They Also Serve: A Jump Universe Novel Part 18

"What?" Kat encouraged Nikki over the pause.

Now the young woman spoke slowly. "The machine started making this noise. It got worse and worse. We were trying to find a way to turn it off. Really we were. Then there was this flash, and the mountain disappeared and the box closed up on itself. All by itself!"

"Did you try to reopen it?"

"No! I just wanted to find a hole in the ground to bury it again. Find a deep pool in a cave and sink it. But Daga would have nothing of that."

"What did Daga do?"

"She made me carry the box off to a cave. We had to carry it all by ourselves because Emma and Willow never stopped running after the mountain, you know, disappeared."

"Smart kids," Dumont growled.

"I couldn't leave it lying there!" Nikki defended herself.

"No, you couldn't," Ray said softly. Go easy on this kid. She's our only lead, he sent with a glance around his team.

"Do you remember where you put it?" Kat asked.

"We checked this morning, sir," Dumont put in. "It's gone."

"I think Daga took the others there," Nikki said, "the ones who want to save the land for farming. And the three quiet city folks who came out to see you mine that hill."

"Well, that changes everything," Mary growled.

"A gadget two teenage girls can carry that will make a mountain disappear fifty klicks away," Ray breathed. "Oh, h.e.l.l."

"Mountain, city, my base," Mary expanded. "I don't think *Oh, h.e.l.l' quite cuts the mustard, Colonel."

They adjourned to the HQ. Ray, Mary, Lek, and Chief Barber tried to figure out how to chase a vanishing box and protect a base from it. "Chief, launch the shuttle to the west. Sweep from here to Refuge on full sensors. Put everything we've got a.n.a.lyzing the results. If we spot half a dozen people carrying a one-by-half-by-half-meter box, get a sky eye on it immediately."

"Yessir."

"Kat," Ray said into his commlink.

"Yessir."

"Bring back all the sky eyes. Get the location of the target cave from Jeff. a.s.sume a circle fifty klicks out from it and expanding at a walking pace. I want the eyes on it like a blanket. You'll be getting some shuttle feed. We're looking for a group of seven or less people carrying a large package among them or one with a backpack."

Ray and Mary retreated to the map table. At least here their problem could be reduced to a familiar drill: Find them, fix them in place, take them down. Could be fun except for the minor fact that all this group had to do was point a windowpane at you, and you vanished. Hum, maybe Mary's pa.s.s wasn't the worst tactical problem he'd ever faced.

Protecting the base was hardly an easier problem. There were several knolls and hills that had a direct line of sight on them. "No way we can move our gear out of here," Barber said.

"Maybe we won't have to," Lek said. "Last blimp out from Refuge had a couple of resident experts on low-metal electronics. You know they're using salt water in place of metals."

"I know about their trains," Ray nodded.

"Well, between us, we came up with an idea for plastic polymer and salt.w.a.ter ID cards. Won't be as small as ours"-Lek pointed at a wrist unit-"but it'll give us something we can give to everyone living near the base. If a blimp picks up someone with a heartbeat and no card, we check them out."

"Sounds good. Let's launch the northern recon group today. I want to move up the raid on the Sterling archives."

Mary shook her head. "You got to remember, boss, I only got fifty-three marines, and seventeen are in Refuge. You want to send the recon out without an escort?"

"No. Cut the northern recon to one day. The other project goes as soon as they get back."

An hour later, a blimp headed north to take core samples in out-of-the-way places that wouldn't bother the Covenanters, and might give Ray a taste of any new electronic systems recently put in place by the Teacher. The shuttle was making its return pa.s.s at thirty-five thousand meters, shooting its data take to Kat and her a.n.a.lysts. One spy eye was giving them its view of the immediate area around the cave from ten thousand meters; the other two were winging their way back.

Half a dozen people with a very dangerous box were doing their best to stay lost.

Ray needed data about these people, data he didn't have. "Where's the padre?" he asked the duty section.

"Ah, sir, he's at his church. Hearing confessions, I think he said. All day."

Ray's first drive was not quite as exhilarating as his first walk, but it was fun to control his own vehicle. It also served as a reminder that not all the things this crazy planet was doing were bad. Could any of them have survived if their white cells hadn't been modified?

The church was stone, with a thatched roof. As Ray stepped into its shady nave, he paused. To let his eyes adjust, he told himself, not because the transition to this sacred s.p.a.ce required it. The church smelled of wood from the rough-hewn benches, beeswax from the single candle burning on the altar, and incense. A kneeler creaked as Father Joseph turned from his prayers to observe who had wandered into his quiet reserve.

Ray gave him a half salute. "Hearing confessions all day? You don't look busy." If Ray had caught the priest in a lie, he wanted it out in the open now, not later.

The priest took a length of purple cloth from his pocket, crossed himself with it, kissed it, and put it around his neck. The stole seemed out of place against the common peasant dress he wore. Then Ray blinked. He'd seen chaplains put the same stole on over battle dress as well as black shirts with Roman collars.

"People will be wandering this land today" the priest said quietly, "hungry, hurting, maybe in need of confessing something they did or didn't do. There are extra potatoes in the rectory to feed the stomach. I'm here to feed the soul. What have you come for?"

"Food for my mind. I have a problem."

The priest did not seem surprised. He motioned Ray forward. As Ray joined him beside the first pew, the priest genuflected to the altar and headed toward two comfortable chairs off to the side before a roughly worked statue of a woman and child. Ray gave the altar a nod, out of respect for the priest's belief, and followed. The priest settled into one chair, said nothing, steepled his fingers, and leaned back calmly with the air of one ready to listen patiently to anything and everything. As Ray sat, he decided to pull no punches.

"There is a device loose on this planet that can make a mountain disappear, or a city-and everyone in it."

The priest whistled. "G.o.d has granted you such power."

"Nope, not G.o.d. And not us. Apparently Daga from your parish discovered it. Now it's in the hands of radical folks. I don't know what they intend to do with it, and that scares me."

"And any reasonable person," the priest breathed. "Daga was a delightful child. Something came over her last year." The priest tapped his forehead. "This thing your doctor has found in our heads must be a great challenge to Almighty G.o.d's mercy."

"I think this is just normal human cussedness," Ray said. "I need to know what you know about what's going on."

The priest started in his chair. Back straight, he shook his head. "There is little I can tell you. Daga has rarely been to Ma.s.s this last year. Parents worry. I tell them to pray, and show their children love. This is a stage they must walk through. They will come out the other side."

"I understand the seal of confession, Father," Ray cut the priest off. Time was short; people were walking. A search circle was widening. "What can you tell me that most any gossip might know about how Sterling's industries and farmers and the Greens and hockey teams and all the rest normally behave?"

Ray made himself relax back into his chair. "We've accessed archives. They tell us painfully little. Newspapers with recipes on the front pages. Papers filled with church socials, workers' picnics, who's in the hospital and who's been in a brawl, though not many of those. Padre, in almost any other portion of s.p.a.ce, I'd swear that a party censor had a choke hold on the newsroom. Is that what's going on here?"

The priest's lips fell into a frown. "The more you tell me about the worlds out there, the less I like them. Yet, we are the ones with the thing that can vanish a city. We are the ones who have taken to killing our brothers and sisters. You had nothing to do with this, despite Brother Jonah's claims. You just want to help us survive something from out of our own soil."

"Yes, padre. Help me understand. Help us all."

"Our papers are filled with what people do for fun so that others may join them. Maybe a few gossips would like papers such as you speak of, but they are busy talking, not reading. Though maybe you are right about one thing. Often young men from the villages work a few years for the Sterlings, to make the money they need to buy their first set of tools. Working for Victoria Sterling is not easy. From them I hear stories of machines damaged, vehicles wrecked, buildings burned. We've always ascribed them to the Greens, but I never made anything of those stories."

"Chu Lyn's people, huh?"

"Oh, no, Chu leads the major circle in New Haven. She would never stand for any such behavior from her people. San Paulo knows that. So does Victoria Sterling, though I suspect it does not make her any less angry. No, Chu Lyn's people are as different as-well, as the people of Hazel Dell. Just because we live here doesn't mean we agree," the priest chuckled. "We come together and talk and talk. And bring in the crops. That, at least, we can agree on." The priest's eyes sparkled at that.

Ray let out a long, noisy breath. "So people agree to disagree, enjoy themselves, and go about their business."

"Or so it seemed until this thing in our heads made people reach for clubs and their neighbors' throats," the priest added.

"Any idea where someone with a small box that can do great damage might take it?"

The priest shook his head. "Too many. South, into the New Haven area, where those of like minds would help them. But you have already thought of that. To the east, where Richland is and other burned-out towns and villages. They might go there if the anger in their hearts is high." Ray nodded agreement. "They could go north. There are those of faith who believe the world is here for us to subdue. The Sterlings like to hear that preached and have those churches in Richland. However, there are also those to the north who believe we should return the earth to a garden like the one they say Adam and Eve were expelled from."

"Everybody reads the same book. n.o.body gets the same answer," Ray snorted.

"And you, have you never had need of something greater to believe in?" the padre asked.

"At times. Right now I'm a bit busy."

"It is like that in all our lives. But tell me, Colonel. I have heard them call you that. It is a military rank and honor?"

"Yes."

"Will you order my people away from your base, their homes?"

"No. Our technology offers us better options. We're making ID cards for everyone. We'll ask people to carry them at all times. If our sensors spot someone within twenty klicks of here without a card, we'll send marines out to check on them."

"How will you get my people to carry the cards?"

"We're going to include credit balances in them as well. If you work for us or provide goods, we'll promise you so much copper equivalent in a credit balance."

"People like to have copper," the priest said gingerly.

"I know. We'll pay extra for them to take our credit. That ought to do it."

"And children? This box is the size of a baby carrier. You will want to keep track of children."

"That has me stumped. Any ideas?"

The old man rubbed his chin for a long minute. "Among the refugees there are stories of children getting lost. If you offered these cards as a way to keep track of the children, a.s.sure that they are returned to their parents, you might find people very willing to listen to you." The priest stopped in midthought. "These sensors of yours. Do they only tell you that this person has a card, or can they tell you who that person is and where they are?"

"Both," Ray answered.

"G.o.d be praised," the priest smiled. "So you could help a mother know that her child is far over there, as well as look at a child's ID and know that her mother is in that village."

"We can," Ray told the priest.

"I think you will find people very willing to accept your cards. Very willing. How soon can you begin giving them out?"

"Tomorrow."

"I will tell the people of this wonderful gift you have for us in these troubled times." Ray stood; the priest accompanied him to the tiny vestibule of the church.

Closing the door behind him, Ray shook his head. As a boy, he'd seen a vid where a girl fell down a hole into a world where everything was reversed. Day was night, up was down, crazy. Just like this lunatic world. The media wanted only happy news. People gratefully let a central authority keep track of them. On second thought, maybe he ought to quarantine Santa Maria for the sake of the rest of humanity's sanity. Or maybe for the sake of the Santa Marians' sanity.

Ray's call to San Paulo was an anticlimax after talking to the padre. She was appropriately shocked that someone had found a gadget to make mountains or Lander's Refuge disappear. No, she didn't think they ought to tell anyone about this development. Yes, she'd be glad to help Ray set up an ID card system for the population of Refuge and its environs. The idea of using said cards to keep a balance of copper credits owed was intriguing. "Is that the way you do it among the stars?" "Yes," he a.s.sured her. It might work, but he'd have to talk to Victoria and Chu and they'd have to take it to their respective circles.

Ray could just picture Vicky asking anyone for advice. Oh, well, three out of four was not bad.

That night Mary watched as the northern recon's blimp limped back with hardly a hundred feet of spare alt.i.tude, leaking hydrogen from countless airgun bullet holes. The blimp settled in with a thump. Mules quickly surrounded it, and the marines and crew piled in, too exhausted to walk to the barracks.

While Kat, Lek, and Harry went off, talking rapidly about the geomorphology and conductivity of the strange rock samples they'd collected, Mary cornered Jeff and Dumont. "How'd it go?"

"Fairly good at first," Dumont shrugged. "Got tighter as folks noticed us. Had to shoot our way out of the last place."

"Any casualties?"

"None on our side. 'Course, poor Jeff here lost his virginity." Dumont gave Jeff a slug on the shoulder.

"You okay?" Mary asked. The young man looked green.

"I'll live," Jeff muttered. "Can't say that for others."

"I need both of you. We've put together our best imagery of Vicky's compound. Jeff, can you tell me what's where?"

"When we going visiting?" Dumont asked.

"Tomorrow night."

"That fast?"

Mary did a quick glance around. "Until we know where that d.a.m.n mountain-killer is, we have to consider every place on this planet subject to vanishing. We're working on making the base safe. Should be by day after tomorrow. Whatever Vicky's got, I want it here by then."

"Can I go with you?" Jeff asked.

"I was hoping you would," Mary smiled.

Dumont shook his head. "d.a.m.n fool volunteer. Some kids never learn."

"Like a few I know." This time it was Dumont's shoulder that got punched. They piled Mary's mule with rock slabs, then headed for the HQ. On the table that they could turn into anything, Mary had a layout of the Sterling mansion compound.

Jeff was amazed at how much they already knew. The ground around the buildings was marked for weight bearing; they'd spotted all the flower beds and even the place in front that collected rain and always seemed to make a mudhole. "You've spotted the kitchen, even the bathrooms. How'd you do that?"

The two marines exchanged a grin. "We have our ways," Mary said. "So, where's the data stored?"

Jeff ran his fingers over their layout of the archives building, "You've got the three workstations in the right place. There's a second door into that room. Comes from a stair you missed." He pointed out the central security pa.s.sage.

"n.o.body's used it," Mary said.

"Don't, unless they have to. You've got the guard post in the bas.e.m.e.nt right, but there's an emergency stairs out of there to both floors. They can get up and into any room without using the public access."