d, in a way."

I shrug. "We all get what's coming to us, eventually. She just wasn't
smart enough to quit while she was ahead."

Mike sighs. "I'm not an idiot, you know. You have to understand, it's
business, nothing personal." He's sweating now. I watch a little bead
of perspiration make its way down his forehead. "How much do you know?"

I make my way to the shelf and pour a shot of whiskey.

"It's a bit early for that, isn't it?"

"Special occasion," I insist. It always helps to inebriate your
opponent, to give yourself any edge over him that you can when it comes
to reflexes. "I know how attached people can get to certain ways of
doing things. The comfort of the familiar." I look at my glass
thoughtfully. "I think it's time to make a clean break." I get
another glass, pour another shot, and hand it to him. Raising my
glass, I declare a toast. "To the future."

Mike has a dubious look in his eye like he knows I'm up to _something_,
just not what. For a manager, he sure lacks vision. He looks out the
window at the ant-like people all those floors below, oblivious to the
woman pointing a high powered laser rifle straight at him from the next
block along, and raises his glass. "To--"

Despite giving my new business partner the order to fire, the laser
burst still somehow makes me jump. I've never seen it up close before.
On the receiving end, it's deadly silent, the only sound being the
sloshed gurgles of the target. The smell, on the other hand, is
overwhelming--searing flesh with a hint of burnt cotton from his shirt.

The great thing about biometrics is that they still work when the
person's dead. With the help of Mike's eyes and fingers, it takes me
less than five minutes to drain his bank accounts--both his company's
and his own. _Nothing personal_.

Sitting on a bench in the local park, I take a second to close my eyes
and just listen to the birds. I open them again just in time to see a
young woman waving at me as she walks towards me. To an outside
observer, she looks like she could be my identical twin. I wave back,
smiling as I watch her familiar mannerisms from an unfamiliar point of
view.

She sits down beside me. "How long do you reckon we've got 'til
someone realises what happened to Mike?"

I shrug. "A few hours, maybe. Long enough to get a few things from
our flat, move the money to a safe account, and walk away."

"Ah, yes, the money." She smiles sweetly, a s