A rustle came from a ledge above us. A girl swung into view and dropped next to Ruzik, landing easily on her feet. I recognized her; she was a member of his gang. She wore a large knife in a sheath on her leather belt. I didn’t want them coming armed, but if I told her to take off the blade, I had no doubt that neither she nor Ruzik would come. Two people wasn’t many, but it was better than none, and I didn’t want to lose them.
Max, I thought. Is it noon?
Three minutes past, he answered.
In the malleable time of the undercity, three minutes wasn’t much. We’ll wait a bit more.
Ruzik and the girl stood together, looking out at the Concourse. The scar patterns on their arms glinted in the misty light that trickled through the archway. Watching their body language, how they stood so close, every now and then one of them brushing the other, I figured they were lovers.
The aroma of frying spice-rolls drifted around us, coming from stalls on the Concourse. A calculating gleam appeared in the girl’s eyes. If I didn’t get moving soon, I was going to lose them when they went out prowling to filch spice-rolls.
I waited, tying to contain my agitation. Surely someone else would come. Ruzik and his girlfriend were the only ones in sight except for a vendor on the Concourse, a man standing in the market stall closest to the archway. Mist hazed the other stalls. Some of them probably had vendors as well, but I saw no customers, not this close to the exit. This wasn’t one of the more traveled areas of the Concourse, to put it mildly.
Ruzik’s girlfriend stepped out into the Concourse, glancing around as if sizing up potential marks. When she turned back to Ruzik, he glowered at her. “Meat is better than spice,” he said.
She frowned, but she came back to rejoin him.
We should start for the Rec Center, Max thought. They won’t wait much longer.
Yah, it looks like it. I stepped toward them, and the girl turned around, but her gaze went past my shoulder to something behind me. When I turned, my pulse jumped.
Across the foyer, a group was coming up the walkway from the undercity. I recognized the family with the father who wove those incredible tapestries. The mother was carrying the baby they had adopted and Pack Rat walked at her side, holding her hand. Their two daughters flanked their father, including the older girl in the dust knights. Nor was only them. The three psions they nursed through the phorine withdrawal had also come, the youth and the two girls. The trio looked exhausted and emaciated, but they walked with a steady step.
Ruzik and his girlfriend joined me, one on either side, watching the newcomers with unabashed fascination. The older girl in the phorine trio glowered at them.
The mother came over to me. “Heya.”
I nodded to her, a thanks for their coming. “We were just going.”
We all headed to the archway. I moved ahead to make sure I emerged first from the haze at this end of the Concourse. Lavinda knew we were coming, so no one should stop us, in theory, but we had no guarantees. I was wearing above-city clothes, nothing overt, but with an expensive cut that sent a message: I belong here by your own rules. I loathed the unwritten “rules” that forbade my people to walk the Concourse, but I knew how to use them.
“Wait,” a voice called behind us.
I turned and looked past the small group clustered behind me. Someone was standing in the Foyer, hidden in shadows. Puzzled, I went back through the group and into the Foyer. Digjan stood there, her gaze defiant, a fierce young women in a torn black shirt, leather trousers and boots, and a chain belt. A knife hung in a sheath from a loop of her belt—and she gripped a laser carbine in one hand. The pinpoint light on the carbine’s power unit shone with a full charge, casting blue light over the rocks. Hell and damnation. If Digjan walked out there with a carbine, all bets were off.
She glared at me, her gaze a challenge. “I come with.”
I hadn’t expected this. She had to be going through hell with the fighting and her mother. No one had found Dig’s body yet. Her presence here was an act of trust, even given the carbine. I had to make a decision: let her bring the gun or tell her no. She wouldn’t come without her weapon, and if I turned her back, the others would probably leave as well. But the moment she stepped out there with stolen ISC property, all hell could break loose. I didn’t want anyone hurt, neither my people nor Cries citizens out on the Concourse.
I tapped on the comm on my gauntlet. I only had a wait a moment before a woman’s voice snapped into the air. “Colonel Majda here.”
Digjan stared at me in disbelief. Ruzik swore under his breath, and his girlfriend’s voice was perfectly distinct as she said, “What the fuck is she doing?”
“Colonel,” I said into my comm. “We’re coming out.”
“You’re late,” Lavinda said. “Is there a problem?”
I kept my gaze on Digjan as I spoke to the colonel. “I need you to swear. I need your word that no one I bring with me will be arrested, detained, or penalized in any manner.”
“I’ve already given you my word,” Lavinda said.
“I want to make sure.” I never took my gaze off Digjan, who needed to hear this. “No matter what or who you see.”
Lavinda said, “You have my word, Major.”
I exhaled. “Good. We’re coming. Out here.” I tapped off the comm and lowered my arm. Then I spoke to Digjan. “I need your word that you won’t threaten or shoot anyone.”
Her gaze remained firm. “If anyone attacks our group, I’ll protect us.”
“Yah,” I said. “But we made a bargain. They agreed no attack. You must agree, too.”
Her fist clenched the gun so tightly, her knuckles turned white. But she gave a brusque nod. “Agreed.” For one moment, her impassive mask slipped, revealing her fear and a hint of the anguish inside of her. It lasted the barest second and then vanished, her expression once more unreadable.
I nodded to her as if I hadn’t seen, showing respect. We had a bargain. It was time to go.
But wait. Someone was coming up the path behind Dig, someone large, eight feet tall—
No, it was two people, a small boy riding on a man’s shoulders, the two of them coming into the light shed by the lamp at the top of the path. Well, hell. It was Jak. He was carrying a boy of about five in tattered trousers and a shirt the color of mud. The boy laughed as Jak’s steps jostled him. Another boy was walking at Jak’s side, a fellow who looked nine or ten.
I smiled as Jak came up beside Digjan. “Heya,” I said. “Got babies.”
He reddened. “Not mine.”
“Not baby,” the older boy stated.
Digjan glanced at the boys, then back at me. “Dust rats,” she said. “They got no family.”
“Dust knights,” Ruzik told her, still standing next to me. “Not rats.”
I peered past Jak, hoping to see someone else on the pathway. No one was coming. People might be hiding in the ragged spaces that networked these walls, curious, but not enough to come into the open. Even so. There were sixteen of us, more than I expected. And Jak! I grinned at him, and he scowled. He had no intention of letting anyone think he was soft, not the notorious Mean Jak, but that wouldn’t stop him from bringing in these boys for a free meal.
“So,” I said. “We go.”
Ruzik’s girlfriend said, “Yah. Go together. Hold head high. This is our Concourse.”
I felt a curious sensation then, hearing he repeat my words, as if something moved inside of me. “Yah,” I said. “Ours.”
The others nodded, except for the mother holding the baby. She looked tired. I went over to her. “I can carry her,” I offered, tilting my head at the baby.
With undisguised relief, she handed me the child. The baby gave an annoyed cry of protest and stared at me with large eyes. I wondered if she recognized me as the person who had carried her out of the cave after her birth. Probably not. I had held babies in my youth, those of my friends, but it had been years. The infant gurgled and settled into the crook of my arm. Belatedly,
I realized it would make a statement that the first person appearing out of the haze was a woman carrying a child. That spoke to a woman’s power, a symbol of her authority among our peoples both above and below city. It also meant we came without threat, for we didn’t bring our children into danger. That I came dressed as someone from the above-city would also serve as protection for the child I carried.
It hit me then; our group was mostly children. Four adults, twelve kids. The police would look terrible if they moved against children who were simply taking a walk, even those forbidden to enter the Concourse. Good. It might help offset their reaction to Digjan and her damn laser carbine. Ruzik and his girlfriend hardly looked innocuous, either, especially with that dagger the girl wore. Ruzik undoubtedly also had one hidden somewhere on his person. Neither they nor Digjan had come to fight, but if they felt threatened, anything could happen. I hoped I was right about Lavinda, that she would keep her word about everyone receiving full sanctuary today.
Pack Rat was looking up at me. “Come with you,” he said.
I smiled at him. “You remember me?”
“Yah.” He jumped, mimicking one of my moves when I had faced off with Digjan and the other two drugs punkers in the canal.
I glanced at the mother. “Is it okay?”
She nodded. “Is good.”
I offered my hand to Pack at, but he drew himself as he were an adult, albeit a very small one, and shook his head. He came with me to the archway, walking at my side, and I heard the rest of our group gathering behind us. So I went under the archway, out of the undercity and into the smoky haze that filled this end of the Concourse. I was too tense to turn around and look at the others, as if the act of my needing to see that they followed would be enough to make them leave.
Pack Rat gazed around with wide eyes as the market stalls clustering close on either side. Tassels hung from their eaves. Streamers wrapped around the poles that held up their canvas roofs or flapped in the erratic gusts created by air vents farther up the Concourse. Down here, the paltry currents weren’t enough to clear out the haze. Time and smoke had dimmed the stalls, fading their panels into hues of grey, sepia, and dusty red.
Counters fronted the stalls piled high with goods, most of it junk, but maybe some worthwhile salvage. Vendors stood behind their counters, watching as we passed. Most days they would be chattering, calling out to their rare customers or joshing each other. Today they just stared, grizzled men, burly women, and sellers too green to have stalls on better parts of the Concourse. The handful of pedestrians down here had stepped back between the stalls, giving us space. Everyone looked baffled. Nothing like this had happened before, that the denizens of the undercity walked boldly into the light, coming en masse, or at least as much mass as sixteen people could muster. None of the vendors looked happy. Several tapped their wrist comms and spoke urgently to whatever people they had contacted. Probably the police.
Just let us get there, I thought. Let us reach the Center without any trouble.
Was that directed at me? Max asked.
No. I do have a something you can do, though. I took the green beetle out of my jacket. I hadn’t brought my gun, jammer, or my pack, nothing except this bot. Connect me to the beetle. I want to see if Colonel Majda came. I opened my hand and the bot soared away, up into the air.
Connecting, Max thought.
Suddenly I was seeing through the eyes of the beetle. I flew up the Concourse, close to the ceiling. I was aware of the alley where we were walking, but just barely. The scene I viewed as the beetle came through much more vividly, showing the Concourse three stories below.
Go closer to the Rec Center, I thought. That’s where Lavinda would be if she came.
I soared higher. The Concourse widened into a street and then a boulevard. Air currents flowed more strongly here. The haze thinned out and the stalls brightened, yellow pavilions with bright blue tassels hanging from their eaves. Cafes appeared, at first hardly more than glorified stalls, but farther up they became fancier bistros. A few people were out walking, and others sat at tables on the terraces of restaurants, sipping kava. It was a low volume time. Many people slept at noon, given the forty hours of daylight on Raylicon, which was why I had chosen this time. No crowds, but it wasn’t night either, so the police wouldn’t think we were prowling around in the dark.
As I continued up the Concourse, upscale clubs appeared. It was too early for the first wave of nightlife, but a few young people congregated about them. The Concourse was perfect for the younger crowds from Cries, just risqué enough for them to feel as if they were doing something illicit, though in truth it was perfectly safe. Above-city types rarely ventured off the Concourse, given all the warnings about the undercity. And it was true, if they came to the aqueducts, they could get mugged. Rich kids sometimes risked it anyway. They thought it was exciting, a good story to tell their friends. The gangers just wanted them to go away, preferably without their belongings, especially any food, fresh water, tech-mech, or jewelry the muggers could sell on the black market. Every now and then you heard rumors of an affair between undercity and above-city lovers, but those never seemed to end well.
The Rec Center lay just ahead. A long, low building the color of a pale blue sky, it stood bathed in the sunshine pouring through a skylight far above the building. The tall doors were shut. Bad choice. If we made it that far, the closed entrance would look unwelcoming. The only people outside were two cops, both armed with laser carbines. Just lovely. Greet the people you asked to trust you with the same guns that had just devastated the place they lived. Not that we were any better, with Digjan and the gangers coming armed.
No sign of Lavinda, though. Try farther up, I thought.
The Concourse continued to widen as I sailed onward, as large as two boulevards now. I wondered why they put the Rec Center in a place that was so inaccessible to the aqueducts. Maybe because of its size. They would have done better to locate a much smaller structure near the end of the Concourse. That was where the kids came out to prowl, like Ruzik and his girlfriend. They might actually hang out at the Center if it was easier to visit.
I found Colonel Majda, Max thought.
Show me.
The bot backtracked to the area of the Concourse across from the Rec Center. A stretch of shops there stood on a terrace set a few meters higher than the street. Lavinda was standing at a rail with Chief Takkar and Captain Ebersole. The colonel’s bars glinted on the shoulders of Lavinda’s green uniform, Duane wore his black trousers and shirt, and Takkar had on her usual police digs, with a pulse gun holstered at her hip.
As the beetle came within range of their voices, I heard Ebersole saying, “—the police know their orders not to shoot.”
Lavinda looked around the Concourse. “It all seems quiet.”
Takkar spoke curtly. “I thought she said they were coming. I don’t see squat.”
That was odd. They should be able to see us. Max, show me the end of the Concourse.
My view shifted as the beetle turned toward the distant end of the Concourse, about a kilometer away, where the narrowed lane disappeared into a white haze. I couldn’t see squat, either. Although the beetle had some IR capability, the haze down there was the same temperature as its surroundings, and the bot couldn’t do enough thermal imaging to distinguish anyone in the haze.
“I see them,” Lavinda said. “A woman with a child, it looks like.”
“Got it,” Takkar said. “It’s Bhaajan with two kids.”
Max, magnify my vision, I thought.
My view of the Concourse became clearer. And now I saw it, a woman in the haze, myself in fact, which was an eerie effect. Watching myself walk out of the mist, I finally understood why people always knew I had been a military officer. I had that distinctive walk, an upright posture and sense of readiness. I hadn’t even realized I moved that way. It was ameliorated a bit because I was carrying a baby and a small boy walked at my side. Pack Rat looked flustered, but also amazed by his
surroundings. If it hadn’t been for his ragged clothes, we could have passed for a tourist family.
“I guess two is better than none,” Takkar said.
Duane Ebersole spoke. “No, there’s more with her.”
Three people came into view behind me, Ruzik, his girlfriend, and another member of their gang. Even as I watched, the fourth member came out from between two stalls, probably after using one of the Concourse entrances hidden back there. They walked abreast in a line. I could tell they were nervous, but if I hadn’t known them, I would have seen only four gangers striding along the street. They all wore knives openly now, sheathed on their belts.
“Good gods?” Lavinda said. “Are those drug runners?”
“Can’t say,” Takkar answered. “I don’t think so, though.”
“Most of the runners are dead,” Ebersole said. “That’s probably a dust gang.”
“They better not try using those knives,” Takkar growled. “I’ll have them in the clink faster than you can say fuck it all to hell.”
“Captain.” Lavinda sounded irritated. “You have my orders. Neither your force nor the Cries police will do anything to these people.”
“And if they attack someone?” Takkar asked. “You want me just to stand by?”
“You use nonlethal force.” Lavinda spoke quietly. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
You and me both, I thought.
Another group of people were forming out of the haze, but I couldn’t see them clearly behind the gangers. At my thought, the beetle flew up higher and closer to the end of the Concourse. Yes, I saw them now, the family and the three recovering bliss addicts. Jak was walking on their left, still carrying the boy on his shoulders, with the other boy at his side. For a moment I thought the older daughter, the dust knight, hadn’t come. Then I realized she was walking on the other side like a bulwark between her family and the market stalls. A protector. A knight.
“That looks like all of them,” Ebersole said. I could barely hear him, I was so far away.
“I think so—no, wait,” Lavinda said. “There’s more.”