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He&039;s ht Gray&039;s ice-blue eyes kept watch for movement around the track Out in the open, this close to the periers than humans Gray continued to talk in his slow, quiet way
"They&039;re Islanders without islands," he said "There are thousands of them up there - Flattery has no idea there are that ardens that we see froe, and undergroun that&039;s a whole different story They make bubbly out of the nutrient vats the sa islands out of it, they spray it in a foarow plants on it a week later They e, just like the old days
"On flat land, or the second time around, the bubbly is forel, twelve el, then they spread it across bare rock or sand, or last year&039;s garden It holds nutrients, water and defense fro Wouldn&039;t Stella love to see this?"
"Sounds like her idea of heaven," Doob said "She rounded ere five Iso , but eren&039;t afraid of each other" This last Doob offered with some reservation To admit that you were afraid of security was to irounds for investigation
"Yes," Gray sighed, "we are afraid of each other, aren&039;t we? Even you and I Up there," he nodded upcoast, "they&039;re wary, but they&039;re not afraid"
"What did you do about your report? Did yo ?"
"Did I expose their happiness? Did I betray the only sign of humanity I&039;ve witnessed in almost twenty years? No No, I lied, and I made sure my camera lied But I&039;m not as brave as you think I knohat Flattery suspected - that there were settleal food But I also knohat Flattery wanted He wanted it to be rag-tag, not worth going after, because he doesn&039;t have the force to stop it! Look around you, Doob" Gray swept his ar in the horizon on all sides "This takes every bit ofit There were riots in the settle riots, and there will be more The news is not news, it&039;s fiction outlined by Flattery and written by his personal fools His lies keep us s as we&039;re small he keeps control
"No, he didn&039;t want there to be anything big upcoast, so when I showed hiedy-assed dirtpokers, it made him happy So, maybe he&039;ll stay here His major forces are here and in Victoria, with a lot of sea patrols on the fishing fleet The world is a lot bigger than that, Doob It&039;s a lot bigger, and getting bigger every day I think you and Stella should go up there"
"What?"
Doob banged his head cooing to havI ht now We&039;ve got to stay put"
"Doob, I know she&039;s going to have a baby Stella told Billie and Billie told er, anyway You&039;ll have to make new food coupon applications, people hed, then spit out the driver&039;s porthole
"Shit," he muttered
"Listen," Gray said "There&039;s a way out of this How&039;s the Cushette over water?"
"Well, it&039;s OK when it&039;s running No h, or one of those security pursuit boats"
Gray looked back at the bed of the track It was a du Doobequipment for construction crews up and down the beaches of Kalaloch
"Can you get three hundred klicks out of this thing over rough terrain?"
Doob shook his head "No way Two hundred, tops With a converter, and access to seawater, I could probably drive around the world"
"Yeah," Gray said, pulling at his chin "But there&039;s no seawater inland, and converters won&039;t work in streah-pressure tank at et you the whole way"
"What are you talking about?" Doob ran a nervous hand through his kinky brown hair "You think we can just drive this track upcoast as bold as you please? They&039;ll crisp our butts before we hit the high reaches"
"That&039;s why you don&039;t go that way," Gray said "I have a et you, Stella and this track upcoast to o?"
Doob looked up in time to see a security detachment leave the perimeter and start toward the track across the rocks They were still a couple hundred meters off, but they didn&039;t look happy
"Shit," Doob said
He replaced the control panel cover and started the engine He began to pivot his o back hoet a starter for that Cushette, and that&039;s e&039;ll do Give them a wave"
Gray waved at the security squad, and so did Doob The squad leader waved back, and the oing
"See?" Gray hollered "It&039;s like that everywhere Learn what&039;s easiest for theet by We&039;ll talk ot it all figured, don&039;t worry"
He flashed Doob a s back
Gardens, he thought Stella will love that for sure
Not by refraining from action does one attain freedom from action Not by mere renunciation does one attain supreme perfection
- from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Twisp always thought that "chambers" ell-named There were, indeed, many chambers beneath the rock - one for each of the council and several for support staff, as well as generalquarters The complex was crude by Merman standards, primitive by the Director&039;s standards Repair creorked throughout the area cleaning up the last of the da down in oral history as "the great quake of &039;82"
Across the passageway from the elevator a hatch opened into Twisp&039;s personal cha the hatch open andMose inside
"Sit here"
Twisp indicated a low couch to the left of the hatchway The couch was organic, like the chairdog It was a distinctly Islander cubby The entire room measured barely four paces square
Shelves filled up most of the black-rock walls, and on these shelves stood hundreds of books They were the old kelp-pulps, a well-scarred library Twisp had been a fisherman without holo or viewscreens Bleached kelp pulp and hand presses in every little community turned out literature and news that was affordable and could be passed around
Twisp dogged the hatch, then smiled
"Borrow any books you like," he said "They don&039;t do anybody any good on the shelf"
Mose hung his head
" I never told you," he sta the other
"I can&039;t read"
"I knoisp said "You cover it well, it took ure it"
"And you didn&039;t say nothin ?"
"Only you could knohen the ti to teach, but that&039;s no good until the pupil is ready to learn Reading is easy Writing, now that&039;s a whole different story"
"I&039;ve never been very good at learning things"
"Cheer up," Twisp said "You learned to talk, didn&039;t you? Reading&039;s not so different We&039;ll have coffee every day for awell by the end of the month How about if we start with coffee now and a lesson later today?"
Mose nodded, and his look brightened Topside, aet coffee since the Director had taken over production But he&039;d wedded himself to Zavatan poverty, which was a step up fro the Zavatans he&039;d found that nothing was to be expected, everything enjoyed Twisp bent to the preparations, his long arms akimbo in front of the table
A fold-out table and stone washbasin jutted from the wall across the room, beside the inset stove and cooler Mose reclined into the old couch and let it suit his forms He found it indescribably nicer than his pallet topside One shelf beside the couch held several holo cubes Most of the pictures on theirl
"The hed without turning, and his gangly ared a bit He spooned out some of the odorful coffee into a small cooker
"We will all share a soup there, in the old custo here My cubby is your cubby That hatchway leads to the head This hatch," with a nod he indicated their entry, "leads to the general council chae things"
"That&039;s the way things have been alldown here just fine Do you re the Zavatans?"
"Yes, Elder Of course I remember"
"Repeat it, please"
Mose cleared his throat and sat a little straighter, though Twisp still had his back to hi of food and crops, the plunder and destruction of ho to the people I promise householders that they ; I swear this with uplifted hands Nor will I bring plunder or destruction, not even to avenge life and liood deeds&039;"
"Very well recited," Twisp said, and handed Mose his hot coffee "You are here because the council needs your opinion The council has a weighty decision before it today It has not faced a decision this big before Itthe Zavatans, all of us, to break that oath, the part about avenging life and li, and your opinion will help decide whether or not to break it"
Twisp sipped his own coffee, still standing over Mose, and noted the treer monk&039;s nail-bitten hands
"Do you have an opinion on that, Mose?"
"Yes, Elder, I do"
There had been no hesitation in Mose&039;s voice, and the tre to an oat well, that&039;s for life I swore to uphold that oath for life That&039;s what I did, and that&039;s what I should do"