A lot of agents feel that the operation was a complete botch, and I couldn’t agree more. They’re all angry about the girl who died. Crisfer demanded to know why we hadn’t been trained to deal with guns, but nobody had an answer to that.
To be fair, it’s not surprising that our instructors didn’t think of everything. How could they know how things were here? If you studied history, you would learn that the NAU enforced strict gun control in North America. Either the humans took those guns from the police or military, or there was an illicit trade in weapons going on. Either way, how were we to know?
Just then Kasana and some others chirped up to say that they intended to learn how to use the confiscated weapons.
I shuddered. Were they kidding?
Kala argued vehemently against it, pointing out that our drones could handle it; we just needed to be better prepared next time. Rami and some others agreed with her, but some didn’t, and a big argument began. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Dronet so filled with anger. After a while, I tuned it out. My symbiont released some neurochemicals to make me sleep, and I welcomed it. Any escape would do.
Kala crawled into her bunk and tried to relax into sleep, but the events of the expedition marched relentlessly across her inner vision. The flashes and pops of gunfire. The human woman cowering away from her. The girl with the bullet hole in her forehead, like a bloody third eye. Worst of all, that poor boy who had burned. That never should have happened. Hot tears streamed down Kala’s cheeks. She dug her hands into her hair and pulled hard. Araka released chemicals and the unwanted images faded. Slowly, she relaxed into a restless sleep.
A sound woke her. She blinked and checked the time on the Dronet; it was still early, only about twenty-one hundred hours. The sound came again; a low keening from the beta wing. Another voice joined it, crying out and then sobbing. The humans were grieving.
Kala tossed and turned, trying to tune out the noises, but it was no good. After a while she sat up. Liet was still asleep. She got out of bed, pulled her armor back on and got dressed, feeling a sudden need to get out of this place for a while. She checked through the house with her drones; some agents were in bed, others were listening to music. There was a group in the sitting room, talking quietly; Crisfer was among them.
Kala told the drone watch she was going out, and then slipped through the house to the back entrance. It didn’t occur to her to ask anyone’s permission—technically, no one was in charge. The more experienced ones showed the way, but there was no hierarchy among Unathi, only mutual cooperation.
Outside, she took a few deep breaths of muggy, redolent air. A sliver of moon skulked behind shredded curtains of cloud, peeking out shyly now and then. The vehicles sat around in the dark like large slumbering animals.
Kala headed to the back fence and scaled it easily, not wanting to bother anyone with having to open the gates. She dropped to the street on the other side and began to walk aimlessly, keeping her drones out in a wide arc to make sure she would not be seen. Sometimes she ducked into an alley or dark doorway until humans had passed by, and then walked on. She tried not to think or feel anything but just kept moving, drifting mindlessly southeast.
Kala, where are you going? Crisfer asked.
I just need to walk. I’ll be back later; try and get some sleep.
Okay, but be careful. Don’t make us come out on a midnight rescue, okay?
Oh, I wouldn’t dream of putting you to any trouble, she replied, sending a hint of a smile with her words, but he didn’t respond.
Like Liet, he seemed different after the expedition today. His good humor and easy manner had disappeared. Kala wondered if, like her, he was struggling with the things they were expected to do on this mission. Then she pushed it out of her mind along with her other troubled thoughts, paying attention instead to the night-enshrouded city around her.
She was fascinated by the way the city changed as she moved away from the downtown area. The large office buildings and tenements gave way to narrow pastel homes lining the hilly streets, huddling close together like old friends.
She found herself on a long, arrow-straight street that was gradually sloping downhill. A few cars sat at the curbs, derelict and stripped of parts and tires. Bushes and shaggy palm trees were the only green things, except for occasional sad little parks.
On her right, she came upon what looked like a very large garden, covering several adjacent plots. A rusted wire fence surrounded it, falling down in a couple of places. The gates were propped open. Along one side of the lot was a line of small shabby greenhouses. The glass had been papered over or hung with curtains, suggesting that someone had been living in them. The garden had been stripped and trampled.
Opposite the garden, set back from the street by a narrow paved parking lot, sat a three-story cement structure. The glass had been broken out of its tall ground-floor windows, which gaped into a dark, empty interior. Her drones informed her that several living creatures—humans, they would be—lurked inside, watching the street. More humans were present in the top two floors. She sent her drones to sample everyone. There were four epsilons and one beta.
She hesitated for a moment, but then her drones sensed another group of creatures coming down the street behind her, moving fast, and she walked on a short way to keep some distance from them. They stopped in front of the large building with the beta inside. The group was armed—most likely humans about to attack the building.
Kala turned and hurried back. Sure enough, the newcomers were fanning out across the parking area, moving toward the building. Two of them had guns with lights attached to them; their beams sliced through the dark, flashing on the building.
She shouted, hoping to distract them from attacking the place.
One of the armed raiders turned. His mounted light flashed in her eyes as he leveled his gun at her. She realized that she had made a mistake—she should have sent her drones out first—and then all thought dissipated as she concentrated on dodging the bullet. Bang, the gun went off, just missing her as she twisted her body down and sideways in a fast swoop. She slipped up next to the guy and grabbed his gun arm. Turning, she bent her knees and threw him into two of his companions who had run up, and they all went down in a tangled heap. In the few moments of breathing space this gave her, she sent out her drones to pacify all of them.
They encircled her, shouting in languages she didn’t understand.
It’s Spanish and Chinese, Araka supplied. You don’t want a translation, trust me.
The other gunman hesitated, not wanting to risk shooting one of his own, and then dropped, pacified before he could fire. Two of the others made a dash at her sides, probably hoping to seize her by the arms. She flitted out of their way and they barely avoided crashing into each other. One of them dropped. The humans from the ground floor of the building came out to watch, holding their guns in neutral positions. Kala danced out of the way of someone swinging a length of pipe, then grabbed his arm and threw him. He stayed down. A woman approached her brandishing a wicked-looking knife, its blade glimmering in the scanty moonlight. Kala kicked her weapon arm and the knife flew up into the air. Then the woman dropped, pacified.
Kala straightened from her combat stance, letting her arms relax to her sides, and turned in a slow circle. All of her attackers lay motionless on the ground around her feet, as if she had been at ground zero of a small explosion. The humans from the building kept their distance, their guns loosely trained on her. They looked thin and pinched, their clothes faded and worn.
A middle-aged male with long, dust-colored hair approached her carefully, pushing down the guns of those nearest him. “Who are you?” he asked.
“I am Kala. I wish to help you,” Kala said clearly in her best English.
The man studied her for a moment. His creased face appeared kind. “You saved us from that gang,” he said. “Thank you for that. Why don’t you come inside?”
Kala nodded and glanced up at the building. The b
eta, a male roughly her own age, was peering out over a board that had been nailed over the lower half of a window on the second floor. He saw her looking up at him and jerked back out of sight. The humans were waiting for her, and she followed them into the building. They filed through the ground floor, which she saw had been stripped of all furnishings, its inner walls torn out, and up two short flights of cement steps to the second story. On the other side of a heavy metal door, she heard someone lift a bar, and the door opened.
Kala followed the humans into a small foyer; a human male stepped back to let them through. Several doorways led off to other rooms and an inner stairwell. They stepped through a door that was screened with a bead curtain, entering a larger room. The long-haired male and a dark-skinned woman sat down at a scarred table piled with supplies, equipment, ammunition, and dirty plates and cups. They motioned Kala to join them. The rest sat in tattered armchairs and couches.
Kala looked around curiously. It was like no interior she had ever seen. The dingy walls were cracked and missing large chunks of plaster, revealing thin wooden laths and insulation. Flickering light was provided by oil lanterns and wax candles.
Araka said, Here’s your beta.
A tall, gangly young man appeared in a doorway. Behind him stood a short, slender girl holding a baby. Kala knew from her drones that the girl and her baby were epsilons, as were two other humans in the room, a man and a woman.
Kala’s heart gave a little kick. She had to terminate these epsilons and get the beta to come with her somehow, but it wasn’t going to be easy. She could see that this was a close-knit group. If she terminated the epsilons now, the humans would certainly become hostile. Of course, she could pacify them all, but then she’d have to carry the beta back to the refuge and keep him prisoner there until he accepted the situation. She was determined not to repeat the same mistakes the agents had made earlier today. There had to be a more sensitive way to do this, she thought.
The long-haired man leaned forward and regarded her with watery, pale-gray eyes. “Guess we ought to introduce ourselves,” he said. “You’re in what’s left of the SanFran Green Resistance commune. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of us. I’m Sean, the director.”
Brandon watched the strange young woman carefully from the doorway. Her clothing was dark and strangely minimal: a tank top and long body-hugging shorts that ended just above the knee. She wore no jewelry or makeup, as far as he could tell. With her wide shoulders, muscular body and long, dark ponytail, she was rather attractive in an athletic kind of way.
“I am Kala,” the girl said softly in a strange accent he couldn’t place. She pronounced it Kah-lah, like you would in India. “I am here to help you, if you will allow it.”
“I’d really like to know how you pulled that off with the gangers out there,” Mike said from where he was sprawled in one of the sagging armchairs, his oversized body threatening to flatten it.
“Yeah,” Andrea chimed in. “How did you do that? Make ‘em fall like that without even touching them?” She grinned, her white teeth flashing in her dark skin as she studied the girl. “Far as we can see, you don’t have any weapons, not even a knife.”
Brandon was dying to know this as well, but the strange girl didn’t answer.
Sean glanced at the others, then back to Kala. He cleared his throat. “So what sort of help are you talking about? What is it you think you can do for us?”
“You are hungry,” Kala said. “You are in danger here. Come with me; I will take you to a refuge. You will be fed and protected, kept safe.” Her gaze wandered to Brandon and she studied him calmly, directly, her face expressionless.
Brandon’s cheeks grew hot, but he forced himself to meet her eyes. They were unusual; the irises were caramel-colored with green and gold flecks, encircled with a ring of dark brown. He felt Jennie’s hand tighten on his arm.
The others were murmuring together. Sean turned back to Kala. “Where is it we’re supposed to go, and how do you propose to keep us safe there? Don’t get me wrong—we truly appreciate your offer—but we need more information here.”
Kala said, “We have a place that is not far. It is well defended. We have plenty of food. You will be safe there.”
“Who’s we?” Sean asked sharply. “Who are you, really?”
No answer.
Mike spoke up again. “Okay. How ‘bout this, then: you go off to this refuge of yours and bring us back some food. Maybe stick around and help us out here, sort of a token of your good intentions.” There was a chorus of agreement from the others. “You got people there, you said—let us meet them. Then maybe we’ll think about moving from here.”
They all looked at Kala.
“If any of you wish to come with me to the refuge, tell me and we will go,” she said calmly. “I will wait a short time.” She stood up and added, “We have medicine, as well. We can treat the virus.” With that, she walked out of the room, apparently intending to wait in the foyer.
The Greeners stared after her, flabbergasted.
“What do you think, Mike?” Sean asked.
The heavyset man shook his head. “No way,” he said. “We can’t trust her.”
“Everyone else feel the same?”
They murmured their assent. Andrea shook her head, her beaded braids swinging, lips pressed together.
Brandon said, “Wait a second.” All eyes turned to him. He flushed more deeply, but was determined to have his say. “I been meaning to talk to you about this anyway, Sean.”
He took a deep breath. “We are starving here,” he said slowly, emphasizing each word. “It can’t go on. Jennie’s not making enough milk for the baby. Unless somebody has a plan for getting more food pronto, I think we’d better consider Kala’s offer.”
Someone started to speak, and Brandon held up a hand. “Let me finish. Yeah, she’s strange. Yeah, this whole thing is really weird. But I’ll tell you one thing. If that girl had wanted to kill us, we’d all be dead already.”
“We realize that!” Mike snapped, his ruddy complexion darkening. “That’s obvious from the weird shit that went on out there. But we don’t know what she might want with us. What she and these others might do with us when we get there.” He paused, glancing at the curtained doorway, and lowered his voice. “There’s worse things than being dead, you know.”
Brandon grimaced and stared at the floor.
Sean stood up, went to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, tossing Jennie a little smile. “Hey, buddy, I understand your concern about the food. But we’ll work it out. We always do, don’t we? We’ll get on it first thing in the morning.”
Brandon looked up into his face. “Come on, Sean. You know there’s nothing we can do. Everything’s been cleaned out by gangs for miles around. And anybody who tries to go too far out there is probably not gonna make it back.” He shook his head. “I dunno for some reason, I trust her. I know in my gut she doesn’t mean us any harm. And she said they can treat the virus. If one of us was to get sick”
“I feel the same as Brandon,” Jennie said, gently jiggling the baby in her arms. “We’ve got to have food. I vote we go with her. It’s either that, or stay here and starve.”
“Anybody else with us?” Brandon asked, looking around.
No one moved. Their faces were like stone.
“Guess it’s just us, then,” Brandon said to Jennie. “I’ll go get our stuff.”
Chapter 12
SanFran, Mission District
Night of June 8, 2079
OUTSIDE, A RESTLESS WIND had risen, scouring away shredded clouds. Scant light fell from a thin moon. When they passed the place where the raiders had lain on the ground, Brandon saw that they were gone. Either Kala hadn’t actually killed them and they’d gotten up and left, or someone had moved their bodies.
“Is it far to go?” he asked, realizing they were to walk to the refuge.
“It is about two of your miles,” Kala replied.
What other miles are the
re? he wondered. “So we’re walking?”
“Most of the cars are no longer operational. Even if they were, many of the roads are blocked. Also, the noise could attract attention to us.”
Brandon began to take out a lantern, but Kala stopped him. “No lights.”
She set off down the middle of the street, leaving the two humans to keep up with her as best they could. Brandon was weighed down by a large rucksack and the crowbar Jennie’s mother had given her, which she had named “Bessie.” The pavement was like pooled ink in the dark, and they had to concentrate on where they placed their feet. Brandon gripped Bessie with one hand and kept the other held out toward Jennie as she carried the baby, afraid she might step in a hole and take a fall with the baby in her arms.
He noticed that Kala seemed to see just fine in the dark. She was obviously holding herself back to match their slow pace. Sometimes she stopped and stood still, a distracted look on her face. Brandon strained his ears and heard nothing, but Kala obviously did. She reminded him of someone listening to the news on their NetBuds instead of paying attention to their surroundings.
“This way, quickly,” Kala whispered and led them into a dark, narrow alley. They crouched behind waste bins until a small group had passed the alley’s opening. Brandon glanced anxiously at the baby. It was too dark to tell if she was awake, but thankfully, she remained quiet.
The people passing by were muttering in strange, guttural voices. Brandon heard something that sounded like a snarl. What the hell—did they have animals with them? Their voices and uneven footsteps faded away, and the three emerged and continued on their way.
“What was that animal noise? It sounded really weird,” Jennie whispered in Brandon’s ear, flicking a glance at Kala ahead. “And how did she know those people were coming?”
The X-Variant (The Guardians Book 1) Page 9
