Ares Express by Ian McDonald

people, underneath. Anyway, you dropped your punch-stick over the side, remember?”
    â€œYeah, well I can still pick you up and throw you off.” They knelt, challenging each other under the circling moonring. “So, how old are you?”
    â€œI'm near ten.”
    â€œHad you for younger.”
    â€œHow much younger?”
    â€œYounger. So, what steak?”
    Kid Pharaoh finger-combed back his lank hair. No left ear, instead, a puckered grin of deaf scar.
    â€œAn old woman bought it. She had cancer of the lobe.”
    â€œDon't get a lot of that, cancer of the lobe.”
    â€œSometimes, when the wind's right, I can hear what she's hearing, in here.” He tapped the earless curve of his skull. “That's how I know who got it, after.”
    â€œWhat did you win for that?”
    â€œThe ticket out. Anywhere. And the golden purse. A thousand dollars.”
    A tangential thought demanded Sweetness voice it before it faded.
    â€œSo, how many times did you go in for the, ah?”
    â€œMeat lotto? Second time lucky.”
    â€œThe first time?”
    â€œA big toe. Don't balance too good.”
    â€œWho got the toe?”
    â€œDon't know. Not much sense in a toe.”
    â€œI suppose there're one's've been up for it a lot of times?”
    â€œWell, there's a kind of natural limit…”
    â€œI suppose so.” Up ahead in the night, Naon Engineer whistled. Three short blasts, one long. Coming up on Juniper. Sweetness felt the great train shudder beneath her, brakes gently gripping.
    â€œSo, what happened? I mean, if you had a thousand dollars…”
    â€œGot stiffed.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œSuniyapa. Three big girls. Must've heard that they give out the Golden Purse with the lotto. They were looking for poor kids riding rich. They had suits. Looked like regular coh-mute-ers. Big damn blakey-toe boots, but.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œWhat for? You were going to knock me off your train, so? Any road, they throw me off at High Plains and then I hitch a ride on some shit deadheader across Chryse because Mr. Engineer he's expecting to ride the whole rig with me hanging off his lizard and when I don't he dumps me out. Walked three days to Little Rapids.”
    â€œI'm an Engineer,” Sweetness said quietly.
    â€œYeah, and like I said, you were going to knock me clean off. Anyway, I wait there and one two three trains go by, and then you come along and you're the biggest by a way and I reckon, bigger the train, better to hide, and then one of youse spies me and I have to hide down over the edge, so.”
    Sweetness gave him her full regard a moment. She rocked back on her heels.
    â€œSo, where's this all going to end?”
    â€œGrand Valley, I'd hoped.” No hesitation. “I'm not comfortable ’cept there's a roof on the sky.”
    The brakes were squealing now, biting down hard on raw steel. Within their familiarity, Sweetness was able to make out another sound, a Bassareeni voice, calling over the car tops.
    â€œQuick,” Sweetness ordered. “There.” She pushed Pharaoh toward the gap, mimed with her hands for him to crawl face flat and hushed.
    â€œDown there?” he whispered, peering down the ladder into grinding darkness.
    â€œDown there,” Sweetness hissed. “And be quiet about it.” Railrat Pharaoh slid over the top rung. His upturned face caught the moonslight.
    â€œHello? Who dat dere?” Chagdi Bassareeni called from too damn close.
    â€œListen up,” Sweetness hissed down into the dark abyss. “We're pulling up for Juniper. Don't wait for the train to stop, there's always someone looking out when we pull up. Wait until we're dead slow, dead dead slow, then do what I told you back there, drop down between the carriages on to the track. There's plenty of room if you lie flat, on your back, not your face. Wait until you can't see the taillights any more, then you're safe.