“Of course. Our thoughts are with you.”
“Thank you, Datlow.” Jill stayed on the call for another five minutes, tying up every loose thread she could recall. It was at the same time cathartic and guilt-inducing. She was a compromised station in the Underground Railroad, a vital cog that was now broken. After she hung up the phone, Jill made the lonely walk through the darkness back toward the trailer, her usually busy multi-tasking mind strangely clear and empty. There was still much to do, but she had a hard time caring at this very moment.
Get some rest. Worry about resupplying in the morning. I would recommend moving further south if possible.
“I don’t want to get too far away. Cameron could be trying to make his way here as well.”
I guess this safe house is as fine a base of operations as any. Better than most, considering you are protected from two sides. Stay alert, however. We do not know how much of your network the Genjix uncovered.
She found Freeni and Vladimir sitting on lawn chairs on top of the trailer. They were chatting amiably and sharing beers. They both raised their cans as she approached.
“You up for cold one?” Freeni asked, holding up the six-pack with two beers left. “A few months’ expired, but bearable.”
Jill grinned and climbed up the ladder. She was soon sitting next to Vladimir, cracking open a can. The beer was room-temperature, stale, and frankly tasted like syrup. However, it was the very thing she needed at this exact moment. She slouched in her chair and held her can up to toast the Russian.
Vladimir leaned in. “I want to thank you for earlier.”
“For punching you in the face? Do you always thank people for that?”
“For snapping me out of my depression.” He touched the purple blossom on his cheek and winced. “You punch like a Siberian railway worker.”
“I will take that as a compliment, and you’re welcome.”
They clinked cans. The small group sat in exhausted silence as they drank and stared at the sky. For those few minutes, Jill allowed herself to clear her mind and not think about anything else. She just breathed in and out deeply, feeling her body finally settle down. She had been on this path for so long, she could hardly remember life before the Quasing War. What was the end game? How did this finish? She couldn’t imagine that, either.
So much for clearing your mind and not thinking about things.
“Sorry. Can’t help it.”
Nothing to apologize for. You have succeeded far beyond my wildest hopes for you. I am infinitely proud and honored to call you my host.
“You know how to say all the right things to a girl.”
I have had thousands of years of experience. That and I learned by watching Roen do it wrong all these years.
“That guy. I’m convinced his doing it wrong is what is so right about him.”
A true idiot savant, then.
Jill’s precious peace lasted until Vladimir opened his mouth and ruined the moment. “Do you really think we’ll see our children again?” he asked.
Jill stood up, downed her beer and then crushed the can. “The Genjix better hope I do. Otherwise, I will spend the rest of my life hunting them down. Get some sleep, Vladimir. You have last watch.”
She climbed back down into the trailer and rummaged through her bags until she found what she was looking for: a small gold bangle. She walked to the bedroom in the back, where Ohr was sleeping and Rin was reading a fashion magazine. That seemed to be the only thing she could find to read in the trailer. Jill made a mental note to restock her safe houses with better reading materials.
She gestured for Rin to come over and slid the bangle over the small Japanese woman’s wrist. “I have something for you in case things go bad. This is very important, personally as well as operationally. I want you to keep it on you at all times.”
Rin shook the bangle loosely around her wrist. “Not quite my style, but I appreciate the gesture. Anything else?” She held up the magazine. “I’m about to learn what was in fashion three years ago.”
Jill pulled out her tablet and began to type on it. “Tell me everything you know about catalyst facilities, starting with that one just a few hours northeast of here.”
Rin nodded. “Your people found it, then. You’d better get comfortable. This could take a while.” She paused, looking at Jill intently. “Quasiform is a multi-phased approach to terraforming Earth, combining atmospheric, chemical, and seismic detonations coupled with the merging of acidic levels that would more or less, over the course of a few years, turn Earth’s atmosphere into one not too far off from that of Quasar, the Quasing home world.”
“We were aware of the atmospheric manipulation of the environment and the catalyst reaction rods.”
“Quasiform can only do so much. The planet must also meet the process halfway. That is why for the past hundred or so years, the Genjix have been slowly increasing the average temperature of the planet. Chemically, the reaction rods, once heated to high temperatures, will release metastasizing catalysts into the atmosphere to create a chain reaction.”
“Could you explain what you mean by seismic detonations?”
“You will find that over half the catalyst facilities, the one nearby included, are built over the beginning of a major seismic fault line. The process is meant to widen the faults with the intention of creating very large seismic shifts. Remember, Quasar’s surface is completely liquid. To function optimally, Quasiform would raise water levels, while at the same time leveling large portions of the surface, so that Earth eventually becomes a completely submerged planet…”
Over the next three hours, Jill typed up everything Rin summarized about Quasiform and the catalyst facilities. The Genjix future sounded terrifying.
25 Found
Timestamp: 3012
Eventually, we realized that it was no longer possible to live in large cities. Penetra nets were at too many stinking intersections. Regional IXTF offices popped up all over the place like coffee shops. It became untenable to live within a hundred miles of any major metropolitan area. We once had to move four times in a month.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when they started putting Penetra nets in the schools in Washington DC. Cameron got caught, and we had to yank him out and get out of town, barely staying ahead of the IXTF. Who was the bright genius who decided to put a damn scanner in a grade school? I want to punch him in the face. Oh, the president? Never mind. I’m not voting for him next year.
An argument erupted in room 224 of their motel. It wasn’t a couple fighting, though, it was Roen and Marco trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do next. Their quarreling got so bad that Helen and Sheck, who were having breakfast on the balcony, stuck both their heads in to investigate. Elias would tell them later on that he could hear the ruckus all the way from the parking lot.
“And as always, Roen, you don’t have the authority to make that call,” Marco growled, his body still dripping wet, a towel wrapped around his waist. This probably wasn’t the best time for them to quarrel, but he had just gotten out of a shower and was irritated with Roen, who had cooked the entire batch of bacon and was feasting on the stack while lying in bed. The Brit had recently developed a fascination with American bacon, and the two of them were single-handedly causing a bacon shortage in Ontario.
“You and that hag are going to get everyone killed,” Roen snapped back.
“That’s not your call. There is a command structure, Roen, and you are nowhere near the top. In fact, you’re more like down here.” Marco gestured at his knees. “We have our orders, and our team, you included, will follow them to the best of our abilities. That attack force is coming whether you like it or not.”