by Robin Craig
She analyzed the maps more closely. The jungle reached to the coast and continued to hug it toward the south, away from the disputed regions. There were towns and villages down there. She did not know what opportunities they might present but at least they dangled the chance of opportunities. She could not go north, for that would lead her into the teeth of her enemies. She could not go east or directly south, for that would lead her into the teeth of her friends, who were even more deadly. Her course decided, she weighed the risks of waiting against the risks of discovery and tracking. She unfolded herself and dug out of her lair into the slanting light of dawn.
Kali followed one of the standard meandering search patterns of her kind. A watcher analyzing her movements might have noted a trend in a certain direction, but it would not have been statistically significant. Statistics or not, however, it lead slowly and inexorably toward a shattered part of town into which the ever patient forest had already sent its scouts of tendrils and seedlings. There the Spider went to ground and waited for the night. She had been lucky. Nobody was looking for her, she came across neither Spider nor human, and she skulked under shelter as her kind had done hundreds of times before.
Chapter 38 – The Aqua Sea
“Nothing.”
Lyssa frowned. It had been two days since Beldan had sent the signal to Kali and his answer now was the same as it had been every other time she had asked: Kali had not replied. Each time she heard the verdict, it stabbed more deeply and coldly. She had been too late and it had all been for nothing after all. The thought must have shown in her face.
“Don’t give up yet, Lyssa. Kali is in a war zone. She might not be able to communicate safely from where she is. Remember how paranoid she is.”
She sighed. “Yes, I know. But she’s paranoid for a reason, and you know how urgent she was about it. Why would it take this long?”
“On a related subject… what about Charlie?”
“He’s fine, hiding out like we asked. Chafing at the bit, though.”
“Can he get to Mexico safely?”
“I think so. Why?”
“Good. You can’t do any more here and I don’t know what’s going to happen or what strings Allied Cybernetics can pull. I have a holiday place down on the east coast of Mexico overlooking the water. It’s well defended and safe. I’ll get you and Charlie there to ride out the storm.”
“I… I’m grateful for the offer, but I think I’d rather see it through.”
“No. If AC have enough influence for Domestic Security to arrest you, who knows what other tricks they can pull? If they come up with a legal excuse to grab you there’s nothing I can do to protect you: and if they get you everything might unravel. I’d rather deport you to Mexico. If I’m not holding you in the country they’ll have no way to force me to give you up. They can’t apply their jurisdiction to my properties in Mexico. They can’t even make me admit I have you there, at least not before this should all be over.”
He saw a brief battle in her eyes as her desire to stay the course battled her desire to be back in Charlie’s arms. He was impressed that the battle wasn’t quite as one-sided as he might have thought, but the result was never really in doubt.
“Dr Beldan, I think I shall accept your offer.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “The terms of your release to me are that I either keep you under my thumb or throw you out of the country, but they don’t specify how I am to throw you out. I don’t want to give them any excuse to nab you. So I will fly you to Mexico in my private jet and you will enter the country through Mexican customs: that will prove you left the United States without giving anyone the chance to grab you on your way out. You will then disappear – as far as any official records are concerned. In fact one of my unofficial contacts will fly you straight to my estate. I’ll leave it to you to arrange with Charlie how he gets to Mexico, but we’ll pick him up once he’s there and take him to join you.”
Lyssa thought she might cry, but thought that of all the things which could have made her cry this was the stupidest. “How can I ever repay you for all this?”
“You’ve paid in advance, believe me. Now go get ready. You’ll leave within the hour.”
~~~
Lyssa stretched, looking out of the wide open windows over the glorious aqua waters of the Caribbean. If this is what being deported means, I must try it more often. Beldan’s “holiday place” was not large, but it was luxurious. On the inside it was like civilization incarnate. From the outside it looked like shelves of stone separated by sheets of glass growing organically out of the rocky cliff it perched on. A steep path led down the face of the cliff to a private beach. The cries of gulls carried to her over the sea breeze while a lone frigate bird circled far above, looking like some relic of a prehistoric past.
She felt strange, and it took her a while to identify the nature of the strangeness. Then she smiled as she named what had been missing from her life for so long: simple relaxation. Freedom from having to do anything. There were still things happening, things so great that perhaps history would remember them. But for the first time since the fateful day she had decided to drive out the invaders or die, she was no longer an actor in the pageant, just a spectator. The freedom of it tingled from her toes to her heart, where it mingled with the fiery anticipation of Charlie’s arrival tomorrow.
She felt she should do something, and then she smiled. There was indeed an urgent task she had to perform. The gentle waves beckoned her with their foaming roll. Yes. She would go for a swim in those cool aqua waters. Nothing was more important. Not for her, not for now. The future could wait.
Chapter 39 – Gone Fishing
If the bifurcating possibilities of strategy and counter-strategy in the game of chess rapidly expand beyond any computational system’s capacity to analyze, reality is infinitely worse. Yet Kali spent her time running her strategy routines, as she had nothing better to do and perhaps it would reveal something new. It did not. So when the sun was just a red memory in the west, she darted out of her shelter and within moments was lost to any possible sight in the thickening forest.
While the woodland was thinner than the ancient forests further inland it presented its own challenges, and Kali spent the night and day making her way west and south. Though hidden from above, she moved cautiously in case people still patrolled this area. However she encountered nothing except frantically buzzing insects and strident birds protesting her invasion of their domain. It had a strange effect on her, almost hypnotic. In truth the forest was not an idyllic place; but she was immune to the biting insects, the venomous snakes and the sucking leeches; beyond it all in her metal armor. All she saw was the infinite variety of life around her, all she heard was its music, and all she smelled was the fragrance of its flowers.
Once she skirted a clearing then stopped, entranced, as a pair of iridescent Morpho butterflies sparkled in the sunlight then fluttered their complex dance of flashing blue diffraction around her head. Is this what is, to be alive? Or am I slowly going mad?
She shook herself, and the butterflies skipped away into the forest with a flash of metallic blue as their final farewell. Kali marched on through the forest and into the night. She slept for only a few hours, anxious to put away the miles; anxious to reach whatever destination she might find.
She came across a few villages, nothing much; she saw nothing there to help or hinder her, and she silently passed them by with nothing but the fitful barking of a dog or two to record her passage. There was no net access in the forest except for satellites, and she did not dare use them: if any watchers were looking for her they would surely be looking for that. The more anonymous access points in the villages were safer but even then she refrained: there could be soldiers monitoring for enemy activity and that might well be what they thought she was. And so her life progressed, one day, then two, then three.
Once she reached the coast and looked out over a dark, restless ocean forever pounding the base of
the cliff beneath her. The days in the forest had changed her: brought her a kind of peace; the surging waves sang to her. She looked at the withered fingers still decorating her chest. It is time. She snapped the cord and hurled it into the sky, the cord and its attached fingers spinning sparkling into the night, to fall silently down to the sea below. I return you to the ocean your kind came from so long ago. Forgive me; may this burial give you peace: whatever peace can be granted to the dead. Then she melted back into the forest and continued on her way.
Finally, early in the evening of the fourth day, she came to the top of a high bluff overlooking the sea, and looked down upon a small harbor with the lights of a town on its shore.
This was the largest town she had come across, though still small by the standards of the city in which she had first awoken. But it had life. Lights illuminated the streets and various buildings lining the harbor; even from here she could hear the faint sounds of voices and laughter coming from taverns and the tables set up outside eating establishments. Other lights dotted the waters of the harbor, and it was to these her eyes were drawn. Most were stationary but a few were moving. She watched the tableau for a while, thinking. She focused on one of the larger boats, which looked seaworthy for blue water and was slowly heading toward the open sea between the harbor headlands. She zoomed her telescopic sight in on the boat; three people were visible on deck, engaged in preparations for their voyage. A plan was forming in her mind.
She scanned the shore. Away from the town, on the shore nearer her, was a somewhat large but simple house. Drawn up on the sand nearby was a large rubber dinghy with an integrated shelter. She examined the house more closely. An external bulb cast a dull yellow illumination for a short distance around the front door but there was no sign of life within. She wondered if one of the anonymous voices she could hear vaguely through the still night air belonged to its owners. The plan forming in her mind became solid, and she sped along the most convenient path down from the heights.
Kali crept cautiously up to the house, keeping to the shadows. There were no sounds except for the slight breeze blowing from the water through the trees. She looked around from her hiding place among those trees and saw no signs of life. She darted to the dinghy, quickly cut the rope tying it down then pushed it into the water, leapt in and started the engine. The dinghy was of simple construction, with a single large U-shaped float and a thick, flexible plastic floor supported by a few rigid cross braces. A much thicker brace joined the ends of the U across the stern, and a metal case of fishing gear was bolted to it. The floor supported her weight, and while the dinghy rode a bit low in the water it was still seaworthy as it thumped heavily through the waves until she was clear of the low surf. She scanned the horizon and saw that the boat she had marked earlier had continued on its sedate path and had now almost cleared the heads. She spread her legs widely and crouched down as low as she could inside, covering herself with a tarpaulin. Then she gunned the engine and her craft arrowed through the water after her target.
~~~
Now that they had reached open water, the three men on the fishing boat made their final preparations before heading toward their fishing grounds. One of them looked up, a slight frown on his face, as a faint buzzing sound reached him above the soft lapping of the waves. A second later the others heard it too, and they looked curiously over the water in the direction of the harbor. A dark shape with a faintly phosphorescent wake was visible, heading rapidly toward them. Then its headlight came on; the light was not dazzling but was bright enough that they could not see what lay behind it, and they looked nervously at each other.
These were dangerous times. The captain, a well muscled man in his thirties, nodded his head curtly at the others, who with efficiency born of practice retrieved automatic rifles from their hiding places then crouched below the gunwales, aiming at the dinghy through holes in the side. The tension was palpable as the dinghy slowed, cut its engine then drifted to a stop, bumping gently against the side of the boat. The men tensed, then the captain spoke into his microphone. “Hail the dinghy!” he shouted. “State your business or leave! Understand we are armed and have you targeted!”
For a moment the dinghy just rocked gently and silently, then its light went out and all the men could see was something swarm out from under its cover and up the side of the boat. It rocketed over the edge and landed on the deck.
“Madre de Dios!” exclaimed one of the men, backing up so fast he fell backwards over the edge into the water. What may have been accidental for him was less so for the other man, who took one look at the apparition on the deck, another where his shipmate had fallen over, then casting his rifle away ran full tilt to join him over the side.
The captain was less fortunate, being backed against the wall of the cabin, and the Spider swiveled its hard gaze upon him. He had seen Spiders before. Earlier in the war there had been resistance to the invaders in this region, until the Spiders had swept in and broken it. The captain had been one of the resistance fighters who had slipped through the net, and he had kept his head down ever since. He had a young family and did not want to leave them without a father, or worse, the subject of reprisals. He had been lulled into a sense of security by the subsequent weeks of peace in the region. But the obvious explanation for the sudden reappearance of one of the monsters on his deck was that they had found out about his activities and wished to make a belated example of him.
The captain, however, did not lack courage; as one could infer from the fact he had fought in the first place. He stepped forward, took the cigar out of his mouth and growled, “Get the hell off my boat!” At least if the thing shot him his family would be safe; and better poor and alive than tortured to wring some confession from him.
But the Spider simply looked at him and said unexpectedly, “Please don’t run. I need your help.” Its voice was as unexpected as its words. The Spiders could modulate their voice and usually spoke in a deep rumble or a menacing rasp, but this one spoke in a soft contralto.
He stared at it, put his cigar back in his mouth, took it out again, then spat on the deck at its feet. “Are you fucking kidding?” he finally managed.
“No. I need your help. I need you to take me to Capital.”
He stared at her as if he thought she was mad, either for having such a plan or thinking he would help her. “What?” he finally asked. “Carry you to Capital so you can run amok over there instead of here, with your laser through my head as my reward? How stupid do you think I am, Spider?”
But the threats or violence he expected did not come. “I will not harm you. I just need passage to Capital, and your boat seems suitable. Then I will let you go.”
Sure you will. He regarded her speculatively. “Look, I think you’ve fried some circuits. I wouldn’t want any harm to come to you,” he lied, “so listen. Capital is a pretty relaxed place normally, but in case you haven’t noticed there’s a war on and the war is with you. As soon as we get within range they will detect your presence and they’ll blow us all to kingdom come. You haven’t got a chance. Why don’t I just take you back to shore so you can trot off to your nearest repair center? If you still want to go after that, I’ll take you.” If you can find me.
Kali thought quickly. Was this man loyal to the remnants of his old country, or had he embraced the new regime? His first answer indicated a desire to protect Capital but it may have been a ruse. She decided it made no difference. If she had to lie to gain his trust and cooperation it was unlikely to last. Better to lay her cards on the table. “I cannot go to a repair center. I need to escape this country because I have betrayed Command. Take me to Capital.”
The man swallowed. He did not know what this thing’s game was or what plans were hatching in its metal skull. What it said was so outrageous it could even be true, but that just put him in double danger from both sides. “So you say. But aren’t you hearing me? You can’t sneak in there. We’ll all be dead. Give it up.”
“I have no intentio
n of sneaking in. I will tell them I am coming and request entry.”
He almost laughed at the insanity of it. “You’re mad! Their missiles will be launched before you’ve finished talking!”
“Possibly, but there aren’t many choices left to me. Do not fear. We will take the dinghy with us. We will stop outside their defensive perimeter and I will negotiate from there. If I announce myself openly before entering their territory they will at least hear me out. If they refuse me entry you can take me near the mainland and I will use the dinghy to make landfall. If they grant me entry, even if it is a ruse to draw me in to destruction, I will use it to enter Capital. I will not endanger you or your vessel.”
He stared at her. What he had said was true, and Capital was in no danger from whatever mad plan the thing had. If he refused, it would surely kill them all here and now, but if he played along there might be other chances. He sighed. “All right Spider, it’s your funeral.” He hoped the Spider wouldn’t care about his men; that they could somehow make their way back to shore. But the Spider had not forgotten, and scampered across the deck to scan the water.
“Your men have life vests but the current is strong and they are drifting out to sea. You must save them.”
Swallowing his fear, he stepped nearer to the Spider to see. It was right: he could see them bobbing in the waves some distance away. He shouted out to them, “Hang on! I’m coming to get you! Don’t worry about this thing – for now!” He shook his head ruefully, hoping he wasn’t pulling them out of the water just to become cruel toys for the robot. But the monster was right: he could not leave them to die, and die they almost certainly would if he left them there.
He moved toward the boat’s tender but the Spider said, “No.” He looked up at it. “If you rescue them in that, they are far enough out that you will try to flee. Drive this vessel to them instead.”