Human After All Read Free Page A

prevent a great tragedy and free our kind from chemical slavery,” Alvera said. “I’m sorry it was necessary to recruit you against your will, but I would do much worse in service to my cause. You will think me cruel, but I cannot afford to care about you. You sold yourself to Gentren, and now you belong to me, that is how I must view it. To keep my guilt at a manageable level, I have the rationale that I will use you for a nobler purpose.” She glanced at Drue. “You’re happier since your conversion, aren’t you?”
    Drue smiled. “I’m sorry. What was the question? I just love the way you hoitys talk, all formal and gracious like storybook royalty, but there’re so many big words, and I’m just a Zot.”
    Alvera blinked, the first uncontrolled thing Jaymes had seen her do. Drue didn’t flinch when she raised her hand, but Jaymes could tell he wanted to. The tense moment passed as Alvera ran her fingers through the Exotic’s long hair, leaving it in fetching disarray. “I love your fire, Drue,” she said. “It just takes me by surprise sometimes. You’ve almost lost the ingrained habit of deference to Citizens, and that gladdens me. Now, if I could wash away my arrogance as easily, I would be truly happy.”
    “I cannot go missing for long without my handler reporting the absence to the corporation,” Jaymes said. “A former Companion like you knows what value Gentren places on us.”
    “The search would be comprehensive,” Alvera agreed. “But I have already contacted your Ms. Cielya and told her how delighted I am with you. She told me how delighted she was to be speaking with me in person and happily extended the contract. She also hinted that you are anxious to acquire Citizenship and would be glad of the extra income.”
    “I see.” Jaymes paused before speaking again. “What now, Alvera?” he asked, deliberately addressing her familiarly.
    “Very good,” she said. “You’re quick, Prince.”
    “I’m in a hurry to become a Citizen.”
    Alvera’s laugh was a revelation, full, round, and vivid as the taste of a ripe apricot, completely at odds with her glacial appearance. “G’sho,” she said, in the Companion salute. “I admire grit.”
    Without another word, she turned and stepped back through the round door. Drue made an “after you” gesture, and Jaymes followed the Lady. As Drue stepped through the portal, it closed behind him. The small cylindrical chamber was featureless, and Jaymes figured it was a lift of some sort. His guess was borne out when he felt a subtle vibration through the soles of his boots, and then his stomach dropped about three stories before it caught back up with him. Bright light made Jaymes close his eyes as the ’vator thrust its occupants through the roof, and when he opened them, he saw The Cloister sprawled below, glittering and restless like a colony of phosphorescent creatures in a tide pool. It was encircled by the progressively darker and poorer meteorite belts of the Inner and Outer Cities, and in one of those farthest from the light, Jaymes had been conceived.
    “May I know where we’re going?” Jaymes asked as he heard the high-pitched whine of a Veetle approaching. A moment later, the hybrid flying machine dropped from directly overhead to hover a foot off the roof. A sleek, waspish craft of anodized titanium-aluminum-carbon alloy and jewel-toned transparent resin, the Veetle was capable of landing or taking off vertically by redirecting its jets. It wouldn’t be Jaymes’s first ride in one by any means, but it was the first time he’d seen a client at the controls rather than a liveried pilot. Alvera looked over her shoulder as she settled in the com-chair.
    “We’re going to a party,” she said.
    “Don’t worry.” Drue’s bedroom voice rubbed against Jaymes’s ear. “The Lady is an evasion-rated pilot.”
    “That’s not particularly reassuring.”
    “Do clients find your contrariness stimulating?” Drue asked