Tool

Chapter Nineteen

Laying her head back, Aurelia closed her eyes. Nicholas is gone. Arrested. That's the biggest problem. But why? Because someone must have told the sec Workers he was coming. There were plenty of people who knew he was coming back to Lunar, though: Elza, Jonathon, Jason, Bryn, their tunnel escort, and whoever else Jonathon had told when he was making arrangements. The suspect list needed to be narrowed, but how?

Okay, the sec Workers had known where to find him. Presuming they didn't have patrols at every possible exit point from the tunnels, which seemed unlikely, it meant whomever had reported Nicholas knew where he was coming out. Bryn and the escort both knew. No, wait, Bryn hadn't known until the escort told him, so the escort knew. Jonathon presumably knew since he'd said he'd pick them up. Did Elza and Jason? It also seemed unlikely; why would they need to know?

The niggling voice at the back of her head was screaming at her now, jumping up and down, trying to get her attention. Aurelia put her head in her hands. She had to listen. She had to accept. It must have been Jonathon.

He'd reported Nicholas before, twice now; it was his career that was being threatened here, and he had known exactly where Nicholas was to be found. Who else would have reason to turn Nicholas in? She'd assured Nicholas again and again he could trust Jonathon. She'd defended him. She'd said that there had been no underhanded plan to have Nicholas killed, but how had she known it? All she'd had was Jonathon's word that the clone was to be taken to Earth.

Jonathon's word meant a lot, and she knew it did. But did it mean more to him than his career, his ambitions? With Nicholas out of the way, all risk to Jonathon from the clone was gone, and he didn't need to consider the issue of helping the clone cause either. Getting rid of Nicholas was the simple solution to a lot of Jonathon's current problems.

Aurelia rubbed her eyes, which felt gritty and tired. Her heart hurt so much that she couldn't feel it. Would Jonathon really do something like this? Before, she would have said no, but now she wasn't so sure. She'd seen the way he treated clones; he had the typical Lunar prejudice against them. He hated them. Also, he had his career, his cause, and those might be enough to make him sacrifice the life of a mere clone.

Her door slid open. Jonathon came in, followed by Elza. Aurelia stood, readying herself for a confrontation, but her body and brain simply refused. They had been through too much. Aurelia had pushed herself to the limits, and her muscles were rebelling. Knees shaking, she sank back to the couch. She barely even heard Elza's words: "It's just a sed injection," the older woman's blonde hair fell over her shoulders as she bent next to Aurelia.

Aurelia felt a small prick on the inside of her elbow.

"She'll sleep at least until morning," Elza said to someone. Aurelia's mind was getting cloudy.

Strong arms lifted her like a child, picking her up from the couch. The soft voice of sleep was whispering in her ear. The sedative crept upon her, silencing the thoughts in her head, seducing her with the idea of sleep. Real sleep.

She felt the softness of her bed beneath her, a blanket being placed over her, and then she surrendered herself and her breathing deepened.

***

She had no idea how long she'd slept. But the moment she woke, everything clicked into place in her brain immediately. The first thing she did was to call Elza on the com. Fortunately, the woman picked up and seemed both surprised and happy to hear Aurelia's voice.

"Awake now?" Elza said.

"Yes, and I need to see you."

"I'll be right there."

Aurelia managed to pull herself together, take a shower, and change into a clean uniform before Elza arrived. All the while, Aurelia thought about what she was going to say. She still hadn't decided by the time the door opened, but as soon as she saw Elza, she knew.