Watson rubbed his jaw for a moment. He said, "Well, that's good to hear. I have a score to settle with that man, but I think you might be better at settling old scores than I am." He smiled, and added, "I'd trade a year's salary for a ringside seat."

"Have you met Nailor?" I asked.

He said, "Yes," and nothing more.

We talked about other things. In the month I had been gone, Watson had given up prowling. He was engaged to a woman. He asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with them that evening. I said I did.

I went home. I showered. I shaved. I dressed in my best civilian clothes, a pair of khaki slacks and turquoise shirt. It was either those pants and that shirt or my uniform. I brushed my hair and ran the blue light over my teeth, then I drove back into town.

Watson and his fiancee met me at a restaurant named Don Francisco's. I'd heard of the place but never been there before. It was a trendy bar and grill meant for people my age, but I felt out of place. I was a Marine, not a politician or a lawyer or a businessman. I ate in mess halls and drank in officers' clubs. The dim lighting and soft music did not put me at ease.

When I mentioned my name, the hostess said, "Your friends are waiting for you."

She led me to the table.

Watson and his fiancee sat in a booth way in the back. They sat on one side of the table, leaving the bench on the other side for me. The rest of the restaurant was dim, but the candles on the tables sparkled like stars in this dark corner. Even by that flickering, glowing light, I recognized the girl Travis Watson had an arm around.

"Wayson, this is Emily Hughes," he said as I sat down.

"We met on Mars," I said.

She smiled. The girl had a dazzling smile. She said, "There's nothing wrong with your memory, General."

"Call me Wayson."

"Wayson," she said.

"I heard about your grandfather this afternoon," I said. "I'm sorry. He and I had a long history."

"He told me about it."

After that, we sat in an awkward silence, which Emily finally broke. She said, "Thanks to you, he got the thing he wanted most before he died. They're finally evacuating Mars."

"Did you know about that?" asked Watson.

I didn't know about anything. I said, "They kept me pretty far out of the loop at the hospital."

"Cutter is closing down Mars Spaceport," he said. "We're going to close it down and blow it up."

I started to say, "No shit," but I caught myself. I said, "No kidding. Blowing it up? I guess he isn't taking any chances." Good move, I thought. As far as anybody knew, Mars and Earth were the only planets in the galaxy with buildings and life-support infrastructure. If the Unifieds were out there and building an army, Mars was the only place they could do it.

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?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

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.

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.