18% Gray by Anne Tenino Page A

file.”
    Fuck. Fuckity-fuck-fuck. “How old are they?”
    “From when they accepted him into Psi-force.”
    “Nothing after that?”
    “They don’t change much, Matt.”
    Matt was thinking fast, about possibilities he hadn’t even entertained. “Can you overlay the scan I sent you on the ones from his—Ayala’s—record?”
    Lance was obviously only just suppressing an eye roll. He turned to the other datascreen. Matt could see just enough of his face to see that his expression changed, but not to what. “Weird,” he muttered. “Hang on a sec,” he told Matt. He brought up more screens.
    “All right. I’m transmitting the image of the overlay to you, and another overlay. We have to end this transmission; everyone’s on short com. Look at these and reconnect in three hours with a plausible explanation for me.”
    Before Matt could acknowledge the unusual orders, Lance cut the vid feed. Matt’s hookup chimed softly, indicating new mail. He opened the images from QESA.
    And sucked in a breath. He’d thought this was a possibility, but wasn’t really prepared for it. James’s file retina print was laid over the scan Matt had sent, and showed an exact matchup. All the vessels in the original print matched the scan he’d taken, but in the scan there were extra vessels. Almost twice as many. Way more than a regular retina should have. And there was something about them….
    Matt opened the second image. This time, the scan he’d sent had been split and each eye overlaid the other. The original vessel print had been removed. Only the new blood vessels were shown. They were a perfect match. It had to be intentional. Someone had to have implanted those blood vessels.
    Or circuitry?
    “Matt,” a voice called almost silently from behind him. Matt whirled and reached for his pistol. James was looking at him from a rusted-out hole in the back side of the container. “We gotta go. Our nocturnal visitors are heading this way.”
    “Those guys again?” he asked, duck-walking for the back. That hole might be big enough to get through. “Which direction?”
    “Same way we came in.” The back door exit was preferable.
    “Can you help me open this thing up a little?”
    “Use your weapon? Can you recharge it?”
    “Doesn’t really have cutting capabilities. And I might have forgotten to recharge the solar charge-pack,” Matt admitted. “It’ll take a few hours to recharge.”
    James sighed a little. “Let’s look for other options.”
    Matt’s heart rate was beginning to pick up when they found an opening on the west side, near the wall of the ravine. James reported on the other guys’ progress from the northwest corner as Matt squirmed out.
    “They know we’re in here, using willow brush and trying to approach us covertly. They don’t know we know they’re coming.”
    “Shit.” Matt’s utility belt got stuck on a finger of metal. He tried to wrench himself free. He hated feeling like his legs were open to attack while his upper body was in the open. Well, sort of open—his head was mashed into the dirt wall outside the container. This was a graceful exit. “They had to have been following us.”
    “I never saw them.”
    Matt decided not to question James’s skills. For some reason he was hesitant to bruise James’s ego. Matt finally broke the small finger of steel holding him back and tumbled out. Okay, now he was eating dirt. And animal droppings? He got on his hands and knees and spit a couple of times. “How’s it look, now?”
    “Hmmmm.”
    “Hmmmm, what? ” He demanded when James didn’t elaborate.
    “They’re keeping an eye on the container, not moving. Feels like they’re waiting for something.”
    “Like an airstrike?” That didn’t sound as sarcastic as it had in his head.
    “No, like… backup.”
    “Fucking lovely.” Matt spit one more time, then crept up and tried to peek over the top of the ravine on the west side. He couldn’t see jack, mostly because his head