by Eliza Green
While the World Government had put the genetic reversal treatment in place, it was a voluntary programme. A mass alteration of the existing Indigene or Conditioned population without consent could not happen.
Bill held his hands up. ‘Let’s talk about this, find a better solution.’
‘There is only one solution, the one that has yet to be tried.’
‘What about democracy?’
‘Democracy has no place in this world. People don’t know what they want.’
‘And you do?’
Harvey sneered. ‘I’ve seen more than you can imagine.’
Bill caught a sense of regret in Harvey’s tone. He wondered if the geneticist was speaking from experience.
He caught the move too late. Harvey had loosened his arm and had worked his Buzz Gun free from his holster.
Another crack of electricity sounded and set Bill’s teeth on edge. The damage was done.
Clement slumped to the ground, breathing hard. Laura slid down to him and checked him over. The Indigene had a gaping wound in his side.
Harvey backed away, clutching the Buzz Gun that had caused it. But his movements were sluggish. He dropped to his knees.
A stream of blood stained his shirt collar. Harvey must have hit his head when Clement pinned him.
The former geneticist squeezed his eyes shut briefly then looked up at him. ‘I only wanted to make things right again.’
Bill hunkered down to his side. ‘This wasn’t the way to do it.’ He relieved him of his weapon and tossed it to one side. ‘We could have come up with a solution.’
Harvey collapsed onto his side and rattled out a soft laugh. ‘You never would have agreed to it. You’re too soft on the Indigenes.’
‘They’ve been the victims of human domination for too long.’
‘That’s just it, Bill.’ Harvey’s voice was barely a whisper. ‘My plan would have given the three generations back their lives.’ He grabbed Bill’s hand, surprising him. ‘Don’t let this be for nothing. You have the power to enact real change, to undo the mess the Deightons of this world have inflicted.’
‘Why do you care so much?’
Harvey cleared his throat. ‘I have my reasons.’
He released Bill’s hand and it dropped to his side. Bill checked his pulse and found nothing.
‘Bill,’ Laura whispered. ‘Is he dead?’
He nodded.
She straightened up and lifted her chin. ‘I’m glad, but Clement needs our help—now.’
33
It had been a week since the former geneticist and doctor to Charles Deighton had died in the tunnels, but Bill couldn’t forget what he’d said. Strangely, his idea to level the playing field had merit. Maybe not in practice, but Harvey had made a valid argument. Bill just wished he’d had more time to talk to him about it.
Clement had returned to District Three having killed a man, and Laura had spent the week with Stephen and Serena trying to negotiate leniency for him. It might have been manslaughter, but Clement was making things worse by saying he would do it again. The crime should have fallen under ITF jurisdiction and been dealt with accordingly, but Stephen had convinced Bill he should take care of it. Truth was Bill didn’t want to touch it. Given the circumstances, and the fact it was the first person Clement had killed, he trusted Stephen to deal with it.
Sitting in his office, Bill looked out the window at the mix of replicated British architecture and opulent, glass-fronted warehouse spaces, many of which had been converted into luxury apartments and offices. The barricades at the exits in and out of New London had been dismantled, the renegades thrust into chaotic disarray following Harvey’s death. There had been an initial push for control, but with the power stations back under Susie’s control, Bill—along with Jeff—had been able to lock down the old docking station and the Takahashi property where Harvey’s team had gathered, capturing the people inside.
Now, the city was quiet. Not back to its normal bustle, but getting there.
Going by the normal mood on the street, the people seemed to have forgotten the recent drama of the city’s loss of power. Bill was certain not many had been aware of the extra activities of Harvey and his men. Whatever panic had followed the power outage had been quickly quelled with the restoration of it. Buildings were secure once more. Light Boxes were accessible. Restaurants were open for business.
But Bill was far from settled. Could they go back to normal? Could the sins of the past be brushed under the carpet?
He left his office and walked through the open-plan space of the sixth floor. His team were back to managing the power supply, light, heat and other essential activities required to keep the cities running smoothly. The ITF military members who had followed Harvey were locked up inside a glass prison similar to the one that had held Marcus. While Susie had control of the base station AIs again, Bill had engaged Jeff in a long discussion about how to avoid a similar attack. Jeff had promised to run test scenarios with Susie, to see if he could come up with a solution.
The fifth floor was his next stop.
Giving his team one final nod, Bill entered the stairwell and took the stairs one floor down. He found Jeff squinting at the servers blinking with blue and green lights, a DPad in hand.
‘How is everything?’ Bill asked him.
Jeff looked up and nodded. ‘Good. Susie has managed to block off access to a few cloaked communication lines. Any time we suffocate their network, they try to resurface. She’s seeing a few lines popping up hourly, but the numbers are diminishing the more they run out of places to go.’
‘Did Susie suffer any ill effects?’
‘No. She learned enough from the attack that a similar one won’t work. She’ll be ready.’
‘And the six base stations?’
Jeff smiled. ‘Susie set up a back room for each station and put the sentient AI in there. Think of it as a panic room in the event of another takeover. If things ever go south, the sentient will wait in there for Susie to contact it.’
He hoped they would never be in a position like that again.
‘Can I ask you something?’ asked Jeff.
‘Sure.’
‘What happens now?’
‘What do you mean?’
The IT guy looked around. ‘I’ve been here since the beginning, since before you arrived, but this is the first time we’ve ever had an orchestrated attack. Things must have been at tipping point for it to get this bad. We go back to normal, but does this problem go away?’
Bill wondered that too. He hoped it would.
‘Probably not.’
Jeff shrugged. ‘So what do we do? Not about the IT side, that’s taken care of, but about the festering problems on this world?’
Bill smiled. ‘I have no fucking clue.’
Jeff gave a little shrug and went back to studying the servers. ‘You’ll figure it out. You always do.’
Bill clapped him on the back. ‘Thanks for your help during this. I couldn’t have managed it without you or Susie. Tell her I said thanks.’
Jeff winked. ‘She knows.’
Bill walked to the stairwell.
‘Oh, and Bill?’ Jeff called out.
‘Yeah?’
‘Whatever happens, whatever direction you take, know that many of us believe in your leadership and will follow you.’
As Bill exited to the stairwell and took the stairs down to the first floor, he hoped that was true. If matters outgrew the ITF’s protocols protecting life, would the people be ready for change?
He entered the first floor. In Laura’s absence, Julie was busy orchestrating efforts. The first-floor team was back to monitoring the Wave but all chatter had quietened during the past week, all avenues open to the renegades to communicate secretly choked by Susie.
‘All good here?’ he asked her.
Julie nodded curtly. ‘All good.’
With Laura back in the picture, Julie had r
esumed her professional relationship with Bill. Gone were the offers of dinner and meeting up again.
It was just how it should have been from the start.
Ben had resumed his duties at his old desk, no worse for wear after his kidnapping. With Marcus well and truly dead this time, Bill noticed the teen carried less tension in his shoulders these days.
Everything was back to normal. So why did Bill feel unsettled?
Maybe all he needed was to see a friendly face. His wife had been in District Three for the past week.
A week too long for him.
He entered Laura’s office and sat down at her desk. Her DPad sat idle on it. He picked it up and dialled two numbers. The first call was to an ally, the second was to someone he’d never thought he’d be in alliance with. The double dialling created a split screen—one for Seven and one for Stephen—but he only initiated one call. Stephen’s face popped up.
Bill said, ‘We need to talk.’
34
Life had returned to normal in the district. With the ITF’s help, the electrified, metal balls had been disabled then removed. To boost morale, Bill had temporarily lifted the number ban placed on night-time hunting, but Stephen gleaned little enjoyment from the activity.
The rogue Indigene groups had been disbanded—not by anything Stephen had done but because of Harvey’s demise. Whatever the rogues had hoped to gain from their coup had died with their temporary leader.
The quiet inside the Council Chambers irked Stephen more than usual. It crawled beneath his skin. He scratched the itch away for the umpteenth time that day. Apart from a virus that had altered the skills of many Indigenes, including his own, nothing had changed for their species. Stephen was certain the rogues had not stopped their efforts to change life on Exilon 5, that they were out there somewhere, discussing what to do next.
Even more of a certainty? Emile was helping them. The elder had tricked Stephen into trusting him. Stephen had put his friends in harm’s way because of that trust.
He paced the space inside the chambers. If only he had his envisioning skill, then he could see how this all worked out. But the Nexus had still not restored that skill. His DPad, gifted to him by Bill, sat on the floor next to the bookcase divider. For the past week, he’d brought it everywhere with him. Never again would he miss an important call from Bill.
A light rap on the open door startled him and he stopped.
The Nexus had not restored his hearing, either.
He turned to see Laura waiting there.
‘Can I have a word?’ she said, looking hesitant.
He nodded and she entered the room, twisting her hands. Her gaze flitted everywhere. Stephen didn’t need his skills to know why she’d come.
‘I wanted to ask you about Clement.’ She bit her lip. ‘What’s going to happen to him?’
They had spoken briefly about this already, but Stephen had delayed any real conversation about the matter. There was no escaping the fact that Clement had killed a human. This wasn’t the first time Indigenes had killed humans, but this was the first time one had been sanctioned for it. Stephen had ordered the Indigene to be put under guard in the same unit that had held Anton, eight years ago. A great leader would know what to do next.
‘He stays locked up until I can figure out what to do with him.’
In some ways, it might have been easier if Bill had taken him. But Clement deserved to be among his own kind, not living in fear inside some human-designed prison cell.
Laura twisted her hands harder, looking like she had more to say.
‘You have another solution?’ he asked.
Her eyes shifted. ‘Not really, and your laws are your laws, but he did what he thought necessary to save the Indigenes and the Conditioned from a fate worse than one man’s death.’
Stephen had returned from securing Base Station One to find an anxious Gunnar waiting for him alone in the barren landscape outside the city. He’d told Stephen what had happened and where the others had gone. Stephen had tracked Bill, Laura and Clement down to the Japanese gardens and the access point into the water tunnels. He’d found Seven pacing outside.
When the others had emerged with a despondent Clement, Stephen had demanded answers. After hearing about Harvey’s real plans, he’d felt relief that both Harvey and Marcus were dead.
But that relief had quickly been replaced by worry.
Inside the Council Chambers, he lifted his chin. ‘While I’m not dissatisfied to hear about their deaths, that does not solve the problem. All Harvey’s death has done is create a void, a new position that I’m sure others would be happy to fill.’
Laura sighed. ‘I know. Dissent was being planned long before Harvey came to this planet. All it would take is another strong leader to get it going again.’
‘What we have now is time, a little breathing room to think about what to do.’ He hoped Laura could see the positive in this, as he must.
‘Pierre and Elise gave prior killings a pass. Can’t you make an exception?’
He wished. ‘That was a different time. We were on opposing sides then, fighting for our very survival. There hasn’t been a human killing in eight years, not since the peace treaty, not under my leadership.’
Laura folded her arms. ‘Are you sure about that?’
Stephen nodded. He was sure Bill and his underground operatives would have known about any illegal activity.
‘To allow Clement leniency is to go against the peace treaty.’
Laura huffed. ‘The treaty is bullshit. You know that. It’s Tanya Li’s legacy.’
He agreed. ‘It’s all we have.’
Laura threw her hands up. ‘So let’s change that.’
He’d thought of nothing else for a week, but he couldn’t see a way out of the arrangement. ‘If I knew how, I would suggest it.’
‘Indigenes like Clement would die for this place.’
‘And there you see my dilemma. I let him go and it sends the wrong message that it’s okay to kill humans.’
Laura frowned at the ground. Finally, she was seeing what he must.
‘Okay, keep him locked up.’ She looked up at him. ‘Then rehabilitate him.’
Her suggestion surprised him. ‘Rehabilitate, how?’
She blew out a breath, her gaze restless. ‘I don’t know. I’m working off the top of my head here... have him do something good for the cities. Uh, charity work.’
It wasn’t a terrible idea, but it would not work. ‘The Indigenes and humans do not trust each other. I cannot see Clement being welcomed inside the cities.’
Laura smiled. ‘Exactly. There is no trust. So let’s change that by doing something radical. Let’s show the human population that there’s more to the Indigenes than the feral, aggressive species they have feared for too long.’
Stephen’s DPad rang.
‘Is it Bill?’ Laura asked.
He knelt down and plucked up the screen. ‘Yes.’
He waved his hand over it to biometrically answer it. Bill’s face appeared on screen.
‘We need to talk,’ he said in a serious tone that set Stephen’s pulse racing.
Something new had happened. He could feel it.
He quickly neutralised his expression. ‘We do. You want to come here?’
‘No, somewhere neutral. I was thinking the hospital.’
‘Is Jameson still there?’
‘He is and I’ll ask Seven to meet us there too.’
Stephen frowned. ‘What are you planning, Bill?’
‘I don’t know yet. Is Laura with you?’
She moved closer to the screen. ‘I’m here.’
His tight expression softened. ‘Great. Join us, please. One hour.’
‘We’ll be there,’ she said.
Stephen clicked off. He stared at Laura. ‘What does he have planned?’
Laura shrugged. ‘It could be anything. But one thing I know is Bill has been as uns
ettled about the peace treaty as you.’
☼
After filling Serena in on his conversation with Bill, Stephen arrived with Laura at the military hospital nestled against a mountainous backdrop. It remained as unoccupied as it had been the day Harvey had shut down the power. As they entered the open space, Stephen spotted Bill in one corner of the room. Four chairs had been arranged in a small circle. Bill was waiting by one, while Seven loitered at the back of another, looking uneasy.
Stephen’s skin tightened at being in the company of not only a former World Government employee but someone who’d played host to one of the Elite. Bill had always had dealings with them, never the Indigenes.
He snarled at Seven. ‘What’s he doing here?’
He couldn’t help it.
Bill fanned his hands. ‘Take it easy. I wanted a representative from each species to be here.’
It made sense, but it didn’t make being here any easier. Stephen idled behind one of the chairs while Laura sat down.
Bill gestured to the one next to her. ‘Please, sit. Or stand. Whichever you prefer.’
He took the one next to the free one, placing Stephen in the middle.
Stephen hesitated, feeling exposed without his abilities.
He searched in vain for the colourful auras that usually gave him an idea of the mood of the person, but he wasn’t sure that skill would ever come back. He’d only ever tested it out on Indigenes, and he couldn’t say for sure that it would even work on humans or Conditioned. How long before he let his hope go?
Bill was staring at him, waiting. Stephen relented with a sigh and pulled the chair out of the space.
‘Let’s all stand,’ said Laura, getting to her feet. Bill did the same.
‘What is this about, Bill?’ He kept one eye on Seven.
‘It’s about what Harvey said before he died, about reversing the genetic mutations in Indigenes and Conditioned.’
Stephen’s hands shook. He glanced around the room nervously, checking the partitioned space for hidden members of Bill’s team. ‘What is this, Bill? Is it a trick? Are you planning on experimenting on us?’