Twinmaker

41

CLAIR RAN AFTER him and kicked the dupe’s pistol away. “Dylan Linwood’s” battered face was turned as though to stare at her, but all his eyes contained were empty, unseen data. Anyone could be watching.

She put a hand over the body’s face and closed the eyelids. Bright blue and blood red: she was glad to be rid of that terrible gaze.

Now she could definitely hear the airship’s engines whining and whirring as the craft came in to land.

Clair pulled Jesse away from the body.

“Why did they do this to him?” he asked, his voice thick with tears. “Who are they?”

The airship rose hugely over them, and Clair gaped up at it, amazed by how big it was. Easily a hundred yards across, it had a wide, two-story upper deck and a docking station on the lowest tip, connected by a narrow shaft so it looked like a fat, inverted teardrop hanging in the dawn sky. Three smaller, egg-shaped dirigibles clung to the docking station, rocking in the breeze. At close range, the airship’s camouflage lost much of its efficacy, and she could make out propellers whirring on the half-seen underside, guiding it to a safe landing. The downwash flattened her hair across her scalp and whipped Jesse’s mop from side to side.

He looked up from his father’s body and gripped Clair’s arm.

“It’s a Skylifter!” he said, wiping his eyes with his free hand.

She checked the Air in case that detail was significant. Skylifters were antiques left over from the days when people still hauled freight from one place to another but said they were worried about carbon emissions. The Air didn’t mention anything about WHOLE.

A patch winked in her eye. She answered it.

“I hope I did the right thing this time, Clair,” said Q.

Clair didn’t know what to say. She had been stupid, and that had almost got her and Jesse killed.

“You did,” she said, “but we’ve got a lot to talk about, Q. About Libby and the dupes.”

“Yes, Clair. I will tell you all I can, when I can. I promise.”

The airship touched down. A hatch opened. Ray and a man she hadn’t seen before stepped out of the interior and loped toward her.

“You two get aboard,” Ray told them. “We’ll bring the body.”

Clair hesitated, wondering if they realized it really wasn’t Dylan Linwood. Then she understood. Evidence.

How long until another version of him stepped out of a booth in San Andreas, or Copperopolis, or anywhere else she tried to hide?

“Come on,” she said, taking Jesse’s hand as he had taken hers outside Copperopolis. The airship had impressed her and restored her hope. “It’s time to get some answers.”