“Marek Kreegan of Lilith,” I responded. “He’s dead, you know.”
Her head shot up. “Dead! How?”
“A Confederacy assassin got him, it seems.”
“You see, then?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t see at all. What’s all this leading to?”
“The Four Lords, the entire Brethren, need people who can identify and kill these assassins before they themselves are killed. They’ve tried every way in the universe to crack the system, and been frustrated every time. Even Kreegan couldn’t help them, for no assassin ever knows enough of the security system, which is changing anyway all the time, to break it So, the Brethren figured, if they couldn’t expose the system, they’d breed their own. Assassin killers, you might say.”
I had to laugh. “You are an assassin killer?”
She shook her head. “No, not me. Kira. She’s amazing, Park. Amazing. She learns almost anything from one lesson, and never forgets. She’s got total control of her—our—body. Total. She is an analytical killing machine, and brilliant” She was saying this admiringly, but as if she were talking about someone else entirely. It was eerie. And, of course, it raised more questions than it solved.
If Zala were telling the truth, then Koril already knew what she was—he’d have to. And Korman probably would, too. Why didn’t they? Or if they did, why all the charade? Something definitely smelled funny now, and Zala was the first suspect. She hadn’t exactly proved reliable in the past.
“Zala, why two of you?” I asked. “Why both you and Kira?”
“Oh, that’s supposed to be a safeguard if we were caught They couldn’t psych Kira, only me. They couldn’t wipe her—only me.”
“That only makes sense if you don’t know about her yourself,” I pointed out. “And of course you had to know.”
“Oh, sure. But she’s real strong. I don’t really understand it, but Kira says that there’s really only one of us, at least as far as memories and stuff is concerned. She can shut me off, and sometimes she does. One time I can remember a lot of things, then I can’t—and sometimes I don’t even know what I used to know until I know it again, if that makes any sense.”
Oddly enough, it did, and it rang true. I had no idea of the biology of it—I certainly would have said two such personalities in one brain was impossible if an example wasn’t sitting in front of me. But somehow, those syndicate biologists had done it. A master assassin, at least as good as the Confederacy’s. Maybe better, I reflected sourly. There certainly was a mortality rate in my business, and sometimes it was impossible to explain. But if this dominant personality had all the keys to the memory core, a total understanding and command of what went on in there—which was more than anybody else did—it could literally reserve sections to itself. And add sections as needed too, I reflected. So you could get to know Zala, and hypno her, and put her under psych or mind control, and it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference.
“Kira seems to be satisfied to let you live your life, though,” I pointed out “Most of the time she just seems along for the ride.”
Zala nodded. “That’s right. But she’s not asleep or anything like that. She’s right here with me. She says that’s the way we were—well, designed, although that makes us seem like some kind of creepy machine.”
I nodded. “So when I talk to you I’m talking to her—but when you talk to me it can be just you.”
“That’s about it,” she agreed.
“And so how’d you wind up here, on Charon?”
“Well, Kira says it looked like a flute, but not anymore. They never really told us. They just came in one day and arrested me, that’s all. Oh!” She suddenly started, and then I watched that strange transformation take place in her.
Unlike my earlier perception, it really was more of a mental than a physical thing, yet you could see it clearly. What happened was more than a complete change of personality behind those big, brown eyes—Zala’s hidden attributes were clearly displayed. In the Zala persona she looked weak and ordinary, but as Kira the tremendous muscles and the strength in them, matching the new strength in the eyes, seemed to stand out. Although nothing really changed, the transformation was startling.
“Hello, Kira,” I said.
“Lacoch,” she responded, her voice lower and very cool, almost inhuman in its lack of tone. “I think it is time we talked directly.”
I relaxed back on my tail. “I’ll agree to that. Uh—tell me. Does Zala know what’s going on when you are you?”
“When I permit,” she replied. “I am permitting now. There seems no reason not to.”
“And when you don’t—permit?”
“Then it’s like she is asleep.”
“Fair enough. You’re willing to answer the rest of my questions?”
“We’ll see. There is no penalty in asking.”
I had this odd feeling that I was trapped in the room, not her. She had an unsettling effect on me from the start “First of all, did Zala tell the truth?”
“She told no falsehoods,” Kira responded, which was not really answering the question. I took note of that fact and went on.
“This breeding of special agents like yourself—it was entirely on Takanna?”
She nodded. “Spread the project and you spread the risk of detection. There is no need to cover up now, since the project was discovered and has probably been obliterated by now anyway.”
That was interesting. “Do you know how it was finally penetrated?”
She shook her head negatively. “I suspect that it was not. I believe it was leaked—closed down by the Four Lords themselves. Zala was not penetrated. We were betrayed. A very few of us have been taken and sent here before by the Confederacy. But the Confederacy should not have known about me. The project was ended and totally destroyed years before I was caught. Ended by the Four Lords themselves. I have no direct evidence, but I believe that I am here also at the Lords’ direction. Perhaps all remaining of my kind are.”
I thought about that. “Then in effect you were called in to the boss in the only way they could call you in.”
“It is the only possible explanation.”
“All right, then, tell me—if that’s true, why didn’t the current or former Lord of Charon know anything about you? Korman thought you were a Confederacy assassin. Koril says he didn’t even know of you until I drew attention your way. And Koril’s staff says they were very curious about you—but also had no idea as to your true nature. Why didn’t they know, Za… Kira?”
“At the moment, only three possibilities come to mind,” she replied. “Either Koril or Matuze didn’t know, and only one was pretending, or both do not know and this project was either not passed on to the new Lords who took over since for some reason, or they had some purpose in keeping this information from them.”