Dealers' Choice - Susan Hayes Page 0,50

panic, even though she already knew there was nowhere to run and nothing she could use to protect herself. “Tell me what you’re going to do!”

Vivian extended her hand. Cupped in her palm was a small, oblong object. “I believe you can guess what this is?”

Xori stared in horror. She had a good idea what it was, and the thought of having one of those inside her body was horrifying. “It’s one of those chips you implant into beings.”

“It is. It will allow us to monitor your location at all times.”

“And if you activate the micro-explosive inside, I die.” She’d heard about these from Nyx.

Vivian closed her hand. “Yes, you will.”

A male pointed to a chair. “Sit.”

She swallowed hard and fought the urge to look at the door again. There was no way she’d reach it, and if she did, there wasn’t a soul on this entire ship who’d lift a finger to help her. She sat.

“Thank you for being sensible. I assure you, this is a safe and only mildly uncomfortable procedure, and after it is done, we will leave you alone to rest.” Vivian glanced at the door into the corridor. It slid open without her saying a word, and a female entered. She was dressed in the same nondescript off-white jumpsuits as the other clones she’d seen since coming aboard.

Xori spotted the injector she carried and had to fight back another surge of panic.

Vivian was either ignoring her fear or didn’t notice it and proceeded to an oddly formal introduction. “Dr. Virness, this is Beta. She will be performing the procedure. I am also assigning her as your personal assistant. She will see to it that you have everything you need and act as your guide both here, and after you are transferred to the main research station.”

The female looked exactly like every other one she’d seen. “And how will I be able to tell her apart from the others?”

Vivian’s face went blank. As if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “That is not something I had considered, but I believe I have a solution. Beta will attire herself in blue from now on. That will allow you to identify her.”

“Uh, thank you.”

“You will find that we can be quite reasonable, Dr. Virness. Despite what you have been told, we are not monsters.”

Says the female who threatened to throw me out an airlock if I caused problems and is about to stick an explosive in my neck. If she got out of this alive, she‘d need to book some time in her own sim program to get some payback on the Ariel Coal hologram. Maybe Vic and Ward could help. Group therapy.

She closed her eyes as the female clone moved around behind her. When the injector touched the side of her neck, she conjured up memories of Vic and Ward. The laughter and happiness she’d found on their first date. The heat of their kisses, the way they caressed her with such tenderness and passion. She held those thoughts close to her heart, repeating their names over and over. For a second, they almost felt real, their presence a comfort even if it wasn’t real.

I waited too long. If I’d said yes sooner, we could have had more time together. Made more memories.

As the injector hissed and the pain came, she made herself a promise. If she ever saw them again, she’d finish what she’d started. She would tell the galaxy she’d made her choice and let the chips fall where they may. Life was too short for anything else.

It took less than an hour for Corp-Sec and Nova Force to combine forces and retrieve the missing security footage from secret data caches put in place for just this kind of thing. Vic didn’t know if it was good planning or paranoia that the backups existed at all, but he was grateful they did. Xori’s abduction had been recorded, her attacker’s face loaded into every database they could think of looking for a match, and they had the name and transponder code of the shuttle she’d been taken aboard. After that, things had happened with head-spinning speed.

Nyx had viewed the footage and recognized the man as someone she’d killed escaping from the Gray Men. If the original was dead, then this one had to be a clone. None of the military people present reacted with surprise to the news the Grays were involved in illegal cloning, but it hit the rest of them hard. There were no