Echo (51 page)
I heard a few shouts and saw a child come running out of the woods with a woman in pursuit. She caught him and carried him screaming back into the forest.
“Okay, people,” Turam said, “let’s go.”
Four of them peeled off and disappeared into the trees near the front doors. “Just in case Alex is reading her wrong, and she tries to make the pickup here.”
The rest of us went down and commandeered three rowboats. It took twenty minutes to get across, and I was worried the whole time that she’d appear while we were in the middle of the river. We rowed slowly, letting the current carry us around the bend. “That’s where she’ll take us,” Alex had said. “She’ll want to get far enough away that she feels safe.”
Dex showed me how to fire the rifle. Load it like this, aim, pull the trigger. It seemed simple enough.
We landed without incident, dragged the boats into the woods, and hid there ourselves. We were near a beach that seemed like the perfect place for Salyeva. This was well out of sight, and there was plenty of room to bring Alex and Rikki ashore, if that’s the course she took, and demand their links before killing them.
Alex was back in the main building with Rikki. We’d set up our communications so that if he got a call, it would automatically be relayed to me. Once we were in place, there was nothing to do but wait.
I don’t think we talked much. I remember watching the sky, and I can still see Turam’s rifle leaning against a tree. I picked up my own rifle periodically and practiced aiming it. The thing was
heavy
.
heavy
.
A pair of furry tree-climbers chased each other up and down a nearby trunk. And I thought how old some of the trees looked. Vines clung to them, and the ground was disrupted by roots that stayed close to the surface. If you didn’t watch where you were walking, it wouldn’t take much to fall on your face.
Inevitably, it came. The first indication was from the woman who’d assured me they’d take care of the bitch. “Look,” she said, pointing out over the river, “there it is!”
Petra Salyeva was an hour and ten minutes ahead of schedule. At first she was only a distant speck moving across the clouds. But the speck grew larger, became a torpedo-shaped aircraft with narrow wings, and eventually mutated into a squat silver vehicle with VIPER in blue script on the starboard hull just above its numeric designator. It drifted down in the direction of the compound. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I could make out a set of proton guns on the prow.
Turam saw them, too. “They look pretty ugly,” he said.
“She’s not fooling around.”
He wiped the back of his hand against his lips. “Never thought I’d live to see anything like this.”
I doubted there’d been any aircraft operating on Echo III for centuries, although there were pictures of them in one of the books. But they hadn’t looked anything like the Viper. And I doubted they’d had antigravs.
My link clicked. Relayed traffic incoming. I turned it on and heard Alex’s voice.
“You’re early.”
“You’re early.”
“Good headwinds, Alex.”
Turam’s eyes narrowed. It almost seemed he understood the language.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’d like you and your associate to come outside, please.”
“We can’t manage it at the moment. I’m in the bath. I didn’t expect you for another hour.”
“Make it happen, Alex. If the two of you aren’t out the front door in two minutes, I’ll start removing the cabins.”
“Okay. Hold on. We’re coming.”
The Viper was at about four hundred meters, slowly circling the area. As planned, nobody, either at our position or near the compound, took a shot at it. Turam asked me to point out the pods, which I did. “Take those out,” I told him, “and it goes right into the river.” They were under the fuselage, front and back, unlike on our lander, where they were installed under each wing.
“We’re coming out,”
said Alex. I translated for Turam.
said Alex. I translated for Turam.
We heard the front doors open. And the sound of Alex’s crutches scraping the steps down off the porch. And Rikki’s voice, whispering, barely audibly, “Careful,” but saying it in the local language, and not in Standard.
“I’m sorry to see you’re injured,”
Salyeva said.
Salyeva said.
“I’ll be okay.”
Maybe they’d gotten away with it.
The sounds stopped. They would be standing in front of the building.
“Come down to the riverbank,”
Salyeva said.
“I’ll pick you up there.”
Salyeva said.
“I’ll pick you up there.”
“I’ve a broken leg,”
said Alex.
“That’s a long walk. Why not pick us up here?”
said Alex.
“That’s a long walk. Why not pick us up here?”
That was good. Sound reluctant.
Rikki and Alex would be staying well apart from each other so they couldn’t be taken out by a single shot.
I would have liked to remind Alex to stay as close as he could to the trees when he got down to the riverbank. That might give the people down there a chance to bring the Viper down. But I couldn’t talk to him without alerting Salyeva.
“Petra, I was wondering whether we could offer you something to get you on our side?”
“Your cooperation will be sufficient, Alex.”
“I doubt you’re being paid enough for this.”
“You have no idea what I’m being paid.”
“Nevertheless, I think I can offer more.”
“That is good of you, but ask yourself what happens to my career once word gets out that I can’t be trusted.”
“I understand.”
“Good. When this is over, I would be available, should you have need of my services.”
The crutches creaked across a wooden surface. They were on the pier.
“You’ve been quiet, Chase,”
said Salyeva.
said Salyeva.
That was my cue. “I know,” I said. “There isn’t much to say.”
“Chase, do you see the boat?”
I couldn’t see the boat, of course. Couldn’t even see the pier. But I remembered that we’d left two there.
“The rowboat?”
I said.
“The rowboat?”
I said.
“Yes. Chase, please push it into the water, then help Alex get into it.”
She chuckled.
“Try not to let him fall overboard.”
She chuckled.
“Try not to let him fall overboard.”
“I can’t get into a boat,”
said Alex.
“Come on, Petra, be reasonable.”
said Alex.
“Come on, Petra, be reasonable.”
“I’m simply being cautious, Alex. I’ll pick you up across the river, where I won’t be quite so exposed.”
“I can’t do it,”
Alex said.
Alex said.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to, Alex.”
I heard the boat strike the side of the pier as they (presumably) pulled it in. And I added my own contribution. “Be careful, Alex,” I said into the link. “Watch your step.”
Alex grunted. I heard the noises you would expect if someone climbed clumsily into a rowboat. “Okay,” I said. “That’s good.”
“All right, Petra,”
Alex growled.
“What now?”
Alex growled.
“What now?”
“You get in, too, Chase. And put out into the river.”
Oars creaked. Dipped into water. Dipped again.
“You’re doing fine. Keep coming.”
The Viper stopped circling and moved out over the river. We caught glimpses of it now and then through the trees.
“Where are we going, Petra?”
“Just cross to the other side. That’s all I want you to do.”
Just cross to the other side? “Turam,” I said, “we’re at the wrong place.” She wasn’t going to bring them downstream.
Turam pointed at four of his people, and at himself. Follow me. The others were to stay in position.
Then we were running through the woods. Unfortunately, all of them were stronger and quicker than I was. The gravity weighed me down. Soon I was alone.
“Just a little farther,”
said Salyeva.
said Salyeva.
I kept running until I was completely out of breath. I stopped and leaned against a tree, listening to the voices on the link.
“That’s good, Alex. Far enough.”
“That’s good, Alex. Far enough.”
I still couldn’t see them, but there hadn’t been time to get across. They had to be in the middle of the river.
“Now, Alex, I want you to do something for me.”
“What’s that, Petra?”
“Where’s your link?”
I took off again, moving as fast as I could.
I took off again, moving as fast as I could.
“On this.”
I could see him removing the chain and holding it up for her to see.
I could see him removing the chain and holding it up for her to see.
“Excellent. Drop it in the water.”
“You can’t mean that.”
“Of course I can. Please do it. But leave it on, transmit mode, so I’ll hear the splash.”
“Petra—”
“Do it.”
I heard the splash.
“Chase, where’s yours?”
My heart stopped. I could see the river through the trees, but I didn’t dare get rid of the link. Couldn’t get rid of the link.
“Good. Throw it in the river.”
I wondered what Rikki had shown her. It didn’t matter.
I was still running, trying to get to the shoreline. Not sure what I was going to do when I got there.
I stopped long enough to say something into it: “It’s all we have, Petra. You can’t expect—”
“That’s interesting, Chase.”
“What is?”
“How you can still talk through it after you’ve thrown it into the water. Even more intriguing, when the woman in the boat is saying nothing. Well. I’m sorry, but I need you to understand I’m serious.”
“Wait,” I said. “I’m coming.”
“Too late, Chase.”
The proton gun fired. A loud, crisp crackle.
The proton gun fired. A loud, crisp crackle.
“You
bitch
,” I screamed at her.
bitch
,” I screamed at her.
And at that terrible moment, we caught a break. The Viper was drifting with the boat, facing the boat. Facing away from me. It was just off the water. And the current was bringing the boat around the curve. I could see it. Alex was in the water, clinging to the side of the rowboat. There was no sign of Rikki. I don’t know where Salyeva thought I was, but I don’t think it occurred to her there was anyone behind her.
I had to run out into the water to get a clear shot.
“Now,”
she was saying,
“we’ll try this exercise again. You have one hour to get the other link for me. Or the consequences for this community will be severe. In one hour, Chase, get into a boat, and come back out here. Do that, and everybody will live.”
she was saying,
“we’ll try this exercise again. You have one hour to get the other link for me. Or the consequences for this community will be severe. In one hour, Chase, get into a boat, and come back out here. Do that, and everybody will live.”
I figured I had one shot, after which she’d clear out before I could reload. But it was a good shot. The rear pod was dead in my sights. So I stood knee-deep in the water and pulled the trigger. I moved quickly to pop another round into the chamber, but I saw the Viper dip, drop tail first toward the water, and try to climb. I’d hit the son of a bitch. I fired off several more rounds, and I think I hit the forward pod as well. Couldn’t be sure, because the target was jumping around. But it plowed into the river.
It sank slowly. The hatch never opened, and the lander simply went down, leaving behind swirling water and a rising cloud of steam.
I swam out and barely caught the rowboat as it drifted past. “God, Chase,” Alex said, “I tried to save her.”
I climbed into the boat but wasn’t able to get him in. So I just hung on to him until help arrived.
PART IV
Fallout
FORTY-FOUR
Conscience can be a mosquito that bites and gnaws at the psyche. It can be an avalanche. It can be a voice in the night. It is a Darwinian force without which civilization could not survive. But for all that, it is not infallible.
—Avram Zale,
The Last Apostle
The Last Apostle
Salyeva’s link remained silent. Turam put together a diving team, but they reported that the lander’s hatch couldn’t be opened and that they could find no way into the vehicle. As far as I know, she and her Viper are still at the bottom of the river.
We never found Rikki. There was a memorial tribute to her the following evening. It was odd: I’d known her only a very short time, but when they said that they’d asked her to go with Alex because she was so much like me, I wanted to believe it was true.
I don’t think they blamed us. Nevertheless, a distance opened between us and our hosts. For the first time since we’d arrived at the compound, I felt like an outsider. An
alien
. “They lost one of their own,” Alex said later. “And I think the technology scared them, as well. They didn’t realize the kind of weaponry we have.”
alien
. “They lost one of their own,” Alex said later. “And I think the technology scared them, as well. They didn’t realize the kind of weaponry we have.”
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