No one stopped the snowmobile as they approached the town.
At the registration checkpoint, the guards seemed bored. Dirty, horny and bored. They only noticed Cass with any real interest. They wanted to know race-cat, local contact, settlement preference...the usual for clan-based systems. Revik knew they’d bother him less if he was specific, so after giving them all the ID info they asked for, he told them he wanted the 4th, nearest Multe markets, hoping they hadn’t burned down in any recent riots.
They hadn’t. The human took their blood on the spot, and Revik waited, the snowcat’s engine still on, while they ran it.
In the pause, he assessed his two charges, who still looked dazed and dirty, which luckily wasn’t unusual up here. Their condition couldn’t have been helped by staring at nothing but snow for two days straight. It occurred to him how thin all three of them really were. The same thing seemed to have occurred to Cass, who had wrapped her face and neck in a thick scarf just before Revik rolled down the window to speak to the guard.
Thinking about this, he smiled at her again. For a human, she wasn’t stupid. Neither was Jon, for that matter, who kept his hand by his gun the whole time the guards were gone, his hazel eyes alert even through their fatigue.
The guard returned. He motioned towards Revik’s arm.
When Revik held it out, the man clamped a white wristband around his bony wrist. The guards continued to look bored, and now slightly drunk. Cass and Jon followed Revik’s lead, sticking out their arms. Revik watched them look at the wristbands, dazed, and realized again it was probably the first time they’d ever seen anything like them before.
The guard motioned to Revik again, speaking in heavily accented Russian.
“...You know where to go?” He glanced at Cass.
Revik nodded, giving him a quick three-finger salute in thanks.
He pressed down the clutch, shifting down to first and hitting the gas before the man could ask him anything about Cass’s status. Women got sold here, too, seer and human. He’d rather not make his companions any more paranoid than they already were. As they slid past the entrance to the mountainous town, Revik pointed up at the skyline.
“Mount Shkhara,” he said. “Over 17,000 feet, I think.”
Jon’s eyes didn’t leave the band on his wrist. “You speak Russian?” He glanced up. “Any other languages?”
Revik shrugged. “A few.”
Cass laughed. When Revik looked over at her, she was smiling at him, but her eyes were clear. He returned the smile, shaking his head.
“Are you ready to sleep?” he said.
“Can you sleep?” Cass asked.
“No,” Revik said. He glanced at her, again surprised. He wondered just how much they’d picked up in their months with Terian. “...I can’t,” he said. “Not yet. But you can. I thought we’d get cleaned up and you two could rest while I do some scouting. I’m hoping we can get a small plane here, go to T’bilisi in the morning. We can probably get an international flight from there.”#p#分页标题#e#
Cass was staring at him again. “Have you been here before?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Revik glanced over at them. Jon was looking at him too, waiting for an answer. Revik shifted slightly in the seat.
“Awhile ago,” he said finally. “Seers have photographic memories,” he added. “I’m not unusual in that.”
“So what next?” Jon said. “After that place that sounds like a skin fungus, where do we go?”
Revik had been thinking about that, too.
He knew where he wanted to go, but he also knew he’d be a fool to risk it. He could think of only one other place with constructs close enough and safe enough that he could reach within a reasonable timeframe. Even with that location, there were complications.
“England,” he said finally. “London.”
“London?” Jon stared. “Didn’t you say Allie was probably in Asia by now?”
“Yes.” Revik glanced at the two of them, then sighed, clicking softly under his breath. “There are things I need in London.” Seeing Jon’s frown, he added, reluctant, “...and I don’t want to go straight to Allie.”
“You don’t?” Cass’s voice held genuine surprise. “I thought you’d want to go there first.”
Revik nodded. “I do. It’s just—”
Jon said, “You think we’d be followed?”
Revik glanced at him.
Again...not dumb.
He nodded, shrugging with one hand. “Yes.”
Cass was watching his face. “That’s part of it.” She hesitated. “Is it also because of the stuff Terian said? About you cheating on her or whatever?”