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minutes out from Ice Fall Valley. Jean Paul’s last two calls to Manny had gone unanswered, and Amfi hadn’t picked up calls to her vid since she first contacted them back at the spaceport.
    He and Jean Paul were rangers, not military. There had been no need for anything more exotic than catching smugglers for hundreds of years. The rangers did that fine, accepting the least possible help from the Port Authority. The tools he was accustomed to were designed to catch someone trying to hide or to deal with close combat once you found them. The Port Authority had better training and software, but he had never been allowed to use it. They even had battle-robots, although he wouldn’t want one of those now. Some fool would think they were Next.
    â€œFlying into Ice Fall Valley blind is just plain stupid,” he mused out loud.
    Cricket gave a low growl, probably a response to his tone of voice. He glanced at her, worried, to find she was leaning into Nona as if her life depended on it.
    Jean Paul sat back in his seat with a heavy sigh. “I’m trying Wilding Station again.”
    â€œGood idea.” It had grown late enough that the forests were shadowed by the mountaintops, although the sky above was still a deep blue.
    â€œGerry here.”
    The perky dispatcher from Wilding Station always sounded unnaturally upbeat, often annoyingly so. But at the moment she was the best thing Charlie had heard in hours. “Great to hear from you! Everything okay?”
    â€œLonely. Sorry no one was answering. It’s all good now.”
    Her tone of voice didn’t imply anything at all was good.
    Jean Paul talked her through their status and gave her the story of the call from Amfi. She asked a few clarifying questions as he went and then calmly repeated the gist of the story back to them. “You’re flying into an unmarked and barely mapped valley to save a gleaner who might already be dead, and who told you another gleaner has been killed. You don’t know who is attacking the gleaners. You’d like more rangers to come help you.”
    Jean Paul smiled. “That sums it up.”
    Even though she’d first answered in her usual perky voice, Gerry now sounded ragged. “They’re all on their way to Manna Springs. There’s some kind of fight there. Maybe you should go join them. Or come back here and wait.”
    Charlie’s jaw tightened. “Amfi is my friend.”
    â€œThey’re already almost to Gyr Island.”
    â€œI’m sorry things have gotten so messed up.”
    Now she laughed. “It’s all your fault.” It was good natured; she knew better. They’d had a conversation about his experience.
    â€œWish us luck,” he said.
    â€œIf you go into that valley, you could be fighting Next.”
    â€œNo. It’s got to be humans,” he replied. “There’s no reason for the Next to be here. They got what they wanted.”
    â€œBut why would humans be there?”
    â€œI have no idea. If I can’t have rangers, I’ll take information. Do you have any good tracking data from out here? Do you see any skimmers or other machines?”
    â€œI’ll look. Just a minute.”
    He kept his attention on the terrain in spite of the fact that the autopilot could probably handle it. “Nona? Are you okay?”
    Her hand touched his shoulder from the backseat. “Yes,” she said. “How much longer?”
    â€œTen minutes. Unless we circle. I need to find out what’s down there.”
    The display in front of him showed hot spots here and there for animals, but most were stationary. They would start moving as dusk approached, since the dinner hour for most predators was just before true dark.
    Soon.
    He brushed his fingers across Nona’s, marveling for just a moment that she was here and they were touching and they felt close. “I’m sorry this is going crazy.”
    â€œI was captured