Micro

They emerged from the complex and sat by the runway looking down into the crater. They could see the city, too, through the gap in the crater’s wall, and beyond the city the Pacific Ocean ran off into blue. Nanigen was miles away from this crater, and there was no way home.

Danny Minot lay in the rubble, holding his arm. He began to cry. His sobs echoed off the hangar and drifted into a sky shot with gray rolling clouds and wind.

Karen watched an ant hurry across the runway, carrying a seed. She turned her gaze up to the Great Boulder, and then past it to the horizon line and the clouds. Something moved against the sky near the boulder, and she suddenly realized it was the figure of a man.

Chapter 39

Tantalus Base 31 October, 5:00 p.m.

How long the man had been standing there Karen couldn’t say-possibly he had been watching them the entire time they’d explored the base. She saw his hair flash in the breeze, long, white. He wore armor of some kind, but she couldn’t tell what it was made of. His eyes looked hard and cold, even at that distance. He lifted up an object, and she saw it was a gas rifle.

“Down!” Karen shouted, grabbing Rick.

He fired. There was a hiss, and glint of steel ripped past them and buried itself in the ground somewhere beyond, and exploded with a thump. Karen began crawling, dragging Rick behind her, but there was nowhere to hide. Another sniper…Drake had found them…

The man’s voice came to them over the wind. “That was a warning. Stand up and show me your hands. If you have weapons, drop them in front of you.”

They obeyed him. Karen held up the blowgun so he could see it, and dropped it on the ground. She placed the container of darts next to it.

“Put your hands on your head.”

Karen obeyed, and called out, “We have two injured. We need help.”

He didn’t answer. He moved toward them, keeping the gun raised. As he got closer, they saw that he was an older man, with a weather-beaten face bronzed by the sun, and deep-set blue eyes. He clearly had muscles, and he looked physically powerful. How old was he? He could have been anywhere from fifty to eighty, it seemed. His armor had been carved from the hard parts of a beetle. A scar ran across his forehead and wandered down his neck and ran under the breastplate of his armor. He studied them, searching their faces.

The man’s eyes darted away, flicking around. Karen realized he was keeping alert for predators. He gestured at them with the gun. “Your names.”

Karen gave their names and added, “Who are you?”

He ignored that.

“My arm-” Danny began, and fell silent as the man pointed the gun at his face.

Karen added, “We need medical treatment.”

The man just stared. He poked at the blowgun with his foot. “Interesting,” he said. He picked it up, then examined a dart, and sniffed it. “Poisoned?” he said.

She nodded.

“Where are your guns?”

“We lost our only gun. A bird attack-”

“Vin Drake sent you,” he interrupted. “Why?”

Karen began to explain, “No, Drake tried to kill us-”

The man cut her off. “This is one of Drake’s tricks.”

Karen said, “You’ll have to take our word.”

“Where did you come from?”

“The arboretum.”

“And you made it up here? That’s impossible.”

Karen walked up to him and pushed his gun aside. “Give me back my weapon.”

The man’s eyes widened, maybe in surprise, maybe in anger. After a pause, he pointed his gun at the ground, and broke open the firing chamber. A smile creased his face, exposing white teeth. “Somehow,” he said, “you impress me.” He handed her back the blowgun. “Welcome to Tantalus. My name is Ben Rourke. I’m the inventor of the tensor generator.”

Karen eyed him. “How did you end up here?”

“Castaway by chance, a hermit by choice,” he replied.

Ben Rourke lived in a warren of caves near the Great Boulder, about six feet above Tantalus Base. He led them upslope toward the Great Boulder; and he helped Rick along. The cave entrance was a hole in the soil at the foot of the boulder, with a tunnel that ran horizontally inward, like the entrance to a mine. They advanced through the tunnel, while the light grew dim. After some distance they arrived at a door carved from wood. It was shut and latched with an iron hook. Rourke opened the door, and they went through it into a pitch-black tunnel. He threw a switch, and a line of LED lights came on in the ceiling of the tunnel, trending inward. “Welcome to Rourke’s Redoubt,” he said. “As I call my little place.” He closed the door behind them and slammed home an iron pin. “It’s to keep out centipedes.” He walked ahead, with a lanky, tough stride.

The tunnel went around a bend and sloped downward, plunging deeper into the mountain. It turned left and right, and they passed side tunnels going off into darkness. “This is an empty rat warren,” Rourke explained. “Drake’s people deemed the rats a threat to the humans at Tantalus Base, so they poisoned the rats and closed off the nest. I reopened the tunnels and moved in.” At intervals on the ceiling, LED lights cast a blue glow.