DOUBLE

"That's a very divergent type theory, Hershel. I would not repeat that too loud or too often. People might think you've gotten like your old double."

"Oh, Hershel, I did not know that the daily special was letting your friend down with an extra serving of betrayal. How much did they pay you to double-cross me?"

The lanky man flicks a palm-sized toy scooter out of his pocket like a switchblade, performs a miniature double flip, then looks to you for a reaction.

"Cloven Hoof." He holds his fingers up in a double-devil-horn gesture.

"They probably replaced her with a body double. Have you checked her cavities for bugs?"

"I'm double-carrying."

Double wow.

"Glasses, double breasted jacket, air of nervous dread about him?"

"To experience Ultra Violeta like this? In such close communion with the Queen? Bucko, I would have paid double."

"About my double and that red disc..."

"You took my double off the board."

"You took my double off the board. With one of those red discs."

"Whatever it was, it's empty now. Like my double."

DOUBLE GULAG.

"All three albums double disc. All tracks fifteen plus minutes. And of course, no radio edits. This is a hill we will be gunned down upon."

Regardless, your double has managed to make it to the Fogged Mirror, where he is sitting, and with a drink in front of him at the table.

"Sorry, double. I refuse to lie to protect your feelings."

"But when I think of myself, of you, I also feel, just... shame and loathing. So it's like I got a double-dose."

Your former double glances back at you, pushes his glasses up his face, then turns away.

You hear your former double shuffle behind you and rub a hand through his mass of hair.

Your former double has busied himself with a loose piece of thread on his dressing gown sleeve.

"Please, help yourself, CASCADE." Your former double shakes his head and mutters something under his breath.

Of course. There is a room behind this one, locked within your former double's head.

Your former double's eyebrows shoot up and stay up for three seconds, before he wrangles them back down again.

Your former double stares blankly at you.

Your former double looks beyond you and goes completely still for a long moment.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Your former double glances at you in confusion.

"CASCADE." Your former double offers you a faint nod.

Your former double re-produces the block of scuffed pages from somewhere within his dressing gown.

"For all their technology, the Weeping Eye are old school. A delegation with an important state figure is not only going to bring a body double for show, they're going to bring one specifically to take the bullet."

Your former double is out of action for the moment, fending off the sedative. A sliver of ozone dribbles from his right nostril.

"If you manage to secrete then release a deadly poison, then I anticipate you manage to kill a few of his guard, maybe the body double himself, before they figure it out and put the target out of harm's way."

"You have found an answer, CASCADE." Your former double looks at you. "Is that an answer?"

Your former double gazes at you.

If your former double was previously out cold, he is now out sub-zero. No twitch, no tremor, just a faint cadence of breath.

Your former double rubs his neck nonchalantly and gazes at the ceiling.

"Too late, already used it. I imprinted onto my new double."

Your former double sways on the edge of unconsciousness, still fighting off whatever sedative he rammed into himself.

Your former double stiffens.

Your former double stares at you and lifts his eyebrows slightly. A long time passes.

The jagged red opening in your former double's head seems to gaze at you.

Your former double gazes at you, stooped and slightly twisted.

Standing very still at the fringes of the bar, your former double cuts a conspicuous and vaguely unnerving figure.

"My new double was zeroed out by one."

"My new double may have been zeroed out by one."

"Until you know." Your former double tilts his head. "Then you do know."

Your former double stares blankly at you.

Your former double gauges you. The right side of his face twitches.

Your former double extends a slow forefinger and pushes it inside his head.

Your former double glances up at the ceiling and hums to himself.