Ghost Hope

by Ripley Patton

  “Is there still a military presence?” T-dog asked.

  “Shouldn’t be,” Chase answered. “It says here all military personnel and staff were relieved or relocated early last year, and since then the land, all twenty thousand acres of it, has been stuck in some kind of legal limbo. The government had promised to release it to local interests at no cost, but they apparently had a change of heart, resulting in multiple lawsuits against them.”

  “Ah, poor govey-wovey,” T-Dog crooned mockingly.

  “So,” Chase said, “with that much land and no personnel presence, it’s likely no one has noticed the compound is there.”

  “What kind of security are we looking at?” T-dog asked.

  Chase typed in a new search and scanned more text. “It’s pretty old-school. The entire area is surrounded by a high-voltage military-grade fence, but the remote electronic security is way out-of-date. It hasn’t been updated since they started the decommissioning process a decade ago. We should be able to get in and find exactly what we need with no trouble.”

  “Get in?” I choked out. “Why in the world would you want to do that?” I’d spent two weeks clawing my way out of that hell hole, and these guys wanted to go back?

  Chase turned to me. “The CAMFers and The Hold had closed computer networks. Neither was connected to the internet or anything we can hack, unless we can physically access those networks ourselves. We get into that compound, and we have every piece of information on PSS the CAMFers and The Hold have ever collected. Better yet, we keep them from recovering it.”

  “But what if the computers aren’t in there? What if they displaced separately?”

  “If the entire building is intact, there’s a good chance the computer systems are too,” he reasoned.

  “But you don’t know for sure,” I argued.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Chase said. “The information from those networks would be invaluable.”

  “But what if the CAMFers are still in there?” I asked, staring at the image on the screen.

  “Let me run some scans,” Chase said, typing quickly. “We should be able to tell with some degree of certainty.”

  Suddenly, satellite images of the compound began flicking across the screen from different times of the day and night, some of them in infrared, but all obviously from Umatilla. He paused on a final image, the date blinking in the corner. It was Umatilla the day before I’d displaced the compound.

  “There’s no indication of activity inside or outside since you moved it,” Chase said. “And it appears to be powered down. There haven’t been lights or power surges of any kind. So, I’d say it’s highly unlikely anyone’s there.”

  “In that case,” I said, feeling fear creep up my spine. But at least this fear was real and of my own choosing. “When do we leave?”

  “Our van is already geared up and ready to go,” Chase said, grinning. “But Mike thought you’d be way harder to convince.”

  “Did he?” Mike had planned this all along. He’d set the hackers looking for the compound and he’d expected me to go with them. “How far away is this place?”

  “About a three-hour drive on I-84 east,” T-dog answered.

  The clock on the closest computer monitor said it was 4:00 a.m., and my mom didn’t get up until 6:00. But if I disappeared on her again, she would never forgive me. I was going to have to tell her something. Besides, it would probably be better to make our run for the dome at night under cover of darkness.

  “We could leave tonight around 7:00,” I suggested. That would give me time to come up with an angle to convince my mom to let me go, but not enough time for her to overthink it. “Does that work for you guys?”

  “Let’s make it 9:00,” Chase said. “Tee and I have been up all night, and I want to get a decent day’s sleep before I have to drive.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll be ready.”

  2

  DAVID MARCUS

  “Come on, David, stop dragging your feet,” Reiny called over her shoulder. She and Kaylee, walking hand in hand, had gotten a few yards ahead of me on the one-lane, dirt road which cut through the middle of Warm Springs. The name of the road, Hollywood Boulevard, had to be ironic because there was nothing Hollywood about the ramshackle little reservation village. And I was dragging my feet. Partly because I was still recovering from almost dying in the desert a few days ago, but mostly because this was not the way I wanted to spend my Saturday morning.

  “Oh for Christ’s sake, it’s not a death march,” Reiny said. “We’re just going to the Christmas bazaar.” She stopped in the middle of the road to wait for me. Kaylee stopped too, peeking out from under her hood and giving me a shy smile.

  “Why is the Christmas bazaar the second weekend of November?” I complained. “And we’re Native Americans. We don’t believe in Jesus Christ or Santa Claus, do we?”

  “No, we don’t.” She frowned. “Well, some of us do, but that’s not important. The bazaar is about building community and fostering creativity. Oh, and also about sticking it to Thanksgiving because we sure as hell don’t celebrate the European invasion of our lands that culminated in the deaths of more than twenty million of our people.”

  “Now there’s a cause I can get behind,” I said. “Sticking it to the white man by buying one another’s hideous craft projects. That will teach him.”

  “Listen, you smart-ass,” Reiny said, pulling Kaylee back toward us and looping her free arm through mine. “The reason we’re going is to get you two out of the house and build your strength back up. And because I saved your life, you’re going to come quietly and like it.”

  “We would have found water eventually,” I argued. But honestly, she’d totally saved Kaylee and me. After we’d woken up in the middle of the high desert, disoriented from whatever Kaylee’s sister had done to us, we’d wandered for two days without food or drink. We’d been dehydrated, sunburned, and on our last legs when Reiny and her brother, Lonan, had ridden out of the hills on horseback and rescued us. They’d brought us back to the reservation and the village. They’d fed us, housed us, and nursed us back to health. Yeah, Reiny had saved my ass and I owed her big time, but I was worried about Kaylee. She wasn’t used to people or crowds. She wouldn’t understand the stares or laughter. She was completely innocent of this world, and I wasn’t. I knew what kind of abuse people could dole out just because someone was different, and Kaylee was about as different as they came.

  “She’ll be fine,” Reiny said, reading the worry on my face. “You’ll both be fine. Now, come on.” She tugged at me and the three of us moved forward, arm in arm in arm.

  I will be fine, Kaylee said into my mind, and I glanced at her in surprise. We’re all touching, she explained. So, I can use Reiny’s mind to connect with yours, like skipping rocks from one pond to another. Except, I’ve never actually skipped rocks. I’ve only read about it.

  “We’ll find you a pond and we’ll skip some rocks,” I told her.

  “Stop it, you two,” Reiny scolded. “We’re almost there, so none of that.”

  “And that’s exactly why this is a bad idea,” I said. “She doesn’t understand. What if she accidentally mind-speaks to someone and—”

  I won’t. I promise. Cross my heart, Kaylee said. I won’t even talk to you two, just to be sure.

  “See? She understands,” Reiny said, guiding us into the Warm Springs Elementary School, which also doubled as the Community Center. “Now, go have some fun.” She let go of my arm, moving away to greet someone she knew at one of the food stands near the door.

  The place was packed wall-to-wall with people—more people than could possibly live in Warm Springs. All around the perimeter, there were tables and stands set up, selling everything from beads and bone jewelry, to blankets and baskets, to band tshirts and used electronic devices. A few of the booths had food, and there were a couple of tables piled with old toys someone’s kids were hoping to make a little cash on.

  Kayle
e and I were immediately swept up in the line of jostling people circulating the gym and she clung to me at first, pressing herself into my side like a scared child. It was hard to believe she was older than me. Over the past few days, I’d come to think of her as a little sister, and even now I could see people responding to her petite stature, assuming she was, at most, in her early teens. The hooded sweater-coat Reiny had given her, pieced together from numerous brightly-colored sweaters and falling to her knees, only added to the illusion of someone young, shy, and in need of protection. All it had taken was one look at her pixie-like, glowing face for me to fall completely under her spell.

  But I wasn’t sure the population of Warm Springs would respond the same way. Plus, I knew something they didn’t. I knew that beneath Kaylee’s innocent and childlike exterior, there was power beyond measure. During our time together in the desert, I’d discovered that she could soothe someone and mind-speak to them with just a touch. And I had a feeling I hadn’t seen the full depths of her abilities yet. No wonder the CAMFers and The Hold had kept her balanced between them for so long. But they couldn’t have her back. I had to keep her out of their clutches. I’d promised her that. I’d promised her she’d never be a prisoner again.

  “You wanna buy something, or you just gonna stand there holding up the line?” the guy behind me growled. I looked up to find myself standing in front of one of the toy tables where Kaylee had been checking out an old etch-a-sketch. Only she wasn’t there anymore. Shit. I couldn’t see her anywhere. She’d been right beside me a moment ago.

  “Kaylee,” I called, pushing through the line.

  “Hey, wait your turn, buddy,” someone said, shoving me back.

  “Kaylee,” I called again, looking over people’s heads, searching for the multi-colored hood of her sweater-coat.

  There she was, three booths ahead, the wrinkled, long-faced guy behind it frowning at her. By the time I reached them, it was obvious she’d worked her silent magic on him. He was chatting away about art and sculpture, which was apparently what he called the odd arrangement of recycled crap he was selling. It was amazing how people never noticed that Kaylee didn’t speak. They talked to her like they would their cat or their dog or their horse, not needing anything in return but the privilege of interacting with someone so wonderfully other.

  “Kaylee,” I said, trying to calm my racing heart. “Don’t get ahead of me like that. I didn’t know where you were.”

  She turned to me and held up a smooth silver cube, about the size of a Rubik’s cube, the question in her eyes obvious.

  “You want to buy that?” I asked. Of all the things at the Christmas bazaar I thought might fascinate Kaylee, a metal cube was not one of them. Then again, she loved that magic eight ball of hers. I guess someone raised in a dome all their life could be entertained by almost anything.

  “She has a good eye,” the guy at the booth said, scrutinizing me. “That there is a bonafide alien artifact. I found it in the desert, and it ain’t made from any metal known to man. Now, in my day, people came out here just for a hope of a glimpse of a UFO, but not anymore. People don’t believe in mystery these days. They think we’re it. Us and the stuff right in front of our faces. But you and I know different,” he said, his glance falling on Kaylee, then flicking to my chest and finally back to my face. “There’s way more to this world than meets the eye.”

  What was the old coot getting at? That Kaylee was a mystery, or that I was? Did I know this guy? Fuck. Would I even remember if I did?

  “You don’t need this,” I told Kaylee, taking the cube from her and putting it back on the table next to another one exactly like it. Reiny had generously given me a couple of twenties to spend, but I couldn’t justify blowing it on junk when Kaylee and I were literally borrowing the clothes on our backs.

  “Of course, she don’t need it, boy.” The old guy scowled. “Ain’t nothing in this gym anybody needs.”

  Well, he had a good point, but I really didn’t like the way he’d called me boy.

  Kaylee picked up the cube again, this time holding it out to me more emphatically. Then she picked up the other one and held it out too, her eyes determined.

  “No way. We’re not getting two of them,” I told her. “They’re exactly the same.”

  “No two artifacts are the same,” the junk man said. “Besides, they’re more valuable as a set.”

  “You really want these?” I asked Kaylee, and she nodded adamantly.

  “How much?” I asked the old guy.

  “Thirty bucks for one. Fifty for both.”

  “I’ll give you twenty for one,” I said, slapping the bill down on the table.

  “Deal,” he said, snatching up the money. “One mysterious cube sold to the young buck and his alien princess side-kick.”

  I grabbed one of the cubes and handed it to Kaylee, gently pushing her into the flow of people toward the next table.

  She looked back, glancing at the other cube longingly, but it was soon out of sight and, I hoped, out of mind.

  We made the rounds, Kaylee stopping at every booth and admiring each person’s selection with unfeigned interest. Yet, underneath it, I could sense some subtle impatience in her. Was she getting overwhelmed? I noticed she’d tucked the cube in one of her oversized sweater pockets, the one opposite the pocket she kept the eight ball in. A cube and a ball. Simple shapes for a girl who’d lived a simple life, just one more reminder of how ill-equipped she was for the complex world she now found herself in.

  Finally, we finished the craft booth circuit and ended up at the food tables where Reiny handed us each a cob of corn on a stick, dripping with butter. Then we had to have some fry bread and some fudge, which Kaylee loved. By that time, the crowds were dying down and the vendors began putting away their wares.

  “So, did you have a good time?” Reiny asked as the three of us stepped outside to walk back to her place.

  “I made it out alive,” I said. “And Kaylee bought an alien artifact.”

  “Excellent,” Reiny said, turning to Kaylee. “Can I see?”

  Kaylee reached into her pocket and pulled out the cube, handing it to Reiny.

  “Hmm, very mysterious,” Reiny said, turning it in her hands. “Definitely from another planet.” She handed it back to Kaylee, who put it in her pocket and went skipping ahead of us. When she was out of earshot, Reiny turned to me. “See? I told you everything would be fine. Kaylee is different, I know, but she has an innate charm that disarms people.”

  “Maybe, but the more people she interacts with, the more likely her whereabouts will get back to the CAMFers or The Hold.”

  “We don’t even know if The Hold or the CAMFers still exist,” Reiny argued. “The compound is gone. I’ve seen the crater where it used to be with my own eyes. And your uncle hasn’t contacted me, which makes me think The Hold is out of commission.”

  God, I hoped she was right, and that she was telling the truth. I knew it was a risk to stay with Reiny considering her past employment with Uncle Alex. She’d sworn she wouldn’t give Kaylee and me up, even if he did contact her, and what choice did we have? Kaylee and I had nowhere to go. But I knew my uncle would rebuild. He wasn’t the kind of man to let anything stop him. The loss of the compound and Kaylee were just temporary glitches in his plans. When he did resurface, I wanted to be indebted to Reiny as little as possible.

  “Hey, here’s your money back,” I said, pulling the leftover twenty from my pocket.

  “Um, okay.” Reiny took it, a funny look on her face. “You do know you have money, right? You don’t have to keep borrowing from me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, crap. You don’t remember. I’m so sorry; I should have told you sooner. You have a bank account with a million dollars in it. It’s a trust fund settlement from the train collision awarded to you on your eighteenth birthday.”

  “I have a million dollars?”

  “Yep,” Reiny said, smiling.

  �
�With what bank?”

  “I have no idea,” she said, her face falling.

  “And neither do I,” I pointed out. “I also don’t know my account number, my password, my PIN, nor do I have any legal documentation that proves I’m David Marcus Jordan.”

  “Well, we can work on the documentation part, at least,” she said. “You were born here on the rez, right? So, we should be able to scrape up a birth certificate. But yeah, I see your point. Why don’t you keep this then?” She handed the twenty back to me with a fifty tucked under it. “I know you’re good for it.”

  Ahead of us, Kaylee had reached Lonan and Reiny’s tiny shack of a house, but instead of going inside, she waited for us on the stoop. Sitting down in the sun, her face masked by her hood, she took out the cube I’d bought her and inspected it.

  “I’m going inside to make some sandwiches for lunch,” Reiny said, patting Kaylee on the head as she stepped past her. “You two still need more meat on your bones.” She and Lonan didn’t make much working at Kah-Nee-Tah, and feeding and caring for me and Kaylee had to be costing them. If I did have a million dollars, I would definitely pay them back for all they’d done for us.

  I felt Kaylee’s small hand slip into mine. Look, she said, holding the cube toward me in her other hand, the metal now glowing a soft, pulsing blue.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, trying not to sound alarmed.

  I’m just feeling it, she said matter-of-factly. I can sense the boy it came out of. He’s that way. She pointed to the west. But way too far to walk.

  “The boy it came out of?” I repeated. “Wait, that thing came out of someone with PSS?” She’d told me about her sister’s abilities. She’d told me all about Olivia, the girl I’d supposedly been in love with. Kaylee wasn’t the only one in her family wielding immense power.

  No, silly. Kaylee mind-spoke to me. It’s a cube, not an artifact. It came out of the boy without PSS. You know, Olivia’s friend—the one who visited the dome with her.