My senses were on high alert at what they were saying. “Did you hear them use the term nanobots or anything like it?”
Doss let his hand go under the bar again like he was going to draw his weapon. I lifted my hands in a soothing gesture, doing my best to keep things from getting messy.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Was it a ruin, or an old building?” I asked them.
After a tense moment, Doss and Fleura nodded. “Old buildings and some ruins. Most of it was hidden by the trees, but the keepers have done a lot of work to reclaim the site,” Doss said.
“If it’s so dangerous and these people are changing into something other than human, why do you think the location is valuable? That’s what you’re selling me on, isn’t it? A return visit with the intent of taking something from them? Something worth dying for?” I asked. Now we were reaching the core of the deal.
Fleur began speaking just as something came into the edge of my vision, a small face looking around the outer wall of the bar. “Weapons, and plenty of them. Guns and ammo and a reloader, at the minimum. Tools, too, and enough Hightec to set someone up for the rest of their life. It’s all there, and it’s being guarded by a few mutants who think they’re putting Hightec into their blood like some kind of gods from before the virus.”
“What’s your cut?” I asked. There would be a price. There always was with people who made their money in dangerous ways.
Fleura licked her lips, nervous. “We don’t want any of the gear.”
“You don’t?” I asked, stunned. “What then?”
Mira laughed, watching their faces. She knew. “They want the home. The place with water and trees, far away from here, right?”
“Well, since you’re—” Doss began, but I cut him off when a skinny kid tried to run past our stools, flashing by in a brown blur.
I latched a finger in his shirt, ripping the ratty garment down the middle to reveal a bony back and an enormous arrow tattoo, pointing upward like an accusation of heaven itself. Berec.
“Get him, Jack!” Mira spat, knocking her drink over as she tried to get free from the bar. The kid was gone. All that remained was dust from his feet as he vanished into the street, and I knew my path was crystal clear.
“Taksa will know about your oasis within days if I’m any guess of how fast Berec can run. He wasn’t spying for Wetterick. He was spying for the cult, and now, they’ll know about the ‘bots, and the water, and the guns.” I shrugged, finishing my drink as calmly as I could. I had time for anger later. Now, there was only planning. And beer.
“We go, then?” Mira asked.
I turned to Doss and Fleura, my smile wry. “Change in plans, friends, and I hope you will consider taking me at my word. How many left in your family?”
“A few. Why?” Doss asked, sensing he was about to be fucked out of money, and maybe more.
“You’re in no condition for the road, not after what you’ve gone through, so I’m going to ask you to take a leap of faith. The people at that oasis? I can handle them. I know what they have, and what they’re doing, but if I don’t get there first, Taksa and his sister will, and this place will go from bad to worst. I can’t have that, and neither can you.” I drew in a breath through my nose, then let it out in a trickle. I had to think of a timeline that worked, and in a moment, I had one. “Mira and I will go to the oasis, clean out the freaks, and secure the facility. We leave in the morning, and once we’re done with all that, you can bring your family there.”
“I don’t think”—Doss began, but I silenced him with a wave.
“I wasn’t finished. You’re not coming there as owners. You’re coming there as part of the first generation, and your children and their children will be part of something bigger than this post, and, if things work out, bigger than Kassos. I have plans for this land, and they start right now. Are you in?”
Fleura cleared her throat, then leaned forward to me, her eyes sad. “Alatus. When you get there, if our children are still—if you find them, bury them? We were driven off. Our wagons are still there, but I don’t give a shit about that. I care about our people. My children.” She paused, her eyes bright. “Put them deep, if the wolves haven’t found them. Please?”
“Of course,” I told her, holding her eyes to make sure she knew it was a promise.
Fleura’s expression softened further as she gave her her husband a small nod, and he reached under the bar with both hands. Slowly, he lifted a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, the weapon blue with age but clean. “You’ll need a gun.” He lifted a belt of shells from the pack slumped by his feet, adding it to the gun.
“Thank you for trusting me,” I told them both.
“It’s not for you,” Doss said. “It’s for all of us. Stop them from getting to that place, Jack. Stop Taksa and Senet and her Black Room, or we’re all going to die under the knife.”
21
“Change in plans, Derin. I leave at dawn. Give me what you’ve got, and I’ll gather the rest on my return,” I said.
He angled his head, measuring a response. “I’ve got everything except a chest piece done, but you’ll have to let it cure on the way.” He rubbed at his chin in thought, then brightened. “You’re a big guy. Might not hurt to have the pieces dry on you in the sun. Better fit that way. Scoot, find the—ah, there it is. Try them on, Jack.”
I slid the shoulder armor over my head, marveling at the fit. Derin was an artist, and the shoulders rested light on me, covering everything except my neck in studded hide. I rapped a knuckle against one side, and found it to be hard as stone. Whatever he made them out of, it would turn a blade, and it might even slow down a bullet. I knew I would be putting them to the test, soon, so my smile was more than just gratitude. It was confident.
“Got a place for this?” I asked him, showing the sawed-off shotgun.
“Nice piece. Full choke on the barrel, you’ll put a good hole in anything close. I can rig a side strap and keep your hands free. Put the wrist bracers on. The left has a space, bandages there and any other small things you don’t want to lose. The right arm is your offensive weapon,” Derin said, snapping the wicked bracer around my arm. It had spikes, not studs, and was clearly made for taking the fight to the enemy.
“I can do some damage with this,” I said, waving my arm around like a club. It felt good.
“And you’ll need to. Leaving in a hurry means something has changed, and that means you don’t have time to plan the way you would like. People die under those conditions, Jack,” Derin said. For an armorer, he knew a lot about the Empty and what could happen.
“We’ll have time on the way. It’s a long haul, but I like our chances, and it’s not entirely for us,” I told him, adjusting the chest strap. I wasn’t used to being big, and my body could still surprise me.” Thanks for the abs, nanobots. I smiled, cinching the wrists tight with a final pull.
“Who is it for then?” he asked, his eyes wandering to Mira, who was haggling at a nearby stall. It looked like she was tasting some kind of fried pie, and the flavor made her smile.
“All of us. Her, Scoot, and even you. We’re going someplace that Taksa wants to be. That’s not going to happen,” I said.
Derin stood up, grim-faced and still. “His sister is the problem. That wagon of hers...it reeks of blood. You can sense it over the horizon, Jack, and if you lose, you’ll end up in it being peeled like an onion until your body gives out. That’s no way to go, you understand what I’m saying?”
“I won’t let it come to that.” Neither will my blood. “When we come back, Derin, I’d like you to think about something,” I told him.
“What’s that?” he said. Scoot appeared, hanging on his leg and smiling up at us, her teeth brilliant in the sun.
“A change of scenery. I’m going to need people like you, and Scoot. Good people with the heart to do what’s right, and the will to do what’s hard. Wetterick is dead, he just doesn’t know it yet, and I’ve got plans for Silk, too,” I said.
“She is to me, and if I have my way, Lady Silk will be a memory. Think it over, Derin. If I send for you, know that what’s on the other end of my message is a chance you’ll never have again. A chance to build something pure, something good and safe. A place of our own where we can start wrestling this disaster of a world back onto the tracks, so that kids like Scoot don’t worry about ending up under the thumb of Wetterick or Silk,” I said.
He peered up into the sun, considering my offer. “I would like that, if only for her. She’s all I have left, you know.”
“Then answer my call when it comes, and take her future into your hands.” I put my hand on his shoulder, urging him to accept. “I have to go. We leave at dawn, and it’s going to be a different world if I have my way, Derin.”
22
It took some time for the air to cool enough to rerun the computer without fear of cooking it off, so dinner was a slow, easy meal with Mira, Lasser, and Natif.
“What will become of this place?” I asked Lasser, knowing the question was heavy on his mind. When I left, Wetterick could run free, and a wounded coward is more dangerous than any animal in the world.
“I do not know. The post may collapse, or we may simply go on as before, with Wetterick and Silk locked in an uneasy truce.” He shrugged with the experience of a man who has lived his entire life close to danger.
“What did you do before this, Lasser? Surely the House of the Sky hasn’t always been here?” I asked him.
“I was born in Kassos, but my parents fled during one of the uprisings in the Alms Quarter. They were smart people and knew that a chance at freedom was better than dying in a street fight under the boot of the city guard. We came here, and they rebuilt this place with their bare hands. We opened for business with my mother cooking over an open fire. We had one pan, one pot, and no money. The beds were filled with rags, and we could serve three customers at a time.” He looked around with pride. His house could now hold twenty times that many people, and he had four permanent guards along with the regular staff. They all slept in good quarters along the south side, their rooms small but private, and they ate in the kitchen as part of their jobs. Lasser knew how to care for people, but even more importantly, he understood how to treat them right. Loyalty was a side product of his presence, and I knew what had to be done.
With a nod to Mira, I leaned forward on the wide table, moving aside my empty plate. “Would you ever leave here?”
His eyes narrowed, then he smiled. “The Harlings. What did they find?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Lasser was sharp, and his instincts for news were spot on. “They found something.”
“Some place,” Mira added.
“Go on.” He looked sideways at Natif, an unspoken order passing between them.
“A small jungle, or forest...a living place to the south. It’s in the shape of a circle, and there’s plenty of water.” I chose my next words carefully, because it would be the groundwork for what I hoped to build. “The people living there who are using the same technology that makes me what I am.”
“And what’s that, other than tough and lucky?” Lasser asked.
“I have—tech, in my blood. It changed my body, and made me different in ways I’m still not sure I understand. In time, I will, but for now, I’m just faster and stronger than most humans, and even my thoughts are clearer than ever before. I’m better, but most of all, I’m alive, and I survived being locked in a metal tube for more years than I can imagine. I aim to find out in a few minutes when I start sifting through Silk’s drives.”
“And you think to do this in one night?” Lasser’s tone was doubtful, but he thought I intended to sleep. I didn’t.
“I don’t think I will. I know I will. All I need is some basic information, and then we can take the drives with us. We’re mobile because of the solar array, small as it is,” I said.
“May I sit with you while you search? I would like to know of the world before mine,” Lasser said.
“Of course.” I searched the skies, seeing the first stars emerge. “WE were going to go there, you know. To the stars. That’s why I went into the tube. Well, that and a helluva lot of money, but the tech was supposed to make us masters of space. I don’t think we made it.”
“If we did, we wouldn’t be here,” Mira said, her words flat with acceptance.
“Agreed. Let’s get up to the roof. Silk should be here any minute, and I want us all to see what we find,” I said, moving to the stairs. We left the dishes behind, and if I had my way, Lasser would be leaving a lot more than his table.
In less than a minute, I had the laptop open and running, the battery showing a partial charge. The internal power reserve would give me a whole night of searching if I used the low power setting, so I asked Natif for a jug of water and settled in to begin my work.
“Did I miss the party?” Silk asked from the growing shadows, pulling a filthy robe off with a grateful noise.
“Just starting. Quite the day, lots to talk about. Take a seat, Silk. Care for wine? Water?” I asked, waving at the table. It was bleached wood and surrounded by sturdy chairs. Natif had been busy, bringing supplies up for our night of diving into the past.
“Mind if we watch over your shoulder?” Silk asked. She poured water for herself and drank deeply. Her long black curls were disheveled from the newest costume, which was an imitation of a beggar with no shoes. I liked her better without the ratty robe.
“Sure. It might put you to sleep. No promises.” I picked the fourth drive for no reason at all other than it was closest to my hand, and in seconds, I whooped to the stars.
Inside the drive was the world.
“Bloggers. You gotta love ‘em,” I said, scrolling through a mass file of compiled tech, games, and culture blogs, their owners now long dead. “Nice to know people were still recording the most ordinary things even while I slept. This is what I want. This is what we want.”
“What’s that?” Mira asked, pointing to a mass of text.
“Tech bloggers from ten years after—after I went in the tube,” I said. It was a searchable file, so I did the only thing that I knew to start getting answers.
Search: Marsten+Dana+Nanotechnology.
I got two hits, dragging the first open with a rapid-fire action on the touchpad. “I found the doctor who put me under. At least, this is his name.” Sliding my eyes down the page, I felt the wind leave my chest. “Oh, shit. I think I know why I was left to rot in that tube.”
“A fire?” Silk asked, reading the hovering text.
“Killed along with his team in a second facility, less than three months after I went under,” I said.
“Why didn’t anyone come for you?” Mira asked.
The answer was simple. “No one else knew. He was operating outside the lines, on a secret budget with money that was probably being siphoned away from something like wrenches for tanks. Fucking spooks.”
“Spooks? Like a being in the wind?” Silk asked. Apparently, there were still ghost stories, even in her world.
“Spies. People who worked for my government but really worked for themselves. They kept secrets and ran ops that would curdle your blood if you knew the truth about it.” My laugh was bitter as I rubbed at my arm, feeling the hard muscle there. “My blood did curdle, just not in the usual way.”
“So you were forgotten,” Mira said. She sounded sad, but my grin lightened her expression. I wasn’t sour about my situation. I had too much to do, and wasting time on what could have been was a luxury I didn’t have, not with Taksa and Senet on their way to the circle forest.
“I guess I was.” I kept reading, then added a second search. “Where did the Harlings say those ruins were?” I asked Mira.
“Alatus, or at least nearby,” came her answer.
“Okay, that’s something.” I typed, and the second search floated on the screen like a curse.
&
nbsp; Search: Alatus+Nanotechnology+US Armed Forces.
One hit came back from a source that made me smile stupidly. “God bless conspiracy theorists,” I muttered, hitting the file with a genuine laugh. They were just usually batshit crazy, but once in a while, they hit the same mark I was hoping this particular paranoid blogger knew what she was talking about. “Let’s see what BilderGirl337 has to say about—holy shit. It’s not Alatus. It’s Altus Air Force Base.”
“A base? For what kind of people?” Lasser asked. The name meant nothing to him since he had no context, but my reaction made everyone sit up and take notice.
“Air Force. One of the armed forces of my country, the United States. There was a base to the south, which explains a lot as to why there’s tech to be found in that direction. Must be a smaller site, since the ruins are so far to the east,” I said.
“What kind of Hightec did this Air Force use?” Silk asked.
“Aircraft. Flying things made of steel that could go faster than anything on earth, along with missiles, bombs, and space technology. The stuff of fantasy—or nightmares, even back then. Figures they would be the ones to push for a program that could let us sleep our way to the stars,” I said. My words made me think of how much we lost, and the weight of it was stifling.
“You were a soldier, right?” Lasser asked.
“A Marine. A different kind of soldier, but that’s who I was. I learned computers, too, but in my heart, I’ll always be a Marine. That’s why this decision is so easy,” I said, moving the cursor around to read more of the file.
“What decision?” Silk asked.
“To stay and get rid of people like Wetterick. To try to build something where it looks like everyone is just hanging on. Which brings me to my next search. I have my answer, sort of, and it’s time to get yours,” I said, typing in the next question.
Future Reborn Page 14
