The pod touched down on Honrad with an audible squelch. It continued to sink for a moment, but finally settled right before Evie became legitimately concerned. At her request, Hat had turned off the screen on the wall as they entered Honrad’s atmosphere. Hat didn’t need it to navigate, and she wanted to see the new world for the first time with her own eyes.
Following Hat’s recommendation, they had landed midway between Shlordal Sha, the city where their target lived, and the much larger city of Shlordal. In Quall, ‘Shlordal Sha’ literally meant ‘above Shlordal’ and the smaller city was indeed located a few dozen miles north of the larger one. The region between them was heavily forested and appeared completely uninhabited. It was a good place to hide the pod and a strong tactical position from which to work.
The patter of rain hitting the top of the pod filled the chamber. As soon as they stopped sinking, Evie jumped to her feet and walked to the wall where the door had been. She wore her black uniform, a cloak-like overcoat made from the same fabric, and thick boots, but she left her mask for now. Hat jumped to her shoulder, and a seam split the wall in front of them. It opened, folding forward until a short ramp led from the pod’s floor to the ground. Evie stared out at a new world.
The sky was dark with clouds that blocked out the late afternoon light, and rain cascaded over the doorway in a curtain of water that obscured Evie’s view. Through it, she could make out the murky silhouettes of massive trees surrounding them. She squinted around, noticing a dusky odor, faint but impossible to ignore.
“You’re not actually going out in that, are you?” Amelia said, floating up behind Evie and peeking over her shoulder. Evie and Hat both gave her a look. “What? I don’t like water. Electronics and wet are a terrible combination. I wouldn’t expect you two meat balloons to understand.”
“Amelia. Do you not know what an umbrella is?” Evie asked.
“…Oh.”
“Come on, you oversized excuse for a sombrero,” said Hat. “Stop your bitching. Let’s go explore!”
“If this causes me to short out, it’ll be entirely your fault,” Amelia muttered, but floated forward into Evie’s waiting hand.
Evie walked down the ramp and took her first step onto a new planet. Immediately, she sank up to her ankle in muck. The boot she wore protected her feet from the worst of the moisture, but she still winced at the wet sucking sound her foot made as she pulled it free.
“Charming,” said Amelia.
The smell, which had been muted in the pod, had grown much more pungent. It was a deep, dusky scent laced with ozone and musk that was powerful, but not as unpleasant as Evie had been led to expect. She stepped forward again, this time placing her foot on a thick root that snaked through the mud in front of the ramp. The roots were everywhere, and she used them to make her way out into the shadowy, wet afternoon.
They were in a small clearing. Rain fell around them, bouncing off Amelia’s canopy and pouring over the sides in rivulets. Evie stepped from root to root, making her way quickly towards the edge of the surrounding forest and the cover of the nearest tree. The tree looked to be about thirty to forty feet tall, and was massive by earth standards, but compared to those she had seen in previous episodes of the Sim, it was surprisingly small. But what it lacked in height, it made up for in girth. The base of the tree was about half as wide as it was tall, and the trunk had an interesting hourglass shape.
As she stepped under its outstretched branches, the downpour around them thinned to a light shower of droplets that had found their way through the canopy. Her vision now much less obscured, Evie stared up at the tree with wide eyes. It was magnificent. What she had mistaken for a single trunk was in reality an intricate knot of hundreds of thick intertwining vines. At ground level, the vines were spaced widely apart, but as they rose they wove together, growing tighter and tighter before bursting apart into a luscious canopy. The farthest reaching vines interlaced with others nearby, creating a web of branches and roots that went on for as far as she could see.
Beneath the protection of the canopy, the tree teamed with life. Mosses, lichens, and fungi of every imaginable texture and color covered the vines, visited by dozens of jewel-toned insects. As Evie watched, some of the bugs began to glow with a soft orange light, drifting around like miniature stars. Every detail was familiar, but the combination was overwhelmingly alien. It was breathtaking.
A flutter of movement caught Evie’s eye. Two pigeons looked down on them, nestled into a cavity in the tree’s trunk. To Evie’s eyes, they looked incredibly out of place, but she supposed they were as normal here as they were on earth. She laughed and raised a hand in greeting, but the two birds startled at her movement, scattering higher into the branches.
“Don’t bother, Evie. Pigeons don’t break character. They’re here to observe and record for the Sniffers, and that’s all they are going to do unless they get orders telling them otherwise. As far as you’re concerned, they’re just wildlife,” Hat said, watching the retreating birds.
“The Honrad know what they are though, right?” Evie asked.
“Of course they do. Every species in The Understanding is aware of what pigeons are, but the Sniffers have made it pretty clear that we’re not going anywhere. Generally, everyone ignores us.”
Evie nodded and continued taking in the spectacular scene. Her eyes traveled down to the tree’s base, examining the large spaces between the vines left open underneath it, searching for movement or other signs of life. She didn't see any, but an idea struck her.
“I want to spend a little time exploring before we lose the light,” she said to Hat, “but I don’t like the idea of leaving the pod out in the open. Think it’ll fit under here?”
It was tight, but the pod fit. As it slid to a rest between the vines at the base of the tree, she watched the white exterior shift to a mottled brown that blended perfectly in with its surroundings.
“Your mask does the same thing,” Hat said. “On camera it always looks white, but to the naked eye it will adjust its color so it won’t stand out. Otherwise, you’d look like a floating head most of the time. Speaking of which, go put your mask on! I doubt I’ll use any of the footage from today, but better safe than sorry.”
Evie retrieved the mask from the pod, pressing it to her face as she exited back outside. As always, the mask momentarily obstructed her vision as it settled, but when her sight returned, everything around her appeared much brighter, enhancing her ability to see in the dim light. A small compass appeared at the top of her field of vision. She pivoted, and an icon spun into view. Shlordal Sha, 16 miles.
“I think we can make it to the outskirts of the city before sunset,” said Evie, eying the sky and trying to gauge how long the light would last.
“Especially if you stop hobbling around and let me fly us,” said Amelia.
Evie hesitated. After being cooped up in the pod all day, the idea of walking through the incredible forest deeply appealed to her. However, it was late, and they needed to look out for Honrad. It would be easier to spot and avoid them from the air. She reached out a hand and let the umbrella lift them off the ground.
They flew low, staying under the shelter of the intertwining canopies. Pockets of rain made it through sections where the branches weren’t as thick, but beneath Amelia’s canopy they were sheltered from the worst of it. As they flew, Evie looked around for signs of the Honrad’s presence, but there was nothing. No paths, no roads, no hints of civilization. Not that the forest floor was devoid of life. It was teaming with it. Smaller plants and shrubs grew sparsely between the never-ending mesh of roots, providing shelter for many different kinds of animals. They darted in and out of view too fast for her to get a good look at any of them, some as small as mice, others as large as small dogs. And above them, sprinkled throughout the canopy:
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“Fucking Birds,” Hat growled, looking up in disgust. The birds hadn’t been visible from the forest floor, but now that they were high enough, they were everywhere. Most of them were small and wore muted colors, easy to miss until their movement gave them away. Others were bigger, their bright plumage proudly displayed for all to see.
Hat hopped from foot to foot in increasing agitation. “We need to go back and increase the pod’s security. If those little thugs realize how much food we’ve got stored in there, we’re going to have an all-out war on our hands. They’ll suck us dry before we know what hit us. “
“Jesus Hat, they’re birds, not government grade rodents.” Evie replied, trying to hide her smile. “We’ll be fine. In my experience, at least back on earth, birds are too skittish to be really food-aggressive. With one notable exception.” She sent a pointed look at the pigeon, who missed it completely.
“This is technically my first time on a planet,” said Amelia as they drifted. “Frankly I’m underwhelmed. Too many living things. I’ve learned to tolerate you and the Skonarians. And the pigeon, though he barely counts. But this? It’s gross.”
Evie laughed. “To each their own, I suppose. I think it’s beautiful.”
“Will it be beautiful when something inevitably tries to eat you?”
Evie paused. “That’s actually a good point. Hat, can you look and see if there are any large predators in this area?”
Hat was silent for a moment, scanning his internal libraries. “No. Actually, it looks like there aren’t any predators at all. All life on Honrad, including the, uh, Honrad, are strict vegetarians.”
Evie looked at the bird in surprise. This felt like something she should have known before arriving. It was probably included in one of the lectures Azur had neglected to give them.
“There aren’t even any scavengers,” Hat continued, looking surprised. “With one major exception. There’s about a million different funguses that take care of breaking down and recycling organic material.”
“Great. Flesh eating mushrooms. Good thing I’m made from synthetics,” Amelia said cheerfully.
The three of them quietly alighted in a tree at the edge of Shlordal Sha. The city sat in a large clearing devoid of shelter from the rain, which once again became thick and obscuring. However, now that she was wearing the mask, Evie could see relatively well. The buildings were identical to the ones she had seen in images and simulations. Plain, rectangular, and gray, broken only by rows of windows. The only major difference was their height. The city had a few trees dotted throughout, and the buildings stopped just short of their canopies. None were over three stories tall.
The city looked industrial, built for function with little attention paid to overall aesthetics. Compared to the incredible landscape that surrounded it, the town was frankly uninteresting. As Evie looked down at the city, her eyes irresistibly gravitated towards the natural points framed by the surrounding structures. For the first time, she wondered if that was intentional.
A few hundred feet away, a train whistled out of the forest and into the city, making Evie jump. She watched it wind almost out of sight before stopping and letting off a small crowd of hunched gray figures. Honrad. They were too far away to see her, especially in this weather, but she still shrank back further into the branches, wrapping her dark coat tighter around her. The figures ambled away into the city and out of sight. She looked around, searching for others, but all she found were pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons.
“Ok,” she said, satisfied that there were no other Honrad nearby. “We have three days until the first episode airs, right?”
“Six days,” responded Amelia. “The episodes are three days delayed, remember? Basic math… it’s not hard.”
“And today doesn’t count,” Hat chimed in. “Today is a Thursday. The first Episode will air Friday a week from tomorrow.”
Communicating in Common about Honrad days and months had taken Evie a little while to get used to. Honrad weeks only contained five days. Their months were seven weeks, and their years were ten months. In Quall, months and days of the week had their own names, but when speaking Common, Evie’s brain translated them back to English. They became Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and the months ended in October.
“Okay, but the first episode will reflect the next three days, correct?”
“Yes. I can do a little fudging with the timeline, but if it’s too obvious, it can negatively affect ratings.”
Evie nodded. “All right. Let’s head back and make a plan.”
By the time Honrad’s sun had fallen below the horizon, Evie, Hat, and Amelia were back in the pod. The rain had only grown heavier, but very little of it reached the top of the pod beneath the tree.
They had a plan. Evie knew she should go to bed since they needed to be up well before the sun, but her mind refused to stop spinning. Instead, she leafed through the information on her target, Vorclom Ude, for what had to be the fifth time. They hadn’t been given much. There was a brief description of his–it specified he was male–career and education. He had studied some kind of bio-adjacent engineering, and his career had revolved around the Resurrection Chambers. Currently, he was in charge of the Shlordal Sha Resurrection Center. He lived with two partners, another male and a female, and had no children. There was a footnote mentioning a third partner who had recently “moved on” that Evie had been wondering about.
“I don’t understand Honrad social structures,” she said aloud. “’A third partner who has recently chosen to move on’. I’m pretty sure they mean romantic partners, and if that’s the case, does ‘move on’ mean something like a divorce? You’d think that would justify more than a footnote…” Hat, who was attempting to sleep, cracked an eye and glared at her.
“Sounds like a perfect question for the informant. Now either go to bed, or shut up and let me sleep.”
The informant. Evie could have smacked herself. In all the excitement of landing, she had completely forgotten to reach out to their informant. She leafed through the folder, locating a page on the bottom of the pile. Printed on it was a single name, Inor, and a short number.
Evie pulled out her tablet and opened a messaging app. As she typed in Inor’s number, she felt a small pang of disappointment that she couldn’t message Lubanzi. Contact between assassins on different assignments was forbidden. She could only message Hat, Amelia, and the informant.
She briefly debated sending her introduction in Quall, but decided to use Common for now. Hello Inor. My name is Evie. We have landed near Shlordal Sha and have begun our assignment. At your convenience, I would like to meet.
It was a few minutes before Evie’s tablet dinged with a response.
Assassin. Message questions. If discussion is needed, I will be available two days from now on Saturday, July 21st between hour fifteen and hour twenty-three.
The reality of finally meeting one of the Honrad face to face made Evie nervous. However, it wasn’t something she could avoid, and it would probably be best to start with one she knew was friendly.
Inor. Saturday at hour fifteen sounds good. I will bring a list of questions. Please let me know where you want to meet.
We can discuss remotely. No location needed.
Evie took a moment to reread the message, trying to decide if it was intentionally curt, or just read that way.
I would like to meet in person, to grow more accustomed to your kind. Would that be possible?
There was a long pause before another message came in.
Hour fifteen next Saturday. Meet in Beek, a small settlement six miles north of Shlordal. Eew street, house number 435. Enter through back door, let no one see.
Definitely curt. But if that was going to be a problem, she would handle it another day. Evie briefly contemplated watching the new round of episodes that had aired that day, but decided against it and tucked her tablet away. After completing an assignment, each assassin got two weeks to rest and recover, so Celia wouldn’t have an episode anyway. Not that the other assassins weren’t good, but Celia had always been Evie’s favorite.
She knew she needed to sleep, despite how wired she was. She walked to the bathroom, changed and got ready for bed, hoping the routine might summon some amount of fatigue. It didn’t, so she pulled out some sleeping pills the Skonarians had given to her long ago. She had never needed them before now, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise. Amelia would wake them at hour four, so they could be up and in position before dawn.
Tomorrow, her hunt began in earnest.