"Everything is down."

Helen stood outside the front door of the enormous house. Still groggy, Marto's first thought was about how good she looked. Her face was thinner, her body hardened. She held herself with great confidence. What had happened to her since he first saw her at the Lester Sunshine Inn?

"Marto? Everything is down! Do you hear me?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," Marto said aloud, remembering she was a mandatory verbal. "I think Maxtor has a kind of blocker on in here."

"It's not just here Marto. It's everywhere."

Marto walked outside, away from the house. There were six youngsters in brightly colored uniforms stretching in unison on the grass outside the front door. ["Hello,"] he thexted to them. He received no response. "Hello," he said aloud. They stood up and bowed to him, again, in unison. Odd.

He walked further away from the house, onto the road. He tried to check his merit, something he did every day upon waking. There was nothing. He felt as if a wet blanket had been thrown over his head. He tried to bring up a local map. Again, there was nothing. There was no pingback, no data received, no sense the data was sent. There was just nothing.

A small hot sphere of panic grew in his chest. Where was he again? He sent a query and got no response. He couldn't, for the life of him, remember the name of the town. He called back to Helen. "How did you find me here?" Helen waved him to come closer, her tanned forearm moving in a circle toward her chest. He trotted back to the front door. "Do you remember where we are? How did you follow me here?"

"Ho!" shouted the youngsters in unison. Their hands pushed quickly out in front of them, palms outward. Marto saw six black staffs lined neatly up against the side of the lodge.

"We are outside Bristol Tribe. The little ninjas and I have been traveling all night to get here in time before you took off."

"Ninjas!" the ninjas shouted, one arm up, one arm and one leg out to the side.

"So, what do you mean, everything is down everywhere?"

"The interconnection; It's not on at all. It just shut down this morning as we were heading here. People are panicking. It's chaos out there."

"They seem to be okay." Marto gestured to the group of teens, flexing.

"They are just amazing. Nothing phases them. They saved me from a bad situation in the Hampton Isles. I owe them so much."

"You know, you don't 'owe' them anything," Marto began, launching into teacher mode, as he did for most noobs, "that is not our way Helen, what is offered..."

"Don't you get it? That's over! No Merit! No ratings! Nothing."

"This must be a temporary glitch. Maybe it's an upgrade." Marto shook his head as if maybe his implants had simply detached. He felt like he had gone deaf. "Maybe it's localized to just this region."

"Well, there is no way to know, but I'm telling you, people are walking around like... I mean, everyone is confused for miles around. You mentioned someone was here with you. Max somebody? Why don't you check with him?"

Marto ran into the house and shouted up the stairs "Maxtor?" He ran up to the largest bedroom where he thought the lion was sleeping. "Maxtor?" There was no answer. He opened the door. The bed looked slept in, but empty. The bathroom door was open. He was not there. Marto checked the other rooms, the living room, the expansive kitchen. Maxtor had left. He headed back outside.

"He's gone," he said. "I guess he left this morning, or maybe last night. He is unpredictable."

"Well, I've found you. That's something. I've been trying to catch up with you for days. I went to Cos, and then I got on a barge, and was kidnapped..."

"You were kidnapped? Why?"

"Oh. Well, look, we'd better sit down somewhere so I can tell you. I'm not really who I said I am, but I am who I think I am now, I think. Marto, what do you suppose is happening?"

"I have no idea. I just woke up," Marto said, rubbing his forehead. "I need a tea or something. And something to eat. I think there's food inside. Come on in. I don't know how long we can stay here. I was here on the Merit of Maxtor, but since no one can thext or track us, who knows? Come in."

The eight of them walked into the spacious living room and chose seats. Marto left to wash his face. When he returned Helen told him all about her past, her family, her escape, and then stopped before she got to the part about New Atlantic. Marto was astonished at the revelation of her previous identity. Such things were not unheard of, but rare. Suddenly their first meeting made much more sense.

"So was it true when you told me you had read my previous work about my trip to Great Lakes?"

"Yes, I had a printed version at my aunt's library. It was contraband, but people in my family didn't really check the books I read."

"So what happened next?" Marto was enthralled by Helen's story.

"Um, why don't you go see if there is any food or a way to make tea or coffee or something before I go further. I don't know if you are going to pass out again."

"Oh, yeah. Wait here."

Marto went into the kitchen and found a kettle. The range was top notch, like the one used by Thirty/Fourteen in Reverside. He found coffee, amazing, a ceramic drip pot and a hemp filter, and poured the water over. There were biscuits baked the day before in a bread box and a block of sheep butter. In a cupboard, he found marmalade, also amazing. He got a platter and brought everything out with cups and plates.

He was met at the door by one of the ninjas. ["We can still PM,"] she thexted. She meant private message. ["We've been thexting to each other all morning to work on synchronizing our attacks. I thought you knew this. Helen doesn't seem to be able to hear us."]

Given this information, Marto thought the outage might only be limited to the repeaters. Without repeaters, the Interconnected could still communicate in private, if they were in close proximity.

Marto walked out to the living room, put the platter on the coffee table and tried it out ["Hello everyone. Are you getting this? We have not all been introduced. I'm Marto."]

["Londra"] ["Tinker"] ["Zha-Zha"] ["Timo"] ["Patsi"] ["Billie"] replied the ninjas. There was no point in including their foremothers since there were no references available at the moment. Helen looked on, confused at the odd silence.

"Helen, no one has shown you how to private message," Londra said to her, "I guess it makes sense, as you are still a noob. It takes concentration. Shall I teach you?"

Helen hesitated. "Maybe later. Let's eat."

Considering the ominous deadness in their heads, breakfast was thoroughly enjoyed by all. They ate in silence, unaccustomed to chewing and talking aloud. Only Helen broke the quiet. She offered comments about the marmalade and how much she enjoyed the coffee. The sky was overcast, and the lake was still. A few birds flew by. The party gazed out the window as they finished.

The ninjas cleared the dishes, and brought back more coffee and Helen spoke to Marto. "So, after I left Wyland tribe in The Jersey, I came to New Atlantic. I was trying to find a ... a friend." She hesitated, ready for Marto to have another spell. "Your mother found me first."

"My ... mother." Marto felt a familiar wave of dizziness. He knew how to fight it this time. "My mother is alive?"

"Yes!" Helen felt a great relief. Her mission was almost complete. "She left me a message for you." She touched the side of her head. "I don't know what's in it. I may have already sent you part of it, and then you passed out for a bit. She was adamant you have it. I have traveled all the way from Reverside to find you again and give this to you in person. Reyleena said I couldn't send it to you remotely. It had to be in person."

"Well..." Marto was still fighting to keep from fainting. "Hang on." He took a sip of the coffee to steady himself. "So. I think you should first work with Londra on the private messaging thing before you do a data transfer like that. It could be risky if you don't know how to PM."

"Oh, okay." Helen was dismayed. She wanted the data out of her head once and for all. "How long will it take?"

"It depends on how good you are with the implants, maybe a couple of hours, maybe a day. I don't know."

"Right." She had come this far, perhaps a day longer wouldn't hurt. She didn't really know what she would do after this was over anyway. Maybe back to Cos, and Tash, or maybe stay with Marto? She thought about traveling with him through the Northeast, cycling from town to town, but what if all the connections were gone for good? Would Marto keep going? She was struck by the total groundlessness of her current situation.

"So, when you saw my mother, where was she again? I don't know of any New Atlantic tribe."

"It's not a tribe. It's a Luddite family like mine. She works there. She is a servant of a man named Barnabas. He's the leader. I don't know much about him, but I think he's dangerous."

"But, she's been augmented."

"Yes. It's a secret, I suppose."

"So, my mother is a spy in a neo-feudal enclave?"

"Yes, I think so Marto, Reyleena told me she has been for years."

"Woh." Now Marto felt he really was going to faint. "Can you... can you go somewhere with Londra? I don't want to pass out again. Please. Come back when you know how to... to..."

"Yes. I will. Hang tight Marto. I'll be back." Helen sped out of the room with Londra. The rest of the ninjas curled up on the floor and took a nap.

Marto sat on the sofa and watched as three ducks landed on the lake. He steadied himself, breathing carefully and then felt the darkness rise up and drown him.

• • •

The engine of the plane is a constant hum outside of the cabin. Marto is sitting with his mother, who is smiling down at him, stroking his hair. Her face is lit by an oval of light from the window. Marto looks out at the clouds and the diminishing mountains below. The sky is a color blue he had never seen before, deep and growing darker as you look up.

The pilot is a friendly man, his face familiar. He lets Marto come up into the cockpit and look at all the dials. Marto's father sits next to him in the same sort of chair, buckled in. "Don't touch!" the friendly man says. "This is called the throttle. And this is the horizon. You see it out there, but this is how we know we are level, even when we are in the clouds. Got it?"

Marto goes back to sit with his mother. He falls asleep on the seat. Then he is awake and the sound of the plane is different. His mother's heart is beating fast as she holds him tight to her breast. She is whispering to herself, Marto can hear it faintly through her chest, over the rising whine of the engines. Her hair flaps around him in the swirling wind of the cabin.

The plane bumps and tilts hard to one side. His mother gasps. There is a loud bang.

• • •