Nobody needed to broadcast what was happening in her house when she arrived home, either. The second Jodi opened the door her mother’s voice met her ears.
“No David, I will not calm down. I’m going home. I’ve booked my ticket and I’m leaving. I hate this place. It’s cold, unwelcoming and now it’s unsafe! I can’t believe you brought us here.”
Jodi tried easing the front door shut without making a noise. If she could manage that, tiptoe down the hall and close the door on to her room, she could avoid this whole scene.
For the first time ever, her father actually bellowed back. “Well, forgive me Marilyn, for wanting you both with me. You belong with me now and I will not be letting you leave when you only just got here.”
“Let me? LET ME?” Jodi recognised that tone and almost smiled. Gone was the simpering, cling-on Marilyn Scarfield. In her place was the independent woman who’d grown in her husband’s absence. Her words proved the theory. “Here’s a newsflash for you, Davey. I am NOT some pathetic little attachment floating along behind you. I am NOT the little moon orbiting ‘planet David’. I can look after myself and I can make my own way. You do not let me do anything. I decide what I want and I do it. If you don’t like my decisions, well that’s just too damn bad!” Marilyn Scarfield’s voice shook as she roared. Jodi would not have been surprised if people down on the street weren’t being entertained by the drama leaking through the sound proof walls.
Sneaking into her room, Jodi slid the door shut slowly so as not to make any noise. She could have asked her room program to close it, but that would have been loud and required a response.
Once inside, she thought for a second. “Lowest volume please, Room.”
“Low volume,” her room whispered back.
“Have I received any emails?” Ellie was the one person in the world, or off the world, that she really wanted to talk to. Even if her parents hadn’t been fighting, she wouldn’t have told them about the Fearless anyway. The less they knew, the happier everyone was.
“One email, Miss.”
Jodi picked up her flatscreen and flicked immediately to Ellie’s email.
CHECK YR FEEDS! They’re taking yr house down here. No massive issues yet but if things evolve u shld keep yr head DOWN.
Don’t have to tell anyone why u aren’t going #duh. Tell them u got sick. Tell them u hurt yrself. Tell them anything at all. Think it’s a bit sus that they’re pressuring u 2. Not a good sign. Don’t like the sound of them.
All is good here. School is boring, Mum is nuts and Alicia Tregan won’t shut up about Mars. Not like she’s been there either!
Gotta go, bus won’t wait. Just wanted u 2 know what I think.
Luv ya.
E
Jodi groaned and buried her face in her pillow. Not fair to get this now. Talk about too little too late. She still didn’t flick to her feeds. She didn’t want to see her friends handcuffed or their stern faces as they were dragged through crowds of gossips and snipes. Sure, they may have done something great, but she’d done something great and left the planet. They’d done something great and stayed to face the music.
Jodi pressed her face into her pillow and tried to concentrate. Trouble on two planets did not mean she had to deal with both planets at once. For now, she’d concentrate on Mars, seeing as she was living here and all. Mars wasn’t such a big problem, anyway. As long as she hadn’t been seen, no one would know that she’d attended the demonstration. Certainly no one would ever know she’d been there because of peer pressure. Of all times to develop a needy personality … and political demonstration of all things … who was she?
“Vision please, Room.”
“Provided,” her room murmured.
And, there, right there, larger than life and clear as a spring day on Earth, was the biggest, most detailed, most scarily accurate image of herself that she’d ever seen.
“Oh … crud.” So much for keeping her head down.
“Pardon, Miss?” her quietly polite room queried.
“Nothing,” she dismissed. But really, this was far from nothing. Jodi felt her mind begin to race. Obviously Hugin was doing much more than monitoring crowd movement, because that was not her passport photo on the screen. Worse than that, Hugin had the wrong end of the stick. How many other photos had been shown, who was she associated with?
Jules’ face flashed up. Then Astrid’s, followed by her parents. Obviously all of Anphobos was supposed to be on the lookout for the Fearless and their helpers. Her parents’ voices rose in the background of her fear. Thank goodness they were fighting. Now all she had to do was find a way out of trouble.
A genius, if slightly outlandish thought struck. Munin! Hugin fed all his information to Munin. If she could hack Munin – and she probably could because government programmers were useless – then she could erase her photo from its memory. Her photo, Jules’, and Astrid’s photos. All photos if she wanted. That was it! That’s what she needed to do.
Jodi plonked herself in front of her fantastic new computer. Palms were all very good for convenience, but sometimes a person needed brute force. Thanks to the Anphobosite welcoming committee … aka … her dad, she had a battering ram.
The screen blinked on. Her desktop still contained a number of icons she hadn’t erased. Her dad had put them there. Links to the monorail timetables, to the colony’s welcome page and satellite orbit maps. Jodi knew where to start. Start small, somewhere that people would pay no attention to her. A little site, like the welcome page, that nobody would want to hack. Some programmer would be slack with that page, put minimal safeguards on it, because no one would want to hurt it anyway.
Her fingers flew, almost of their own accord, across the keyboard. Start small and backtrack. Little pages are often part of bigger sites, which are part of bigger networks. While her eyes scanned code, her head was light years ahead. Already a network map was drawing itself in her mind. Invading a network was just like invading a country. Sometimes sending a small group of commandos during the night was way better than an entire army with all guns blazing. Besides, she’d been in once before. Clever technology threw up more walls and changed tags with every ‘visit’ she made. But it had yet to outsmart her. It might be clever, but she was better.
As the perfect exploit point appeared, almost jumping off the screen at her, Jodi began to smile. It was going to work. She could feel it. Adrenaline began its second rush of the day through her bloodstream.
The next page of script appeared before her eyes and her fingers ran so quickly across the keys that the noise seemed loud in the silence of the house.
The silence.
Her parents had stopped fighting. That was good, that was very good.
The knocking at the front door was less good.
“Who is it?” her mother called.
Jodi knew who it was and felt her blood turn cold. After all, Marilyn didn’t know anyone, did she? And her dad had never brought anyone home, either. It was the police bots. She knew it, and she knew why they were here. She slapped her hand against her forehead. Of course they knew where she lived. They knew where everyone lived. Anphobos wasn’t that big and everybody who came in registered an address.
She was totally dead.
Voices rose in the living room. Her mum’s, her dad’s and even bot voices. The bots were demanding her presence and her parents were saying, all over top of one another, that she wasn’t home.
“Oh … double crud.” Jodi looked around her sleek, lovely room. Nowhere to hide. Even if there was, the bots would probably be able to find her.
“Say again?” her room requested in a blessedly hushed voice.
“Window,” Jodi commanded in a stern but quiet tone.
“No window,” came the response.
“What?” Jodi strode to the clear panel that looked out onto Anphobos. Tapping the transparent stuff, she spoke very clearly, “Open the window please, Room.”
“No command for window is available.”
Jodi sighed. “Useless piece of …”
“Pardon?” the room requested.
“Nothing,” she fairly growled in frustration, looking around her room for an escape.
Code still streamed across her computer screen. Her bed was too low for hiding. Her shower would maybe rust the bots, in like a billion years. But ultimately there was no escape.
Unless.
Jodi flicked her eyes between the computer and the shower. “No command for window.” It wasn’t that she lacked a window. She lacked a code for opening the window. Too easy. If she could program the shower, she could program to open a window.
This time she stood behind her computer. She stopped the government code mid-stream. Best not to have the bots find her hacking their data link. Instead, she clicked on the icon she’d made for the house computer on her desktop. Considering her mother’s technical issues and her dad’s lack of interest, it had seemed prudent to make the house computer a slave to hers. Now she could control everything from her room. Not that her parents knew that, of course.
Jodi smiled at her genius as the map for her room appeared on screen. First she located the window, then she flipped to the script for it. The computer had been truthful, of course, about there being no code. Now, inserting the right code would be very, very important.
A simple command would be just that, too simple. What she needed was a command that would open the window just enough for her to slip out. Then it would need to close itself. And, trickiest of all, the command would need to delete itself and flip back to her desktop after a few seconds.
She chewed her lip while her fingers were busy.
When the window moved, she nearly applauded. As with everything on Anphobos, the right code meant a better life.
“Thank you, Room,” she whispered, straddling the window sill.
“You’re welcome,” the room returned, as Jodi slipped around to hang from the sill, a good three metres above the roof of the apartment below theirs. Her fingers hurt instantly and her armpits felt like they were tearing. There was a reason her room wasn’t programmed to open the window. The window led to a dangerous drop and she was no kind of mountaineer.
The window closed.
Jodi bit her lip, closed her eyes and let go.
Falling is easy. Landing is the difficult part. The quote from her old physics teacher usually made her laugh. But when Jodi landed and pain shot up her shins into her knees, his critique of their flight assignment felt much more personal.
One down, three to go.
The shortest apartment bubble would probably leave her a fall of two metres or so, to the landing in front of their escalator. Jodi winced, squeezed her knees with her fingers and wondered how long she could stay here on the rooftops before someone looked out their window.
Groaning, she slid on her belly across the curving roof of her neighbours’ house. Sliding seemed safest. Slipping on the smoothly curved, polymer slick roof would probably land her, badly damaged, on the street below. Her fingertips clung tighter as she slipped and gripped her way over the side of the polished construction. As she strained, then splatted onto the next building, sweating and gasping against the splitting pain in her ankles and knees, her mind strayed back to the Fearless one on the dome surface. How had that climber held on so tightly to such a smooth surface? And where had he gone after the show? Had he fallen, once disappearing into the glare, or had they made the long climb down, only to be arrested? Was he a he or a she? Whatever the case, the Fearless climber had been much more agile than she.
Two to go. Jodi gritted her teeth and began moving again. It was so unfair that her head should end up on the television but not the person responsible for all the upheaval. Curving her body to fit with the side of the next drop, Jodi considered how many pressure and heat sensors, how many programmed reflectors and shields she was destroying with her progress across the rooftops. Probably somewhere in the trillions, which meant she was now responsible for the damage of property as well as being associated with a pack of rebels. Just great.
The next rooftop smacked beneath her feet and hands sooner than she’d expected. Obviously a shorter drop, but it was difficult to tell in the dwindling light. Jodi crept as far as she could across the top of the last building and craned her neck to see the ground. Looking down, the distance between this apartment’s roof and its landing seemed a very long way. Fortunately though, a small sill protruded far enough to ensure the clear vision of their security camera in all light conditions. Of course while the sill was a blessing, the camera meant she had to be just a bit more careful.
She slipped feet first, trying to cling with her stomach muscles and keep as much weight as possible off the small ledge. Slowly, she eased more weight onto it. Once she was sure the ledge would keep her weight, she knelt on it, then gripped with her hands and flipped her body down onto the landing. Hopefully, her belly so close up would distort the camera for a second and she’d be gone before its light meter and lens could refocus.
The touch of her hand at the top of the travelator set it in a downward motion. Jodi bolted down the moving ramp and out of the dim house-lighting as fast as she could. She paused in the purpling shadows of a mechanical twilight and pondered.
Now what?
“Well, that took you long enough.”
Jodi felt her heart stop even as she spun on the spot.
“Would you STOP that? And what are you doing here? Are you stalking me? And how come my face is on the television? Where is Astrid? Will you tell them I had nothing to do with that stupid rally? And WHY are you here?” Not at her calmest, Jodi knew she’d lost track of her questions and decided to stop before she started to sound stupid–er.
Jules grabbed her flapping, pointing hand in his, either to stop her from drawing attention to them or to keep her from accidentally taking an eye out.
“I don’t know where the others are. No one has signed in to the gathering hall register the way they were supposed to. Not even Astrid or Mary. I think they’ve been rounded up for questioning. What were the rest of your questions?”
Jodi narrowed her eyes and made the stillest, coldest, most threatening face she could manage. He continued, and she was pretty sure he wasn’t intimidated.
“I’m here because you’re the last person I could think of …”
He didn’t get the chance to finish. Jodi snatched her hand out of his and began storming ahead of him.
“Thank you so much! Talk me into attending the stupid performance today and now I’m the last person you think of? Excellent. Nice to know where I stand.”
“If you’d let me finish.” He caught up and grabbed her hand back. “You wouldn’t have known to sign in after the demonstration and you’re the last person the authorities would really suspect. After all, you’ve hardly been here that long.”
Jodi’s shoulders slumped. Good of him to point out her stupidity for her.
“So is it illegal to participate in a rally up here?”
Jules actually smiled past his tired eyes. “No. But it is illegal to threaten the lives of thousands of Anphobosites by endangering the structural integrity of the dome.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. Oh.”
Jodi couldn’t think of anything else to say. Instead she stopped in the middle of the footpath.
“We should go back. It wasn’t one of us and it will all be sorted out in the end. It’ll be best if we just go find the others and figure out what’s going on.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple.”
“Really? Why not?” Her voice sounded more uncertain than she’d have liked.
“Everyone has seen you on the television. You’re the one they know least. I think you’d make a very convenient scapegoat.”
Jodi could have sworn she’d inhaled razor blades. Would they really do that? Is that why Astrid had invited her along, almost goaded her into participating? Had she known how this would turn out the whole time? Anger crept in to replace disbelief. So much for the clever Anphobosites who thought they were better than Eartheners; turned out they could be just as sneaky, cunning and basically foul as the worst Eartheners. If there had been something other than a very solid looking tree to kick, she would have.
Sadly the tree was the only option and broken toes made running difficult. Anphobos was really pretty useless when it came to hidey holes, so continual movement seemed the best plan – at least until someone figured out that she hadn’t had anything to do with the dome – which was a shame, because after the scramble down from her window, Jodi felt all her muscles starting to seize. A nice dark alley and a conveniently placed chair would have been nice. But a well-planned colony with no poverty and a comprehensive recycling scheme meant there were wide clear streets with no rubbish, no people living in cardboard boxes and nothing to conceal them from prying eyes.
“We’ll hide in plain sight for a while.” Jules must have read her mind again. So saying, he reached up into the branches of the tree under which they were walking and pulled down a knapsack. “But first we need to get you out of those clothes. That’s what you’re wearing in the photo.”
“Oh, no! I hadn’t even thought of that.” Right then Jodi knew she wasn’t designed for life on the run.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got some of Astrid’s stuff in here.” He slipped her a sideways glance. “She stayed at my place a while ago.”
Did she care? Did it matter that Astrid and Jules may have had a thing? A bit. It mattered a little bit. At another time, when she wasn’t trying to figure out how she was going to get changed in the middle of Anphobos without drawing attention to herself, Astrid and Jules might have mattered more.
“Well, the clothes are great. But I think changing here might get me arrested just as quickly as my photo on the screen.”
Jules went just a little bit pink. “There is a public toilet down in the Playground.”
By now Jodi knew that ‘Playground’ referred to Sector One. There the waterways pooled into a lake. Picnic tables and play equipment filled the park alongside the pool. Trees formed dense clusters and helped provide the ideal environment for both childish and rather more adult kinds of play.
Shaking off the odd thought, Jodi just nodded and followed him onto the train. What would normally have been a five minute ride took half an hour. They hopped on, off, into and skipped past monorails, cabs and shuttles on their way to Sector One. Jules was obviously trying to ensure they stayed ‘lost’. It must have worked because by the time they arrived at the Playground, she was so disoriented that she was surprised to see it appearing from what felt like the wrong direction. The feeling of being ‘found’, of knowing where she was, and even how to get away, made her grin. It was unreal, to stand all jumpy and nervous in the middle of such a serene world.
Snatching Jules’ backpack, she almost skipped off to the public facility.
“Can’t catch me …” she cried over her shoulder, waving the bag triumphantly.
Jules didn’t even try. “Don’t need to!” he called back.
Jodi was smiling as she strode into the dimly lit bathroom. Choosing a cubicle, she slipped inside, hooked Jules’ bag onto the hanger on the back of the door, and proceeded to strip. White fabric, previously untouched by anyone but her, puddled on the toilet floor.
Astrid’s clothes came out of the knapsack like soft shadows in her hands. Selecting the shirt first, Jodi pulled it over her head and was surprised at the way it virtually oozed over her skin. The tiny, trembling ‘zing’, like the barest trickle of static electricity, spoke of some kind of technology, probably nano, in the fabric. Considering her mother’s specialty, it was entirely possible that little machines were fitting the fabric to her frame.
Jodi shrugged and pulled on the black jeans. The same tingle and Jodi understood why Astrid always looked like her clothes had been painted on, but without any underwear lines or wrinkling. These were possibly the comfiest clothes she’d ever worn. Rather than leaving a trail, Jodi stuffed her white clothes into the black backpack and strode out of the public building feeling ever so confident.
Jules watched her from the edge of the Playground. She found his eyes without thinking. He smiled and motioned her toward him. Jodi moved like a puppet on a string.
“Hungry?” From nowhere he produced two sandwiches and a bottle of water.
“Where did this come from?” Obvious questions were her skill lately.
“Anphobos is an amazing place.” He nodded to a tall machine that looked like an auto-teller. “Ask and you shall receive.”
“Ahhh … and nobody will track that?” Too many fugitive movies played in her head. With real life so close to a movie, the cinema seemed her most reliable source of information.
Jules chuckled. “Not until we’re well and truly gone, so you can relax for a moment.”
Jodi unwrapped her sandwich and bit down. Mayonnaise, onion, some kind of ham and lots of vegetables crunched between thick slices of super soft but low GI bread. She didn’t ask where they might be ‘gone’ to. It was too obvious, really. They couldn’t go anywhere. Anphobos was an enclosed colony. Outside the dome, Mars’ temperature dropped to a cruel average of negative sixty-three degrees centigrade. There was nowhere to hide in or out of Anphobos. What they were going to do was dodge Hugin until the whole riot mess was sorted out and they were exonerated.
Happy, satisfied and mid-mouthful, then, was no time to find herself flying through the air, shoulders aching where Jules had shoved her. Horrified, she watched a small piece of bread leave her mouth as she fell backward, her feet struggling to maintain their hold on solid ground while the rest of her body plummeted backward toward the lake.
The sandwich flew out because her mouth was open. Her mouth was open because she was trying to ask, “What the …?”
Jules was obviously very good at interpreting facial expression because he brooked no argument.
“Dive!” he yelled, as he too arced through the air and into the water.
He landed with much more finesse than she did. Diving backwards with windmilling arms, stumbling feet and no clue as to what was happening was no easy task. In fact it was almost as difficult as chewing sandwich while holding your breath under water. Under other circumstances, Jodi would have grabbed Jules and stood on his head until his face turned blue. Only Hugin, leaning over the edge of the pond, searching with its frighteningly human photo receptors, kept her from drowning the annoying boy. Hugin blinked almost constantly as it tried to refocus.
Could the bot see through water or would reflection from the lake wreck its vision? Should she swim away or would movement attract attention? Trying hard not to move too much, she edged her face under a convenient raft of lily leaves. With her blonde hair and facial features sufficiently covered up, hopefully her dark clothes would just seem like shadows to the bot optics. It was the best she could hope for. That and not choking to death on ham sandwich.
Blood began pounding in her temples. Her ears hurt and her lungs began the slow burn that meant she needed to breathe. Jodi swallowed in her throat and prayed for just a few more seconds. Little stars began to burst in her vision as Hugin straightened away from the water’s edge. Jules’ fingers gripped around her ankle, holding her down even though every cell in her body screamed for her to surface and breathe. She knew they needed to wait, needed to be sure Hugin was gone. Convincing her lungs to wait was difficult.
Darkness crowded in on the edges of her vision. Desperation fostered daring. Ever so carefully Jodi brought her mouth just to the water’s surface. She could feel the fine hairs of the lily leaves tickle her lips. Gently, gently, fighting all her instincts she breathed quietly against the lily pad. Air whispered past her lips as she sipped small gulps from beneath the leaf. A fish slipped past her cheek. Jodi waited. Waiting was easier than drowning.
Jules released her ankle and burst through the water’s surface with a giant splash and a heaving gasp. Jodi smiled against her green camouflage.
“I never took Martians for swimmers,” she laughed as she popped from beneath her protective canopy.
Jules frowned. “We’re not.”
“You drown with remarkable style, then.”
That made him smile. Flattering a boy’s ego did wonders for their mood.
“We all learn to swim. We rarely do it for fun.”
“Well, good to know we haven’t broken with tradition. That was no fun at all.”
Jules flicked a stray stem of weed from his face.
“No. But it’s given me an excellent idea.”
“Even if you do say so yourself?”
“What?” Being Anphobosite, he didn’t always get Earthen figures of speech.
“I mean, how do you know it’s excellent if you’re the only judge?”
“Oh!” He laughed and winked. “Because I’m an excellent judge!”
Tension oozed out Jodi’s body as she relaxed in the warmth of Jules’ smile and his genuine interest.
“I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Before we get caught up in it, tell me your idea.”
“I think we should swim some more.”
“Well, that’s great and it is fun, but I really think we should work on proving our innocence, don’t you?”
“Are you deliberately misunderstanding me?”
Jodi frowned. “No.”
For a moment Jules looked bewildered. “I think that instead of getting out of the water now, we should swim upstream. We can travel that way without Hugin or the bots finding us too easily. And I don’t think they really like water. What do you think?”
I think I’m an idiot. Jodi took a moment to pretend she was thinking. After being such a brainless ditz only a minute ago, it seemed better to appear serious rather than clapping and crying, ‘Oh Julesy, you’re my hero!’ She ate a thumbnail then nodded.
“Good idea.”
“We’ll just have to make sure we don’t mess up the bottom too much or the silt we raise will be obvious.”
“Where I’m from the rivers are generally brown, you know. I feel a bit insecure trying to hide in clear water.”
Jules placed a hand on her shoulder and stroked his thumb along the back of her neck.
“Don’t worry. You’d be surprised how little anyone even notices the river. We’ll get out when it’s dark and our wet clothes won’t be too obvious. Trust me, okay?”
Trust him? She hardly knew him. Jodi put her booted feet into the silt. Still, if she didn’t trust him, what was she doing here? Besides, she had no reason not to trust him. But why had the word ‘trust’ caused alarm bells in her head?
Jodi shook the loose thoughts free. She was being paranoid. Not many Eartheners used the word ‘trust’ any more. They made deals, they were friends and generally people got along. Trust was a nice idea.
She nodded at Jules. “Sure.”
Jules showed her all his teeth. “We’d better go then. If they’re coming back, it’ll be soon.”
Jodi wrestled the boots off her feet and stuffed them into Jules’ backpack. The day was almost done and something about swimming along with fishes and frogs in the dark creeped her right out.
She dived, following Jules along under the water. They stayed under for as long as possible with each breath. When they surfaced they pressed against the river’s edge, keeping their bodies out of sight and letting only their lips above water. A bridge and a walkway provided opportunities for them to stop for a moment. Under the bridge, Jules slicked a hand down over her hair.
“You look like a seal with a sleek, smooth coat.”
“A blonde seal, huh?”
“You get my point.”
She couldn’t see his face in the dark, and Jules was difficult to read even in broad daylight, so Jodi opted to stay silent.
“We can get out here, I think.”
Jodi had no idea where ‘here’ was, but she was happy to get out of the water. Her feet were pruning and between climbing down the house and the prolonged swimming, her body hurt. Really badly.
Shadows darker than the night hid them as they climbed from the water under the bridge. Jodi didn’t bother standing. She just sat. A soggy, hungry, lost and seriously uncertain huddle of a person. Night time made her situation seem both ominous and stupid. She bit her lip as Jules squelched down beside her, just close enough that his leg brushed hers.
“You know, this is starting to feel a bit … dumb.”
Jules flicked her a look that brought fear creeping up her throat, tight and tasteless. Even in the dark she saw the quick turn of his head, the lift of his chin and the clench of his fists where they curled around his knees.
“Oh, really?”
Jodi swallowed. “Well, yeah. I mean, we live in a bubble. Where exactly are we going to run to? I feel like a little kid who’s had a tantrum and run away. They always get a street away and get frightened.” She laughed quietly at the memory. “I spent a whole day in a vacant house across the road from my parents’ place. I made myself completely miserable over nothing and it took my mum half the day to realise I was missing.”
Her attempt to lighten the mood missed Jules altogether.
“Firstly, you haven’t run away with nowhere to go. I have a plan. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with demonstrating a point.”
“Well, I’m not demonstrating a point. I’m running away from consequences. And what’s your plan?”
“Trust me. All will be revealed. First, I think we should have a bit of a rest. We have a lot to do.” So saying, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, snuggled her against his chest and leaned them both back against the bridge pillar.
Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Jules’ heartbeat banged loudly in her left ear. Why did he keep saying that? Why did he care what she did? Surely, no matter what he did, his plan was his plan. And what point did he think he was demonstrating?
Images rolled through her head, replaying the events of the day in flashes and slow motion. Jodi closed her eyes and let them come. Along with the pictures came the questions.
“Jules?”
“Hmmmn?” His head lolled back, his eyes were probably closed and his voice sounded tired, but Jodi got the distinct impression that he wasn’t sleeping.
“Why do they want me?”
His arm tightened around her. “What do you mean? For the dome of course.”
“They know I didn’t damage the dome if – they saw me watching the climber.”
He shrugged. “Maybe they think you know him. On the vids you certainly seemed to be paying a lot of attention to him.”
“Everyone paid a lot of attention to him! He damaged the dome. The whole colony might have collapsed!”
“No it wouldn’t. The nanobots and the size of the explosive meant the dome was perfectly safe.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m very clever.” Jules tugged on one of the ratty ends her hair had become. “If you’re not going to sleep we may as well keep going. It’s best if we move at night anyway. There aren’t many CCTVs and if we keep to the shadows in their blind spots we should be fine.”
Jodi sighed and pulled on Astrid’s boots. Her knees creaked as she stood. Jules took her hand and led her out of the darkness and into the night.