October 20, 2361 AIA

P41

The sunshine and soft breeze had drawn a crowd to the café. It was so busy, the servers were having a hard time dodging around the teeming outdoor tables. Gardner had chosen a table in the middle of it all. He scanned the smiling faces for any hint of interest directed toward him or the man sitting across from him.

Moric Sipos repeatedly tapped one of his long fingers on the thin handle of the coffee cup. Then he flicked it. The noise was quiet but sharp.

The general’s head whipped around to face the table.

“Oh, there you are, General.” Sipos tilted his head. “I know we’re not exactly friends, but it’s not often I get the chance to escape all my little keepers and enjoy a day out. I’m so glad you could join me.”

Gardner offered a stiff nod. “I’m sorry for my inattentiveness, Doctor.” He turned to sit properly in his chair. “You know, I was surprised your keepers were willing to let you out at all.”

“Don’t be. Psychologists are irredeemably easy to deal with. They don’t know anything about my supposed crimes, so they’ve nothing to judge me by except my charming personality. If it weren’t for the sealed orders, I probably would’ve been released by now.”

Gardner stared at him. Sipos, unconcerned, pushed his rimless glasses up his long nose and sipped his coffee.

The general’s disturbed sense of curiosity led him to ask, “And then would you have gone back to your work?”

Moric Sipos eyed the former general with a straight face. A moment too late, he laughed. “Maybe I would. Tell me, Gardner, do you think I’m a handsome enough man? For my age, I mean.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s so hard to judge sometimes. I know that I think I’m attractive, but what do others think? That’s what I want to know.”

Gardner shook his head. “I can’t help you, Doctor. I’m afraid I don’t often go around judging how attractive men are. No matter their age range.”

“I’m sitting right in front of you, General.”

“I think you’re disgusting.”

A twist of a smile pulled up the doctor’s mouth. “Ah. Perhaps I should ask someone with less preconceived prejudice.”

“Why this sudden concern with your appearance?”

“I’ve always taken care of myself.” The statement was bland, almost dismissive.

“Yes, but I’ve never heard you ask for someone else’s opinion before. Is there a lovely new doctor at the facility?”

Sipos gave the general a withering glare before he leaned back and peered over the crowd. He took another swallow of coffee. “Why are you here, General? I mean to say, I know the basic topic of our conversation, but I think we’ve endured enough small talk to get to the point.”

“How many, Sipos?”

“Excuse me?”

“How many of them were there?”

“For that you flew across the galaxy and came to visit me on this humble little planet? Why didn’t you send me an email?” The lines on Moric’s face arched around his closed-lip smile. “Not that I’m not grateful for the coffee. It’s worlds better than what we get at the facility.”

Gardner left off his nervous survey of the people to gaze at Sipos. “You aren’t supposed to have access to any computers.”

“Oh? Oh, yes. Of course.” The doctor waved his hand over the table to dismiss the point.

“‘Irredeemably easy to deal with…’ That was your quote, Doctor?”

Sipos smirked.

Emery Gardner would have to have a word with someone. Things had been left alone for too long.

“How many of them were there?” he repeated.

“I’m sure I don’t really remember.”

“Sipos, this isn’t a joke.”

“Well, do you mean how many did I make, or how many could have been made?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Simple—are you asking how many did I personally make, or are you asking how many could’ve been made with the material I had on hand?”

“You—you couldn’t possibly know the answer to that.”

“Well, if you insist, who am I to argue?”

Gardner said nothing. He could hear the noise of other conversations and other people laughing. He heard the clatter of a fork on a plate and a cup ringing against its saucer. These were impossibly normal things that couldn’t fit in with what the former general was trying to accept.

“Was there a way to know how many more were possible?” Gardner asked. “Exactly?”

Moric put his cup down. “My dear General! You don’t even know that? Others have figured it out without the benefit of my input. Didn’t you read my journals?”

“Your journals were destroyed.”

A veil of potent fury moved across the doctor’s face, then faded. In a tight but civil voice, he said, “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t. But I think you know why it was done.”

“I don’t think I do, General Gardner. That was the height of stupidity. A pinnacle of asininity! God, I hope you pathetic Neanderthals are proud of yourselves.”

“Even Neanderthals want to protect themselves, Sipos.”

“And you think ignorance will protect you? Oh, I see. No matter what happened, you didn’t want anyone to learn how you got them.” Sipos shook his head. Repressing so much rage must have cost him something; he looked ill.

Gardner said, “If there was a way to know how many were possible, do you expect me to believe you don’t know the numbers?”

“It was a long time ago, General. What makes you think I bothered counting them?” Sipos waved his hand. “Ask Fable. If you want to know how many were put into bodies, he’s the only one who’d know.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I wish I could, Gardner thought with more than a little bitterness. Then I could kill him myself afterward.

Emery became aware that Sipos was watching his face.

“Did you create any we didn’t know about?” Gardner asked.

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

“Could any have escaped?”

“Not unless you did something profoundly foolish, General. I’m not responsible for what happened after I was removed from the project. Again, if you want more information, you’ll have to ask Fable.”

“Did you keep all the material in one place?”

“I certainly wasn’t going to risk losing any.”

Gardner nudged his cup to the side. It was still full, but the coffee had gone cold.

“Something happened, didn’t it?” Sipos said.

“It doesn’t concern you.” Gardner pushed out his chair and stood up.

Sipos rose to his feet. “How can you possibly say that?”

Gardner forced himself to meet the man’s eyes. “Because you don’t exist, Dr. Sipos. You’re no one.”

Sipos clenched his napkin in a fist. His lips were tight. Before he could formulate a response, Gardner’s eyes were drawn to the table next to them.

There was a man sitting there. Something about the way his suit coat fell was strange. When Gardner looked at the man’s face, he could see his eyes through the man’s sunglasses. He was watching them, and he realized Gardner had seen him.

The man reached into his jacket as he stood up. Gardner picked up the doctor’s empty cup and hurled it at the man’s face. It smashed into his cheekbone and broke when it hit the pavement. A partly-drawn e-pistol dropped from the man’s hand.

Gardner lifted the edge of his table and threw it toward the stranger. The shade umbrella hit his shoulder, knocking him to the ground and obscuring his vision.

“Who’s that?” Sipos hissed in Gardner’s ear.

The former general felt his heart skip. Nightmares on all sides, he thought as he stepped away from the doctor. “Trouble.”

“Is he here for you or me?”

Gardner felt the world slow around him. He looked up at the excited face of Dr. Moric Sipos, and, with mounting horror, Gardner realized he didn’t know.

And he certainly wasn’t going to stick around long enough to ask the nice gentleman with the e-pistol which of them was his target.

Gardner grabbed Sipos by the arm and pushed through the crowd of startled people. He ran, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the café. After ten minutes, his lungs were screaming for him to stop. Without bothering to notice what shop he was invading, he burst through the nearest door.

It turned out to be a high-class lingerie boutique.

Moric gazed around while Gardner, bent over with his hands on his knees, panted for breath.

“I must say,” the doctor said, “you do take me to the most interesting places.”

The woman who’d been putting something lacy on a padded hanger recovered from her surprise enough to set down what she was doing and come around the counter.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

“I don’t know,” Sipos said with cheerful indifference. He turned to his companion. “Gardner, are you going to have a heart attack?”

“I hate you, Sipos,” Gardner wheezed.

Moric smiled at the woman. “It’s a long and almost unbelievable story, but the end of it has us being chased by a man we’d rather not have find us. Could we please hide here? Just for a minute? I promise we’ll be no trouble.”

“You’re not…you’re not from the Uprising, are you?” she asked.

Sipos laughed. “Allow me to assure you, it’s nothing like that. There won’t be any soldiers busting down your door.”

The woman still seemed uncertain. Gardner hated the idea of showing his ID card, but he knew it would effectively silence all questions. He was about to reach for his wallet, but before he could make his tired limbs move, Sipos had wandered off toward a wall hung with pastel satin garments.

“These are beautiful,” he said.

“Thank you, sir.” The woman followed him. “I’m glad you like them.”

He pointed up at the lingerie. “These aren’t your designs, are they?”

She blushed. She was forty-five years old and had spent twelve years selling the most personal clothing, but she was blushing like a young girl. “They are. Manufactured elsewhere, but yes, they’re all mine.” She smiled up at her creations.

“Oh.” Moric shook his head, seemingly too awed to speak. “Oh, well. Fantastic talent, Ms. Kathy.”

“How did you know my name?”

Sipos reached out and tapped the bottom of the tag pinned to her shirt.

Ms. Kathy put her hand up on the tag and laughed. “Of course. How silly of me.”

Gardner turned his face away so he wouldn’t have to watch them. When he tried to straighten up, he felt his heart pounding in his ears. He prayed the damn thing wouldn’t fail now. Dying of a heart attack in the middle of a lingerie boutique would be a ridiculous way to go.

“Not at all,” Sipos said. He motioned to a short negligee. “May I?”

Kathy nodded. As he reached out to touch the silky material, she said, “You’re not a customer, are you?”

“Not me. Not my color.” Sipos winked at her. “No, I’m more of an appreciator. I appreciate seeing them on a beautiful woman.”

Ms. Kathy squirmed under his fixed eyes and struggled for something to say. Her entrepreneurial spirit came to her aid. “For your wife or girlfriend, maybe?”

“No wife or girlfriend. Sadly.”

With embarrassing sincerity, Kathy admitted, “I find that hard to believe.”

Sipos shrugged. “I guess I haven’t found the right woman yet.”

Gardner could almost cringe hard enough to tune out what the doctor was saying, but the look on Ms. Kathy’s face was too much. He stepped forward.

He said, “All right, Doctor—”

“You’re a doctor?” Ms. Kathy asked.

“He’s a scientist—was a scientist,” Gardner said. He turned to Sipos, “We have to go.”

“Are you sure?” Sipos said. “You’re still red in the face. We can stay—we can, can’t we?” he asked Kathy. Before she could answer, Moric said to the general, “We were having a pleasant conversation.”

Gardner’s face took on a different shade of red. “We will be going.” He nodded to Kathy. “Thank you for your hospitality. I don’t suppose you could see your way to showing us if there’s a back door?”

As they stumbled out into the dim alley behind the shop, Sipos grumbled, “You needed to give me ten more minutes.”

“So you could finish seducing her? I don’t think so, Doctor.”

“Don’t be crass. I was building rapport. We might’ve been able to stay at her home until we figured out what to do.”

Gardner watched Sipos until he could convince himself the man was serious. “We aren’t getting a place to stay! Certainly not at the home of a woman you’ve barely met!”

“You’re not taking me back to the facility.”

Gardner grit his teeth. “I won’t. I can’t. We’re taking a ship and leaving.”

“Taking a ship? Are you mad, General? The moment your ID is scanned, they’ll know where to find us. And how are you going to get a man off planet when he doesn’t exist? I may be a nobody, but I’m not invisible.”

The general pressed a hand to his forehead. “I don’t know. Give me some time to think.”

“Huh. Take all the time you need.”

“And why are you being so accommodating?”

“Because you’re one of the few men in the galaxy who’s allowed to shoot me with no questions asked, and I saw the butt of your firearm while you were leaning over the vulgar mass of your stomach.” Sipos’s lip lifted in a sneer. “You really should exercise more, General.” He paused before adding, “And I don’t want to go back to Galen. At least our objectives align there.”

Gardner rubbed the back of his neck.

On the way to P41, he’d had a lot of time to think about Fable’s cryptic warning. He wished the old man had wasted his last breath on something more useful—like the identity of who was trying to kill them. On the other hand, it was possible that Fable didn’t know. Gardner hadn’t recognized the threat until it was almost too late, and even after getting a good look at the man’s face, he hadn’t recognized him.

An assassin? Fine. How professional. And anonymous. Damn them.

What the hell was he supposed to do? He was fat, old, and retired. In the past, when he hadn’t been any of those things, he still hadn’t been trained for something like this.

If only he knew who was after him, he might know where he could go to be safe.

As if reading his mind, Sipos asked, “It’s not the Rising, is it?”

Emery shook his head. A grim sense of humor made the edge of his lips twitch. “No. Our long-time foe is actually the least likely to try to kill me at the moment.”

“Oh, really? So they don’t know it was you?”

“They don’t know it was you,” Gardner snapped. “They know about me.”

“And you don’t think they’d want to kill you?”

“Oh, I have no doubt they’d like to kill me. But they won’t. Not now.” He pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“We have to find a computer and a secure place to hide. We’ll need somewhere they won’t ask for ID.”

“Then are we going to do something about my chip?”

Gardner stopped. “Your what?”

“The chip they implanted at the base of my neck.” Sipos tilted his head. “Oh, you don’t know, do you? You have no idea what you and the other three have done to me.” The doctor shook his head. “But you must have realized they wouldn’t let me out without a way to track me. Even with you as my guardian.”

The retired general looked at the ground and pressed two fingers into his temples. “How many human-xenos were possible? I know you know.”

“Get this chip out of my neck and I’ll tell you.”

“I’m not here to set you free, Moric Sipos.”

“Someone is after us, General Gardner. Don’t you have more important things to be worrying about? Where are you going to get a computer? How are we going to get rid of the tracker? Where can we hide? How do we get off planet?”

Gardner let his hands drop.

“You don’t know, do you?” Sipos smirked. “Lucky for you, I’ve lived on this planet for fifteen god-forsaken years—shut away from my old life with nothing to do except talk to people.” He turned and motioned with his hand. “Follow me, General. I’d like to introduce you to someone.”