THERE WERE THREE KITE barrages in all. The village was saving some of the revenue from exporting the juice to set up another barrage near the entrance of the valley. The hills there were the lowest, so that was the last good site that remained. After that, they would need to have some more territory.

The morning sun made the valley look magical, even to Joel’s eyes. He heard Honey’s sparkling laugh and he looked up at the sound. He knew her voice instantly. Probably from any distance. Kier was working close to her. She and Kier exchanged a look. Joel felt sick.

He had twenty-eight panels left to replace. Beside him, Ty was jiggling a panel to refit it. He lost his grip and it skittered away over the edge of the kite. Joel called to Malik to let him know about the loose panel. Then he took some time to show Ty again how to fix them safely and securely. Thinking he ought to have got it by now.

Ty was still clumsy and after another attempt, Joel just said, “Give them to me, Ty.”

He was annoyed with himself again for being impatient with the kid.

Lost and broken panels would cut into the village’s income, though. The village was having a hard enough time getting by with only their three barrages of kites. There was enough juice for the village, but they needed more for revenue.

Every time Joel looked over to Honey, Kier seemed to be closer. Their heads bent nearer together. And he didn’t see her looking up for him.

Soon everyone was climbing down from the number one kite. Hannah ran around the lot with her arms out, singing and shouting. Honey’s mom was still talking to Taylor. Joel had four more tiles to replace. The kite was very soft now. It had been under-inflated when they first brought it down. After having everyone climb over it, it sagged.

The whole wide wing tipped to one side. Voices were raised below, but Joel couldn’t see what had happened. Malik called and he saw the call on his headset. His juice was almost completely out, though. The kite tipped and lurched. Joel hear Malik say, ‘Hannah’ in his headset and the signal cut.

At the same time, Honey’s mom shouted Hannah’s name, and the inflatable kite was ascending. He saw the fabric tugging by the nearest ladder. People below were shouting. Some screamed. Honey’s mom’s voice was in there. Joel was already down to the edge of the kite, almost as far as his rope would go.

The wing lurched and dipped. Joel thought he knew what had happened, but he couldn’t believe it. As he gained altitude, it was starting to be a long way to the ground. Joel peered over. As the shadow of the kite shrank on the ground, Hannah’s face was red and screwed up.

She swung, clinging to the bottom rung of the ladder. She would never have the strength to pull herself up. He would have to climb down the ladder to get her. He unhooked his belt from the rope.

He hoped Malik and the others were getting the bot to help them steer the kite back down, but now, immediately, he had to get a hold of Hannah. He just hoped that his weight and hers together wouldn’t tip the limp kite too far over.

If it did, the kite would plunge straight down the side of the valley. With himself and Hannah. There was no other way but to go after her as fast as he could and hope. As he climbed down, he saw that Hannah was distracted by the screams and shouts from below.

The shouts distracted her and she was panicked already. He wished he could make them all stop. All he could to was to shout to Hannah as he climbed.

“Look up, Hannah. Keep your eyes on me.” Loud, firm and as friendly as he could make it, he called down, “Just hold on tight. Don’t worry about the silly people on the ground,” He kept smiling into her eyes and kept up the babble as he climbed. “We’re going to have a nice ride and it’s going to be fun.”

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He opened his eyes wide as he nodded. Hannah grinned as she nodded back. “Just hang on, I’m coming down to you now,” The inflatable was rising more slowly. He was glad that Hannah kept her eyes on him. The ground below swung sickeningly and the drop was dizzying.

The balloon jerked and Joel almost panicked. But it stopped rising as he clung on. Firmly and as fast as he dared, he went hand over hand to the next to the last rung of the ladder. His shoulders felt like they were going to rip apart.

“Hannah, Are you okay holding on? Just for another minute?” She smiled, but her eyes were becoming nervous as she nodded. Her little fingers must be hurting like hell, he thought. He smiled back, like this was the best fun they could ever have. “Keep a tight grip, okay?”

The ladder swayed. He held a rung tight with one hand as he swung down and grabbed Hanna’s waist. “Now, I’ve got you.” He smiled. “You put your arms around me and hold tight onto my belt.”

Her little hands grabbed his waist. She held him so hard, he thought her fingers would go through his flesh. When he was certain her grip was steady, he said, “That’s good. Hold me tight. I’m going to let go of you now.”

“NO!” her fingers dug into his waist.

“It’s okay, Hannah. You hold on to me now.” He pulled her and himself up the first few rungs with just his hands, keeping Hannah between himself and the ladder. Finally he was able to get a footing.

He climbed. The kite sagged toward him. At the same time it began to descend. But slowly. Joel hoped he could get to the top of the ladder. Then he would be able to grab his rope and fix them safely with it. He went slowly, hand over hand up the swaying ladder. When he got all the way to to the top, of course, his rope was blowing in the wind like a ribbon on a tent at the village’s summer picnic.

Far below, Honey’s mom yelled Hannah’s name. The tension and panic in her voice set sawed at Joel’s nerves.

Hannah squealed and wriggled and stretched her arms out and cried at the sound. Joel kept his voice as sweet as he could. “Keep your eyes on me, Hannah. We can do this together.”

Joel kept Hannah gripped tight to him. Malik and the others finally got to the kite under control and winched it down to the ground. When the kite was tethered and he clambered down, Honey’s mom seized the girl and pulled her from him. Hannah’s finger were still dug into his flesh.

“What the fuck were you doing with my daughter?” she shouted in his face.

Joel just astred after her, feeling his chest deflate. As she bustled away, scowling and shouting at Hannah while she enfolded her to her chest, Malik patted his shoulder. Quietly, with a wry smile he said, “Man lesson of the day, son. No good deed ever goes unpunished.”

~~

Malik and Taylor went back to winching and directing the teams. Those two kites were on their way back up for another four weeks. A USCom truck would be up the next day to milk the cells..

Joel sat away from the others to look over his board. There didn’t seem to be anything worse than some scratches. He hated to see more scuff on the finish. But he wouldn’t know how it was for sure until he got it charged up.

Sat by the entrance to the lot, he looked out across the valley. He couldn’t see any sign of the USSecur operation. Maybe they’d already got what they came for. Found it and gone. Some chance, he thought. If they had, somebody would have seen them leave and they would have said so.

It may have just been coincidence that they arrived exactly at the time that almost the whole population of the village was making its way up the hill to the barrage.

A cool hand rested softly on his shoulder. “Sorry I was late.” Honey’s voice was soft and bright.

He turned his face up. “It’s okay,” he said. The haze of the sun was too bright and he couldn’t see her face.

Her mom didn‘t look at him or her as she whirled by. She grabbed Honeys wrist and yanked her away. Still looking back to him, Honey made letters in the air with her finger. ‘H A.’ She meant the place on the infranet where she liked to hang.

She called it H A or Hopes’ He never knew what the ‘A’ was supposed to be for. For Joel’s taste it always seemed too fringe and too counter-culture. All the odd protocols to get there, every time he visited it the location had slightly altered.

All the rituals. It wasn’t enough for them to use passphrases. They had a whole creed and they’d make you recite parts of it, like a call and response, before you could even get in.

He thought that was all too much. They took all of the anonymity a step too far, too. It seemed like the kind of place where conspiracy theories were born and mad rumors got started.

Honey’s mom threw a glower over her shoulder back at Joel. Then she turned and smiled to Kier. As she dragged Honey with one hand and Hannah with the other, she tipped her head to Kier to encourage him to follow. Kier grinned and looked at Joel as he ran to join Honey, Hannah and her mom.

Hannah screwed herself around to give him a big smile and a wave.

With an echoing emptiness in his stomach, he wondered if he was losing Honey to Kier.