In the center of town, there was a trickle of a shadow, and a wavering in the dirt on the road. The dust on the wind was eddying around something, or perhaps around nothing. The town had gone to ghost long ago, and things that had been, long ago, still caught the wind on cool fall days. But on this cool fall day the light began to show a shape, and color appeared on the surface of the little void in the road. And it was a body, and it appeared to be a dog. In just a moment the colors on the fur were a rich gold with brindled orange and ripples of red. The dog had stopped were water lapped among the leaning buildings of the town. The water matched the dog’s fur in all its colors. The little waves reached for the rest of the town, even as they swallowed the buildings behind. The town was half old buildings on dusty plots, and half swamp and old buildings leaning and groaning into expanding pools of muck. The dog stepped from the dust and mud to gravel fill, which rose just above the water, preserving a path down main street. The dog padded forward, appearing now to be simply a German Shepherd, with no hint of translucence or any other advanced stealth technology. It then stopped, gazing down the road, to the places where the road rose up on stout new pylons through the clogged swamp, among the corroded stumps of old pylons that the slough had nearly claimed.
Back in the forest, two men sat on horses. They wore wide hats to shield the brow and handkerchiefs against dust and sun. Dust was more forceful than the sun in the autumn sky. No amulets were woven into the manes of their horses, and no prayer books were clutched at their chests. They wore stout cotton shirts without pattern, and pants of cotton stouter still, blue denim brushing a long holster that hung from the saddle of the younger rider. He was an old youth or a young man, and his companion was similar in build, tall and thin, though elder to the point where grey mixed with white in the shadow of his hat brim. The boy listened as the dogs communicated with one another. He couldn’t understand much of the language of dogs, but like any folks who’ve spent enough time with dogs, he heard enough to know something wasn’t right down in Slickensslough Proper. Though, through the trees, the half-swallowed town didn’t look any different from usual. He didn’t believe the town was haunted, or that the death of the Valley Folk would pass through the town, like the soothsayers were fond of whispering.
“Good boy, Sir.” The young man muttered to the dog, then turned to his grandfather. “Sir is out of stealth. He’s standing in the middle of the road. If we’re being watched, Sir should draw them out.
His grandfather nodded.
The boy went on. “I’m gonna send up some beetle drones.”
The old man paused for a breath before replying. “You normally send up drones while the cattle graze?”
“Today ain’t like other days.” The boy replied.
“But it’s supposed to look like other days, ain’t it, Verdy? That’s what you said.”
Verdy nodded. “I imagined it’d be alright. I lied to myself, I guess. But once we cross the causeway all hell is gonna break loose. I’m sorry Paps, I guess I’m trying not to lose my nerve.”
Paps simply ran his fingers through his horse’s mane. Chipmunk was used to the gesture, and remained standing in place. Nickels, a younger horse, stamped to the right and the left, feeling the shuddering anxiety from his rider. Verdy pulled his horse back into place, his eyes staring through the trees. Fields that once had once grown hardy radishes and sorghum had lain fallow for a century, plowed only by the hooves of migrating herds of cattle, since the mining economy had drowned in the muck. Each cow, with a brand and a rancher’s tracking chip, stopped to clip the last of the valley grasses before the long climb into the mountains. Today the Grivvens herd of four thousand six hundred and twenty-two head of cattle were strolling into the field by the town. A single dog ran among the cattle. Burr, the small terrier, had no problem herding every last calf into place, despite being in stealth mode. Completely invisible to outsiders, Burr made herself visible to Verdy and Paps as a point of light in their field of vision. Burr was making herself visible to the cattle as well, but Verdy was pretty sure the cattle could see Burr in stealth mode, whether Burr wanted them to or not.
“Burr. Search the town” Verdy whispered. “Keep it stealthy.”
Burr responded from about a mile away with a quick yelp, which Verdy heard clearly against his eardrums. Verdy tracked the point of light that scrambled between bovine legs and over the stone fence of the graveyard on the near edge of town. He could still see Burr’s movements behind the stone wall, and as Burr entered the Smithy’s forge.
Verdy blinked three times, and his field of vision shifted to Russ’s. The bulky St. Bernard was bringing up the rear, and gave a friendly growl to acknowledge the arrival of Verdy’s link. The dog walked well back on the forest road, watching a small gaggle of elderly Holsteins bringing up the rear. Russ jogged back and forth to either flank of the herd, all while keeping his nosed tuned to any trouble from back in the direction of home.
“Up.” Verdy commanded. The dog stopped in place, then tensed. His hackles rose and his head dropped. From along the spine there was a gentle whirring sound as twelve beetles flew over his head, then his spine straightened and his hackles closed up, and he trotted on.
Verdy arranged the video feeds from each beetle along his visual periphery, with a command for the feed to enlarge if anything unusual appeared.
“So, we’re cattle rustlers then, huh?” Paps laughed.
Verdy tried to reply with a laugh, but his nervous chuckle was thin. “They’re ours, right?” Verdy asked. “To care for. Isn’t that in all the old contracts? We own the cows.”
“Think about it as you will,” Paps replied. “We own the cattle, but not what’s in them. We’ve never owned their robot parts, and don’t go playing to forget that part.”
“So, we are just rustling prosthetics then.” Verdy managed a smile. “The world’s most advanced cow prosthetics…” He trailed off, entering his own thoughts, somewhere below the voices and visions of dogs and beetles that were delivered directly to his eyes and ears.
There came a low growl from the shepherd.
Verdy snapped to attention. “What do you see, Sir?” Verdy asked the dog, but even as he said it, he was connecting to the dog’s vision, as was Paps. From the dog’s eyes they saw a figure coming out of the hills and setting foot on the planks of the marsh road. Sir padded forward past the raised gravel, and stepped onto the wooden bridge that crossed the widest channel of flowing thick water.
“Good dog.” Verdy whispered.
The figure beyond had stepped up onto the plank and pylon of the swamp portion of the road. Sir’s vision had a solid zoom, but Verdy could find no recognition. The dog’s vision displayed an overlay of all information that the dog could scan. Internal wires, drives embedded below the skin or worn on the arm, and a few medical prosthetics.
As of late the dog’s vision had become even more difficult to read. Each person appeared as an overlay, not merely of their flesh and technological prosthetics, but also an overlay of additional outlines. Verdy could make no sense of it, but each person appeared as an amalgamation of multiple forms pressed into one.
“You figure out why the dog’s vision went all strange?” Paps asked.
“They’re seeing something we aren’t. Something we can’t.” Verdy replied.
“You sure it isn’t a glitch?” Paps asked.
“Not these dogs.” Verdy spoke with certainty. “They don’t glitch. It’s the cows…” Verdy’s voice had trailed off. He was in that place again. A place of mind and not of wires. Of calm analysis and not merely the shields against the world. “The cows are seeing something we can’t. They’re teaching the dogs. But they can’t teach us.”
The figure continued to come closer. A shuddering ghost of a thousand spirits.
“Why you gotta talk in riddles, Verdy? I been lettin you keep your secrets with this herd. But ain’t today, a day of all days, when you let me in on what you know?”
“Yeah, Paps. “Verdy replied in a flat, distracted tone. “Today. But not yet. It’s for your protection, that’s why I kept it all from ya.”
“That’s what ya say.” Paps replied.
Sir gave a yip. A yip of familiarity. “Sir!” Verdy called. “Show us just the face! The person’s identity.” The view shifted, but merely into a more brightly glowing overlay of confusing data above the flesh and synthetic additives.
“Ummmm….Skin, hair and clothing, Sir, show us just the skin hair and clothing!”
Sir’s vision shifted to a figure with long grey braids, a wide brimmed floppy hat, and a thick and colorful wool sweater under an ankle length open tan coat. The figure had no eyes, and even as recognition came to Verdy, he called again to Sir. “Eyes too! Include the eyes.”
The eyes popped into place, and it was Mamma Stoltzfus. Stone amulets were woven into her hair, and her prayer book was in the chest pocket of her sweater.
Verdy breathed a sigh of relief.
“You sound almost happy to see her.” Paps remarked. “First time you woulda ever smiled at her approach.
“She’s trouble.” Verdy admitted. “But she’s a trouble I know.”
Mamma Stoltzfus arrived at the bridge, and began to cross. She gave Sir a pat on the head, which he allowed.
“Paps Grivvens. And young Verdant. A blessed day to you each.” She greeted the dog, knowing the Grivvens would be listening through their connection to the dog’s ears.
Verdy spurred on Nickles, and Paps urged Chipmunk to follow after. The two horses came out of the trees and entered into the town, marked by fenceposts without rails. Mamma Stoltzfus waited and watched, Sir sitting next to her.
Verdy stopped Nickles on the dust by the blacksmith shop. The multiple chimneys left it with more substance than most other houses and shops. Verdy started to settle in his saddle, until a surprised jolt from Burr grabbed his attention and his sight. Two men crouched in the kitchen of a house, where a stone backing for the stove had held up a portion of the wooden home exterior. One man was tossing a smooth hollow tube into the air, letting it spin, then catching it. They each wore bulky vests, the mark of the hardware they had brought to power the spinner cannon. The tap of the cannon tube on the man’s hand could not be heard over the milling of the cattle, except by Burr, who heard each time the man caught it. Burr swiveled her head, cycling through her sight and smell and scans of light and heat and vibration. Another figure lay behind the brush growing in an alley. A woman, Burr noted perceptively. She too was strapped with more hardware than was necessary outside of a battlefield or a solo mining expedition. They had on blue-suits, to cloak their heat and their electromagnetic emanations. That might have fooled most scanners, but Burr had a nose for that type of thing.
Verdy’s hand was in his holster before Burr wheeled away to finish her search.
Paps held up his hand to Verdy. “Leave it in the holster.”
“But-“
Paps cut him off. “This ain’t our first trouble. We ain’t gonna turn against our countrymen.”
“They turned against us long ago.” Verdy replied.
“They had troubles. And we can’t say we weren’t part of bringing trouble to this valley. Let’s try to talk this through.”
Burr spotted three more figures in blue-suits. Verdy had never seen more than three folks by the Slickensslough, and never when they weren’t all three tending to the same herd. Verdy kept his hand in the holster as Mamma Stoltzfus spoke. “The Slickensslough’s bubbling.” She said. “I fear what the day will bring.”
She had stopped walking, and turned towards the water, hands on the rough wood of the bridge railing. Sir sat down next to her, looking out under the railing.
It was true. There was a roiling in the waters, like the stirring of a beast in the deep. Bubbles lifted and popped, and Sir helped the Grivvens to smell the rotten sulfur that had risen from deep in the earth’s crust.
“It was the day that company came to town that the first corruption rose into the clear waters of the millpond,” she began, her voice rising in oration. Verdy had heard the story, but he was pretty sure she had tuned up the timeline for a better tale. “SusteNext. Frankenstein meat growed in a city factory! Don’t all you ranchers want to help us! Let us turn your cows into lab rats and fill them with robot parts!”
Mamma turned to stare at the dog, and Sir met her gaze. Verdy had Sir’s visual feed so Mamma filled his vision, though he devoted the corners of his vision to Burr and the Beetles. Verdy felt the intensity of Mamma’s gaze as she continued.
“The rest of us had the good sense to say no. But the Grivvens had to sell out to the city folk. To embrace the abomination, and the corruption grew in the millpond, until it became the Slickensslough, and the sickness of the swamp spread down the valley!”
Mamma stood straight, and looked through the town to where the two men sat on their horses. The Grivvens switched back to their own eyesight. Her story was misaligned by two handfuls of decades, but she spoke the metaphor as truth.
“Just so SusteNext could dupe the world- to show you bozos on horseback with green grass and cows in their commercials, instead of the concrete floors and conveyor belts of their real meat production lines!” She paused. Then she snapped, “Well, aren’t you gonna tell me how it weren’t like that? How the Grivvens grass and fine care was the key to the taste that SusteNext found? How without your fine ranching they never coulda made good meat in their factory vats?”
“We don’t need to have that conversation again.” Paps muttered.
“Call off the dogs.” She spoke it as a command. “Have them turn off their cloaking. Let us scan the cattle. We only need a hundred or so of the good ones. We’ll cut out their prostheses. We’ll fetch a good price for their metal bits. Then we’ll call it a day and let you off the hook for destroying our livelihood. Destroying the livelihood of every rancher in this valley. In the world.”
“Their robot bits is proprietary.” Paps replied.
“Our buyers don’t mind.” Mamma replied. She was walking again, closer, and they started to hear her voice with their own ears.
“We are taking the herd to the hills.” Verdy spoke firmly. “None of them are getting cut up. They’re gonna live out their days and their wires and sensors are gonna waste away with their bones when their time comes.”
“I see.” Mamma replied. “So, let me get this straight. You destroyed our livelihood. But you got enough corporate hardware here in these cattle that, even at liquidation rates, we could keep food on all our tables for a few lifetimes. But instead of helping out your old countrymen, you got a fancy to let the herd die of old age. Just for fun?”
“It’s more complicated than that.” Verdy replied.
“Are you gonna call off the dogs?” She asked again.
“Not a chance,” Verdy spat back.
Mamma looked to Paps. She was only thirty feet away. Sir had left her, and was sitting well back, in the middle of the road. He looked calm, but he knew what Burr knew, and what Russ knew. He knew what the drones saw and what Verdy saw. So he was not calm.
“You with the boy?” Mamma asked Paps.
“For better or for worse, we’re sticking together.” Paps looked at Verdy and shook his head, smiling just a bit.
Then Verdy went blind.
The shock of it caught in his throat, and he whirled to swing defensively at the sudden blackness. The open air provided no resistance, and he had only a second to grasp at the saddle horn as he tipped and fell.
Then there was just the dust on his hands, stinging. The smell of Nickles, lingering where his face had struck her side. The stamping and lowing of cattle. And the dread. The dread of wonder. The wondering how it was that Mamma Stoltzfus had come across technology powerful enough to overtake his system. With all his world-class upgrades straight from SusteNext. She had come into possession of a terrible technology. And was willing to use it.
“Stay with the herd.” He called. Burr would hear. Even if his network was down, she’d hear the natural sound of his voice. He didn’t want to think of a weapon capable of shutting down the dogs, but he didn’t think such a thing existed. The dogs would protect the herd. That was their job. Not to protect Verdy, or even Paps.
He froze, then took one breath. His system would reset. It would identify the breach. He remembered his training from the company security experts. Don’t pull out your contacts. That’s the urge when you go blind. Then you can see, but you are left with eyes bleeding from where every wire was ripped free, cut off from all of your network visuals and menus. Wait for your system.
Verdy lunged toward the nervous shuffling of horseshoes. Only a second or two had passed. He felt a stirrup. He pulled himself to a knee, as Nickles stepped back. Mamma Stoltzfus wouldn’t shut up. She called out, “You think we wouldn’t read the new laws? You think we’d wait until they took our herds!”
Verdy’s hand reached the edge of his holster. Nickles was stamping in a circle, and other footsteps approached. Verdy hung onto the holster with both hands, hopping along with the horse.
“Illegal to butcher a cow! Starting tomorrow!” Mamma yelled. “They couldn’t even bear a little fair competition, real meat versus fake. They had to outlaw real meat, so the world’s stuck with their slop!”
Verdy reached into the holster and pulled out his own weapon. The sleek Bracer was the length of his forearm and curved to fit, from his wrist to his elbow.
“You know what they said we should do!” Mamma yelled. “Be tour guides! Give safaris when the city folk come to see our herds turned out to the wild!?”
The bracer settled onto Verdy’s arm. He felt its power flooding through his system, chasing out intruders, fortifying his network, reaching out for dangers and allies. Light and sight returned to his eyes.
Chipmunk pulled at her reins against a stranger. A woman had hold of Paps, a clear glass knife at his throat. Verdy took a step toward Paps. A man moved into his path. Like the rest of them the man wore a helmet with visor down; the helmet matched to the rest of the man’s blue-suit as its colors shifted to match the surroundings. It was a poor imitation of Burr’s camo capabilities, but was effective against the casual gaze.
A tube floated between Verdy and the man, bronze and spinning, just big enough that Verdy might have slid his arm into it. But Verdy could feel its energy, perhaps through the sensing powers of the bracer, or perhaps with his own nerves standing his hair on end.
Verdy reached for the tube. Not with his hand, but with the Bracer’s energy. Verdy’s weapon probed for a crack in the tube cannon’s defenses, with Verdy offering only the slightest oversight. The cannon fired, but not before the bracer had taken hold of it enough to turn it in the air. Just an inch. The blast went wide of Verdy, but Nickles stumbled and let out an angry neigh of pain. The blast had glanced across his rump, ignoring the flesh, but slamming into the horse’s enhanced skeleton. Nickles nearly fell, then limped forward.
Verdy punched the man in the stomach. The man grunted, and Verdy grabbed the cannon tube, with his actual hand this time. He pulled with the muscles in his arm, but it was the bracer that allowed him to pull it free from its bond and toss it down the street. The cannon operator jumped aside, but Verdy clenched at the man’s legs with the Bracer’s magnetic emanations, while sending just the tickle of an electric jolt to the man’s thigh muscles. The man wobbled but did not fall. The man’s protections were many times enhanced from most men that Verdy had sparred with, but the Bracer gave only a few moments additional delay before finding a path to the man’s internal network. It sent a pulse to neutralize any nerve commands, and the man’s leg muscles relaxed completely, and he buckled into the dust.
Verdy turned to Mamma Stoltzfus, and sent a simple signal in her direction. She hadn’t increased her defenses, so the Bracer gave no hesitation before setting each of her joints to flail, and she dropped in a writhing heap.
Verdy tuned toward Paps. The woman’s visor faced him, her knife at Paps’ throat. Verdy paused, and took a breath. A man crouched just behind her and Paps. The Bracer tracked the other three individuals spreading out on his periphery, but Verdy focused on the woman. He could send her flying back, or flopping to the ground. Each action would drag the knife across Paps’ throat.
It was a well-planned strategy. Mamma had known he carried a Bracer, and they had created a low-tech bind for him. He scanned for a way to relax her arm, but the Bracer sensed an exoskeleton from her wrist to her shoulder. Verdy could magnetically blast the arm out of the way, but there was no command to force the arm to stand down. He cursed within.
He stepped back, and lowered his Bracer arm. It was, of course, still just as effective, but the symbolic gesture seemed to relax the others, and he ceased his attacks. Mamma Stoltzfus stood up, as did the man that Verdy had knocked down. The cannon tube clanged against the pebbles as it skipped across the road, then rose into the air, returning to its place, spinning in front of the man’s chest, throwing off the dust it had accumulated.
A large man, squeezed into an ill-fitting blue-suit, sidled up beside Mamma Stoltzfus. His breathing was heavy and his gut strained against the intelligent fabric. In his hand he held a classic gunpowder weapon, its long skinny barrel was polished silver, and he kept a finger carelessly on the trigger.
“Eddy? Is that you?” Verdy leaned toward the man, squinting as if he could see through the man’s visor. The man looked at Mamma Stoltzfus, then back at Verdy, without speaking. Verdy continued. “Where’d you get that shiny toy? Only Eddy’d be dumb enough to bring a gun to a knife fight!”
Though Mamma reached out a hand to calm him, Eddy’s visor flipped up. The angry face of Eidmoyer Stoltzfus was glaring out at Verdy. The gun raised, and Eddy yelled, “Verdy, you self-righteous dung weasel! You always getting’ all the gazillion dollar upgrades and makin’ fun of us trying to make our way in the world!”
“Peace, Eddy!” Mamma Stoltzfus cried out, but Eddy screamed louder. “You ruined the valley and all the stuff our grandpappies built in the last thousand years!”
“A thousand? You sure about those numbers?” Verdy asked casually.
Eddy screamed and threw his hands into the air, the pistol shaking in his fist.
Without moving, Verdy sent a command to the Bracer. It focused its energy on the gun. Invisible lasers focused and crossed just beyond Eddy’s fingers. It was a mere moment before the bullet casings glowed red within the revolver cylinder. Eddy had another half moment to feel the heat on his hand before the gunpowder ignited. Verdy was already moving toward Paps, back turned toward Eddy, his shoulder clenched against his ear to protect his neck from shrapnel. Only then did he realize that he had lost his hat at some point. The woman flinched against the explosion just as Verdy grabbed the hand that held the knife. Verdy pushed Paps’ neck away from the knife. There was a nick on the right side of Paps’ neck as he fell away, but Verdy didn’t see it begin to bleed, and he focused the Bracer on the woman’s arm. The metal binding her arm slammed hard into the ground and the glass knife flew into the dust. She lay pinned on her back. Verdy slid in front of Paps, backing them both away as he separated from the others. Then he paused, realizing that he had not been hit by any debris. Everyone froze, listening to Eddy’s screams of pain.
“What’ve you done, you fool child!?” Mamma yelled at Verdy as she knelt by Eddy. Verdy had a tinge of shock and shame as he saw the effects of the explosion on Eddy’s hand. The cylinder had channeled much of the energy from the blast back toward Eddy, and if he retained any use of his hand it would never be with more than the use of one or two fingers. A burnt gash travelled up Eddy’s arm, his other hand trying to clutch it closed.
Verdy felt Paps behind him and set his jaw. “I’m not the one started this hullabaloo!” He shouted. “You think you can put a knife to Paps’ throat all whiles keeping this a friendly gathering? You attack our insides and our outsides and you got the good nerve to be offended at my defensiveness?” Verdy felt his anger rising, the Bracer on his forearm held across his chest like a shield.
Verdy gave a Bracer push, and Mamma and Eddy fell back into the dust. Nickles and Chipmunk had run to the edge of town, so he only had to watch out for Paps. Again, without moving, Verdy sent out a wider Bracer blast, and three cannon tubes went clattering to the ground. Verdy had hardly noticed the two other individuals standing in the background, their cannons spinning, until they were thrown off balance. Eddy still wouldn’t shut up about his hand, cursing Verdy and Paps and SusteNext and gunpowder. Verdy yelled louder, amplifying his voice with the Bracer.
“Mamma! After all your schemes over these years! This might be your worst! You come at us with a posse of rodeo clowns, and you give them cannons and knives! You’re scraping the bottom of the lard barrel! You scrape low enough to find any Zimmermans yet?”
“Hey!” Yelled the cannoneer laying on the ground in front of Verdy.
“Shut up, Donny.” Mamma Stoltzfus commanded.
“Ha!” Verdy laughed without humor. “Donny Zimmerman. Stand aside, Mamma. I’m taking my cows to the hills!”
Verdy felt a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s not get anyone else hurt.” Paps said.
“Last chance, Grivvens!” Mamma Stoltzfus called. “It’s only as I have more good graces than I should that I’ve requested this chance for you. Don’t test fate on a day the Slickensslough’s in a right mighty turmoil!”
Verdy pushed her with the Bracer. She didn’t move.
He pushed her again.
Nothing.
He released any limitations on the Bracer and pushed hard enough to throw back her skeleton without regard to damage to muscle or tendon.
Mamma just shook her head.
From behind her, a man who had been hanging back stepped forward. Verdy noticed for the first time that his blue-suit came only to the elbow on his left arm. As Verdy watched, low ridges on the forearm skin rose up into rings that glowed with a pulsing purple light. The man’s lower arm would have to be more prosthesis than flesh to withstand the power. It was a full Bangle, with seven Bangle rings rising from his arm.
The woman with the knife rose up to Verdy and Paps’ right. But she didn’t have a knife in her hand. The metal on her arm rose up and pressed through the forearm of her suit. The exoskeleton was pushed neatly aside. She also had seven Bangle rings, pulsing and glowing.
Suddenly the blindness made sense.
In Verdy’s opinion, a Bracer was superior to a Bangle.
But it was debatable.
And two Bangles…
The man with the Bangled arm lifted his visor. Verdy was hit with a wave of confused recognition. The face was familiar, but he could not place it. He cycled through all the places he might have seen this man.
Then the woman lifted her visor. The comfortable warm recognition of her face rose immediately with confusion and dread. As the confusion subsided the dread rose.
“Janey?” Verdy muttered.
“You can keep calling me that, I suppose.” Janey replied.
There was a long pause. Only the cattle and Eddy lowing broke the silence.
“Don’t feel bad. I’m an excellent actor.” Janey proffered awkwardly.
“You targeted me.” Verdy muttered.
She just shrugged.
“No amount of priceless upgrading can put good sense in a bloke.” The other Bangled man spoke.
“Bill!” Verdy remembered.
“Sure.” Bill replied.
“What’s going on?” Paps asked from behind Verdy. Verdy looked at him for a moment, then wheeled to face Mamma Stoltzfus, who knelt beside Eddy, trying to wrap his hand in strips of cloth.
“Who are you working with?” Verdy cried out. “Do you know these people? Their loyalties? Do you even know what company….or even country, they report to?”
Verdy was interrupted by an extended growl from Eddy. Eddy had raised himself to his knees, and leaned away from Mamma. He raised his arm to point at Verdy. The cloth fell, revealing his mangled hand. There was no pointer finger, but Eddy conveyed his focus nonetheless.
“Suddenly you think something of loyalty?” Eddy spat at Verdy. “You think we should protect one thing against another thing? What’s that, Verdant? WHAT’S THAT!?”
Mamma stood and placed a hand on Eddy’s head. She spoke almost softly. “We would’ve ranched in this valley for another thousand years. But the Grivvens had other ideas. Now we’ll sell what we can to whoever can pay. Even if it’s just a map of the Grivvens’ land. And a list of their arrogant foolishnesses, that makes them think they’re invulnerable to all attacks.”
“But them?” Verdy asked, gesturing to Bill and Janey.
“From what I hear, you’re one of them.” Mamma Stoltzfus looked him dead in the eye. “Where’d your accent go, Verdy. You sound city all the sudden.”
“Verdy…” There were questions in Paps’ voice from behind.
“I won’t lie to you, Paps, even if your grandson can’t say the same.” Mamma stepped forward. “Where’d you think he’s been disappearing to for all these trips?”
“Chicago.” Paps replied.
“Ah! SusteNext headquarters for more training and upgrades!” Mamma laughed. “But there’s some upgrades you just can’t get there! SusteNext makes some pretending of following the law, even if they have to write new ones every few months.”
Janey placed her finger on Verdy’s shoulder and traced a line down his back. Verdy didn’t move. “The Toledo Underground has a dazzling nightlife.” Janey addressed the comment to Paps.
“No…..” Paps muttered. “Toledo? Verdy, the abominations created there! You haven’t cavorted with such, have you?”
Verdy was silent.
“Why don’t you show him?” Bill suggested.
“Are we still talking about lab-grown beef?” came a voice from the ground.
“Shut up, Donny.” Verdy managed.
Verdy felt the weight of guilt, at keeping secrets from Paps. The other things he had dealt with, but not his own lies. To Paps.
“Well, I’m in a hurry.” Bill threw up his hands as if apologizing for his interruption. Janey stepped back, moving to stand near Bill. “Call off the dogs, Verdy. I need answers. Tell them to stop cloaking”
“What are your questions?” Verdy asked.
“Why is the military so focused on this herd of cows?” he replied.
“Military?” Donny asked.
Even Mamma’s brow wrinkled, though she didn’t speak.
“Feeding an army is a big undertaking.” Verdy shrugged. “Controlling the growth rate of meat, as well as its exact fat and caloric content- that’s of huge interest to military planners.”
Bill let out a long sigh. “Our sources tell us there are numerous branches of government in talks with SusteNext. There’s a planned partnership that will focus heavily on intelligence. Global intelligence.”
“Sounds like you know more than me.” Verdy replied.
“We don’t have time for games.” Janey interjected. She clicked her fingers on both hands. Verdy hadn’t paid much attention to the backpack-sized bulges on the backs of Janey and Bill. But suddenly they were disgorging floating orbs, drones the size of baseballs that flew through the town and out into the field. They formed a grid over the herd, hovering at regular intervals across the entire expanse of roaming cattle.
Sir snapped to alert, growling. The dog confirmed Verdy’s suspicions. The drones were explosives. Powerful explosives. Verdy felt for their communication grid, but the Bracer felt sluggish. He turned, and Janey was smiling at him. She and Bill had their Bangles crossed across their chests, doubtless counteracting any effects of the Bracer.
Bill spoke up. “Those grenades are a bit jumpy. I wouldn’t mess with their controls, unless you want to see them pop.” Sir was coming to the same conclusion, letting Verdy know not to push the explosives too hard.
“Now, I don’t remember this part in our agreement.” Mamma Stoltzfus noted. Her voice didn’t waver. She sounded strong. Like Paps.
Janey snapped, “You’ll get your money, lady. But I have some pretty clear directives. I need to know what’s going on with these cows, or I have to shut down the operation.”
Verdy sat down in the dust.
He pulled off the Bracer. “Unlock,” he commanded. He tossed the Bracer at Mamma Stoltzfus. She managed to hide her surprise, but Eddy did not. “Mamma!” He exclaimed in a loud whisper, seeming to forget his pain.
“Is this what you want?” Verdy asked Mamma. “To see the Grivvens without options? To take our things? Or watch it all burn down?”
“You burned down this valley a long time ago.” Mamma replied. “And yeah, I think seeing the Grivvens brought low would bring me a touch of joy in my old age.”
“It’s about survival, Mamma. Don’t get stuck on the right now. Look ahead. Survival for us. All of us. Even the cattle.” Verdy’s voice held a note of pleading.
Mamma didn’t reply, but she picked up the Bracer, and placed it on her arm.
“Whoa!” She gave a slight giggle, then regained her composure after her first blast of the Bracer’s power.
Verdy turned to Bill.
“It’s a lot of information.” Verdy said, staring at the ground, but speaking to Bill. He tried to talk to Janey too, but his stomach lurched to look at her. Had he almost considered her his girlfriend for a day or two? That magical stranger- finding him all those nights in Toledo. Just another traveler in Toledo, there with her work colleagues. So interested in him. Between his surgeries…
He pushed it out of his head. But her number was still a favorite in his contact list. He pushed on. “A lot of information. The molecular composition of muscle. How each drop of intake relates to taste and nutrition. How muscle is grown in a cow. It was impractical to have truck convoys of servers following the herd. Impractical and insecure. So, about fifteen years ago, they had an idea. An idea that would create a computer network that generated its own energy, regulated its own heat, was mobile, waterproof, and efficient. Also, a network that communicated in signals that no one had ever seen before. It was completely secure.”
“Neural.” Bill stated.
Verdy nodded.
Bill went on. “We assumed. But we had to know. But fifteen years? We didn’t know anyone had tried such a thing before two years ago. It wasn’t even legal until last year.”
“I’m guessing SusteNext has worked out the details of legality with the government, complete with absolution for past sins?” Mamma noted. Verdy shrugged.
“We have to see.” Janey said. “We have to know what we’re up against. We are ordered to destroy it if we can’t get a meaningful picture of it.”
Verdy laughed. “You aren’t up against this herd. This herd is all there is. You can’t build an organic neural network. You have to grow it. What’s the best that Toledo can offer? Eleven rats with linked brains, secretly being tested for the last four years? That’s nothing. Truly nothing compared to my herd.”
“Verdant.” Paps voice was surprisingly stern. “Your herd?”
Verdy turned his head, but not so much that he could make eye contact with Paps. He dug his fingernails into the dust of the road, sending up a cloud of dust around him, making Donny, the only other sitting figure, cough into his handkerchief.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Paps. It really was all about the meat. At first. Recording the digestion, the volume and content, the alimentary processes. Storing the data, securely getting it all back to headquarters. But it’s been a while since it’s been about the meat.”
“SusteNext is the largest food producer in the world!” Paps protested. “Once they figure out the right taste for pork and chicken, their meat empire will be…, will be…” He trailed off, not knowing what point he was making.
“Yeah Paps, but SusteNext will soon be a historical spinoff of a new company. A company that will change everything. The economy, the military, transportation, education…” Verdy gestured toward the herd. “When a brain doesn’t have to worry about safety, reproduction, migration, even nutrition…the neurons are freed to work on other tasks. And they aren’t just harnessed. They grow into solutions. They embrace the network, and the network becomes alive. The hardware grows to meet the needs of the software. The ability to eliminate redundant commands and data are inconceivable. The brain uses simple building blocks, recoding itself each time a new pathway is needed. The herd is a living, breathing computer, a thing that exists in and separate from the cattle brains.”
“Cow brains?” Donny laughed. “You gotta be kidding me. Cows are dumb!”
“As dumb as he is, Donny brings up a key point.” Verdy addressed the group as a whole. “SusteNext created this thing almost by accident. No one plans to build a new world on the brain of a cow. We all know what comes next.”
“Primates.” Mamma guessed.
Verdy nodded. “And which type of primates.”
“Humans.” It was Paps’ voice. “It’s the next step, if the rumors out of Toledo are true.”
“Someone’s gotta stop it.” Verdy spoke to no one in particular. “Or the human physical brain will become a commodity, with little need for the individual consciousness trying to use it. In fact, the incentives are high to reduce the individual. To steal the physical structure away from an identifiable person.”
“Show us. Show all of us.” Janey phrased the command as a request.
“Burr!” Verdy called. Verdy felt the terrier start toward him, but it was a moment before the others could also see the dog approaching. She had returned to the herd, but was now reentering the town, without stealth, black and grey fur bouncing as she ran. The dog pulled up next to Verdy, and eyed the strangers.
“Show ‘em girl.” Verdy gestured toward the flock. Show ‘em everything!”
The dog stood quietly. Doing nothing. Good girl, thought Verdy. This was the part where he would usually feign ignorance, and declare that the dog would not listen to him. But there was no need for subterfuge. The game of secrecy was over. Verdy reached over and scratched Burr behind her ears. “Good dog,” he whispered one more time, then stated,
“You’re a burr in my boot
But a boon to your brothers
I’d sell you for loot
If I had my druthers.”
The dog listened to the limerick and accepted the signal, the password of sorts, that Verdy’s command was sincere. In a moment the cattle specs were accessible to each member of the odd crowd standing there among the crooked buildings in Slickensslough proper.
Overlaid on each cow was a map of their innards, complete with their slender skeletons, reduced in size by lightweight carbon fibers, that allowed for extra chemworks within. Volumetric reservoirs and rows of sensors lined the digestive tracts, and wires were as prevalent as veins around the stomachs, and as prevalent as capillaries in the neck. Some cows had extra boxes and chambers in their rumps or their guts or their chests. A closer look at the menu of each cow revealed the purpose of each part. A neurotransmitter lab in one cow, a hormone extraction port in another. There wasn’t time to scan a tenth of the unique features of the most laden cows, and the viewers looked from cow to cow in amazement.
But it was the brains that were the most shocking. Even Bill and Janey, who had taken the recent discussions in stride, stared in amazement at the glowing threads that overlaid the brain of each cow. It was as if a second brain of wire was the ghost of the physical brain, the wire mesh so fine it was like glowing dust within the skull of the cow. Down into each neck the fine mesh of wires extended, as if the circuitry of the brain was allowed to overflow and fill space as needed.
They might have watched the cows for hours if Mamma Stoltzfus hadn’t managed to glance over at Verdy.
“Verdant Grivvens! What have you done!” She cried, and it was the despair in her voice that tore at Verdy. Not anger or disgust, like she usually sent his way, but dismay, just as Verdy might expect from Paps. And a moment later the gasp did come from Paps. A gasp of dismay.
Verdy had let his own innards show. It wasn’t something that was done in polite company, and it certainly wasn’t done among rivals, but Verdy was past all such mores and tactics.
Let them see.
The mesh that clawed into his own brain wasn’t as intricate, but it bore resemblance to the network that was bonded to the cows’ brains. It was like nothing any of them would ever have seen, except maybe Janey, deep in an underground lab, and even she could never have seen a human so wired directly into the brain, from lizard stem to cerebral folds. It had never been done, as far as he knew, and he had placed himself in a position to know. Verdy doubted anyone even noticed that he was missing a kidney, or bothered to wonder at the custom port that had been constructed there.
“You gave up your mind?” Paps asked with a sadness in his voice that dropped Verdy’s heart into his boots.
No, Paps. I still got it. All of it.” Verdy choked over the words, just a bit. “But I’ve seen a mighty frightful future coming, and I gotta stop it.”
“Not like this,” Paps begged.
“Anything less wouldn’ta done. I’m sorry.” And Verdy meant it.
Verdy looked around. Mamma was shaking her head at him. Eddy was bent over against some porch steps, teeth clenched and eyes closed. Donny sat on the ground looking dazed. Two others of Mamma’s people hadn’t spoke, but had their visors up and were staring at the herd. Verdy thought he recognized one as a Martin or a Huber. Bill and Janey were recording everything they viewed, and couldn’t look from cow to cow fast enough.
“If you want us to leave without blowing this herd, you better find a way for us to download bigger chunks of what we’re seeing!” Bill called out.
Verdy was about to reply when the feed from the beetle drones caught his eye. He paused, then looked at the sky. “Paps,” he called. “Look!” He directed Paps to the drone feed.
After a second Paps nodded. “That’s cause for concern.”
“Russ, UP! Single, disconnect.” Verdy called out.
Somewhere out by the forest Russ released a single beetle drone, and it rose to the sky without any wireless connectivity.
Verdy called out to Bill and Janey, “Hey, Toledoans! You guys jamming our beetle drones?”
Janey looked up at him, annoyed to have her eyes off the cows. “We wouldn’t bother with your drones. And no- we didn’t bring anything that could do that.”
“Well, look!” Verdy tossed the feed to them. Bill took a quick look and snapped at Verdy. “What am I looking for? Everything looks fine!”
It was true. The drone feeds showed bright skies over rolling forested hills and distant pastures. Verdy pointed to the hills. The hills they could see with their own eyes, not through the drone cameras. Bill followed his directions, and Janey lifted her eyes as well. The evening light was darkening over the hills as a fog bank lifted up from the next valley. The low clouds were heavy with the threat of rain and the early pinks of sunset tinged their edges.
The beetle footage did not contain any such pink cloudbank or rising fogs.
Verdy heard Janey curse. She looked at him. All charade of mock tenderness was gone from her demeanor. “Look, kid, this is a two-person job we’re running here, so obviously we want to get in and get out without making a scene, but give us some sort of master guide to what we’re seeing. We can’t let this thing continue to exist unless we know what we’re looking at. And where we’re going, no one is going to give us grief for setting off the bombs.
“Ok! Ok- I have just the thing you’ll be wanting!” Verdy leaned down to Burr. “Bring me Mashded Taters.” Burr took off toward the herd.
A lone beetle descended from the sky. Verdy couldn’t sense it, but he held out his hand, and the beetle alighted on his palm. With the physical contact the beetle transferred its short surveillance recording to Verdy.
“Sweet Lord Almighty.” Verdy whispered. And before anyone could ask, he shared the recording with all the others.
A full-size military carrier was floating over the hills, steadily approaching from no more than ten miles out. It was massive, reaching from one hilltop to the next, its shadow darkening the valleys below. It wasn’t moving fast. Carriers rarely did. But it floated steadily closer.
‘Well, that’s something.” Donny mused. “And I thought we were just going to bring back some cows.”
Burr was coming back now, darting ahead and then waiting for the cow behind. Mashded Taters was a Scottish Highland breed, with long white hair brindled in grey. Bangs dropped over her eyes, and a lower lip jutted out, giving the cow’s face under the horns a look of disinterested thoughtfulness. The cow managed a hurried walk, in the way of a large cow, making a great show of haste but never breaking into a run, the furry bulk shuddering about but achieving speeds only slightly more rapid than the cow’s normal casual walk.
Verdy ran out to meet the cow and the dog. Janey and Bill followed, Janey watching the sky and Bill watching Verdy.
“What’s this?” Bill asked.
“It’s what you need. A command cow.”
“I don’t have time for games, boy” Bill snapped, but Verdy was hardly listening. He had dropped to his knees and grabbed Mashded Taters’ face in his hands. The breath of the cow blasted into Verdy’s face. The cud scents of fermented sorghum and mountain grasses overwhelmed him, but seemed to pull his being right into the cool waters of a mountain stream.
“Heifervescence.” Verdy whispered to Mashded Taters. “That’s what my mom used to call it. The breath of a cow will wash away the burdens of the world.”
“Verdant! Your time is up! Give us whatever information module you have!” It was Janey speaking. Verdy turned to her. And perhaps because he had once stared into those eyes with deep attraction, Verdy saw something different in the eyes at that moment. He didn’t know what it was, but he realized, without any doubt, that Bill and Janey were planning to detonate their explosives, no matter what information he gave them.
But Verdy turned calmly to Mashded Taters, and ran his hand along her spine until he felt the slightest divots under the fur. He pressed three fingers down, one on each indentation, playing a chord on the cows back. The cow’s spine verified that Verdy had the authorization to press down in just such a manner. A narrow chamber opened up just below the cow’s spine. Inside was a metal recess, clean and smooth and holding an object. Verdy reached in and once again pressed his fingers into the correct positions, then, with perfect timing, he released and pressed again. The object slid out, and Verdy took it into his hand. It was only slightly longer than Verdy’s palm, and a bit thicker than his hand. It was vaguely diamond shaped, though one end was longer, like a stone spearhead, the edges rounded, not sharp.
“What is it?” Janey asked.
“I guess you’d call it an artificial choke point. A way to bring the herd’s intelligence together in one place, to transfer data out of the system, or to receive commands.” Verdy realized that his hands were shaking, and his voice trembled. “It’s the soul of the herd. It’s artificial, but it’s the soul, nonetheless.”
“What?!” Bill snapped.
The carrier crested the hill. Its shadow raced toward the Slickensslough, and its mass seemed to expand to fill the sky as it approached the town and the field.
“Give it to me!” Bill demanded.
“I have to unlock it manually.” Verdy replied calmly.
“SusteNext gave you that capability?” Janey asked, incredulous.
“They gave me enough. I took the rest while they weren’t looking.” Verdy smiled.
“Well, everybody’s looking now.” Janey eyed the carrier, then looked back at Verdy. “Do it!”
Verdy held the simple metal piece with both hands, his thumbs hovering above the pattern etched into the metal. There were no visible buttons, but Verdy knew where it would sense his touch. Then he began the sequence, bound by the timing of his taps and the order by which he pressed across the etched design. There was no sign that he had correctly inputted the password, other than a slight shift at the longer point, were a panel slid a millimeter, leaving a narrow gap.
“May I join the herd, Mashded Taters?” Verdy asked, trembling further still. “Yours and the connected beings of your sisters and brothers?”
“Go looney on your own time, kid.” Bill stepped forward, holding out his hand. Without fanfare, Verdy lifted his shirt, and placed the object into an opening that lay in his skin where his left kidney should have been. A delicate probe shot into the module before the opening closed, and Verdy’s skin seemed to slip back over the opening, revealing no sign of what had been there a second before.
For a moment Verdy held to his own consciousness, trying to ignore the flood of information overwhelming his system. He saw Janey and Bill raise their bangles toward him. He saw Mamma Stoltzfus behind them. She unleashed all the attacks of the Bracer that she knew. Directly into the two from Toledo. She was unskilled in its use, but Verdy marveled at how clearly he could read the flow of energy into their bodies. She was trying to hurt them. Which meant, apparently, that she was trying to help Verdy.
They were incapacitated for a moment, but it wouldn’t be enough. Verdy reached out and disabled the Bangles. He couldn’t have said how he did it, but he wondered why he hadn’t seen it before. How vulnerable they were. How much the bangles communicated with the rest of the body systems wirelessly. How easily the communication waves could be mimicked and altered. He pushed Janey and Bill to their knees, and held them there.
Then he just felt it. The Herd. It was a vast intelligence, living within the organic brains, but separate from them. The dogs were there too. He hadn’t known how integrated they were into the Herd. But he felt the personalities he knew within the Herd. Of each dog. Of each cow.
Through it all was a focus on grass and flowing water and the safety of the herd. Verdy laughed out loud at the bovine-tinged nature of the world’s most advanced network.
The carrier was slowing over the Slickensslough. It seemed to move very slowly. Everything did. Verdy turned and looked over to where a cannon still spun before the chest of one of Mamma’s quiet companions. Verdy saw the electromagnetic waves holding it, spinning it, and commanding it. He saw many ways that he could reroute its power.
He reached out his hand toward the cannon. The reaching had no function, except in the minds of the observers. In the moment that he rerouted a blast to the center of the cannon, he squeezed his fist, grunting, as if with effort, as if crushing a can. The cannon tube crumpled in on itself, and fell to the ground.
Verdy looked up. Military carriers were built with state-of-the-art encryption. To Verdy it looked open to the air. It wasn’t exactly a broken screen door, but no more than a wooden door that could be knocked in with a stiff shoulder. Communications were constant back to headquarters and to multiple command centers. Internal communications leaked through and seemed to swirl like a cloud about the carrier. Inside, each person’s internal networks sent communications to and fro. The normal encryption that guarded individual privacy was open to Verdy, and even the military grade personal protections fell before the gaze of the Herd.
The military should have been working on creating new encryption based on the neural network. But SusteNext had delayed their access. That was everywhere, the story of it all, zipping in the conversations and commands. SusteNext had demanded an end to their competition, the outlawing of any natural beef butchery. And the government paid the price. Tomorrow the laws went into effect. Tomorrow the military was scheduled to begin its partnership with the Herd. That was the plan. And no one had been concerned about today. The Herd had hidden in plain sight for years.
Verdy could feel their breath and their heartbeats. All personal military systems monitored vitals through an intensive internal network.
Verdy saw that Megan Coronado was on board. The CEO of SusteNext, with a contingent of high-ranking specialists and lackeys. He couldn’t read anyone’s thoughts, but there was a glut of stored notes, agendas, and talking points. Each time someone clicked on a menu item with an eye blink, Verdy knew. He marveled at the vulgarity of it, how the military fawned over the private citizens, how they mobilized in service of SusteNext, hungry for the power of the Herd. They had planned a casual flight out to the herd today, mostly for ceremonial purposes. The drone jamming was standard. But the unplanned movement of the herd had created concern, then an emergency response. Aircraft were being ordered to take flight.
Verdy quickly grew tired of waiting for the hold to open on the lower decks. Verdy could see that the plan was to release twelve manned security flyers to float around the herd perimeter until the situation was fully assessed. Verdy waited impatiently as the Captain approved the order, as it was relayed below deck, and as, finally, a finger was reaching to push a button to open the door. The button did nothing, of course. Verdy had cut off its functionality. But they needed them to feel something, so with each push of the buttons Verdy skipped the engines for a second on the far side of the ship, without letting the control panel display any engine distress. The effect was a slight roll, the carrier tipped a foot or two on its side and then righted itself each time the button was pushed. It was as if the door was tugging, and stuck, and the attempt to open it shook the whole ship.
The Herd was full of sensors and transmitters, making it simple to gather in the information floating in the air, and to send out new signals to join the invisible commands darting through the air in waves. The door operator reported each unsuccessful button push into the microphone on the panel.
Verdy trained the external cameras on himself. And he placed himself on every screen within the carrier, from the main bridge displays, to the cafeteria displays, to the break room entertainment screens. Verdy was surprised at the number of phones on the carrier, with most, but not all, bearing military security software. He placed himself on every phone, and turned up the volume, whether the phone was in its owner’s hand or pocket.
He considered having a conversation with Megan, about his recommendations for SusteNext going forward. But he found he didn’t have the patience. Or the desire.
So, he simply said, “I think we’d like to be left alone for a while.”
It would have been easy to simply lock in an autopilot course that would gently turn the carrier around and send it floating smoothly back to base while its pilots pounded on the dead control panels.
But Verdy raised his hands toward the sky, his movements displayed on every screen within the carrier. Then he moved his hands to the left. The carrier lurched in the direction of his hands. Not enough to really scramble the occupants, but enough to clear off some shelves and to perhaps break an unfortunate wrist or ankle.
He moved his hands back towards the hills as if struggling with a great weight. The carrier began to turn, lilting slightly on its side, the front swinging around and back toward the hills. The panic within the carrier was rising. Verdy wanted to smile, but he maintained a face of struggle and determination. The front of the carrier slid into the forest hill, just a bit, though even the minor contact sheared trees in half and scraped up a swath of earth underneath. Then the carrier was past the hill, wobbling from front to back in a manner that was never intended for the massive vessel. The hull was thick, and the impacts would only damage sensors and appendages; the vessel remained secure.
It rose into the air. And Verdy moved his hands back behind his head. The carrier began to reverse. Verdy whipped his hands forward, tossing an imaginary soccer ball in front of him.
The carrier accelerated rapidly, thrown high into the air by max thrusts from every engine, in a creaking, grinding, fury of thrust.
Verdy then set the autopilot to chug happily back to base, without accepting any input from the bridge controls until it was time to land.
Verdy ended his theatrics as he disconnected from the carrier visual feeds.
While tossing the carrier he had also found two coffin-like stealth pods buried in the swamp. He had brought them over to Bill and Janey and popped them open.
“I believe this is your ride. Probably time for you to get a move on.” Verdy addressed them both, then turned away before they could reply. Mamma was standing there, eyes wide. Paps was approaching as well.
Verdy turned back around, “Oh- I almost forgot!”
He gathered the grenades and sent them spinning in a whirlpool pattern above the two from Toledo, spinning faster and faster, the vortex tip threatening to drop down and touch them. They cowered low.
Then Verdy laughed and sent the spheres off in a straight line over the field. He took them high in an arch, and plunged them into the Slickensslough.
Verdy didn’t look again, but he sensed when Janey and Bill had laid down in their pods and sped off, disappearing in the evening shadows.
Seeing Mamma, Verdy did think of something else. He sent a message to the carrier, which was still in range of some of the Herd’s more powerful transmitters.
Verdy realized that he was viewing the people before him as the dogs did. Each person was an overlay of systems, and even their person, their self, seemed to be a layered conglomeration. It was confusing, but there seemed to be something right, something true in the view. The view that he had not been able to see without the technology of the Herd. He adjusted his vision to a simpler view of the group before him, and turned to Mamma Stoltzfus.
“We never meant to hurt this valley, Mamma.” Verdy tried to sound humble. “I just wanted to find a path of survival. Into the future.”
Mamma’s face was set hard, but she conceded, “I may have misread the Slickensslough a bit.”
Verdy shrugged. “If I can find a way to make the water flow clear again, will you start to forgive the Grivvens?”
“I’m always open to forgiveness in this world. We’ll see how my heart is pulled when that day comes,” she replied.
Paps stepped forward. “I tried to tell you, Mamma. We were thinking of the cattle and all of us here in the valley.”
“I’d like to believe you’re wise, Paps,” she replied, “Like I once did. But it’s all felt like such dangerous foolishness these many years.”
“Give it a try, will you?” Verdy asked.
“Well…” She paused. “I have seen signs and wonders enough to make me split my head open for a while, just to let some rain in to wash my thoughts clear.”
“If you’re looking for a sign-” Verdy gestured toward the Slickensslough. He raised his right hand and grasped it into a fist.
The Slickensslough erupted. A great mountain of orange water rose up, then broke apart into geysers that sprayed high into the air. Muddy sludge was thrown in all directions and a slimy haze clouded the air. The cattle jerked in fright, and Verdy felt their fear for a moment, then calmed them with a message of safety, more hormonal than informational.
“Huh.” Mamma said. “Is that gonna bring back the clear mill pond?”
“Nah.” Verdy admitted. “But take it as a sign of good things to come for these parts.”
A small medical transport flew over the hill and came to land next to Eddy. Two bewildered medics stumbled out, but went to work on Eddy when they saw his injuries.
Verdy walked over to Mashded Taters and grabbed a handful of shaggy hair. He pulled himself up onto the cow’s back.
“Nickles is hurt, but he’ll be ok. You’ll see to him, Paps?”
Paps nodded. “Where are you going?”
“Don’t rightly know, but I figure I should head into the hills for a while, maybe figure some things out.”
No one spoke as a young man on a shaggy cow rode through the broken town, and across the uneven pylons of the Slickensslough Road, a small terrier trotting beside him. And it was dark before the last clatter of hooves was across the bridge. A shadow the size of a St. Bernard swept the town, then paused for a moment to look back. The humans had all left, on horseback, on foot, and through the sky. The dog verified the herd was safe from the rear, then turned and loped into the hills.
D. B. Leng grew up on a dairy farm, playing in the field next to the heifers. He is happy when there are cows nearby.
As society becomes more modern, he hopes there will always be a place to ride a horse through a herd of cows.