Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
ALLEN RAUSCH
He said nothing for several moments. “What do you
need from me?” he finally hissed.
“Just show us the way to my nursery,” Eileen said.
Cardinale gestured at the door in the corner of his
office. “Under that paint is a steel door I had installed
with an electronic security code. Behind it is the
temporary nursery we had fixed to your specifications.
Only the med-techs, the two of you and myself will
have the code.” He rattled off a string of numbers. “I
understand that you skimmers can get somewhat nervous
if your bodies aren’t under lock and key.”
His tone was dismissive. Eileen thought of telling
him of the dangers that agents like her faced, of
returning to find that something had moved into abandoned
meat, of the agonizing spiritual death, of the
things that floated around him even now. Instead she
decided to show him.
“Teo,” she said. “Could you show Señor Cardinale
just how seriously I take the protection of my body?”
With a wolfish grin the young man stood and
approached the Mexican bureaucrat.
“What are you doing?” Cardinale said, pushing his
wheeled office chair back. Teo strode forward, stepping
through the desk and grabbing the officious man by his
collar. Teo then lifted up his hand and pointed his right
index and middle finger directly at Cardinale’s collar.
“This is going to hurt—a lot.” Both fingers seemed
to melt, losing consistency and oozing into a new form.
Jose barely had time to register the deadly looking
silvery spikes at the ends of Teo’s fingers before they
were rammed directly into his forehead.
The spikes did no physical damage, but Eileen could
see the man jerk and writhe as he fought the presence
shoving its way into his mind. Then Teo was gone and
only the body of the administrator sat there, his eyes
tinted with a silvery sheen.
“Let him hear me,” Eileen said. Cardinale’s body
nodded. “What you feel crawling around in your tiny
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