Macaque Attack by Gareth L. Powell

jollity abandoned.
    “ Pourquoi? ”
    Paul looked up at the sky and clicked his tongue behind his teeth.
    “I don’t think I have much time left, and I’d rather be somewhere familiar, somewhere I remember, when it runs out. I don’t want to die in a strange place.”
    Victoria felt her eyes prickle. Her vision swam.
    “Okay,” she said.
    “You promise?”
    “Whatever you want, whatever I can do.”
    Paul walked over to the edge of the potted jungle. A blue butterfly flapped between the trees.
    “And I want you to promise me something else,” he said.
    “Anything.”
    He stopped beside a vine, and tried to cup his hand beneath the bloom of a large white flower, but his hologram fingers passed through its petals without disturbing them.
    “When I’m gone, I want you to go back to the world where we left Cole and his daughter.”
    “The one we’ve just come from?” Victoria shook her head. “After all the chaos we’ve just caused, I don’t think I’d be very welcome.”
    “Nevertheless, you have to go back,” Paul maintained. “Sneak in, go in disguise, anything.”
    Arms folded, Victoria walked over to him.
    “But why?”
    Paul’s hand dropped from the flower.
    “Nguyen said that the Paul on his world still lived.” He gave her a sad, sly look. “And we already know Berg killed the Victoria that was there.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “Do I have to spell it out? You’ll be a Victoria without a Paul; he’ll be a Paul without a Victoria. You’ll need each other. You’ll need to be together.”
    Victoria’s cheeks burned. A tear ran down her face.
    “No,” she said.
    Paul looked crestfallen. “I think you should do it, for me.”
    Victoria shook her head again. “No, it wouldn’t be the same. He wouldn’t be you.”
    Paul pursed his lips. “He’d be close. Maybe too close to tell apart. Cole managed to find another version of his dead wife. Why can’t you do the same with me?”
    Victoria felt her cheeks flush. “I don’t want another version, you idiot. I want you.”
    “I’m just a recording.”
    “You’re more than that!” She paused, letting the anger subside. “You’ve changed, you’ve grown.” He was now, she thought with a twinge of guilt, a far more caring and considerate person than he’d ever been while alive. Dreadful as it was to admit to herself, his death had, in some ways, improved their relationship beyond all recognition and, after everything they’d been through over the past three years, she couldn’t imagine starting again with a stranger—even a stranger with his face and mannerisms.
    “No.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve and sniffed. She hadn’t cried properly in years, and she wasn’t about to start now. “No, that’s not going to happen. You’re my Paul, and I don’t want anybody else.” She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “I’m not going to lose you.”
    He watched her as she straightened the collar of her tunic, brushed the medals into place, and gripped the pommel of her sword.
    “Now, pull yourself together,” she said, straightening her back, unsure if she was talking to him or herself. “We’ve got a monkey to rescue.” She walked back to the edge of the verandah and looked out at the island. “Are the crew all aboard?”
    Paul joined her.
    “The Founder recalled them as soon as we had the coordinates.”
    “She’s still here?” After the monkey’s long detention, Victoria had expected her to be down on the ground, enjoying the daylight and open space.
    “She’s as interested in finding Ack-Ack as we are.”
    “Very well. Sound the alarm. We jump in thirty seconds.”
    “Thirty seconds ?”
    “There’s no telling what sort of trouble he’s in,” Victoria said. “The sooner we find him, the better.”
    Paul gave a nod. He clicked his fingers and alarms wailed in the corridors and open spaces beyond the indoor jungle.
    “I’m going to bring the engines online,” he said. He became very