Caldwell torted his ag body in the capsule』s fined spad switched on the louvered halogen light. He reached out and picked up the Slav』s mysterious vial. For a moment, he watched the visass of the transparent liquid swirl within. The Slav had promised that it would do the job ihan a miopping the activity of all the vital ans with the speed and precision of a bullet to the head.
「The problem with the human body,」 the Slav had said as he fumbled around in his makeshift workshop in a disused viadu the inner city ghetto of Oval, 「is that it is not desigo coexist with maes. The relationship is not symbiotid sooner or later they, the maes, will fuck you up. It』s just a question of time.」 There was enough tobaoke iale air of the Slav』s makeshift workshop to stop a bull in its tracks.
The Slav』s teeth were an obse assortment of tobacco-stained enamel jutting like stalactites and stalagmites out of his gray gums. There was a thin border of pink gum b the yellowed teeth, struggling to hold its own against the encroag mass of gray flesh. Caldwell could see ragged clumps of some mystery meat lodged betweeting enamel.
「The trouble with flesh is that it has a weird habit to stick around. Its a good thing man ied the toothpick,」 Caldwell had ventured.
The Slavs snake-like tongue had flicked instinctively at his es and his good eye had narrowed to a slit. He had then begun to chew on something that he had dislodged. The moment of danger came a in a flash but within its brief existence, in that small window of time, Caldwell had seen something even uglier than the Slav himself.
「Fuck toothpicks,」 the big man had said dismissively. 「Indeed, when God made man, in his own image no less, he didnt t on him being smart enough to make tools. Tools for crushing berries, crag nuts and so ohe precursors of the industrial revolution, whi turn where precursors to the age of the thinking mae, the puter. The latter happens to be the tool that will ultimately usher in our demise.」
Caldwell had wondered whether when God created man he had any idea that geions later spes like the Slav would walk the earth. He was used to the Slavs maations. Despite the man』s obvious dental hygiene problems and the current tobacco breath, he was a loveable old fellow who loved to refle life while perf the illegal act of removing identification chips from the bodies of those who had had enough of being hardwired to the system. Caldwell could tolerate the Slav』s diatribes because the man never asked personal questions. He just went off on those seemingly pointless rants of his. When the Slav got his teeth into a diatribe there was no stopping him. Caldwell would keep him going with pointless statements. The Slavs was the kind of work that was best dohout an embarrassing silence.
「But apes used tools long before humans.」 Caldwell had protested.
「Indeed if you wish to eschew religion for the stific approach. That was where it all started. But apes were never really victims of their own tools. Humans are. Our superior intellect is exactly what is going ter our extin. Imagine a world without tools. No more car acts, plane acts, boats sinking, industrial acts. No more puters. No hackers.」 The Slav』s bloodshot good eye had stared questioningly at Caldwell as he fed among his eclectic assortment of stuff.
「No hackers?」
「Indeed. Hackers, phreakers, crackers, intruders and new age hijackers, all gohe only tools that man would o be afra