This Perfect Day

"The guns and bombs are for when we need them," Chip said, "not for when we can avoid using them." He turned to Dover. "Take a walk in the woods there," he said. "See if you can get a look at what's past the turn."

"Right," Dover said. He got up and crossed the grass, picked something up and brought it to a litter basket, and went in among the trees. His yellow coveralls became bits of yellow that vanished up the slope. They turned from watching him. Chip took out his map. "Shit," Jack said.

Chip said nothing. He looked at the map. Buzz rubbed his leg and took his hand from it abruptly. Jack tore bits of grass from the ground. Ria, sitting close to him, watched him. "What's your suggestion," Jack said, "if they are checking bracelets?"

Chip looked up from the map and, after a moment, said, "We'll go back a little way and cut east and by-pass them." Jack tore up more grass and then threw it down. "Come on," he said to Ria, and stood up. She sprang up beside him, bright-eyed. "Where are you going?" Chip said.

"Where we planned to go," Jack said, looking down at him. "The parkland near the tunnel. We'll wait for you until it gets light."

"Sit down, you two," Karl said.

Chip said, "You'll go with all of us when I say we'll go. You agreed to that at the beginning."

"I've changed my mind," Jack said. "I don't like taking orders from you any more than I like taking them from Uni."

"You're going to ruin everything," Buzz said. Ria said, "You are! Stopping, turning back, by-passing—if you're going to do a thing, do it!"

"Sit down and wait till Dover gets back," Chip said. Jack smiled. "You want to make me?" he said. "Right out here in front of the Family?" He nodded to Ria and they picked up their bikes and steadied the kits in the baskets. Chip got up, putting the map in his pocket. "We can't break the group in two this way," he said. "Stop and think for a minute, will you, Jack? How will we know if—"

"You're the stopper-and-thinker," Jack said. "I'm the one who's going to walk down that tunnel." He turned and pushed his bike away. Ria pushed hers along with him. They went toward the path.

Chip took a step after them and stopped, his jaw tight, his hands fisted. He wanted to shout at them, to take his gun out and force them back—but there were cyclists passing, members on the grass nearby. "There's nothing you can do, Chip," Karl said, and Buzz said, "The brother-fighters."

At the edge of the path Jack and Ria mounted their bikes. Jack waved. "So long!" he called. "See you in the lounge at TV!" Ria waved too and they pedaled away. Buzz and Karl waved after them.

Chip snatched up his kit from his bike and slung it on his shoulder. He took another kit and tossed it in Buzz's lap. "Karl, you stay here," he said. "Buzz, come on with me."

He went into the woods and realized he had moved quickly, angrily, abnormally, but thought Fight it! He went up the slope in the direction Dover had taken. God DAMN them! Buzz caught up with him. "Christ and Wei," he said, "don't throw the kits!"

"God damn them!" Chip said. "The first time I saw them I knew they were no good! But I shut my eyes because I was so fighting—God damn me!" he said. "It's my fault. Mine."

"Maybe there's no bracelet check and they'll be waiting in the parkland," Buzz said.

Yellow flickered among the trees ahead: Dover coming down. He stopped, then saw them and came on. "You're right," he said. "Doctors on the ground, doctors in the air—"

"Jack and Ria have gone on," Chip said. Dover looked at him wide-eyed and said, "Didn't you stop them?"

"How?" Chip said. He caught Dover's arm and turned him around. "Show us the way," he said. Dover led them quickly up the slope through the trees. "They'll never get through," he said. "There's a whole medi-center, and barriers to prevent the bikes from turning."

They came out of the trees onto an incline of rock, Buzz last and hurrying. Dover said, "Get down or we'll be seen." They dropped to their stomachs and crawled up the incline to its rim. Beyond lay the city, '00013, its white slabs standing clean and bright in the sunlight, its interweaving rails glittering, its border of roadways flashing with cars. The river curved before it and continued to the north, blue and slender, with sightseeing boats drifting slowly and a long line of barges passing under bridges.