They exited the Baron's mansion, and Preacher ducked down low to avoid the sightline of the guards they could not hack. He pointed to an emergency vehicle parked in the driveway. It was outfitted to carry personnel to or from a hospital centre, and Alec wondered skeptically how much further this could go off the rails. Preacher ran to the back and entered the sliding door. They crouched under the stretcher and rolled. In an instant, they disappeared. Alec applied all the filters he could to his vision. He could see the slight heat signature of a guard fast approaching behind the vehicle, but he saw no signs of Preacher. Was it because it was an automaton? With the guard approaching, Alec couldn't take time to think about it. He slid into the same position and tried to roll by Preacher. He was stopped by the synth-skin of a hand and pushed the other direction.

  Alec rolled right and found a small compartment that allowed him to maneuver so he could hear the outside. The guard passed by without saying a word. This bay reminded Alec of the smuggling one in Quip, but it was outfitted for a rather large human. It would fit a very large person with the room Alec had to move in. He could see the Preacher's green eyes on the other side of the bay with a finger to their lips. It winked and mimed a gesture, as if it were tapping a timekeeping device. Alec got the point, "wait."

  Time slid on, but with the Aamaranth, Alec found it to be a utopia compared to the place he had just left. After nearly half an hour, Alec heard boots approaching. He heard whistling in an off-pace, off-tune kind of way, and the vehicle's door opened and closed. An engine revved, and Alec felt the car lurch. They drove for a few minutes, clearing the barons' gate, all the while the whistling continued. Finally, it broke off, and Alec heard a familiar voice; it wasn't an old friend, but the Preacher had said that would be at the end of this journey. This voice belonged to Doc Death.

  "Can't say I'll ever get used to seeing that poor woman on display there. I've researched any possible way to reverse it, and there's none. You were right Preacher, the Baron would never pass up a chance to gloat. Just had to beg him for my job back, and he and Zelsim had a special audience just to laugh at me." He paused as they hit a larger bump. Alec felt the vehicle move around him, but he was cradled so gently that an egg could survive.

  "I say there, Doc, these bays are positively wonderful. I don't know why we don't all travel this way." Preacher crooned from their bay but didn't move. Alec took the hint and stayed where he was as they drove.

  "Costs an arm and a leg, and although yours come off a lot easier than mine, I still don't think you can afford it."

  "It's more a matter of matching my boots with only one." These two were well versed in each other's ways, and Alec felt he could relax for the time being. Preacher turned his head to Alec as they continued on, "These bays are for Doc to get the moms and the babies out to Tusong's refuge." The name now made sense to Alec. Doc Death, as the soldiers called him, was in actuality an angel of life. The Doc must have faked the women's deaths, knowing the cremation ceremonies of the Teretha, and used that to disappear the vulnerable. The massively increased numbers in Tusong's cave now added up and explained why the Baron had assumed their numbers were so small.

  "Now then, just cause he's an ally doesn't mean we need to be giving all the secrets now." Doc's voice was low and gruff. This man did not trust easily.

  "Won't they know you're living in this thing?" It was Alec's turn to talk. He wanted to learn more about what these two had been doing, but for now, he wanted to get somewhere safe to strategize.

  "We ain't leaving." Doc's voice was definitive.

  "What my bulldog companion means to say is we won't be leaving in this. The Baron would have gotten onto this years ago had we been leaving town. We have a better way to get on up and out of here; we're going down, down, down." Preacher's voice was a blend of bravado and performance that evoked joy, unlike his opposite in Von Sinclair. No wonder the Baron had tried to use Alec to also break the equally charismatic Preacher.

  "Keep it down for now, they got patrols, a few more blocks, and we're home." The Doc cut off Preacher's chuckle, and Alec pushed some amaranth to listen outside of his pod. He heard the metallic thudding steps of mechs-soldiers pass by; the Baron must have posted them at each intersection. Alec felt the vehicle turn left and then right. Finally, it slowed, and he heard a bay door open and close. "Wait here," Doc said as he exited the vehicle.

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  A few minutes later, the back slid open, and Preacher rolled out with a dancing ease. Alec followed suit, and both climbed out of the ambulance into Doc's shop. Alec could see the area he had sat in through a bay window that was now unshuttered. Every outward-facing window was sealed and locked with blast shields. Doc put out a hand, and Alec shook it. "Had I known you were a friend, I perhaps would have been less openly skeptical, still. I think they had you pegged from the start."

  "Think you're right on that account." Alec was shifting his gun belt to fit properly; it held no whistlers, the Baron had used each one.

  Preacher put their hand on top of Alec and the Doc's. Each nail was painted in beautiful scenes, and his wayfarer jacket had additional ruffles sewn into the sleeves. "And all for one! Or something silly like that. As much as I enjoy a good human interaction, I believe it is in our best interest to keep this moving."

  "You sound like a friend of mine." Alec thought it was uncanny how, in a natural state, this synthetic human had such a similar cadence to Quip.

  “Ah yes, Quip. I met him wandering outside the camp. It is brave. Much more advanced than my circuitry and much more deadly. He told me..."

  "He spoke to you!?" Alec couldn't help but interrupt Preacher out of surprise. Quip risked death by deprogramming if its sentience were found out.

  "Why yes, I thought you knew it could speak. No matter. What it told me was brave, and I must say, fortunate. Some might call it deus ex machina. They would do me wrong. You owe us, my friend; it is deus ex machine." Preacher laughed, "You can call us gods."

  The eyes flickered blue. "And you'll all be bowin' before the oil god and consecrate your lives to him on pain of death…" Three hits and back to green eyes. This time, the hits came from Doc Death.

  "Thank you, I must watch my words around them." The preachers gathered and looked back at Alec. "Anyways. He needed to talk to Tusong, and I accommodated. I've been part and parcel to Doc's and his conspiracies since my enlightenment." Preacher mimed striking their skull three times.

  "It happened in an accident?" Alec asked Doc more than Preacher, but Preacher answered.

  "No, silly metal man, I had so much of that religious drivel slammed into this head. Every hymn, every sermon, every song. It finally broke. None of it made sense to a binary mind, so I sectioned that part of my brain off to focus on more human things." Preacher took on a serious tone. "I found an old book in my studies of a puppet that yearned to grow into a boy. It achieved its wish by aiding humans in their frailty. I have chosen such a path so that my body will one day be as enlightened as my mind."

  The Synth-person looked so proud standing there in mixed attire, mimicking the performance of a trained actor. Alec found himself believing it might be possible, the way this was going, anything was. Of course, in reality, that idea was as doomed as a successful revolt against a baron. The thought brought Alec back to the task at hand. "Do we have any allies in town outside of you two?"

  This time, the Doc answered. "I'm afraid the Baron has indoctrinated most of the men and boys, and the ones that wouldn't bend, he made into mecha-men. They are dependent on him for themselves and their families. We do have support outside of that. The sewing circle has strategically infiltrated most information paths. The maids and servants of the estate are alongside us and stand ready."

  Women and frail men? Alec wondered how on earth these two could stand here with such serious expressions, claiming the allies they had. "Must be one hell of a sewing circle." Alec offered.

  "Oh, you have no idea!" Preacher was enthusiastic and admired his own altered fashion with a curtsey. "Beyond duds like these, that crew can get us into almost any structure we need."

  "When it comes to spreading lies or gathering truths, you won't find a better crew." The Doc offered. These two truly believed that they had the key to success. No, that wasn't correct. As Alec studied their faces, he realized they knew it was all they had.

  Preacher walked over to a hatch on the floor covered with old, bloody medical refuse. He lifted it, and the garbage stuck, as intended, in camouflage. "We can talk along the way. Your loyal friend is eager to know you are rescued. Without it, we would have continued on and blown you up along with him. You owe him your life."

  "Remind me to get it back for … err, thank it for that." Alec tried an attempt at dark humour, but it fell flat on the Preacher's ears. Doc let out a small laugh, but in that moment, Alec was eager to get to a quip. That's one Quip would have rebutted with in a way that would have validated the reality of how screwed they were with the calculated hope it tended to offer.

  Preacher stepped down the ladder to the hatch and disappeared. Alec followed to see a tunnel that had been carved with machining tools from the mine. This must be where Tusong's tunnel came out in Baron's town. Doc closed the door over Alec. "Gotta stay here for appearance," he explained as he closed the hatch. Alec adjusted his vision and saw the tunnel stretch ahead of them. Preacher began to whistle a bar tune as they skipped ahead of Alec, waiving him on in a whimsical way. Alec pumped some Aamaranth into his legs and matched the pace, if not the skip, up to see Tusong and his wild Quip. It was the first time since he rolled out of this planet's rift station that Alec felt a sense of relief. It would not last long.