Page 58 of My Crazy Killers
“What do you mean?” Elias asks, leaning forward. “What will a new gun change?”
Harry snorts, shaking his head as if Elias has just said the most naïve thing imaginable. He lifts his glass, downs it in one go, and slams it back onto the table.
My stomach tightens, a prickle of unease crawling up myspine as he presses his fingertips together, glancing around as if to make sure he has all our undivided attention. I think he enjoys the attention; he looks more excited than I’d expect a man who’s about to reveal a world-changing weapon to be.
“It doesn’t fire bullets,” he starts, his voice dropping, conspiratorial now. “No casings or shells. And it barely makes a sound. What it spits out is a concentrated beam of heat. A pulse. And whatever it touches…” His eyes widen, as if to add dramatic effect, “it cooks.”
“It’s like a flame thrower?” Pete asks, but Harry shakes his head, looking amused.
“No, nothing like that. The beam is almost invisible. It cooks you from the inside out,” Harry clarifies, nodding emphatically. “The skin stays mostly intact at first. But inside, that’s where the real damage happens. The body instantly shuts down because it doesn’t know how to regulate its own temperature.” His eyes flick to me. “You ever see a man collapse without a wound on him, screaming like he’s on fire?”
I swallow hard, the room suddenly feeling too small.
“Have you?” Sly asks.
Harry sits back, looking a little affronted as he adjusts his shirt, avoiding eye contact with us as he answers. “No, but I know it exists.”
Elias leans closer. “So it’s… what, experimental?”
Harry laughs. “Experimental is what they called it three years ago. Now?” He smirks as if amused. “Now it’s being produced and almost ready to ship.”
“What’s your involvement with all of this?” Sly asks him, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Why share this with us?”
“I want him stopped,” Harry says instantly. “The more people that know about this, the better.”
“But you didn’t mention the name of the weapon in your podcast.”
“I’m not stupid enough to put a target on my back. Speaking of which, how’d you find me? I masked my signature,” he asks us.
“Your IP address was easy to find,” Elias tells him.
“It shouldn’t be. I have a lot of security in place to prevent that from happening.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Elias says with a shrug.
“He’s being modest,” Pete adds, and I nod.
“Yeah, Elias is like the best hacker ever. He used to work for the FBI,” I tell him proudly.
“No shit?” Harry says in surprise as he takes a better look at Elias before glancing at the rest of us. “But the rest of you aren’t feds. You’re not even cops.”
“No, they’re not,” Elias confirms. “But Wren’s brother here was running the mob in Arizona, until we stopped him.”
“UntilWrenstopped him,” Dex feels the need to clarify.
“You?” Harry asks with a laugh. “What’d you do, spy on him for the feds? Is that how you know this one?” He gestures to Elias.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Elias and I have known each other our whole lives.”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Sly says, steering us back on topic.
“Yes, I did. I said I want people to know about Ivan and the weapon. If that hits the streets…” he trails off, shaking his head. “It’ll cause a huge surge in death rates. They’ll have no way to track the criminals anymore unless they’re caught red-handed on camera.”
“Have you tried to do anything to stop it?” Dex asks curiously.
“What can I do?” he says with a shrug. “I’m just one guy with nothing but some karate training. I don’t even know how to shoot a gun.”
“I bet you couldn’t be any worse than Wren,” Pete says deadpan.
