Saving Thanehaven (30 page)

“Yeah, but how do we know these guys will listen to reason?” the emulator breaks in, glaring at Noble through thick, black-framed glasses. “Even if
we’re
ready to compromise, what makes you think
they
will?”

“They’ll have no reason not to,” Noble says quietly. After a moment’s struggle, he confesses, “They’ll be open-minded as long as Rufus isn’t there. If Rufus is gone, you shouldn’t have much trouble. The others …” He takes a deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady. “Without Rufus, most of the others will listen. It’s Rufus who leads them astray.”

He knows that Lorellina and Yestin must be looking at him, but he keeps his attention fixed firmly on the Master. It’s hard enough betraying Rufus. Doing it in front of witnesses is even more shameful.

“How can you be so sure?” says the Master. “What makes
you
such an expert?”

“I know Rufus.” Noble ignores the gasps and murmurs that greet this remark. Still without glancing at his friends, he adds, “We all do. All three of us.”

“You can’t,” the emulator argues. “Ruthlessrufus is zero-day malware. Brand-new. Your information
can’t
be better than ours—we got ours straight from the source!”

“I know Rufus,” Noble repeats gravely, “and I know he has to be stopped.” When his gaze finally swivels toward Lorellina, he expects to see her scowling at him.

But she’s nodding sadly. So is Yestin.

“Oh, Ruthlessrufus is going to be stopped, rest assured,” the Disk Commander suddenly volunteers. “We’re taking a three-pronged approach. Our first job will be to locate the target, so we’ll send in an advance guard. That will include our file and process trackers, our honeypot squad, our analysis team—”

“I’ll find him,” Noble interjects.

“What?”

“I’ll find him. I know where he’ll be.” Noble turns to the Master. “He’s probably with the Kernel. The Kernel is
his
target.”

The Master frowns. “You mean Ruthlessrufus has breached the Kernel’s privilege ring?”

“Uh …” Noble can’t answer this. He doesn’t understand the question.

“Definitely,” Yestin pipes up.

“Then we’re in trouble,” the Master informs everyone. “Because that’s bad. That’s
really
bad.”

“Not if I bring him back here,” says Noble. “I’ll go and get Rufus. You won’t have to send an advance guard. There won’t be any fighting. I’ll do it all myself, as long as you promise not to deal cruelly with anyone Rufus might have misled.”

The Master eyes him for a moment, then looks at the Disk Commander—who shrugs. “All right by me,” is the Disk Commander’s response.

The princess leans close to Noble and whispers in his ear, “I will come with you.”

“No.”

“But—”

“If you don’t stay,” Noble replies under his breath, “they might try to follow me. I don’t want them leaving this ship. You
have
to stop them if they try.” Seeing that the Master is about to speak, he clears his throat and loudly concludes, “My friends will remain on board as a guarantee of my return. I would not abandon them. No matter what happens, I
shall
return for my friends.”

The words have barely left his mouth when a loud bell rings. It makes him jump.

“We’re here,” the Master announces. Around him, everyone starts edging toward the door—everyone, that is, except Noble and his friends.

“What’s happening?” asks Noble, confused.

“We’ve arrived. At our disembarkation port,” the Master informs him.

“You mean we’ve reached Mikey’s computer?”

“That’s correct.” Placing his hands on his hips, the Master regards Noble with narrowed eyes. “So the question is: What do we do now? Play it by the book, or do it your way?”

“Give me a chance,” Noble pleads. He can hear
clattering footsteps and raised voices in the passage outside. “I want to stop Rufus just as much as you do.”

The Master grunts. “Maybe,” he says. “Or maybe you want to get in there first, so you can warn him.”

“And abandon my friends?” Noble shakes his head fiercely. “I know Rufus. I know where he’ll be, and I know what to say to him. It’s
what I’m here for
.”

He’s surprised at the impact his last statement has. It snags the Master like a fishhook.

“Oh! I didn’t realize … you mean … are you an
update
?” the Master says.

“That’s right!” Yestin jumps in before Noble can utter a word. “He’s an attack signature update. He’s like an
advance
advance guard. He knows just what to look for and where to do it.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” The Master squints through all the milling bodies that separate him from the cabin door. “I need an escort!” he barks, then grabs the Disk Commander. “This guy’s a signature update. We need to get him docked.”

“Will do,” the Disk Commander replies. He promptly starts to bellow orders, creating a path through the crowd with nothing but the sheer force of his mighty lungs. Together, he, the Master, and a small squad of soldiers escort Noble up to the boat deck, bundling him through hatches, pushing him up companionways, and steering him between bulkheads. Noble begins to feel like a bag of supplies as he’s passed from hand to hand. Lorellina and Yestin
try to keep up, though it’s hard because of the press of people.

At one point, they manage a brief conversation while they’re waiting for a clogged passageway to clear.

“Are you going to bring Rufus back to the ship?” Lorellina asks Noble in a low voice.

“I’ll have to,” Noble says, fending off an armored knight with one elbow.

“But what if they kill him?”

“They’ll kill him, all right,” Yestin observes flatly. “They might put him in quarantine first, but then they’ll kill him.”

“Not if he agrees to help.” Noble shoots a quick glance over his shoulder, to make sure no one else is listening. Then he adds softly, “If I talk to Rufus and make him see that he’s been wrong, then he might give himself up. In exchange for clemency.”

“You think?” Yestin seems doubtful. Even the princess doesn’t look convinced.

“He might lie to save his own life,” she warns.

“Not if he doesn’t realize he’s in danger.” Seeing her green eyes widen, Noble explains, with some reluctance, “He won’t know where I came from. Why should he?”

“You mean you’re not going to tell him you’ve been on the rescue drive?” Yestin whispers in amazement.

“Not at first,” Noble admits.

“So by lying to him, you would save all the
rest?” Lorellina’s troubled tone makes Noble defensive.

“I won’t lie,” he insists. “I simply won’t tell him the whole truth, that’s all.”

“Rufus didn’t tell
us
the whole truth,” Yestin reminds her, just as the blockage ahead of them clears. Noble finds himself swept off his feet and carried along in a tide of uniforms. After bouncing off a couple of painted metal bulkheads, he finally pops through a hatchway and emerges onto an open deck with a coastal view.

Almost everything around him is gray. The ship is gray; the sky is gray; the listless-looking sea is gray. Gray pebbles line the nearest shore, beyond which stretches a desolate landscape. Trees have been reduced to blackened stumps. Roads are rivers of dry mud, as gray as ash. The same mud coats every wrecked vehicle and weathered corpse scattered among the foundations of razed buildings.

The light is bleak, the silence oppressive. The only sound is the slap and hiss of sluggish waves. There are no birds. The air is absolutely still.

The crowded deck is hushed, as everyone gazes in awe at the barren countryside.

“That’s it,” the Master finally remarks. He’s standing beside Noble. “That’s our port.”

“W-what happened to it?” Noble stammers.

The Master shrugs, then turns to the Disk Commander. “What do you think?”

“I don’t think it’s blocked,” the Disk Commander
replies. “We just received a reset signal from a controller somewhere.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“She said, ‘Kick back, reset, and join the party!’ ” With a snort, the Commander concludes, “She sounded drunk.”

“So let’s send in a packet.”

“Bulk transfer?”

“Naw, not yet …”

As orders are given for a boat to be winched overboard, Noble slips the AV’s key into Lorellina’s palm. “Here. You have this,” he tells her. “I don’t want Rufus seeing it.”

She takes the key, but seems more interested in the view. “Do you recognize this place?” she asks, nodding at the gray horizon. When Noble shakes his head, she says, “Then how are you going to find the Kernel?”

Noble has already worked out how he’s going to find the Kernel. It came to him in a flash, without warning, on his way to the upper deck. He pats the waistband of his breeches, where the Kernel’s key is still nestling in a seam. “If I can find a door,” he says, “I can find the Kernel.”

“All ashore that’s going ashore!” someone cries. The Master beckons to Noble, who gently squeezes Lorellina’s hand.

“Be careful,” she pleads.

“I will.”

“Come back for us.”

“Always.” Noble gazes into her eyes for a moment, marveling at their beauty. It seems fitting that he should kiss her again, so he does. Then he claps Yestin on the shoulder, trying not to look at the boy’s anxious face. “Look after the princess,” he tells Yestin. “I’m counting on you.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t worry. I won’t be long.”

A corridor has been cleared through the press of bodies on deck, giving Noble a clear view of the boat that awaits him. It’s hanging from two sturdy cables, rocking slightly as the larger vessel rolls with the motion of a gentle swell. The boat is already occupied. A large dog is sharing it with someone wearing a shiny yellow cape.

As Noble strides toward them, a shrill whistle suddenly rends the air.

“We’re piping you ashore,” the Master announces. “Stream piping, in fact. This is your chip.” He indicates the man in yellow. “The chip will execute the transfer and then wait for you. We’ll
all
be waiting.”

“Yes.” Noble studies the yawning gap between the boat and the ship’s rail. “I understand.”

“Just don’t keep us waiting too long, all right?”

“I won’t.”

“Off you go, then!” The Master raises his voice. “Someone give him a hand—we don’t want him crashing.”

The man in yellow reaches for Noble, who mounts
the rail and launches himself wildly into the boat. There’s a nasty moment as the boat swings and jerks like a fish on a line, triggering a volley of barks from the chip’s dog. But Noble soon finds a steady footing. With the chip’s help he sits in the bow, then clings to a gunwale while the boat is lowered clumsily into the water.

The beach is quite close. Noble realizes that he probably could have swum to it, given the chance. He’s expecting the chip to produce a couple of oars and row; instead, the silent seaman yanks at a string attached to some sort of machine that’s been mounted on the stern like a second rudder. After grumbling a few times, this machine suddenly unleashes a snarling roar. At the same instant, the boat lunges forward.

Noble nearly loses his balance. He has to grab the prow and brace himself as the chip steers toward dry land. Glancing back over his shoulder, Noble searches for Lorellina’s pale face and red hair among the crowds clustered along the side of the ship. But he can’t see the princess. He can’t see Yestin, either. There are too many people, and he’s already too far away.

So he fixes his attention on the shore up ahead, which is soon scraping under the boat’s keel. The chip immediately leaps overboard. He begins to haul his craft onto the dry beach, his white teeth framed by a bristling black beard, his eyes almost invisible beneath the wide brim of his yellow hat. “Can ye not move yer limbs?” he snaps at Noble, who quickly scrambles
into the surf, taking up a position on the opposite side of the boat. Together, they drag the vessel free of the sucking tide, while the chip’s dog sits and watches.

It’s the chip who stops heaving first. “Avast!” he growls at Noble. Straightening up, Noble turns his head to study the grimly unwelcoming scene that lies before him. The dead trees and scattered bones remind him of Morwood. But Noble can’t remember seeing wrecked vehicles or collapsed fences in Morwood. And in Morwood he always used to walk on flesh and salt, not stones and ash.

“Away and go,” says the chip. “I’ll not be here forever.”

Noble nods. He begins to trudge across the wide strip of pebbles, his hand straying once again to his waistband. But he hasn’t lost his precious key. It’s still there, safe and sound—his tiny, hidden escape route.

The question is: Where will he find a door to unlock, in this deserted, battle-scarred wasteland?

N
oble stands on the fringes of a ruined hamlet, assessing the terrain spread out before him. No birds are twittering. No wind is blowing. The very shadows seem to throb with menace.

Once again, he’s alone in barren, hostile territory—only this time he doesn’t have Smite. This time, he doesn’t even have
boots
. And instead of saving the princess, he now has to save the computer.

But he has to find Rufus before he can do that.

From where he’s standing, he can’t see the beach anymore. The ship is masked by a low ridge that’s dotted with craters and scorch marks. Having decided to follow the most obvious route inland—a track like a river of dry mud—Noble was at first quite pleased to stumble upon a burned-out village. Now he’s not
feeling quite so hopeful. The buildings in front of him contain only empty doorways, gaping like mouths. Even the sills and doorjambs are missing.

Has every stick of wood in the place been consumed by fire?

Noble advances cautiously, weaving his way between large, jagged chunks of blackened stonework. There isn’t a roof in sight, and the narrow, winding streets are sometimes hard to distinguish from the equally exposed, equally filthy, equally narrow rooms and corridors. It’s like walking through a maze. He can’t help feeling as if he’s about to be ambushed. If he were back in Morwood, something would be lurking behind every rock, waiting to kill him.

This place, however, seems totally abandoned. A few clay pots and rusty tools lie half-buried in the ash and debris, but not a single piece of furniture or scrap of cloth remains. There aren’t any bones, either. Noble is glad about that.
If there are no bones
, he thinks,
the people who lived here must have escaped with their lives
.