The Risks of Dead Reckoning Felicia Watson (books for 9th graders .TXT) 📖

However, nothing they tried could get thevehicle to move so much as an inch. Naiche studied the corrodedcontrol panel. “I can’t even figure out what the original powersource was.”

“Me neither.” Kennedypeered over her shoulder, shaking his head. “Looks like weshould’ve brought Avery along.”

Deck snorted at the notion.“I don’t think he would feel that way.”

“Probably not.” Con threwhimself down onto one of the dusty bench seats. “I guess it waswildly optimistic to think that something that hadn’t run forgenerations would work for us.”

Decker craned her neck outof the open tram car window. “At least we can walk up the tracks.That way we’ll be under cover so the peerazu probably won’t spotus. That’s something.”

Con nodded wearily. “Yeah –it is. Just give me a second to rest up and then we can getstarted.”

Seeing how worn out helooked, Decker suggested, “I’ve got a better idea. Why not spendthe night here? It’s gonna be dark in less than three hours,anyway.”

“Nah, that’s notnecessary.” Kennedy laughed. “Who knows? Maybe the Intabet are ashospitable as the Featay and will put us up.” He grinned as headded, “In tiny little beds.”

The entire structure wassuddenly rocked with a mighty quake, causing Kayatennae to yelp insurprise and almost knocking Decker off her feet. “Son of abitch!”

Naiche plopped onto thebench across from Con, who said, “On the other hand – a rest mightdo us both good.”

***

Deck spent some timethoroughly scanning the town above, while Kennedy updated Lindstromon their plan. After he signed off, she reported her findings.Their long-range impressions of Intabah were confirmed by the datafrom the hand scanner: there was little evidence of technology andonly about 400 life-signs. “If the Intabet really do know how toavoid peerazu attacks, then why do you think there are so few ofthem?”

“I don’t know.” Con leanedforward and his voice deepened as he posited, “Maybe they appeasethe peerazu through blood sacrifice.”

She laughed and shook herhead. “I’d hate to go back and tell that to the Featay andMaykure.”

“Don’t worry – I thinkit’s more likely that the Intabet were struck by that same diseasethat attacked the Featay.”

“That’s possible. But ifso, neither the Featay nor the Maykure knew anything about it, eventhough they were all still in contact then.” She and Con continuedtrading theories, both serious and outlandish, until Kennedyfinally pronounced that the full truth would only be known whenthey got to Intabah in the morning.

The quaking of the mountaincontinued at frequent intervals, making Deck thankful that they’ddecided to camp out in the tram car. After dining on meal bars,they bedded down for the night. Con stretched out in his bedroll onone seat, she on the other, with Kay on the floor between. The softsnores emanating from the other side of the car, let Deck know Conhad fallen asleep. It was still fairly early so Naiche was usingher hand-held to read a Choctaw novel Tal hadrecommended.

Suddenly, Kay jumped up onthe seat with her, stuck his nose out the half-open window andstarted growling softly. She scratched his head, observing, “Youknow I’m just gonna assume there’s peerazu out there because Idon’t even wanta think about there being something worse in thesemountains.”

Kay had just nestled downat her feet when her comm-link buzzed. “Ricci to Decker. Naiche,it’s me – do you copy?”

She sat up and answered thehail all in one smooth motion. “Pop! It’s so good to hear yourvoice. Where are you and what the hell happened onJileesa?”

In a teasing tone, Mattchided, “Is that how you talk to your captain?”

From his extremely informalintroduction, Deck had immediately known this was a personalconversation, so she wasn’t chastened in the slightest. “No, that’show I talk to my father.”

He laughed beforeanswering, “It’s good to hear your voice, too. What’s yoursituation?”

“You first, you didn’teven tell me where you are.”

“I don’t have our preciselocation at the moment but we’re better than half-way toTolu.”

“Wow, you’re making goodtime.”

“I know. At my request,Ramsey has us at top speed. Now, what’re you up to?” Decker gavehim a summary of their current status. “Uh-huh. I seem to rememberissuing an order that you and Kennedy were to stay out of troubleuntil I got back. It sounds to me like you’ve been doingeverything but that.”

“Oh, you don’t know thehalf of it.”

“Yes, I do – I talked toLindstrom before I contacted you.”

“Then you already knewwhat we were doing!” Since she’d said that louder than she’dintended, Deck glanced guiltily at Con and was relieved to see he’dslept through her exclamation.

“I always like to get yourversion of things. Then I average what you tell me with Lindstrom’sreport and get pretty near the truth.”

Naiche grinned and shookher head at Ricci’s explanation. “Okay, you got both of ourreports. Now, it’s your turn again – what happened on Jileesa?Based on your hurry to leave and that message you sent, I’mguessing things got damn ugly.”

“You’re not wrong, butit’s a long story that I will share with you when we’re nexttogether. Suffice to say, the Lignatian leader is a petty,power-mad asshole who threatened us – but was utterly outsmarted byyour old man. With a lot of help from another Lignatian who turnedout to be…very humane.”

“That sounds like onefascinating story. It also sounds like you’re glossing over all thedangerous parts. I guess I’ll have to average your version withTal’s and find the truth that way.” Naiche drew a deep breathbefore asking, “Umm, speaking of Tal, could you possibly use thisfancy new system to patch me over when we’re done? There’ssomething I’ve got to say to him.”

“I don’t think that’s agood idea for a couple of reasons; the main one being that it’s0110 hours here on Lovelaceand he’s presumably sleeping.” There was a slightpause during which Deck was wrestling with her disappointment.“You’ve got yourself a good man there.”

Smiling to herself, sheanswered, “I sure do. That’s why I wanted to tell him what I’vebeen thinking about that whole mess…about where we’d raise ourkids—”

“Trust me on this,everything’s gonna work out fine. You can talk it over with Talwhen we get there. I’ve been in the middle of this enoughalready.”

“You have? I didn’t knowyou were in the middle at all. It sounds like I missed