by Tal Turing
Even years after completing anger management therapy, he still had that affect on practically everyone. No one wanted to get on his bad side and he wasn't sure that wasn't a good thing. Still, the relationship between the two of them was certainly more informal than it had been when she arrived almost a month before, but the elephant still remained in the room. Perhaps it would always be there.
She wore a summer dress and sandals, the same outfit she had worn when they had found her sleeping on her first day at Transom House.
"I know you said you are busy preparing for the Techview delegation...but I need an escort to SkyTran Dome," Cyn began. "This is my last night here and I want...no I need to say goodbye to as many people as I can. Who knows if they'll ever send me down this way again, or if I'll even be allowed back after all that has happened.”
“But I have four people assigned just to you.”
“If something happens and you are anywhere else...it's going to look like Patron pulled you. So that is my excuse...can you spare the time?”
Ed sighed. He didn't have it. He started to suggest that he assign more...but she was right. He didn't want to take the chance. He had made several mistakes in the last couple weeks and many of them had put her in direct harm. Fortunately, he had figured out his brother's machinations and certainly saved her. Strange, it did not take away the guilt. It was only one more day, he had to do this.
“When?”
“Can we leave now?”
“Now??” He protested.
“Fine, I'll be back in thirty minutes but we'll have to hurry,” and with that she turned and walked off.
They sat on a blanket in the middle of SkyTran park with hundreds of others. The show started with fireworks superimposed on the interior of the dome. Next, the dome went black and stars began to appear as an orchestra played. The trees were lit with soft lights and the sounds of whispers and laughter filled the void whenever the music paused.
The stars swirled and moved becoming constellations which animated and danced, hunted and enacted their own stories. Even Ed had to admit it was beautiful and it reminded him of those times, long ago, when his family would come.
Things had changed drastically since those days. His mother had passed away years ago, Brad was now in an psychiatric hospital and of course the oldest Harilla sibling was gone, if he had ever really existed. Ed sighed and for the first time felt 'old'. He envied his younger, dumber self, the boy with so much anger but no worries.
Ed looked around for the nth time. He actually had some of his men only ten meters away and another pair near a fountain. They were all very happy to accept the assignment and all had brought their family and friends. Ed was not completely relaxed but he was satisfied, it was the best he could hope for.
He looked over to the group of people around Cyn. He had recognized Lynda, she was the one who, along with Cyn, had been found unconscious after the dome had fallen. She was the face that appeared on the fateful message and that her launched her into instant celebrity around the villages and notoriety around the Domes. He assumed she would have her own protection but he had his men watch her as well.
Another celebrity, in the person of Pol Gente, appeared with his wife and already Ed could hear the man's loud laughter. He walked up to hear Pol fawning over the two girls as if he were their grandfather.
“For so long, I thought that village politics was my greatest calling,” continued Pol, “but, when I see these two flowers, I realize that great is not the same thing as important and it makes an old man very happy to be able to say I had both of them in my class and had some small part in their lives.”
“Deputy Harilla, stop watching for trouble and come over here. Mr. Gente is talking about how I was his favorite student,” Cyn laughed and waved him over.
The old man beamed as the two young ladies each took an arm.
“This one,” Pol laughed, nodding to Lynda, “I had in class for five years. I almost pulled out all of my hair! She stopped the class every time one of the other students said something unkind to another. She would stomp her foot and hold her breath and insist I do something about it. And I would say, what should I do? Spank them?”
The others in the group laughed and Ed took the opportunity to scan for anyone who was approaching.
“And this one?” Pol laughed and nodded to Cynnamon. “This one sat in the very last row, always. And she would never speak, never volunteer, I thought she was mute.”
“But you got tired of it quickly,” Cyn added. “You would just walk over and insist I answer! I hated it at first but after a while I would answer even when I wasn't sure, I learned to just say what I knew. Thanks to you.”
“Not just me,” Pol protested, “I had never thought to simply demand an answer. I was afraid to embarrass you. Thank the Storms for your sister...”
Cyn turned and looked at him blankly. “What do you mean?”
“It wasn't my idea to force words from you. I was busy enough with thirty children, but that older girl started to show up after the lesson began. She would listen in back and sometimes when I asked a question she would step toward you and point. I figured she was your sister, she looked just like you. So she would point and I would call on you, insisting when necessary. And it worked, after a while I couldn't shut you...”
Pol stopped speaking, his smile fading. Ed stepped to the side to see what had happened. They were looking at Cynnamon's face. He ran up closer to see another tear slide down her face. And then another, and they kept coming.
Imais
“I can take her there,” Lynda explained to Edwyrd privately, “and there are plenty of village leaders who would be happy to do us the favor. But this village of hers, this Imais, it's not one of the inner ring, it's as remote as you can get, almost on the lip of the valley. I can't even say I've met anyone from there in years. The weather is much worse and even we...well we just can't get her there and back before her transport leaves tomorrow.”
Ed stared blankly, in thought. He looked over, across the grass, where Cyn had recovered and was speaking to a young girl and the girl's mother. Her face was vacant.
“The cruiser we brought can do make that trip we would have only a couple hours maximum and then we'd have to return.”
“But, we wouldn't need much time,” Lynda continued hopefully, returning to a whisper. “Listen, I've only just met her, but hers is not an uncommon story. She was sent to a local orphanage after her mother died, spent her early childhood there, entered Sponsorship and has been away from the valley of her birth ever since. And now, after all that time, she has returned and fully realizes she never saw her mother's grave, never had the closure which comes with saying good bye even without any expectation of a reply. But I think that closure is important for her and if you can do this, I promise, I will go to every village leader and tell them what you did. I'll call in every favor...”
Ed shook his head.
“No, I'm not asking Transom and we aren't telling anyone about it. We are just going to do it and move on. Actually I like the idea that no one will know where she is in her final 24 hours...there are some who feel she is a traitor.”
“Oh,” Lynda replied. “Well, I won't forget it. But, I have to tell you, she'll resist the idea, we can't give her a choice...”
Ed looked confused.
“I thought...I thought you said that she wants to go...that she needs to do this?”
“She does but that doesn't mean she will allow us to take her, more correctly that she can allow you to take her.
Most assets that I work with have such a stigma concerning anything that could be construed as a special request, one which might come at a cost; they are so adverse to extending their commitment. It just becomes part of their psyche. Did you know that the average human asset will spend an extra seven years due to commission penalties and swaps?”
Ed nodded as the woman hurried off to bring Cyn back to the hugger. Her words made sense; in all his years Ed had seen a
nd heard every type of excuse and special request from employees, but never from an asset. It was as if they preferred to be punished later rather than ask for an exception in advance. It was silly, he should know these things. What if..what if one day he really were to become Patron? For all of his father's faults, he seemed to know all these mundane things that Ed could never care about.
They were only twenty minutes into their new course that he saw Cyn stand and make her way quickly through the passenger compartment toward the cockpit.
“W...where are we going? We are moving away from the Domes?” she asked as if she had seen a ghost.
“Just a quick detour, we'll be back in time to meet the delegation...” Ed drawled as he pretended to busy himself with a console.
“Deputy, I apologize for...what happened back there. I was just upset. Please take me back, there is so much to do before tomorrow.”
He looked over at her.
“No one is going to make you do anything you don't want to do but I have to make this detour and so I need you to sit calmly while I do it. Then, we are going straight back to New Berlyn and you'll have time to ready yourself for the delegation. Besides...” And he looked at her, all sincerity. “Besides, this just makes sense. It's better if no one knows where you are this last night before you return. Right?” But he wasn't asking a question.
Then he looked away and returned to his work. It was almost two minutes before, finally, he heard her walk away.
Ed Harilla mostly believed what he had been told but his suspicious mind insisted he consider the possibility of ulterior motives. He brainstormed and the best he could do was the idea that the two were in collusion, that this was all an elaborate scheme to get him to bring the to the edge of the valley...where she would escape. It was a creative idea but not very likely. Still, he decided that the Transom asset would not leave the hugger until he had spoken to the village leadership and had found the cemetery.
Ed instructed his men: “The Techview asset will stay here and I will go down and speak with the village elders or whoever I can find. You two stay here and she is not to leave your sight while I am gone.”
There were some protests but Ed held them off. “I don't really anticipate it, but if anything goes wrong, you are to take her back, straight-away, to New Berlyn. It would be a huge political incident if she is not present when the Techview delegation arrives, so that is your priority. If need be, drop her off and then come back to get me.”
As Ed walked to the exit portal, fully equipted in menacing, black, stibnite armor, he was growing irritated at the thought that something else was happening and now sure that Cyn would insist that she go into the village herself. But as he walked by her, she remained seated and said nothing. Well, the stibnite armor tended to cow people, that was one of its purposes.
Instead, at the door he found the other one waiting, fully attired in a snug weather suit.
“You won't need all that...” Lynda began. “and it might be better if I go down alone.”
“Perhaps,” Ed admitted. “But that's not happening and this is what I am wearing. Your suit is fitted correctly,” he observed slowly as he checked her over.
“I've only been doing it since I was four years old. Fine, but I'll do the talking, okay?”
“I would actually appreciate that,” Ed said as he opened the door and waved her out.
“Thank you,” Cyn's voice called from far behind. Lynda smiled back and Ed just continued, not sure whether she was speaking to one or both of them.
The climbed their way through a tangled forest, fighting against the steepening incline that led toward rim of the valley. Ed's armor was heavy but he also had the advantage of power-assist from his suit. The villager didn't seem to have much trouble.
“There are only a few villages so remote,” Lynda spoke to him through a communication link between suits. “and their populations have dwindled over the years.”
“Why would they ever locate a village so close to the boundary? It's a death sentence to cross over...” the voice from Ed's armor hissed inside her helmet.
“Why? Why does your voice some like some type of snake creature? What's the point of that?”
She sounded irritated and he grinned.
“It's a psychological thing. So why locate a village near the rim?”
“Well, before the tunnel system was completed, more work was needed up here. And that was before all of your sophisticated border valley surveillance. It wasn't forbidden back then.”
Edwyrd asked the question that nagged him.
“I am surprised she didn't want to come with us....”
“I was as well,” Lynda replied as she started to search for an entrance to the underground village of Imais. “ I thought she would be interested to meet someone that she might remember or who remembered her. But Cynnamon corrected me quite firmly on that score. She has zero interest in talking to any living resident of this village. She only wants to visit the cemetery but doesn't recall where it is. I think I could find it but it's just a courtesy that we let these people know we are here and what we are doing. Especially given your wardrobe.”
Ed nodded and tried to help look for an entrance, not that he had any idea what it would look like...a hole in the ground?”
“You are looking in the wrong direction. The entry would never face up-slope. Water would rush in right?”
He supposed. But it wasn't too much longer before she found a portal.
“The door seems to be stuck.”
He watched as she tried to work a mechanism buried in the earth. The portal opened but only a crack. Perhaps it was enough.
“Let me try,” he insisted.
Ed moved forward and was able to insert his gauntlet into the opening. Then he powered it up and let the motors do the rest. The door popped open, he caught a whiff of damp air and heard the echo of rustling water.
“This isn't good,” murmured Lynda.
“I'll tell her,” Lynda said darkly as they boarded the hugger, “I don't think she would have expected this.” But Cyn, hearing them, looked up.
“Expected what?”
Lynda slid onto the bench next to her friend.
“Miss Cynnamon, there is no one there. The town is abandoned, the long house is flooded. I'm sorry. It's been a while since anyone has heard from this remote town...I just assumed...but we found the cemetery.”
Cyn nodded and stood.
“Can we go now?”
The village cemetery was not what Ed had expected. Rather then occupying a circular or rectangular plot of land, it seemed to be long and narrow, along the side of the valley. There was no fence or artificial line marking the field. Rather, it bounded by fallen trees, their large trunks now embedded into the ground, serving as wind barriers. Within, scattered among the branches and leaves, were occasional metal spires, sticking out of the ground like strange antennae.
Ed stopped to examine one. There was just a name and two dates inscribed vertically in the metal. Apparently that was enough. He walked a short ways to a tangle of debris and fallen trees. Immediately the force and howl of the wind died down and Ed could discern various pieces of debris among the dead brush, twigs and vines. As he walked, he spied what looked like a gold ribbon, tangled with a branch. He reached out and touched it, it was cloth.
He had just managed to free it when he heard a wail even over the wind.
He spied the two women and hurried toward them. They had found a marker which seemed larger than the rest and Cynnamon was in front of it. He heard her cry again. Lynda, on the other hand, stood still, many yards back, watching. He caught up to her.
“What is going on?”
“She found the place where her mother's grave should be...but there's only a hole instead of a marker...” Lynda said solemnly. As they watched, Cynnamon threw herself at the large spire, colliding with it but it did not bend or move. She repeated the effort and then she struck it, to no avail.
Suddenly, he felt Lynda's
hand grasp his arm.
“We won't stop her...not yet,” Lynda urged him and he nodded not knowing what else to do.
It was surreal to watch the woman lecture, strike and finally yell at the inanimate piece of metal. It was only when they saw Cynnamon, unable to remove the object, slam her own head down into the ground that they moved quickly to restrain her.
Lynda
They returned to the hugger which almost immediately rose easily into the air and started back for Transom Dome. Lynda herded Cynnamon away into a storage berth so she could have privacy.
“I'm so sorry, Miss Cynnamon,” she spoke softly to the weeping figure. “She wasn't there?”
“No, because he did it! The bastard!! He took her! And then he had his own marker erected instead because it was always about him. He knew that one day I would return for her and find only him!! I wish to Maltiempo that I could kill him, but he's already...already dead damn it!” and she wailed again. Lynda held her.
“I'm sorry, but she'll always be with you, she might still be there, you still came all this way to see her, that's the important thing, right?”
“She wasn't there!” Cyn wailed again. “It doesn't matter. It's so useless! The more time goes by the more I owe, my whole life, it's just a waste, I was wrong, so wrong...but I was always so sure, so how can I be certain of anything now?”
“What do you mean you owe? Your debt?” Lynda knew it was the most common problem among human assets, in some ways it was worse than slavery. A slave had the peace of mind of knowing that there life would always be that way, but for an asset there was this carrot that the corpers hung in front of them and constantly pulled away. Sometimes it took half a lifetime to realize it and it could be devastating when they did.
“I just don't want to do it any more, I can't. I just want to be with her. Will you help me? You understand.”
Lynda stared at her sobbing friend.
