[Coyote 02] - Coyote Rising by Steele Allen

Author:Steele, Allen [Steele, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-10T19:24:44+00:00

"You thought she was going to remain nine forever?" Carlos shook his head. "She's eighteen, almost nineteen. Call her my girlfriend again, and we're going to have a problem." As if they didn't already.

"Sorry, man. I didn't . . ." Then Chris seemed to remember where he was. "What did you do to her? She shot our pilot down like it was a skeet shoot."

"I didn't . . ." Carlos let out his breath. He couldn't explain Marie's actions either; like Chris, he remembered when his little sister had been someone other than a sniper. Letting her join Rigil Kent had been a mistake; he saw that now. "Let's talk about something else, okay? Why are you here?"

For a moment, it seemed as if Chris was going to clam up again. He sipped coffee as he watched Marie and Lars dig graves; now that Garth had buried the third soldier, he was rummaging through the mess kit for something to eat. "I was their guide," he said, as if that explained everything. "Sort of their native sherpa."

"Don't lie." Carlos shook his head. "You've never been here before. Last time I heard, the Matriarch made you Chief Proctor of Shuttlefield. What are you doing with a Union Guard patrol in Midland?"

"Last time I heard, you were going by the handle of Rigil Kent." He smiled. "I looked it up, by the way.

An old European name for Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Earth, besides Sol. Good name . . ."

"Don't change the subject. What are you doing here?"

Chris shrugged. "Sure, why not? Might as well tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"We're looking for you. Your little club, I mean." He gestured toward the tripod-mounted instrument, lying upended upon the ground near the bullet-pocked equipment cases. "See that? It's called a SIMS . . . schematic information mapping system. Your dad would have loved it. It's right up his alley."

"Forget about my family." Carlos felt his face growing warm; whether Chris meant to or not, he was scratching an old wound. "What does it do?"

"It's a full-suite sensory package . . . infrared, motion detection, body heat, the works. It's linked via satellite to a dozen or so like it they've been setting up all over Midland. The idea is to collect information on your people's movements. Once the data is collated, then they'll be able to predict where you're likely to be at any given time." He looked at Constanza. "It's his baby, so he might be able to explain it better.

If you can get him to talk, that is."

A remote surveillance system. Carlos felt a chill that didn't come from the weather. If he and the others had been any slower coming down the hillside, then the SIMS would have picked them up as soon as they were within range. The odds would have been reversed; he might have become Chris's prisoner, and the soldiers would have been digging graves for Marie, Lars, and Garth.

Yet that was only conjecture. Reality wasn't much more kind.

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