Under Dark Sky Law (29 page)

“Happy to hear that. How about you show me
yours, I’ll show you mine?” she said.

“Seems like as good a place as any. Oh yeah,
also I forgot to mention to you. There’s a message I’m supposed to
pass on to you,” he said.

“Oh? From Xed?” she said.

Alamo walked forward a few steps and leaned
in. “Gal named Calavera. Says you’ve gotta meet her ASAP in El
Paso. If I were you, I wouldn’t let on to your friend Xed about
that little bit of information, if you know what I mean,” he
said.

“Oh shit,” Neptune said.

Milo walked forward to stand next to Xero.
“You wouldn’t happen to know if she’s with another associate of
ours, would you?” Milo said.

Alamo shook his head. “That I don’t know
anything about. All I got was that one message, but given the
current climate, what with everything going on in Yuma, I would
keep all this under your hat. Ya’ll got a crew member missing?” he
said.

“Yeah. Missing or dead,’ Milo said.

“Sorry to hear that,” Alamo said. “Best of
luck to you. If ya’ll need anymore help, you let me know. Any
friend of Sanchez is a friend of mine. Now once our business here
is done, I can give you a good Tex Mex Meal and set you up in a
nice hotel, but I have this feeling you might want to be carrying
on right through to El Paso,” he said.

Xero looked at her weary companions. Radar
was spotlighted by a beam of light coming down from one of the high
windows of the old chapel. His creased face was weary but
steadfast. Ready. She inhaled deeply, smelling the old clay and
lingering smell of decades of tourists traipsing through the
room.

“I would love to take you up on that offer of
a hot meal, but you’re right. We need to move on to El Paso. Just
out of curiosity, how did you clear this place out?” she said.

“Ah, well this is a government holiday, so it
was shut down anyway. But this is my territory, as you may have
guessed, so it’s real easy for me to put on lockdown. Plus, it’s
sad to say, but ever since regular tourism travel between the domes
has stopped, not many people come through here anyway. It’s better
for ol’ Bessie here at least—less foot traffic keeps ‘er from
falling apart,” he said.

“Good to know,” she said and exhaled. “Let’s
get ‘er done then.”

CHAPTER 28

Lucky for them, El Paso was just in the pits,
no dome bullshit to deal with, and similarly there was no need to
deal with Xed to gain access. Given what they were finding out
about Xed, it was looking like they were all thinking what no one
wanted to say: maybe somehow Calavera knew what had happened to
Argon.

It was a long slog through some harrowing
country, but they were all energized by the new appearance of
Calavera and the promise of being able to use the two reagents to
synthesize viable Ketocillin. Milo wasn’t totally certain it would
work without getting access to a real lab, but their ghetto tests
at least indicated that the reagents they had were in fact
genuine.

Originally, El Paso and Juarez had been
totally separate territories like Tucson and Nogales were, but
after Calavera left Juarez, the two territories had all but
formally merged. Mexico and the United States were still
technically two countries, but with the governments unable to
actually police the borders, the only real distinctions were the
ones enforced by the various cartels positioned along the border
pits. She’d been on good terms with Juarez and El Paso in years
past, and with their relationship with Calavera officially shorn
up, there was no reason to expect anyone to cause a ruckus over
their presence. In general, Xero tried to keep peaceful relations
with neighboring regions whenever possible. It made for much better
business.

When they pulled into the El Paso border
area, things had changed. There used to be a dirty but at least
orderly security checkpoint that Anita, the previous territory
leader, ran well despite their impoverished resources. What they
saw when they pulled up reminded Xero more of what Juarez looked
like at the turn of the century—a total war zone.

Smoke was rising up in small plumes from
dozens of places against the dirty skyline. Many of the grey
buildings were crumbling, and though some of it looked like the
wearing of time, other buildings had clearly sustained recent
damage. When they approached the checkpoint, their cargo vans were
swarmed with soldiers. Their grimy clothes and stricken faces told
Xero that they had been in the thick of it, probably for days. If
they had retained any cargo in the vans, she would have been on
high alert for a supply raid, but as it was, they just needed to
keep themselves safe—not something Xero was worried about now that
she had a functioning team again.

“Stay in the vans. I’ll go out and talk to
them first. If shit starts looking foul, you know what to do,” Xero
said.

“I’ve got you covered,” Neptune said, patting
a spot in her jacket where she had stowed the illegal laser.

After leaving San Antonio they had finally
changed out of the nasty concert gear from days before and back
into more combat-ready clothing since they weren’t planning on
doing anymore dome surfing. They were all in Army drabs, cargo
pants, and tactical boots. Xero actually preferred to travel in
more style than that, or at least with more functional armor, but
at least they were more mobile and ready for a fight this way.

Two soldiers in full gear, complete with old
world gas masks approached her.

“We know who you are,” the one on the right
said. “She’s not here, and if you know what’s good for you, you
won’t be here either.”

“Shit,” Xero said. “Skeleton attacks?”

“What do you think?” the one on the left
said.

“They’re looking for Calavera. We were given
orders to funnel you guys her way if you came by, but then as you
can see, things went to shit. Calavera bailed, and so should you.
Get out of town. If they’re looking for her, they may be looking
for you, and we don’t need anymore shit here. Leave before we need
to make you,” the other said.

“Fuck. We don’t want anymore trouble either.
We’ll be moving along now,” she said.

After climbing back in the vehicle, she
relayed the information to the rest of the crew.

“Sorry guys. I thought this was our chance to
finally get our hands on Calavera and get some answers. We don’t
know where she ran to, but maybe we’ll get lucky and she decided to
come on back to South Tucson. Let’s get back home, start trying to
cook up the Ketocillin, and put together one big fucking bitch
hunt,” she said.

CHAPTER 29

Xero was in the control room, fiddling with
some of Neptune’s gadgets to make sure she wasn’t missing any
transmissions from Calavera or other important parties, when she
heard a loud crash.

“Fuck! Fuck this organization, fuck Xed, fuck
that cunt ass Cajun bitch, and fuck this goddamn bowling alley!”
she heard Milo yell from the front of the building.

The banging continued, and Xero ran out of
the office. Milo’s face was redder than his hair, and tears were
streaming quietly down his face as he lobbed bowling balls down the
restored lanes. He was tossing them like they were shot puts and as
they landed in the old wood, big craters opened up underneath the
heavy balls, dotting the lanes like someone slowly poking holes in
Swiss cheese by hand.

“Whoa there buddy,” Xero said. “Calm down and
tell me what happened.”

Milo spun around, a neon orange bowling ball
clutched in his right hand, ready to throw. Xero put her hands up
in a gesture of surrender, but Milo was too emotional to notice
Xero preparing to disarm him. She snatched the ball from his hand
and simultaneously dodged behind him, grabbing his collar and
sweeping a leg across his feet. He landed safely with his ass in
one of the white bucket chairs, too stunned to say anything.

Footsteps pounded across the room as
Neptune’s compact body lurched out of another office. “What the
fuck is going on out here?” she said when she saw the destruction
on the lanes. She was wielding a machete and jabbing at Milo and
Xero.

“Everyone just calm the fuck down. Neptune, I
love you, but if you ever shake a fucking machete in my face again,
I will shove it right up your ass,” Xero said, still holding the
neon bowling ball.

Neptune lowered the machete but didn’t drop
it. She put her free hand on her hip. “Look boss, I don’t care
who’s the causing trouble. Even if it’s you having a full on freak
out I gotta put a stop to it, comprende? And it looks like you got
caught red handed ruining my fine craftsmanship,” she said,
motioning to the destroyed lanes.

“It’s not me, obviously,” she said and
pointed down to Milo who had begun sobbing openly, his head buried
in his hands.

“Oh Jesus. Milo, dude, what’s wrong man?”
Neptune said.

Xero put down the bowling ball and put a hand
on Milo’s back. He knocked it away with quick smack that echoed
down the lanes. Neptune started to raise the machete again, but
Xero motioned for her to drop it again.

“Just give him a minute,” Xero said.

They waited, but Milo wouldn’t even raise his
head, and the sobs were coming in waves that traveled up through
his body like small earthquakes.

“Yo boss, you think we oughtta give him a
sedative or something? He’s fucking lost it,” Neptune said, poking
the machete in his direction for emphasis.

“Dude, stop pointing that thing at him like
he’s going to go all slaughterhouse on us. It’s fucking Milo for
fuck’s sake,” she said.

Neptune shrugged. “Milo might not look like
much, but he’s got some fighting chops on him still. I’ve seen
people go crazy in this desert and just start stabbing people for
no reason. I don’t let anyone get the drop on me—not even my own
mother,” she said.

Xero rolled her eyes. “Okay fine, just watch
where you point that thing—seeing as how Milo’s going to have a
hard time sewing himself up if you get twitchy and run him
through,” she said.

Milo seemed to be oblivious to both the
machete pointed in his direction and the conversation they were
having about him. Xero tried to get his attention several more
times, but he just sat there, his sobs growing more hysterical by
the minute.

“Keep an eye on him, but don’t stab him,”
Xero said and walked into one of the back bedrooms. She came back
with a groggy Radar in tow.

“You really want me to do that?” he said.
“What’s gotten into him?”

Xero dragged him across the floor until he
was adjacent to Milo. “I don’t know, that’s what we need to find
out. If it’s something really dangerous, we might need to know
sooner rather than later,” she said.

Radar scratched his head dubiously. “Okay, if
you say so,” he said.

Neptune cocked her head, trying to figure out
what they were talking about, but the answer came before she had to
think for too long. Radar put a hand on Milo’s shoulder and before
he could knock it away, his body jumped, then stiffened. Radar
grabbed Milo’s other shoulder and laid him across another chair so
that his upper body was supported between the two seats. He wasn’t
unconscious, but he was stunned enough not be able to move, and he
stopped crying.

“Did you just shock him?” Neptune said and
looked at Xero. “You’re worried about me stabbing him, but you tell
Mr. Robot here to light him up like a Christmas tree?”

“It was just a mild shock, he’ll be fine,”
Xero said.

Milo was breathing at a more regular pace and
after shaking his head back and forth a few times, he tried to sit
back up again. Radar tried to help him, but he shied away from his
touch. “Thanks, I’ve got this,” he said in a quiet, shaky
voice.

“Sorry about that,” Radar said.

Milo ignored him and just looked straight at
Xero. “It’s not working. It won’t work—it can’t work. I can’t make
it. I don’t have the equipment here to make it happen,” he
said.

“The Ketocillin?” Xero said.

He averted his eyes before answering. “Yes. I
can’t make it here. We need equipment that they would only have in
one of the big fabrication labs in one of the domes that still has
a manufacturing industry. The two reagents are authentic, but I
can’t get the molecules to fuse without some fancy equipment that
we probably never had out in our shitty academic labs,” he
said.

Xero squatted down on her heels till she was
eyelevel with Milo. “It’s not over yet. We can find a way. We’ll
figure something out. There’s always a way,” she said.

Milo hung his head and shook it quickly, his
hands shooting up to spastically clench tufts of hair. “That’s not
the only problem. Her lungs are too damaged. Even if we were to get
her the Ketocillin today, it would be too late. She would slowly
die if we couldn’t figure out a way to repair her lungs too,” he
said.

“Look Milo. One step at a time. We can’t make
the decision just to let her die—not while she’s not able to make
that decision for herself. We get the drugs, we kill the fungus,
then we figure out what to do next. In the meantime, you can look
into other options, but we don’t just give up. Got it?”

Small tears were leaking out of his eyes
again, but he held it together and gave her one hard nod.

Xero returned his nod and said, “Good. Grease
Weasels never give up.”

CHAPTER 30

It wasn’t something that anyone wanted to
have to deal with. After the last run to Phoenix went so
spectacularly badly, it was the last place any of them wanted to
travel. Knowing what a pain in the ass Xed was being, none of them
wanted anything to do with him either, but they had little choice.
The normally tranquil Milo was on edge, and as a group they
resolved to keep him out of contact with Xed during the excursion.
Ever since he’d come back from their trip out east to discover
Trina’s lungs had become irreparably damaged, he had been a total
mess, alternately full or rage and catatonic. Xero had been
hesitant to even use him in the band just in case he had a full on
meltdown, but Xed had insisted that they really needed a full band
in order to make the gig believable. The Phoenix dome had always
been a lot more regulated than some of the smaller domes, and they
had to move cautiously, even with Xed’s support.