“Sure. I’m here for breakfast.”
Wiley laughed. “You want something to drink? Got some real cow’s milk, not that bacteria stuff.”
“Real cow’s milk?” Savina made a face.
“Everything else we’ve got is a little too strong for breakfast, especially for someone as young as you.”
Savina shrugged. “I’ll try some cow’s milk.”
“I’ll go get us some. How about you, Aaron?”
“Don’t let her in the tents.”
“Yeah,” Wiley said. “You better wait here, Savina. Aaron, did you want one or not.”
“No. I want some coffee.”
“It should be ready by now. I’ll take my turn when I get back.” He walked off under the trees toward one of the tents.
“What are you digging for?” Savina asked.
“None of your business.”
“Oh, okay. Look, I don’t care, I was just curious.”
“Don’t be curious. You’re here for breakfast, that’s all.”
“Yes, absolutely.” Savina eyed it, wishing it was done.
“Who are you working for?” Aaron asked her. He was watching her closely for her reaction.
“Nobody,” Savina told him. “I’m unemployed.”
Aaron brushed dirt off his clothes, which were all black.
Black short sleeve shirt, black pants, black socks, black shoes.
He even had a black belt. For the first time she noticed he was wearing a gun in a black holster. “What are you looking at?”
“You sure like the color black. You ought to wear light colors in the summer, it’s much cooler.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Why do you think I’m working for somebody? You think I’m a spy or something?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“What are you doing that–- No, forget I said that. I don’t care.”
Aaron eyed her silently.
Wiley came back with a tray of cups with a stand. He sat it down in front of them and offered Savina the milk. It also had plates, knives and forks, and napkins. “Amazing, you brought civilization to the Depopulated Zone.”
“He’s got to bring everything with him,” Aaron grumbled, taking his coffee.
“Certain things are nice to have, being that we’re stuck out in the middle of … well, out here. Yes, Savina, we’re camping.”
“Been out here long?”
“Longer than I’d like to think about.”
“Do you know if there’s an abandoned college up north?”
Wiley’s expression froze. He glanced at Aaron, then back to her. Aaron said, “What about an abandoned college?”
“I’m supposed to meet someone there, but he didn’t tell me where it was.”
“Why didn’t he tell you where it was?”
“He was, well … he was in a hurry.”
“That’s odd that someone would tell you to meet them at an old broken-down college and not tell you where it was.” Wiley sipped his milk.
“Who are you supposed to meet there?” Aaron asked.
“A guy named Danny Marauder.”
“Marauder!”
“Hey, that was his name.”
“We know Marauder,” Wiley told her. “Really short guy with a bald head?”
“No, this guy was tall and had red hair and a beard.” She watched them as they glanced at each other again. “He was with a group of anarchists outside a euthanasia center. One was a woman named Evelyn Sunrunner. Do you know her?”
“This is too much,” Aaron said. “You stay there, Savina. If you’re some sort of police probe you’re getting yourself in a hell of a lot of trouble.” He walked over to one of the tents.
“What’s going on?” Savina asked Wiley.
“Don’t worry. He’s going to check on your story.”
“You guys do know Danny, don’t you?”
“Maybe. You haven’t even tried your milk. Go ahead, try it.
It’s so much better than that mass-produced crap. Smoother. Go on, try it.”
Savina took a sip. It had a funny animal taste to it, but she thought that it could be her imagination. It was actually very much like the milk she was used to, but heavier, smoother – just like he’d said. As she drank it down Wiley pulled the rabbit off the spit and began cutting servings.
Aaron appeared out of the tent and walked toward him. “She checks out. They want us to keep her with us for now.”
“Really?” Wiley said, surprised.
“Who wants what?” Savina asked.
“I just talked to Sunrunner at the enclave. She wants me to tell you that she’s glad you made it out here okay. She also thought you’d like to know that Danny got away from the drones.”
“You have a phone out here?”
“Yeah, in a way.”
“Can I use it?”
“Uh, no,” Wiley said. “Here, eat your breakfast.” He handed her a plate.
“I want to get a message to someone,” Savina said. “He helped me get away – I’ve got to at least let him know I’m okay.”
Wiley looked at Aaron. “Can we send a message?”
“Give me the message and the number and I can send it. But it’s going to be anonymous, so make sure he’ll know who its from without you having to tell him.”
“Just tell him I’m okay, that I’m doing okay, and I can’t wait to see him again. He’ll know who it’s from.” She gave Aaron the phone number, and Aaron went off to the tent to send it.
Savina dug into her food, and when she was finished she was handed a shovel and told to get down in the hole. “What am I digging for?” she asked.
“Anything that’s not dirt,” Aaron told her. And that was all.
Savina shrugged, and sent the blade inexpertly into the soil.
18. HACKERS
It’s those words again, Dodd thought. Here they come.
“Almighty Jesus, please help us in our time of need …” The words left his lips feeling hollow, like bubbles of vacuum. He was saying them in unison with Toby and his wife, their relatives, and a trainload of their church friends. Dodd said the words exactly the way everyone else said them, but the others sounded sincere to him and he knew he was faking it.
Secrets and lies were foreign to Dodd, he was not skilled at handling them. He felt a niggling little guilt that told him he had betrayed his friend. It pestered him in the night when he was trying to sleep, it caused him to bang his head against walls when no one was around to see. Right above his hairline was a nasty bump caused by a nasty moment when he’d almost convinced himself he’d done wrong. It wasn’t successful, Dodd still didn’t regret it – he wanted Savina to have her baby – but watching her father worry and suffer made it very hard on Dodd.
The prayer broke up after a silence, and then it was time for more cookies and punch. Dodd was up to his eyeballs in cookies and punch, and excused himself to go to the rest room. Someone had beaten him to the downstairs one, so he went upstairs. When he was through, he stepped out into the hallway and into Savina’s room to use her phone.
He dialed his own home number and waited, wanting to make sure Sheila had eaten dinner. The phone rang and rang, and finally Dodd’s house computer answered to take a message. Dodd dialed in an access code and got a computer menu, chose the option “SNEAK A PEEK” and activated the video pickup on the phone in his kitchen.
The dinner he’d programmed for Sheila had been prepared and was sitting untouched in the warmer, drying out and hardening. He couldn’t see the living room from any of the phones, but he could hear the Travels music. Dodd gave up, exited out of “SNEAK A PEEK,” and brought up the messages menu.
MESSAGES: 00 MAIL: 01
He called the mail up onto the screen: TO: Dodd Corely DATE: 6/5/42
FROM: Some Humans SUBJECT: Your Friend Someone wants you to know that she is okay, she’s doing fine, and that she can’t wait to see you again. You’re supposed to know who she is.
Beware the antichrist AI!
Dodd cut the connection and blanked the screen. It would have been just wonderful if Toby had walked in and saw that it bright yellow letters. Dodd straightened up, stepping back from the phone. There was just enough light in the room to see the frills on the bed and young female nick-knacks on little shelves and across Savina’s desk. She gave up everything she knows, he thought. She did it. My God, how brave children can be.
Savina’s not a child anymore, he thought. I’ll be damned if I don’t admire her. She made a decision and she stuck with it; she’s doing something she believes in despite the entire world.
Dodd smiled. He felt better now. It was good to know he wasn’t going through all this for nothing.
He left her room and walked downstairs. Another prayer was going on; they were praying for the soul of the boy Greg, the one who’d turned himself in for raping Savina. “… may the Lord be with him in his punishment, and guide him from wrong to right …”