Death Ray Butterfly Page 11

and his taunts. I'd had enough of his miracle nonsense. All I wanted was to end it.

  “Don't worry”, said one of the twins. “It won't hurt a bit.”

  “In other words”, said the other. “You won't feel a thing.”

  So saying, he brought a different device out of his pocket. It was small, flat, gray and round, like a perfect skipping stone. He rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger for just a few seconds.

  “There we go”, he declared. “All done.”

  “In other words”, said the other. “Goodbye.”

  The two turned and walked right out of the room. They were right. I hadn't felt a thing. The same couldn't be said for Jones or Racine, who both started howling like wolves, and doubled up in pain. My assistant, Kelley, heard the noise and came running, along with a couple of beat cops. They were stunned to find Jones and Racine, maybe the two most wanted killers in town, collapsed on the floor of my office, screaming. They called in more cops, and dragged the two criminals off to the cells.

  As for me, I still hadn't budged off my sofa.

  Epilogue

  Nothing much came my way after that, nothing very interesting at least. I was pretty much put out to pasture after the toddler assassin finally struck. The general wasn't happy about that, not happy at all. I was lucky he let me live, tell the truth. Most of the folks on his shit list did not. I did have some hassles with my identification renewals, and then they took away my office. I had to hang out in the break room full time. Finally, they just told me to leave, go on home, tell my stories to this little black box. I don't trust the damned thing. Something tells me it was made by that "friend" you know where.

  But I can't complain. I even lost a little weight, which is something I needed to do. Maybe it was losing that soul. Maybe that was a few pounds in itself. I don't miss the thing, can't even tell that it's gone. I just sit out here on my porch, watching the river and the boats drifting by. Sometimes you can hear a fish jump, and sometimes a frog. One thing you don't see anymore, though, are butterflies. I guess Jones got his way about that. Hardly seems worth all the trouble.