Rupert climbs behind the wheel of an antique car. It's not a pod car. There's no lounge in the back, and the entire experience is giving me flashbacks to Toronto.
"How is this possible?" I ask as the car slides smoothly over the roads. "How is it that we're the only one with a car?"
"I told you Donald Anderson didn't trust his own machines," he replies.
"Okay," I say, and try to wrap my head around all of this. "And how exactly is it that we're still breathing? I mean, the bots run everything, right? Without a ventilation system online, won't we all just...suffocate or something?"
He shakes his head. "You misunderstand. Remember how I told you that the machines weren't having much luck with the atmosphere?"
"Yes, and that's why I'm worried."
"But what you don't see is that Mars has an atmosphere already. It may be thin, but we aren't exposed to the naked vacuum of space."
"So then what are the domes for?"
"Mars' atmosphere isn't quite breathable, it's true. Like being at the top of the Mount Everest, only thinner. It isn't dire yet...but the chill of this planet and the increasing CO2 in the domes of New Rome will make things uncomfortable if we don't figure out what's happened...and soon."
I look over at Rupert. He scowls in concentration as he takes the antiquated car around bends in the curling roads of Donald's suburb. I need to tell him where I've been and what I know.
But I'm reluctant. I feel the fear of disappointing him in the pit of my stomach. Donald may have been the father I never knew, but Rupert is the father figure that I've come to rely on.
"Rupert, about where I was..."
He glances at me, expectant, when the pause in my speech drags on.
"About my past..." But the words won't come out. I've buried that secret so far down from this, my new life and from him, its representative. I don't know how to say it.
"It's fine, Ms. Anderson." He can no doubt sense my awkwardness and discomfort. "You don't have to say anything."
But I do. There's a point I have to make.
"I'm just saying...I have some knowledge. I can help figure this whole thing out."
"Good. Then we'll go straight to iTronics and --"
"What about Austin?"
"We will have a chance to look for Dr. Clarke eventually --"
"But..." I whine.
"There are more pressing matters right now."
"More pressing than my finding my husband?"
I know I sound hysterical. And maybe that's why Rupert says nothing in return. He chooses to focus on driving.
We come to one of the larger piazzas in town. It's crowded with people who are either pounding on the windows of the car or are too busy looting to notice us. It's so crowded that we can't drive any further.
"Here's where we get out," Rupert says.
"No, you can't. They'll eat you alive," I protest.
"Then let them feast. Ms. Anderson, I don't think you quite understand. You are my sole duty in life. I promised Donald that I would take care of you. There, you know now. It was his dying wish. I'm not about to betray my oldest friend's dying wish because of a few street ruffians."
"But, Rupert, they're not just a few --"
He holds up his hand, silencing me.
"No. We're going together or not at all." With the statement, he pushes the door open and extracts me from the vehicle.
"Rupert, what are you -" I try to ask as he lifts me bodily from the car.
He does it with such speed and agility, I feel like a frail autumn leaf in his arms. I'm shocked to be above the crowd as he bears me through it towards the edge of the piazza.
I know he's a tall man, but I had no idea that he was so strong. He's pushed and shoved and prodded by the surrounding crowd of black-clad ARs and ragged Earth refugees as we go.
He finally deposits me on a thin stoned walkway between two of the smaller side roads. We're safely past the edges of the crowd. Rupert breathes hard once he puts me down.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Just a moment, just a moment."
He clutches his chest and struggles to breathe. He leans into a carefully machine-pruned box hedge. But there's something missing. Then I realize what it is.
"Rupert, your cane!" I exclaim. "How did you even make it here?"
"Haven't you ever heard," he says as his breath gradually slows. "Of the mother who lifted the truck off her child?"
I wait as he catches his breath completely. "Now what?"
"Now we continue to iTronics, of course."
"But how will you walk? How will we get there without your cane?"
"You'll have to be my cane now, I'm afraid."
We keep to the back streets as much as we can. He leans on me as we walk towards the giant iTronics tower.
Suddenly, Rupert stops in his tracks. I look up at him.
"Everything okay?"
"Andrea," he says quietly. "Look."
(Continued in Chapter 93...)