A Murder of Clones: A Retrieval Artist Universe Novel

by Rusch, Kristine Kathryn

  She almost told him that she trusted him more than she trusted Uzven, but that wasn’t really true. She trusted Okani on the translation because he had no personal interest in this case. She had no idea what game Uzven had been playing, and she didn’t want to know. Not now.

  “If you want,” he said, “I can go over this again.”

  “I’d rather have you go over the footage of my conversations with the ambassador. Double-check my translator.”

  Okani smiled. “I can do that.”

  “Good,” she said. “I hope you find nothing untoward.”

  But she doubted it. There was so much more going on here. She suspected most of it had nothing to do with her, but she wasn’t certain of that. She wasn’t certain of anything yet.

  She could only hope that certainty would arrive soon.

  She needed it. If only just a little.

  TEN

  BEFORE GOMEZ WENT to the surface, she summoned Rainger to the meeting room. He arrived, looking as tired as she felt.

  “I need you to do a few things while I’m gone,” she said. “First, I need to know what happened to those twelve clones after they killed the three.”

  “I’m pretty sure we have that information,” he said.

  “I’ll also need to know if there are any changes near the enclave. If anyone else emerges or if there are ships going in and out.”

  “I can tell you now that no one has left since we arrived, and that there have been no ships going anywhere.”

  “Good,” she said. She had asked for that information before, but she was glad to have the confirmation.

  “Finally,” she said, “Tell Lashante that I need to know who these clones are based on. She needs to speed up that research somehow. I’m pretty sure it’s as important as anything else we’re doing here.”

  Rainger nodded. “I heard from the diplomats,” he said. “The closest unit is a month out and they’re Peyti.”

  “Do you get a sense that the Peyti have some kind of agenda here?”

  “Yeah,” Rainger said. “I double-checked the record. Uzven’s never had a complaint lodged against it before. In fact, most marshals and diplomats talk about how accurate Uzven is. Its behavior here just seemed very odd and uncharacteristic.”

  She didn’t like that. Just like she didn’t like the month delay. “Can we ask for a mixed diplomatic unit or a human-only one? After all, this seems to be a human-Eaufasse issue.”

  Rainger grinned. “Or we can say that it is.”

  She nodded. She’d been thinking of that as well.

  “I’ll ask,” he said. “Here’s the other news. The Military Guard is two weeks away. Do you want them before the diplomats?”

  She thought about that for a few minutes. Technically, the Military Guard would be under her control. They would be able to help her if something happened at the enclave. And they wouldn’t have to do anything if the enclave were quiet while they waited for the diplomats.

  “Yes,” she said. “Let’s get the Guard here. Make sure they know I’m in charge of the mission.”

  “It’s policy,” he said.

  “Yeah, and translators are supposed to translate word for word, not interpret,” she said.

  “Point taken,” he said.

  “I’m leaving in a few minutes,” she said. “I want two deputies with me, in case we have to bring the boy back here. I also want an armored suit for him, a prison suit, one without weapons.”

  “You think someone will try to harm him?” Rainger asked.

  “You don’t?” she asked.

  ELEVEN

  GOMEZ BROUGHT A single shuttle to the surface. She knew that was a gamble: it was always best to have two. But she had an odd feeling that the enclave was keeping track of her movements. She couldn’t know that for certain, and she had a hunch she would later learn it was just paranoia, but she wanted to be cautious all the same.

  That caution led her to bring Washington on this mission as well. He had already dealt with the Eaufasse. While he might not be comfortable with them, he at least had a bit of experience. The second deputy that Gomez had brought along, Malia Norling, was next in the usual rotation. Norling was tall and powerful, easily twice the size of a typical Eaufasse.

  Okani presented another problem. His shoulders were so broad that he would have to go sideways through the average Eaufasse doorway.

  Once again, the team would have to walk wherever it was going, not just because the Eaufasse didn’t allow foreign transports, but also because no one in her group would fit in an Eaufasse ship.

  At least this walk was shorter than the one to the clearing. None of those strange plants were around either. There was an actual path to the back of the outpost. It wasn’t until the path started going uphill that it disappeared into overgrowth and tall trees.

  As the party got closer to the outpost building, Gomez noted an increase in those strange plants. She kept an eye on them. She didn’t like them; they made her very nervous.

  This entire trip made her nervous. Her people were flanked by two Eaufasse. Another ran the Eaufasse-human communication link from a location near their ship. The setup was similar to the one she had used when she went to the clearing, except that this time, she had her own translator as well.

  She didn’t know the names or the gender of the two Eaufasse who led her group to the outpost. These Eaufasse seemed smaller than the others, and thinner, if that were possible. They also wore a greenish-grayish outfit that she had never seen before.

  She took it for some kind of uniform.

  The walk only took about half an hour, and seemed pretty straightforward. She didn’t have to ask for any clarifications. This time, one of the Eaufasse led while the other brought up the rear.

  It wasn’t until she was nearly to the outpost that she realized the boy might not speak Standard. She had planned to speak to the boy alone. She didn’t want Okani in the room—or anyone else, for that matter. If the boy didn’t speak Standard, she could try a few other languages that she was fluent in. After that, she would need the help, even though she didn’t want it.

  The outpost was a brown building that appeared to be made of some kind of mud plaster. She followed the Eaufasse and stepped where it stepped, touched what it touched. Before she left the ship, she had activated a small camera chip in her lapel and another on her right ear. She wanted a record of everything that was taking place.

  She didn’t feel the need to tell the Eaufasse that they were being recorded.

  As the first Eaufasse approached the door, those strange plants rose up along the walls as they had done for the boy. The tips of the plants seemed to be searching for something on the building’s surface. They gave off the faint odor of vanilla mixed with sweat.

  She hadn’t noticed the scent before because of the overwhelming stench of decay near those bodies.

  The Eaufasse stepped through the plants. Gomez hesitated as the plants moved. Their tips turned outward, as if they were looking at her, even though she didn’t see eyes. Then the plants leaned back, their edges folding the way that the ambassador had folded its arm over its back during their earlier conversation.

  Gomez swallowed hard, trying to at least pretend not to be nervous. She didn’t want anyone to know just how much those plants unnerved her.

  She stepped past them and through the open door. She did not look back to see if the others had trouble following. She assumed if they had trouble, they would say something.

  The interior was significantly darker than the outdoors. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust. The entry area was larger than she expected. The vanilla-sweat scent was gone, replaced by the smell of baked dirt. There were no windows here and no obvious screens built into the walls.

  The outpost seemed primitive, even though she had a hunch it was not. She suspected most everything in here had been removed or shut down in anticipation of her visit.

  Something brushed against her back, making her jump. She didn’t lik
e how on edge she had been since she arrived on Epriccom. She looked over her shoulder, saw Norling closer than she should have been. Norling’s brown eyes were wide, but she dropped her gaze and stepped back just a bit.

  Had Gomez seen fear in those eyes? She didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to guess at anyone’s emotions, not even her own.

  Stay here, she sent to Norling through the FSS’s private channel. I want to know if anyone else enters.

  Should I be outside? Norling asked.

  Gomez thought of those plants. They had sent feelers through the skin of the dead bodies. She had a hunch those tips could go through living human flesh as well.

  No, she sent. Inside is fine for now.

  Norling moved away from the group and stayed by the door.

  Approve this? That question came through the joint alien-marshal link. Gomez wasn’t certain if the question was to her or to the other Eaufasse. Then she remembered that the other Eaufasse did not speak Standard at all.

  It is our custom to protect entrances and exits, Gomez sent on the link. I’m sorry. I should have checked. Is this all right?

  The two Eaufasse who were with the group looked at each other. One wrapped an arm around its head. The other leaned back like a branch in a strong wind.

  This approve, sent the Eaufasse on the joint alien-marshal link.

  Gomez took that as approval. If it wasn’t, someone could stop her.

  Thank you, she sent.

  She didn’t even think to have Okani handle the interaction until the interaction was over. He wasn’t on the joint alien-marshal link. He wasn’t part of the FSS.

  Besides, he had enough trouble getting through the hallway. As she had suspected, his shoulders were too wide for him to move comfortably.

  The first Eaufasse moved the group forward, leading them past rectangles carved into the walls. It took her a moment to realize that those rectangles indicated doors or windows.

  As the group approached what seemed like the end of the hallway, a vertical rectangle slid back, revealing more corridors and a ramp that led downward. She thought she saw more plants poking their tips over the edge of the ramp, but she couldn’t be certain.

  A dim, brownish light illuminated the new area. The first Eaufasse waited half-in and half-out of the entry. When Gomez got close, the Eaufasse stepped all the way inside.

  She followed, Okani directly behind her, and Washington near the second Eaufasse. Everyone seemed calm, which was a good thing. Norling had been too nervous for her tastes.

  The Eaufasse led them down a side hallway, and Gomez realized they had made a U and were now going back toward the main door through a different corridor. She wondered if there had been an easier way to get to this part of the outpost, something that cut through those walls, going from one corridor to the other quicker. She suspected there was an easier way, but that it revealed more than the Eaufasse wanted her to know, at least at this point.

  A single horizontal rectangle slid open in a wave of brownish dust. Through it, she could see the boy. He was in the same room she had seen from the surveillance footage the Eaufasse had sent her. He was pacing the back part of the room. A clear door led into an area she couldn’t quite see.

  A table filled the room. Around the table were three Eaufasse chairs, which looked a bit like cones that had risen out of the ground. On the far side of the table, near the boy, were two regular human chairs. They seemed shiny, new, and out of place.

  The boy kept looking at them as if he didn’t know what to make of them.

  The first Eaufasse stood next to the window. Go. Private, the Eaufasse sent through the joint alien-marshal link. No watch.

  She glanced at Okani. He looked back at her, and raised his eyebrows. She should have asked him to check on what was being said, but she found that she was reluctant to do so.

  You in, the Eaufasse sent to Gomez. You.

  As the Eaufasse voice spoke through the joint alien-marshal link, the first Eaufasse nodded to her.

  “Are they speaking to you?” Okani asked.

  She didn’t answer that directly. “I’m going in alone.”

  I wouldn’t advise that, Washington sent through their private links. Let me go with you.

  The boy has asked for protection from humans, she sent. One human’s going to be hard for him. Two or three will be even harder.

  I don’t like this, Washington sent.

  He didn’t have to like it. No one did.

  You two stay with the Eaufasse, she sent. I’ll be fine.

  Then she sent to the Eaufasse through the joint link. I’m ready. I’ll talk to the boy alone.

  A door opened. She hadn’t even seen the outline of the door in the wall. That door opening made her rethink her assumptions about the rectangles.

  The boy looked up. When he saw that she was human, he backed away, hitting the wall behind him.

  He started beeping in Fasse.

  “He’s saying he didn’t want to see any humans,” Okani said softly. “He’s saying he asked for protection.”

  She figured as much. She didn’t answer Okani. Instead, she stepped all the way into the room. The door closed behind her, and as it did, her external links shut off.

  Great. She should have expected that, but she hadn’t.

  The silence inside her head without her external links always seemed to echo. She hated that. But it did make her concentrate.

  “Do you speak Standard?” she asked the boy in that language.

  He was as tall as she was, but very thin. His blue eyes had shadows beneath them. She could see the veins in his pale skin, except where his cheeks had reddened. His lower lip trembled.

  He was clearly terrified.

  She held up her hands, revealing her palms to him, in what she always thought of as a non-threatening gesture. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk. Do you speak Standard?”

  “Get out, get out, get out!” the boy said.

  “So you do speak Standard,” she said, letting her hands drop. “That’s a good place to start.”

  “I can’t talk to you. Please. I want the Eaufasse. Please! Getoutgetoutgetout! Please! Leave me alone!”

  His terror made her heart rate increase. She’d never quite seen anything like it.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” she said again.

  “You lie!” He screamed that last word.

  “No,” she said. “I don’t. I’m with the FSS. The Eaufasse called me here. I’m just going to talk to you.”

  “They…called you?” He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, as if his last hope was gone.

  She felt sorry for him. But she had to keep that emotion in check. She had misrepresented her presence just enough; the Eaufasse hadn’t called her for him, although she let him think that.

  Still, the idea that they might have betrayed him seemed to devastate him.

  “I’m not part of the enclave,” she said. “I don’t even know what it is. I’m part of the Earth Alliance. Are you familiar with that?”

  His lips were pressed together as if he were holding back a scream.

  “The Eaufasse want to join the Alliance. That’s why they called us. They don’t know how to handle human interactions.”

  His eyes opened. “There wouldn’t be a human interaction if you weren’t here,” he snapped.

  His argument was better than she expected. He was clearly intelligent, and clearly willing to use that intelligence.

  “The Eaufasse saw what happened to your friends outside the enclave,” she said. “They’ve never seen anything like that before. They called us to interpret that.”

  His head turned slightly, his eyes still on her. “What happened to my friends?” he repeated, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

  She hadn’t thought it through: Maybe he didn’t know.

  She took a deep breath. “You four left together,” she said. “Then twelve others came out of the enclave.”

 
He hadn’t moved. He was watching her so closely that she thought he could see right through her.

  “They followed the other three. They never came after you.”

  He let out a small breath. “They sent you?”

  “The twelve?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “The ones in charge.”

  If she hadn’t been paying attention, if she hadn’t been thinking about each word, she could have said the wrong thing. Because she was sent by the ones in charge—the ones in charge of the Eaufasse, the ones in charge of the FSS, the ones in charge of the Earth Alliance, if she wanted to be technical about it.

  She wondered if Uzven would have been technical, if its answer to that one question would have ruined this entire interview.

  “No,” she said softly. “The ones in charge did not send me.”

  The boy continued to stare at her with that awful intensity. He seemed to have no idea about the FSS or the Earth Alliance, and he clearly did not trust her.

  “I don’t look like anyone you know, do I?” Her question was a gamble: he was a clone, so she figured his contact with adult humans was limited to a small set of people, some of whom might also be clones. She could be wrong as easily as she could be right.

  But interviews were a gamble sometimes, particularly in her profession.

  “No,” he said, the word short and reluctant. “I’ve never seen anyone like you before.”

  “There are a lot of humans in this universe,” she said, and stopped herself from explaining further. She didn’t want the Eaufasse to know that their assumptions about the Earth Alliance were wrong. “The people who run the enclave have broken off from the rest of us. They want nothing to do with us.”

  That too could be an untruth. She had no idea what the truth was. But she suspected this boy didn’t either.

  “You say enclave,” he said. “I didn’t leave an enclave. I left the dome.”

  “All right,” she said. “I didn’t know what you called that structure. My people call it an enclave because that’s what the Eaufasse call it.”

  The fact that he had offered up that detail was a good sign; it meant that in his mind, he was arguing about whether or not she was right.