The Gravitational Leap. Darrell Lee

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СКАЧАТЬ ahead, Masi.”

      “Reetu and I are waiting for you at your gear. Just wanted you to know so you don’t shoot us.”

      “No problem.”

      Timo and Alyd climbed the hillside to their perch. Masi and Reetu were waiting exactly where they said they would be, by the packs they’d left behind.

      Masi, the senior of the two men, spoke. “What did you find?”

      “It’s the strangest thing. It was an Asus, but he was dressed in Denock gear.”

      “Damn… You think they have joined?”

      “That’s our guess,” Alyd said.

      “He had a pack with civilian clothes and a strange-looking walkie-talkie. He was using rock camouflage, so keep a sharp eye,” Timo said.

      “What’s a scout doing this far north?” Reetu asked, not expecting anyone to have an answer. “Asus or Denock, it doesn’t make any sense.”

      “He was probably thinking the same thing about us,” Alyd said.

      “We need dinner—stay safe, guys,” Timo said.

      After Timo and Alyd left their friends, Timo led the way across an open field into a thick forest of leafless trees. Small piles of snow hid from the wind on top of the branches where the branch met the trunk. The pale snow on the ground gave enough contrast for them to move, without flashlights, silently through the dark woods. They stopped periodically to check for any movement ahead or behind. After crossing a dry creek bed, Timo knelt down and rested against a tree. Alyd rested on one knee beside him.

      “I have something I want to show you,” Timo said.

      “Not now, Timo. It’s too cold—my lips will just freeze to it… Actually that sounds kind of hot.”

      “Is sex all you think about?”

      “No, but I’m working on that problem.”

      Timo took the knife out of his jacket and handed it to Alyd. She removed it from the sheath.

      “What’s this?”

      “It was in the scout’s pack. That has got to be the finest knife ever made.” Timo held out his hand as Alyd re-sheathed the knife. She gave it back, and he placed it inside his jacket.

      “It is nice, but what’s it doing in your jacket?”

      “I’m keeping it.”

      “You’re what?”

      “That’s the best knife I have ever seen. I’m keeping it. Why just give it to Risberg? You know he would just keep it for himself. Remember that pistol from the scout Byan killed?”

      “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It could be important.”

      Timo stood. “Don’t make a big deal. It’s just a knife.” He started toward the village again.

      They stopped eight hundred meters from the wall.

      “Team-three to sentry commander on channel three,” Alyd spoke into the walkie-talkie.

      “Sentry commander on three.”

      “Approaching south gate.”

      “Clear.”

      When they were one hundred meters from the gate the electrical flood lights came on. Timo and Alyd pulled back their parkas and exposed their faces, and the lights were extinguished. As he approached, Timo could see the silhouettes of the sentries examining them through their rifle scopes from the top of the wall.

      The wall around the village stood ten meters high, some of it wood, most of it stone. During times when the clan felt threatened, like now, sentries were posted every five hundred meters along the top of the wall during the day, except near the gates where there were twice as many. At night a sentry stood every one hundred meters. The west side wall, which faced in the direction of the riverbed, stretched fifteen hundred meters long. The north and south walls were two times as long. The east side’s composition was two walls that came to a point. Timo heard the lock clunk, and the gate swung open just enough to let them pass.

      Once through the gate, Timo saw his commanding officer, Lieutenant Risberg, a high-strung demagogue wannabe, approaching. Timo and Alyd stood at attention and saluted. To their surprise he stepped aside and behind him appeared General Bartel, an ox of a man. He was the highest-ranking military officer of the army and Tower security.

      “At ease,” the general said. “Give me your report, soldier.”

      “We spotted an enemy scout trying to cross the river in sector twenty-seven. We neutralized the contact and then performed intel retrieval, sir,” Timo said.

      “What intel did you recover?”

      Timo took the backpack off his shoulder and handed it to the general. “There is a walkie-talkie inside. I’ve never seen anything like it before, sir.”

      The general unzipped the pack and looked inside, removed the walkie-talkie, examined it briefly, and placed it back inside. “Anything else?”

      Timo could feel the weight of the knife in the inside pocket of his parka. I hope Alyd doesn’t stay too mad. “Yes, sir. The scout was Asus, but dressed like a Denock.”

      The general crinkled his brow. “Where is he now?”

      Timo looked at Alyd, who had the same surprised expression. “What do you mean, sir?” Alyd asked.

      “The body. Where is it now?”

      “We left him where he fell, sir,” Timo replied.

      “What?”

      “We were told to do normal intel retrieval, sir. Nothing else,” Alyd said.

      The general snapped his head around to the lieutenant. “Send another team out for the body, now!”

      “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied and ran for his radio.

      The general glared at Timo and Alyd, slung the backpack over his shoulder, turned on his heels, and walked away without another word.

      Chapter 2

      In the Denock encampment, fifty kilometers from the Tower, anxious men sat around a table. The sunrise would be in two hours. The wind screamed, hurled blowing snow sideways, and beat itself against the walls and ceiling of the long house tent. Inside, kerosene lanterns sat on tables and hung from the age-darkened tent poles. Sjund shared a meal with the eight elder members of the Denock clan. Across the table were the leaders of the Asus clan.

      The Asus were from the far west, beyond the mountains and beyond the great desert on the other side of the mountains. They were muscular and tall; some of them had only deer and bison hide for clothing. Their skin gleamed oily and СКАЧАТЬ