The Clone Sedition (46 page)

As we sat and talked, a woman approached our table. Sitting with my back toward the restaurant, I did not see her coming; but Watson went quiet in midsentence, and Emily seemed interested as well.

A familiar voice said, “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but…”

I recognized the voice before I turned to look.

“General, it is you!” Sunny Ferris said enthusiastically, and she illustrated her sincerity by placing a hand over her left breast. “I thought I recognized your voice.

“We met several weeks ago. I’m Sunny Ferris. I represented…”

“You represented Arthur Hooper,” I said.

Apparently glad to be recognized, she gave me a wide smile.

She said, “Well, actually the Arthur Hooper thing was a mistake, he really wasn’t our client; but we did represent the New Olympians, and now they are being repatriated. I didn’t think it would ever happen.”

She was so beautiful. I turned to Watson and saw that he appreciated her as well. Emily looked a little less impressed.

I said, “Travis, Emily, this is Sunny Ferris. She’s a lawyer.”

Watson said, “It’s good to meet you.”

Emily only smiled, and there was something frosty in that smile. Watson had been a player, and Emily had been a player,
and I suspected that Sunny might well have been a player as well. Maybe members of that society could recognize their own. If that was the case, perhaps Emily did not welcome the competition now that she had removed Watson and herself from the game.

Sunny had come to the restaurant with friends from her office. She said that they’d been headed toward the door when she’d heard my voice. Watson, Emily, and I were about to order dinner. There was no point in inviting her to sit down.

Sunny said, “I just wanted to come and say hi.”

In a soft voice meant only for Watson, Emily said, “Hi.”

I said, “It’s good to see you again.”

Sunny said, “I heard somewhere that you were injured on Mars.”

“I’m better now.”

“You were shot?” Concern showed in her face. She had such an expressive face.

“Something like that.”

I did not invite her to join us.

She said, “Well, I better go.”

She was about to leave, and I did not want that to happen. Given a free hand, I would have ditched my dinner and asked her out for a drink. I wanted to ask her about dinner, about lunch, about going out for drinks; but I could not bring myself to speak.

Perhaps I was obvious. A girl with a face like Sunny’s probably got that kind of attention all the time. She gave me a smile and started to leave. Then she turned, and asked, “Would you like to go out for a drink sometime?”

I’m relatively certain this is an urban myth, but I once heard that Pope Sylvester II declared that Christ would return to Earth on New Year’s Eve 999. If that is true, and I doubt that it is, he must have been a tad embarrassed as he delivered his annual New Year’s address the following day.

If the story is true, I can identify with the pontiff.

Last year I declared that
The Clone Redemption
would be the last Wayson Harris novel in the series, and I have gone back on my word. Not only have I written a new Wayson Harris novel; I have agreed to a sequel.

While
The Clone Sedition
takes place in the same universe as my past novels, it does begin an entirely new, Avatari-less story line. At least to that point I was correct.

I want to thank my agent, Richard Curtis, for putting this deal together. I want to thank the lovely and talented Anne at Ace for taking my book and for extending my deadlines.

And, of course, I want to thank my readers. Without you, there would be no point in writing my books.

Steven L. Kent
February 22, 2012

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Ace Books by Steven L. Kent

THE CLONE REPUBLIC

ROGUE CLONE

THE CLONE ALLIANCE

THE CLONE ELITE

THE CLONE BETRAYAL

THE CLONE EMPIRE

THE CLONE REDEMPTION

THE CLONE SEDITION