Li stiffened. “How can you even consider—”
“Yell at me later,” Carlos said. “This is serious. You know the recent Darwin Sea flooding that had Rikki worried? Antonio is coming to believe the tsunamis were global in extent.”
“Damn it! You are such a gullible”—drunken—“fool. They’ve concocted a fable. Let them net in and I guarantee you they’ll make the attempt to subvert Marvin.”
“Suppose I went with them to collect new cores, picked the landing spots myself. I could vouch for the authenticity of the new samples.”
Volunteering himself as a hostage! Oh, how she wished she could pitch him out—but if she did, who would synth meds and tweak nanites when she needed them? And if Marvin detected a hacking attack on itself, who could respond? With jaws clenched, she stared at him.
Carlos said, “What if Antonio didn’t fake it? Suppose, just for a moment, that he’s discovered something important. Suppose there is a danger of flooding.”
Li laughed. “Do you imagine for a moment that if you share your toys all will be forgiven?”
“You really believe the others would make this up?”
“You really believe that they wouldn’t?” she shot back.
“Okay,” Carlos finally conceded, standing. “I’ll tell Antonio, no.”
*
Li stared at the re-summoned data caterpillar. It stared back at her. She retrieved a recent image of 6/32/m/Todd. Rosy cheeks and big freckles. Twinkling eyes. Crooked smile with a couple of baby teeth missing. All in all, a mischievous little heretic. Back on Mars, he would doubtless have been the bane of his kindergarten teacher.
To hell with the little brat!
Li was on her feet, seething. At Carlos, for his credulity. At Antonio, for his transparent scheming. At outmoded bourgeois notions of family that had made it necessary for her to take charge. For the peasants’ tiresome disapproval since she had.
A few more years, and nothing would shake the children’s conditioning. A few more years and the oldest children could take on all the farming chores. A few more years, and she would have no need for any of the adults.
But that would be then. Her rage was now.
Storming into the yard, Li grabbed Todd by an arm. A deathly hush came over the playground. Children stared, round-eyed. Todd shook, his lower lip trembling.
“I understand you question your duty to God’s plan,” Li said.
“I…I don’t understand,” the boy said.
“Five days ago, did you not ask your friends why you should take shifts watching the little ones and changing diapers?”
His mouth fell open. The children had no idea that Marvin could eavesdrop across most of the compound.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“And did you not question why you are not allowed outside the fence?”
“I ju-just asked—”
“And you make jokes. You mock rules.” Li began dragging the brat toward the fence. “You belittle. Such behavior is not acceptable. Perhaps you should see the nature of life without God’s grace.”
“I’m s-so sorry.” Todd began to sob, great tears rolling down his cheeks, mucus bubbling over his lips and down his chin. Though he dug his heels into the outdoor carpet, he had to yield to her adult strength. “I w-won’t ask anything.”
A few at first, then more and more, children on the playground burst into tears. Slowly, fearfully, keeping their distance, they trailed after Li and the boy.
Let this be a lesson for all of you.
Carlos burst from his lab. He whispered urgently into Li’s ear, “He’s just a kid.”
She ignored him.
She ignored the boy, too, until she had dragged him almost to the snow fence. “I have no use for troublemakers,” Li said. “Marvin, open the gate.”
“What are you doing?” Carlos hissed.
Through eyes narrowed to slits she stared him down.
As the gate swung open, Todd pissed his pants.
“Go.” She shoved the boy forward. His abject terror had slaked her rage, but she would not be seen backing down.
“Li!” Carlos shouted. “The mines.”
“Very well.” Li took the controller from her pocket and switched off the minefield. She gave the boy a shove. “Go, now. Live among the bad people. Live among your own evil kind.”
He stood stock-still, paralyzed with fear.
Li unholstered her handgun and fired a round into the air. Children scattered, screaming. “Marvin, shut the gate.” As the gate slowed, then reversed its swing, she pointed her weapon at Todd. “If you are still inside when the gate closes…”
The boy ran.
Eve pressed through the children toward Li. “I question the teachings. I must leave, too.”
Li shoved the girl at Carlos. “You have duties here.”
40
“Did you hear that?” Beth asked.
Over the squawking of the chickens. Antonio might have heard…something. Not the haphazard chattering and shrieking of the children, of course; he had learned to listen past that. A popping sound? Maybe, but thunder and snow showers tended not to mix. A sonic boom, then. “I think your parents”—and Dana—“are coming home…early.”
The question was: why?
The three were away in Endeavour, ostensibly to collect ice-core samples. The big glacier was far to the south, sufficiently remote to cover for another delivery of emergency supplies. More of the undeclared surplus from this year’s harvest. Spare tools and clothing. Additional ethanol for the emergency generator. Meds. Extra water filters. Way too much stuff to have already offloaded and hauled into the caves.
“Maybe we can play in the snow,” Beth said. “Before it all melts.”
“Maybe.” Antonio emptied his bucket and returned to the feed bin for more pellets. “Before we play, we need to finish our chores.”
They fed and cleaned up after the chickens, gathered eggs, and moved on to the barn to feed the cows. Squawking and clucking gave way to lowing. No one came looking for them, nor did any messages come into his datasheet. After a while, Antonio said, “I guess that…noise we heard wasn’t the…ship.”
Beth stomped a foot. “Then just you and I will play.”
“When we’re done.” In his pocket, the datasheet trilled. “Wait. Maybe they will be back soon.”
The message, relayed through
