Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) (8 page)

He caught up to her but had to take long strides to keep pace.

“Those were completely different circumstances,” Knile said.  “I planned that for almost two years. 
Two years
.  Do you know how many people I had to pay, how many doors I had to open to make it all work?”

“Forget about it.”

“And this time, I’ve got less than forty-eight hours,” he went on.  He checked his watch.  “In fact, it’s barely thirty-six hours, now.  How am I supposed to sort everything out in that much time?”

“I said forget about it,” Talia said, raising her voice.  “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“And besides, I didn’t end up getting Mianda out, did I?  Even after everything I did, after all that preparation and planning, I couldn’t get it done.  I couldn’t anticipate everything that was going to happen up there.”

“A tragic story,” Talia said unsympathetically.  “I feel for you.”

“Talia–”

“Look,” she said, stopping suddenly and slapping her palm into Knile’s chest to halt his progress.  “I had a moment back there, okay?  I wasn’t thinking.  I know you can’t get me out.  Shit, you’ll be lucky to get yourself out, from what you’ve told me.”

“Agreed.”

“After you’re safely at Grove, I’ll go back to what I was doing before, the same thing I’ve been doing for… for as long as I can remember.  I’ve never asked for help before now, and this is why.”  She held up her hands uselessly.  “It’s like we always used to say to each other, Knile.  We’re all in this alone.”

Knile nodded sadly.  “I guess we are.”

He pushed back the sense of
sorrow he felt looking at her.  It was true.  He couldn’t help her.  If he was going to get off this Earth, he was going to have to stay focussed.  There would be more just like her, begging him for help or trying to take what was his.  He needed to be hard and uncompromising, resolute, or he wouldn’t make it.  There was no other way.

“In case you’ve forgotten,” Talia went on, “Grove is not far away.  We’ll be there in a few minutes if we don’t stop to bicker like a couple of old women.”

Knile gave her a grin.  “But I’ve had no one to bicker with for years.  I’ve missed it.”

She rolled her eyes at him.  “Get a move on, turkey.”

Knile began to pace again, and in the distance he could already see the domed roof of Grove shining in the morning light.

7

From the outside Grove was like a glistening seashell, its exterior pearlescent in the sunlight.  It stood apart from the buildings around it, occupying a broad tract of open land that had been carved out of an old neighbourhood many years ago.  Knile felt a moment of nostalgia as he looked upon it, remembering all of the time he had spent here.

This had always been
one of the busiest places in the city, and today was no exception.  Workers hustled around the place carrying loads of soil in wheelbarrows, nets, hoses and other implements.  There was also a multitude of armed men and women, since Grove employed its own security personnel, and these patrolled the outer edge of the dome in dusty green uniforms, rifles at the ready.

Grove was in fact a series of interconnecting structures rather than one large dome.  It had grown over the years and been continuously expanded, with newer curved enclosures built around the exterior and then connected internally.  There was one large air intake at the top of the central dome, through which air was sucked and filtered and then distributed to other sections of the structure.

There was also only one entrance, and it was heavily guarded.  Fortunately for Knile there were no Enforcers about.  They were not welcome here.

“You got a plan for this?” Knile said as they approached the entrance.

“I figured you’d use your body odour to paralyse security, and then we’d walk straight through,” Talia said.

“Hey, I had a bath last June for your information.”

There were two clusters of guards, one stopping everyone who tried to enter Grove and the other searching those who exited the enclosure.  Some of the workers breezed through, obviously well known to the guards, but others were given a more rigorous interrogation.  The examinations slowed the procession of visitors considerably, and it was several minutes before Knile and Talia reached the head of the line.

“Permits,” one of the guards demanded gruffly, holding out a gloved hand.

Knile and Talia glanced at each other.  “We don’t have any,” Talia said.

“Then what’s your business here?” he said, eyeing them both suspiciously.

“We need to talk to Giroux,” Talia said.

“Don’t waste my time,” the guard responded.  “Shove off.”

“Wait a minute,” Knile said.  “We’re old friends.  You can ask him yourself.”

“I’ll make sure to do that,” the guard drawled, “the very next time I sit down to drink tea with him at our daily chit-chat.  Now unless you work here or you have official business inside, I suggest you take a hike.”

“Forget about it,” Talia said, shaking her head at Knile.  “We aren’t getting anywhere here.”

“So what do we do?  Where to from here?”

“Anywhere that’s out of my face,” the guard growled, leaning in at them.  “Move aside.”

“Back off!” Talia snapped.  “We’re going, okay?  Just–”

At that moment a pair of meaty hands clamped down on both of their shoulders, and
Knile and Talia flinched.  Knile turned and saw the rotund face of a large woman behind them.

“Look who we have here!” she said cheerily.

“Hildi,” Knile said, recognising her instantly.  He was about to say more when the woman’s arms slipped around his and Talia’s necks and she drew them in for a rough hug.

“Like two lost little stray cats finally wandering home,” Hildi said, her voice sounding very nasal from the respirator that covered her nose, held in place by thick black straps around her ears.  Below, her red cheeks puffed out at the edges of her smile.  She pressed Knile and Talia closer and Knile was wedged uncomfortably between a thick arm and one of her pillowy bosoms.

“Hello, Hildi,” Talia managed to get out as the air was all but squeezed from her lungs.

“You know these two, Hildi?” the guard said uncertainly.

“Course I do,” Hildi said sharply.  “Do you think I just go around hugging random people for the hell of it?”

“Uh…” he began, but Hildi ignored him.

“What are you doing, my young ones?” Hildi said, releasing her death grip a little and allowing Knile and Talia to breathe again.

“We need to see Giroux,” Knile said.  “Is there any way you can get word to him?”

“I can do better than that,” Hildi said.  She looked over at the guard and waved a hand imperiously.  “Stand aside, please.”

“But Hildi, they don’t have any permits–”

“Oh, stand aside, James,” she said, shouldering past the startled guard with Knile and Talia in tow.  “Don’t make me call your mother.  She wouldn’t be pleased to know you’re giving poor old Hildi ulcers.”

“Uh, okay,” the guard said, and then, dazed, turned back to interrogate the next people in line.

Hildi led them under the outer folds of the taut white material that served as the skin of Grove, separating the foul outside air from the pristine environment inside.  They joined a group of around ten others waiting in the airlock, and as the doors were closed and sealed
,
a warning horn blared.  Hildi spread her arms wide.

“Mornin’, all!” she cried, a deafening sound in the enclosed space.

There were scattered greetings in return, and Hildi offered them all a smile.  Then the jets went into action, sucking out the bad air and replacing it with the good.  Knile’s shirt flapped against his skin, and Talia lifted a hand to keep her hair out of her eyes as it whipped around her head.  In a few seconds the turbulence died down and the door opened on the other side to the sound of another warning horn.

“So, you two,” Hildi said, dragging the respirator from her face and taking a deep breath, “did you finally decide to come back and work for me?”

Knile opened his mouth to answer, but then stopped abruptly and stared up at the interior of Grove.  It was like stepping into another world.  Gone were the drab grey and brown hues of the poisoned city outside – here there was colour as far as the eye could see.  Refulgent green app
le trees bore shining red fruit and
rows of cabbages and carrots ran away from them in perfect lines.  Stalks of corn stood tall and leafy.  In patches there was even the glimmer of carnations and roses and other bright flowers.  Above it all, the pale canopy of Grove’s outer skin encompassed everything before them.

“I forgot how damn beautiful this place was,” Talia said, removing her respirator.

“Well, you shouldn’t have stayed away so long, darlin’,” Hildi said.  “Why don’t you follow me and I’ll find something to keep those hands busy?”

“Hildi, I can’t,” Knile said with real regret.  “I’m very short on time.”

“Oh, Knile,” she said, her features clouding over.  She lifted a hand to his face.  “You in trouble again, boy?”

“Aren’t I always?”

Hildi smiled.  “You wouldn’t be Knile if you weren’t in some kind of mischief.”  She turned to Talia.  “What about you, Talia?  You messed up in this as well?”

“Not this time.  I’m just trying to help him on his way.”

“I don’t want to know anything more,” Hildi said, holding up her palms.  “Follow me and I’ll take you to Giroux.  Hopefully the old bastard is awake by now.”

She led them down a sandy pathway that wound through the oasis, and Knile was reminded of why there was so much security around Grove.  The place was a living, breathing treasure.  The crops that grew here were unparalleled in their richness and purity, a level of quality that rivalled the halcyon days of Earth.  Considering how many people outside were starving or living on toxic scraps, the value of the plants that jutted from the soil beneath this dome was not much less than their weight in gold.

“He’s probably in Section Three,” Hildi said as workers in light grey overalls edged past from the other direction.  “Been spending a lot of time there lately.  Had a leak that almost killed off the little lovelies a few weeks back.”

“Is everything okay?” Talia said.

“It should be.  He’s worked greater miracles in his time.”

They came to the wall of the first enclosure, and Hildi expertly tugged on a zipper that opened an aperture in the membrane.  She indicated for them to pass through.  Sealing the opening once again, she strode past them and continued to lead at a brisk pace.

“Not far, now,” Hildi said.  This enclosure was smaller and the ceiling lower than the first, and it lacked any tall plants whatsoever.  They made it across in only a few strides and then entered the next habitat.

“There he is,” Talia said, pointing down a row of strawberries.  Knile saw him then too, a tall man with thinning golden hair and a stubbly beard.  He was bent over the soil and hadn’t seen them yet.

“So he
is,” Hildi said.  “Giroux himself.  This is where I leave you, then.”

She held out her arms and embraced each of them in turn.

“Thank you, Hildi,” Knile said.  “I really appreciate this.”

“You’ll visit the boy before you go, won’t you?” Hildi said firmly, glancing at each of them in turn.  Knile and Talia exchanged glances.

“Of course,” Talia said.

“I think that would be for the best,” Hildi said.

“We will, Hildi,” Knile said.  “Thank you again.”

Hildi nodded, then disappeared through the wall of the habitat and back the way she had come.

“Come on,” Talia urged.  “Let’s do this.”

They strode toward Giroux, their boots thumping purposefully on the firmly packed sand of the path.  Giroux heard their approach and straightened, wiping his hands on his grey overalls.  At first his face betrayed no emotion, but as they neared he couldn’t prevent a broad smile from spreading across his face.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” he said, reaching out one of his massive hands and shaking each of theirs in turn.

“Nice to see you too, Giroux,” Knile said.

“What’s it been?  Three?  Four years?”

“About that,” Talia said.

“I heard you were dead, Knile,” Giroux said, twitching his eyebrows humorously.

“That story seems to have gone around a lot,” Knile said.  “Luckily it’s untrue.”

“So I see.”  Giroux turned to Talia.  “And what about you, Talia?  Haven’t seen you in almost as long.  You risen from the dead as well?”

Talia shrugged, embarrassed.  “I’ve been around.  Just doing my own thing.”

“There’s still a place for you here, if you want it.  You know that.”

“Thank you, Giroux,” Talia said.  “I appreciate that, but I’m doing fine on my own.”

“Never one to accept help when it’s offered, that one,” Giroux said to Knile conspiratorially, as if Talia wasn’t there.  “I’ve tried, believe me.”

“Well, I could sure use some right now,” Knile said.