he didn’t have to get out—he was the trained pilot, after all—but Lakshmi looked like she wasn’t going to budge, either. Blondie had her hands on her hips, annoyed. After about five seconds, she started moving toward the cockpit.
Pickover had now run up to the plane, and was on the opposite side of it from Blondie. Lakshmi’s gun couldn’t do much against either of their artificial bodies, and she at last seemed to think better of being stubborn; after all, if Pickover grabbed her on the left and Blondie on the right, the two transfers could probably rip her in half. Lakshmi lifted herself up out of the rear passenger seat and dropped to the ground. Blondie gestured for Pickover to come around to her side of the plane, and the two of them gently got Reiko into the vacated passenger seat.
I drove the buggy off to one side, Blondie realigned the airplane with the makeshift runway, Ernie gave a jaunty thumbs-up from the pilot’s seat and he set the plane rolling along, the preposterously long wings bouncing up and down a bit as it did so, almost as if they thought flapping might help.
At last, the bird lifted off, climbing into the sky and heading east. I had served as navigator on the way out, but I supposed New Klondike couldn’t be that hard to spot from the air, and soon enough Ernie would be able to lock in on the town’s homing beacon.
That left two transfers and two biologicals here by the Alpha: Pickover and Blondie from Team Silicon and me and Lakshmi on the Carbon side. While I’d been getting the buggy out of the way, Lakshmi had given up her gun. This time, I think she had simply handed it to Rory rather than have him wrench it from her grip; a writer with a broken wrist was going to have a hard time typing, after all.
Rory then came over to the buggy. He and I exchanged discreet hand signs to agree on a frequency so we could have a private chat; I used the buggy’s dashboard radio.
“I guess that’s it for me,” he said.
“Aren’t you coming back to the dome?”
He shook his head. “I won’t go back until I need to recharge; there’s nothing for me there.”
I blew out air. There were things we had to discuss, but this wasn’t the time. “Come see me tomorrow, would you?” I said. “Maybe 2:00 p.m. at my office? There are a few, um, interesting developments you should know about.”
“Not tomorrow. I’m in the middle of excavating a delicate specimen.”
“The day after, then?”
“Fine.” And then he walked the dozen or so meters over to Blondie, gave her Lakshmi’s gun, and headed off, his back to me, walking slowly toward the northern horizon. I watched him go for a bit, thinking.
But my thoughts were interrupted by Blondie rapping knuckles on the canopy. She had propelled Lakshmi over to the other side of the buggy. I figured now that she was unarmed, I could easily take the writer, if need be. Except of course that I was confined to the interior of this buggy by my lack of a helmet. And, it seemed, Blondie wanted Lakshmi to be confined here, too. She was gesturing for me to open the canopy. I’d be just as happy to leave Lakshmi out here to eventually asphyxiate, but Blondie was pretty much in charge now; she had both guns and could force the canopy open from the outside—which might prevent it from ever sealing properly again. I complied with her wish and swung the transparent cover back. The interior atmosphere escaped. I didn’t want to put the sack back on my head—I had my dignity!—and this should only take a second.
The blonde transfer shoved Lakshmi toward the car. Lakshmi glared defiantly for a moment but then acquiesced and pulled herself into the passenger seat. I immediately lowered the canopy and hit the “Pressurize Cabin” button.
“Might as well take off your helmet,” I shouted once the interior was filled with air again. “We’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”
Lakshmi made a small nod. She undogged then pulled off her fishbowl and shook out her glorious hair. She held the helmet firmly on her lap rather than putting it in the little storage space behind her; she clearly didn’t trust me not to grab it then crack open the canopy again. Smart girl.
Outside, Blondie slapped a palm against my side of the buggy, urging me