Read Online Human After All by Connie Bailey - Free Book Online Page B

it.”
    “You might be right. How’s that for irony? The highest paid Companion in the trade wandering the Grange like a pedigreed lapdog released into the wild.”
    “Is that meant to be amusing? Because I can assure you it isn’t.”
    “That’s better.” Drue gave the T-bred a teeth-chattering grin. “Maybe some of that fire will help keep you warm.”
    “Vac-head,” Jaymes said under his breath. “Can you walk?”
    Leaning on one another, Jaymes and Drue managed to stagger to the edge of the small forest before they collapsed. They crawled into a shallow cave formed by the tangled roots of a fallen tree roofed with a thatch of moss. Jaymes stifled his reactions to the feel and smell of the accumulated leaf mold as he put his back against the soft wall and drew his knees up to his chest. Wrapping his arms around his shins, the T-bred stared out into the gathering darkness.
    “This is the worst moment of my life,” he said to the night.
    “It’s still early,” Drue said. “Wait until it gets really cold.”
    “Shut up, would you? Every time you open your mouth, things get worse.”
    “Look, I know you didn’t sign on for this, but—”
    “Sign on!” Jaymes’s head whipped around, and his eyes met Drue’s. “Sign on?” he asked in a softer voice. “You and your mistress illegally tampered with my template. You used me like a tool, and now I’m lost in the middle of nowhere waiting to die.”
    “We needed a Companion for Lady Alvera’s plan to work.”
    “You’re a Companion. Why didn’t she just send you?”
    The Exotic mumbled something that Jaymes didn’t hear.
    “What?”
    “I wanted to do it,” Drue repeated. “I volunteered.”
    “Then why was it necessary to ruin my life?”
    “Because I wasn’t fine enough, all right? Alvera knew I wouldn’t catch the Deep’s fancy. The lure had to be Thoroughbred Class, top-of-the-line. There aren’t that many Companions with your model designation, and a fake would never stand up to scrutiny.”
    “What was the plan?”
    “Protecting Scion Londean has been Alvera’s only mission since I’ve known her.”
    Jaymes snorted.
    “You’re so smug, and so ignorant,” Drue said. “Let me acquaint you with a few facts that are going to astound you. Your friend Valens is… was much more than Londean’s Companion. Alvera had a hand in his training before she bought her contract and left Gentren. She didn’t put Londean and Valens together, but when she realized the Speaker favored her old pupil, she enlisted him in the shield she was building around Londean. She even made anonymous donations to Gentren to pay for Combat enhancements for Valens.”
    “Yes, I noticed.”
    A silence fell that was broken by Drue. “I’m sorry about Vale. I liked him.”
    “So did I. Was protecting Londean worth his life?”
    “Alvera believed Londean would change the world if he were President-General. Several things stood in the way, one of them being Londean’s reluctance to serve as head of the government. He believed wielding that much power would inevitably corrupt anyone.”
    “So she had Vale whispering her words in Londean’s ear. She made him into a puppet just like she did with me.”
    “No, she was only using you to remove an obstacle and a threat. D.P. Ampery would have made sure Londean never rose higher than Speaker, and he would have gladly given the order to terminate him, if Alvera hadn’t acted first.”
    “She did all this simply to clear Londean’s path to the highest office?”
    “She did all this so you and I would have a better future.”
    “I have no future,” Jaymes shouted, startling Drue. “I killed a Citizen.”
    “No, you executed a monster.”
    Jaymes put his forehead on his knees and closed his eyes. He opened them again as images of Brandel Ampery strobed in his memory. Drue was right about one thing: the Deputy President was a monster. Jaymes had told the man so himself. However, that did not change the fact that