Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2021 20:16:14 -0400
From: Rick Heathen <rick.heathen@gmail.com>
Subject: The Journey of Rick Heiden 35-36

The Journey of Rick Heiden - Chapters 35 and 36

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All Rights Reserved © 2021, Rick Haydn Horst

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events,
locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination
or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Thank you for delving into this work; I hope you enjoy it.

Please send questions, comments, or complaints to Rick.Heathen@gmail.com. I
would enjoy reading what you have to say.

This novel contains 50 CHAPTERS, and every post will have 2 chapters each.

-----------------

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

The next D-word had come, Deception, and I didn't know where Pearce hid it
among all the data that he provided that evening, but I knew he deceived
me. Some things he said had the ring of truth, like having left his son
unregistered. It spoke to a certain level of his innocence. If they
intended to stay, they would have registered their son, declaring his
citizenship, so he must have planned to return to Jiyu with his family. As
a parent born on Jiyu, I could imagine his reluctance to strip away his
son's freedom by making him an American citizen. I had no idea how they
intended to reach the UK to leave Earth without the registration, but they
must have had a plan.

An unregistered birth can create an inconvenience for a child once they've
grown, but it also carries considerable danger. In this case, Phalin, a
company willing to experiment on someone against their will, held his
son. They might find that a young, unregistered child, born with nanos, an
opportunity too enticing to give up. They could do with him, whatever they
wanted with impunity. As far as any officials would know, the child didn't
exist.

We lived in different directions, Magnar and I. In the lift, on our way to
the ground, he contacted Venn for two transports.

"Here," said Magnar, "I want you to take this." He removed his leg holster
for the black pistol and gave it to me. "Take it and wear it."

"I don't need this, Magnar."

He locked out the kill setting on the pistol. "Yes, you do," he said. "If
you insist that he comes with you, I insist you wear this. I will not have
David thinking I left you defenseless."

In reluctance, I acceded to his demand.

When the transports arrived, I told Magnar goodnight. As Pearce and I
climbed into ours, Magnar pulled his sword. He grabbed Pearce by the left
arm and rested the razor-sharp blade on Pearce's right shoulder, a mere
fraction from cutting his neck. He drew close to his left ear and spoke in
his gruff voice. "If you harm anyone, or I discover that you willfully and
maliciously betrayed us all, I will hunt you down and slaughter you where
you stand."

"I know you would," said Pearce.

Magnar sheathed his sword, and with a little bow, wished us a pleasant and
peaceful evening. He left in his transport before we did.

I knew he had to say it, for as much as it disturbed me. I couldn't live in
a fantasy world believing Jiyu didn't function, at least somewhat, through
a threat of extreme violence. I trusted Pearce to a certain extent, but I
had unresolved questions. Nevertheless, I didn't believe he wanted to harm
anyone. He wanted something else.

"Do I understand, Pearce," said Venn, "that your loyalty has come into
question?"

"So, it seems." He sat in the opposite seat, rubbing his neck.

"That's excellent," said Venn.

"It is?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, "just this morning, no one doubted his guilt. May I have
your destination, please?"

"The hospital," I said, "and if you would please wait for us, I would
appreciate it."

"The hospital!" said Pearce in perplexity. He held out his hand with the
tiny smear of blood on it. "I don't think that's necessary, do you?"

"This isn't about you," I said. "Well, not really. I need to make one last
important stop this evening for a friend in need."

When we arrived at the hospital, the hologram of Apollo greeted us.

"Faye has retired for the evening," he said. "However, due to your
position, I will say she left for her apartment a few minutes ago. I am
attempting to contact her for you. One moment, please..." Apollo stood with
a simple smile and an odd, familiar expression. I felt sure I used to make
that expression while waiting for someone to answer the phone, not looking
at anyone or anything.

As a matter of convenience, the building housed several of the emergency
room staff on the upper floors. "Faye returns to the ground floor," said
Apollo, gesturing to the lifts on the right of the front entryway, and as
before, he vanished.

"Do I know this friend?" asked Pearce.

"It's Neal," I said.

"My mother's hairdresser? What's wrong with him?"

"Long story, but you'll see."

Faye stepped from the lift, wearing a yellow striped robe, and had her hair
down. I almost didn't recognize her.

"Pearce!" she said in alarm. "What's he doing here? I thought he turned
traitor."

"You can relax," I said. "Enough evidence suggests otherwise, but we should
withhold judgment until we know everything. Until then, I will monitor
Pearce, and his status remains one of mere suspicion." I looked at
Pearce. "But that could change either way."

"Very well," she said, "seeing as it's you. I get most of my news from
Apollo. He told me you and Magnar are acting proxies for David during the
crisis. After having met you, it pleases me to hear it. What can I do for
you, Mr. Heiden?"

"If your communication link is on, I must ask you to turn it off, please,"
I said to her.

She gave me a concerned glance but did as I asked.

"Thank you. What plans do you have for Neal?" I asked.

"We honor people's lives as best we can," she said. "His situation appears
unique, however, in similar cases, we kept the patient comfortable for
three days to allow visitors, and on the third, we put them to sleep at
sunset."

"Given his circumstance, that's a kindness," I said, "but I'm going to ask
you to forgo the usual treatment. I cannot go into the details of why we
must keep him alive, except to say I have reason to believe his condition
is not irreversible."

"I don't see how Mr. Heiden. The technician told me it wasn't a nano issue,
and I'm at a loss for a biological cause."

"Yes, I know he told you that," I said and began to whisper, "you must
never divulge what I will tell you. The nanos induce his condition, and
that means we have someone in One City capable of doing 'that' to anyone
who gets in their way. They threatened the technician to tell you
otherwise."

She covered her mouth with her hand, and I noted her eyes darted at
Pearce. "Pearce couldn't do it; he arrived later."

She gave a slight nod and whispered. "I will say nothing, and I will keep
Neal alive."

"In the meantime," I said. "I'm going to ask you to pretend as if you will
adhere to the usual routine because the perpetrator could be counting on
it. They may want you to kill him for them. I will have someone protect
him; perhaps with the excuse, they are sitting vigil for a man who has no
one."

"I will see to it," she said, "and Mr. Heiden, thank you for trusting me."

"We're going to have to stick together. Oh, one last thing, if you must
contact me about this at all, don't use Iris."

"Any particular reason?" she asked.

"Someone has compromised Iris. If you must discuss anything confidential,
never do it with your communication link active. Please, hold that in
confidence as well."

When our conversation ended, she departed for the back of the emergency
room, while Pearce and I left for the fifth floor. The instant the lift
doors had closed, he could hold his curiosity back no longer.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked.

"When we get to Neal's room," I said.

While we stood observing Neal's placid form, I informed him, but I didn't
go into detail because I felt tired. We had a complex set of circumstances
for which no one could hold Pearce responsible, but his involvement, as
David would agree, meant he could not absolve himself of his duty to assist
me in rooting out the person and stopping them.

"They may target you," I said. "If someone would do this to Neal for
knowing the leaf from book seven, I can imagine they might find it
imperative to obliterate your memory of book eight."

"All the more reason to do what I came to do," he said, "and leave."

"Wow," I said, "my whole life, I judged myself a coward, but I see now,
this is what that looks like."

"Oh no, that won't work on me." He waved a dismissive hand, proceeding to
exit the room. I followed right on his heels. "I'm fairly good at
self-preservation, as you should know. Besides, I have my son to see to."

We stood waiting for the lift.

"You didn't register your son," I said.

"That's what I said."

"You aren't an idiot. If you always intended to stay and not return to Jiyu
with your family, you would have registered him. You say you loved Jiyu
because of David. Perhaps that's true in some obsessed-with-David sense,
but you grew up here, it's inside you, and from what I've heard, despite
your mother, you seemed to have had an incredible childhood here. You want
that for your son, don't you?"

"What of it?" he asked as he and I entered the lift.

"I don't know what they want to keep hidden," I said, "but if we can't stop
this person because you leave, you can never come back. They know that you
know. It will trap you and your son on Earth."

He thought about it for a moment. "Earth's not that bad."

We exited the lift on the ground floor, where I grabbed his arm. "You know
as well as I do that, compared to Jiyu, Earth is a prison where they
sentence the inmates to hard labor, and the wardens live a life of
ease. You don't want your son to have to row with all the other slaves."

He drew close and whispered to me. "If I end up like Neal, who will save my
son and care for him?"

I caught a glimpse inside that person before me, and I felt compelled at
that moment to do something. I stared at him, placing my hands on his
shoulders, and we stood like that for only a moment during my
realization. I know what he said to me, but another level existed in the
macro. Pearce saw himself as alone, either by choice or circumstance. He
had neither father nor mother growing up, at least not in any reasonable
way. Who did Pearce have? He had David and himself. He took it upon himself
to get the diamond for Jiyu. He didn't tell anyone about his family, not
even David, because he would have to leave, and maybe he didn't want to
leave Earth until David did. Apart from his need for proximity to David, he
had grown independent, and Jiyu encouraged that. And just then, he didn't
want to leave his son with the experience of having no father. He had more
bravery and selflessness than I realized. Given how his life had gone,
Pearce was amazing.

"I see you now," I said. I threw Pearce off guard for a moment, and then he
hugged me just as he had David that day in the little park in London.

"I am innocent of that which Magnar thinks I'm guilty. I want you to know
that. I also want you to know that I like you. I like you a lot, which
makes this even more difficult for me, but it's for my son."

That's when he pulled away from me just far enough to stun me with Magnar's
pistol. If for no other reason than my stupidity at having left myself
exposed, I deserved it.

My thoughts made sense, though. I could see that Pearce did what he did
because they held his son. What choice did he have? At the time, I
recognized his innocence, based on that alone, but I felt uncertain I could
convince anyone else to accept it without new evidence. The whole picture
had to include my experience with him on Earth and my observations. They
couldn't know the way I did. I had seen him earlier at the temple, and he
had not faked that. He told me they killed his mate the day before they
released him. No wonder he had cried in David's arms as he did.

I had only one question that nagged me. The Aggregate knew where to find
our weak spot to destroy Rom and blind us. How did they know that? I had a
tough time comprehending it without Ockham's razor slicing away any other
explanation but the simplest; Pearce had told them. And if they hadn't
known what to expect on Jiyu, they wouldn't have known what to ask him. He
had to have provided the information of his own volition. It had stood out
as a disjointed piece of the puzzle that hadn't fit with everything else,
but I couldn't put it out of my mind. I knew I wanted to believe him, but
that impeded my objectivity. He either turned traitor or not, independent
of what I wanted, and I had to remember that.

I woke up 15 minutes later, a little disoriented, and grateful no one came
in during that time. If Jiyu's grapevine knew Pearce had stunned me, and
Magnar had found out, he would have followed through with his threat. I
hadn't wanted that. So, I never said a word to anyone. One thing puzzled me
though, Pearce had put my pistol back into the holster, as if nothing had
ever happened.

I ran outside and couldn't find Pearce anywhere, but I couldn't see Venn
either. I tried to decide what to do when another transport pulled up where
Venn had waited earlier, and I raced to it.

"Where have you taken him?" I asked Venn.

"The lift to the temple," he said.

"Why did you do that?"

"He asked me to," he said, "it's what I do. Do you wish to follow him?"

"Yes," I said, jumping into the transport over the side, "make it fast."

"I dropped him off several minutes ago," he said, "and the lift was
waiting. He's at the top by now. He left a voice message for you if you
wanted to follow him."

"What did he say?" I asked.

Venn played the message.

----------------------

["I regretted it the moment I did it, but I must do this. I will tell you
my love for David is platonic. Who could know David well and not love him?
It hurt me to disappoint him, and as you are his mate, I don't want to
disappoint you either. I mean no one any harm. Please, don't try to stop
me. I'll be out of your way as quick as I can."]

----------------------

I heard a noise in the distance, and I strained to discern its location. I
looked up, and then I saw him illuminated from the light at the
temple. Pearce wore David's abandoned flight pack. He must have noticed it
sitting inside the Temple doorway. He flew off into the night toward the
industrial area to the east.

"Would you like me to take you home?" Venn asked.

I had a choice to make, and once made, it brought on the next D-word of the
day: Deliverance, and with it came more, so much more.

"Oh, bloody hell." I flopped back down into the seat. "Welp, it looks like
I'm not getting any sleep tonight either," I said to myself. "Venn, how
fast can this transport go?"

"This city transport has a maximum speed of seventy kilometers an hour,"
said Venn, "and that's not fast enough if you wish to follow him. I am
bringing you a more appropriate vehicle. You require something more
durable, versatile, and efficient."

"I need something that goes fast, Venn. I'm losing him."

"Since we can no longer rely on Rom," said Venn, "I will monitor Pearce's
position from the ground. I have vehicles to the industrial area and
beyond. But I don't understand why you want to follow him when he asked you
not to."

"I told Magnar I would take full responsibility for Pearce," I said. "I
must mean what I say. Besides, he may need our help. I doubt that the
flight pack will take him where he wants to go and back if he had that
intention. How much longer?"

"You have a point," he said, "their range is short. Estimated time of
arrival, 2 minutes."

I leaned back and folded my arms. "That's going to feel like an eternity."

"It's worth the wait."

"How can you reach as far as the industrial area?" I asked. "What about the
line-of-sight problem regarding transmissions?"

"As an interpreter," said Venn, "your range of knowledge is surprising. My
telemetry is routed through a single geostationary satellite in low orbit."

"Well, I do read a lot of science magazines," I said. "I thought Rom
controlled all the satellites. Do you control the satellite too?"

"No, they built it independent of me and independent of Rom, for which I am
grateful. It's just a relay with no scientific instrumentation for Rom to
have utilized."

"Mason told me they built you decentralized, is that true?"

"Yes, but to function as I do now requires the satellite. If I cannot
communicate with my other parts, it will leave me in chaos."

"You do realize that makes you vulnerable, right?"

"Yes," he said, "and after what happened to Rom, I have decided to withdraw
from the central Forge, and not pursue any more expansion. Diversity will
protect our community better, even if it sacrifices an optimal level of
efficiency. E.T.A. 45 seconds."

"That's gracious of you," I said. "What sort of vehicle will you bring me?"

"It's something I've been toying with for jears," he said. "I completed the
design during David's time on Earth, and I forged it during the mission. I
only have one, so please tell me you won't scratch it."

"That I won't scratch it. Won't you be driving?"

"No, it's separate and semiautomatic. It has an automatic mode, but you
must tell it what to do and works best if you do the flying. I've
considered our retreat from the fully automatic transports for some time,
and with the death of Rom, I think I have chosen the best route. The
controlled transports we use now may have more convenience, safety, and
efficiency, but a well-designed semiautomatic could function just as well."

A noise came from overhead, and the vehicle made a vertical landing a few
feet behind us. I had never seen anything like it.

I jumped from the transport. "Wow! You created this?"

I wanted to give it a thorough inspection, but I had no time. In the
relative darkness, the lights from the sidewalk and the front of the
hospital illuminated it enough to see.

"I like the black body with the ice-blue trim," I said.

"I made the body of a carbon nanotube weave covered titanium alloy, that's
why it's black. And what you call ice-blue trim is the exterior
lighting. There is nothing on the vehicle that doesn't have at least two
uses. The carbon construction makes it durable, impervious to
electromagnetic pulses and can become magnetic, protecting the occupants
from space radiation.

"Space radiation? You mean this can fly in space."

"It will operate in almost any environment."

"How far can it go?"

"It's a short-range transport, capable of flying to Naxos, at the edge of
the solar system and back, according to my calculations, in 18 hours."

"That's short-range?"

"The galaxy is enormous, Rick," said Venn.

I laughed. "Of course, I'm just a bit stunned we're utilizing that kind of
scale. I expected something...well...less."

The ship, as I discovered later, had dimensions of 2 meters high (not
including the retractable landing struts), 5.5 meters long, and 2.5 meters
wide. It had sharp front-facing edges and round rear-facing edges. Venn
built it streamlined and sleek with no windows or wheels. It had bowed
sides and an undetectable crevice where the side hatches opened. Its satiny
black surface felt smooth, and the ice-blue strips of exterior lighting
looked stylish.

I couldn't find the door handle. "How do I get in?"

"It needs to hear your voice to remember it. Three times say, 'open the
hatch, please.'"

I did so, and the hatch had released. The imperceptible crevice widened,
and a door protruded from the side of the ship, sliding forward from the
center of the vessel. One had to bend a little to enter the shorter
interior. The rear jumpseats folded flat into the back wall flanking the
stowage section in the middle. Above each jumpseat featured a rectangular
black and yellow striped button the size of my palm to close the
hatches. Nothing happened when I touched one.

"The hatches won't close," I said to Venn.

Venn's voice came from the front. "That's normal. Climb into a front seat;
it doesn't matter which."

The front had the cockpit, accessed by the narrow aisle between the front
seats. It looked dissimilar to the cockpit of an airplane. I saw no
windows, no buttons, no switches, or anything one activates. Venn chose a
black, charcoal, and white interior lit by long light strips and scatter
lights on the floors, all of which made the white trim and parts of the
interior glow.

I sat in the left seat because I grew up American. The chair felt more
comfortable than the bucket seat of any luxury car I'd ridden in. Once I
sat, the black panel dashboard had a realistic depiction of the hatch door
closing with the word "CLOSE" below it. I touched it, and the hatch
closed. I saw then that Venn had done an exceptional job in his attempt to
make the vehicle's interface as basic as possible. Once it closed, an
almost uninterrupted 180° display came on, showing everything around
the ship as if I looked through a window. A semitransparent blue
holographic sphere appeared 18 inches before me.

"Must we do this? A great deal of time is passing."

Venn's voice came from the headrest. "If you had the specialized synthetic
eyes, none of this would be necessary. As it stands, you cannot fly the
vehicle without it, and believe me, you have plenty of time. Pearce is
saving power with his slow progress. It's 70 kilometers to the industrial
area, and he's not even halfway.

"Place your fingers into the sphere. Tell me when it turns green," said
Venn.

I did so. "It's green."

"There," said Venn, "the ship is yours."

"Mine?" I asked. "You're giving me this ship?"

"It must go to someone," said Venn, "it's not a public vehicle."

"But it's the only one!"

"Not for long," said Venn. "I have a private forge of my own. It
specializes in forging vehicles intact. The second one has been forging for
two days."

"That sounds like the shipwright Laren College designed."

"It is," said Venn. "Amare knew of mine and asked the college to design one
for building larger ships, but mine came first, so I get the credit."

"You have a private forge of your own?"

"Of course," he said. "It's not unusual; many people have a private
forge. I know of several in One City of varying sizes. Shall we go?"

The person claimed the ship when they placed their fingers inside the
sphere. It read their fingerprints, and then the controls respond to no
other fingers but theirs.

At first, it enters teaching mode. Venn understood how humans learned
best. He made the visual cues simplistic. Images, whole words, and symbols
surrounded me from my left to the center console before me, with every
section labeled and color-coded. As a vehicle that flew, it had a yolk of
sorts for maneuvering. This unique one, he made holographic. I used it as a
guide for where to place my hands, it moved and acted like a physical yolk,
except this one learned from me as much as I learned from it. It knew the
difference between an intentional turn and a slip of the hand. If I let go
of the holographic yolk, it disregarded that hand until I replaced it. The
ship seemed intuitive and easy to fly.

I couldn't stop myself from smiling and gushing praise upon Venn for his
brilliance in how much consideration went into it. He had me. I hadn't even
driven a car in years, and to have that ship as my foray back into
independent travel was something for which the emotional part of me
couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. Venn had given me more than just a
vehicle; he gave me more freedom. How could I not love him for that?

The ship's speed and range had astounded me the most. It could reach escape
velocity, but it hadn't needed to because the propulsion remained
constant. I could have made it into orbit by traveling 10 kilometers an
hour if I had the time and the desire to go. In space, it could reach .5
light speed in an hour. Flying within the atmosphere, it could
circumnavigate the planet in just a few hours at a higher elevation and
could cruise at Mach 40. I wouldn't want to skim the surface at that speed,
but it could fly at Mach 2 at near ground level.

I reached the industrial area at Mach .9 in four minutes, and even after
all the discussion and teaching the ship put me through, I still managed to
beat Pearce there. By turning off the exterior lighting and not breaking
the sound barrier, he neither saw nor heard me.

I set the vehicle down near one of the warehouses with the help of Teaching
Mode. Pearce's route brought him my direction, so I watched him pass in
infrared on the monitor. He hadn't stopped in the area, which perplexed
me. I switched to night vision and followed him.

I had come to the farthest east I had traveled, entering unknown territory,
not counting the satellite view. It couldn't depict terrain at all, which
left it useless. Beyond the industrial area, I saw a thicket of tall trees
that grew off the lower plateau, down the elongated slope into the
valley. I followed Pearce as he descended, he wouldn't travel any farther
east.

"Venn, what's in the valley, besides the crops and the river?"

"Nothing of note," he said. "It's kilometers of meticulously managed fruits
and vegetables farther than the eye can see."

"Well, what's Pearce doing then?"

"I cannot fathom."

I followed him to one of the temporary food-storage sheds. I landed just
out of sight and earshot, I opened the hatch and left the vehicle. I
realized then that the swarms of tiny robotic pollinators and the bots
caring for the plants and picking fruit would have covered any noise I
might have made.

He stood in the shed with his back to me, stuffing his face with fruit. The
nano-suspension he drank made him ravenous. With all the food he was
consuming, I hadn't wished to interrupt him, so I watched. Pearce had more
medical knowledge than a doctor on Earth, so he knew what would happen if
he ate. Had he intended to let it happen there? Pearce ate one piece after
the next, no pause in between. When it looked like he'd had his fill, I
leaned against the doorframe.

"Sleepy yet?" I asked.

I hadn't startled him. Facing away from me, he just stopped what he was
doing and looked up, staring straight at the back wall. He finished chewing
the contents of his mouth, swallowed it, and wiped his face on his
sleeve. He slowly turned to face me with his hands up; he thought I held
the pistol on him.

"I had every intention of feeding you a civilized, sit-down meal at my
home," I said.

"I asked you not to follow me," said Pearce.

"I took full responsibility for you, and you shot me!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"No, you didn't!"

"No, I didn't!" He realized. "Damn, I meant to."

He made me laugh.

"How did you get here so quickly?" he asked.

"Venn's help," I said. "What's in this valley of vegetation that might help
you?"

"You read through my journals; don't you know?"

"The thing you wrote about in book eight."

"Yes," he said, "I had loaded book eight with that and the Sancy. I had an
obsession, I think."

"Someone stole book eight from your mother's home," I said. "We have one
through seven at the penthouse, and I get the impression someone else stole
the leaf containing page 584 from number seven."

"Why didn't you tell me these details earlier?" he asked. "So, eight is
gone, but Neal knew about page 584. So, he didn't read book eight? Who read
my journals first? Oh, wait, Mother did, didn't she? Of course, and from
Mother to the gossip's ears. She never could keep a secret. I placed dire
warnings throughout them that no one should reveal them until after I
die. By that time, things would blow over, but the truth would still become
known to everyone."

"Why didn't you hide them?" I asked.

"I did! I hid them in the house Magnar said they demolished. I hadn't
counted on her moving. I should have hidden them in the walls so the
demolition crew would destroy them with the house. I would have preferred
that to this."

"What's your plan?" I asked.

"They have my son. He must come first," Pearce said, "but I will not leave
you dishonored."

"You're lucky no one found me on the floor," I said. "Magnar would hunt you
down."

"I'm sorry, I apologize for what I did," he said. "I regretted it the
instant I pulled the trigger."

I shrugged. "I'm uninjured, so provided you stop fighting me, I accept your
apology. I don't like what Phalin and Major Palmer have done to you. I know
David can be naive, but I trust David. I think David knows you; I don't
think you hid your real self from him. The things I know you've done are
not you. I want to help you. What is it you need here?"

He hesitated. "I need Aurum's secret."

"Do you even know if that exists?"

He laughed. "I don't blame you for not believing me. It sounds like I'm
saying I need King Author's sword, but it does exist. I know the passage to
get there, or at least I believe I do. I had to see it for myself first."

"Where?"

"It's in the storm drain," he said. "I described it in book eight. Where it
is, how far, what it looks like."

"No wonder someone stole the book."

"That would be sufficient enough, but I named names for other unrelated
things."

"Neal said Meridia took the journal," I said, "He believes she's had it for
thirty-six jears."

"Thirty-six jears? Oh, that's not good."

"How did you discover its location?"

"I have the memory of Aurum telling me," said Pearce.

"Interesting." I nodded. "Considering Aurum died hundreds of jears before
your birth, that's quite a trick."

"It's something to do with Amare."

"I see," I said. "From the look of the indicator on your shoulder strap,
that pack's low on power."

"I know," he said, examining at it, "I thought I might have enough to get
there, but if I had to walk out again, I would."

"How big is the storm drain?"

"It's the main trunk, so it's a monster. The Master Builder has hundreds of
tributaries cut into the granite to take the water away from this side of
the mountain. In the rainy season, I imagine it flooded a lot before it she
built it."

"Did the Master Builder build the passage and wherever it takes you?"

"She built everything," he said. "She's the oldest being in Jiyu. She knows
all the secrets Jiyu holds. She protects them while they're in her care,
and she would die before she tells anyone. She predates Aurum and more than
a dozen other Primes."

I nodded. "You won't have to walk back out," I said. "I'll take you there
if the drain is big enough."

"How?"

I took Pearce to the vehicle Venn gave me. It sat in the light from the
building next to it, looking like the spaceship I knew it to be. I still
couldn't believe it.

"Wow," he said, staring at it like a view more majestic than the Grand
Canyon.

"So far, that's the top response."

"Jiyu's transports have changed," he said, touching it. "Hello Venn, you
could have told me you had this earlier, you know."

"It's not Venn. I think it may be the first independent, privately-owned
vehicle on Jiyu."

"How long have you had it?"

I shrugged. "An hour, maybe," I said. "Venn built it during the mission to
Earth and gave it to me after you shot me."

He was taking off the pack. "Well, that's a consolation prize. I should
take back my apology."

I laughed. "Open the hatches, please."

Both hatches opened, and Pearce began to inspect everything he could see.

"It has no windows," he said, "but it does have hatches with a dozen
locking bolts and a pressure seal. This vehicle can fly into space." He
sounded impressed. "Do you realize what you have here?"

"A culmination of every scientific advancement Jiyu has made in the last
thousand jears?"

"I was thinking of a Jiyuvian hot rod."

"Magnar's right, Earth has had a bad influence on you."

He laughed and stowed the pack in a cupboard between the jumpseats. We
climbed into the cockpit, buckled the seat harnesses, and I pressed the
black and yellow striped button, which no longer had the image or the
word. I realized the teacher was leaving me to remember on my own. Of
course, when my memory enhancement kicked in, I wouldn't require the
teacher to treat me like a ten-year-old.

I looked over at Pearce. "Wait for it," I said, as the hatches continued to
slide closed.

The 180° screens, lit panels of touchscreen buttons in an array of
colors, as well as the floating holographic yolk, lit the space around
me. I saw the look on Pearce's face.

"Yeah," I said, "I had that thought too."

We made lift-off and rose above the storage buildings to maneuver.

"Woah! Will this make me sick?" he asked.

"It's pretty stable once we start traveling forward. Which way do we go?"

"It's just over there at the end of Central Avenue," he pointed down the
slope to the south.

I saw the most massive storm drain I had ever seen, 20 meters in
diameter. Given that the Arena side of the mountain had no dirt, and the
lower plateau consisted of a slab of granite, the rainwater had to go
somewhere. I could imagine how much water forced its way out the end and
down the sluice into the river on heavy rain days. We sat hovering at the
end. The lights of the vehicle shone brightly, but the Master Builder had
built the drain so wide and deep that the beams touched nothing, vanishing
into the darkness of the titanium-coated tunnel.

"How far do we go?"

"All the way back to the city," he said.

"That's seventy kilometers underground!"

"Well," he said, "it's either this or we start hacking away into an unknown
amount of granite from above with a couple of jackhammers."

"Right and look like we've flipped."

We entered the drain.


-------------------------

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

We sped through at 140 kilometers an hour so we could arrive in roughly
half an hour, providing we encountered no obstacles. The ship came with a
variety of scanning technologies radar, sonar, lidar, and echolocation. The
vessel used lidar and echolocation to detect coming changes in the tube and
would stop us well before we ran into anything with its collision avoidance
abilities. The titanium walls didn't reflect much light. To see in the
tunnel, I switched to color night-vision.

"What can we expect as we travel back up the drop?" I asked.

"Back up the drop?"

"All plumbing drains have a drop. It keeps the water flowing where you want
it to go," I said. "My father used to work in the trades."

"I see. Well, I don't know. I've never done this before."

"What should I think of that, Pearce? How can you have the memory of a man
telling you something if he died long before your birth?"

"I told you. I have the memory of Aurum telling me. I believe it has to do
with an incident I had with Amare at twelve years old."

"Fine," I said. "Describe what we're looking for. Is all of this metal
ahead of us?"

"The Master Builder didn't make it titanium throughout. Metal covers only
the lower half of the tube in the tributaries. Those begin at one of the
many junction points. Junction three has a stone upper section where a
remnant of track remains from the construction of the tunnel. We will find
a square passage there, many meters in length, easy walking distance to the
entryway."

"Alright, you said you wrote all this in journal number eight. Since we
seem to have time, I have a few questions about number eight. If Meridia
has it, would she have kept it to herself or shared it, based on what you
know?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Given it to Amare, perhaps?"

"It's possible, if she shared it at all, or perhaps with any or all of
their core group."

"Who are they?" I asked.

"The core group," he said, "in order of age, consists of Amare, Meridia,
Dmitry, Gabe, Dai, and Ruby. We have many other elders like Cadmar's mate
Tamika, but they don't count as a member of the core group."

"So, Gabe is an elder," I said. "That figures. He wouldn't tell me why the
population dropped after Aurum invented the Forever Young enhancement."

"Oh, I know why. I would call that one of the juicier, historical secrets."

"So, what happened?" I asked.

"The elders and adults of the time thought the Forever Young enhancement
was abominable, so they stopped having children," he said, "and those who
received the youth enhancement felt disinclined to have their own."

"Why would the elders refuse to have children?" I asked.

"I suspect they didn't want any of their future children to remain young
for thousands of jears until they died one day."

"Okay..." I shook my head. "I don't get it."

"I don't know why they chose that," he said. "Well, you have a captive
audience, would you like to ask me anything more personal?"

"I have many questions of you, personal and otherwise. I don't want you to
feel as though I'm bombarding you. They'll keep."

"I do admire a man with restraint."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, looking about, marveling over the
ship, the drain, and thinking of what might lay ahead.

"If I'm reading this right, we have traveled 20 kilometers into the drain."

"What is our depth?"

"103 meters and rising," I said, "but I think Echo is showing a junction
ahead."

I slowed the ship and stopped when we reached it. We were surrounded by a
cube-like structure, and on both sides of the ship, a single drain vanished
into the depths of the rock, which most likely branched into smaller and
smaller sets of tributaries, creating an enormous network of tributaries
that eventually reached the surface where we would find drains built into
the rock.

"I can't see high enough," I said. "How can we see higher?"

The ship's teacher revealed more controls for the screens. Venn built
displays into the entire upper portion of the interior. It could show us
the exterior of the ship as though we sat under a transparent bubble.

"When I come back with my son," said Pearce, "I want one of these."

"Do you see anything?" I asked.

Pearce and I searched but couldn't find anything. Then Pearce found it
behind us.

"We passed it. It says 142."

"142. Alright, onward then."

Going forward, every so often, we came across another junction. They looked
much the same, but when we arrived, we saw that the Master Builder had
built junction number three differently. Along with the meters of granite
above us, as well as the tube drain for air and rain from the road above,
junction three had a stone second story. Just as Pearce described, the bots
left a bit of metal I-beam track, but I also saw a hand ladder attached to
the wall. I checked the ground beneath us for landing. It looked empty and
flat enough to land according to the internal indicator. I returned the
screens to normal mode and turned on all the exterior lighting. I tried to
open the hatches, but the computer warned me of excessive moisture, telling
me that, after our exit, it would close the hatch and purge the humidity to
protect its systems. When I opened them, we met a great deal of air
moisture and the odor of lichen or what smelled to me like old mushrooms. I
found its pungency rather sickening.

As we exited, and the hatches slid closed behind us, I heard air expelling
from a valve of some kind. Pearce ascended the ladder like a shot, and I
followed. When he reached the top, he began yelling, making an
uncomfortable reverberating echo throughout the drain. Once I reached the
top, I saw why. The Master Builder had walled off the path with stone
blocks, so massive only thewsbots could have moved them. Pearce pounded his
fists on the wall, shouting. Eventually, he fell against it, sliding his
back down the surface until he sat crying.

I inspected the track that curved up over the edge of the gallery we stood
upon. It ran straight into the block wall where someone had cut it
off. Pearce's memories were right; a tunnel existed there. I looked at the
track to see the cut metal. Even in the dim light from the ship, it didn't
look as corroded as the rest of the beam. I had never studied metallurgy,
but it appeared cut as recently as the beginning of summer after the rainy
season. I put my ear close to a crevice in the stone. I couldn't hear
anything. Pearce said the passage had a short walk of many meters. I got
the impression they hadn't stopped with those few stones we could see. I
felt sure that they filled the entire path, preventing access without the
bots who did the job.

I had reached the end of D-day, and with it came the last damned-able
D-word: Disappointment, a word often bitter and cruel. Pearce cried,
holding himself, shaking as he rocked against the stone. I stood him up,
and I allowed him to cling to me. I wasn't David, but I wanted him to know
that I cared, so I let him cry it out, and I joined him. It's difficult for
me to remain aloof when someone cries.

When Pearce had finished, his eyes looked red, and he had depleted his
anxious energy. He grew sleepy, so I knew I had to get him down the ladder
and into the ship. I wouldn't have wanted a problem on my hands. We climbed
down, and after entering the ship, a sudden rush of dry air surrounded us,
purging the excess moisture the moment the hatch closed. When I got him
into a jumpseat, he fell dead asleep, the instant his head hit the
headrest. Once we lifted off, I rotated the ship, and we made the long trek
back out.

D-day felt like a long, emotional roller coaster of a day. It had drained
me, no pun intended. That morning Teresa died in my arms, and the day
concluded with her son wetting my shirt with tears from a disappointment so
profound it concerned me what desperation might drive him to do.

The instant we emerged from the aqueduct, Venn had contacted me, and the
ship's teacher showed me how to work the communication system.

"Where did you go?" asked Venn. "I worried something had happened."

"I apologize, Venn. Pearce and I went on an underground journey, and we've
returned exhausted. You did not need to worry. This ship has functioned
beyond anything I could imagine, and your current duty wastes you as a
driver. I think your passion lies in designing these ships. I wish you
would find a way to dedicate your talents to this full time."

"It pleases me to hear that," said Venn, "and it's odd you should mention
it. The idea occurred to me after the death of Rom, and I'm considering
it."

"I have a request," I said. "One City has a critical lack of parking space;
I wouldn't want to land the ship in the lay-by on the street at our
building. If it isn't too late, could you please ask the Master Builder
whether I can land onto the grand balcony of the penthouse? It has plenty
of room; I only need to know if it can hold the weight."

"Of course, I will. And the Master Builder never sleeps. One moment..."

I heard nothing but silence for three minutes, and when he returned, I had
nearly reached the penthouse. Venn gave me the haughty sounding, snippy
reply from the Master Builder. "This is her reply," said Venn, "and I
quote, `I built the entire balcony structure strong enough to hold the
pool's weight, the poolside can more than tolerate the weight of your
vehicle, just don't land in the pool.'"

As if I would do that. Despite my best efforts to stop eye-rolling, there
came occasions necessary to bend to the urge.

The ship had minimal landing noise, but I feared I would awaken Aiden and
Maggie. Having burned enough beddo for one night, I hadn't wanted a
protracted discussion at that hour.

Upon exiting the cockpit, I nudged and prodded Pearce, but he seemed
comatose. I had a domestic difficulty upon me and only one reasonable
choice. I didn't want to leave Pearce alone, but I felt uncomfortable with
the thought of sleeping in the same bed with him. In the end, I based my
decision on kindness. I gave Pearce my bed while I slept on the couch.

I had already left the ship when Mason detected its presence. He came to
the balcony, unfazed by the new conveyance.

"Venn told me he gave it to you," said Mason.

I nodded. "So, what do you think?"

He beamed a gleeful smile. "It's a ship!"

I closed my eyes and smiled. "Two out of three, I suppose," I said to
myself. "Venn a le talent supreme (Venn has the supreme talent), Mason. If
you watch Aiden tomorrow at his first viewing, then you'll have a
demonstration of the sort of reaction this ship deserves." I began
attempting to pull Pearce from his seat. "Could you help me with him? I
need to put him to bed in my room; I will sleep on the couch."

Mason picked Pearce up and carried him with ease. Pearce had dirtied his
clothes from the drain, and I didn't want the slimy residue with the
mushroomy scent in my bed. So, Mason placed him in a chair, and I made the
mistake of removing his clothing. I wished I hadn't. I regret having done
it. I wanted not to soil the bed. I had only that honest and honorable
intention. But...I had intruded upon his person, and I felt like an utter
heel for having done so. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw, and
I figured he wouldn't appreciate it.

I ate as much food as I could before lying down. I'd had enough of the
day's horrors, and David's absence had not yet struck me. I told him I
would keep myself busy, and I hadn't realized how true that would be. I
collapsed on the couch after reaching the point in my exhaustion where my
mental faculties ceased.

Somewhere in my mind, I registered voices from the room around me. I sensed
a bit of minor whispering and a sudden, booming, "Wow!" And then I woke
up. I rose enough to gaze over the back of the couch to the balcony. Aiden
stood naked by the ship, a towel draped over his shoulder, on his way to a
morning dip in the pool. I would swear he looked taller and hairier every
time I saw him.

It felt odd to have my head pounding. I hadn't remembered the last time my
head ached. I wondered if the memory enhancement was kicking in, but I only
lacked sleep. My insufficient repose lasted four hours, and I had some
dehydration too. Mason, monitoring me through the Attendants, kindly
brought me a glass of juice.

"Thank you, Mason. How are you this morning?" I asked him.

"Quite well, thank you."

"And Pearce?"

"He still sleeps," he said.

"After all he's gone through, it wouldn't shock me to hear he slept into
the afternoon. He will need to eat throughout the day, though. Don't
hesitate to wake him at mealtime, even if it means he eats in bed and goes
right back to sleep."

The sun had just arisen, and plenty of light scattered across the sky
outside. I could see the right half of the ship from where I sat. Aiden
studied it, touching the smoothed graphene surface. No one noticed I had
slept on the couch, which meant they hadn't known Pearce had stayed with us
either.

"Where is Maggie?" I asked Mason, who continued to stand by me.

"She is showering after a few hours of predawn sexual congress with Aiden."

I nodded. "Do yourself a favor, never mention anything about their sexual
congress when they can hear it. They prefer we ignore it."

"I will refrain from doing so," said Mason. "On another topic, I took the
liberty to clean the clothes you both wore last night, and I detected a
pungent odor. Your pants came spotless, as they received the treatment, but
you both ruined your shirts, and Pearce, his trousers. They may have the
appearance of cleanliness, but the scent remains."

"Oh no, and Pearce has nothing else to wear. Do you know when Svend's
Tailoring Shop opens?"

"One moment," he said, no doubt checking the database. "It opens at eight
`o clock."

"Do you still have the clothes?"

"Yes, shall I have Svend copy them?" asked Mason.

"You're learning fast, Mason." I tried to smile. "I like that. Yes, please
do and make sure they get treated." I looked up at him. "So, unlike your
predecessor, can you leave the building?"

"I am autonomous," he said. "I'm not attached to the building but to its
occupants. I can go wherever you and David need me for as long as I
choose."

"Fascinating," I said, "I like that you have the choice. I would feel
uncomfortable with it if you didn't." I downed the rest of my juice. "Do
you feel happy here?"

"Everything is new to me," he said, "I find my experience here instructive
and interesting."

"Well, that sounds good," I said. "We'll have to work on happy; your
happiness is important to me."

Aiden entered the penthouse drying off from his dip in the pool. The
morning air felt comfortable enough to leave the glass wall to the balcony
open.

"Rick! Where did that come from?" He thumbed over his shoulder at the
ship. "Wait, did you sleep on the couch?"

"Oh, Aiden," I said, "I have so much to tell you. Yesterday resulted in a
long series of unlikely events."

"What's happened?" he asked. "Have you had a fight with David? Has he put
you on the couch?"

"Rick!" exclaimed Maggie. She came from the bedroom, straight from the
shower, with damp hair, wearing the white robe she received at the
temple. Her smile vanished when she saw the bedding. "Have you slept on the
couch?"

We spoke during breakfast. Maggie and Aiden knew nothing that happened
after the hour that David and I left them at the penthouse to get our
bicycles, which began the bulk of the day's momentous events. They knew
nothing of our conversation with Amare. They hadn't learned of the
viral-code-induced brain death of Neal, and the implications of such an
occurrence, as well as the subsequent threat to the technician. They hadn't
learned that someone compromised Iris. They hadn't a clue that Pearce had
stolen the Sancy from the Louvre or that the Aggregate possessed it. They
hadn't heard that Rom had died and that it blinded us to the other
portal. They couldn't fathom the exodus of the parents with their young
children causing David to leave for Earth or that Magnar and I agreed to
act as his proxy. They hadn't realized Pearce had returned, or the problem
of his son. They hadn't known that I got the memory enhancement, that Venn
gave me the ship, or that we made a bootless journey up a downspout to the
center of Jiyu. And, they had no notion of Pearce laying comatose in my
bed.

Aiden reacted with a "Bloody hell," and it garnered a shocked "Merde" from
Maggie.

"And don't worry about not helping," I said, "neither of you could have
done anything. It felt like One City had gone into free fall, and I fear we
haven't hit the tipping point yet."

"Will you use the ship to find the other portal?" asked Aiden.

"I'm going to try," I said, "and we have much that needs doing elsewhere."

"We can help you with that," said Maggie.

"I appreciate that," I said, "because I'm going to need you. The problem I
see, and Aiden correct me if I'm mistaken, Jiyu has no other ship but
mine. I don't believe it has anything else like it, not even as a means of
defense, despite the fact they've had astonishing technologies and
centuries of opportunity. That makes me ask, if they created the Trust for
the last resort, what will we use first? I need to know these things."

"You're not wrong, and I have wondered that myself," said Aiden. "I
understand the desire to conserve and get on with life, but you can't leave
yourself open to attack. Let's suggest the aliens who placed the portals on
this planet return, and they don't like our presence here."

"They could slaughter us," said Maggie.

"Exactly," I said. "That's an obvious question, but have people here not
asked that? The people in the Trust have learned to fight, and if they have
any non-wartime jobs, they appear academic or for helping maintain the city
for jobs that robots can't perform. That's fine in peacetime, but we're in
a state of emergency. We need to protect ourselves. What preparations have
they made for that?"

"What would you like us to do?" asked Maggie.

"I need Aiden, and whoever else can help you, to take the drone we used on
Earth and turn it into an alternative communication system for the people
we trust," I said. "We need to communicate with one another without the
Iris we've used here. Can you do that?"

"I can do that," he said. "I assume you want to use the compromised Iris as
channel 1, for talking to everyone else, and the secondary Iris as a
channel 2."

"That sounds perfect," I said. "Wait...can we add another frequency to the
communication enhancement?"

"If someone can do what they've done to Neal," he said, "I think we can do
anything, including altering enhancements considered unalterable."

"Possibly," I said. "Maggie, I need you to do the hardest job. I dislike
asking you to do this, but you do well with people. You're loving, and you
empathize with others. Pearce is going to need human contact. We can't
leave it up to Mason. He can help you ensure Pearce gets food and drink
throughout the day, but with all the delayed changes they subjected him to,
I suspect he will sleep a lot because they're working hard to complete
themselves. Those bastards at Phalin harmed him with the NP device, and he
will need someone. Neither David nor I can do that right now."

"What did they do to him?" she asked.

I hesitated, and I couldn't say it. "I think Pearce should have as much
discretion as he can receive from us and the liberty to discuss it if he
needs to. I won't tell you because I shouldn't even know. He may go
ballistic when he finds out I do. If he says anything, tell him I know it's
not my secret to tell. He wasn't forthcoming with what they did, and I
suspect he wants to keep it to himself. After what I saw, I can't blame
him."

She nodded. "I understand. I will do what I can for him."

"Thank you," I said, "Until he needs you, I have three words: Pool and
Library. I spoke to Mason about this already. If by some amazing feat
Pearce got up and tried to leave, don't let him. Make him eat and go back
to bed. Remind him of the differential, it will give him time to
recuperate, and if he doesn't eat and rest, it will only delay it further."

Before I flew Aiden to Bragi College and scheduled my meet-up with Magnar,
I had Mason clean the ship of the drain's slime and spore. It pleased me to
know it had all received the treatment and cleaned quickly.

Aiden loved the ship the instant he looked inside (I knew he would), and I
had a tough time tearing him away from it so I could make my meeting.

"One last thing," said Aiden, "what have you named it?"

"I haven't thought to name it at all."

"Oh no! Listen," he said, pointing at me. "I came from a seafaring nation,
so take it from me. Now, I know you don't believe in luck, so I won't
insult you by telling you it's bad luck to use an unnamed ship, but the
tradition of naming a ship has a practical purpose. Other ships like this
one will exist; each will need a name of their own."

"I'll have to think about it."

"Well, you should name it soon," he said, "and when you do, never change
it. You'll get more of that bad luck you don't believe in."

For a pleasant change, the temperature felt mild, and a light breeze washed
through the city from the sea. The clothes I had ordered from Svend's
arrived at the penthouse late the previous afternoon. They provided a
comfortable mode of dress, with a pair of well-fitting blue linen pants and
an oatmeal-colored linen button-up.

When I arrived at the front of the dining hall in the middle of the campus,
Magnar had a sullen expression and acted quite perturbed with me. I hadn't
known what I had done. He started with the silent treatment, glaring at me
for a minute, and then got to it.

"I have spoken with Venn," he said, scowling, and he stiffly began to walk
along the path through the tree-canopied space surrounding the dining
hall. He had his hands clasped behind him like a stern schoolmaster.

"Oh." I followed along, thinking it had to do with the drain fiasco.

"Yes, 'oh'," he said, pausing to face me. "You have friends in high places,
young man, and I know that, but why did Amare ask Venn to give it to you?
We have proven pilots that could have used it to find the other portal."

"I fly it just fine, thank you, and I intend to do that very thing."

"Why then are you still here?" he asked.

"Because I have things to do before I leave."

"Exactly! You have other duties, so it should have gone to someone else."

"I'm sorry, Magnar, it just happened." I tried to sound soothing, but he
would have none of it. "Did Amare ask Venn to give it to me?"

"Oh, don't give me that! You're practically Amare's chum!" He began walking
again.

"I resent your implication! If Amare asked Venn to do that, I didn't
know. Besides, you don't know why he did it. Amare is often inscrutable."

"Be honest with me. Did you not know?"

I stopped walking. "I'm always honest, Magnar. What you see is what you
get."

He paused, looked me in the face, and lightened a bit. "How is Pearce, and
who have you left him with?"

"Sleeping like the dead when I left," I said, "and he's with Maggie and
Mason. They will ensure he doesn't leave."

"He should stay put," he said. "Learn anything new?"

"I've learned a mercenary outfit based in the American South called Phalin
has his unregistered five-year-old son," I said, "and as long as they do,
he will do what he must to save him."

"Unregistered? Why would he take such a chance?"

"I believe he intended to bring back the boy and his mate Oliver, who he
says they killed," I said, "He didn't want to register his son as an
American citizen. That's my thought."

"Pearce probably lied. You can't know he intended to come back," said
Magnar, "you can't even know this alleged son and mate ever existed. We can
best explain Rom's death if Pearce provided the information. They could
never have known his weaknesses without his help."

"I know, but that anomalous ingredient doesn't fit inside `recipe' called
Pearce. I don't know how they knew, but I don't think he did it."

"Why?"

"As David said in the Arena, we believe Pearce intended to save his family
by doing what he did. It would make no sense to offer, of his own volition,
information to harm us. They've never seen One City. They wouldn't know to
ask, much less what to expect. So, it doesn't fit, Magnar, it does not fit!
And I'm going to come out and say it; you weren't there. Everything else I
know he did, fits comfortably inside the circle of protecting his
child. The death of Rom lies outside of that. If he's faking all this, he
has gone to an unreasonable degree to convince me it's true. And, given
what I've witnessed, he would have to be the best actor ever."

Magnar persisted. "What about the diamond?"

"I think he told the truth, and they took it. Pearce comes from
Jiyu. People here have not lived with the idea that malicious people might
follow them, because no one does that here, but it's something our
adversaries would do. They're that kind of people, and we know they were
keeping an eye on him and coerced him. Coerced people don't do any more
than they have to."

"Why did he take a copy of the diamond to begin with?" asked Magnar.

"The Louvre would have kept the Sancy safe," I said, "but he wanted to
steal it for Jiyu, for our protection."

"Why did he take the NP device?"

"I admit, I don't know. But I believe a reasonable, or at the very least
non-threatening, reason exists for it."

Magnar took a deep breath, shook his head, with his arms akimbo. "Some of
what you say I accept, but we've no one else on the issue of Rom's
death. Until you can come up with someone who has had the opportunity and
potential motive, Pearce remains at the top of my rather bare suspect
list."

I thought for a moment. "I have other news. We told you about Neal, but you
haven't heard Neal's nanos have viral code. The perpetrator threatened Doug
the technician through Iris to make him lie to us. And as it happened
before Pearce arrived, we have another potential candidate who has done
these things. We will find this all tied together somehow, I'm sure of it."

"That could be a separate matter," said Magnar. "That person may not have
had the opportunity to tell the Aggregate of Rom's weaknesses. But why
didn't you tell me this before?"

"I had no time. We had one horrendous nightmare after the next yesterday. I
did tell David, however, and he wished he wasn't leaving. If someone is
willing to kill Neal for knowing a leaf from Pearce's journals, what if
they're willing to use an EMP generator on Rom to blame it on the
Americans?"

"Why would anyone here do that?" he asked.

"I admit, I don't know that either. I'm just speculating."

"We need more than speculation."

"I understand that," I said, "and now I have an important question of
you. With our defenses, if the Trust remains a last resort, what else do we
have?"

"I will tell you," he said, "but not here. We will sit inside your ship."

I led him to the ship, and for some reason, which I thought could be a
matter of how blase such a vessel might seem to him, he didn't react at
all. We sat inside, and he got down to business as he always does.

"For defense, we have underground fortifications and the catacombs with a
secret exit into the rainforest where enough food and shelter exist to
protect us, although we will feel a bit squeezed with our current
population. We have stacked our offense with more than a million
robots. Many you have seen, but most you haven't. We are protecting the
people of the city with an intelligent flying robot pestilence the size of
a bee, three-quarters of a million strong. With their armor-piercing
needles, they will sting and kill anyone we haven't put in the protected
database. We have enormous hidden energy weapons on the top of the ridge
that we provide with extra power by attracting the lightning this planet
generates. We also have an assortment of handheld energy weapons, and
finally, we have the Trust."

"Okay," I said, nodding, "I'm impressed. That's excellent. How many ships
do we have?"

He paused a moment and took a breath. "This one."

"That's what I thought."

He looked at me like the father figure I wished I'd had growing up and
said, "I know that David has told you that necessity is the mother of an
endeavor. I have said that to him enough over the jears that he will have
repeated it. No matter how much planning, no matter what a society does to
protect itself, it will always result in a point where one must stop. You
cannot cover every contingency. You must weigh the possibilities and act on
the ones of greatest imperative. As far as we knew, no other portal existed
until two days ago. We could not include it in any equation. If we knew, we
would have ships defending it, or us against it. So, don't judge us for
acting boneheaded because I know that's what you're thinking. You're not
the only one with intuition.

"Now," he continued, "Venn tells me he cannot complete the next of these
ships for some time yet. So, my question to you, as the one who can pilot
this-" he took a breath looking around, "this breathtaking craft. What plan
do you have to find the other portal?"

I sat there red-faced and angry at myself in utter chagrin. "I deserved
that, and in all humility, I apologize."

"Apology accepted," he said. "You're new, and you have many things to
learn. I have every confidence you will learn them. David wouldn't have
picked you as his mate if you lacked intelligence."

I nodded a little. "Aiden gave me the frequency of the tracking tag
fastened to the hull of the second drone," I said. "I'm going to use it to
locate its position by circumnavigating the planet a few times at high
altitude. That's our best option."

"A sound plan," Magnar said, "providing it hasn't already reached them, and
they haven't destroyed it, but I see little alternative. I urge you to take
someone with you."

"I thought of that, but of the people I trust, either they're busy or too
new."

"Cadmar isn't busy. I spoke to him this morning."

"I thought I would ask him to protect Neal in case someone tries to ensure
he remains silent. If the possibility exists that Neal knows who caused it,
I want him kept alive."

"Agreed but leave that to me. We must find out who did it and compromised
Iris. We won't recover our communication system without it."

I told Magnar of my idea to use the drone, and how David wanted us to
utilize it in tandem with the original, so we could communicate without
alerting anyone. He said that might prove difficult to accomplish.

I had so many questions. If Meridia took journal number eight because of
the information about Aurum's secret, and not some other reason, what was
the secret? Its value seemed precious beyond measure for how they treated
it.