“The ones I wish to work with are the JAM, Lieutenant Burgadish. All you are is their messenger boy. Even so, I’ve learned quite a number of the JAM’s strategies from you. Still, I’m afraid I can’t let you get away with this, Lieutenant Burgadish. Or rather, Burgaduplicate.”
“But... you could control the FAF. Why would you throw all that away?”
“Because my goal in life isn’t to become an oil baron. Good God, you JAM really have no appreciation for the complexities of humans. Or the complexities of our organizations or how flexible we can be. Declare independence and then sell resources to Earth? Don’t make me laugh. If we were going to do that, we’d be doing it already.”
“Then what do you want, Colonel?”
“Nothing extravagant. To go home, throw a log on the fire, and read a good mystery, maybe.”
“What do you mean?” Burgadish said.
“Literally that. I don’t have a fireplace in my home back on Earth.”
“If you kill me, you’ll be losing a lot.”
“I don’t think you’ll be helping me anymore, and I have no intention of helping you. I never regret the things I lose.”
“You’re a fool.”
“You’re right. I never expected you to shoot Lieutenant Mayle,” Rombert said. “I honestly thought you were smarter than that. That was a mistake. Now, take the anguish he felt when you murdered him and go to hell.”
Colonel Rombert emptied the automatic into him, spent cartridges flying as he fired again and again. The duplicate of Lieutenant Burgadish fell silent.
“Now then, gentlemen,” Colonel Rombert said as he holstered the gun. “I believe you came here with your hearts burning with anger and a lust for vengence against the living. I’m not here to extinguish those flames. You may each carry out your mission from the JAM.”
“What are you talking about?” one of the duplicates said. “You do this and expect us to let you walk out of here alive?”
“This man was taking vengeance on Lieutenant Mayle’s behalf,” Lieutenant Lancome said. “We could make an exception for him.”
“You people can’t live very long,” said Colonel Rombert. “You’re not alive. I can’t do anything to save you from that.”
“What, so you’re saying we should resent the JAM for our condition?” said another man. “We don’t need your sympathy.”
“And you won’t get it,” said the colonel. “I think there’s little difference between you and all the humans here on Faery.”
“What do you mean?” asked Lieutenant Lancome.
“They say that everyone has a right to enjoy their misery. You should enjoy all the misery you’re experiencing to your hearts’ content. I just enjoyed correcting my own mistake, which was overestimating Lieutenant Burgadish. Well, it’d be dull if things always proceeded according to plan, wouldn’t it?”
“You’re not sane. You’re mad.”
“I am conscious of the fact that I am not like most people. It gives me pleasure to live that way. But do not doubt my sanity. If you’d like to have a bit more fun with this situation, I can show you how.”
“What do you mean?” asked Lieutenant Lancome.
“Honestly apply yourselves to the retraining unit’s curriculum. It’s fun. Who knows? Maybe the Systems Corps will really find a way to bring people back to life,” Rombert said.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” said the man who’d spoken first. He now seemed to be a leader. “I’m afraid the cuisine here isn’t to our taste.”
“Hmm,” said the colonel. “You don’t have time, huh? Your bodies are made from optical isomers, aren’t they? That means you can’t digest human food.”
“Precisely.”
The proteins comprising the bodies of these JAM humanoids weren’t proteins, strictly speaking. They were composed of polypeptides, the optical isomers of proteins — three-dimensional mirror images of the proteins that made up normal human beings. Colonel Rombert could imagine how different their sense of taste must be from humans, and he sympathized with how awful the food must have seemed to them.
“Take action immediately or grow so hungry you can’t move.” They must have been purposely made that way. “I see. Nicely done. Then you’d better act at once, hadn’t you?”
“You really aren’t going to try to stop us?”
“I won’t,” Rombert said.
“Then why did you shoot Lieutenant Burgadish? Because you overestimated him?”
“I’m the better man to lead you all. One group doesn’t need two bosses. I’m far more familiar with the inner workings of the FAF, and with humans. Lieutenant Burgadish couldn’t even persuade one man to follow him.”
“Our targets are the key members of the FAF high command, beginning with General Laitume,” the leader of the duplicates said. “If we kill them, what will you do? Use the Intelligence Forces to take over the FAF?”
“That’s what I’m planning.”
“No, I don’t believe you. Remember what you said to Lieutenant Burgadish a few minutes ago?”
“I said that I didn’t want to be an oil baron. What I want is a modestly peaceful life. Well, I suppose that’s old age talking.”
“What are you really after, Colonel Rombert?”
“To toss out the war-weary fools in the FAF high command. They don’t live for the FAF.”
“The FAF has no future. Surely you know that too, Colonel. You’ve been used. You may have thought you could use the JAM to your own ends, but if you really think that’s going to work, then the one who should doubt your sanity is you.”
“I’ll keep your advice in mind, thank you,” Colonel Rombert replied. “Anyway, good luck to you all. I’ll use the Intelligence Forces to let you move more easily.”
“Colonel, what’s your real objective here? Please tell us.”
“You want to know anyway, even though you don’t have to?” Colonel Rombert looked around at them all. Everyone’s attention was on him. “Well,” said the colonel. “As with all things, you don’t know what you can do until you try. Even I don’t know if this will work or not. However, gentlemen, if you must know what my objective is, then in deference to your history, I’ll tell you. What I’m after isn’t control of the FAF. That’s only a means to an end. What I’m after is control of the JAM.”
Not one of them moved or spoke.
“What’s wrong?” asked the colonel. “You can laugh if you like, men.”
“We don’t share your sense of humor,” said the leader.
“I’d have thought that the JAM would find it easier to understand me. There’s not much difference between the JAM and me. If you think me a fool, then I think the same of you. We’re the same. While our goals may be different, for now our objective is the same. So, what will you do? Shoot me here?”
“Set the Intelligence Forces in motion, Colonel. As planned.”
“Very well. Follow me.”
As the colonel came out into the corridor, the ghost unit began to move. The colonel was joined only by Lieutenant Lancome and the duplicates’ leader in the Systems Corps’ central systems command center. The rest of the group split up in preparation for seizing control of the corps’ armaments. Only six Systems Corps personnel were at work in the command center. They saluted Colonel Rombert and asked what he wanted.
“I have some representatives from the retraining unit with me,” Colonel Rombert replied. “I wanted to teach them about the practical applications of the FAF computer network. This is good timing. You can help me. I want to issue simultaneous test directives to the Intelligence Forces from here.”
“Understood,” nodded one of the controllers, clearing a console for the colonel to use.
“Now then, gentlemen,” Colonel Rombert said as he sat down. “The FAF computer system really is very well designed. I can access my control computer from anywhere. The method for validating authorized users varies from system to system, and these methods are not public knowledge. However, since I don’t trust computer validation, I issue my instructions to a human subordinate, not the computer. Everyone in the Systems Corps probably laughs at me for using this advanced computer as a glorified videophone, but...”
The face of a man from the Intelligence Forces appeared on the console monitor. The colonel spoke to
