22
February 10
Selah traveled across the bright white snow, wrapped in an animal skin coat, gloves, and dark goggles to prevent snow blindness. The snowshoes Baje brought out to the transport had caused her hesitation at first. It would take a lot of energy walking that far. Hopefully there’d be an easier way back like something drivable on snow.
“Are you feeling all right?” Baje walked close to Selah as they trudged the path she’d created on the way out to the transport.
Selah didn’t feel well, but she knew Baje would tell Rylla at the first opportunity, so she pasted on a smile. “I’m using muscles that I really have no reason to need other than doing this in the winter.” She laughed.
They plodded onto the entrance pad for the dome. It radiated heat, causing the snow to recede from the area, and allowed the market to be back in business. Whereas in Cleveland everyone lived inside the dome with no settlements around it, here at the Chicago dome there were small settlements spread around outside, and areas that outsiders could visit inside the dome, like Contressa’s holdings. But there were no ways for them to enter the actual city.
Baje helped Selah from the snowshoes. She was happy to stand still for a few minutes and regain her breath. She slipped from the coat and felt a hundred pounds lighter. Her strength slowly returned. “Is there water to drink out here?” Selah felt her throat sticking.
Baje looked sheepish. “Not out here, but Contressa will have water for you.” She pulled Selah by the hand to Contressa’s and opened the door. “I’m back!” she yelled. “How’s that for fast?”
No answer.
Baje started to yell again, but Contressa came around the corner from her garden. “Stop bellowing, child, I heard you the first time.”
The room faded in and out. Contressa touched Selah’s arm and spoke, but it was as though hands covered her ears. All that reached her were muffled noises, then the sounds all whooshed back.
“Baje, help Selah to the couch.” Contressa hurried to put down her shears and flower bunch.
“She asked me for water when we first came inside,” Baje said.
“I took my card from the flow. Here, put it back in and bring her a cup. She must have gotten dehydrated in the snow wind.” Contressa sat beside Selah, rubbing her hand.
Selah understood and could see, but she could barely breathe. Her chest rose and fell but her limbs refused to move. First her fingers twitched, then stretched. Next, the nerves tingled in her legs and sensation returned.
By the time Baje brought the water, Selah was able to hold it herself. She drank it down and asked for more. Contressa nodded and Baje rushed to get another cup.
Selah straightened. Her full senses returned. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.” She feared these were probably symptoms of her winding down.
Baje returned with the cup.
“Thank you, Baje. You may leave now. I will call you when Selah would like to return to the outdoors,” Contressa said. The girl nodded and hurried away.
“I have a couple developments for you,” Contressa said to Selah as the front door closed.
“I’ve been hoping. The repairs are almost complete on the transport. We could leave in two weeks.”
“Well, let’s hope this Seeker has enough sense to help you. I will have you escorted to him, but first . . .” Contressa held up a small wafer. “I want to tag you for your own safety. I’m sure nothing will happen to you while you’re away from my holdings, but just in case something unexpected comes up, I want to be able to find you.”
“I agree,” Selah said. She felt even more anxious at the thought that there could be trouble while she was with the Seeker. Visiting the Keeper had always made her feel safe.
Contressa tucked the wafer into the fold of Selah’s top and pressed the spot flat with her fingers. “I’ve got another surprise for you. I think we’ve jammed the city signal to be able to communicate with your transport. Try your communicator.”
Selah tapped the ComLink on her scrambler. Mari answered. “Hey, little sister. Are you still outside? What’s taking you so long to get to the dome?”
Selah laughed. “I’m inside the dome. We have free line communications with Contressa’s holdings. You can link with the merchants we need parts from. I’ll pay them and they can snowshoe or sled the orders out to the transport. Just please don’t let any of them inside. Talk later. Bye.” Selah hung up before Mari could ask too many questions and find out that Selah was leaving the holdings without anyone or anything except a tracking device.
Selah walked in the bright daylight with Contressa through several back areas clogged with haphazard piles of barrels and stacked containers, always with an outside curve to their right . . . and a hum. There were physical barriers to prevent coming in contact with the dome, but Selah could feel the dome’s vibration as though it were alive. “How far do we have to go?”
“The next holdings on this outer dome ring are the wharf areas of Lake Michigan. The entrance to the city ring is just up ahead,” Contressa said.
Selah liked walking close to the static energy hum. It seemed to give her energy. “I find it odd that two domes were built on huge lakes. Is there much water commerce?”
“I stay away from the wharf area. Strange things are known to go on there.” Contressa looked visibly shaken by the question. Her steps took on new urgency. Selah had to make an effort to keep up.
Selah grabbed her arm to slow her down. “Okay, I won’t ask any more questions about the wharf.” She tried to catch her breath, but the exertion coupled with the constant smell worked to keep her off balance. “How come there’s no teleport systems? Don’t they use the technology in this dome?”
“There are in the city, but not out here on the fringe. It wouldn’t matter anyhow. A Seeker would never transport a stranger to their chamber, not even a novarium.”
“This is all contradictory to what I experienced in Cleveland. Has a—”
Selah stopped. In front of them, a container system sat emblazoned with a sword and lightning bolt three feet tall. She had almost forgotten this was their original home.
“What’s the matter? Are you feeling ill again?” Contressa slowed and returned to Selah’s side.
“No, I’m fine. It’s that symbol.” Selah pointed a shaky finger.
Contressa made a face. “That was a long time ago. It means nothing now.” She pushed up her sleeve, revealing the same tattoo extending to her shoulder.
Selah backed away. Fear churned in her stomach. The trap had finally showed up.
Contressa let her sleeve drop and chuckled. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’ve been chased by Blood Hunters and that symbol for six months. How do you expect me to react?”
“That was your world, not mine. No one uses the term Blood Hunters anymore. It’s derogatory. They’re just Hunters now, and novarium are so few and far between that they’ve almost become a joke.”
Selah tensed. “Killing novarium is not a joke.”
“The novarium who’ve come through here are anything but docile. They’ve caused just as much death and confusion. There are Seekers who’ve survived their attacks.”
Selah was trying to remember the directions they were turning in case she had to find her own way back. “Novarium have tried to hurt Seekers?”
“Yes, actually, there is recorded history in the dome of three different novarium who killed Seekers.”
“Excuse me if I don’t believe you, but what would cause something so outrageous? My father never gave me any reason to believe novarium were dangerous or combative.”
“Maybe they didn’t like the answers they got.” Contressa stopped at a stone gate and ran her hand over a shiny black circle in the right side of the wall.
The gate shifted to the left, and a woman walked a flat stone path to the opening. She wore a long brown robe with a white sash and a wide hood that rested on the crown of her head, making her look mysterious. “I am an Oracle of the Seeker. You will accompany me to his chamber.” The woman bowed at the waist and stepped back from the opening.
Selah looked into her eyes before the hood obscured them. She sensed nothing. The person in front of her was a black void. Selah backed up, arm out to move Contressa back with her.
“Selah, what’s the matter? It’s extremely rude to treat an Oracle in this manner,” Contressa said, trying to push Selah’s arm away.
“She’s not being honest. I don’t know if she’s the real Oracle or just corrupt, but walking away with this woman would be a death sentence,” Selah said.
The woman spoke. “You will accompany me—”
“Now hold on. Selah has some concerns and you’re ignoring them.” Contressa put her hand to her sidearm.
“You will stay out of this. You are not the novarium,” the Oracle said.
“I don’t like your attitude. Do you know who I am?” Contressa said.
Selah could feel danger building in the Oracle. She reached for Contressa’s arm to pull her away. At the same moment the Oracle pulled a long sword from the folds of her robe and lashed out.
Selah dodged the flashing steel, and Contressa delivered a blow to the woman’s head with the butt of her sidearm. The woman slumped to the ground.
Contressa stood over her. “Can you believe this? In my own holdings, I am attacked by a useless sword-wielding woman! In my own holdings!”
Selah looked down. “I don’t think that’s a woman.” She felt a power surge building. It was close. It was . . . Selah grabbed Contressa’s hand. “Run! Now!” She kept a grip on Contressa until she ran on her own. They stopped and turned.
“Why did I just run away from an unconscious woman?” Contressa looked back up the lane where the body was draped across the threshold to the other area.
Selah held up her hand. “Wait for it.”
The body exploded. Smoke drifted up from the remaining pile of little gears, circuits, and petri dish slabs of skin littering the ground. A greenish film covered every surface for twenty feet around the blast.
“How did you know she wasn’t real?” Contressa led Selah away. “Have you dealt with these before? We have a segment of society that thinks they’ll be the next wave of domestic help.”
“I’ve heard of them but never seen one. It was more in what I couldn’t feel. I couldn’t feel its intentions, and every human being has intentions.” She was right this time, but she still worried that her abilities were fading. It had been hard in the Cleveland dome to read the body-speak of those around her.
She hurried beside Contressa back to her quarters. They monitored everyone who passed, watchful of another prong to the attack. “Besides, it was really old technology and I could hear her gears grinding.”
Contressa stopped and stared at Selah as she passed into the room. “Your take is so simplistic. You make me smile.” She shut the door. “I’m going to hurt a Seeker if I find out I’ve been duped into presenting them with a novarium.” She picked up a communicator, fingered a code, then turned away from Selah. She paced in fast circles and spoke loud enough for the whole dome to hear.
Selah lowered slowly to the couch to be sure she had at least that much control of her knees. The adrenaline had worn off and her body was having trouble processing the recuperation. She needed water. Her forehead started to sweat. She wiped it with the back of her hand and leaned back into the cushions. The room weaved in and out.
“Looks like a fight among Seekers or Oracles, or both,” Contressa said to her. “Who knows. Anyhow, a real Oracle has been killed in addition to that robot. The Seeker has consented to allow me to bring you to him, then return to retrieve you at the end of your session. It will be all day tomorrow. This is your only chance to talk to him.” She shook her head. “They’ve gotten all kinds of nervous, and I think this is the beginning of a new time of troubles in here. I want to get you in and out of this dome while you can still make it. We’ll start early.”
Selah’s relief evaporated. If she had to make the trip to the transport and then back here in the morning, she might not be in any condition to meet the man. She couldn’t mess up this one chance. “I think I should stay in the dome tonight so I can get an early start. Is there a place that can accommodate me? I’d be glad to pay. I came prepared to pay for any of our parts that arrived.”
“Please be my guest here. This is only a symbol of my presence in my holdings. I actually live in the city. I’ll leave my water card—”
“What’s a water card? Are you denied basic drinking water?”
“No, we’re not denied. Clean water costs money. People from the city used to come out here and steal the water so they didn’t have to pay for usage there. Now water out here is measured by the cup. So you pay for exactly what you use.”
“But the children? Surely they get free water. Can’t you melt the snow for that?” Selah felt sick, remembering how much of their water she and Bodhi had drunk.
“No, melted snow has a very metallic taste. The children get cards for two cups a day for the week, and when it’s gone they go outside the dome and drink from the stream or wait till the next week for a new card,” Contressa said.
Selah was horrified. She’d cost the children two days’ water. Tears pooled and she blinked them back. “Can Baje and Tuere spend time with me?”
“I think that would be fine. They both have rooms here because they help me often. You can take my room. There’s bread and fruit in the kitchen, and some winter vegetables like carrots and potatoes in the pantry if you prefer.”
Contressa talked to several people by comm, sent a message to the children, then turned to Selah. “You’d better call the transport before we close the energy loop down for the night, and it would be a prudent idea if they ordered anything else you might need. I think this new diversion is going to shut down your parts pipeline. Merchants will take payment from anyone, but no one wants to get in the middle of another war. There’s already talk that you’re the ones responsible for the dead Oracle.”
“We didn’t have anything to do with a killing,” Selah said.
“Do you think you could convince a raging, angry mob of that?”
Selah frowned. Their window of safety was rapidly closing, but she had to stay overnight. Her body couldn’t make another trip through all that snow. She knew Bodhi was going to be leading a chorus of protests about that.
She fingered the scrambler and in her head begged her mother to be the one to pick up. The call connected. Bodhi’s mellow, husky voice said hello. Selah tried to remain upbeat. “Hi, Bodhi, we ran into a little difficulty, and I’m going to stay overnight so I can hit the problem fresh in the morning.” Selah squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the explosion.
“Okay, if that’s what it takes. What was the problem?” Bodhi asked calmly.
Selah’s eyes opened. She stared at her scrambler.
“Selah?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was looking for something. The Oracle of the Seeker I was supposed to meet turned out to be a robot. It was programed to self-destruct and I’m assuming I was the target. But luckily, I heard the gears and got away in time.”
“Be careful, Selah. You know I love you, right?”
Selah blinked a couple times. “Yes, I know you love me. Good night.” She disconnected. What was that all about? No arguments. Not a single chastisement. Selah figured Taraji had told him about her shortened time as soon as she’d left.
The front door opened and the two laughing children poured in.
“Have a great night, you three. Baje, you know where the food is, and my card is in the flow,” Contressa said. She waved and departed.
“We really get to spend the whole night having a party with you, and the other kids can’t even say anything since it’s at Contressa’s,” Baje said.
“Speaking of water cards, young lady,” Selah said, “why didn’t you tell me that each cup of water you gave us cost you?”
Baje looked at her innocently. “You’re the novarium. We should give you our best. When you’re changed, we all will be changed.”
Tears fell from Selah’s eyes. Baje wrapped her arms around Selah and laid her head on her shoulder. Tuere pretended reluctance but joined their hugging party. His lanky little body was underweight for thirteen years. And Baje at fifteen and a half had just six months of life before her heart would decide it was time to stop.
Selah hugged both kids and cried for herself and for them. She didn’t believe she would make it now. She had to help them regardless of the cost.
Selah and Contressa walked the same cluttered road as yesterday. They weren’t expecting more trouble, but both women remained highly aware and vigilant of their surroundings. This time when the gate slid open a wizened old man with soft eyes and a white beard like cotton greeted them. Selah wondered what made Seekers and Keepers the guardians of these domes.
With hands crossed in front of him and a nod of greeting, he led them along the trimmed path to a stone cottage. As they approached Selah saw a much larger building attached to the cottage, but it was hidden by a rolling fog bank.
“Are you the Seeker?” Selah asked as she strolled behind him, taking in the garden landscape. She saw an apple and a pear tree with full-sized fruit.
“You’re not supposed to talk to him until spoken to,” Contressa said. She looked fearful that Selah had spoken.
Curious. For all her bravado, Contressa seemed just as impressed with the Seeker’s position as the ordinary people. Selah decided her own personal relationship with the Keeper had probably been beyond the norm for his position.
“It is acceptable for the novarium to speak directly to me,” the Seeker said. He led them into the small cottage with a stone fireplace and two overstuffed chairs, then turned to address Contressa. “As you can see there is only room for two of us. I would ask if you would kindly sit outside so I may confer with the novarium in private.”
Selah was embarrassed at Contressa’s dismissal, but the woman readily accepted the fate and seemed to hear nothing but that a Seeker was addressing her. She quickly exited with a smile.
“You are nothing like the Keeper in the Cleveland dome.” Selah took the chair on the right of the fireplace.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” The Seeker lifted a tray from the side table and set it between them on the hearth. He sat in his chair and reached to pour the steaming drink into cups.
“Don’t know and don’t particularly care,” Selah said. “Seekers have been hostile to me in this dome. I just want to be out of here and on my way. But where do I go? What is the next point to the Third Protocol? I must leave quickly because I’ve made several mistakes that have cost me time.”
The Seeker lowered his head then looked at the fire. “Then you must leave as soon as I tell you because you can’t linger here after that final revelation. But I suspect, unlike some of the more self-absorbed, you want answers to other questions as building blocks for your future. If you choose wisely, the answers I give could have long-reaching implications.”
Selah tensed. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for listening or video devices. She understood his body-speak and it made her mind race. He was trying to give her more information than he was allowed to offer, but he was not prevented from answering truthfully when asked.
“Then let’s save my destination until the end of the day.” Selah sat back in the seat to get comfortable. “What am I? What is a novarium?”
The Seeker stared at her. She squirmed, then reached for the cup he’d poured her and smelled it. The same blend as the Keeper. She took a few sips. “You haven’t answered me.”
“I’m trying to decide what to say.”
“How about the truth.”
“It’s not that easy.”
Selah slammed the cup in its saucer and leaned forward, her eyes reduced to slits. “Do you think being me is easy?”
The Seeker recoiled, sitting up straight and pulling his feet under his chair.
She decided to ease off the mad eyes. Her head hurt and caused a throbbing behind her eyes. “I’ve been chased since the moment I transitioned. No peace, no happiness, and no choice!” Selah stared down the Seeker. “I deserve the truth. I’ve earned it.” The throbbing subsided.
“Fair enough. What are you? I don’t know. We were never deep enough in the project to get that level of information. I know it’s something with your DNA, but in the dome we’ve never had the level of expertise or equipment development to go much further.”
“You’re lying!” Selah stood and paced in front of the fireplace. The roaring fire was beautiful and hypnotic, but there was no heat coming from it—just another dome illusion. “You have dome technology, which is highly advanced.”
“Ah, but we didn’t create or build the technology and have no way of replicating it. We can program fixes for any nonfunctioning systems from here. The system runs a diagnostic and repairs itself,” the Seeker said.
“What do you mean ‘from here’?”
The Seeker gave a half smile. “You saw the building when the fog bank glitched.”
Selah smiled. Observant man. “If this is the control room, where’s the room generating the dome?”
“We don’t know, but it’s not inside this dome.”
Selah thought about that for a second. “The technology used to run these two domes is the same technology that runs the Mountain. Their generator was underground—maybe yours is also.”
The Seeker’s body-speak relaxed. “Thank you for that suggestion. I’m not sure we have the motivation to seek it out now. We all transferred from the Mountain, so it makes sense they used the technology at the home base. As you can see we’re limited by circumstance on the knowledge we have available. New discoveries take time and resources we just don’t have.”
“Then tell me about STORM. You can’t say you don’t know about that. It extends the lives in both domes, and somehow both domes have succeeded in messing it up.”
The Seeker sat back. “Nobody’s asked about that relationship in a long time. STORM was never meant to be permanent. It was just supposed to be used for the first phase of the testing.”
“What kind of testing?”
“They never told us. It was above our pay grades back in that day, but the whole thing was a need-to-know project for DARPA,” the Seeker said.
“What is DARPA?”
The Seeker gave a grin that turned into a smile, then he broke out in real laughter. Selah felt uncomfortable watching the man laugh. It struck her as more scary than funny.
“I don’t remember after all these years. We had acronyms for everything back then, a real alphabet soup of government offices. It had something to do with defense. None of us remember much.” The Seeker stared at the crackling fire. “But that’s what we signed on for.”
“But STORM wasn’t a defense project. It keeps people healthy, and that lets them live longer,” Selah said.
The Seeker nodded. “Extreme health was the object of the testing. The longevity came as a bonus many have tried to duplicate. That’s why so many fools have sought your blood.”
Selah felt her temper rise. “So if they were fools, why didn’t you tell them to stop killing novarium?”
“Because it was useful for the correct reason.”
“Excuse me, the correct reason? There is a correct reason that you should be able to have me killed for my blood?”
The Seeker paled. “I didn’t mean to sound callous, but when it’s for the good of many people’s health I consider it the correct reason—one sacrifice for the many.”
“How about if the many meant every one of us everywhere? If this process had been completed, then all of us would have been changed instead of just the few in this dome benefiting.”
“We only care about the dome. This is the world we are charged with protecting.”
“Don’t you understand how insane it sounds that you care only for your people? Your people are not the whole dome. They consist of the wealthy and elite who are willing to pay to be healthy—those who can pay your inflated prices. You leave the rest of the city to wither.” Selah jumped to her feet. “Contressa’s holdings are right below here. You and your rotten government throw away children who have broken DNA that you could fix, but you sentence them to death at sixteen years when they should be learning to live. You’re evil!” Selah moved away from the heatless flames. It was no longer pleasant to sit with this man.
“Those defectives are a drain on society. All they’ll do is breed more defects. Yet there are those who choose to help them and make their last days brighter. It’s not my problem.”
“But they are children! You adults made the problem. It shouldn’t be the children who have to pay for your mistakes,” Selah said. She couldn’t get much angrier without ruining her chance of getting information about the next station. Would the Seeker hold back if he got angry?
“Are you novarium intentionally left this much in the dark? Or has that just developed over time? STORM was the first phase of the project, and you were the second phase. The Third Protocol is combining you with the original source of STORM.”
Lightning stabbed at Selah’s brain as his words bounced back and forth in her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself the strength to breathe. She had to answer or he’d notice. “So we’re back to me. What am I?”
The Seeker shrugged. “A lot of the projects we worked on in those days had multiple applications, and we never knew what any of it was for. We just liked the money and notoriety. Our section won patents five years in a row. The excellence award became our brand.” The Seeker pushed up the sleeve of his robe to expose the sword and lightning bolt.
Selah’s breath returned in time for her to look at that symbol of hate. It pumped up her heart rate. “Why did the Blood Hunters come about? You’ve changed the name here to be more palatable, but on the other side of the mountains they’re chasing novarium and draining their blood.”
“It’s such a stupid and wasteful quest. The DNA in your blood remains alive outside your body for only one hour. From the reports of the first Blood Hunters to return through the Mountain pass, it appears that over time they lost the notation that novarium samples are only viable for an hour. Most of their facilities and those they sold blood to were far too inept to ever have anything but limited success. Now that they’ve been here, the next 150-year cycle will be different.”
Selah looked at the floor. “I can see you expect me to fail also. Thank you for that gratifying lack of confidence, but this has got to end with me.”
The Seeker shook his head. “It was never supposed to be this way. It was just a friendly rivalry between development teams, and then the Sorrows happened. I never dreamed I’d live to see the end of a complete cycle.”
Selah straightened. “Have Blood Hunters from my side of the mountains been here?”
“Yes, they came in early December, another clan returning to their roots since the pass is open. These were Kingstons from Waterside, Virginia.”
Selah forgot to breathe for a second. How was it even possible for them to get here? She stopped to think about Jericho and her almost wedding . . . for about two seconds. They had come through the pass. Others would too. “I’m ready to leave now. Tell me where I’m to go.”
The Seeker raised an eyebrow. “Was it something I said?” He paused then raised his head. “Ah yes. Let’s see. You are the last novarium in the cycle, so that makes you Glade Rishon’s kid, and that set placement was in Dominion. The Kingstons are from Waterside. I get it. And I do wish you well, whatever happens.”
Selah held up a hand. “Wait! What do you mean by ‘set placement’?”
“The original plan had a protocol for specific groups of paintings to be distributed along predefined routes. We had them mass-produced in New Jersey. I even delivered some paintings personally, but I never got as far south as Dominion,” the Seeker said.
Selah looked at him, waiting for more. Nothing came. “So what was the purpose of the paintings?”
“Don’t know. I never got to ask, or if I did, it was part of the memory wipe before we were let go. About a hundred years ago I found documents I had left here on one of my trips back to Washington. It did give me a little info to add to the pile of what we discovered. All I remember about that group was that the titles were an anagram for the Space Needle.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t know that either.” He pushed a lever on the arm of his chair, and three guards emerged from around the wall. One held the door open. Selah was glad she hadn’t let her temper get away from her. They might have appeared and tackled her.
She raised her hands. “Well . . . next destination, please.”
The Seeker stood up and straightened his robe. He crossed his hands in front of him.
The guards moved closer. The Seeker took a deep breath. “There is no more.”
Selah tipped her head and looked at him. “I’m waiting for the punch line. This is a joke, right?” She shivered, remembering the Keeper had told her this exact thing when she was leaving his dome. After all they’d been through in Cleveland, she had been afraid to believe the Keeper, but now to hear the same thing from this new stranger . . . The reality stung.
“That is why the guards are here. Three of your novarium didn’t take kindly to being told there was no more, and they killed the Seeker who delivered that message.”
Selah moved toward him, but a guard blocked her way. She slumped to her seat. What was she supposed to tell her family?
“Why is there no more? How do the clues just stop?”
“Cleveland and Chicago were the only two domes to go with the new technology. The rest kept putting it off, and then the Sorrows happened. The dramatic upheaval of Yellowstone changed the magnetism in this part of the country, and the first time there were solar flares, the intense pressure and rapid polarity changes blew up the other domes like fireworks.”
Selah rocked back and forth. There had to be something. “Give me anything. A place. A direction.”
The Seeker looked her in the eyes. “North and Milwaukee were where I sent the other novarium. But there are no domes there anymore, and I have little on the indigent population.”
The closest guard laughed. “Yes, little is the operative word.”
The Seeker threw him a dirty look, and the guard straightened up.
Selah looked between them. “Is there something I’m missing?” They seemed to be sharing a secret.
The Seeker smirked. “You may run into some small problems once you leave this jurisdiction.”
“Then why go north? What about traveling south?”
The Seeker sat back in his chair and shook his head. “There’s nothing to the south, not even vegetation. It was all destroyed by the magnetic storms.”
“But there is life to the north, correct?”
The Seeker shrugged. “Water, wastelands, or cities. You’re on your own.”
“Can you give me anything?” She looked at the guard who’d made the smart remark, hoping he’d have something to add, but he remained silent. “Anything I can use. Do you know what I’m looking for?”
“I heard tell there was an old lady who could help, but that was 150 years ago.”