Kill Switch: Chapter 48
Water Shadows
My darting eyes locate the source of the water shadows. An aquarium wraps around the entire room. Brown plants sway inside the glass, surrounded by rocks. Brightly colored fish swirl around the murky water.
“Have a seat,” Mr. Vonn Senior says, gesturing toward a concrete chair.
Cad Man shoves me down in the chair.
Vonn Senior smiles. “Cosmo,” he says, “you can put the girl with the others. For now, I’d like to have a conversation with my son.”
“Where’s my end?” Cosmo asks.
Vonn Senior’s head jerks, as if he’s just been slapped. “I’m sorry?”
“My end,” Cosmo says. “We had a deal. I did what you asked. Now I want my end.”
Vonn Senior wipes his face again. “In fact, Cosmo, you haven’t done what I asked, have you? Because I asked you to put the girl with the others.”
Cosmo grinds his jaw. “And then?”
“And then what?”
“Don’t make me say it,” Cosmo says. “This is already humiliating enough.”
His face is pale, his eyes bloodshot. He looks like I did when…
Vonn Senior turns to Cad Man. “You take the girl,” he says. “And then, once she’s in the cell with the others, get Cosmo his drugs.” He waves a dismissive hand. “And then, send him on his way, please. He’s of no further use to us.”
“With pleasure,” Cad Man says, grabbing Yide by the arm. “On the double, you two. I’m due for a glassing. This shit in The Without is…boring.”
The trio walk out the door, Cosmo taking up the rear, scratching at his neck.
And that’s when everything clicks: Cosmo found the bottle of Jaz in my jumpsuit and took the drugs. And then he made a deal with the devil to get more. I do the math in my head. If he’s raw dogging, which his pasty skin and bloodshot eyes suggest he is, that means that he’d taken that entire bottle, fifty pills in all, in three or four days. Sounds about right. Almost my exact timeline. And I was out of my head by the end.
I turn my gaze toward Vonn Senior, who’s over by some beeping mechanism. He’s holding a syringe, approaching me. I raise my hands.
“No!” I scream. “I don’t want it!”
Vonn Senior smiles.