Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [72]
‘Are you saying you’ve neglected him?’ She drew her blade.
‘He’s fine,’ Rosette cut in, Teg nodding agreement. ‘Amarillo came back with me to Dumarka. He’s wintering there, with plenty of feed, so stop your babbling.’ Her voice was flat, vacant.
‘Rugged up? The snow would…’
‘He’s rugged,’ Rosette answered.
‘That’s better news.’ Makee sheathed her sword. ‘Oh, don’t look so demolished, girl. We’ll get Jarrod back. That’s the whole point of having the spell in you, isn’t it? So he can never be destroyed?’
‘We don’t need the backup,’ Rosette said. ‘He’s out there, somewhere. I can feel it. I just can’t get an answer.’
‘Sounds like he’s dead to me,’ Shaea said. ‘That’s how it was with Xane.’
‘He’s not!’ Rosette snapped her head around. ‘He’s not like that.’
Shaea held up her hands, warding her off.
‘He can’t vanish.’ Rosette turned away. ‘Where would he go?’
‘If we are going to solve this, we need to agree on a destination,’ Kreshkali said, returning to the Entity. ‘We can’t stay here arguing. We have to make a choice.’
‘And I suppose you have the answer to that?’ Makee asked, one eyebrow going up.
‘I do. We need to go straight to Temple Los Loma.’ Kreshkali’s voice filled the corridors. ‘There we can build the hardware for a standard quantum computer. It’ll take a continuous power supply and…’
‘Excuse me, Kreshkali,’ Makee cut in. ‘I know you are the descendant of Docturi Janicia but what in demon’s spit do you mean by “build a standard quantum computer”? There are no standards for such things any more. We, ironically I might note, destroyed the only place left on Earth that knew how to make one.’ Makee crossed her arms under her breasts. ‘This won’t work. I say we go back to Treeon.’ And cross me again and you won’t ever see that place either, Makee added.
I’m suggesting what’s logical, Makee. You didn’t want to raise suspicion, remember? An’ Lawrence will cut you in two if he knows your intention, so don’t you argue. ‘It won’t work if you keep saying that,’ Kreshkali said aloud. ‘I have Richter’s notes, and Rosette has the DNA. The rest is just minor details.’
‘I still say he’s out here…somewhere.’ Rosette closed her eyes.
‘Minor details?’ Makee shouted. ‘A quantum computer is a minor detail? It’s taken me a year of study just to grasp what it does, let alone how it’s made. Minor details? We aren’t trying to bake oatcakes, you know, and simply missing a cup of flour.’
Kreshkali smiled, thin and cool. ‘But we are. You’re forgetting that we have Grayson. He’s the one who can extract the CPU from Rosette’s DNA and he knows what kind of power supply we need. He can interpret Janis’s notes.’
‘Wonderful. Perfect. Where is he now?’
‘Temple Los Loma.’ She glanced at Rosette who shook her head.
‘Jarrod’s still alive!’ she said.
‘His body isn’t.’
‘It never was. He made a tulpa, a thought form, and he can do it again. His consciousness is still nearby. We have to search for him.’
‘What does Drayco say?’ Kreshkali asked.
‘Dray?’
Maudi. I can’t hear his thoughts anywhere, and I’ve been trying with all my heart.
I know you have, love. Me too. She buried her face in her temple cat’s neck and sobbed.
‘He’s lost,’ Kreshkali whispered. ‘Can we all agree on the destination now?’
They murmured different answers.
‘Disparity will send us who knows where. We have to be of one mind for the corridors to run true.’
‘I don’t understand what we are voting on,’ Shaea said. ‘But I’m for any place that isn’t Corsanon, and isn’t raining.’
The others turned to her as if it suddenly occurred to them she was there. Before anyone replied, the Entity zapped like a lightning strike and whisked them all away.
Jarrod stood at the edge of the culvert, a wall of water rushing towards him. ‘Flood!’
A nanosecond later Kreshkali screamed. ‘Drayco. Get out. Both of you. High ground.’
The water, like a black tongue, plunged towards them. Rosette tried to climb but the ground gave way and she buckled.
‘Rosette!’ Jarrod screamed and dove. The torrent whipped him around, dragging him under. Logs jagged his