Sergei Lukyanenko - The Genome

“That just means loneliness.”

The sound of her voice startled Alex. She seemed to have aged instantly, grown decades older.

“Any unique specialist is lonely. You’ll get to like your work. You will enjoy it, trust me. The real thing, not just what you have here.”

“I don’t want to, Alex!” She hugged him tightly. “Why did you tell me all this? Why?”

“You had to find out sooner or later.”

“But I like flying on the ship. I like being with you!”

“Well, no one can forbid you to work as an ordinary fighter.”

“Now that I know what I’m meant to be?”

“Yes, even now.” Alex didn’t look away. “Especially now.”

“I don’t understand,” said Kim piteously.

“You will.”

He didn’t answer any more of her questions. And Kim didn’t persist for long. She didn’t know the “sweet-sweet sugar and bitter chocolate” game. It had probably been invented on Eben. But another game Kim suggested, “kitten claws,” turned out to be quite enjoyable.

Generalov barged into the cabin while Kim was in the shower.

“Would you like some wine?” Alex offered, tightening his bathrobe. A half-empty bottle of real Earthly Vouvray stood on the table.

“Something stronger!” Puck roared.

Alex bent over the bar. He fussed for a while with glasses and bottles, then poured the navigator some brandy.

“So, Holmes has called you the prime suspect, eh?”

“Yes! Everyone already knows?” Generalov shook his head. Roared with sardonic laughter. “Arguments of steel! Tough as titanium!”

“And what are they?”

“Well! I’m the only natural on board, you see! As well as the only homo!”

“Is that what he called you?”

“No, this Holmes character, this cloned jerk, used an even more insulting expression!” Generalov punched the air and poured himself some more brandy. “You tell me, Captain, how are my tastes in any way connected to the murder of the Zzygou?”

“I have no idea,” confessed Alex.

“It turns out, I was trying to make life hell for C-the-Third and the lady-speshes!”

“Janet and Kim?”

“Yes! I killed the Zzygou to ruin that nasty clone’s career, and was hoping to dump the murder on one of the women, since I hate them!”

“You hate them?”

“Me?” Generalov goggled. “Captain, no one treats women more tenderly and gently than we gays! Everyone knows this… except detectives, as it turns out! Holmes cursed me out like a drunk miner from some provincial planet!”

“You have my sympathies, Puck.”

“Thank you, Captain… But listen, how can we possibly count on justice if the investigation is conducted by a cloned idiot?”

“Puck, you are incensed at being discriminated against because of individual peculiarities, and yet you yourself sound a bit… biased.”

“Being a clone is not an individual peculiarity, but a rotten core!” said the enraged navigator. “And I have just been convinced once and for all! While our C-the-Third may be just a fool who couldn’t keep his wards out of harm’s way, Holmes is an aggressive, noisy fool who is a danger to society! Now I’m convinced—war is unavoidable!”

The sound of running water ceased, and the sanitary block’s door opened slightly. Kim looked out from behind it. Droplets of water glistened on her shoulders. The girl had wrapped her wet hair in a towel, turbanlike.

“Oh… hi, Puck!”

“Hi, sweetie!” Generalov looked sideways at her. “Have you heard what I’m accused of?”

“Just a sec… Alex, I threw my clothes into the wash, is that all right?”

“Well, you can’t sit in the bathroom for a quarter of an hour.” The pilot smiled. “Come on out.”

Kim darted over to the bed, sat down, and wrapped herself in a blanket. Smiled cheerfully at Alex.

“I have nothing but good feelings for women!” announced Puck. “And for lady-speshes as well! My own mother is a doctor-spesh! As for clones, I don’t like them, but I wouldn’t kill the Zzygou to spite them!”

He poured himself some more brandy. Alex thought for a second, then moved the bottle away.

“Yes, thank you…” Generalov sighed. “I’m really sort of… but just imagine, Captain, for thirty minutes, he threw insults in my face!”

“Don’t be mad at Holmes,” said Alex. “He doesn’t really mean what he says.”

“Then what does he mean?”

“He’s just trying to provoke all the suspects. He deliberately pushes our buttons, works our inhibitions and biases. So he can watch our reactions.”

“Asshole!” exhaled Puck with feeling.

“Not at all, actually. This is an extreme situation, so it calls for appropriate methods. If reliable truth drugs existed, or torture with easily controlled coercive force, or any other valid methods for express-interrogations, Holmes would now be using them. He may even use some unreliable ones, if he is left with no other choice.”

“Controlled torture?” Puck didn’t understand.

“Of course. The murder has obviously been committed by a professional. He could withstand both drugs and ordinary torture. And very strong coercion would make an innocent person implicate himself. But only convincing proof would actually satisfy the Zzygou.”

“Good Lord, what is the world coming to!” Generalov cried melodramatically.

“The world is coming to the edge of an abyss. So, Puck, you really didn’t kill the Zzygou?”

“No!”

“And you don’t know who the murderer is?”

Generalov thought for a while.

“I thought it was you, Captain.”

“Why me?” Alex was stunned.

“The act required way too much of a sense of responsibility. Only someone who is ready to make decisions for other people could have committed it. No other spesh aboard this ship has the directive to make general decisions. Only the captain.”

“And you, since you’re a natural!” cried out Kim.

“Yes.” This time Generalov didn’t get angry. “And me. But I didn’t kill anyone.”

Alex thought it over. Reluctantly admitted:

“I haven’t tried to look at it from that point of view… Yes. It all makes sense. But I didn’t kill the Zzygou, either.”

“You know what else that… clone picked on?”

“What?”

“That I like to walk around the ship in a spacesuit!”

“That’s a good point,” Alex agreed. “It solves the problem of bloodstains on the clothes.”

“But anyone could put on a spacesuit.” Puck got up with a sigh. “I should never have signed on to your crew, Captain…”

“Everything will be all right, Puck. Innocent people won’t get in trouble.”

“You have that much confidence in the cloned Holmes?” Generalov asked ironically.

“No. I have confidence in myself.”

Paul Lourier showed up in Alex’s cabin after both Generalov and Kim had left. Generalov left looking just as tense as when he arrived, but Kim looked much calmer.

“Go ahead, sit down.” Alex nodded toward the armchair. “Want some wine?”

Paul nodded wistfully.

“Would Vouvray be all right with you? Or would you like a red, after all?” Alex asked.

“Vouvray’ll be fine.” Paul took up the glass. He turned it in his hands, then asked, lifting his eyes to look at Alex:

“Captain, do you suspect me in the Zzygou murder, too?”

“And why would you be number one on the list?”

Paul frowned.

“So I’m not the only one?”

“Tell me.”

“Holmes was alluding to my psychological profile. Well… Captain, back at the academy, I really did like pranks… but that’s all a thing of the past! And there is a difference between hacking into a teacher’s computer and slicing up an alien!”