Austin crawled along the tunnel and rang the bell. A few moments later Beyon-kal’s face appeared at the grill, looking annoyed. “Austin? What are you doing here?”
“I got away,” Austin said. “We did. In the confusion after the bomb.”
He expected Beyon-kal to say breathlessly, “What bomb?” but was disappointed. Beyon-kal said, “It was on the radio.”
“Me being gone was on the radio?”
“No, of course not. The attack on the compound was. Do they have a vaccine yet?”
“No. How did you understand… is Graa^lok here already?”
“Yes. What are you doing here?”
This wasn’t the welcome Austin had hoped for. “Let me see Tony.”
“I’ll decide if you see Tony or not. For the third time, why did you come?”
“I’m here for good. I brought my mother. This was our only chance to escape while—”
“You brought Kayla? Now?”
“I just told you, Beyon-kal, we might not get another chance to escape! The Rangers aren’t letting people in or out of the compound!” This was not strictly true; only the Terran scientists weren’t allowed to leave, but Beyon-kal didn’t know that.
Beyon-kal said flatly, “We can’t have you here. Your absence—and Kayla’s—will attract attention.”
“Graa^lok is here!” Austin said, hating that he sounded like a little kid.
“Graylock’s lahk is not researching a vaccine, surrounded by a refugee camp, or watched by radio reporters from around the entire continent. Yours is.”
Reporters? Austin hadn’t known that. It made him feel kind of important, which restored some of his confidence.
“Unlock the grill. I have to see Tony. I have important information.”
“Tell it to me.”
“No.” When had he ever before defied Beyon-kal? Never. But now was different.
Beyon-kal scowled. Austin stared him right in the eyes, no blinking. Beyon-kal unlocked the grill.
“I’m going to get my mother,” Austin said. And then, as Beyon-kal retreated along the tunnel, “Tony will really want to hear my information!”
Just as soon as he invented it.
He got Kayla through the crawl tunnel, going ahead of her to help her down to the big tunnel. She fell heavily but wasn’t hurt. She still had not said a word. Austin went back to bring in his pack and rearrange the bushes. When he returned, Kayla was right where he’d left her, staring at the rock floor, tears falling from her eyes.
“It’s okay, Mom.” He hugged her briefly—he was too old to hug his mother but this was different—and led her through the open metal door to Haven. Tony waited, looking furious. Graa^lok stood behind him.
“Austin, what the fuck—”
“She left a note,” Austin said. “I wrote it. Nobody will miss her or come looking for us. It’s only two more weeks until the cloud. We’re staying.”
“You’re not.”
“She is,” Austin said. It came out higher and squeakier than he intended, and he tried again. “My mother is staying. She won’t be any trouble.”
Kayla sobbed softly. Austin’s heart swelled with pity, with irritation, with fear, with love. He had to save her!
His words came out in a desperate rush. “Listen! I have information you want! I’m friends with some of the kids in the refugee camp”—Graa^lok shifted his weight but said nothing, which was a good thing or Austin would have slugged him—“and they told me when the next assault on the compound will be!”
“So?” Tony said.
“So that’s your only chance to get Claire—Dr. Patel—out of the compound and into Haven. You’re going to need a doctor, you said so yourself, and she knows how to doctor Terrans, a lot better than any World doctor would. When an attack on the compound comes, everything is really confused. Shooting—Leo Brodie shot three Worlders so far, you probably know that from the radio. And a bomb! The confusion is how I got away. Dr. Patel and I can escape during the next attack. I can bring her here.”
Tony said, “She won’t want to come. What are you going to do—drag her here?”
“No, she does want to come! That’s the information I was coming to bring you. I heard her say to… to Dr. Jenner that she’s afraid of what will happen when everybody in the camp rushes the compound to get vaccines.”
“You said they don’t have vaccines yet.”
“But they will. Or at least they might. She’s afraid of the collapse of civilization.” There—that should make Tony believe, because it was his own phrase. For good measure, he added, “She’s really little, you know.”
Tony said, “So say that I believe you. Dr. Patel wants to come to Haven. You can bring her here. How are you going to do that if you and your mother are ‘here for good’?”
Austin hadn’t thought that far. “Well, I misspoke. My mother is here for good but I’m going back. To bring Dr. Patel.”
Tony looked at Beyon-kal, who rolled his eyes. Finally Tony said, “Okay. Here’s the deal. Kayla can stay. You go, and when the refugee camp assaults the compound, you guide the doctor here. But if you’re followed by Rangers, you don’t get in—no, don’t ask stupid questions, of course Rangers can track you. If you come too soon, like in the next eight days, you don’t get in. I don’t want a Ranger assault on Haven, but after about eight days they’re going to be too busy with the collapse of civilization to chase you. If you come back without Dr. Patel, you don’t get in, and your mother goes out. Got it?”
“What? But you said—”
“It doesn’t matter what I said before. We started Haven before we knew we had Rangers to deal with, didn’t we? Haven is both impregnable and defensible, but we only have so much food before we come out again after everybody’s dead, and we need to keep the supplies for essential personnel.”
Graa^lok blurted out, “But that’s not fair!”
“Yes, it is,” Tony said. “Harsh, but fair. When you’re older—both of you—you’ll understand that survival sometimes means tough choices. You bring me a doctor, you earn your place here.”
Indignation choked Austin so much that he couldn’t speak.
Tony softened. “I’m sorry, kid, but that’s the way it is. Look, I’m sure you’ll bring the doctor. We need her. When you do, you’re in. And you can stay a little while now to get Kayla settled and to rest up. Start by getting her to stop crying, okay? Thank you.”
Leo had perimeter patrol. Everything in the camp was quiet, and it seemed to him there were fewer people. Maybe some had gone back to their lahks, away from any more potential violence. Smart people.
The ones that remained ducked into their tents as soon as they saw Leo, or stood their ground and glared at him, or looked down at their sandals. In Brazil, an American sniper who had already shot three natives would have been screamed at, or had rocks thrown at him, or worse. He didn’t understand these people.
A movement behind some bushes. Leo tensed, turned. But it was two tiny girls playing with a little pile of toys, probably farther from camp than their mothers knew. Both looked up from dark eyes huge in their coppery faces and smiled at him.
“I greet you, halhal^bem,” Leo said in Kindese, hoping he had the word right for their age and status, hoping he hadn’t called them a coffeepot or some damn thing.
They chorused back, without fear, “I greet you, Ranger-mak.”
He couldn’t linger. The little girls could even be bait, a trap, although he hadn’t seen anything suspicious and Kandiss, on roof duty, was tracking him. But as he jogged on, the small incident warmed him, the only good thing that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Maybe longer.