Good to know what everyone is up to on this small SRV.

Would be best-but highly unlikely-if I'm the only one with a secret.

It felt like everyone in the cramped quarters was hiding something.

Made for a lot of unknowns.

And Ivan didn't like unknowns.

"What are you going for?"

"My company investigates and researches any new life forms found on the Road systems."

"So-they found something new on Omega Nine?"

"I didn't say that."

"No. I did. Interesting, though. New life forms ... usually the Road Authority makes a big deal about any discoveries. Even something microscopic. Proof that the Road is about more than commerce."

"I didn't say-"

Ivan reached across the aisle and put a hand on the man's forearm.

"Easy there, Doc. Your secret's safe with me. I don't really care about old life forms. So, new ones ... not exactly my thing, either."

Rodriguez turned away.

And Ivan thought: That's not his mission. I can smell bullshit.

The truth would come out, he knew. One way or the other.

Everyone's secret on this ship. Bit by bit.

Before Omega Nine.

Before Ivan did what the World Council wanted him to do.

Something ... that Ivan wasn't even sure he would actually do.

He'd have to learn everyone's secrets eventually.

But for now, he shut his eyes and let the steady rumble of the SRV lull him to sleep.

"Whoa," Annie said.

She tapped the screen to her right, the one that tracked near-space for any anomalies ahead on the Road.

Jordan turned to her.

"Whaddya got?"

"Not sure. Still pretty far away, but see those specks? What are they?"

Then the voice of the troop ship commander in her ear. Sharp ... crisp.

Alarmed?

"Captain Scott?"

"What is it, Commander?"

"We've picked up an ion storm ahead."

Annie had traveled past these storms before, but just a few. They weren't pretty. The noise, the light, the way it could rattle the SRV-all pretty disturbing. And it could bang up a SRV pretty bad.

Enough time in a storm could rip a ship apart.

But usually they lasted only minutes, like passing through a vapor cloud and momentarily losing all viz.

Then-in seconds-all over. Done.

But this one?... Looks big.

"It's directly ahead of us, Captain, and it appears to stretch all along the Road for quite a distance. Can't tell how far yet."

Annie could see it on her forward screen now.

The size of it ...

Shit.

No goddamn vapor cloud they could pass through in seconds.

The hair on Annie's forearm prickled. Her stomach muscles tightened.

"There's a spur ahead. Small station. We need to get to there and off the Road." The commander's voice was beginning to break up as they got closer to the ion storm.

Good call, Annie thought.

Except that meant that they'd be in the storm for some time before reaching the spur. And if the storm was also affecting the spur...?

"Yes, Commander," Annie said, not letting the concern show in her voice.

"We're going to go as fast as we can. Follow in our wake. We might be able to clear the way for you."

"Okay."

Then ... nothing.

She took a breath.

"I'm gonna tell the passengers what's going on. No way around it. It's gonna get nasty."

Jordan nodded.

The gunner simply said, "Yup."

She pressed a button, and cleared her throat.

14.

VANISHING ACT.

"Attention. We are moving into an ion storm ahead. Everyone must take their seats and fasten their safety harnesses immediately."

Ivan looked out his porthole, seeing nothing unusual off to the side.

Must be right in front of us.

Then: "What's that?" Ruth asked, looking out her porthole and then turning to Ivan.

Ivan had been through a lot of ion storms. Usually, he'd pass through quickly, and everything would be fine.

But he'd heard of other, bigger storms. Killer storms.

"What's what?" he asked casually. No sense scaring her.

"An ion storm?" Ruth said.

Ivan looked at her. Sinjira turned around so she could listen as well. She was probably recording the whole thing. Great. Just what he needed ... his face in a chip.

Can't avoid it now.

"Ionized sub-particles," he said. "I don't know the actual physics of the thing, but the ions cluster together and collect. I always thought it was like a buildup of whatever energies power the Road. Anyway, running into them is a little like going through a sandstorm ... only the sand has teeth."

"Teeth?" Her face, at least what he could see of it under the hood, had gone pale.

So much for not scaring her ...

"It's bad?" Rodriguez asked.

Ivan didn't like that all of the passengers were now focused on him. Like he was the expert or something.

Nahara had turned back. If anything, his eyes looked even more haunted.

"Depends how big it is," Ivan said, wishing the miner-the old-timer-would jump in. "Some storms can be real bad.

"We'll probably get through it pretty fast," Ivan said. "It'll get bumpy, I'd guess, but that's all."

"And if we don't?" the Seeker, Ruth, asked.

No one touched that question.

Everyone's scared now, he thought. Let's hope "bumpy" is the worst of it.

Within minutes, Annie could see the cloud, like a huge weather formation back on Earth. A hurricane that sprouted too many tornadoes to count. It swirled ... billowing over the section of the Road ahead with the troop ship heading straight toward it.

No way we're gonna get to that Road spur before it hits.

"Damn, that's big," Annie said.

"Biggest I've ever seen," Jordan murmured. Even he sounded a bit awed. And Annie knew he'd seen a lot.

They couldn't stop, she knew. If they did, the Road Bugs would swarm and make quicker work of them than the storm. At least with the storm, they had a chance.

As for going backward? Any storm moving that fast was moving faster than they could possibly go.

Not an option, either.

There was no other choice than to head straight into it as fast as they could and hope for the best.

She looked forward as the troop ship entered the swirling cloud. Shifting forks of static electricity shot through the swirling black mass.

And immediately, the huge ship began to react to the barrage of energized microparticles.

Huge electric-pinpricks, looking like fireballs, flaked off the troop ship's surface as the particles battered the ship. Spears of blazing light shot out in all directions.

"Shit," Annie muttered.

The troop ship looked like it was under attack.

"SRV ... the storm ... we are ... maximum..."

Lahti.

Talking to her, warning her, but the message was garbled as the ionized particles wreaked havoc on communications.

SRV-66 was seconds away from hitting the storm.