by Pete Molina
Chapter 20
Terra landed gracefully outside Stacy’s apartment building. It was a nice looking place with a lot of windows in the front. Terra guessed that from those windows there must be a great view of the Rocky Mountains. She was getting pretty good at flying now, having spent several hours after her tour with Jeff just having fun soaring about. It was addicting to be free of the constraints of Earth bound life, even for a short time. She would miss that the most when she left.
She headed up the stairs to the apartment entrance on the second floor, taking a quick look around from the entrance and trying to figure out where the surveillance might be. Then she knocked a few times.
After a few seconds the door opened and Jeff greeted her. “Terra, it’s good to see you again,” he said smiling.
“You too, Jeff.”
“Well, come on inside, I’m afraid that Stacy couldn’t be here. An emergency came up with one of her kids,” Jeff said moving back a step so she could enter.
“I hope it’s not serious,” Terra said and meant it. She hadn’t known Stacy had children. She gave Sam a mental black mark for involving someone with children.
“No, it’s one of her students. She’s a elementary school teacher. She has a group not unlike the one that we saw on the tour,” Jeff explained. “I guess the child managed to get in to the zip train terminal without a guardian and was on the train to Tokyo to visit her relatives before any one knew what was happening.”
Terra took back the black mark. She laughed a little. “Smart kid to get around all your high tech Newbie security.”
“Yeah, they’re going to have to find out how she got around security. We can’t have all the kids wandering about the world without a proper guardian, now can we?”
“Definitely not,” Terra agreed.
Jeff closed the door and took her in to the kitchen where what looked like a wonderful meal was waiting. The smell made her mouth start to water. Stacy must be a good cook. She mentioned the smell.
Jeff noticed her appreciation. “Yeah, that’s my crèche sister. She’s a great cook, she had all this ready for us but then got the call about her student and had to leave. She called me just before I left to come over,” Jeff related. He kept the conversation pleasant and light hearted for the next few minutes until there was another knock at the door. “That’ll be Sam,” Jeff said a little nervously, moving for the door. Terra followed him.
When Jeff opened the door, a man was standing there facing him who Terra recognized immediately despite the fact that he looked decades younger than the Sam she had known. But strangely in her displays his name came up as Gregory Hillman. Jeff just stood there looking at him. Then he stepped forward and embraced Sam like a brother. Sam hugged him back. Sam had briefly looked surprised to see Jeff, but Terra figured that it was expected. Jeff did look pretty old and this Sam wouldn’t be expecting it.
“Sam, it’s good to see you,” Jeff said, letting go.
“You too, Jeff, though I can’t say the circumstances are great. Where’s Stacy? I’ve been dying to see her,” Sam said trying to peer around Jeff who was taking up most of the doorway. Jeff explained her absence and Sam looked disappointed.
He must suspect that he won’t be around long enough to see her. Terra thought.
Jeff stepped back to let Sam in. Terra waited for him to get inside. Jeff made the introduction. “Sam, this is Terra Gates. Terra, Sam Storm 23.1.” Terra put out her hand and Sam took it. Terra felt a lot of things seeing him again, even if it wasn’t the same man.
“Ms. Gates, It’s an honor to meet you. I had no idea I’d be in such company.” Sam said graciously taking her hand. Terra remembered just how suave the guy was. It seemed Sam’s charisma wasn’t something he had developed later in life, just a natural charm.
“It’s good to meet you too, Sam. And you flatter me too much,” she said.
Sam just gave her a smile that melted her heart. She hadn’t been immune to the other Sam’s charms either, though now she would like to give him a good slap on the cheek…but this Sam knew nothing of that.
“In my displays your name comes up as Gregory Hillman. Is that right or is my companion malfunctioning?” Terra asked.
Never, Plato commented.
I’m just kidding with him, I know you wouldn’t make that kind of mistake, Terra replied silently to her companion.
“Oh, well that’s Damon Harding’s work. I couldn’t very well walk around and travel the tubes with my real name, could I? I’m not sure if I like the name yet, but at least it gives me a chance to have a life and not just be caught up in the hurricane my other version has stirred up,” Sam responded cheerfully. He was apparently taking the whole thing in stride.
“Well,” Jeff said, looking Sam up and down as if he still couldn’t believe he was there, “dinner awaits and I know Stacy would be disappointed if we didn’t eat it before it got cold.”
Jeff led them back to the kitchen and they served themselves and took their plates to the dining room. They didn’t talk much at first. Sam was apparently ravenous, which was expected considering he’d been restored only yesterday. Jeff seemed to be content just to take it all in.
Sam went back for seconds while Jeff just sat there in front of his empty plate silent. Terra was starting to get anxious. The food had been good, but she didn’t eat too much. If they were going to be moving quickly, a very full stomach was not a good traveling companion.
“You’ll have to give your sister my compliments. This is wonderful,” Terra said.
“I’ll will, she may even make it back before it gets too late, and you can tell her yourself, depending on the zip train schedules, of course,” Jeff added.
Sam returned to the room and proceeded to dig in. Terra noticed that Jeff was fiddling with something under the table. Then Terra heard a snap and Jeff stood up.
“We don’t have much time,” Jeff explained. “I’ve temporarily disrupted all of the bugs in this room, of which there are hundreds and not all on Terra.”
Sam had stopped eating and looked up at his crèche brother concerned.
“What are you going to do about them?” Terra asked.
“Since you arrived I’ve had my companion and some special equipment isolating the transmitting frequency of all the bugs. The equipment is now transmitting a fake simulation of our dinner. Sam will go for thirds and we’ll all start talking about Sam 6.7 but nothing useful. Hopefully by the time they figure it out we’ll already be well out of here. But first things first. Terra you come here.”
Terra, stood up and Jeff ushered her down the hallway and opened up a small closet that was lined with metal foil. “Just stand in here for a minute.” He closed the closet door. Terra felt a buzzing and then the door was opened again.
“What was that?” Terra asked.
“Same thing as a security fog field. Should be enough to disable and remove whatever bugs they had on you.” Jeff explained pulling her out of the closet. Behind him was standing Sam. “You’re next Sam,” Jeff directed and Sam stepped in to the closet.
Jeff said. “I only got this thing set up just before you arrived.” They waited and then opened the door back up and Sam stepped out.
“Now me.” Jeff stepped in. “Closing the door will activate the field,” he clarified, closing himself in. After a minute he came back out. Terra and Sam were both staring at him, waiting. Jeff had obviously been planning and scheming just as much as Terra in the last week.
“Now we get the hell out of here. I presume you have somewhere for us to go,” Jeff looked at Terra expectantly. She nodded.
“All right, we’ve got to leave,” Jeff said, reaching in to his jacket pockets. He pulled out several small canisters about half the size of a soft drink can. “Open these and pour the contents over your head.”
“What is it?” Sam asked, looking at the transparent bottle. It appeared to contain water.
“It’s a special utility fog that’s presently simulating water. Hurry,” he added opening his bottle and pouring it on over himself. Terra noticed that he didn’t look wet. The stuff was more like a thick clear syrup. It flowed over Jeff and as it finished covering him Jeff quickly faded away leaving nothing but a small shimmer that was almost unnoticeable.
Sam looked amazed and Terra was astounded. What is this stuff? she wondered.
“I said hurry. I’ll explain it to you later,” the disembodied voice of Jeff reminded them. Sam and Terra quickly opened their bottles and poured the contents on their heads. It felt warm and it was a strange sensation to have it cover her body. After the twenty or so seconds it took to cover her, she watched but nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” she worried. Sam had disappeared just like Jeff.
“Yeah it is,” Sam’s voice came through. “I can’t see you any more, just a shimmer but I’m still visible.”
“You’re both camouflaged, that’s all. And, of course, you can see yourselves. It wouldn’t do you any good to trip over something because you couldn’t see your feet. Now these fog cloaks make us look invisible and they have enough power to keep our heat signatures occluded for a few hours, so let’s make the most of it. We’re going out the back window. It’s down the hall. I had the glass replaced with a simulation earlier, so we can go right through it but no one will be able to see us. But first put your canisters on the floor so I can see them.” They did.
As Terra moved her hand away from the canister, it reappeared as the fog that was hiding it pulled away. A second later they both disappeared again. “Let’s go,” Jeff said once he had the canisters and started off down the hall. They all started following the sound of Jeff’s footsteps. Terra bumped into Sam on the way.
“Sorry, couldn’t see you,” she said, and Sam just snickered.
“Once we’re outside, be perfectly quiet. We’re heading for the zip train station. When you get there, go down the tube and head for the men’s restroom near terminal six.” Jeff instructed.
It made sense when she thought about it. They couldn’t follow each other but if they knew where to regroup, they could make it. “Got it,” Terra replied.
“Me too,” said Sam.
“Good, it’s that window on the right. See you there,” Jeff continued, and then his presence was gone.
“Go ahead, Terra, I’ll follow you,” Sam prompted.
She imagined him gesturing with his invisible hands. “Thanks,” she said moving toward the window.
Initiate flight mode. She commanded Plato.
Flight mode initiated. Plato replied.
The heads up displays she had used earlier reappeared, and she leaped through what she hoped was the right window. It must have been because she didn’t feel herself crash into anything. She pointed her arms skyward and headed out.
Terra flew low most of the way, using buildings and trees for cover. She moved at about ten percent of the speed she would normally use because she didn’t know if the city tracking system was working to keep her safe. Probably Jeff had called in favors from his fellow Newbies to help them pull this off. The Newbies at least would be on their side, even if they didn’t approve of Sam Storm 6.7’s actions. She made her way to the zip tube station entrance and landed gently near the down tube. She stepped in. There were only a few others taking the tube down.
Terra silently wondered if Sam or Jeff were there with her. No way to know. Once she was in the terminal she headed towards terminal six and she saw the sign for a men’s restroom. She headed for it and only felt weird about going in to a men’s restroom for a second. She walked in. There wasn’t any one else in there, or at least she couldn’t ‘see’ anyone.
“Jeff here,” she heard a voice say.
“Terra here,” she replied. There was no third voice.
“Just wait,” Jeff said. After another few minutes the door opened and closed but no one came in.
“Jeff here,” Jeff repeated.
“Sam here,” Sam’s voice echoed.
“Terra here,” she added.
“Okay, we made it. Now I’m going to have my companion send you the access codes to the camouflage. Once you have them, tell it to initiate impersonation mode,” Jeff instructed.
Plato informed Terra that the codes had been received. She put in the command for impersonation mode. Three people became visible, but surprisingly they didn’t look at all like themselves. They all appeared to be men. One was tall and young. The other was shorter and looked to be mid-thirties. Terra turned and saw the third man turn in the mirror. It was her; she looked like another young man.
“Wow,” she said, startled that her voice had become lower, the approximation of a man’s. She moved around a bit watching herself in the mirror. This was strange.
“This is really diff,” Sam commented. Diff was the Newbie term for cool. She had always been amused that the Newbies would use differences and change as their slang for cool. It suited them.
“Let’s go,” Jeff said impatiently. Terra now had it sorted out in her head which was which. Sam was the older one and Jeff the younger. It was ironic actually. “They can keep this up only for an hour or so and then their power will be depleted. It’s up to you now, Terra.”
“Terminal eight,” she directed, heading for the door. Terra had a different train picked for the first leg every ten minutes depending on when they arrived at the terminal.
“London?” Sam asked.
“For a start,” Terra replied.
They left the restroom and headed towards terminal eight. As they got to the departure platform the train had just arrived and passengers were disembarking. They all entered the train. Their companions informed them of the train fair charges.
“Don’t worry, we are projecting false identities. They’ll hold up to the visual recognition system,” Jeff whispered as they made their way to the seats in the back of the train.
Terra felt allot of tension slip away, she had been unsure how they would be able to bord the train without being identified. It was the last thing about which she was uncertain concerning this portion of the escape. She had trusted Jeff, and it had all worked out fine. Once the train was loaded it dropped down into the zip tube and started to accelerate for London. It was an express and they’d be there in less than thirty-six minutes. Terra initiated a direct com link to Sam’s and Jeff’s companions. She would be able to think at them and they’d hear it through their companions which would keep them from being overheard.
“This stuff is great, Jeff. How’d you come by it?” Terra asked through Plato.
“The fog you mean? I got it from some friends of mine at Fog Works. It’s a product they make for the military, and it’s classified so don’t spread it around,” Jeff explained, sub-vocalizing to his companion which Terra had momentarily forgotten was not an implant.
“How long ago was it invented?” Sam asked.
“Ten or so years ago,” Jeff replied. “I hadn’t known about it until a few days ago but it seemed perfect for our purposes. If the military were using it, they’d have a power pack and be able to sustain the simulation for weeks if necessary. Too bad we don’t have any of them.”
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “That would make our trip to Mars completely anonymous.”
“And right now that could be a good thing,” Terra chimed in.
“What do you mean?” Jeff asked. “Won’t we be safer once we’re off Earth?”
“Off Earth, yes. On Mars, not exactly. Apparently Ariel Stoneman knows that I’ve been restored, which brings my family’s votes back on the table, and they are enough to block some legislation she’s been working on. She is furious, from what my friend tells me, and will do anything to stop me. I’ve been assured that the pilot of the ship that’s going to take us there is out of the loop, so we shouldn’t have to worry, but these impersonation cloak
s would be really handy there to keep us out of trouble.”
“Well if there is still power left, we can make the fog go back into the canister and we can recharge it through the canister’s power adapter, but we’ll need to remove the camouflage in…” Jeff paused to check the readout of the camouflage in his displays, “About one-hundred and ten more minutes.”
“How do you know that?” Sam asked.
“There’s a display you can enable with the camouflage; it’ll show up in your ocular implant. I didn’t mention it because we didn’t have the time but if you have your companion access the fog and have it send the standard display initialization, it’ll become visible to you.”
Terra asked Plato to show her any camouflage displays. They appeared in her visual field. There was a bar meter showing the amount of power remaining and a clock that was counting down. It also listed that she was in impersonation mode with pattern six. She had Plato show her the other patterns. Sam’s and Jeff’s were listed as three and four. There were also several female figures and various uniformed personnel. It was definitely a spy device.
“Another splendid US controlled technology,” Terra said.
“Yes,” Sam agreed, “It’s always that way isn’t it?”
Terra wanted to nod in agreement but it might give them away. The thing that really bothered her about using the direct communication was that they lost the extra information of voice tone and facial expression. It was more like hearing mail read aloud.
“Yeah,” Terra replied.
“So if you want to keep it we have to put it back in its canister before the clock runs out. Otherwise it’ll just fall off wherever we are,” Jeff reminded her.
Terra had Plato check the zip train schedule out of London heading for Houston. There was an express leaving twelve minutes after their arrival, she told Sam and Jeff.
“Good we’ll make it just in time to Houston to save this stuff. Will we be able to make it to the spaceport, Terra?” Sam asked.
“It has been arranged for us to be taken to the spaceport. And I’ve been assured we’ll be able to make orbit without being monitored.”
“Well, that gives us ten minutes to spare on the camouflage once we get to Houston,” Sam calculated. They were all silent for a minute. Then Sam asked. ”So why are you along with Jeff and me, Terra? What did 6.7 do to you?”
“I really don’t want to discuss it until we’re off Earth. I don’t even trust the direct links between our companions right now. Once we get orbit, I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Terra replied.
“Gotcha,” Sam said.
“Did you get a chance to try flying in Denver?” Sam asked aloud. It took Terra aback for a moment. She had gotten used to their links.
“Yeah, it was great,” she shared her enthusiasm. “I really liked the free flight mode. I got to put in a few hours last week. They didn’t have that last time you were in the city, did they?”
“Nope, it was different last time I was there. It’s always different. A decade in the children’s city is like a thousand years in the rest of the world,” Sam said, his impersonated figure grinning. Terra marveled at the complexity of the camouflage software to be able to transmit small facial expressions.
“That I can believe. I’d say that where I come from, it’d be about a century to your decade,” Terra remarked.
“Really. I’ve never been there,” Sam said, “But I’ve always wanted to go.”
“Soon enough,” Jeff warned through the companion link. “Keep the chatter to a minimum we don’t want to attract any attention.”
“Sure,” Sam’s reply came over the link.
They all got a little more comfortable in their chairs and settled down for the rest of the trip. Terra was looking forward the getting off Earth. At least they’d be able to talk then.