Free Eden's Jester by Ty Beltramo Page A

followed Rolic from the room and back to Melanthios’s business office. The Man was there with several others I didn’t know. He looked up as we entered.
    “Rolic, good.” Then he saw me. “What are you doing here?”
    “Just working, boss,” I said. “What’s all the ruckus?”
    “Someone has destroyed a nuclear missile base in southern Nevada. It was totally decimated,” he said calmly. But his eyes told the truth. He was worried.
    “A missile base? Are you sure?” I asked. Nellis wasn’t a missile base.
    “Of course I’m sure, you idiot. And whoever did it, did it good. Nuclear material from the missiles has been blasted into the stratosphere. It’ll be raining down on who knows where for weeks. We can’t focus all our response to cleaning it up because we don’t know what’s coming next. Now, if you’ll excuse us . . . I have to put my whole domain on high alert, recall most of my muscle, and figure out who hit us so I can smash their testicles with a brick.”
    Crap. I guess I blew up the wrong truck.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    I remember the day I was created, or awoke, whichever flavor you prefer. We remember everything about that day. An awakening is a very private thing. It’s a moment of pure joy, as the mind fires up for the first time and begins to take in the surroundings. It begins to understand, to know. The first voice one hears sounds like the universe itself is speaking with you. At least it seemed that way to me.  
    It’s at that moment Engineers become aware of being a member of a Discipline. You know your name. You know where you fit, and you’re that way for life. You have identity, function, and purpose.  
    As I had told Rolic, I got zip, nothing. Well, I got five words. I got a name . . . and I got brief instructions. But there was no mention of any Discipline or where I was to fit into the Endeavor, and I’ve never understood the instructions. So I’ve made the best of it.  
    Unfortunately, my best is usually substandard according to popular opinion. The problem is that I get ideas. When I look at a situation, things occur to me that should be done, and I’m certain--dead certain--that they are the right and necessary things to do. So I do them. Later, when asked why I did them, the answer is invariably, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” I can’t explain it better than that. As you can imagine, stodgy types such as Aeson and Melanthios rarely see the merit of such an explanation. Like the time when I appeared in great glory to that guy in the desert--I saw him and it occurred to me that this guy had potential. But he was alone in the wilderness, with nowhere to go. What he needed was a mission. So I gave him one.  
    It seemed like a good idea at the time.
    But I try. Sometimes there are unintended consequences, that’s all.  
    So now that Melanthios was busy I could focus on things that mattered. What I needed to do was speak with Death and find out what was going on in his macabre little mind. But one doesn’t find Death. He finds you. And he was keeping a low profile. He owed me big for this one. No, that was a dead end.  
    The only other person I knew was involved was Aeson. I’d have to go back to Hong Kong and speak with him. If he knew I was the one who destroyed Diomedes’ ship, I’d be in trouble. Hopefully Melanthios was keeping that under wraps.  
    Aeson was paranoid. I’ve watched him for a long time, so I believed I could gauge his reactions accurately. Maybe I could learn something from a harmless encounter.
    I made my way to Hong Kong, where Aeson kept an estate. It was a large complex of bamboo buildings on the harbor, nestled between two thriving merchant communities.  
    Chinese junks filled the water and the sounds of the hustle and bustle of daily life came from everywhere. I liked the harbor here. It was a vast ecosystem of such variety and activity that you couldn’t help but admire the art of it. Aeson liked it too.
    I approached the