Page 66 of Scion

“Um…” I glance at the q-vid screen.

Jasa shrugs back at me. “Sorry, dear. These ones need a modulator. They’re all yours.”

“Great.” I activate all my damned revs. Two Argosi. One hand. No weapon. I’m not caught off guard or badly injured like the last time, but this is still asking a lot. Behind the monsters, I realise Smug Exec is scrambling up the stairs, toward the terminal.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he’s doing; I slingshot into motion, darting around the left Argos’s flashing claws and flying after him, an ominous thumping behind me suggesting that the bios have not been content to just let me run off.

I’m quick, but Smug Exec still manages to get a few taps in before I can grab him.

The lights across the entire massive room fade to an ugly, pulsing red.

“Oh, I think he might have hit a panic button, Azure,” says Jasa helpfully as I spin, wrenching Smug Exec around so that he’s between me and the charging Argii, facing them.

I thrust him out toward them. “Better say it quick.”

The man gives the faintest gasp of fear. “Limerance petrichor cl—”

The first of the Argoses arrives and swipes hard at me. I dodge.

Smug Exec doesn’t.

Worse, he doesn’t finish his stupid sentence.

“Really, Azure?” says Jasa disapprovingly as the man’s corpse collapses to the floor, half his torso pretty much gone.

“Thought he’d be faster,” I mutter, diving away and putting one of the massive marble columns in between me and the Argos. “And why the hell aren’t you dead? I saw you die.”

“No, you saw Other de Alwes die. That’s who you were escorting around, this past week.” Her voice seems to travel with me, despite some distance to the screen now; apparently the room’s set up so that these remote conversations can be comfortably had from anywhere in here. “Honestly, you kept her alive a lot longer than I expected. I was starting to get worried.”

I fling myself to the left as an Argos thunders a claws-out strike into the column I’m hiding behind. The stone shatters, red-lit dust exploding in a cloud away from it; I barely have time to recover before I’m diving again, this time away from the other one. “She was a damned Dupe?”

“ ‘Dupe’ is such a derogatory term,” tuts Jasa. “I prefer ‘scion.’ ”

“That’s a bit grand.” I dash to my left and leap the balustrade, my revs taking care of the landing on the lower floor.

“It’s a grand achievement.”

The Argos are coming down the stairs through the pulsing red light, but the extra few seconds helps. I position myself, digesting Jasa’s revelation. Damn. “Did she know?”

She shakes her head. “All thanks to the Keres, really. They tried killing me using a hacked Automaid—and when I woke up a few hours later, I realised that the AID had taken a brain scan while I was unconscious. That’s when I had the idea.” She shrugs. “I had access to the Keres’ internal exec comms, so I was already planning to hire you once they decided to send a scion after me. Let you discover the truth for yourself, then try and work with you. But it was a bit of a dangerous play, all things considered, and I realised that might be an advantage, if I just got a scion of my own to do it instead…”

“Ah.” The Argii are on the lower level and bounding toward me, claws out. So much of my unpleasant past week does, unfortunately, make a lot of sense now. “So all of this was just to get you to this point, then. To fake your death?” I wait until the last second, then dodge the first Argos—I’m beyond fortunate they’re not like Jasa’s bios, and have no idea how to work together—and sling myself up onto its back, before punching down with rev-enhanced strength into its shoulder, through the disgusting eyeball pastiche. Just squelchy red goo in there, unfortunately, but being embedded to my elbow does give me something of an anchor as it tries to buck me off.

“It was a lot of things, Azure. Still is.” On the screen, Jasa’s craning her neck as if it will help her see over whatever obstruction is between my fight and the cam she’s watching through. “But, yes—partly. Bodies can be printed, people can be bought. The Keres needed the chase, and they needed it to finish with an eyewitness who literally couldn’t lie to them. They weren’t ever going to give up looking for me until they heard the news from you, like this.”

“Or… from… Crimson,” I gasp as I hold on grimly, waiting until the trailing Argos has almost reached us before flinging myself aside as its claws flash out. Instead of dissecting me, they bury themselves very gratifyingly in the back of the monster I was just riding.

“True, but I knew you’d beat him. Crimson was always so angry, always took everything so seriously. It wasn’t healthy. I really did prefer to work with you, you know,” she adds earnestly.

“Lucky me.” I’ve rolled a short distance away, but thankfully earned a respite; as planned, the first Argos has taken the assault on its back personally, launching itself at its surprised and probably very displeased counterpart.

Jasa frowns down at me from her massive screen. “Now, now. Don’t forget I’ve entrusted you with the stand-up phrase,” she reminds me, as the sound of wheezing effort and clashing claws echoes around the vast, red-bathed room. “That has to count for something. ‘Sonder apricity defenestration.’ See?”

I glower at the screen, long enough that I hope indicates to her just how little I appreciate hearing those words aloud again. She’s right, though, at least. I’m not frozen in place like before. “So I get to be in charge of my own body? Yeah. Very generous, Jasa.”

“Jasa?” Her eyebrow raises. “And here I thought you didn’t remember names.”

I grunt, ignoring it. Every rev still primed, but the two Argoses have pretty much forgotten about me now, claws and blood and gross eyeball gel flying everywhere as they try to out-murder one another. I decide not to interfere. “How the hell did you know when to jump on the q-com?”