“What happens,” he blinked at her, “when we are finished here and ready to go back home? What are you and your friends going to do?”
In a moment, Lily realized that as bad as she sometimes had it with Fausta and Ai, she could not imagine having a child like this. Feeling for her sister, Lily took Callie’s right hand with her left. Glad I gave this some thought already.
“My sister, whom I thought dead, is wonderfully alive, with a great family and good friends.” Lily began. “I…well, not so much, until just recently. I have my own home, and an orphanage and hospital full of responsibilities and duties. When that time comes, we’ll cry, hug, and say good-bye…”
Lily smiled at Callie’s sad face. “Until next time! Think about it, big sister: we’ve solved the communications mystery about your city, you’ve pushed civilization more than two hundred miles closer to Texas than anyone knew, and I’ve friends that have the best home to meet and hang out in… for coffee or tea!” She could tell she lost Callie at that last one. “And, when I get home, I going to talk to some people I know about doing just what your Society is doing: pushing back against the darkness. We’ve been turned inward, just worried about our own country, while a handful of you daredevils are remaking the world!”
Lily wagged the index finger of her other hand at Callie. “I may be only an adopted Texan, but we’uns don’t take kindly to being shown up by a bunch of you foreigners!” Thankfully, Callie was laughing now.
“You’re right, Lily. When did you get so wise? Even without the Breakup, we’d have gotten jobs or married, and moved apart… how’s this any different? And,” she grew serious, “don’t you dare belittle what you’ve done! You help in an orphanage? It seems you work in a hospital? You’re the one making a real difference! I just… play games with puzzles.”
After a long look, they both starting crying. They leaned into one another’s embrace… as everyone else at lunch started clapping. They leaned right back out, smiling. Callie held up her palms.
“Elephant… gone!” She stood. “I’ve got to get back to work! Gary, bring your bowl and—”
“Mother?” He asked, pointing. “If you don’t mind, may I spend the afternoon with Mister Orloff? He’s very interesting.”
Lily had completely forgotten about him. She looked back at the corner. Still surrounded by papers; he seemed to be writing something. She looked a question to Callie.
“Sure!” She said. Lily wondered at that: leaving your kid with a strange old man you just met? Long-lost sister’s friend notwithstanding. Callie must have gotten older very differently than she did. “Have him bring you back to the Control Room by seventeen hundred, got it?” He nodded.
“I’ll take him over, Callie.” Lily said. “Love you!”
Orloff looked up as they walked over to his table. His right hand shook slightly. Maybe he’s just tired, she guessed.
“Working on our trip back?” She asked, gesturing at the papers. He raised the brow above his monocle.
“So that’s been decided? We are going back to Texas? When?”
“In a month or so,” Lily replied. “Whenever these people are finished here.”
“How many?”
“How many what?” He’d lost her.
“Are coming with us? Just you and I? Miss Fausta? What about your sister and her family?” He fired the questions one after another.
“No, no.” She shook her head. “Just us three. We all have our own lives. We’ll certainly stay in touch… and who knows? Maybe in a year or two you can bring us back!”
“Not likely,” he coughed. “I’ll be dead by then.”
He could say such stupid things! “Orloff no baka!” She shouted.
“What?”
“Never mind! Do something useful and keep my nephew company!” She pushed Gary forwards. “God knows why, but he seems to like you! I’m going to find Fausta!”
Chapter 19
As she stomped off, Orloff quelled his shaking hand. For the first time he’d seen, the boy smiled enough to show his straight, white teeth. Somewhat eerily, Orloff noted his eyes were dilated.
“Why was cousin Fausta scared of you?” He asked. “You thought you were doing what you had to, right?”
Orloff froze. He’d certainly been in worse situations. So: the boy could still access at least the net, if not the Machine’s home itself. I wonder if Lily knows? I bet his parents don’t. He carefully gathered his papers and stood.
“Young fellow such as yourself needs exercise, Master Hartmann,” he said in his harsh voice. “Let’s see if we can climb that hill, here?” He watched as Gary’s eyes returned to normal.
“Sure.”
They took the same route they’d gone out on yesterday morning: to the left of the reactor building, north towards the trees. Approaching the base of Madkin Hill (Orloff could just not bring himself to call it a mountain) there was an artificial pond off to their left. He looked about for a path. Not seeing one, he pointed at what looked like a deer trace.
“Let’s try that,” he said roughly.
For all of his vaunted intelligence – which Orloff now suspected was just a byproduct of easy access to information – the boy’s reflexes were still that of a three year-old. He had Gary go first up the little trail, so he could keep his eye on him.
“Take your time, Master Hartmann,” Orloff barked.
“I told you yesterday that Gary’s fine,” he said without turning. “Still, thank your for your concern, sir.”
Coming to a fork in the trail, he did look back a question to Orloff. The right most seemed to slope back down. The left went up, but steeper than they’d been going.
“Left and up,” Orloff huffed, his breath slightly ragged. Gary had a tiny smile.
The boy was quiet for the next fifteen minutes as he concentrated on not slipping as he scaled the hill. Although there was no break in the trees, he halted at a point where the deer trace briefly leveled out. Turning, he said, “Your breathing is rough. Are you okay?”
“Just… need a… minute.” Orloff replied. “Thanks.”
“Father says we should look after our f—” He paused for an instant. “Friends.”
This. This is my punishment for trolling Fausta, isn’t it? Orloff thought. He looked about. The trees were too thick to see back down, but he estimated they were a third of the way up. If there’s a road at the top, we’re taking that back!
There was a faint rumbling from further up, likely at the top. “They must be moving more equipment up there,” Orloff guessed. He made a warped smile. “Perhaps we can catch a ride back down! Press on, Gary!”
The boy went.
“Do you believe in God?” He asked with a glance over his little shoulder. After spending time with Gary in the anechoic chamber yesterday, Orloff had some familiarity with his whiplash changes of subject.
“Yes, I do, Gary.” He replied, his breathing mostly back to normal. “You?”
He shrugged. “Mother told me I’ve been baptized, but we’ve never been to church.”
“Church is good for worship, but you can learn about God anywhere and anytime.” Orloff said. “At your home, or even at Pavel’s, did you ever study the Bible or biblical history, or even basic theology?”
“What?” Gary stopped and turned. “I thought faith was just believing something? I have to study, too?”
He seemed genuinely surprised. I guess Callie and her husband have done nothing for him spiritually. That idly bothered him.
“Gary, faith is something that’s above reason, complimented by it, not below reason; that’s to be no better than an animal.” Remember your audience, he thought. “You use as much of your mind as you can to find out about God. After all, to love someone is to want to know more about them.”
Gary stood still. Orloff was pleased that the eyes didn’t change: good, his thinking about this on his own.
“So,” he said very slowly, “faith and reason….” He trailed off.
“A
re the two wings on which the human spirit rises to see the truth. To see God.” Orloff knew he was paraphrasing, but it fits the boy better, he thought.
He tilted his little head. “What is truth?” Orloff’s jaw fell open. That question…
There was a crash in the trees only a short distance above them. That was no deer. Orloff drew his pistol and put himself between Gary and the noise.
“Any idea if there are boar or cougars around here?” He asked, scanning what little distance ahead that he could. When the boy was silent for too long, he risked a quick glance back. He saw his eyes returning to normal.
“Cougars have been returning to this area. There are many boars, though.” Gary replied. There was another crash, this no more than twenty meters away.
Dammit, Orloff thought. If it’s as big as the one at the Goddard Tavern, I’ll likely have to empty my clip into it. Strange, though: the wind was from the north, but he couldn’t smell pig… the trees just in front of them shook violently; he brought his gun up—
Running down the wooded hillside, Fausta spotted them as he was squeezing the trigger. So slow! She thought. With a small leap just before the shot, she was fifteen feet in the air, landing just behind Gary. She made a pretend chop at his neck then pointed her right hand like a pistol at Orloff’s back.
“Bang. I win.” Her jaw opened. “Kah, kah!”
Still facing away, Orloff decocked his semi-automatic and returned it to his holster. He turned.
“To your credit, Mister Orloff, had it been a human, it would have been a fatal shot! You remain a dangerous man!” Fausta said happily.
“’Remain.’” Gary looked way up into Fausta’s sunglasses. “Yes. He was dangerous, wasn’t he?”
She flicked her head from the boy to the old man as she recalled every conversation she’d had with Gary. Lily berates me for my lack of subtlety… what did I do this time? Nothing seems out of order that I recall….
“Fret not, Miss Fausta,” Orloff said in his ragged voice. “Just a child’s game.”
“Oh.”
“On your way back to the offices? Finished with whatever you were doing up there?” He pointed uphill with his false arm. She nodded.
“We put in both physical and electric cut-outs for any signal broadcast,” she let her gaze fall to the back of Gary’s head. “In case there are any problems.”
“With overrides for you and your family, I assume?” When she said nothing, he smiled. “Perhaps we should be headed back down, too?”
“Shall I carry you on my shoulders, Gary?” Even Orloff could hear the eagerness in her voice.
“Won’t I get snagged in the trees, if you do?”
“Likely. Be good hand-eye coordination practice for you,” Orloff coughed. “Please go ahead, Miss Fausta.”
“Mister Orloff. Up you go!” She effortlessly picked up the boy and settled him onto her great shoulders. If we’d had a generator, she could have had us to this city in less than a week, Orloff thought. He went first, to make sure she didn’t start running again.
“Why are you two only formal with each other?” Tangent. “Everyone else just uses your names.”
“I—” Fausta began.
“It’s my way of preserving a mental and emotional distance between Miss Fausta and myself.” Orloff began. “I am a married man and a long way from home. I keep formality at hand to recall the Commandments rather than obeying the commands of my hands to be all over Miss Fausta’s form.” Hope that keeps him quite until we’re back.
“Ah. You lust after her… whoa!” He almost fell as she shuddered in mid-step. “But you restrain yourself for the sake of your marriage. That’s nice.”
They walked downhill on the deer trace more. Orloff thought of duct tape.
“Still, you’ve not seen your wife in years; certainly in their home, you and Fausta…” Orloff stopped. Fausta did as well.
“Put him down.” Oh, from his tone, she deduced what was coming. She thought about talking to her family about the First Law, but chose to put it off for a little bit.
Orloff walked back uphill. He gently slapped the boy across his mouth with the back of his human hand. Gary slowly moved his head back to look at Orloff.
“That was uncivilized. That was uncultured.” He leaned down, his face inches from the boy’s. “Your suggestion was evil.”
He turned and continued downhill. When he was almost out of sight, Fausta returned him to her shoulders. “You are younger than you think,” is all she said. She now saw why Thaad had had Lily slap her with the Second Law. How wise their Father had been, to help them thus!
Almost out of the deer path, Gary said, “I’m sorry.”
“No. Not to me.” Fausta declared. “But neither to him any time soon. But tell him before you and your family… your parents, leave.” She felt the nod though her shoulders. She chose to sing this story – all of it – to Ai. Oh. I didn’t mean to make her cry.
A few yards from the tree line, she set Gary down. I too, am young and stupid: I just made my sister, my family, into liars. Why can’t we load a ‘subtlety’ routine? She fell backwards into the grass and mud like a tree.
“Miss Fausta!” Orloff called as he trotted back. “Are you okay?”
“I’m stupid.” She said to the cloudy sky.
“What’s that?” He asked. “Have we lost signal again?”
She sat up. “No. I was stupid. Oh.”
She took his proffered cybernetic hand and brought herself to her feet.
“Thank you.” She tilted her head very slightly. “It’s sixteen hundred. My friend is bored. Gary! We will visit with your Aunt for a bit, afterwards you shall be returned to your mother.”
“That’s fine.”
“And Gary Hartmann?” Fausta said to him while looking at Orloff. “No stupidity. Clear?”
“Yes, Aunt Fausta.”
At loose ends after fobbing her nephew off onto Orloff, Lily made some inquiries and found her way to the part of the building used as an infirmary. It was in the same building as the mess hall and dorms, but on the south side. The door was open, so she tapped on the frame.
“Hello?” She asked. A woman with long, red hair (and an unnecessarily large chest, Lily thought) was reading a book at her desk. She stood and smiled at Lily, her white labcoat over jeans and a lime blouse.
“Hi, there! I’m Nurse Deonne. May I help you?” She asked with a smile. Lily walked over, extending her hand.
“I’m Lily Barrett, Callie Hartmann’s sister. My friends and I are visiting here, and…” she waved her hands about, “everyone else had something to do, so I was looking around. I’m a nurse, too, by the way.”
“Super! Always nice to meet another! My name’s Ashley.” She regarded Lily for a moment. “If you’re who the rumors say you are, you came all the way from Texas to find your lost sister. That’s almost Homeric.”
“Homo… what?” Ashley shook her head, laughing.
“Homeric,” she said, pointing at her book. “The Iliad” by Homer.
“Sorry!” Lily said with a fist to the head she learned from Ai. “My misunderstanding! And it wasn’t all that big a deal…”
“We came here over two hundred strong and armed to the teeth.” Ashley countered, shaking her head. “And, just to do a job. I can’t imagine how big your heart must be to undertake something like that!”
“’Sno big deal.” Lily muttered, her ears warming. “Can I take a look at your setup here?”
“Sure!”
Like everything else, the Society has just taken over unused open spaces and repurposed them. There were four beds and a makeshift clean room for an OR. They’d brought only one surgeon, but all the nurses and medics had either battlefield or trauma experience, or both. Lily felt a little self-conscious with just her hospital background.
“You had much work in the field?” Ashley asked, making it worse.
“Not really,” Lily replied ruefully. “Unless getting shot counts.” Ashley laughe
d.
Their store of medications was as good as anything Lily had back in Waxahachie. That surprised her.
“I know you guys have electric power like us, but we still import a fifth of our meds from outside Texas. How do you come by all this?” She’d asked.
“We steal them.” Nurse Deonne couldn’t hold her straight face and laughed. “We’ve sent teams into ruined cities to take whatever we can from unused hospitals, pharmacies, whatever we can. If the locals are still using a place, we leave it alone – in fact, we usually share what we have – but so many of the bigger towns and cities are ruins now.” She shrugged.
Made sense to Lily: why just leave them to go bad? Ashley moved to show her something else. “Now that the power’s back on, we will…” She stopped as they heard others coming towards the infirmary. Ashley was taken aback to see a giantess and a midget in the doorway.
“Hey, Fausta!” Lily called. “Y’all are back a little early. Lost Orloff, too, I see.”
“We ran into Fausta halfway up the hill.” Gary said tonelessly. “Later, I said something rude, and Mister Orloff left.”
Lily wondered what that unpleasant old man might find rude, but there it was. Oh!
“Fausta,” Lily said by way of introductions, “this is Nurse Ashley Deonne. She was showing me around!”
Ashley looked a bit dazed, reaching up to shake Fausta’s hand. “Hector.” Lily heard her saw under her breath. “You are one of the traveling companions of Nurse Barrett? I’ve already told her that was a great undertaking. You should write it down, for posterities’ sake.”
Fausta seemed to consider that. “I’ll put something together and print it out. Or, do you have an email address?”
“What? Just like that?” Lily did not want to ruin this little farce with facts quite yet. “Are you a writer, to put together something like that so fast?”
“Writer? No, I think of myself as a warrior. No one in my family currently seems to have a literary bent. Perhaps when we are older.”
Family! “That reminds me, Fausta! Have you seen that neat thing that Dorina can do with the reactor?” Lily asked.
Echoes of Family Lost Page 18
