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Speaker 1: Chapter nine, Sasha. They unloaded her in plaino. The porters

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Speaker 1: who cracked open her crate, two men in dirty jumpsuits,

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Speaker 1: seemed disappointed that she wasn't food. One of the men

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Speaker 1: was tall and balding, the others shorter and still fairly young.

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Speaker 1: They had white skin burnt reddish by the sun, and

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Speaker 1: neither of them looked like they bathed in quite some time.

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Speaker 1: Their faces were gaunt. Sasha didn't see any extra fat

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Speaker 1: on either of them. Add Dang, said the tall one, welcome,

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Speaker 1: said the short one. I hope you're ready for what

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Speaker 1: this is. They were not exactly the welcome crew she'd expected.

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Speaker 1: Saul had told her a man named David would be waiting,

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Speaker 1: but neither of the porters knew who David was. They

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Speaker 1: seemed much more frustrated than joyous at her presence. The

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Speaker 1: building wasn't what she'd expected either. It looked like an

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Speaker 1: old FedEx facility, with all the branding covered by red

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Speaker 1: spray paint. There was trash everywhere, mostly food waste from

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Speaker 1: crates of aid supplies that had been opened too late.

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Speaker 1: The spoiled food had been shoved into large piles and

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Speaker 1: left to rot. In one center of the large room.

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Speaker 1: Sasha guessed this had once been a loading dock where

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Speaker 1: delivery trucks would have dropped off and received packages. The

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Speaker 1: room was filled with a mix of aid crates and

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Speaker 1: miscellaneous boxes, stacked into piles by a ragged army of

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Speaker 1: tired looking men. Like the two men who had greeted her,

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Speaker 1: they all looked malnourished and skinny. The only people not

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Speaker 1: dressed in blue jumpsuits were a pair of armed guards.

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Speaker 1: They stood in the back of the room, near a

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Speaker 1: door that seemed to lead deeper into the facility. Both

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Speaker 1: men had white paint crosses daubed across the body armor

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Speaker 1: on their chests. Both carried very large black rifles. One

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Speaker 1: of them ran over once he saw her emerge from

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Speaker 1: the shipping crate. Welcome to the heavenly Kingdom, ma'am, the

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Speaker 1: boy drawled. He looked young enough to have come from

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Speaker 1: her own high school. There was a dusting of acne

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Speaker 1: on his unlined face, and his round cheeks still held

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Speaker 1: a bit of baby fat. Thank you, sir, she said,

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Speaker 1: and pointed to the cross on his chest. It's good

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Speaker 1: to see that. The young martyr smiled. Yes, ma'am, we

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Speaker 1: wear the cross here. He glanced at the porters and

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Speaker 1: narrowed his eyes. Most of us anyway. He extended his hand.

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Speaker 1: Sasha took it, and he helped her take her first

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Speaker 1: few steps into this strange new world. Her legs felt

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Speaker 1: wobbly and unstable after so much time crammed into a crate.

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Speaker 1: She was grateful for the help. I'm looking for David,

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Speaker 1: she said, Do you know where I might find him? No,

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Speaker 1: David here, ma'am, the martyr replied, But Darrell's the team

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Speaker 1: leader for this receiving yard. He'll set you to rights.

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Speaker 1: They walked through the rear door and into the building proper.

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Speaker 1: Sasha's escort guided her past old offices and break rooms

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Speaker 1: into what looked like it had been a waiting area

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Speaker 1: for customers. It had been transformed into an office. The

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Speaker 1: only occupant was a single man, surrounded by four folding tables,

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Speaker 1: each piled high with a mix of paper shipping manifests

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Speaker 1: and folding e paper displays. He sat in the middle

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Speaker 1: of it all and scrolled feverishly on a heavy government

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Speaker 1: issued tablet computer. This man, Darrell, was tall and broad shouldered,

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Speaker 1: but stooped forward. It looked as if his spine had

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Speaker 1: been bent at the mid's shoulders. Sasha relished the deep

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Speaker 1: lines on his face, the bags under his eyes, his

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Speaker 1: receding hairline, and even the way his joints popped audibly

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Speaker 1: as he stood. When she entered. No man she'd met

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Speaker 1: in the American Federation had aged so honestly, not even

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Speaker 1: her father. Sasha realized with a start that this was

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Speaker 1: the first older man she'd ever really seen. He must

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Speaker 1: be fifty at least. Hello, sir, she started, Ah nuts,

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Speaker 1: he spat not another one? Ee you. The man had

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Speaker 1: a thick drawl. He sounded country in a way Sasha

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Speaker 1: had only heard in movies. Her voice caught in her

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Speaker 1: throat as she tried to respond, Sir, I'm I'm looking

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Speaker 1: for David. Yep. He grunted you and every other teenager.

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Speaker 1: What's come through a depot? I'll tell you the same

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Speaker 1: thing I told them others. Ain't no David here. Sasha's

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Speaker 1: eyes widened. She squeaked and immediately hated herself for it. No, No,

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Speaker 1: David Darrel must have seen the fear in her face

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Speaker 1: and taken pity, because his tone softened. Listen. He glanced

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Speaker 1: at the small screen wrapped around his wrist. Tapped it

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Speaker 1: a couple of times and looked back to her. I

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Speaker 1: got about fifteen minutes left here. Four I got a

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Speaker 1: mating downtown. I can drop you off. Folks there can

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Speaker 1: help you get set up if and you decide to stay.

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Speaker 1: I would appreciate that very much, Sasha said. Her face

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Speaker 1: reddened again when she asked, is there a restroom I

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Speaker 1: can use around here? I'd like to clean up a bit. Yep,

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Speaker 1: the man grunted and nodded towards a red door in

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Speaker 1: the back of his office. That's brabbit. No shower, but

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Speaker 1: the water runs. Sasha couldn't really smell herself anymore, which

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Speaker 1: she knew she probably smelled terrible. The thing she wanted

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Speaker 1: most was a long, hot shower with shampoo. Holy God,

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Speaker 1: she realized, shampoo is amazing. She was so preoccupied with

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Speaker 1: the thought of clean hair that she didn't even chastise

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Speaker 1: herself for the blasphemy. Sasha knew she wouldn't find shampoo

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Speaker 1: in this restroom, but any kind of clean was better

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Speaker 1: than her current level of filth. She thanked Darrell and

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Speaker 1: stepped into his bathroom. Sasha told herself it wasn't the

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Speaker 1: worst bathroom she'd ever seen, even though that was a

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Speaker 1: clear lie. The floor, once white tile, was so crusted

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Speaker 1: with black and yellow she could only tell they'd ever

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Speaker 1: bin tile by the slight suggestion of squarish shapes underneath

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Speaker 1: the filth. The toilet had been shattered almost completely. All

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Speaker 1: that remained was a little circle of busted ceramic around

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Speaker 1: a hole in the ground. It seemed to function as

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Speaker 1: a squat toilet now. The sink was intact, but it

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Speaker 1: also looked like it hadn't been cleaned at all in

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Speaker 1: the last year. The metal of the faucet was green

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Speaker 1: where it should have been silver. Sasha held her nose,

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Speaker 1: turned the hot water on, and hoped for the best.

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Speaker 1: It took her a round minute to stop hoping for

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Speaker 1: hot water. Of course, this place didn't have a functioning

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Speaker 1: water heater. This is a war zone, you stupid girl,

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Speaker 1: Sasha cursed herself. She felt tears at the edge of

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Speaker 1: her vision, but fought them down. Slowly, deliberately. She pulled

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Speaker 1: off her top, undid her braw, and hung both from

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Speaker 1: the door knob. As she did, she thought of the

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Speaker 1: Book of Romans. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that

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Speaker 1: suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character or

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Speaker 1: produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame,

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Speaker 1: because God's love has been poured into our hearts through

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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. The

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Speaker 1: word of God gave her some comfort, but Sasha's stomach

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Speaker 1: still churned as she scrubbed the grime from her body.

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Speaker 1: She confronted the fact that this was all real. Now.

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Speaker 1: She'd fled her home and her family, traveled to a

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Speaker 1: war zone, and now she was here. It was done.

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Speaker 1: Her great sacrifice was now real, not theoretical. The excitement

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Speaker 1: she felt at that realization was marred by an anxious

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Speaker 1: kind of horror at the things she'd never do now.

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Speaker 1: She hadn't really thought about that before she'd left, but

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Speaker 1: now Sasha realized that she was never going to graduate

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Speaker 1: high school, she'd never go to college, she'd never see

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Speaker 1: her father's face again. She started to cry. It surprised

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Speaker 1: her a little. For days now, her emotions had felt stunted,

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Speaker 1: buried under the very immediate concerns of escape and survival.

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Speaker 1: But as soon as she had a minute to breathe,

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Speaker 1: everything she hadn't been able to let herself feel flowed

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Speaker 1: out of her eyes. First, she tried to fight it,

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Speaker 1: but then she remembered something Pastor Mike had written in

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Speaker 1: one of his columns for Revelator. Embrace your pain, for

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Speaker 1: you will hurt again. Embrace your grief, for it is

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Speaker 1: a gift. Lean into the wounds the world gives you.

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Speaker 1: Have faith that the Lord God does not send us

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Speaker 1: burdens we ought too weak to bear. She'd left behind

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Speaker 1: a world where people denied their age with science, saved

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Speaker 1: their pain with narcotics, and fought the natural order of

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Speaker 1: the world the Lord had built. Sasha had wanted authenticity.

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Speaker 1: She'd wanted to live the truth of Christianity without compromise.

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Speaker 1: That meant leaning into this pain and letting it lift

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Speaker 1: her up into the arms of God. So Sasha leaned in.

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Speaker 1: She sobbed, and sobbed and sobbed, shook and shuddered with

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Speaker 1: a pain more profound than any she'd known before, and

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Speaker 1: then she stopped. She dried herself off, pulled her one

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Speaker 1: fresh pair of clothes out of her backpack, and got

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Speaker 1: dressed to go and meet the heavenly kingdom she'd sacrificed

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Speaker 1: so much to join. Darrell banked twice on the door

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Speaker 1: right as she slid on her socks. Mam, I gotta

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Speaker 1: get moving. Maybe do the make up later. Sasha shoved

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Speaker 1: her dirty clothes in her backpack, zipped it up, and

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Speaker 1: opened the door. The Heavenly Kingdom included rather more ship

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Speaker 1: and bullet casings than Sasha had expected. She'd known, of course,

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Speaker 1: that it was a war zone. The whole Kingdom was

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Speaker 1: less than two years old. Plaino had been taken just

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Speaker 1: days ago. It had all been won by blood and violence.

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Speaker 1: She'd just sort of figured the Army of God would

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Speaker 1: have cleaned up after itself. Darrell's truck was the oldest

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Speaker 1: vehicle and the first non autonomous one she'd ever ridden inside.

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Speaker 1: It was frightening to think that one person's movements were

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Speaker 1: the only thing that stood between her and a grisly death,

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Speaker 1: but her fear at that soon faded into anxiety at

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Speaker 1: the state of the world around them. The signs identified

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Speaker 1: this as Plaino. She knew the center of that city

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Speaker 1: had been a stronghold for the Republic of Texas and

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Speaker 1: its corporate masters. They'd been content to leave many of

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Speaker 1: the surrounding cities in the hands the Heavenly Kingdom, since

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Speaker 1: that had meant more work for the SDF in Austin.

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Speaker 1: Despite its proximity to the front, Plano's status as a

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Speaker 1: stronghold for some of the Republic's wealthiest citizens and corporations

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Speaker 1: had made it seem unassailable. The notoriously stingy Republic had

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Speaker 1: spent heavily on the city's garrison. Sasha still didn't know

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Speaker 1: what had happened, how a Republican stronghold had fallen so fast,

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Speaker 1: but she saw evidence of how the fall had gone

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Speaker 1: down all around her. The city was devastated. They drove

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Speaker 1: past a police station that was filled with bullet holes

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Speaker 1: and burnt black around its windows. They passed an elementary

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Speaker 1: school that looked as if it had been barricaded, turned

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Speaker 1: into a fortress, and then blasted apart with rockets. The

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Speaker 1: streets they rolled over had been cracked and broken by shellfire.

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Speaker 1: Sasha stared out with wide, excited eyes as they passed

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Speaker 1: mansions that had completely collapsed under the weight of heavy bombardment,

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Speaker 1: and all around them the streets were filled with soldiers.

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Speaker 1: There seemed to be a checkpoint every two or three minutes.

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Speaker 1: The martyrs who manned those checkpoints looked impossibly young. That

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Speaker 1: made Sasha feel a little less lonely. This is what

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Speaker 1: it looks like when a generation comes back to God,

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Speaker 1: she thought. At each stop, Darrel pulled a laminated paper

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Speaker 1: I d out of his pocket. The soldiers would take it,

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Speaker 1: look it over, and then ask him about her. None

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Speaker 1: of them met her eyes. Just arrived today, Darrel always said,

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Speaker 1: she's here to help build the kingdom. Thanks be to

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Speaker 1: God was the usual reply. Some of the men at

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Speaker 1: the checkpoints were enthusiastic and shouted it with all the

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Speaker 1: joy she'd expected to hear, but a few of them

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Speaker 1: just looked at her with eyes that were half sullen,

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Speaker 1: half hungry. Darrell, she asked, twenty minutes and three checkpoints

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Speaker 1: into their drive, what exactly happened here? I left home

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Speaker 1: the day after plain Oh fell. It felt like just

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Speaker 1: such a miracle. It seems impossible for things to change

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Speaker 1: so much, so fast. Darrell fixed her with a look

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Speaker 1: that Sasha couldn't quite read and made her nervous. The

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Speaker 1: next words jumbled up as they left her mouth. It's

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Speaker 1: just I mean, I know all things are possible through God,

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Speaker 1: but how how did we win here? From what I

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Speaker 1: read on the news. The older man laughed, Well, there's

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Speaker 1: your problem. Trust in the news. You ain't gonna read

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Speaker 1: much true about Texas. There all those foreign papers love

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Speaker 1: the s DF. He spat out the window for emphasis,

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Speaker 1: and they treat the Republic like a real government, not

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Speaker 1: like a collection of robber barons and their hired guns.

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Speaker 1: Truth is, their position was always rocky. People around here.

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Speaker 1: You'd rather live under God's law than the rule of

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Speaker 1: the rich or those Prance and Austin faggots. He spat again,

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00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,320
Speaker 1: and somehow made the gesture look like an apology. Sorry

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00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:32,360
Speaker 1: for the curse, Miss Sasha, It's been a minute since

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Speaker 1: I spent much time around a woman. She smiled in response,

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Speaker 1: because she wasn't really sure what else to do. And

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00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:40,840
Speaker 1: then they turned a corner, passed a mostly intact line

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00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,160
Speaker 1: of shops and a sign that welcomed them to downtown

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00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,959
Speaker 1: plan Oh. The wide streets had been cordoned off by

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Speaker 1: sandbags and what looked like enormous fabric cubes filled with rocks.

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00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:52,960
Speaker 1: Several dozen armed men milled about, and in the center

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Speaker 1: of the broad thoroughfare, Sasha saw what could only be

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Speaker 1: a gallows, built right in the middle of the two

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Speaker 1: lane street. It was her first allows capital punishment was

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Speaker 1: illegal in the American Federation. She stared horrified at the

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Speaker 1: way the six corpses strung up there swung to and

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Speaker 1: fro with the breeze. Sasha squeaked just a bit in shock.

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Speaker 1: She was glad the bodies weren't very close. Darrell seemed

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Speaker 1: to notice her discomfort. He looked down at her with

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Speaker 1: a mix of pity and understanding, ain't always pretty what

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Speaker 1: we're doing, but it's the Lord's work. The truck rolled

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Speaker 1: to a stop outside of a large red brick building

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Speaker 1: that reeked of government. Sasha couldn't tell what it had

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Speaker 1: once been. The sign was too thoroughly burned. A new

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Speaker 1: sign made of white vinyl identified this building as the

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Speaker 1: House of Miriam. This be your stop, ma'am. Darrell said,

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Speaker 1: thank you. She forced a smile and then asked, should

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Speaker 1: I just go in? I'll walk in. How about that?

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00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,000
Speaker 1: Sasha nodded her gratitude. She wasn't a hundred percent sure

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Speaker 1: what was supposed to happen at this point. Revel latter

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Speaker 1: had claimed that every man and woman who journeyed to

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Speaker 1: the Heavenly Kingdom would be given meaningful work, food, and

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Speaker 1: as much shelter as the martyrs can provide. She knew

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Speaker 1: that she could expect to be housed with other young,

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Speaker 1: unmarried women, at least until she and Alexander were finally together.

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Speaker 1: But this trip and the Heavenly Kingdom was already so

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Speaker 1: very different from everything she'd expected. That was reinforced when

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Speaker 1: she stepped out of the truck and directly onto a

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Speaker 1: pile of spent bullet casings. There were burnt cars in

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Speaker 1: the street, burnt buildings all around her, and a vague

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00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:26,480
Speaker 1: but persistent smell of sour milk in the air. The

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00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:28,880
Speaker 1: feeling of dread that had built inside her since she'd

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00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:32,280
Speaker 1: left the crate hit a new crescendo. And then Darrell

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00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,480
Speaker 1: took her inside the House of Miriam, and everything changed again.

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00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:38,680
Speaker 1: Sasha saw a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk

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Speaker 1: in a big white room while younger women sat and

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00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:43,959
Speaker 1: lined the walls around her. The older lady had loose,

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00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,520
Speaker 1: friendly jowls and a mop of gray hair tossed into

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Speaker 1: a lazy bun. She looked exhausted until the moment she

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00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,920
Speaker 1: fixed eyes on Sasha. At that moment, her eyes lifted,

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Speaker 1: along with her lips, into a smile that was the

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Speaker 1: truest thing Sasha had ever seen. Praise be to God,

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Speaker 1: she cried, You've made it. And then a sea of

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00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,520
Speaker 1: girls rose up around her. Most of them appeared to

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Speaker 1: have been sewing up military uniforms, but at the moment's call,

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00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:09,920
Speaker 1: every one of them set their work down and rose

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00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,600
Speaker 1: up to meet her. Sasha was swarmed by a sea

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00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:15,600
Speaker 1: of smiling faces as girls pressed their hands to hers,

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Speaker 1: or embraced her, or prayed over her and chanted in tongues.

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00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,400
Speaker 1: A dozen people told her their names at once. Sasha

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00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,160
Speaker 1: went stiff, at first, shocked and a little mortified by

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00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:28,280
Speaker 1: the mass display of physical affection by so many strangers.

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Speaker 1: But then the older woman made her way through the

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Speaker 1: crowd and put her hands on Sasha's shoulders. She brushed

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Speaker 1: a stray hair out of Sasha's face and fixed her

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00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,520
Speaker 1: with a smile that was more motherly than Sasha's actual

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00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,640
Speaker 1: mother had ever been. It's all right now, she said,

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00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,120
Speaker 1: in a voice that was pure comfort. I'm sure you're

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00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:49,400
Speaker 1: probably feeling frightened and overwhelmed, but you've reached the heavenly kingdom.

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Speaker 1: Loose yourself from the chains around your necko captive daughter

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00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:57,760
Speaker 1: of Zion. Your home now Something about the woman's voice

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00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,080
Speaker 1: and the way her hands felt broke through the just

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Speaker 1: wall around Sasha's heart. She found herself in the older

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00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,120
Speaker 1: woman's arms. She sobbed, and then she felt the press

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00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:09,320
Speaker 1: of bodies close against her. The mingled sense of lavender,

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00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:13,080
Speaker 1: citrus and human beings filled her nose. It comforted Sasha

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00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,320
Speaker 1: in a way she'd never quite known. The anxiety and

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00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,120
Speaker 1: fear were gone now, but so was any sense of

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00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:22,480
Speaker 1: motive inspiration. She let her sisters guide her to a

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00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:27,120
Speaker 1: pillow on the ground. The room got very busy. Girls scattered.

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00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 1: They heated up water and prepared food, and generally bothered

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00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,400
Speaker 1: themselves with every aspect of Sasha's comfort. Soon she had

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00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:36,200
Speaker 1: coffee and buttered muffins and a heavy jug of gatorade.

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00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,600
Speaker 1: A fan was moved into position where it could blow

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00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,560
Speaker 1: more cool air onto her face. The older woman sat

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00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: down next to Sasha and started to speak. My name

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00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,800
Speaker 1: is Helen, she said. I watch over the newcomers here,

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00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,440
Speaker 1: and I helped them adjust to life in the heavenly Kingdom.

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00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,160
Speaker 1: The most important thing for you to know is that

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00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:56,040
Speaker 1: you are loved and wanted. Here. You'll have food and

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00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:00,200
Speaker 1: shelter into purpose. Do you understand that, darling. Sasha tried

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00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,720
Speaker 1: to smile, but realized her face was still stuck in

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00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,880
Speaker 1: the same absent grin she'd worn since the greeting. After

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00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:11,200
Speaker 1: a long pause, she managed to nod and speak, yes, er, sorry, Sasha.

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00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,120
Speaker 1: My name is Sasha Marian. I'm from Virginia in the

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00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:19,360
Speaker 1: American Federation, Sasha. Helen said, just Sasha, we have no

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00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:22,520
Speaker 1: last names here and no nationalities beyond our allegiance to

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00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:27,840
Speaker 1: God and his heavenly kingdom. Do you understand? Sasha nodded yes.

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00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,720
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, I've I read every issue of

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00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:33,640
Speaker 1: Revelator before coming here. I know that nations and states

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00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,080
Speaker 1: are a worldly concept that only serves to separate us

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00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,600
Speaker 1: from God Almighty, I memorize, Pastor. It's one thing to

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00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,840
Speaker 1: read the truth, it's another to live it. Don't worry, child,

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00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,280
Speaker 1: It'll take some time to unlearn your old habits. Helen

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00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:48,520
Speaker 1: had cut her off, but she'd done it so gently

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00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,040
Speaker 1: that Sasha didn't even take it as a rebuke. She

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00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,440
Speaker 1: just nodded again, and then she remembered something. I need

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00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,960
Speaker 1: to find a young man. His name is Alexander. He's

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00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,280
Speaker 1: in a mechanized infantry unit. I think he's a corporal,

327
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:00,840
Speaker 1: and I have a PI sure of him printed out

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00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,119
Speaker 1: in my bag. If it will help, dear, Helen's voice

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00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:06,800
Speaker 1: dropped an octave. I know this is hard to hear,

330
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:09,720
Speaker 1: but the martyrs have important work to do. They fight

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00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,560
Speaker 1: that we might build the heavenly Kingdom if the Lord

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00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,480
Speaker 1: sees fit to deliver him safe from the fray. Sasha

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00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:18,240
Speaker 1: really didn't like the way she said. If then we

334
00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:22,160
Speaker 1: will find him and reunite you two. Re Sasha gave

335
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,240
Speaker 1: a nervous laugh. Oh no, we we've never met except

336
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:27,879
Speaker 1: for online. He convinced me to come. I mean, I

337
00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,359
Speaker 1: didn't come for him, but I was really on the

338
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,159
Speaker 1: fence until I met him. Helen's expression shifted. She looked

339
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,600
Speaker 1: was that anguished or angry? But Sasha didn't detect any

340
00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,040
Speaker 1: anger in her voice when she replied, I know it's hard, love,

341
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,640
Speaker 1: but you're going to need to wait to hear from Alexander.

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00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,200
Speaker 1: For right now. It should be enough that you're here,

343
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:49,880
Speaker 1: you're safe, You've done it. Do you know what this means.

344
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,520
Speaker 1: It means I didn't get caught. Helen laughed. She had

345
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,160
Speaker 1: a beautiful laugh. Sasha wanted to curl up and fall

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00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 1: asleep inside it. No. I mean well, yes, of course,

347
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:02,560
Speaker 1: she said, But more than anything, it means that, for

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00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,720
Speaker 1: all time, forever and ever, you're a person who made

349
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,200
Speaker 1: the choice to be brave. You took a leap into

350
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,719
Speaker 1: the dark and trusted that God's light would rise to

351
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:14,000
Speaker 1: meet you. There were tears in her eyes, genuine tears

352
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 1: wrapped up in genuine wrinkles and laugh lines that had

353
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,840
Speaker 1: never felt the touch of a surgical laser. That's the

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00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:22,880
Speaker 1: most beautiful thing in the world, Helen said, I want

355
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,639
Speaker 1: you to know that. Sasha started to cry too. Helen

356
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:30,240
Speaker 1: embraced her, held her close, and Sasha was certain she'd

357
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:43,440
Speaker 1: never been happier. Chapter ten, Manny, it couldn't have been

358
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 1: much past ten in the morning when they arrived at

359
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:49,600
Speaker 1: the City of Wheels, Topaz and Skullfucker Mike had helped

360
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: him and Reggie into an open topped red buggy they

361
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,040
Speaker 1: had apparently driven out to the ambush. The old vehicle

362
00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:57,159
Speaker 1: beat the hell out of walking, but it had not

363
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,800
Speaker 1: been built with comfort in mind. Every pen jostle on

364
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,760
Speaker 1: the road sent Payne shooting up from Mannie's fucked knee

365
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:06,200
Speaker 1: to what felt like a small forest of tears. In

366
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,639
Speaker 1: his shoulder muscles. Mike the driver kept the vehicle at

367
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,600
Speaker 1: a conspicuously slow pace, but he heard all the same.

368
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,560
Speaker 1: The ten minute drive was agony, but then Rolling Fuck

369
00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,280
Speaker 1: came into view and all thought of pain faded from

370
00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:22,640
Speaker 1: Mannie's mind. The main structure of the city had once

371
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,880
Speaker 1: been a colossal bagger two eighty eight strip mining machine.

372
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:29,679
Speaker 1: It looked like a sideways skyscraper sized spider made of

373
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 1: scaffolding and cranes. At the center of the vehicle was

374
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,400
Speaker 1: a four story building on a massive set of treads.

375
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:39,040
Speaker 1: Four spindley towers rose up out of that main structure

376
00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:41,520
Speaker 1: and in a giant half circle in the air around it.

377
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:44,720
Speaker 1: A gantryway the length of a football field connected the

378
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:46,960
Speaker 1: spindles to a mighty steel arm at the end of

379
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 1: the structure. It had once housed an enormous wheel bucket

380
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:53,400
Speaker 1: mining apparatus, but that had been replaced by a queer

381
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:56,639
Speaker 1: cube structure. It sat high in the air and gleamed

382
00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,080
Speaker 1: in a shade of black that made Mannie's stomach hurt.

383
00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:04,120
Speaker 1: Overwhelming motif of Rolling Funck was after market. The spindle

384
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,439
Speaker 1: towers had originally looked like scaffolding and mainly existed to

385
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,439
Speaker 1: offset the weight of that Titanic arm but they'd been

386
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 1: built on and added to with a series of tree

387
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:16,280
Speaker 1: house looking contraptions. He saw people, hundreds of them, climbing

388
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:18,760
Speaker 1: from door to door via a series of ladders, ropes,

389
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,919
Speaker 1: and what looked like fines. Below the main body of

390
00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:25,080
Speaker 1: the city, a series of vehicles surrounded the vast rolling

391
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,480
Speaker 1: building that made up the city's foundation. Many saw long

392
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:31,240
Speaker 1: haul trucks, deuce and a half army transports, and at

393
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:34,719
Speaker 1: least one old Abrams tank. Hundreds of sets of solar

394
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 1: panels glistened under the Texas sun. Good God, Reggie whispered, awe,

395
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:43,639
Speaker 1: temporarily overwhelming his pain, but didn't realize any of the

396
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 1: road tribes with this lodge. There were easily two or

397
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:50,360
Speaker 1: three thousand people visible in the sprawling camp. Mike glanced

398
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: back at Reggie, a somewhat stern look on his face.

399
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:58,080
Speaker 1: This is not a tribe, it's a city, oh, said Reggie.

400
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,760
Speaker 1: That's just how a lot of people back home with

401
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,000
Speaker 1: her to I get it, Mike interrupted, But there are

402
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:07,600
Speaker 1: actual indigenous tribes out on these roads, Comanche bands and

403
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,880
Speaker 1: the Panhandle, roving up from New Mexico to Colorado. We've

404
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:13,240
Speaker 1: got defensive and trade agreements with a few different groups

405
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,159
Speaker 1: of Apache out west. The Navajo have the only stable

406
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 1: territory south of Mormon Land and north of Albuquerque. Mike

407
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 1: glanced back at the road long enough to steer around

408
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:24,199
Speaker 1: a pothole and turn them in the direction of what

409
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,400
Speaker 1: looked to be a greater station. Then he continued, anyway,

410
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,560
Speaker 1: there are tribes out west, but we're a city. The

411
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 1: fact that we don't hold any land or control any

412
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,960
Speaker 1: territory is important to most of the folks here. Think

413
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:39,240
Speaker 1: of it as a kind of rebellion from people born

414
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:44,440
Speaker 1: to a settler culture. Ah. Reggie nodded, that's absolutely fascinating.

415
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: I have so much I want to ask in good time, buddy,

416
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 1: Mike said, Let's get y'all settled in first. Many knew

417
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 1: that every foreign correspondent he'd never met would kill to

418
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,080
Speaker 1: have the opportunity Reggie had just lucked into the road.

419
00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,879
Speaker 1: People were a popular topic in world media. He's a

420
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: pose that wasn't surprising. They all led visually spectacular lives.

421
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 1: Rolling fuck was just the grandest variation on a theme.

422
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: It was famous across the West for having the highest

423
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,199
Speaker 1: proportion of post human citizens. Something like a third of

424
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,320
Speaker 1: them were chromed enough to no longer fit into the

425
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 1: Homo sapiens category. Manny had never heard of them traveling

426
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,479
Speaker 1: this close to Dallas before they were banned in all

427
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:25,439
Speaker 1: of the Republic cities. People with military grade mods were uncontrollable.

428
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,160
Speaker 1: That and cultural PTSD from the war made them pariahs

429
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 1: pretty much everywhere. The main structure of the city was

430
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: encircled by a ring of thirty ish large and heavily

431
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 1: customed r vs. A few dozen smaller vehicles, many of

432
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:41,960
Speaker 1: them bearing sundry armaments, were scattered throughout the campground. The

433
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 1: only thing that resembled a checkpoint was a tidy, little

434
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:47,280
Speaker 1: one room trailer with a bright welcome sign above it.

435
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:49,680
Speaker 1: Mike steered them in to park in front of it.

436
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 1: The guard who approached them was a shirtless, dreadlocked person

437
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 1: with dusky brown skin and an automatic shotgun. Topas kissed them.

438
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 1: Then the guard greeted Manny and Reggie, Welcome to rolling fuck.

439
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,439
Speaker 1: Rules are don't start, no ship, won't be no ship cool.

440
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 1: Manny nodded, so did the brit All right, they said, enjoy.

441
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,679
Speaker 1: Manny was a little shocked by how loud it was.

442
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: Several of the camps appeared to have been built mainly

443
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,680
Speaker 1: out of speakers. There were a handful of open air

444
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: bars outside the main structure of the city, heterogeneous mixes

445
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: of tiki torches, brightly colored silk shade structures, and scrap

446
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 1: metal bar tables. Despite the early hour, quite a few

447
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,880
Speaker 1: people were drinking and dancing. Manny noted more people were

448
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,680
Speaker 1: doing the former than the latter. Most people were either

449
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: naked or wearing a few pieces of light ornamental clothing.

450
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 1: Nearly everyone carried a firearm. He looked over to the

451
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 1: journalist and noticed that Reggie was blinking rapidly and working

452
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 1: his jaw. His arm was still dislocated, and it seemed

453
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: to pain him as much as Manny was pained by

454
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: his leg. Many sense of professional pride lit up again,

455
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:54,679
Speaker 1: and he leaned forward to speak to their hosts. I

456
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:57,120
Speaker 1: don't mean to seem ungrateful, he said, but is there

457
00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,720
Speaker 1: some way we could see a medic? We're pretty shredded

458
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 1: back here. Yeah, yeah, skullfucker Mike grunted topes, and I

459
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:05,479
Speaker 1: got some meta ship in our trailer. We'll get you.

460
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: Just suck it up a bit longer. And oh. He

461
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 1: popped open the glove compartment. Inside it, Manny could see

462
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,960
Speaker 1: a handgun, a battered can of Miller High Life, and

463
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: a large bottle of pills. Skullfucker Mike passed the bottle back.

464
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:22,120
Speaker 1: Oxy printed him out myself like two weeks back. Probably

465
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:24,480
Speaker 1: shouldn't take more than two or three unless you've got

466
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 1: a robust, fucking Narco suite in your brain. Meat. Manny

467
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: took two, Reggie took four. Mike guided the little Bucky

468
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: through the organized chaos of the encampment and towards a

469
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: large silver airstream parked about a dozen feet away from

470
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 1: what Manny guessed was the backside of Rolling Fuck. He

471
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: guessed that because someone had bolted a twenty foot tall

472
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: license plate to that end of the city. It said

473
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 1: honk please in glowing white letters. The Bucky slowed to

474
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: a stop, and skullfucker Mike hopped out. He put out

475
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: a hand as Manny and Reggie started to stand. Hold up, guys,

476
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:59,399
Speaker 1: y'all are just covered in pieces of dead people. He

477
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 1: went up to the airstream and came out moments later

478
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:03,840
Speaker 1: with one armful of towels and a large jug of

479
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: hot soapy water. Manny and Reggie washed their hands and faces,

480
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 1: pulled off their shirts, and scrubbed the blood from their chests.

481
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 1: The brit looked over at Topaz when it came time

482
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 1: to take off his pants. Um, he said. When she

483
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 1: made no motion to hide her face, she asked, would

484
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: you mind turning around? Oh? She seemed surprised. Her face

485
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: went a bit red, but not with embarrassment at their

486
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: impending nudity. I didn't even think about it. Do people

487
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 1: come from the world? She turned. Reggie and Manny scrubbed

488
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,119
Speaker 1: most of the blood off their aching wounded bodies. Skullfucker

489
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,880
Speaker 1: Mike brought them a pair of fluffy white robes, buddled

490
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,080
Speaker 1: them up, and ushered them inside the air stream. It

491
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,120
Speaker 1: was tame by comparison to the grand weird wheeled city

492
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,199
Speaker 1: above them. The gleaming silver vehicle had been modified with

493
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 1: a rooftop greenhouse that was filled with pot plants and

494
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:53,959
Speaker 1: some squat bush with red berries Manny had never seen before.

495
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: The back had been extended, and the stainless steel replaced

496
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 1: by an enormous bay window. As he entered, Manny was

497
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: hit by a wave of cold air and the strong

498
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: smell of marijuana. Roughly half the trailer's interior was taken

499
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 1: up by a huge popassan bed covered in velvet blankets

500
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 1: and dozens of furs. A circular table started right where

501
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: the bed ended, and the rest of the trailer was

502
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: a large glass walled combination bathroom bar. There did not

503
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: appear to be a kitchen. Manny's leg had started throbbing

504
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,399
Speaker 1: as soon as he stood up to exit the buggy,

505
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 1: so he dropped into the first seat he could find,

506
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: a little padded bench by the table opposite the bed.

507
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: Reggie sat down on the other side of the table.

508
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: Manny noticed that he looked nervous, sweaty. The journalist's hand

509
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: shook just a little, his skin seemed pale. Topaz came

510
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 1: in after them, followed by skullfucker Mike. She hopped over

511
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 1: the table with a grace of a deer jumping a fence,

512
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 1: and in one smooth motion, spun round and settled into

513
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: a cross legged sit on the plush mattress. Skullfucker Mike

514
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: walked up to the bar and pulled down a large

515
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 1: white bottle with the words Rufies written across it and

516
00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: black marker. He took two pint glasses, filled them three

517
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: quarters up with the white liquid, and then added a

518
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: splash of cranberry juice to each glass. Scully Topaz sounded reproachful.

519
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: Mike stiffened, then dropped his shoulders in contrition. He turned

520
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: towards them, Sorry, guys, my manners are burnt out. Would

521
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 1: either of you like a G teeny? Neither of them

522
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,480
Speaker 1: answered for a long second. It was Reggie who finally responded,

523
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: ge teeny. Mike laughed, Yeah, that's what Topes and I

524
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 1: call g HB, and cranberry juice really hits the spot

525
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 1: after shooting something, I can make you, guys some human

526
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: sized portions. No thanks, Manny, and Reggie said at the

527
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,239
Speaker 1: exact same time. The big man handed one glass to

528
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: Topaz and belted down the other himself. The woman took

529
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,120
Speaker 1: two gulps to finish hers. She handed her cup to Mike,

530
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: and he walked back to the bar to fill both

531
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: glasses again. Reggie looked shocked. I'm fairly certain you just

532
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 1: ingested enough g HB to kill two normal humans. Topez shrugged.

533
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,159
Speaker 1: Let's say we've had so far as only se or

534
00:27:58,200 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: so of a fatal dose for some on your side

535
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: is metabolism and mods. Skully's better at drugging people, though, skullfucker.

536
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 1: Mike finished pouring two more g tens and nodded, She's

537
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: about right. The brit drinks more, though I'd say he

538
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,399
Speaker 1: could take a heavier dose than what what was your

539
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 1: name again, Manny? Manny gasped out, and would it be

540
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: too much to ask for like some medical care. We

541
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 1: are both in tremendous pain. Topaz and skullfucker. Mike looked ashamed. Jeez, Topaz,

542
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,120
Speaker 1: side fucking hell, guys, We're so sorry, added Mike. Then

543
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,360
Speaker 1: he grabbed a long knife from his belt and gouged

544
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 1: it deep into his wrist. Reggie Damn near jumped out

545
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: of his chair. Manny kept still. The pills had started

546
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: to help, but he was in too much pain to

547
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: react to anything with Gusto, It's all right, top has

548
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: assured them, and the kind of voice Manny remembered his

549
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: mom using on their cat when it was sick. I

550
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: know it looks weird, but he's helping, helping. Reggie gasped

551
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: a skullfucker. Mike positioned his open wound over a shot

552
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: glass jam the knife and slightly to the left and

553
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: let a thick strand of his syrupy red blood fill

554
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: the glass. He filled a second one in the same manner.

555
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 1: Then he pulled the knife free, set it on the

556
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: bar counter, and handed the shots to Manny and Reggie.

557
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: By the time he reached them, many noticed that the

558
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: big man's wounded arm had already scabbed over. Don't worry, schoolfucker,

559
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: Mike smiled. My blood's pretty sterile, and it's full of

560
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: good robots. They'll take care of you. Manny took the

561
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 1: shot right away. He knew it was working when he

562
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 1: felt pain from the wounds in his back again. That

563
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: meant Mike's blood had fixed whatever god awful thing had

564
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 1: happened to his knee well enough that it barely throbbed.

565
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: Merta Santa, the curse slipped out. Manny felt better, great,

566
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: in fact, but kind of queasy. At the same time,

567
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: he felt somehow in motion, almost as if his whole

568
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: body were shifting and burbling, like the contents of his gut.

569
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: The fixer glanced at his journalist and nodded to the

570
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: empty shot. It's a it's good. Reggie looked terrified. His

571
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 1: knuckles were white. The journalist gripped the edges of the

572
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: table like he was holding on for dear life. I

573
00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: am fine, he gritted out, A damn it, s Allie

574
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 1: Topaz said, you've scared the poor kid with your damned

575
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: wizard blood Ship said skull fucker, Mike. Sorry, we were

576
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 1: trying real hard not to trip your head. Topaz nodded.

577
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: The gesture looked a little telegraphed, as if she were

578
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: out of practice with making it stock Sapiens like yourself

579
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,080
Speaker 1: don't always do well around folks like me and Mike.

580
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: We moved too fast, or we've got too many weird

581
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: extra parts. I don't know. It's probably different for every

582
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: one of us, but your brain's definitely read monster when

583
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: you see us. Oh, Reggie croaked, You're not monsters. You've

584
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 1: both been very polite private toasts, Ah, said Mike. It's

585
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: got nothing to do with how nice we are, aren't.

586
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: It's how your brain reacts to the way we look

587
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 1: and move. It's because we're fucking monsters, Scully. She fixed

588
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: her eyes on the journalist. I don't mean that in

589
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: a bad sense, but like we've taken a big damn

590
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: step out of anything near to nature. Nothing is supposed

591
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: to be the way we are. It's normal for humans

592
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: to feel weird when they're around us for the first time.

593
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: Oh well, said Reggie. Maybe don't slice your wrists open

594
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 1: in front company in the future, or at least do

595
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: it behind a screen. Mike nodded as if that had

596
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 1: been a profound suggestion. Then he handed Topaz her second

597
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: g teeny and belted down his own. They were both

598
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: visibly intoxicated now. Topaz His eyes looked unfocused, and she

599
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: sprawled out backwards on the bed and cuddled absent mindedly

600
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: with one of the fur blankets on her bed. Mike

601
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: drifted off too, tapping his foot to a beat Manny

602
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,240
Speaker 1: couldn't hear, and drumming his fingers on the bar top

603
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: to what looked like a completely different beat. The journalist

604
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: stared at his blood shot. It looked like it had

605
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: begun to clot. A thin rind had formed across the top.

606
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: Reggie was an obvious pain, but he was just as

607
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: obviously too squeamish to drink a stranger's blood. Mannie felt

608
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: a lot better, though it was weird how fast Mike's

609
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: blood had worked. He found himself worrying at the scab

610
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: for a gash he'd received on his forearm, only for

611
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: the scab to fall away and reveal clean new skin underneath.

612
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: An hour ago, it had been a bleeding wound. It

613
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: really works, man, he told Reggie. Just trust me, choke

614
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 1: it down. Reggie didn't look convent. Think about what a

615
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: story this will make for everyone back home, Manny said,

616
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: you escaped to kill her drone and drink the blood

617
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: of an immortal. You'll dine out on that for years.

618
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: Reggie still looked pale and rather disgusted, but he put

619
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: his fingers around the shot, closed his eyes, and then

620
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: gulped it down. Many heard him wretch once and then twice.

621
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 1: Tears beat it at the corners of the journalist's eye,

622
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: but then he swallowed and slumped back in his chair. Schoolfucker.

623
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: Mike was hard at work mixing up another batch of cocktails.

624
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: These ones seem to just be normal gin and tonics,

625
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: four of them. There's not anything fucking crazy about those drinks,

626
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 1: is there, Manny asked. Mike shrugged. Two shots of gin,

627
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: splash a tonic. Nothing you norms can't handle. Neither of

628
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: us asked for a drink. Manny said, yeah, Topez yawned

629
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: from her place stretched out on the bed. But he

630
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: almost died today. You should always have a drink after

631
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: almost dying. Listen to Topez, said Mike as he passed

632
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: out the drinks. She's almost died more than almost anyone

633
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 1: I know. Reggie came alive as his hands touched the drink.

634
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: He gulped it down faster than either of the post humans.

635
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 1: Manny took a couple of slight SIPs of his own.

636
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: It was heinously strong before he sat the glass down

637
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 1: and asked, polite as he could manage, So why are

638
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 1: we here and why were you there? That kind of

639
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 1: luck doesn't just happen? And now we're just all gonna

640
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 1: what hang out in your trailer getting lit? Would that

641
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: really be so bad? Asked Mike Scully. Topaz said in

642
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: a warning tone, he's right, and it'd be rude of

643
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 1: us to pretend we've got altruistic motives here. She looked

644
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: Manny in his eyes. It was a little unnerving because

645
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 1: her left eye was a notably different shade of brown

646
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: than her right one, and then there were her metal fangs.

647
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 1: Look kid, she said, we got a duty to help

648
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: strangers in immediate need. It's rule number one for all

649
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: the monsters here. But we were out there because we

650
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: were looking for someone like you, a fixer. He felt

651
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,600
Speaker 1: dumb as soon as he asked to her credit. Topas

652
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: just smiled. A citizen of the Republic of Texas, one

653
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 1: who's not afraid of dangerous work, Mike added, and judging

654
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: by the day you've had, I'm I guess you've a

655
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: certain familiarity with danger. What about me, Reggie asked. Mike

656
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,279
Speaker 1: put a hand on the journalist's shoulder. Many guessed it

657
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:12,479
Speaker 1: was meant as a calming gesture, but the Brits still

658
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:15,879
Speaker 1: flinched at the contact. Don't worry, Guy said Mike. We'll

659
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: get you back to Austin or wherever's got an airport

660
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:20,439
Speaker 1: that'll fly at home. Your friends the only one who's

661
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 1: help we need. What help do you need? Manny asked.

662
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: The best person to take that question is up in

663
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: the city. Topaz said, you guys up for a bit

664
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: of a trick. Many stood halfway to test the strength

665
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 1: of his knee. It felt good as good as new.

666
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: In fact, his back and shoulders, which had been peppered

667
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: with shrapnel, just itched. Now he didn't even feel particularly tired.

668
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: On the other side of the table, Reggie looked to

669
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: be doing well too. He worked his formerly dislocated shoulder

670
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: in its socket and gave Manny the thumbs up. Apparently so,

671
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,279
Speaker 1: he said, Rolling Fuck had not been built by the

672
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: mines or for the comfort of mortal men. That much

673
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: was obvious. The second elevator doors closed, the narrow metal

674
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: box launched up with the force of a rocket. It

675
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: climbed six stories in the space of about a second.

676
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: By the time it stopped and the door slid open

677
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: with a pleasant ding, Manny and Reggie were both on

678
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 1: the edge of vomiting. Ah Ship Topes Mike said, you

679
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: forgot to drop the speed back down to normal. Topaz

680
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 1: looked genuinely distraught. Fuck me with a splintery dick, she cursed.

681
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,800
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, guys. This is the nearest elevator to our trailer.

682
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:30,720
Speaker 1: It doesn't normally take humans. The city's got an elevator

683
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,759
Speaker 1: under each spindle, Mike explained. There's also a big lift

684
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 1: under the main roller that's what we call the big

685
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: building on treads in the middle, and another behind the

686
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,120
Speaker 1: rear roller. Humans tend to stick to the rollers. It

687
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: gets weird up in the spindles. Weird, Reggie asked, weird skullfucker.

688
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 1: Mike leaned down and hissed the word into the journalist's ear.

689
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 1: He winked at the brit in a way that somehow

690
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: suggested both coitus and violence. Topaz punched Mike's shoulder and annoyance.

691
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 1: She gestured for Manny and Reggie to follow her down

692
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 1: the narrow metal hallway. We live life on a different

693
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: scale than the rest of you, she said. We see

694
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 1: more colors, hear more sounds. Most of us have at

695
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,239
Speaker 1: least a thousand times as many nerve endings, and no

696
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: fear of mortality to draw the line between pleasure and pain.

697
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 1: The kind of environments we enjoy can be intense to

698
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,960
Speaker 1: unmodified humans. Right as she said humans, the group emerged

699
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,359
Speaker 1: from the hallway into a wide, open gantry way. There

700
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: were no there was no ceiling above them now, and

701
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: a huge rectangular metal frame loomed over them, connected to

702
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,320
Speaker 1: the other spindles of the vehicle city via thick metal

703
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,360
Speaker 1: tension wire. The surface of the spindles had been covered

704
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 1: in colorful bits of metal and wood, welded and nailed

705
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 1: into dozens of crude structures that stippled up the iron

706
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 1: frames like technicolor mushrooms. Everything was covered in lights and

707
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,400
Speaker 1: screens and buzzed with the hum of a thousand speakers.

708
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 1: Reggie's pace slowed, the journalist's jaw was slack. He mouthed

709
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 1: what must have been a curse, and then asked their guides.

710
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: Is it okay if I record skullfucker might grinned and

711
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 1: clap him on the shoulder. Of course, it's okay. If

712
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:04,320
Speaker 1: you ask nice, I might even let you film me

713
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 1: in one of the fondel boats. What the hell is

714
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,760
Speaker 1: a Reggie started to ask, but then the first fondel

715
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 1: boat came into view. At least many assumed that's what

716
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: it was. A very large lifeboat hung off the gantry

717
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: as if it was the deck of a cruise ship.

718
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,720
Speaker 1: The interior of the boat was all soft cushions, pillows, blankets,

719
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:24,919
Speaker 1: and about two dozen writhing naked people. Some of them

720
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,320
Speaker 1: were surely having sex, but it was hard to tell

721
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: exactly what was going on. Manny saw several tales curled

722
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,799
Speaker 1: around limbs or jerking spasmodically in the air. His eyes

723
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: were drawn to one mechanical limb that looked like a

724
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: large metal chicken's foot. He watched it kick repeatedly into

725
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 1: the chest of a young woman. She cried with joy

726
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 1: at every impact. The whole mass of coiled post humanity

727
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:48,960
Speaker 1: gleamed wet in the morning light, coated with a mixture

728
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,400
Speaker 1: of blood and what looked like motor oil. Christ Reggie whispered.

729
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: Manny was at a loss for words. He felt a

730
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: bit nauseous. He never considered himself a prude, but something

731
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,400
Speaker 1: about what was going on in the Fondel boat just

732
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 1: seemed wrong in the physics sense, not the moral sense.

733
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 1: Probably best not to watch, said Topaz. It can make

734
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 1: humans sick er. Yeah, Reggie coughed. Is that a common sight?

735
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,360
Speaker 1: Mike shrugged. It's not uncommon. We try to keep stuff

736
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,840
Speaker 1: like that on the outside spindles away from the rollers

737
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 1: as a courtesy. They walked on, passed the boat and

738
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: through another covered section of the gantry way, surrounded by

739
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: a half dozen little buildings that looked like shops. Many

740
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: saw fruits and vegetables hanging in one, an assortment of

741
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,720
Speaker 1: labeled decks and other electronic googaws on tables. In another.

742
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: It had the look of a Middle Eastern bazaar, but

743
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: with no shopkeepers present, y'all went food. Topaz stopped and

744
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,160
Speaker 1: gestured at the shop filled with produce. Manny held up

745
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: his left hand, which had his cash ship, and planted

746
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 1: in it. I've got Republic of Texas currency and some

747
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:52,920
Speaker 1: Californian crypto, if you guys take either. Mike and Topaz

748
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 1: both laughed, and then Mike grabbed an apple and tossed

749
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,440
Speaker 1: it Manny's way. Many caught the fruit, although it was

750
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: a near thing. We don't use money, not within the city, skullfucker,

751
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: Mike explained. We do sell a lot of what we

752
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: grow for foreign money's but that's mostly used to book

753
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:11,439
Speaker 1: bands or buy stuff we can't make. Nothing costs anything here,

754
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 1: not to us and not to our guests. Y'all are guests,

755
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 1: Topaz clarified. Manny hadn't really had time to think about

756
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:21,359
Speaker 1: his stomach in the hour since their explosion he wake

757
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:23,840
Speaker 1: up call. They'd been on the run and endanger the

758
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,080
Speaker 1: whole time, but now that he had a moment to think,

759
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:29,200
Speaker 1: he felt a mild gnawing sensation in his gut. The

760
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 1: journalist must have been in the same way, because he

761
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: immediately set to piling fruit bags of nuts and a

762
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,800
Speaker 1: paper sack of that grown jerky into his arms. Manny

763
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,400
Speaker 1: went for a bag of shell pistachios himself, and the

764
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 1: two munch to Skullfucker. Mike and Topaz led them across

765
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 1: the spindles gantry and down towards the main roller. The

766
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 1: main roller had once held the control center and engine

767
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:52,280
Speaker 1: room for the gargantuan strip mining vehicle and its conversion

768
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,640
Speaker 1: to rolling fuck. Two new levels built from a half

769
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:57,719
Speaker 1: dozen sorely abused airstream trailers had been added to the

770
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: top four of the spindles, met on the roller's roof,

771
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 1: which also hosted a lively cafe. There were around a

772
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,280
Speaker 1: dozen patrons drinking at the circular center bar, and perhaps

773
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: a dozen lounging on cushions around low slung Moroccan style tables.

774
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 1: Most of the customers looked human too Manny's eye. They

775
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: wore an assortment of colorful, loose fitting garments, sarongs, long skirts,

776
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: and caffea's. Most of it looked handmade, although Manny was

777
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: hardly an expert on such things. As they walked past

778
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: the bar, Mike scooped up four pint glasses of dark

779
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 1: brown lagger He kept them in one hand. As he

780
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: opened a metal hatch on the rooftop, Manny could see

781
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: a ladder that led down into semi darkness. Mike nodded

782
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 1: towards the ladder. Down you go. Beer At the bottom.

783
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,279
Speaker 1: Manny and Reggie descended into a luxurious conference room. It

784
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 1: was candlelit, dim enough to seem intimate, but bright enough

785
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 1: for human navigation. A single redwood table dominated the space.

786
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: It was twelve feet in diameter and low to the ground,

787
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,840
Speaker 1: like all the tables he'd seen in the cafe. Cushions

788
00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 1: and other colorful, lumpy, soft things surrounded it. One man

789
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: and one woman were already seated, oss legged around the table.

790
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: Manny was shocked to see they were both quite old.

791
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: The man was heavy set, with a lot of curly

792
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: black hair piled atop his head and around his craggy

793
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:13,799
Speaker 1: lined face. Startlingly bright blue eyes stood out over the

794
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:16,880
Speaker 1: flickering candle light. He wore an old fashioned suit with

795
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,399
Speaker 1: a necktie and everything. It was the kind of suit

796
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 1: a banker might have worn fifty years ago, if the

797
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,880
Speaker 1: old movies mann He'd watched were close too accurate. He

798
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: looked to be in his sixties, while The woman next

799
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 1: to him seemed considerably older. Her face was so lined

800
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: and her skin so thin she almost looked fake, like

801
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: some kind of animatronic creation. No one looked that old anymore.

802
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,880
Speaker 1: The Austin Autonomous Region wasn't wealthy, but basic juven treatments

803
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,160
Speaker 1: were cheap and heavily subsidized. Even the poor could afford

804
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,919
Speaker 1: to combat the worst side effects of aging. Things were

805
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: different in the Republic of Texas proper, but none of

806
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 1: the poor there lived long enough to look like this woman.

807
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 1: She wore high waisted purple yoga pants and a very

808
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,319
Speaker 1: tight T shirt with a faded print of a five

809
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: fingered bart Simpson flipping the bird. Her hair was completely

810
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:03,719
Speaker 1: white and bound behind her in a tight ponytail. She

811
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:05,919
Speaker 1: smiled at Manny when he looked at her. The old

812
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: woman's teeth were as white as her hair. Hello there,

813
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,239
Speaker 1: young men, she said, in a voice that evoked the

814
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 1: platonic ideal of a grandma. Hello, Topaz, Mike schofucker, Mike,

815
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:19,720
Speaker 1: ma'am scofucker, Mike corrected her. As he came down the ladder.

816
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: He handed Manny and Topaz each a beer, and then

817
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: found a cushion large and plush enough for his bulk

818
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,120
Speaker 1: and dropped down. Mannie took his cue and found a seat.

819
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 1: Reggie grabbed the cushion next to him. Topaz leaned against

820
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,400
Speaker 1: the back wall, but stood as she introduced them. This

821
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: is Mannie Sanchez, he's a fixer from the Austin region.

822
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: And this is Reggie Sullivan. He works for the BBC.

823
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 1: Manny Reggie, this is Nanna Yazzie, she's our eldest. And

824
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 1: the less old fart is Donnie Ferris. He's a guest

825
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 1: and a brit too. Wait the Donald Ferris, Reggie asked,

826
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 1: the guy who made Visions of Blood. Yes, said the

827
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 1: old man. Did you actually watch it or have you

828
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 1: just seen a handful of tin second clips in your

829
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:02,640
Speaker 1: media feed over the ears? Both actually, Reggie replied m

830
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: Donald grunted. Many had heard of Visions of Blood back

831
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,240
Speaker 1: in school. It was a documentary released a year before

832
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 1: the Second American Civil War caught fire. It followed two

833
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 1: Navajo Special Forces veterans as they organized a massive direct

834
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,400
Speaker 1: action campaign that started in Santa Fe but spread throughout

835
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: the Southwest. His text book had called it one of

836
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: the major seeds of the Old u S's collapse. Reggie

837
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 1: was clearly star struck by Donald. Mannie was more curious

838
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:31,919
Speaker 1: about the old woman. No matter where he turned his head,

839
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,839
Speaker 1: he couldn't quite seem to escape her eyes. She had

840
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,800
Speaker 1: this strange way of staring at him without really staring.

841
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: It made Mannie feel somehow naked and vaguely comforted all

842
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,280
Speaker 1: at the same time. Nana meant grandma, which made sense,

843
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 1: but he wasn't sure what the rest of her title meant.

844
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,840
Speaker 1: Exactly Are you in charge, then, he asked her. In response,

845
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,439
Speaker 1: every one but Reggie chuckled. No one is in charge here,

846
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,160
Speaker 1: said Nana Yazi. That will become increasingly clear the longer

847
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 1: you stay. I'm the eldest, which means exactly what it

848
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 1: sounds like. I'm old as dirt, and I'm older than

849
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 1: any of the other dirt around here too. She eyed

850
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,920
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris and continued, When I give advice or have

851
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:12,720
Speaker 1: an opinion, some people listen. This is not a state,

852
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 1: and I am not a head of state, but sometimes

853
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: I play one for the folks outside, for in policy,

854
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,399
Speaker 1: diplomatic relations, that sort of thing, mainly because no one

855
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: else can be arst by the way. She added, welcome

856
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 1: to the city of wheels or she frowned a little

857
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 1: rolling fuck. I argued rather strenuously against that name, but

858
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:36,399
Speaker 1: I was outvoted. I like the name, said skullfucker Mike.

859
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 1: It's fun. Sidy shouldn't take themselves too seriously. That's when

860
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,920
Speaker 1: the problems start. So why are we here, Manny asked.

861
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm grateful, and all we're grateful, he nodded

862
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:49,439
Speaker 1: to Reggie. But I know y'all aren't just being nice.

863
00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 1: Mike said, you had dangerous work. Skullfucker Mike. Skullfucker Mike

864
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,280
Speaker 1: insisted again. Nanny Azi ignored him and replied to Manny,

865
00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 1: we do have a job for you, MIHO are not

866
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,759
Speaker 1: required to take it, though if you say no, we'll

867
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: still return you when your journalist friend to Austin, and

868
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 1: if you do help us, you'll be compensated. So what

869
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:11,720
Speaker 1: is it you need? The old woman snapped her fingers.

870
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 1: A projection screen hummed to life on the wall of

871
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 1: the room that faced Mannie and Reggie. It displayed three faces,

872
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: two women and one man. They all looked young, although

873
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:23,839
Speaker 1: that meant very little. One woman was white and kept

874
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,120
Speaker 1: her hair in a bright purple mohawk. The other was

875
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,880
Speaker 1: as bald as skullfucker Mike, with round cheeks, green scowling eyes,

876
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 1: and skin a little darker than Manny's. The young man

877
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: was very pale. He appeared to be of Chinese descent,

878
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:38,480
Speaker 1: and his exposed skin was covered in scarified symbols from

879
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 1: a language Mannie didn't recognize. From left to right, Marigold, Fulton, two,

880
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 1: Ley Black Elk, and Rick Hartford. They're all citizens and

881
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,520
Speaker 1: they act as our negotiators when the city is in

882
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 1: the southwest. Two days ago, they arrived in Plaino to

883
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 1: negotiate a trade deal with the Republic of Texas. We

884
00:45:55,840 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: have quite a lot of processed coffee and we were

885
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,399
Speaker 1: hoping to trade it for She trailed off a bit

886
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:05,920
Speaker 1: and her cheeks reddened. Many thought she looked embarrassed for snacks. Snacks,

887
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:10,480
Speaker 1: Reggie asked, yes, she nodded. The Frido La Corporation is,

888
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 1: or at least was still headquartered in Plaino. The junk

889
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,600
Speaker 1: food they produce is harder to find out west. We

890
00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:20,280
Speaker 1: mostly wanted cheeto's. Topez licked her lips. For whatever reason,

891
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 1: the imitations we print out here just don't cut it.

892
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 1: We barter everywhere we go Nana Yazzi continued, and since

893
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 1: post humans aren't welcome in most populated areas, our negotiators

894
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,760
Speaker 1: are all pretty close to baseline. They traveled unarmed into Plaino.

895
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,880
Speaker 1: The city fell six hours after they arrived. Reggie grunted

896
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,719
Speaker 1: two days ago. People were telling me the Kingdom was

897
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:45,839
Speaker 1: on its last legs. Yes, Nana Yazzi said, it would

898
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 1: appear they are not quite the paper tiger everyone expected.

899
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,799
Speaker 1: We're still scrambling through good data, but it's safe to

900
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:54,760
Speaker 1: say they've pilfered the majority of the Republic's heavy equipment

901
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 1: and converted as much as half their standing army. At

902
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 1: the same time Plano fell, dozens of Christian militias across

903
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,400
Speaker 1: Texas launched fresh offensives. Galveston is still holding, but that

904
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: could change at any moment. Houston blew their levies and

905
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: flooded half the city in order to save the other half.

906
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,120
Speaker 1: But that also means the Kingdom can move on to

907
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 1: Austin without worrying about their flank. They pushed the stf

908
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:18,359
Speaker 1: entirely out of Siada de Muerta, so there's nothing left

909
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:22,320
Speaker 1: between them and your home. Donald Ferris spoke up grave

910
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 1: and Gravelly, we know that the offensives started with dozens

911
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,879
Speaker 1: of autonomous car bombings at checkpoints and fortifications. We don't

912
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 1: know how they managed it. What's important now, Nana Yazzi continued,

913
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:37,360
Speaker 1: is that three of our people have been captured. Manny

914
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,520
Speaker 1: fought down a spike of anger. With all due respect, Nana,

915
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,720
Speaker 1: he said, in a deliberately neutral tone, they just conquered

916
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: the city I was born in. I probably lost a

917
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:48,560
Speaker 1: dozen friends in these god fascists cre only what two

918
00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:52,879
Speaker 1: hours away from Austin ninety minutes, Donald said, they seem

919
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:55,720
Speaker 1: to be holding position now, digesting their meal, but they'll

920
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: be on the march soon. I expect the vaunted Austin

921
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,239
Speaker 1: defense forces will be able to hold them. Offer oh,

922
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 1: a good four or five days, maybe a week. Unless

923
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:08,280
Speaker 1: he glanced over to Nani Yazzi, she nodded in agreement.

924
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: Unless asked Manny, unless Nana agreed, Unless our militia comes

925
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 1: to their aid. We're not in the habit of fighting

926
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:18,720
Speaker 1: other people's battles. But we're also not in the habit

927
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:21,640
Speaker 1: of letting regressives win. I asked for a vote. Once

928
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,560
Speaker 1: we learned our people had been captured, our fighters, most

929
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:27,319
Speaker 1: of them agreed to stop the Heavenly Kingdom's advance and

930
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 1: give your people time to coordinate a proper defense. But

931
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:33,640
Speaker 1: there's a catch, ah, Manny was starting to get it.

932
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: If you step in, they'll kill your people. Nani Yazzi nodded, yes,

933
00:48:38,239 --> 00:48:41,399
Speaker 1: and none of our fighters are willing to risk that. Well,

934
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:43,520
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what you want from me, Manny said,

935
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:47,080
Speaker 1: I'm a talker, not a fighter. A talker is exactly

936
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: what we need, Immanuel Nana Yazzi assured him. Many winced

937
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: in irritation at the use of his full name, Manny.

938
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,839
Speaker 1: He insisted in the same tone, skullfucker might get used

939
00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: a little earlier as you say, what kind of talking

940
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 1: do you want me to do? He asked. I'm sure

941
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 1: you've all got better negotiators than me, perhaps, but you've

942
00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 1: got something none of our people possess. You're a citizen

943
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: of the Republic, and the Heavenly Kingdom has just issued

944
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: a general amnesty for all citizens willing to repent and

945
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,920
Speaker 1: declare allegiance. You know how the people in this region talk.

946
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:21,440
Speaker 1: You won't arouse suspicion if you enter. So you want

947
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: me to find your people and then what break them? Out.

948
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:25,840
Speaker 1: I can barely shoot straight. I don't think I'm the

949
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: man to execute a prison break. They've got plenty of

950
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 1: fighter son. Donald Ferris growled, But if Topaz and Schofucker

951
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:34,720
Speaker 1: Mike haven't keyed you in on this, the chrome don't

952
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 1: exactly good at blending. He's right, Nana smiled sadly. We'll

953
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: pair you with someone who could do the violence, but

954
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: we'll need you to get them close enough to find

955
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:47,200
Speaker 1: our people. In effect an escape, You'll need to help

956
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 1: our person maintain their cover. Many felt a powerful anger

957
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,799
Speaker 1: boil up inside his belly. So basically, you and your

958
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: militia are holding my homeland hostage. And if I don't

959
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 1: risk my coulo to save your negotiators, Austin dies, Miho,

960
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 1: it's nothing as sinister as that our people want to fight.

961
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: But but Donald picked up, we're all family here, and

962
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 1: family comes before corrupt, fractious foreign militious and equally corrupt

963
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 1: fractious foreign cities. Old Toad, I'd say it's a good

964
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:19,640
Speaker 1: deal for you. What was your plan before this meeting,

965
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 1: Naniyazi asked. Manny opened his mouth to respond, but realized

966
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,440
Speaker 1: he didn't have a clear answer. He hadn't exactly had

967
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,240
Speaker 1: much time to puzzle that out, and any time he'd tried,

968
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: he thought about Oscar, his missing stringer, and that made

969
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 1: him want to panic. He's dead or worse, and there's

970
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:37,680
Speaker 1: nothing you can do about it. What you can do

971
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:40,080
Speaker 1: is by a fucking plane ticket and beg the Germans

972
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: to take you in as a refugee. That seemed like

973
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 1: a good plan, or at least the best of a

974
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: bunch of shitty options. But a scornful voice rose up

975
00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: from the dark recesses of his semi withered conscience. What

976
00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 1: about his wife? Are you just going to leave her

977
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: broken widowed? You have to at least give her something.

978
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:58,320
Speaker 1: I'm flying to Germany, he said, or maybe France, wherever

979
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:00,120
Speaker 1: I can get the cheapest ticket, either in Austin in

980
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,919
Speaker 1: or he'll passo. How much money do you have saved up, son,

981
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris asked. They won't issue a long term visa

982
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 1: unless you've got at least sixty grand Californian. Manny had

983
00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 1: a little more than half that less once he paid

984
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 1: off Oscar's wife widow. Fuck man, you sent him out there.

985
00:51:17,239 --> 00:51:19,839
Speaker 1: The uncertainty and despair must have been obvious on his face.

986
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: Both Donald Ferris and Nana Yazzi gave him the sort

987
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:26,120
Speaker 1: of looks normally reserved for wounded kittens. I may be

988
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: able to help, the old brit said, I do have

989
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:31,800
Speaker 1: some connections in Germany, people who might sponsor your visa

990
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:35,560
Speaker 1: if you help. The thought of a visa, the mental

991
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: image of seeing one stamped in his otherwise worthless passport,

992
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 1: was intoxicating Mann. He'd never traveled outside of Texas, but

993
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:45,440
Speaker 1: he had kept at all times an active passport. It

994
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 1: had been the physical anchor for his wildest dreams, and

995
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,440
Speaker 1: now Donald Ferris was telling him he could make something

996
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 1: as magical as a visa real Manny almost swooned. Do

997
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:58,480
Speaker 1: I have to decide now? He asked, careful to keep

998
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 1: his tone as calm as he could manage, of course not.

999
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:05,360
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi said, that would be terribly unfair. You should

1000
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 1: get some sleep and then a proper breakfast. There's certainly

1001
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,520
Speaker 1: enough time for that, and you look exhausted he was.

1002
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 1: Now that the excitement of the morning had faded, he

1003
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:16,279
Speaker 1: felt gripped by a bone deep weariness that was not

1004
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 1: at all helped by the dim lighting and comfortable cushions

1005
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 1: around him. Reggie should have been even more tired but

1006
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 1: with the jet lag, but the journalist looked alert, jittery

1007
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:28,200
Speaker 1: despite the bags under his eyes. If it's possible, Reggie said,

1008
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:30,120
Speaker 1: and you have one, I could really use a high

1009
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 1: speed data connection. My deck's been spotty since the shooting started.

1010
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 1: I've got a lot to upload to the company's servers,

1011
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,440
Speaker 1: and I should probably check in with my editors, let

1012
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:39,920
Speaker 1: them know I'm not dead, et cetera, et cetera. That

1013
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 1: won't be a problem. She stood and her knees popped

1014
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:45,840
Speaker 1: audibly with the movement. Oh, she grunted, and then continued,

1015
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:50,080
Speaker 1: Topaz and Mike schrofucker. Mike, we'll show you to a nice,

1016
00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: relatively sound proof room. They'll help you get onto our

1017
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:56,479
Speaker 1: data tower too. Reggie, thank you. She looked at Manny

1018
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,759
Speaker 1: again and fixed him with her sad grandmother's smile. We'll

1019
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: give it was much time to decide as we can.

1020
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 1: We expect the Kingdom to hold for a few days,

1021
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:06,879
Speaker 1: but we didn't expect them to launch an attack like this.

1022
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,240
Speaker 1: So take that with a grain of salt. Um Texan

1023
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:22,720
Speaker 1: Nana Mann, he said, I take everything with salt. Chapter eleven,

1024
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:28,040
Speaker 1: Roland Roland loved fighting men in powered armor. The increased

1025
00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 1: firepower and durability gave them an outside chance, which made

1026
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,960
Speaker 1: it fun, and the sheer expense of modern suits made

1027
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,120
Speaker 1: it feel a little like wailing on rich kids with

1028
00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:40,240
Speaker 1: fancy toys. But Roland did not like fighting normal humans.

1029
00:53:40,600 --> 00:53:43,240
Speaker 1: He'd hoped the infantry coming up behind the armored troopers

1030
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 1: would run like hell once he popped their vanguard, but

1031
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:48,880
Speaker 1: instead they'd insisted on a fight and started shooting at

1032
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,239
Speaker 1: him with very large guns. One explosive munition had hit

1033
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:54,359
Speaker 1: nine yards ahead of his position, and the other had

1034
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 1: impacted close enough to pepper Roland's torso and face with shrapnel.

1035
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:02,200
Speaker 1: So regretfully he arched the enemy. The martyrs shot back.

1036
00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:04,279
Speaker 1: They hit him a few times, but Roland paid their

1037
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:06,399
Speaker 1: bullets as much mind as he would a mild rein.

1038
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,440
Speaker 1: He drew close enough for visual contact. These martyrs were

1039
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:13,320
Speaker 1: a motley site. Several of them fought shirtless, with white

1040
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:17,160
Speaker 1: crosses daubed across their chests. Most of them wore body armor,

1041
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:19,960
Speaker 1: very little of it. Modern Roland saw a lot of

1042
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,400
Speaker 1: old pre war plate carriers and surplus police vests. That

1043
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: crap wouldn't stop military grade rifle rounds, although since the

1044
00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:28,880
Speaker 1: only weapon in Roland's hand was a big guess wrench,

1045
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:32,560
Speaker 1: how these men were armored hardly mattered. They were mostly

1046
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:34,880
Speaker 1: armed with old M fours and a smattering of newer

1047
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:39,120
Speaker 1: assault rifles, probably pilfered from the Republic of Texas. Fifty men,

1048
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 1: six technicals, two drone carriers. Rowland hit their skirmishing line

1049
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:46,480
Speaker 1: before the teams on their recoilest rifles. His first target

1050
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:50,520
Speaker 1: could reload. Roland's wrench broke jaws and orbital bones. It

1051
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:54,479
Speaker 1: cracked pelviss and shattered thighs. He dispatched the rifle teams

1052
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 1: and then danced through the on rushing mob of militia

1053
00:54:56,960 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: like some sort of compound fracture dispensing ballerina. And as

1054
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:03,960
Speaker 1: he fought, Roland felt the familiar sunlight warmth of serotonin

1055
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,719
Speaker 1: flood his synapses. He remembered a little of how the

1056
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,239
Speaker 1: army had explained the battle drugs now flowing through his

1057
00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:13,720
Speaker 1: brain a guarantee of sustained aggression. The longer he fought,

1058
00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 1: the harder would be for him to stop fighting and

1059
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:20,120
Speaker 1: to avoid killing. Roland felt his self control begin to

1060
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,040
Speaker 1: fade as he knocked out his dozenth martyr. He started

1061
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:27,879
Speaker 1: swinging harder, his blows increasingly connected with clavicles instead of coxyxes,

1062
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 1: and jaws instead of elbows. His hind brain warned him.

1063
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 1: As the kill likelihoods jumped from for to six percent

1064
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 1: up to twenty thirty forty percent, he felt his conscience

1065
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 1: fade beneath the uphoric red haze of narcotic splendor. Before

1066
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:44,879
Speaker 1: he knew it, the whole platoon of martyrs was either

1067
00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:47,320
Speaker 1: on the ground or fleeing for the relative safety of

1068
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:51,040
Speaker 1: their technicals. Roland laughed a madman's laughed, tickled that they

1069
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:53,440
Speaker 1: thought a bunch of old Toyota trucks with machine guns

1070
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: in the beds might slow him down. He put a

1071
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:57,840
Speaker 1: fist through the engine block of one and made a

1072
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:00,400
Speaker 1: burst of fifty caliber fire from the other. As he

1073
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 1: pivoted and launched his wrench through the driver's side window.

1074
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:06,160
Speaker 1: The improvised missile connected with the face of the driver,

1075
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:08,840
Speaker 1: who spun his wheel hard to the left. The truck

1076
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:12,000
Speaker 1: flipped forward onto its cabin. Something about the wet crunch

1077
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:16,480
Speaker 1: had maid sounded so familiar. Oh God, oh dear sweet Jayess, Please, sir.

1078
00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:20,120
Speaker 1: The National Guardsman was nineteen years old. Randal Wallace was

1079
00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: his name. Roland knew that because his hind brain had

1080
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,239
Speaker 1: sucked in every piece of publicly available data on the

1081
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:27,520
Speaker 1: boy once it had scanned his face. It had done

1082
00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:29,480
Speaker 1: that with all the occupants of the humvey and the

1083
00:56:29,520 --> 00:56:32,000
Speaker 1: four seconds before Roland had blown it on its side.

1084
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,640
Speaker 1: Wallace was just the only member of the crew unlucky

1085
00:56:34,719 --> 00:56:38,480
Speaker 1: enough to survive. Please, Sir, Roland stepped towards the broken,

1086
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:42,319
Speaker 1: bloody boy. He came back to himself, a bit disoriented,

1087
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:44,920
Speaker 1: but none the worse for wear. His hind brain and

1088
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 1: a lifetime of combat memories had kept his body fighting

1089
00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:51,000
Speaker 1: in his mind's absence. Now wrenchless, Rowland used his bare

1090
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 1: hands to tear open doors and break faces. The gunners

1091
00:56:54,200 --> 00:56:56,600
Speaker 1: on their remaining technicals tried to fire back, but their

1092
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:59,560
Speaker 1: maneuverability was limited by the rubble choked streets and their

1093
00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:03,440
Speaker 1: own being infantry. One minute after first contact, the martyr

1094
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:06,240
Speaker 1: contingent had been reduced to a dozen shell shocked soldiers

1095
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:09,480
Speaker 1: piled hastily on to the tops of the retreating drone carriers.

1096
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:13,160
Speaker 1: Roland hopped onto the last of the technicals. He disabled

1097
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:15,759
Speaker 1: it by pulling the driver out through the front windshield

1098
00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:18,760
Speaker 1: and using the man's body to beat the gunner into unconsciousness.

1099
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:22,280
Speaker 1: Roland tore the vehicle's twenty millimeter cannon free from its

1100
00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 1: swivel mount and sided in on the fleeing troops. His

1101
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:28,520
Speaker 1: synapses promised him more chemical rewards if only he'd pulled

1102
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:32,320
Speaker 1: the trigger, but something in Roland's forebrains stopped him. Under

1103
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:36,120
Speaker 1: the joyous miasma of the battle drugs, his conscience reasserted itself.

1104
00:57:36,480 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 1: He lowered his weapon and watched as his enemies beat

1105
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:42,120
Speaker 1: hell for leather in the opposite direction. His hands shook

1106
00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:44,480
Speaker 1: and he felt the first symptoms of withdrawal. As his

1107
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: heart rate dropped and the adrenaline drips stopped its flow,

1108
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:50,640
Speaker 1: Roland closed his eyes. He breathed in and out, and

1109
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:55,520
Speaker 1: centered himself. The crash came. Now that the fighting was done,

1110
00:57:55,600 --> 00:57:57,880
Speaker 1: Roland had time to process the since day that he'd

1111
00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:00,520
Speaker 1: pulled from his enemies. He knew what the driver he'd

1112
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:03,040
Speaker 1: ripped out of the windshield had eaten for breakfast. He

1113
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:05,520
Speaker 1: knew which of the militia he'd crippled were fathers. He

1114
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: knew which had wives or at least girlfriends. He could

1115
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:10,760
Speaker 1: smell traces of football leather on some of their hands.

1116
00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 1: One man he'd wrenched had smelled of rosin a violinist.

1117
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:17,360
Speaker 1: Roland couldn't fight a man without learning much more about

1118
00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 1: him than any killer should know about their victims. That

1119
00:58:20,240 --> 00:58:22,920
Speaker 1: knowledge crashed down on him in a hail storm of guilt.

1120
00:58:23,320 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 1: Roland dropped the cannon into the truck's bed. He hopped down,

1121
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 1: pulled Sardar's wrench free from the wreck of the Second Technical,

1122
00:58:29,600 --> 00:58:32,040
Speaker 1: and headed back towards Biggsby and his squad with a

1123
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: heavy heart. Nadine and Asime both looked pretty seriously wounded.

1124
00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 1: Biggsby was helping to carry them both back to the

1125
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:42,120
Speaker 1: a PC while Will handled Overwatch with his grenade launcher.

1126
00:58:42,640 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 1: Roland caught up with them and fell into step. Biggsby

1127
00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: looked over at him and grunted, Are you gonna try

1128
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:50,720
Speaker 1: to take my nipple now? Roland shrugged. He wasn't in

1129
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:53,320
Speaker 1: the mood. His brain was in the dark, ugly place

1130
00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:55,640
Speaker 1: that always went after a bloody fight, when the raw

1131
00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:58,240
Speaker 1: data about all the men he'd killed or battered lingered

1132
00:58:58,280 --> 00:58:59,880
Speaker 1: in his brain like a fart in the back of

1133
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 1: a hum v. They reached the a PC. Sardar gasped

1134
00:59:03,920 --> 00:59:07,640
Speaker 1: when he saw them, Pedro vomited. Roland was confused until

1135
00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:10,400
Speaker 1: he realized Biggsby and Will had also started to stare.

1136
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:13,040
Speaker 1: Roland looked down at himself and saw that he looked

1137
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:16,320
Speaker 1: like a literal dead man walking. He'd been shot forty

1138
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:19,600
Speaker 1: seven times by his hindbrain's best count, and peppered with shrapnel.

1139
00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 1: On top of that, he had ribbed showing through holes

1140
00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:24,840
Speaker 1: blasted in his biceps, in his belly, and the bone

1141
00:59:24,880 --> 00:59:28,600
Speaker 1: on his left thigh was completely exposed. It looks worse

1142
00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:31,920
Speaker 1: than it is, Roland said, it looks like you should

1143
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: be dead about five times over, Sardar replied. Roland looked

1144
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 1: Sardar up and down. His hindbrain did the math eleven times.

1145
00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:42,800
Speaker 1: If I were you, Jesus, he handed Sarda the wrench,

1146
00:59:43,040 --> 00:59:45,920
Speaker 1: now dented and bloodstained. A large clump of hair and

1147
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 1: scalp was still stuck to the heel jaw. The mechanic

1148
00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:51,480
Speaker 1: took his tool with one hesitant hand. He stared at

1149
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:53,800
Speaker 1: the gore on it until Biggsby started to yell again,

1150
00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:56,920
Speaker 1: Oi Fucco's In case you've forgotten, there's an army breathing

1151
00:59:56,960 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 1: up our asses. Sar, you get to drive man Sartar

1152
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:02,560
Speaker 1: nod at his head. Then let's get the wounded in

1153
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:05,000
Speaker 1: the cab and power the funk out of here. Will

1154
01:00:05,320 --> 01:00:09,000
Speaker 1: stay on watch. Will grunted and jerked his head at Roland.

1155
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:11,320
Speaker 1: This funk erota cover us. He just took out half

1156
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:14,040
Speaker 1: a company on is lonesome. You trust him to watch

1157
01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 1: your six Biggsby, asked Roland. Only half heard them. He

1158
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 1: stared off into the distance, worked his jaw and clenched

1159
01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:23,520
Speaker 1: his left fist so hard his finger nails drew blood.

1160
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:26,240
Speaker 1: He was lost in his head, scanning scent memories and

1161
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:29,440
Speaker 1: analyzing the men he'd just beaten. He was drawn again

1162
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:31,800
Speaker 1: and again to the memory of one man in particular.

1163
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:34,440
Speaker 1: He'd worn a tattered U S Army issue vest and

1164
01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:36,520
Speaker 1: an M sixteen that posed as much of a threat

1165
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:38,960
Speaker 1: to Rowland as a drunken hornet. He'd had the scent

1166
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:40,960
Speaker 1: of a woman on him. He wasn't alone in that,

1167
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:43,600
Speaker 1: but the rich wave of oxytocin that had poured off

1168
01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 1: him was intense and real in his memory. The man's

1169
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:49,600
Speaker 1: face kept twisting and morphing into the face of Randall Wallace.

1170
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:54,680
Speaker 1: Roland started to cry. Bigsby and Sardar loaded Ryan, Nadine,

1171
01:00:54,680 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 1: and Asime into the transport. Will just stared at him,

1172
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:00,200
Speaker 1: his gaze locked on Roland's tears, as if each one

1173
01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:03,720
Speaker 1: with a lockneest monster. Roland didn't care. His hind brain

1174
01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:05,920
Speaker 1: kept up its glitchy feet of data, a mix of

1175
01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:08,080
Speaker 1: information on the men he'd just killed and the men

1176
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:11,200
Speaker 1: he'd killed years ago. Once the wounded were loaded up,

1177
01:01:11,240 --> 01:01:14,720
Speaker 1: everyone filed into the Madis APC. Will popped the top

1178
01:01:14,760 --> 01:01:18,120
Speaker 1: hatch and sat Gunner with his grenade launcher. Inside the APC,

1179
01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:20,800
Speaker 1: Bigsby and Pedro did their best version of first aid

1180
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:23,920
Speaker 1: on their wounded companions. There wasn't much for them to do,

1181
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:27,200
Speaker 1: though everyone in the squad had fairly advanced healing suites.

1182
01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:30,560
Speaker 1: Roland trudged into the APEC and took his seat. No

1183
01:01:30,600 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 1: one made eye contact with him. Sardar kicked it into gear,

1184
01:01:33,840 --> 01:01:38,280
Speaker 1: and off they went. Waco had always been one of

1185
01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:41,400
Speaker 1: the worst cities in Texas. In the late eighteen hundreds,

1186
01:01:41,400 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 1: that had been a refuge for former Confederate loyalists. In

1187
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:46,880
Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds, it had developed a reputation as a

1188
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:50,960
Speaker 1: haven for KuPS and religious extremists caught between the economic

1189
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:54,200
Speaker 1: powerhouse of Dallas and the relative cultural mecca of Austin.

1190
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:57,439
Speaker 1: Waco was a second rate college town at best, and

1191
01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:00,400
Speaker 1: at worst, a meth filled rest stop between EXAs is

1192
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:04,760
Speaker 1: good cities. The revolution had changed that. After the Lake

1193
01:02:04,800 --> 01:02:08,920
Speaker 1: would blast, Dallas had bled sixty of its population. Most

1194
01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 1: of those people had fled to Austin since constant flooding

1195
01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:15,040
Speaker 1: had rendered much of Houston uninhabitable, but half a million

1196
01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:18,200
Speaker 1: of them ish had swelled Waco into something resembling a

1197
01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:21,480
Speaker 1: worthwhile place to exist. The city had thrived in the

1198
01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:25,320
Speaker 1: post revolutionary years. It was nominally controlled by the Austin

1199
01:02:25,440 --> 01:02:28,160
Speaker 1: regional government, and so it had been spared the worst

1200
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:31,439
Speaker 1: of the Republic of Texas's corruption. But now it looked

1201
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:33,800
Speaker 1: like Waco would be the next city eaten by the

1202
01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:37,520
Speaker 1: expanding Heavenly Kingdom. Roland could smell the stink of fear

1203
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:39,480
Speaker 1: in the air when they were still a half dozen

1204
01:02:39,520 --> 01:02:42,240
Speaker 1: miles out from the city limits. Once they hit the

1205
01:02:42,280 --> 01:02:46,280
Speaker 1: city proper, their convoy halted at a military checkpoint. Power

1206
01:02:46,400 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 1: armored Austin Republican guardsmen opened the side hatch of the

1207
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 1: Madis a PC and inspected the squad. Biggsby spoke for them,

1208
01:02:53,560 --> 01:02:56,240
Speaker 1: beamed over some credentials from the SDF, and they were

1209
01:02:56,280 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 1: waved in. They stopped at a fueling depot with the

1210
01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:01,840
Speaker 1: rest of the d F column, and Roland hopped out

1211
01:03:01,840 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: of the a PC to stretch his legs and roll

1212
01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:07,160
Speaker 1: another blunt. He picked a cherry apple wrap he dipped

1213
01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 1: in a vat of extra strength hydrocodone syrup earlier that morning.

1214
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:13,000
Speaker 1: As he rolled it tight and sealed the scene with

1215
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: his saliva, he watched the STF unload hundreds of wounded

1216
01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:18,760
Speaker 1: warriors from half tracks and a PC's in the beds

1217
01:03:18,760 --> 01:03:21,920
Speaker 1: of flatbed trucks. Many of the walking men and women

1218
01:03:21,960 --> 01:03:26,280
Speaker 1: looked wounded too. Most of the vehicles were damaged. Roland

1219
01:03:26,280 --> 01:03:29,080
Speaker 1: lit the blunt and stared off towards Dallas. It was

1220
01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:31,360
Speaker 1: still early in the morning, and the sky was streaked

1221
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:34,360
Speaker 1: with red and orange. On the horizon, black smoke rose

1222
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:37,400
Speaker 1: to meet the sunrise. Roland was struck with a powerful

1223
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: sense of dejah vou. This wasn't the first time he'd

1224
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:42,400
Speaker 1: watched a great city burn in the light of the

1225
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:45,720
Speaker 1: rising sun. According to his hind brain, it was around

1226
01:03:45,720 --> 01:03:49,880
Speaker 1: the thirtieth time he recalled a few of those cities, Denver, Baltimore,

1227
01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 1: d C. Richmond, but the particulars of each calamity were

1228
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:56,680
Speaker 1: lost to his memory. He wondered, not for the first time,

1229
01:03:56,880 --> 01:04:01,280
Speaker 1: if his broken brain might be a blessing boy it was, Sardar.

1230
01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:03,760
Speaker 1: He approached from the rear and stepped up to Roland's

1231
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:07,760
Speaker 1: right side. Rowland offered the mechanic his blunt, now half smoked,

1232
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:11,000
Speaker 1: and Sardar accepted it. He drew in a deep lungful

1233
01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:13,680
Speaker 1: of medicated smoke, held it in his lungs for three

1234
01:04:13,680 --> 01:04:16,480
Speaker 1: long seconds, and then exhaled with only a small fit

1235
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:20,360
Speaker 1: of coughing. Its tastes like fucking cough. Sarah man yep.

1236
01:04:20,640 --> 01:04:23,240
Speaker 1: Roland agreed, there's enough opiates on that to kill a

1237
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 1: small cat. That's a weird thing to say. Yep. Roland agreed.

1238
01:04:29,040 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 1: Sardar took a second hit and then passed the blunt

1239
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:34,600
Speaker 1: back to Roland. They stood in companionable silence for a

1240
01:04:34,600 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 1: minute and watched the distant smoke mingle with the morning light.

1241
01:04:38,000 --> 01:04:41,640
Speaker 1: Sardar spoke first, Jim's on his way out here. He's

1242
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:45,160
Speaker 1: flying in with three more squads. Austin's approved emergency funding

1243
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:48,040
Speaker 1: to stabilize the front. Apparently a chunk of that's coming

1244
01:04:48,040 --> 01:04:52,280
Speaker 1: our way. Grats, said Rowland. Then he asked, what's the

1245
01:04:52,320 --> 01:04:57,520
Speaker 1: money mean, do you? Sardar shrugged, Cascadia probably been saving

1246
01:04:57,560 --> 01:05:00,000
Speaker 1: for a couple of years now, fifty grand by resid

1247
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:02,480
Speaker 1: and see another hundred grand or so to set me

1248
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:05,120
Speaker 1: up for the first year while I find work. Roland

1249
01:05:05,160 --> 01:05:07,520
Speaker 1: finished another deep poll on the blunt and offered it

1250
01:05:07,560 --> 01:05:10,160
Speaker 1: to start are. The other man declined with a polite

1251
01:05:10,160 --> 01:05:14,680
Speaker 1: wave of his hand. Now thanks. Roland puffed again and asked, so,

1252
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:18,240
Speaker 1: what's the Pacific Northwest got that you want the future?

1253
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:21,120
Speaker 1: Sardar said, I mean, that's what it always meant in

1254
01:05:21,120 --> 01:05:23,680
Speaker 1: my head. I grew up in El Paso, got trained

1255
01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:26,400
Speaker 1: up by that army blooded in their first little civil war,

1256
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:32,280
Speaker 1: the Albuquerque Secession, right, Sartar nodded. Didn't see much action then,

1257
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 1: but I got Jim's attention. He made me an offer

1258
01:05:34,800 --> 01:05:38,000
Speaker 1: when my term of service expired. The idea was I'd

1259
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:40,160
Speaker 1: be with him for five years and retire with enough

1260
01:05:40,200 --> 01:05:42,880
Speaker 1: money to make a new start out west. I always

1261
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,600
Speaker 1: dreamed of a life in Portland. It seems nice there,

1262
01:05:46,120 --> 01:05:49,480
Speaker 1: it is, Roland agreed, or at least I got nice memories.

1263
01:05:49,560 --> 01:05:51,840
Speaker 1: I met a girl out there when I was younger.

1264
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:55,000
Speaker 1: I remember watching the fog rolland with her he ran

1265
01:05:55,040 --> 01:05:57,240
Speaker 1: a hand over the stubble on his head. It was

1266
01:05:57,280 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 1: weird to him that he'd been given so much control

1267
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:01,560
Speaker 1: over his body lea functions, and yet he still found

1268
01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:05,080
Speaker 1: himself making nervous gestures. For some reason, talking about her

1269
01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:07,520
Speaker 1: made him want to cover his face. The impulse was

1270
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:10,360
Speaker 1: wired into him deeper than the carbon fiber that laced

1271
01:06:10,360 --> 01:06:15,400
Speaker 1: his bones. That uh sounds tough, Sardar said. He managed

1272
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 1: to look concerned without showing pity. I can't imagine having

1273
01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 1: all these memories floating around with no through line to

1274
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:26,360
Speaker 1: connect them together. It must hurt. Roland shrugged. What hurts

1275
01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:29,960
Speaker 1: most is knowing that it should hurt more. I don't

1276
01:06:30,040 --> 01:06:33,280
Speaker 1: remember enough to give the pain its proper due. They

1277
01:06:33,320 --> 01:06:36,000
Speaker 1: were quiet for a bit. Roland finished the blunt and

1278
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:38,720
Speaker 1: put it out on his right and next finger, Sardar

1279
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:41,680
Speaker 1: pulled a bronze flask out from his jacket pocket, took

1280
01:06:41,680 --> 01:06:44,160
Speaker 1: a belt, and then offered it to Roland. It was

1281
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,320
Speaker 1: Lafroy whiskey, even if he hadn't been chrome to the gills.

1282
01:06:47,400 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 1: Roland would have recognized that smell from three feet away.

1283
01:06:50,480 --> 01:06:52,640
Speaker 1: He took a gulp from the flask and passed it back.

1284
01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:58,080
Speaker 1: Sardar broke the silence again. Look, maybe I'm reading things wrong,

1285
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,160
Speaker 1: but we've got some tent set up near the APC.

1286
01:07:02,120 --> 01:07:04,800
Speaker 1: You up for a fuck? Roland looked the man up

1287
01:07:04,840 --> 01:07:08,240
Speaker 1: and down again. Sardar was a good looking guy, short,

1288
01:07:08,360 --> 01:07:11,080
Speaker 1: broad and muscular, with a neat trimmed beard and curly

1289
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:16,360
Speaker 1: black hair. Yeah, all right, it was pretty good sex.

1290
01:07:16,640 --> 01:07:19,040
Speaker 1: Nothing to blow Roland's mind, but the release provided a

1291
01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:22,600
Speaker 1: quantum of chill to calm the pangs of memory. Afterwards,

1292
01:07:22,680 --> 01:07:26,919
Speaker 1: Sardar fell asleep, nuzzled into his shoulder. Roland didn't particularly

1293
01:07:27,000 --> 01:07:29,640
Speaker 1: feel like cuddling, but he since the other man needed

1294
01:07:29,640 --> 01:07:32,320
Speaker 1: the human contact, so he laid there with him for

1295
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:35,040
Speaker 1: a couple of hours, rolled and smoked two more blunts,

1296
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:37,080
Speaker 1: and tried not to think about the lives. He didn't

1297
01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:40,280
Speaker 1: died that morning. A little afternoon, Biggsby came by and

1298
01:07:40,360 --> 01:07:44,560
Speaker 1: knocked on the tent flap. Sarre Roland, lfs here, clean

1299
01:07:44,640 --> 01:07:46,600
Speaker 1: up your fox stink and meet us by the a PC.

1300
01:07:48,040 --> 01:07:51,000
Speaker 1: They did. Five minutes later, the whole squad had assembled

1301
01:07:51,000 --> 01:07:54,120
Speaker 1: around the maddis. Ryan looked more or less recovered from

1302
01:07:54,120 --> 01:07:57,400
Speaker 1: his injuries, as Am also seemed good as new. Nadine

1303
01:07:57,400 --> 01:07:59,640
Speaker 1: was still pretty bandaged and her eyes were litted and

1304
01:07:59,720 --> 01:08:03,080
Speaker 1: un focused from blood loss and opiates. Will had brewed

1305
01:08:03,160 --> 01:08:05,960
Speaker 1: up a large French press of coffee. He busied himself

1306
01:08:05,960 --> 01:08:09,080
Speaker 1: pouring measures of it out into himp foam cups. Roland

1307
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:11,400
Speaker 1: took one and drained it in a single mighty gulp.

1308
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:15,240
Speaker 1: It was proper post human strength coffee. The caffeine rush

1309
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:18,760
Speaker 1: mingled with the opiates and THHC already flooding his synapses,

1310
01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:21,160
Speaker 1: and brought him to a lovely, half lucid state of

1311
01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:25,920
Speaker 1: quasi awareness. Did you guys fuck? Pedro finally asked, after

1312
01:08:25,960 --> 01:08:28,040
Speaker 1: about a minute of staring at Roland and Tardar and

1313
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:31,560
Speaker 1: asking the same question with his eyes. Yes. Bigsby and

1314
01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:35,240
Speaker 1: Nadine both replied. Sardar laughed at that, so did Roland.

1315
01:08:35,520 --> 01:08:38,120
Speaker 1: For one beautiful moment he felt nice, a kind of

1316
01:08:38,200 --> 01:08:40,160
Speaker 1: nice he was pretty sure he hadn't felt in a

1317
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:43,720
Speaker 1: long time. And then came a familiar pattern of bootsteps

1318
01:08:43,920 --> 01:08:49,080
Speaker 1: tickling Roland's ears. Jim Roland turned just as Jim walked

1319
01:08:49,080 --> 01:08:51,680
Speaker 1: into view. His legs were covered by a pair of

1320
01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:54,760
Speaker 1: armored red leather chaps. His groin was wrapped up in

1321
01:08:54,800 --> 01:08:57,240
Speaker 1: a thick kevlar thong, but his penis and ass were

1322
01:08:57,280 --> 01:09:00,840
Speaker 1: otherwise unguarded. He wore a double oulder holster with a

1323
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:03,559
Speaker 1: pair of bone handled wheel guns under his arms. The

1324
01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:06,360
Speaker 1: snake tattoos on Jim's chest and shoulders danced to a

1325
01:09:06,400 --> 01:09:11,160
Speaker 1: melody Roland, eventually recognized as La Kukaracha. Your ink looks

1326
01:09:11,160 --> 01:09:15,519
Speaker 1: good today, boss, said Bigsby. Ass Lequer said, Sardar takes

1327
01:09:15,560 --> 01:09:19,120
Speaker 1: one to no one. I don't lick ass. Sarda replied haughtily.

1328
01:09:19,320 --> 01:09:22,760
Speaker 1: I eat it like a starving hyena. More laughter and

1329
01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:25,519
Speaker 1: another fleeting moment of community that was broken when Jim

1330
01:09:25,560 --> 01:09:29,080
Speaker 1: addressed the squad. All right, so several bunks have been

1331
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:32,360
Speaker 1: hummed here. This heavenly Kingdom's got at least ten thousand

1332
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:36,960
Speaker 1: effectives in theater with Almah artillery drones, the works. A

1333
01:09:37,120 --> 01:09:40,719
Speaker 1: new employer, Austin, has about three thousand fighters here in Waco,

1334
01:09:40,960 --> 01:09:43,720
Speaker 1: plus now the fifteen a U lot I flew in

1335
01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:46,880
Speaker 1: with Ajax and Florin. They have prepping their squads now.

1336
01:09:47,360 --> 01:09:50,439
Speaker 1: Biggsby spat Ajax fights about as well as a drunk

1337
01:09:50,479 --> 01:09:53,960
Speaker 1: dog in a burlap sack. Will replied, you just saying

1338
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:55,720
Speaker 1: that because he choked you out in the Blood Dume

1339
01:09:55,840 --> 01:10:00,640
Speaker 1: last year. Biggsby responded with a middle finger, ahem mhemmed,

1340
01:10:01,080 --> 01:10:03,760
Speaker 1: plenty of time for Dick, measuring later, time enough for

1341
01:10:03,800 --> 01:10:05,960
Speaker 1: the rest of you. At least this city doesn't have

1342
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:08,400
Speaker 1: a ruler long enough for my dick. He paused for

1343
01:10:08,439 --> 01:10:13,040
Speaker 1: a laugh. No one obliged. Jim rolled his eyes, ass holes.

1344
01:10:13,080 --> 01:10:15,760
Speaker 1: So look, we're in a bad position with funk All

1345
01:10:15,840 --> 01:10:19,280
Speaker 1: for reinforcements coming in. Austin might be able to scrape

1346
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:21,840
Speaker 1: up a couple of Italians if they suddenly clear out

1347
01:10:21,840 --> 01:10:24,960
Speaker 1: the Houston front, but that don't look likely. Enemy has

1348
01:10:25,000 --> 01:10:28,800
Speaker 1: another ten thousand men there. Fuck Sartar was the only

1349
01:10:28,800 --> 01:10:30,840
Speaker 1: one to actually say it, but everyone else in the

1350
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:34,160
Speaker 1: group mouthed the word or some equivalent curse. How is

1351
01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:37,240
Speaker 1: that even possible? As Amee's voice was still a little

1352
01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:39,880
Speaker 1: slurred from the painkillers, but her eyes were focused now.

1353
01:10:40,479 --> 01:10:44,439
Speaker 1: Jim shrubbed hard to say exactly masked affections from the

1354
01:10:44,479 --> 01:10:48,000
Speaker 1: Republic at Texas. Intel suspects the U c S probably

1355
01:10:48,040 --> 01:10:51,040
Speaker 1: sent in some spec ops, guys, I don't know, some

1356
01:10:51,080 --> 01:10:54,240
Speaker 1: sort of skulduggerous bullshit went down. The how of it

1357
01:10:54,240 --> 01:10:57,120
Speaker 1: ain't really our problem today, but now we've got to

1358
01:10:57,160 --> 01:11:01,160
Speaker 1: deal with the reality. The snakes on Jim's torso stopped writhing.

1359
01:11:01,320 --> 01:11:03,960
Speaker 1: He locked eyes with Roland, and Roland felt compelled to

1360
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:07,160
Speaker 1: meet his old friend's gaze. Can we count on your help?

1361
01:11:07,280 --> 01:11:11,000
Speaker 1: Jim asked, fuck no, Roland said, I've killed enough naive

1362
01:11:11,040 --> 01:11:13,880
Speaker 1: young men today. I don't aim to kill anymore. To

1363
01:11:14,040 --> 01:11:18,200
Speaker 1: his surprise, Jim nodded an acceptance. Understandable, this kind of

1364
01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:22,240
Speaker 1: fighting was a violation of our contract. I regret that, Rowland.

1365
01:11:22,439 --> 01:11:24,479
Speaker 1: If I'd known this was gonna be a meat grind,

1366
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:27,960
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have interrupted your retirement. Roland wasn't sure he

1367
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:31,000
Speaker 1: believed that, but he kept his mouth shut as Jim continued,

1368
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:35,040
Speaker 1: I'd like to propose a renegotiation of our contract in

1369
01:11:35,080 --> 01:11:38,400
Speaker 1: a lot of the changing situation on the ground. I'm

1370
01:11:38,400 --> 01:11:42,040
Speaker 1: not blowing anything else up for you. That's fine. Jim

1371
01:11:42,080 --> 01:11:44,439
Speaker 1: put his hands out in the sort of placating gesture

1372
01:11:44,439 --> 01:11:47,320
Speaker 1: one would use on an angry dog. I don't need

1373
01:11:47,360 --> 01:11:50,320
Speaker 1: you killing us. I need your sneakiness. You can still

1374
01:11:50,360 --> 01:11:53,800
Speaker 1: take faces right. Roland's memories of his time in the

1375
01:11:53,880 --> 01:11:56,519
Speaker 1: army were a patchy as his memories of everything else.

1376
01:11:56,920 --> 01:11:59,360
Speaker 1: He didn't remember much about how they used him, but

1377
01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:01,360
Speaker 1: he knew that some of the wet where they'd installed

1378
01:12:01,360 --> 01:12:03,519
Speaker 1: in him allowed him to modify his skin and bone

1379
01:12:03,520 --> 01:12:06,960
Speaker 1: structure to full facial recognition scanners, thumb print readers, and

1380
01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:11,599
Speaker 1: of course human beings. Yes, he said, but Jim cut

1381
01:12:11,640 --> 01:12:15,080
Speaker 1: him off. You don't need to kill anyone. The face

1382
01:12:15,160 --> 01:12:18,080
Speaker 1: you'll need is already dead. And what do you want

1383
01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:20,559
Speaker 1: me to do with this man's face that isn't more murder?

1384
01:12:21,160 --> 01:12:24,120
Speaker 1: Jim's lips curled up into a grin. The expression sent

1385
01:12:24,200 --> 01:12:27,719
Speaker 1: shivers arcing down rolland spine. He felt like he'd seen

1386
01:12:27,800 --> 01:12:32,280
Speaker 1: that grin before, never preceding good things. Rolling fuck is

1387
01:12:32,360 --> 01:12:35,120
Speaker 1: nearby and in the city of Wheels, a six hundred

1388
01:12:35,160 --> 01:12:38,360
Speaker 1: or so real scary bastards. I have it on good

1389
01:12:38,360 --> 01:12:41,120
Speaker 1: authority that they'd be happy to throw down on our side.

1390
01:12:41,760 --> 01:12:44,599
Speaker 1: But it turns out some of the negotiators were captured

1391
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:47,240
Speaker 1: back at the start to all this ship. No one

1392
01:12:47,280 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 1: in the city will risk fighting until they pulled out safely.

1393
01:12:50,920 --> 01:12:55,519
Speaker 1: Roland raised an eyebrow. So a rescue mission, then that's right,

1394
01:12:56,040 --> 01:12:59,160
Speaker 1: Jim grinned in a way Roland didn't quite trust you'll

1395
01:12:59,200 --> 01:13:03,200
Speaker 1: be saving vives. Roland's gut twisted into knots. The shades

1396
01:13:03,240 --> 01:13:05,479
Speaker 1: of a thousand Memories spoke up and warned him not

1397
01:13:05,600 --> 01:13:08,759
Speaker 1: to trust Jim at his word, But those shades also

1398
01:13:08,880 --> 01:13:10,920
Speaker 1: drove him to take Jim up on the offer. He

1399
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:15,200
Speaker 1: wanted his memories back. Jim smiled that hackle raising smile again.

1400
01:13:15,720 --> 01:13:18,320
Speaker 1: You don't have to agree and come to rolland Fuck

1401
01:13:18,400 --> 01:13:21,200
Speaker 1: with me. We'll talk things over with the eildas. You

1402
01:13:21,240 --> 01:13:23,599
Speaker 1: can do some of the fancy space drugs, and then

1403
01:13:23,640 --> 01:13:27,360
Speaker 1: you can make your decision. All right, rolland Side, but

1404
01:13:27,439 --> 01:13:31,960
Speaker 1: only because you said fancy space drugs. They flew to

1405
01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:35,920
Speaker 1: Rolling Fuck in Jim's hellicraft. It had been military issue originally,

1406
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:38,800
Speaker 1: but the interior had been redone to Jim's tastes. That

1407
01:13:39,000 --> 01:13:40,920
Speaker 1: mostly meant a lot of the lure and a full

1408
01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:43,559
Speaker 1: wet bar. There were four beers on tap just to

1409
01:13:43,560 --> 01:13:46,040
Speaker 1: the right of a double barreled thirty five millimeter grenade

1410
01:13:46,080 --> 01:13:49,479
Speaker 1: launcher mounted beside the door. Roland drank for the duration

1411
01:13:49,520 --> 01:13:53,600
Speaker 1: of the ten minute flight, you know, Jim said, Topez

1412
01:13:53,680 --> 01:13:58,240
Speaker 1: lives then now been with the city. Awhile Topaz, Roland asked.

1413
01:13:58,560 --> 01:14:01,639
Speaker 1: Something shuddered in his gut. He felt his hippocampus flicker

1414
01:14:01,680 --> 01:14:04,519
Speaker 1: with the dim light of recognition. He saw that face again,

1415
01:14:04,720 --> 01:14:06,559
Speaker 1: the woman from so many of his dreams and a

1416
01:14:06,560 --> 01:14:09,200
Speaker 1: few of his shattered memories. So that was her name,

1417
01:14:09,479 --> 01:14:12,040
Speaker 1: It felt right now that he knew it again. Do

1418
01:14:12,160 --> 01:14:15,639
Speaker 1: you remember her at all, Roland, Jim asked, his voice

1419
01:14:15,720 --> 01:14:19,800
Speaker 1: uncharacteristically tender. Roland nodded and swirled the beer in his

1420
01:14:19,840 --> 01:14:23,720
Speaker 1: hands to buy some time. I remember snatches of her,

1421
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:27,200
Speaker 1: he said, I remember loving her. I remember enough that

1422
01:14:27,240 --> 01:14:30,679
Speaker 1: it hurts sometimes. Mostly it hurts that I don't remember

1423
01:14:30,760 --> 01:14:32,240
Speaker 1: enough to be as sad as I ought to be.

1424
01:14:33,400 --> 01:14:36,000
Speaker 1: There was a spark of real sorrow in Jim's eyes.

1425
01:14:36,360 --> 01:14:38,439
Speaker 1: The other man's hand twitched in a way that made

1426
01:14:38,520 --> 01:14:40,519
Speaker 1: Roland think he might have been about to reach out

1427
01:14:40,520 --> 01:14:44,000
Speaker 1: to him, but Jim kept his hand to himself. I'm

1428
01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:47,280
Speaker 1: not sure how much I should say, he said, I'm sorry.

1429
01:14:47,960 --> 01:14:49,960
Speaker 1: There was something in Jim's face when he said that.

1430
01:14:50,400 --> 01:14:53,960
Speaker 1: It resembled regret or guilt, but it passed quickly, and

1431
01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:57,040
Speaker 1: nothing else was said during the flight. They landed on

1432
01:14:57,040 --> 01:14:59,280
Speaker 1: one of the top spires of Rolling Fuck, on a

1433
01:14:59,400 --> 01:15:01,840
Speaker 1: landing path that doubled as a nude bar. He and

1434
01:15:01,920 --> 01:15:04,679
Speaker 1: Jim grabbed another round of drinks before they proceeded down

1435
01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:07,160
Speaker 1: through the infinite party that was the City of Wheels

1436
01:15:07,160 --> 01:15:09,519
Speaker 1: and on to the top of the main roller. They

1437
01:15:09,520 --> 01:15:11,720
Speaker 1: grabbed another round of drinks there and sat at the

1438
01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:14,200
Speaker 1: bar table while Jim waited for the word to go down.

1439
01:15:14,880 --> 01:15:17,160
Speaker 1: It was late afternoon by this point, and the evening

1440
01:15:17,240 --> 01:15:20,439
Speaker 1: had started to close in. The normal boiling Texas heat

1441
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:23,479
Speaker 1: was cut by a cool breeze. White clouds rolled in

1442
01:15:23,520 --> 01:15:26,479
Speaker 1: around them. Roland's hindbrain told him there was at best

1443
01:15:26,560 --> 01:15:29,080
Speaker 1: a twelve percent chance of rain, but the clouds were

1444
01:15:29,080 --> 01:15:31,840
Speaker 1: still welcome. He and Jim drank in silence for a

1445
01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:34,479
Speaker 1: few minutes until the other man tapped his shoulder and said,

1446
01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:38,479
Speaker 1: they are yforus. They stood a bit unsteadily and headed

1447
01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:41,400
Speaker 1: towards the ladder down into the main roller. They reached

1448
01:15:41,439 --> 01:15:43,519
Speaker 1: the ladder just as two other people came up it,

1449
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:46,600
Speaker 1: a man and a woman. The man's face triggered a

1450
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:49,280
Speaker 1: flurry of memory fragments fighting back to back in the

1451
01:15:49,360 --> 01:15:52,000
Speaker 1: choking streets of Baltimore, drinking heavily on the edge of

1452
01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:55,000
Speaker 1: a canyon in the Arizona Desert, charging a riot line

1453
01:15:55,000 --> 01:15:57,719
Speaker 1: with pipes and hammers in their hands. A name bubbled

1454
01:15:57,760 --> 01:16:01,200
Speaker 1: up from inside the memories. Mike, he shouted before he

1455
01:16:01,240 --> 01:16:05,479
Speaker 1: really thought about it. Hey, brother, schufucker, Mike Froze. Roland

1456
01:16:05,520 --> 01:16:07,800
Speaker 1: was already half way to a hug when he realized

1457
01:16:07,800 --> 01:16:10,599
Speaker 1: Mike wasn't feeling it. And then he caught his first

1458
01:16:10,640 --> 01:16:13,760
Speaker 1: good look at the woman coming up the ladder behind him.

1459
01:16:13,840 --> 01:16:17,439
Speaker 1: She had short, cropped teal hair, damascene fangs, and eyes

1460
01:16:17,520 --> 01:16:22,120
Speaker 1: so loud he could almost hear her thoughts. Topaz Rook.

1461
01:16:22,400 --> 01:16:24,559
Speaker 1: She started to say his name, and then her voice

1462
01:16:24,560 --> 01:16:27,559
Speaker 1: caught He heard the ghost of tears beneath it, and

1463
01:16:27,600 --> 01:16:32,960
Speaker 1: then she finished. Roland, Yes, he said, not sure of

1464
01:16:33,000 --> 01:16:38,080
Speaker 1: what else to say. Do you remember me? No, he admitted.

1465
01:16:38,560 --> 01:16:41,120
Speaker 1: Part of him wanted to lie, but he couldn't. The

1466
01:16:41,160 --> 01:16:43,320
Speaker 1: broken scraps that remained of his love for her made

1467
01:16:43,360 --> 01:16:46,360
Speaker 1: it impossible. So we gave the honest answer, and he

1468
01:16:46,400 --> 01:16:50,240
Speaker 1: watched her die a little inside. Topez nodded. She closed

1469
01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:52,679
Speaker 1: her eyes for a second. Bit down on her bottom lip,

1470
01:16:52,720 --> 01:16:54,839
Speaker 1: and then she put a quick hand on Mike's shoulder

1471
01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:57,640
Speaker 1: before she walked away up one of the gantries and

1472
01:16:57,680 --> 01:17:01,360
Speaker 1: into the chaos night of rolling Fuck. Roland looked to Mike,

1473
01:17:02,280 --> 01:17:07,320
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, skullfucker. Mike smiled sadly back, I know, buddy,

1474
01:17:07,920 --> 01:17:11,240
Speaker 1: and then he left too. Roland felt confusion in a

1475
01:17:11,320 --> 01:17:13,640
Speaker 1: distant hurt. He had a feeling that he should have

1476
01:17:13,640 --> 01:17:16,840
Speaker 1: been crying, but for some reason he couldn't, and so

1477
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:20,120
Speaker 1: he didn't. Instead, he took a fistful of oxyconton and

1478
01:17:20,160 --> 01:17:24,400
Speaker 1: stumbled down the ladder following Jim rolling Fox. Conference room

1479
01:17:24,439 --> 01:17:28,840
Speaker 1: was sumptuous, elegant, and surprisingly professional. Two old people sat

1480
01:17:28,840 --> 01:17:31,479
Speaker 1: at the far end of the conference table. Roland had

1481
01:17:31,520 --> 01:17:34,160
Speaker 1: a vague memory tingle of having met the man before,

1482
01:17:34,439 --> 01:17:36,880
Speaker 1: long ago, but neither of their faces brought a name

1483
01:17:36,920 --> 01:17:39,759
Speaker 1: to his mind. Jim introduced them, but their names fled

1484
01:17:39,800 --> 01:17:42,599
Speaker 1: his head a few seconds later. In fact, the first

1485
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:45,360
Speaker 1: minute or so of conversation flowed around him in an

1486
01:17:45,360 --> 01:17:48,240
Speaker 1: indistinct haze that may have had something to do with

1487
01:17:48,280 --> 01:17:50,960
Speaker 1: a soft ball sized mass of OxyContin he'd eaten as

1488
01:17:51,000 --> 01:17:54,000
Speaker 1: he'd climbed down the ladder with Jim. Roland had assumed

1489
01:17:54,040 --> 01:17:56,800
Speaker 1: the drugs would help him focus through the boredom. Apparently

1490
01:17:56,840 --> 01:18:01,920
Speaker 1: he'd miscalculated. O K, so the old lady said, with

1491
01:18:01,960 --> 01:18:05,519
Speaker 1: a hint of finality, that's the situation we're in. Are

1492
01:18:05,560 --> 01:18:09,080
Speaker 1: you willing to help us? In response, Roland blacked out,

1493
01:18:09,479 --> 01:18:11,840
Speaker 1: just for a few seconds. He was reawokened by the

1494
01:18:11,880 --> 01:18:14,760
Speaker 1: thud of his head hitting the conference room table. Fuck

1495
01:18:14,880 --> 01:18:17,559
Speaker 1: that's good oxy. He wished he could remember where he'd

1496
01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:22,360
Speaker 1: gotten it. Oh dear, said the lady. He's fun, Jim sighed,

1497
01:18:22,960 --> 01:18:26,160
Speaker 1: but we've probably gone a need to start over. The

1498
01:18:26,240 --> 01:18:29,880
Speaker 1: lady brought him some coffee and reintroduced herself as Nana Yazzi.

1499
01:18:30,439 --> 01:18:33,160
Speaker 1: Thanks to the coffee and Roland's clearing head, her name stuck.

1500
01:18:33,200 --> 01:18:35,800
Speaker 1: This time. It was hard not to marvel at her age,

1501
01:18:36,080 --> 01:18:38,920
Speaker 1: and harder still to stop his hindbrain from calculating how

1502
01:18:39,000 --> 01:18:42,759
Speaker 1: much longer till her human heart gave out. Roland smelled

1503
01:18:42,800 --> 01:18:46,719
Speaker 1: cancer on the old man. Not serious cancer, nothing basic

1504
01:18:46,800 --> 01:18:49,320
Speaker 1: medicine couldn't handle, but all the same, the odor that

1505
01:18:49,360 --> 01:18:52,160
Speaker 1: wafted off him brought Roland a sort of primal discomfort.

1506
01:18:52,520 --> 01:18:54,360
Speaker 1: Or maybe it was the old man's eyes that made

1507
01:18:54,360 --> 01:18:57,080
Speaker 1: his guts warble. It was hard to say. There was

1508
01:18:57,200 --> 01:19:00,679
Speaker 1: something disconcerting in the way he looked at Roland Rowland,

1509
01:19:00,920 --> 01:19:03,559
Speaker 1: Jim shouted. Roland shook himself out of the haze and

1510
01:19:03,600 --> 01:19:08,880
Speaker 1: refocused on Nana Yazzi. Sorry, he grunted. It's fine, she said,

1511
01:19:09,000 --> 01:19:12,000
Speaker 1: and set into her spiel again. She showed him pictures

1512
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:15,200
Speaker 1: of her captured friends, explained the dire situation in North

1513
01:19:15,280 --> 01:19:17,920
Speaker 1: Texas and the doom that marched towards Waco and Austin.

1514
01:19:18,479 --> 01:19:20,839
Speaker 1: It was a sad story, but not one that compelled

1515
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:24,120
Speaker 1: Roland to action. Other than Topaz and Skullfucker Mike, the

1516
01:19:24,160 --> 01:19:27,360
Speaker 1: citizens of Rolling Fuk were total strangers to him. Austin

1517
01:19:27,479 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: was just another little ailing republic in a continent full

1518
01:19:30,240 --> 01:19:33,080
Speaker 1: of them. I'm sorry for your people, he told her.

1519
01:19:33,160 --> 01:19:35,320
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry for Austin, but I really don't see

1520
01:19:35,360 --> 01:19:38,360
Speaker 1: how any of this is miight am business. Jim took

1521
01:19:38,400 --> 01:19:42,519
Speaker 1: those words as his cue. Tullian Topaz are close, said Jim.

1522
01:19:42,680 --> 01:19:46,799
Speaker 1: His voice was low, his tone smooth. The silk La Sisters,

1523
01:19:46,840 --> 01:19:50,320
Speaker 1: from what I hear, Marigold vouched for Topaz and skullfuk

1524
01:19:50,360 --> 01:19:53,040
Speaker 1: A Mike when they adjoined the city. She's all funked

1525
01:19:53,120 --> 01:19:57,040
Speaker 1: up over this from what I hear, he added, so

1526
01:19:57,160 --> 01:19:59,599
Speaker 1: let her do some about it. Then Roland muttered, she's

1527
01:19:59,640 --> 01:20:02,200
Speaker 1: gotten a chrome to choke a river ship. The city's

1528
01:20:02,240 --> 01:20:04,640
Speaker 1: got enough monster people to burn the eastern seaboard. What

1529
01:20:04,760 --> 01:20:08,639
Speaker 1: do you need me? Because the modas aren't stupid, Jim said,

1530
01:20:09,040 --> 01:20:11,960
Speaker 1: They are scanning for chrome, for bile, mods for everything

1531
01:20:12,040 --> 01:20:15,120
Speaker 1: but the ship you've got, because no one left alive

1532
01:20:15,200 --> 01:20:18,760
Speaker 1: as packing the ship you've got. Roland grunted again. His

1533
01:20:18,840 --> 01:20:22,280
Speaker 1: nostrils flared. There was something strange about the words Jim

1534
01:20:22,320 --> 01:20:25,639
Speaker 1: had chosen. No one left alive? Had there been others?

1535
01:20:26,160 --> 01:20:28,080
Speaker 1: He knew his mods had come courtesy of the old

1536
01:20:28,160 --> 01:20:30,760
Speaker 1: U S Defense Department, but he didn't remember which unit

1537
01:20:30,800 --> 01:20:32,920
Speaker 1: he'd been a part of, or what he'd done. There

1538
01:20:32,960 --> 01:20:35,639
Speaker 1: was a bit of memory, hazy and fragmented, that popped

1539
01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:38,200
Speaker 1: into his dreams from time to time. He was stuck

1540
01:20:38,240 --> 01:20:40,840
Speaker 1: inside a long, cool metal pod. The cold black of

1541
01:20:40,880 --> 01:20:43,920
Speaker 1: space unfolded around him. Roland felt warm bodies to his

1542
01:20:44,000 --> 01:20:47,160
Speaker 1: left and right, smelled the comforting sense of men he trusted.

1543
01:20:47,479 --> 01:20:50,040
Speaker 1: Red lights blinked above his field of vision. Something tugged

1544
01:20:50,040 --> 01:20:52,320
Speaker 1: at his belly. There was a powerful feeling of inertia.

1545
01:20:52,840 --> 01:20:56,000
Speaker 1: Roland closed his eyes, leaned forward, pinched the bridge of

1546
01:20:56,040 --> 01:20:58,559
Speaker 1: his nose, and groaned just a little bit. When he

1547
01:20:58,600 --> 01:21:01,480
Speaker 1: came back up, Nana Ya, he stared at him in confusion.

1548
01:21:01,920 --> 01:21:04,960
Speaker 1: Jim looked, perhaps worried. It was hard to tell with

1549
01:21:05,040 --> 01:21:07,840
Speaker 1: that guy. What's gonna happen if I don't do it?

1550
01:21:08,080 --> 01:21:12,960
Speaker 1: He asked, Nana Yazzi, to you nothing, Roland shook his head.

1551
01:21:13,320 --> 01:21:15,320
Speaker 1: Not to me. What are you guys gonna do if

1552
01:21:15,320 --> 01:21:19,280
Speaker 1: I don't help? Oh, she frowned. I suppose we'll have

1553
01:21:19,360 --> 01:21:21,720
Speaker 1: to mount an assault, send in a small team, four

1554
01:21:21,840 --> 01:21:24,920
Speaker 1: or six commandos and try to pull them out. It'll

1555
01:21:24,960 --> 01:21:28,240
Speaker 1: be bloody, Jim said. The old man frowned at that.

1556
01:21:28,640 --> 01:21:30,679
Speaker 1: He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something,

1557
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:32,639
Speaker 1: but the lady put her hand on his and gave

1558
01:21:32,720 --> 01:21:36,320
Speaker 1: him a significant look. That's true, she said, it will

1559
01:21:36,400 --> 01:21:39,840
Speaker 1: be bloody. Roland felt a twinge of anger, but he

1560
01:21:39,880 --> 01:21:43,040
Speaker 1: couldn't blame Nana Yazzi for trying to manipulate him. The

1561
01:21:43,120 --> 01:21:46,280
Speaker 1: lives of her friends were on the line. Roland knew himself, though,

1562
01:21:46,400 --> 01:21:48,960
Speaker 1: and he knew that missions like this always went wrong.

1563
01:21:49,280 --> 01:21:52,360
Speaker 1: If he took this job, Roland knew he'd take more lives.

1564
01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:57,120
Speaker 1: You'll save lives by being there, Jim insisted, smiling that

1565
01:21:57,360 --> 01:22:00,680
Speaker 1: fucking smile. Roland was sure that smile had tricked him

1566
01:22:00,680 --> 01:22:03,840
Speaker 1: into dumb, violent things in the past. You're the only

1567
01:22:03,880 --> 01:22:06,240
Speaker 1: one who can handle this with a minimum of death.

1568
01:22:07,040 --> 01:22:09,400
Speaker 1: Roland didn't believe that, and at the same time he

1569
01:22:09,439 --> 01:22:12,559
Speaker 1: had to admit it was technically true. He just didn't

1570
01:22:12,560 --> 01:22:16,840
Speaker 1: trust himself, or reality or Jim. And yet I'll do it,

1571
01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:19,800
Speaker 1: he said. I'm sure I'll regret agreeing to do it,

1572
01:22:19,840 --> 01:22:23,799
Speaker 1: but whatever, I'll do it. Jim looked satisfied with himself.

1573
01:22:24,080 --> 01:22:28,960
Speaker 1: Nanayazi looked relieved. The old man looked somehow angry. Most

1574
01:22:28,960 --> 01:22:31,840
Speaker 1: of Roland's reason for agreeing to help came down to Topaz.

1575
01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:34,640
Speaker 1: He hated to admit that, even to himself, but it

1576
01:22:34,760 --> 01:22:37,519
Speaker 1: was true. The thought of her in pain twisted something

1577
01:22:37,520 --> 01:22:39,800
Speaker 1: in the center of his heart. He wasn't used to

1578
01:22:39,840 --> 01:22:43,200
Speaker 1: pain there, and his tolerance was pretty low. This is

1579
01:22:43,240 --> 01:22:46,040
Speaker 1: so dumb, he told himself. You couldn't even remember her

1580
01:22:46,120 --> 01:22:48,639
Speaker 1: name this morning. He and Jim and the old woman

1581
01:22:48,640 --> 01:22:50,920
Speaker 1: shook hands on the deal. Then they let him loosen

1582
01:22:50,920 --> 01:22:53,679
Speaker 1: their city to imbibe and fornicate and test the limits

1583
01:22:53,680 --> 01:23:00,479
Speaker 1: of his wet wear. We have things to plan, she said. Hey,

1584
01:23:00,560 --> 01:23:02,720
Speaker 1: I've written a novel. It's called After the Revolution. You

1585
01:23:02,720 --> 01:23:05,080
Speaker 1: can find it as a podcast under after the Revolution,

1586
01:23:05,120 --> 01:23:07,320
Speaker 1: and you can find it at dtr book dot com

1587
01:23:07,400 --> 01:23:09,920
Speaker 1: as a free e pub if you like it. I

1588
01:23:09,960 --> 01:23:12,599
Speaker 1: am crowdfunding the sequel so that I can keep making

1589
01:23:12,600 --> 01:23:15,440
Speaker 1: my books free. That will be it after the Revolution,

1590
01:23:15,520 --> 01:23:18,280
Speaker 1: the sequel on go fund me. That's after the Revolution,

1591
01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:20,000
Speaker 1: the Sequel on go fund me.