“You wait here,” said the little girl. “Don’t go anywhere or you’ll get in big trouble.” The tattoos on her face glowed red and she fixed him with a piercing green-eyed stare.
Aleister got the impression that she wasn’t bluffing.
“Let’s go, Fogo,” She said turning to a small silver dragon that rested at the foot of a nearby oak tree. The diminutive creature did not stir. “Fogo!” She smacked him with her staff.
The dragon raised his head and hissed at her.
“Don’t be naughty.” She pointed the staff at him, and the runes carved along its side shimmered in red, purple, and yellow.
The creature sat up and snorted.
"This way," she told him.
Letting out a puff of smoky air, he followed her through the thick vegetation.
——
Her name was Lhasa. Approximately 13 years old, from the looks of her, perhaps younger. It was hard to tell because of all the tattoos covering her face and body. She had shown up the previous afternoon at Oriana’s pod with Fogo in tow. She told Oriana that some Valkyries had been asking questions about an injured man. It was just a matter of time before they made their way to this sector.
“You must go,” Oriana said to Aleister. “Your stay in the Unterzone is an open secret. Residents try not to get on each other’s business, but there’s no telling if someone might be persuaded to talk.”
Coincidently, Lhasa and her sister had a small business ferrying passengers who needed discrete passage between biomalls. So, as ill-advised (and suspicious) as the idea sounded to him, he had little choice but to go along with the plan.
“We’ll meet again,” Oriana said.
“Some sunny day...”
Their fingers touched lightly. No words had to be spoken as Saturn’s early morning light cast strange shadows on their silence.
——
He reached into his backpack and fished out a black polycarbon case. He pressed its sides, and the case opened like a clamshell, revealing a chrome disk the size of a small dinner plate. He held the disk on the palm of his hand, and a three-dimensional rendering of a tower flashed into view. As the model spun, a detailed schematic of the spiraling structure materialized. He studied every facet of it, memorizing even inconsequential details like that the number of steps to the top, 1137. There were 24 rooms scattered across eight levels. He memorized their configuration. It would have been easier to upload the information directly into his exo-memory, but he couldn’t risk a neural intrusion. Safer to rely on good old synaptic technology.
Half an hour after they left, Lhasa and Fogo came back from their scouting trip. The little girl stood looking at him from a distance, her figure framed by the large heart-shaped leaves around her. The very image of innocence. Without saying a word, she beckoned him to follow her and disappeared in the foliage.
***
[01](https://steemit.com/flashfiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-01), [02](https://steemit.com/flashfiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-02), [03](https://steemit.com/flashfiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-03), [04](https://steemit.com/flashfiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-04), [05](https://steemit.com/flashfiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-05), [06](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-06), [07](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-07), [08](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-08), [09](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-09), [10](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-10), [11](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-11), [12](https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@litguru/falling-stars-rising-11), 13