Machine Man (serial)

“Don’t bother with the life story, Carl,” I said. He had tried to engage me in the Repository that time. He’d said: You can never be strong enough. This was right before he got the arms. And it seemed to me there was probably a whole saga behind that, like once he’d failed to free his girlfriend from a burning car, or some big kids in elementary school used to take his lunch money. Something like that, which I didn’t have patience for. “I don’t care.”

Carl said nothing. His eyes continued to glitter at me, like he thought there was no need to say what was obvious to us both. “The fact is, Carl, this is just Darwinism. My parts are better than yours. It’s natural evolution.” Well. Not natural. But Carl probably didn’t know know what I was talking about anyway. He was a security guard. “Shut up.”

Still no reaction. It occurred to me that I hadn’t heard Carl’s breathing for a while. Now I thought about it, he’d been silent ever since I came upon him and Lola.

“He died,” Lola said, from somewhere behind me. “You shot him and he crawled here and died.”

173.