Free The Alejandra Variations by Paul Cook Page A

quickly vanishing into the outer hall.
    Lazlo turned to Nick and his smiling daughter. He scrutinized the nameplate fastened to the front of the tray. Lexie watched with an air of utter satisfaction.
    "Struck gold," Lazlo said victoriously. "I knew we'd do it eventually." The leader straightened up proudly and held out a beefy hand. "So, you're Tejada," he said, correctly softening the j in Nick's name. Few people ever got it right. "Lazlo's the name. DefCon Warrior, Class One. You've already met Lexie, my offspring. Apprentice Historian."
    "I'm not an apprentice," she snapped.
    Lazlo jerked out his cigar and glared at her. "The hell you aren't! You aren't even supposed to be on this trip!"
    "Well," she said, suddenly sure of herself, "after this , I will be an Historian."
    Whatever Lexie had given Nicholas was beginning to work. He felt a little more alive.
    "Look, people," he said firmly. "I think it's about time someone gave me some answers."
    Lazlo was interested in answers only to his own questions. He presently looked up at the wall of trays. To Nicholas he said, "Just how long've you been in here, anyway?"
    Nicholas remembered the "thousand-years" remark. "What do you mean, how long have I been in here?"
    The remaining soldiers stared at him, glued to their stations beside the door. But for the cigar, the place smelled like a tomb. Nicholas knew that Foresee was never like this. Was it really Omaha? Had he somehow gotten locked into Mnemos and never woken up?
    Titus, the nervous red-head, hustled back into the chamber with an armload of clothing. He stopped short of the tray and placed the clothing on the floor, never once taking his eyes off of Nick.
    "Dammit!" Lazlo growled, scooping up the metallic clothes. Titus backed off quickly.
    Lazlo offered the clothes to Nick. "They'll shrink to fit you."
    He pulled on the uniform as quickly as he could. He discovered that it was like some fluid, self-adjusting membrane which easily found all the curves and odd angles of his body and molded itself to his form. No wonder Lexie looked so incredible. He had noticed just how the barely discernible circles of her nipples had shown through the material.
    He drew on his boots and stood upright beside the tray. More bones creaked. "Now," he said. "Some answers."
    Lazlo gave him a serious, if doubtful, look. "I thought you'd be able to tell us . We think this is one of the old SAC bases outside Omaha, but we're not exactly sure yet. That's what Jarre is looking into upstairs." He pointed with his thumb. "We got an energy-flow reading inside the Bore and followed it here. Surprised us all."
    Captain Lazlo puffed aggressively on his cigar, gazing around him. "Boy, you know, I thought a place like this was for the history tapes. We thought most of the SAC bases had gotten blasted during the war. I guess not."
    Nicholas noticed the soldiers by the door whispering among themselves. He could hear the word "Eridani" being bantered around.
    "So, all this isn't part of Foresee," Nick said. "We're in Nebraska."
    Lexie cuddled up to him. "Foresee's long gone. And so's most of everything else. But it doesn't matter. We found you, and you're all mine."
    Captain Lazlo had other ideas. "Damn it!" he said, pulling Nicholas away from her soft embrace. "When are you going to grow up? If he's all that's left of Foresee and the Old World, then he belongs to everyone. He's DefCon's property, you got that? Keep away from him!"
    "You know what the Creed says," Lexie countered.
    "We'll let Riordan make the decisions about the Creed when we get back," Lazlo boomed.
    "The hell with Riordan! He's mine and I found him!" Lexie put an end to the matter then and there.
    Nicholas got the impression that this sort of verbal pyrotechnics occurred frequently between father and daughter. A soldier Nicholas had not seen before walked into the room—and stopped abruptly upon seeing Nicholas. Captain Lazlo faced him, pulling out his cigar.
    "What did you find, Jarre?" he