Stephanie looked along the broad swath of destruction, trees and bushes had been burned to charcoal stumps. “Some kind of no-man’s-land, I suppose.”
“That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?”
She laughed, and pointed up at the glowing cloud.
“Okay, you got a point. What do you want to do next?”
“I’m not sure.” She resented her indecision immediately. This was the culmination of enormous emotional investment. For all that, the practicalities of the moment had been ignored. I almost wish we were still travelling, it gave me such a sense of satisfaction. What have we got after this?
Cochrane, McPhee, and Rana joined them.
“Some terminally unfriendly looking dudes we have here,” Cochrane yelled above the thunder. The marines lining the barrier were motionless, while more were hurrying from the cluster of vehicles to reinforce them.
“I’d better go and talk to them,” Stephanie said.
“Not alone?” Moyo protested.
“I’ll look a lot less threatening than a delegation.” A white handkerchief sprouted from Stephanie’s hand; she held it up high and clambered over the first set of barriers.
Lieutenant Anver watched her coming and gave his squad their deployment assignments, sending half of them out to flank the road and watch for any other possessed trying to sneak over, not that they’d ever get past the satellites. His helmet sensors zoomed in for a close-up on the woman’s face. She was squinting uncomfortably at the light as she emerged from under the dappled shadow of the red cloud. A pair of sunglasses materialized on her face.
“Definitely possessed, sir,” he datavised to Colonel Palmer.
“We see that, thank you, Anver,” the colonel replied. “Be advised, the security committee is accessing your datavise now.”
“Sir.”
“There’s no other activity along the firebreak,” Admiral Farquar datavised. “We don’t think she’s a diversion.”
“Go see what she wants, Anver,” Colonel Palmer ordered. “And be very careful.”
“Yes, sir.”
Two of his squad slid a section of the barrier aside, and he stepped forwards. For all that it was only a hundred-metre walk, it lasted half of his life. He spent the time trying to think what to say to her, but when they stopped a few paces from each other, all he said was: “What do you want?”
She lowered her hand with the handkerchief and gave him a cautious smile. “We brought some children out. They’re in the buses back there. I, um . . . wanted to tell you so you wouldn’t . . . you know.” The smile became one of embarrassment. “We weren’t sure how you’d react.”
“Children?”
“Yes. About seventy. I don’t know the exact number, I never actually counted.”
“Does she mean non-possessed?” Admiral Farquar datavised.
“Are these children possessed?”
“Of course not,” Stephanie said indignantly. “What do you think we are?”
“Lieutenant Anver, this is Princess Kirsten.”
Anver stiffened noticeably. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Ask her what she wants, what the deal is.”
“What do you want for them?”
Stephanie’s lips tightened in anger. “I don’t want anything. Not in return, they’re just children. What I’d like is an assurance that you military types aren’t going to shoot them when we send them over.”
“Oh, dear,” Princess Kirsten datavised. “Apologize to her, Lieutenant, on my behalf, please. And tell her that we’re very grateful to her and those with her for bringing the children back to us.”
Anver cleared his throat, this wasn’t quite what he expected when he started his lonely walk out here. “I’m very sorry, ma’am. The Princess sends her apologies for assuming the worst. We’re very grateful to you for what you’ve done.”
“I understand. This isn’t easy for me, either. Now, how do you want to handle this?”
Twelve Royal Marines came back to the buses with her; volunteers, without their armour suits and weapons. The bus doors were opened, and the children came down. There were a lot of tears and running around in confusion. Most of them wanted a last kiss and a hug from the adults who had rescued them (Cochrane was especially popular), much to the amazement of the marines.
Stephanie found herself almost in tears as the last batch started off down the broad road, clustering around the big marine; one of them was even being given a piggyback. Moyo’s arm was around her shoulders to hold her tight.
Lieutenant Anver came over to stand in front of her and saluted perfectly (to which Cochrane managed a quite obscene parody). He looked badly troubled. “Thank you again, all of you,” he said. “That’s me saying it, I can’t datavise under the cloud.”
“Oh, do take care of the little darlings,” Tina said, sniffing hard. “Poor Analeese has the most dreadful cold, none of us could cure her. And Ryder hates nuts; I think he’s got an allergy, and—” She fell silent as Rana squeezed her forearm.
“We’ll take care of them,” Lieutenant Anver said gravely. “And you, you take care of yourselves.” He glanced pointedly out to the firebreak where a procession of vehicles was massing around the barrier to greet the children. “You might want to do that away from here.” A crisp nod at Stephanie, and he was walking back towards the barrier.
“What did he mean?” Tina asked querulously.
“Wowee.” Cochrane let out a long breath. “We like did it , man, we showed the forces of bad vibes not to mess with us.”
Moyo kissed Stephanie. “I’m very proud of you.”
“Ugh,” Cochrane exclaimed. “Don’t you two cats ever stop?”
A smiling Stephanie leaned forwards and kissed him on his forehead, getting hair caught on her lips. “Thank you, too.”
“Will somebody tell me what he meant,” Tina said. “Please.”
“Nothing good,” McPhee said. “That’s a fact.”
“So now what do we do?” Rana asked. “Go round up another group of kids? Or split up? Or settle that farm we talked about? What?”
“Oh, stay together, definitely,” Tina said. “After everything we’ve done I couldn’t bear losing any of you, you’re my family now.”
“Family. That’s cosmic, sister. So like what’s your position on incest?”
“I don’t know what we’ll decide,” Stephanie said. “But I think we should take the lieutenant’s advice, and do it a long way away from here.”