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."It's going to," Sheida replied with a shake of her head."Did you hear whathappened?""No?" Myron replied but everyone looked interested."The program that did weather control was an AI, that I knew, but what Ididn't know was that it was one of the really old ones; it actually predatedweather control and was a weather forecastingAI."Page 80 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Damn, that old," Myron said as the wind tore at the roof of the pub."Andthat means it can is predict this stuff?""Sort of, maybe.So the Fall happens and the Council starts fighting andsuddenly it's got no power to do weather control.It's back to forecasting.Talk about pissed.""Ouch.""Her name is Lystra, and I do mean she.Anyway, it's not 'hiding' like a lot of the AI's but it has declared itselfstrictly neutral.It doesn't care who wins just that they get the powersystems back on line so it can get back to controlling the weather! She'sreally, really pissed.""Funny.""Yeah, one humorous spot in an otherwise crappy situation.Lystra says about amonth and a half.""We might be able to get one crop in the ground in time.It'll have to drysome before we can plant.And a few more plows wouldn't hurt.""I'm on it," Edmund replied."I'm glad Angus brought in that load of sheetstock.We need to send someone up to him to get some more material.And he'llneed food as well.We'll have to see what we can spare."Myron took another sip of beer and his face worked."So, have you heardanything about Rachel?""No," Edmund said quietly as another blast shook the building."They're not at home.One of me went there already but they'd gone," Sheidasaid quietly."Mother's privacy protocols are intact, damnit, and I can't simply order alocation search without a supermajority of the Council.I'd have to do a fullsweep to find them and.I just can't spare the power.I've set out, well,guides, to find travelers.Hopefully one of them will find them and directthem to Raven's Mill.""What kind of guides?" Edmund asked."There are.semiautonomous beings, like homunculi and hobs, that managesome of the ecological programs.I found a low-power update conduit that letme reprogram them.They now have the path to 'safe' areas mapped for each oftheir areas and if they find lost travelers they'll direct them.It's all I can do right now.Maybe later something more can be done."For most of the refugees, there's not going to be a 'later,' " Edmund said.CHAPTER TENThey had been traveling for nearly two weeks through the worst weather Rachelhad seen in all her life.The house had turned out to have an immense quantity of material suitable totake on the trip;Rachel had been surprised and even a little dismayed at how many of theobjects in the house had to do with her father's hobby.At times pickingthrough the piles it had seemed as if Edmund Talbot had more of an influenceon the home he had never entered than either of the people living there.But the problem was not so much that they had items, but what items to pack.They both had good backpacks, late twenty-first-century designs that werelight as a feather and fit their bodies like a glove.But filling them had taken careful thought.Finally, it was decided that themost important things were food and appropriate clothing and shelter.They hadended up leaving almost everything else.Rachel ended up packing a few itemsof jewelry and Daneh packed her single "period" medical book, something calledGray's Anatomy.And with that they set out into the driving rain and sleet.The weather had never relented.In the last thirteen days it had seemed torain, sleet or snow an average of ten hours each day.All of the rivers andPage 81 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlstreams were swollen, and in a few cases the bridges that the hiking groupsmaintained were washed out.In those cases it was a matter of trying tocarefully cross the freezing and swollen stream despite the lack of a bridge,or go upstream looking for a crossing place.Crossing was preferred eventhough the frigid water flooded under their clothes and seeped into theirboots.Better to be soaked than take days out of the way.That finallyhappened to them at theAnar and it took them nearly two days out of their way before they found anintact log bridge.This had taken them off the main trail that passed the small hamlet of Fredarand onto less well-tended trails through the wilderness.These weren't anybetter or worse than the "main" trail, and the rain had turned them into soupas well.The boots they had dredged up were also late twenty-first century andthe mud slid off them like water from a duck's back.But the effort was stillconstant, to lift one wooden foot after another, slip, slide, grab at a treeor go down on your face in the sucking bog
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