by Debra Jess
She waited until the servo checked on their drinks and scurried away before she asked. "What do you mean?"
Daeven cut into his food with more force than necessary, the scrape of the knife against the plate making them both wince. "She has almost complete autonomy out here on the edge of nowhere, but at the end of the day, she still answers to Manitac. She might turn a profit, but most of that will either be plowed back into AuRaKaz or paid out to Manitac—bolster their bottom line. The director will get her cut, but the rest of us will see little of what's produced here. In the end, the people of Dawn's Landing are employees of Manitac first, citizens of the Unity government second. Manitac sees its employees as expendable commodities."
"Is that why she's importing ‘pets? Because Manitac wants her to cut costs on the labor force?" Maybe she shouldn’t have said it, but she couldn’t take it back and didn’t want to.
The temperature felt like it dropped a degree. "Probably, though don't count out her desire to boost her own profits. She can lay the blame at the feet of Manitac. It's certainly easier than taking responsibility for her own actions."
No mistake about it. Daeven might work for AuRaKaz, but he was no fan of the director. With each layer she peeled back, the man grew more interesting.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it." She fiddled with her food. "There's still so much that goes on here that I don't know about. I overhear a lot while shuttling people around, but none of it makes sense."
"I'm sorry too." Daeven wiped his mouth and tossed the ‘fresher onto the table. "I brought you out here to show you I'm not the jerk you keep seeing, and here I am being outright rude."
Her heart melted a little. "No, it's all right. I should be more careful with my questions."
"Especially around here." He reached over, touched the back of her hand. "I know I've said this to you before, Tamarja, and I can't emphasize it enough. Be careful. Dawn's Landing is beautiful and intriguing, but it's dangerous. The people aren't always what they seem."
"What should I do, then? How do I survive?" she demanded, more forcefully than she had meant, but the frustration at his warning and still not getting the information she needed was going to kill her.
"Do your job, and be cautious of those around you. Don't dig too deep in things that don't concern you. You won't like what you find."
Don't spy, she thought as Daeven pulled his hand back. It was a question of loyalty. Who did she rely on more for her livelihood? The director, who hired her, or Yohzad, who could kill her? And where did Daeven fit into all this?
She opened her mouth to ask one more question, but Daeven's ear jack chimed. He answered, swore, and looked at her with another apology. "I have to go."
"What's wrong? I thought you had the day off. Is there trouble?"
He stood, paying for both their meals with his credit chip. "No, it's just…" He hesitated. "Go back to Facility Prime. Lie low for the next couple of days. Don't bring attention to yourself, don't ask questions. Just do your job, and everything will be all right."
He started to walk away and then abruptly turned back. Before she realized what he was doing, he leaned down and kissed her. Not long, not lingering, but full on the lips and more passionate than she expected from him. She kissed him back, pouring all her loneliness and possessiveness into his mouth, but he pulled away before she could go any further.
He looked startled—because of his own actions or because of hers, she couldn’t tell.
Then he was gone, running toward his floater, leaving so fast she wondered if he'd really kissed her or if she'd imagined the whole thing.
Tamarja watched the floater disappear as she ran her fingers over her lips.
He kissed me. By the Stars, he kissed me. Tamarja still couldn't believe it as she trudged along, her feet crunching on the mulch walkway leading around the lake.
What had he been thinking? What had she been thinking? She had done the same thing to Yohzad. So why did this feel so different? Daeven's kiss certainly didn't resemble the cold, intense kisses bestowed on her by her dream lover, that damn ‘pet that just wouldn't leave her alone at night.
That difference she understood, but the difference from Yohzad she didn’t. Was it because she had been in control with Yohzad? Because she knew what she was doing and only stopped because he asked? She hadn't asked Daeven to kiss her, though she had wanted him to. He just did it, and from the look on his face, he hadn't planned on doing it, either. Spontaneous action didn’t seem like him, or was it? It made her want to get to know him better.
Could she get him to kiss her again? Did she really want him to? Her lips craved another, desiring to taste him, explore him, feel his tongue inside her.
In her mind's eye, she could almost drown out her dream lover by imagining Daeven. Her heart tumbled like a child's toy thrown down the stairs. Something held her back, but she couldn't figure out what, not without risking another fog.
Despite Daeven's warning to return to Facility Prime, Tamarja kept to her plan to seek out the source of the bright flash of light. A foolish decision, perhaps, but she needed the distraction, and she had to find some information for Yohzad. More than that, though, she had to satisfy her curiosity.
Cruising along in her floater, she reached the edge of the barrier that sectioned off the far end of the swimming hole. The pulse energy hummed a steady, quiet rhythm. No one stood on the ledge thanks to the new tri-d warning signs floating along it and over the water. All the swimmers clung close to the safety of the beach.
With everyone enjoying the sunny day, it wasn’t hard for her to covertly park her floater behind the wide rugged trunk of a tall tree with bluish leaves mixed with gray moss hanging from its spindly branches. This allowed her to approach the path by circling the swimming hole from the far edge of the beach. She located a flat-topped rock to sit on as she activated her ear jack. A map appeared, and with another adjustment, her flight path crossed over it as a thin yellow line. A white star marked the coordinates of her destination. Then she overlaid the boundaries of Dawn's Landing. It would be close, but the coordinates lay a fair distance within the boundaries. She wouldn't activate her trigger as long as she didn't travel any farther up the mountain. All she had to do was hope there wasn’t any wildlife big enough to eat her up there.
Lowering the map from her line-of-sight, she walked over to the line of trees that marked the edge of the mountain. The breeze from the lake picked up, causing the branches to sway. Sharp needles rained down, poking at her skin. The slight pain wouldn’t stop her. What was a few pinpricks against what she had suffered at the hands of the guards at the flight school? No sooner had she crossed under the shadow of the forest than she heard voices coming up from behind. The two voices argued intensely, but not loud enough for her to understand their words.
Where had they come from? No one had followed her from the beach, she was sure of it.
Without considering why, she scooted behind a thicket of bushes. First rule of being a snitch, she assumed, was to not get caught.
A second later, she saw two men, roughhewn and dressed in heavily patched jumpsuits and hiking boots. They continued to argue as they walked, rather than skulk, up the mountain, and passed so close Tamarja could hear the debate on thrust vectoring and drag created from shielding. The forest seemed an odd setting for an engineering argument.
Glancing back the way she had come, there didn't seem to be an obvious path they had traveled upon. Throwing caution to the wind, Tamarja followed them. She tried to track the men by their voices so she wouldn't have to get too close. But she couldn't understand what they were saying any longer, so she picked up her pace to get closer. Just as she could hear their words again, their voices stopped in midargument.
How odd. The men had really seemed intent on their debate when they just stopped. Risking exposure, she stepped out from behind a tree trunk and looked around. At this elevation, the mountain had a decent forest covering. In front of her, a massive tree with a th
ick, tangled root system covered most of the ground, making it impossible to reach the tree itself. She listened harder but still didn't hear the men. They would have had to walk far around the tree's roots to continue up the mountain, yet they hadn't doubled back or she would have seen them.
Returning to her hiding spot, she pulled up the map again. She couldn't go any farther up the mountain without triggering her collar. She crept back out to the tree, intending to visually scan the ground for tracks.
Instead of tracks, she spied a huge spinner attached to her leg.
The thing sat there, its body fuzzy with sharp, spiny fur, its twelve pair of legs spread across her thigh while dozens of all-black eyes spun around their sockets looking at her.
A scream lodged in her throat. What would screaming do except alert the men she had been following? Her own logic didn't stop the panic from building. Jumping up and down didn't dislodge the creature, but it did send her feet right into the tangled roots of the old tree, tripping her. Falling flat on her backside, she froze, waiting for the pain of a twisted ankle and various scrapes where the roots would mercilessly jab her body.
The pain never happened. Forcing open one eye, then the other, she noticed two things. One, the spinner had jumped off her rather than get crushed between her and the roots. Two, the roots didn't really exist. The only thing she had tripped over was her own feet. Though she sat among the tangle of roots, their dimmed images flickered through her. As she moved, flashes of energy similar to the pulses of the water barrier shot through the air. The more she moved, the brighter the energy pulses flashed.
Holo-images. Easy enough to create on a small scale, but something this large and this authentic took a very sophisticated imaging system. What she had seen from the air had to be the energy pulses created when someone walked through the image.
She stood up and placed a hand against the tree trunk. Instead of the rough, uneven bark, she felt smoothness, combined with the tingly sensation of energy coursing through a matrix. She pressed against the smooth surface of the blind, but nothing moved. Someone had hidden something behind there and used the image of a giant tree to keep people far away from it without causing suspicion.
Her hands wandered across the smooth edge of whatever the tree camouflaged. She stretched as high as she could and walked around the tree, her fear of spinners and other forest wildlife taking a back seat to her curiosity. Returning to where she had started, she continued to examine what she couldn't see, until she felt a knot in the bark. No, it couldn't be. The groove, circular like a knot, but with layered edges. Using her fingernail, she traced the outline of the edges. A keyhole. Even without seeing it, she knew that was the only thing it could be: a disruptor keyhole, perhaps to activate or dissipate the blind. She could go no further without the key.
If the men she had followed had a key, then this blind must be some sort of precompressor portal to somewhere else. That would explain their abrupt disappearance. It was the only explanation that made sense.
She stepped back, hands on hips, and considered her options. This holo-image certainly qualified as unusual. Yohzad would be pleased even if she had no other information to give him. If she was wrong and there was a perfectly logical reason for someone to activate a holo-image in the middle of the forest, he couldn't fault her for trying.
It would also give her an excuse to use more aggressive means to contact him. Then she could apologize for kissing him and reform the boundaries of their relationship. Get back her control—at least around Yohzad. And considering how dangerous he could be to her both emotionally and physically, she had to have that back. What about her control around Daeven? Her heart flipped again, thinking about that oh-too-brief kiss. Maybe she really didn't want to control herself around him.
And her control when she closed her eyes at night?
That's a different battle for another day. Keep your mind on your business. You're supposed to be spying. If Yohzad decides you’re not doing enough, he could terminate the experiment and then where will you be?
Tamarja rocked back on her heels and closed her eyes. Daeven's voice echoed in her brain, warning her of traps, warning her about people, warning her to return to Facility Prime. Jita's words chimed in as well, warning her about Yohzad and his easy way of manipulating people. Her own curiosity reared its ugly head, urging her to find a way into the portal—the cost to her be damned. She really wanted to know what secrets hid behind the holographic blind. If she couldn’t discover her own secrets, maybe she could discover someone else’s.
She reached forward one last time, running her fingers over the keyhole. Regardless of her curiosity, she needed to find a disruptor key before she could explore farther. Turning on her heel, she retraced her steps down the mountain as the sun slowly set.
Chapter Twenty
With Daeven's warning still echoing her mind, Tamarja trudged back to where she’d parked. Gray moss covered the floater’s hood from where it had fallen from above, and it took her a few minutes to brush it onto the ground, all the while trying to figure out where she could get a disrupter key. The only answer she could think of was Yohzad, but that would mean admitting what she was up to. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to tell him. He liked her, he saved her from a full wipe, but did he trust her to finish what she’d started? Did she trust him to do right by her always?
Her gut couldn’t decide, so she was back to figuring who else might have one. Maybe Dace? He seemed the sort to have something like that tucked away somewhere.
Before she could contemplate square two, she realized she had another problem. The floater didn’t have enough charge to get her back to Facility Prime.
Idiot. If this were the shuttle, you would have checked before you left, but no, you were so impatient to see what would happen with Daeven at the restaurant you didn’t even check the gauge. By the Stars, how did you ever manage to get a pilot’s license?
Now what? Pulling up the map again, she linked it with the ‘cast ‘net. The restaurant had no docking station. In fact, the only ones on the map were at the individual habitats where people lived. Given the uniqueness of Habitat Twenty-Two, she wondered if that was the director’s decision.
It didn’t matter to her right now. All she needed was enough of a charge to get her to the Teloris. They did offer an open-ended invitation to visit, so it couldn’t hurt to take advantage of it. Their homestead might not be Facility Prime, but she could remain invisible there while she considered what to do next.
Jita's sister, Ornit, met her with open arms. "My dear, I'm so glad you came. The kids will be happy to see you, and honestly, I could use the company."
The resemblance between the two sisters didn't end with their red hair and fair skin. They both shared the same buxom frame, though Ornit had a heavier figure than Jita. Ornit brought Tamarja right to the dinner table and sat her down while she set the table.
"I just happened to be in the area when I realized the floater didn't have enough energy to get me back home. A stupid mistake.“
“Not at all. We’ve all done it. I'll have Ravid hook up the floater for you. You stay and rest. Are you looking for your own place? Is that what brought you up here?“ Ornit guessed as she set out plates and cups. "I totally understand. I saw the tri-d tours for the apartments offered at some of the habitats—they're just awful, so small. How can anyone live in them for years at a time? I was so relieved when Ianyin showed me this place. It's huge! The kids have plenty of room to run around outside and explore.“
“You’re not worried about the wildlife?“
Ornit shook her head. “We have sensors to alert us if something aggressive or poisonous gets close. The kids know what to do when the alarm sounds. I’m not saying the system is perfect, but they had a better chance of getting into a traffic accident on Bregarlos than they do getting trampled by an angry ursid here.“
Tamarja decided to play along instead of correcting Ornit's assumption. “The other habitats do loo
k suffocating, especially if you're below ground."
"I keep trying to get Jita to move out here with us, but she seems to like living close to her station. I can understand her wanting to be near her friends, but she needs to spend more time with her family. The kids adore her."
As if on cue, a noisy, laughing herd of children descended on the table.
“Ravid, be a dear, and hook Tamarja’s floater up to the docking station.“
The boy stopped short at seeing her, probably still shy about his rescue, and then hurried out the front door to do as his mother asked. The other kids, thankfully, had no difficulty clamoring around her to get to their seats. By the time Ravid returned, sitting next to her was the only option.
Dinner started without Ianyin. "He manages his own department," Ornit explained over the kids' verbal expressions of distaste regarding the vegetables she scooped onto each plate. "We never know exactly when he's coming home. AuRaKaz just extended his current project, which is why I moved here with the kids. The money isn't as good as on Bregarlos, but you can't beat the environment."
"What does he do?" Tamarja asked as she winked at Ravid before snatching an orange stalk off his plate and adding it to her own. Ravid shot her a small relieved smile.
"Quality control. The colony is expanding faster than expected. That's why the long hours."
The loud banging of boots marching up the front steps and the slamming of the front door opening and closing interrupted Ornit's explanation. For a second, Tamarja panicked, wondering if she had triggered an alarm at the holographic tree and security had arrived to investigate. A moment later, her panic subsided as Ianyin trudged into the dining room.
“Is there any food left for me?" With a thump, Ianyin dropped his pack of equipment to the floor, spilling out some of its contents.
The kids charged at their father amid the scraping of chair legs, and he scooped them up one by one for hugs. Ornit took a moment to kiss her husband before shooing the kids back to the dinner table while she filled his plate.