it ain't really like no home or nothin'. Ah know a safe place to camp tonight, and it ain't too far from heah."

"The houses around mine are all empty," he told her. "Just pick one. Or, if you trust me enough, you're welcome to crash at my house tonight. I have some clean blankets and stuff you can borrow if you're not cool with that. You'll be completely safe no matter where you stay, that I can guarantee you. Beyond a shadow of a doubt."

"No offense, sugah, but Ah'd feel much more comfortable campin' somewhere Ah _know_ Ah'm safe. After Ah see you've been around a while, Ah'll feel alright with crashin in yo' area. Ah have no doubt _you_ think yo' safe enough, but _Ah_ ain't so sure."

"No offense taken, Temika," he said calmly. "Well, if you're going to go camp out, the least I can offer is dinner. It's gonna be TV dinners, but it'll be better than whatever you manage to shoot out in the forest."

"You got yo'self a guest," Temika said brightly. "Ah never turn down a free meal."

It wasn't fancy, but it was different, and that seemed to please Temika quite a bit. They literally had TV dinners, with water to wash it down. Afterwards, he showed her his plasma weapons, his railgun, and the collection of pistols, rifles, and machine guns he'd stripped off the gang members. He kept them in a box down in the basement. "Why do you sleep down heah?" she asked curiously.

"This is the safe room that protects me from the sound-based defense," he answered honestly. "I have a damper installed down here. It nullifies the hypersonic sound." He had no qualms with revealing those things to Temika, because the past touches he'd made on her assured him that she was trustworthy.

"Nice," Temika said, picking up one of the Tek-9's in his box. She was careful not to pull the trigger. "Ain't these the ones that use nine millimeter ammo?"

"I guess so, I don't know much about guns," he replied absently, checking the diagnostic readout on his railgun. "You like that?"

"Yeah. This is some firepowah, sugah. If you didn't notice, Ah'm a gal that loves her firepowah."

"Keep it," he shrugged.

"Sugah, this gun ain't something yah _give away_," she protested. "Shit, sugah, you could get a year's worth of fresh eggs out of the Becketts for this thang."

"It's yours," he told her. "If only because you're the first person I've met out here who didn't immediately start shooting at me. I've got six more in there," he said with a slight smile. "So it's not like I'm giving you the shirt off my back. Find one that has the shoulder strap. If you want, you can take it out and make sure it works, but _no_ shooting up the houses," he warned.

"Bring one of those out too," she said, pointing at the plasma rifle he had in a gun case in the corner. "Ah ain't never seen of those fired before."

"Those are hunting versions, they're nowhere near as powerful as military-grade weapons," he told her. "You'd be disappointed. All you'd see is a red laser-beam like light, and a smoking hole in whatever it hit."

"That sounds powerful enough to me."

"The military grade weapons tend to make any small target they hit explode," he explained. "Including people. Even being grazed by a military MPAC can blow off your arm. If you took an MPAC shot directly in the chest, they'd need a broom and a wetvac to pick up all the pieces. They're very _brutal_ weapons."

"Eww," Temika said with a shudder. "Too much information, sugah. That sounds really gruesome."

"I suppose it is. The armor the Faey wear helps absorb some of that. If you shot a Faey with her own gun, she'd get injured, but it would blow her to pieces. From what I remember reading, the _real_ armor they use can take several hits from an MPAC before being compromised."

"What do ya mean, real armor?"

"The stuff they use down here is hundred year old surplus junk," he told her. "The only things they have that are current are their guns and their hovercars. That armor the Faey wear, they stopped using it years and years ago. They use it here because conventional guns can't penetrate it. It's all the protection they _need_. Their biggest worry is that somehow someone gets hold of an MPAC, and that's not much worry at all."

"You got two right there."

"No, I have two hunting rifles. Those aren't MPACs. _This_ is an MPAC," he said, holding up his plasma pistol. "It's not as powerful as a rifle, but it's an MPAC."

"What's the difference?"

"Those fire a static charge of plasma. This fires a charge of plasma that exists in multiple quantum states. Think of it as the gunpowder in a bullet," he said to her blank look. "Those use weak bullets, this uses a really strong one."

"Oh, kinda like comparin' a .38 to a .44," she reasoned.

"More like a regular gun to a magnum, but yeah, something like that," he agreed. "Well? Pick out your gun."

She did so quickly, a Tek-9 with a shoulder strap, which she immediately slung over her shoulder. She practiced a few times with reaching down and grabbing the weapon, then pulling it forward to aim in front of her while it was still slung over her shoulder. "Good, this'll work. Ah'll have tah find some way tah pay you for this, sugah," she said appreciatively. "Clem knows all about guns. Ah'll go see him tomorrow and have him show me how tah break it down so Ah can clean it." She laughed. "All that nine mil ammo Ah had and traded away, and now Ah got a gun that uses it. Ain't life just the shit sometimes?"

"I can't help you there, all I got were the guns. If you want the ammo, just go over into the city and find out where they keep all the ammo they have stockpiled."

She laughed. "Too bad you couldn't get some of that Faey armor fo' me," she told him. "Ah'd love to be bulletproof. Ah could march down intah Huntington and take on all the gangs by mahself."

It was like a little light bulb turned on in his brain. What a _great_ idea! "Temika, I could kiss you," Jason said ruefully. "I _never_ thought of that."

"What?"

"Armor. All that access I had to stuff at school, and I never _once_ thought of making armor."

"You can make armor?"

He snorted. "_Easily_. Or I could have, back when I had access to the school's fabrication lab. With the equipment I have here, it wouldn't be easy at all. _Unless_, I get some that's already made," he mused absently, rushing over to the desk by his bed and sitting down. He pulled out his new panel which, thanks to backup memory sticks, had everything in it that his school panel did. Including the phone number of a certain enterprising young lady. He wasn't too sure about accessing CivNet from here, because they might be able to use the signal to track him down, so he avoided doing that. He instead ensured that Eleri's number was still in his panel. It was.

He put it in standby mode and stood up quickly. "I'm going out Temika. Get what you need, cause I'm locking the house up."

"Where y'all goin', sugah?"

"I want to check CivNet, but I can't do it from here. They might use the panel to track me down, so I have to do that somewhere else. I'll go up to the border with Faey territory, it might not look _too_ odd up there. I'd be close enough to other traffic." He grabbed a satchel that was the carrying case for a panel, then stuffed the panel down inside it, then slung it over his shoulder. He picked up the plasma pistol, then stuffed it into the belt of his jeans behind his back. "I can think of several things that would be bulletproof off the top of my head. I need to check them out, and figure out some way to get them here."

"Okay, sugah," she said.

It only took him a few minutes to get the house ready for him to leave. Temika climbed up onto her Harley and turned the key, then gave him a grateful smile. "You gonna be alright, sugah?" she asked.

"I'll only be gone a couple of hours," he told her. Oh, don't come back tonight. I'm gonna turn on my intrusion deterrent system. You don't want to be here when it's active."

"Alright. Ah'll come by tomorrow afternoon sometime and get that airbike, sugah. That okay with you?"

"Fine. We'll probably be going into Faey territory sometime very soon. Next week sometime, I think. After I'm sure they're not coming for me."

"Ah'll keep in touch with you, sugah," she promised, then she started her Harley. The loud sound of its engine roared through the neighborhood. She waved to him as she rode off, and Jason watched her go. That, he told himself, was going to be one _very_ good friend. He already liked her, and he just knew that he could trust her.

In five minutes, he was on an airbike and skimming the hilltops as he traveled northeast. He had the windscreen fully extended because he didn't have a good visor or goggles or anything, and he spent as much time looking at the map display on the console of the airbike as he was paying attention to where he was going. The bike was in collision detection mode, causing it to gain altitude whenever its lateral forward sensor detected an obstacle within a half mile. That was the only autopilot an airbike had, but it was good enough for him as he studied the map. The Faey border ran through southeastern Ohio, and the closest populated city of any size to Huntington was Columbus. That was about an ninety minutes away by airbike, or a few hours by car. But the border was some fifty or so miles southeast of Columbus, running just north of the abandoned town of Chillicothe, which was where Temika had come from, now that he remembered. The closest settlement of any size on the border that was within what he considered to be his area of travel was a brand new town called New Eradin, which the Faey had built to be a collection area for produce and grain grown out in the fields. It had evolved into an actual town, though one built of Faey plas-crete modular buildings. It was only two miles from the border, and was about twenty miles north-northeast of Chillicothe.

That was where he was going.

He turned to line himself up with New Eradin, then opened the throttle as he tucked in behind the extended windscreen. The airbike was screaming along at nearly two hundred miles and hour, but the widescreen kept the majority of that powerful wind off of him. It didn't keep it off his overshirt or clothes, though, so by the time he slowed down and dove down to the treetops, he realized that the tail of his overshirt was a little frayed and torn. The border of the Faey territory was about five miles ahead, and it was a dramatic one, for it marked the border of the forest. There was not a tree in sight anywhere past that line, it was all neatly maintained farmland all the way to the horizon, a horizon that held the small skyline of the town of New Eradin. He looked down in the fading light of sunset and spotted an old abandoned road, and dropped down and eased back on the throttle to follow it. He was under the treeline and out of sight. He got to within a mile of the border and set the airbike down, then hid it in the gulley made by a stream flowing beside the road and continued on foot.

When he got within five hundred yards of that border, as the trees started showing peeks of golden light from the setting sun, he stopped. That was close enough. He sat down on an old log and brought out his panel, then accessed CivNet. He knew what he was looking for, so it only took a few minutes to bring it up.

He was curious about two ideas. First, a formal set of combat armor that made it abundantly clear that he was there on _business_. The second was some kind of armored cloth that would be capable of stopping any bullet.

The first idea took about ten seconds. There were any number of Faey security companies that made armor for individuals, no questions asked. After all, in the Faey system, nothing was really patently illegal, you just had to be able to afford it. There were any number of these firms who manufactured combat armor for nobles. After a single search, he came up with at least 200 listings for companies that sold armor, either off-the-shelf (which wasn't very good) or custom made to spec (which was much more common practice).

The second idea wasn't as easy, because of the archaic nature of Terran weapons. He had to reword his search to look for _impact_ armor, not _ballistic_ armor, and that tagged a few matches. There was an armor material called _meralite_ that was capable of stopping high-velocity impacts of up to 2,800 _shakra_ per second. The armor was actually a _component_ of an armored cloth that was designed to help protect against MPAC fire. Since MPAC fire actually relied on the velocity of the plasma charge to help induce penetration, stopping that round's velocity was a critical aspect of protection against MPAC fire. The heat of the round coupled to its velocity caused it to burn into its target, then when it slowed, the heat interacted with the material it touched to cause the MPAC charge to explode. The volatile nature of the plasma charge caused it to start detonating the instant it hit a solid object, but the velocity of that plasma drove the explosion _into_ the target. That's why MPAC fire blew people apart. Most MPACs fired with a muzzle velocity of about 2,000 _shakra_ per second, which made the weapon almost a line of sight weapon against anything within that 2,000 _shakra_. This MPAC armor was designed to stop the round and redirect the explosion _outward_, since the velocity of the MPAC charge would be stopped by the meralite layer. The armor at the impact site would be destroyed by the MPAC detonation, and the heat and some of the explosive energy of the MPAC strike would get through the armor and deal injury, but it would stop the shot and prevent instant death from being blown to pieces by the MPAC charge. MPAC armor was literally one-use armor, and it didn't _prevent_ injury, only _reduced_ it. After it was hit, it was ruined, and the wearer had some burn injuries. But it _would_ help protect the wearer against the instant death that accompanied a direct hit from an MPAC.

The reason this meralite material worked is because it was called _phase cloth_. It was a material that itself existed in multiple quantum states of reality, and from what read as he researched it, it was actually a _biological_ product, woven from the silk of certain arachnids called Mera Crawlers in the Meruki cluster. This raw silk had the unique aspect of existing in multiple states because the Mera Crawlers preyed on another organism called a Phase Beetle, that had the ability to shift its mass out of quantum phase, making it intangible and untouchable to the _normal_ world. Evolution had provided them with a weapon to catch the phase beetles, and as a side effect, created probably the only material in existence-that he knew of-that was capable of stopping an MPAC. The Faey had since created a synthetic version that was a component in their heavy armors, but the phase cloth was still the material of choice for personal unobtrusive armor.

Very, very interesting. The Faey were using the product of an animal to help protect themselves from the lethal aspects of their own weapons. Then again, given the bloody and contentious history of the Imperium, a Faey probably needed to protect herself against her own kind much more than she did any other sentient race.

Jason did some figures in his head, and realized that this meralite armor would stop virtually any round fired from any gun. _Easily_. It would leave spectacular bruises and might break some bones, but it would stop the round. According to the specs of it, it was both very light and extremely strong, and was easily made into clothing. But, the material itself was rather coarse, so it wasn't usually made as clothing, but instead sewed as an internal layer within clothing. It was most often used as a lining within clothing, but it was so light that it added very little additional weight. It was sold by some of the same armor companies that built armor for people, and either came as rough material, or came as pre-made clothing.

Alright, so there was armor out there. Now came the problem of getting it to him. He had three options that he could see. First, he could have it sent to New Eradin, then find some way to pick it up. Second, he could have it sent to Jyslin, and find some way to have her get it to him. Thirdly, he could somehow have the armor sent directly to him _inside_ the lawless area. Each option presented its own problems and advantages, though. The New Eradin option made it easiest for him, but forced him to either place his trust in a stranger or go out there and find some way to have his items delivered to a location... maybe to a mailbox or something like that. But then he'd have to make sure that he was there at the right time to get it, then get away with his shipment. The Jyslin option put his stuff with someone he could absolutely trust, but she'd have no easy way to get it to him, and he had no easy way to get to her. The direct delivery idea got past those messy delivery issues, but it would give the Faey a hard location within the lawless area from which to start in order to find him, as well as make the deliverer answer all kinds of questions as to why they were delivering stuff inside a zone filled with squatters and outlaws.

Hmm. There was a fourth option, actually. Instead of sending it to New Eradin and finding some way to deliver it to a certain place, instead he could just pick it up directly off the drop ship, or have the drop ship meet him at a certain place in Faey territory. Those options required using an agent he could trust, and he knew just the woman.

Eleri.

For a fee, she'd deliver what he bought just about anywhere he wanted.

The heavy armor... there wasn't much he could do about that now. The fit of the armor was critical to its ability to protect, that was why off the shelf armor was so poor. But the impact armor, that he could get immediately, and it was important to get it as quickly as he could. It was dangerous out here, and his defenses only worked as long as they were actively turned on, and they utilized Faey energy sources that might be able to be picked up by Faey sensors. Besides, he _did_ have to leave his safe area, and eventually, someone was going to get close enough to take a shot at him, talent or no talent.

Despite having no way to get it to him yet, he needed to secure it. For now, he could either have Eleri hold it for him or have it sent to Jyslin, and then figure out how to get it later. Using the panel, he called Eleri's number. He again reached a switchboard of sorts, manned by a bored-looking Faey man wearing the crest and livery of the Trillane noble house. "Arcuri manor," he said.

"Eleri Trillane, please."

"What does this concern?"

"I'm following up on a piece of equipment she sold me. She told me to call."

The man nodded, and his face was replaced by a picture of the Trillane family crest. A few minutes later, as the forest became darker and darker with the approach of night, Eleri's pert little face appeared on the panel's display. The last time he'd seen her she was wearing a bikini. Today she had on a tank top of sorts that left her arms bare, but ended just below her breasts, but was all that he could see of her. Her white-blond hair was longer now, tied behind her with the tail thrown over her shoulder, to dangle down past his view. It was some kind of exercise outfit, he reasoned. "Eleri," she said in her brusque manner, then she seemed to recognize him. "Well, if it ain't that human inventor. Jason, wasn't it? What'cha calling for, babe?"

"Hello, Eleri," he returned. "I have a question and a favor to ask. You have a minute?"

"Yeah, I was about to go do some running," she said, rising up out of the camera's view and giving him a good look at her very flat belly for a moment, then she sat back down a bit closer to the display. "Sorry, had to sit down. So what can I do for ya babe?"

"If I gave you a list of a few things to buy, would you do that for me?"

"Well sure, but why don't you just buy it yourself? I-oh, hold on. I see outside behind you, and it's dark there. You're in trouble, aren't you!" she said with sudden excitement.

"Well, I'm going to be very soon," he admitted with a slight smile. "Let's say that I got tired of school, so I decided to take an _extended_ vacation."

She laughed. "Damn, Jason, you just make my heart sing. I've been contemplating heading for the hills myself, what with my conscription coming up and all. But I just keep telling myself that I've only gotta do it for five years, then it's back to normal. You okay? Got a place to live? Doing alright?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm hiding in one of the nature preserves where the Faey don't patrol. It's filled with squatters and other people, and not all of them are friendly. I came here with some equipment, but I wasn't really prepared for the idea of having to actively fight to protect myself as much as I thought I was. I need some extra stuff, and then I'll be just fine. I can't really buy it myself now, so I have to find someone to buy it for me. You're about the only option I have."

"That's good. I kinda like you, babe. Sure, I'll give you a hand, and it's yet another chance to piss off my mom, though she won't know about this," she said with a wicked smile. "What do you need me to buy for you?"

"Armor mainly," he said, sending her a small file with some pictures of things he was looking at. "I need protection against the old ballistic weapons my people used before the Faey came. This meralite armor cloth I found on CivNet is _perfect_ for that. I surfed around and found a few places that sell it. I need you to buy it for me, then hold onto it until I can figure out some way for you to get it to me without either of us getting caught."

"There ain't no list here, babe, just some descriptions and images. What exactly do you need? I need a shopping list."

"I don't have one yet. This call was just to see if you _could_ do it."

"Yeah babe, I can do it, no problem. I'd be happy to help you."

"You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that, Eleri."

"I like you," she grinned. "I do things for people I like. The fact that it's more or less illegal just makes it more fun."

Jason laughed. "Thanks, Eleri."

"Call me Kumi," she ordered. "All my friends do."

A _kumi_ was a female _vulpar_. It was the English equivalent of calling her _vixen_. "Kumi, eh?"

"That's right, because I'm such a clever little tease," she winked. "Besides, if you call and ask for Kumi, I'll immediately know it's _personal_."

"Ah, I understand, Kumi."

"Ok, so, what do you want to get?"

They went over some of the armor that was available, using an interactive window on their panels that both could manipulate and see in real time, and Jason decided on a few sets of rugged outdoor-like clothing, armored boots, and three duster-style long coats. They discussed heavy armor, and Eleri agreed that he needed to be personally fitted for it, as well as agreeing that a set of heavy armor was _definitely_ something he should have.

"How are you on supplies? Guns? You got reliable transportation?"

"I'm fine. I have my skimmer parked under a bridge to help hide it from sensor sweeps, but I don't have it powered up. I'm getting around on an airbike, but I'm probably going to have to park it now that they know I'm missing. I'm afraid the energy signature will be detectable from space-based sensors."

"It will," she affirmed, "but there's a way around that. You need some military-grade airbikes, with signature maskers. Let's add those to the list. You can just trade me the bikes you got for the new ones when I deliver this shit. You'll have to pay the difference between them, though," she warned, writing that down on a notepad she had by the panel. "Oh, shit, yeah, you'd better check to see if they froze your account."

"They don't know I ran away yet, only that I'm missing," he reasoned. "I don't think they've taken that step yet, because they know I have the airskimmer. Right now, they probably think I've either lost track of time or I might be injured out somewhere. But, if I did it right, they don't know _where_ to look for me. I know how the traffic control system works," he grinned.

"If they didn't have the space-based arrays on you when you ditched, they lost contact with you at about five hundred _shakra_. And I know for a fact that they don't have the entire planet covered by the space arrays on Terra," she said with a grin. "It's a low priority."

"Exactly. I'm glad you know how it works too."

"I've had my class three since I was twelve, babe. Let me figure out what this is gonna cost, then you can try to thumb me the money. That way you only have to access your account _once_."

"What will you say when they ask you about it?"

"Give me some credit, babe," she laughed. "They'll never find this bank account. It'd take them three cycles to figure out that the listed account owner doesn't even exist. And even if they do, why I never _dreamed_ you were a fugitive! I'm just shocked, you were such a nice guy!" she said in a little-girl voice, with a wide-eyed, innocent expression.

Jason laughed delightedly. "You're a wicked girl, Kumi."

"I know. Ain't it fun?" she grinned. Then she became thoughtful. "You trust me, babe?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What money you have in that account's gonna get frozen when they realize you've relocated. You won't be able to use it. I can deliver you _cash_. You thumb me your whole account, and I give you the difference in cash. For a transaction fee, of course, say five percent," she winked.

"You have the soul of a swindler, Kumi," he chuckled.

"I like ya babe, but business is business," she smiled. "I'll leave that up to you. After all, you'll be handing me the whole bundle, and there's no guarantee that I won't just take it and run. Then turn you in to top it all off."

"Hell, I won't be able to use it. I'll agree to that, and you wouldn't turn me in. You have a deal."

"Coolies," she said, scribbling on her notepad. "This isn't gonna be cheap, babe. I'll just claim that the new airbikes are the reason you thumbed me so much, but there might not be too much left over. We're up to about seventy thousand here. You're looking at over thirty thousand a bike to cover the difference in cost, going on list values."

"I had about a hundred and seventy thousand in the account before I left," he told her.

"Shit, new patent?" she asked with a laugh.

"Royalty payment."

"Ah. Okay, I got it, I'm sending you my account number. Go ahead and thumb it over. I promise I'll give you the rest in cash when I deliver your stuff."

"I trust you, Kumi," he said calmly. And he really did. So long as she thought she was getting into trouble but wouldn't get caught, she'd help him. Eleri was just like that. Jason accessed his account, then authorized the transfer of his entire bank account, rounding it up to the nearest thousand to make it look official, and sent it to Eleri's account.

"Damn, that's a sweet sight," Eleri chuckled when she looked at her account balance. "Okay babe, I'll get to work on this. Call me tomorrow and we'll work out where you're going to meet me."

"Meet _you_?" he asked in surprise.

"Of course babe, meet _me_. In person. That's how you're getting this stuff. I won't trust this to a freighter. So, I've decided I'm going to take a trip to Trillane's newest holding. Mother's been on my ass about taking a more active role in house operations, anyway," she sniffed. "I'm going to visit Terra, take in the sights, and perhaps go on a nature walk," she winked. "Oh shit, what's your size? I need those, both shirts and pants. And your height and weight. Oh, and stand up and step back so I can get a good look at you. Your body proportions matter."

He gave her his sizes, then put the panel down and let her get a look. "Take your shirt off."

"What?"

"Take your shirt off, babe. Pants too."

"Why am I doing that?" he demanded.

"Because proportions _matter_, babe. I can get your height weight and size, but if the proportions are wrong, they're not gonna fit. Don't worry, you don't have to take it _all_ off. Just the shirt and pants."

He gave her a long look, but she seemed serious about it. "Alright," he growled, setting the panel down. He then removed his shirt, shoes, and pants, and stood there in his boxer brief underwear.

"That's good, I got a pic of it," she told him, rather professionally. That surprised him. "You can get dressed." He did so quickly, and she continued to talk as he did so. "Okay, let me get on this. Remember, call me tomorrow, and do your best to do it as far from where you're set up as possible. They'll notice if a panel's accessing CivNet from an uninhabited zone."

"Yeah, I'm sitting on the border of Faey territory right now," he told her, sitting down to put his shoes back on. "Close enough for them not to be too sure where it's coming from."

"Clever boy," she winked.

"Only problem is I had to ride my airbike over here, and it's not too safe for me. I'll have to go back home then come back later."

"Hmm. Well, there's really not much you can do about that. Just stay under five hundred _shakra_ and hope whoever's on sensor duty isn't paying too much attention. Airbike signatures aren't that big."

"Heh. Whee," he mused aloud.

"Just hang in there babe, help's on the way," she grinned. "I'll be leaving for Terra the day after tomorrow, most likely. You should have this stuff in three days." She clapped her hands and rubbed them together. "I get to try out the new yacht," she said eagerly.

"Well, I'm glad for you. I need to get off here, since I'm in the area, I need to make some other calls," he told her. "You pull the number off this panel? It's a new one."

She nodded. "But I know better than to call it," she winked.

"Good. I'll call you about this time tomorrow _my time_," he stressed. "Twenty two _standard_ hours," he said after he converted the time.

"Got it. I'll make sure I'm free about that time."

"Kumi... thank you. I can't tell you how much a lifesaver you are," he said sincerely.

"Hey, I'm getting paid, babe," she winked. "And I'm happy to help. I like you, and I'm looking forward to meeting you."

"Me too."

"Ok, twenty two hours. It's a date."

"Not much of one, but one I intend to keep," he smiled.

"Don't start digging the hole already. By the way, you're drop dead sexy,