Mardock Scramble

People in white uniforms were taking blood samples and collecting body parts—Shell’s fingers, Boiled’s limbs—and wrapping them up in plastic bags before hauling them away. After that, the corpse was placed in a bag. There was only one dead body. Balot watched as the heavy bag was carted away with some difficulty.

–Flash, flesh, mash, goodish…

The Doctor was nearby, speaking to the police. Among them were some of the DAs that they had met or seen at the trial. They smiled and cheered the Doctor, who thanked them and basked in their praise. He was delighted.

–Rush, josh, wish, rush…

The Doctor parted from the police and came over to Balot.

–Finish, hush!

The ditty had now finished, and the Doctor was right there to fill the gap.

“Well, looks like this will bring your case to an end. The second case will now progress from the preliminaries and on to the real thing.” The Doctor smiled gently. It was a smile of encouragement. It’s only just beginning, but we’ll get through it all right, he seemed to say. Of course, the Doctor now had a mountain of paperwork to tackle, not to mention his other tasks—his work really was just beginning. “Anyway, you’ve been through a lot of danger to get this far. It’s fair to assume that your reward will be accordingly high. As for any regrets, I should be telling you to blame Oeufcoque and me, but…”

The Doctor rested both his arms on the car door and looked down at the gun that Balot was hugging close to her.

“If you wouldn’t mind, uh, I wonder if you’d stay with Oeufcoque for a while to try and give him some comfort. The outcome of this case…well, it’s pretty close to the bone for both me and Oeufcoque, as I’m sure you can tell.”

–That person said the same thing to me, at the end.

Balot looked toward the dead body that was being carted away as she snarced the car stereo to speak.

–“Stay by Oeufcoque’s side for me,” he said.

The Doctor’s face looked surprised at this unexpected news. “Boiled said that?”

Balot nodded ever so slightly. Then she asked another question.

–Do you mind if I go for a little drive? With the car on AutoDrive? Just like when I first came here?

“Uh, aren’t you a little tired, though? You know we still have the Humpty. You could always go and lie down there…”

–No, I’ll be okay. Anyway, there’s something I need to tellOeufcoque. Something that man said.

“Boiled said something else?”

Balot nodded again.

–“Now I can finally sleep.”

The Doctor didn’t nod. He didn’t shake his head. He just stood there silently, as if he were waiting for the words to fully sink in.

“I was involved in that experiment myself… I was one of the ones who made him so that he would never need to sleep. Never be able to sleep.”

Balot’s eyes lowered.

The Doctor shook his head. “There’s still lots to do. That is, uh, there’s a lot we need to do right now…”

–I know.

“We’re going to have to save our grieving till later.”

Balot nodded firmly. The Doctor needed someone to do that for him. The Doctor smiled, just a little, and left the scene.

≡

Balot peeled her thick bulletproof clothing away from the bodysuit she wore underneath. It thudded to the floor of the car.

Then she pulled her gloves off and exposed her perspiring hands to the cool air.

The red convertible avoided the early morning rush hour traffic on the main roads and wound its way toward the coast. The car passed over a giant bridge that traversed the ocean and reached an area covered by a concrete platform. Beyond the clean and fresh coastal region lay the industrial zone, slick with oil, and beyond that were the multi-story apartments and public residences comingling with the graffiti of homeless teenagers, all sleeping under the same purple sky.

Balot gazed at the banks of the city, held her gun to her chest, and cried.

As she cried, she became keenly aware of the fact that she hadn’t died. She hadn’t died and was here, feeling pain.

She hadn’t lost her life. She hadn’t lost her body. She hadn’t lost her heart. She had been wounded, and hurt, but that was it.

Oeufcoque had protected her from everything. Right through to the bitter end. Even at that moment when, in order to live, she had to kill—Oeufcoque had protected Balot.

Shell’s past had finally caught up with him and pushed its way back inside his mind. Boiled had welcomed the end to the senseless killing that he had so wanted. These were the final steps that the two would ever take up the stairway to heaven—to Mardock.