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“I’ll do it,” I mutter “Nohat’s the prize?”

The Duke of Hands laughsthein all the worlds”

MY ASSOCIATES STARE AT the Queen’s Kiss on lass coffee table They have notclock in the painting on the wall One of inal lost or destroyed, even a forgery of La persistencia de la memoria is a treasure This one I stole from a robber-baron Silver in the Mass Ti

“This is a lark, isn’t it? Another one of your ga her hands in her animated way

Dano chuckles to himself from his place on the formofabric couch next toover the ar his slickness like we all don’t kno insecure he is about being fifty kilos soaking wet He smothers his spent burner in the coffee-cup-turned-ashtray on his stohts another The sreen and purple by the AI lover advertise adjacent mine

Cyra sneers at him “Is this a joke to you too?”

“Lass, life’s a joke,” Dano whispers as smoke comes out his nostrils

“Wonderful It’s all a joke And we’re the damn punchline” Cyra stares at the untouched vodka lerips with the tale of ht with the Duke I want her to drink it Shit, drink four of them, woman She’s a damn stress when she’s sober, and only mildly tolerable when inebriated

It’s the late hours of the evening, dark cycle A sluggish late summer rain falls on Hyperion And I’m stuck between a madman with a buzzsaw and a job that will certainly kill nation This is the end of the line What the Syndicate asks is iht the Duke was joking

We’re going to die But dying pure and quick on a job is better than dying slow at their hands Now, just have to convincewill have an octopus in their ut

ter by

“This is your shit, Eph,” Cyra says “They came to you So, fine You take the contract I’le with those psychos If you’re set involved in this shit either This is big Too big”

“You are not out,” Volga says without any malice “Ephraim needs our help He helped us You are in”

“Slag that”

“Yeah, I’ from the corner of his mouth “This is manic, and not in a sexy way”