by Isaac Hooke
“We have to leave,” Rhea agreed. “When are they scheduled to reach this neighborhood?”
“According to the data Jairlin shared with me, we have until tomorrow morning before they arrive,” Horatio said. “It looks like they’re concentrating on the neighborhoods southeast of the compound first.” That would be opposite Rhea’s current location. “Apparently, a woman matching your description was spotted flagrantly leaving the area. Jairlin claims credit for arranging that.”
“He does look strikingly like our Warden,” Will joked.
“Very funny,” Rhea said.
“The security forces have also barricaded all routes leading into and out of Rust Town,” Horatio said. “And they’ve heightened patrols of the perimeters.”
“That makes leaving tricky, but not impossible,” Rhea said.
“Where do you want to go?” Will said. “We have a week until Targon arrives. We’ll have to lay low until then.”
“What about Aradne?” Miles said. “The mayor owes you, doesn’t he?”
“Too many cameras,” Rhea said.
“Mars won’t be much different,” Brinks offered.
“Yes, but the difference is, we have to go to Mars,” she told him. “But we don’t have to go to Aradne. It’s not worth the risk in my option. There are other options.”
“Like…?” Brinks pressed.
Rhea thought about it, then revealed her plan.
Brinks nodded. “Works for me.”
“Though it’s not like we have any other choice,” Will added. “The question is, when do we leave?”
All eyes turned toward Horatio.
After a moment, the robot said: “The spy satellites will be in the optimal position for our escape shortly after midnight. Or about five hours before the security forces are scheduled to arrive.”
“Then after midnight it is,” Rhea said.
5
Darkness fell, and Rhea waited until after midnight to lead her men outside. They took the front street, which was completely hued green on their HUDs. Dim light from glow lamps allowed them to see without having to use potential location-revealing tech like LIDAR.
They moved on foot, heading northwest, away from the ever-expanding search perimeter of the security robots. They kept close to the walls of the surrounding cargo containers and lean-tos.
Drones patrolled overhead, looking for them, and the party occasionally had to take cover in alleyways, or behind other freestanding structures like benches or stands. Apparently a curfew was in effect, so if a drone caught them, the gig would be up.
Only a few of the Wardenites who had remained behind at the compound had been arrested—for interfering with a police search—and the remainder had been allowed to go free. These men watched the skies from the windows of lean-tos scattered throughout the settlement; some of them operated drones of their own. In this manner, the Wardenites were able to continue transmitting the positions of enemy UAVs to Horatio via the obfuscated AR visor, which the robot used in combination with the spy satellite data to update the areas safe for passage.
Horatio ran the visor in ping mode, which meant it connected to the Internet every fifteen seconds to update. It was more dangerous than the ten-minute update intervals Horatio had been employing earlier, but it was either that or risk running into an enemy drone. The spoofing technology in the visor was still working perfectly, according to DragonHunter, but that didn’t ease Rhea’s fears.
They finally approached the Texas barriers that enclosed Rust Town. Though they had kept well away from the official exits, which were cordoned off, the entire concrete wall section ahead was red, thanks to the increased patrols of the perimeter by UAVs. However, a section of that red swath was slowly becoming green as one of the drones responsible slowly moved on.
Rhea led the team into an alcove between two cargo containers to wait it out. She kept an eye on the overhead map, and in about a minute a portion of the Texas barrier, and the street leading up to it, turned green.
She peered from her cover, confirming that the route was a go.
Time to move, she transmitted over the mental channel of their mesh network.
Sticking to the green area of the street, the group hurried from cover and rushed to the Texas barrier. By the time they arrived, the green swatch had already begun shrinking.
They quickly helped each other over. Too weak to pull himself up on his own, Renaldo had to hold onto Horatio’s back while the robot carried him to the top and down the other side.
Rhea was one of those giving boosts to the others, so when the last of them had gone, she leaped up, grabbed onto the top of the barrier, pulled herself over, and leaped the entire distance to the ground.
They quickly disseminated into the ruins of the city beyond the settlement, taking cover in the remains of a mid-rise building as another UAV swept past.
When it passed, they continued into the shattered streets, keeping to the green zones. Because there were no glow lamps out there, the light levels were low, forcing the team to move very slowly. Rhea and the others activated their night vision, which was a passive sensing mechanism, and that helped. More than once she avoided slamming into a protruding rod of rebar or other obstacle thanks to said night vision.
Soon the jagged and broken skyscrapers were towering above them, eating up the stars. That was good, because it meant they were far less exposed to the satellites and the patrolling drones. Indeed, the way forward was entirely green. But also bad, because the streets were even darker, with their night vision barely penetrating in some places.
None of them dared use LIDAR, but since Will had some map data cached from the last time he traveled this way, they didn’t have to: Will shared the data, which caused the view to partially fill out with white wireframes. He warned them that the ruins could have easily changed since his last visit—pieces were always crumbling away from the skyscrapers, and sometimes buildings collapsed entirely.
Will also launched Gizmo, which he had repaired since the encounter with Veil, so that it could track any UAV scouts the Wardenites in the settlement couldn’t see, thanks to the skyscrapers that now blotted out the sky. The drone ascended silently, until it was above the altitude of the highest building, and then proceeded to shadow the party from above.
Horatio led. The robot kept its hands held in front, in case the map data had changed. Horatio also aggregated the positional data from all three sources—the satellites, the Wardenites, and Gizmo—to compute the final map of go and no-go zones, which updated every fifteen seconds. Though Gizmo was too small to be detected by the spy satellites, the drone was careful to stick to the green zones nonetheless, Rhea noted.
Thus, they made their way through the ruins of the city that had once thrived before the Great Calming, the city that Rust Town and Aradne had replaced. They were officially in the Outlands, even if the rocky plains of said region were still a few kilometers out.
They neared the outskirts of the ruins; beyond, the land was completely red—in full view of the spy satellites.
The team was forced to retreat inward, toward the Aradne wall. According to Rhea’s overhead map, a swath of green lay immediately adjacent to the wall, all along its outer edge. That was the cover they needed.
“We could stay here, and wait for our ride to Mars,” Renaldo suggested.
“No,” Horatio said. “It’s better to stick to the Warden’s plan. While we’re in the green now, tomorrow morning this entire area will be red. Unless you’d like to hide inside the ruins of an unstable building?”
“Ah, no thanks,” Renaldo said. “We follow the Warden’s plan.”
As they grew closer to the Aradne wall, Rhea called a halt. She retrieved the AR visor from Horatio and made a call to DragonHunter. Voice only.
“Were you able to take the wall’s external cameras?” she asked. He’d taken them before, to allow the mini tankers to return undetected from the pipeline, but when she’d told him about her latest plan, he’d w
arned her that he wasn’t sure whether or not the cameras were still his.
“Like a stallion takes a filly,” DragonHunter replied. “I found out that city employees tried to patch the software a few weeks ago, but apparently they didn’t realize I installed a sandbox. So these dudes, they go and log into my sandbox, install a patch, and call it a day. Meanwhile, the real environment remains unpatched. So yeah, still mine. I never lost the cameras. You won’t be spotted.”
“You’re certain?” she pressed. “Because we have the CommNixer pistols…”
“I’d advise against using them,” Will said. “Especially in a rather quiet area like the city outskirts. When a bunch of cameras go down in a row, that’s a big red flag to any observing AI.”
She disconnected and returned the visor to Horatio.
They continued forward, leaving behind the cover of the skyscrapers, sticking to the go zones, until they were walking inside the green band next to the Aradne wall. It towered to their left, blotting out the stars.
She often searched the sky nervously as she advanced, but no octocopters came racing to their position.
Will had no cached data of this area, but DragonHunter routed the LIDAR from those cameras through to Horatio, who in turn distributed it to Rhea and the others so that they could see in the dark. Even so, Rhea kept her night vision mode active, because Horatio still only connected every fifteen seconds to get the latest LIDAR data, whereas Rhea preferred a more regularly updated feed. It would take only fifteen seconds for a drone, infantry robot or bioweapon to spot her and move in for the kill. If she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t defend herself. Unfortunately, her night vision didn’t penetrate the current darkness very well anyway.
It took them another hour to reach the point where the broad pipeline from the ocean met the wall. The pipeline had been elevated to help protect it from attack by bioweapons, and the region located immediately underneath was very much in the green, and it would remain so day and night.
Rhea borrowed the visor from Horatio and called DragonHunter once more. “So, we’re here. Tell me you’ve dealt with the sensors.” Motion sensors were embedded beneath the pipes, meant to warn city employees of potential sabotage, or attacks by bioweapons. They would trigger as soon as Rhea and the others stepped underneath.
“I have,” DragonHunter replied. “I went the old-fashioned route, like last time, relaying a bribe on your behalf to a few of the monitoring station employees. They’ve promised to look the other way.”
“How can we be sure they’ll keep that promise?” she asked.
“Oh, they will, don’t worry,” DragonHunter assured her. “They’re big Warden fans. They’d never betray you.”
With a sigh, Rhea thanked him and disconnected. She returned the visor to Horatio, and the party proceeded into the gap between the pipeline’s underside and the ground. If there were active motions sensors, they would be triggering at that very moment.
But the station employees must have really been fans, because no security forces arrived. Either that, or DragonHunter had given them a lot of money.
The party continued eastward, until the city wall no longer ate up the stars, and was a tiny smudge against the sky. Because they had moved out of range of the LIDAR from the city cameras, she decided to rest before going any further. Thus, the party made camp.
And that had been her plan. Now fulfilled.
Gizmo landed on top of the pipeline and kept watch on the plains. Horatio also stood guard, keeping an eye out from underneath the pipeline.
In the morning, they continued onward with first light, intending to put as much distance between themselves and the city as possible. The area immediately underneath the pipeline remained green, while outside it the rocky plains were always red. The motion sensors overhead flashed continually, but no security forces, city contractors, or otherwise ever came to investigate.
The party intermittently passed the long, wide supports that held up the pipeline on either side. These supports combined to form an arch overhead, providing just enough clearance for a small vehicle to travel underneath.
“We should have brought the SUV,” Renaldo complained. He was panting.
Rhea glanced over her shoulder at him. “We would’ve had a bit of trouble leaving the ruins… the green zone next to Aradne’s wall wasn’t wide enough for a vehicle.”
“I suppose not,” Renaldo said.
“Come on, a little exercise will do you good for a change,” Will said. “You’re used to sitting down at that virtual desk of yours all day…”
“We’ll be doing a lot of sitting shortly,” Rhea added. “So enjoy the exercise while you can. We’ll be cramped aboard a ship for five days. Plus, we have to wait for it to arrive.”
“I can’t wait,” Renaldo cracked.
As the day came to a close, Rhea decided that they’d traveled east far enough, and called a halt.
“We’ll wait for our ride here,” she announced.
Renaldo had fallen behind, so when he finally arrived to find the party seated, he said: “So we’re done for the day? You’re not just waiting for me to catch up?”
“We’re done for the day, and the trip,” she said. “The shuttle will pick us up here.”
“Thank goodness.” Renaldo flopped down. “I don’t think I could take another day of this. Marching. It’s for the plebes!”
Miles arched an eyebrow. “‘Plebes?’ Correct me if I’m wrong, but you do live in Rust Town, don’t you? We’re all ‘plebes.’”
“No,” Renaldo said. “We’ve moved beyond that. We’re Wardenites now. We mean something. We have worth.”
Miles snorted. “So you say.”
Renaldo glanced at Rhea. “Besides, I’m not like you, Warden. I tire easily. I don’t have a body enhanced by nano technology.”
“Our bodies aren’t enhanced by nano technology,” Miles said. “And you don’t hear us complaining.”
Renaldo waved him away and popped a fat pill. He downed it with a swig from his canteen.
“How long did you say we have until our pickup?” Brinks asked.
“Six more days,” Rhea replied.
Renaldo burped loudly.
“It’s going to be a long wait,” Brinks said.
6
The days passed slowly. Rhea didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to mentally prepare herself for what was coming. She didn’t know what would happen when she arrived on Mars to confront Khrusos. She didn’t know if she would survive it. All she knew was that she couldn’t live this way, always on the run.
Before they’d left the safe house, Renaldo had arranged for the delivery of extra rations and water, so the team had more than enough to last for the week. After all, it wasn’t like they could simply tap into the pipeline for their hydration needs, as the ocean water was unprocessed, and much too salty.
On the second day, Rhea borrowed the obfuscated AR visor from Horatio and called DragonHunter. “So, any news on our pickup provider?”
Targon wasn’t going to personally handle their pickup, because his transport couldn’t handle atmospheric reentry. That meant a third party would have to convey Rhea and her team into orbit.
“I’ve arranged for a shuttle, yes,” DragonHunter said. “A personal transport, actually. From a subscriber to your SubverseTube channel.”
“Oh really?” Rhea asked. “You’ve vetted this subscriber, right? He’s not some random dude?”
“I’ve checked him out,” DragonHunter replied. “He’s legit. But don’t be alarmed when you board the shuttle and find it unmanned. Our subscriber friend wants to keep a low profile.”
“He’s scared of getting caught with me aboard,” Rhea said.
“Exactly,” DragonHunter said. “You understand.”
Rhea frowned at his sarcasm.
“This way, if you’re caught, he can claim the shuttle was stolen,” DragonHunter added.
She folded her arms, though he would not see, since the call was voice-on
ly. “You didn’t publish a public call for transportation on my SubverseTube channel, did you?” Though DragonHunter didn’t have access privileges to her account, she wouldn’t have put it past the hacker to break in.
“No, of course not,” DragonHunter said. “I’m not going to announce your plans to the world.”
“Good,” she said. “So how did you find this ‘generous’ subscriber?”
“Simple,” DragonHunter said. “I scraped the comments from all your uploads and did some background checks on the usernames using some special look-up algorithms of mine. Basically, I filtered for those with the highest incomes. After creating a short list of twenty, I sent a mass email to them all, and reviewed the five replies.”
She sighed. “I guess I have no choice but to trust this guy.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve forwarded his name and address to the Wardenites, so if he betrays you, they’ll mess him up,” DragonHunter promised.
“That’s not necessary,” Rhea said.
“Tell that to your Wardenites,” DragonHunter commented. “Oh, by the way, got some news on the hacking front, for when you finally reach Mars. First of all, something you should know: on the red planet, you don’t really have to worry about spy satellites. There are very few. Unfortunately, cameras are deployed everywhere throughout the city. And I mean everywhere. So you’re basically constantly spied on anyway. You’re going to have to employ your CommNixer pistols liberally. I’m sending a map of all known camera positions. This data is recent as of yesterday, but it’s possible there are some cameras we missed.”
The data downloaded slowly. While she waited, she pulled up the map of Hongton and overlaid the different positions. As the dots representing the cameras began to fill out, she realized DragonHunter was right: they were everywhere.
“I’m not sure we have enough ammo to reach the palace,” Rhea said in dismay. “You’re going to have to deliver more CommNixer disks.”
“Actually, I won’t,” DragonHunter said. “There’s a pedway system that runs underneath Hongton. The cameras there use outdated software, so I’ve been able to hack them with the help of a contact I have in the city. I won’t get into the intricacies of breaking into a remote system over the Delay-tolerant network that spans our solar system, but needless to say, it was difficult.