Gary Gibson - Final Days

Aerial video shots made the Array itself look like a space-age castle under siege. Black Dogs and sonar tanks surrounded the main facility, forcing the crowds back whenever they came too close. Sphere governments were meanwhile demanding the resumption of normal gate services, and once again condemning the Coalition’s monopoly of wormhole technology. There were even ominous rumours of war, and unconfirmed reports that some of the growths had already been attacked with nuclear weapons.

She arrived in Phoenix less than two hours later, and soon located the hire car Jeff had sent to pick her up. He had already taken care of booking the hopper flight, with help from the Roses, since it was safer for her not to use her UP any more than necessary.

The car transported Olivia through a busy shopping district, where she saw people going in and out of fab stores, or walking their dogs, while all around them public screens displayed constant images of something enormous and obscenely alien tearing its way through the skin of their world. She realized how people did the only thing they could in the face of such an enormity: they went about their lives the same as always.

In that same moment it occurred to her she had not told Jeff about contacting Saul, and she could all too easily picture his look of hurt betrayal in response.

Olivia rinsed out her mouth and went downstairs, finding Jeff and Mitchell waiting in the motel’s foyer.

Jeff jerked a thumb towards the door adjoining the check-in desk. ‘I scoped out the kitchen,’ he said. ‘Found the refrigerator’s still running and they’re stocked up with eggs and bacon. Who wants to make breakfast?’

A weary-looking Mitchell slapped him on the shoulder. ‘I’ll make the breakfast,’ he said. ‘See you both in the restaurant in ten.’

Olivia stared after him as he strode past, the kitchen door swinging shut behind him. She was still struggling to process everything Jeff had told her, after he’d finished apologizing for treating her as he had. Pretty much anything seemed possible now that every day brought further news of growths, earthquakes and tsunamis. Even duplicate Mitchells were no particular surprise.

Jeff laid his hands on her shoulders and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. ‘Holding up?’

‘I guess.’ She nodded towards the kitchen, through which could now be heard the clatter of pots and pans. ‘Have you told him yet?’

‘You mean what we discussed last night?’ He shrugged and smiled. ‘I figured we could do that over breakfast. Why? Changed your mind?’

‘About Jupiter?’ Shaking her head, she reached out to take his hand. ‘No, if anything, I’m even more certain that it’s the right thing to do.’

Half an hour later, in the motel’s otherwise deserted cafeteria, she watched Mitchell devour a second plate of eggs before washing it all down with his fourth cup of coffee.

‘Sure, of course I remember Saul,’ he responded in reply to her question. ‘But it’s been a while since I last heard from him.’ He put down his knife and fork, and fixed his gaze on them both. ‘Why?’

‘I got in touch with him a couple of days ago,’ she explained, ‘when I was worried something bad had happened to Jeff.’

‘Where does Saul come into this?’

Olivia glanced sideways at Jeff, and saw he was deliberately not looking her way, his lips set firmly in a thin line.

‘I asked him to find Jeff,’ she said, turning back to Mitchell.

Mitchell glanced from one to the other, clearly sensing a tension between them. ‘And you did this when ? Before I called you, or after?’

‘Just after. When you called me, that’s what made me sure something very bad had happened.’

Jeff cleared his throat. ‘I still don’t see why you needed to get in touch with him—’

‘For Christ’s sake, Jeff,’ she snapped, ‘we already went over all this stuff last night. There was no one else I could ask for help, so what the hell was I supposed to do? I know you just thought you were protecting me, but I already told you it was the wrong move.’

Jeff raised both his hands as if fendhis lips off. ‘Okay, okay, point taken.’

‘Just wait one second,’ said Mitchell. ‘How can we be sure that Saul is on our side?’

Olivia stared at him incredulously. ‘Oh, come on . You know him as well as we do.’

‘It’s been a long time since I last saw him,’ Mitchell replied tightly. ‘You’d be amazed how much people can change.’

She shook her head. ‘Sure, but not that much. It took me a lot of effort to even get him to listen to me. When he said he’d help, he was being sincere. I’ve always been a good judge of character. You must know that.’

Jeff snorted in derision, and Olivia glared at him.

‘So he offered to help,’ said Mitchell, ‘but what exactly did he do?’

‘He went up to Montana to find Jeff, but he missed him by a couple of days. When he took a look around, he found the files Jeff told me he’d brought back from Tau Ceti. He didn’t know how to break the encryption on them, so I told him he should talk to a man called Farad Maalouf.’

Mitchell nodded. ‘I know Farad.’

‘He went to Newton to look for Farad, but that was the last I heard from him. I’ve tried to get in touch, but no luck. I don’t know if that means he’s gone the same way as Dan Rush and the others, or not.’

Mitchell drummed his fingers on the table top. Olivia guessed they were both thinking the same thing. She tried to pretend to herself that she wasn’t responsible for what might have happened to Saul, but the sense of guilt insinuated itself even more tightly around her, regardless.

She decided to change the subject, more to avoid thinking about Saul than anything else. ‘I have a question for you: how do you know the ASI won’t target your ship before it can land? A rocket landing on the Moon won’t exactly be inconspicuous.’

‘Lester and Amy Rose have been running sub-orbital fights for nearly half a century,’ replied Mitchell. ‘And lunar flights for nearly as long. There’s no reason for them to be targeted. And, since Jeff used to work for them and still knows them both well, he’s been able to swing us a berth.’

‘People get hurt,’ remarked Olivia. ‘There’ve been accidents.’

Mitchell shook his head and laughed. ‘Like we’d be safer staying here?’

She felt her face redden.

‘Look,’ said Mitchell, pushing his plate aside and leaning towards her, ‘the VASIMRs are a proven safe technology. Even the Apollo Saturn replicas they fly are a hundred times safer than e originals. It’s not just that this is our best chance of getting away – it’s our only chance.’

‘And what about the people here? What about the billions we’re leaving behind?’

Mitchell shook his head. ‘There’s nothing you can do for them.’

Olivia felt her muscles tense in horror. ‘That’s a pretty callous statement, isn’t it?’

‘Jeff’s told you what happened to me, right?’ asked Mitchell. ‘About how they found me, and how they brought me back here.’

‘He said that . . . that there are two of you, and you’re the one they brought back from the near future.’

‘If you look at it from my perspective,’ he said, ‘all this happened a long time ago. The fact is, you can’t mourn what you can’t change.’

Olivia fought to control her anger. She glanced at Jeff and saw the warning look on his face, and realized she was obviously close to blowing up.

‘Tell him now,’ she said to Jeff. ‘Tell him what we decided last night.’

Mitchell frowned. ‘Tell me what?’

Jeff hesitated, clearly caught off guard, then he reached out and put one hand over hers. She wondered if that meant he’d finally decided to forgive her for getting in touch with Saul.