by Corey Ostman
“We’re returning personal property to a family in Cloister 11,” she said. “As you noted, I’m registered for borderland crossings and the recipient requested absolute privacy.”
Bellows stared at Jaya for what seemed far too long. Then, he leaned back in his seat and let out a big, deep laugh.
“Cloisterfolk wanting tech? Then requesting privacy. Yeah, no surprise there.” His smile disappeared as he shrugged. “But based on the scour, I still gotta check that bag.”
With the latest pronouncement, Avonaco almost felt like his simulated heart had stopped. If the bag were opened, the first thing that would happen is that Grace Donner’s ptenda would connect to the compstate network. Her location would be noted immediately. He looked at Jaya. Would she understand this?
“If you’re from Cloister 11,” Jaya said, her voice relaxed, “I know you’d like to afford fellow cloisterfolk their due privacy.”
Bellows shook his head. “No, ma’am. Not when I’ve got a huge pockmark on the side of a mountain where a park used to be. Do I have to formally arrest both of you first before making sure no incendiary devices are in the bag?”
“Fine.” Jaya unsnapped the duffel from her harness and pushed it to Bellows.
“Jaya!” Avonaco subvocalized. But it was too late.
The protector already had his hands on the knotted end of the duffel. He pulled out a few shirts and two bandanas, leaving them rolled up and placing them on the table. Then he pulled out the silvery Faraday bag.
“Now here’s life’s little mystery,” he said, setting the bag on the table. He unfolded the top of the bag and looked inside. Then he pulled out piece after piece of PodPooch. Before long, the torso, four limbs and a canine skull rested on the table.
“Those are scrap, sir,” Avonaco said. “But we sell pieces along the way to buy our food. Please don’t confiscate them.”
Bellows nodded. “We’re a prefecture, so I got some leeway in the matter. We really don’t care what synth stuff folks move around as long as it doesn’t start poking people, or—”
He paused, his hand deep in the bag. His eyes narrowed as he pulled out Grace’s ptenda, then the leather holster with her phasewave inside.
“Prefecture or not,” he said, his voice getting deeper, like distant thunder, “only protectors or compstate security can have phasewaves. You got a transport permit for this?”
“No,” Jaya said, “but the recipient does. He can vouch for…”
Bellows didn’t seem to be listening. He’d removed the weapon from its holster and was inspecting it minutely, turning it over in his hands. He looked under the barrel and, when he stroked the area just below the muzzle, his eyes grew wide.
“Where did you get this?” he asked. His jaw flexed.
“I’m returning it to a family—”
“Cut the bullshit,” Bellows rose, smacking the gun on the table. “I recognize who modified this gun from the smithy mark. I know who this belongs to, and she ain’t in cloister!”
Chapter 18
Bellows tapped his ptenda and yelled into it. “Hey! Whosit! Is the pilot back?”
“Yeah.” Maxo’s voice.
“Good!” Bellows boomed. “Have her report to me.” He sat down. “While we’re waiting, you can do some talking.”
He snapped his fingers and pointed to Jaya.
Jaya straightened her shirt and leaned back, crossing her legs. Bellows wanted her to panic, to spill out some kind of illegal data she didn’t have. Jaya hoped her calmness would calm him—she didn’t know what else to do. Grace’s memory of Nick Bellows was of a sanguine man, given more to laughter than rage. Yet here he was, loud and belligerent, more like Jaya’s memories of compstate security run-ins than Grace’s academy days.
“If you know the protector in question, then you know her family would want those items,” said Jaya.
“I do know the protector,” Bellows said. “I also know she just landed in Port Casper, then disappeared from ITB lockup. A loafer tracked her to Bod Town. Or at least,” he said, glowering at Jaya, “something that registered as hers.”
“We do not have much time,” Avo’s voice thrummed in her dermal dot. “Grace’s ptenda will have connected to the compstate net by now.”
There was a soft knock on the door.
“Come in!” Bellows barked.
A thin woman wearing an orange aviator’s suit entered.
“Fire’s all out, chief. I dumped three bays, circled back, and dumped two more.” She looked at Jaya, then Avo, then back to Bellows. “What is it, Nick?” she added.
Jaya blinked through sudden giddy tears. This pilot—she was somebody close to Grace. Somehow, if she could just convince her—
“This is gonna hurt, Flora. But you need to see this, too.” Bellows stood and gestured to the weapon on the table. “It’s a sixty-sixty. Tell me who modified it.”
The pilot shrugged and walked around the table, coming to a stop by Bellows. “You can scan it with your ptenda,” she said.
“Just take a look.” He handed the phasewave to her.
After she turned the barrel over, she gasped.
“G-Grace?” She embraced the phasewave and turned to Bellows. “Where’d you get this?”
Bellows nodded at Jaya.
Jaya swallowed the smile that had erupted on first seeing Flora Tannenbaum. They didn’t see Grace in her. She had to be calm, not overly familiar.
“Grace Donner is safe,” said Jaya. “I’m transporting her possessions to Dan Donner, in cloister.”
Tannenbaum and Bellows looked at one another. The pilot shook her head and rubbed the weapon she clutched. Bellows wheeled to Jaya.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing,” he spoke the words slowly, his massive frame seeming to grow larger. “But cloisterfolk aren’t fine if they’re without their weapons. And without this?” He held up Grace’s ptenda. “Whatever clique you’re from is sending you across the borderlands and into Cloister 11. To what? Deliver proof that you’re holding her? Are you aposti?”
Jaya looked at the ptenda. It was blinking, already connected to the network. They didn’t have much time.
“Nobody’s holding Grace Donner,” Jaya said. “She paid me to deliver her ptenda and phasewave to her family.”
“You’ve seen Grace?” Tannenbaum asked.
“Blond hair, blue eyes, likes to say ‘mango,’” she said.
The protectors exchanged looks.
“Grace is fine. She’s just having a legal issue with ITB. She’s smithed a new weapon, one that isn’t ITB-issued.”
Bellows barely seemed to hear her. He was looking at his hands as he leaned on the table.
Tannenbaum inspected the phasewave. “ITB-issued,” she said.
“Hell,” said Bellows. “This is a Port Casper problem. We’ll need to turn them over to compstate anyway. Let them sort it out.”
“But Nick,” Tannenbaum said, “you heard about ITB. What if Grace is in some sort of trouble?”
“If Grace is in trouble, she’ll have the best chance with compstate and all the breaks.”
Jaya raised her eyebrows. She wondered at Bellows, how little he seemed to know about Grace’s doings on Mars and Ceres. Did he think his old friend was the same woman he’d known in cloister? Surely he knew about her AI-rights activities. The twofers on Mars had been heavily publicized. What did he think the compstate would do for her? She was actively opposing their new laws.
“Compstate breaks,” muttered Avo in her dermal. “Idiot.”
But still Grace’s friend.
“Please,” said Jaya. “It’s important I get Grace’s things to her family. I’m going home—” she continued, then tried to push Grace’s mind down. “I’m going to Grace’s home,” she amended.
Tannenbaum moved past Bellows and put her hands on Jaya’s shoulders. “Tell me what happened to Grace! Please!”
Jaya pushed against the pilot’s hands and stood up. Under normal circumstances, Jaya sensed that Grace woul
d have enjoyed the surprised look on the protector’s face. The pilot wasn’t used to a civilian being stronger than she. But using physical force in front of protectors was a bad idea. Jaya backed away and clasped her hands together, pleading.
But it was Bellows’ turn. Like a volcano he rose up, towering over Jaya.
“Sit back down,” he said. “Or I will have my man outside LEMP the entire room and pour you two into a transport for Port Casper.”
Jaya started to reach out to Bellows, then stopped. He might misinterpret her movement for aggression. “Please,” she said, voice husky. “You’ve got to believe me. I have to get Grace’s things home!”
Bellows laughed. “Her phasewave and ptenda will get there soon enough. And we can recycle that PodPooch junk here. Jaya Behan and Avonaco Reynolds, you are being formally held for transfer to Port Casper compstate.” He turned to Tannenbaum. “Watch them. I need to do the forms.”
He left the room and the door latched.
“If anything’s happened to Grace, I’ll…” Tannenbaum began, but trailed off, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
Avonaco looked at Jaya. “Let Grace out,” he said in her dermal. Pleading.
But she couldn’t. She felt where the memories and feelings had threaded through her own, but she couldn’t give Grace a voice. Even with Tim in danger of being destroyed here in Wheatland. She reached out, and found only parts of Grace.
Chapter 19
Bellows stayed behind them as they walked down a long hallway, passing sealed hatches on either side. Jaya heard the familiar whine of a LEMP charging, but didn’t turn around. She knew the protector was ready to drop them at the first suspicious action, so she concentrated on doing what she was told. Ten meters ahead, a lift waited with open doors.
“Inside. Face the far wall.”
They stepped into the lift and followed the protector’s instructions. Jaya’s nose brushed against cold steel. She risked a glance at Avo as he moved in beside her. His jaw was tight, and he remained silent. She didn’t like that look.
The lift jostled as Bellows stepped aboard and the door shut. When the lift dropped, her stomach flipped—it felt like free fall. Like the time she’d dove into a lake from an outcrop thirty meters above. Like the time she’d awakened in orbit around Mars. Their ride up had been smooth, almost gentle. But the raw drop down seemed appropriate to the protector’s mood, to her own confused thoughts, part Jaya, part Grace.
Weight pressed down on her legs as the lift came to an abrupt halt. The door behind her slid open.
“Get into the mover.” A voice came from behind, but it wasn’t Bellows. Jaya stepped back from the wall and turned. A woman dressed in a gray jumpsuit stood just outside the door.
Bellows exited the lift backwards, the phasewave in his hand looking like a toy in his huge grip. The tip of the barrel winked pale yellow, its LEMP fully charged.
“I’ll take over from here,” the woman said. “Thank you, Protector Bellows.”
Bellows nodded and stepped to the side. The woman was unarmed. Strange, Jaya thought. Compstate security personnel were never without lempsticks.
“Aposti,” Avo said in her dermal.
Jaya’s fists curled, but it was a futile action. She looked at Bellows. A million arguments flashed through her mind. She tried to find one thing to say, one single thing that would convince Bellows to let them go. Grace would be able to convince him, she thought. But Grace was incoherent in her mind. Or maybe she was just too afraid to look for Grace. If she found her, if Grace came out, what would happen to Jaya?
They walked to the mover. Its windows were opaque black: it looked like a coffin. When its door opened, Jaya saw that her duffel was on one of the seats. She could see the outline of Tim’s torso through the fabric. Lifeless, soon to be destroyed, but at least they’d be together a few more kilometers. Jaya bowed to get inside.
“Now!” Avo yelled.
Jaya turned in time to see Avo leap at the aposti. Avo had his hands over his head, ready to bring them down against her sternum at five times the force of a normal human—Jaya had seen it before. But Bellows discharged his phasewave as the boy jumped. Jaya ducked into the car as the blast rebounded off Avo’s reflective skeleton. Even protected, she saw stars and felt nauseated. Jaya knew the LEMP blast would have only minor consequences for Avo: his metarm endoskeleton protected all the vital bits from radiation. Bellows, on the other hand, looked dazed, staggering to his left, then right, holstering the phasewave and flailing his hands before his face.
“You d-d-d ugerst n naaaah!” Bellows boomed gibberish.
The aposti seemed unfazed by the blast, her suit shimmering as the electromagnetic energy arced and dissipated.
Avo landed on his feet. “The exit! Run to the left, up the ramp!” he said in her dot.
Jaya leapt out of the mover and rushed forward, aiming herself at the aposti as she did. The woman had swung her leg in a low arc to trip Avo as he ran. She was off-balance.
This is my chance!
Jaya went airborne, her left leg extended, feeling a confidence she could only attribute to Grace. She hit the aposti squarely in the chest, landing on the ground as the other woman thudded down behind her.
“Come on!” Avo’s voice in her skull.
“Oh God. Tim!” said Jaya.
The duffel was still in the mover.
“Jaya!”
Seconds were all she needed. She ran back to the vehicle, careening with the seats as she jumped inside. She grabbed the duffel strap and tugged backward, then felt a flash of pain. Had she overstretched? No, a vise gripped her foot. She turned and found Bellows’ hand wrapped around her ankle, dragging her backward. He had a medbind attached at his temple. Behind him, the aposti was rising to her feet. Avo had paused halfway up the ramp, watching Jaya in horror.
She kicked, trying to get away, but Bellows held fast. She tried to grab a seat and shift herself, but he was too strong. And now his hand was gathering the fabric at the scruff of her neck, hoisting her up. She was propelled into the passenger bay of the mover, smacking her shoulder against a window.
The hatch closed behind her.
Avo!
The bay was dimly lit, but her eyes adjusted quickly. Her left foot complained: she’d lost her boot in the melee. She tried the door. Locked. She kicked it, angrily.
Light flooded the cabin as the rear hatch opened and Avo was hurled inside. He landed just behind her and clambered to his feet. The hatch slammed shut.
“Jaya! You ok?”
He dropped all stealth, speaking audibly with simple words. She drew him close and hugged him.
“I’m fine,” she said, holding him as the mover rumbled to life. “What about you?”
At first, he only gazed at her, then seemed to see past her. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“I give up,” he said as the mover rumbled to life.
The palpable despair in those words surprised her. She’d witnessed some of the abuse he’d endured as a synthetic, but she’d never seen him like this. What had changed, in the years since her death?
My death. No, she couldn’t think about that now. She had a tiny kernel of confidence, no bigger than a mote of dust, but she gathered it up and gave him a smile.
“Not yet,” she said. “Look.”
She pointed to Tim’s duffel on the seat.
Avo sighed. “I wish we could forget about Tim.”
“Are you ok, Avo? The LEMP, I mean.”
“I am fine. He had it set to three, so stun, yes; kill no.”
“Three? Did you see the phasewave setting?”
“No. I felt it.”
“Oh.” She’d only been hit with a LEMP blast once, after a brawl in Chugwater. The headache was bad, but the puking had been worse. The memory wasn’t welcome as the mover pitched, stopped, made another left turn, then picked up speed.
“Where will the aposti take us?” She asked, forcing a swallow in her dry throat.
Avo shrugged.
“Compstate House, maybe. Weapons charges are a compstate matter.” He cocked his head as he shifted attention to the deck. “We are going really fast.”
Fast, Jaya thought, so we might not have much time.
“What’s our plan?” she asked. It seemed impossible to exit out of this rolling can, but her instincts were screaming at her to do something. “I tried the door. It’s locked, but the ring spins.”
He shook his head. “Will not work.”
“There’s nothing to sabotage?” Jaya asked. “Could we use anything to force our way out?”
“I am strong, but I am not that strong,” he said. “Not even stronger than Bellows. And he is unmodified, completely—”
He paused.
“What?”
“We should be curving to the left at Glendo, heading west to Port Casper. But we are turning to the right.”
“Are we still on the highway?”
He nodded. “I can hear the power plates as we cross over them. We are going four hundred twenty-seven kilometers per hour.”
“We’ll have to slow down soon. The eastern checkpoint should be coming up,” she said. “Maybe then we can find a way to make some noise, get out—”
“Into a squad of protectors.”
“You could outrun them.”
Avo looked at her steadily. “Not without you. Never without you.”
She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. The mover was slowing. Suddenly it pitched to the right and they jostled forward. Crackling sounds penetrated the passenger bay.
“Gravel,” said Avo.
Was this a bypass for security movers? Jaya wasn’t certain. She’d usually stayed well away from any vehicular traffic. The checkpoint was a place on the map she generally avoided.
“Going about fifty kilometers per hour,” Avo said, “best approximation based on noise level.”
“Any idea where we are?” she asked.
“Not the checkpoint, for sure.”
Suddenly the noise level dropped as the rhythmic crunch of gravel was replaced with low-pitched thuds. The mover had left the road altogether. They’d probably forded a dry wash, or some other eroded piece of landscape. Jaya braced for the sound of gravel again, curling her arm around Avo. But the gravel sound never returned. After moving up and down over the hilly terrain, the mover rolled to a stop.
