13 - Return
I was wrong about a lot of things.
IO was nothing like Europa. Europa was probably built as a getaway for all the fancy exec-types on IO. It was all skyscrapers and fancy suits. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I found a nice dive-bar down an alley on the first night and pretty much holed up there for the three days. I wasn't much in the mood for sight-seeing, as you can probably imagine.
I boarded the return ship in disguise, using a counterfeit identity chip. Judy had programmed it for me in advance.
I didn't run into them at all when boarding, they must've checked in early. Good girl, Judy. It didn't really matter if they saw me - the only witness that counted would soon be gone and the ship's log would only show Mr. Mitty, my alias - but, I really didn't want to bump into Walsh. If all went to plan, I would never see his waking face again.
The details from the night itself are still foggy. They come back to me in bits and pieces. A cabin door sliding open easily, /too/ easily. My soft footsteps on his bedroom floor. A pillow with my hand across it.
I don't want to talk about it much, but all you need to know is that when it came down to it, I /could/ perform after all. The next morning, a huge, lifeless corpse was stuffed into a space suit by an equally huge and identical living body. It was sent out to enjoy the Jupiter sunrise one last time, and the rest is history - or insurance company history at least.
For the last day of the journey, there were rumours on the lower decks that a big-shot had died on the ship. I tried to keep my head down as best I could, but couldn't help listening in now and then. "Killed through clone negligence" I heard someone say. The story was sticking after all. I had to give it to you Judy, you knew how to spin a web.
I just prayed that the insurance companies would buy it too. All the way behind Jupiter there isn't much in the way of law enforcement, so the insurance investigators were the only thing standing between us and happiness now.
And stand in the way they did.