Free Wildcard by Kelly Mitchell Page A

too,
are a clone, though you are pre-biopid. Some gene manipulation was
done. You’re supposed to be lucky, which is probably why you like
gambling.”
    “What about LuvRay?” RJ asked.
    “No. He is what he is. We don’t know what
your particular bias is, Karl. That was part of the mission, to get
your genetic code and give it to Juniper for analysis. Yours, too,
RJ. Though we don’t care so much about yours. The General didn’t
want to get yours, but S-1 talked him into it.”
    “Why are there two of you, Sergeant?”
    “We have backups, five of them, in the event
of my death. The replacements are staggered in age.”
    The General told them about the program,
which he had created some years back. He seemed quite proud of it.
The Sergeants were raised, studying the tactics of the originals,
with conferences, watching playbacks of briefings, and linking live
to missions. They lived in a group of icehouses. He pronounced it
ass ’ouses causing Sublime to laugh so hard that he had to cover
his face. The General ignored him.
    Karl turned to the Sergeant. “How do you
compare to the first Sergeant?”
    “Good question. I’ll be smaller, but
heavier, because of increased muscle density, with faster reflexes,
though those are still developing. I have much less real engagement
experience, though I have done deep simulation training. Most of
the improvements made are not major.”
    “I have compiled a human suitable report on
the biopid program,” Juniper said. “Would you care to see it?”
    “Human suitable?” Karl asked.
    “Yes. Our actual reports are far too long
for humans, reaching thousands, or even millions of pages. We
condense them for you.”
    “Yeah, I’ll get copies of that to anybody
who wants it,” said the Sergeant. “Read the report and you can ask
questions after. It is very thorough, so it should answer most of
your questions.”
    “OK. What do we do now?” Sublime asked.
    “We wait. Except LuvRay, who begins looking
for Martha. LuvRay, thoughts on that?”
    “I go last place anyone seed Martha. Where
is?”
    “Saw, not seed. Grenoble. Who do you want
with you?”
    “Sergeant. You take me Gren…Grenu…”
    “Grenoble.” The Sergeant chuckled. “Done.
Anything else?”
    “Done?”
    “It means I’ll take you to Grenoble. Do you
need anything else?”
    “Clothes of her is good.”
    “I have this.” Karl took off a necklace
threaded through the square hole of a Chinese coin. “She gave it to
me when I was a boy.” He looked at it before handing it over. “She
said it would keep me safe.”
    LuvRay looked at the thing, didn’t take it.
“You are give? You no want keep?”
    “Of course I want to keep it. It means more
to me than anything I own. But I want to see her again more than
that. Take it. Will it help?”
    “This is a best object for finding. It is
trotay.”
    “What’s a trotay?” Sublime asked.
    “Is Indian word, a thing given on bond, on
connect two people. I find Martha from bond.” He took it, held it
in his fist against his chest, looked straight ahead with unfocused
eyes for a minute, then turned to Karl.
    “Yes,” he said. “I find her.”
     
the grand design
    The General appreciated the new world order,
the way power went these days. The old methods of raising an army
and invasions and so forth were fascinating. But they were useless
against modern weaponry. Not real power, anymore. The game had
become far more subtle, what was controlled more ineffable. Who
could tell where the power really was today? He liked it. It was a
highly suitable mode for a Frenchman de nobility.
    One had to have the right people in the
right places. This Napoleon understood power much differently than
the historical Napoleon. Partially because he was a different man,
but also because the face of power was so different now.
    He had ordered the new Sergeant to take the
life of the young General he was partnered with. To keep the clone
from becoming too ambitious. And to