Another goddamn August.
This latest one takes in what’s happening lightning fast, then pulls out a gun which he aims at my August. “Put the fucking gun down.”
August’s head gives the smallest shake. “You shooting me won’t stop me shooting him.”
“I really think it might,” he says.
“Are you sure you want to risk it?”
New August’s finger quivers on the trigger.
“Don’t do it,” Navy Coat hisses.
“I don’t see why not,” says the new August. “I didn’t want the money anyway.”
“Because I’ll kill you if you do.” There’s another click of another gun, and an even newer August steps into the alley, his barrel aimed at… Less-New-But-Still-New August.
“Okay, this is getting ridiculous,” I tell them. “We’re all the same person. If anyone should be able to figure this out, it’s the six of us.”
“There’s nothing to figure out,” shrugs Navy Coat. “You’ve got to die. He agrees, you’ve got to die.”
“I don’t,” the latest August argues. “Not now there’s three of them at any rate.”
The August with the gun on my August says, “There isn’t another way around it. Someone has to die. So… which one of you did it?”
“Me!” August and I shout at the same time.
They all stare at us a moment, then Asshole August speaks slowly, tentatively. “I thought the same thing as you all. I, um, I was tracking him too. And Iwasgoing to kill him. That’s how I ended up here.”
“That’s why we’re all here,” drawls Navy Coat, as if the three of us were somehow supposed to know that.
“But,” Asshole August goes on, “there are other factors involved now. These two, they… they have something special going on. And I think if we workwiththem?—”
“Something special?” Navy Coat mouths, half in disgust. “Something worth fifty million credits?”
“Something better,” Maybe-Not-A-Complete-Asshole August argues. “Something that changes science as we know it. Or at least as we know it in my time. In my world. Which is pretty advanced, actually, compared to?—”
“Get to the point,” August with the gun on my August snarls.
“They can open portals,” Maybe-Not-A-Complete-Asshole August says.
“So what?” August with the gun on my August laughs. “We can all open portals. That’s exactly the problem. All the opening portals and the not closing portals. Why do you think we’re here?”
“No, not like that.” Not-A-Complete-Asshole August shifts his position on the ground, holding his hands up like he’s lecturing a class. “I’m trying to tell you, these two don’t need an accelerator. Theyarean accelerator. They have the power, between them, to open worlds. Naturally. Without any external mechanism.”
“What are you going on about?” Blue Coat groans.
“That’s impossible,” exclaims the August with the gun on my August.
“Well, how are they doing it, then?” asks the sixth August. “Demonstrate!”
Not-A-Complete-Asshole August’s explanation cuts off right about here. He passes bewildered eyes up to me. Bewildered and possibly a little amused. “Augusts?”
Gunpoint particle-displacement sex education was not on my bingo card for today. I pass my tongue over dry lips. “We can’t demonstrate that right now.”
“You can,” Bit-of-an-Asshole August says, unhelpfully. “I’ve seen it.”
“You have not!” my August cries, aghast.
