Allie was on the verge of answering, but she started as if goosed, moving toward the window and pointing down at the gate that Gabriel and Sam had entered through.
“My, today is a busy day, is it not? We have more visitors.”
“More visitors,” Gabriel asked.
“It’s not the Apostle and an army is it,” Sam asked apprehensively.
Rolling her eyes, Allie waved a hand at the picture window. The view zoomed in on four figures standing just inside the gate, one hologram and three NVMs. Two of the robotic guards were lumbering over to block their path. Not a window, Gabriel realized, a holographic projection.
“Wait,” Sam squinted in confusion. “If you’re here with us, how are you down
there too?”
“That is one of the great things about being the AIOS—that means Artificial
Intelligence Operating System, by the way—of the most sophisticated supercomputer ever built,” Allie winked at Sam. “There’s an app for that.”
“Hey,” Gabriel pointed at one of the three newcomers. “I know her. I saw her in New Hope. She was staring at me weird. I remember her because she has two tails and I thought that was really strange. Don’t tell me she actually followed us here.”
“That bitch! Can’t she see that you’re taken! I’ll stick my hand down her throat and rip those two stupid tails of hers right out through her guts!”
Raising an eyebrow, Allie looked at Sam. “That does not seem physically
possible.”
“How did they get through the gate? I needed my badge to open it.”
“I let them in of course,” Allie said.
“Why would you go and do a stupid thing like that,” Sam hissed. “They might be spies for the Apostle!”
A look of confusion passed over Allie’s face for a second before it was gone in the same there-then-not way that her expressions changed. “I do not know. That is very strange, is it not? They seem to have restricted high level access, and it appears as though I was the one that authorized them several hundred years ago. I am unable to hack through the protection on the files in my memory that contain their information.”
“This is getting a bit interesting,” Gabriel said as he stood. “Let’s hear what they have to say.”
Chapter 30: The Impossible Problem
Drinking deeply from a plastic bottle, Gabriel had not realized how much he’d
missed purified water. It just tasted better, and he couldn’t see anything he’d rather not try to identify floating in it.
The door slid open with a whoosh of hydraulics, and the second hologram of Allie entered the room followed by the three newcomers. Saluting herself, she giggled and disappeared.
Standing to meet the new arrivals, Gabriel examined them. The girl had a very pretty face, and unnaturally bright green eyes that were more like the eyes of a beast than those of a human. Her straw colored hair hung loose to her waist and she had the same triangular animal ears that Gabriel had almost come to think of as normal. Her ears were a bit narrower than Sam’s were, coming to a sharper point, and she had a distinct foxy feel about her appearance. Tipped with white fur, her twin bushy tails curled beneath the hem of her modest skirt, and she was armed with a knife of a size with his own, a quiver, and a staff that must have been an unstrung longbow. Up close, Gabriel couldn’t help but think he’d met her somewhere before. Something about her was so familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.
The other two were identical twins, bearing a strong family resemblance to the girl. Gabriel would have recognized their faces anywhere. They looked like younger NVM versions of the Northern Sage, with straight black hair to their shoulders, wolf ears and bushy black wolf tails. They both had the same bestial eyes that their sister did, except that theirs were purple, and they wore perfectly identical mischievous grins. The one on the right had a massive sword on his back and a hefty knife on his belt. The other wore a sword on each hip.
One thing marked them out from everyone else on Ethos. Their skin was dark. It wasn’t very dark, but it had the bronze color of a deep tan the likes of which he’d have paid a tanning salon good money for in his previous life. The sun on Ethos wasn’t strong enough to darken skin and everyone he’d seen was pasty white.
“It’s you,” the girl took Gabriel in with surprise.
“Hello again,” Gabriel nodded.
Coming to his side, Sam shared a frosty look with her. The air actually seemed charged with their unspoken communication, and he was surprised that the room wasn’t icing over. Gabriel knew jealousy when he saw it, as well as a wrongfully accused woman too proud to back down.
Sharing a look with each other, the twins gave identical low whistles, and took a step back.
Clapping a hand on Sam’s shoulder, Gabriel gave her a light shake.
“Stop that before it starts snowing in here.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed at him, and he had the distinct impression she was thinking about taking a bite out of him.
“My name is Kari, these are my brothers Jonathan and Michael. Are you the ones in charge of this place? I bring news of danger.”
“No. We only just arrived ourselves. She’s the one running things.”
Following Gabriel’s finger, Kari’s eyes fell on Allie watching them from near the window that was not a window.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” Kari exclaimed. “I didn’t realize you were a full AI, rather than an automated greeting system.”
“Ooh,” Allie grinned. “More people that know things that they should not!
Things are getting exciting.”
“There’s an army on the way,” Kari said to Allie. “And it’s being led by an
extremely dangerous individual we’ve had several encounters with. You might say we’ve been chasing the Apostle.”
“Yes, we know about the army,” Mister Mittens said in a bored tone, his tail
flicking lazily.
Blinking at the cat, Kari broke into a wide, delightful grin full of inhumanly sharp teeth and fangs.
“He can talk? That is just so cute!”
Grumbling bitterly, Mister Mittens sat up on his haunches and made a very rude gesture with his forepaws.
“Now I’ve seen everything,” Gabriel muttered.
“We were just discussing the plight of this moon,” Allie said. “Please sit and join us. Your input on the Apostle will be very welcome, though I doubt that any army could breach my walls. I can have more water brought if you would like refreshment.”
“Yes, please. Thank you,” Kari said, gesturing for her brothers to sit, before seating herself.
She sat on her tails, something Gabriel had never seen Sam do, and he found
himself wondering if it was uncomfortable. Sam sure threw a fit when someone pulled on hers, so it was obviously a very sensitive area.
Gabriel listened quietly as Allie went through everything that had already been discussed, answering all questions from the newcomers.
“Now, tell me of this Apostle,” Allie said.
The twins looked at Kari and she nodded, then began.
“The Apostle of Cain is not from this world. I’m not sure which world she
originally comes from—”
“She,” Gabriel interrupted. “Our Apostle is a man. It must not be the same
person.”
“Oh, it is,” Jonathan said.
“Yes indeed,” Michael agreed.
“She wears a black mask and a heavy cloak all the time,” Kari said. “She moves like a man too. It’s hard to determine her gender just by looking at her. And her mask mechanically distorts her voice. We thought she was male at first too.”