Chapter 9: Above the clouds
Jamie huffed as he hobbled out of the Weather station's shelter. The rubber of his gloves squeaked against the handles of the canister he was holding, full of an assortment of solid metal cylinders within, distributed in a determined formation to give the large container a balanced centre of gravity. A few meters ahead, Murphy was extending the frame of a carrier. Its metallic beams were covered in timefall resistant paint, and the corners were protected by a thick layer of rubber. At the centre was a module designed to moderate and release a steady flow of chiralium powder, fed by a cable that she was now holding in her hand.
She motioned towards the carrier, "Put the canister on the centre, carefully."
Jamie did as he was told, then he took the heating units they'd been given the day before at the Distribution Centre and laid them beside the large canister. The carrier tilted, unbalanced, and after a few adjustments, it wobbled to a standstill on the central module. Murphy then rummaged underneath the carrier and pulled out a few belts, which she draped loosely over the canister and the heaters. She gave the whole thing a once over and nodded with satisfaction before attaching the carrier's cable to the chiral container underneath her backpack. She brought up her Cuff-link and activated a command, which made the carrier hum to life and lift off the ground and tightened the belts around its cargo. With that, they started walking towards a footpath that led up the mountain behind the Weather station.
The upwards trek started with a solemn few hours. As they gained altitude, Jamie flexed his jaw to let his inner-ears adjust, and the mossy ground slowly became devoid of life as they climbed. He noticed that the ground was mostly dark, glassy rocks at the top, but where he had stepped porous black rocks that looked like tiny meteorites were revealed.
Murphy, who was walking beside him, noticed Jamie observing the ground and spoke up. "Looking at the rocks, huh? The scientific community has been wondering how the metamorphic rocks of the rocky mountains took on volcanic characteristics."
"Volcanic?" Jamie frowned at Murphy.
"Yeah, the dark, spongey ones. Rocks surrounding volcanoes generally look like that – remnants of lava expulsions. The rocky mountains had very little volcanic activity, especially around the old Mount Elbert. Since the first stranding, the ground started becoming porous and dark, similar to the colour of the sands of the Beach, or to volcanic rock. Scientists have agreed that the timefall must be decaying the ground, but also adding a certain amount of chiral matter… otherwise, we would've expected stone and dirt to become sand."
"What about the glassy rocks on top?"
"Now that is new. I've been keeping up with Weatherstone's studies, and apparently, those rocks only began appearing since the reversal. Of course, we know next to nothing about it, but I suspect that the entropic properties of the porous rock interacts differently with the reversal. Isn't it strange that the reversal pulls everything up, except the ground? Maybe instead of doing that, it just makes it decay differently, into this onyx-like material instead of reverting it to the metamorphic nature of the old Rocky Mountains."
Jamie nodded, happy at the thought that Jamie was warming up to him more and more. Murphy shrugged after a moment of silence, "It's just what I think it might be… my knowledge on geology is only as recent as the first stranding, when I stopped studying."
"I guess everyone's life went on hold with the first stranding."
"I wouldn't say on hold. It's not like I've been sitting with my thumbs up my ass, all because the UCA didn't choose me for the Indispensable Knowledge Program. What I lacked in intelligence, I decided to make up for by becoming wise. Now I know everything I need to survive out here."
Jamie nodded in agreement, "Such as?"
"Such as everything I've done to keep you alive up until now," Murphy huffed and eyed him with a raised eyebrow. "When to shoot at a car that's chasing you, what an observation tower looks like from afar, how to pick locks… Huh, I think we're halfway there now."
Jamie suddenly realized that his footsteps had been making a different noise for a little while and focused on the ground. Snow, only millimetres deep, but flawlessly powdery rested atop the rocky terrain. Dom turned to look down, holding out a hand at Murphy absentmindedly. It looked as if the snow was strictly following a rule of altitude to appear. He remembered the video-lectures, mentioning how timefall became water once it touched something, and how atmospheric pressure changed freezing points… or something like that. He attached the tube of chiralium that Murphy had slapped on his palm to the underside of his backpack and activated the dormant carrier from his Cuff-Link. It was surprisingly resistant to moving until at got to a certain speed. As they kept climbing, Jamie looked at her with admiration for making the trek look so effortless and made an effort to keep his breathing in check.
As the snow got deeper, the exo-skeletons extended tight nets around their boots to avoid them sinking. The pair's walking rhythm synchronized, and they took turns, walking one ahead of the other. The one in front would be the first to encounter irregularities in the terrain, which the second would cross more safely. Every so often, they would stop and turn around and marvel at the valley below. A few words would be exchanged, a chuckle, and a call to move on. They didn't stop to eat. Parts of the hike were level enough, that the automatic nudges of the exo-skeletons were enough to eat and walk without paying attention.
By the time they had reached the first peak of the path, they stopped for a little longer. The cold wind had just come to a lull – Murphy had clarified that it was changing directions – and they'd decided to give the heaters a test run. Everything was activated through the Cuff-Link. The suit's zippers, the extension of the heater's power cable and even its activation. The zipper locked in place as soon as it was closed. The hood of the suit once again began to project the usual HUD, but displayed a conspicuous battery indicator to match.
"I hope we can talk with the MULEs close to the Beach Scientist's lab. I don't wanna have to go too long without a heater up there." Murphy muttered before she motioned for Jamie to follow. The second peak they arrived at would be the roboticist's shelter and it was an hour away. Jamie held his hand out to the white and grey plateau in the distance as if he could reach it. The blunt apex was surrounded by a light-blue sky, and the sun was already making a downwards climb on the other side.
Within the hour, the sky around the peak had turned to orange, then to a deep pink, which then blended into a small sliver of yellow which became dark blue in the eastern horizon. The silence was almost absolute up there, interrupted only by their footsteps and the distant whistling of the wind coming from the other side of the peak, which was now only minutes away. Whisps of snow fluttered from the edge of the snow above, as if the mountain itself was reaching for the sky, trying to touch the sunset. Murphy was the first to reach the top and Jamie could see the edges of her face pull back to make a smile. She was laughing as he made it over the edge, and he started to laugh too when he saw the sun.
The orb was a blood red, wavering above the mountains ahead. The air close to the horizon was dusty, tens of miles away, which made the sun look as if it were closer to setting. In truth, they still had an hour of leeway. Directly below them, they spied the sensor pylons and then the melted snow surrounding the entrance to the roboticist's shelter. The hologram of a woman waved at them from the thawed ground and cupped her hands around her mouth, "I've got dinner on the cooker! Come on down!"
The rest of the trek was short, and Jamie had to shift his weight back as the carrier drifted ahead of him, pulling on the cable that was attached to the small of his back.
…
What the dinner had lacked was a recognisable shape. What was definitely there, was flavour. It was impressive that the creative use of hydroponic-growable vegetables and spices made the tastiest soup Jamie had ever tried. He excused himself to go to sleep, drowsy from the dinner and waited for the lock to cycle on the door that led to the shelter entrance.
The heavy metal door opened to a sea of red, with a white sky with pink clouds. Jamie frowned as he walked into the red liquid, testing first for depth, which was little more than ankle height. His gaze was glued to his feet, which vanished quickly below the surface, but he was brought back to alertness when he heard a pained grunt. He looked up to see Sam, floating ahead of him.
The man was naked, held up by his hands, which were stretched to his sides. His feet were tied together, and his head lulled to the side. He looked sickly pale, and his ribs were clearly visible under his skin, which had been pulled taught against his organs, any muscles he must've had were long gone. From the skin of his wrists, blood-red tendrils extended, twisting and braiding together behind him to form a cross made of veins and arteries. The cross's top, standing a good five metres above the surface of the red sea, undid itself into its individual tendrils, fanning out like the branches of a tree. The veins climbed up, eventually losing themselves into the white of the sky.
"The blood of the Strand keeps these worlds together to make way for the blasphemer's efforts. Souls were stolen. Souls are owed," came a feminine voice, it cracked with what sounded like anger and sadness.
Jamie looked to his side and saw the woman in red. He realised that it was her who had spoken.
"I gave him back to you, and he was stolen right from under your noses."
Without warning, she lunged with her hands outstretched at his neck, and Jamie opened his eyes to the beeping of an alarm-clock and a well-lit concrete roof.
"I was just about to wake you. We're gonna have to sleep in separate rooms from now on, I think."
Jamie looked over to see Murphy pulling earplugs out of her ears. He blinked, finding that the image of Sam was burned into the backs of his eyelids, "That was all a dream?"
"Not the dinner at least. What did you see?"
"I saw Sam, being bled. Strand was there. She said that she'd given him back, and that we let him get stolen."
Murphy chuckled and shook her head. She said that his dreams could try being useful for a change, if they were going to wake her up in the morning. As they were packing up, their Cuff-Links beeped twice before answering an urgent call. The hologram of Heartman materialized before them.
"I have an important development in the MULE situation outside. An offshoot of Homo Demens has come down from the range South of the Heart Lake. They're heavily armed and seem to have driven the MULEs out of the valley. I would strongly suggest you wait for the MULEs to come back, which they must do eventually. I've attached photographic records that have been taken from the observation tower," the scientist looked at something off to the side and adjusted his glasses, "I have to go now. Please relay this information to President McClane."
With that, the communication was cut off. After a few moments of pregnant silence, Murphy slapped her thigh with frustration, "We've come all this way!"
Jamie chewed on the inside of his lip. Something was off in all of this, but maybe the situation could be twisted to favour them, "We don't need to wait."
Murphy frowned at him, "What do you mean? I know how to deal with MULEs, but not Homo Demens. The Beach Scientist was right. It's too dangerous."
"Maybe it's dangerous, but they're also the very group that is distributing Sam's blood. There's no middleman now. If we could interrogate just one of them, we could get much closer to finding Sam than we originally thought we could," his mouth stayed open, with some words lingering on his tongue. There was still something that didn't add up, "Hold on, let's check the pictures he sent."
Jamie's Cuff-Link hologram expanded to its maximum size as it displayed the pictures sent by Heartman. The image was hard to read. Since there was so much snow, it was mostly white, save for the heart lake, which was a distinct dark grey shape in the centre of the image. Little black dots peppered the banks of the lake, 10 in total. Further down on the image, closer to the tower that had taken the picture, a path of footsteps became visible. The path started as a barely visible line, going away from the lake and broadening to a clear depression in the snow that went down and out of frame at the bottom.
"There's a path, and there are the terrorists down there, but we never saw the MULEs…" Jamie mused.
Murphy blew a raspberry, "Of course, there must be pictures of the MULEs from yesterday."
"But we didn't get them, and we can't access them ourselves, because his observation tower is hooked up to a closed network. Nothing confirms that the path was made by the MULEs as they left, and we don't know for sure where it ends up."
"Come on, this is the Beach Scientist we are talking about. You're saying he's hiding something from us?"
"I'm saying it's a possibility, and if it's true, then this is the perfect excuse to not have us snooping around up there, close to his lab. We were originally going to stop at Mountain Knot, get a good rest and get ready for the talks with the MULEs. Instead, we got the new development yesterday which drove our schedule forward. We spent all our energies getting up here in one go and made the rest of the UCA administration relax because they have us standing by, ready to move as soon as the MULEs come back and the terrorists clear out. It's just too convenient for him that the terrorists suddenly appeared a day after the MULEs did and drove them away… that is, if he's hiding something, of course."
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"Well, we can't let Heartman know that we're going anyway or ask for pictures from yesterday, that would let him know that we're suspicious-"
"That you are suspicious," Murphy corrected.
"Fine. We head up there. I'll bring something non-lethal and take a terrorist prisoner, then we interrogate them, then we head to Heartman's shelter with whatever information we can get. If it turns out that he's clean, then we'll have made good progress towards finding Sam."
"Alright, but we also run the risk of getting killed by terrorists."
"Yeah, well, at least I was trained to deal with terrorists, Murphy, unlike the MULEs, which were going to be your own thing. Let's finish packing up and call McClane to tell him we'll stay put."
The hologram of the President seemed frustrated but told the two to wait a day for things to change as his team tried to come up with an alternate plan. When the communication was cut off, Jamie knocked on the shelter's inner door, and before long, the roboticist emerged. She was happy to provide him with a pair of binoculars and a rifle with sedative darts. She did warn him that the effectiveness of the darts depended on where he hit a target, and that the effects could range from dizziness to a two-hour lapse in consciousness. Murphy explained to the woman that if anyone contacted her, she should tell them that the two were out taking a hike and would return shortly. At this, the roboticist grinned mischievously. After a quick breakfast, Jamie and Murphy were on their way up the mountain again, heading West, towards the ridge overlooking Heart Lake.