Free Anew: Book Three: Entwined by Josie Litton Page B

Sooner or later, he’ll reach out to someone for help.”
    “We’ve got a tap into every channel
of communication that he’s ever been known to use,” Gab says. “Plus those of
all his known associates. Clarence is also maintaining a heightened level of
surveillance on the entire global data stream, looking for anything that could
indicate Davos’ presence.”
    “If he farts,” Hollis says, “we’ll
smell it.”
    I don’t blame him for feeling
confident. Clarence--as he named himself--is one of the most powerful A.I.s on
the planet, and an integral part of Slade Enterprises. I’d say that he’s our
most valued employee except I’ve only just gotten around to not referring to
him as ‘it’. For a silicon-based life form, he’s okay, even if he and his kind
may eventually take over the planet.
    “So what’s got the two of you in a
twist?” I ask.
    Another look passes between my trusted
friends and associates. Finally, Hollis says, “Actually, it’s McClellan. From
what we’ve picked up, he’s not just wired into the scavengers. He’s also got
connections among a leadership group that’s emerged recently among the workers.
In fact, it looks as though McClellan himself facilitated the formation of the
group.”
    “Edward knows that things have to
change,” I say quietly. “He wants that to happen as peacefully as possible. If
he can act as an intermediary between the different social classes in the city,
more power to him.”
    Gab frowns. “Clarence ran an
analysis,” she says. “He assesses that if Davos is disposed of, there is a
sixty-seven point four percent probability that within eighteen months, Edward
McClellan will assume supreme power in the city, using his alliances with the
scavengers and workers, and the respect he commands among the ruling elite to
do so.”
    ‘Teddy’, as I like to call him when
we’re trash talking on the polo field, is a lot of things--smart, driven, and
formidable in his own buttoned-down, bespoke suit kind of way. But he’s not
remotely power mad. I’m dead certain of that.
    “Clarence is wrong.” I hope the
quantum-computing bastard is listening. “There’s zero percent chance of that
happening. It’s not Edward’s style. At the most, he’d be a democratically
elected leader answerable to all the people.”
    Now that I think of it, I like that
idea. I just don’t know whether he’d ever consider it.
     “Maybe not,” she allows. “But the likelihood
of him being able to simply seize power for himself increases to ninety-two
point eight percent if McClellan strikes a temporary alliance now with Davos,
which he could do readily enough by helping him elude you.”
    I stare at her in disbelief. Gab is
light years smarter than this. “You do remember that Davos kidnapped Edward’s
cousin and imprisoned her in a sadomasochistic sex club? Edward wants him dead
as much as Amelia and I do.”
    “There’s nothing to say that
McClellan wouldn’t kill him ultimately,” Gab agrees. “But Davos could be very
useful to him in the meantime. Besides…”
    She hesitates. As she does, Hollis
takes a step back, like he’s getting out of the line of fire. He shoots me an
apologetic look.
     Gab takes a breath, stares me
straight in the eye, and says, “Amelia isn’t actually Edward McClellan’s cousin,
is she?”
    Only a tiny handful of people who
are still alive know the truth about Amelia. Or so I’ve believed. If I’m wrong
and word has gotten out before I’m ready to deal with it-- A wave of anger goes
through me.
    “What the hell are you talking
about?”
    Gab doesn’t so much as flinch. “Her
identity is good,” my tough-as-nails head of cyber-intelligence says. “Whoever
put it together knew what they were doing. A thousand experts could drill down
into it and not find anything suspicious.”
    “But not you? You think you know
better?”
    What was she doing looking into
Amelia’s identity in the first place? Oh, yeah, she and Hollis care