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forest in waves, ethereal in its wild beauty.
Although linguists translated the Teotecan word for these trees as _snowfir,_ they hardly looked like
firs to Jeremiah. At this high altitude they grew only about twenty feet tall. Their trunks consisted of
slender white stalks that spiraled around each other. Clusters of white or pale green fruits bobbed around
them, attached to the trunk every few inches, like snowy billiard balls but delicate and hollow. The pale
green needles on the trunks could jab a person like bee stings and left punctures that took days to heal.
The path he followed wound through the edges of the forest. He had started running three years ago
because his poor showing on the Dahl construction crew had embarrassed him. Overweight and
out-of-shape, he had struggled through his shifts. Now he enjoyed running for its own sake. He would
have liked a partner, but he had yet to convince anyone on Coba that it provided a sane form of exercise.
Had his stay in Viasa been voluntary, he would have thrived. Calanya Quis not only fascinated him
as a research subject, it was fun to play. The Calani took it far beyond what he had learned Outside.
Savan's game incorporated the wisdom of an expert who had spent decades mastering the dice. Niev's
style reflected his good-natured outlook on life. Hevtar played with a naivete that stumbled at times and
soared at others.
None of them, however, could match Kev's formidable gift. During one session the Third Level gave
every detail about the failure of a beacon that warned riders in the mountains. It was powered by the
Viasa-Tehnsa dam. Yet Jeremiah knew Kev and Khal had discussed it only with dice, never words. And
Kev's Quis brilliance only began in his ability to process huge amounts of information. With style and flair,
he manipulated abstract portrayals of the political fluxes among the Twelve Estates, molding the very flow
of power on Coba, for Viasa and for Khal.
Jeremiah often found Khal in his thoughts. He had never known anyone like her. He couldn't imagine
a woman of her status on Earth paying him any attention. Even if she had, he would have been too
flustered to respond. Khal, however, liked his reticence. It was, after all, a Viasa trait, and expected to
some extent for men throughout the Twelve Estates.
A massive wall enclosed the parks, with sculpted holes and ridges that let it act as a windbreak. As
he ran along the wall, he left Aza behind. She was walking on top of it, watching him, her gun at her hip,
the wind whipping her tawny hair around her shoulders. She made an impressive figure, towering and
muscled, lean under her violet uniform. He wondered if Coban women had always been this big, or if
they had bred for those traits over the generations.
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Jeremiah grinned. _You can't solve everything with brawn,_ he thought to Aza. Then he grabbed a
handhold on the windbreak and started to climb.
"Hey!" Aza yelled.
Looking up, he saw her striding in his direction. As he neared the top of the wall, high above the
ground, the wind picked up, ripping at his hair. Aza was running now. He smiled, wondering if she
thought he would climb down the other side and vanish into the mountains. Maybe he should.
He changed his mind when he reached the top.
Even knowing the south and north sides of Viasa ended in cliffs, he wasn't prepared for the reality.
The builders had cut this windbreak out of the mountain. On the other side, the cliff plunged down in a
vertical wall until it vanished into clouds. Far below that, mountains carpeted with mist rolled out to the
horizon. He stood braced against the wind, an intense blue sky arching around him, vibrant and dark, as
if he were on the pinnacle of the world.
Aza came to a huffing stop next to him. "Are you _crazy!_" she shouted, her voice almost lost in the
wind.
Jeremiah grinned.
"If anything happens to you," she puffed, "Manager Viasa will throw me into prison and melt down
the key."
With a laugh, he let himself down the inner side of the wall and started back to the parks. Aza
followed, grumbling. As they descended into quieter air, her mutters resolved into words. "Crazy. Runs in
circles and tries to fly. What ever happened to normal Calani?"
"I never claimed I was normal," he pointed out.
She froze, then looked down, her face red. "Heh, you! Are you going to talk and get me into
trouble?"
"How will you get into trouble?" He jumped down onto a lawn of tiny snow-sphere clusters. "No
one is here to see."
She jumped down next to him and peered through the snowfirs at the distant Estate. "So. Maybe
not." Turning back, she regarded him as if he were forbidden fruit. "I have to ask you something."
"Yes?"
"It's about the Skolian Imperialate."
"I'm no expert on Skolians."
She lowered her voice. "Is it true a man commands their military?"
"Well, yes, it is."
"No! You make fun of me."
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Jeremiah laughed. "It's true."
She glowered at him. "Pah."
"Where did you hear about it?"
"A whole slew of you Earth people came around here last year," she explained. "They installed the
computers Manager Viasa bought from them. One of the men told me." She grinned. "Nice-looking
fellow. Like you."
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