“What of your mantle?” Primary Jagget asked. “Surely you did not get that on Tihrglas.”
“The woman-Everynne-had it in her pack. She handed me her pack before she got killed.”
Primary Jagget studied her with dark eyes, his face lit only by the running lights of the aircar. He sighed deeply, closed his eyes. “So, Semarritte’s clone is dead,” he said. “What a loss. What a tremendous loss!”
“Was she a friend of yours?” Maggie asked.
Primary Jagget shook his head. “I’ve never actually seen her, but yes, she was a friend of mine.”
He fell silent for a long moment. “What shall we do with you? The dronon have offered a reward for the woman who is traveling the Maze of Worlds.”
“I’ve done nothing,” Maggie said, realizing that she had a hole in her story. If Everynne was already dead, the dronon wouldn’t still be searching for her. “Why should they want me?”
“Isn’t it obvious? They want your key.”
Maggie breathed a sigh of relief. “Of course.” She looked out the window. There were no moons above this planet, only a ring of light, and that was partly in shadow. The aircar sped over a frozen ocean.
“So, you and your friend want to get home,” Primary Jagget said. “I can help you-in return for the key.” Maggie did not know what to answer. She didn’t really want this stranger trying to escort her back to Tihrglas. “Of course, if you think the price is too high, I could sweeten the bargain.”
Maggie listened to the tone of his voice, realized that she might have just stumbled upon a universal trait for the inhabitants of Wechaus-they all seemed greedy.
“I will think about it,” Maggie said. “When your men find my friend Orick, I’ll discuss your offer with him.”
“Fine,” Primary Jagget said. “I’ll take you to my compound. You’ll be safe there. I personally can vouch for the character of every person on the premises. It’s secluded, well defended. The dronon won’t find you there.”
“Thank you,” Maggie said. She leaned back in the comfortable cushions of her seat, watched the land go by. They were flying very fast. They were in a Chughat XI, an expensive car used by diplomats, and her mantle whispered that its top speed was Mach 12. She guessed that they were nearing Mach 10 when the car suddenly began slowing and dropped toward a city of stone. Bright lights ringed one large building, and Maggie could see dozens of people driving along streets, standing on corners. They all moved with a common gait, stood with a familiar stance. They were all clones of Primary Jagget.
“How many copies of you are there?” Maggie asked.
“All told, right now I would estimate about nine hundred thousand,” Primary Jagget answered.
“Why so many?”
“I am a man of great ambition, but I have too little time. So my doppelgangers and I work together.”
“And what is your great ambition?” Maggie asked as the aircar slid to the ground.
Primary Jagget didn’t hesitate to answer. “To keep my homeland free. That is my sole desire.”
The car skidded to a halt, and Primary Jagget climbed out his door. Two doppelgangers hurried up to Maggie’s door, opened it for her. One reached out to give her a hand from the car. She took it, stepped onto the pavement.
Primary Jagget said, “I’m sorry that I can’t see you to your room, but I have urgent business elsewhere.” Maggie turned to glance at him, and there was a soft whispering sound of wings.
Primary Jagget turned into a swarm of cream-colored butterflies that flew away in a cloud.
The butterflies vanished into darkness just beyond the streetlights. Maggie stared at the butterflies, astonished, for Jagget’s body had not been flesh and blood but an artifice created through nanotechnology.
Maggie felt something poke her back. Her muscles spasmed and her legs went numb. She saw lights and whirled, staggering. She grabbed a doppelganger’s shirt to keep from falling. For a moment the world spun, and she hung on precariously. She twisted and looked down at the doppelganger’s hands, saw a blue arc of light issuing from a small grip. She smelled burned cloth and ozone.
Maggie blinked, looked at the arc, and her mind suddenly registered that it was an electric stun gun. The doppelganger shoved the gun into her belly, and the world went white.
Orick had been sitting with Panta in the dining room at Flaming Springs, enjoying a salmon dinner that was more feast than dinner when he looked out the window and saw three vanquishers outside the front door, their breath steaming in the cold as they examined Maggie’s airbike.
“I think we’d better haul our tails out of here,” Orick told Panta. The young she-bear glanced out the window.
“I think you’re right,” she said, wiping her greasy paw on the tablecloth.
Orick wanted to leave quietly, but it appeared that Panta had a greater distaste for the vanquishers than he did. She hurried to the side door, making for the apartments, and broke into a run. The front door to the inn opened behind them, and a vanquisher shouted, “Stop!”
Orick halted, but Panta hit the door full tilt, knocking it down. Out by the pools, Orick saw Maggie beside a lighted tree, her back turned as she raced around a building. Two vanquishers rushed through the dining room, ducking their heads to keep from scraping the ceiling, dashing over tables.
When they tried to pass Orick, he veered left as if to avoid them, then swerved right to trip them. He roared an apology as they tumbled to the ground, then backed against the wall as if he’d only been trying to get out of the way. The vanquishers leapt to their feet, dashed into the night.
Panta had disappeared into the fog beyond the buildings, and the vanquishers turned the corner, rushing toward Maggie, apparently determined to capture anyone who tried to run from them. Orick looked out the row of windows behind him. One of the vanquishers-a tracker-was racing around the building in the other direction, as if to cut Maggie off.
Orick didn’t know how best to help, so he roared a challenge and rushed out the door, following the two largest vanquishers, hoping that if need arose, he could jump them from behind, gain an element of surprise.
He reached the corner apartment by the pools, and three identical men carrying incendiary rifles rushed past him. He stopped to give them the road, wondered who they were.
Behind the cluster of apartments, the white fire of incendiary rifles broke out with a distinctive whooshing sound followed by a pop as each round ignited. Orick passed the last buildings, saw a battle in progress. Several men were shooting it out with a vanquisher. Tracers of white flame filled the sky. Two other vanquishers were already in flames.
A bunch of cars were parked in a field, and an aircar shot up into the sky. Panta sat cowering behind another aircar. When she saw Orick, she ducked low to the ground, roared for him to stay down.
Orick watched one human defender then another take hits with incendiary fire, but the vanquisher was surrounded. Within seconds, the ogre burst into flames.
The human defenders raced through the parking lot for a moment, shouting to one another, then leapt away north through the darkness and fog. The parking lot was well-lighted by vanquishers and vehicles blazing in raging flames.
Panta rushed through the smoke to Orick. “Let’s get out of here!” she shouted. She ran toward an oversized magcar.
“I can’t!” Orick said. “I’ve got to find Maggie!”
“She left in an aircar!” Panta said. “Let’s go.”
Orick stopped a moment, astonished. It had never occurred to him that Maggie would leave without him, but it only made sense. If it hadn’t been for his lust, he would have listened more seriously to her warning. He simply felt grateful that she’d escaped.