Shrugging, I downed a drink and reached for the door handle. “I don’t know. I’ll hitch a ride down on Gray Deck. Or maybe I’ll find some gateway that won’t notice one more transmission.”
She came close, and she touched my cheek with the back of her hand. “I’m so sorry about this. I think you should think things over. Etta is already gone, she’s not suffering. Let’s talk about it, plan, and maybe make wiser moves.”
I stared down at her. “If I go down to Gray Deck and steal a teleport harness right now, would you try to stop me?”
She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t.”
Believing her, I gave her a kiss and left. She didn’t try to stop me any longer. She knew it was hopeless to do so.
“Good luck, James.”
Her door closed, and I stormed away. My mind was churning. A chance at romance had turned sour and then some. I was sick in the gut, and I knew I had to do something.
Something drastic.
-54-
Even with the tribune’s blessing, I didn’t have an easy time on Gray Deck. Partly, this was natural reluctance on the part of the techs. The other part, though, was the fact I wasn’t asking to do something that had been approved ahead of time.
“Centurion,” a nasty tech dude told me after I’d explained the situation for the third time. “I know that you’re in a hurry. I respect that, I really do. But my orders are to suit you up and ship you to Earth. This business about Dust World…”
“Okay!” I said at last, throwing my arms high and wide. He flinched a little, but he didn’t take a step back. He was braver than most little techs. “All right, send me to Earth. Let’s do this.”
They wired me up and shipped me out. We were still around a thousand lights from home, so it took a while. I arrived at old Central, coughing and gasping.
When I finally recovered, the hog guards gruffly directed me out into the passages. It was good to be on Earth, doing normal things.
Getting my long stride up to speed, I marched toward the elevators. That’s about when I felt a buzzing on my wrist—no, my forearm.
“Shit…”
It was Drusus. Of all people, why did it have to be him? With a heavy sigh, I answered the call—but I never stopped walking.
“McGill? Why are you on Earth? Something hasn’t gone wrong with the mission, has it?”
“Uh…”
Drusus was naturally having flashbacks of darker times. On several occasions in the past, I’d returned to Earth to talk him into sending reinforcements, or into making a change in leadership—but that wasn’t the story this time. I wasn’t here to pester Drusus, I was here to find a way to get Etta back.
With that in mind, I decided to dodge hard.
“Sir, there’s nothing wrong with the mission. Everything went as well as could be expected, I’d say. We stomped the rebels, and we stomped them down hard.”
“Yes, I read a few reports. Your officers were very negative about your participation at first, but after the attack on Earth came to light, they changed their tune.”
“Aw well, that’s mid-level brass for you. They jump like cats on a griddle when they think their careers might be in jeopardy.”
Drusus chuckled. That was a rare sound from him. “Well then, why are you here—it can’t be that… ah of course. Turov sent you to talk to the Mogwa delegation, didn’t she?”
“Uh…”
“That makes perfect sense. We’re having a pre-meeting right now, in fact. I’d appreciate your input. You know Governor Nox as well as anyone at this point, I’d say. In fact, you’re the only human I know of who’s been to Mogwa Prime.”
I was only a few steps from the elevators by now. I stepped aboard the nearest one, swiped my tapper, and pushed the button to send me down into the depths. I planned to go to the bottom, where Floramel and other smarty-pants types dwelled. With any luck, they might be able to help me get Etta back. At least, that was my hope.
“I see where you are…” Drusus said, speaking half to himself. “You’re going the wrong way! The meeting is up on four-ninety.”
That was lofty territory indeed. Up there, as Central was build kind of like a pyramid with a flat top, the floors were smaller than usual. The highest ranked souls dwelled there, doing unfathomably dull things all day.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sir,” I said. “When I get down to the lobby, I’ll reverse and head back up. I’ll contact you then.”
My finger reached for my tapper. One half-second later, I’d be out of this conversation and on my way to sneak deep into the lab levels in the lower vaults.
“Not a problem,” Drusus said. “There, I fixed it.”
Suddenly, I felt the elevator lurch under my feet. Did he really…? Yes, somehow, Drusus had reached out like a god and reversed the course of my elevator. I was now trundling along rapidly back to the top of the building, rather than plunging toward the depths.
“Uh… gee thanks, sir.”
“Not at all. See you in five.”
The channel dropped, and my tapper went blank. At that point, I indulged myself in some colorful swearing. I’d been so close, but now I was being sucked into a meeting that not only sounded dull, it would most likely be a complete waste of my time.
On the way up, I stewed. Sure, I knew that Etta was already dead and she wasn’t getting any deader, but it still galled me. When your kid dies on you, a man gets a sense of urgency. It feels all wrong, and you just can’t help worrying about it.
As a result of this run-around, I was in a
