CHAPTER NINETEEN—DUALITY IN THE HOUSE

Kyle went up the stairs. His feet were quiet on the steps due the luxurious runner. The silk wallpapers made him roll his eyes.

When he reached the top Kyle found that he could go straight, left or even right. He went straight, opened the door and aimed his pistol forward. The room was homey with a plush sofa and other pieces of furniture. There was a luxurious bed in the room and a cold fireplace. At the end of the room was a window with thick inlay. Green plants of what Kyle thought were rare varieties soaked up the light coming through.

He stopped and picked up a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Styne. Mr. Styne had his arm around his wife, a pretty lady even in her middle years with blonde hair and blue eyes. They were both smiling and in between them was a golden retriever with a happy smile and its tongue lolling out of its mouth.

“How sweet,” Kyle muttered.

Leaving the room, he closed the door and took the hall going left. There was a set of rooms back there and voices coming from the far room on the left. Kyle peeked inside and saw Mrs. Styne at a her government approved in-home holo-net device.

“And yes, if we can get them there in due time, we can distribute the supplies across the municipality. The water is another matter. Mmhm. Yes. It’s going to be at least a week late. But once they trust us, then we can introduce our genome enhancer. No—they’ll trust us by then.”

That doesn’t sound shady at all, Kyle thought. Up to no good just like the mister, huh?

She glanced over and saw him.

Oh shit.

Bursting into the room, he raised his pistol and put three consecutive shots into the holo-net device. Sparks exploded out and Mrs. Styne yelped and jumped back. As she landed on her back across the rug, Kyle lunged into the room and cleared the space of any other potential occupants.

With wide eyes, Mrs. Styne barked, “Who are you?”

“The name’s Max,” he said. Then he placed a gloved finger over his lips.

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She looked at him with wide eyes and didn’t move. Then suddenly she twitched her wrist. Kyle knew she had a wristlet there where she could either contact the guards or Mr. Mad-Scientist-Styne.

Casually Max lifted his pistol and pointed it at her head. “Don’t even think about, gingerbread lady.”

But she was stupid and didn’t listen.

Bending to his knee, he pistol whipped her hand as she moved to press the communications key. She yelped and pulled her hands over her face.

Kyle sat his pistol down across the rug far enough to where she couldn’t reach it.

Smirking, he thought, Like she’d try that!

“What do you want? How did you get in here?”

He pocketed her wristlet.

“I got in through the back door.” Kyle picked up his pistol and backed away.

“Yes,” she said, “but why are you here? What about my guards?”

Looking at her, he said, “Well, I shot a couple of them.”

She gasped.

“Your husband’s been a very bad boy, Mrs. Styne.”

He allowed her to get up. She sat on the bed but said nothing, the inner workings of her diabolical brain clearly churning.

“What are you doing here?” Kyle asked and motioned to the malfunctioning holo-net device.

“Nothing,” she said. “I was just having a video conference with my partners. We run a galactic charity.”

“Oh, I see,” Kyle said. “So while you’re running charities, your husband is experimenting on humans.”

“What?” she asked indignantly.

“Is that what this is about? You’re some disgruntled little—“

He smacked her across the face.

Not hard.

Just enough to shut you up.

“I’m not going to sit here and debate you, hag.”

Rubbing her face, she finally recovered. “Excuse me,” she said. “But that is extremely rude.”

“What about hitting you? Your husband is a mage that experiments with human DNA so he can make mutants and super soldiers,” Kyle said. “And since you’re pedaling ‘genome enhancements’ I’m pretty sure that makes you agingerbread hag!”

Her face twisted as she was about to say something, but Kyle interrupted.

“Like out of the fairy tales.”

“This is ridiculous. No—not ridiculous. It’s—“

“Ludicrous? You’re right,” Kyle said, then he raised his hand to smack her again. She cringed and he relaxed his arm.

“Listen,” she said, “I don’t know who you think you are, but—“

Kyle smacked her across the head with his pistol, knocking her out across her bed. “Stay there and take a nap. I’ve got a plan to fire up your oven.”

He went to her dresser and found her lipstick. “But first…” He scrolled “Take it to the max” in a messy red over her vanity mirror.

Then he riffled through her other drawers and piled all of the jewelry into a felt bag he pulled out of his vest.

“Shit,” he muttered. “This’s gotta be worth millions at least.”

Grinning, he pulled up his sleeve to reveal his wristlet. He hit the vibration chime to silently alert John that he wanted to talk.

Then he pocketed the jewels.