Patriots

20. An Afternoon in the Country

Mark's holoviewer rested on his lap, projecting a holographic terrain map in the air before him. He kept the flyer a thousand feet high, so he didn't need to worry about what was directly in front of him unless a bird got very unlucky.

Or, come to think, unless he managed to collide with the dirigible itself. Mark assumed his quarry would be below him, probably on the ground; but he could imagine his first gymnastics coach shouting, "Always check the fastenings of equipment before you trust your weight to it! Assume makes an ass of U and me, boy!"

Dutifully, Mark raised himself in the saddle to peer over the top of the opaque hologram. The sky was as empty as a politician's promise.

He didn't know where Jesilind had gone, but the dirigible had flown straight from the point it lifted from Yerby's compound until the track vanished at the limit of the lidar's range. A one-hundred-foot cigar of royal blue fabric ought to show up pretty well. By keeping high and swiveling his eyes constantly, Mark figured he'd find the dirigible sooner or later.

It had better be sooner, though, or he was going to run out of daylight.

The flyer overflew another wooded ridge. It might be the one where Yerby took me and Amy to picnic when we fast arrived on Greenwood.

As the thought struck him, Mark saw the waterfall. It was richly golden in the low sunlight, so lovely that Mark flew for some moments further before he noticed the dirigible nestled near the cliff face at the bottom of the falls. He banked and brought the flyer down like a brick, a risk he'd never have taken if he'd been thinking about it.

Dr. Jesilind stood on the gondola's open deck. There was no sign of Amy. The howl of air past the flyer's frame tubes drew the doctor's attention.

Jesilind grabbed the door of the closed cabin, but it wouldn't open for him. He fumbled an object from his pocket, dropped it on the deck, and finally used both hands to pick it up again.

"Mark!" Amy screamed from a side window of the dirigible's cabin. "Stay back! He's got a gun!"

Jesilind leaned over to grab the window. Amy slid it shut, barely in time.

Mark's landing strained the flyer's framework but halted him within ten feet of his touchdown. His holoviewer flew onto the pebbly ground.

He remembered how he'd worried about the viewer when the thugs surrounded him in the caravansary. Not now. He wasn't worried about anything. That utterly amazed the part of Mark's mind that viewed the situation from a cool distance.

Mark clambered out of his flyer. Dr. Jesilind remained on the dirigible's deck, clamping the gate of the railing closed with one hand. He'd thrust the other into the pocket of his jacket again.

"Hello, Doctor," Mark said. He walked toward the dirigible.

Jesilind took his hand from his pocket with a gun. It had a wide, slightly flared muzzle. Mark supposed it was lethal.

"Stop where you are or I'll shoot!" Jesilind said. His voice was as high as if he'd gotten his balls caught in a car door.

Mark took another step forward. Close up he could see where Amy's fingernails had raked three long gouges down Jesilind's cheek.

"Well, Doctor," Mark said, "you've got two choices. You can shoot or you can give me the gun. If you give me the gun, I'll see to it that you get off Greenwood before Yerby learns what's happened here."

Mark stopped just out of arm's reach of Jesilind. He put his hands on his hips, unconsciously mimicking the stance Yerby used to face down opposition. He continued, "If you shoot, well, I don't give long odds that I'll survive. But I've got a lot better chance than you do."

Jesilind swallowed. His face was blotchy white except for the scratches. He sidled against the far railing and put the pistol in his pocket. Mark stepped onto the deck, walked to Jesilind, and took the weapon from the pocket. Jesilind didn't resist.

Amy opened the cabin door. "Stay clear, Amy!" Mark warned.

Instead of speaking, Amy went to the junction box on the outer bulkhead. She began to reconnect the power and control conduits, which Jesilind had unscrewed.

"This is all a mistake," Jesilind said. His voice quavered. He was sweating furiously.

"Yes, I rather think it was," Mark said. His whole body trembled with reaction. More hormones were racing in his bloodstream than even after the fight in the caravansary.

He cleared his throat. "Doctor," he said, "you'll take my flyer to Wanker's Doodle and board whichever ship there is going to take off soonest."

Mark looked up at the sky. "I doubt you'll be able to make it tonight," he continued, "but I strongly advise you to get as far as you can. I'll have your goods shipped after you if you're willing to leave a destination. I doubt Yerby will come searching for you when you've left Greenwood, but that's a decision you're going to have to make for yourself."

Amy walked to Mark's side. She stepped very carefully around the edge of the deck so that she wouldn't come between the two men.

"That gun doesn't really work," Jesilind said. He tried to wipe his face with a handkerchief. He dropped the square of cloth but didn't notice it. He mopped his forehead with his bare hand.

"Doesn't it?" Mark said. He looked at the weapon, wondering if Jesilind had threatened Amy with it also. "Well, that doesn't matter."

He turned and hurled the pistol as hard as he could into the waterfall's spray. It clinked on the rocks somewhere beyond.

"I fear that you've both misunderstood me," Jesilind said, desperately trying to smile.

"Well, that's a pity, Doctor," Mark said as he stepped forward. "But I really wouldn't want you to misunderstand me."

He punched Jesilind in the pit of the stomach. Jesilind doubled up. He must not have had anything to eat that day, because all that sprayed from his mouth was a little bile.

"Amy," whispered Mark. He sagged against the railing. "Would you mind dragging this fellow onto the ground so that we can get out of here? I don't feel strong enough just now."

Mark sat in a corner of the cabin shivering while Amy flew the dirigible through the darkening sky. They must be getting near the Bannock compound. Mark didn't look out the cabin windows to be sure.

"What happened an hour ago," he said wonderingly. "It's as if somebody else did it."

"You did it, Mark," Amy said. "I don't think… I never thought I'd meet anybody who could do what I watched you do."

"Yerby would," Mark said. "He wouldn't have stopped where I did, either."

"Being willing to stop is as important as being brave enough to start," Amy said. She kept her eyes resolutely on the terrain ahead.

"Wonder what my dad would think to see me brawling that way?" Mark said with a sneer for his own behavior. "I guess the only thing I've learned since I left Quelhagen is what your brother taught me: Never hit a man in the jaw with your bare hand."

He shook his head and added bitterly, "Of course, Yerby'd be ashamed of me for hitting him with my bare hand at all."

"Yerby wouldn't be ashamed of you, Mark," Amy said softly. Pumps whined, compressing hydrogen in the ballonets so that the dirigible would sink. They must be just about to land. "And I've met your father. I don't think that he'd be ashamed of you either."

Mark managed to stand. He felt better than he thought he would; just weak, really. The dirigible was descending into the Bannock compound. The lights in all the buildings were on. People were coming outside to wave and cheer.

Amy looked over from the controls. "Mark," she said, "not everything my brother has to teach you is wrong. It's just that sometimes he doesn't use the best judgment about where to display what he knows."

They landed lightly. A dozen of the folk in the courtyard grabbed dangling lines and held the dirigible down against any chance gust that might hit before the pumps had squeezed most of the lift back into the high-pressure tanks between the ballonets.

Mark reached for the door latch. Before he touched it, Yerby burst into the cabin bellowing, "In the name of all that's holy, girl, where have you been?"

The frontiersman paused, looked around him, and added, "And where in thunder is Doc Jesilind?"

"The doctor was called off-planet abruptly. He said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Yerby," Amy said in a clear voice. "We'd gotten confused on direction, but Mark very kindly guided me home."

"Direction?" Yerby said, his brows knitting as he tried to understand.

Amy put one arm through Mark's and led him out of the cabin, clearing a path with an imperious wave of her free hand. "Because we got lost," she said, "I didn't get to see the Bottomless Pool after all. Since human guides are so unreliable, I think the best choice is for Mark to navigate me there using the map in his holoviewer."

Amy looked at Mark. "If he's willing," she added.

Mark blushed and cleared his throat. "I'm willing," he said in a squeak.