Chapter Six
The weekend flew by and early Monday morning he watched by the shore as the team loaded into the ships. His wife looked slightly amused at the young girl who hustled up behind her. Kiire stood out not only for her age but her excitement among the rest of the team preparing with calm, precise moves.
Alicia was the last to step into boat, their eyes met for a moment and she nodded; it would be the last he saw of her for weeks. They had said their good byes this morning in the privacy of their home, holding their son just a little tighter. Nathaniel wasn't fooling himself, it was different now; and he was not going to miss her as much as Cullen was.
The Shannons had stepped up, offering to help with Cullen but even if he was in over his head Nathaniel was hesitant to accept. With one parent away, he was not about to pass Cullen off, even to people he trusted; but he expected the next couple weeks to be rough.
Parenting came naturally to Alicia, despite whatever she said; he found the connection a little tougher some days. His past made it tougher, Lucas' life and his death made it difficult, and as he watched his wife disappear down river felt it come back; their careers contained risk and always would.
He dropped their son off at daycare and headed towards the Command Center, Guzman would be back on base tomorrow and he still had two field reports to review; and Mira was coming in today. He'd had the suspicion that the Sixers were having a hard time for a while now, but he wanted Alicia focused on her project and when Mira wasn't eager to address it he had let it wait for their business to get underway. Things would never be easy between Mira and Alicia, and he would never fully trust the Sixer leader either; but alliances were critical and personal feelings had to be carefully kept to the side.
He read the reports quickly, making mental notes to discuss with Guzman later. Then went down to the fence, Mira would be punctual, and he watched as her team walked along the road, coming in from the wall. They knew they could be watched here and he could see that they were uneasy.
"Mira." He stepped out and tipped his head, beckoning the woman to him; letting her people see her go to him. "Your friends can wait in the square."
"We heard your wife took a party north this morning." Mira was eying him, something was playing on her mind.
"She did."
"You have a way of reaching her?" He raised an eyebrow at her question and said nothing; some things were not up for discussion. "She may have friends in the area, a girl out planting went missing yesterday afternoon. We don't know what happened, but our searchers came up empty."
"Could it have been voluntary?" Mira shrugged, and he considered it, the Sixer's trackers were good, it was hard to move through the jungle without leaving a trail; a good tracker needed next to nothing. "Now, that quarry."
Mira's wince told him enough, they had claimed the quarry because of the resource it could be; but as the needs of the colony changed so did the significance of the rock quarry. While they built the wall they'd had a trade agreement, before that they'd often bartered for ore but as their sources of technology shifted the need for the ore decreased to almost nothing.
The quarry was labour intensive and dangerous to operate for little reward, but with where their camp had been built, and the territory it limited them. It was steep, rocky with dense foliage, which meant foraging was more practical than farming and it was smack in the middle raptor territory. But with what the Sixers had survived he suspected that it was far from the Phoenix and Carter's outlaws made it feel safe to them; they had backed the wrong side in Terra Nova's first war and that could not be changed.
"No chance you have some great need for stone again is there?" Mira shook her head, kicking the dirt; none of them could have foresaw that such a resource would be replaced by hydro.
"No, but I do wonder if your sentries have had any trouble?" But their power stations were now primarily water driven and it was sensible given their proximity to the river and the recurring sonic blasts; chips and electronics were too vulnerable. He didn't however, know the state of the Phoenix's technology; and clearly, they were comfortable travelling this far when it suited them.
