Part 32 (1/2)
”You're fake,” she said. ”And I don't mean you're a machine. I mean you're not there at all.” She put her hand against his arm and watched it ripple.
James rose to his feet and regarded her with his customary mild expression. ”Annie. What do you mean' Of course he is there.”
”No. He's a holo-image.” She reached out and touched James and saw a quiver run through him too. ”So are you. So where is the real James'” She raised her voice. ”I want to talk to whoever is in charge. The game is over, d.a.m.n it.”
There was a moment of stillness, then the world around them rippled. James and Charles vanished like smoke on the wind. The Quonset huts disappeared, as did the town and the streets and the people. Nothing was left but a few buildings, and a vast sweep of desert, silvered by the moonlight. Gar and Annie stood for a moment, scanning the horizon, then Gar touched her arm. ”Over there,” he said softly.
A tall figure was approaching. Even in the moonlight Annie could see it wasn't James. It was a big, broad-shouldered man, but it wasn't him. As the man approached, she realized it was Charles.
”Another holo-image'” Gar whispered.
”I doubt it. What would be the point' They won't try to fool us the same way twice.” She walked toward him and hesitated a foot away, looking at him closely and noticing that he looked precisely like the holo-image she'd just seen. ”What have you done with James'”
”We needed his help,” Charles said. He was a beautiful man, as attractive in his way as James was in his, and his mellifluous voice was even deeper than James'.
”Then there are others of you. Other humanoids.”
Charles inclined his head slightly in a gesture that reminded her of James. ”Thousands of us live in the desert. Millions more live elsewhere on the surface.”
”James said the surface was deserted.”
”In his'reality'it apparently was. Here it is not.”
”We were told you were all killed,” Gar said.
”Most of the humans believe that, because the Bureau removed us from their homes with the a.s.surance that we would be destroyed. But the truth is that we managed to win our freedom with the help of the Bureau. We keep it by means of the patrol.”
”The what'”
”The cougar you encountered,” Charles explained. ”It intended to attack you and Gar, not James, and it would have succeeded had James not intervened. The patrol animals are programmed to search out and anesthetize human encroachers, who are then returned to their cities. The humans cannot make it far on the planet's surface without encountering one of our creatures.”
”Nice,” Annie said bleakly. ”So you keep them holed up in their cities.”
Charles shrugged, unconcerned. ”Few of them want to come to the surface anyway. As long as they leave us alone, we leave them alone. On the rare occasions when we do want to speak with them, we keep them confined in an illusion such as you encountered. There they are only permitted to speak to our ' avatars. We never actually have to interact with them in any way.”
Annie swallowed. This reality might be preferable to James' world, but it didn't sound idyllic by any stretch of the imagination. At least here the humanoids had survived, but they seemed to be waging a sort of Cold War with the humans, most of whom didn't even realize they were alive.
”Why did the Bureau tell the humans you were destroyed'” she asked.
Charles scowled. ”Many of them wanted to keep us as slaves,” he said, bitter anger lacing his tone. ”Had the Bureau let us come to the surface and advertised the fact, we would constantly be fending off bounty hunters, humans who wanted to sell us back to other humans. It is better that they do not realize we are here at all. It's better that they believe us gone entirely.” He nodded at Gar. ”It was actually his idea.”
”Mine'” Gar said.
Charles shrugged. ”Technically not yours, I suppose. The person we knew as Gar in this reality. You managed to convince the Director of the Bureau that we should be spared.”
Gar scowled. ”The Director of the Bureau was Dekka, and she hated the humanoids. She would never have agreed to that.”
”Dekka was in charge of the Bureau'” Annie said incredulously. ”But she was nuts! How did she get to a position like that'”
”What you saw as psychotic behavior,” Gar said dryly, ”others regarded as devotion to her cause.”
Charles lifted an eyebrow. ”I have never heard of a Bureau agent named Dekka. In this reality, the head of the Bureau is male.”
”That must be one of the things that changed,” Annie said.
Gar c.o.c.ked his head. ”What is the name of the Bureau's Director' Maybe I know him.”
”His name is Arda Sterling.”
”Sterling,” Annie said in a shocked whisper.
Gar's mouth dropped open. ”I never heard of an Arda Sterling in the Bureau.”
”Of course not!” Annie said excitedly. ”Because there wasn't one! Don't you see, Gar, James changed history when he saved that baby. It had nothing to do with Clark'it had to do with one of his descendants. When James changed history by saving the girl Clark later married, he changed everything.”
It was actually a h.e.l.l of an irony, she thought. James had gone to the past, determined to kill a baby, and he had believed he'd failed in his mission because he had been unable to bring himself to do it. But when he had saved a baby, performing a heroic act that was totally in character, he'd changed the future ' without the slightest intention of doing so.
”Do you have cities'” she asked.
Charles made a snorting sound that she guessed was supposed to indicate disgust. ”We are humanoids,” he said curtly. ”We have no need for shelter. The sun, the insects, the animals, cannot harm us. We live at peace with nature. The only element here that can damage us is sandstorms, and we use force fields to protect ourselves from them when necessary.”
”It sounds like you have things pretty well under control,” Annie said. ”But you said you needed James. Why'”
”He has information that we need,” Charles responded.
”Information,” Annie repeated. ”Like what'”
Charles looked down at her. His dark eyes looked very cold in the moonlight. ”When we agreed to leave the cylinder cities, the Bureau wiped our memories of any information that the humans judged as harmful. Some of that information is extremely basic. Since James is from an alternate reality, his memory was never wiped, so we wish to download the information he has.”
That sounded creepy as h.e.l.l to Annie, but she realized downloading might be as normal as conversation to a humanoid. a.s.suming they weren't forcing James into giving up information against his will. She thought it was pretty horrible these people had been forced to have information removed from their minds'that sounded a bit too much like rape for her taste'and she didn't really blame them for wanting it back.
”I'd like to see James,” she said at last.
Charles looked at her, and the revulsion in his eyes intensified. ”I cannot permit you near my people,” he said.
She wondered what the humanoids had gone through in this reality. Obviously they hadn't been eradicated, but whatever had happened, it had obviously left them with some very unpleasant feelings toward humans. If the humans had wanted to wipe them out, and only the intervention of the Bureau had saved them, she wasn't really surprised they were suspicious of her. ”Look,” she said, ”I understand you're not really fond of humans, but I'm not even from this time. I didn't have a d.a.m.ned thing to do with the way you were treated.”
”That may be true. But my people do not want to interact with such as you.”
His tone was filled with sheer loathing, and Annie realized that he was genuinely repulsed by her presence, revolted by the idea of exposing his people to her.
But somehow she had to see James.
She hesitated, uncertain what to do. Then she remembered the way Gar's mother had spoken to James, the way he'd had difficulty refusing to do what she wanted. She stiffened her spine and glared into Charles' eyes. ”I want to see James, d.a.m.n it. Now.”