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.Aiyana delicately picked the module and placed it on the bed, arranging pillows under the covers to mimic the shape of her sleeping body.Meantime, at the dresser the ants were spelling out another message.GO NOW they said, adding LEAVE US“Like hell” Aiyana muttered.She knew an individual ant was no more to Tallis than one of her own fingernails, but this group must have scaled the cliff for hours carrying the simulator.It was like a team of human climbers hauling a shuttle up a mountain.She was damned if she would abandon them.Aiyana pulled out a small jewelry box from the dresser draw and dumped its contents.Then, as gently as she could, she brushed the ants into the box and closed the lid.She tucked it into her suit and stepped out onto the balcony.Everything appeared quiet, only the sound of the surf drifted up through the cool night air.She leant over and peered down at the shoreline but could see nothing but shadows.Taking a deep breath, she gripped the railing and leapt.Crouched at the base of the cliff, Carson watched Aiyana look over the balcony.He was wearing his black stealth suit which effectively rendered him invisible while she shone like a beacon.Why the hell had he chosen pink? So much for the clever disguise.He stopped breathing as Aiyana braced herself and jumped.She plummeted for two seconds before a muffled yelp announced the end of her fall forty meters above his head.Moments later she floated down to the sand.“That was amazing!” he whispered running up to her.“Oh my God that was scary.What a gravity gradient! I never realized I’d accelerate that fast.”“Tallis delivered the simulator?”“She did – does that mean the alarm hasn’t been sounded?”“That’s the idea, come on”They ran through the darkness, hugging the cliff face.Four hundred meters down the shore they came to where Carson had left a small scooter.They scrambled aboard and flew along the beach for two kilometers before ascending.Twenty minutes later they landed in a parking lot next to the largest personal transport Aiyana had seen since arriving on New Earth.Most of its bulk was taken up by the propulsion system – it had to be built for interplanetary travel.Carson slapped his hand on the hatch and they climbed in.“This is the fastest thing I could rent – Quad Huan Qi push drives” he said “too big to risk bringing to the beach.”As they took off Aiyana ignored the inertial dampening and rushed over to hug him.“We did it!” she said kissing him “My God, this is our second getaway, you wild mailman you!”“Not really – this time it’s legitimate.This vehicle is certified for interstellar connections.”“What does that mean?”Carson grinned.“It means we get out of here without stopping, but legally.”As she lay on an acceleration couch Aiyana felt a lump under her suit.She reached in and pulled out the jewelry box.“Hey, I brought Tallis’s soldiers” she said waiving the box at Carson “do you think they’ll be alright in here?”“You are such a softie; I’ve got the perfect thing for them”He took a small object out of his pocket.It was a tiny vehicle, no bigger than his hand.“This is how they got to the beach” Carson said.“Tallis asked me to retrieve it.It’s a masterpiece of miniature engineering – far too valuable to leave behind.”He placed the two objects together on the floor and opened the jewelry box.As soon as the vessel sensed the ants it opened a miniscule hatchway.The soldiers crawled out of the box and into their vehicle, which promptly sealed itself.Carson picked up the transporter and carefully stowed it in his luggage.“If they had their own craft, why climb the cliff?” Aiyana asked.“Shin told us that the defenses were set to fry any intruding vessel, and even something this size might have set them off.”“Hey” he continued “talking about the cliff, how the hell did you steal a lift belt from the Aether?”“Oh, I ran into a staff member on my way to the bathroom.”“And?”“Womanly wiles, darling, woman wiles”“I don’t even want to think what that means.”Carson slumped onto his acceleration couch.“My God I’ve had a crazy day.I checked out of our apartment, sent off my talk to the Antiquities Society, pacified my friends, and most importantly I squared everything away with the Post Office.”He waved a silvery rectangle “Fresh mail!”“So where are we going? Are you planning to beat Shin to the Sharez system? He’s got a day’s start.”“Why should I do that?” Carson said in Ancient English, speaking the words with an oddly familiar accent “Why would I want to go to a dull place like Sharez?”Aiyana stared at him.“You did not!”“I did” said Carson looking supremely smug.“You faked the tape!”Tallis did all the work, Carson explained.Fortunately, Juro never truly appreciated her abilities.In addition they had all the technical specifications of the recording mechanism, courtesy of Kalidas“And, of course, we had one of his phony cassettes.Juro’s techs did such a great job of forgery – even the carbon isotope ratios are right for an eight thousand year-old emulsion – they’ll never be able to tell it’s a fake.”“But to create an entire tape –”“Oh no, just the crucial part about the location of the treasure, the rest is real.I’ll play you the authentic portion once we’re out of here.”More immediate issues intruded.By now they were above New Earth’s atmosphere and accelerating at a ferocious rate; they had to deal with the bureaucracy before the signal time lag made communication impractical.Carson slapped his hand on the vessel’s remote biometric station and summoned immigration control.“Thank you Carson” it said after processing him, “is your employee with you?”What? He had completely forgotten the story they concocted when they arrived.Fortunately Aiyana had not; she rushed to the station and put her hand in the green circle.“I’m here!”“Thank you honored visitor, I am registering you both as exiting the New Earth system.I trust your academic research was successful.”“Extremely!”Earlier, Carson had sent his ship a coded message to prepare for departure and by the time they rendezvoused it was running through its final flight checks
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