Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

virus got him but he managed to survive it.”
    “How is that possible?”
    “No idea. Interference at deployment,
maybe. Some kind of corruption. He was running on empty, though. I’m sure of
that much.”
    “He had nowhere to go for repairs,”
Tyler said. “The rest of them were dead.”
    “What about Overlord?” Artemis asked.
    “Disabled. I doubt it’s been active
since the end of the war. I’ll try to confirm it, but as far as I can tell he
was a human, at least mentally.”
    “Keep working.” Artemis ended the
call. “We may wind up calling this lucky,” she told the others. “One of them
was dangerous enough. If six cyborgs had survived, I suspect things would have
ended quite differently.”
    “He said he didn’t want to fight me or
Tyler,” Oliver said. “Why not?”
    Artemis watched Sally for a moment.
“He didn’t come here for a fight, Mr. Jones. He wanted justice, or what he
believed to be justice. I imagine it was all he felt he had. There was no place
left for him in his world.”
    “Which makes me wonder how he got
here,” Tyler said. He glanced at Sally. “Our mirror was broken. Could there be
another one?”
    “Perhaps, but I suspect he arrived
through other means. They had been working on teleportation for some time;
perhaps that work finally came to fruition.” Artemis ran a hand through her
blonde hair. “Seven may be able to tell us more at some point, but I suspect
that the electromagnetic storm we picked up in Sausalito and the similar
readings in the garage were related to his journey here.”
    “It took him over a year,” Tyler said
quietly. “All that time, just to get here and…” he put a hand on Sally’s arm.
“Well, he didn’t get you. You’re fine.”
    Sally was still staring at nothing.
    “Sally?” Artemis asked. “Are you all
right?”
    Sally shook her head. “He…he was a person .”
    “Of course he was a person, Sally.
They were all people. I did try to tell you that once before, if you
remember. At the time you told me to…” Artemis trailed off. “It no longer
matters.”
    “Why did he call you Salera ?”
Oliver asked.
    “Because that is her name,” Artemis
replied.
    “It’s not my name anymore,” Sally
said. “Don’t say it again.”
    “Why not?” Jeffrey asked. He looked
at Oliver. “Does this mean we can change our names whenever we want? I want everyone
to call me Big Jim Sla…”
    “Enough,” Artemis cut him off.
“Tyler, take Sally home and keep an eye on her tonight. Oliver, stay a moment.”
    Oliver expected Sally to protest that
she didn’t need to be taken care of, but she didn’t say a word as Tyler helped
her to her feet and led her out of the office. To Oliver she looked frail, as
if she’d aged fifty years in the last half hour. She moved like she wouldn’t
have been able to walk, or even stand up, without assistance.
    Artemis sipped her tea as she watched
them go, then turned back to Oliver. “Well, Mr. Jones. You seem to be having a
bit of a day.”
    “I kicked Dracula’s ass,” Jeffrey
said.
    “Did you?” Artemis asked, eyebrows
raised. “I was almost certain you would come in handy sooner or later.”
    “Really?”
    “No, not really.”
    “Meanie.”
    A faint smile crossed Artemis’s lips,
and then her neutral expression returned. “Well, then. Where should I begin?”
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
    Artemis disappeared into the kitchen
to make another pot of tea. Oliver sat quietly with Jeffrey for a moment. “I
thought things couldn’t get any weirder with you people,” the cat said,
stretching out on Oliver’s lap. “Then a robot from the future shows up and
tries to kill everyone. I can’t even remember what my life was like before I
met you.”
    “You were an ordinary cat before you
met me.”
    “You say ordinary like it’s an
insult.”
    “It wasn’t. Anyway, cyborgs aren’t
technically robots; they’re a combination of human and machine. And I don’t
think he