He ground his teeth.
The Eire was still a modest project—two homes, a barn, and a couple outbuildings. Off to one side was the concrete pad where the relics of the space program awaited the building of the future “Earth Museum.”
The four of them—Aaron, Keera, Sean, and Jayson—had gone out there the year before to lay the groundwork for Forever’s next city, and they’d spent much of the intervening time preparing the ground and planting the trees—bushes and grasses that would provide light and food to the colonists when they began to arrive.
“What do you think happened?” Sean’s voice quavered, just a little. “Why can’t we reach anyone?”
Jayson shook his head, his eyes fixed on the rapidly growing green patch ahead. “I wish I knew. Nothing good.” All his life, he’d had the ability to dip into the devices in the world around him. To mess with the servitor bot at a restaurant and get his meal free. Or to change his grades in vee space. To spin the wheels on a tri dee slot machine the way he’d wanted, until he’d gotten caught.
On Earth, sometimes that connection had come a little too easily, the world intruding on him instead of the other way around. So he’d learned to push it back, to limit its connection to him.
That ability had made him invaluable to Davian, and in his damaged state, he’d allowed the man to use his abilities to fashion a perverted kingdom under the mountain.
Opening himself up again, after all those years, had been a difficult process, one he still wasn’t sure he’d mastered.
This lack of connection to the world mind should have been comforting. He’d gotten used to it, after all. Instead, it filled him with a growing sense of dread.
“We’ll find out when we get home,” he said at last, and set himself to paddling all the harder.
The black shores passed steadily by, monotonous in their sameness.
He’d done his best to teach Sean what he knew. The boy was gifted, like his father, like all the other Liminal kids. His kids.
Jayson felt a great debt of responsibility to them. He would protect them from whatever came, no matter the cost.
“HOW MUCH can you carry in that balloon of yours?” Marissa was rummaging through her stores in her pantry, deciding what to take.
The house wasn’t safe, if what Santi had suggested was true. Whoever or whatever was behind all this knew Santi had come here. Marissa had strong suspicions about who it was.
“I can carry a fair amount. The balloon gondola is made of superlight material. I can take up to eight passengers, and I’ve also loaded in cargo, in addition to the mail I bring on each run.”
“Good. I want to pack enough to get us out to the Eire, if need be.”
“Have you heard from your aunt and uncle?”
She shook her head. “It has me worried.” Aaron and Keera had retired from public life and now were out on the edge of civilization, starting the construction of the most ambitious project yet, a new city to hold more of the ever-growing population of Forever.
Both had loops.
“Hey.”
She turned to find Eddy, holding on to the doorframe to keep himself upright. She glared at him. “You should be sleeping.”
He grinned weakly. “We’re in danger here, aren’t we?”
She nodded. “Santi thinks so.”
“Because of me?” He looked pale.
“No. Because of whatever is happening.” She packed a bunch of dried food supplies into a basket—cheese, meat, bread—some of which she’d made herself, some of which she had traded for.
She wanted to plant some red berries like they’d had up at the schoolhouse, but she hadn’t gotten around to it. Andy had brought them a couple jars of preserves the last time she was here, though.
She considered the weight. Santi had said they should have plenty of room.
Into the basket they went.
“If we need to get out of here, let me help.” Eddy was staring at the basket.
“You should be resting.” She threw a few more things in the basket, then covered it with a dishcloth.
“It hurts too much to sleep.” He touched the place where his loop used to be. “And it feels awful to be cut off from the network.”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry, Eddy.” She hugged him, being careful not to graze his bandage.
“I had these photos in the loop of my mother. They were the only ones I had of her.” He closed his eyes. “I know you had to do it. But it’s hard to let that go.”
She kissed his cheek.
“Why don’t you come help me get the balloon ready?” Santi picked up the basket. “We should be on our way as soon as possible.”
Marissa nodded. “That sounds good.”
Eddy allowed himself to be led off.
Matt climbed down the ladder from the attic with another basket. “Here are the emergency supplies.”
“Thanks, handsome.” She pecked him on the cheek and took the basket, setting it down on the floor of the living room.
“The horses have been let out. We can round them up when we get back.”
“Perfect.” She was glad he’d taken care of that. She’d had Mirabelle since she was a little girl, and it would kill her if the mare came to any harm.
Eddy burst through the door. “Guys, we gotta go. Now.”
“What’s happening?” Marissa threw a couple more things, including a phostorch and a couple of hand-carved bamboo knives, into the basket.
“We have company coming down the road. Whatever you don’t have, leave it. Santi’s getting the balloon ready. Come on!”
Marissa said a brief goodbye to their home, kissing her hand and touching it to the wood. As they left the front door, she dipped and called the wood to grow across the entrance, effectively locking out anyone who didn’t have an ax or a torch.
She sighed. Who knew if the house would still be standing when they returned?
As soon as the door was blocked, she ran after the others, toward the orange and gold stripes of the balloon’s envelope that was starting to rise again above the cornfield. She carried the supplies basket.
She glanced back to see two horses coming down the road that ended at the entrance to their farmhold.
They looked like Jo and Elsa’s horses from the next farm over.
She reached the balloon and threw her basket inside. “Wait. They might need our help.”
Santi shook his head. “We can’t take the risk.”
“I have to know for sure.” She ran back toward the house as the horses came to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dust.
She stopped at the edge of the cornfield, watching.
Jo and Elsa dismounted, walking over to the house and staring for a moment at the blocked doorway. They moved methodically, almost robotically.
Then Jo stepped up onto the porch and started to pry at the branches that blocked the entry.
Elsa turned to survey the yard, and their eyes met.
Marissa gasped.
Elsa’s eyes were utterly blank, not a flicker of recognition. She ran toward Marissa without a word.
“Oh damn.” Marissa turned and ran back into the cornfield toward the balloon.
Santi had let up on the burner. He turned to see her running toward them, and cranked it up full blast.
The envelope filled quickly, and the balloon started to pull the gondola off the ground.
Marissa glanced over her shoulder and was terrified to find Elsa right behind her.
She leapt at the gondola, catching it with her hands but knocking the breath out of her lungs with the impact.
The balloon lifted her off the ground as Matt and Santi pulled her arms.
Hands grabbed her leg, and she glanced down to see Elsa holding on, staring up at her with that implacable gaze.
“Get off me!” She shook her legs, connecting with Elsa’s face in a sickening smack with her other foot.
Elsa lost her grip and fell to the ground with a grunt.
The woman got
up, and Marissa breathed a sigh of relief. Thank Forever she’s okay. Jo came to stand next to Elsa, watching them soar into the air.
They were such a lovely couple. They’d been over to the house a few times. But there was no trace of humanity left in their dead eyes now.
Marissa breathed a sigh of relief as the balloon sped skyward, leaving their home and almost everything they owned behind.
SANTI GUIDED them up toward the spindle, its glowing, sparkling thread a beacon for his course. It was a clear day, but darkness threatened in the distance. He stared at the clouds that were gathered near the North Pole. There was something odd about them, something that didn’t quite make sense.
He snorted. Nothing about this day made sense. “I’m sorry I brought this down on you,” he said to Marissa, who was looking out at the world below and above them.
She turned to glare at him. “If you hadn’t, we’d likely be zombies now like the rest of them.”
“Maybe so.” He fired one of the lateral jets, scooting the craft toward the jetstream that would take them toward the North Pole. He didn’t want to get all the way into it or they would overshoot the mark.
The schoolhouse wasn’t far from the Verge. Plus the zero-gee zone around the spindle played havoc with hot air balloons, which relied on a clear sense of up and down. “You okay down there?”
Matt was huddled on the floor of the gondola, where he couldn’t see the ground below them. He looked up and nodded, and then looked back down at his feet.
“He’s always had a thing about heights.” Marissa knelt to kiss her husband’s cheek.
“That’s all right. Very brave of him to come along, anyhow.”
There. The wind picked them up and started moving them north. He closed the luthiel valve and let the balloon float in the wind. He also let out a little of the hot air from the parachute valve at the top of the envelope. He’d been flying these things for five years now and was adept at the process.
Eddy smiled.
“Feeling better?”
Eddy nodded. “I’ve never actually seen you fly one of these things before.”
“I invited you lots of times.” Santi looked over the edge of the basket, judging how soon they’d need to make their descent.
“I know.” Eddy put his arms around Santi’s waist. “I was always too busy. Guess I should have made time.”
“So, what do we know?” Marissa cut in, pushing the topic they were all avoiding to center stage.
Eddy leaned forward. “Lay it out for us.”
“One, something has taken over the world mind, again. Two, something, probably the same something, has found a way to take over people this time, too, via their loops.”
Eddy’s hand went unconsciously to his temple. “Right. Damn, that still hurts. Literally and emotionally.”
Marissa flashed him a sympathetic look. “Three, whoever or whatever it is seems to have the ability to pass on the mind control thing.”
“Like a virus, maybe?” Matt looked a little less green than when they’d first launched.
“Maybe.” Marissa bit her lip. “Jayson did something similar to us in Agartha.”
Eddy rubbed his chin. “So… who do we think is behind it and how?”
“It’s Davian. It has to be.” Marissa looked a little sick herself now. “Oh, sorry!” She leaned over the edge of the gondola and threw up.
Matt managed to get to his knees. He rubbed her back. “Morning sickness.”
“She’s pregnant?” Eddy asked.
“Yes, she’s pregnant.” Marissa sank down in the gondola next to Matt. “Maybe I’ll just stay here with you for a bit.”
“Good idea. Did I tell you that you’ve never looked prettier?” He handed her one of the towels from the basket to wipe her mouth and chin.
She took it gratefully. “Sorry, that kinda comes with the territory.”
Santi frowned. “I have to ask this again. Are we sure it couldn’t be one of the Liminal kids?”
“Santi!” Eddy glared at him.
“Sorry. But we have to consider all possibilities.” He loved those kids, especially Marissa, but he didn’t know all of them, not really.
“No, he’s right.” Marissa looked troubled. “I don’t think any of them is capable of something like this. But the Liminals could do it. Maybe.”
“I think we have to assume that anyone with a loop has been compromised.” Eddy frowned at Santi. “That means Aaron and Keera. Does Jayson have a loop?”
Marissa shook her head. “It burned out before he came to Transfer Station, I think.”
“Andy and Shandra have loops, don’t they?” Matt’s question hung in the air between them.
“Yes,” Marissa said softly. “Yes, they do.”
“So what do we do?” Santi looked down at the terrain below. “It’s about time for us to make our descent.”
“How long until nightfall?” Marissa asked.
Eddy cursed. “Dammit, I keep forgetting I don’t have my loop anymore.”
“Probably an hour. Why? What are you thinking?” Santi had gotten used to estimating the time.
They listened intently as Marissa explained her plan.
SEAN AND Jason leapt out of the boat, pulling it out of the water and tying it to the wooden dock on the edge of the colony.
There was something wrong in the Eire. Jayson could sense it. He stood in the middle of the pier, looking all around, trying to tell what was making him so uncomfortable.
Again, he met the wall.
The air was warm, comfortable, the sky glow casting an even golden light over the small colony.
A well-worn path led through the dirt to the edge of the compound.
Sean started toward the buildings, but Jayson pulled him back, shaking his head.
Sean stared at him, his eyes narrowing. What? he mouthed.
Wrong. Jayson shook his head. It was too quiet.
At this time of day, Keera and his brother, Aaron, should have been out working on the compound or tending the fields. It was well past lunchtime, if his time sense didn’t lead him wrong.
He gestured for Sean to fall in behind him and approached the compound.
A hand-painted sign hung above the metal gateway, proclaiming this place to be “The Eire.” It swung gently in the breeze. Beyond it, an open courtyard was surrounded by the barn on one side, grown by Aaron and Jayson, and the housing units on the other, prefabs brought in from Micavery piece by piece by balloon. At the far side, the storage building loomed, built out of gray rock strong enough to withstand a storm like the one that Davian had unleashed upon them seven years before.
As he stepped under the gateway, a distinct chill ran up Jayson’s spine. He’d learned to trust his instincts. Wait here, he mouthed to Sean.
The boy shook his head, jabbing his finger toward the house where he and his parents lived.
Jayson sighed. The boy had a right to come, but he didn’t have to like it.
He put a finger in front of his lips and then mimed for Sean to follow him.
The prefabs were made of a lightweight but sturdy material extruded by the world mind in approximately square sheets. These could be cut to shape and fastened together, and could have windows cut out of them.
With the temperate climate inside the world, few had need of windows, and there was no universal power grid for things like air-conditioning.
Jayson had built these with his own hands, along with his family. He knew them inside and out.
He crept along the side of Aaron and Keera’s house to the kitchen window. Carefully, quietly, he peered inside.
Everything looked normal. The dishes were washed and left to dry, and the mallowood countertop was spotless.
Sean peered inside too. He looked at Jayson and shrugged.
Come on. They snuck past the window toward the back of the rectangular structure. Jayson trailed his hand across the wall’s surface. It was bumpy under his fingertips, like braille.
The
y reached the bedroom window. Jayson looked through the window, expecting it to be empty.
Instead, he found his brother and his wife, both lying on their beds in their nightclothes, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.
At first he feared he’d stumbled on a postcoital scene.
And yet when he peeked back in again after thirty seconds, neither of them had moved.
“What is it?” Sean whispered in his ear.
He pushed Sean back away from the window gently. “They’re both asleep on the bed, but I think there’s something wrong with them.” He had a bad feeling about this. The sight of Keera and Aaron laid out like that brought back a whole lotta bad memories. “Listen, I need you to go back to the boat and get my carry sack.”
“Why?”
“Don’t argue. Just do it.” He pointed back the way they’d come.
Sean tried to stare him down.
Jayson held firm, and after a moment the boy’s shoulders dropped, and he turned and ran back into the courtyard.
Jayson sighed. Kids today. He returned to the window, peering inside to plan his next move, and hissed.
Aaron was gone.
EDDY STARED down at the small valley that sat improbably at the center of the rocky wreckage left by the fall of Agartha. Andy and Shandra had carved this little piece of safety and beauty out of the collapsed mountain, and they’d raised a group of truly exceptional young adults there.
Only Andy and Shandra lived there now, and neither one was anywhere to be seen.
He missed his crossbow. He felt naked without it, especially going into danger.
He glanced over at Marissa. She was calm and collected, even in the midst of whatever craziness was enveloping them. “What’s it like? Being back here?” he whispered.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Strange. It’s weird to be coming home like this.”
Home. Well, he supposed it had been, more than anywhere else she’d lived until now.
The valley was dark, lit only by night ivy that covered many of the cottages where the students had once lived. The famous schoolhouse vineyards were hidden by darkness.
Since the children had left, Andy and Shandra had converted the schoolhouse into a first-rate winery, using grape stock provided by Keera’s team down in Micavery. While the vines were still young, the Schoolhouse Red was exceptional.
The Rising Tide Page 28