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  Shan winced internally at the image of a helicopter’s rotor winding up a graphene cable and crashing to a halt. Then the copter itself tumbling to the ground with the pilot having no idea what had just gone wrong.

  Ell increased the speed of the golf cart and said, “None of the FBI are moving out toward the farm are they?”

  “No.” Allan answered.

  They pulled up to the wide area in the tunnel under the groundskeeper’s shack on the farm and got out. Ell said, “Oh man, climbing a ladder with this huge belly is gonna be tough.”

  Shan said, “Let me carry your emergency pack.”

  ***

  York watched the front door team hit the door with the buster. As his men poured inside, York got out of the command post and started up the walk himself, eager to confront the woman he’d been chasing for so long.

  When he entered the house his agents wouldn’t look him in the eye. York’s dander began to rise, “Where is she?” he barked, turning into the hallway of the modest little home. The only agent who met his eyes shrugged.

  York turned into the master bedroom. The bedclothes were rumpled as if someone had slept in them. The room was otherwise fairly tidy. Glancing through the open door into the master bathroom he saw a pair of flannel pajama bottoms pooled on the floor in front of the toilet. “She was on the toilet when we arrived?”

  “Believe so sir.”

  From behind him York heard someone say, “Basement clear too.”

  York said, “All team members,” pausing to be sure his AI would have connected him to everyone. “OK team, she was here when we arrived. The choppers and drones didn’t see her leave. So, she’s still here somewhere. Outside perimeter, stay sharp, we don’t want her bursting out and getting past you guys. Inside team, let’s go over this house with a fine tooth comb. Compare every inch of this place to the construction drawings to be sure there aren’t any hidden closets, spaces under the deck, blocked off parts of the basement etcetera. She’s still here somewhere team, let’s find her.” York himself started down the steps into the basement.

  ***

  If their situation wasn’t so difficult, Shan would have grinned at the spectacle of Ell hauling her enlarged self up the vertical ladder in the narrow shaft. After all he’d never seen his wife struggle with a physical task. He braced himself to support her should she fall but she made it to the top with only some aggravated grunting.

  There was a pause while she queried Allan to be sure no one had breached the security of the groundskeeper’s shack, then she cracked open the door and stepped out into the moderately sized area with its mowers and other small equipment. The lights were out but Ell had had his HUD upgraded to milspec like hers so he could see fairly well with the low light enhancement as they picked their way to the small side door.

  “OK,” Ell said, “our harnesses should be just outside the door. Mine with a red flashing LED and yours with a blue. Let me know as soon as you’re securely strapped in.”

  “Is yours going to fit with you pregnant?”

  “Yeah,” she said grimly, “though I might not like wearing it.” She opened the door and they stepped outside.

  Shan quickly stepped to the harness with the blue flasher, picked it up and stepped into it. As soon as he’d securely buckled himself into it he said, “Ready.” The harness tugged at him and started pulling him away from Ell. Belatedly, he realized she was also being pulled away from him. Shan swung free from the ground, then rapidly up into the air. His ears popped a couple of times but then they stopped ascending, though they continued swinging rapidly south over the starlit landscape, Shan’s eyes slitted against the wind as he tried to keep an eye on Ell, a couple of hundred meters away.

  After about fifteen minutes they slowed and began to descend toward a farmhouse. Ell landed near what appeared to be the back of the house and her harness disappeared into the sky. A minute later Shan landed about twenty feet away and popped the buckles on his own harness. Ell turned to him and said, “Activate your upper cheek implants.”

  Shan did so, feeling them puff up by his molars, swelling his cheeks.

  By then Ell was at the door which opened without difficulty, the door AI apparently recognizing her.

  As Shan stepped up beside her she addressed the door AI and said, “This is my husband, Daniel Reyes. Please open the door for him at any time.” Ell took his hand and, without turning on the lights, took him from room to room around the house showing him what each contained. As they climbed the stairs to the upper level she said, “Allan, revise the door AI’s memory to reflect us first arriving here on a Saturday evening… three months ago. Make sure it’s after I closed on the house by a week or two. Then insert some comings and goings into its memory as well. At first occasionally, then almost daily here recently. This evening we arrived at 1748 and have been here ever since. Erase the visits by Amy and substitute visits by me.”

  They had reached the top of the stairs. Shan said, “Amy’s been here?”

  “Mmm hmm,” Ell said, leading the way to the end of the little hall, “she stocked it for us.” Ell opened one of the doors. “Spare bedroom.” Coming back down the hall, she opened two more spare bedrooms and then at the fourth one said, “Baby’s room.” She opened that door and Shan saw a bassinette and a crib. Back at the head of the stairs Ell opened the last door, “Our room.” She led the way inside and started disrobing in the dark, “It’s three thirty. We should get some sleep.”

  Shan pulled off his own clothes and got into the bed next to her. “Don’t we need to talk about what just happened and what we’re going to do?”

  “In the morning. Your poor pregnant wife is exhausted from all this flying around.”

  Ell promptly dropped off to sleep but Shan lay beside her staring at the ceiling. How was he going to tell his parents? What would happen with his job at the University? Would they let him take a leave of absence? Would they even talk to a fugitive? What would he do without his teaching job and his other academic pursuits?

  ***

  They had searched the house from attic to basement, measuring every wall and space to be sure there wasn’t a concealed cupboard, recess or passage where Donsaii could be hiding. York let out an inspired stream of profanities. “Where the hell did that bitch go?”

  Frankie, the tech specialist, said, “Maybe she’s figured out a way to port people from one place to another?”

  York jerked around to stare at Frankie, “I thought that was supposed to be impossible?”

  “No, it’s just that they say it’ll make you retarded or something. Maybe Donsaii’s figured a way around it. Or maybe it’s just that she’s so smart, she doesn’t mind being a little dumber to escape from us.”

  York felt his eyebrows rising, “Goddammit! How the hell are we supposed to catch her if she can just port herself out of trouble?”

  Frankie shrugged.

  “OK,” he sighed and asked for a connection to the rest of his agents, “Outside team, head on home. Those of you in the house, let’s give it a toss, looking for any evidence of her hot-shot technology. Then we can head for the barn too.” He sighed and shook his head in disgust. He didn’t know what he could have done better, but knew failure brought few rewards—even if the game had been rigged against you.

  For a moment he wondered if there was someone he could blame this fiasco on, but he came up empty…

  Chapter Eight

  In the morning Shan got up and pulled on his dirty clothes, thinking about all the things he’d need to go out and buy new to start his life over again. In the kitchen downstairs he found Ell holding a mug of tea and staring unseeingly out the window at the fields nearby. “Hey girl, any news?”

  She looked up at him, a drawn look on her face. “Yeah, they’ve torn up our house, sorry.”

  He frowned, “Torn up?”

  “Yeah, ‘tossed it’ I believe would be the technical term. Everything turned upside down and generally trashed, looking for I know not what.
Presumably the keys to the stars, that’s what their mandate is for.” She sighed, “The Mattioli is lying face down on the couch. I can’t tell if it’s been damaged from the vid angle but it can’t be good for it to be on its face.”

  “Aw man, I loved that painting.”

  “Me too,” Ell said quietly. “The rest of the stuff in the house is replaceable.”

  “Are you feeling OK? You look beat.”

  “Yeah,” she smiled wanly up at him. “This bein’ pregnant, ain’t for sissies. Especially when there’s a lot of rain on your parade.”

  Shan got his own cup of tea. He sat with her and they spoke for a while, trying to figure out what to do with Shan’s life now that he couldn’t be Shan Kinrais, at least for a while. Shan decided to call his department chairman, Dr. Benson and see if he could get a leave of absence. Shan’s family had to be told that he’d gone into hiding.

  Shan looked at Ell, “What does my family do if the FBI comes around asking them where we are?”

  “They can honestly say they don’t know.”

  “What if the agents ask if they knew who you were when they saw you up in Asheville?”

  “I didn’t think Raquel Blandon was ever registered as being in the Wildberry lodge?”

  “Oh, yeah. I don’t think you were.”

  “If I wasn’t on the books, they won’t find me with a search of motel registries. If they even go that far. I think they usually just follow the money trail and I didn’t pay for anything as Blandon. I guess if an agent actually shows up at the Wildberry and asks they might find out I was there, but a lot of people have stayed there since then. The owners of the lodge probably won’t even remember.”

  “But the Feebs will probably ask my folks if they’ve seen you since you were arrested. Should they lie?”

  “I… don’t think they should. Getting caught in a lie is a bad thing because perjury is a crime in its own right.”

  “But… then couldn’t they get charged with harboring a fugitive or something?”

  “I asked Art Jenkins, my lawyer, about this. To ‘harbor a fugitive,’ you have to ‘harbor, conceal, maintain, assist, or give other aid.’ Mere knowledge of the fugitive’s whereabouts isn’t sufficient for prosecution.” Ell shrugged, “My security team and Amy are in prison under the argument that they had been paid by me, so they must have helped me even though I hadn’t paid them recently.”

  “You hadn’t?”

  “No, I put a lot of money in Steve’s account way back last year when I thought they might arrest me. The government’s arguing that I prepaid for their services.”

  “So my family should be OK because they didn’t help you, even if they didn’t turn you in?”

  “That should be true, but realize that Stockton’s not exactly following all the rules. They don’t have any evidence that my security team harbored, concealed, maintained or assisted me but they’re still in jail. And Amy quit her job with me and took one with D5R. She didn’t directly help after I’d been arrested though she helped stock this place among others. Yet, all of them are in jail.”

  Shan sighed, “This isn’t going to be an easy conversation to have with my family. I think I’ll take a shower and think about it.”

  When Shan got up Ell frowned at him, “If you’re wearin’ that dirty shirt because you don’t think you’ve got any clean, you should check your closet.”

  Shan looked surprised, “I’ve got clothes here?”

  Ell nodded, “When we were planning for this possibility Amy spent a lot of time in thrift shops getting used clothes in our sizes. Don’t forget to put on your skin bronzer either.”

  “Really? The richest person in the world was buying stuff at thrift shops?”

  “Seemed kind of unethical to me too, but we needed used clothes and couldn’t think of a better place to get them. We made big donations to the thrift shops so I don’t feel too bad about corrupting their missions, just about the fact that they might not have had enough clothes for the poor people that normally shop there.”

  Back upstairs Shan felt bemused to find a partly empty bottle of his favorite shampoo in the shower. Once he felt clean, he stayed in the shower, popping a packet of hair dye out of his umbilical port and applying it. Then doing the same with a packet of skin bronzer. Done, like Ell had told him, he had the port open with a little vacuum behind it to suck up the wrappers.

  When Shan looked in the closet, he was astonished to see one side of it fully stocked with used clothing. He picked out a t-shirt and jeans and they fit just fine.

  As he came back down the stairs Ell looked up from some kind of electronic project she had laid out on the table. With a Latin accent she said, “Hey, Daniel. You’re lookin’ good this morning.” She winked at him, “I’m going to go shower and change while you make me an omelet.”

  “So my new name is ‘Daniel Reyes’?”

  “Yup. And I’m Elsa Gardon.” She held up a chip, “Here’s your new ID. You need to go through it and learn your history. Then get Allan to teach you my history too, since you’d be expected to know about your wife. Pass your ‘Shan’ ID to Allan through your umbilical port. He’ll hold it for you if we get our old lives back.”

  “When we do. Stockton can’t stay in office forever.”

  Ell shrugged.

  Shan frowned, “If we’re married, why isn’t your last name Reyes too?”

  “I was going with the Latin custom for the wife to keep her last name, then the kid to be named Reyes-Gardon. I guess I should have asked you about it, but, after all, this was just one of several back up plans Amy and I worked on.”

  Shan grinned, “Heck, I don’t care. I just wanted to understand is all.” He headed for the kitchen to make breakfast, asking over his shoulder, “What’s that you’re working on?”

  “A larger diameter digger, in case I have to dig some more tunnels or rooms underground or something in a hurry.”

  “Oh, like the thing you used to hollow out the rooms in the granite up at the place in the mountains?”

  “Yeah, it isn’t that it’s hard work; just that it takes a long time with a port that’s only four inches in diameter. This one will be twelve inches. It’ll suck up a megawatt, but ETR’s got so many of those solar powered generators going now that my usage should hardly be noticed.”

  ***

  Allan said, “You have a call from AJ and Carter.”

  Ell looked up, wondering why they might be contacting her instead of Ben or Rob. “Put them through… Hey guys, what’s up?”

  “Uh, we’ve been talking about going to space.” AJ said.

  When AJ paused, Carter said, “The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be much reason to actually send humans out there. With waldoes, we can explore the solar system and even other stars without any danger, finding resources and returning them here through ports.”

  “Mmm hmmm.” Ell acknowledged.

  “And going to space ourselves, as human beings I mean, not as waldoes, is dangerous.”

  “Yep. Lots of radiation out there at the very least.”

  “So, it’s hard to justify sending warm bodies.”

  “Uh, huh.” Ell said, wondering when they’d get to the point.

  “But, we want to go out there. Explore the universe, see the sights etcetera.”

  “So, do it as waldoes.”

  “Well, we want to go in person, so we’ve been looking for a good reason to go. And of course a backer like you to support our dream.”

  “Me, I’m a fugitive!”

  “Well that won’t be forever.” AJ said, almost indignantly.

  “I’m glad you guys are sure of that,” Ell said with a little laugh.

  “Even if Stockton doesn’t come to her senses, she’ll get voted out of office eventually. Anyway, we think we’ve got some rational reasons to get off the planet.”

  “OK, let’s hear it.

  “Well, the human race needs to be spread out in case of a disaster. Like if a comet came that
couldn’t be stopped. Or some kind of horrible nuclear war or something. And, even though we can get all the mineral resources we want from space without going out there, we should be thinking about places to send excess population and to be able to grow additional crops.”

  “Hmmm, I’m pretty sure we’re not fully using all the available cropland here on earth are we?”

  “Um… probably not now, but someday.”

  “And the disasters you’ve proposed would likely leave some survivors here, maybe more than would survive on a small space colony of the type you’re proposing wouldn’t they?”

  “Well, yeah, but with everything around them destroyed.”

  “And it all sounds like a very expensive undertaking. Do you see a way to make a profit?”

  “Uh, no.”

  Ell could hear the dismay in their voices at her apparent reluctance. She chuckled, “Well good. We need something to waste excess profits on, but you’ll need to check out the possibilities. Develop a plan for a radiation shielded test facility to grow crops with live humans in attendance, maybe at the southern lunar pole? NASA’s been looking around there. Ask them whether they’re going to build anything. We want to be sure it’s possible by sending a waldo or two, maybe have them grow a test crop, before we send people out there. Look into the regulatory issues, maybe someone’s claimed the best locations? Or maybe an asteroid would provide a better location? Or Mars? Get back to me when you’ve got a plan you think will work. Something with expected costs and risks and the reasons you’ve chosen the location you have.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” the two young men chorused, sounding excited to have even a possibility of future authorization.

  ***

  Shan came in from walking around their overgrown fields. He’d decided he should know what their property was like if he was going to live there. “Elsa,” he called without response on the ground floor. So he headed up to the second floor. Ell wasn’t there either. He looked out the window. Their old Toyota Tacoma truck and their ancient Nissan Altima were both still outside so she must be here somewhere. Could she have gone out wandering around the farm after him and they just missed each other? He headed down to the basement. He’d been down there once and hadn’t seen anything of interest.