11

Switchblade looked to the sky and turned a circle. “I don’t see nothing.”

“It’s a mile out but it’s headed this way.”

“So let’s get on with this.”

“We don’t need it following us to the warehouse.” Chase moved close to the gray wall of the nearest building where a block partition separated two small offices.

“You sure it’s headed here? Drone factory is nearby, you know. They test them out in the fields. Never seen one in town, though.”

“It’s right behind you.”

Switchblade spun around. “Get down behind that wall.”

Chase dove behind it. He pressed himself into the corner. Switchblade remained on the sidewalk with his arms crossed and whistled a tune as if nothing unusual were happening.

The drone hovered twenty feet above them. Then dropped to ten feet. Switchblade watched it, even gave it a little wave. Then the thing lifted into the air and flew over the buildings to the left.

“What’d I tell you,” Switchblade said. “They don’t know me from Adam.”

The pick-up was easy—no one was around to notice the two were not the usual up top retrievers. Chase carried one large sack and Switchblade carried another.

They entered the alley an hour and a half after they’d sneaked out. Chase pushed the metal bin aside and peered into the tunnel, which was now well lit.

“Both of you stop right there,” a man holding a laserlight said.

Chase didn’t recognize him. He wore brown coveralls and a scar ran down his left cheek.

“Amos thinks maybe he’ll just let you stay up top. The two of you can replace the five who had to come underground today.”

“I’m sorry,” Chase said. “It was my fault.”

“We tell each other everything and we don’t wander off or go up top without permission. Especially you, Mr. Sterling…uh, Redding.”

“I’ll talk to Amos. Let us in.”

The guy stepped aside, and Chase crawled through the hole and into the tunnel. Switchblade followed and tossed in the bag of beans. Chase pulled the refuse bin back into place.

Switchblade grabbed the shoulder of the man with the light. “You know I can take care of myself up there, Nate. And I know how important this man here is. Nothing happened.”

“Except you got supplies, right?”

Switchblade pointed to the beans. Chase still carried his bag.

“I’m not worried about it, Switch. But Amos is fuming.”

Chase couldn’t imagine the man losing his composure. “Like I said, it’s my fault.”

“Don’t need you to stand up for me, Charlie.” Switchblade picked up the bag of beans and hoisted it onto his shoulder. “You didn’t make me do nothing I didn’t want to do.”

No one spoke as their footsteps echoed through the damp hallway that led to the underground complex.

Then Chase stopped. He wanted to flee.

At the end of the tunnel, waiting in an alcove… Kerstin in her red dress.

Code flashed across her form.

She faded, flashed back for a second, and then disappeared.

Chase wiped cold sweat off his brow with his free hand and kept going. The guy in brown—Nate—had orders to deliver him and Switchblade to Amos. They were on their way to the principal’s office. Maybe they’d get detention. Or expelled.

Mel waited with several others in the command center. Her eyes shot a few darts their way. But she didn’t say anything.

Nate opened the door and motioned them in to Amos’s private quarters. The room was bigger than Chase’s and had a large desk with a computer, a recliner, seemingly from the last century, and a small refrigerator. The perks of being a leader in the Underground Church.

Amos stood at the foot of his bed with his arms folded. “Come in, gentlemen.”

“It was my idea,” Chase said. “I needed to get some air. We picked up the food shipment and we came right back.”

“Look, robot, you can lie for the good of the people and all that, but I’m not lying to the man in charge to cover your butt,” Switchblade said. “Amos, it’s like this: We talked to a crabby old French woman and we got spotted by an S-drone. Then we got the beans. But nothing bad came of it.”

“Sit down, both of you.”

Chase dropped to the desk chair. Switchblade took the recliner. His big arms covered the tan vinyl armrests. He reached to the side of the chair and flipped the lever and his long legs sprang up and out as the footrest extended.

Amos sighed and shook his head. “Don’t get too relaxed, Switchblade.” He sat on the end of the bed. His breathing was labored, his eyes bloodshot. Amos was sick and Chase might be the only person who knew. He shouldn’t have put the man through this.

“I did talk to a woman in a café, and we did see an S-drone,” Chase dropped his hands to his knees. Then he pointed at Switchblade. “The drone didn’t see me, but he just stood there and whistled at it.” Chase leaned forward and locked his fingers together. “Look, nothing happened. I just needed to get out of here for a while. After the close call this morning, and then the whole thing with that machine. Bloodless. I needed to take a walk. That’s all.”

Switchblade cleared his throat.

The guy wouldn’t let Chase get away with anything. “And…I felt something in my systems. I thought somebody might have followed me and I wanted to look around. It was stupid. Nobody followed me.”

“Nothing else?” Amos asked.

Chase wouldn’t tell the leader he was seeing things. No point in causing any more upsets today. He’d figure out the problem on his own, and then he’d fix it.

“Suppose the woman in the café realized after you left that she’d just had a conversation with the great Chase Sterling.” Amos glared at Switchblade. “And what if the computer system hooked to that drone picked up the fact that you are not a resident of Herouxville?” He paced across the room. “You don’t leave here without permission. You may think you’re invincible, but any number of things could happen. You could get caught or injured. You could lead the Feds right to us.”

“It won’t happen again, sir,” Chase said.

Another smirk from Switchblade and Chase looked him in the eyes. “I said it won’t happen again.”

“Hey, I’m in agreement with that. But like I said earlier, you didn’t twist my arm.” Switchblade turned to Amos. “You know I’m not staying put. I’ll be going up more now that we ain’t got nobody working for us in town.”

Amos hovered over the big man in the recliner. “You take him up again, I’ll find somebody else to wander the streets of Herouxville. Got it?”

“Got it.” Switchblade pushed the footrest down and rose from the chair. “I’ll get those vegetables to the kitchen.

“You do that,” Amos said. “Chase, you still have to face your mother and Melody. I wasn’t too hard on you. Can’t make you any promises about those two.”

“Thank you, Amos. I’ll go work on those security measures we need to put in place.” Chase hurried for the door.

Amos waved him off, and Chase closed the door behind him.

Mel waited in the hall. No sign of Mom. At least he could deal with them one at a time. “Not here,” he said. “Meet me in my room.”

She left without a word.

Chase went to the command center and found an empty work station. He’d give Mel a few minutes while he reviewed the security like he said he would. “No more lies today.” He pulled the logs of S-drone activity from earlier that day. No indication that the drone hovering in town had caught on to anything suspicious. He checked the local police files too. All clear.

The biggest security risk was Switchblade trotting around town. The Feds might not know him, but a big black guy with no local address was bound to catch somebody’s eye.

A few prompts from the exoself showed Chase where to ring in some indiscreet coded communication going out from this headquarters to others around the world. Seemed like even the obvious errors weren’t caught by the WR. The Feds weren’t too bright, or they just didn’t care about the activity of the underground.

Or somebody besides Chase was watching out for these people.

He got up and left the command center. Time to have a talk with Mel. How could he kiss a girl and make her so mad all in one day? Well, he’d done it plenty of times. He smiled.

His mother stepped in front of him. “Again with the silly grin.” She smiled back. “Heard you got into trouble. Did you get a note to take home to your mom?”

“No, but I did get a good talking to.”

“And now you’re off to make up with Melody?”

“Something like that. You don’t miss anything, do you?”

“I know when my son has his sights set on a girl.”

“Mom, whatever happens with Mel is going to take a long time. This world is too messed up for me to get caught up in a relationship.”

“The world is never too messed up for love, Chase. Don’t lose sight of what matters.”

“I won’t.” He kissed her on the cheek. “But after what I did, Mel might just beat me up and toss me out of here.”

“She might. Go on,” Mom said. She smacked him on the backside.

On the way to his quarters, Chase went over his last communication with Robert. It was the final one allowed. He’d used the device in his ear to get a message to an old laptop belonging to Robert. He knew the code—twelve, two. Sparking the twelfth processor, he pulled two lines of code. He wasn’t supposed to do this again. It wouldn’t work this time. He sent the message through the exoself anyway.

Robert, if you get this, find a way to get into the system. I need your help. I’m seeing things.

He arrived at his door and pushed it open. Mel sat on the edge of the bed. Hopefully she’d calmed down.

“Amos was going to let you go, Chase. You didn’t need to sneak out.”

“He was? Because I just got an ear load from Amos about what I’m not allowed to do. And I’m not allowed to go up.”

She stood. “Well, maybe he doesn’t trust you now. Do you know how important it is for that man to trust you? You have to work together.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I don’t know how many times I can say that.”

“Why did you go up without waiting just a few minutes for permission? Do you know how stupid that was?”

“Look, Mel, I’m not one of you. I’m not some dedicated believer ready to lay down my life for the cause. I’m just a man who got some ridiculous stuff put in him that you people seem to think you need to survive. And by the way, thank you for doing that to me.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I thought you wanted to be here.”

“I don’t know what I want.” He pushed his hair back and turned away from her. “That’s not true.” He faced her. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to deal with whatever crap is floating around in the exoself.” He lifted his hand to her cheek and wiped her tears. “But that’s who I am now. I’m a transhuman. And I want to do something good with it.” He bent to kiss away another tear. “And I never want to be apart from you again.”

She put her arms around him and hid her face on his chest. “Is there anything else bothering you, Chase? I’m the one who got you into this and I’m here to help you.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Melody.” He held her tight. From the corner of the little room, a flash of code appeared. And just a hint of the curve of a red dress. “Everything is going to be all right.”