Ambidexterity
“K… what are you… doing?” The croak of an old voice rose, wavering, from the floor.
K looked down to Sigma and Phi, a heap of crumpled bodies and tangled limbs, and felt a pang of sympathy. It was regrettable, but necessary. They had not been afforded the luxury of time.
“I confess that I am not entirely sure. I will think about it during the ten seconds that remain. Goodbye.” K turned and bounded across the warehouse floor, a flash of steel and fabric. He heard his own voice hold firm in his mind. Dio and I cannot be the only survivors.
…Dio. His bit of creative fiction about some conveniently imperiled child came as little surprise. However, his behavior shortly beforehand…
“Come on! Use your fuckin’ head for once!” The man’s voice was, as one would expect, both desperate and hostile. Perhaps more importantly, though, it was uninquisitive.
Dio’s objection was to Phi and Sigma’s unwillingness to go through the doors, not their ability to do so. He had not questioned Luna’s whereabouts, nor the whereabouts of her bracelet – the conditions that would enable their passage through the doors. Which suggested, naturally, that he already knew that her bracelet was in their possession. How?
It may be that he is Luna’s killer. K envisioned her lifeless frame collapsing and recoiling under hundreds of fruitless chest compressions. He felt a bile rise in his stomach. If I had responded to her scream immediately, then…
“…two. One. Zero. Chromatic doors closing.” K twisted sideways, and slid his ample frame through the door with an agility that belied his size. He turned to the man awaiting him and released a slow breath.
“Dio.”