She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 17

Gabriel followed Devaki back towards the border. Devaki, what sort of name was that? A space name, he guessed. She seemed confident but he wasn't sure what she could do by herself.

"Wouldn't it be better to bring more people?" he asked. "Like that guy."

Devaki shook her head. "Part of me says the same," she told him. "But there are men on your side that won't allow it."

"Just force them aside. You are stronger than them."

"It is wrong for them to use force against you," she said, watching him from the corner of her eye. "Would it be right for us to force them?"

Gabriel shrugged.

"Besides, they would not stand aside. Then we would have violence. That is in no one's best interest."

Gabriel sighed. "I guess not."

The border between Guinea and Sierra Leone had been nothing more than a theoretical line a few days ago. Now soldiers on both side were scrambling to figure out how to make it an actual thing on short notice.

They got past the Guinea side easy enough. There was a forward command center on this side manned by men in red uniforms. Gabriel had crept passed them on his belly last time. Devaki walked straight up one of the men and said, "this boy has family on the far side. I am going to see him back."

The soldier shrugged and let them pass. They could see the far border across a no man's land of a hundred meters or so. There had been a forest here, but men on Gabriel's side had hastily cut many of the trees down to prevent refugees from slipping through unseen. The work was still in progress, in fact, Gabriel had hidden in a clump of bushes when he made his way across. Now a bushwhacker was being driven through the same bushes, eliminating that path.

Most of the soldiers on that side were not watching the border but faced the other way. There were hundreds of refugees in a mass, stretching all the way back to the road, over a hundred yards away. They wanted through, but they were wary of the soldiers and their guns.

"It's been like this for two days," Devaki said. "The crowds gather in the hundreds, demanding across."

"And then?" Gabriel thought he knew, but he wanted to check his understanding.

Devaki shrugged. "Sometimes trucks arrive on that side, and they are taken to a refugee camp some miles inside the border. Other times the crowd grows too fast, or the trucks don't arrive quick enough. When they are too many, the soldiers will let them through, afraid of a confrontation. We gather them on this side, see they are fed and housed. That is what the others are doing here."

Gabriel nodded. "When I arrived people were pouring through. I guess there were too many."

"There are many now. Perhaps they need a push," Devaki said. She gave him a sly smile. "Can I borrow your image?"

"My image?" he asked.

She did something with her hand as though framing him for a picture, but he saw no camera. "Here," she said. In her palm was a small replica of Gabriel, in three dimensions, like a statue.

"What are you going to do with that?" he asked.

She knelt next to him. "Create a diversion, that's all. Just watch." In her other hand, she had a white pebble. She brought her palms together and the image of Gabriel vanished.

The pebble floated in the air in front of her. Then she made a gesture and it shot off. It floated low to the ground, a tiny white speck. As it neared the border there was a flash and a full-size image of Gabriel appeared.

A soldier cried out, spying the image just beyond their checkpoint. The image ran for the far side of the border.

There was another flash further down and another image of Gabriel. And another. In a matter of seconds, it appeared as if a dozen young boys had broke from the crowd and were fleeing across the border.

A soldier raised his gun but then threw it down, unwilling to shoot at a young boy. He started to run after the first image.

The crowd gave a roar. The scene turned into confusion in a second. Some were angry to see the soldiers going after a young boy. But most were just seeing an opportunity and taking it. They rushed the soldiers, who fled, some into buildings or tents and others across the open ground towards the border.

"Come, we must move quickly," Devaki said and led Gabriel to one side so that the thickest part of the crowd passed to their left.

It was still scary at times, to push against the flood of refugees intent on escape, to be making their way back into the country instead of out of it. But then they were free. Gabriel paused and looked back.

Most of the crowd had made it to the far side, where the soldiers in red were trying to create some order among the mass, a UN peacekeeper with a bull horn yelling at the crowd in Krio, assuring them they would be helped but they must now show some patience.

On this side of the border, the only soldier he saw was one officer, shouting into a shed at some of his soldier's to come out and try to restore the border.

A family of stragglers eyed him nervously as they headed towards the border. He gave them an angry look but let them go with a shout of frustration. Devaki chuckled.

"Did anyone get hurt?" Gabriel asked.

Devaki pointed. A couple of people in white were sprinting across the no man's land, where a man was helping another to his feet. "Doesn't look serious," Devaki said. "And the healers are there. Have no fear. We made it and they are now safe on our side. They will be helped. Now, we should get heading towards Freetown, to see this grandma of yours." She held out her hand and they headed south.