to take him out of the Callahan

678
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: spray and behind and outcropping of rocks. Two rounds cracked

679
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 1: into the rock above his head. Roland came back to

680
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 1: himself as the shards cut into his skin. He glanced

681
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: down at the ruin of his shoulder. His little blood

682
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: robots were already hard at work rebuilding the muscles, bones

683
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 1: and sinews blown out by the giant's slug. A couple

684
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: of seconds more and the limb would be usable again.

685
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: But Rowland had a better idea. He used his intact

686
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: arm as a flesh catapult and flung himself up over

687
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 1: the boulder towards the callahan and its three guardians. The

688
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: man with the two boar fired again. Roland had known

689
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 1: he would, and his hind brain had already calculated the

690
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:39,400
Speaker 1: ideal emotions to avoid the dozen most likely shot patterns.

691
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 1: He sailed over the half pound bullets with ease and

692
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 1: used the hand of his intact arm to rip his

693
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: wounded arm free at the shoulder. Roland landed hard in

694
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,399
Speaker 1: front of the callahan. He swung his own severed limb

695
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 1: like a club and knocked the barrel to the left.

696
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 1: Then he laid into the gun's crew with a mix

697
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 1: of pounding swings from the arm and stomps to the

698
00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 1: other men's knees and ankles. Bone shattered assens screamed the

699
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: man with the two boar and the newborn child at

700
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:07,720
Speaker 1: home wavered and broke. Roland had expected this. Many normal humans,

701
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,839
Speaker 1: even hardened veterans, found it nauseating and unsettling to see

702
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,399
Speaker 1: a man move as fast as he could move, add

703
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,759
Speaker 1: beating their friends half to death with a severed limb,

704
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 1: and well, he'd predicted the guy would break. It's not

705
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 1: your fault, buddy, Roland thought, as he watched the man run.

706
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: Don't feel bad. He'd wanted to say that out loud,

707
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: but he was having trouble working his vocal cords. In

708
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,879
Speaker 1: roughly seven seconds, Roland had eliminated five out of eight

709
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 1: threats in the killed team. His hind brain predictions had

710
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: given him six more seconds at least before the entry

711
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 1: team cleared themselves from the debris of his collapsed hovel.

712
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: But the other post human, the man who'd shown blank

713
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: on most of Roland's senses, had freed himself faster. Roland

714
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: realized this when a trio of fifty caliber slugs burst

715
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,439
Speaker 1: into his chest cavity. He dropped, avoiding the last three

716
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 1: rounds of the burst, and rolled behind another pair of

717
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 1: boulders with his severed arm in hand. The two female

718
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 1: assassins were close to freeing themselves now Roland could hear

719
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: them struggle out through the vibrations of their bodies in

720
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: the red sand. He couldn't see the other post human,

721
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 1: but he'd triangulated his most likely location. Unfortunately, the other

722
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: fucker had him dead to rights. If Roland broke cover,

723
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: he'd be shot to pieces, maybe more pieces than his

724
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: trauma organs could put back together. All right, Oh boy,

725
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: do eat a bunch of lead and charge the bastards

726
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: to play the meat rockets and run for a gun

727
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,840
Speaker 1: while they're blind. He suddenly remembered the spring loaded assault

728
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,800
Speaker 1: razor embedded in his left forearm, and then the twenty

729
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 1: two millimeter grenade pistol buried in between his small intestine

730
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 1: and his sigmoid colon. Did I remember to load it

731
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 1: before shoving it in there? But before he could take

732
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: any action, the firefight was interrupted by an oddly familiar voice. Hey, Roland,

733
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:52,799
Speaker 1: has its swinging. Roland hadn't smelled or heard this new

734
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 1: man coming. The voice was very familiar. Roland felt a

735
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 1: name on the tip of his tongue, but it just

736
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't come. Weapons down, lads and lasses. I've seen enough

737
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: to guess the end. Roland smelled frustration. Waft off. The

738
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: two women, now free and angry. The other post human

739
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: smelled like nothing, but Roland felt him lower his weapon.

740
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 1: Some gray, dead strand of memory pulsed in the back

741
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: of Roland's brain, and he guessed that it was safe

742
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: for him to stand up now. So he did and

743
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,279
Speaker 1: put eyes on the mystery man. The fellow had a lopsided,

744
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 1: squarish jaw with a very deliberate five o'clock shadow. His

745
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 1: nose was thick and bulby. His red hair was tangled

746
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: into dreadlocks that were more the result of inattention than

747
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 1: stylistic choice. He was tall, muscular, but lean, with a

748
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 1: bare chest that was covered in tattoos of black snakes.

749
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: They writhed in time with the beating of his heart.

750
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 1: He wore nothing but a pair of red leather chaps

751
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: and a broad, calm smile. His bare penis swung pingulous

752
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: in the breeze. Both of his palms were extended out

753
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: front and visible. It was the kind of gesture one

754
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 1: used to calm an animal. Roland synapses fired and misfired,

755
00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: and a string of fragmented memories ran through his mind.

756
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,360
Speaker 1: He recalled a really good hot dog on a sunny

757
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 1: day push ups in the mud, searing pain in his genitals,

758
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: and the taste of shitty ditchweed. These memory fragments were

759
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 1: all somehow tied to the man in front of him.

760
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 1: It took Roland a moment, but as soon as he

761
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 1: got a full look at those cold gray eyes, the

762
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: man's name clicked into place. Oh ship, he croaked, Jim.

763
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: Roland hadn't spoken to a person in months, at least

764
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: maybe longer. He sounded more like a suffering cap than

765
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: an English speaking human, but Jim understood him. Yep, he said.

766
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: Roland's sighed, looked at his separate arm and crudely shoved

767
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: it into place. It had clotted a bit, and his

768
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 1: stubb burned as the tiny robots in his blood got

769
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: to work reattaching his once in future limb. Jim, he

770
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 1: said again, sounding a bit less like a frog after

771
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 1: a six day coke bench. You fucked up my house man.

772
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:55,399
Speaker 1: That's not cool. Roland didn't know how long he'd known Jim.

773
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 1: He couldn't even pin down the man's last name, but

774
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,400
Speaker 1: he was pretty sure they'd fought together back before the revolution,

775
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: and he was certainly had had a threesome with a

776
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,799
Speaker 1: devilishly handsome spet s nas man. He couldn't remember that

777
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: guy's name or why they'd all been in Panama, but

778
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,760
Speaker 1: he didn't expect that was the sort of experience past

779
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:13,920
Speaker 1: him would have shared with someone who wasn't a friend.

780
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: You remember me, Jim asked, basically. Roland answered, good, because

781
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 1: I got a favor to ask. Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here.

782
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: I hope you just enjoyed the chapter you listen to.

783
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come. If you

784
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,959
Speaker 1: would like to read the text version of this book

785
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,520
Speaker 1: either on the web or on your e reader as

786
00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: an e pub, you can find those on the website

787
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 1: a t r book dot com. So again, the free

788
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,120
Speaker 1: ad free e pub and the text of every chapter

789
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:47,959
Speaker 1: will be on a t r book dot