blocking when old friends met up. “Why the hell didn’t you call? ” Carl hugged Ariane, shook DuQuesne’s and Simon’s hands, and gave Gabrielle a longer hug and a kiss that echoed the one she’d given him on departure. “And who’s your new friend?”
“Sun Wu Kung, meet Carl Edlund.”
“Pleased to meet you, Carl! Call me Wu, since you are obviously friends with my friends.”
“Glad to meet you. So what’s your line? You sure don’t look like SSC standard issue to me.”
Wu laughed. “Ha! No, I am not at all!”
“We’ll talk about Wu a little later,” Ariane cut in. “Carl, where’s Dr. Shoshana?”
“Dr. who?” Carl looked genuinely confused. At the same time, Laila Canning entered from one of the rear doors and glanced around the little group.
Marc felt grimly vindicated. “She had no intention of making contact here. She’s gone somewhere else—and unless someone volunteers the information, we haven’t a chance of finding her.”
“Oh, come on , Marc,” Ariane said. “There’s no other human beings in the entire Arena. How’s she going to hide ?”
“In plain sight, so to speak. All she’s got to do is convince a faction—big one, small one, doesn’t matter—that she’s got something good enough to trade, and get into their Embassy. Then she’s got access to the Arena, allies, and secrecy.”
Laila’s brown eyes studied them curiously, and DuQuesne had to once more fight off the lingering suspicion he’d had—since Laila had been brought back from apparent brain-death by the Faith—that Laila was not really Laila Canning at all any more. “Who, precisely, is this person you’re worried about?” she asked.
“Her current alias is Marilyn Shoshana, supposedly an agent for the SSC; her real name is Maria-Susanna and she’s the renegade Hyperion that’s been at the top of the wanted lists for the past fifty years.”
Laila just stared narrowly; Carl winced. “Holy crap. That’s…not good.”
“We’ve got a whole lot of ‘not good’ for you right now,” Ariane said, gesturing for the others to follow her to one of the Embassy’s conference rooms, “and you’d better let us fill you in.” She ran one hand through her deep blue hair. “And I’d hoped we’d solve some problems before we came back.”
Chapter 7.
“Well, that does seem to rather complicate things,” Laila said, pushing her own bobbed brown hair back with a distracted air. Ariane noted that she seemed to have absorbed the data-dump more easily than Carl. Not surprising—she was used to having three fully-active AISages before we came here, and losing them nearly killed her. If anyone can handle immense amounts of data in one shot, it’s Dr. Laila Canning.
“Yeah. Whoa.” Carl blinked, shook his head. “Ouch! You know, Ariane, every time you go somewhere you seem to pick up more trouble along the way.”
“Don’t I know it.” She looked at both of them. “Now you’re up to speed on what happened with us—how have things been here?”
“Mostly fairly quiet, actually. Everyone knew you were gone for a while, and aside from the Molothos trying a couple of times to annoy one of us into initiating a Challenge, everyone seemed perfectly happy to wait for a while. Your friend Relgof,” he nodded at Simon, “still drops by fairly often to check on things; the Analytic’s clearly really interested in getting us to either join their faction or at least get some formal alliance going, maybe get some human members.”
“Mandallon, our appointed Initiate Guide, is also a frequent visitor; he sometimes escorts me to view some of the Faith’s rituals,” Laila said. “Both he and Relgof volunteered information on how to customize our Embassy further, and Steve followed through on that—very well, I think.”
“I thought I recognized Steve’s touch. So you’ve been trading off duties here?”
“Yeah, just like you said; make sure we all keep in touch, cycle those on
“Sun Wu Kung, meet Carl Edlund.”
“Pleased to meet you, Carl! Call me Wu, since you are obviously friends with my friends.”
“Glad to meet you. So what’s your line? You sure don’t look like SSC standard issue to me.”
Wu laughed. “Ha! No, I am not at all!”
“We’ll talk about Wu a little later,” Ariane cut in. “Carl, where’s Dr. Shoshana?”
“Dr. who?” Carl looked genuinely confused. At the same time, Laila Canning entered from one of the rear doors and glanced around the little group.
Marc felt grimly vindicated. “She had no intention of making contact here. She’s gone somewhere else—and unless someone volunteers the information, we haven’t a chance of finding her.”
“Oh, come on , Marc,” Ariane said. “There’s no other human beings in the entire Arena. How’s she going to hide ?”
“In plain sight, so to speak. All she’s got to do is convince a faction—big one, small one, doesn’t matter—that she’s got something good enough to trade, and get into their Embassy. Then she’s got access to the Arena, allies, and secrecy.”
Laila’s brown eyes studied them curiously, and DuQuesne had to once more fight off the lingering suspicion he’d had—since Laila had been brought back from apparent brain-death by the Faith—that Laila was not really Laila Canning at all any more. “Who, precisely, is this person you’re worried about?” she asked.
“Her current alias is Marilyn Shoshana, supposedly an agent for the SSC; her real name is Maria-Susanna and she’s the renegade Hyperion that’s been at the top of the wanted lists for the past fifty years.”
Laila just stared narrowly; Carl winced. “Holy crap. That’s…not good.”
“We’ve got a whole lot of ‘not good’ for you right now,” Ariane said, gesturing for the others to follow her to one of the Embassy’s conference rooms, “and you’d better let us fill you in.” She ran one hand through her deep blue hair. “And I’d hoped we’d solve some problems before we came back.”
Chapter 7.
“Well, that does seem to rather complicate things,” Laila said, pushing her own bobbed brown hair back with a distracted air. Ariane noted that she seemed to have absorbed the data-dump more easily than Carl. Not surprising—she was used to having three fully-active AISages before we came here, and losing them nearly killed her. If anyone can handle immense amounts of data in one shot, it’s Dr. Laila Canning.
“Yeah. Whoa.” Carl blinked, shook his head. “Ouch! You know, Ariane, every time you go somewhere you seem to pick up more trouble along the way.”
“Don’t I know it.” She looked at both of them. “Now you’re up to speed on what happened with us—how have things been here?”
“Mostly fairly quiet, actually. Everyone knew you were gone for a while, and aside from the Molothos trying a couple of times to annoy one of us into initiating a Challenge, everyone seemed perfectly happy to wait for a while. Your friend Relgof,” he nodded at Simon, “still drops by fairly often to check on things; the Analytic’s clearly really interested in getting us to either join their faction or at least get some formal alliance going, maybe get some human members.”
“Mandallon, our appointed Initiate Guide, is also a frequent visitor; he sometimes escorts me to view some of the Faith’s rituals,” Laila said. “Both he and Relgof volunteered information on how to customize our Embassy further, and Steve followed through on that—very well, I think.”
“I thought I recognized Steve’s touch. So you’ve been trading off duties here?”
“Yeah, just like you said; make sure we all keep in touch, cycle those on
Similar Books
