by Annie Percik
‘I guess I’d better start at the beginning.’
Mateo proceeded to tell a story that sounded like pure fantasy. If Jen hadn’t actually seen Abelard glowing and floating for herself, she wouldn’t have believed any of it. Mateo eventually reached the point at which he had received a message from Abelard saying that he was going to see Jonathan Worthington-Price.
‘That was yesterday morning. And I haven’t been able to get hold of him since.’
‘Just like me,’ Jen said. ‘He must have sent that message to you just before he tried to call me. Jonathan is the artisan?’
Mateo nodded. ‘I just know he has something to do with Abelard dropping off the face of the planet. I wouldn’t have thought he would do anything bad before, but I’m not so sure after how he seemed when I talked to him.’
‘But what are you actually suggesting? That the artisans have kidnapped Abelard for some reason? Or … Or something worse?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mateo said. ‘But after everything that’s happened, I can’t think of another explanation.’
‘But why? Wouldn’t they be glad he’s an artisan now?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that all afternoon, and I’ve come to the conclusion that they probably wouldn’t.’ Mateo sighed. ‘As far as mana is concerned the artisans are at the top of the tree. All our lives Abelard and I have wanted to be artisans. As soon as we were old enough we applied for artisan training, got tested and were told we didn’t have a strong enough spark to be anything other than engineers. I’ve been an engineer for nearly ten years and I’ve never met one who didn’t have the same story. What’s happened to Abelard suggests there’s a way to boost someone’s spark so they can do what artisans do. Just think if all the engineers suddenly had artisan abilities. That would be sure to upset the balance of power. And who would fix all the broken artefacts if there were no engineers? The artisans need us right where we are.’
‘So this kind of thing doesn’t happen often?’
‘More like never. I tried to do it to myself for about two hours last night but no luck. The artisans are so secretive and arrogant … Who knows how they’d react to an engineer who suddenly turned up and asked to join them?’
‘But we can’t exactly march up to Gadg-E-Tech HQ and demand they give him back.’ Jen tried to steady her breathing.
‘We could go and ask and see what they say. After all, it’s likely where he ended up if he went to Jonathan.’
Jen bit her lip. ‘What if they say they’ve never heard of him? What do we do then? Should we report him missing?’
Mateo set his pint down and crossed his arms. ‘I don’t think there’s a hope we’d be taken seriously. We’d be reporting Gadg-E-Tech for kidnap; no one’s going to believe that, and if they did, who’s going to investigate? The artisans run everything. But Abelard might be in danger. We have to go and see what we can find out. We’re the only people who know where he went.’
Mateo looked determined but Jen felt a sudden chill. There were so many unknowns, but she had come this far.
‘Okay,’ she said, standing up. ‘Let’s go before I change my mind.’
Gadg-E-Tech head office was in a part of the city Jen had never visited before. Mateo was vibrating with excitement by the time they got there but Jen just felt sick. The building itself was imposing and Jen stared up in awe as they walked into the gleaming reception area. She felt as though it was obvious they didn’t belong there.
Mateo marched straight up to the front desk and said loudly, ‘I’d like to see Jonathan Worthington-Price please.’
Jen hovered behind him. The reception desk was manned by a roughly humanoid being made out of ceramic, which looked up at them with a bland expression. Jen found it unsettling to look into the eyes of something that had no apparent human emotion, and have it look back.
She had heard somewhere about brain-e-facts, living artefacts developed by one of the artisan companies. And now she was right in front of one.
‘Do you have an appointment?’ it asked in a flat voice that did nothing to dispel Jen’s discomfort.
Mateo sighed. ‘No, but it has to do with a mutual friend who’s gone missing.’
The brain-e-fact jerked backwards as if pulled by an invisible string. ‘I will see if I can reach him. May I take your name?’
Mateo obliged and remained leaning on the desk as the brain-e-fact punched some buttons.
It spoke into its headset. ‘Good evening, Mister Worthington-Price. There is a Mateo Vega down in reception asking to speak to you. He says it is about a friend of yours who is missing.’ It listened for a moment. ‘I do not think he will take no for an answer.’ There was another pause, then the brain-e-fact looked up at Mateo. ‘Mister Worthington-Price will be down shortly, if you would like to take a seat.’
Jen followed Mateo to a plush seating area.
‘That went better than I expected,’ she said.
‘We haven’t found Abelard yet. And Jonathan may still try to fob us off.’
They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes before Jen saw a young man with a long ponytail approaching.
‘Mateo, what are you doing here? I told you I haven’t seen Abelard and this really isn’t a good time. I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably working on some project at home and hasn’t thought to check his smart-e. You know how you engineers get when you’re working on something.’ He spotted Jen. ‘Hello. Are you here with Mateo? I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted trip.’
‘Jonathan!’ Mateo said. ‘Cut the crap for once! I know why Abelard was coming to see you yesterday. I’m guessing you’ve got him shut up somewhere and you’ve been doing experiments on him!’
People were staring.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mateo,’ Jonathan hissed. ‘And keep your voice down. This is where I work.’
‘Then tell us what’s going on,’ Jen said, keeping her voice level and calm. ‘It’s obvious you know more than you’re letting on and the quickest and easiest way to get rid of us is to tell us where Abelard is.’
Jonathan sighed. ‘I should have known Abelard would have told Mateo what happened. And my uncle should have realised this would be impossible to contain. But who are you?’
‘My name is Jen Blake. I was with Abelard when whatever happened to him – happened.’
‘Really?’ Jonathan’s face brightened. ‘I’d love to hear about that. This hasn’t happened in a really long time and we know very little about how it works. Abelard doesn’t remember much and it would be fascinating to get an outside viewpoint. Maybe you could come upstairs and tell me all about it.’
‘Jonathan, focus!’ Mateo cut in again. ‘Jen isn’t going anywhere with you unless it’s where Abelard is. And in that case, you’ll have to take both of us.’
‘Stop being so melodramatic. Abelard’s perfectly fine. He’s resting in one of our suites. We couldn’t just let him wander off in his state. It wouldn’t have been ethical.’
‘So why all the lying and covering up?’ Mateo asked.
‘Because I’m not in charge and the people who are haven’t told me what I can say. Just because I’m Abelard’s friend and I was the one who brought him in, doesn’t mean I’m privy to the decisions of upper management. But you’re not going to go away until I let you see Abelard, are you?’
Jen and Mateo both shook their heads firmly.
Jonathan sighed again. ‘I suppose it won’t do any harm since you know what’s happened already. But once you’ve seen him, you’ll have to go. This is artisan business and we will deal with it however we see fit.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Mateo said darkly but followed as Jonathan led them through security.
The lev-e-fact opened on a carpeted hallway with doors on either side like a hotel. Jonathan led them to the third one on the right, produced an ID card from his pocket and pressed it against the door mechanism. It glowed blue and opened. Beyond was a beige lounge with a small kitchen area off to one side and a
huge window showing an impressive view out over the city.
‘He’s in here,’ Jonathan said, striding across the room to another door.
The other two followed close on his heels and so were in the perfect position to see into the next room as Jonathan opened the door without knocking.
* * *
When he awoke again Abelard’s head felt much clearer and his fingers were no longer painful, though he was still very tired. He heaved himself out of bed in search of a bathroom and discovered one just off the bedroom. As he was washing his hands around the bandages, he caught sight of himself in the mirror and gasped. His hair stuck up in all directions and dark stubble matched purplish pouches under his eyes. Wednesday’s clothes were rumpled after many hours in bed, not to mention the scorch marks on the left sleeve. Had he looked this terrible when he had been speaking to Alessandra?
He did what he could to tidy himself up. He would have liked a shower but was still unsteady on his feet and collapsing while stark naked in the shower wouldn’t be good. He took off his distressingly smelly t-shirt and splashed some water over his torso. By this time the bandages on his hands were decidedly soggy so he carefully removed them. The fingers of his left hand looked raw and pink but the ones on his right were almost back to normal. Flexing them resulted in only a slight twinge and a bit of stiffness.
When Abelard came back out of the bathroom, Alessandra was standing by the window. She was short but exuded confidence and wore very high heels. She was dressed in a vivid red business suit with a skirt that reached her knees and a black blouse showing at her throat and cuffs.
She turned at the sound of the door opening. ‘At last.’
‘You came back,’ was all Abelard could come up with.
‘Not by choice.’
Abelard started into the room but his knees buckled and he clutched the door frame for support.
‘Oh, get back to bed before you fall down again,’ Alessandra said, coming to his side and offering him her arm.
Abelard was very aware of being half naked but was forced to lean on her. She smelled of something flowery and her arm was strong underneath her jacket. Once he was sitting up in bed, he registered what she’d said.
‘Someone sent you to check on me?’
She snorted. ‘Yes. You slept so long people were starting to get worried. And they’re nervous about your lack of control. So they sent me.’
‘Um, why you?’
Alessandra rolled her eyes. ‘Because I’m the best they’ve got at mana manipulation and more importantly shielding. If anything happened I’d be able to contain it.’
‘Um, okay. What time is it?’
‘About seven pm on Thursday. You slept for nearly 24 hours.’
‘Wow, and I still feel pretty weak. Mana manipulation really takes it out of you, huh?’
Alessandra rolled her eyes at him again. Abelard wondered if they ever got sore doing that all the time.
‘That’s why we don’t do it very often. Why do you think we started building artefacts in the first place? Though it’s not quite so debilitating if you do it properly.’
‘Properly?’
‘There’s such a thing as control. Let me show you.’
She pulled out a chron-e-fact and drew mana from its interface crystal. She made the blue light dance between her fingers in a complicated pattern before sending it gently back into the artefact.
‘That was amazing,’ Abelard said.
Alessandra’s lips quirked. ‘And look! No collapsing, no injuries and nothing’s on fire!’
Abelard felt heat spread over his cheeks. ‘Uh, yeah, I can see how that would be useful. Can you teach me?’
‘I think I’d better. Otherwise I’m never going to get back to my real job.’
‘Which is?’
‘None of your business. Now pay attention.’
She drew mana from the chron-e-fact again, then leaned forwards until they were only inches apart.
Abelard felt his pulse quickening and tried to focus on what she was doing. She took his hand and he felt the tingle of the mana as it twined between their fingers. It stung a little but he didn’t care.
‘Okay,’ she said, ‘imagine–’
Abelard didn’t get to hear what he was supposed to be imagining because the bedroom door opened to reveal Jonathan, Mateo and Jen.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Then Abelard said, ‘Mateo? Jen? What on earth are you doing here?’
Mateo and Jen just goggled at him.
CHAPTER SIX
‘You see?’ Jonathan said, gesturing at Abelard. ‘He’s perfectly fine.’
‘More than fine it seems,’ Jen said. ‘Come along, Mateo. We’re apparently not needed here after all.’ She turned on her heel and stalked off.
Mateo looked between Abelard’s startled face and Jen’s retreating form. Then he stabbed a finger towards Abelard, said, ‘You owe me a hell of an explanation,’ and followed Jen out of view.
‘Wait!’ Abelard called, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and shoving Alessandra away from him in his haste to get up.
The abrupt motion stretched the mana out between their now separated hands until it snapped away from Abelard’s fingers and flashed up into Alessandra’s face. She shrieked and stumbled backwards, clutching scorched fingers close to her body. Her head whipped round, her angry glare intensified by the red marks where her eyebrows had been.
‘Oh shit!’ Abelard said, reaching out to her. ‘I’m so sorry! Are you okay?’
‘You,’ she growled, backing away still further, ‘are a total liability!’ She whirled, almost colliding with Jonathan, who was still standing in the doorway. ‘And you! This is all your fault! You should never have brought this idiot here in the first place!’
She shoved past him and disappeared.
Abelard put his hands over his face and fell back on to the bed with a groan.
‘Quite,’ Jonathan said.
Abelard removed his hands and looked over at him. ‘What was all that about with Mateo and Jen?’
‘They came to rescue you. They thought we were holding you here against your will or that we’d bumped you off for presuming to gain mana powers.’
‘I have to admit I was a bit scared of that myself yesterday.’
‘It might still happen,’ Jonathan muttered, ‘considering how much trouble you’ve caused.’
Abelard blanched.
‘You’re as bad as Mateo,’ Jonathan said. ‘Artisans don’t go around randomly murdering people, you know.’
‘But that’s just what I don’t know! You shroud everything in such secrecy. How are the rest of us supposed to know you’re not all mad evil tyrants? You haven’t exactly cultivated a fluffy reputation over the years.’
‘I suppose you may have a very small point there, but be reasonable. Do you really think we’d be likely to have a dungeon full of upstarts? In this day and age?’
‘I guess not.’ Part of Abelard’s mind was still reeling from the unexpected appearance of Mateo and Jen. He was delighted Mateo had come looking for him, but how had he ended up bringing Jen with him? And had Abelard now blown it with Jen after the scene with Alessandra? He groaned again. ‘So what happens now?’
Jonathan sighed. ‘I’d better go and smooth things over with Alessandra. She’ll need to sign off on you before you can start work here officially.’
It took Abelard’s brain a moment to catch up. ‘What? Me, work here?’
‘Oh yes, didn’t Alessandra mention?’ Jonathan grinned. ‘The Board unanimously voted to offer you a job and the Artisan Council ratified it this morning. Welcome to Gadg-E-Tech!’
Abelard just spluttered.
Jonathan continued. ‘I’ll go and find Alessandra and send someone up with some dinner for you. I don’t think you’re safe to let loose in the building yet.’
He disappeared while Abelard was still processing this news, all thoughts of Mateo and Jen forgotten.
Jen stormed out of the suite and almost ran down the hall to the bank of lev-e-facts. She stabbed the call button repeatedly then paced up and down as she waited for the car to arrive. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed Mateo to persuade her that Abelard might be in trouble, then come all the way down here to face down the artisans in a rescue attempt, only to be humiliated and rejected in one fell swoop.
The lev-e-fact turned up at last and she stepped inside, pressing the button for the ground floor. Before the doors could fully close, Mateo thrust his arm between them and pushed his way inside.
‘Wait up!’ he said.
Jen ignored him.
He sighed. ‘I admit that could have gone better.’
Jen snorted. ‘You said he was in trouble. That didn’t look much like trouble to me.’
‘Uh, no,’ Mateo hung his head. ‘Sorry about that. Obviously that wasn’t what I was expecting.’
Jen was surprised Mateo wasn’t trying to defend his friend. Not that she knew how he could, given the circumstances. But she would have expected him to come out with some kind of blokey smart remark, either to express admiration at Abelard’s actions or to downplay her own humiliation. Instead he had acknowledged her distress and even apologised for it. Her irritation came down a notch.