Read Deadlocked 8 for Free Online Page A

like this. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t
appreciate what you did for me. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for the
Rollers. I just prefer being out there.” I motioned out into the
wilderness that surrounded us.
    “To finish your mission?” she asked, and I
sensed distrust in her.
    “No,” I said quickly, which was as much a
surprise to me as it was to her. Despite how my life had revolved
around my father’s missions for me, everything had changed once I
saw the man that could be my twin. “I’m not sure what to think
about any of that anymore.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You saw the man that looked like me, and
that scar we shared.” I grimaced and toed at the snow. “That’s got
me questioning everything.”
    “Come up with any answers?”
    “None that make much sense. Maybe he was a
clone or something. Or hell, maybe I am. Maybe I’m not the same Ben
that helped your daughter get out of that facility twenty years
ago. Maybe I’m just some test-tube baby they created and implanted
with the real Ben’s memories.”
    She shook her head and said, “I don’t think
that’s possible.”
    “Did you ever think a man-made zombie
apocalypse was possible? Because that sure the hell came to
be.”
    “Good point,” she acquiesced with a nod and a
slim grin. “That must be a hard thing to deal with.”
    I shrugged and said, “To be honest, it’s a
bit liberating.”
    Her expression revealed that she was
confounded as she asked, “What do you mean?”
    “Well, my whole life’s been dedicated to
killing those people. I felt a bit like a machine; just going forth
to do my duty, and never caring who I hurt along the way. And then
I find myself out here, searching for Jerald, and I happen to find
Stubs and Harrison. Everything about the way I used to live my life
would make teaming up with those two completely uncharacteristic
for me. I never gave two craps about anyone else before, and then,
all of a sudden, I found myself attached to a dirty old thief and a
Red-world house pet.”
    “I’m not following,” said Laura. “What does
that have to do with the pilot?”
    I’d been struggling to put the pieces
together over the past couple months, and it all made more sense in
my head than it did when I tried to explain it. “Maybe I’m just a
clone, and they created me to come out here and kill Jerald. Maybe
I never did any of that stuff I remember from before. That might be
why I took in Stubs and then started traveling around with
Harrison, two things I never would’ve done in the past.” I paused,
expecting her to agree, but Laura stood in silent contemplation.
“Sounds crazy, I know.”
    “Yeah, a little bit. I would think that would
be a bit of a mind fuck.” I always appreciated Laura’s brazen use
of superlatives. She peppered her language with endearingly foul
words.
    “It is, but it’s also sort of liberating. I
want to think that I’m a better person than the Ben that’s just an
assassin roaming the world, looking for his next victim.”
    “Then what is it you want to do if you’re not
going to be hunting for your next target?”
    “That depends on you,” I said. “I don’t know
that I’d ever fit into a settlement like the one the Vineyard folks
had, but I’m pretty impressed with the High Rollers. I like the
idea of roaming around the area, keeping people that live here
safe. If we can root out Jerald and his group, and if you’ll have
me, I’d like to join the Rollers.”
    “I think we need you more than you need us,”
she said with a chuckle. “We’re not in the best shape these
days.”
    “Does that mean you’re okay with me heading
out on a scouting trip with Annie?”
    “Am I okay with it?” She seemed to find humor
in the question. “No, I’m not okay with it. I’m scared to death. I
hate the idea. I want to keep Annie here with me forever; locked up
and safe from anything that might hurt her. But that’s not what she
wants, and I need to stop