Redwood: Servant of the State Read Online Free PDF Page A

crops, within sight of an AES building. A few trees grew here, dotting the grassland, but they were normal size, forty or fifty yards high. Young trees. Must be the outskirts of the forest, I decided.
    I parked the QC under one of the trees, got out and began covering it up with branches and grass so surveillance drones and satellites would have a hard time seeing it. As the last rays of light shined from the sinking sun, I stretched, and started walking toward the building.
    It was twilight when I neared the front door. I didn’t have many plans beyond getting to the building. I was thinking about trying to find a place to sleep, outside if necessary. I didn’t have a light or anything, and hoped the moon would come out soon. A sign nearby read, “New Texas A&M University Agricultural Experiment Station #3.”
    “Howdy.”
    I jumped and whipped around in fighting position. I swear I must have aged ten years in an instant. The last thing I expected to find out here was another person.
    The person in question sat in a lounge chair under a tree several feet from the front door. I’d missed him while walking up in the rapidly diminishing light. He chuckled softly at my obvious surprise.
    “Sorry, m’boy. Didn’t mean to startle you. Well, come on over. It’s not often I get visitors.”
    He stood up as I came close. Older fellow, in his fifties. A deeply tanned face showed evidence of many hours outside. He stuck out his hand.
    “Milton Kalinowski.”
    “Marcus Savitch.”
    I noted the hefty gold ring on his right hand.
    “Not another Aggie.”
    He let loose a loud, barking laugh. “Can’t get away from us, can you? We’re all over the Janus String. Hang on, I’ll get you a chair.”
    He disappeared for a minute, came back with another chair. We sat down and watched as the night darkened. Native insects and night birds came out. Stars started twinkling.
    “Where you from?”
    “Redwood City.”
    “What you doing out here?”
    I paused, wondering how to put it. I decided honesty is the best policy. “I’m sort of running away.”
    “I see.”
    He paused to digest the comment. Then, “That was you in the quadcopter, I take it.”
    “Yes.”
    “Aha. Well no doubt someone will be along soon to pick you up.”
    “I hope not. I disabled the tracking system.”
    His bushy brown eyebrows shot up. “Disabled the tracking system? How?”
    I explained the aluminum foil thing, running out of energy, hiding the QC under the brush.
    He mulled it over a while, then said, “Yeah, I suppose that would do it. Navigation was disabled too?”
    I agreed it was. He nodded.
    “Well, let’s have supper.”
    And just like that, we were friends.
    -+-
    Kalinowski lived in the station, but he never entered by hand swipe. He explained the logs may be examined someday, and he didn’t want a trace of him there. We went around to a side door where the palm swiper had been disabled, and he opened it by turning a latch. It was a neat setup. Nobody looking at logs would ever see any activity. And if they figured out somehow that one of the entry systems for a door on the station was disabled, who would care about sending out a maintenance team to repair something nobody used anyway?
    Still, there had to be an occasional visitor. I was kind of a surprise, showing up the way I did. I asked him about it as he fired up the stove in the mess and put on a pot of water to boil.
    “Yup. Get one every once in a while. Had one last year, in fact. No, I have friends who warn me when somebody’s coming. There’s never a surprise visit. Well, until you came along there’s never been a surprise. Anybody going outside the city has to request permission, state their reasons and where they’re going. So there’s a record. If somebody’s coming here, that gives us a heads up. My friends tell me, I clean the place, lie low for a while, and come back inside when they’re gone.”
    I felt like I died and went to Heaven! Here was a guy living