Page 27 of Blow Me Down
“If it’s not the baths makin‘ ye tired, what is?” he asked as we headed for the inn.
“Hmm? Oh, that was merely a figure of speech. I was talking to myself about the fact that I can’t stop thinking about someone.”
“Madness?” he asked hopefully.
I laughed. “Not quite, no. The thing is, I’m a very down-to-earth person. I am not at all the type to be swayed by one meeting with a man. Especially not when the man in question is a psychopathic killer. Corbin is nothing special.
He’s not even real, for Pete’s sake.”
A shadow parted from the side of a building I knew housed a small rum distillery.
“Now, what makes you think I’m not real?” Black Corbin asked, his teeth gleaming whitely in the dim light from the distillery.
I had only enough time to gawk at him for a second before something heavy and black descended over my head, binding me so tightly I couldn’t even think of moving, much less actually do it.
Chapter 7
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King!
—Ibid, Act I
“I object to this sort of treatment.”
“I had a feeling you would. I’m not too proud to say that I’m taking immense pleasure in it, however.”
“You’re a rotten computer character! I’m reporting you to the program’s creator!” The soft linen cloth used to tie my hands behind me, around the back of the chair upon which I was sitting, didn’t give an inch as I struggled to free myself.
The man leaning against the desk in front of me tipped his head to the side as he watched me. “You can try, but it won’t have any effect. Would you mind doing that little squirm you did just a second ago? I really enjoyed it.”
I stopped struggling and packed everything I had into a glare. “You’re incorrigible, too. I’m adding that to my list of complaints, which, I might add, now includes items like kidnapping, torture, and abuse of fundamental human rights. You‘re totally beyond the Geneva Convention, and I amsogoing to make you sorry just as soon as I get my hands free.”
“Was that a threat?” Corbin the Tormentor’s eyebrows rose. “Did you just threaten me with retribution?”
“You bet your barnacle I did, and if you recall the day I whipped your butt at swordplay, you know I can back up anything I say. What do you mean it won’t have any effect to complain about you? You’re just a bit of software code, buster. You can be replaced. Erased, even. So put that in your megabyte and smoke it.”
“Actually,” Corbin said, tapping a finger on his chin, “I’m not, and I can’t. At least, not in the sense you mean. I’m just as real as you are, Amy.”
The use of my real name had me pausing a moment in my contemplation of how satisfying it would be to fulfill Bart’s requirement for permanent inclusion in his crew. I narrowed my eyes at Corbin as he smiled at me. Despite the fact that he’d kidnapped me in the best pirate romance style, I was finding myself reacting to him in a way I hadn’t reacted in a very long time. “How do you know my name?”
“I have ears. Everyone calls you Amy.”
I relaxed a little, giving the bonds holding me down another pull. He’d heard my name mentioned by someone in town, that’s all. His claim to be real was just the cyber-delusion of a bunch of computer code.
“But I plan on looking up the account information for your daughter—name, address, phone number, and billing history—as soon as I log out of the game.
I’m sure I’ll find an Amy Stewart somewhere on the credit card records. I take it you’re enjoying the VR unit?”
Or not. My jaw dropped. “What… what…” I was so stunned I couldn’t do much beyond sputtering. “You’re not real.”
“I am.”
“You can’t be.”
“Sure, I can. I was born. It was easy. My mother did all the hard work.”
