Radix

Nefandi took out a cheroot and lit it. The sharp, mousy odor of the car and of the boy was nauseating even with the windows open. It made it harder to believe that such a unique kha belonged to this corpulent creature. Radiant gold, he marveled. No doubt he has a white card.
"You fathered Corby, didn't you?" he asked, and the boy's tight silence was his answer. He watched the rolls of fat in Sumner's legs and hips jiggling with the vibrations of the car. All hunger and fear. "Why're you going back?"
"I need zords."
"You mean kiutl and brood jewels." He turned his face into the windowdraft for a drag of fresh air. The road arced out of the Flats, and they passed a draw whose canyon walls were shimmering with cottonwood, tamarisk, and willow. Then they were riding into the green ruins again, and he pulled his head back in.
"I'm a voor-killer, tud. Corby may be the one I'm look-ing for." Nefandi took a long draw on his cheroot and let the smoke snake through his nostrils. "I'm telling you this be-cause you may have to help me. And if you balk, I'll kill you."
Sumner's knuckles blanched on the steering wheel. "Who are you?"
"I've been sent here by the Delph, an old Power—the same Power which first shaped the Masseboth Protectorate. We watch over what's left of humanity and keep the voors and distorts from overpopulating." He tongued a smoke ring. "If you cooperate with me, I'll reward you well."
The terror slackened to fear in Sumner, and he seemed to sink into his seat. "What can I do?"
"For now, just drive."
Nefandi hung his head out of the window again, and Sumner relaxed his grip on the wheel. He fetched about for a casual comment and settled for a question to fill the silence: "Can you tell me what all this is?"
Nefandi leaned out of the draft. "What?"
"Rigalu Flats. What is it?"
"An ancient city, nuh?"
"But why's it green? And why's it glow?"
Nefandi worked the cheroot to the corner of his mouth. "The green comes from salts and halides like plutonium oxychloride and sodium and ammonium diuranates. The night glow is solar-excited zinc sulfide. And the rigidity and aridity are a result of the subquantal displacement of the hot waste that was spewed all over here."
Sumner's look was blank as an egg.
"Rigalu Flats was a kro city once," Nefandi went on. "One of the largest on the continent. But the quakes and the raga storms leveled it overnight. The nuclear reactors, and there were lots of them, were just so much cardboard in the wind."
"Reactors?"
"Power stations. The Masseboth have outlawed them. The kro used radioactive material just to heat water to run turbines. Small-visioned, no? This whole area was hot." He flicked ash into the mess at his feet. "And it would have stayed hot for tens of thousands of years."
Sumner grunted. "That was stupid. Who cleaned it up?"
"The Delph before he was fully developed. This was the best he could do at the time."
"Tell me about the people who lived here."
"The kro were like the Masseboth. Like all people." He bit down on his cheroot and spoke through his teeth. "A hot fuse of ambitions and ideas burning from generation to gener-ation. Victims of memory."
"But who were they?"
Nefandi took out his cheroot and studied the glowing end. "They liked football." He nudged the cold ash to the floor. "Of course, there was more time for amusement in those days. Distorts were rare, and there were no voors at all. North was south for the kro—" Nefandi broke off. The road had swung out of the Flats a little ways back. Now they were winding past isolate pinyon and solitary junipers in a haunted landscape of sandstone knobs, domes, turrets, and coves.
Sumner followed Nefandi's gaze, and then he saw it too. Behind a loose wall of scrag was a hefty pangolin. It was eyeing them pugnaciously, pawing the ground and snorting.
"Moody beast," Nefandi whispered. "This must be its backyard."
Sumner slowed down and began to pull to the side.
"No," Nefandi warned. "It's going to attack whether we stand still or move. Hold to the middle of the road. There's less chance of breaking an axle. And don't slow down."
Sumner was going to object, but that instant the short sword seemed to fly to Nefandi's hand. Sumner leaned for-ward and gripped the wheel with all his strength.
When they passed the pangolin, it lunged at them across the highway. Sumner wanted to speed up, but the road was particularly broken down along this stretch, and he knew he would lose control if he went too fast. His head whipped back and forth as he tried to watch both the road and the pangolin.
"Just drive," Nefandi ordered. "Keep your speed steady. And when I tell you, brake hard."
The pangolin galloped up to the driver's side, dipped its head, and charged.
"Now!" Nefandi cried, but Sumner was afraid to slow down. He floored the accelerator—too late. The tough bottle-nose rammed into the door. Sumner fought the steering wheel as the car swerved violently toward an escarpment. His right fender squealed against the rocks, then pulled away. But before he could get control of the car the pangolin, its brass-red scales rippling with its run, charged again. With an explosive screech the fender tore away and went winging out of sight. Sumner pulled hard on the wheel. The car swayed sickeningly and eased back to the middle of the road.
"Do what I say!" Nefandi barked. "Hold it steady—steady!"
The pangolin rumbled alongside and dipped its head for another charge. "Brake!"
The wheels whined, and the car jolted to a stop and stalled. Nefandi was pushed up against the windshield, and he saw the pangolin first. It had glanced off the front of the car and was doubling back to charge again. "Get this shoebox moving!"
Sumner was frantic. His hands fumbled with the starter chip. Twice the engine misfired; then, as the pangolin was swinging toward them, the car bolted off. The ram-nose caught the rear fender, and the car swivelled to one side, then righted itself.
Sumner thought he could feel the beast's charge through the seat of his pants, but Nefandi urged him not to go too fast. The pangolin came up on the passenger side, and Sum-ner waited anxiously for Nefandi's cue to brake. He didn't want to look. He heard the creature's heavy grunting, and the dust kicked up by its clawed hooves hazed around him, and that was enough. He locked his eyes on the road and keyed himself for Nefandi's order. The order never came. The pangolin bent forward for the ram, and Nefandi's arm lashed out through the window. The flat of the sword slapped the beast's eye, and it collapsed in an explosion of dust.
"Relax," Nefandi said, his sword vanishing again under the serape. Sumner pried his hands off the wheel and glanced back. The pangolin had rolled to its feet and was shrugging itself off, watching after them glumly.
"Mutra, that was close," Sumner said, his voice cracking.
Nefandi took out another cheroot. As he lit it Sumner noticed how steady his hands were, and he gnawed his lower lip jealously.
Nefandi took a moment to gather his thoughts. He was grateful that he hadn't had to activate the sword. Surprise was an essential element in stalking voors. But the boy's fear had almost cost him. The crumbling road was dipping back into the Flats. A four-winged dragonfly tapped against the door, then pulled up and vanished as the green sand hissed beneath the tires.
"You've got to learn to be steady-fingered, tud."
Sumner nodded, wiping the sweat off his face with his sleeve. He glanced over his shoulder to be sure the pangolin wasn't following.