Traces of Doubt

3. Unforeseen

Damn Orcagna, Juri huffed silently and threw himself into the trusted armchair by the window, irritably keeping his back towards the glorious starlit night sky looming outside. The man had at last arrived two days ago, only to stay resolutely inside his room ever since. He hadn't left it a single time, not even for any of the restaurants, and so Juri had'nt been able to go in and bug the room as he'd intended. Infuriating!

For the umpteenth time Juri wished that he could just walk to the man and tell him that the rebels wanted his data and would be happy to provide whatever protection they could offer in return for cooperation. Unfortunately such straightforward methods were completely out of the question. For one thing, they didn't want to alert the Union to the fact that they knew about the underhanded dealings going on. For another, Michel Orcagna had always been a highly suspicious man, and the mysterious disappearance of his son Claus – ostensibly in the hands of the Rebellion – had only fueled that trait, so that by now it was damn close to paranoia.

There was little sense in trying to enlighten him about what really had happened: that the rebels had been rather cleverly framed by the Ziroshel Union. That'd been tried already, and further attempts were thwarted by the rebels' fear that Orcagna might get alarmed enough to spill the beans to the Union. They didn't want to give the Union any tangible proof of just how much they knew and how badly they wanted to get the man, or at least his results, in their hands. All this naturally made Orcagna all the more susceptible to the Union's lures, which was why Juri's presence on TerraFour was so urgently needed.

Luckily he'd at least managed to slip into the neighboring suite and plant a bug there to keep tabs on Calvin and Salvador. They were sure to get in contact with Orcagna soon, so Juri had been watching them like a hawk. Unfortunately Salvador didn't seem to be too well, and getting the bug into the room had taken some diligent watching and impeccable timing, for he'd stayed in their rooms most of the time. That was probably why Calvin was biding his time, too; if Juri had understood correctly, Salvador was a key person in persuading Orcagna to part with his precious data.

Salvador the T-clone... Juri let his legs sprawl and flexed his fingers in thought. This wasn't the first time he was pondering the young man right behind the wall. Ever since getting a good view of Salvador's face some days earlier, he'd had a feeling that his brain was involved in a massive data retrieval operation. Whatever else he did, there were busy little synapses firing somewhere in the back of his head, trying to dredge up every bit of information or even gossip he'd ever heard concerning the T-clones.

He still remembered the shock he'd experienced, about ten months before, when the Wolves' associates on Jainah had first told them about the T's. Until then they'd been under the impression that the cloning program had only produced pilots. It certainly told something of the extreme security and secrecy surrounding the program that it'd been going on for more than a decade before they'd first got wind of it, and well over two decades before the Jainah faction had managed to get their hands on a real, live, undamaged clone. That piece of news had been greeted with cheers on Ashanti, and yet nobody had been able to expect just how useful this first breakthrough would finally prove.

For one thing, it had enabled Juri to recognize what exactly he was up against at the moment. He felt uncomfortable, though, because he'd a strong gut feeling that everything was not going quite right.

He remembered well enough what they'd heard of the T-clones' unusual abilities. Their brain capacity was mind-bogglingly different from ordinary humans. They could communicate with each other telepathically, even over vast distances, and read something from the minds of humans surrounding them. For their tasks they were 'primed', implanted with a sufficient background and personality, and then placed wherever their services were needed. They were always accompanied by a 'guardian', for some obscure purpose the rebels hadn't yet been able to identify exactly. And after each mission they were 'wiped', returned to their clone selves, removing from their memory whatever they'd been involved in.

They were made into other people, reprogrammed according to need. The perfect spies, because they didn't even know themselves that they were anything but who they thought they were.

Juri frowned deeply, then steepled his fingers in front of his face when two pieces of information snapped together with a nearly audible click. That was what'd been nagging in his head! So, a T-clone was supposed to become the person he claimed to be. He was supposed to be the person. But what'd he heard Salvador say – that he couldn't remember things? That he didn't feel like he knew Claus Orcagna as well as he should? No doubt Calvin was his guardian, but what about the man's strong and thinly veiled exasperation at the clone? Or those debilitating headaches, or the dreams Salvador had mentioned?

Salvador was afraid of Calvin, Juri was certain of that, and he couldn't imagine that a Union clone could possibly harbor enough resistance towards his makers and keepers to fake anything, or that a clone would want to piss off his guardian in any way. No, Juri was rather more inclined to believe that Salvador was afraid, and Calvin angry, because the problems indicated something more serious.

Was there something wrong with Salvador's programming?

Juri's head snapped up and he bolted from the chair upon hearing a quiet ping. The transmitter – so Calvin and Salvador had finally returned to their room! He grabbed the headpiece and put it quickly on, then quite as quickly tore it away from his ears. With a grimace he lowered the volume by several notches until the noise no more threatened to burst his eardrums, and pulled the headpiece back on.

His eyes widened. Now he could make out the words, delivered at a more moderate volume but sounding even more alarming in their clarity.

"Stop that!" Calvin was seething, no, fuming. "Do you understand what you've done? You nearly blew the whole thing!"

A litany of furious expletives followed, nearly drowning the ragged gasping that had to come from Salvador. "What the hell is wrong with you? What the fuck did those brainless imbecile bastards do with you?"

"Don't touch me!" That was a near hysterical shriek and Juri winced again, but at the clone's next words his blood froze in his veins. "You – you killed him!"

"If you'd done what you were supposed to do, it wouldn't have been necessary!" The man was yelling now. "You were there to make sure it wouldn't be necessary. But you failed. It's your fault he's dead now!"

"No!"

Rustling, muffled sobbing. Juri guessed that Salvador had sunk into a chair, or possibly on the bed. He was mumbling something incoherent, whimpering like a whipped child. Juri's hands clenched involuntarily around the transmitter.

"I need to go and make sure nobody connects us with the goddamn mess you made. You stay put where you are. Do you hear me, Salvador? If you move a finger while I'm away, I'll use the probe on you right here!"

Juri heard Calvin's angry steps, then the opening and closing of a door, followed by a heavy silence. He strained his ears and could barely distinguish uneven breathing. Apparently the threat had struck the clone immobile.

After listening tensely for about one minute, Juri realized that he was on his feet. He had a strong feeling that things were about to get ugly, and simply couldn't stay in one place. He didn't doubt for a moment that Calvin had really killed Orcagna, but what was the man up to now? Probably he'd gone to salvage what he could, perhaps to get the data or try to cover up what'd happened. Well, if the data was about to be brought to the neighboring suite, then that was where Juri needed to be as well!

He quickly dug up his gear and donned it, slipped a gun to the neat little holster on his hip, pulled the gloves on and strapped the handle to his wrist, all within seconds. The earpiece he left on, it'd function perfectly well even with the transmitter still in his own rooms.

He dashed out of the terrace door and flung himself to the other side, climbed once more over the railing and stiffened to listen. The only thing he could hear was still Salvador's panting, so the clone had obeyed the command and stayed where he was. Juri took the risk and tried to peer into the suite, but the curtains prevented him from seeing anything apart from some very indistinct shapes.

But he could see when the door opened once more and a tall figure barged in.

"You miserable thing!" Calvin hissed. "If I didn't have express orders to bring you back with me, I'd gladly let that crazy brainiac have some company in hell and terminate you on the spot. Fuck you, I'm really not sure whether or not I should do it anyway. You're flawed so badly I doubt even they can fix you any more."

Outside, Juri gritted his teeth. He was sure that whoever was to blame for the mess, it sure as hell wasn't the terrified clone. Nor did he see how heaping blame on Salvador would make him any more easily manageable. He understood the need to vent frustration sometimes, just not in this way.

"Hurts," Salvador said hoarsely. "Please don't take me back to them."

"You can be damn well sure I will!" the man roared. "I can't understand what the fucking idiots did to mess you up like that! I've been working with your kind before, but I've never had this kind of problems with any of them."

So the guardians were not always the ones traveling with the clones? Juri carefully filed that piece of information away. He was crouched just outside the windows, entire body coiled like a spring, ready to act. He knew that he'd be crazy to even try to interfere but maybe, if he waited patiently and stayed close by, maybe he'd still manage to find an opening, some chance to get what he was here for?

A few seconds later the decision was wrenched from his hands. He heard heavy, threatening steps, then a sudden rustle and Salvador's voice.

"Don't come close to me!"

The door flew open beside him and a disheveled blond creature bolted out, ran to the farthest side of the terrace and turned around to face the man who hovered in the doorway. Juri willed himself to turn into stone, to stop breathing. They were within a few meters of him now, both of them, but as yet too intensely concentrated on each other to notice him in his matte black suit that'd been designed to turn him as invisible as was humanely possible.

The clone was breathing hard, hands clutching the railing behind him, the man scowling at him with arms folded on his chest: the very picture of indignant rage, of contempt.

"You're flawed, Salvador," he said icily.

"Don't touch me!" The clone was trembling almost uncontrollably, his grip on the railing seemed to be the only thing to keep him standing up. "It wasn't my fault. You killed him!"

"If you'd done what you should've, I wouldn't have needed to," Calvin sneered. "It was your fault. It was you who killed him."

"No..."

Salvador nearly crumbled down, shook his head, then his gaze fell on Juri and his eyes widened in shock. Calvin frowned and turned to follow Salvador's stare.

Within a fraction of a second Juri knew that his options had just shrunk to exactly one, and before that thought was quite finished, his gun was already in his hand. When their eyes met, he pressed the trigger and the gun flared once, a quiet zooming sound.

Thinking about that moment later on, he always remembered his surprise and gratitude at the fact that Salvador didn't as much as squeak when Calvin's tall body collapsed on the floor. Even if it was mainly because he was paralyzed by horror, it still was an extremely lucky thing, for both of them. A scream wouldn't have failed to alert at least somebody. As it were, there were no witnesses save Juri, looking with coldly alert eyes at the dead man, and Salvador, gaping at the sight in shock.

Juri slowly stood up and took one step towards the blond clone. Salvador was breathing hard and looked ready to jump over the railing, and that was something Juri did not want him to do, no matter how distraught he was. He'd no idea how a clone should be treated, but from the little he'd seen and heard so far, Salvador appeared human. Juri had been faced with shocked humans before, so he did have some experience, and at he could try to use the basic tricks in the book.

"Salvador," he said softly.

The clone started and turned huge blue eyes towards Juri. He swallowed visibly, face twisting with pain.

"Salvador, I won't hurt you," Juri tried again. He peeled off one glove and lifted the bare hand towards the clone, empty palm up in an ancient beseeching gesture. "I swear I won't hurt you. I want to help you."

Still no response, unless a blink could be considered one, but the clone was still standing on the same terrace with him, which Juri took as a good sign. He braved another slow step.

"My name's Juri. I won't let anybody harm you any more."

Salvador's hands crept up along his arms so that he was hugging himself, trembling miserably. His head sank forward so that the long bangs hid his eyes.

"Your head must be hurting terribly," Juri said gently. "I suppose it does whenever you're upset?"

This time the clone actually nodded, and Juri walked to stand right next to him. He tentatively touched Salvador's arm and was gratified when the clone didn't flinch away.

"Salvador, come with me. You're safe with me," he coaxed. "I'll help you."

His hand snaked up the arm, to a shoulder, behind a slim back, and finally he was hugging the clone with one arm. Salvador sobbed once and sagged against him, tried to melt into Juri's human warmth.

"Will you help me find Troy?" he asked suddenly, raising a hollow face to look into Juri's eyes. "I must find him. Help me. Please."

Juri felt a painful twist of remorse in the pit of his stomach but couldn't really see any other way out.

"Yes," he said with only a moment's hesitation. "I'll do anything I can to help you find Troy. But first I need you to help me. Understood?"

Salvador nodded, eyes getting hazy, like a sleepy child. Juri realized with alarm that he was probably about to pass out – from pain, from shock, whatever. They were nearly the same height, and even though the clone was very slim and undoubtedly weighed much less that the tightly muscle-packed Juri, the thought of hauling an unconscious Salvador around in Hotel Laguna's corridors was highly unsavory. Even if the doors to their suites weren't many meters apart, it still was a risk Juri didn't want to take, nor did he want to be whisking an uncooperative clone to his own room along the outer wall. And yet, that was the only relatively safe place he could think of. All of his plans had been foiled, right now he needed a moment to think.

"Salvador, come with me," Juri said. He wound his arm tighter around the clone and squeezed him a little. "I'll take you to my room. You're safe there. Come on. You can close your eyes if it makes you feel better."

He didn't know if Salvador's eyes were open or closed, but at least the clone followed him readily enough even though they had to walk right past the dead man. Juri navigated gingerly around the body, into the suite, to the door. He opened it, listened for a moment, then walked to his own room trying to look as casual as he could. The tight black body suit might cause some stares, but right now he couldn't afford to be picky. This was the quickest route, and his gun was hidden between their bodies so it wouldn't catch immediate attention.

By some miraculous luck there was nobody in sight, and Juri heaved a deep sigh when the door of his own suite closed behind them. One glance at Salvador was enough to tell him that he'd been right to act quickly: the clone had been leaning against him more heavily at each step and was now swaying on his feet. Juri grabbed him more tightly, managed the last few meters to the bed, and lowered Salvador on it.

He was out cold. Juri bent down to lift his legs on the bed as well, then quietly pulled a comforter over him and sat heavily down on the edge of the mattress.

He needed a plan, and damn quickly too. He had to get the data. He had to do something about Calvin's body. He had to avoid being in any way linked to the man's death, especially considering that there also was another corpse in the hotel only waiting to be discovered. And he had to try his damnedest to make sure he would leave TerraFour as soon as possible – with the data and Salvador. He couldn't imagine leaving the T-clone behind. With a brain developed for observation and data storage, he'd simply be a far too dangerous piece of evidence to be left unaccounted for. Besides, hadn't he just promised to help...

Idiot, Juri told himself once again. You're simply too soft for your own good.

He tried to glare at the sleeping, or unconscious, clone beside him, and immediately felt his own expression soften. Blond head had lolled to the side, dark lashes threw a shadow on too pale cheeks. Salvador looked absolutely exhausted, and before Juri fully realized what he was doing, his hand was gently brushing aside stray hairs from the clone's forehead. The olive hand looked dark and fascinating against the golden hair and fair skin. It ghosted down a cheek, lingered for a moment near soft lips, then froze in place.

Juri squinted at the thin chain that peeked out from Salvador's shirt collar, touched it with his fingers and pulled it cautiously out. A small silver-colored locket appeared and his eyes widened when yet another memory surfaced. The suicide capsule!

With infinite care he searched for the lock of the chain, opened it and extracted the whole thing from around the clone's neck. After some fumbling the locket snapped open and a small, oval object dropped on Juri's palm. He stared at it thoughtfully for a moment, then stood swiftly up with a smirk. He'd needed a plan, now he had one. If the capsule contained what it was supposed to, and he had no reason to think the Union would've changed that particular detail, then he already had one important tool right there in his hand. Now, to act quickly.

Juri took one long, scrutinizing look at Salvador. He had to save the clone, and for that purpose it Salvador had to stay in dreamland long enough. He looked unconscious, but would he stay that way?

Juri decided to trust his luck this once. He made sure that the doors were securely locked, slipped the capsule back into its locket and pushed it into his pocket before heading to the terrace once more. There were quite a few things to do, and he was not going to waste any time in getting started.