Drift pattern, p.38
Drift Pattern, page 38
Her rant silences Ley, whose stunned expression is an open mouth and raised eyebrows.
Luci capitalizes on her adversary’s dumbfound state by adding, “So if you’ll cut the bullshit, I’d like you to take me to where Ish is being held so we can get him out of there before it’s too late.”
The teenage boy from the crowd steps forward, addressing Ley instead of Luci. “I still don’t understand why we’re going to all the trouble to free a level-three tech.” He points to Luci, who is still dripping water onto the floor. “I mean, I get why he may want her, but why her assistant? Does this Moyta know something that can help us with the final skip?”
Luci looks to the leader of the group, eager to hear the answer for herself. Why do they want him?
Ley doesn’t face him, choosing instead to glare at Luci. “Orders, Yuma. Orders. We don’t have to know why.”
Yuma mutters his dissatisfaction but mildly enough to avoid provoking Ley’s ire.
She disengages her glare on Luci and turns to confront the gawkers. “Don’t you all have something that you’re supposed to be doing right now?”
Ley’s caustic question is like flipping a switch, spurring them all into action. The two dozen or so onlookers immediately disband and busy themselves like ants, mumbling all the way.
Though she catches plenty of stolen glances back at her from the group, Luci is grateful to not be the center of attention. Men and women of various ages and ethnicities bustle about, entering and leaving through open doorways on the side and back wall of the warehouse.
Luci gets her first true look at the area, and judging by the numerous boats and watercraft in various states of disrepair strewn about the place, she concludes that it may have once been a mechanical shop of some sort. Moist saltwater air and time have hijacked the forgotten place, converting it into an incubator for rust.
“What are we looking at in terms of security, Ley?” Beaumont asks.
She defers to Yuma, the only one who hasn’t scurried off like the others.
He speaks with an assuredness beyond his years. “A handful of us will intercept the cybos as they move him from the containment area to something called a cognitive realignment station. We’re expecting a cybo escort of anywhere from five to six of those things.”
Luci remembers how quickly the Benold Jesper cybo reacted on Cavazos’s boat, and a sense of dread takes her breath. That was only one guard. How could they combat half a dozen of them?
Yuma continues without prompting, obviously relishing being the center of attention. “The processing center is in the same building complex as the holding cell he’s confined in, but in order to move a prisoner to there, the cybos have to go through a courtyard area. Floorplans indicate that there are no corridors or tunnels connecting the holding cell to the cognitive realignment station, so we know this is the route that they’re forced to take.”
The second mention of cognitive realignment station gives Luci a shiver.
“It’s not a large area, so we’ll have to move quickly, but there is a balcony that will shield us.” A self-satisfied smile forms on Yuma’s face like a dog awaiting a treat for a trick well done. “There’s no human security. It’s all cybos. There’s not even video monitors, just the guards.”
To her astonishment, Beaumont nods contemplatively as if this news was good. “It’s because no one would have the audacity to attempt something like this.”
Before Luci can comment on going up against a squad of cybos, Ley interjects, “Roderick went on to Cyphor to give an update and help with the skip preparations. I’m headed there too in a few minutes with the final ESTA component we snatched from Cavazos in old-world Colorado.”
“Roderick? Cyphor?” Luci says aloud in astonished disbelief. Her head swims as she wonders if she heard Ley correctly. She’s frightened and embarrassed simultaneously. How she could be stupid enough to be duped like this? The temples of her head pound like a bass drum, and she feels like someone has removed the area’s oxygen with a flick of a switch. Luci bites her lip and focuses on Beaumont. Her heart thumps harder than it did on the journey over here. The atmosphere thickens, making it hard to get the words out. “So you people are L’inversione?”
Ley answers indifferently, “Among other things.”
Luci ignores her, directing sharp barbs at Beaumont. “You tricked me. Shar said that she wasn’t with L’inversione.”
“She’s not, but he is,” Ley answers with a smug expression.
Luci looks past Ley at Jonn in the distance. He and another man carry an old-style steamer trunk. “What’s your friend got in the trunk over there, Noah?” She gestures at the two lowering it to a metal platform. “Is that a bomb or something?”
Ley turns to look at the trunk and taunts, “Only someone from pre-Hi no Kawa twenty-first century would assume that was a combustible explosive.”
Yuma blurts, “It’s not a bomb.” When Ley, Beaumont, and Luci simultaneously give him the same annoyed look, he shrugs defensively, adding, “What? It’s not . . . it’s not a bomb.”
“No, it’s not an explosive, Luci,” Beaumont reassures her in a familial tone. Luci recalls Shar saying that this man had spent time with the old Luci. Is that true? Had it been a trap from the beginning? Was any of this true? Her stomach knots and re-knots, twisting in every direction at once.
Beaumont adds in the same soft-spoken tone, “It contains ESTA components . . . old, pre-world satellite parts that we took back from Macer’s wicked government. Until you came along, it was the only hope for the future of all mankind.”
The phrase hangs awkwardly in the air.
“It was . . .” She coughs. “You said it was the only hope.” She’s trembling, partly because she’s sopping wet, but mostly at the revelation of who these people are. “So is this . . . is this the place where I die?” She scans the area for a churka she may grab; she’s not going down without a fight. While the thought of killing one of them isn’t appealing, if she can figure out how to operate the weapon, maybe she can blast a hole in the trunk over there and at least mess up their plans before they take her out. “So this whole thing . . . the rescue of Ish, it was just to lure me here to kill me?” She turns to Beaumont. “Why didn’t you just let me drown back at the guesthouse? What’s this all about? Am I bait or something? What are you planning to do to Ish when you get him?”
Ley lets out an exasperated sigh as she pulls a metal disc slightly larger than a hockey puck and twice as thick from a side pocket of her jumpsuit.
Though it doesn’t look like a weapon, Luci still flinches and pulls back.
Ley chuckles snidely at this. “Relax, this isn’t for you. It’s not a weapon.” She motions to a middle-aged, dark-skinned woman across the bay. “Technically, we don’t have to kill you anymore.”
As the woman makes adjustments, Luci finally recognizes the device as a holo vid player. The design isn’t the same as the one she saw in the Baltimore warehouse, and it’s even more different from the one Macer had in his office, but it’s definitely the same technology. “We only have to prevent you from going back, Doctor. Macer bringing you here was an unexpected gift to us.”
“Is that supposed to be reassuring to me?” Luci asks, unfolding her arms, still dripping saltwater with faint taps onto the floor. “Am I’m supposed to be okay with being trapped here?”
Ley hands the holo vid player off to the woman she motioned to. “Hopefully, killing you can be avoided, but Gicul has given us some latitude in this regard, so I’d watch it if I were you.”
Luci takes a step back and looks to Beaumont, still in a fog of confusion.
He massages his forehead. “Luci, this is not something that we take delight in, but what we do has to be done. You cannot be allowed to present your DPM discovery to the world . . . ever. I’m sorry.”
She wants to ask about Ish but instead opts to point out the one major logic flaw in this enterprise. “How do you all see this thing playing out? If you kill me or force me to remain here, Hi no Kawa doesn’t occur and all of you cease to ever exist and vanish.” She knows that it’s the same tactic she used on Macer, but the point remains valid.
Luci wants to break Ley’s wagging finger as the woman makes a tsk-tsk-tsk sound with her tongue. “That’s not so, Doctor. There’s a place outside of time that Cyphor says that we all can skip to to ‘unlink’ our chronal anchor kedge. Doing this will protect us from what we call the ‘Undoing Ripple Effect.’”
Tiny hairs on Luci’s neck bristle at the mention of Cyphor and Carcerium together.
Yuma, who’s been silent since his last rebuke, seizes the opportunity to jump back in. “Even though Relicus will cease to be, the anomaly will allow all of us to skip to the past and live out our lives in a lush world with plenty of pre-Hi no Kawa food.” He pauses his rapid-fire speaking, searching for a word. Finally, he blurts out an improperly pronounced, “Iryland. Old world year 1646, Iryland.”
“He means Ireland,” Beaumont volunteers on the boy’s behalf.
Luci doesn’t care. Her mind latches onto the possibility of a way for her and Ish to live beyond Relicus City and the so-called “Undoing Ripple Effect.” Her mind for science must be satiated. She has to know how this can be performed. “You know this works? You’re certain that you’d survive past Relicus City never being formed because this Cyphor guy told you that’s how it works?”
“I’ve seen it,” Beaumont clarifies. “Not Ireland, but the Carcerium. I’ve been there. Cyphor sent a message with coordinates. We’re including that information at the end of the holo vid that we’re uploading to everyone in the city. I skipped there myself about ten months ago to break Malom out.”
She pictures the blank white room with Malom’s empty coils as the revelation rattles her. “Ten months ago? I saw him in there just a few hours ago.”
“In your personal timeline, maybe,” Ley says, “but many of us spent the last nine months learning to ride equine creatures back in the pre-world, waiting for Minister Cavazos to arrive with the ESTA modules.”
“Why is the ESTA so important? It’s just old time-traveling weather satellite components, right? What does Gicul need that old junk for?”
“I’m impressed,” Beaumont says. “Yes, it was the first use of DPM—before Hi no Kawa, even. Cavazos tried to hide it there from Cyphor, but we took it back.”
“Where’s Cavazos now?”
Ley exchanges a look with Beaumont that turns into a snide expression on her face.
“He’s dead,” Yuma says before anyone else can answer.
Ley nods, still grinning. “Noah here said that Security Minister Cavazos had a pre-world weapon explode in his face. You called it a revolver, if I remember correctly.” She mumbles to herself, “Sorry that I missed that, actually.”
“You . . . you shot him in the face?”
Beaumont answers, “I wasn’t there. Malom did it.”
Luci shakes her head in disgust. “Apparently, Malom Roderick is a pretty proficient killer.”
“Humph,” Ley says. “Too good a death for that rot-throbbing rag fondler if you asked me.”
A lanky Hispanic man approaches with two shrink-wrapped packages cradled in his arms. “Pardon me, but you both should change out of those wet clothes. You look cold.”
“Thanks,” Luci mumbles, examining the contents. She holds up a cowboy hat and a western-wear shirt while allowing the boots and pants to fall to the floor. “Is this a joke? You want me to wear this . . . this costume? It looks like I’m going to a hoedown.”
The man looks down at his shoes. “Sorry, we weren’t expecting you to go out. It’s all that we have here that will fit you. It’s a leftover from a leap skip that we took.”
She glances at Beaumont’s bundle, which is more akin to what everyone else is wearing. “I’m not wearing the hat.”
“He’s right,” Ley grumbles. “You two should go and get changed. The teams will be leaving in fifteen minutes or so.”
The four of them follow the lanky man to the doorway, Beaumont and Luci side by side with Yuma and Ley trailing behind. Luci’s compelled to challenge the soundness of the plan, considering how Ish’s life hangs in the balance. “Noah, are you sure that you have enough firepower to rescue Ish? Six cybos is quite a gathering of might. They’re exceptionally fast. I’ve seen them firsthand.”
“Well, the estimate is actually six to ten cybos. Anyway, we’ve got this.” He tucks his pack of clothes under his arm and produces a small, flat onyx rectangle from his pocket.
Unlike the holo vid device, Luci instantly recognizes it. Her heart skips a beat. “How did you get one of those controllers?”
Yuma races up to them. “It’s a PQX inhibitor. It’s supposed to be able to freeze any cybos in place in a thirty-meter radius. It belonged to Security Minister Cavazos.”
She recalls it being on a chain around Cavazos’s fleshy neck. They really did kill him.
Beaumont tucks it back into the pocket without slowing his steps. “That’s right, so you’ll need to stick close to me and not wander off when we get there—for your own safety, of course.”
“Wander off?” she asks acerbically. “Wander off to where?”
As if it’s his turn to speak again, Yuma volunteers, “Any cybo that is outside of the beam radius is still to be considered operative and can get off a churka blast or grab you.”
A realization pops into her mind. Luci abruptly stops in her tracks, bringing the group to a clumsy halt. “You insensitive ass,” she says, shoving Beaumont’s arm hard enough that he nearly drops his bundle of clothes.
Ley gestures to the man leading them to go on. “It’s fine, Miguel.”
He nods and eagerly disappears through the doorway, escaping from the drama.
This doesn’t deter Luci in the least. “You had that thing with you this entire time?”
Before Beaumont can answer, she scolds him, “You could’ve used it!” A wave of misplaced guilt finds its way into her heart, fueling her anger. “You can control cybos with that thing, and you let Shar, your own niece, slice her ear and force me to take it from her.”
“She’s not with L’inversione,” Yuma says. “We can’t risk using it until it’s needed. He did the right thing.”
Beaumont nods. “Once the device disables a cybo or cybos, the disconnect interruption will undoubtedly trigger an investigation into what’s going on, so we have to use it sparingly.”
“She did it in front of me, you bastard!” she says, letting her clothing bundle fall to the ground. She’s so angry, she’s shaking.
Yuma looks at Beaumont. “We’ve all done it. It’s no big deal. We’ve all cut off our Viatorios.”
Luci closes the space between her and Yuma. “I’ve had enough of you. If you don’t shut up, I swear I’m going to knock your ass out.”
With widened eyes locked onto Luci’s fist, the boy stumbles back into Ley.
Luci pivots to face her original target, Beaumont. “She’s your own family. You’re as sick as Cavazos. You’re all monsters here. You should be ashamed.”
“I did what I had to,” he says. “I’ve always done what I’ve had to do. We’ve all made sacrifices. I don’t think that you know what’s at risk—”
“Don’t you think I know exactly what’s at stake here? How dare you!”
The words fly like daggers from her heart. “Let me just review what we’ve got here. As far as I can tell, the future, at least what remains of it, is pretty much a flaming dung heap, and your precious Cyphor Gicul is wanting to make it even worse by threatening to cut off Relicus City’s access to the food harvested at the Grange.” Luci scans their faces. All but Ley shield their eyes from her by looking down at the ground or to the side, infuriating her even more. “So am I right? Is anybody gonna explain this to me or not? Or is exactly what all I’ve heard true? You’re all going to starve what’s left of humanity just for some twisted payback to Macer and a dead guy you’ve already shot in the face?” She shakes her head in disgust. “Cyphor Gicul is a coward who doesn’t even have the courage to come out into public.”
Beaumont looks back up at her. “That’s enough, Luci,” he says firmly but without raising his voice.
“Is it?” she asks pointedly. “Is it enough?” Her blood pressure spikes again, making her ears throb a rhythmic pulse. “Based on what ‘Skippy’ over here just said,” she gestures dismissively at Yuma, “after you’re done extorting the city for who knows what, you all plan to leap skip to Ireland to live out your days.”
There’s a crowd warily gathering around, but she doesn’t care. She’s a lit bundle of firecrackers, and this won’t be over until every one of them have been burnt through and exploded. “Well, I stream the history net, and I’ve got news for you. Ireland 1646 sucks when you factor in what Cromwell and the British have planned for you there a few years later. So good luck with that one.”
Beaumont looks as if he’s about to say something, but Luci doesn’t let him. “But yeah, I think I know what’s at stake, or at least have a pretty good idea of what you’re all about.” She’s on the verge of hyperventilating, spots before her eyes, but she’s determined to finish. “From where I stand, it looks like the human race has learned nothing from the destruction in the past. You’re still consumed by petty schisms, lusting to be the king of the hill. It’s like a tug-of-war, but instead of rope, you’re pulling barbed wire through your hands and nobody wins.”
“Are you quite through?” Ley finally asks.
Luci sends her a searing look. “Yeah, I’m done. I’m ready to get out of here and go find Ish.”
Glances exchange between Ley, Beaumont, and various members of the crowd, but nothing else is said, and a precarious silence descends on the area. Luci feels as if she may retch and comments to herself that if she does, to hit Ley with the full force of it.
