Deathwatch (The Faded Earth Book 1)(12)

She would have been lying to say she wasn’t intrigued, but the anger still burned just below the surface. “It’s interesting, but I don’t know. I honestly don’t want to make any decisions so soon after...everything. I want to be in the right frame of mind first. Is there some kind of cutoff?”

“No,” Eshton said. “Not really. There would be scheduling concerns for training, but we’re used to shuffling that stuff around.”

Beck stared into her beer, thinking. “After I’m back at work for a while, okay? I’ll let you know something then. Is there any information you can send me? Documents to give me a better idea what sorts of options I might have?”

“Sure,” he said. “I can do you one better, if you’re up for it. I saw the way your eyes lit up when I explained what Reclamation did. They have a program for potential recruits. An incentive, if you want to think of it that way. Honestly it scares off more people than it convinces.”

Beck swallowed a mouthful of beer. “You’re a shit salesman.”

Eshton shrugged. “Just being honest. A lot of people can’t handle seeing what the world outside is like. But if you want to give it a shot, I can schedule you a ride-along.”

Beck tapped her fingers on the glass again. Later she would reflect on the fact that at some point during the conversation, the hurt faded away so far into the background that she couldn’t feel it at all.





6


“This isn’t what I expected,” Beck said as the dust and scraggly grass sped beneath armored feet.

Eshton and three other members of the Deathwatch were in her view, suits outlined on the HUD in bright green. A tiny inset map showed her the location and the remains of the buildings butting up against the hill.

“In what way?” Eshton asked.

Beck had a few thoughts on that subject at hand. After agreeing to do this, she had asked whether he would be in trouble for revealing his identity to her. Members of the Watch were anonymous for a reason, after all. It was a minor but real shift to her world view to learn that he—or any—Deathwatch member could share anything about themselves if they chose. Anonymity was meant to act as a buffer to protect them from consequences, true, but its larger purpose was to shield their families. Eshton had no one left to worry about. And he had never appeared out of his armor outside the chapterhouse before. Like most of his brethren, he lived in there. It was his world when off duty.

She chose to answer with the most reasonable response for the situation, however. The ride along itself was different from expectations, but it was the outside world she found most surprising.

“I had no idea there was plant life out here,” Beck said, eliciting a round of knowing chuckles from the other people on the team channel. “I just assumed it was all dust, I guess. I’ve looked over the wall before and never saw it.”

The Sentinels running with them were identified only with their numbers, so she had no idea what the name of the person who answered her was. Her rank label was blank on the HUD, only a floating 2447 pinned over her helmet. “It’s the dust. When you look out from the wall, you’re seeing the clumps covered by dust pushed away by the static field.”

“I have no idea what that is,” Beck said.

“It’s a defense against the dust on calm days,” 2447 said. “Won’t work in heavy winds or against gusts, but when there’s only light winds it keeps the stuff from getting too thick around the Rez. Basically a bunch of small generators set in the ground that make particles cling together so they’re harder for the breeze to pick up.”

“I’d really like to take a look at that,” Beck said, trying to rein in the eagerness in her voice.

Eshton laughed. “Wait until you see what’s waiting for us.”

They moved through the ruins and further around the hill until they came to a flattened section of the broad slope. Beck caught momentary blips on her HUD showing other suited forms in the distance. “What are they up to?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with,” 2447 said. “Just looking for Pales. They sometimes cluster together and we try to wipe them out when they do.”

Beck shivered, but was relieved that wasn’t part of their mission. She had been surprised when the land immediately outside the wall had been free of them. “What’s this super impressive thing you want me to see?”

“Up here,” Eshton said. “We check it once a week to make sure no Pales have messed with it or fallen in.”

With that, he moved up the slope toward the top of the hill.

Had Beck not taken the same basic geology classes all children within the Protectorate had as part of their required education, she might have called the odd feature a mountain. Certainly it seemed big enough for the title; at two hundred feet high and half a mile across, the knuckle of earth and stone rose up from an otherwise gentle terrain with an abruptness that had always seemed wrong to her.

She pushed back the sense of utter weirdness at seeing the hill up close for the first time, and from new perspectives, following the rest of the team to its crest.

Eshton waited, armored hand gesturing, when she arrived. “Check that out.”

Beck gazed ahead and for a few moments experienced a rare but thrilling sensation: pure, unadulterated confusion. Not the bewilderment and emotional shock of being taken off guard. No, this was raw and unfiltered curiosity, not unlike a drug for a person with her interests.