Wilders

by Brenda Cooper

  “Lou.” Coryn spoke softly. “You have to choose. None of us can compel you.”

  Lou lifted her head. “I don’t want to go back.”

  “Good.” Shuska looked at Eloise. “Take us all out.” She glanced at Blessing. “And you can do whatever you want. I don’t care.”

  Lou stood up and looked Shuska in the eye. “No. It’s the ranch I don’t want to go back to. Someone there sold us out.”

  Shuska and Matchiko shared a glance.

  Lou took Blessing’s hand and Coryn’s. She looked resolute and sad. “We’ll go together.”

  “I’m not staying Inside,” Shuska declared. “I don’t have the manners for the city. But I can’t lose you.”

  Lou simply gazed sadly at Shuska.

  Shuska turned to Coryn, a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. “Stay with us.”

  Matchiko rose to touch Lou’s cheek, her eyes pleading. “Do you mean this?”

  Lou looked as certain as she had that morning in Sirella’s, right before she left. “Yes.”

  Matchiko’s voice nearly broke. “I’m sorry.”

  Eloise clearly didn’t want to waste any more time. She held her small hand out and spoke to Blessing, Lou, and Coryn. “Give me your electronics.”

  As soon as she had all three wristlets in hand, Eloise dropped them into a thick black bag, zipped it up, and put the bag inside of another bag, and that bag in yet another one.

  She didn’t offer an explanation, but it had to be some kind of shielding. As soon as the bag of bags had been locked into a cubby, Eloise pulled the boat free of the dock and headed east along the river. Coryn expected her to let the other two off shortly after they passed the dome, but Eloise took them for a cold and awkward half-hour trip, dropping Shuska and Matchiko on the Oregon side near Hood Canal.

  The moment the boat stopped, Shuska looked at Lou again. “Please go with us. We need you.”

  As the big woman stared down at her scrawny but hard-boned and strong sister, Coryn felt sure Shuska was near tears. To her relief she didn’t cry, not even when Lou took her hand. “I’ll find you again someday.” She looked at Matchiko. “You, too.”

  Matchiko leaned in and brushed her lips across Lou’s, a feather of a kiss, and then leapt off the boat. Shuska stepped carefully after her, and they scrambled up the bank, disappearing into the woods.

  As soon as they slid back inside the dome, Eloise handed Coryn, Lou, and Blessing back their electronics. “Hold on,” she said. “We’ve got a flight to catch.” She pulled the throttle toward her and the boat sped up.

  Lou glanced at her. “Surely the airport is closed.”

  Eloise grinned. “Not to private planes.”

  “Oh.”

  Blessing whooped so loudly Coryn was sure the city would record him. Then he looked a little sheepish. “I like planes.” He looked happier than he’d looked all day.

  Coryn had never been on a plane. She tried the same sound he had made, leaning into the cold wind and screaming. She didn’t sound nearly as good as he did, so she tried again.

  Lou looked at them both as if they were crazy.

  “Did you know we were going to fly home?” Coryn asked him.

  “How would I learn anything? I’ve been with you.”

  “You can’t communicate via thin air like Day and LeeAnne?”

  He laughed. “That’s for people who are done with training.”

  Lou merely looked confused. Clearly, Coryn was going to have to find a way to introduce Julianna to Lou.

  The front of the boat rose as Eloise goosed the throttle. Blessing climbed forward to help keep it more level. It only took about five minutes to get to a fancy private dock just east of the 205.

  Eloise helped them off, and they walked up the dark dock through squeaking and rattling boats and crossed a well-lit lawn. They went through a gate and around front. To no one’s surprise, a car waited for them on the darkened street.

  During the ride, Lou looked a little more energized than she had in the boat. At least she looking around curiously. The car pulled into to a private parking lot at Portland International five minutes later.

  Eloise led them through a thicket of tied-down planes, moving at such a fast walk Coryn half expected her to break out into a jog. They made a sudden sharp right, heading for a plane that was already warming up, with light spilling out of an open doorway. It wasn’t the biggest plane, but close.

  Before she could even start up the steps, Aspen barked. Coryn almost ran over Eloise getting into the cabin, where Aspen jumped into her arms. She buried her face in his fur. “Told you I’d be back,” she murmured into his fur. It hadn’t been a day, but she had thought she wouldn’t see him for a long time, or even forever.

  In front of her, Eloise climbed into the pilot’s seat. Coryn was only surprised for a moment. Maybe Eloise would be hacking the city next.

  One seat was already occupied. Coryn grinned as she slid Aspen into the crook of one arm and extended a hand to help Lou up into the fuselage of the plane. “Lou,” she said, “Meet Julianna. She’s the reason you’re free.”

  Lou looked a little stunned, but she gamely held her hand out. “Thank you.”

  Blessing climbed in, closed the door, and elbowed past the three women to go sit right behind Eloise.

  “You’re welcome,” Julianna said.

  “Lake.” Lou drew the word out. “Lake. You’re Julianna Lake.”

  Julianna watched Lou quietly.

  Lou glanced at Coryn. “How?” Then back at Julianna. “Did you send her to find me?”

  Julianna smiled, softly, as if she were addressing a skittish animal. “I sent her today, to get you free. And Blessing, and a few people you may or may not have met. But only because she asked me to. More importantly, she showed me why I had to do it. Your sister loves you very much.”

  Lou’s mouth clamped shut, and she blinked. She sat down in a chair and stared back and forth between Julianna and Coryn.

  Julianna continued, “But I did not send her to find you in the first place. That was her doing.”

  Lou leaned forward in her seat. “How do you know my sister at all?”

  Julianna continued in the same quiet, soft-spoken voice, “Blessing met her on the road. He reported meeting her; not that he knew who she was. But when I saw his pictures, I knew who she was. She and I made friends training to run marathons.”

  Lou sat back. Coryn hadn’t explained her obsession with running or talked about Julianna, and Julianna looked too old for marathons until you saw her run.

  “It’s all true,” Coryn said.

  The plane’s engines began warming up. “Can I get you something to drink?” Julianna asked.

  Coryn realized how thirsty she was as soon as Julianna asked.

  Blessing had apparently anticipated the request, as he came in with four glasses of water. “Sit down and hold onto these.” He waited until they settled, Lou and Coryn close to each other and opposite Julianna before he handed the water around. “We’re about to take off.”

  Coryn had never been in a plane before. She was sure Lou hadn’t either. The lights of Portland and Vancouver rushed past in the window as they sped down the runway, and then shrank as they rose above the city. After that, she watched the long ribbon of light that had to be the Interstate 5 Corridor, and the long blue light that was the hyperloop that ran beside it. The lights of small towns glowed all along the interstate, but on either side it was impossible to see anything. Clearly the coast and the rise up toward the Cascade Mountains were part of the wilding.

  Aspen sat in her lap, watching her look out the window. Her sister sat in the seat next to her. She was safe and, for the moment, free.

  Oh, and happy. She squeezed Aspen tight, and he licked her face.

  Julianna gave them about fifteen minutes to stare out the windows before she asked, “Did you wonder why I brought Aspen?”

  That got Coryn’s attention. “No. But I should have.”

  “We’ve
been tracking Pablo. For some time. That’s why I asked you so many questions about him.”

  Julianna had asked about a lot. “I liked him. Is he important?”

  “Here’s what we know: he led the silent army into Seacouver. They’re camping in a park. We think he’s a double agent—that he’s working for the good of the people he has with him, but he’s also reporting information to the city. We don’t know why. But we—my network and I—we don’t have any direct linkages to him. Remember, I’m not in power anymore; most of my connections are businesses and NGOs these days. Foundations, although not all of them. I’m on a few Boards of Directors. You’ve met Pablo, and, perhaps even better, you have a dog he knows. You might be able to get close to him.”

  The exhaustion came crashing back. Coryn tried not to let her voice waver. “I’m going by myself?”

  “Of course not. Blessing will be with you.”

  She swallowed. “What about Lou?”

  “She’ll be with me.”

  Lou and Coryn looked at each other. “We don’t want to be separated,” Coryn said.

  “Lou has a reputation that Pablo will know. In the meantime, she knows a lot about the problems in the foundations. I’m going to assign her to work with one of my accountants to go over books. They’ll to try to track where money is going. Money drives power drives everything.”

  Julianna glanced at Coryn. “She’ll be safe. I’ll attach her as one of my employees, and she’ll register as basic plus one, which shouldn’t cause any fuss to the city’s systems. Even though they detained her in Portland, they never charged her there. It could catch up to her, but I’m sure we have a few days. Both cities are dealing with a little too much chaos to worry about small things right now.”

  Blessing leaned forward. “Are you sure? Automated systems can operate no matter what human chaos is out there.”

  Julianna smiled. “But not on their own.” She pointed out a window. “If you look, you can see Mount Rainier coming up. At least a little.”

  It was quite hard to spot in the dark, but Coryn finally made out a big, dark gray mountain with the tiniest slivers of white dusted across the top. If it weren’t for the nearly full moon, she probably wouldn’t have been able to see it at all. “It’s so different up here. Pretty.” She’d grown up with the mountain, but it looked different from this angle.

  Julianna got up and walked down the short aisle to a spot where some seats had been taken out. “It also means we’ll be landing in about twenty minutes. This is a short flight. Even if systems notice Lou, some person would have to act, and no one will be paying attention to minor alerts. We’ll be fine for now, and we’ll develop a better long-term solution.” She started digging through a pile of bags and packs and coats. “Besides, Lou may not want to stay Inside for long.”

  “Or at all.” Lou had a stubborn look on her face. “I don’t know much about accounting.”

  “But you know what’s not getting done Outside,” Julianna countered, looking pleased as she held up two small packs. “It’s the best help you can be right now.”

  Coryn watched Lou’s face as she absorbed Julianna’s words and seemed to accept them. But she wasn’t done yet. “What about Coryn? Will she be in any danger? This guy—this Pablo—if he’s spying for the city he has to be bad.”

  Julianna set the packs down on the seat beside her and remained standing, so they had to look up at her. “Nothing is as black and white as that comment suggests. There is much good in the city as well as a thing or two to work on. The foundations are making the wilding work, but they’re also stealing money from the project. Your hacker friends helped you get into Portland Metro, but they also helped whoever planned the more violent attack after you. They set you up.”

  Lou paled.

  “You put yourself and Coryn in danger when you left, and you took her into danger in Portland. That’s what brave young people do.” Julianna tossed one of the packs to Blessing. “She’ll be in good company. And it’s possible that the city is not that safe anyway.”

  By now, Coryn was used to Julianna’s directness, but Lou looked like she’d just been slapped.

  “It will be fine,” Coryn told her. “And I think Pablo is good. You know how sometimes you can just tell.”

  “Where will we find Pablo?” Blessing asked.

  “He’s inside the dome. Most of the silent army entered on the east border, near Issaquah. That’s where we’ll send you. You’ll take bikes.” She handed Coryn the other pack. “This has some food and clean clothes.”

  Coryn frowned. “Does it have some AR gear?”

  “The newest. You’ll want to practice with it.”

  That made her feel better. “It’s still dark.”

  “You two will sleep in the plane, at the airport. Lou and I will leave right away, and you’ll wait until morning. Eloise will wake you.”

  Coryn felt itchy about the separation, but she could get around better than Lou in the city, and Julianna would keep her sister safe. “Is Seacouver still under attack?”

  A delicate frown marred Julianna’s brow as she glanced at her wristlet. “Yes, although the fighting is almost all at the north and south gates. We’ll re-key your wristlets so Seacouver sees you as part of the city before you get off. If there’s anything you really need to know, I’ll send you a text.”

  “Is that safe?”

  “We made it safe. Let me show you how to text me.”

  Coryn quickly mastered the method, which started with a series of taps in a particular sequence that would be hard to guess.

  “Good.” Julianna smiled. “We have a lot of control about what happens to your wristlet by now.”

  Blessing had taken Coryn’s wristlet just yesterday. He’d also promised not to lie to her. Coryn frowned at him, the anger that seemed all too ready to rise inside her these days already simmering to life. “Did you lie to me when you took it?”

  He didn’t bat an eyelash. “I never said we wouldn’t improve it.”

  Coryn stood up and walked to the back of the plane, fuming.

  Crying, screaming, or arguing wouldn’t help Lou. I’m just tired, she told herself firmly. If I wasn’t so tired, I probably wouldn’t even be mad. She repeated it like a mantra until she felt better. By the time they landed, she was back in her seat again, and calm.

  As they got close to the ground, Lou took her hand, clutching it tight. The landing was a reverse of the takeoff, lights growing bigger, rushing by, and then slowing. They were in the air, and then on the ground, and she wasn’t even entirely certain of the moment they went from one state to the other. Lou let go of her hand, leaned over, and whispered, “Thanks. Stay safe.”

  “You, too.”

  In moments, Julianna had Lou off the plane and whisked into a waiting car.

  “She’ll be safe,” Eloise said. “If anyone is safe anywhere, it’s with Julianna.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  Coryn and Blessing approached Issaquah, riding slightly uphill on the elevated Interstate 90 bike trail just before lunchtime. The midmorning sun sent spears of light down through a sky half full of clouds, bright on a cool day that felt perfect for a long ride. The bike was as responsive as the one she’d left behind in the tunnel in Portland Metro, light and flexible and very fast.

  Coryn was in love with both the bike and her AR setup, an even lighter and prettier headset than the one she’d sold for traveling supplies. She kept playing with it, trying out setting after setting to keep track of the other bike traffic around her, the news, and her location relative to Blessing, which at the moment was a full quarter-mile ahead of him. It felt good to be ahead, and to be out—for just a moment—on her own.

  The lines defining her side of the trail blinked three times then disappeared. Every other rider disappeared. The news scroll stopped running along the bottom right of her glasses. She ripped the lightweight glasses off her face and turned to look behind her.

  The riders closest to her were doing the sam
e thing.

  She swerved to avoid being hit by a tall drink of bicycle perfection with legs as long as she was tall; he was looking behind him instead of at her. Aspen yipped. The rider only noticed her as he passed. “I’m sorry!” he called back over his shoulder as he almost hit someone else.

  “It’s okay.” She pulled to the side in a full stop, looking back the way she’d come for Blessing. He was only about thirty seconds behind her. “Is the whole system out?” she called to him.

  He looked at his wristlet, shook it. “I just got a text a few minutes ago.” He stopped next to her, pulled off his bike glove, and started poking at his wrist. “I think it’s just the transportation grid.”

  A smashing sound made her look over the railing at the roadway below. An older self-driving car had slammed into a newer one. “Apparently, it’s not just bikes.”

  Blessing stood beside her and looked down at the town. The elevated road wasn’t very high here, but they were twenty feet above the rooflines of the one-and-two-story buildings that spread out below them. Issaquah had a tall business district full of spiraling bridges, but right now they were above the old city, which was dominated by a park and historic architecture.

  Every car below them had stopped. The more expensive self-driving cars had avoided obstacles and ended up parked in odd places. The cheaper ones, controlled partly by the system instead of by the cars themselves, had partly failed. Luckily there weren’t any steep hills right nearby. “I wonder how bad it is where there’s a higher speed limit?” Coryn asked.

  “Or how far this goes.”

  Bikes, people, robots, and dogs had all stopped moving in an orderly fashion. Some raced one way or another and others stopped and stared like they were doing. Blessing tugged his bike glove back on. “Let’s go. We still have to find Pablo.”

  Before they could pull back into the bike traffic, a text flashed across her wrist. Trans grid down citywide. She tapped on it to see if there was anything else, and it disappeared entirely. Probably from Julianna.