Read The Baba Yaga for Free Online Page B

that I can’t understand.”
    He grunted.
    “So where do we go? We can’t go core-wards. Where are we going?”
    “Satan’s Reach,” he said, without looking at her.
    “Satan’s Reach? Kit, we can’t go there! It’s dangerous! It’s no place for a child!”
    “It’s not as bad you think. Some of the worlds are supposed to be fairly safe...”
    But Expansion propaganda had its hold on both of them, and there was only one thing that Expansion citizens knew about Satan’s Reach, that part of inhabited space that remained stubbornly beyond its jurisdiction. “It’s lawless,” Maria said.
    “I know!” he said, desperation in his voice. “Do you think I’d drag you both there if there was anywhere else? Maria, we’ll be lucky to get away from this damned world with our lives!”
    Suddenly, the control panel fired into life. Maria took Kit’s hand. “Said you could do it.”
    “Not quite sure what I did...”
    “Don’t ask too many questions,” she said dryly. “Come on, all aboard. I’ll get Jenny.”
    They were up and flying over Braun’s World within the hour. Maria watched and listened carefully: no air traffic control; no friendly messages directing ships around the planet. The occasional curt order from the military. It was if a thick black cloud was descending over the world. A shroud.
    And Kit—whenever he was asked—offered codes that somehow, miracle upon miracle, let them pass whenever they were challenged... Don’t ask , he’d said. I can’t talk about that... She studied her husband’s weary, grey face. Who is helping us, love? And why?
    They saw the bombardment of Braun’s World from a great distance: pinpricks of light at first, hitting the ground, and then great flares of white, pluming upwards. For a few seconds, Maria didn’t understand, and then she turned to Kit and said, “ Everyone? ”
    “Everyone,” he said. “There’ll be nothing—and nobody—left alive.”
    He turned to the controls, and lay in a flight path for Satan’s Reach. And, unnoticed, a little ship peeled away from the fleet sent to wipe out whatever infection was loose on that damned world, and began to follow their trail.

 
    T HE SKY WAS blue and the water on the lagoon calm and green. The dark shapes of strange fish could be seen below the surface, shadowy and mysterious, darting about on weird purposes impenetrable to the human mind. At Andrei’s bidding, Walker stopped the engine on the little boat, and then watched patiently as he arranged himself for an afternoon’s quiet fishing. He unpacked his kit, assembled his rod and wire, unfolded a rickety canvas deckchair, and settled down comfortably. With a flick of his wrist, the music stored on the main datacore in the cabin was activated, and Andrei selected some Mozart, which floated out across the water. The fish disappeared.
    “Well,” Andrei said. “This is pleasant.”
    Walker poured them both cold drinks and took her seat next to him in the other deckchair, looking out across the water. They were about half a mile out from Andrei’s private island, where he was apparently enjoying his retirement immensely or, at least, putting on a good show. She herself would have found the quiet unbearable: the absence of city noises, even muted behind sound-proofed windows, the sense of being cut off from everything that had ever mattered to them. Their current position gave them a striking view back to downtown Venta. Gleaming white towers dominated the skyline. The tiny black shapes of flyers could be seen swarming between them, like insects. High above even the towers glided a handful of government flyers, moving at a statelier pace. Walker could not hear the city, but she could feel its low steady thrum , like blood in the veins, or a quiet heartbeat, or the soft plashing of a fish.
    Andrei gestured with his fishing rod. “The most stirring sight in the Expansion,” Andrei said. “Or so the tour guides would tell you. Are you stirred,