The Clone who Didn't Know (The Genehunter) (2 page)

‘Who do you think?’

So this was Kelly trying to
help
him? ‘And what, I stop genehunting and you let me live out my remaining days in peace and happiness?’

‘That would be such a waste of your talents. No, we want you to track down someone for us.’

‘You want to employ me as a genehunter? Are you fucking kidding? You’re clONE. That’s insane. That’s against every rule you have.’

‘Still, we’ll release you on the condition you do this for us.’

Simms studied the three of them, waiting for the punch line, the sting, the laugh. Nothing came. It looked like they actually meant it.

‘Tell me who you need.’

The man spoke again now. ‘We’re not entirely sure who he is or what he is. He’s definitely alive. We think he’s lost, confused, vulnerable. He may need our help. Here’s the deal: help him and you help yourself.’

‘And if I refuse?’

‘You know what we
really
like to do to genehunters,’ said the man.

‘I thought I did.’

‘And we’ll be watching you, of course,’ said the leader. ‘If you hunt anyone else, even for a molecule collector like Lund, we’ll assume our agreement is at an end and come for you. And next time there won’t be a hidden jump node to catch you when you fall.’

Was this some game they played before killing their targets? He could make out nothing on their faces and got nothing from their brains.

‘OK,’ he said, still expecting them to start laughing at their fine joke. ‘It’s a deal.’

No one even smiled. Instead, the older woman sent him details on their target. Just like any regular client except for the not offering payment part. He was more used to dealing in musicians than scientists but, hell, he’d take it.

They untied him and led him outside, through the clashing heat of the Arizona sun to the jump node he remembered from his previous visit. Before he stepped in, he turned to the woman walking behind him.

‘Give Kelly a message from me.’

‘Kelly?’

‘Come on, no games. Just give her the message.’

‘What is it?’

‘Tell her she needs to reply to me. Tell her I want to talk about Eloise.’

‘Who is Eloise?’

‘Eloise is none of your damn business. Give Kelly the message and tell her to respond next time I ping, OK?’

Simms turned and stepped into the node. His last conscious thought was that the world had gone insane if you couldn’t rely on highly-trained death squads to kill you.

Simms placed the drinks on the table in front of Devi.

‘So, couldn’t keep away, huh?’ he said. He sat down next to her in their shadowy corner of the Double Helix. Which wasn’t hard to do because all the corners were shadowy. ‘Or did you blow all your money from Lund on well-endowed fleshbots already?’

Devi sipped her scotch and smiled at Simms. ‘Had to come and see if you were surviving, didn’t I? You’ve been getting weird on us. Almost
moral
. Figured you must be ill.’

Simms knocked back a mouthful of Scotch, thinking what to say. He’d been trying to make some progress on the clONE case for two days and had gotten nowhere. He’d asked her here for help. Not for a lecture.

‘I traded you the Zombies of Death DNA for hard information,’ he said. ‘It made perfect business sense.’

‘Is that right?’

Simms sat back, trying to find the right words. The warm bite of the Scotch cushioned him from reality. His plugins reacted by implementing the intoxication-handling rules he'd set up, locking out wild or dangerous behaviour. He let them run. They generally knew what they were doing.

A gentle hubbub of low voices filled the air in the Double Helix. No one near, no one paying them any attention. Mac standing behind the bar watching over everything like a fond parent. They were safe here. Neutral territory.

‘A lot of shit going on,’ said Simms quietly.

‘Forty Days. You said.’

‘That’s just the start of it, Devi. I got clONE on my back, too.’

‘We’ve all got clONE on our backs, sweetheart.’

‘Yeah, but I mean
literally
. A death squad stung me, took me prisoner.’

‘Yet here you are, looking more or less alive. Sometimes I think you make all this stuff up.’

‘I’m serious. They want me to go over to the fucking
light side
.’

‘You? Come on.’

‘Me, yeah.’

‘And you gonna do what they want?’

‘Maybe. Don’t see I have too much choice. They were pretty persuasive. Figure I’ll give them what they want and keep them sweet, at least.’

‘Like you always do.’

‘Like I always do.’

The door to the outside world opened then, and two young genehunters barged inside. Little more than boys, laughing raucously at some private joke, shattering the calm of the bar. Simms didn’t know them. He’d lost track of all the young guns. And you didn’t check out other hunters’ IDs here in the Double Helix. That was the code.

He looked away. He didn’t need to know who they were; he knew their
type
well enough. Brash, ruthless, aggressive. No finesse. That was how the kids were these days. Maybe he’d been the same, once, but he’d learned a few things since then. He was willing to bet neither of these punks had been visited by Ballard or Gideon Jones or been snatched by clONE. Maybe if they had they’d be a bit less cocky. He shook his head. They were just children, unimportant.

He looked back at Devi who was studying him, eyes narrowed. She wouldn’t need brain plug-ins to guess what was going through his mind. They’d known each other nearly ten years. They’d had flings, on and off. Sometimes they were mortal enemies and sometimes they were lovers. On a couple of occasions they’d been both at the same time.

‘There’s more, though, isn’t there?’ she said. ‘You got the religious weirdos and the clone lovers and the GMA all gunning for you, but there’s something else too, right?’

Simms shrugged. ‘There’s always something else.’

‘You’re trying to find the words to tell me you love me?’

Simms ignored her. ‘See, Devi, I got all these scary groups with guns and shit coming after me, but I
understand
them. I know how to deal with them.’

‘So what
don’t
you understand?’

‘You remember Kelly?’

‘How could I forget my rival for your affections? The raven-haired beauty with the liquid eyes. Actually, now I come to think of it, I should have gone with her rather than you.’

‘Yeah. Good luck with that.’

‘So, you’re not over her. And there she is, on the side of the angels, tearing you in half.’

‘No. I mean, yeah, but there’s more.’

Devi regarded him for a moment. ‘Ah, so there is a baby.’

‘You fucking
knew
?’

‘I heard rumours. Not the same thing. It’s yours?’

‘So far as I can tell. Which isn’t very far because I can’t get close.’

‘And you
want
to get close? Seriously? I had you down as the sort who’d turn and jump half way round the world. I mean, come on Simms. You’re hardly parent material. You’re hardly a good role model.’

He sipped his drink, didn’t reply, didn’t look at her.

‘Sweet Jesus,’ she said. ‘Simms the loving parent. Maybe Forty Days are right and the end-times are upon us after all.’

‘I need to know she’s safe is all. Both of them. I’m a danger to them because of what I am.’

‘Someone’s threatened them to get to you?’

‘Maybe.’

‘And you figure if you keep clONE sweet you can earn access to Kelly and your daughter and make everything better.’

‘Yeah. Plus they won’t come looking for me with a rocket launcher.’

‘You could forget all about them, you know. Change ID, come and have some fun with me. We could see if your stamina has improved any.’

He shook his head. That was what he
should
do. He just damn well couldn’t. However he tried to distract himself a little part of his brain whispered away to him, worrying about Kelly and Eloise. It was like he was haunted or something.

‘And say you do all this,’ said Devi. ‘What happens after you get the girl?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Come on, Simms. You’d get bored within a week without genehunting. You’re always saying that. You’re not cut out for anything else.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe I should go over to the other side, hunt the genehunters for kicks instead.’

‘You? Join the GMA? Run around following Ballard’s orders?’

‘I’m talking about clONE. Kelly went over to them. I could too. Maybe that’s what they want. I could see myself heading up a death squad. The righteous fervour of the convert. Could be fun.’

The truth was the thought hadn’t crossed his mind until that moment. As he said it he didn’t know if he was serious or not. By the look on Devi’s face she wasn’t sure either. But maybe it wasn’t such a crazy idea. He’d get clONE off his back. The GMA too. The GMA
liked
clONE, liked their direct approach. There were enough rumours: the GMA men who tipped off clONE death squads because they couldn’t get their man and stay within the law. He’d just have to sort out Forty Days and life would be sweet. He’d miss genehunting, sure, but hunting the hunters could be fun, too.

‘I thought you liked being the maverick, the lone wolf, walking the line between all these powerful organisations.’

Simms shrugged. ‘You can’t beat them, though, can you? Sooner or later one of them will come for you. Might as well pick a side.’

‘OK,’ said Devi. ‘So, you need my help to become my mortal enemy. That about it?’

‘I guess.’

‘Well, you know what? I am gonna help you, Simms. Want to know why?’

‘Because you value my friendship so much?’

Devi snorted with laughter. ‘Because your life is a train wreck. You’re a fucking slow-motion
explosion
, Simms. An ongoing disaster. And I want to see what parts of you are left at the end of it all.’

‘Thanks, Devi. I knew I could rely on you.’

‘I'd like a full body MRI scan.’

The doctor assessing Simms blinked only once before replying. They sat in her cool, cream-coloured consulting room in Sydney Central Hospital. Tasteful pictures on the wall and interestingly elegant ornaments on the shelves. She wrote something on the tablet resting on her knee. Completely obsolete technology, of course, but it made her look professional, thoughtful. Simms suppressed a smile.

‘I see, Mr. Alietev,’ she said, using the ID Simms had adopted for this little jaunt. ‘And can you tell us why you would like us to carry out that particular procedure?’

A fair question. He was tempted to tell her the whole thing with Gideon Jones. But she wasn't going to believe it was she? He wasn’t sure he believed it himself.

‘I need you to look for any anomalies.’

‘Could you explain what sort of … anomalies we’re looking for?’

‘Just anything that shouldn’t be there.’

‘Perhaps an object has been … inserted into you?’ she prompted. She remained utterly expressionless, professional. Seen it all before.

‘No, it’s nothing like that,’ said Simms. ‘I simply have reason to believe someone has left a message within my body.’

‘A message.’

She couldn’t help a flash of incredulity passing across her face. Simms was really quite pleased to have surprised her. He’d be a good story for her to tell her colleagues.

‘A message,’ said Simms. ‘Maybe a single word. I have reason to believe someone has … tattooed … it within my body.’

He could see her longing to ask him what had happened, how such a thing was possible. What the
hell
he was talking about.

‘But you must have checked yourself?’

‘I've checked my skin, of course. I need you to scan inside me.’

‘You’re aware you can’t have a
tattoo
inside your body? A tattoo is a skin decoration, ink injected into the dermis.’

‘Sure. Obviously. Not a tattoo as such. I don’t know what you’d call it. I need you to scan me everywhere and look for ... anything unusual.’