Slowly, inexorably, Junie stole Calypso from a watery grave. They traveled with the river but headed for the eastern bank. Donovan had pointed out the various tributaries feeding into the river, and Ryan had confirmed them with his binocs. Even with the river level up, Donovan also gave Morse directions to steer clear of certain areas of the river because of underwater wreckage.
“When the river lowers after the rainy season,” he said to Ryan, “you get a better chance of seeing most of them. But there’s others, if you haven’t explored this river, that you won’t know about until you’ve ripped the underside of your boat out. Ask me how I know. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to put Calypso back together.”
“WE’VE GOT A CAMPSITE farther up this tributary,” Donovan said.
Ryan kept his eye on the men in Calypso’s crow’s nest. So far, neither of them had spotted the returning pirates. He knew it was possible that the pirates had decided to cut their losses, but he didn’t trust that. With full dark coming less than an hour away, the pirates may have decided to hole up for the night on familiar terrain. Come first light, Ryan figured they’d be hunted again.
“What’s the campsite for?” Ryan asked.
Donovan shook his head. “Just a base camp. You don’t even need to take us there. Just put us ashore farther up this stream, and we’ll see our own way clear.”
“It isn’t going to happen like that,” Ryan said. Then he told Donovan about Krysty and their encounter with the Chosen.
“HOW ARE YOU FEELING?” Donovan squatted beside Krysty and gently peeled her eyelid back.
“Like I’m just short of catching the last train headed for the coast,” Krysty croaked. It was a struggle for her to sit up on her own against the side of the boat.
“You still hearing the woman’s voice?”
“Louder all the time. Can’t hardly keep her away these past few days.”
Donovan released her eyelid, and it slowly closed. “Well, you keep holding her back. Keep eating your soup and work on saving your strength. We’ll see you clear of this.”
“You can get her out of my head?” Krysty asked.
“Not me,” Donovan replied. “But I know someone who can.”
“I can’t wait,” Krysty said. “There’s not room enough for both of us in here.”
“HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BEFORE?” Ryan asked when they were back in the prow, away from Krysty.
Donovan nodded. “Twice. Both of them were women who’d come up on Chosen with death rattling in the backs of the throats. One of them was a gaudy slut over in Taylorville south and east of here. Rough trade ville, purely sport and gaudies, folks living out hard days there and spending their nights taking whatever they can from other folks, staying there just because they think they can keep ahead of folks taking from them. Gaudy slut had slit the throat of one of the Chosen, then she got her mind grafted for her trouble.”
“Grafted?”
Donovan nodded and sucked on his pipe, streaming fragrant smoke. “The Chosen’s term, what they call what they do. A lot of their skills with their minds they’d only started exploring right before skydark.”
“In the Totality Concept,” Ryan said.
Donovan’s head snapped around. “What do you know about the Totality Concept?”
Ryan shook his head. “I’m not here to say what I know. Want to know what you know.”
“But if you can add to our store of knowledge about the Totality Concept…”
“That’s not what I’m here to do,” Ryan said.
“How much do you know about the Heimdall Foundation?” Donovan asked. “I talked with Elmore. He said you knew some of it.”
Ryan had let Elmore join the other crew aboard Calypso.
“No.”
“Mebbe I could be as tight-lipped about what I know about the Chosen.”
“That’s not a game you want to play with me,” Ryan told the man harshly. “I saved your ass back there. Now I’m saving your boat. Way I see it, the scales here are way out of balance.”
“But you do know something.”
“Something,” Ryan admitted. “But not what you’re looking for. All the stuff I’ve gotten to know, the Heimdall Foundation’s the first place I’ve heard of that’s got an idea that skydark was brought about by aliens from another world.”