Chapters (23)
"Yeah," Jason said scornfully. "I make a good portable wall."
"If you don't like who you are, then change who you are!" Kira told him. "If we can keep from being caught you'll have a chance to learn how to do other things."
"You don't like who you are," Jason pointed out.
"You know what? This is not about me. Come on." The door, having apparently not been opened for a while, protested but eventually gave way to their combined tugging. Kira motioned Jason inside, then followed, trying to act as if they were doing something completely normal. As far as she could tell, none of the people on the street had reacted with suspicion to her and Jason's actions.
Inside the wall, this part of the rail yard was a bit isolated, spare rails and ties stacked so that they had almost blocked the door. Kira stood a moment, looking around, listening to the sounds of locomotives and hammering on metal and the other achingly familiar noises she associated with happy times with her mother and her friends.
Sighing, Kira opened her jacket and loosened her pistol in its holster, ready to draw.
"Why are you doing that?" Jason asked. He wasn't still moody, but looked like the kid from Urth again, someone who played strange games and was out of his depth in a place where real things were happening.
"Jason, there's a much bigger chance that anyone we meet in the rail yard will know my mother or have seen her," Kira explained. "Or maybe even have met me. I worked in this rail yard for a couple of weeks last summer."
"Why did you bring us here if people knew you?"
"Because this is the fastest and surest way out of this city and on our way!" Kira ran a hand through her hair, fighting down nerves. "If anyone notices us, we probably won't be able to talk our way out of it. So let's not get noticed."
She remembered enough about the layout of the yard to take a path toward the outgoing rail lines that minimized their chances of encountering anyone, approaching a line of coupled freight cars from the side opposite where people should be working on them. "There. That's a boxcar carrying general freight. We don't want one with livestock that would act up and give us away, and maybe hurt us, and we don't want an ice car. If these cars are ready to go, they'll have been inspected and locked, so I'll just have to pick another lock to get us inside."
She knelt down, examining the lock, Jason kneeling nearby to watch her anxiously.
"What are you doing there?" a sharp, authoritative voice demanded.
Kira hand moved the small distance necessary to reach under her jacket and grasp her pistol, her thumb releasing the safety as she spun about and leveled her weapon.