Laura Jo Phillips (28 page)

“A little,” Hope said.  “Aside from running, I practice Yoga kind of regularly.” She shrugged.  “I switch around a lot, but I generally do something physical to keep myself in shape.”

“What do you do for a living?” Grace asked curiously. 

“I’m a portrait artist,” Hope said.  “You?”

“I just got my degree in planetary reclamation,” Grace replied.  “I’ve been offered several positions, but haven’t decided which I want yet.”

“A degree?” Hope asked.  “I apologize if this is too personal a question, but how old are you?”

“Just turned twenty,” Grace replied.  “I started my graduate studies a little early.”

Hope smiled.  She had already figured out that Grace was smart, she just hadn’t realized how smart. 

“What about you, Karma?” she asked.

“I’m a teacher,” Karma replied, much to Hope and Grace’s surprise.  “Well, I was until I quit my job to run off to Jasan.  Since that didn’t work out, I guess I’m technically unemployed.”

“What did you teach?” Grace asked.

“Children,” Karma replied.  “First and second grades.  I just love the little ones.”  Karma’s expression softened as she thought about her students.   

“You miss them, don’t you?” Hope said.

“Very much,” Karma replied.  “It’s impossible to go an entire day without feeling joy when you’re surrounded by children.”

Hope smiled.  She would never have guessed that Karma was a teacher, but the expression on her face was genuine.  There was a lot more to Karma than met the eye.

“
Kydos
,” she said solemnly.

“What does that mean?” Karma asked suspiciously.

“It is a Greek word of praise,” Hope replied.  “I believe that those who dedicate their lives to teaching are praiseworthy.”

“Thank you,” Karma said, surprised and pleased.

“Is that the language you keep using?  Greek?” Grace asked.  “I wondered about that.”

Hope nodded as she took a sip of her tea.

“What was it you said a while ago, when you saw that ground-car?” Grace asked.

Hope laughed.  “When I was a child, my mother taught me that it was a bad thing for a lady to swear.  But there were a few Greek words that she used all the time that she would never tell me the meaning of.  Eventually, my cousin taught me the meaning of those words.  Turns out, my mother never swore in Standard, but she could swear a blue streak in Greek.”

“So those little snippets you utter now and then are swear words?” Grace asked with a grin.

“A lot of them, yes,” Hope replied.

“Teach us a few,” Karma asked.

“All right,” Hope agreed.  “My two favorite are
poutanas yi
e, which means
son of a bitch
, and
gamoto
, which means
damn
.”

“I like those,” Grace said.  “I’ll have to practice them.  So you learned Greek from your Mom?”

“Yes,” Hope replied.  “From her and my Aunt Olivia.  They learned it from their mother, as she’d learned from hers, going back for generations.  They taught my cousin and me when we were children.”

“That’s wonderful,” Karma said.  “So many ancient cultures and languages are disappearing from our world now.  Many of those that want to keep their cultures alive have left Earth and settled their own new worlds, like Nippon 2, or
Nouvelle-France
.  So few pass languages and cultures on to their children any more.”

“True, but at least Nippon 2, and other worlds like it, keep those cultures alive.  That’s important, whether they are on Earth or not,” Grace said.

Karma and Hope nodded in silent agreement and they all fell silent for awhile.

“Hope,” Karma said after a few minutes.  “Do you think you can try that astral projection thing again?  See how far we are from that town now?”

“I can try,” Hope replied.  “But honestly, I doubt it will work.  It usually takes a few days before I can do it again, especially after stretching the ability as much as I did.”

Hope set her cup down in the sand, placed her hands on her knees and closed her eyes.  She emptied her mind of everything but her owl, coaxing it to take off soaring into the sky.  After a few minutes she opened her eyes and sighed. 

“No luck, huh?” Grace asked.

“Not even close,” Hope replied.  “I think it’ll be another couple days at least.”

“Thanks for trying,” Karma said.

“No problem,” Hope said with a smile.  “I wish it had worked too.”

“Well, we best get to bed,” Grace said.  “Morning comes early, and I have a feeling we’re all gonna be a bit sore tomorrow after today’s walk.”

“Yes, I agree,” Hope said.  She gazed at the fire for a long moment, then reached for some branches of greener wood she had broken off of a couple of the trees.  The green wood could keep the fire going all night if they banked it correctly.  It would also produce more smoke, but in this enclosed area, in the dark, she didn’t think anyone would see it.  

Once she had the fire banked she crawled into her blankets and closed her eyes.  Immediately the image of the three blonde men appeared in her mind, and again she had the sense that they were searching for her.  She felt tears sting her eyes and she rolled over so that her face was away from the fire.  It was bad enough she was engaging in such wishful thinking.  She didn’t need the other women to know about it. 

***

Berta and Aisling had just finished eating dinner when there was a loud crash from the far end of the house.  Both women froze for one, heart-stopping moment as they waited to see what, if anything, would happen next. 

After a silence that lasted only a few seconds but seemed to stretch forever, there was a loud bang, then another, and another.  One of the guards had clearly found a way to make some noise.  Enough noise that Berta knew she could not claim to be unaware of it.

“Damn,” Berta said softly.  She looked up at Aisling thinking quickly as she decided what to do. 

“You need to go into the kitchen and wash your dishes, then put them away,” she said, speaking in a very low voice.  “There can be no sign of your presence.”

Aisling nodded and turned toward the kitchen, but Berta stopped her.  “Be very quiet, and do it quickly,” she said.  “Take my dishes into the kitchen with you, but leave them on the counter.  I’m going to say I was in my bedroom eating and came out to clean the dishes, so don’t wash them.  When you’re finished, go into my bedroom and hide yourself.”

Aisling added Berta’s dishes to those she was carrying and hurried away.  Berta gripped her cane tightly, then shuffled slowly out of the dining room, across the living room and down the hall.  The banging continued, growing louder the closer she got to it.  She hesitated outside of the bedroom door, going over her story in her mind one last time before gripping the knob and turning it.  She opened the door a tiny crack and peeked in.

It was a good thing that the pillowcase was still in place over Lenny’s head since she could not prevent the gleeful smile that split her face at the sight before her.  Lenny was wrapped up like a mummy with long strips of sheet.  He had not been able to get loose, but he had managed to knock over the cheap bedside table which had been the source of the crash.  Now he was swinging his bound legs back and forth, kicking the broken table into the wall which was making all the noise. 

Berta swallowed her smile and took a deep breath.

“What in the nine hells?” she exclaimed as though she was both frightened and shocked.

The banging immediately ceased and Lenny rolled over to face the doorway.  “Berta get me the hell out of this thing!” he yelled, though his voice was so hoarse she had a hard time understanding him.

“Lenny?” she asked in surprise as she moved toward him, leaning heavily on her cane.  She thought he might be able to see her faintly through the cloth so she was careful to limp even more heavily than usual.

“Yes, who the hell else?” he demanded angrily.

“Smart ass,” she replied testily.  “How did this happen?”

“As if you don’t know,” Lenny accused.

“I don’t generally ask questions I know the answer to,” Berta replied sharply.  “I don’t understand what the hell is going on here.  Where is Garid?”

“How should I know?” Lenny replied.  “Get me loose.”

“All right, all right,” Berta said as she stopped next to him.  “Just give me a chance to get to you.”

Berta carefully lowered herself to the floor, and searched for a way to release Lenny.  “I don’t get it,” she said, pretending to talk to herself.  “How in the hell did this happen and what is this thing you’re tied up with?  How do I get it loose?”

Finally spotting a knot, Berta reached for it, but Lenny shifted.  “You have to hold still Lenny,” Berta said.  “Roll back this way a bit so I can reach that thing.”

Lenny did as she asked and this time Berta was able to get her fingers on a knot.  She worked at it patiently for a few minutes before it finally came loose. 

“All right, now I need to unwrap it I suppose,” she said.  “Maybe you could roll over the other way?”

Just then another bang sounded, followed by an inarticulate roar. 

“Oh, shit fire,” Berta said softly.  “In here, Darck!” she called out.

She heard Darck’s footsteps as he stomped down the hall and threw the door open with another bang.

“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.

“That’s what I asked, but so far I don’t have an answer,” Berta replied, making her voice sound tired and weak.  “Maybe if you can finish untying this one, he’ll answer it for us both.”

Berta started to struggle to her feet, but strong hands went around her waist and lifted her up.  “Thank you, Darck,” she said as she leaned once more on her cane.

“You’re welcome, Mother,” Darck replied.  He turned to stare down at the wrapped figure on the floor.  “You don’t know what happened?”

Berta shook her head.  “No, I don’t.  I just heard a loud crash a bit ago.  Liked to scare me out of whatever years I got left.  I came down here to see what it was and found this.”

“What about the women?” Darck asked as he knelt on the floor and pulled a long, sharp knife from a sheath at his belt and began cutting the cloth away from Lenny’s body. 

“They left yesterday, in the afternoon I think,” Berta replied.

“You think?” Darck asked.

“I was sleeping,” Berta said matter-of-factly.  “I gave them the usual drill, middle of the desert, blah blah, then I went to take my nap.  When I woke up, they were gone.”

“Why didn’t you tell Garid or Lenny?” Darck demanded. 

 “Did you forget I’m a prisoner here too?” she said angrily.  “Why the hell would I tell anyone anything?  If those women get free of here, I say good for them.  I don’t owe nobody here nothing.  Now, since you seem to have this in hand, I’ll be saying goodnight.”

Berta turned and hobbled slowly to the door. 

“Where’s Garid?” Darck demanded.

“Hell if I know,” Berta replied without looking back.  “I just found this one.  Maybe the other one is in another bedroom.  Maybe he’s dead.  Maybe he went with the women.” 

Berta left the room and returned to the kitchen.  She paused to wash her dinner dishes as she normally would, setting them out on the counter to dry.  Then she poured herself a glass of juice to kill a little time.  Darck was surely going to come and ask her more questions and she didn’t want to be in her bedroom when he did. 

She was surprised to discover that she wasn’t in the least bit nervous.  She was a little excited, but it was a good excitement.  She wondered if there was any way for her to cause a further delay in Darck’s search for Hope and the other women. 
Well,
she thought,
if a way comes up, I’ll use it.

Darck would be in big trouble if the women got away, and while she thoroughly hated Darck’s father, she did not hate Darck.  She had tried to, but no matter the circumstances, the fact that he was her own child had made it impossible for her to hate him, especially when he’d been a child.  When he’d reached the age of twelve he’d been moved to the main compound, wherever that was, and she’d only seen him a handful of times since then, he always looked a bit more reptilian than before, and a bit less like her baby boy. 

When she did see him, they rarely spoke.  She had been sad about that for a time, but she knew it was for the best.  She was still a prisoner, and her son had grown up to become one of her jailors.  She didn’t hate him, but she was now glad of the distance between them.

“Mother, do you know which way those women went when they left?” Darck asked.

“I told you, I didn’t even know they were going until I woke up and they were gone,” Berta said.  “I sure as hell didn’t see what way they went.”

“Would you even tell me if you had?” Darck demanded angrily.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Berta replied calmly.  “Why should I?”

“Because I’m your son, and if I don’t get those women back here safe and sound, who knows what Stalnek will do to me.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that was his problem, but at the last moment she decided to use her brain instead of her mouth.  She turned to face Darck and let her shoulders slump.