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regions were called hell-zones, areas that not even the passage of time could
cleanse of hideous, invisible plagues.
Eyeing Mina closely, Kane again wondered just how many truly human people
populated the world, but there was no way to hazard an accurate guess. Even
the intelligence-gathering apparatus of the Mag-
istrate Divisions in the villes could not learn with any certainty about what
was transpiring beyond the
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James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon con-tinental boundaries. Radio
waves wouldn't reach across the sea because lingering radiation and atmo-
spheric disturbances disrupted shortwave carrier bands.
As far as he was concerned, learning that Mina came from an isolated
settlement with little or no knowledge about the world outside her valley
wasn't much of a surprise. There were probably hundreds of similar pockets
scattered all over the world with no conception of the nukecaust or skydark or
that life was more than a rudimentary struggle for survival.
As if she picked up on his thoughts, Brigid com-mented, "This valley would
make for a pretty inter-
esting sociological study."
"Yeah," Grant rumbled, "if we were on an aca-demic field trip. Which we
aren't."
Kane nodded in agreement. "Mapping out the par-allax points is our mission
objective. We're bench markers this time around, not anthropologists."
Mina murmured something inaudible.
"What was that?" Brigid asked.
Hesitantly, Mina asked, "Is that why you're here? To mark benches? There are a
lot of benches at the sanatorium."
"That's good to know," Grant said blandly.
Mina's gaze fastened onto the gleaming pyramid. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion
and she said quietly, "No, you're not here for benches."
Grant, Brigid and Kane exchanged swift glances. When neither of the men showed
an inclination to respond to the girl's observation, Brigid said, "We're
explorers, more or less."
A corner of Kane's mouth quirked in a smile. "Sometimes we're more, sometimes
we're less."
Facing Brigid, he said, "We killed a wagload of screamwings and helped Mina
here rise in status in her settlement. That's enough extracurricular
activi-ties for one morning. Recalibrate the interphaser and take us home."
Brigid's back stiffened at the peremptory tone as she returned her attention
to the little metal pyramid.
Kneeling beside it, she touched a seam on its alloyed skin and from the base a
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keypad slid out. With an index finger she began tapping in a numerical
se-quence.
Mina watched the process with undisguised fasci-nation. Haltingly, she asked,
"What is that?"
"You wouldn't understand," Grant retorted brusquely. "I'm not sure if I do."
"Tell me anyway. Please."
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James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Distractedly, Brigid replied, "It's a miniature quan-tum phase transducer,
version two."
Kane threw the girl a wry smile. "Is that of any use to you?"
Mina's lips stirred as she silently repeated Brigid's description beneath her
breath. Kane was tempted to dismiss the girl's attempt to learn something new
as a wasted effort. His many years as a Magistrate had conditioned him to view
all outlanders as inferiors, human due only to an accident of biology.
Both he and Grant had come to realize otherwise since joining the group of
exiles at the Cerberus re-
doubt. They had no choice, particularly since a fellow exile and one of their
most trusted allies was
Domi, a feral Outland girl. Besides, all those at Cerberus were outlanders now
in that they could never return to their lives in the villes. So, if living as
an outlander made them citizens in the kingdom of the disenfran-chised, then
Domi and even Mina were heirs to the throne.
At a wordless utterance of irritation from Brigid, Kane turned toward her.
"What is it?"
She shook her head in angry frustration, red-gold tresses tumbling. "A glitch
in the telemetric software.
The satellite uplink is lost. I'm going to have to re-boot the entire system."
Grant glanced at the sky, as if he expected to see the Comsat hovering
overhead within reach. "Are you sure it's not the satellite?"
"No, I'm not. I'm only sure the uplink is off-line."
It had been a source of wonder to all of them when they learned that the
Cerberus redoubt was linked with two of the very few functional satellites
still in orbit, a Vela reconnaissance model and a Comsat. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]