20
I PLUNGED THE POLE into the water, pushed, and heaved it out again, mechanically.
By the faint glow of the lights that illuminated the boulevard at the gamra complex, clumps of reeds showed up as mounds of blackness, but I hit many of them nevertheless; the railway line was a blurry line of silver to my right.
My arms ached, my legs ached, and rain sheeted down on me. I had long ago given up wiping it out of my eyes. Long ago, when I had taken the pole from Thayu, when she had dropped it in the water and we had almost lost it. I had told her, too harshly perhaps, that if she was that scared of water, she’d best get out of my way. Ages ago.
But we were relatively safe, or at least until Renkati breached the security perimeter of the gamra island.
Thayu just sat there, her legs pulle
