Human After All Read Free Page B

sardonically.
    Jaymes sat back in his seat and fastened his safety harness. “My clients find everything about me stimulating,” he said.
    Lady Alvera chuckled softly as the Veetle rose into the light-choked sky.

II.
     
    “S TILL want to know where we’re going?” Drue asked, lounging back against his seat.
    Jaymes looked out the amethyst-tinted window at the glittering spiderweb of the City’s thoroughfares thousands of feet below. “I would guess we’re attending the Covillion.”
    Drue hid his admiration of the shrewd deduction. “I suppose it is rather obvious. Have you been before?”
    “A few times.”
    “Don’t overwhelm me with details.”
    “It’s a private Hote party. Surely you’ve been to one before.”
    “Always wanted to go to this one, but never had the opportunity. I hear everyone mingles on a completely equal basis, and no one is allowed to recognize anyone’s social rank.”
    “You’ve heard right.”
    “The Hotes must love a chance to drop all the pretense and get dirty like the common folk. It would have to be a prime relief.”
    “Do you know what the Lady intends for me?” Jaymes steered the conversation toward something more interesting to him.
    Drue shook his head. “I know what I need to know,” he said. “You’re worried, right? I felt the same way at first, but Alvera doesn’t mean us any harm. She was one of us once, don’t forget.”
    “I haven’t forgotten,” Jaymes said. “It doesn’t make me feel any better about being under her control.”
    Alvera banked the craft like a dragonfly after prey, darting down into the cityscape, skimming the face of a glass pyramid, stitching a path across several blocks of buildings like mammoth ice sculptures. Swooping to a stop, she hovered in front of a façade like a hundred meter high sheet of corroded copper gleaming wetly in the ever-present rainbows of light. An opening appeared in the verdigris surface, and Alvera piloted the Veetle through a veil of water into a huge parking garage. She turned off the guidance system, and the parking facility’s computer took over, slotting the plum colored vehicle into a padded berth. Alvera opened the canopy with a voice command, and they climbed out.
    “Do you have any questions before we go in?” she asked.
    Jaymes nodded. “Was Drue’s costume your idea?”
    Alvera laughed as she pulled off her white outer robe to reveal an elegant gown. “The Fox has his own sense of style,” she said when her perfectly coiffed head reappeared. “And so, it would appear, do you. A wing collar is not quite standard, is it?”
    “Blame my tailor.”
    “Which model do you have?” Drue was compelled to ask, fashion looming large in a Companion’s pantheon of personal gods.
    “My tailor is Artisan Class Bioware.”
    “Impressive,” Drue said grudgingly. “I have a custom Textrobe unit.”
    “That’s a nice machine.” Jaymes nodded. “Almost infinite design capability, but the fabrifluid is really expensive.”
    Drue snorted. “Not as expensive as a human tailor.”
    “The contract was a gift from an admirer.”
    “Does snottiness come naturally to you, or did you have instruction?”
    “I was merely stating a fact.”
    “Yeah, but it’s the way you state it that makes it so condescending.”
    “Enough!” Alvera said. “I regret bringing such an informative exchange to an end, but I do not wish to be more than fashionably late.”
    Jaymes gave her a half bow and offered his arm. “You look stunning,” he said as they began to walk. “A queen of the night.”
    “You are very good.” Alvera laughed again as they entered the lift tube. “You said that without a trace of mockery.”
    “I can compliment you without having to lie. An appreciation of great beauty is a weakness of mine.”
    “Charming. You live up to your Persona Tag.”
    “May I know what your Persona was?” Jaymes asked, holding aside the train of her black and gold cut velvet dress. “Though I think I