Authors: Jack Kilborn
Symbios (5 page)
The only way to short out a chip was to destroy it on purpose, like the dissys do.
“Please, Sergeant. I’m willing to pay for your time. Name a price, I’ll pay it. Any price. Ever since yesterday, I’ve been worried sick. I can’t think about anything else.”
Worried sick, but he still managed to enjoy an afternoon with my wife. I glanced back at the raccoon still happily nibbling away. That was a vicious circle going on there. Eat marijuana, get the munchies, so you eat more marijuana. Maybe I’d be lucky and he’d pop.
“Two months’ worth of foliage for my property size,” I said. “That’s my price.”
He frowned. “I live in a condo, Sergeant Avalon. I don’t have a roof, just a little garden on my porch, and some kudzu in the bathroom. I could pay you the equivalent amount in credits.”
“No deal. If you can’t get the foliage, you can come up here once a week and work my roof.”
A fair compromise. He came here to get a little trim. Why not give a little trim back?
“Done. When can we do this?”
“Now is good.”
“Now. Excellent. I’ll go get dressed.” He turned to leave, then turned right back around. “Thank you, Sergeant.”
I shrugged. “Meet you out in front in ten.”
Neil disappeared. I gave my little pot thief one more glance. “If you feel like dropping dead, please go next door to Chomsky’s roof.”
The raccoon’s mouth was full, his cheeks puffed out with weed, but he probably wouldn’t have replied anyway.
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Copyright © 2009 Joe Konrath
Cover art copyright © Carl Graves
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the authors’ imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the authors.
Edition: February 2011