DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 36

"What?" said Ridley. Reb pointed. Close to the beginning of the track, a large boulder had fallen from the hillside in the night and now sat in the middle of the track. Smaller rocks and gravel littered the snow under the track; gouges in the snow like three huge claw marks traced the path on the side of the hill where the big rock had rolled down.

"Well, that's not good," Chi said to Reb, shading his eyes to look. "That's too big for you and me to lift ourselves, and if it damaged the track—"

Reb pulled a communicator from his pocket. "I'm going to raise some help," he said. "I'm going to go back and lead some of the sentries in. They can help us move the rock, and we can inspect the track."

"You have to lead them here?" asked Ridley.

"I'm the only one on staff who knows this is here," said Reb.

"Oh."

"Sit tight. Don't get too cold." Reb turned and started off, speaking into his communicator. "Hey, we've got a problem we need some manpower with. Troy, Stitch, and Haynes, meet me at the cabin."

Ridley glanced over at Chi to find him looking back at her. "Come on," he said, with a jerk of his chin toward the track. "I can at least inspect the bottom of it while we wait."

They walked on through the snow. Ridley leaned over to peer at Sannah inside the dome. The baby stared out wide-eyed, agog at all the whiteness.

"I don't think Sannah knows what to make of all this," she said. "I'm glad she isn't crying. Yet."

"I hope we aren't about to scar her for life. Emotionally, anyway," said Chi. "You know I would never let her get hurt. If the track's not safe, we have to scrub this."

"Oh, I know," said Ridley. "I know you wouldn't."

"And, if we have to scrub the practice runs, we have to scrub the whole mission. We'll have to cancel this entire objective, and just let the Repeal pass."

They reached the trees, and Ridley bent sideways, studying the uneven ground to find a path that wouldn't get the stroller caught between two trees, or hung up in sticker shrubs. Chi reached over and grabbed the front of the stroller, guiding it on the diagonal.

"Looks like it'll fit through this way," he said. He lifted the front over some jagged rocks that stuck through the snow like shark's teeth. Ridley picked her way over them and between the trees, steadying the stroller from the rear. Sannah began to cry at the jostling, and Ridley set her end of the stroller down. "Wait a second," she said. She zipped open the dome and reached in to pick her daughter up.

"That's exactly why I'm so relieved you agreed to do this," Chi said. He pulled off his ski mask and smiled down at Sannah. "Let me take her."

She handed Sannah over, and Chi held her up in front of him and made soothing noises and funny faces at her. He stuck out his tongue, which Ridley found both astonishing and charming. I can't believe the King of the Confederation is sticking his tongue out at my baby.

Then he smiled. Sannah put her hand out and pulled his beard, staring into his eyes. "You're okay, sweetheart," said Chi. "It's scary out here, isn't it?" Sannah stared, apparently as enraptured by the velvet quality of that tenor as Ridley was. She cooed back, and Chi cuddled her in his arms.

"We were looking for someone to do this job for a while," he said, walking under the track and squinting up at its underside. "Reb, the Mannazian government, and I. We had our eyes on several people we thought might work, women with the Mannazian Secret Service. Reb had trained one of them, and we interviewed all of them. Well, Reb did—I got the one-way glass."