A Perfect Machine(38)

Slowly, like sunlight filtering down through murky water, something Henry said finally penetrated Faye’s exhaustion and confusion. “Wait a minute,” she mumbled, her eyes refocusing. “Palermo?”

“Edward Palermo,” Henry said, moving toward Faye. He put a hand on her shoulder. Again, gently. Gently. “The head of the Runners. Why?”

“He visited me outside the hospital not long after I’d helped you home in that cab. Gave me his card, told me to call him if you got in contact with me again.”

“So he’s known about me that long?” Henry said.

“You’re a terrible fugitive,” Milo said.

Henry tried to smirk. Wasn’t sure how it settled on his face, but it felt right. “So if he’s known about me and where I am all this time, why hasn’t he just gotten a pile of guys together to take me in?”

Adelina said to Milo, “He missed his window to contain Henry right at the beginning and, by the time he knew where he was, he was probably already too much for Palermo to safely handle. Now he knows you’re powerful, but he doesn’t know how powerful. At this point, I suspect he wants to see what you become before he makes a move.”

Milo relayed her words to Henry.

Henry frowned. “How does Adelina know so much about all this, anyway, Milo? Who is she? How do you even know you can trust a word she says?”

“Palermo’s my father,” Adelina said quietly. “Henry’s becoming what I was supposed to be, but never fully became.”

Milo stared at her. “Palermo’s your father?”

Henry echoed Milo, astonished: “Palermo’s her father?”

She nodded. “I was the first to ascend, or whatever you want to call it. No one had ever done it before me, so there’s no proper term for it, but yes, full lead content. I achieved it years ago. My father… hid me away so no one would know.”

Milo repeated her words to Faye and Henry, then said, “Why would he do that?”

“Look, we don’t have time for me to explain everything right now. Henry’s right that people will be looking for the ambulance driver. Probably have been for several hours.”

Milo said to Henry, “OK, she says no time to get in to it, will explain later… So, body disposal. How do we get rid of it? We need to make it disappear, clean up the blood and… other bits, then figure out how to disappear ourselves. With people watching our every move. No sweat.”

Just then, Henry had a horrible idea. But, like his arm flashing out and pulping Steve’s head, this idea came from that same raw place of instinct. “I have an idea,” he said, tentatively.

“Spill,” Milo said.

“I could… pulp the body with my fists. Turn it to mush. Like baby food.” He let that visual hang in the room for a moment, then said, “Or not.”

Faye had only been privy to certain parts of the conversation as it was and, given her state of mind, a lot of it just went in one ear and out the other, but this last bit stuck. “You’re going to do what to Steve’s body?”

“Nah, nah, it’s a great idea,” Milo said, his eyes lighting up. “I know it’s disgusting, but it’ll work. And we need something that will work right now.”

Henry turned to Faye, focused on her, tried to keep her eyes locked to his so that she would understand. “You should leave the room, Faye. This is going to be awful.”

“You can’t just fucking pulp my friend’s body to baby food!”

“We have to.”

She took a deep breath. “That’s insane.”

“I know, but it’ll remove all identification from his corpse and will make it easy to… further dispose of.”

“What does that mean?”

“He’ll be easier to dispose of,” Milo said, “as a liquid than as a solid.”

Good thing Faye can’t hear him, Henry thought, but said, “We don’t need to go into more detail than that, Faye. You can leave it up to us; we’ll take care of it, OK?”

“Jesus, can’t we just hide the body, like normal murderers?”

“Shit idea,” Milo said. “For countless reasons.”

Henry agreed. “This is the only way to be sure the body’s gone, Faye. Just let me do this.” He wanted to reach a hand out to touch her face, but he knew she’d push him away. After what he’d done, after everything she’d been through, he imagined his touch now would just feel cold and monstrous.

Faye looked down at Steve’s body, back up to Henry. “Where are you gonna go, Henry? How do you think you’re gonna get out of here without being noticed?”

“No idea. One step a time, though, OK?”

Faye looked around the room – at her shattered belongings strewn about, the blood-spattered dead body of her friend and colleague splayed out on the floor, the giant metal man towering above her, and the two invisible people apparently standing somewhere nearby – and thought, Fuck it. It’s not like it can get much weirder, or much worse.

“Go ahead,” she said. “But use the fucking bathtub.”



* * *



In the process of dealing with Steve’s body, Milo discovered he could grasp and hold onto things fairly well now – not just sweep them from shelves and destroy them. When they were finished in the living room, they’d been so thorough that it would’ve passed a black-light inspection. They even replaced the smashed china with various knickknacks from other rooms in the apartment so that, if the cops did come looking, they wouldn’t see anything obviously out of the ordinary. The busted hall mirror was just taken entirely off the wall, and a picture from one of Faye’s closets hung in its place.