Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 by John Scalzi

Author:John Scalzi [Scalzi, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2014-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

::First question,:: General Szilard said. Jared lay in the Phoenix Station infirmary, recovering from his stun bolt, with two CDF guards stationed at the foot of his bed and Jane Sagan standing by the wall. ::Who are you?::

::I’m Private Jared Dirac,:: Jared said. He did not ask who Szilard was; his BrainPal ID’d him as he entered the room. Szilard’s own BrainPal could have as easily ID’d Jared, so the question wasn’t a matter of mere identification. ::I’m stationed on the Kite. My commanding officer is Lieutenant Sagan, who is over there.::

::Second question,:: General Szilard said. ::Do you know who Charles Boutin is?::

::No, sir,:: Jared said. ::Should I?::

::Possibly,:: Szilard said. ::It was his lab we found you standing in front of. It was his lab that you told that Rraey was yours. Which suggests that you thought you were Charles Boutin, at least for a minute. And Lieutenant Sagan tells me that you wouldn’t respond to your name when she tried to talk to you.::

::I remember not knowing that I was me,:: Jared said. ::But I don’t remember thinking I was anyone else.::

::But you got to Boutin’s lab without ever having been there before,:: Szilard said. ::And we know you didn’t access your BrainPal for a station map in order to find it.::

::I can’t explain it,:: Jared said. ::The memory of it was just in my head.:: Jared saw Szilard glance over at Sagan at that.

The door opened and two men walked through. One of the men stalked over to Jared before his BrainPal could identify him.

“Do you know who I am?” he said.

Jared’s punch sent the man to the floor. The guards raised their Empees; Jared, already coming down from his sudden surge of rage and adrenaline, immediately put his hands up.

The man stood up as Jared’s BrainPal finally identified him as General Greg Mattson, head of Military Research.

“That answers that,” Mattson said, holding his hand to his right eye. He stalked off toward the room’s lavatory, to check out the damage.

“Don’t be so sure,” Szilard said. He turned to Jared. “Private, do you know the man you just struck?”

“I know now he’s General Mattson,” Jared said. “But I didn’t know that when I struck him.”

“Why did you strike him?” Szilard asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Jared said. “It just…” He stopped.

“Answer the question, Private,” Szilard said.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” Jared said. “I can’t explain why.”

“He’s definitely remembering some things,” Szilard said, turning to Mattson. “But he’s not remembering it all. And he doesn’t remember who he was.”

“Crap,” Mattson said, from the lavatory. “He remembered enough to punch me in the head. That son of a bitch has been waiting to do that for years.”

“He could be remembering it all and trying to convince you that he doesn’t, General,” the other man said to Szilard. Jared’s BrainPal identified him as Colonel James Robbins.

“It’s possible,” Szilard said. “But his actions so far don’t seem to suggest it. If he really were Boutin, it wouldn’t be in his interest to let us know he remembered anything at all.

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