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said.
    “Mating customs,” he said disgustedly. “That’s why you didn’t run whereabouts?”
    “I did run them. Whatever’s in that sector, it’s not Wulfmeier. He’s on Starring Gate, and he’s under arrest. I got a verify.”
    Carson stared south at the Ponypiles. “Then what on hell’s Bult up to?”
    The shuttlewren changed course in midflap and started toward us. “I don’t know,” I said, taking off my hat and waving with it to keep it away. “Maybe the indidges have got a gold mine up there. Maybe they’re secretly building Las Vegas with all the stuff Bult’s ordered.” The wren circled my head and made a pass at Carson. “Maybe Bult’s just trying to run up our fines by taking us the long way around. Did he say how much farther we’d have to go before we could cross the Tongue?”
    “Sahhth,” Carson said, mimicking Bult holding his umbrella and pointing. “If we go much farther south, well be in the Ponypiles. Maybe he’s going to lead us into the mountains and drown us in a flash flood.”
    “And then fine us for being foreign bodies in a waterway.” My watch beeped, “Looks like it’s starting to clear up,” I said. I picked up a handful of dirt, and we started back for the ponies.
    Bult met us halfway. “Taking of souvenirs,” he said, pointing sternly at the dirt in my hand. “Disturbances of land surface. Destruction of indigenous flora.”
    “Better transmit all those right away,” I said, “before you forget.”
    I went over to Ev’s and my ponies, the shuttlewren tailing me. While Ev was watching it circle his head, I blew dirt off my hand onto the camera lens and then swung up and looked at my watch. A minute to go.
    I messed with the transmitter a little and called to Carson, “I think I’ve got it fixed. Come on, Ev.”
    I messed some more for Ev’s benefit, taking off a chip and snapping it back into place, but I didn’t need to have bothered. He was still gawking at the shuttle-wren.
    “Is that shuttlewren a male?” he asked.
    “Beats me. You’re the expert on sex.” I released the disconnect, counted to three, hit it again, and counted to five. “Calling Ki—” I said, and kicked it on again. “—ng’s X, come in C.J.”
    “C.J. here,” she said. “Where on hell did you go?”
    “Nothing serious, C.J. Just a dust tantrum. We’re too close to the Wall,” I said. “Is the camera back on?”
    “Yes. I don’t see any dust.”
    “We just caught the edge of it. It lasted about a minute. I’ve been spending the rest of the time trying to get the transmitter up and running.”
    “It’s funny,” she said slowly, “how a minute’s worth of dust could do so much damage.”
    “It’s one of the chips. You know how sensitive they are.”
    “If they’re so sensitive, how come all that dust from the rover didn’t jam them?”
    ‘The rover?” I said, looking around blankly like one might drive up.
    “When Evelyn drove out to meet you yesterday. How come the transmitter didn’t cut out then?”
    Because I’d been too busy worrying about Wulfmeier and wrestling the binocs away from Bult to even think of it, I thought. I’d stood there coughing and choking in the rover’s dust and it hadn’t even crossed my mind. My shit, that was all we needed, for C.J. to catch on to our dust storms. “No accounting for technology,” I said, knowing she was never going to buy it. ‘Transmitter’s got a mind of its own.”
    Carson came up. “You talking to C.J.? Ask her if she’s got an aerial of the Wall along here. I want to know where the breaks are.”
    “Sure,” I said, and hit disconnect again. “We got a problem. C.J.’s asking questions about the dust storm. She wants to know why the transmitter didn’t go out with all that dust from the rover.”
    “The rover?” he said, and I could see it dawn on him like it had on me. “What did you tell her?”
    “That the transmitter’s temperamental.”
    “She’ll never buy that,” he said,