“Are you sure you don’t want to stick around longer?” Jane asked, as I collapsed into the chair across from her. “You really seemed to enjoy seeing all your friends again.”

  Maggie had stayed a lot longer than I expected. Not because she’d been distracted by my catalogs, and tech, but because Issi had insisted on showing the woman how to play Chessers. It had only taken Maggie ten minutes to grasp the basics, and within the hour the two of them had half a dozen new factions, miniatures and all, scattered all over the residence.

  Jane had to chase the pair over to the playroom so they didn’t fill our living area with toys and games, and they stayed there until it was time for Issi to go to bed. I don’t know who was more disappointed when Alan and I went over to retrieve the tot. Issi or Maggie.

  With her partner in crime gone, Maggie finally called it a night. She whipped up a couple presents for the kids, against my objections, before pulling me into a bone crushing hug, jumping into her car, and flying away while waving energetically.

  Even with all my physical enhancements I found it hard to keep up with Issi. Having someone around that could not only keep up with her, but enabled her? That was truly exhausting.

  “I did enjoy it,” I confirmed. “Claire, Alise and Maggie are some of the first samurai I worked with for any significant amount of time. Although… Claire and I may have rubbed each other the wrong way at first.”

  “You rubbed someone the wrong way? I find that hard to believe,” Alan declared sarcastically, as he brought a couple cups of tea over. Placing one in front of Jane, and the other in front of himself.

  “Hey! I know I know I was pretty abrasive before, but I’ve calmed down a lot in the last year,” I said. “I don’t have to jump at everyone that aggravates me.”

  “You still jump at most of them,” he muttered.

  “Anyways…” I huffed, turning away from Alan and back towards Jane. “Even though I enjoyed visiting everyone, and would like to show you guys the city, it’s not worth aggravating the other locals. Besides, we can always come back later, or invite everyone to visit us once everything calms down. Better safe than sorry.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you, especially after seeing those samurai squabbling in the parking lot,” Jane said, taking a small sip of her drink. “So if we’re not sticking around here, where are we heading next?”

  “Indianapolis,” I replied without hesitation.

  Jane raised an eyebrow, but it was Alan that replied.

  “Isn’t that half way across the continent? You don’t have a single place you want to stop on the way? I thought you brought us out here to relax, not sit around in an exact replica of what we have back home,” he said.

  “It’s not that we can’t stop,” I clarified. “It’s just that I suddenly have a lot more places that I want to avoid than I want to visit.”

  “Like…” Alan prompted.

  “Well, Portland’s out. That’s where the initial ‘terrorist’ attacks happened, and it’s probably on high alert. I’d also like to avoid stopping at any of the other Cascadian megacities, because if they’re as fractured as Seattle we’ll just receive the same sort of welcome we did here,” I said.

  “Is that it?” Alan asked.

  “I wish… we’re also going to avoid Denver. I probably made quite a few enemies over there after I helped stop the armored columns they sent to take over the city,” I explained.

  Jane slowly lowered her mug. “Do you honestly think the Denver samurai may be holding a grudge?”

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  “The samurai? No, of course not,” I replied. “Charlotte and Hel were in constant contact with the Denver branch of the family, and both sides were quite clear that they didn’t condone the actions of their associated military slash corporate forces. The mega corps based in and around Denver are a completely different matter. I doubt they’d be stupid enough to take on the Stratocarrier, but I wouldn’t put it past them to try and strike at you guys while we wandered about the streets. We’re better off just not giving them the opportunity.”

  “So… what does that leave us?” Jane asked.

  “Not that much, at least in the west,” I replied. Since we were all sitting around the table I connected to the small holo projector hidden in the roof and projected a continental map. “Boise and Salt Lake City are still intact, and somewhat on route, so we could stop there. I can’t think of a reason to do so, but we could.”

  “There must be a reason to stop there,” Alan muttered.

  “Maybe there is… but I don’t know the cities and after some quick research I couldn’t find any good reason for us to visit. Apparently the area used to be quite scenic before the Antithesis hit, but the area has been ravaged over the years. The cities are more citadels than anything else,” I explained.

  “You’re right, they don’t exactly sound like ideal tourist destinations,” Alan muttered. “What’s out east?”

  “Well there are a couple mega cities in the central plains, just not that many,” I said inspecting the map. “I think the next most interesting stops would be Kansas City and St. Louis.”

  Jane frowned, and cocked her head to the side. “Why? What’s so interesting about that area?”

  “Oh, I can answer that,” Alan exclaimed, suddenly excited. “They’re right on the edge of the former Ohio Quarantine Zone. It’s been cleared for years, but apparently you can still see the devastation from one of the first major incursions. From what I’ve heard they even considered nuking the place in order to keep the Antithesis contained, they just never went through with it. Not at first. After the first wave they failed to clean up the hives, so the Antithesis re-emerged in even larger numbers. They have no choice but to nuke the area in order to save the surrounding areas. Even after irradiating the area a lot of Antithesis survived, so they had to saturate the area with conventional ordinance until the place was uninhabitable.”

  “How do you know all that?” I asked, confused.

  “It’s historical,” Alan replied. “You might not find it all that exciting, but it is for me. If you want something that we can show the kids, then St. Louis has one of the largest publicly available zoos in North America, along with several museums.”

  “Public zoo? What do you mean ‘public zoo?’” I said.

  “Well, cloning has come a long way over the last few years, but it’s still expensive. Not many people are willing to invest in cloning animals when they can replicate them with holograms for a fraction of the price. Most people either keep a menagerie of clone animals to show off their wealth to others, or to eat them. There’s only a handful of places where people can go to view living animals these days,” Alan explained.

  “Of course it’s about money…” I grumbled. “I assume it’s expensive too.”

  “Fairly expensive, and it’s better to book ahead. They only allow a handful of people through at the same time.”

  “That’s fine, it’ll take us a couple days to get there anyways. Can you take care of the reservations?” I asked.

  Alan nodded, and his eyes unfocused for a couple seconds. I didn’t know if it was to make a note, or actually make the phone call, so I turned back to Jane.

  “Was there anywhere you wanted to stop?”

  She bit her lip for a moment, then shook her head. “I wish that there were still national parks, because I really enjoyed our time by the sea and would like to see some other natural wonders. It’s too bad the incursions completely ruined most of them. I may ask to stop if we pass by something particularly lovely though.”

  “That’s fair. I think everyone enjoyed our time on the seaside, and we should totally take advantage and visit these natural spots while we’re out here. I doubt we’re going to see much nature once we get back home. Maybe I’ll ask Nyx to create a list of places we could stop at on the way,” I said.

  “I appreciate it,” Jane replied, smiling softly. She raised her mug and finished her tea. “How long will it take us to travel to Saint Louis from here anyways?”

  “Only a couple of days at cruising speed. The ship is surprisingly fast considering its size. Still, there’s no reason to rush.”

  Jane nodded, and pushed back from the table. “It’s already late, someone has to get up in the morning to look after the kids.”

  “That someone doesn’t have to be you, it could be me, or Alan,” I protested, glancing over at Alan. The boy still had a completely glazed over look in his eyes, so he probably was making the call, and who knows how long that’d take. “Well, I can do it.”

  “That’s sweet, but you spent the last two days visiting with your friends, and you're probably tired,” Jane replied.

  “Visiting with my friends is nothing compared to looking after the kids,” I insisted. “Besides, I don’t need much sleep these days. I’ll handle it, trust me!”

  Jane raised an eyebrow. “Alight, if you insist. I’m still going to head to bed, it’s been a long few days and I’m tired.”

  “Fair enough, have a good night!” I called as she retreated down the hallway.’

  I got up from my seat and headed towards the couch. I briefly considered shutting off the lights, but Alan would probably just turn them back on once he finished and found himself in the dark. I could have carried him to his room, but he’d find that even more disorienting. I’d just have to wait until he was done.

  “Better hurry up,” I muttered to him as I settled down on the couch. “I have to get up in the morning.”

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