Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

these other places—that in other worlds the rules were sometimes different. I wondered if that could be the case here. It didn’t sound right, however. This was our world. Wouldn’t this finger have to play by our physical laws? Evaporation dried things, turning liquids into solids.
    I picked up the bottle and looked inside. There was no trace of the blood that I could see. I turned my pocket inside out next. There were no stains there. Not the slightest trace of blood.
    “I think we really have something here,” I said. “Do you have a lighter?”
    “I don’t smoke.”
    I picked up the wad of tissues I’d used to take the finger from my pocket. I carefully leafed through them. There was no blood on any of them.
    “Have you got a knife?” I asked.
    Jenna stared at me. “You’ve got to be kidding. Don’t you think it’s dead already?”
    “Anything will do. A nail file?”
    Sighing, she left and rummaged in her makeup kit. She came back and handed me a pair of nail clippers. “I don’t want them back when you’re done,” she said, and left the bathroom.
    I couldn’t cut the nail—or the flesh. I tried the tip of the pearly spur—it was like steel. I tried the delicate strips of torn skin next, but couldn’t dent them. It was as if the finger was made of soft, flexible titanium. I couldn’t mark any part of it. And yet, it had been cut free of a Gray Man recently. Therefore, it must have undergone some kind of change to its nature.
    Finally, the clippers broke in my hand. I tried soaking the finger in the sink, then toweling it off. There were no changes in its appearance. I left the finger on the counter and walked back into the room.
    “Well?” Jenna asked. “Are you going to tell me why you’ve turned into a ghoul?”
    “I think it’s an object,” I said, frowning.
    She looked at me, shaking her head in confusion.
    “Like your ring or my sunglasses. I can’t change or damage it. Even though it’s a piece of dead flesh, it won’t rot, and the blood in it won’t exit. The skin can’t be cut.”
    “How could that happen?”
    “It’s
frozen
somehow,” I said. “Like the other objects. It’s impervious.”
    “Are you going to use it as a bulletproof shield? It’s a little on the small side.”
    I shook my head. “If it is an object, it has a power.”
    “What power?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “But I mean to find out.”
    I put the finger back in the small plastic bottle. “I need some help,” I told Jenna.
    “As long as I don’t have to touch it—or look at it much,” she said.
    “I want to hang it around my neck. I need some kind of strong, stringlike material.”
    Jenna stared at me for a second or two. “You’re going to make a necklace out of it?”
    I nodded. “A talisman, I suppose.”
    “That’s crazy.”
    After a bit more polite urging, I got Jenna to help me drill two holes through the bottle’s cap with her nail file. She donated a tiny black purse she didn’t really need, and we removed the strap. I promised to buy her a new one.Within a few minutes, I had the finger hanging securely around my neck. I stuffed it under my shirt.
    “How does it look?” I asked her.
    “I almost can’t see it,” she said, examining me. “But even if it was invisible, I’d know it was there. And that’s not attractive. Do you really have to carry it around?”
    “If it’s an object, it has a power,” I said. “All the objects I’ve seen have to be worn by the user in order to work.”
    “What if it has the power to cook eggs or switch channels on the TV?”
    “Mildly useful,” I said. “But I think it’s more than that. I told you about the cultists, remember? They tried to use their powers on me, but somehow missed.”
    “You think this alien body part protected you? Like some kind of lucky rabbit’s foot?”
    “Gilling said I had
objects
—not just one. Maybe he knew, somehow.”
    “He sounds crazier than you are,” she said.
    I beamed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
    “What are we going to do now?” she asked.
    “We’re not going to do anything. I’m going to test it.”
    “You mean—you’re going to see if it protects you?”
    “Yes, and since I’m pretty sure it will only protect the wearer, I’m going alone.”
    She took off her ring again and put it into my hand. “I really want you to use this,” she said, clearly expecting an argument. “Consider it a loan if that helps. I can’t find out what happened to