“What?”
Yu headed toward the bedroom, hoping it wasn’t the one Nafti was waiting in. He didn’t want Nafti to get to the girl first.
“What do you mean it’s not available to you?”
“Exactly that,” the House said. “Certain things are no longer within my purview. If you would like the controls reset, you must contact the homeowner and have her use the established protocols.”
“Homeowner?” the girl said. “What—?”
Her voice cut off suddenly. Then there was a large bang, followed by a female grunt. Apparently Nafti had been waiting in that room after all.
Yu hurried in. Nafti had his strong arms wrapped around the girl. Her eyes were a pale blue and they flashed with anger.
“Who the hell are you?” the girl shouted. Then she said, “House! House! Notify security! Call the police! Call Mom!”
“I’m sorry,” the House said. “My emergency system has been disabled. If you would like to reinstate the programming, you need to…”
The House system continued speaking, but the girl screamed over it. She kicked at Nafti but he held her tighter, cutting off her scream.
“You’re not supposed to damage her, remember?” Yu said. He had made that rule when he hired Nafti. Yu didn’t want anyone to get hurt on this trip, particularly the girl and her mother. Not to mention the fact that the Gyonnese wanted Rhonda Shindo to be undamaged.
Nafti let the girl go. She staggered forward, gasping for air.
“Grab her arms and hold her, but don’t hurt her,” Yu said. “I have to check something.”
Nafti reached for the girl and she slapped at him. The movement was ineffectual. She was still gasping for air.
Nafti caught the girl by the arms and pulled them behind her. Tears sprang into her eyes.
“Not so tight,” Yu said.
Nafti loosened his grip. Yu walked up to both of them.
The girl stared at him in complete hatred.
“Sit her down,” Yu said.
Nafti sat. The girl had no choice but to do the same.
Yu crouched beside them. The girl continued to watch him, her pale eyes defiant.
“Bend your head forward,” Yu said.
She raised her chin ever so slightly. She never took her gaze off him. He both admired her spirit and worried about it. If the Gyonnese had sent someone else, her attitude could have gotten her injured or worse.
“Bend your head forward,” he said in his most menacing tone, “or we’ll do it for you.”
“No,” she said. “And you can’t make me.”
The answer was childish. He hadn’t expected it from her. She continued to watch him, her cheeks turning a pale rose—whether from fear or anger, he couldn’t tell.
Yu sighed and nodded to Nafti. Nafti clutched her arms with one beefy hand and put the other on top of her head, pressing it forward.
Yu brushed Nafti’s fingers, releasing a little of the pressure. Then Yu pushed aside the hair at the base of the girl’s neck.
He didn’t see a cloning mark. By Earth Alliance law, clones were supposed to be marked with their number— the first clone getting a 1 and so on. He had expected to find a five.
That he found nothing made him nervous.
So had her behavior. Maybe he just wasn’t used to sixteen year olds, but he didn’t remember them being quite as reckless and childish as this girl. Maybe the Gyonnese had gotten it wrong. Maybe she wasn’t the original child or a clone.
Maybe she was a sibling.
“How old are you?” he asked.
“How old are you?” she snapped back.
Nafti grinned at him. Yu glared. He didn’t want the girl to know that she was impressing them.
“Cooperate, child,” he said. “Then we won’t have to hurt you.”
She didn’t say anything.
Nafti clutched the top of her skull and slowly turned her head until the strain showed in her neck muscles. Yu shook his head at Nafti but didn’t verbally remind him to leave the girl alone.
Yu moved so that he could see the girl’s face. It was red. Tears stained the corners of her eyes.
He wanted to tell Nafti to stop, but before he did, he needed to get control of this girl. So Yu said, “It doesn’t matter to us what condition you’re in, so long as you’re alive. Doctors can repair almost any injury these days, so long as you don’t die first. But they can’t take away the pain you’ll experience until the injury is fixed. You’ll always have the memory of that. We can guarantee it.”
She blinked at him.
“Now,” he added, “tell me how old you are.”
“I’m thirteen,” she said, tears in her voice.
He was trembling. If she was a sibling, he had to take her and the mother. He wasn’t prepared for that. He’d only said that the ship had a crew complement of three. He’d have to find a way to explain the girl’s presence.
“Thirteen?” he said. “Stop lying.”
“I’m not lying.” The tears made her voice thicker. “Honest I’m not.”
“You can’t be thirteen,” he said.
“I am.” Her hands clenched against the floor, but she no longer tried to get away. “You’ve got the wrong family.”
He felt a thread of panic. The houses did all look the same.
“You’re Rhonda Shindo’s daughter, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “But you confused my mother with someone else.”
He didn’t answer that. She had no idea who her mother was.
Nafti kept his hand on the girl’s head, but he watched Yu. “Maybe the mother shaved twenty-nine Earth months off her age.”
Yu thought about that for a moment. Maybe the mother lied to the daughter. She had lied about everything else.
“Or maybe they’re counting her age in units other than Earth time.” Yu turned to the girl. “Tell me your age in Earth years.”
A tear ran down her cheek. She looked confused. “I’m thirteen Earth years.”
Yu cursed.
“The tag has to be on the back of the neck,” Nafti said.
“Only in the Alliance,” Yu said. What if Shindo had cloned the daughter outside of the Alliance? Then he wouldn’t be able to tell if she was a clone or not.
“What tag?” the girl asked. “What’s a tag?”
Yu ignored her. He reached for his pouch and said to Nafti, “A couple places do put the tag under the skin.”
He opened the pouch and brought a pen shaped laser identifier. He hated these things. They weren’t always accurate. But it should at least reveal if she had a hidden tag.
She was watching him. “You’re not going to cut me open, are you?”
The identifier couldn’t cut open skin. It was designed so that it wouldn’t harm anyone. But apparently, she didn’t know that. So he decided to use it to his advantage.
“Naw, honey,” he said coldly. “Head wounds bleed.”
He moved the identifier toward her. She closed her eyes.
Nafti turned her head back to a normal position and Yu held the identifier about the base of the skull.
“Nothing,” he said in frustration. He didn’t want to take her with him.
“Some of these places allow tags anywhere on the back of the head, so long as they’re not in front of the
