“We’ll be at Darwin in an hour.”

Rachel looked up. The plane had flown into darkness; the cabin lights seemed brighter. She must have dozed off in her incredibly comfy chair. The lack of recent thumps and bumps allowed her to sleep.

Now Edgar Chang loomed above her.

“Then what?”

He sat next to her, looking even older than he had in their first meetings. Rachel judged him to be in his midsixties . . . she wondered what he had done wrong in his career to be the point man for an operation like this.

Or look at it another way, she thought; maybe Chang was the senior editor of some publication and took this assignment because he wanted it done properly . . . and because it was unique.

She wondered if he would tell her, if she asked. But first things first—

“You wanted to reach Free Nation U.S.”

“As soon as possible, yes.”

“That’s what I’m working on.”

“What does that mean, ‘working on’?”

Chang smiled and held up his notepad. “It means sending a lot of e-mails to a lot of people in very different locations, including some in Free Nation U.S.”

“I thought all that was firewalled.”

“As close to a hundred percent as you can get. But, you know, the U.S. is a big place with a lot of open space. Somewhere on some border or out on a prairie—or in the middle of Chicago, maybe—someone has a secret tower and is beaming a signal off some satellite the Aggregates think is dead.”

“And what are you learning?”

Chang rubbed his face. Rachel suspected that he had not slept in a day, likely longer. “There are three ways you sneak into Free Nation U.S.”

“Walk, fly, or swim?” Pav said, behind her. Rachel patted the chair next to her. She still felt the need to punish her husband a bit, but it was silly to isolate him from important information.

“That’s what they were doing when I was living in Houston,” Rachel said. Illegal immigration was one of the issues that rose and fell in importance, like the price of gasoline or summer temperatures.

“Some of that still happens,” Chang said. “And a good thing, because that’s what we’re going to be doing. Our choices are to fly across the Canadian border, hike from northern Mexico into Texas, or swim into California.”

“Which do you recommend?” Pav said.

“Which method is safest?” Rachel added.

Chang looked harried. “None of this is safe! If you’re thinking of this as some kind of tourist excursion, put that right out of your heads. You are, or will be, once word is out that you’re not in Delhi or China, the world’s most wanted fugitives. The Aggregates will do everything they can to track you and capture you.”

“We know that,” Rachel said. “Let’s go back to how, or where?”

“Or what you would do if you were in our situation?” Pav said, pointing at Chang.

“Word is that crossing from Mexico, either to California or Arizona, is still the easiest.

“But that raises the larger question: Where do you want to go in Free Nation U.S.? And what do you hope to do there?”

Rachel wasn’t sure how to answer Chang—or even if she should. When you stripped away the nonsense about trade or sightseeing, the core of Adventure’s mission was reconnaissance. They needed to know the extent of Reiver Aggregate domination of Earth, since clearly it didn’t extend to Southeast Asia.

Only then would they be able to consider doing something about it. Assuming they could do anything at all.

But before she could offer Chang some vague nonanswer, Pav spoke again: “Let’s just say this, Mr. Chang: We want to get into the western U.S., and as soon as possible. It would be helpful if we also had a nearby base of operations.”

Chang closed his notepad. “Then that is what we will try to do. I’ll know more when we reach Darwin.”

“When will that be?” Rachel said.

“Less than an hour.” He considered the situation. “We ought to be in cell phone range already. . . .” He reached for his jacket, which was slung across the next seat.

“Is that secure?” Rachel said. God, now she was sounding like Pav!

“As secure as any broadcast signal can be,” he said. “But if you’d rather I waited until we landed—”

At that instant a cell phone rang somewhere in the cabin. Rachel and Chang looked around.

More than a little embarrassed, Pav grinned as he raised his cell phone. “Yes?” he said. Then, as if it would help, he put his free hand over his other ear. “You’re breaking up—”

Pav nodded, then clicked off. To Rachel he said, “It’s my father. He’s going to change locations.”

“I’m still amazed that you have these things,” Rachel said to Chang.

“Cell phones? The networks were built a generation before the Aggregates arrived. They’ve infected them, of course—waged cyberwar. But it’s one area where we’ve fought them to a draw—”

The phone rang again and Pav answered it. “I wonder what news he has?” Rachel said.

“Speaking of news,” Chang said, “our first task, once we’re settled in Darwin, is to release some information about your ‘escape’ and other activities.”

“For God’s sake, why?”

“To satisfy the organizations that fronted you the equivalent of ten million dollars.” Chang gestured at the plane. “Edgely’s friends provided the plane—not the fuel, not the pilots. That all costs money.”

“Got it.”

“And you’ll need every penny where you’re—”

“Oh fuck no.” That was Pav, suddenly looking stricken.

Rachel gasped. She knew without hearing—

“Sanjay’s dead.”

SITUATION REPORT

Five of the six members of the Keanu mission Adventure departed Yelahanka AB Monday morning, ostensibly headed for Delhi. Sources at Yelahanka suggest that they are actually planning to leave India and make their way to Free Nation U.S.

The sixth member of Adventure’s crew remains at Yelahanka.

This clandestine maneuver seems to have been necessitated by two separate attacks on the crew, both attributable to forces funded by, or, in the first case of the submarine-launched missile attack, overtly answerable to the Aggregates.

All Aggregate-controlled military forces have elevated their alert status from yellow to orange and seem to be actively pursuing the Adventure crew, treating them as a hostile force allied with, though not controlled by, India or China.

This alert seems related to the recent consolidation of Aggregate formations in northern Arizona. (See bulletins of 1–7 April 2040.) The motive behind their apparent withdrawal from larger cities is still unknown and under investigation.

INTELLIGENCE REPORT, RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS WING,

DELHI, 18 APRIL 2040

DALE

Running through the habitat, naked, with his raggedy clothing in his arms, Dale was surprised at the ease of his escape.

And the fact that nothing and no one seemed to be moving. The silent stillness reminded him of deadly Sunday nights he had spent in various tank towns during his military career, episodes he had found to be unsettling and nerve-racking, though he could not have said why. After all, he had now spent a good deal of his life as a hermit, living in a place far more isolated than Ten Sleep, Wyoming, on a Sunday night in November. Yet the Factory habitat seemed abuzz with activity compared to the human one.

Maybe it was because of the landscape. The interior of the Factory was like a city, filled from one side to the other with structures of various sizes, some of them seeming, at times, to hum with unknown and likely unknowable activity.

The human habitat in this late hour, by contrast, was dominated by the Temple structure with a scattering of small cabinlike buildings leading from it. But even these were hard to see among the trees in the half-light.