Micah watched Mary and John nod at Wesley’s last few words; the skillset and actions had clearly helped keep them alive in a hostile, dangerous world. Roddy’s face registered some level of recognition at Wesley’s story; Micah suspected the two would find they had more in common than they thought. “That’s very good, Wesley. Keep digging into those memories. And don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Before anyone on screen could respond, he changed topics. “Where are you at the moment?”
Roddy, who looked as if he wanted to ask Wesley more about his story, glanced back at the screen. “Well… we’re far to the south of where the enemy probably thinks we are.”
Micah understood the subtext. “They were tracking you?”
“It’s a certainty; it’s just a matter of how. We were found far too easily on land and near shore. We suspect that they’re getting pinpoint locations from our mobile communicators, so we ditched those a while back. Our suspicion is that whatever they’ve got set up to track us outside the mobile networks is probably more proficient if we’re on land, so we’re staying well away from the mainland.”
“Can you tell me approximately where you are?”
“I’m assuming we aren’t being tracked on this communication, Micah; if we are, we’re probably all dead soon.”
“Agreed.”
“But, just to be safe… we’re to the east of the larger of the East’s major southern landmasses. Heading south.”
Micah’s systems pulled up a global map, noted where he’d last tracked Roddy and the others, and added in Roddy’s vague coordinates. “Understood. I’m going to send you coordinates. They’ll be coded, but Wesley knows the code and can decipher them for you.” He saw Wesley nod, a movement Roddy also detected. “I can be somewhat specific here, but even if I do, my instructions won’t make much sense until you reach the destination indicated by the coordinates.”
Mary frowned. “Why wouldn’t it make sense?”
“The coordinates are for a very small islet in the middle of the ocean.”
“That’s… curious.”
John glanced around at the adults as Jack whispered to Jill: “What’s an eye let?”
“An islet? What do we do when we get there? Is that where you’re located?”
“No.” Micah shook his head. “There’s a single structure built on that islet. Land on it and… just go with what happens.”
The looks of confusion made him wonder if his vague instructions weren’t clear. Or clear enough. “Okay. And then… what do we do?” Wesley asked.
“You’ll have a chance to push two labeled buttons. Push both of them, even if the labels seem strange.”
“Why? What do the buttons do?”
“One of them will help you get to me and Sheila.”
“And the other one?”
Micah set his face like stone. “The other one will make sure that nobody can follow you.”
Chapter 10
Airborne Over Eastern Territory Ocean
Roddy disconnected from the conversation with Micah and waited for the promised transmission of encoded coordinates for their rendezvous point. A few seconds later, the screen filled with a long series of numbers, far more than required for the standard coordinate vector system used by the West. He frowned at the numbers hovering before them, then turned to Wesley. “Does that make sense to you?”
Wesley glanced at the series. “Not really. What would you expect to see?”
“He said he was sending coordinates. I’d expect to see six numbers, one identifying the north-south location, the other the east-west location. But there are… dozens of numbers here.” Roddy glanced at the number set before turning back to Wesley. “How do we get six numbers out of that? He said you would know.”
Wesley looked at the numbers, then laughed. “Oh, I get it now.” He walked toward the holographic display and began pointing at each separate number in turn, looking as though he was counting as he did so. Periodically, as he’d jab a finger at each of the floating numbers in turn, there would be a progressively larger delay between each jab. Then he’d call the number aloud. Roddy, with nothing better to do and no idea what else he ought to be doing, wrote down the numbers as Wesley announced them.
When Wesley announced the sixth number, he turned around. “That’s your six numbers. So that should be your coordinates. Thank you, Mr. Fibonacci, whoever you were.”
Roddy glanced down at the digits. He frowned. “I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty certain this is in the middle of the ocean where there are no islands.”
John shrugged. “But didn’t he say it was in the middle of the ocean?”
“But if there’s an islet, you’d think…”
“Computer?” Wesley said. “Can you show a map, using as coordinates the following numbers?” He repeated the same jab and count routine and called out the six numbers required for coordinates.
The computer replaced the visual of Micah’s transmission with a map of the world, then zoomed in on a spot well to the west of the southern tip of the continent they’d be circling. As Roddy feared… there were no bits of land visible.
He looked at Mary. “What do we do?”
“Trust Micah.”
“But—”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Roddy opened his mouth, then realized he had no argument. “Computer, set a course for those coordinates. But… make sure we stay over the ocean, at least fifty miles from the mainland at all times.”
Those instructions will increase travel time by an estimated three hundred forty-two percent.
“Understood. I’d rather be sure we get there in one piece.”
That seems prudent. Course set.
The ship accelerated to the south, beginning the journey to the southern tip of the continent on its way to what its map suggested was deep open water with nowhere to land.
He heard a clicked noise and then a joyful shout; Jill, snooping around the ship, had found a cache of ancient board games, and Jack joined her in pouncing on them and trying to read the instructions on faded yellow paper. Wesley and John engaged in small talk; based upon the gestures, they were reliving some action-filled sequence that looked to involve John lifting Wesley with one hand. “How?” Wesley asked. “You were injured!”
“Had to be done, so I did it. I’m not trying again, though.” Both men laughed.
Roddy found the closest thing to an isolated “corner” of the spherical cabin and sat down, deep in thought. Mary joined him a moment later. “You’re still worried about them, aren’t you?”
“Who?”
“Your parents.”
He could still detect a slight hint of venom in her tone, but she’d tried to mask it out of respect for him. “I’m worried about all of us. But at least everyone else is right here.”
“You’re afraid that if you’re not there to protect them, that something bad will happen?”
“Micah thinks so as well. So do you.”
She didn’t deny it. “For all their faults, they are resourceful, canny people. They are quite capable of protecting themselves, even without their big, burly, soldier son.” She gave him a friendly punch in the arm, and he smiled. “And they’re probably more worried about you.”
“Me?” He smirked. “I’m not in the middle of enemy territory.”
She ran a finger through his still-wet hair. “It seems there’s no part of the world that’s not part of enemy territory.”
“Touché’.” He frowned. “It’s odd that part of my fear is not just that they’ll die, it’s that they’ll take with them memories of my past. Memories I didn’t get back when they brought the real me back inside my own head.”
Mary frowned. “Like what?”
“My real name.” He turned to her. “You know it, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “I had your parents purge your name from my memory after I learned about your… other involvement.”
Roddy winced. “Oh.”
�
��I thought… I thought that forgetting your name would make it seem like the man on the view screen was just a stranger, somebody I’d have no more interest in than any of the other hundred million people in the world. But it didn’t work.”
“Which is why you had the image of the new me purged as well.”
“Yes.” Her voice had dropped to a wistful whisper. “I had only the memory of your original face and voice, but nothing that could tie those wonderful times to anyone or anything in the present. But I could never get the memory of the fact that the man with her was really you. It’s been… confusing.”
“I’m sorry. It’s a lame response, and not enough, but—”
“Mary’s not my real name, either. Did you know that?”
He tilted his head. “What?”
“I had them remove my memory of my own name. Complete the illusion of a perfect past untied to the imperfect present, I guess. I took on the name Mary Smith because it was the most generic name possible.”
Roddy ran his fingers through his hair. Then he laughed. “We’re both people who don’t exist, then?”
She smiled. “Pretty much.” She shook her head. “After John helped the kids and me escape the Phoenix brig, and after we had a rather painful encounter with Micah during our escape from the Ravagers, we found ourselves on an island the General owned. He’d set up a robot army of sorts, one that both maintained the house and grounds and provided security from non-friends. One of the robots asked for our names, looking to compare us to a list of people the General considered friends. If we were on the list, we’d be taken care of. If we weren’t on the list?” Her tone turned ominous. “We’d be… taken care of.”
“You were sure your real name was on the friends list, but you didn’t know it.”
“Right. We gave the robot our new names, but it couldn’t find them.”
“Then how—?”
“I offered to let it draw blood from me in the hopes that, with all of the information gathered by the Phoenix in their quest to identify those not worthy to live, it would be able to tie me to a name, and then tie that name to its list of friends. It worked. It identified me as a friend, and since I vouched for the kids and John, they were okay, too.”
He frowned. “It didn’t—?”
“Tell me my real name? No.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if the robot realized I actually didn’t know the name, or if it thought I was trying to hide my identity from Wesley. Probably the latter. He was friendly that way, always looking out for us, offering us drinks and food, and—”
“Wesley did that?”
“Not Wesley. Whiskey.”
Roddy frowned. “A drink offered you drinks?”
She punched him lightly in the shoulder. “No, silly! That’s what we called the robot. He offered us whiskey. So we called him Whiskey. Very helpful thing, weird squeaky voice, but he made us all feel welcome, had the other robots make us a nice dinner, made sure we survived. Thoughtful, too; he put a bottle of whiskey in Wesley’s bag before we had to abandon the island, just because Wesley said he liked it.” She ran a hand over her eyes, looking surprised, and her cheeks reddened slightly. “Weird to get emotional about a machine, huh?”
“There’s been so much strangeness over the past month that that seems rather normal by comparison.” His face tightened slightly. “Though I’d think there’d be a bit more concern about the safety of our children’s grandparents.” He snapped his mouth shut instantly, already regretting the words.
“They basically took my life, my identity, and my husband from me,” Mary said, her voice tight. “It’s hard to forgive. Even if they thought their motivations were pure.”
Roddy took a deep breath. “You’re right. Sorry. Just… worried.”
“I know.” She took a deep breath herself. “There’s a lot of pain still to be resolved, Roddy. None of it can really happen with the Ravager threat and Phoenix targets on our heads. Let’s get to Micah, figure out our true situation and the resources we’ll need to deal with it, and who our true allies are. And then… once it’s all over, we’ll work through the rest of it. Deal?”
“Deal.” He shook her offered hand, then pulled her in for a hug. She resisted at first, surprised, but then nestled in, finding comfort in the closeness even as the tension remained in the air.
“Excuse me.” They jumped, having not heard Wesley approach. “Sorry, but I couldn’t help overhear—”
“I thought you were talking with John?” Roddy asked, feeling oddly annoyed at the interruption. Then he realized they were in an open-air cabin the size of a modest room, and realized that any form of privacy—even shielding whispered words—was problematic. “Never mind. What’s up, Wesley?”
Wesley looked at Mary. “That’s why you gave Whiskey the fake name? You don’t know your name?”
“I would have done it anyway.” Mary pursed her lips. “I’d take my chance with the robots before risking any possibility of alerting Phoenix to our location.” She sighed. “But it wasn’t a choice I had to make. I truly did not know my name. Still don’t. So, Mary it is.”
“I know how that is. Having a full memory seems like a rare commodity on this ship.” He tilted his head. “John… does he…?”
“Not that I’ve been able to determine.” She shrugged. “We met in rather difficult circumstances… in the brig aboard the space station. Not a place you want to be when things get tough.”
“Yeah, I can relate to that as well. And my prison was on the ground. Well, under it technically…”
“Others arrived after I was sent there with the kids. John was one of them. He seemed interested in the kids, probably because there weren’t a lot of kids around. We became friends… in a purely platonic manner.” She gave a Roddy a friendly elbow in the ribs, and Roddy exhaled a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I don’t know a lot about his background. But he did beat up a couple of creepy guys who didn’t seem to care that I was married. So when Micah snuck us out, we made sure John came, too. He’s kept protecting us ever since.”
Roddy glanced at Wesley. “What is it that you don’t remember, Wesley? Micah mentioned some difficult experiences related to Phoenix that got blocked out for a time, and maybe even more than just those. And… you mentioned suddenly having instinctual knowledge to do things you had no reason to believe you’d ever learned. Can you elaborate on that?”
Wesley frowned, thinking. “I don’t remember enough yet to know everything I’ve forgotten. I still don’t remember anything of my life before the day I watched the first live Ravagers demonstration. I watched, knowing that it was me who’d made the key breakthrough in the technology that made the replication possible. But I still don’t remember learning whatever I might have needed to know to make that breakthrough. And I don’t know how I came to General Jamison’s attention. I just know that I… well, lost my mind after that, and fell under the General’s watchful eye. Whatever they’d done to me, though… they’d somehow left something in me that let them speak to me, hear what I heard… and they could trigger a horrific high-pitched shrieking sound inside my head. Nobody else could hear it, but it made me want to die. I’d do anything to stop it, anything the voice asked me to do. Attack people, set off bombs… it was awful.”
“That’s horrible,” Mary whispered. “At least I know what I chose to forget. At least I could control what I did in the aftermath.”
“There’s more, though.” Wesley pursed his lips, as if thinking again. “When I worked for the General, I wasn’t known for being much good at my job. I was seen as a bit paranoid, which meant I might see things others wouldn’t think to look for. But I had no observable military-friendly skills. Nobody had seen me shoot, or fight, or swim, or run, or build explosives. Other than when the voice directed me on what to do. But once the voice left me, I had an almost instinctual ability to do all kinds of things.” He turned and looked toward Mary. “You’ve seen it all. I don’t remember learning to do those things. I did
n’t know I could do them; I just acted on instinct. How is that possible?” He shrugged. “The General said I should ask others about that.”
“I think he meant me,” Roddy said, drawing out his words. “When I was in Special Forces, there were some secretive groups. I was in one; most people knew that I was in something unique, they just didn’t know what. That’s because I was trained in piloting flying ships, even though everything in our society taught us that such machines can’t work.”
“Don’t listen to those lies he’s telling, ship,” Mary murmured. “You just keep on flying and ignore him.”
Roddy chuckled. “But there were rumors among us in that group that there was something else, something where they took the elite of the elite, men of incredible intuitive intellect and genetic disposition to be nearly impervious to physical pain. Rumors were that those true elites in Special Forces, if they even existed, would be the type of man who’d have advanced training and study in microscopic robotics while simultaneously being a skilled maker of improvised explosives, rapid strategic planning and execution. And probably be excellent swimmers. They’d be the secret assassins, sneaking into enemy territory to exterminate high value targets where the more blundering among us couldn’t dare to tread. Some suspected assassinations against our own people, though it’s possible the East had a similar group carrying out such executions. My guess, Wesley, is that the General knew of you because you were one of them. That’s how you came to the attention of Phoenix. Micah Jamison, double agent, recommended you with the expectation that you’d gain as much intel on the secretive inner workings of Phoenix. But they got control of your mind before he could get you out. They let him take you because they had no further use for you.”
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