“Nona Hall.”
The woman’s eyes widened ever so slightly, and she glanced around before looking back at Nona. “Have you ever fought?”
“Not much,” Nona said. “But I understand logistics.” Her thoughts raced. She couldn’t hide who she was, not now that she’d given her real name. How stupid. “I’m from the Diamond Deep.”
The woman gave her a long measured look, which included her captain’s tattoos, and then pointed toward the same open door others were being sent through. “Wait in there.”
“Thank you.”
The door led into an open hangar that held ground vehicles and a few skimmers. There were very few places to sit. Badly uniformed people lined the walls, neatly spaced about three meters apart. They each carried weapons and watched them. It reminded her of being captive in the Deep, and she shivered and tried to dismiss the memory. This wasn’t exactly a parallel situation; they had walked into this knowing the risks.
Charlie stood a quarter of the room away from her, lost in conversation with two of the people from the farms that had been here when they arrived. If she couldn’t believe that Charlie had come to kill Next, why would these people who had known him longer believe it?
Slowly, all of the others from the Storm trickled in.
Amanda pointed out at least two people she knew to be runaways from the farms, as she searched the crowd, watching every face carefully.
Nona didn’t need a clue from Amanda when Amy came through a door on the opposite side of the big hangar. Amanda’s daughter had her mother’s slight build and gliding walk. The black dye Amanda had told her about had been replaced with a red-streaked blond, but the resemblance in their faces was so unmistakable that Nona might have thought she was Amanda from a distance.
Amy didn’t notice Amanda but kept her attention on the front of the room, where a man with a bodybuilder’s shape and size stood up. “As most of you know, we’ve been lucky and more people have come from Gyr Island to join us. Let’s give them a warm welcome.”
A smattering of claps suggested lukewarm enthusiasm.
The man looked around the room, his gaze settling for a moment on every person in there. He had a predator’s eyes, gold with dark triangular pupils. Nona shivered after his gaze passed beyond hers. “I’m Richard, and I’m the leader here. You will follow my orders. We’re pleased to have you. We hope you’re ready for a fight. We might die today, but it’s time to strike a blow against the invaders.”
Amy watched him closely, rapt. Maybe entranced would be a better word. He was charismatic, and many other people besides Amy paid him close attention.
Someone tapped Nona on the shoulder. “Nona Hall?”
A deep voice. “Yes.”
“Come with me.”
Her chest tightened. She half turned, catching a glimpse of a big man with dark eyes and a military bearing. She and Amanda shared a glance. To Nona’s surprise, Amanda said, “Take me, too. Wherever you’re going.”
“We would like to speak to the ambassador alone, please.”
Rough hands pulled her away, and she managed to catch Amanda’s eyes and say, “It will be okay. Tell someone.” She meant Charlie, and Amanda would know that.
Two men marched her into an office. One of them asked, “Would you like a glass of water?”
She remembered that Charlie had described a similar ritual politeness around water. Maybe it had a special significance in the desert. At the thought, she realized how dry her skin and her lips and eyes felt after just the short walk here. “Please,” she said.
When he handed her the water, she drank half of the glass immediately. It tasted good.
The small room had white walls with scars and nicks in them, a round table, a sink, a cupboard, and a few shelves cluttered with what looked like spare parts for metal machinery. Above the doorway, someone had carefully hand painted the Shining Revolution slogan: Humanity Free and Clear.
She and her captors exchanged thin pleasantries, through which she learned nothing more interesting than that their names were Dimitri and Dhal.
Dimitri was the clear leader. “We were told you might come here. Can you explain why the ambassador from the Diamond Deep is attending an attack on the very creatures that you promised to help? You yourself.” His voice had gone hard. “We saw your vote.”
She had considered this possibility and the lies she might have to tell. Lies might save lives. She took a long, slow sip of the water and a deep breath. “You might have also seen my friend dismembered on stage. At first, I blamed the Shining Revolution for it. After all, your leader killed her. But it’s not Nayli’s fault that Chrystal died. The Next had killed her long before. Chrystal was gone from the moment they took the High Sweet Home and destroyed her people.” She watched their faces as she spoke, but they said nothing. She took another long moment, letting it stretch almost to awkwardness. “I’m not here as an ambassador. I’m here as myself.”
“Nayli would kill you on sight.”
“Really? I’m as human as you are.”
Dimitri took a step closer to her. “You betrayed us.”
She stood up herself, unwilling to be intimidated. “I chose to save my people, and I chose what they wanted. The Voice is not a personal one. When I was the Voice I voted the people’s wishes, not my own. As ambassador, I’ve helped the people of Manna Springs. I haven’t done a thing to help the Next here. Not one. Check with anyone in there.” She pointed back toward the building.
Dimitri stepped back and crossed his arms. “We are checking on you. In the meantime, you’ll wait in here. You may wait in here until after the attack.”
“No!” She slammed the glass down. “I didn’t come all the way here to sit in an office. I want to go with you.”
Dhal said, “Do you?”
“Of course I do. We all do. We can’t do a thing about Nexity. The Wall’s too damned big. But maybe we can make a difference here.”
“It will be dangerous,” Dimitri said. “Why would a rich, settled woman from the Deep even come here?”
An instinct struck her. “You’re from the Deep, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I grew up on one of the Exchanges. Selling small labor for unloading and sorting, mostly.”
She turned to Dhal. “And you? Are you from the Deep as well?”
“I was born on a cargo ship. But I met Dimitri on the Deep.”
They were a couple. She hadn’t realized it at first, but now that she did she could see how they stood in relation to each other and that they seemed to be coming to conclusions without having to talk out loud. “So why are you here?” she asked.
“You didn’t vote for us,” Dimitri said.
Dhal spoke up, although he looked away from her. “We didn’t want to help. We wanted to fight. So the day the Deep voted to help, we joined the Shining Revolution.”
Nayli and Vadim had flown away by then and gone underground. “Have you met the leaders? Nayli and Vadim, or Brea and Darnal?”
Dhal shook his head. “Of course not.”
“Are they giving you orders? Did they order this attack?”
“They would,” Dhal said. “If they were here, they’d lead the attack.”
Dimitri stepped closer to her. “There’s a handful of us from the Deep and a few from other stations that came down here after the vote. We’re doing what has to be done. It’s obvious, after all.”
“And what exactly has to be done?” she asked.
The two exchanged a glance, and Dhal said, “We’ll be back. We need to check on some things. We’ll let you know what happens. In the meantime, we’re going to lock you in.”
“Why doesn’t one of you stay with me, instead?”
They ignored her.
They left and locked the door. She sat quietly, hoping they wouldn’t be gone long. She shouldn’t have come. Some ambassador, to maybe harm her own people’s effort just by being here.
She hadn’t yet grown used to being noticed.
Surely they would let her out. She was already likely to miss Amy’s first sight of Amanda, and she wouldn’t be able to bear it if something happened to Charlie while she was locked up for her own naiveté.
She stared in silence at the Shining Revolution slogan. Humanity Free and Clear.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHARLIE
Richard stood on the wing of a skimmer, using it as a stage to address the somewhat noisy crowd. At least five people that Charlie recognized as off-worlders, including Samil, stood near Richard, looking away from him and toward the fighters, paying most attention to the new arrivals.
This wasn’t a great time to interrupt, but far better here than out in the desert.
He caught Jean Paul’s eye.
Jean Paul looked grim. Kyle had chosen a good vantage point, sitting on a pile of tarps at the edge of the room. When Charlie looked over, Kyle met his eyes and smiled.
They needed to act soon, but the numbers weren’t in their favor. If only there was a way to tell how many of their own people had already changed their minds and wanted to be home.
Where was Nona?
He spotted Amanda trying to make her way toward him, glancing his way repeatedly while working her way around obstacles and through knots of peoples. Nona was nowhere near her. He scanned the hangar, and then stood on tiptoe, scanning again. Fighters stood in small groups, poised. Some had rucksacks at their feet or thrown over their shoulders. The big hanger door remained open, spilling light and dust into the room.
No Nona.
Richard said, “We’ll walk the way we’ve drilled, only this time it’s for real. This time we’ll act, and this time we’ll have help.”
From space? Gunnar? Other revolutionaries? Charlie still hadn’t quite put the whole plan together. Something about stopping the new Next while they were out exercising in the desert at the edge of Next’s Reach, outside of its wall.
He tried not to look desperate to find Nona. Amanda had gotten halfway to him.
Richard yelled something about being ready, and a cheer started. It grew slowly, bouncing off the walls, echoing, rising.
He’d missed his chance.
Charlie used the chaos of a hundred people preparing to leave the hangar to get near Amanda. “Where’s Nona?” he whispered.
“Two men took her.”
He froze. “Where?”
Amanda’s voice shook. “I don’t know. Right when Richard started talking. I tried to go with them, but they wouldn’t let me.”
Five minutes ago? Seven? Nona was a perfect hostage; he wouldn’t start an insurrection with her missing. But who here would have known that?
Maybe she was just being questioned. Maybe it was okay. The three people that had pulled out of line had been returned just after the rest of the group arrived in the hangar. Charlie hadn’t been able to talk to them, so he didn’t know what they’d learned, if anything.
People already streamed through the open doors, following Richard’s plan to walk toward Next’s Reach.
He couldn’t leave without Nona.
What were they doing anyway, going out to attack the Next? Maybe everyone had gone stark raving mad, pushed away from clarity of thought by urgency and deep, desperate fear. That’s what it felt like. Shifting alliances. Manna Springs returned to Manny. That was the news he still hadn’t given Amanda. He and Kyle on the same side again.
Nona had reported the same kind of chaotic changes throughout the Glittering.
She wasn’t by any of the doors.
Amanda tugged on his arm, and he followed. Maybe she had gone outside.
People milled in a tight clot outside of the hangar doors. He walked the perimeter with Amanda. No Nona.
He spotted Amy and pointed her out to Amanda. “There she is.”
“I know.”
“She hasn’t seen you yet?”
Amanda looked worried and a little ill. “I don’t want to spook her.” She took a deep breath, keeping her face turned away from her daughter. “She knows me. She knows I’m not here to attack anyone.”
“Didn’t you attack Manna Springs?”
“Jules is the bloodthirsty one. I just follow him. She knows that.”
Like mother, like daughter? Amanda had followed Jules and now Amy was following Richard?
Was this the moment to tell Amanda that she and her brother had been kicked out of power? Probably not. He owed her the information, but also a place she could hear it with dignity.
Where was Nona?
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Nona, looking fine, even a little excited. He closed his eyes briefly, grateful and a little dizzy over her safety. When he opened them again, she was still there, looking oddly stronger. “Are you all right?”
She whispered, “I had to convince a few people of my good intentions.”
He touched her shoulder, and as they started off he said, “I had to do the same when Kyle and I were out earlier. That’s part of what took so long.”
She whispered again, close to his ear. “They’re not official. They’re doing what they think the Shining Revolution would do.”
“How do you know?”
A triumphant little grin touched her lips for a moment. “They came right out and told me.”
“Did you find out if Gunnar is the one helping them?”
“No.”
Amanda was near them, but so were a few others. “We’ll talk when we have more space.”
“Okay.”
They were still far behind Amy, who trailed just behind Richard. Her demeanor supported his earlier assessment. She looked for all the world like someone yearning to be part of an inner circle she was still outside of.
Regardless of how official the revolutionaries might or might not be, the group appeared trained. The off-worlders stayed at the edges and behind, essentially forcing most of the people from Lym casually into the middle of the long column. Even though there was no attempt at total silence, conversations were low and disciplined. The pace was medium-fast, and it picked up as the sun fell to halfway down the sky and a light breeze made the heat more bearable.
Desert tharps began to show up as the rocks threw longer shadows, the colors in their lean bodies matching the ground and rocks so well that even he only noticed them when they moved.
After about an hour, they stopped as a group for a water and rest break near a dry stream that was shaded with metalloid trees, their long thin yellow leaves nearly touching the ground.
He and Nona found a flattish, warm rock a little distance from anybody else. She looked tired and tense, and a light dust coated her face and hands. He spoke quietly so as not to be overheard. “Manny’s back in charge in Manna Springs.”
She glanced toward Amanda, who had gone past them, apparently still trying to stay out of Amy’s sight.
Above them, raptors were beginning to emerge for their early evening hunt. He counted three different species, and maybe a fourth. One had the broad, spread-finger wings of a dancing wind kestrel but it flew too far away for him to be sure. “They were both deposed. Amanda probably doesn’t know it yet.”
Nona’s mouth drew into a thin line, and she crossed her arms and looked uncomfortable. “I’ll tell her.”
“Maybe we should just tell her there’s trouble. Remember Manny—who’s back in charge now—is my family.”
“Jules was a horrid leader.” For a moment she seemed to lose the tension, but then her jaw tightened again. “Is he safe?”
“Yes. He’s just not in town anymore.”
“All right. Let me think about how to tell Amanda. She hasn’t even connected up with Amy yet.” She glanced around at the group, which had devolved from orderly into a relaxed lump of people. “I gather we’re getting close to someplace where we’ll wait to ambush the new Next. Richard and the others apparently think they won’t fight back very hard, or won’t be able to. I think they’re being stupidly naive.”
“Watch carefully at the ambush po
int. If there’s any opening at all, we’ll take it. I want to stop this before we get killed by robots.”
“Okay.” She didn’t touch him, but he felt that she wanted to. He certainly wanted to fold her into his arms. But this wasn’t the time or place. “Stay safe,” she said. “I’ll be watchful.” She stood up and drifted toward Amanda.
He started walking around, checking on people he recognized. He should have put some kind of token on everyone they’d brought with them. There was no easy way to tell who was on their side.
An hour later, the sun kissed the horizon and the sky blazed orange and pink above them. A beautiful sunset, a magic only the desert could make. Charlie had missed these sunsets. He kept looking up as he followed close behind Richard, who had proven to be physically quite strong. Even going up hills, the man hadn’t slowed down or displayed much change in his breathing. They must have been here for at least a few months to be so fit, especially with this heat.
Charlie had always heard that physical health was a thing for the Shining Revolution.
Richard finally called a halt at the top of a low, rocky ridge. Just downslope from them, a road had been cut into the desert. A hallmark of the Next, the road was made from a material Charlie had never seen, laid down as if it had always been there and yet spanking new as well. The rocky uneven surface had been flattened and then the road applied.
Instead of giving any particular instructions, Richard, Samil, Hiroma, and two others spread throughout the line of marchers and peeled off groups of people. Charlie stuck with Richard. Amy, Jean Paul, and Nona were with him as well. He spotted the back of Kyle’s head as he walked away with Samil. Good. Kyle would recognize him as augmented and be wary.
Amanda must be with a different group.
They stayed while the other groups walked off to both sides. Charlie frowned. How would he signal people in five groups at once? Nothing to do for that, so he tried to assess the people he was with. It was the largest group with almost thirty people; he tried to count them into sides. He could identify four others who had flown in with them, although there could be more he wouldn’t recognize. Amy and three teens clustered together. A man named Paul who had once been a driver for Charlie’s aunt’s farm stood next to people he knew were spacers. He gave it up, figuring at best they had a two-thirds of the group to overcome.
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