Part 25 (1/2)

James stared at him impa.s.sively. ”By killing Dekka, Gar, you have made yourself an outlaw. You may as well throw in your lot with us.”

”I can't,” Gar said wretchedly.

James struggled to a sitting position. ”Then shoot me,” he challenged.

Annie watched with bewilderment as the gun started to waver. Gar hesitated a long moment, then threw the gun to the floor.

”Thank you, Gar,” James said quietly.

Gar covered his face with his hands for a long moment. ”I couldn't let her kill you,” he said in a whisper.

”I can't kill you. I owe you too much.”

”I don't understand,” Annie said. ”What do you owe him' I thought everyone in your world believed

that humanoids were inferior. So how did you become friends with one of them'”

Gar lowered his hands and looked at her. She saw with shock that there were tears streaking his cheeks. ”He is much more than merely a friend,” he said harshly.

”What do you mean'”

Gar strode across the room, knelt next to James, and helped him to his feet. ”James belonged to my family. He raised me from a baby. He was more of a parent to me than my own mother ever was.” He hesitated, then added in a whisper, ”I owe him everything.”

Chapter 20.

Annie watched with bewilderment as Gar stood with his arm around James' waist, steadying him. She remembered that James had told her he was a nanny. Apparently he had raised this man as a child, and in so doing had earned his affection and respect.

Gar had enough affection for James that he was willing to kill a human for his sake. That hardly seemed to fit with her notion of a world that had turned a blind eye to the suffering of fifty million humanoids as they were executed without mercy.

She wondered how many other humanoids that had been with families for years, for decades, had been destroyed by the Bureau. She wondered how many other people were out there in this world, angry and resentful and saddened that the humanoids they had trusted enough to raise their children had been denied rights, then summarily destroyed.

”Would you mind letting me go'” she asked.

Gar blinked, then lifted a hand and brushed away his tears. ”Of course,” he said in a husky voice. He walked to the wall and touched it. She couldn't see a control panel, or any sort of b.u.t.ton, but the invisible something that had held her fast immediately dissipated. She staggered, and James was immediately at her side, holding her until she had regained her equilibrium.

”What are we going to do now'” she asked.

”We must return to the twenty-first century,” James said. ”It is the only sensible alternative.”

”Don't be stupid, James. We have an opportunity to figure out what else we can do to fix things. We need to stay right here until we figure it out.”

”We cannot afford to stay here,” Gar said. ”Before long Dekka's death will be discovered, and then--”

”We'll be dead meat,” Annie said.

James lifted his eyebrows. ”Metaphorically speaking, in my case.”

Annie clenched her fists, annoyed by his ability to find humor in their current desperate situation. ”Look, James, you said you couldn't figure out another way to change the future. I mean, the present. The world we're in right now. But there has to be another way. Suppose we take another look at those records'”

”The Bureau is not going to permit us to sit down and peruse their computer records at our leisure,” James said mildly. ”We are, as you once put it, on the lam. We need to escape this place at once.” ”No,” Gar said.

Annie looked at him with surprise. She saw that James had much the same reaction. ”Huh'” she said. ”Ms. Simpson is correct. We need to take this opportunity to fix things, James. We won't get another chance.”

”Don't be absurd, Gar. You are in as much danger as we are. Perhaps more. You killed Dekka.”

”Is Dekka that important'” Annie demanded.

James glanced at her. ”Her status is irrelevant. Your society was plagued by violence and murder, Annie.

This society is not. Here the murder of a human being is treated as the serious matter it is. Murder is not tolerated.”

”Murder isn't tolerated in my society, either.”

”Odd that you have so much of it.”

Annie flushed. She remembered Dekka's contemptuous reference to her as a barbarian, and hoped James didn't see her that way. Most likely he did. Here she was nothing more than a savage, a refugee from the Dark Ages. ”We have laws against it,” she said stiffly.

”Laws mean nothing without commensurate punishment. Here murder is met with a prompt and

appropriate response.”

She guessed he meant the death penalty but realized she didn't really want to know for sure. ”If murder is that serious an offense, then why did you kill her'”

Gar looked at her with surprise. ”She was torturing James, Annie. She was going to kill him.”

”Yes, but don't those things'” She waved vaguely at the gun on the floor'”have lower settings'”