They walked quietly into camp, the ring of ragged tents surrounding the hulking body of the lifter. Althea followed Kyso, climbing into the body of the vehicle, protected now from the winds by its fabric covering. Once inside, she was presented by demanding faces – ready for concrete answers plans and goals. Her needs, her confession to Dorian would have to wait.
The harsh acrid odor of the poorly filtered thruster engines threatened to overpower her. Althea covered her nose as she adjusted, cursed again her lack of control over her nantech. She nodded to Kyso, who spread out the map he’d created, drawing the other six’s attention away from her queasiness.
“This is our goal.” She stuck a finger at the site marked on the map. The others examined the spot, a couple pale fingers joining hers.
“The ruins of the fallen sky city, Merk’apas.” She had to raise her voice; it wasn’t at all quiet in the lifter. The looseness in the fabric cover magnified the noise of the rising night winds.
From the end of the piecework table, she spotted Kyso’s smile. He had picked out the site, the objective, based on her criteria – her lies – a place Traejan and he knew by rumor and memory, likely to be deep enough into the south to have not been visited. She looked up, checking the faces around her. The greggas’ expressions, muttered responses were less positive than she had hoped for.
“That’s pretty far south,” Nur told her displeased, showing it in his crossed arms, frown turned to scowl. “There’s no cover on the tundra. We’ll be exposed all the way there.”
Obe and Abek Goa agreed.
“We can get there in a half a day with the lifter,” Althea pointed out. On foot, it would have taken at least a full thirty Makani days.
“You think this collection of spare parts,” Nur pointed a thumb at the engine block of the lifter, “will last half a day? Smell those thrusters? Another nine – tops.”
“What do you know about lifters, Nur?” Enos chided. “We made it here without breaking down.”
“We’ve got nine working cylinders,” Kyso offered smugly. “We only need five to run it.”
“After the ice wall it’s all flat land.” She glanced up at them, conviction firm, not letting her body language suggest doubt. “We’ll be able to move fast.”
“I’ve been there,” Teffa told group.
For a moment, Althea felt the touch of panic. The surprise ended there, to her relief. The others laughed at the woman’s claim, but the Teffa held her own, admitted that she hadn’t scoured the ruin.
“A lot to look through.” Her claim wandered off into guessing, tacit approval. “Could have what you’re looking for.”
Goa still wasn’t totally taken in.
“How do you know what we are looking for will be there?” he asked, looming over the map, long arms gesturing strongly, dramatically. “The constructs have stripped a lot of tech over the anna.”
Althea took a breath in, steadied herself.
“Kyso has gathered a lot of information about the city, and the territory around it,” she told him. Still, it was terribly incomplete, and relied mostly on the older man’s memory of when the city was home to hundreds of thousands – operational, alive.
“Look over the data,” she offered, presenting the group copies. That was always a good choice. Provide more than enough for them to examine, keep them busy, appeal to their desire, greed and especially – hope, the foundation of any successful manipulation.
“They can’t have taken everything,” she told them with as much conviction as she could muster. “Not yet.”
