The agenda was laid out.
Abba was behind them. Right around the coast, Sip. Land journey through Sip. From Sip more land, then hills, mountains, and Buford. Milo was tempted to let Buford reach the Mount and have an epiphany save them all the trouble of another confrontation, but a man who’d poison the world to keep an empire of lies alive wasn’t likely to be struck or even gently prodded by epiphany’s lacy hand.
Sip was in retro phase, which partly explained the migrations to earthy Abba. A number of Quonset and adobe structures had mushroomed in spaces ignored by their modern cousins, an appeal to simplicity designed to make whatever secessionist bid Sip entertained seem almost natural. There was something about the Earth’s magnetic field that made the planet’s inhabitants want to break away from ruling bodies in order to create more ruling bodies. If Atlantis itself was a Heights and Abba a Pointe, then Sip was the Hills, literally and figuratively. Pastoral greens undulated through the city like underground plesiosaur humps.
Some ways off, half a head protruded from the water to watch the Ann dock. Then it quietly disappeared. The ship barely bobbed as the crew unloaded supplies near the large framework house Smoove and Quicho hand-built between outings. Desiree had already decided Sip was where she and Smoove would eventually retire while Milo and Ramses healed their wounds and aches in a nursing home or on another planet. The green rolling hills reminded Smoove of home in his heart, with the added benefit of there being water right there so that the Ann and Fi would never be lonely.
Once the Atlantidean rovers were assembled, Desiree, Milo and Ramses hugged the angel Shetel—who volunteered to stay on board—and the parties headed out split per vehicle toward the first star they saw on the right, which was the setting sun, and straight on till morning.
~~~
Atlantidean rovers were not the most comfortable things to drive in straight on till morning.
Particularly with a bunch of oversized angels riding along.
And also when the only surety was that one was driving in a more or less ‘general’ direction.
The rovers looked like something DeLorean would’ve designed if he’d realized people would pay ridiculous money for huge military transports marketed as personal vehicles, along the lines of a muscular minivan with amphibian tendencies and armored plating.
Only these could levitate and required powering only once a year.
Atlantidean rovers were cool as hell.
They stopped to stretch with the sun. Being outside made them realize that inside the vehicles they’d unconsciously succumbed to the elevator effect, but outside there was banter, questioning, and breakfast: homemade pastrolls frozen and especially packed for the trip by Ele.
Right after breakfast, the Battle Ready Bastards taught Desiree how to stare down a snake.
Ramses and Milo studied the vista.
“There’s a lot of open terrain,” said Ramses.
“We know where he’s going.”
“Lot of terrain on the Mount too. He could’ve been there and back.”
“We’d have heard about it. You don’t go to the Mount without somebody knowing,” said Milo.
“The goal him or the Mount?”
“Him.”
“Just so we’re clear.” Ramses passed a scope to Milo. “Take the left. We’ll work our way back.” They went about a hundred meters apart then slowly and methodically searched the distances. There were no glints, no flashes, no sudden movements, but there was… smoke?
Ramses whipped his communicator. “Forty-five degrees east of you.”
Milo searched. “Yep.”
Ramses zoomed as tight as possible. “That’s blue smoke,” he said.
“Mount up, people,” Milo called out.
Ra’saiel X trotted to him.
“East,” said the angel.
“Soul fire.”
“Right on.”