Нэнси Кресс - If Tomorrow Comes

“What?”

“Austin is still missing. I want to go up the hill to the lahk and see if he’s there, plus bring Kayla here. Noah didn’t go by the house like I thought he would when he arrived this morning, he just came straight here. Steve and Josh radioed that they can’t leave their mining operation and aren’t coming here. Ree^ka-mak says I may leave the compound only if I am escorted by one of the unit. Are you on duty? Will you walk me up there?”

Salah couldn’t control his face. He felt it stiffen, felt his eyes narrow, and knew that Brodie saw it. Salah didn’t want Isabelle to go outside, didn’t want her to go with Brodie, didn’t like that she had asked him. Probably she would have gone alone if the Mother of Mothers hadn’t said otherwise. But Isabelle had asked Brodie.

Salah had a sudden picture of how they must look: a beautiful woman standing between a forty-five-year-old, slightly overweight doctor and a twenty-four-year-old, handsome soldier in superb physical condition. What a dreary cliché they were. Isabelle had slept with Salah, but was she regretting her choice? Did she believe in polyandry? He hardly knew her at all, only that she was the first woman in a long time that he’d wanted to know.

Brodie flashed a grin. “Sure, I’ll take you, Isabelle. I’m just coming off duty. Let’s go.”

“Thank you.” She smiled at him, and let go of Salah’s hand.

The smile had been distracted; she was genuinely worried about Austin and Kayla. But it had still been a smile. Salah watched her walk by Brodie’s side to the door.

He couldn’t believe his luck. Isabelle had asked her favor just as Leo was coming off duty. Sleep-deprived weariness vanished in an instant. His mind raced, half on the safest way to protect her, half on the fact that he didn’t actually have Owen’s permission to leave the area. The CO hadn’t said the unit couldn’t leave while off duty, although the expectation was that all four of them would be immediately available for emergencies. Well, Isabelle’s house was only half a klick away, and Leo was really fast, even in full kit. Also, it was up on the hill and Leo could surveil from there, see the whole area. Also, he would leave word with Zoe where he was going.

Owen wouldn’t like it.

Owen didn’t like anything these days. Sour as a croc with toothache, Kandiss had said, which was the first time Leo learned that Kandiss came from Florida. Something was eating Owen, that was for sure—something more, that is, than the spore cloud and being marooned on Kindred and the constant tense state of jacked-up inaction. Something that Leo couldn’t put his finger on. But what was Owen going to do—court-martial Leo? But, still…

Then Isabelle smiled at him.

The smile, sad and anxious, went straight to Leo’s heart. She loved her whiny sister and that wild kid, Austin. Leo liked Austin, too, having been pretty wild himself at that age. So he said, “Sure.” He visualized the route alongside the compound: skirt the camp, avoid the orchard and anyplace else easy to plant insurgents. Leo’s action in Brazil had all been urban, but the principles were no different.

He radioed on the unit frequency, “Leaving the area for fifteen minutes, will report to you then.”

“What the fuck?” Zoe said.

“Out, Zo!”

Isabelle said, “Who was that? Zoe Berman?”

“Yeah. She’s all right.”

“I appreciate you doing this, Leo.”

“No problem.” They were passing the edge of the camp now. No activity visible except a woman and an older man at a cook fire, some people sewing, a circle of older kids crouched over small stones… “What are those kids playing?”

“A gambling game. Sort of like Go.”

He didn’t know what Go was. “I didn’t think Kindred gambled.”

“Yeah, you guys either think we’re all saints or else, like your lieutenant, all devils in disguise. Not true. We’re human, just made nicer by a really good political and economic system.”

We. Isabelle considered herself one of them. He said in Kindese, “I want know more by those things. Will you teach me?”

She stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Would you like to learn?”

“Yeah,” in English. “Keep moving, Isabelle. No, not that way, over there. Longer but clearer.”

She resumed walking. There was a little silence. Then she said, “Yes, I’d be glad to teach you. I’m amazed at how much Worldese you picked up already. Neither of us has much time, but we can fit in something. Now and… afterward. When we’re not both busy for a while burying the dead.”

Her honesty startled him. Leo had been trying not to think about after the spore cloud. That was how he’d gotten through Brazil: Think only about the day happening right now, the objective, the orders, the target. That had always worked for him before.

“Leo,” she said as they approached the crest of the hill, “how many people have you killed?”

He hated that question, especially from civilians, who never understood. But Isabelle was different. “Eleven, mostly in Brazil. And every single kill was in defense of the Marine unit I was attached to.”

“I get that,” she said. “I’m not judging you.”

“The others are,” Leo said, again surprising himself. “Your friend Salah, for instance.”

“He’s a doctor. His job is saving lives, not taking them. But your unit is saving lives, too, by preventing even more violence.”

“Yeah,” he said, and they reached the lahk, which was a good thing because Leo’s throat felt tight and he needed a moment before he spoke again. The bar girls and friends-of-friends he’d gone out with hadn’t been like Isabelle. Nobody was like Isabelle.

“Stay here,” he said, “while I check out the house. No, not there—stand behind that. I’ll call you when it’s clear.”

“Okay.”

The house was as beautiful as he remembered: swooping karthwood—he knew the name now—curves, mellow gold in the orange light, surrounded by the sweet-smelling dark foliage that would provide a fucking good cover for insurgents. And shouldn’t the terrace above him be open to the air at this time of day? The sliding panels were all closed. Not good.

Leo circled the house. The north side stood flush to the ground, with less cover. The door here was locked—if you could call that lightweight contraption a lock. By now, he knew enough about Kindred to guess that the lock wasn’t supposed to keep anyone out, just announce to visitors that nobody was here. If anybody did break in, the lahks would cooperate to figure out who and go from there. Or things stolen might just be given away in the next illathil. Crazy system!

He easily smashed the lock with the butt of his rifle and cleared the rooms, which was easy because there was nobody in them. On one of the low tables, handmade like nearly everything here, was a folded piece of paper addressed to Isabelle. Leo picked it up and jogged back.

“Nobody there, just this note.”

She read it and handed it back to Leo.

Izzy—

Austin and I going away to Steve and Josh. It’s too dangerous here. Come get us after everything is over. At the mine.

Leo said, “Who are Steve and Josh?”

“The other first-expedition Terrans in our lahk. They have a copper mine in the central mountains and they’re there a lot, but of course they would have come back for illathil. Only—”

“Only what? Is something suspicious about that note?”

“No. Not really. Just that Kayla doesn’t get along well with Steve and Josh. Nor does Austin. Still, if she’s afraid, and she would be afraid here, with all the refugees and your unit… I wish she’d stayed here.”