Webmistress used her left hand to manipulate her right one, flexing it up and down several times. There was a noticeable catch and an audible click, and then her right hand was flopping kind of uselessly on the joint. “God damn it, I just had this thing ohhhhhh fuck!” she yelled as an electric blast discharged directly from it into her left hand.
Her left arm went numb and the left half of her body sparked and popped. She hopped up and down, cursing, and then stumped around in circles back towards the console where she used her right hand—which was now kind of flopping around on its wrist but still had working fingers—to hit the talk button.
“You know, Janie, I’ve killed two women because of you today,” she said, even as Markham made a loud gurgle of protest and Clevenger managed to move her arm. “Two. Two women dead, because of you. I broke my code, because of you.”
“Really?” Spinnerette’s voice sounded stupidly hopeful.
“I broke my code because of you… because, not for,” Webmistress said. “That’s not a good thing, Janie.”
She switched off the speaker before Spinnerette could respond, then dragged her way back towards the espresso maker by planting her left foot ahead of her and then wrenching the right side of her body forward. When she got there, she realized that there was no way she could operate it with her hands in their current states, so she pretended like she was pacing the narrow width of the floor, as difficult as that was.
“You know, Janie never stole from me,” she said after her second circuit. “Ever. Well, nothing important. Pens. A coffee mug. My tampons. Which is kind of worrying since she’s squeamish and only uses pads. Also worrying that I know that.” She turned her gaze towards Clevenger. “She lied constantly, of course, but somehow… somehow lying to cover up failures is more endearing than lying to gain an advantage. Anyway, I didn’t hire you to lie to me… I have Janie for that.” She sniffed. “Had.”
Down on the floor, Clevenger laughed weakly.
“Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?” Webmistress said.
“Joke,” Clevenger whispered. “You’re…”
“I am the wealthiest and most powerful woman in the world.”
“Spoiled,” Clevenger said. She coughed. “Pampered.”
“I’m wealthy enough to pamper myself, and proud of it,” Webmistress said, twisting her way over to the fallen doctor to stand directly over her. Her eyes caught on something, a series of glowing lines just visible through the doctor’s hair… visible to her eyes, in the color she recognized as ultraviolet. She snickered, in spite of everything. “And I may very well be spoiled, Cassandra, but you… you have a bar code hidden on your neck.”
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