The Clone who Didn't Know (The Genehunter) Read Free Page A

you to scan me everywhere and look for ... anything unusual.’
    She nodded, looked at him for a moment, wrote some more. Simms wondered if she was scribbling nonsense to give herself time to think. Maybe she was consulting with someone electronically about the day’s weirdo.
    ‘OK,’ she said finally. ‘We can do that. And since you’re one of our gold customers we can prep you for the scan first thing tomorrow. If you’re sure this is what you want?’
    Simms nodded. ‘The sooner the better. And I want copies of all the images you take so I can study them myself.’
    The doctor looked like she was about to ask why, but restrained herself. ‘Of course, of course.’
    ‘And I also ask that you keep no records of this procedure. In fact I want no trace of my visits at all.’ She’d think he was paranoid. Maybe she’d be right.
    ‘As you wish. We guarantee complete discretion.’
    ‘And while you’re scanning me I’d like a full brain plug-in assay.’
    ‘You would?’
    ‘I have some suspicion I’ve been given an implant my normal diagnostic routines have failed to detect. This is ... less likely than the message I described, but I would still like you to check.’
    The doctor said nothing for a moment as she studied him. They had to satisfy themselves any patient requesting treatment was sane. She was clearly having doubts, probably thought he was an alien abduction nut or that he believed shadowy security organizations were trying to track him down. She’d be right there, at least. But she had no choice but to agree to his requests. By any objective measure he was sane. And, more importantly, he was the paying customer.
    ‘Of course,’ she said finally, smiling a little too sweetly. ‘We’ll be sure to check your brain very carefully, Mr. Alietev.’

     
    Devi pinged him as he trudged home through the familiar, sweet rain of London. He’d stepped into the public jump node in Sydney as Gregor Alietev, a software architect from Kiev. By the time he emerged from the jump network he was officially himself again. He liked to switch IDs in the ether like that, figured it would make tracking him more difficult. Probably wishful thinking.
    ‘Devi,’ he replied as he walked. ‘That was quick. Nothing better to do with your life, huh?’
    ‘I exist only to please you, Simms.’
    ‘Yeah? You don’t do a very good job, then.’
    ‘You want to know what I’ve got or you want to fuck off?’
    ‘Tell me. Sure. I’m grateful, really.’
    A police riot-control tank rumbled up the street behind Simms, blaring its horns at him to get him out of the way, sending crude alarm calls ringing through his plug-ins. Simms turned and stepped backwards from the massive bulk of the vehicle as it loomed over him, yellow lights flashing, guns tracking anything moving. He was more or less at the place Ballard’s grunts had apprehended him after the Zombies of Death affair. Was this another little episode like that? Ballard showing him how hilarious his sense of humour could be? Simms tensed, preparing to run. He was in no mood for Ballard’s games.
    One gun-turret tracked him as the stood there, but the vehicle didn’t slow down. It ploughed up the street, trampling anything in its way. It reached a collapsed building, a rough pyramid of broken bricks and plaster spilling into the street. The tank didn’t stop, just rolled over the blockage. The streets had been choked with cars before the jump network, the air thick with fumes, and they’d all longed for clean air and quiet streets. Now look at it. Really hadn’t worked out, had it?
    ‘Simms? You there?’
    ‘Sure, Devi. Sorry. Go on.’
    ‘OK. I got nothing on any extant clones of Dr. Grendel.’
    ‘So, what, you’re contacting me to gloat?’
    ‘Always. But listen, have you wondered why clONE wants him so much?’
    ‘Not really.’
    ‘I think it’s weird. You know what the original Grendel was?’
    ‘Something to do with early cloning attempts.’
    ‘He