Free Alliance by Timothy L. Cerepaka Page B

actual
Reunification member, who may be able to tell me what their true
goals are.
    “ Now I believe we have
told you all we are allowed to tell you,” says Konoa. “So I hope
you have a better understanding of the situation you are
in.”
    “ Barely,” I say. I
gesture at myself. “You still have not explained what you mean when
you say that I was 'framed' for the murder of those Knights. How
could I be framed? When did this happen? How do I know you are
telling the truth?”
    “ Ah, yes,” says Konoa.
He nods at the witch. “Will you please show J997 his wanted
poster?”
    The witch, without saying a word, taps a
piece of paper on the table in front of her. As soon as she does,
the paper vanishes into thin air, only to reappear a second later
in front of me. I catch it before it falls to the ground and then
peer at it more closely.
    It is a thin sheet of paper, brown and
wrinkly, as if it had been balled up at some point. In the center
of it is an artist's sketch of me, and quite an accurate one, too.
It even has the tiny dent above my left optic, the one I have never
been able to get rid of. It is a sketch of my head, and nothing
more, but the head is all I need to see that it is indeed supposed
to be me.
    Underneath my picture is my identification
number—J997, in large, blocky letters—followed by a string of
digits that is supposed to be my bounty, which is apparently 20,000
delanes according to this poster. I quickly convert the 20,000
delanes to Xeeonite digits and discover that it is roughly 30,000
Xeeonite digits; a fairly high number for any individual
bounty.
    I look up from the poster and notice how
the Foundation agents are watching me, as if awaiting my response.
I do not know what response they expect from me; maybe rage, but if
so, they are going to be disappointed, because I cannot feel anger
at all.
    “ Well, I see that this
poster appears to be legitimate,” I say, rolling it up into a tube
as I speak. “But I still do not understand why everyone believes
that I killed those Knights. I thought everyone would blame their
deaths on Jornan and her lizard humanoid servants, not on
me.”
    “ Because by the time the
bodies were found, Jornan and her minions were long gone,” says
Konoa. He sighs. “The other Knights who investigated the murders of
their brethren noticed that you were missing and unaccounted for.
Because the wounds on the corpses look like the kind of wounds a
robot would inflict on a human, they assumed you did
it.”
    “ That still does not
make sense to me,” I say. “Are they ignoring Jornan now, even
though she was also there when they were killed?”
    “ They aren't just
blaming you,” says Konoa. “The official story is that you and
Jornan worked together to kill the Knights. Either you joined
Jornan entirely out of your own free will or you were reprogrammed
by her to help her and fled after killing the Knights you were
working with; in either case, you are wanted by the Knights of
Se-Dela and most of the Delanian public hates you.”
    “ But what about my
fellow J bots and the Xeeonite government?” I ask. “Do they know
about my disappearance? Do they agree with the Knights' conclusion?
Have they sent anyone to try to find me?”
    “ A few J bots were sent
to aid in the investigation when it became clear you were missing,”
says Konoa. “They disagreed with the conclusion, but have been
unable to offer an alternative explanation for your disappearance.
So they returned to Xeeo, where the Database has decided that you
are not worth the trouble of rescuing.”
    That I understand. In addition to being
the largest electronic archive on Xeeo, the Database also acts as
the Chief of the J bots, as our leader, making decisions for the
whole force, not just a few J bots here and there. That the
Database has apparently decided that I am no longer worth rescuing
is grim news, but understandable, because if what the Foundation
agents say is true, then I doubt very much