by Corey Ostman
“Wheeeeeee!” said Jaya.
“You are wasting power,” Avo said. He’d strapped on his legz and was standing, his hands on his hips.
Jaya grinned. “Let’s go!”
She headed down the hill, taking big, long strides. She reached the road quickly.
“We can make Friend Park before nightfall,” she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, appreciating the fast response of the hydraulics. A memory flashed of her Uncle Tuuk, his big toothy grin and his crinkly eyes. He’d brought her to Friend Park every autumn, just before snow began to dust the Laramies. Jaya had camped there herself on wanderings between Cheyenne and Port Casper. And this would be the third time she’d taken Avo.
She pumped the legz, first ten kilometers per hour, then twenty. She didn’t care much about visibility: after all, they were up in the mountains, well away from the blurp nets of Port Casper. If someone is following us, they’ll have to catch us first! She pushed the legz harder: forty, fifty kph. The rhythmic vfwee thump kssh helped her focus her shifting thoughts, pounding the ground on feet with two names.
They veered off the shoulder and sprinted over a hill, maintaining a southeast course. The rangefinders on the legz were good, allowing them to maintain speed while weaving between the trees, jumping over underbrush and scaling the occasional granite escarpment. They had to crouch to avoid a few branches, though most of the mountain was maneuverable pine forest. The spice of the pines was tangy, the fragrance welcoming her to head deeper, deeper into the forest.
They crested ridge after ridge, up and up, as if to tap the broad Earth sky. It was full blue today, only a few wisps of clouds to the east, somewhere over Guernsey or Hartville. If their route had taken them further east, over the higher peaks, they could have seen the Glendo Reservoir and the geometric farms of Wheatland Prefecture. Jaya had wanted to show Avo these sights. Maybe—maybe if—
“Look!” Avo said.
He pointed down, toward Friend Park. A tendril of smoke rose above the trees, a perfect line in the still mountain air.
“Folks are camping at the park,” Jaya said. “Maybe they’ll have marshmallows!”
“Or maybe they have another remote controlled mountain lion,” Avo said, giving Jaya a searching look.
“Mountain lions don’t use campfires,” noted Jaya.
“We are carrying contraband.”
“Oh.” Jaya touched her shoulder strap. She’d forgotten about Grace’s robotic dog. “Well, don’t worry. It’s camping season. I’m surprised we don’t see more fires.”
“We should avoid them,” said Avo.
“We’re less likely to be noticed as one camper among many, Avo. Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They had to slow as they came down the mountainside, as the forest was dense with brush. The sky faded into dark cerulean as the sun began its arc down the western slope of the mountains.
Coming to a stop near a small pond, Jaya removed her legz, hanging them from her harness. She didn’t want to startle any campers with a high-speed mechflesh entrance.
Avo skidded to a halt next to her—dust, pine needles, and gravel spraying forward. He followed her example, removing his legz and strapping them to his backpack.
“Are we going for stealth?” he asked.
Jaya nodded. “Let’s see who’s around, then set up camp.”
Friend Park was a flat, level clearing between rolling hills. The grass was short and mostly dry, with patches of green where there was more shade, tawny soil and gray gravel peeking through everywhere. The column of smoke was gone, and she saw no others.
“I was sure the smoke came from here,” she said.
“It did,” said Avo. “Over there, actually.” He pointed, then dashed out to the center of the clearing.
So much for stealth. Jaya jogged up to Avo. He stood triumphantly by a recently extinguished campfire. Somebody had shoveled soil upon it, but as she stretched out her hand over the mound, she felt heat. There was a pile of gathered but unused pine branches nearby: was it a goodwill offering for the next camper, or was the camper planning to return?
“Is your infrared picking up anything in the vicinity?” asked Jaya.
“Nothing but the old campfire. Oh, and a squirrel over there,” he pointed northeast at something that she couldn’t see, “but no people.”
“That was fast of the camper.”
Avo motioned to the ground just to her left. “One person was sitting there. I can still see the residual heat.”
“One butt print?” Jaya asked. “A lone nomad seems most likely, though I don’t see evidence of much gear.” Grace twisted in her consciousness. “And compstate security personnel always patrol in pairs.”
“Why would they leave a site just before dark?” asked Avo.
Jaya frowned. “A good question.”
She removed her harness, dropping it to the ground. Squatting on her heels, she gathered up a small clump of dried pine needles and placed it in the center of the dead campfire. Then she grabbed a pine branch from the wood pile and broke off small twigs, stacking them atop the dry needles.
“What are you doing? You want us to stay here?”
Jaya smiled and ignored the question. Avo had already established there was nobody nearby. And here was a perfectly good campfire site with plenty of fuel.
She wanted to stay at Friend Park. Just one more time.
“Grace?”
“Jaya,” she said, irritably.
She tugged a survival pouch from her harness and tore open its thin metarm membrane. Inside, with the water purification tablets, snake venom kit, and first aid supplies, was a small box of safety matches. She crouched before the mound of kindling and struck a match. It flared and she placed it at the base of the pine needles. Cupping her hands around the mound, she blew in slow puffs as the needles caught fire and the flames spread.
“Hand me some more branches,” she said, motioning to the pile of wood. “But keep an eye out.”
“I will,” he said, and handed her two large branches. He wriggled out of his backpack and set it next to hers.
She broke the branches into quarters and fed the fire one clump after another. The flames took hold, and the dry wood burned brightly, suffusing the air with sweet pine. With what already burned plus the unused pile, they’d have plenty of wood for the night.
She returned to her harness and dug deep under the spare clothing. She felt the edge of heavier fabric and pulled out a blanket without disturbing the rest of the pouch.
I said I was Jaya, but am I Grace unpacking efficiently?
She snapped the blanket open in the air and spread it on the ground. Grace put her harness in one corner, her pair of legz in another, Avonaco’s backpack in a third corner, and his legz in the fourth. Then she stretched, laid down across the blanket and stared up at the clear sky. Grace tried to think more of Tim, of Raj and Anna, of Dad and Cloister 11. But Jaya’s thoughts were strong, her love for Avonaco was strong. Soon enough, Grace was drifting away. Enough of Grace. Stars were beginning to wink and everything really was perfect.
Avo plopped alongside. “You looked like you were going to sleep.”
She shifted from the stars to his eyes and smiled. “Grace wanted to. Did. But I’m enjoying this too much. With the grafty I don’t think I need to sleep. Just like you.”
His expression changed, his gaze growing distant.
“What?” she asked.
“Well,” he began, “it is just that, since you have been gone, I have learned to sleep. To dream, in fact.”
“How?” she asked.
“I empty my thoughts one by one, and when I am left with nothing, my mind fills up the void,” he said.
“That’s wonderful!” Jaya laughed, and Grace remembered the fantastic dreams Tim had, too. Sometimes they were silly, often they were profound. But Avonaco looked worried.
“So what’s wrong?”
He looked away from her. “When I first started t
o dream, I dreamed about you, Jaya. But then I started to dream about other things, other people, and it felt like maybe I was growing away.” He turned back to her, eyes widened in earnestness. “I promise, I have tried everything to bring you back.”
Her heart melted. She drew him into a hug, his head resting in the crook of her arm. He held her tightly. If he cried, he made no sound. They were quiet for a while, gazing up at the stars.
“You remember the last time we used the legz?” she said.
“Yes.”
“We ran over the mountains on a clear day. Like this one.”
“You were getting paid. Wanted to celebrate,” said Avo. “The place in Chugwater was closed, so we pushed on to Slater.”
“I didn’t expect those Slater folks to resent a child they didn’t want in the first place.”
“Jaya…”
“When we went into Jocko’s, it got real quiet. But the legz were grumbling, they needed more juice, so I dropped you into a corner booth while I connected them up for recharge. I picked that booth on purpose so I could people-watch. And I guess so there wouldn’t be any surprises—”
“Jaya?” Avonaco asked. “Can we talk about something else?”
Instead of the time she was shot. She knew it was a bad idea, but she kept circling back to it. As if she could find the flaw, the way she could have escaped alive.
“Your dreams,” she whispered. “They’re normal.”
“They are?”
“I’ll take first watch,” she said. “You get some sleep and dream for the two of us.”
“Are you sure? Your body needs rest. Mine does not.”
“You can take second watch. I’ll sleep then.” She nuzzled his hair. “And tell me about your dreams when you relieve me.”
Avo nestled against her and closed his eyes. Soon enough his body went still. She kissed him on the forehead. Jaya loved watching him, especially in this quiet, sacred place. For the moment she would concentrate on remaining Jaya, on offering him comfort.
If Tim were here, he would do the same, Grace thought.
Chapter 15
Tap-tap-tap. Pause. Tap-tap. Pause. Tap.
Raj opened his eyes. The room was a dull orange, predawn spilling in through the open window. He wasn’t certain if he’d dreamed the sound or if it was just the screen rattling in the breeze. Anna breathed slowly next to him, one arm draped across his chest. He turned toward the window, slowly so as to not wake her. His upgraded eyes told him the screen wasn’t rattling. Just a waking dream.
He settled back down, but he couldn’t sleep. The prior day had been spent entirely in the confines of his lab, worrying. Grace was out there, with who knew how many aposti. The snoop Anna had been running on the compstate network had reported when Jaya Behan and her son had left the city, but none of the cloister markers had picked them up. Where were they now?
Tap-tap-tap. Pause. Tap-tap. Pause. Tap.
He startled upright. Not a dream. Someone was tapping on the door. He slid out from Anna’s arm and off the bed, tugging his jeans from the bedpost.
He held his ear to the door. No sound.
“Hello?” he whispered.
“Let me in.” Dan’s voice was nearly inaudible.
Raj turned the latch, flinching at its loud clack. He opened the door and Dan stepped inside, almost knocking Raj over in his attempt to shut the door as quickly as possible.
Dan held a finger to his lips and pointed to the floor.
“What’s it…?” Anna said, rubbing her eyes. “Dan?”
“We have visitors,” he said. “Downstairs.”
Anna nodded, pulling her jumper from the chair beside the bed and dressing beneath the sheets.
“I don’t hear anything,” Raj whispered.
Dan held up a hand. He bit his bottom lip as he stared at the floor. “Neither do I. Not now,” he said, breathing again. “But I know every creak this old house makes, and I heard them walk across the floor.”
“Kitchen?” Raj asked. “Predawn snack?” He thought of Grace and her limitless appetite. If only it were Grace.
Dan shook his head.
“I heard the basement door.”
Raj felt Anna’s stare. Their lab was hidden in the old root cellar. The wooden door and the stairs leading down were unprotected, but the door to the lab was secure metarm, smuggled in months after they first arrived.
“Grace might have—” began Anna.
Dan shook his head. “No. I’d recognize her tread.”
“Then who?” Raj asked.
Dan rubbed his face. “None of the hands would enter the house unless the front door was open. They know better.” He motioned to the sawed-off shotgun strapped to his right leg, then his gaze went from Raj to Anna. “Do you have something to defend yourselves with?”
Raj looked down at his empty hands.
Anna climbed out of bed and reached underneath. She pulled out a small chest that Raj remembered from the cargo she’d brought to Earth. He leaned closer to get a better look as she raised the lid and the light glistened on twin golden cylinders.
“I assembled two LEMP exciters after we got here,” she said. “Like the ones I used on Mars.”
“Is that—”
“Metarm and cattle prod power packs. Yup.”
Dan grinned. “Nice work.”
She handed Raj one of the weapons. He took it, running his fingers down the precision machined cylinder, the power pack at one end acting as a grip.
“Who should go first?” asked Anna.
Raj felt his heart pound in his throat. Surely she wasn’t serious. Dan had that lovely destructive shotgun. All they had were LEMPs that might only irritate an intruder.
“If it comes to violence, you and the doctor should fire first,” said Dan. “That is, if we want to be able to talk to our visitor after we’re through.”
Anna nodded crisply. “Right.”
Raj’s skin went cold.
“Ok, then,” Dan said. “Let’s head downstairs.” He opened the door and motioned for Raj and Anna to take point.
The windowless hallway beyond was dark. Raj swallowed and moved forward, weapon in hand.
At first, Raj heard nothing, but as he stopped listening to his own heart, he began to hear noises from below. One specific noise caught his attention. It was the ancient iron latch on the basement door, just off the living room. The door didn’t have a proper lock, but it seemed like somebody was fooling with it. Why? All they had to do was lift it and go down the stairs.
Or had they already gone downstairs?
Anna took Raj’s left hand and pulled him forward. Keeping to the center of the carpet in their bare feet, they crept down the hallway, making their way to the second floor landing.
Below, long shadows extended from the living room furniture across the pine floor and up the wall. Beyond that wall was the stairway down to the basement. The wooden door was open. It was silent.
Raj heard a click from Dan as he unholstered his gun. The barrels pulled away from the leather with a soft whoosh. No pumping sound. Dan only chambered a shell prior to firing.
“C’mon,” Anna whispered.
Raj reached out for the banister. Anna took a step forward and screamed, her body somersaulting forward as she tumbled away from Raj.
“Anna!”
He took one step forward and felt a sharp line dig into his right shin. A wire! His momentum lurched him forward. He grabbed hold of the banister and managed to stop.
“Dan! Look out, there’s a—”
“I see it!” Dan yelled, hopping over the wire that stretched across the stairs. It glimmered a few centimeters above the second tread.
Raj followed him, his sole focus on the slumped form of Anna at the base of the stairs. His fingers went to her neck and he started processing the situation the moment he felt her strong pulse. A rivulet of blood ran down her forehead, the result of a cut where her head had hit the side of the LEMP she’d held in her hand.
&nb
sp; He pried open one of her eyelids and, using his own upgraded lids, he focused a bright light into her eye. Anna’s pupil reacted normally. He repeated the same process with the other.
“Anna?” To his relief, she blinked.
“Hey,” she whispered, then flinched. “My neck hurts.”
Raj nodded. His arm had already transmitted preliminary ultrasound data. No broken bones, but she would be sore for a week or two.
“What happened?”
“Someone trapped the stairs,” Raj said.
“What about the intruder?”
Raj looked up.
“Dan?” he whispered.
No response. He picked up the nearest LEMP.
“Dan?” he tried again. Raj crept to the wooden basement door. It was open, though the light to the descending stairs hadn’t been turned on. His IR irises told him everything he needed, though: Dan Donner was at the bottom of the stairs inspecting the metarm door to the lab.
“Anna ok?” Dan asked.
“Yeah,” Raj said.
“Good. Whoever it was, they fled. Out the open window. Door’s still locked down here.” Dan turned around and began climbing back to the living room. “I think the wire was to give them warning—enough time to escape.”
“Where’re you going?” Raj asked as Dan passed by.
Anna was standing when Dan reached the staircase to the second floor. She’d leaned against the bannister, and was covering the room with her weapon. Raj joined her.
“You sure you’re ok?” Dan asked.
“Fine, sir,” said Anna.
“Good,” Dan grunted and began climbing the stairs. When he reached the top, he knelt down and felt along the wire. Then he took out his pocketknife and cut the loops encircling the balusters.
“Shine those orb lights of yours here, will ya?” said Dan.
Raj walked up and blinked his eyes on. The wire looked thin and silver in the light, insubstantial in Dan’s weatherworn hands.
“What is it?” said Raj.
“Arbor knot,” Dan replied. “Aposti.”
Chapter 16
