Free Spear of Light by Brenda Cooper Page A

stiffened. “I’m sorry it’s so . . . so different from when you came before.”
    She offered him a brave smile. “You can still show me waterfalls.”
    Maybe he’d see her again as early as tonight, but really, anything could happen. He felt the dark closing around them, and the cold. He also felt danger like an itch on the back of his neck. “You should go. Call me as soon as you know anything about Manny?”
    â€œIf we can find out anything. Call me if you find the . . . the men who killed Davis. Or if anything else happens.”
    He smiled. “Let’s just call each other in a few hours. Period.”
    As they walked back out of the forest, hand in hand, he again marveled that it felt so good and so easy to be beside her.

CHAPTER TEN
    NONA
    As Jean Paul piloted them down the valley, Nona watched the deep shadows of the forest below them, black on gray on black. They flew dark, both cabin lights and external lights off. The stars and their reflection on the scraps of river and stream below them were the only light available, pale and thin except for the occasional bright beacon of a station.
    Jean Paul wasn’t talkative. In fact, he said nothing at all until they came to the end of the ravine, to the place where the great waterfall of the wide river spilled into what was now a dark pool of shadows.
    He tilted the nose of skimmer up and opened the doors. She couldn’t see the robotic parts that spilled out of the back compartment, but she felt the skimmer rise as they lost the weight. She imagined the metal pieces falling and twisting through the sky, a whole line of metal parts. Maybe the cameras were taking pictures of the fall and someone would come look for them someday, if civilization didn’t fall apart first.
    Jean Paul shook the skimmer with a quick twist right and back left before he closed the doors. One more piece of something banged against the side of the cargo bay before falling free. “I hope we got them all.”
    â€œBecause they’d be evidence of a crime?” she asked.
    â€œYeah, that.” His voice had calmed so much that he didn’t even vaguely resemble the man who had been methodically shooting at a dead robot not long before. He seemed to be someplace far inside himself.
    She curled up as comfortably as she could, pillowing her head on an old blanket she found behind her seat and pulling her coat tight around her. “Jean Paul?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œWhat do you think is happening in town?”
    â€œI think Manny’s about to get kicked out. I think there’s a bunch of people that would rather have a fight than order, even when they can’t win. The damned Next are dismantling generations worth of work in weeks.” He fell silent, looking in front of them rather than at her. “Who would have thought we were so fragile?”
    â€œCivilization?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œThe Deep went crazy at first.” She looked up, as if she could see it. “Factions we didn’t even know were there started protesting. Fights broke out over nothing. People started hoarding. Not everyone, of course. Some were great, looked after everyone else, tried to stop the craziness.”
    She couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but his voice sounded grateful. “Thank you.”
    â€œIt’s a scary time. It’s getting better up there now, calmer.”
    When he didn’t say anything else, she asked him, “What else can we do except check on Manny?”
    â€œWho knows.”
    She gave up. He clearly didn’t want to talk to her.
    It had grown even darker, the sky now clearly punctuated here and there with the bright lights of stations. The Glittering. She wondered if the Deep was someplace where she could see it, but she didn’t disturb their night vision by pulling out a slate to check.
    Jean Paul called Gerry and told her they were going into town. “Do