Paradox Hunt, Page 2

  Since the man seemed like he was okay, I said, “I have to be somewhere, so I’m leaving now. See you around.”

  “Sure, kid. Thanks.” I started to walk away when I heard him call, “Hey, wait a minute!”

  I turned back around. “What?”

  “I thought you said you were one of those Far Edge trekkers who came out here just to see the sights and then got caught in the coup.”

  I hadn’t actually said that, but I’d let him assume that when I was trying to find a way to free my father after he’d been arrested. The sergeant took a wobbly step toward me. “But one of the other guards said your dad was jabbering about a lot of stuff. About an admiral and getting the admiral’s grandson out of here. Are you somebody important?”

  I tried to keep my face blank, forcing a laugh. “I’m nobody. My dad was really confused because of the head injury. He’s at the hospital now, and he’s still not making any sense. In fact, I was just on my way to check on him when I found you.” I waved. “Got to go. See you later.”

  I jogged away, figuring he was in no condition to come after me. And if he did tell someone about me and my dad’s babbling, it wouldn’t matter. I’d be gone soon enough.

  At the plaza’s main exit, too many people were trying to get through the gate at the same time. A man bumped into me and said, “Sorry! Sorry!”

  “What’s happening? Why is everyone in such a hurry?” I asked.

  We moved forward a few steps. “Not sure,” he said. “There are rumors that Earth’s Combined Forces troops will be here in just a few hours.”

  I hoped it was just a rumor. I needed to get off Reyet before they got here, because my passage off was on a raider ship captained by a woman who probably had arrest warrants issued for her on a dozen planets.

  The man was still talking. “People are afraid we’ll be blamed for that Fosaanian’s mess. All of us, not just the ones who threw in their lot with Ansun. If you want some advice, I’d lie low for a couple of days until we know how hard they are going to come down on us.”

  “Good idea. Thanks for the advice.”

  I decided on a change of plans. I’d go back to our lodging square and pretend to go to sleep. Then when I was sure everyone else was actually asleep, I’d head to the port and wait there until the raider was ready to leave. She’d said departure was at nine hundred, but I didn’t know if raiders kept to schedules. I doubted it. By the time anyone came looking for me, I’d be long gone.

  The walk back to our rented space felt like it took longer than it should. I realized I was really, really tired. There hadn’t been much time to sleep the past several days, and it was catching up to me.

  Even though it was very late (or very early depending on your perspective), the bridges crossing the gorge were still crowded. I don’t know what Reyet was normally like, since we’d arrived the day of the coup, but ever since we’d been here I noticed no one seemed to sleep. Shops were open, and the tourists who’d been trapped on the planet during the coup continued to mill about. Some had tried to ignore the unrest as much as possible, though when food ran low, they’d taken to drinking too much.

  The people on Reyet who were low on funds, us among them, stayed in cramped spaces on one of the underbridges suspended from the main bridges. We’d rented what was just called a square, basically one of a whole row of small rooms created by hanging woven panels from the base of the upper bridge. Three sides of each square had fairly thick panels, but the fourth side only had thin shades, which opened onto the walkway that ran the length of the underbridge. Most people kept the shades open to provide air circulation in the hot climate. Staying in a square had been quite a communal living experience, one I was eager to end.

  I climbed down the rickety ladder to the lower level, greeting a few people I’d met since we’d arrived. Some were still in party mode, but others had the slack faces of the completely exhausted.

  Erris, the elderly landlord of the underbridge, called to me as I passed the area he called his office, which was basically just a desk in one of the smaller squares.

  “Are you all right?” I asked when I went over to him. Erris always looked as if he would crumble away at the slightest touch, his skin so dried out by a lifetime on Reyet he could pass for an unwrapped mummy. But there was something about his eyes I hadn’t seen before. It was as if their whites had turned yellow overnight.

  He waved away my question. “Have you heard anything?” he asked. “I was at the plaza for a few hours, but that many people in one place is never a good idea.”

  I told him about the Combined Forces rumor.

  “I heard that one already. The advance group is already here. I meant about what made Ansun leave. All sorts of rumors are flying. I heard you were talking to Fade in the plaza. He always knows what’s going on. Did he tell you anything?”

  “No, he was just sitting there enjoying the party. I went over to talk to him because I was surprised to see him there. I didn’t know he ever went outside his club.”

  I wasn’t going to tell Erris the truth. Fade knew about our confrontation with Ansun and how we’d managed to get away from him, but he wouldn’t make it common knowledge. I wanted it to stay that way. We didn’t need to draw any more attention to ourselves. Even though Fade was Fosaanian like Mira and Ansun, he kept himself apart, from them and everyone else. I didn’t know what motivated him, but we’d learned he was the one to go to for help, as long as you had something to trade for that help.

  Erris raised an eyebrow. I knew he didn’t believe me. Erris traded in many things too, including information, and he seemed to have a sixth sense for figuring things out. He’d been good to us, and I felt bad lying to him, but it was safer for us if no one knew. “I have to get going,” I said.

  “Are you kids staying much longer? I thought you’d probably be moving on with the spaceport opening back up.”

  I knew he was thinking about payment for our lodgings. We’d been paying him day by day as we’d earned the money.

  “I don’t know yet. We’ll let you know in a few hours.”

  “That’s fine. I just like to know when I’m going to have a square free to rent. Say, I also heard a rumor the troops who landed are looking for someone, a young Earther. Any idea who that is?”

  “No,” I said, trying to think of a way to convince him it wasn’t me. “I saw a couple of rich kid Far Edgers up above talking about what a great story the coup is going to make. They’re buying up everything they can find to prove they’ve been here. It’s probably them or someone like them. I bet their parents paid someone to bring them home.”

  “Could be,” he said. He was staring at me like he’d never really looked at me before. I could see he didn’t quite believe my story. “You kids take care of yourselves,” he said. “I won’t forget how you helped us.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, surprised at his words. Erris wasn’t known to express anything that resembled an emotion. We’d helped rescue some people when one of the bridges had collapsed our first night on the planet, and Erris had found that shocking. We’d learned very quickly that most people on Reyet didn’t do anything without expecting something in return.

  He was still staring at me, like he was trying to memorize my face. “See you later.” I got out of there before he could ask me more questions.

  I could hear Lainie and Decker arguing as I made my way along the rickety walkway leading to our square. I didn’t like the sound of it. They usually didn’t argue. As I got closer, I heard Lainie say, “I’m going with Quinn. You do whatever you want.”

  “Do you really think you can find Ansun and Mira before the military does?” Decker asked.

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Neither of them was supposed to know. I came in and tripped over Lainie’s bag, which was in the middle of the floor. She whirled around and put her hands on her hips. I could almost see waves of anger rolling off her.

  “Quinn, I’m not really speak
ing to you except to tell you I’m really, really angry you thought you were going to sneak off without us. Mira is my friend too. You didn’t think I might want to help?”

  “How did you find out? Did Riley tell you?” Riley was a local kid who had helped us figure out how to survive on Reyet. He was a good kid, but he talked too much, and he too often took it upon himself to decide what was best for us.

  “Riley? No, Fade told us. In fact, he hired us to go with you. Or at least he tried to hire us. Decker is going to turn down the offer.” She focused her glare on him for a second before turning it back on me.

  Behind the eyepatch, I felt a sharp pain in my eye. I tried to ignore it. I had to concentrate. Just when I thought I had Fade figured out, he did something to completely confuse me. The Fosaanians and their history were complicated, especially since they’d been split between two planets and isolated from each other for three hundred years. Fade was the most complicated of all.

  When I’d arranged everything with him there had been no mention of anyone else going along with me except Javen, a young Fosaanian who worked with Fade and who had been friends with Mira when they were children. I would have preferred no one go along, but I had no choice. Fade had insisted. I hadn’t been around Javen enough to know anything about him except that he did care about Mira, and she cared about him.

  I avoided Lainie’s glare and moved over to my sleeping mat to collect my things, trying to think of a way to convince her not to go. It was only then that I noticed a figure sitting cross-legged in the other corner. I froze until my eyes adjusted to the light, and I saw a young man with longish wavy hair. I knew it wasn’t real. It was the MI bot projecting its hologram around its actual form, which was a small faceted sphere, technically called an icosahedron.

  “Hello,” it said. “I’m sorry I didn’t greet you earlier, but I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation. It would have been impolite.”

  I ignored it. I wasn’t in the mood to converse with a bot. I sank down on my sleeping mat and turned my attention back to Lainie. “I don’t want you to go. It’s too dangerous, and I really don’t have a plan yet. When I come up with one, it may just be a one-person plan.”

  “You don’t have a plan?” Decker asked. “I’m sure Ansun would like to see you dead after you tricked him, so a plan might be a good idea.”

  “I haven’t had time to make one. I only talked to Fade a few hours ago. I need to get back to Fosaan and assess the situation before I can decide what to do. And besides, every other time we’ve made a plan, it’s never worked out exactly as we hoped. We’ve always had to improvise.”

  “Maybe Fade hired us because he knows you don’t have a plan,” Lainie said. “He knows you will need help.”

  “I don’t trust Fade. Are you so sure he is on your and Mira’s side?” Decker said. “What if he’s decided to join up with Ansun? We know the Fosaanians here want the Fosaanian empire back. What if they’ve decided Ansun is their best bet? Fade might want you out of the way and so he’s sending you straight to Ansun.”

  “I don’t think so. You didn’t see the Fosaanian First Families here. They look down on Ansun, like he’s not quite good enough to be one of them.”

  The Fosaanians who had been off Fosaan when the supervolcano exploded had settled on Reyet, and their descendants had maintained what they could of Fosaanian culture. Ansun and Mira had descended from a few survivors on Fosaan itself, but the civilization had been so devastated, later generations had concentrated on merely surviving, until Ansun had taken over. When Earth built a research station orbiting Fosaan to mine a specific form of iridium found there for the MI bots, Ansun had decided to speed up his plan to restore their empire working with raiders to steal the MIs. He was the kind to seize every opportunity he could.

  “The Fosaanians here look down on everyone, but I can see them using Ansun if he could get them what they want,” Decker said. “Is there something I don’t know? It doesn’t make sense for either of you to go after Mira. Earth is going to send forces to Fosaan to find him. It’s the obvious place for him to go. They’ll either take him and all the Fosaanians with him into custody, or they’ll just blow up the whole area and everyone in it.”

  “We know something the military doesn’t,” I said. “He won’t go back to the village in the south. Mira told me they were restoring the old capital in the north. I think that’s where he’s gone, and since he’s Fosaanian, he’s hidden any signs they are there. He has to know they’ll come looking for him.”

  A man stumbled by on the walkway, nearly falling into our space. “Hello,” he said.

  “Go away,” Decker snarled. The man was smart enough to take that advice. After he’d moved on, Decker said, “Even if you are right, why do you think the space raider is going to get you where you want to go? I seem to remember that particular raider had no problem with all of us dying a nasty death last time we ran into her. How did you get her to agree to take you?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said. I knew I needed to tell them about the remaining water diamond Mira had arranged to be given to me, but I didn’t want to go into it right then. I put my hand on the pocket where I’d placed the pouch. I’d have to figure out how to keep it safe. I hadn’t had time to think about the implications of carrying around a gem worth millions. It would be dangerous for the others to know about it.

  “Fade paid the raider,” I said. “She’ll do anything for money.” It was true Fade had paid her. I didn’t add that I’d paid Fade with the other water diamond to make the arrangements. “And it’s not like I have any other transport since Ansun stole the Pelican.”

  My father didn’t know his ship was gone, and when he found out he was going to furious. He had used all our savings to buy the ship after he’d been kicked out of the military. Even though it didn’t look like much on the outside, he’d spent years fixing it up just the way he wanted it.

  “If we can find Ansun, maybe we can get the Pelican back,” Lainie said.

  “Oh, terrific. Add stealing back a spaceship to the list of jobs to accomplish,” Decker said.

  Lainie started to say something else, but I couldn’t hear her because a whistling sound filled the air. I recognized the sound—it was the noise of a ship descending into the atmosphere. It shouldn’t have been so loud; we were too far from the spaceport. I went out onto the walkway and looked up. Dozens of ships were in a holding pattern over the port.

  I came back in. “We have to get out of here before any more troops land. Erris said they’re looking for a young Earther. I tried to convince him it wasn’t me, but I’m sure my grandfather ordered people to find me. And if I’m right, they’ll know I’m still here as soon as they check the records.” We’d gotten Mira on the planet without her being put into the system by bribing the port official, but at the time I hadn’t thought anyone would bother to check the list of names for the rest of us.

  “Before we do anything else, you have to turn the MI robot over to someone in the military,” Decker said to Lainie. “If you leave the planet with it, that’s the same as stealing it. If someone official found out, you’d be in major trouble.”

  Lainie paced around the square and then went over to her sleeping mat and sat down next to the MI.

  “Am I going somewhere without you?” it asked Lainie. The MI actually sounded sad, and I had to remind myself it didn’t really have emotions. One of my mother’s early breakthroughs in designing bots had been to program them to change their voice tone to match the context of their words.

  “Yes, but you will go somewhere where you will be useful,” Lainie told it. “That’s a good thing.”

  “I suppose it is,” the MI replied, but it didn’t sound convinced. It was amazing how much emotion its voice could convey. “Shall I power down?”

  “Yes,” Lainie said. “It will be safer to move you that way.”

  The hologram disappeared, leaving only the small red sphere of the bot on the mat.
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  Decker went out and then came back in. “There are a lot of troops coming in,” he said. “I don’t know why they need so many. It’s not going to be hard for them to take back control of the planet.”

  He was right. The remaining coup participants weren’t going to mount a fight against Combined Forces troops. Something odd was happening.

  I gathered up what few belongings I had and put them in a bag. “I’m leaving. I have to get to the hospital to see my father before I go to the port.”

  “I’ll come with you. I’ve got to find Saunder,” Lainie said as she placed the MI in her carryall. “He’s probably at the hospital.”

  “He’s not going to want to go,” Decker warned.

  Lainie’s hand froze at the bag’s opening. “Of course he will,” she said. Saunder was her twin, and she always assumed he thought like she did. “Why wouldn’t he want to go? What else is he going to do?”

  “He likes helping out at the hospital,” I reminded her. Saunder wanted to be a doctor, and since Reyet was really short of trained medical personnel, he’d been helping out as much as he could.

  “Well, he can’t stay here forever,” Lainie said. “Our parents are going to want him to do his military training just like me. So he either comes with us, or he gets a few more days here, and then they’ll be all over him to go back to Earth.”

  She was assuming we’d just pop over to Fosaan, pick up Mira, and come right back. If only it was going to be that easy.

  “I’ll find him,” I said. “I’ve got to stop at the hospital anyway and tell my father … something so he won’t worry when he finds out I’ve gone. You find someone to take the MI. There will be officers at the spaceport. Saunder and I will meet up with you there.”

  I left them while they were still arguing about whether or not Decker was coming too. To avoid Erris, I didn’t go up the regular ladder stairs. Instead, I climbed up the fastenings on the other end, which attached the underbridges to the main bridge. No one noticed. It was a common way up and down if you didn’t mind climbing thin ropes suspended above a deep gorge. The ones who braved it were those who didn’t have the payment for their space at the exact time Erris demanded it. He usually gave them a grace period of a day or so before he threw their belongings into the gorge.