‘I don’t know, Olivia. How the hell
should
I be?’
‘I don’t know either,’ she replied, her voice choking on tears. ‘I wish I did.’
Goddamn her
. A part of him still wanted to hold her in his arms. He thought of Jeff, and felt a simmering resentment that he thought he’d outgrown long ago.
‘Look, I can send a copy of the files over to you right now.’
‘No,
don’t
do that. I found out they’ve got routines built into them that give away your location if they’re transmitted over any kind of network.’
Saul groaned, remembering that Donohue had told him much the same thing. ‘I sent them to you,’ Saul reminded her, ‘when they were still encrypted.’
‘Then it’s a good thing I didn’t stay at home, where I could be found.’
‘Fine, so what exactly does Jeff want to do with the files?’
‘Broadcast them,’ she replied. ‘People need to know what’s really going on, especially out there in the colonies. By the time the news starts spreading, we’ll be on our way to somewhere safe, and then it won’t matter if those people who tried to kill Jeff figure out where we are.’
‘Why Arizona?’
‘We’re at the Launch Pad facility,’ she said. ‘With the same people that took you and Mitchell up on your sub-orbital jump, remember?’
He ad a sudden mental flash of sleek black VASIMRs extending in ranks across the desert sands. ‘Like I could ever forget. But why are you there?’
‘Because they also run flights to the Moon, old-style Moon launches for people rich enough to afford it. It takes about three days to Copernicus City, the hard way – especially if you want to avoid passing through the Florida Array, for any reason.’
He realized, with a start, what she was telling him. ‘You’re seriously telling me you’re going to
fly
to the Moon?’
‘Strictly speaking, it’s only Mitchell that’s flying there.’
The rain started to ease off. ‘But what about you and Jeff? How are
you
getting there?’
He heard her sigh. ‘I’m not going to the Moon,’ she explained, ‘and neither is Jeff.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Saul listened as Olivia told him their plans to head for the Jupiter orbital platform.
‘You’re crazy,’ he said, once she had finished. ‘The research platforms weren’t designed to sustain independent populations. They need constant gate contact with Earth to function, as it is. And even if you could find some way to survive indefinitely, you’d be cut off from everything you’ve ever known.’
‘And, out in the colonies, we wouldn’t be?’
At least on some of the colonies you’d have open air to breathe
, he thought.
Saul’s feet were getting numb from all the walking. He came across an army truck, with trampled bodies scattered all around, and pressed both hands over his mouth and nose, to avoid inhaling the dreadful stench of decomposition. He next made towards a maintenance shed, in hopes of finding a car that hadn’t been trashed or burned out.
‘What about Galileo?’ he asked, once he’d left the foul-smelling truck behind. ‘There’s nothing to stop you and Jeff both going there, and Mitchell too.’
‘The new wormhole gate won’t reach orbit around Galileo for months.’
‘Doesn’t matter. There are enough emergency supplies on board that starship carrying the gate to keep several people alive for months, maybe longer.’
‘No,’ her voice was adamant, ‘I’ve talked this over with Jeff. I know you think we’re crazy, but we spent a good chunk of our lives on the Jupiter station, and the people there need us.’
‘I . . . guess I understand.’
‘For you it’s easy. You can just head through to the Lunar Array and make your way to the Galileo gate.’
He laughed bitterly. ‘Not any more. There are people out looking for me here.’
‘What happened?’
‘It’s a long story, but if they find me or if I try and get back inside the Array, I’m a dead man. But if I can reach the Lunar Array some other way, I have a fighting chance of getting through.’
‘Then that’s it. You need to come to Arizona, and ride up with Mitchell.’
‘That’s doable, is it?’
‘Christ, Saul, of
course
it is.’
‘That’s great,’ he said, feeling enormously relieved. No, more than relieved; it was a real chance at survival. ‘But before we talk about getting those files to you, or anything else, there’s something important we need to talk about – something seriously fucking important. One of Jeff’s video files showed Copernicus City in ruins, sometime in the future. The entire city was devastated, like a meteor had hit it. That
must
have been caused by whatever it is that’s caused the growths back down here.’
‘I guess,’ said Olivia, hesitantly.
‘But how could it – whatever
it
is – get there except through the Array? And if it can come through the wormhole gate all the way from Florida, then who’s to say it couldn’t spread through the rest of the gates, to the colonies as well?’
‘But . . . surely the gates will all have been shut down before that can happen?’
‘Which is exactly what I assumed,’ Saul replied. ‘But then I got to wondering why they hadn’t closed down the Florida gate
before
Copernicus was destroyed? If the footage I saw is anything to go by, the Lunar Array is going to be reduced to a ruin – but there’s no way of telling whether the gates themselves will be shut down before it’s too late.’
‘You think it’s possible they won’t be?’
‘What I think is that, if they’re going to shut anything down at all, it would have to be the Florida gate. That way they can still save Copernicus City and keep a foothold not just on the Moon, but also our solar system. But since we know they won’t manage to shut it down, that tells me something went wrong – and maybe they didn’t manage to shut down
any
of the Copernicus gates. Whatever happens to us,’ he said, ‘nothing is more important than making sure the worst scenario doesn’t happen. If it does, the colonies are finished, and the human race along with them.’
‘So what exactly is it you want to do?’
Saul looked and, suddenly and irrationally worried that someone nearby might overhear what he was about to say, and cry out in accusation.
‘I’m saying we ourselves need to destroy the gates at the soonest opportunity. Right now, if possible.’
He waited for what felt like a long time before she finally replied.
‘You can’t be serious,’ she said finally.
‘I’m entirely serious. Just think about the tens of millions out in the colonies who’ll wind up dead if we don’t do this. We’re talking survival of the species here, Olivia.’
‘We could still save some people—’
‘No.’ He shook his head violently. ‘At most you’d save a few thousand, if even that. There are billions more who are going to wind up dead, either way.’
When she spoke again, her voice sounded neutral, carefully controlled. ‘And how exactly do you intend to do this?’
‘We can use the Emergency Destruct Protocols to collapse the wormholes.’
‘Wouldn’t work,’ she replied immediately.
‘Why not?’
‘You need a minimum of two people, to activate the codes simultaneously, or it won’t work, and it’s not like they hand those codes out to just anyone who asks for them. You’d need special clearance from an executive committee, and I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.’
Saul thought for a moment. ‘Fair point. In that case, who does possess that kind of clearance?’
‘Not many people, for a start,’ she replied. ‘I’d guess a few dozen at most.’
‘Then maybe we need to try and find some of them. We need to track them down.’
‘Jesus.’ She laughed. ‘You really think it’s going to be that easy?’
‘No, I don’t,’ he replied. ‘That’s the one thing I don’t think. But I don’t know what else I can do.’
‘I’m not sure I should even consider helping you do this,’ she said, with a touch of outrage in her voice.
Saul punched the air in frustration, barely able to contain his anger. ‘
Listen
to me, goddammit. I’ve been through hell ever since you came asking me for help, so unless there’s some genuine flaw in my logic, some reason
why
we shouldn’t do exactly what I just described, I can’t see why the hell you wouldn’t want to help mequo;
‘All those people—’
‘Are never going to make it into the Array alive,’ he said. ‘Believe me, I’m here right in the thick of it, and nobody’s going in who isn’t being allowed in. The whole place is surrounded by soldiers, tanks and drones, and I’ve already seen more dead bodies than most people get to see in a lifetime. It’s a war zone, Olivia. No other word for it.’
Another trumpet-like blast from the sonar tanks a way off in the distance briefly drowned out the clamour of the crowds.
‘Do you realize what I’d have to do to find out who has that kind of clearance?’ she said. ‘You’re asking me to hack into the ASI’s own databases.’
‘To which,’ he reminded her, ‘you have privileged access as an ASI employee yourself.’
‘That makes no difference. It’d set off a trail of security alerts leading straight back to me.’
‘I think we’re long past the point where we need to worry about stuff like that. There are much more important things to consider than what happens to either of us, Olivia.’
‘Okay, okay,’ she said, sounding defeated. ‘But I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to locate that kind of information, even assuming that I
can
find it.’
‘All I’m asking is that you try.’
‘You really do sound like a callous son of a bitch, you know that? Between you and Mitchell, I don’t know which one of you has changed the most.’
Saul stiffened as he remembered Donohue’s unfinished warning. ‘What about Mitchell? How has
he
changed?’
She made an exasperated sound. ‘Why?’
‘Just humour me.’
‘Nothing I can really put a finger on, okay?’
‘Please,’ he said, ‘just try.’
‘There’s just something about the look on his face that sends chills through me. I don’t know how else to describe it. Maybe that’s because I know what happened to him. Anyway, why? Is it important?’
‘I don’t know,’ Saul replied. ‘Go and find out what you can, and get back to me straight away. We can talk about Mitchell later.’
They spoke for another minute or two, but there was a new brittle quality to Olivia’s voice, as if she no longer quite trusted him. The rain eased off as their call ended, the sun finally breaking through the clouds. Thousands of faces were now turned upwards, while Saul himself leaned, exhausted and weary, against a roadside bollard.
People, he’d already noticed, were giving him a wide berth. He could imagine what he must look like, drenched in blood, mud and sweat. What would they all think, he wondered, if they realized he was trying to take away the one shred of hope they were all desperately clinging to?
Don’t think about that
, he urged himself, all too aware of just how easy it would be to sink into a bottomless feeling of malaise. He had to keep moving, figure the rest out as he went along. He was never going to get to Arizona without putting serious distance between himself and the Array, and that meant a lot more walking unless he could find some form of transport. At the very least that would keep him busy while he waited to hear back from Olivia.
Hauling himself upright, he started walking again, wondering where the hell he was going to lay hands on some food. He was still running on adrenalin after his encounter with Donohue, but at some point soon he was going to have to eat.
As it turned out, he waited only a few minutes before Olivia got back to him.
‘Send me your coordinates,’ she told him briskly. ‘I need to know exactly where you are right now.’
Saul did as requested. ‘It’s going to be a lot harder than I thought to get out of here,’ he told her. ‘Every car I come across is either burned out or a total wreck. But I can see what looks like a medical drop zone just south of here, with manned choppers landing and taking off. There might be some chance of swinging a flight back to Orlando, or to somewhere else I can get to Arizona from.’
‘Stay put for now,’ she advised. ‘I’ve got hold of the names of some senior staff who’re cleared to carry EDP codes.’
‘I’m impressed,’ he remarked sincerely.
‘What can I say, I’m resourceful. But under any other circumstances I’d be facing about six life sentences right now. Is that impressive enough for you?’
‘I guess it is. So, who’s on your list?’
‘Turns out one of the people you want is holed up in a hotel near the Array. Place called the Dorican. You know it?’
Saul stared over at a row of hotels a couple of kilometres beyond the medical drop zone. ‘I see it. What’s his name?’
‘Constantin Hanover.’
Saul laughed. ‘You’re shitting me.’
‘You know him?’
‘You could say that. I wonder what he’s doing there?’