Freedom Star

Chapter 17

Kira and Jon crouched in the bushes by the riverside, looking into the cave mouth Jon remembered only too clearly from his escape from the hospital with Dar. He also remembered the opulent swimming pool he and Dar had passed through, where he'd killed for the first time. He had no more desire to see that place than he'd had to see the river, but he and Kira had both agreed it might present their best hope for getting into the city without being seen. "After the surge, it must have been wrecked," Jon told Kira with more confidence than he felt. "I can't imagine it will still be in use."

"But it will connect to a house or something at ground level."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Nobody puts security on their own swimming pool. Anyway, we need clothes and access to a computer terminal."

Kira growled something too low for Jon to hear, but he got the gist of it. Kira didn't like cities; not surprising, considering she'd spent most of her life in a wilderness enclave on Earth, on the work farm or in the jungle. Here, all her tracking and survival skills were pretty well useless. But Jon was a bit better off. It had been a long time ago, but he'd spent several years of his life in Earth cities. Cities required their own survival skills, he remembered that much. He just hoped they'd come back to him.

"It's almost dark," Jon said. He scrambled to his feet. "Let's go."

They slithered down the muddy bank of the river—no gorge here, just a steep-walled ravine—and squelched through muck to where the stone and brickwork of the river's underground tunnel began. Jon boosted Kira up onto the walkway he'd been washed off of by the surge during his escape, then clambered up behind her. They started in.

There were a few lights burning in the tunnel, but they passed many more that were dark—which Jon was glad of, despite the times it left them picking their way over the slimy stone in the dark. No tunnel lights meant nobody came down here very often

He hoped.

The blessed dimness didn't last. The ledge under their feet changed, became both smoother and less slippery. Ahead of them now were lots of lights, every five metres or so, and every one burned brightly. Beside them the river rumbled along, shaking the rock. Jon stopped under the last burned-out light and looked ahead. "We must be close," he told Kira.

"Why?"

"Dar blew up the tunnel. It's been repaired. All this ahead of us is new. The pool shouldn't be much further." If it's still there, he thought. It might have been walled up when the tunnel was repaired.

But it hadn't been. They rounded a bend, and there it was, a smoother, more obviously artificial tunnel, its archway opening beneath the ledge they were on. "Time to get wet," Jon said. "It's not very deep here." He lowered himself over the edge of the ledge and let go, splashing down into water only a half-metre deep. He helped Kira down beside him, then peered into the tunnel. As clear as though it had just been yesterday, he recalled the sensation of driving his knife into the guard, and shuddered.

"Cold?" Kira asked, looking at him.

"Something like that," Jon said. Squaring his shoulders, he led her into the tunnel.

There was just one problem, which Jon was forced to admit before they reached the pool itself: the tunnel into the pool had been repaired, too, just like the river tunnel, which meant...

Laughter echoed around the corner ahead of them. Jon swore. "Someone's in there!"

"Obviously," Kira said. She sighed and sat down in the water, which came to her shoulders, floating her hair into a thousand waving tendrils. "So I guess we wait until they're gone."