CROWELL

40 I pulled Dorie back into the suite as quickly as possible, and afterward, Jennifer Lisle ordered everyone out of there, the hazard more real than ever. We gained some distance from that hallway, rounding several bends until we reached a safe zone. It was the last time anyone would be allowed inside the Tempest Tower.

Dorie kept looking for Plenko, but he wasn’t in the hallway. I’d lied about that. I had to. I’d been the one to tell Lisle to keep Plenko away from the Tower for the very reason I’d outlined to Sakson. If things had gone sideways in that suite, Dorie might have watched yet another Plenko die in front of her.

Jennifer Lisle took Morgan in, supposedly for further questioning. Adi Thakur was sent to the Brindos Building to smooth things over in the governors’ office and prepare the way for Dorie’s return to office. Lisle apologized to Dorie again, saying the NIO had more to discuss with Terl Plenko, and to be patient, she would see him soon.

“I don’t even know if I can trust he’s my Plenko,” she said. “After all this time, after all those copies . . . ”

No one said anything to that.

Eventually, Lisle cleared us, let Forno’s Helks prepare for a return to Helkuntannas, and Dorie, Forno, and I were dropped off at the Brindos Building. She was willing to take me straight to the domelock for a shuttle to Swan Station, but Forno wanted to stop somewhere for much-needed coffee.

“Where to?” Lisle asked.

“There’s the Tempest,” Dorie said.

“The what?” I asked. “We just came from there, it’s off limits, and I don’t think—”

“Tempest Bar,” she said. “Remember, when you visited a year ago? It was the only place in town at that point.”

“Right. The Tempest.” I pointed to Forno. “You’re buying. I seem to have come back to our universe without anything, including my comm card and money.”

“Figures,” Forno said.

We were shuttled to the bar, which was huddled close to the outer wall of the dome, and we found a table in the back.

“Same one we sat at before,” Dorie said with a smile. “Do you remember that?”

I said, “Of course.”

We settled in. Forno had to snag a Helk-sized chair from a nearby alcove while Dorie and I slid around to the far end of a bench behind the table. Forno studied the flashpaper menu inset into the table and ordered coffee. I asked for coffee, too.

“You hate coffee,” Forno said.

“Not today.”

“What, no French fries?” Forno asked.

“French fries?” I asked. “Really?”

Forno shrugged, but he looked at me strangely. No, wait. He was looking at me knowingly. I turned to Dorie, and she was giving me the same look.

“I mean—yum, French fries,” I said. “Do they actually have them here?”

Dorie shook her head, but she had a smile on her face now.

Okay.

Shit.

I didn’t have them fooled.

“Looks like I have some catching up to do,” I said. I leaned back in the chair and studied them as if seeing them for the very first time. I mean, second time. The Tempest Tower suite being the first time.

“You do,” Forno said.

“When did you know?”

“When you didn’t correct my mangled Earth idiom. And because of how much younger you looked.”

“It took me a little longer,” Dorie said. “When you started talking to Sakson. When you put down your blaster and gave yourself up as a hostage. When you had everyone in that suite hanging on your every word. When you juiced Sakson with your finger capacitors.”

“Which you had taken out six months ago,” Forno said.

“Envoys have an option to install them,” I said. “The Ultras charged mine for me.”

“It takes a special talent to talk like an Envoy,” Dorie said. She raised an eyebrow. “Unless you already are one.”

I nodded.

“Welcome back to our universe,” Forno said. “And welcome to Ribon, Lucky Lawrence Crowell.”

I grinned, mildly embarrassed, but happy to stop the charade with these two.

“Now,” Forno said, “tell me what went on in the Ultra universe, and what the hell happened to my partner.”