Page 53 of F Clones

Marisol instantly recognized the exact accounting transaction that had paid the captain of the shuttle the clones had stolen to fly off Clone World. They’d had to memorize them since leaving a trace of that payment would have gotten them caught. “Five, three, zero, bar.” That was the rest of it.

“Seven, seven, seven,” he ordered before cutting their communications.

“What’s wrong? What was that?” MC-1 encroached into her space.

“Get out of my face.” Tears filled her eyes. “It’s one of them. A clone.” Not Free, but one of the six. She’d guess it might be Figures since he’d have also memorized that transaction.

Whoever used that account to play for the unblanked clone had needed to type it in for the funds to transfer when they first reached the shuttle to satisfy the captain. At that point, the money would have been filtered through six accounts in seconds to hide the original source before being deposited into the human’s account.

“What was that?” MC-1 backed off a little, but his gray eyes were fixed on her. “Are you certain it is one of them?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did he stop talking with you?”

“Seven, seven, seven means to wait for more data. It’s what we input while waiting for whatever information we need to complete a transaction.” She stared out at the other shuttle in the distance. It wasn’t flying any closer, and she didn’t want to make them flee by doing that, either. Just seeing it was enough.

“Wait for what data? Hail them again.” MC-1 reached for the console.

Marisol batted his hand away. “Stop. Give him time to process. I’m certain he’s surprised that it’s me. He probably needs to calculate the best way to handle this situation.”

“He needs to dock with us and take us to where they are living,” MC-1 snapped. “That is the only acceptable outcome.”

“We can’t force him to do shit,” Marisol snapped. “Sit and calm down. Give it a few minutes for him to process what he’s just learned. I know F Clones the best since I work with them. They are very logical and cautious.”

The other shuttle hailed, and she opened communications.

“I’m not the one you need to speak to. Do you have the capability to wait here for a while?”

The more Marisol heard his voice, the more she became certain that it was Figures speaking. His words implied that Free was still alive. The joy that filled her chest had her barely able to answer. “Yes. Is he alive? Please, tell me.” She’d beg to know for certain.

“He’s alive.”

The tears of relief flowed down her face after hearing confirmation that Free had survived. He is alive! “Thank you. Yes, we can wait here.”

He paused. “We?”

She chose her words to let him know she wasn’t alone. “I have four friends with me that have a lot in common with you.” No way could she risk saying clones over communications. Even with being careful of how far she broadcast her signal, at least one shuttle had been hiding inside the moon. It was possible more might be.

Like pirates.

That thought made her sick to her stomach. She’d once overheard Straton and her grandfather snickering over selling some damaged clones to pirates. It had happened after the Solace Celebration a year before. A group of unruly guests had started a bar fight. Three of the female clone serves had suffered bone-deep cuts to their faces and upper bodies from flying glass. It had left them severely scarred. A security male clone had lost a few fingers.

Her gramps and his righthand man had been proud that they’d made a hefty profit. It was standard that a guest had to pay for any property damage they caused on Clone World, including replacing any clones deemed unfit to work anymore with those kinds of physical flaws.

Her gramps held firm beliefs about beauty and perfection. Every clone he bought had to be attractive, unmarred in any way, or they were decommissioned. That was the polite way to say killed. To hear them both saying they’d made a profit had confused her. The guests had paid for replacements. That balanced the books. Then she’d overheard them saying they’d sold the damaged clones. It meant they’d been paid twice.

After digging, she’d learned what the pirates had bought the clones for. Pirates had killed those poor clones while hunting them like animals. Her grandfather had even allowed them to rent a small uninhabited island on their planet to do that horrible deed. Some of his sicker, wealthy friends paid a premium to view and bet on the outcome of which clone had survived the longest.

Pirates finding out they were clones would be terrible. Like those others, they’d use Marisol and her medic team for sport. Their deaths would be drawn out and horrible. Marisol was very careful of every word she spoke.

“Understood,” the male finally said after a good minute or two of silence. “Wait here. Don’t attempt to follow us.”

“We’ll wait,” she softly agreed, not happy about it. So many things could have changed in the past three years. It was possible that Free wouldn’t want to see or talk to her. She couldn’t forget that he may have only pretended to be in love with her to gain his freedom.

She was about to find out. That was terrifying.

“You agreed to that?” MC-1 looked furious. “What if they don’t return? Hail him back.”

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