The Gate (6 page)

Carly gaped at her, dismayed that
Brenda’s thoughts had turned in that direction. “I meant the
government.”

“And they’re probably neck deep in
whatever conspiracy there was—is. It was a government funded
project after all.”

Carly blinked at her, not the least
because that was new information she wasn’t prepared for. “But …
Brenda! That doesn’t even make any sense! If the government was
funding it they’d be the last to want to destroy the research
they’d funded!”

“It just doesn’t make any sense because
we don’t know what it was about!” Brenda countered. “That doesn’t
rule out their involvement. Someone thought he was getting too
close to something they didn’t want exposed.”

Carly frowned. “He isn’t Devlin, Bren,”
she finally said gently. “I just used the sim that was so much like
him and had the company develop a cyborg that resembled him. There
was no DNA involved and even if there had been the cyborg won’t
have his memories.”

She felt guilty as soon as she said
that because the cyborg had planted a seed of doubt in her own
mind. He’d seemed damned convincing—even though she knew it just
wasn’t possible that he could actually be Devlin.

“So it won’t hurt for me to meet him,”
Brenda pointed out with a touch of triumph. “In fact, it might be
the healthiest thing I could do. It would clear my mind of the idea
that, somehow, he was Devlin.”

Carly chewed her lip thoughtfully. She
still felt like it was a very bad idea, but she also thought Brenda
had a point. Maybe it would be better to eliminate the idea that
the cyborg was anything but a facsimile of Devlin? “I think we
should play it safe, anyway. I mean, if there’s anything to your
theory about Devlin’s death, I don’t think we should take any
chances. We’ll need a safe place to meet.”

* * * *

There were still disturbing holes in
his memory, but Devlin had remembered enough to be distinctly
uneasy as Carly guided him through the unfamiliar complex. He
remembered her—well enough he had to wonder how those memories had
eluded him. What bothered him was that the memories he had of her
were … more like dreams than reality. He remembered making love to
her, many times, and yet they were almost like … out of body
experiences, real enough he felt heat wash through him when the
images flowed through his mind, but almost more as if they’d
happened to someone else, as if he’d been a spectator instead of a
participant.

Truthfully, the more he remembered, the
more confused he was and the more uneasy and filled with
dread.

He’d remembered the accident, the
point, he was certain, where everything had changed for him. He
knew that had to be the event that had caused his memory loss and …
well the strange hard-to-accept things that he’d experienced since.
Or thought he’d experienced.

The surfacing of that memory had
created more confusion and uneasiness, though, not cleared things
up for him as he’d thought it would. He remembered thinking
something just wasn’t quite right just before he’d powered up the
reactor to open the gate. Even now he wasn’t certain what that
‘something’ was. It might have been no more than intuition or a
‘sixth sense’ that something just wasn’t quite right. He thought,
though, that some part of his mind had detected the ‘something’ and
just hadn’t had time to figure out what that something
was.

Still hadn’t, because it was still
maddeningly elusive.

Something told him, though, that
whatever it was that had gone wrong and caused the ‘accident’
wasn’t an accident at all.

Someone had tampered with his equipment
and it was impossible to put that down to a benign, unintentional
meddling.

He was as certain as he could be that
it was completely intentional. What he wasn’t certain of was
whether or not he was supposed to be caught in the explosion and
that meant that someone might not be happy to know he’d survived
it.

Those thoughts led him to another
unpalatable question about his current situation.

How had it come about that Carly
believed he was no more than a cyborg? She’d ordered a companion.
He didn’t doubt that she was telling the truth, but how was it that
he’d arrived instead of the companion cyborg she’d
expected?

Some truly bizarre mix-up at the
hospital?

He dismissed that after a moment since
it was impossible to develop any kind of theory to explain
it.

As unpleasant as it was to consider
that he’d been so badly injured that it had required extensive
cybernetics to put him back together that wouldn’t have been a huge
surprise. It required an enormous amount of energy to open the gate
and he’d known he was playing with fire big time. He’d known the
possible consequences—total annihilation—and not just of him. He’d
been using enough to level the entire facility and several miles
around it if there was an accident.

So who in their right mind would tamper
with something that potentially catastrophic?

And why?

Had he been the target? Or one of the
other researchers in the facility? Or the facility
itself?

Was it something personal—someone
fooling around with the wrong man’s wife? Or was it
political—someone stepping on the toes of a group of
fanatics?

As insane as the first guess was, the
latter seemed less likely. It was a top security facility. No one
should have had access or knowledge of the projects being developed
there, certainly not some band of zealots.

Of course fanatics were, by their
nature, a few cards shy of a full deck. If they weren’t completely
irrational, they tended to be the next door to insane on one
particular subject—whatever their particular pet peeve
was.

Carly ended his internal speculation
when she led him into a small building and they immediately began
to descend a flight of stairs. “This is a moon colony? Earth’s
moon?”

Carly flicked him a sharp look.
“Yes.”

Devlin looked around, a little
surprised that he could see as well as he could when he knew the
light was extremely limited inside what appeared to be some sort of
access to mechanical areas—well, he supposed that must be what it
was since it was under the main complex. He’d had trouble with his
night vision before ….

“Creepy. I never did understand why so
many people would volunteer for the moon colony.”

Carly uttered a snort that lacked
humor. “Jobs?”

“The outer colonies aren’t nearly as …
dangerous.”

Carly sent him a look of surprise. “How
do you figure the moon colony is more dangerous? There’s no air on
any of the others that isn’t manufactured, and they’re a lot
further from help.”

That was the main reason she’d agreed
to work on the moon. It was at least close to ‘home’—not months or
even years away.

“The others have some atmosphere,
however, to assist the radiation shielding. And they’re also
further from the sun so they aren’t bombarded with quite the levels
the moon is.” He considered that for a moment. “Well, the moon
colonies of Jupiter are potentially more hazardous in that respect,
I suppose. Why are we here anyway?”

Carly glanced at him uncomfortably.
“We’re meeting someone,” she muttered and then hurried past him and
finished the descent down the last flight of stairs. The door at
the bottom opened as she reached it. Brenda stood just inside, her
face expressionless, her thoughts carefully masked.

Neither Carly nor Brenda were prepared
for what happened next, however.

“Bunny!” Devlin said in a voice that
resonated with gladness and surprise. Pushing past Carly, he
scooped Brenda up in a tight embrace and executed a strange little
jig with her dangling from his arms.

When he set her down, he held her at
arm’s length, grinning down at her.

Brenda stared at him wide-eyed.
“Dev?”

He chuckled, pulling her tightly
against his chest again. “It’s me, Funny Bunny. You’ve forgotten
what your big brother looks like?”

A smile flickered across her face and
then doubt chased it away and anger took its place. She whirled
away from Devlin and glared at Carly accusingly. “How did you know
that? That’s just plain cruel, Carly!”

Carly gaped at her. “Know what? What
did I do?”

Devlin looked confused. He also turned
an accusing look at Carly. “What’s going on?”

Carly gaped at him, more thoroughly
confused than anyone else. “I don’t know! Why is everybody acting
like I’ve done something?”

Brenda glanced from Carly to Devlin,
saw that the door was still standing open and pulled away. “Shit!
Move away from the door and let it close.”

Devlin looked around at her command,
noticed that he was still blocking the door and stepped deeper into
the room. It closed immediately, leaving them in a deeper gloom
than before. Only one feeble light illuminated the interior of the
tiny room that led into the underbelly of the colony
complex.

“How did you know he called me that?”
Brenda demanded angrily.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about!” Carly snapped, angry by now herself. “You said you wanted
to see him. I brought him.”

“Funny Bunny!”

Carly gaped at her, trying to figure
out what Bren was accusing her of. “How could I possibly
…?”

“It must have been in something you
found!”

“Something she found?” Devlin
prompted.

“When she was researching about you,”
Brenda responded tightly. “You shouldn’t know that name! Nobody
ever called me that but my brother and that was when we were just
kids on the reservation.”

“I know because I am your brother,”
Devlin responded with a mixture of anger and confusion. “What’s
going on, Bunny?”

“You are not my brother! You’re nothing
but a mechanical doll made to look like him!”

Carly and Devlin both gaped at her in
dismay.

Devlin’s face hardened. “I had to have
extensive cybernetic replacements after the accident, but
….”

Brenda uttered a scoffing laugh.
“Extensive! They could barely scrape together and identify enough
pieces to fill the little box we buried!”

Carly was horrified at that grisly
detail, but Devlin’s reaction was even more disturbing. He turned
white, swayed as if someone had clocked him with something and he
was struggling against blacking out.

With the best will in the world Carly
found it hard to explain that reaction away as mere programming and
AI. In fact, her first gut reaction was total belief that he was a
person who’d just received news so stunning he was about to pass
out. She moved toward him instinctively, curling her arms around
his waist. “Devlin? Sit down. You look like you’re going to pass
out and if you do I can’t hold you up.”

He sloughed her off like she was an
annoying insect, barely acknowledged her presence at all. “That’s …
not possible,” he said in a voice that sounded strange—hoarse,
disbelieving. “You really believe I’m just a machine like she
does?”

“She knows what you are,” Brenda said
sullenly. “She ordered you from the factory, custom built—because
she had this thing about my brother.”

Carly felt her face turn fiery with
discomfort. “Bren!” she exclaimed.

“You’re worried about me telling … that
… thing? It isn’t as if he could feel anything about
it!”

“Stop it!” Carly said angrily. “You
don’t have to be such a bitch about it! I wouldn’t have brought him
if I’d known you would be so … nasty! It isn’t his fault! Don’t
take it out on him!”

“He isn’t a him,” Brenda said tightly.
“And you had no right to use my brother as a … template for your
sex toy!”

That comment sent a jolt through Carly
and another wave of embarrassment. She glanced at Devlin
uncomfortably, but she could see he’d hardly heard. He was still
struggling mightily with the other things Brenda had flung at him.
“Come on, Devlin. Let’s go home. I knew this was a bad
idea.”

Devlin looked down at her then. His
face hardened, but he didn’t argue with her. He turned and headed
toward the door. Carly sent her friend a speculative look and
decided not to say anything else. She thought enough had already
been said.

* * * *

“
I have memories, Carly,”
Devlin said tightly when they’d reached the apartment again and
entered it.

Carly’s gaze flickered toward the vid
surveillance. She pasted a smile on her lips. “Of course you do.
You’re supposed to. It’s part of your personality
programming.

Devlin looked as if he would say more,
but he’d caught the flicker of her gaze and was warned. He curled
his lips in a smile that looked far more feral and frightening than
pleasant. “Would you like to have makeup sex in the shower
again?”

Carly wasn’t so sure she wanted to be
alone with him in his current mood, at all, much less for the sex
he’d suggested, but avoiding the issue wasn’t going to make it go
away. She tried to look delighted at the prospect. “Oh! Let’s
do!”