Uncharted Territory Read Online Free PDF

“Where can we cross the Wall, Bult?”
    Bult leaned over the table and pointed stiffly at two different places, making sure his finger didn’t go into the holo.
    “If we cross down here,” I said, taking the marker away from Carson, “we can cut across here and follow Blacksand Ridge up.” I lit a line up to Sector 248-76 and through the hole. “What do you think?”
    Bult pointed at the other break in the Wall, holding his hinged finger well above the table. “Fahtsser wye.”
    I looked across at Carson. “What do you think?”
    He looked steadily back at me.
    “Will we get to see the trees that have the silver leaves?” Ev said.
    “Maybe,” Carson said, still looking at me. “Either way looks good to me,” he said to Bult. “I’ll have to check on the weather and see which one’ll work. It looks like there’s a lot of rain down here.” He poked his finger at the route Bult’d marked. “And we’ll have to run terrains. Fin, you want to do that?”
    “You bet,” I said.
    “I’ll check the weather, and see if we can work a route through some silvershims for Evie here.”
    He went out. “Can I watch you run the terrains?” Ev asked me.
    “You bet,” I said. I went over to the computer.
    Bult was on it again, hunched under his umbrella, buying a roulette wheel.
    “I’ve got to figure the easiest route,” I said. “You can come back to the mall when I’m done.”
    He got out his log. “Discriminatory practices,” he said.
    That was a new one. “Why all these fines, Bult?” I said. “You saving up to buy a—” I was about to say “casino” but the last thing I wanted to do was give him any ideas. “To buy something big?” I ended up.
    He reached for his log again.
    “I need the computer if you want me to enter those fines you ran up with the rover today,” I said.
    He hesitated, wondering whether fining me for “attempt to bribe indigenous scout” would be worth more than the rover’s fines, and then unfolded himself joint by joint and let me sit down.
    I stared at the screen. There was no point in running terrains when I already knew the route I wanted, and I couldn’t look at the log with Bult and Ev there either. I started tallying the fines.
    After a few minutes C.J. came in and dragged Ev off to convince him Big Brother wouldn’t catch him if he named one of the hills Mount C.J., but Bult was still hovering behind me, his umbrella aimed at my back.
    “Don’t you need to go unpack all those umbrellas and shower curtains you bought?” I said, but he didn’t budge.
    I had to wait till everybody was bedded down, including C.J., who’d flounced into her bunk in a hide-nothing nightie and then leaned out to say good night to Ev and give him one last eyeful, before I could take a look at that log.
    I figured Bult would be in the gate area, unpacking his purchases, but he wasn’t. Which meant he was still “tchopping,” and I’d never get time alone on the computer. But he wasn’t in the mess either.
    I checked the kitchen and then started over to the stables. Halfway there I caught sight of a half circle of lights out by the ridge. I didn’t have any notion of what he was doing clear out there—probably trying to collect fines from the luggage, but at least he wasn’t hogging the computer.
    I walked out far enough to make sure it was him and not just his umbrella and then went back into the mess and asked Starting Gate for a verify on Wulfmeier. I got it, which didn’t mean anything either. Bult could make more selling fake verifies than he makes off us.
    I asked for a trace, then checked on the rest of the gatecrashers. We had beacons on Miller and Abeyta, and Shoudamire was in the brig on the Powell, which left Karadjk and Redfox. They were out on the Arm.
    The trace showed Wulfmeier on Dazil until yesterday afternoon. I thought about it, and then asked for the log and frame-by-frame coordinates and leaned back to watch it.
    I’d been right. Sector 248-76 was