Under A Winter Sun by Johan Dahlgren (ink ebook reader txt) 📕

this out to piss me off? I groan and release my nose and peer up at Jagr again. “So, tell me the bloody name already.”

“Project Jotun.”

“Jotun?” The name sounds vaguely familiar.

“Yes, Jotun.” They both look at me with expectation, like the name should mean something to me.

“What's a Jotun?”

“We thought you might know.”

“No idea.”

“Never mind. You can ask Wagner. Soledad, get him up.” Jagr waves for Soledad to help me up. “Our window is closing.”

“What?” I look between the women. “Now?”

Soledad reaches out and I grab her hand. She pulls me to my feet. Jagr lowers the rifle but holds it pointed down and to my left. She's ready to cut me down again if I make a move.

I hold on to Soledad's hand. “You're good, Soledad. And you do fight like a girl.”

She grins. “Thanks. So do you.”

I can't stop a short laugh.

I let go of Soledad's hand and turn to Jagr. “One more thing.”

“What?”

I tear the rifle from her hands and swing it around, eject the magazine, pull the bolt to remove the cartridge and hand the weapon and the magazine back to her. There's a soft metallic ping as the cartridge lands somewhere out in the darkness. “Never point a gun at me again.”

She glares at me a long time while fury and something that could be professional admiration chase each other across her face. Then she sucks her teeth. “Are we good, Perez?”

“For now.”

“Great.” Jagr walks around the car to the passenger side. “Get in.”

She opens the front door and throws the rifle inside. “We have places to be. Our ride won't wait for ever.”

Soledad gets in and starts the car.

I remain standing, rubbing the sore back of my head.

Jagr rests her elbows on the car's bonnet, palms together like she's about to pray, and places her chin on her thumbs. Damn, she's cute. “Now, Perez. If it's money you want, I'll see to it, you will never want again.”

“No, I don't want money. I'm all set, thanks.”

“Yes, I forgot. You stole a sizeable chunk of Gray Industries assets before we locked your DNA out of the accounts.”

“If you knew about that, why didn't you come after me?”

“Consider that payment for ridding us of a … sensitive problem.”

“Gray, you mean?”

“He had become a liability. It was already decided he had to go. Then you showed up and did the dirty work for us. Now tell me, Perez. What do you want?”

I consider it for a moment. “To be left in peace.” It's only when I say it out loud that I realise how much I want it.

“I can arrange that.”

I scowl at her.

“You can call off the dogs, just like that?” I snap my fingers.

“I can.”

“And what do I have to?”

“Help us find our man. And stop killing us.”

“Can't do that. I made a promise to someone.”

“Yes, we know about that. But don't you think you've killed enough? There are almost none of us left.”

“There's you.” I nod at Jagr. I nod at Soledad. “Her. The Cardinal.”

“And when you've killed us?”

“There will always be new immortals somewhere. I hear there are a lot on Earth.”

“But what will you do when you've killed all the old ones?” She squints, studying me with genuine interest. “Will you start killing innocent infants?”

She's got a point. I hadn't thought of that.

I clear my throat. “Well …”

“Can't we call it even, Perez? You've proved your point. You've honoured your promise.”

Perhaps I have. It's getting old, hunting and killing immortals. And I'm not getting any younger. I'm tired.

I cough. “No hard feelings?” I hope the pleading tone is only in my head.

“No hard feelings. Get in the car.”

Soledad peers at me through the open driver's side window.

“We have to go, boss. Clock's ticking.”

Jagr ignores her.

I chew my lower lip and spit clumps of dried blood on the floor.

“Think about it, Perez. You could help save the world again. Be a hero.”

“No, thanks. Been there, done that. Fuck all it did for me.”

She tilts her head and looks at me like something just occurred to her. “You think we are the bad guys here, Perez.”

“Something like that. You're from Earth, remember. We're raised on horror stories about you.”

“I know you people think of yourselves as frontier explorers. Making your destinies among the stars,” she makes sweeping gestures with her slender hands, “far away from Earth regulations. You paint us as the bogeymen, and I can understand that, but on the bottom line, we all want the same thing.”

“And what is that?”

“To make a better life for all humanity.”

“You believe that's what you're doing?”

Her eyes tell me 'yes'.

“Hm.” I spit more blood on the ground.

“Is that so hard to believe, Perez? You've been around the block far longer than me.”

Hey. I'm not that old.

“You know the world isn't black and white, Perez.”

I bark a harsh laugh at her words.

“What?”

“Someone spoke those words to me once. That was before I sealed him in a shuttle with a flesh-eating nanite cloud and sent him on a one-way trip to the Andromeda Galaxy.” I squint at her. “Is that how you see the world? As long as it helps you get ahead in the Race, anything goes?”

“It's time to pick a side, Perez. Do you stand with humanity, or do what you always do, and walk away?”

She has a way of prodding my sore spots. I don't always walk away.

Soledad glares at me from the car. “What's your problem, Perez?”

“My problem is I don't give a shit.”

“Oh, but you do,” Jagr replies. “I've studied your profile. You give a shit, and this is your chance to show it. Pip. Give the man his gun.”

Soledad holds out my pistol through the window.

“We're on the same side now, Perez. You'll be there only as an observer. We'll do all the heavy lifting. All you have to do is talk to Wagner, and that's it.”

I grab the gun and check the magazine. It's still loaded. “That's it? Talk to Wagner and we're done?” I slap the magazine back in place.

She