by Mel Odom
Colleen Trammell sat cross-legged on the ground. She wouldn’t meet Hella’s gaze and didn’t respond to Hella’s thinking about her. Not that Hella wanted any mental contact with the woman. Having the nanobots buzzing around inside her head earlier was enough.
“Surely we can catch those things and retrieve that device.” With the firelight flickering over Pardot and the exo encasing him, Hella thought he looked a lot like one of the ’Chine. She wondered if they would think so as well.
Stampede shook his head. “They move fast and at night they see as well as we do in the day. Chasing after them in the dark would be suicidal.”
“In the morning, then. If you think we can make up the lead they get tonight.”
“Dr. Pardot.” Stampede kept his voice polite with effort. “Even in the daylight, those things are dangerous.”
“You say they communicate through a common radio frequency.”
“Some kind of frequency.”
“What if I said we have a low-yield EMP device that will knock that system off-line? At least for a time. Do you think we would have a chance then?”
That surprised Hella. She knew what electromagnetic pulse devices were from discussions at trade camps, but she’d never heard of one small enough to be used in a localized area.
Stampede shifted his attention to Riley. “You have something like that?”
Riley gave a tight nod. “We do.”
That would definitely tilt the odds, but Hella still didn’t relish the idea of clashing with the mechanical zombies again.
“Questioning what I tell you is disrespectful.” Pardot clanked over in front of Stampede.
Snorting in disgust, Stampede pinned Pardot with his hot gaze. “Risking my partner and my neck is my business. Getting dead lasts a whole lot longer than getting disrespected. Are we clear on that?”
Pardot trembled with rage, and the body movement translated to the support exo, causing the servos to whine in distress as they tried to interpret the reaction. “We’re clear.” He paused. “I can offer a bonus at this point. A successful recovery of the device will net you twice what we’d agreed upon.”
Stampede kept his broad face impassive, but Hella knew he was just as taken aback as she was. It was more money than they’d ever had at one time.
Please. Hella heard Colleen’s desperate plea inside her head an instant before an image of the woman’s daughter dead or dying in the lab formed in her mind’s eye. For Alice.
“Take it.” Hella spoke quietly but her voice caused every head at the cook fire to turn in her direction.
Stampede hesitated only for a moment, glancing from Hella to Colleen with dark suspicion, then nodded. “All right. We’ll get your device back. But we’ll do it on our terms.”
CHAPTER 16
Pardot didn’t like the terms. He fought tooth and nail, and he almost walked a rut into his side of the cook fire, but when Stampede pointed out that if he and Hella didn’t get any rest, they couldn’t ride out in the morning, Pardot finally gave up and angrily retreated to his tent.
Hella squatted on one side of their private cook fire and heated a ham. She could have just as easily eaten the meat cold, but after everything she’d been through and the chill of the semidry chain mail touching her skin after the washing, she wanted something hot. When the meat was warmed through its core, she sliced it, put it on bread, added cheese, sliced apples, and served all of the food on the tin plates they carried in their gear.
“What’s the occasion?” Stampede sat across from her.
Since they were leaving in the morning, Riley had volunteered his men to stand watch. Neither Hella nor Stampede thought there would be any more trouble with the ’Chine. Usually the mechmen stuck with one action or another. They didn’t tend to repeat things.
“I wanted a meal. Not just something to eat.”
“Okay.” Stampede picked up an apple wedge, gave it a test sniff, then popped it into his mouth. He chewed with relish. “So why did you want to take Pardot’s money?”
“It was a lot of money. And if he has the EMPs like he says he has, it will make things easier.”
“Easier but not easy.”
“With the ’Chine, nothing is easy.”
“Getting dead is.” Stampede looked at her levelly.
“You can get dead anywhere in the Redblight.” Hella picked up her sandwich and savored the taste of the grease and bread and meat.
“How much did the woman have to do with your decision?”
“Not as much as you did.”
“You spoke before I said anything.”
Hella smiled at him. “Let me play it out for you. In the morning, if not tonight, Pardot would chase the ’Chine anyway. The only way we weren’t going was if we decided to quit the expedition. You’re not ready to do that yet.”
“I’m not? That’s news to me.”
“It’s a challenge. Us against the ’Chine. Only now we have the EMPs, which we’ve never had before. In the past, we’ve always wiped out the ’Chine wherever we crossed paths with them.”
Stampede scowled. “They’re as bad as cockroaches. Multiply every time you turn around.”
“They also feed on travelers coming through the trade routes, so any we leave behind we might have to encounter in the future. It’s better to take them now, when there are fewer numbers.”
A fierce grin lit Stampede’s face in the darkness. “We did wipe out a lot of them tonight.”
“So they’re weaker. And you also get the chance to push Pardot back, remind him who’s playing on whose field.”
“Have to admit there’s a certain satisfaction in that.”
Hella licked ham grease from her fingers and took another bite. “Getting our fee doubled was just icing on the cake. It didn’t really enter into what you had already decided, but you let Pardot think it did. That way he’s underestimating you, letting him think he can buy you off.”
“And why would I want to let him think that?”
“In case you decide that whatever he’s after is too dangerous for him to have. Things that come through the ripples generally aren’t a cause for celebration. If you think whatever we recover is a bad thing, we can lose it somewhere.”
Stampede’s grin was broad. “Sometimes, Red, I think maybe you know me too well.”
At first light, Riley joined them while they were breaking camp. The captain carried a Kevlar ordnance bag. “The limited-field EMPs.” He handed them to Stampede.
Stampede took the bag, inspected the contents quickly, and passed it to Hella.
Squatting, Hella opened the bag and peered inside. Six gray-green egg shapes lay nestled in the bag. All of the spheres were stamped with some kind of scientific or military code. Two recessed buttons were on the sides. One was beside a digital timer, and another was alone.
“There are two ways of setting off the EMPs.” Riley took one of the devices and held it gingerly. He pointed to the button alone. “This one is like a grenade. Depress it and it starts an internal three-second fuse. Get to cover because there’s also an antipersonnel layer wrapped around it. Should help kill whatever’s left that’s human on those things.”
Stampede nodded. “How big is the effective range?”
“For the antipersonnel contingent, about a five-meter radius. The same as a conventional grenade. The electromagnetic pulse travels about five times that before it loses effectiveness. If you’re caught in the backwash of the EM flux, all your electronics will be fried. Including your comm links. You don’t have to be close to use these. Stand clear.”
Stampede grimaced. “I guess the hardshells are insulated against EMPs?”
“Have to be. Otherwise we’d be incapacitated if we used them.”
Hella had already guessed that, and she was certain Stampede had assumed it as well. But it was good to know in case that kind of knowledge was ever necessary.
Riley reached into his hardshell and brought out two small cases about the size of the kn
uckle of Hella’s thumb. “These are insulated cases you can use for you comm links if you’re at a questionable distance. If you get the chance to store them.”
Hella took both cases, gave one to Stampede, then split the grenades between them as well.
A hesitant expression filled Riley’s open face shield as he looked at Hella. “I don’t know what effect the EMP will have on your nanobots. They don’t affect a human’s normal electromagnetic field, but you could be something different.”
That was something Hella hadn’t thought of, but she didn’t allow herself to swap looks with Stampede.
“I’m asking you again to reconsider going by yourselves.” Riley returned his attention to Stampede. “If you use those EMP devices, you could seriously damage Hella. Especially since you don’t know how integrated she truly is with the nanobots. If her body is in any way dependent on them, you could kill her. Or maybe just wipe out the person you know.”
As she thought about the consequences Riley was talking about, of possibly having everything she thought of as herself erased by the EMP, Hella felt sickness twist through her stomach. She kept her face neutral through sheer willpower.
“We’re going by ourselves because it’ll be safer for you and for us.” Stampede slid his rifle over his shoulder. “If anyone can get that device back from the ’Chine, we’ll get it done. Having more people will just confuse everything, not make it more simple or safer. And we’ll travel faster by ourselves than we would with any of you.”
“All right.” Riley frowned at that, though, clearly not happy with the answer.
“How am I supposed to know what it is we’re looking for?”
“Dr. Pardot says you’ll know. He also says it’s in your best interests not to do anything with it other than transport it back. The best scenario, according to him, would be if you were to guide us to it.”
Stampede glanced to the east where the sun was almost up and the darkness in the forest was at its thinnest. “You can find the rendezvous I marked?”
“I’ve got the coordinates locked into the map.” Riley tapped a view screen embedded in his left forearm. “We stick to the trade route for a day. If you haven’t caught up to us by the evening of the next day, we’re on our own.”
“Good luck.” Stampede reached down for his huge backpack and pulled it on. He turned and walked away, heading in the same direction the sled tracks of the ’Chine had been traveling the previous night.
Riley looked at Hella. “Be careful out there. I’d like to see you come back safe, and I don’t care if you find Pardot’s lost cargo.”
Hella smiled and felt strange inside. She didn’t like the idea of leaving Riley in the Redblight on his own. There were too many things the security captain still didn’t know about. “I’ll be back.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Turning away, Hella slapped Daisy on the shoulder then started out after Stampede on foot. The mountain boomer followed along, tossing her head into the air again and again to scent.
At the top of the farthest rise from the camp, just before she heading down into the valley and leaving the expedition behind, Hella stopped and looked back. Riley remained standing where she’d left him. He gave her a final wave, then his face shield snapped closed and he turned away.
Hella put her face into the wind, found Stampede already twenty meters ahead of her, and lengthened her stride to catch up. She tried to put Riley out of her thoughts and focus on what she was doing, but it was difficult.
Following the sled tracks became easy for a while then turned hard again as efforts had been made to disguise or cover them.
“Evidently they figured out their ambush team wasn’t coming back somewhere in here.” Stampede circled the last track they’d found, going farther and farther from the origin point.
“Think they’ll have any more spider-holes waiting?” Hella walked along the back trail, acting on a niggling thought that wouldn’t go away.
The spider-holes were the ’Chine’s favorite ambush. Trade lore had it that a ’Chine could hole up for years, using just one fingertip to trickle charge his cybernetic systems through solar power and keep the meat part alive. Hella didn’t know if that was possible. Living things, even barely living things like the ’Chine, needed water.
“No. I think they’ll run for shelter now.”
“I’ve been thinking about why the ’Chine took whatever it was that survived the impact.”
“That the ’Chine wouldn’t take anything unless they could use it?”
“Maybe I’m not the only one that’s been thinking.” Hella knelt and brushed dust out of the sled tracks they’d found. She looked around for more ’Chine footprints.
“Had plenty of time for thinking on this little hike.” Stampede was grumpy. They’d covered a lot of ground, probably traveling a lot faster than their quarry across the uneven terrain. Getting a sled through the trees couldn’t have been easy so far off the trade routes. “The only thing I can come up with that they’d work this hard to get is something electronic.”
“Remember when the satellite landed up in Little Sahara?” The area was in the northwest section of the territory. “ ’Chine were all over that.”
“According to legend.”
“It was supposedly some sort of military satellite. When they downloaded it, people say the programming boosted the AI over that group. Made them smarter, harder to kill, and they figured out how to make laser arrays to use as weapons.”
“Is this your morning for legends, Red?”
“I’m just saying. Whatever this thing is the ’Chine recovered, they’ve already had it long enough for it to change them.”
“If it’s uploadable. If it even has a program.”
“I don’t think they’d work this hard for something that was just raw materials. And if it was just raw materials, they’d have already divvied, not worked to keep it intact.”
Stampede sighed in frustration at not knowing and went back to his origin point. Then he looked up. “Maybe we should start looking through the trees.”
“ ’Chine don’t climb trees. They think of the world as two-dimensional. You taught me that.”
“Maybe these are some of those mil-sat Little Sahara ’Chine. Could be they’ve figured out the world isn’t flat.”
“They didn’t use any lasers last night.” Hella brushed away more loose earth and leaves.
“I know they didn’t learn to fly.” Stampede snorted. “That would be a nightmare.”
Hella studied the tracks she’d found. “They know they’re being followed, so maybe they’re trying to trip us up. We must be getting close. And they had to have seen us.” Hella moved along the tracks she’d found. “They doubled back here.”
Stampede came back to join her. He dipped a finger into the sled tracks. “These are deeper than they’ve been.”
“Yeah.” Hella grinned at her own cleverness. “So unless someone hopped onto the sled to increase the weight, it’s been over these tracks twice.” She dragged a finger along the track. “The real giveaway is that the grain in this track is going the wrong way.”
Stampede stood and looked around. “We’ll need to be more careful. We’re gaining on them and they know it. Good catch, Red.” He shook his head. “Doubling back is something new. These ’Chine are smarter than any of the others we’ve come across.”
“Probably because they downloaded that mil-sat programming.” Hella was teasing but she didn’t want to ignore the possibility either.
“Even if they did, that’s not going to save them from an EMP.” Stampede started circling then found the juncture where the sled had been turned off the trail to head in another direction. “This way.”
The ’Chine continued doubling back every so often, but the ground at the base of the Buckled Mountains wasn’t karst and hadn’t shed the heavy rains that had come the past few days. The mechmen’s attempts at disguising the sled tracks stood out as well. But since they
were ’Chine, they didn’t give up their efforts to throw trackers off their trail. Once a program started to run within a pack, it usually stayed until it was proven wrong or drew negative results. They weren’t bright but they were adaptive. The longer they lived, the more they learned.
Hella and Stampede tracked on the run, settling into an easy lope that could cover several klicks a day. Their bodies, hardened from life on the trade routes, met the task easily. The pace was a lot more than Riley and his men would have been able to manage on the ATVs. Daisy thought they were just playing and chirped in bliss.
With dark starting to fog the eastern sky and the sun a dying spark to the west, they halted just long enough for a quiet bite to eat and to rehydrate.
Stampede screwed the lid back onto his canteen. “They’re headed for the Coyle River.”
“If they’re not, they’re going to find it anyway.” Hella studied the tracks and saw that they ran south as far as she could see. “You can’t go much farther before you find the Coyle. Unless they stop somewhere along the way.”
“Not here. Maybe up around Coyle Point. Near the waterfall. There are a lot of caves in that direction. The ground’s mostly limestone. That’s a natural hiding place for them.”
“How far to the river, do you think?”
“About an hour.”
Hella nodded. That was what she had figured. “I’m thinking we’re about an hour behind them. If we’re both right—”
“We’re going to catch them at the river.”
A short distance away, Daisy had her head stuck in a feedbag and munched happily.
Reaching down, Hella fingered the tracks, felt the dampness of the earth. She was sure they were both right. “With the river swollen the way it will be from the rains, they’ll have to cross at Wroth’s Ferry. That’s if the river’s not too high for the ferry.”
“I know. The question is, do we want to catch the ’Chine on this side of the river or the other?”
“If they’re stranded there because the river’s too high, that’s where we’ll find them. But if the ferry’s not moving—” A chill raced through Hella as she considered that. “If we get caught on the other side of the river and things go badly—”