"So?"
"So? So, he asks!" He threw his hands up. "Think about it. They'll know what you're going to do. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if she's up there, if she really is there, then you won't be on this rock to see tomorrow. Why else would they keep it a secret? Hell, they probably already know you found out. Wait. How did you find out?"
"I saw a message on Ralph's holo I wasn't supposed to."
He smiled at me and thumped my back. "Hacking old school style. I like it!"
I sighed. We were getting nowhere. He'd help me. I was sure of it. And that knowledge made me itchy to go. "Even if they know what's going on...so what?"
"So they'll shut down every space port on the globe, that's what."
"They can't..."
"Of course they can you idiot! They run it all, Jake. All of it."
But that wasn't exactly true. We came in on a Cosworth transport, not a StarTech one. I thought it the same time he did.
"The prototype," we said at the same time.
I saw the excitement in his eyes for a split second, before he held up a hand. "Wait a second. Before we go one step further, what's in it for me?"
"How many credits do you want?"
He scoffed. "You think it's about money?"
"Isn't it?"
"Some," he admitted, "but I already figured a ridiculously large sum of money was a given. No, I'm talking about Lynnie. I have to stay on Utopia until she sees her contract through."
"Okay, so we'll make it seem like I did this by myself." He snorted. "Then I'll vouch for you." He snorted again. I sighed. "Then what?"
"Take me to Utopia." I shook my head, but he held his hand up again. "No, hear me out. I'll probably be put under arrest, but for indentured ones like me that's just a ward up there, not an Earthside prison. I'll have a trial, but you're right, I'm a kid. They'll keep me until my current contract runs out and then I'll be sent back here. That's a few months after Lynnie's birthday."
"I don't want you going to jail."
"I don't particularly want to either. But you're going to make my pay day well worth it."
I grinned. "Yes, I believe I am."
"So you're taking me?"
"Yes."
"What about Lynnie?"
"Keep her here out of trouble."
"Good. She's already screwing up left and right down here. They'll probably pack her up and send her back there anyway. She's...well down here, there's all the stuff that Mom got into and..." he swore. "She does great up there. Better than anyone ever thought either of us would do and I've been going nuts seeing her do..." He broke off. "Don't even tell her. She'd throw herself into this plan without thinking about it, okay?"
"Deal." I hadn't planned on telling Lynette anyway.
He sighed. "Hell." After a minute he smacked his lap and stood. "Let's get to it." He grabbed the backpack he usually carried and opened his door.
"Where are we going?"
"Out. I don't want to be on Mr. Willington's lines when I do this."
He was rushing down the stairs. Once he decided something, he went all the way. "We're going for a walk, Mr. Willington!"
"That's fine. Be back before dark and don't go near the woods," Alistair called from the living room.
As soon as we were outside, Marlon slipped off his backpack and took something out from inside. It was some kind of meter and he turned it on as we walked. He watched a little digital reading until the numbers went flat. We weren't that far from the house and he gave a little laugh. "He's good. Got the dampers on tight." He looked at me. "That's good."
We walked only a few more steps and then the numbers began flashing again. "Do you like Mr. Willington's neighbors?" he asked. I shrugged. "Well let's hope they're idiots and deserve the heat I'm about to bring their way." He sat down and took out his holo and another machine. He held his hand out. "Code key?" I unclipped it from my belt and sat next to him. He tapped for a minute, slid it through the other machine he had connected to his holo, then handed it back. "Well lookie here! My nice brand new employer gave me five thousand credits as a signing bonus!" He grinned at me.
"Nice guy," I said with a smile.
His face fell. "Crap. I should have taken more."
"So do you have a plan past bleeding me dry, or..."
"Yeah, yeah," he said. He looked down at his holo and tapped. I picked a blade of grass and twisted it around my finger. I was trying to keep calm, and found it wasn't as hard as it was just five minutes before. I had a plan. And I had help. I was itchy to go, but I would go. Just knowing that made me feel like a weight was lifted.
Marlon released a low whistle.
"What?" I asked, sitting up and looking over his shoulder.
"I'm in the outer shell on Bradley's server, and that's as far as I'm going. She's there."
My heart leaped. "Where? Show me."
He held the holo out for me to look at. It was a request for a patient in the sub-level hospital. "It doesn't say anything about the patient?"
He thunked my head. "Look at what he's requesting."
I scanned the directive until I got to a part about special breathing apparatus and "other essential equipment outlined in the standard contact protocol". I almost couldn't breathe.
"Enough proof for you?" I nodded numbly.
"Good," he said, giving me a little push backwards. "Then let daddy work and we'll have us a family vacation." He tapped madly at his holo, muttering to himself now and then, and I sat back and felt a relief like I'd never known. They had her. "The X3 is in Denver," Marlon said.
"X3?"
"Yeah. Your ship."
"I didn't know the name of it. Why 3?"
"The first two...pfft." They crashed. "It's in Denver."
"Where's that?"
"Colorado. About a half hour on a sonic, two on a bullet, and a half day on standard. We can catch the bullet right here in town if you want to leave in the morning."
"Anything tonight?"
I don't think he was expecting to leave so soon. "Uh, yeah. I mean..." he tapped the holo for a second. "A sonic at midnight, or bullets at ten and four."
"Which should we take?"
"It's going to take about six hours to get the X3 ready for flight."
I laughed. "Why? It's my ship."
"Yeah, but you need to submit coordinates with the IOC and have them approved, along with your load, passengers, classification weigh ins... It just takes time, Jake."
"Then start the process."
He scratched his head. "Now that's a little tricky. As soon as the IOC sees the transport request, they'll know what's going on."
"Order it in Reginald's name."
Marlon quirked an eyebrow. "In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?"
"What does that mean?"
"Old expression." He let out a long breath. "Okay. But why Reginald's? Christophe travels more. It might be best to put his name..."
"No. They like Reginald. They won't even question it."
"Gotcha." He took something from his bag and set it up, pulling out some sort of antenna and tweaking a nob until it made three beeps. "A little extra scrambly juice." He didn't explain and frankly I didn't need him to. He then got to work. He muttered to himself, once in awhile saying things out loud.
"Okay, Reggie's submitted his request. Now, to get the fueling going..."
"It's going to cost a ton. You sure?"
"Holy crap! The price of crystaline catalyst is through the fricken roof! Are you absolutely sure?"
Mostly he did what I needed him to do and I lay in the grass and tried to reach up. Not out. I didn't want Alistair to catch a whiff of what was going on. Up. I stared into the early evening sky and imagined her. Can you hear me? Just like the long, empty months since I left, there was no reply. Are you there? But unlike the last, lonely months, the silence didn't fill me with empty dread. Because I knew. I knew that it would have an end.
"You were right," Marlon broke into my thoughts. "The IOC already approved the flight plan."
"Good."
"We've got to be there between two and four a.m. If we miss that launch window, we'll have to wait twenty four hours till it comes back around."