The Evolutionary Void (31 page)

“Yes.”

“I will do everything I can; you know that.”

“I know, Paula.”

“I may need help.”

“Whatever I can provide, you have only to ask.”

Eventually the forest gave way to a crumpled swath of grassy land that
stretched away for miles to a shoreline guarded by thick dunes. The rich blue
ocean beyond sparkled as the sunlight skipped across its gentle waves. Araminta
smiled mournfully at the sight, knowing she’d never be able to run across the
beach and dive into those splendid clear waters. The big quadruped beast she
was riding snorted and shook its huge head, as if sharing her resentment.

“Don’t worry; the whole beauties-of-nature thing gets tedious after a
while,” Bradley Johansson said. He was riding on a similar beast to one side of
her while Clouddancer plodded along behind.

“After how long?” Araminta queried.

“Millennia,” Clouddancer growled out. “Nature produces so much that is
worthy of admiration. Its glory never ends.”

Bradley Johansson pursed his round mouth and produced a shrill trumpeting
sound. After a day and a half riding with the pair since they’d left the
festival by the loch, Araminta had concluded this was his chuckle.

“Great,” she muttered. The fresh breeze from the ocean was invigorating,
countering her falling mood. They were approaching a narrow fold in the land,
one filled with small trees and dense scrub bushes. There was a pool at the
head of the slope, producing a tiny brook that trickled away down through the
trees. She reined in her mount just short of the water and swung her leg over
the saddle so she could slide down its thick flank. It waited patiently as she
performed her inelegant dismount. Bradley Johansson came over to help unstrap
her backpack. She never actually saw him climb down, though she was sure his
wings weren’t big enough to work in a standard gravity field.

“How do you feel?” he asked sympathetically.

“Nervous as hell.”

“Your spirit will prevail,” Clouddancer proclaimed. He was still sitting
on his mount, tail curled up at one side, wings rustling in mild agitation. His
head was held high as he looked toward the coast. If he’d been a human,
Araminta would have said he was hunting a scent in the wind.

“I have to,” she said, and meant it.

“I am proud of you, friend’s daughter,” Bradley Johansson said. “You
encompass all that is good and strong in our species. You remind me why I gave
everything I had to save us.”

Araminta was suddenly very busy with the clip around her waist. “I’ll do
my best, I promise. I won’t let you down.”

“I know.”

When she looked up, Bradley Johansson was holding a small pendant on a
silver chain. The jewel was encased in a fine silver mesh. A pretty blue light
was glimmering inside like captured starlight. He placed it around her neck. “I
name you that which you already are, Araminta. Friend of Silfen.”

“Thank you,” she said. Ridiculously, her eyes were watering. She smiled
over at Clouddancer, who bowed so solemnly toward her, it left her feeling
hopelessly inadequate. “Do you have any suggestions for your new Friend?” she
asked the pair of them, hating how weak she sounded. “My ex-husband said he’d
help me, but he’s not quite the most reliable of people even if his heart is in
the right place.”

“Laril isn’t independent anymore,” Bradley Johansson told her. “He can
still offer advice that would be helpful, but it is not his own.”

“Oh. Right.”
How do you know this?
That was a
stupid question; she was always allowing herself to be misled by the apparent
carefree child like lifestyle the Silfen followed.
There is
more to them than this, a lot more
. “So it’s Oscar, then? Will he be
able to help me with the machine-thing you warned me about?”

Clouddancer and Bradley Johansson exchanged a look. “Probably not,”
Clouddancer said. “Nobody really understands what it is.”

“Somebody must know or be able to work it out,” she said.

“That is for you to find, Friend Araminta.”

“Oh, come on! The whole galaxy is at stake here, including your own
existence. Just for once cut the mystic crap and give me some practical help.”

Bradley Johansson made his shrill chuckling noise again. “There is
someone you could ask, someone who may be smart enough to work things out for
you. He was a phenomenal physicist once. And he was named a Silfen Friend.”

“Yeah, and look what he did with that most honorable of gifts,”
Clouddancer growled.

“Of course he did,” Bradley Johansson said, sounding amused. “That is
what makes him who he is. That is why he is our Friend.”

“Who?” Araminta demanded.

“Ozzie,” Clouddancer sighed.

“Ozzie? Really? I thought … Is he still alive?”

“Very much so,” Bradley Johansson said.

“Well, where the hell is he?”

“Outside the Commonwealth. Oscar can get you there.” He paused, letting
out a sorrowful whistle. “Probably. Remember, Friend Araminta, you must walk
with caution from now on.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be careful. That part you can really depend on.”

“Come back to us afterward,” Clouddancer said.

“Of course I will.” There was a tiny ripple of doubt in her thoughts that
she swiftly quashed.
This is all so massive. Visiting
Ozzie! For … Ozzie’s sake
.

Bradley Johansson took her hand, and they walked toward the top of the
little wooded ravine. Araminta blew out a long breath and strode forward
confidently. Somewhere up ahead of her, winding through the trees and thick
bushes, she could sense the path to Francola Wood stirring at her approach.

“A last word for you, if I may,” Bradley Johansson said. “Anger is a fine
heat, one which you are now experiencing. Anger from being put in this position
through no real fault of your own, anger at the stupidity of Living Dream. This
anger behind your determination will power you at the start, allowing you to be
the force you want to be. Then there will come a moment when you look around
and see all you have carried before you. That is the most dangerous time, the
time when you can lose faith in yourself and falter. That cannot happen, Friend
Araminta. Keep your anger, fuel it, let it carry you forward. See this through
to the final bitter end no matter what. That is the only way to take others
with you: to be a force of nature, the proverbial unstoppable force. You can do
this. You have so much in you.”

She smiled bashfully. “I will. I promise. I can keep focused.”
Like you wouldn’t believe
.

Bradley Johansson stopped, and a four-fingered hand ushered her onward
with a grand gesture as his wings extended fully. He made an imposing figure,
poised between two species, two styles of life. She turned her back to him and
strode forward, refusing to let any doubt gain refuge in her mind. Ahead of her
the path began to open.

The building had been a single house once, designed as an extravagant
ten-bedroom residence for a wealthy owner, with expansive reception rooms
opening out onto a big garden that dropped down to the crowded forest of dapol
trees that marked the city boundary. There was even a teardrop-shaped swimming
pool beneath a spectacular white wing roof. It fit in perfectly with the
Francola district’s original ethos as an enclave of successful, wealthy
residents who would enjoy a modicum of privacy afforded by the tree hedges
between their imposing properties. A taste of the countryside inside the city.

After a promising start, the district had drifted on Colwyn City’s
economic tides. The houses fell from fashion and were snapped up by developers
to be turned into even more stylish apartments. Redevelopment took the district
further downmarket, depressing prices still more.

On the upside, that same depressed market meant that there were a lot of
empty apartments for rent. Oscar and the team managed to secure a
well-positioned apartment on the old house’s ground floor. It had two bedrooms,
a bathroom, and a lounge squeezed into what used to be one of the brash
reception rooms. But the lounge had a panoramic window wall opening onto a lawn
that ran all the way down to the edge of Francola Wood itself, giving them a
perfect observation post.

Sitting on a pyramid of cushions they’d moved in front of the window
wall, Oscar could just glimpse the shimmer of the city force field through the
dark trees. He wasn’t using his field scan function; that would be too much of
a giveaway. Not that it stopped other teams. His biononics occasionally would
catch a quick scan originating close by. Liatris had identified seven other
apartments along the street that had been leased out in the last twenty hours.
Two other perfectly legitimate flats had been quietly taken over by teams who
thought their subterfuge would leave them less visible. They weren’t good
enough to evade Liatris.

But what comes around
… thought Oscar. He was
sure everyone else knew about them as well.

Three of the rival teams had reduced their personnel after it became
clear Araminta had left Chobamba. With a whole galaxy of worlds now available
to her, they’d decided it was extremely unlikely she’d ever return here to the
heart of Living Dream’s occupation army. That view was one he shared, but
waiting here on the off chance was better than trying to guess where else she
could turn up.

It was midmorning, and as it was his shift, Oscar had been in his armor
suit for five hours watching the forest when Paula called.

“Any sign of her?”

Oscar resisted the urge to roll his eyes; the gesture would be completely
wasted. “None of the thirteen teams scanning from all along the street have
noticed anything. And the eight Ellezelin capsules on permanent patrol overhead
report an equally negative result. I imagine the new Welcome Team, which is
actually lying in wait in the woods, is bereft, too.”

“There’s no need for sarcasm.”

“Face it, Paula, this is a dead end. We did our best. We got her clear of
Living Dream and the others; it’s up to her now.”

“I know. But several agents followed her onto the Chobamba Silfen path
before it closed up.”

“Then we’ll never see them again. Not for centuries, anyway.”

“I’d like to think we have centuries.”

“We’ll stay here for another day or two. Unless you know better. How
about it, Paula? Do you have contacts among the Silfen?”

“Not really.”

“Ah, you surprise me. If anyone has …”

“But I have just been talking to the SI.”

Oscar couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing. On the other side of the
lounge, Beckia shot him a puzzled look.

“Only you, Paula,” Oscar said happily. “How is the SI?”

“Unchanged. It claims. However, it has taken care of one potentially
dangerous loose end. Araminta now has no one else left in the Commonwealth to
turn to.”

“So the theory is she’ll ask the navy for help?”

“It’s a theory. Right now it’s the only one we’ve got.”

“Well, let’s hope it works.”

“Yes. And the one trustworthy contact she has with officialdom is you.”

“Oh, bloody hell.”

“There’s something else.”

Oscar gave up and rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Someone called Troblum may get in touch. If he does, I need to know
immediately. And you must not lose track of him. If possible, take him directly
into custody.”

“Okay, so who is he?”

“A slightly strange physicist who may know how to get through the Sol
barrier. I’m sending his file. Oh, and the Cat is after him as well, so be
careful.”

“Is she? Well, that’s just made my day. Anything else?”

“That’s all, Oscar. Thank you.”

Oscar watched the file load into his storage lacuna, and then the secure
link closed. He let out a breath and started to review Troblum. He kept on
getting distracted by Beckia. Her mind was emitting little pulses of dismay and
anger into the gaiafield. The gaiafield was Oscar’s private additional method
of watching for Araminta. They already had thirty stealthed sensors scattered
across Francola Wood to try to spot her should she return. On top of that,
Liatris had tapped into sensors and communication links from the other agents
and the Welcome Team. But Oscar was hopeful that he would somehow get advance
warning of her arrival from the path. He thought, though he was in no way sure,
that he could sense the alien wormhole. There was something there, some
intrusion into the gaiafield that wasn’t quite right, a feeling of age and
incredible distance. Very faint, and the more he concentrated on it, the more
elusive it became. So he was content to let it wash against the edge of his
perception, which meant he had to open his gaiamotes up to their full
sensitivity. That was why Beckia’s little outbursts were becoming quite
intrusive.