"You lied to me, Eliza."
Denny's tone was accusing, I didn't blame him, but he was wrong. I sighed and closed my eyes. They stung from staring at the same building for hours. It was early and the night stretched out in front of us. It promised to be hellishly long.
"I didn't lie, Denny, I told you it would be boring, and yet, you insisted on coming with."
"Boring yes, but you didn't say it would be fucking boring!" He flung the accusation at me.
"Dude, chill out."
One of us had to be calm, and it certainly wasn't going to be him. He was acting like a child. I had little patience for kids, I liked them well enough but couldn't handle being around any.
Of course, I had eighty plus years to cultivate my stance on the matter. I never had any, and my only experience came from watching from the side lines.
He was the closest thing to family I had left. A grandson, though not of my blood he meant as much to me as if we shared that connection.
I destroyed his carefully crafted lie of a life and killed him, so I owed him some patience. But, he was hitting my last nerve and working himself up even further.
"Fuckity, fuck,"
"Go for a bloody walk," I ground out through tightly clenched teeth, "Please," I added in an attempt to soften my irritation.
He got out and slammed the door behind him. Little snot, I thought as he walked away. I opened all the windows and let the fresh breeze clear the car and my head.
I peered at the building again. We had parked up the road from it, tucked behind a big van. More nondescript than our SUV, my initial thought was that it contained cops on a stakeout. But so far no one had entered or exited.
Of course, if there were police officers inside I could always claim to be a PI on a stake out with a rookie. I wasn't a bloody investigator, and the badge in my pocket was a forgery.
When we took on this 'case' for Viv, it was in payment for her help, not to start a business. But Denny was keen on the idea and looked into obtaining business cards and offices.
That came to an end rather quickly. I refused to go that far. It wasn't the start of a new career, and I had zero interest in stalking cheating spouses and the other shit P.I.'s dealt with during their jobs.
It was a means to an end. The end being the task app on my tablet hacked into. And according to Denny Viv was the only person who could do it. So in exchange for stealing back her stolen nanites she would get into the Man's system. The Man hid many things, and if we could get just a peek into their setup, we could perhaps get a hint of their endgame.
Not that I had any plans to put a stop to their endgame, but a heads up to when that would happen could be handy. That way, I could plan when I needed to bunker down.
And that was the only thing I knew for sure, that eventually their endgame would involve an end to the world as people knew it. Perhaps the world to follow would be a better one, but that was wishful thinking.
Something Denny felt a possibility, but Asher and I both knew it was naivety. But neither of us wanted to spoil that for him. Just because we were old and cynical, it didn't mean we had to ruin his dreams.
Denny's life as a conman should have made him more cynical than either of us, but after he had woken up from his faked death, he appeared more optimistic. He certainly seemed keen on making a new life for himself. But, way too eager to drag me into it with him.
There were suddenly too many people in my life, and it felt crowded as of late. Two weeks and three days since I last had to go for an injection. A period filled with more happiness than ever before and more frustration than the entire eighty-three years prior.
Immortality had many pitfalls, and with my particular choice of immortality, the price had been steep. Daily tasks for the Man that eventually included more torture and murder than even the most zealous serial killer could endure.
And yet, endure it I did. Not gracefully by the end and I had compartmentalised the situation. For days after Asher's first cup of tea, I couldn't stop crying.
This mysterious man granted me true immortality, and I still wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse. My body detoxed, and the Man's cocktail of chemicals left my system.
It was horrible. And though I felt great in general, the fog lifted. I saw clearly for the first time in many years, and it wasn't a beautiful picture.
My tears could never wash away all the horror of my past, horror inflicted by my hands upon hapless victims. Victims of the Man, same as me, but I still had a life, unlike those poor souls.
My hands trembled in my lap, and these were thoughts that I shouldn't indulge right then. I rubbed them together and gave them a once-over. No liver spots, nor any other signs of age.
My concentration remained strained, and my hands trembled for a long time. I missed Denny all of a sudden. His childishness would be a welcome change to these thoughts of my past.
I had been so caught up in my past that I failed the first step of surveillance. I wasn't looking out for my quarry. And so it came as one hell of a surprise when I saw the very thief I was staking out going down the same alley Denny had gone down.
"Fuckity, fuck," I muttered and got out.
Swiftly and quietly I locked the car and made my way across the road. I kept a fair bit of distance between us, making sure he didn't see me. The darkness and general disgusting nature of the alley made it easier.
I hid whenever he cautiously peered over his shoulder. Trash that I was happy not to see afforded the perfect cover. I couldn't see Denny and for a stupid moment, I hoped he had left the alley and was wandering the street on the other side.
I ought to know better by now, though. A shot rang out, and feet slapped the road hard as someone ran away.