Vic really wasn't sure what to do, but staying out of sight was vital. She couldn't go back to her room at the cottage, and should avoid the pub she'd gone to with Gus. Training had made her automatically identify a bolt hole at every stop as a matter of course, regardless of which Quadrant or what type of inhabitant. She had never failed to do so, and was now very glad.

Her moped was too loud and obvious. She was quick to slip into the shadows on foot, and by the time the patrols were out on the hill, she was back in the village on the outlying edges, moving indirectly and inconspicuously around to the pod port. 

Once in the pod zone you had tech and guards, checking vehicles and individuals. Security was tight. But in the tailback of traffic that meandered for a mile or so, it was a different story. There were vendors with protein packs and rehydration tubes. (Fish and chips were strictly for the tourists.) Families and workers milled about, leaving their motors to stretch their legs.  Some were stressed, a lot in tired end-of-holiday moods, a few leaving town for the first time, both excited and nervous. She slipped in, avoiding eye contact, picking up some refreshment which she pocketed for later, and wondered if she should try to fly out.

What did she need to do? She sat on a kerb like she was waiting for someone, and made a mental list.

She must survive. So, she needed the general to get the report in tact. For that she had to track down the assassin, whoever it was, plug the leak in the system and prove her innocence, wit, and courage. Her own side would bump off a weak link just as easily as the enemy would. That was one thing Gus' close supervision had protected her from. She felt a pang. She had left his body there, out in the open, with scarcely a goodbye. But if she couldn't bury him, it was best he was found quickly by someone else who could.

She'd better take a short rest before getting started. Soon she was lying along a tree branch very near the road, her long black coat draped over her, eyes half shut. Half an hour, that was all she needed. 

As pink and purple stars peeped through the gold-leafed tree at her tousled head, Vic was beginning to think her freedom might be as hard to keep as it had been to earn. 

It was the fingers of light from the blue dawn that fell on Vic's face and woke her. Glancing swiftly down to the road she saw nothing and no-one. The traffic, both human and mechanical from the night before had vanished. The backlog had cleared. Pods must be flying out again. 

It had not been her intention to sleep at all, just rest a while, but this was a restful tree, with a soothing scent of eucalyptus escaping from its crinkled leaves and oozing from its bark. She was lucky to wake up safe though, with the crowd gone. They were her safety net. She'd need to be more careful this morning.

*****

Meanwhile, a slender pixie girl had spent last evening weaving her way through endless queues, asking if anyone had seen her mother, waving a walking stick that she needed to get to her. Somehow the old lady was always around the next corner. Finally it seemed it was her phone she had forgotten, and the poor faithful pixie had to slip through the security barrier, asking a severe guard to kindly take the antique device and catch the elusive aged parent up. As if! Catch her up yourself, and fast! So the little pixie girl caught up with the next outgoing pod, hopped aboard, and took off. It wasn't as if she didn't have a pass and ID docs. It was just so much quicker and more fun this way.

Quadrant 2 was so far behind on tech because of the Luddite Revolution. They did have the tech, but they just didn't like using it, so when Leonora turned up at the Tinkering Court for technical misdemeanours, they'd tried to send her back because it was so far fetched. She was likely the first. Gus had guffawed at the sight of her case file, humiliating her in front of the others. Classic  bullying, she recollected.  But you had to know a lot more more about people to be a good techno deviant in Quadrant 2, and Leonora did.

She didn't intend to take any chances with the hi tech at the other end. She had a wedding to get to. She had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. She'd made a good start, saving time jumping the queue, and just in case there was a delay sorting Vic's problems out, she did have the tickets and travel permits with her, ready for their honeymoon.

She'd been a bit naughty, she admitted to herself, but it was really like a singer warming up the vocal chords. She'd got the adrenaline up, and was starting to feel ready. 

*****

The departure zone was still busy when Vic made her way in. It wasn't that she wanted to leave, yet, but she couldn't help thinking the queues had been a bit excessive last night, and she had just a niggling feeling that it might be important. 

People were saying there had been a smuggler caught with a ton of contraband (a tonne? oh, just quite a lot) and officials had wanted to search everyone he'd come into contact with. They'd checked spyware, and called in each and every person he had driven by or stood beside, and even those he'd simply walked among. 

Must have been something special he was smuggling? Vic hazarded. Oh that'd be right. Elite squad got here at midnight. The families just gave up and went home, those that were allowed. I thought I might get a quicker departure then, but it turned out he'd walked past me in the morning in town, so...

Once they started trawling through, all kinds of faces would trigger alerts, Vic knew. Gus was a red flag to security, and she'd been in his company, as well as the killer's. They would be looking for her.

In the ladies' room she turned her coat inside out to the green plaid lining, and plaited her hair into two headphone coils. It wouldn't really help but it made her feel better. 

Now, she wondered, who was that smuggler? And where was his bike?