"FWLS62" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

I brightened up immediately. Wow! Here I was thinking the
world didn't give a shit about me anymore, and someone took the
time and the effort to hire an agent to come and kill me. I was
hated, recognized for what I was. It felt wonderful. I was
going to die the only way I could.

"Over to the chair," she said, physically pushing me over to
one of my kitchen chairs. She pulled her thermos on a strap off
and over her head, securing it behind the chair. The strap
automatically tightened, lashing me to the chair, arms pointing
downward.

"Neat," I admitted.

"Thanks. One of the many toys we get to use," she said,
walking around to my front, blaster still pointed at me, rock
steady. She tugged at her ear, and twisted her mouth to try to
talk into it. "Agent 7659. Target acquired. Pickup."

"Pick up?" I asked. "What, you're not going to kill me?"

"No. You're going up the river, pal, for what you've done,"
she said. "Nice and legal, just like the old days of courts and
law. On NSSAC's jail, of course, since there isn't much of a
court system anymore."

"What, you're putting me away? Why? What's the point? I'm
a killer, a murderer and rapist of all people. I'm supposed to
DIE, not live."

"Rehabilitation. NSSAC doesn't believe in pointless
violence, unlike you," she said. "We're going to make you a
fully functional member of society."

"I was one once. It wasn't very enjoyable. The pain of
never knowing what you were, always in self doubt. I don't doubt
myself anymore; I know I'm scum. It's a warm feeling, in a way.
I don't want to be brainwashed into that state again."

"I'm not here to kill you," she said. "You could be a nice
guy if you wanted to be. A Silly, if that's what you wanted to
be. Just go with us quietly, and you won't have to die."

I considered this. It was a way out, a way to fit back in
and not have to perform on the public again. What would I be,
though, after? Happy? I have no talents, no skills, no goals
other than to kill. I'd be less than nothing. I'd be nice, not-
self. No; I had to get out of this, or die trying.

She was sloppy. Didn't even notice the knife in my back