“He’s got a repository of cells from locals, but… I don’t know if everything will work perfectly.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her. “Are you saying she’ll come out sick, or something? Maybe with a new weakness toward cancer, or with one part of her body rejecting another?”
Floramel shrugged helplessly. “This isn’t really my field of expertise. I’m more of a physicist than a medical researcher. But the Investigator is making the best choices he can from what’s available. Of that much I’m sure.”
On the seventh day, a fateful call came in. I looked at my tapper and stared in disbelief.
“What is it, James?” the Investigator asked me. That was a positive change, right there. He never called me James, always “McGill”. I guess we were growing closer after working on this project together.
“It’s Galina Turov. She’s finally tracked me down.”
We all exchanged glances. In the meantime, my arm kept buzzing and glowing red.
“Let me talk to her,” the Investigator said.
“Uh… all right. I’ve got nothing to lose. Floramel, go hide yourself or something.”
After the lanky scientist had left the room, I finally answered the call. Instead of turning the screen up toward my ugly mug, I turned it toward the Investigator.
“James, what the—oh,” Galina said, breaking off. “Who are you? How did you get McGill’s tapper?”
“I’m the Investigator, madam,” he said. “McGill is assisting me in a critical experiment. How can I help you?”
“What? James, are you there?”
I poked my head into the scene and waved. “Hiya, Tribune! What can I do for you?”
“Are you AWOL for a reason? Is that what I’m hearing, here?”
“Yessir. Remember the original reason why I left Dominus in the first place? I’m still working on that one.”
“Oh… right. I thought… never mind. I’m sorry, McGill, but you must return to Earth immediately.”
“Uh… what? Why?”
“Governor Nox is here—and she wants to talk to you.”
“Aw jeez. Can’t that wait a bit? Give her a parade on Unity Square, or something.”
Galina became stern. “Get your ass to the gateway posts and transmit yourself to Earth. I’ve already contacted the Hegemony garrison on Dust World. They’re out looking for you right now. If you don’t report very soon, you will be arrested and escorted home.”
I thought about defying her. I really did. I could claim some kind of communications foul-up, then wrap my tapper in aluminum foil—I knew all the tricks.
But I didn’t do it. After all, she was right. Etta was in for a long, long dunk in the tank, and I wasn’t mission-critical to the project. In fact, the other two would probably be happy I was out of their hair, not asking dumb questions all the time.
“Okay. I’m on my way.”
As I said my good-byes, Floramel stiffened and turned her face away when I went for a kiss. I guess she was feeling kind of cold after seeing and hearing Galina run me around.
With a shrug and a hardy farewell, I hit the ground running. I didn’t even bother to take the few belongings I’d had with me in the catacombs. Everything was full of dust and nanites, anyway.
The hogs caught up to me about halfway back to town. Fortunately it was daytime, and no one had any difficulty identifying the other.
“Centurion McGill? We’re under orders to—”
“I know, Hog. I know. Just try to keep up, because I’m running all the way to the gateway and back to Earth.”
They looked surprised, and then they looked annoyed because I meant what I’d said. I was moving fast, and they felt obliged to keep up.
Along the way, one of them huffed and read me various rights and charges—I ignored it all. You would think even a hog would know when to shut up. Here I was, racing to the exact spot they’d been ordered to drag me, and he still couldn’t let go of his regulations.
After I plunged into the public bug-zapper that connected the planet to Mother Earth, I was greeted by a fresh pack of hogs on the other side. I gave them a run for their money as well, charging along passages and such. They would have stopped me and cuffed me, but their orders did say to bring me in ASAP, and even they realized a formal arrest process would just slow things down.
At last I reached Drusus’ office and shook free of my dog pack of hogs. It was a serious relief.
“Were they chasing you, or escorting you?” Drusus asked me as I trotted in, out of breath.
“I suppose it was a little of both, sir.”
He nodded and waved me to a single chair in the middle of a circle of chairs.
“Uh…” I said. “Am I going to be burned at the stake, or something?”
“Not this time. We’ve set up the room as Nox requested. You are to be independently located, placed physically distant from all other humans during this interrogation.”
“Interrogation?”
“What’s more,” Drusus went on, “she’s demanded that all communication devices on your person be disabled.”
Here, Drusus signaled a burly hog who advanced toward my chair.
“Ah…” I said, “she must be thinking I might use my tapper to cheat. Someone should tell Nox that I generally ignore messages and advice, even when it’s good advice, but I understand her reluctance to accept our assurances. Here, I’ll just shut it down and—hey!”
I shouted and jerked my arm away from the hog, but it was too late. He’d grabbed my wrist and stabbed a combat knife into my arm. My tapper was wrecked, and the screen went blank.
He turned his fat head
