They’d been traveling back for almost ten minutes when the first wolf howled.
A tumble of words swung toward Lou’s tongue, but they competed and she couldn’t decide which one to say. Magic. Haunting. Beautiful. Frightening. Lovely. Natural.
Still, she startled when a howl came from right behind them. It thrilled up her spine, making her stop in place as if she had turned to a statue.
Rumpus, following them?
Howl on howl created a song that blanketed the mountainside, echoing for fifteen or twenty minutes before the wild call faded, as one voice after another dropped off and away.
When she could move again, Lou hurried them along, worried about the cold, the loss of light, and about Mouse. She’d promised Astrid they’d be back tonight, and if they didn’t hurry they wouldn’t be. She topped the rise above the old ruin and looked down, hoping Mouse had remembered the howl of wolves and known not to panic.
The corral was empty.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Lou wanted to rush down the hill toward the empty corral, to call out for Mouse. Instead, she shrugged her light pack off, took the stunner from it, and dropped the pack behind a rock. She whispered to Alondra, “Wait here. Stay safe. If anything happens to me, get home.” Her fingers and nose already felt the freezing cold, and it was bound to get worse as dark fell. “Don’t stop though. Keep moving.”
Alondra nodded, and the voice she spoke to Lou with sounded just like the one she used with the wolf. “Don’t worry. I’m used to being out here. I can go with you. I’ll stay with you.”
In spite of her worry, Lou almost burst out laughing at her tone. “I need you to be safe. Your family needs you.”
“I can help you.”
“Stay.”
There wasn’t any way down to the corral that didn’t feel exposed, but Lou flitted as quietly as she could from rock to rock, tree to tree, scuttling quickly down the open places in the switchbacked trail.
The ping of a bullet against rock startled her. Someone had shot at her!
She stopped, flattened herself against a rock, took a breath, checked her weapon.
Stupid. She knew better than to relax.
At least whoever had shot at her had missed by a long way. The bullet hadn’t been close.
She found the next cover and stopped again, breathing hard. Someone wanted her attention, had taken her horse. And now she knew they were still nearby.
Why?
She peered carefully around the rock she had settled behind.
Nothing.
A voice. Male. “Come down. Now.”
“Who are you?” she called.
“Stop it, Daddy!” Alondra’s voice. “Don’t scare her.”
Mathew? Lou stood up and looked around. She couldn’t see him. She called out, “What are you doing here? Where’s my horse?”
“I have her.”
“Why?”
“I needed to see what you would do if I took her.”
“What do you mean?” If he was trying to find out whether or not she’d stun him, he might not like the answer, not now that he’d filled her with adrenaline by pulling a stupid stunt.
“I wanted to see if you would keep my daughter safe.”
That made her angrier. She didn’t trust herself to answer.
Alondra scrambled down next to Lou, dropping her pack. “It’s going to be all right. He’s just mad.”
Just mad? He’d shot at her!
“You should put your gun away,” Alondra whispered.
Lou hesitated. Chances were Alondra knew more about her father than Lou did. She compromised by sliding the weapon into her coat pocket and shouldering her pack again.
Alondra kept her control of the small scene. “We’re coming, Daddy. Did you ride up here?”
“Diego has the horses.”
There were two of them? Horses? Had they stolen the horses? How had they come up here? But Lou held her tongue as they climbed the rest of the way down to stand on the flat ground beside the metal-post corral. Mathew leaned on the rails, looking like a far angrier version of Daryl. He looked down at them, his expression unreadable except for the look in his eyes, which was cold and mean. He held an old-fashioned long-rifle in his hands.
Alondra walked right up to him and gave him a hug, which he returned with one arm while barely softening. Then the girl stepped back near Lou.
“Why are you here?” Lou demanded. He might not work for her, but much of his family did, and she wasn’t willing to be pushed around.
“Shuska sent me to find you.”
A brief knife of cold made her shiver. “Why? We were on our way anyway.”
“The farm is under attack. They needed to stay to wield the robots.”
Wield the ecobots? Did he know anything about them at all?
“Me and Diego took two horses and came up here. When we saw that you’d left your horse, we decided to teach you a lesson.”
Bastard! “Attack from who? Tell me.”
The look he gave her was condescending at best, and when he told her, “The town didn’t like your ecobots tearing things up. They came to tell you,” he sounded almost proud of the attackers.
Which side was he on? She wanted to let the anger sparking through her nerves out and confront him for the horse, for the tone in his voice, for his utter arrogance. But that didn’t matter. The farm did. “Where are the horses?”
He led them to a sheltered spot behind a stand of trees. She gritted her teeth and bit back foul words over and over as she checked Mouse’s girth, tightening it a little, letting the thousand thoughts in her head settle. Deciding which questions mattered.
“Is anyone hurt?” she asked finally.
“No,” Diego said with amused affection. “Except Angel. He got stupid and tried to get out of bed, and then he tripped.”
She mounted and leaned down to offer Alondra a hand.
“She goes with me,” Mathew said. “I’m keeping her safe. You go with Diego.” He pulled her up behind him so roughly that Alondra winced before she settled onto Pal’s broad back.
Even though she didn’t like it, there was nothing to argue about. Alondra wasn’t hers. And it wouldn’t hurt to see one horse and Alondra safe, although she had the brief uncharitable thought that it was also keeping Mathew safe and out of choosing a side.
Lou tugged her pack around and pulled out the binoculars. She held them out across the gulf of air between horses, and Alondra’s skinny hand reached for them, snagging the strap. Her smile was nearly as wide as her face as she slung them over her back, but it faded as she slid her arms around her father’s waist.
‡ ‡ ‡
Lou and Mouse were ahead of Diego by the time she reached the first overlook that showed the farm. Smoke rose from the old barn they’d stayed in the first night on the farm. An ecobot circled it, although from here she couldn’t tell what it was doing.
A few people seemed to be helping it. It wasn’t quite dark enough to see flames, but it would be soon.
A crowd of about thirty people surrounded the house. For just a moment, she wished she still had her binoculars.
The cold wind that almost bruised her cheeks also kept her from hearing anything from up here. Diego said, “Some people didn’t like the ecobots tearing up the old farms.”
She startled at his tone. Did he agree with the people attacking his own farm? Mathew wasn’t family, but the -o boys were Valeria’s. Not the moment to ask. “They were all dead anyway,” Lou said. “We didn’t destroy anything worth saving.”
“Maybe not. But you made a lot of people angry.”
“How?” She’d kept her word to Agnes and funneled the ecobots’ demands to work into places that wouldn’t hurt the town, and even asked them to leave any completely reusable building materials in a stack that people could choose from. She’d skirted all the edges she could if she wanted to keep their permit. Probably more.
Diego came up beside her and looked down. “Hatred.�
�
He just said the one word and nothing else, and she nodded.
It took twenty minutes to reach the back side of the property. The flames were visible now, snaking along the barn roof. It would have gone up fast. Wood and hay and leather. At least the horses were out. She dismounted and thrust Mouse’s reins toward Diego. “Take them both somewhere safe.”
“But—”
“I know you don’t work for me. But I’m needed in there, and I need my horses safe.”
He stared at her, not speaking, a look somewhere between defiance and disbelief in his eyes. “I can help.”
“Take the horses. That’s help.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He turned away, and she hoped she hadn’t made an enemy of him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
As Lou started to circle the outside of the farm, two rabbits and a deer raced across her path in a panic. Ash caught in her nose and stuck to her hair. Anger and fear both pulled at her as she neared the burning barn. She could not lose her headquarters now, their home! She could not!
She rushed toward the fire. The entire structure was engulfed now, the bigger timbers burning with extra brightness, falling one after another like a shattering skeleton.
Had they lost the goats?
As she circled, a huge figure loomed up, covered in ash and soot. An ecobot. She half-expected to see one of her crew on its broad metal back, but it had no a rider. It used its massive front claws to scrape the earth, moving fast, dirt flying up into the air. She blinked at it. It looked like it had gone crazy. Lou shook her head, realizing it was building a firebreak. Its drone swarm buzzed around it, some riding high enough to have a good view of the whole farm.
Hopefully Shuska could access a feed.
An ember separated from the flaming roof and twisted on the cold wind. Smaller sparks trailed behind it. One of the drones followed the bright ember, and behind that, the ecobot.
The ember landed on the ground.
The bot stomped on it, a quick, decisive move, and turned on tank-like treads to resume building the firebreak.
What magic words had Shuska whispered into its ear to get it to defend the farm as violently as it would defend a wetland full of endangered species?
She giggled, a nervous reaction. The barn was certainly extinct now. At least it wasn’t their new one.
What was she thinking? Someone had destroyed one of their barns! She turned toward the house.
“Pshtt.”
She recognized the hiss. “Daryl?”
“Good to see you, boss.”
He had come from nowhere. Light played on his face, brightening the whites of his eyes. He looked determined and calm. Her man for emergencies. The noise of the bot and the fire almost demanded she yell. “What are you doing out here?”
“Making sure no one is stupid enough to take on the ecobot.”
“Ahhh.”
“If you stay around the perimeter, I think you can work your way toward the house.”
“Very good.” He looked happy. As long as she’d known him, he’d come alive around danger. A surge of love for him swelled in her. “Stay safe!”
He lifted a finger to his forehead, hand and face both sweaty and stained with ash and smoke. “You too.”
She skirted the outside of the fire, close enough for its searing heat to draw sweat from her forehead.
She heard screaming over the roar of the flames. It came from the lawn, most of it directed at the house. She jogged toward the crowd.
Torches spread flickering light on faces, letting her see they were mostly men.
Not all.
She didn’t see Agnes.
The second ecobot was parked between the crowd and the house, completely still, its drones all resting in the small hangars on its roof. The great round red bowl of its head waved to and fro above the body, slowly, as if making sure that none of the farm’s antagonists got too close.
She walked quickly around the back of the crowd, trying to make out the words. Traitor. Destroyer. Damager. Unclean. Evil. A lot more she couldn’t hear. All of them angry, building on each other, then dying down, then building up again like a wave.
Thief!
Evil!
Unclean.
Once, Witch!
Witch? The word startled her.
Someone drowned that speaker immediately with more calls of Traitor! How could these people understand so little? What right did they have to burn things?
She looked for a leader, for someone running the crowd. There was no evident single person in charge, although two young men and a young woman circled the outside of the group, exhorting people to keep chanting and screaming.
She slipped around to the back of the ecobot. Shuska leaned against the machine, holding her tablet, one big hand flicking over its screen and changing the color of reflected light on her face over and over. Red, green, red, blue, red, maroon. Lou came up beside her. “What’s so fascinating?”
Shuska’s big arm rolled over Lou and pulled her in tight. “I’m trying to talk this dumb robot into shooing the rabble away.”
“Is everyone okay?”
“We’re down one barn. Two kids ran off with the goats, as if they’ll be able to hide them. But at least that means they didn’t burn. The other animals are probably safe. The horses are gone.”
Lou breathed out a sigh of relief. “Diego has two of the horses. Mathew took Pal and Alondra. Who has Buster?”
“Ignacio. I told you he was in love with the horses. He has both of the ones that were left.”
“Are there any injuries? To people?”
“Safe. So far.” Shuska smiled. “Angel twisted his ankle.”
“I heard.” Lou pointed toward the crowd on the far side of the bot. “When did this start?”
Shuska spoke quietly, still staring at her screen. “They’ve been here three hours. Valeria needs to give them a talking to, but she said she’s waiting for Henrietta. Whoever the hell Henrietta is.”
“Rumor has it she runs the town.”
“Apparently Valeria thinks she’s going to save us. Do you know her?”
“No.”
“Do you know what she looks like?”
“No.”
Shuska frowned, hesitated a second as the device took her attention. “Glad you’re here.”
“You’re okay?”
Shuska nodded, obviously more intent on her tablet than on Lou. “I couldn’t call you. Our data seems to have been cut off. I have an open voice line to Matchiko.”
“How?”
Shuska held up a two-way radio. “Felipe gave them to us. There are six people with radios. Me, Matchiko, Daryl, Felipe, Valeria, and Angel.”
“Angel?”
“It makes him feel useful to monitor communications. Matchiko and Felipe are in the kitchen running ops. Go!”
Lou sprinted around the house to the back door. Her way was clear. There were enough townspeople to surround the house, but they hadn’t done that. They had gathered in a bunch and treated the ecobot like a fence when they could have swarmed around it.
Someone opened the door for her, and she ducked in.
Valeria, Felipe, Matchiko, and Astrid stood over the kitchen table, scratching notes. Matchiko waved. Astrid glanced up and asked, “Where’s Alondra?”
“With Mathew.”
Astrid’s lips thinned. “Dammit.”
Lou glanced at the window. “She wouldn’t be safe here.”
“No one is safe with him. Pray for her.”
Had she made a mistake? Alondra had gone with him willingly enough. “He shot at me, but won’t he protect his own daughter?”
“He shot at you?” Astrid stared at Lou, and then the look on her face softened. “He’s a bastard.”
Lou frowned. “Where are the others?”
“Sofia went to town. Tembi took the youngest kids out to the back field, away from all of this. Maybe even into the hills. Everyone else is in the kitchen. Diego went to find you.�
�
Lou answered the question in Astrid’s voice. “He has the horses with him. To keep them safe.”
Valeria looked up, her eyes narrowed. “Was he with Mathew?”
“Yes.”
“But they’re not together now?”
Lou hesitated. “I don’t think so. Diego is nearby and Mathew rode away from near where we saw the wolves.”
Astrid frowned. “Did it look like Mathew was trying to keep Alondra safe?”
Lou hesitated. “I think he would have ridden away anyway.”
Valeria visibly bit back words and went back to whatever she was writing down.
The room felt full of tension and anger, but less activity and action than Lou had expected. She jerked her head toward the front door. “Are they going to attack the house?”
“Maybe,” Valeria said. “Not right away.”
“Do you know why they’re here?” Lou asked.
Felipe looked up and across the table. “To destroy the ecobots.”
“They can’t do that.”
Matchiko put a hand on her shoulder. “They don’t understand.”
Lou glanced at Valeria. Her hair was uncharacteristically messy, and she wore no makeup. She looked puzzled at Matchiko’s comments, so Lou spoke loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. “Ecobots can protect themselves. And they will. You don’t need to worry about them.”
“Can they defend us?” Felipe asked.
Lou glanced at Matchiko, sure it wasn’t the first time the question had been asked. “I explained,” Matchiko said.
Lou sighed. “Probably not. We’re damned lucky the one is defending the rest of the property from the fire. I have no idea how Shuska made that much progress.”
Matchiko smiled. “She convinced them they need us, and that we need this headquarters.”
“Good.”
Felipe’s face was drawn with worry. “If they need us, why won’t they defend us?”
Lou answered him. “They’re programmed to do a job. That job isn’t defending humans, except when we can convince them it is. Most importantly, they can’t harm humans. Bad PR. That’s what the algorithm that runs them says. Shuska is outside arguing with the algorithm.”
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