Lyia notices that Slim is staring at the same screen she is, the one showing an image from the lone nanobot that they left with Jack.

Slim cuts a glance at Lyia. “Do you have any idea what just happened there?”

“Yeah.”

In truth, she’s pretty sure that her understanding of the whole situation falls on the lower side of a scale between “no clue” and “barely getting it.”

Slim turns to face her full-on. “Well can you explain it to me? I’m feeling awfully stupid here.”

Lyia’s eyebrow lifts. “Oh? I would’ve thought that’s familiar territory for you.”

“Asshole.” Slim’s grin is a reminder of those moments when the two of them worked well as a couple. There just wasn’t enough of those moments.

She shakes her head. “Jack’s following through on his part of the plan. Fortunately, he’s got a friend on the spiritual plane who will look out for him. Now we have to focus on our part of it.”

Lyia points to the other set of screens where the rest of the nanobot swarm is on its way to the closest siege cave. “Have you figured out how we’re going to actually talk to the people in there? How are we even going to get in?”

Slim swivels back around in his chair to look at those screens as well, but then he stops and spins back toward her. “I can’t let it go yet. Did you see how he moved? I forgot how spry that old guy was. With him in a younger body like Jack’s, it’s downright scary. Do you think—”

He pauses.

“What?” Lyia knows where his mind went. He has to say it out loud, though. He needs to hear how wrong it is. “Do I think what?”

“I … I just wonder if we might have better chances if Vardin stays in Jack’s body.”

The sound of her hand slapping Slim’s face registers before she realizes what she’s done. The look on his face, though, is a lot less surprised than what she’s feeling. He knows he had that coming. However, she’s never lashed out like that before. Not with him. A corrective smack to the back of his head is one thing. A full-on slap to the face is something else entirely.

Lyia regains her composure and scowls. “I don’t want to hear you talk like that again. Vardin is dead. Jack isn’t.” She feels her face relax for a moment before knitting in worry as she sees crows collecting on Slim’s screens. “Not yet, at least.”

Slim has his back to her again, focusing on his terminals. “I’ve got a few ideas on how to talk to the folks in the caves.”

Back to business. “Yeah? Let’s go with the fastest one.”

“There are trade-offs, Lee. Always trade-offs.” Slim doesn’t turn to face her. His nose is in his screens, fingers clickity-clacking on an ancient keyboard. “The fast way damages the caves and gives us a pretty limited way of communicating—think about it like a complicated game of charades. The other way is—”

“Aren’t there comm links in each of the caves? Can’t we just call them on those?”

Slim’s head drops. “I’m getting there! The links in the caves are hardline only, buried deep, and the caves are exclusively wired to each other. They’re not connected to the town’s comm network.”

“Well that’s stupid. Why would—”

“It’s a security measure. Not as easy to compromise.”

Lyia throws up her arms, frustrated. “So what do we do? Jack’s counting on us to get these people safe.”

Slim finally swivels around to face her again. His face is red, and not just on the side of the face where she slapped him. “I’m getting there. If you’d just—you know what? Just sit.” He points to a dusty chair a few steps away. “Sit right there.” He grabs an orb mic and tosses it to her. “And hold this.”

Lyia catches the grapefruit-sized microphone and flumps down in the chair. “I just—”

“Ah-ah.” Slim holds up a single finger before turning his back on her and refocusing on his terminal. “Now’s the time when you listen. I have an idea. It’s a bit of a longshot, but it’s our best shot.”

He points to the monitors displaying some of the views from the nanobots on the way to the siege cave. Only, now that they’re closer, they’re not headed to the entry door.

As if guessing her thoughts, Slim explains, “The main door is sealed pretty tightly. Too tight to get in, even with the nanobots. But, we can work our way through the air handling system. It’s a maze, but I helped design it, so …”

Slim’s voice drifts off as his focus shifts to the task at hand. Lyia watches the nanobots route their way up to the vents for the air handler and navigate the dark labyrinth of ducts, filters, and pipework. They sit in silence like that for a bit. Slim clacking at his keyboard. Lyia tracking the progress of the bots.

It’s unbearable.

Reaching the end of her limit—really, any reasonable person’s limit—Lyia breaks through the dead air. “You still haven’t answered my question. How are we going to talk to them once we’re there?”

As she speaks, the images from the nanobots appear to violently shake and shudder.

“Shit!” Slim’s arm bolts to a knob on a different console and adjusts it.

“What? What? Are we too late? Is Death already there?” The images continue to quake as she speaks, but the movement is quite a bit less harsh now compared to moments ago.

Slim continues to dial down the adjustment knob. “Will you shut up for a tic so I can lower the gain? You’re rattling the whole ventilation system.”

I did that?

Slim returns his attention to his terminal. “It’s my fault, really. I handed you a hot mic.” He swivels to face her, smiling. The overall redness in his face is gone, but the mark from her hand is still pretty clear. “You can talk normally now. Plus, on the upside, I think you’ve proven that it works. Let’s just hope we haven’t freaked out the people in the cave.”

None of this makes any sense to Lyia. “What works? What did I do? Slim, you better start explaining things, or I’m going to shove this thing right up your—” She stares at the orb mic that she’s brandishing at him and suddenly everything clicks. “Oh.”

Slim’s grin widens. “Yeah! You get it. I hacked together a tweak on the nanobots’ control function so they vibrate in time with input from that mic. Basically made the swarm a floating speaker. The code is rushed and ugly as hell, but you’ve just shown that it does actually work. And now—” He points to the screens showing the view as the nanobots emerge from the ductwork into the siege caves. “Now we should be able to talk to them.”

It’s a depressing scene. Time spent in the siege caves is never pleasant. With the frequency and duration of raids in Bule, a lot of care was put into making the caves reasonably comfortable places to stay for an extended period of time. The area is well-lit with plenty of cushioned spaces to sit or lie down. There’s a modest little kitchen stocked with decent food and a small command center with a few screens to check on the town and keep in touch with the other siege caves.

However, no amount of comfort can overcome the natural fear and anxiety of having to go there in the first place. The people in the cave are showing all the signs of angsty tension. A few of them are pacing. The ones that are sitting or trying to sleep are just as restless, fidgeting. A few periodically cast apprehensive glances at the solid steel entry door, but no one is actually near the door. Another clump of people crowds around the screens at the command center, trying to get some sense of what’s going on. They’ve got no clue.

Lyia catches a glimpse of a distinctive balding head among the pack of people at the command center. “Harris. You were right, Slim. He is in this one.”

Slim has already spun back to his terminal, clacking away. “Okay. I’ve pulled one bot out of the swarm so you can see.” Without looking, he points to the screen closest to Lyia while readjusting the gain control knob on his other console. “Your mic is hot. Try not to make him jump out of his skin. The bots don’t have mics of their own, so you’re not going to be able to hear him respond … or hear how you sound, for that matter. So we’re limited, but it’s better than hand signals.”

Lyia nods in affirmation and immediately realizes the futility of doing so, since Slim still isn’t looking at her. No matter, though. He knows she gets it. With her eyes riveted to the screen showing the image of Bule’s militia leader, she raises the orb mic to her mouth. “Harris.”

Nothing.

Slim dials up the gain. “Try again.”

“Harris.” Lyia says the name a little louder, projecting like she’s speaking to a crowd of people.

Still, nothing. There’s no indication at all that he’s heard her.

“Why can’t he hear me? Is it working?”

Slim turns his head and Lyia follows his gaze up to the shaky images from the other bots. He grunts. “Yeah, little guys are rattling up a storm. They just can’t move enough air to be heard. I was worried this might—ooh!”

Hit with a sudden burst of inspiration, Slim twists back to his keyboard. “Just need a flat surface that vibrates well.”

“Where are you going to find that?” Lyia looks at the images from within the siege cave. As comfortable as they were made to be, the walls were left unfinished as natural rock, none of it flat.

Slim tilts his head at the same screens, now showing the view of the bots approaching the steel entry door to the siege cave. “There. Gimme a sec to get the bots positioned and in firm contact with the door.” Clackity-clackity-clack. “Okay. Give it a shot. No one is near the door, though, so you’ll probably have to be pretty loud for them to hear.”

Lyia takes a deep breath and shouts into the mic, “Harris!”

The reaction from the people in the cave is immediate. Sitters are now on their feet. Pacers stand still. All heads swing to face the door.

Slim looks over his shoulder at Lyia and they share a brief smile. She pulls the mic closer to her. “Alright. We don’t have a lot of time and I can’t hear you talk. So no discussion. You just listen.”