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(17 Milana 3003)


They stood looking up at the three story stone Capitol City bus terminal building.  Taelin frowned sideways at his sister.  “Well, who is she then?”
“Her name is Araian and her son is Boe, she’s a friend of the Rebels.  That’s all you need know.”  She snapped back at him.
“But…”  Tae caught himself and let his breath out.  This was going to be difficult to get the hang of; to not ask so many questions on someone’s request.  He looked sideways at her and smiled slightly.  “Ok.”

Asha looked back at him with a deep distracted tension in her face.  She stepped towards the crowded bus terminal and lifted her hand up in a stop motion.
“Stay here Taelin, I’ll go in and find her.  You’re still on the wanted list.”  He nodded and watched her walk towards the terminal.

The high roofed stone building had always been a transport center, at least as long as he’d known it.  It must have been a few hundred years old because of the older style of construction with its carved stone window frames and smoothed rounded edges.  The building was an oblong shape, long but fairly narrow through the middle.  Where he stood, surrounded by cars was the main entrance to the bus station and on the other side of the building were lines and lines of raised platforms where buses the parked to load and unload passengers.

From the road behind him two sirens screamed loudly.  He turned to watch an ambulance and police car travel swiftly past in one direction.  When he turned back to look at the long stone building he spotted Asha walking slowly in his direction.  Following closely behind her walked a slightly shorter woman with close-cut light hair and icy blue eyes, in her arms she carried a sleeping toddler.

When they got within earshot Asha smiled tensely at him and indicated the other woman with one hand.
“Taelin, this is my friend Araian.  Arai, this is my brother Taelin.”
The look in the woman’s eyes spoke of being hunted for a long time.  She was very definitely afraid and uncertain but underneath the uncertainty he also sensed an underlying strength.  He offered his hand to shake.  “Nice to meet you.”
She gave him a tense nod of the head but did not lean in to shake his hand.  He smiled and withdrew his hand awkwardly.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”  Asha’s voice was cool and emotionless, and Tae momentarilywondered what he wasn’t being told.

Wordlessly the three adults walked through the fairly large car parking lot to the street.  The bus station was right in the center of town surrounded in tall sky scrapers.  North of where they were through the large park was the Cathedral, East a couple of blocks stood the tall tower of glass that was the Agency building, and South, some distance away were the harbor, docks and the main industrial section of the city where many of the Rebel Cell bases stood.

The street was very busy with cars and people walking everywhere.  Tae focused on getting across the road and didn’t notice until he’d got to the other side that the two women were not with him.  He turned to look back behind him.

The lights at the nearby intersection changed and cars flooded onto the road from all directions.  Tae lost sight of them for a few moments, but when he next saw them they were walking across and were about halfway.  The child in the woman’s hands had woken up and was crying.  He couldn’t hear the boy’s wail over the sounds of the traffic but he sensed the fear and confusion that permeated around the poor boy in his mother’s arms.

To Tae’s left a large bus filled with people turned the corner into the street towards the two women.
“Asha!  Watch out!” It was too late, they turned  and the bus was already close to them, there wasn’t even time to yell.  The bus should have hit the two of them straight on, instead he watched Araian lift a hand up and the front of the bus stopped centimeters from Araian’s hand.  The back end of the bus seemed to rise slowly up into the air.  Then the entire thing lifted up over the two women, flipping end over end, only to straighten up in time to land roughly back down on its tires.

Taelin stood on the street gaping at them in utter surprise and shock. The two women ran across the road and past him.  On her way past Asha grabbed his elbow pulling him back away from the road with them.  The three of them ran down a narrow side road and out of visual range of the bus and the street.  They ran swiftly zigzagging along three blocks of shops and buildings.  Asha then led them into a dim alley that cut between two tall brick buildings and they stopped for a moment to catch their breath.

“Arai is Psi PK…”
His back against the alley wall he interrupted Asha.  “No kidding, Asha!”  He looked sideways at the light haired woman.  “A bus?  You can throw a bus?”
Her voice was firm but quiet and ice blue eyes stared at him calmly.  “Yes, I can throw a bus.  Can we please get to where we’re going?  It’s not safe for us out on the street like this.”

Taelin nodded slowly as he looked back at his sister.  “Nama’s?”
She shook her head.  “No, Taelin, we’re going to your new base.”
Standing up from the wall he grinned suddenly.  “I’ve got a new base?  When did this happen?  How far away is it?”
With a broad smile, Asha indicated with one hand to follow her.  “Not far.  Come on.”

In fact it wasn’t far at all, only two more blocks into the edge of the industrial area of Capitol City.  They came upon it quite suddenly, walking through another access alley and stepping into a quiet street with old stone buildings either side of it.  It was a long white stone building with three stories of windows towering above them.  It looked a bit like it had once been some kind of old fashioned estate house or perhaps a small hotel.  Long but thin, roads and footpath surrounded it on three sides.  On one side he could see that a high wooden fence cordoned off what could be a garden area at the back.  It didn’t look particularly run down: the windows all still had their glass, much of the paint was still white, and the rounded curved edges of the windows, sides and upper skirting of the roof were all smooth and undamaged.

They walked across the road towards the main entrance where steps steps led up a wide cream-painted door, which was framed nicely by clean frosted glass.

Tae stood at the base of the concrete steps and looked up.  It was nicer than he thought was possible for a Rebel base.  The building had to be a few hundred years old, and still in relatively good condition.

“Pretty ain’t it?”  Nama stood in the entrance holding the door open as the two women walked through into the building.  He gave Tae a tense but friendly grin.  “It has no electricity and only one set of bathrooms has running water, but it’s all yours.  Unfortunately, there’s no time to admire it.  We’ve got another job and it needs doing right now.”

Taelin frowned slightly.  “What job?”
Nama stepped fully through the wide door and down the steps towards him.  He put a hand on Taelin’s shoulder and gave him a tense smile.  “I’ll explain on the way, come on.”