Khutulun's Response Ability

By D. Clarence Snyder

Bounty: HAND DELIVER Intact Prototype Game Console – Gates City – 1M$ – [apply for job]

For the freelance mercenary, Khutulun, the advertisement sounded like a straightforward theft. Secure a box, deliver it to an office, and collect a million dollars – not credits, dollars. The stipulation that it be hand delivered was unusual and made the gig more difficult. No dead drops or third party couriers meant she would have to have the thing in her possession for a longer time, and Gates City was a dangerous place to be in possession of anything stolen from The Microsoft Nation-Status Corporation.

By itself, anything that was worth a million dollars to a competitor was sure to draw the attention of Microsoft’s entire police force. The console had already been stolen and recovered once. Adding a traitor, a corrupt Senator, and a murder, Khutulun’s synthetic legs were about to carry her into a whole new kind of challenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. Clarence Snyder
• Release date: Apr 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370114870

D. Clarence Snyder

D. Clarence Snyder is a retired Master Sergeant and unabashed nerd. His previous work includes uncredited technical articles; several issues of the comic book series The Tick; and an infrequently updated blog and web comic.

Book preview

Khutulun’s Response Ability

A Short Story in the Bright Future

by D. Clarence Snyder

Copyright 2016 by D. Snyder

Cover Model: Jordan Dodd

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Khutulun’s Response Ability

About the Author

Also by D. Clarence Snyder

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak. -Sun Tzu

Khutulun’s Response Ability

Have you ever killed anyone before? Lyndia asked with a confident, commanding voice. Despite the danger represented by the person seated across the table, Lyndia was in control. She owned the room. It wasn’t dark and soundproofed like the interrogation chamber she usually used for these sorts of conversations, but it was stark enough to convey the gravity of the situation to her subject.

I think your phrasing is weird, Khutulun declared. It implies I’m here because I’ve killed someone. Sure, I have been paid to kill people but no one recently enough to be relevant to this situation. It wasn’t the first time a freelancer had been handcuffed to a chair on a Wednesday, nor was it the first time Khutulun had been interrogated. She did not enjoy being in that chair, but it wasn’t because of the questions she was being asked.

See, if you’re going to lie to me like that, it’s going to be a problem, Lyndia tapped the table in time with her statement. I know you’re a licensed mercenary, so I am prepared to treat you professionally. But you need to show me the same courtesy, as well.

Khutulun slowly cocked her head to the right, letting her purple hair fall like a drape. She lifted her left hand until the titanium handcuffs that bound her wrist pulled taut and clinked against the aluminum armrest. Courtesy?

Yes, answer every question honestly, Lyndia explained. If you want to play the whole misdirection, cover-up, and ‘hold out indefinitely’ game, I’ll just cut to the chase and employ enhanced interrogation techniques.

You mean torture me? Khutulun smirked. She let her hand fall back to the armrest. Good luck with that. I can turn off pain.

Oh, I know all about your synthetic parts, Lyndia dismissed. No, I don’t mean torture you. The Microsoft Nation-Status Corporation is a signatory of the Geneva and Wall Street Conventions. As such, it does not condone torture. But we do have ways of finding out everything you know. Lyndia tapped the table again, adding, Ways that work.

They can’t work that well, if you think I killed someone anywhere near Gates City. Khutulun sat back in the chair, confident in her own right.

You know that personnel file you had open on your phone? Lyndia paused for effect. In one question, she had informed the freelancer that officers had cloned Khutulun’s cell phone and Lyndia had already reviewed the information. The employee it belongs to was murdered two days ago.

I can see why you would think there is a connection. Khutulun touched the chair-bound loop of both sets of handcuffs with her fingertips, gently feeling their cold metal. But there isn’t one.

"I think it