Grumbling to himself, Orpheus was already climbing nimbly down. Toby spared one more glance at the transparent wall and was rewarded as a flash-flicker of lightning unveiled the scene for another instant. Clouds above, clouds below, blackness beyond them in all directions. And rain, rain in sheets and billows falling everywhere.
He made it—barely—down to the floor, and his landing rang it hollowly, as if it were a lightweight deck and not a floor at all. Everything in sight was made of plastic or the transparent stuff of the outer wall. Strange. Also strange was his sudden perception that the wall leaned out at quite an angle and curved gradually to either side.
“Where are we?”
“We’re on Wallop, mate.”
He whirled and nearly fell. Jaysir laughed.
Scrawny he might be, but right now Corva’s friend looked a lot better than Toby felt. His complicated cargo bot stood a few paces behind him, hoses and wires trailing behind it. “You’re the first up, are you?” Jaysir continued.
“Uh, yeah.” His voice barely worked; he’d sounded worse on Lowdown, but that was because of the air. His whole throat felt dehydrated.
Jaysir pursed his lips. “You’re not waiting around? Corva and Shylif could use a hand, I’m pretty sure.”
Toby looked down. Until this moment he hadn’t actually been seriously considering walking away. He met Jaysir’s gaze. “I dunno. What would you do in my situation?”
“Hmm.” Jaysir scratched his chin, then ticked some points off on his fingers. “Well, first of all, you don’t know anything. You don’t even know where you are. You don’t know where you’re going—”
“I’m going to Destrier.”
Jaysir paused, one finger atop another. “You’re going to Destrier? No crap?” Then he laughed and shook his head. “She put you up to this? Or was it your idea?”
“Totally my idea. Mom’s waiting for me. That’s what Corva said.”
Jaysir resumed ticking off items. “And you haven’t got a clue what that means.”
“Corva told me about my family, Jaysir. That Peter’s the Chairman, Evayne’s alive too and my mom … she’s on Destrier. So that’s where I’m going.”
“Maybe, but … listen, Toby, you can’t just go from waking up to deep diving on the same day. It takes time to recover from hibernation. That’s why the standard turn lasts a month. That’s why nobody lives in the Weekly for very long. You can’t just find a container bound for Destrier and climb in with your little guy. You’re going to have to spend a few weeks in the city first—”
“I was only on Little Auriga for a couple of days! And you, too!”
“Actually, we’d woken up two weeks ahead of time, while the city was still thawing out. Corva figured we needed the time to get our bearings, recover, and find you. She was right. And you—you’d had days asleep in your cicada bed while they moved you from the ship to the docks. Cicada beds are a lot easier on the system than denners, man. You can’t just bed down again today.”
Toby turned and looked away through the ranks of shipping containers. Everything Jaysir said might be true, but the more Jaysir tried to convince him to stay, the more Toby felt himself pulling away. “Okay sure,” he said, waving Jaysir into silence. “Say you’re right about all that. I’ve got some things I’m pretty sure I’m right about, too.”
He imitated Jaysir, ticking points off on his fingers. “First of all, Jay, I’m not going to start trusting you just because you tell me you can be trusted. I fell for that once, I’m not going to do it again.”
Jaysir made a kind of reluctant shrug of agreement.
“Second, you guys want something from me, but you’re not telling me what it is. Tell me, and maybe I’ll start trusting you!”
Now it was Jaysir’s turn to look hesitant. “It’s really up to Corva. This is her thing…”
“And you’re what? Along for the ride?” Toby shook his head. “Third, I’m totally dependent on you, just like I was dependent on Ammond and Persea. If you were really friends, you’d help me get set up on my own and then ask me for whatever help it is you want.”
Jaysir thought about it. “Okay, I can see that. Problem is, you’ve got no money, no idea how to survive on your own, and the instant you tell anybody who you are, you’ll be jumped on by a hundred police bots.”
“So you say.”
Now Jaysir was starting to look a bit desperate. “Say I let you go. What do I tell the others? Corva … Corva needs you, man.”
“I’ll be around. You can call me—”
Jaysir was shaking his head. “We can’t call you, you don’t have a legal identity. Oh, I heard about this ‘Garren Morn’ alias, but you can’t use it. And you can’t use your real name, either. Shouldn’t even say it aloud.” He glanced around at the blank boxes surrounding them.
“Then tell me what I have to do to avoid getting caught while I sort myself out.”
“Pfaw! Why would I do that?”
Toby stopped, gently set down Orpheus, then reached inside his tunic for the object he’d carried since bursting into the water on Auriga. He held it up in the cold factory light and was rewarded as Jaysir’s eyes snapped to it with sudden intensity.
“This is a data block from Sedna. I don’t know exactly how old it is in lockstep terms, but it was hidden in the back of a twentier—a bot from the original colony. You said you collect procedural computer code, Jay. I bet you’ve never gotten to hack something this old.”
“Ah,” said Jaysir. He hadn’t looked away from the block.
“If you can help me get the data off of it, I’ll give you whatever code’s written into it. But only if you let me go.”
Jaysir blinked and looked away. “What you need to do is buy a pair of tourist glasses. I’ll give you our URNs and you can send me your glasses’ address. So we we’ll be able to contact each other, but we won’t be able to track you, and don’t have to use your URN or name.
“Don’t open any accounts, don’t buy anything virtually, or do anything that requires an identity check! I have a list of places you can stay that won’t ask. And you’re going to need a cash card.” He rummaged in his baggy trousers and came out with one. Handing it to Toby, he said, “This should last you a day or two. But you can’t just go running off to Destrier! You need to know where you are and what’s going on first. And it’s a hell of a story to tell.”
With Jaysir’s unique identifier, his URN, Toby would be able to phone, e-mail, or—if they shared services—locate him when needed. Jaysir was offering him a way to deal with him and Corva and Shylif at arm’s length. Suddenly he felt horribly guilty about taking off like this. But Ammond and Persea had been prepared to kill him …
“Don’t stick your head up, it’ll get shot off.” Jaysir turned away. “I gotta figure out what I’m going to tell the others. It won’t be pretty, let me tell you.”
“Thanks, Jay. I will call you.”
Jaysir grunted. “It’s a small world. It’s not like you can go very far.” Then he thought of something. “Hey, whatever you do, don’t use any Cicada Corp equipment!”
“Why—”
“Just, just don’t! I’ll explain when I see you.”
Troubled, but determined, Toby ducked his head in agreement and walked away.
DEALING WITH JAYSIR HAD worn him out. Toby felt tired and dizzy, and like his tongue and skin had been sunburnt. Even the dim lighting here was too bright, and as soon as he began to move he started puffing as if he’d just run a race. Cradling Orpheus, Toby plodded between the rows of stacked containers, peering about for a way out. With every step he took, he felt worse, and more guilty about leaving the others—especially Corva, whom he suspected would not be as understanding as Jaysir.