“Tell me what you hear.”

“Salar thinks you are carrying money. He wants to get you drunk and get things over with. Sina just wants to fish.” Syp listened. “Salar says he has the gun loaded. Sina one says there’s no need for violence. He’s drunk and he wants to go to bed.”

“It’s not late, but let’s go to bed. I'll activate the sleeping pad warmers. We can start our day tomorrow when the sun comes up.”

“Can I read my device?”

“If it’s inside your sleeping bag, you can. I’m going to check one more time to be sure our stakes are deep into the ground.” Syp listened while Eiske walked around the tent. The two men were arguing about using the gun. Eiske came back and motioned to Syp. “Let’s go pee before we go to bed.” They went into the woods a few yards apart before going into the tent. Syp held the flashlight while Eiske said the words for the charm, “sacur abitaculu stu.” The tent flashed yellow and slowly darkened.

Syp checked its timepiece. It was less than an hour before it would have gone to bed. Excited about sleeping outside, but nervous about the two men, Syp lay wide awake reading its tablet and listening. The two men came back from their search for more turtles.

When the men entered the campsite, they looked around in surprise. “I guess they went to bed.”

“They came here to fish. I’ll bet they want to get an early start,” Sina suggested.

“Let’s roust them, get it done, and go collect the payment!”

“Shut your mouth, Salar! Don’t be stupid! Both those fellows have communication devices on their shirts. Why won’t you listen to me?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“I do! If we do anything stupid, the Protectorate guards will be here in a heartbeat. It’s not worth the energy.”

“Who cares? If we get caught, we’ll get a place to sleep and three square meals a day. If we don’t get caught, we’ll each be five thousand mu-toc richer.” Salar began to list all the ways he would spend the money he got for killing the men in the other tent.

“I’ve got a wife and two kids who need me. I won’t risk my future. Are you going to fish with me, or not?” Sina baited his hook. Eiske and Syp could hear the reel whir as he threw out the line.

“You used to be fun,” Salar complained.

“I still have fun. I don’t need to be drunk and shooting people to have fun. Catching peepers and turtles is fun. Hunting deer and gobblers is fun. Trying to rob or kill someone is not fun. You’ve been in lock-up four times now. Why can’t you get it in your head that you need to work if you want to have money coming in?”

Suddenly Salar shouted, “I’ve got one! It’s a big one!” He reeled the fish in part way, then let it swim out. When it tired, Salar reeled it in. “Look at that,” he pounded his chest. “I got a ninety- centimeter renda. That’s enough for a few meals.”

A few minutes later, Sina reeled one in. It was little. He unhooked it and released it into the water. “I’ll catch you another day.” The two men fished into the early morning hours and finally went to bed.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Syp, are you still awake?” Eiske whispered into Syp’s ear.

“Yes.”

“They want to kill us. Give me your tablet. I’m going to send a message to the Enclave. Whatever you do, don’t go out of the tent.” Several minutes later, Eiske whispered, “The Protectors have a camera satellite aimed over us. We’re supposed to stay in the tent until they say to come out. Maybe these guys will leave and that will be the end of it.”

They both finally fell into an uneasy asleep.

In the middle of the night, a gunshot cut through the silence of the water habitat. Eiske and Syp sat up. A red spot glowed on the side of the tent. Eiske pulled Syp flat and pressed the communication button. “That spot is where a bullet hit it. Flatten yourself as much as you can,” Eiske whispered.

“How long will the shield hold?”

“I don’t know.”

Another shot echoed over the water. Eiske and Syp watched as a red spot formed, but the security shield held. As two more shots were fired, red spots formed over their heads. “Code 1, shots fired,” Eiske whispered into his communication device.

“Put down your weapon.” Four guards stood around Salar. He dropped the gun and stood with his head down.

Sina crawled out of their tent. “Salar, you fool! Why did you even try it?”

“I want that currency.”

“Well, you sure aren’t going to get it now!”

Two guards and Salar vanished. “Doctor, please come out here,” a guard ordered. “It’s one thing after the other with you!”

“Oh, come on. We had some fun fishing and were cooking when these fellows showed up. They fished while we ate. We cooked their fish for them and cleaned up. Bahansir and I went to bed thinking we could get an early start. We weren’t thinking it would be this early,” he laughed. “It’s 03:30 and there’s gunshots. Over our heads.”

“Why aren’t you injured?” a guard asked. He stepped toward the tent.

“We used a defensive charm.”

“Let me see where the shots hit.” He looked at the bullet holes. “Attempted murder.”

“Are you going to ask them who was going to pay them?” Syp asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Who was planning to pay them?” Syp said. It repeated the conversation between the two men.

“Are you going to ruin our weekend?” Eiske asked impatiently.

“No. You can keep fishing.” A moment later, the guards were gone.

The coals of the fire still glowed and light clouds passed over the moon. “Let’s go back to bed,” Eiske said to Syp.

Sina looked at them, “I’m going back to bed too. I’m sorry my idiot friend did that. He’s not my friend anymore. I’ve run out of patience with him. Goodnight.” He returned to his tent and was asleep in moments, snoring loudly.

Syp yawned and followed Eiske into the tent. Before they could get all the way into their sleeping bags, they were asleep. Several hours later Syp was awakened by a loud bird call. It crawled out of the tent and looked around. Sina’s tent and supplies were gone. Eiske slept on while Syp baited its hook and tossed its line into the water. It took a long time before Syp had a few fish on the stringer. It carefully retrieved the cleaning board and knife from the tent and cleaned them like Eiske had shown it. Eiske still wasn’t awake, so Syp decided to fish some more. It caught another batch and cleaned them.

Eiske crawled out of the tent and watched as Syp started a fire. With one strike of the stones, the tinder lit. Syp carefully built up the sticks for cooking in, like it had seen Eiske do. When it was ready for some oil, it found Eiske watching with the bottle in his hand. “Good job, Syp.”

“Thanks, Eiske. Those men are both gone.” Syp motioned to the empty tent spot with its head.

“Good. I almost shat in my pants.”

“Eiske, I did that.” Syp was embarrassed. “That was scary.”

“Scary and crazy!” he agreed. “I’ve never had problems with other people camping near me.”

“The fish is ready..”

“Good, let's eat.”

After cooking and eating, the two fished until the sun was high, but they only caught a few.

Syp was surprised that the men had found a turtle and said so. “How do you cook a turtle?”

“You can put it in soup, fry it in onions, bake it in the oven, or grill it, for starters. There are probably some recipes in Siedeske’s cookbooks.”

“I wonder what happened to Grandma Eaglestje’s recipes?”

“You’ve said that before. Maybe we should ask Minnie Blok. She might know.”

As the hovercraft crossed onto Eiske’s property, Syp’s senses went to full alert. “Stop, Eiske.” Syp put its hand on Eiske’s arm. “Something’s not right.” They circled the yard along the outbuildings, then went around the house.

Eiske groaned. “This is ridiculous!”