"I didn't know you were married," Cordova said over his shoulder to Marie, who was following closely behind him.
"It never came up," she said.
"Fair enough," Cordova said. he paused a while before asking, "How long does your husband think our expedition will be? I only ask because he may be able to send help sooner than expected if he thinks we're overdue."
Marie sighed. "I told him three weeks," she said, although they both had expected a two-week trip. "I didn't want him to worry. I know how these things can run longer than expected. Are you married?"
Cordova paused before shaking his head, and then kept climbing.
Collins, who they thought wouldn't be able to overhear their conversation over the echoing of footsteps in the stairwell, suddenly said, "Any chance that he'll get worried? Are you supposed to contact him regularly?" He seemed to forget that, despite their distance from the boat, Marie and Cordova were no farther from civilization than they would be if they had never seen the city.
"No," Marie said. "When I'm home, I'm home, and when I'm away... I'm away." There was something measured about her tone that Collins might have asked about, but Kettering had reached the top of the stairs and pushed open the door to the roof. The sunlight that poured in blasted their retinas, and Collins put away the flashlight he had been sweeping about to light their way. At the base of the stairs, Marie and Cordova had marveled at the way he had powered up its cool, white light by pumping a sheath of plastic around its handle a few times.
They stepped out into the stifling jungle heat again, but this time there was a little breeze, since they were above the tree canopy. The sun was lowering toward the western horizon ahead of them, just beginning to turn the vegtation below into a feverish, orange sea.
Kettering walked right up to the edge of the roof, not even looking down but knowing just where to stop, the toes of his boots less than two inches from the edge of the building. "Over there," he said before the others could fully catch up, pointing to the south. "We headed for the highest hill, see it there? And from there, we could see the second city chunk far to the south-southwest..." He swung his arm to the left a few degrees. "That would make it somewhere over there."
"Should be easy enough to find," Marie said. "We have rather detailed maps on the boat. We should go back and get them. Who knows how many people are there? And they may not be in as good a state as you all are here."
Kettering turned, looked at her, then addressed Collins. "That's exactly why we shouldn't wait any longer to send me and some of my men back, run a reconnaisance mission to see exactly what's going on over there. If they are in worse straits, they may be desperate and try something foolish when they learn we have resources."
Cordova stepped forward, closer to the edge than anyone save Kettering. "Hold on, Mr. Kettering. Let's not start out by assuming that these people are going to be a threat of any sort. From what we know at this moment, all we can infer is they're in exactly the same circumstances as you are here."
"That's my point," Kettering said, staring into the distance. "No offense to how you've been running things, Gary--" he must have been referring to Collins, " -- but we really fell ass-backward into the decent situation we have here. We just happened to have an unusual amount of tall buildings and restaurants in our chunk. From what I could see, their buildings weren't nearly as tall. Probably from a little farther out of whatever city it came from, more residential. That means less businesses, and more people who have to divide up what resources they do have. That's why I came back right away without finding out more... I knew that we had to prepare."
"Prepare for what?" Collins asked, straining his eyes out to where Kettering had been pointing.
"Whatever they're prepared to do," Kettering said. "And right now, I don't think any of us can make a more accurate guess of what that is than any other."
Collins considered this, looking from Marie to Kettering and back again, in full diplomat mode. "So what are each of your plans? I can't think of a reason we can't gather the information we need in two different ways."
Marie spoke first. "Like I said, we can get some information from the boat. We have survey and geological maps. There might be some sort of common characteristics about where these -- chunks, as you say -- have appeared. Now that we have two to compare, we might be able to figure out what those are."
Kettering pivoted and raised his finger in Marie's direction. "I think you just want to get back to your boat and get out of here." Before he had finished his statement, Cordova had stepped forward and taken hold of the big man's wrist, making him lower his hand. Kettering didn't fight against it, but his glare lost none of his intensity.
"I plan to do no such thing!" Marie snarled at him.
"She won't," Cordova told Kettering, who was still staring down Marie. "Because she wouldn't leave me behind. And I'm going to the new city with you."
"You are?" Collins asked.
"That's right," Cordova said. "What I propose is that she and one or two of your expeditionary force --" he had clearly decided upon this term carefully, " -- go to the boat to inform them of what is happening and make sure they're ready to start transporting people back to the coast. Meanwhile, you and I will take a look at this new... situation." He nodded toward the invisible city beyond the horizon.
"Someone needs to get to the boat before nightfall," Marie said. "It would be too dangerous to leave the city after that. Also, my men will be worried and might leave."
Kettering squinted at her again, as if scanning for deceit. Cordova considered affirming that she was right, but decided against it. The man was just going to have to learn to trust her on his own, sooner better than later.
Thankfully, Collins didn't step in either. Marie and Kettering just stared at each other, unblinking, for a long moment. Then Kettering said, "That's what we'll do," as if he were the one who had come up with the idea, or had the power to veto it.
"We'd better get going, then," Marie said. "I'll be waiting when your men are ready." Marie turned without waiting for a reaction and went down the stairs, leaving the remaining three to stare at each other in the reddening light.
Collins clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "God, it feels good to have a plan!" and followed her.
"You and I will leave first thing in the morning," Kettering told Cordova, who nodded solemnly. By the time the sun returned to its low position in the sky the next day, one of them would be dead by the other's hand.
