The Exodus Towers: The Dire Earth Cycle: Two

by Jason M. Hough

  Grillo nodded, slowly. “I have other uses for them. It would be difficult to end that arrangement right now.”

  “No mention of that in your reports.”

  “There are numerous things I don’t bore you with. I figured you wouldn’t care about a couple of prisoners rotting in cells.”

  An old rage welled inside Russell Blackfield. A lot of things irritated him, but perhaps nothing more so than people who thought they knew his mind. He looked at the bottle of crap whiskey in his hand and thought of how satisfying it would be to smash the thing across Grillo’s smooth-combed hair. “You found uses for them, eh? Playthings for your men?” He conjured an image of the tall blond immune, a head taller than he. How I want to climb that mountain.

  Grillo had been looking at the floor, as if in prayer. He glanced up without moving his head, and for a second Russell saw wrath in those eyes. “Your brig proved insufficient to hold them, you should know. I thought it prudent to have them moved, but then I thought that still might not work. I realized I could accomplish two goals, then. So Kelly now resides at my own facility, under constant watch.”

  “And the immune?”

  “Samantha is in charge of the scavenger crews at the airport.”

  “At the … wait, in charge?”

  “In charge, and doing a fantastic job. Holding Kelly’s safety over her has proved a remarkable motivator.”

  “I still think it’s a bad idea. She’s nothing special. Nice rack, hell of a right hook, and that’s about it.”

  “She’s immune. There are some who think that marks her as one of God’s chosen.”

  Russell barked a laugh. “Or, you know, it’s just some random genetic whatever. No need to get all biblical on the topic.”

  Grillo refused to rise to the bait. “The fact is, the scavenger crews were sitting on their hands after that business in Africa. Not anymore.”

  Heat rose on Russell’s cheeks. His hand tightened on the neck of the glass bottle and it took a conscious effort to keep from swinging it. “Going to rub my nose in that again, eh?”

  Grillo waved his hands. “That’s not what I meant at all. I’m simply saying the crews were idle after that. Afraid and unsure of their status in your airspace. Samantha has them running like a Swiss watch now. It’s really quite impressive.”

  “I’m sure.” Russell found no path he could take to argue the point. He knew all too well the benefits of having a functional scavenger corps, and the immunes were the cream of that crop. It galled him, however, that Grillo had thought of it. More than that, he’d pulled it off. Scavenger crews running, the city calm and producing nearly all the food it needed … deep down he knew he’d never have been able to accomplish the same thing.

  I did, though. I put this bloody rat in charge. Russell had no qualms about taking credit for that. Great leaders delegate.

  The question was how hard it would be to undo.

  Belém, Brazil

  18.OCT.2283

  TANIA STEPPED DOWN the rollaway staircase, each footfall producing a soft metallic click on the textured metal steps.

  At the bottom, her feet met freshly poured concrete, and she smiled.

  Compared to her last visit to the colony, almost two months earlier, the base camp was almost unrecognizable.

  “Impressive,” Zane said behind her. He came down the steps slowly, his attention shifting from his feet to the scene around him and back. Tim appeared in the climber’s airlock next. The young man squinted in the sudden brightness, and then smiled as he took in the camp.

  Large swaths of the ground within the Elevator’s aura had been surfaced with concrete, and this had gone a long way toward reducing the mud, dust, and misery within the camp. The concrete had been poured in long rectangular strips, and the spaces between were surrounded by low brick walls. Black soil filled those walled-in areas, and in places she could see signs of vegetables beginning to poke through.

  All of the tents were gone. In their place, a mishmash of motor homes, modified cargo containers, and small prefab houses served as living space. These were placed in orderly rows along the concrete strips, with the spaces between them serving as narrow alleys. One wide avenue had been left, from the main entrance of the camp to the base of the Elevator, and then on to the shore of the river beyond.

  She glanced west. Much of the work being done now focused on the nearby university buildings. These lay just outside the Elevator’s aura, but a clever plan had been hatched to make a courtyard, open on the side that faced the Elevator, into the new impound yard for the aura towers. Two benefits came from this approach: The towers were naturally protected on three sides by university buildings, and in turn the towers provided a protective aura around the structures. This enabled their use for storage and, where feasible, more living space. But the buildings were in bad shape after five years of neglect, and so nearly half the colony now labored to restore them to a passable quality.

  It had taken Tania some time to approve the plan. What if the few remaining aura towers suddenly “woke up” and plowed through the buildings like they were made from paper? Anyone inside would surely be killed in the resulting collapse. But as time went on, and no more aura towers showed signs of autonomous movement, she found it harder and harder to argue. At the ninety-day mark, she changed her vote to “yes” for the plan, and work started the next morning.

  Tania turned east. That side of camp now looked like a garbage dump compared to the rest. No concrete had been poured there yet, and any equipment that needed repair or dismantling had been carted to that side temporarily. She saw three colonists climbing over a rusted piece of machinery she didn’t recognize. They used wrenches and hammers to yank portions off the bulky object. Spare parts, probably.

  Karl strode up. They shook hands and she saw he labored to breathe, as if he’d just run a kilometer.

  “Welcome down,” he said between gasps of air. He shook Zane’s hand next, then Tim’s.

  “This is miraculous progress,” Zane said.

  Karl nodded, still short on breath.

  “Are you okay? Is it the headaches?” Tania asked.

  He grinned at her, took a few seconds to get under control, and then spoke. “Running late is all. Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course. I’m amazed at the progress, Karl. It’s like a little city.”

  The pride on his face warmed her. “Well,” he said, “no time to stand around. Come with me?”

  “What’s this surprise?” she asked as they walked northwest toward the wide gap in the camp’s barricade. “The firearms training you promised, I hope?”

  “Later, Tania. Right now, I have more progress to share.” He led her through the camp entrance.

  Four armed colonists, two on either side of the opening, waved at them as they passed. “Keep near the tower,” one said, answering Tania’s unspoken question as to the border of the aura. The wall marked it, roughly, but had been built five meters inside the actual radius to allow for some buffer. But one aura tower waited just outside, and Karl gave it a gentle nudge in the direction he wanted to go.

  Once they rounded the corner and were outside the barricade, Tania saw the surprise he’d invited them down for.

  Four aura towers were placed in a line formation along the Belém street north of the camp. At the base of each were four colonists, all decked out in survival gear.

  Skyler and his three immune friends stood in front of the line, and Karl led the group to them.

  “Is this what I think it is?” Tania asked. She flashed Skyler a smile and he returned it, but his expression had lost the warmth she used to find when their eyes met. She wondered if, or how, she could ever win it back.

  “Tania, Zane, Tim, may I present your scavenger corps,” Skyler said, gesturing.

  The idea had not appealed to Tania when first proposed, and not just because such a setup would required the full-time assignment of four aura towers. She simply didn’t relish the idea of putting anyone into harm�
�s way, not after what had happened in the rainforest. Granted, with so few towers left the need to scavenge for supplies had become a critical necessity. To her, though, Skyler and his new crew seemed capable of handling the load. It wasn’t until Karl had pointed out to her the marked difference in productivity between Skyler’s outings and those arranged ad hoc by random colonists that she’d relented. “They just don’t think like he does,” he’d said to her. “We need full-time, dedicated crews.”

  “I’m impressed,” Tania said to them, loud enough for all to hear.

  Skyler came to stand next to her, and turned so he faced the crews as well. “Each group has a dedicated tower, as you know, and each is assigned a certain portion of the city.”

  The immune called Ana stepped forward and presented Tania with a map. She took it and smiled at the young woman, but she was looking at Skyler. I know that look, Tania thought. She felt her pulse quicken and a hollowness in her gut that she recognized as jealousy. The sensation surprised her as much as the affection she saw between Skyler and the newcomer. Tania forced herself to look at the paper in her hands, but she couldn’t focus on any of it. What had she expected? Skyler to wait around for her? As if he had no more choice in the matter than the moon did in orbiting Earth?

  Tim stepped in next to her, just behind her shoulder. “Let’s have a look,” he said, a bit too loud.

  He gripped the edge of the map just below where her fingers pinched the page. Only then did Tania realize her hands were shaking. Not much, but enough that he might have noticed. Whether Tim had meant to rescue her from the moment or not, she felt grateful for the defusion.

  On the map the city was divided into quarters of roughly equal size. Those in the more densely constructed parts of the city were a bit smaller, while the vast slums had larger blocks.

  “Each section has a name,” Skyler said, “and the crew assigned to that area shares the name.” He leaned close and ran a finger across each section, calling the name as he went. “Tombstones, Dockyards, Ugly Church, and Eden Estates.”

  With each name, one of the crews arrayed before her gave a little call, like any military outfit might. At first she cringed at the silly names, but she knew they matched what the colonists already called those areas. The dark skyscrapers of downtown looked like tombstones. The dockyards spanned almost the entire waterfront. The others she could guess, save the last. “Eden Estates sounds nice at least.”

  “Oh, believe me, it’s the worst of the lot. Sarcasm was in order, and I don’t say that lightly.”

  “Okay,” she said, a little disappointed.

  “Now,” Skyler said, “watch. Colton! If you please?”

  A young man with the crew farthest to Tania’s left nodded and began to walk away from his tower. He walked some distance, toward the invisible edge of the tower’s protective aura, when suddenly he stopped and held up his arm. A wristwatch-like device was strapped there, and it beeped loudly. Even from here, almost two hundred meters away, Tania could hear it clearly.

  “We found the devices in a pet store,” Ana explained brightly. “Supposed to tell you when your dog has left the yard.”

  “Each tower has a beacon, and the crew assigned to that tower all wear matched receivers. Stray too far, we’ve set it for one hundred seventy-five meters, and the alert goes off.”

  “That’s fantastic,” Tania said. The fear she’d confessed to Karl, of such crews becoming careless, or losing track of the tower assigned to them during a fight with subhumans, faded. “Could we do something like this for all the colonists?”

  “Maybe,” Karl said before Skyler could answer. “The problem is that the receiver can only be paired to one transmitter. Works great for these crews, but that’s because they’re only worried about their own tower.”

  “We could at least provide them for those who stay near camp, tied to the Elevator cord itself,” Skyler added. “But we need to find more, first. The store that provided these is now depleted.”

  “I see,” Tania said. “Please do that; it would give the colonists some peace of mind.”

  Skyler looked at Karl. “Bump it up the list,” he said.

  “Will do.”

  Tania handed the map back to Ana and returned her attention to the crews themselves. “What else?” she said.

  “Each crew has been trained,” Skyler said. “Everything I could think of in terms of scavenging, plus some basic tracking and survival techniques thanks to Pablo, Vanessa, and Ana here.”

  Tania nodded thanks to the three immunes. She noted how they all stood together. The fifth crew, she thought.

  “In addition we’ve drilled them extensively in self-defense, tactics, and weapon use. They all have assigned arms they carry and are responsible for maintenance of. I’ve left it up to each crew to designate their leader.”

  “Leaders!” Karl shouted. “Come over here, please.”

  One member from each crew jogged up. The one called Colton was last to arrive, returning from his demonstration of the beacon.

  “You all are to report to the comm room each morning that you’re in camp, at eight, for your priority lists,” Karl said to them. Then he turned to Tania. “I’ll be the keeper of the master list, and everyone’s been instructed to refer to me any colonist asking for something. I’ll also keep an inventory list of what the crews bring in.”

  “That’s a lot to do,” Tania noted. “You should pick an assistant from the camp.”

  “I may even pick two,” Karl agreed.

  “Well,” Tania said, “I’m very impressed, and I want to thank all of you for volunteering for this role. I know it will have its dangers, but your work will be vital to the success of the colony.”

  The leaders all smiled and muttered acknowledgments. Tania hoped the statement had enough sincerity. She heard the words as if they came from someone else—a politician or an actor, not her. In her heart of hearts, Tania would still rather be up on Black Level, alone in a quiet lab, poring over telescope data.

  Absently she smacked an insect that had landed on the back of her neck.

  The show ended, Karl dismissed the crews to begin working on the lists they’d been provided that morning. “No time to waste,” he said, waving them off.

  Tania watched with some fascination as each leader returned to their crew. Each group huddled over laminated or digital maps, and within minutes the first team began to guide their aura tower down the dusty street.

  “That young man,” Skyler said, “Colton, who demonstrated the warning beacon.”

  “Yes?” Tania asked.

  “He’s bright. Motivated. Someone to elevate when the time is right. Pardon the pun.”

  “Good to know.”

  Karl cleared his throat. “Same goes for that one next to him,” he said, pointing. A dark-haired youngster in Colton’s crew strode out in front of the tower, scouting ahead. Even from this distance Tania could see the innate communication between them. Body language and simple commands that kept each constantly aware of the other. “Nachu,” Karl said. “A machinist from Platz Station. He and Colton both were, actually. Best friends. Each is clever as hell in his own right, but as a team they’re a marvel to watch.”

  “Noted,” Tania said. “As the colony grows we will need good leaders.”

  “Don’t go stealing my people so soon,” Skyler protested.

  “Not soon, but in time. Before the Builders return … if they do … we’ll want to have a task force that can be mobilized quickly, whatever happens.”

  “Agreed,” Skyler and Karl said in unison.

  A sober silence followed. She despised being reminded that the Builders might not be done. If their schedule held as calculated, the colony had a year and some few months before another “event” would occur. But what might happen was anyone’s guess, and Tania detested speculation without data.

  Yet the words of Neil Platz still haunted her. He’d been wrong about the third event, expecting a Builder invasion fleet to come and claim t
he planet, but that didn’t mean his fear wouldn’t yet be realized. Who knew how many Builder ships were lined up to reach the planet? There could be a hundred more events, until the point that they’d be arriving daily. Hourly.

  Tania shivered at the prospect despite the heat. She struggled enough to imagine, or avoid imagining, what might come next. To dwell on it would only lead to what Greg and Marcus called “analysis paralysis.”

  “I do have one question,” she said.

  Both men turned away from the departing scavenger crew.

  “Skyler, there’s four zones on the map, but unless I’m mistaken we have five scavenger crews, don’t we? What about you and your …?” She nodded toward camp, where the three immunes had gone.

  “My crew,” Skyler said. His voice conveyed pride and sadness in equal quantity. “We’ll help the other crews as needed, scout the border regions beyond the marked areas, and also explore the larger buildings where the towers can’t provide full protective coverage.”

  “I see.”

  “There’s more,” he said. He shuffled on his feet. “I want to find another aircraft. We’ll soon discover needs that Belém can’t fulfill. And eventually …”

  “Yes?”

  Skyler looked north toward the horizon. “The other tower groups that left that night. We should find out where they went, I think, before … well, before.”

  “Before the Builders come back,” she said, finishing for him.

  Skyler nodded, grim-faced. “The group here, out in the rainforest, went to surround a crash site. The others probably did the same, and we’ll find the same dangers, but you never know.”

  “And don’t forget,” Karl put in, “only four tower groups left. Tania, you spotted five of the smaller ships arriving, right?”

  “Five that I saw, yes.”

  “So one is unaccounted for. We should consider seeking it, as well. Maybe there’s one undefended by towers, one we can study easily.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Tania admitted. In her mind she ran through scenarios, techniques that could be used to find all the ships.