"And their economy has been less dislocated," Harry added.
"They'll also be less embarrassed to look each other in the eye once they sober up," Lek tossed in.
Ray pushed himself back from the table, let the idea roll over in his mind for several long seconds. "Things have been happening a lot faster than we can process them," he said slowly. "Before we go too far down this track, I'd like to verify a few assumptions. Can we find some recent evidence on our continent's north side of a new electronic net? Can we verify there's something new operating there? Once we've got a picture, we can risk mining down South, where the network isn't. Let's take a day or two, use the blimp we hijacked."
'Two blimps, sir," Mary grinned. "I had a hunch if you needed one this morning, you'd want two by tonight."
"Thank you and your crystal ball," Ray snorted. "Next point: Harry, where're the best minerals down South?"
"I was with brother Mark when he went eating around down there," Harry said. "Some good prospects, as you're measuring them now. Those data are locked up in the
Sterling family archives."
"Is that anywhere near the copy of the
Santa Maria
archives I've heard Vicky brag so much about?" Ray smiled.
"One and the same," Jeff grinned.
"And, of course, you know exactly where they are, Jeff."
"Been there many times."
"Mary, prepare a team for a possible covert op in Richland."
"Snatch and grab, sir?"
"Think checking out a library book."
"Vicky won't like that," Jeff and Harry said.
"Vicky's been playing hardball with these people, but she's got no idea what it's like in the big leagues. I've played for Wardhaven and Unity. Time she learns what happens when you pull things people don't like-on people who can do something about them."
"She's been pulling things people didn't like since she was a kid. All she's learned is that she can get away with them," Jeff pointed out.
"The times, they are a-changing. Right, Mary?"
"Yes, sir, Colonel, sir, three bags full." Mary saluted comically, then got deadly serious. "How soon?"
"Tomorrow night at the earliest, next night more likely. Depends on what Jeff and Harry find up north."
"I'll have marines ride shotgun when they go north."
"Do so, Mary. Jeff, Harry, can you leave at first light?"
"Looking forward to the trip," Harry said.
Jeff didn't look so enthusiastic. "Kat's shared the feed from the Covenanters. Sir, they're burning people up there. Can I borrow a rifle?"
"Mary, see the guy gets trained."
Nine
EVERYTHING RAY COULD do was done. He sidled into Med Bay One. "Doc, wire me for another nap." "You planning on talking with our Teacher?" "Yep, and he, she, it, or them may not care to see me." Doc glanced around his shop. "I got a few things guaranteed to wake the dead."
"Keep 'em handy," Ray said, not exactly relaxing onto the exam table. It seemed to take him longer to fall asleep, or maybe he wasn't as tired as this afternoon. He resettled himself for about the tenth time, wishing Rita were here to talk this out with. Thought of
Rita. Thought some more of Rita, happy thoughts of their times together ...
Ray was in his office on Wardhaven. No, not his office, he was on the wrong side of the desk. The Teacher sat behind an expansive, ancient oak desk; four images of the Teacher sat, two to either side. No, not precise images. Ray's mind dressed them in the latest bureaucratic fashion and made them up as five of the most contrary politicians Wardhaven had. They didn't just fight Ray and his technology initiatives, they fought any and all comers, including each other. Five more independent-minded politicians never shared the same government. Interesting. Subconscious, what are you trying to tell me? Later.
"You came back." "We didn't expect to see you so soon." "Or so late," different ones said. Ray searched for a pattern. Insufficient data so far.
"We share the same planet. We have to communicate."
"But with lies." "Why claim to do something you know you can't?" Both doubting shots came from the right.
"There is no benefit in lying," he told them. "It was never my desire to harm the Gardener. I think we were becoming friends. But the Gardener is gone. I believe I've offered you the only explanation for that fact." Ray's team wasn't the only one having difficulty swallowing six impossible things.
"Yes," the central one nodded. "The Gardener is gone."
"The Gardener was old," came from the right. "We had not heard from it in almost three hundred orbits. " "Much longer before then." "It is just gone. This thing had nothing to do with that."
"Yet you claim you did, " said the center.
"Accidentally," pointed out one on the left. "How is that possible?" "How did you do it?"
"That I do not wish to share with you, " Ray said.
"Why not?" snapped the center.
"Because what I did to the Gardener by accident, I may choose to do again with intent if you and I cannot agree on a way for us to share this planet."
"You dare demand a share of the planet we created from bare rock?" roared one on the right, leaping to his feet. "You are nothing. Nothing! I'll teach you!"
A hand reached out for Ray, grew impossibly long, and gripped his throat. Agony shot through Ray, pain that made the surgery on his shattered spine feel like a small splinter being removed by a loving mother. Ray gasped, struggled for breath, felt life fleeing from him....
And came awake. Jerry stood over him, shaking him. "Wake up, Ray. Corpsman, the paddles. His heart is going."
"Yes, sir."
"Don't you dare," Ray gasped. "They did enough."
"I just wanted to wake you, Sleeping Beauty."
"You did." Ray coughed, shivered, and worked the muscles
of his back and stomach, shaking off the shock, pain, anger.
Better, Ray lay back down. "Doc, you got a briefcase or something like it?" "Yeah." "Bring it here."
Jeff stepped into the Public Room, rifle slung over his shoulder, and came to a dead halt. Across from him, the old priest sat beside Annie and her dad. Father and daughter seemed somehow smaller. They slumped in their chairs, staring blindly ahead. "Annie," Jeff whispered softly. She just stared at the wall.
A few tables away, the marine Dumont was nursing a dead beer. "They've had a rough day," he said. "The war's come home. I see you got a rifle. You heading out to the war?"
Jeff hastened to kneel beside Annie. "Annie, what's wrong?"
"Men almost killed her and her da," the priest explained. "People coming out from the cities. Drunk .. ." the priest trailed off. "Du saved them. Saved the town, probably. He deserves our thanks."
Du winced at that and took another short sip from his beer. "I did what I'm good at."
Jeff swallowed hard. "The Colonel told us they'd picked stuff like that up on the sky eyes."
"We picked it up on the ground. Not quite as clean as from three thousand meters. Not nearly as pretty." The marine growled and offered Jeff a seat at his table. Jeff didn't want to leave Annie. He wanted to hold her, to make the pain go away.
Her mother's glare told him how that would be taken. "City slick," she snorted, putting two new beers down at Dumont's table.
Jeff joined the marine, resting his rifle on the table in front of him. The marine took it expertly. In a moment he had verified the safety was on, the chamber empty. "At least they taught you enough not to shoot yourself. How come the firepower?"
"We're taking a blimp north to do some sampling. Colonel thinks he's turned off what's making people crazy, but he wants to know if it's stronger up North. Things are bad there. They're burning people. I wanted a gun. Thought I'd keep it with me. If the crazies come here, I wanted to do something better than scream."
Dumont frowned into his frothing beer. "Yeah, it's better to do something more than scream." He glanced up, looked hard at Jeff with eyes cold as flint. "Don't forget. You'll be leaving them screaming."
A corpsman arrived, white lab coat showing a bird and two chevrons of authority. He silently went to Annie and her dad, checked their eyes, took their pulses, did other things Jeff did not know how to interpret. The medic turned to the priest. "They're in shock. Not unusual in cases like this. I can give them a shot that will help them sleep. That's the best thing for this."
"This happens often enough out there that you know how to help them." The priest waved at the ceiling, then at Annie.
"Too damn much of it, Priest," Dumont spat.
"All the time?" Jeff gulped.
"Some places have it a lot. Some places are as quiet as here was. Depends on the luck of where you're born." Dumont took a long pull on his beer.
"Nikki! Where's Nikki?" Annie suddenly demanded as the corpsman gave her the shot. Annie looked around wildly, eyes impossibly wide. Jeff doubted she saw him.
"There, there, daughter." Her mom quickly settled down beside Annie, took her head in her arms. "Nikki's all right. I just sent her out on an errand. She'll be right back."
"Not likely," Dumont said, now back to sipping his beer.
"Why not?" Jeff said.
"The kid ran out of here as soon as I told her mom what happened. Don't know where
she went or when she'll be back" Jeff thought of going after Annie's little sister, then rethought it. If the word was out
that city people had done this, were doing things like this, the dark streets and alleys of
Hazel Dell were no place for Vicky Sterling's little brother. Jeff turned back to Dumont.
"You may be busy in a day or two."
Dumont's brows went up but not a word came out.
"Colonel wants to raid my sister's archives. Let her know that she can't keep tightening the screws on people without them screwing her back. Be a chance to send a message to someone who started all this." Jeff inclined his head toward Annie, her dad, the east with Richland and Refuge.
The marine put down his beer. "That might be worthwhile. What do you think, Priest?"
"Be gentle, my son," the priest began. Dumont's hand came up in the beginning of an obscene gesture. "On yourself, boy. On yourself," the priest finished.
Dumont's gesture died in midmotion. He ended up wiping his eyes. "Don't know how to do that, padre. Got no idea at all."
Nikki fell, not for the first time, got up, and ran on. She'd run forever, her screaming lungs insisted. She wanted to run some more, forevermore. Run until she couldn't remember the sight of her da, the look on her sister's face, standing there in the doorway. Just standing in the Public Room they knew like they knew each other-and not able to take a step, find a chair until Ma and Nikki led them to one.
Then the starman had told his story and Nikki had run. Run from those she loved. Run from what she could not understand. Run, looking for a way to make it right. There had to be something Nikki could do to help. Somehow she'd ended up at Daga's. They'd been friends since forever. If anything would help, talking to Daga would.
Daga wasn't home. Hadn't been home all day, her ma said. Nikki had ran away from that door, afraid Daga's ma might take her back to Ma. Nikki couldn't face Ma, or Da, or Annie. Running was better.
Without knowing it, she found herself at Jean Jock's house. Breathless, she rapped on the door. It was a long time being answered, and it was Jean Jock's ma who did.
"Is Daga here?" Nikki asked, breathless.
"No, you poor dear. She went out just after Sean came back from the Public Room with the story of what happened to your poor da and sis. She went with all of them, including the three quiet ones from the city. There was talk they would not be back."
"Was Daga leading them?"
"Yes. She said she had something to show them."
"Holy Mother of God," Nikki breathed. "Holy Mother of God."
"May she and her Son help us all," the woman said, turning it all into a prayer.
"I don't think either of them can," Nikki whispered in apostasy. She turned away. Now she had to go home. Now she had to tell Ma what she'd done the day she skipped work. What would Ma and Da say? Would Da say anything? Ever again?
Victoria Sterling stared at the report. She was used to her people being incompetent. But this stupid? Even they must have worked at screwing up this badly. She slammed her hand down on the buzzer and started counting. That imbecile of a security chief had better be here before she got to ten.
He must have been expecting her ring. He was standing in front of her desk in five counts.
"What do you mean, a mountain vanished? Mountains don't vanish."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well." She waited to see how something this preposterous had gotten into a report on her desk.
"We did not report that one had. Only that several sources were reporting that one had," he clarified.
"Who?"
"Brother Jonah has told his inner circle of seeing just such a, ah, miracle, and considered it important enough to swear them to secrecy."
"He's probably just been nipping at the sacramental mushrooms. You can't trust what those mystics and dervish say."
"We are in total agreement, ma'am, but Brother Jonah has never been one of that ilk. We always found him one of the more rational among the religious fanatics."
"None is acting very rational right now," Victoria snorted.
"Something we are seeing a lot of."
Victoria fixed her man with a long look. Was he being sarcastic? He looked away first,
cleared his throat. "Among those we have under observation, ma'am," he clarified.
That sounded better, more properly servile. "I assume you have some other source or you would not be wasting my time with such an outlandish rumor."
"In the report you will note that this was twice mentioned by members of the spaceship's ground team. We have inserted three agents in villages near the camp. They have overheard conversations between crew members about a vanished mountaintop. When drunk, one of them raved on most frighteningly about his fear of having to face someone with 'artillery,' I believe was the word used, like that. There apparently has been a recent war between the rest of humanity with much loss of life."
"Yes, I saw that." Victoria dismissed that with the wave of a hand. That was there. This was here.
"Why didn't Jeffrey mention that to me when we talked?"
"Maybe he wasn't aware of it. Possibly the ship people do not share that information readily."
"Ha, little Jeffrey is nothing if not thorough. He was doing a survey out there. If that mountain went missing, he would have spotted it. Where is that boy, anyway?"
"Our last confirmed reports had him boarding the shuttle at the Refuge blimpfield."
Victoria spotted the use of "confirmed." She'd learned that her intelligence chief could hide a mountain under that word. "And your last unconfirmed report?"
"A team of star people arrived by shuttle late yesterday to assist Refuge in its crowd control problem." Victoria enjoyed a snort at that. She knew how to handle things like that, ship them off to the farms. No problem. "One of the three mules assigned to that group made a high-speed run to Sterlingview, where they met with the geologist, Harry Hoskins, and spirited away his family. One of our informants potentially identified your brother in that group. However, it was very dark."
"There was a mule not ten miles from here, and you let it get away!" Victoria was out of her seat. "I told you I wanted one of those in my lab! I wanted that mule!" she shouted.
"Yes, ma'am. Our informant had thirty people with him and was confident that they could apprehend the entire party. However, they had one of those marines with a rifle."