"Tatiana Onegin, chief enforcer for the Syndicate and now an agent of the Created, is called to face one last ghost from her past. The transmitter clipped to Tatiana\u2019s collar buzzed. \u201CBoss.\u201D It was Nicola. \u201CStray escaped from the shuttle. He made it planetside.\u201D A tight fist closed on her gut. Of course the little roach survived. Should have just put a bullet in his head when I had the chance. The restaurant\u2019s red-lined walls suddenly seemed much more confined, restricting. She touched the transmitter. \u201CPut the word out,\u201D she said through clenched teeth. \u201CI want every gun on Talitsa after\u2014\u201C"@en . . . . . "Tatiana Onegin, chief enforcer for the Syndicate and now an agent of the Created, is called to face one last ghost from her past. The transmitter clipped to Tatiana\u2019s collar buzzed. \u201CBoss.\u201D It was Nicola. \u201CStray escaped from the shuttle. He made it planetside.\u201D A tight fist closed on her gut. Of course the little roach survived. Should have just put a bullet in his head when I had the chance. The restaurant\u2019s red-lined walls suddenly seemed much more confined, restricting. She touched the transmitter. \u201CPut the word out,\u201D she said through clenched teeth. \u201CI want every gun on Talitsa after\u2014\u201C \u201CHe\u2019s here,\u201D Nicola hissed urgently. \u201COn the second floor and coming up.\u201D Tatiana\u2019s hand gripped the silken tablecloth. \u201CThen hold him off.\u201D \u201CHe took out third squad. First and second are trying to cut him off and I\u2019m with fourth squad moving to\u2014\u201C Tatiana silenced the transmitter with a terse click. Across the table, Helen looked up from her meal and raised an eyebrow. \u201CYou told me Stray was taken care of. Is there a problem?\u201D \u201CNothing I can\u2019t handle,\u201D Tatiana said, forcing a smile. She stood up, pulling her coat off the back of her chair and slipping it on over her body armor. \u201CEnjoy the rest of your meal, Helen. Hopefully I\u2019ll be back before they serve dessert.\u201D Beside her, Arthur\u2014she couldn\u2019t stop thinking of him as Arthur, no matter what the Created AI said\u2014reached up and put a hand on her arm. \u201CI can back you up,\u201D he said, very real concern shining in those dutiful eyes of his. My eyes. Not Tobias\u2019s. \u201CNo. You stay here, with Helen. This could be a feint to get at her. I took on the Renegade when he was at the top of his game. I\u2019ll deal with Stray.\u201D \u201CHis name is Simon.\u201D She could forgive Arthur his sentimentality\u2014or the sentimentality the AI had imprinted this clone with. It was just like her son: compassion and concern even for an animal like Stray. It was yet another cruel joke that her son, her real son, had died and left her with only this shadow of himself while Tobias\u2019s abomination remained alive. \u201CHe won\u2019t have any name at all when I\u2019m finished with him.\u201D \u201CJust be safe.\u201D She nodded curtly and strode away from the table, irritated at herself for the very unprofessional fury building up inside her. It was irrational, her hatred of Stray. He was a beast, to be sure, Tobias\u2019s violent thug and just as much of a viper as his father. Tobias was the one who had forced that creature into her womb. He was the one she should direct this burning hatred at. But Stray, the twisted product of Tobias\u2019s ambitions, continued to haunt her at every step, mocking her pain with each breath he took. For all her triumphs, all the steps she had taken to escape her miserable past, she still remembered the miserable, ugly child staring up at her from the dirt with Tobias\u2019s awful eyes. She needed to blot those eyes out completely or she would never be free. Behind her sat Helen and Arthur\u2019s doppelganger clone. She had carried neither of them in her womb, yet they were more her children than Stray, who had been so brutally forced upon her. Arthur, the son whom she loved, had died while Stray lived on. There was no greater injustice in the universe than that. It was time to correct that injustice. \u201CMother\u2026\u201D She stopped at the door leading to the kitchen, glancing back at Arthur. \u201CThe Created will make a galaxy where there\u2019s no place for destroyers like him. They\u2019ll make a world where that sort of monster can never exist again. We\u2019ll help build that world. Together.\u201D She pushed her way through the kitchen door, marching on with a renewed sense of purpose. It was time to erase one more ghost from her past."@en . . "False Child"@en . .