Once inside he let her go and began to take his tools out of the functional hover, clearing it for them to travel. He looked around, thinking. “Wait here, Tilly.”
He ran back to the house and got the spare pistol from the drawer Nora had next to her bed with the stockpiled money. He checked the gun for bullets and pocketed it as he walked back to the garage.I'll get her.
Tilly hadn’t moved when he returned. Goosebumps ran up her arms. “What are you gonna do?”
Simon hoisted a jug of water into the hover. ‘We’re gonna get Mama.”
Her hands curled up into fists. “Yeah, let’s go now!”
He put the jug in the bottom of the hover and then motioned to her. “Come here, I’ll lift you in with me.”
This smaller hover really was only big enough to carry one, but Tilly climbed in on his lap after he opened the door. He closed it once she settled.Thankfully this hover works now.But he would walk if he had to, to get to Nora.
Simon went through the start-up protocols while talking with Tilly as she clung to his chest. “You were very, very brave, Tilly, to come back the whole way.”
Her voice was muffled on his chest. “You gotta help Mama. She’ll be okay right?”
He flipped a switch to start the ignition and put it into the drive gear, feeling the hover vibrate underneath him. “I will get her, Tilly.”
The drone hovered in front of them as he pulled out of the garage, like a pesky fly in his way. “We will watch the child,” Stella said out loud.
Simon hesitated as Tilly dug her hands into the shirt Nora sewed him. In his arms she buried her head in his chest further, away from the floating drone. He put an arm over her protectively as he considered Stella’s words.They did lead her back to me. That logic broke through his anger, even as his body shook in his haste to get going to town.
The drone dropped in front of him before he could open the hover’s throttle and Stella’s voice spoke again. “Combat is no place for her. We will watch her.”
Simon gripped Tilly harder to his chest as he considered Stella’s words. Her little heartbeat pounded into him.What should I do?It was hard to decide between wanting to keep her close but also knowing she needed to be kept away from any danger. His eyes scanned the horizon, as if he could see the town already.And I need to hurry.Nora.
Sincerity radiated from the uplink as he thought it through. Unlike the humans, it was not in an android’s nature to ever lie. His hand loosened on Tilly’s back.They will not hurt her. It would be the safest place.
The drone hovered again, closer, its tone softer, speaking to Tilly. “Tilly, we know you like our programs. Would you like to hear the next episode ofPrincess Pearl and the Dastardly Three?”
Tilly shook her head hard in his shirt, not looking anywhere else. “I want Mama.”
Simon put his hand on her head, pressing down on her soft hair. “Yes, Tilly.” He looked up. “Tilly will come with me most of the way. I do not want her that far away from me in case we need to leave directly from town to somewhere else. Or if someone comes here to the house looking for us.”
Tilly shook her head harder and just cried.
Stella spoke clearly. “Understood.”
Simon patted the top of her head. “It will be alright, Tilly. I’ll go get Mama. I’ll take care of you.”
Her answer was quiet. “Okay.”
Simon held her to him as he drove the little hover out of their yard. He didn’t bother to close up after leaving, but turned the throttle up as fast as it would go. The hot wind traveled through his hair over the hover’s cracked windshield. “Trust me. Okay, Tilly? I will have you go to a safe spot to wait.”
He regarded the drone seriously as he drove, watching as it kept pace as he revved the hover’s engine. It was too loud to talk over the noise as the wind whipped around, so he accepted the uplink and asked internally.“You are prepared to finally help?”
Stella immediately said back,“For this, yes.”
Chapter forty-six
Nora
“I’m so sorry Nora. I didn’t know . . . I didn’t mean . . .” Anna was in front of her, firmly holding a rag to Nora’s leg. Her hands were red from Nora’s blood as she put pressure on the wound.
I can’t . . .Nora was in too much pain to really talk. She gripped her leg as well on the opposite side where the bullet exited as Anna pressed in on the front.I think I got shot clean through.Bile rose in her throat. Her body shook as sweat beaded on her forehead.
Nora’s voice was filled with venom and pain as she spat back to Anna, keeping the volume low. “I told you Paul was no good, Anna. You’d have been better off in the desert with me and Tilly.”
