Chapter Thirteen
Early in the morning, Knight, Blade and Nev changed the color of the vehicle, increased its power conversion efficiency and added two 'accessories.' When they finished, they moved the LH and trailer to the shop, Knight and Blade's car to the garage and the once-white, now teal, mobile unit to the boathouse.
After that, they mowed the lawn and trimmed the hedges. After they mowed the 'growth' around the boathouse, they did some weeding and seeding. Rain would begin at eighteen forty-five, so it was time to do it.
Case and Stats did an installation at Silky's house, then four in the garage. Dawn and Danny did two installations in Ronnie's garage. All three of the cars had already had great ported sound systems and solar panels, so none of the installations took long. By sixteen, two newlywed couples were enjoying the uncovered pool and sun and nine of their friends, including Dayton and Jace were in the front yard discussing doing something about the comp in Silky and Essa's car.
It had argued when Silky had ordered system shutdown. The group discussion of probable cause led to a decision to see if they were right and six looked on, while Knight, Blade and Nev removed the comp and began testing circuit paths on the motherboard. They found it right where Dawn had predicted and she bowed to applause. When one of the IS patrol cars went by at sixteen twelve the comp was being put back in the car. At sixteen seventeen oh seven, Danny got up from her comfortable lounge on the lawn.
"Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Blaaaat! The great comp fart has caused crossed eyes among the deserving."
"It was so nice of that patrol to come by. I was a bit worried they were going to skip the drive-by this afternoon, and we worked so hard to make the yard look good on vid."
"I'm going to go in and do the double-check giggle over the blame-throwing, then give Ronnie my wedding present, a call home to introduce her husband."
"Danny…"
"Knight, they never noticed we were gone because we weren't. The book is progressing nicely. Ritzi and her friends work on it in the tiny efficiency apt they rented down the hall from her. She doesn't use the comm often and neither do her friends, but they do call each other once in a while, to say they've got an idea, or they're bringing meeting munchies. Sorry, Nev, but you didn't see your parents and uncle holding onto each other and desperately praying you'd live, with more to hold and pray arriving every minute. I wasn't going to give IS any excuse to hurt them more. If they'd discovered the book and comm calls came from elsewhere, they'd have discovered they came from Solbeiter Island, right in the middle of Great Vine Swamp. Since they don't know the island would sink if a flyer landed on it, or too many people stand on it, it was a bit difficult not to wish they'd go look for us. I put the warning back in the survey record this morning. I love you, have since we met and always will, but I never said I agreed 'just disappearing' was the best way to protect our families."
"She didn't, Nev."
"She didn't."
"Didn't say she didn't agree, but didn't say she did, either."
"I know, Stats. It just sounded like she did. Thank you. It would've made us all nervous because only you could really be sure it couldn't be traced farther."
"Only the princess understands the wind magic well enough to completely trust it. She thinks she asks the others to trust her to use it often enough already, and it would have been work for them to believe the wizard couldn't find the user, even if he discovered the magic. Oh, the wizard was banished by a spell that created the doorway into a realm where magic doesn't exist, but now the slyest of the beasts have his staff of power and book of spells. However, they're not wizards. The knight, the elf and the faerie prince show the people how to 'bend like the young tree in the wind.' The spells meet no resistance and spread, thin and dissipate, each one draining the staff of power a bit more. But they're beasts and when it's gone, the spell that makes them appear to be people will be gone. There will no longer be any reason not to ravage the land in traditional beast manner. At this point, the object is reduce the number of dumb beasts in the pack. Since the sly beast leaders aren't doing a good job of keeping them fed, the number who decide being minions is no longer fun and go home to get something to eat grows daily. The captain of the city guard is a wily fellow. He's feeding the beast-people who are supposed to assure the people resist the spells. It makes them a little more reluctant to do something, to end the supply of tastiest meals they've ever had, every day. The princess just found a place the staff of power was weakened by a bunch of beasts going home and taking disguise magic with them, and used wind magic to blow away the spell to listen to what people said. The spell still exists in the book, but it takes a lot of work to set things up to perform it. Since everything learned about people, which was used to force them to give the minions coin, would be returned, if the spell was recast, they're working very hard on it, and more of the dumb beasts decide it's not fun anymore and go home to get dinner every day, and every one who does takes a tiny bit of power from the staff. The hero-for-a-demon didn't like the wizard and the beast-people have always disgusted him. He's got all the business demons assuring their people bend. It looks probable his cooperation with the heroes is going to lead to his chunk of the land becoming a peaceful part of it and a rather pleasant place to live. The people in it are already sure he's taking good care of them. He likes it and it's proving to be quite profitable. Now all we have to do is write the end."
"You wrote me in as a faerie prince."
"No, you wrote you in. I just decided you were right about the companion being a misplaced elf and he was right about you shedding fairy dust. In the book, the knight's parents were killed by the wizard's minions. The elf's were murdered by a servant of an evil demon in league with the wizard. Both elf and faerie prince are half human. The prince's mother's brother is king. He despised the wizard and hates beasts. He can't really help, but he gave the nephew he loves a magic purse and opened the gate to the human realm for an instant, for him to step through, which was not easy with evil on the other side. The prince is luckier than full humans, but not so much he realizes it's part of him and not just luck. He's as determined as the knight and elf to cleanse the realm. There aren't many in the faerie realm, but there never were. The faerie know, as do the few remaining elves, hidden deep in the mountain forest, that the humans are their brothers. Their gifts separated them from humans somewhat, but the wizard locked the gate, and they learned they can't survive alone. The prince and the elf companion are the only children that have been born of them in the two hundred years, since the wizard made their separation total. They live a long time, but it's running out. They wait in hope they can bring their gifts back to the human realm. If they hadn't decided they'd be more comfortable not brushing against the less pleasant human emotions, the land wouldn't have hired an evil wizard. In all the other lands, the elf and faerie blood in the humans would have assured they knew if the wizard was evil and no spell could hide it. Obviously, Ronnie helps write."
"Obviously. Does she know…"
"No, Nev, but she knows the spell could be ended in a flatulent burst."
"Go tell her it farted."
"After I double-check it did. I know I did it right, but I always check my work twice, anyway."
"From top-down, then bottom up. Knight taught me you've got to do it both ways, after you check every step as you finish it."
"And you still cross your fingers when you turn it on, Blade."
"I still remember that well, Case. Oops."
"He put me out of the car to test the sword, because…"
"It was my ears we were depending on to calibrate the calibrator, and I don't get a glazed look and bring something new into existence."
"We knew it had to be tested, Blade. We've just learned if we all have the same feeling about something, we've got a very high probability of being right."
"One hundred percent, so far, but that's just so far
."
"You see why I carefully don't say 'always,' Blade."
"Yes, Case, Stats qualifies even when you don't."
"Come in here! You got to see this!"
Danny didn't get out to the pool to tell Ronnie. She saw them all laughing through the patio doors and ran for them, Bance, Essa and Silky close behind. Squabbling over Bremp's list had ended mid-squab. Comm monitoring personnel weren't resigning, they were running out the doors. They'd found the exact time, yelped, someone had sent, "They'll reassign us to the field until it's fixed," to all stations and they ran. They'd all heard the complaints of no food.
The only ones who hadn't run were the programmers yelling they hadn't linked the systems that way, the database was intact and they were already at work on getting the system back up, but it wouldn't have gone down if they'd done it, because they'd have put in a command conflict override, and it was a dumb way to link it, and they hadn't done it, but they could fix it, even though they hadn't done it, and were already working on it, and it wouldn't have happened if they'd done it, but they hadn't done it…
"Bremp's dead. Blame him. The fact he was dead when they were linked is inconvenient, but that's all."
"Exactly, Blade. The ranks are screaming, but they don't dare remind the programmers he was dead, because they're the only ones who can fix it. Since they don't dare, they're screaming at each other and field officers asking for dinner. 'Go find a snack shop. We have real problems to deal with.' Bye-bye field officers in droves. There are two here! They know the police are feeding the officers assigned here and want it stopped. Whoa. They did not get the same treatment. Very polite, 'pick up at the commissary.' They scare the higher ranking officers. G. Winderd and D. Follesley, images."
"Oh, shit."
"You know them, Blade?"
"They're fascists, Danny. They're from a low-income neighborhood just outside Roper district. I don't know where they got it from, but they started believing they were better than anyone else when they were still kids. They're smart and absolutely sure democracy can't work here. They're 'throwbacks' to the superior race that was diluted by the democratic idea of equality, which resulted in their blood being mixed with inferior races."
"They don't look any different than anyone else to me."
"That's because of the mixing, Jace. They're supposed to look like that, but most people who are medium brown, got that way because the black, white and several shades of brown races were encouraged to mix. Their intelligence and innate ability to command are the racial characteristics that prove they're 'the real thing.' And they can command. They scare the shit out of people and they do just what they say. 'Icy cold' is right. They'd beat someone to death if it was the appropriate action, without anger, pleasure, remorse… It would just be a decision. They've got to be killed. They'll kill several of their own officers, or some family in a car, to get the required response. See if you can learn who their commander is, Danny, and get us the commissary pickup schedule."
"Wait! Go back. Look at those assignment dates."
"You think we found the names for our blank line, Ronnie?"
"I think Blade just described who'd order students, a professor and anyone else close, murdered to assure no one else knew what one student had discovered, and that they had him, Dawn. That was an extremely efficient plan, if it hadn't been for the shield, which messed it up twice, but they never bothered with us after they learned there wasn't a weapon. The 'lessers' made an error. They didn't check to be sure the reason for excitement was the correct one. If they had, they'd have gotten the shield too. I suspect they were 'disciplined,' but we were no longer relevant, just routinely watched."
"That's them, though there has to be someone higher, and he looks like them. If he didn't, they wouldn't accept his orders."
"I'll do an image search and match it with our time-frame later, Blade. There's the commissary order, and a time."
"It can't be close and it's got to look like an accident."
"That's not going to be easy, Blade."
"It never was, Case. Let's go. No, Nev. Not you."
"Would you prefer I follow you?"
"I prefer you stay here and cover for us."
"I can't. I don't feel it's essential and I can't. If I felt it was, I could, but I don't, so I'd pace with my stomach churning and my palms sweating, until I couldn't stand it any longer, then I'd be in the T following and tapping a request for your current location, so I didn't pass you."
"Get in the car, Nev."
"Yes, Knight."
"He would have, Blade."
"How did I end up with two of you I can't leave behind?! Get in the car."
"Yes, Blade."
"You'd better take some food."
"It's stocked, Essa. We did it when we brought it in. Cook what's on the right of the second shelf in the keeper. It came out of it. When Nev comes back in to look for me, tell him I went to the toilet, and to get a dark shirt and jacket. When Knight comes in, tell him the same."
"Why didn't you tell them?"
"If I told them, it would be 'this time,' Day. This way, they'll think about the time, where we're going, what we may need to do and decide how to prepare. The shields make it easy. This time, we'll probably have to turn them off for the whole time were getting ready, and pissing where you're arranging an accident isn't wise, unless you're arranging it in a toilet."
When Knight and Nev got back in the car, they also had on dark shoes, socks, pants and caps. Both had jackets and gloves and Knight had a jar of the 'face cover' Blade had taught them to make in the kitchen, right after they got the house.
Blade checked the material of their jackets and smiled. Both had figured out they weren't just for warmth. If they had to work hard, they'd trap their sweat and odor, and keep them somewhat dry. He nodded and Knight turned on the shield. Case opened the garage door.
"I hope they didn't listen to the forecast early yesterday."
"No news but IS updates. It's available on the infonet, Blade."
"No, Knight, it's not. Gradelode Global Net decided it's news. They've got a compliance notice on their site. The gov is supposed to have a meteorology service, but GGN was doing it, so they obviously just copied theirs. That way they didn't have to buy all that equipment or pay meteorologists. The GGN compliance notice was on the gov site too."
Nev and Knight burst into laughter. Blade smiled. News shows gave a two-day forecast and a five-day probability. The longer the time after two days, the less accurate. At five days, they could tell that an area was likely to get rain, and if it would be most likely morning or evening, but not how much or where and when it would fall. Newsbriefs usually gave a six-hour forecast. News updates gave it for a day. If a forecast included precipitation, locations and times for six hours took most of the scheduled time. If you wanted a two-day, you watched or listened to news shows early morning or evening, or checked the infonet. They'd listened as they drove to Silky's apartment. There wasn't an evening news show. Blade had looked for the next day and learned no one was going to know if it was going to rain, until they got wet.
Blade had an idea of where and what type of accident, but he only knew about the place. He'd never seen it, personally. He'd looked at images of the area on the net. The gov had decided putting up a sign recommending an alternate route in rain was cheaper than routing the sudden stream under the gravway and building a barrier to keep rocks from falling on it, or cutting the steep hill to move both back.
If the two got on the gravway and didn't get off before it started to rain, they couldn't before they got there, during or after the heaviest rain. There just wasn't anywhere to get off. The gravway was between steep up and steep down, but there was a road off northeast of it and it went up. Their car was designed to drive over the type of ground that was there, rocky and generally flat. In that place, it abruptly ended in steep a long way down. If the two didn't come that w
ay, they'd have time to get ahead of them again. The alternate was much longer.
He knew when the storm would get to the capital. Its average velocity told him when it should reach Knock-off Stream. They'd be going slowly. The stream was much more dangerous than rocks. They were only a possibility.
He wasn't worried they'd mistake the car. IS vehicles were quite recognizable, even if the IS globe was off, it was on top. Staff cars didn't have weapon mounts, but they had that. Blade rather expected they'd be in a patrol car, with weapons mounted.
He went to the back and began fixing dinner. It wouldn't be ready for a while. It took time to prepare and time to cook, but they'd eat early. It was seventeen fifty-three where they were going, and the rain predicted there wasn't from the same front. The one that would dampen Teal Valley was a much slower and milder system.
Ten K before they reached the turnoff, Blade told Knight to stop to "drain tea." Nev said he was relieved. Blade said he wasn't, but soon would be. He told them going before they left home for that length of journey, probably sipping tea at least half the way, made the stop the right place to get rid of tea.
They pulled far enough off the road it wasn't 'reflected' on one side and got out of the car, but not out of the shield. A few moments after their relief stop, they turned off the gravway.
There wasn't much traffic. The haulers that delivered goods weren't needed, business travel wasn't needed, and curfew at twenty-three thirty kept more other people close to home. It was twenty oh eight when they reached the area of the stream and drove off the side road toward it. When they found it, Blade had Knight park so they were headed out, but the shield opening was pointed into the trees. They practiced stepping into the shield with Nev three times, then Blade marked the exact place with a rock at each corner of the shield.
They wore their personal shields to reconnoiter. It was getting dark, but it wasn't yet and they were doing a lot of looking over the edge. Blade stepped back and turned off his shield. Knight and Nev followed.
"We need to work quickly. We're going to set up a couple big rocks and several smaller. We can't completely predict the path and trajectory, but we don't need to hit them square, just make them lose control as they hit the stream. Nev, how are you doing?"
"I'm reminding myself their job is get an excuse to destroy my hometown."
"This is more difficult, because they have time to know they're going to die. If I'd been the type of the assassin people thought I was, it wouldn't have bothered me. It didn't bother them you were going to die horribly in a fire. They'll know, but it won't be as long as you would have, and death will be too fast to be painful."
"There were twenty-three too close to get out, Tarse. You saved them. You dove into the blast to hit the shield switch. Always a switch. Too many things can happen to a comp, so a manual switch on anything that might be dangerous. I love you. I screamed your name first. Are you going to make love with us?"
"Bard, do you think this is the time to ask?"
"Probably not, Harim, but if he's going to black out this time, I thought here was better than when we were moving rocks at the edge."
"You have a point. Are you, Tarse Terschell-Nevin Curran? I love you too."
"Yes, but not right now. The back of the car would be a tight fit and the ground's too rocky."
"We ask again when he doesn't have an excuse?"
"No, Blade, we just invade his room and bed, and get him excited too fast to think about asking us to leave."
"Good plan."
"We don't want to have sex. We want to make love. Danny's the only one you've made love with and that's been… still twice?"
"Yes, Knight."
"You need more make-love with people you love, before you make love with people you like, just because it's fun."
"We should all visit a brothel to learn how."
"We don't have a shortage of invitations, Blade."
"I know, Knight. But none of us have learned to say yes!"
"True. Let's move rocks."
"Let's give him a kiss first."
"Good idea."
Knight looked down at Blade and grinned. Blade suppressed a laugh. Nev was following. He might have been aware of it. Knight had chosen how to stop him rolling what they were doing over and over in his mind. It had worked. So had Blade's suggestion. He was thoroughly distracted. He'd be working by the time he 'came out of it,' and ready to accept both the necessity and difficulty. If it didn't pain to kill, one was a beast, not civilized. There must be reason enough to endure the pain.
They prepared. When they were done, they all sat under Knight's shield, out of the rain. When the stream began to flow, they separated and turned shields back on for a few minutes, then Blade turned his off. Knight and Nev turned theirs off and their collars up. It was light inside the shield. Blade didn't think it was quite time yet, but it was a rain-darkened night and it would take time for their eyes to adjust.
The stream was a torrent flowing out of a spout. It wouldn't have been especially dangerous if it just flowed across. It came down on the gravway. It could be avoided, but the water couldn't. They'd had their shields off about ten minutes when they saw the car.
No one counted it, but Nev softly said, "For twenty-four," then pushed. Knight and Blade pushed rocks at the same time. Knight grabbed Nev and pulled him back, then they heard a rumble and Blade was suddenly running, pulling them both. They ran for the car. Knight turned off the shield. They dove in and he got them out of there and onto the road, then down the road fast.
"What happened?"
"The whole thing started to go. I barely got back far enough fast enough. The rock Nev pushed hit a real big rock and it went, and then the whole top of the hill started following. The big rock came down right on top of them. They didn't know they were going to die."
"Next time, he pushes little rocks."
"Definitely. It was the 'for twenty-four.' Something decided one rock wasn't enough. It also decided he shouldn't have to think about them knowing. He didn't want them punished, just stopped permanently, and he shouldn't be punished. I believe in God, Nev, but I only pray for life, not death. I know you didn't, but I was praying you'd be all right."
"Me too. Blade taught me to believe in God in a cell, with nothing but days of mind-numbing-boring labor days and nights in a cell ahead, for the rest of my life, but I didn't believe that. I didn't believe it from the time I learned you were alive. Blade taught me my prayer had been answered."
"I… know I'm better than I would have been, but… I'm reminding myself I'm sure my mother's human."
Knight and Blade burst into laughter. Nev went back and fixed them supper. It was nineteen thirty-seven in Teal Valley. They'd be home about a half-hour before curfew. Knight tapped a code on the pad. When the light flashed, "Ready," he tapped, "Nev pushed rock. Stop. Cliff went along. Stop. Reminding self sure mother human. Stop. In by twenty-three."
Six burst into laughter. Ronnie had understood the reference. Essa hadn't. Ronnie gave Bance, Silky and Jace the message. Jace burst into laughter. She gave Bance, Silky and Essa a fast brief on why a book, the story, and how they'd written Nev into it. Essa laughed. Bance and Silky were both just looking at her, then she realized Jace was. The others burst into laughter.
"What?"
"I'm awed."
"Incredible."
"What a talent. I thought she'd built the one she did last night. Bance, your wife awes me, too."
"She's been saying, 'Why am I always the one who gives the briefs?' the six years I've known her, guys. I just tell her she can give it faster than I could explain. I don't think she believes me."
"She doesn't believe me either, Case."
"Sweetheart, would you like a job?"
"Doing that?"
"I believe she doesn't believe you, Danny. Let's go home, Sweetie. I'll tell you all about reporting the news. I like you
r parents."
"They like you. They like not being comm monitored."
"Comm Channel Forty-eight newsroom."
"Hi, Bance."
"I thought you'd be there, Boss. The biggest news on this planet in a decade is being passed person-to-person, because IS isn't going to report it. However, it's now passing fast. Due to personnel shortage, IS linked planetary audio and comm monitoring systems. At seventeen seventeen seventeen gov center time, with a loud white-noise fart, a prime series command conflict completely wiped them out. IS isn't listening."
"Comm out!"
"Three-and-a-half hours ago."
"That's the right length of time for someone who worked there to get a little loose, Sweetie. Every person who knows anything about programming will know IS has to reprogram from the bottom up, and can't get to the database until they do. And that's a big programming job."
Case called Tarn, told him he was on Nev's comm and had gotten in first, then told him the news. Tarn said, "Comm out!" Danny tapped, "Spread it," to the mine. In Jenneara, a man got a comm call. He made two, one to Roper district and one to a woman with family on another continent.
When Ronnie and Bance got home, he called his dad. He'd already heard. Bance told him he'd commed Hammison, then walked his wife home and wasn't surprised.
The news spread around the world as fast as people could yell, "Comm connect!" Within ten minutes, comm calls were being queued for connection, but the queue moved fast. Chats would come later. Telling everyone the system had 'self-destructed' came first. People set their comms to answer, "Got it," or "I heard." Busy got common and the queue moved faster.
The comm system worked well. It was all private sector. The gov collected license fees and taxes, and didn't have to buy or maintain expensive equipment or pay skilled personnel. The only gov services that worked well were water treatment and medical lab monitoring. That evening, two results of the greed of the oligarchy had aided in ending the greatest threat to Teal Valley, and the world. A group within IS had chosen the only area on the center continent that didn't fear it to create the fear that would give them control.
Horgen Field had been built in the low altitude warm climate near Shimmer Lake. The thirteenth adit wasn't close, and a real road hadn't been built to it, but the invisible car had been built to use the path that still existed. Through the mine was a much shorter distance to the high valley towns northeast and inland, but all records showed 'danger, cave-in' and had for eighty years, and since Ritzi had built her auth code.
The people of the area were sure the shafts were blocked. It had been a cheap operation. They explained no one explored for that reason, to summer people, who came there to escape the subtropical heat of the equator-spanning continent.
There were towns in the tropics, on the coasts. Most of the population of the continent lived near the coast, but the north center was rich farmland, and the fourth largest city on the continent was there, Richland. It was where most summer people came from, and its university had been known for its physics program. The top line on the lists of many thousands had been checked off.