Do No Evil (Aeon Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter 17

Bob set his bike down and concealed it in a patch of bushes. He put his hands on his hips and turned to Olivia. "Just like I remember it," he said with a grin.

Olivia returned his smile and added, "But it will be a lot less crowded now."

Bob walked to the chain link fence that surrounded the ranch. It look decrepit, but it was actually made of cut-resistant wires, which carried a faint electric signal that could detect any attempt at intrusion. The fence was fifteen feet high, topped with barbed wire, and he knew, also extended ten feet underground to prevent anyone from digging underneath it or barging through it.

"I guess we have to climb it," said Olivia.

"That's the only way," agreed Bob. He bowed slightly. "After you, ma'am."

Once they were over the fence they strolled across the Ranch towards the stream, and just beyond it the small cluster of dilapidated buildings that were the only sign that anything existed here at all. During their first few weeks in Jaeger's program, as they underwent the early stages of Willy's competition, they had lived in these buildings. There was an old barn that had been converted to hold a dozen bunk beds, where they slept. Next door was the canteen where they ate, and another building that housed a gym, a simple infirmary, the garage, and an office. Those simple facilities, combined with the terrain of the ranch itself, had been ample for the physical challenges of their training.

"We're retracing the steps of the footrace from the first test in the competition," pointed out Olivia.

Michael had won that one-mile run, and Bob had come a close second. But the main reason he remembered the event was that Sarah had placed third, despite the cut she suffered on her foot when crossing the stream for the first time. "It was Sarah's most impressive performance," allowed Bob. "But then again, her best talent is middle distance running. She's never performed anything as impressive since."

Bob and Olivia crossed the distance in about eight minutes and stood between the three buildings.

"I'm not used to standing around with nothing to do at the ranch," said Bob. During the months they'd lived there, almost every moment of their lives had been scheduled. "Now that we're here, I don't have any idea of what to do."

In theory, returning to the ranch was dangerous because the Separatists were likely to send special-forces to attack it. But a week had passed since Willy's defection and Bob and Olivia reasoned that if the Separatists were going to come, they would have come immediately to catch the ranch's occupants before they had time to escape with their most sensitive equipment and records.

"I don't see any sign that the Separatists have been here," he ventured.

"That doesn't mean they haven't come. Willy presumably told them how to break into the facility covertly. If we descend into the underground portions of the facility, we might see that the Separatists have ransacked the place."

"I thought you said you don't think we should go underground."

"We should spend as little time down below as possible. There's always a chance that the Separatists will raid the facility later. Or that the Aeons will bombard it with missiles. So let's gather what we need from the remaining aboveground stores, go down stairs only if we need to, and then bivouac nearby."

The whole plan to come here had been Olivia's idea. At first Bob had thought she was crazy, but then he'd slowly come to see her reasoning. They were deserters from the Federal military. They didn't want to join the Separatists. That just left one option: to join the Aeons. Bob marveled that he'd spent years being trained to attack the Aeons, only to discover that joining them offered his best chance of survival. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, he thought.