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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
to turn again so he could hose down the back of her e-suit. He whistled again
at the sight of all the scratches and dings in the rear of her armor. "You
took quite a beating too."
"I was down in the silo, venting launch coolant, when the bomb went off. My
youngest brother kicked the silo door shut and triggered the coolant flood. I
was trapped inside the silo submerged in cryogel for more than twenty minutes
before the outside environment cooled off enough for the silo autodrain switch
to throw. I had to crawl out through the coolant drains. A few times I had to
set off demo charges to blow out the drain grates or to widen an opening large
enough to get through. A couple of times I
used a little, uh, too much," Kira explained. "I was lucky, I guess. But my
brothers were not."
"Ahmi was served. You were very resourceful and the Free People are fortunate
to have brave ones like you." He switched off the hose and the white foam
stream dribbled to a stop. The man nodded and looked at his monitor again.
"You're green."
"Thanks. Ahmi was served," she replied. The white anti-radiation foam
dissipated and drained from her suit slowly in the low Martian gravity.
"Blower vents are around the corner just before the air locks."
"Got it."
"Next!" the train portal guard shouted.
The wait and then the loading process for the train hadn't been that bad. Kira
and her newfound friends
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kept each other company to pass the time. Kira was beginning to connect with
the little girl if not her parents. The fifteen-car subway train floated to a
stop at the loading ramp. It bobbled up and down with a swish, and then the
doors opened. There were only a handful of people getting off the train. In
fact, it was mostly empty; all of the cars were. There were hundreds, maybe
thousands, on the other hand waiting to get on. Some of them seemed calm,
others panicky, with all ranges of moods and hysteria in between.
"Come on, Kira. You can sit with me and Kitty." Lelandra took Kira's hand in
hers and tugged her onto the train.
"Uh huh. That would be nice." Kira smiled, shifting the weight of her e-suit
backpack over onto her shoulder. Fortunately, the short wait, and the fact
that they were now indoors had meant that everyone could shed their e-suits.
Kira was glad to get out of hers and into normal clothes. Although, all she
had with her to put on were Separatist Army issue battle dress fatigues and
skins.
Kira Shavi sat with her backpack container resting in her lap and watched the
tunnel walls zipping by.
The temperature on the train was cool but not unbearably so. The second skin
she was wearing under the
Seppy-issue battle dress uniform that had been packed in her e-suit was more
than enough to keep her comfortable. She pulled an energy bar from her pack
and tore the wrapper clear. The bar heated itself almost instantly and the
aroma of warm cinnamon, chocolate, and oatmeal filled her nostrils and made
her mouth water. It had been a long day.
An occasional dim tunnel light would streak by and cast a faint glare on the
train windows. Lela and her robot kitty nuzzled against her left arm. Kira
would have offered her some of the food bar but the little
Martian was fast asleep.
Out of the e-suit the little girl was obviously very cute and the spitting
image of her mother. Her tall and slender frame with milky white skin and long
black hair, typical of Martians, made her look older than she was, but Kira
was used to looking at Earth and Luna children that didn't grow as quickly due
to the heavier gravity fields natural gravity on Earth and artificial on Luna.
The little girl and her AI kitty snored lightly as they rested against the
pack in Kira's lap. Kira had definitely made a new friend. The little
Separatist girl's mother and father, Elise and Fayad, sat across the aisle
from them, speaking very little. Kira held the energy bar up in offering but
they had waved it away.
"So, where are we going?" Kira asked.
Careful.
Allison warned her.
Shouldn't you know?
I don't know, but I'll qualify it.
Kira thought about how to do that for brief moment.
I'll play it like an uninformed soldier.
Good idea. That should work. More than ninety percent of these people appear
to be civilians, if there is such a thing when it comes to Seppies. And have
you noticed that they all seem to be leaving? They are not taking shelter from
an attack, rather, they are going to somewhere.
I know. This all seems to have been planned whether or not we nuked one of the
Reservation's cities.
And I never heard a second explosion or attack so what happened there?
There were some missing pieces that Kira couldn't put her fingers on, but
there was more going on here than just a reaction to an attack. This scurrying
around and evacuation of Separatists seemed to be part of some larger plan.
The
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CIA's plan might have been implemented just in the knick of time and luckily
at precisely the right moment. Kira was beginning to feel lucky.
"I mean, which route are you scheduled to take?" Kira pointed to the couple
and their fast-asleep little
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girl.
"Ah. You never were on a relocation list, were you?" Fayad said as a matter of
fact more than as a question. "One of the sacrificed," he said in an elitist
fashion. Kira was surprised by the tone and didn't realize such castes existed
in the Reservation culture. She had thought they were socialists but was
beginning to rethink that.
"Uh . . ." Kira hesitated slightly not sure how to respond.
"Fayad, you are such a callous and unthinking brute!" Elise elbowed her Prime
Husband. "She lost her entire unit. Is that not enough? Ahmi was served and
she needn't sacrifice more, even if I have to sponsor her. She has more than
earned a spot on our transport as far as I am concerned."
"I just meant that she was originally slated to stay behind," the man said
sheepishly. It was obvious that his Prime Wife had just scolded him and in
public. Kira wasn't quite sure what the cultural protocols were for such a
display but guessed that it would hold further ramifications for Fayad later
when the couple were behind closed doors. Kira's training and cover
personality development had drilled one thing deeply into her mind and that
was that the Prime Wives ruled the Reservation.
"I knew that is what you meant. Pay no attention to him, Kira. Many of those
with slots to go will not make it. My AIC has assured me of that. And besides,
many with slots that will go I would gladly swap for some of our younger and
braver heroes like yourself," Elise said. The fact that she had an AIC
implant surprised Kira. "You are welcome to join my family if you wish. You
found Lelandra for us and have helped with the wounded all the long trek to
the train station. All of that above and beyond your sacrifice at Elysium."
"I'm honored." Kira wasn't sure what to say. Standard policy in espionage is
if you aren't sure what to say, say little or nothing at all.
She has an AIC?
Kira thought.
We knew our intel on the Separatists was missing a few things. Maybe Prime
Wives carry them since they run all the business of the family; I could see
how it would come in handy for bookkeeping. Maybe she was in the Seppy
military. That would explain it, too, Allison replied.
But I haven't found a wireless signal from it or any other AICs from them.
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