Ex-Communication, Peter Clines [ebook reader online free txt] 📗

back to swat the hero with one hand. “Told you plenty of times, dragon man,” the ex said, “it’s Legion now.” Without a bottom lip, its voice was a drunken rasp, like the words were being dragged into the air across sandpaper.

Cerberus leaned forward with a hiss of servos and scraping armor.

St. George set the dead thing down. It shrugged a few times and turned to glare up at him. The ex had been a tiny woman, a good six inches shorter than the hero. “Got a question for you,” he said. As an afterthought he added, “Legion.”

The dead woman snorted. “The answer is fuck you.”

“All that time you were hiding out at Krypton, while Dr. Sorensen was covering for you, were you ever going to keep your side of the deal you made?”

Madelyn stiffened at the mention of her father. Her face got hard and she took a bold step away from Cerberus. Her sneakers slapped hard on the pavement, almost a stomp.

The ex didn’t even glance at her. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” it said to St. George.

“The one where you told him you’d find his family for him.”

The dead woman sneered as best it could. “What’s it to you?”

“Think of it as your big chance to prove you’re better than I think you are,” said the hero.

Madelyn took another few steps forward. The only person closer to the dead woman now was St. George. Madelyn stood up straight in front of the ex.

Legion tried to spit at St. George, but without a lower lip it just leaked thick oil over its chin. “Yeah, my word matters,” it growled. “I looked for them, just like I said. Didn’t make any difference. His old lady’s dead and walking. Never found the girl’s body. Figured it was easier to let the old guy think I was still looking.”

“And it gave you a place to hide,” said Cerberus.

The ex turned to the armored titan. Its gaze passed right through Madelyn. She even stepped to the side to stay in front of the dead woman’s face. “Fuck you, puta,” Legion spat at Cerberus. “I don’t hide from nothing.”

“Except me,” she said. The titan held out one massive gauntlet at head height and squeezed it into a fist. The ex gave her the finger.

St. George nodded. “So you looked for his daughter and never found her?”

Legion returned the nod while Madelyn waved both hands in front of the ex’s face. “Yeah. Never saw any sign of her. What’s it to you, esse?”

St. George smiled. “Okay,” he said, “I think that answers that.”

“Answers what?” growled the ex.

“It makes sense in a way,” said Cerberus. “I remember the military tried using dead bodies as bait for a while, but the exes only react to living people.”

“Yeah, I remember something about that,” said St. George. “The bait thing.”

“Bait?” echoed Legion. “What the fuck you people talking about?”

“Doc Sorensen ran some tests out at Krypton, sir,” offered Jefferson with a polite nod to Madelyn. “He said it’s some kind of perception thing, like how the T. Rex in Jurassic Park can’t see you if you don’t move.”

“Jurassic Park?” echoed Cerberus.

Legion’s eyes flitted between them. “What the fuck you people talking about?”

Jefferson glanced at the talking ex, then back to the heroes. “I remember it because the T. Rex scared the piss out of me as a kid. Pardon me, ma’am,” he added to Madelyn. “He said it was something to do with the reptilian brain. They see everything, they just process it different than we do. Living things get priority over dead things, moving things get priority over still things, things they see get priority over things they hear, like that. He said that’s why they run into walls and stuff.”

“They don’t need it, so they don’t register seeing it,” said Cerberus. She looked at the dead woman. “And he’s in the exes, so maybe he’s stuck using their senses. Or not using them, I guess.”

“And she’s dead,” said St. George with a glance at Madelyn, “so she’s not a priority.”

Legion looked down at the body he was wearing. One of the hands flexed open and closed. The ex’s brow furrowed in confusion. “She who?”

“We know he can see nonliving things,” said Cerberus. “Maybe it’s a focus issue?”

Madelyn took her cap off and waved it in the air in front of the dead woman. “So, you’re saying I’m not invisible, I’ve got a perception filter? Like on Doctor Who?”

St. George, Cerberus, and the guards all looked at her.

“Doctor Who,” she repeated. “It’s this sci-fi show from England.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it,” said St. George.

“Heard of what?” said Legion.

“Okay,” Madelyn said, “well, there’s this thing they use on it called a perception filter. It’s like a force field that makes things inside it less interesting so you can’t focus on them. So you’re sort of invisible but not really. You’re just … very forgettable.”

She waved the cap in front of the ex again for emphasis.

“Well, there’s one way to be sure.” St. George took a few steps back and looked at Madelyn. “Go ahead and hit him.”

“Her?” asked Madelyn, nodding at the ex.

“This some game, pendejo?” asked the dead woman. “Who you people keep talking to?”

“Yep,” said St. George. “Go for it.”

Legion looked up at St. George. “What?”

Madelyn let the cap drop from her hand. It hit the ground and Legion’s head shifted to glare at it. The dead eyes went wide for a moment. “The fuck?” he said.

“See?” said Cerberus. “He saw that.”

“That’s the big guy’s hat,” said the dead woman. “Where’d that come fr—”

Madelyn slammed her fist into the ex’s shoulder. It wasn’t a great punch, but Legion staggered back a step and spun around. “What the FUCK!” he shouted. The ex reached up to probe its shoulder with its fingers. It glared at the heroes.

“He can feel getting hit,” Madelyn said, “I just don’t think he knows I’m doing it.”

“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t know what to look for,” mused Cerberus. “He can’t prioritize you because