by Eliza Green
Ben’s gaze intensified on the screen showing illegal chatter from the Wave. ‘I’m not worried.’
‘Then what?’
Bill glanced at his screen. There was one, maybe two chats occurring. And those were about Light Boxes and pets. Nothing illegal. Not surprising.
‘It’s...’ Ben sighed, keeping his eyes forward. ‘It’s nothing.’
Bill’s heart picked up. He had no experience with kids, let alone teenagers. That had always been Laura’s forte. Without her here, it was just him ambling his way through this minefield called life. But when it came to Ben Watson, none of that mattered. He owed the kid a good life here.
Bill pulled over a chair and sat down beside him. Leaning forward, he said, ‘What is it? You don’t like Mrs Hegarty?’
The teen’s eyes flicked from screen to him, back to screen. ‘She’s fine. She’s been very nice.’
‘What is it then?’ The irritation crept into his voice. He wouldn’t ask a third time.
The boy’s shoulders slumped a little. ‘Nothing I can’t handle.’
The early starts. The request to work longer hours. It started to make sense.
‘Are you having trouble at the house?’
Ben’s lips pinched. ‘I said I can handle it.’
‘Because if you need me to speak to Mrs Hegarty, I can do that.’
To Bill’s surprise, Ben laughed. ‘I’ve been dealing with their sort for years on Earth.’ He looked at him and touched a hand to his chest. ‘Orphan, remember?’ He looked away. ‘I know how to sort my own problems.’
Bill didn’t buy the bravado act. But he didn’t want to push, either. ‘Why the early start then?’
‘It’s quiet here. I can think better.’ He looked at Bill again. ‘How is Margaux?’
‘Better, according to my source.’ He didn’t mention Laura being that source. Mentioning her would only invite new, painful conversation about her. ‘Any significant chatter turn up before I did?’
‘Nah.’ Ben sighed and swivelled round in his chair to face Bill. ‘Being here, it’s useless. I thought that if I came in after the night shift there would be more activity. That the criminals would be brazen enough to go online while they thought we were asleep.’
‘It’s not useless work. It’s a lot of sitting around and monitoring things, but I assure you the work we do is important.’
Ben lifted his hands. ‘But there’s nothing happening, no rebellion. No rogue takeover.’ He paused. ‘I want to go to District Three. You promised I could.’
‘And you will, but things are a bit stressed there at the moment.’
‘Why?’ Ben frowned. ‘Is it because of Laura?’
Bill shifted in his chair. ‘No.’ One thing he’d say for the teen, he knew how to be direct. ‘They have elders visiting from other districts at the moment. It would be inappropriate for us to go while that’s happening. Things will quieten there soon.’
The teen narrowed his gaze.
‘What?’ asked Bill.
‘If things are good, why did you give Harvey his own lab? Why do you have Jameson monitoring the vitals of the Elite?’
‘How did you know about that?’
‘I like to keep up with things around here.’
A thought terrified Bill. His eyes flicked to the screen. ‘Please don’t tell me there’s chatter on the Wave about it?’
‘Nah.’ Ben shrugged as if it were no big deal. ‘I, er, might have followed you. I saw you give Harvey his warehouse. I watched the movers stock it with equipment I’ve only seen in two places: the hospitals here and the genetic clinics on Earth. I looked up Jameson and found some interesting details about him. He was the last person on record to consult with the board members, while they were still human. So I put two and two together and assumed he had something to do with their current state.’
Jenny had warned Bill about this teen’s sharp mind and ability to be places he shouldn’t. Now he was seeing it in action. He wondered if Ben might consider a future in underground operations. He could be a great asset to the team some day.
Ben continued, ‘Now I’m wondering if everything is okay. Why are you keeping the Elite and their hosts alive, and honouring an agreement with Harvey that I heard you say to Stephen weeks ago you would never honour?’
Bill sighed. ‘It’s a feeling. Call me paranoid, but I’m not willing to sit back and wait for the next big disaster to happen.’ Ben’s expression was neutral but his posture held tension. ‘It happened with the attack on District Three. Tanya and her cronies were planning transcendence for years, but it only took a week for her to ramp up her efforts after the Nexus became an option. An attack like that rarely skips past the consequences. Until I’m satisfied all dangers have passed, the Elite will remain alive.’
‘You think Margaux’s illness is the start of something new? You said she was fine.’
‘She’s been fine for nearly sixty years. Now suddenly she gets sick? Something tells me we need to keep a better eye on things.’
Ben’s brow furrowed. ‘Harvey’s checking the first-gen code, right?’
‘Yeah, how did you know—?’
The teen waved his hand at him. ‘I looked up information on Harvey that first day you asked me about him. I also recognised his name, but not from where. The records from the World Government activities were unsealed after the regime abandoned Earth. It wasn’t hard to dig into the lives of their former geneticists.’
Bill stared at the teen with his shock of black hair. He looked less like the waif who had stepped off the passenger ship nearly a month ago. Mrs Hegarty must be feeding him well. But he didn’t like hearing the other boys at the halfway house were giving him a hard time.
Ben was frowning at him. ‘What?’
Bill blinked away his thoughts. ‘Nothing. You remind me of me sometimes.’
‘What, annoying and surly?’
His quick response prompted a laugh from Bill. ‘I’m not that bad.’ He stood up. ‘Come on.’
Ben got to his feet. ‘Where?’
‘We’re going to talk to an old friend.’ He took long strides to the door.
The teen jogged to keep up. ‘I thought we weren’t going to District Three.’
‘We’re not.’
Bill took the stairs leading up two at a time. When his breaths became laboured, he set a normal pace to the sixth floor. Bill entered the empty floor and headed straight for his office. The shuffle of feet followed him.
In his office, he pulled a second chair around to his side of the desk and sat down in his own chair. He called a number on Earth while Ben settled.
‘You calling Jenny?’
Bill didn’t reply. His screen filled with a password box. He entered the twenty-six-digit encryption code he’d created for the connection to Earth and authorised it with a scan of his security chip.
The connection rang and rang. A familiar face filled the screen—the one he had hoped for.
‘Greyson,’ said Bill.
Greyson’s brown eyes widened for a second. A smile crinkled the dark skin around his eyes. ‘Bill, good to see you.’ Caution peppered his tone. ‘What can we do for you?’ Ben moved into shot. Greyson’s sharp gaze flickered away from Bill. A new smile formed. ‘Ah, Ben! Good to see you. How are you settling in there?’
‘Hi, Greyson. Well. How’s Isobel?’
‘Doing good work. She’s working alongside Jenny to convince the Indigenes to obey the new rules. She’ll be delighted I saw you.’
‘Tell her I said hello and that I’m doing well here.’
‘Will do.’ His smile vanished as his attention returned to Bill. ‘I sense this isn’t a social call.’
‘It’s not. We have a potential issue arising here and I wanted to draw on your experience of working as a lab technician.’
Greyson had worked out of a lab in New York in a similar role to Serena, when she’d been human.
The frowning eighty-year-old leaned back in his chair. ‘That was a l
ong time ago, Bill. What’s the issue you’re having?’
He told him about Margaux’s sickness; Greyson agreed it was a rare phenomenon to occur among the Indigenes. Then Bill mentioned the deteriorating code in the Elite, plus his handing over of property to Harvey, and what he had Harvey doing for him.
Greyson frowned. ‘And you trust that man?’
‘As far as I can throw him, but I think the work intrigues him enough that he’ll stay the course.’
‘And Marcus? Is he a problem?’ Greyson’s eyes flicked to Ben then away.
‘No. He’s locked up. My only concern would be if Harvey had any further interest in him. Now that Harvey has his first clinic, I can’t see what use he’d have for Marcus.’
‘That must be a relief for you Ben.’
Ben just nodded.
Greyson looked at Bill. ‘So what can I do from here? I’d come to you but we have no passenger ship.’
‘The help I need won’t require travel. I need someone to verify the information Harvey and Jameson are feeding to me. I want to know if they’re fudging the truth, or if they can do more. You understand genetics, so I thought of you.’
Greyson nodded. ‘My knowledge and experience are limited compared to that pair, but I’ll give it a shot. What about Robinson? Would he be of use to you?’
The doctor living in an underground facility on Earth had been part of the old World Government team.
‘Please ask him. I trust you, Greyson. I don’t trust Harvey or Jameson.’
‘Say no more. Send me what you have when you have it.’
‘I’m meeting with the pair in a couple of hours. I’ll get them to send the information to me and I’ll have Ben pass it on.’
Greyson nodded. ‘Anything else?’
‘Yeah, see what you can dig up about the experiments on Earth, right up to Jameson’s work on the board members. Anything to do with the DNA code and its mutations. I’m looking for any cause-and-effect issues that might occur if one species is exposed to another.’
‘Is that what you believe is happening here?’
‘Nothing’s happening per se. But I can’t assume Margaux’s condition was a random occurrence. Tanya’s access to the Nexus is a variable. None of us know what she did while she was in there, or how the Nexus reacted to her visit.’
Greyson pursed his lips. ‘I’ll help in whatever way I can.’
‘Thanks, friend.’
Bill clicked off and stared at the screen for a moment, thinking.
Ben’s voice cut through his quiet. ‘What now?’
‘In a couple of hours, we meet Jameson and Harvey.’
‘We?’ Ben looked surprised. ‘You want me there?’
‘You got something better to do?’
Ben shook his head and smiled.
‘From now on, you’ll be my shadow. You’ll tell me who’s a lying sack of shit and who’s telling me the truth. Got it?’
Ben nodded.
Bill made a bridge with his hands. ‘After this meeting, the grief those boys at the halfway house are giving you will all feel like child’s play.’
22
The district felt calm, indicating a return to normal. Vibrations in the tunnel walls drummed to a steady beat. Indigene auras were a healthy mix of blues and greens. All was well, so why did Stephen feel on the edge of losing it?
Last night, the elders had called another group meeting without him. If Serena hadn’t come to get him, he would never have known about it. Inside his private quarters, he hadn’t sensed the mood of his charges about what Emile had to say. But when he’d shown up unannounced at the Central Core, the curiosity and eagerness for change had hit him like a charging wolf. He’d hung back to the rear of the group and listened while Emile had broken apart more rules and assumed control over everything.
After returning to his quarters, sleep had eluded him that night. His tossing and turning had woken up Serena several times. After the third kick he’d given her, she’d gotten up and encouraged him talk about what was on his mind.
He’d sat on the mattress, legs bunched up to his chest. ‘Everything feels like it’s slipping away. I don’t know how to gain back control.’
‘Maybe you should just let things play out, Stephen. Emile is a breath of fresh air around here.’
He widened his eyes. ‘Excuse me?’
‘What I mean is your charges have been struggling with what happened here a few weeks ago. I can sense it from them. Having Emile here reminds them of Pierre. That’s all.’
Her admission hit Stephen in the chest. ‘So you think I should just let him take over command here?’
He couldn’t believe his mate had lost faith in his abilities.
‘I think you should wait for the shiny new feeling to wear off around here. Like I said, he’s a breath of fresh air, but air can go stale fast if things start to normalise.’ She grabbed his hands. ‘Think of it like this: your charges are on a vacation and Emile is their camp rep.’
‘Camp rep?’
Serena chuckled. ‘Sorry, Earth reference. Not that I ever saw any vacation time when I worked in the lab.’
Stephen sometimes forgot that Serena used to be human. Whatever he knew about human life he’d read about in books.
‘So you think I’m worrying for nothing?’
‘I do.’ With a smile, she encouraged him to lie down. ‘Sleep on it. You’ll feel better in the morning.’
After a few hours’ rest, Stephen woke up to find Serena gone. Their talk last night had settled his mind a bit.
But the second he opened the door to his private quarters, the wave of excitement and curiosity only stoked his pain. He’d been the best leader he could since Pierre’s death. Why wasn’t that enough for his charges?
Stephen jumped from the third floor and hit the ground running.
It had been four days since Margaux had fallen ill. He passed by Indigenes on his way to see her in the infirmary. When he arrived there, the scene surprised him.
Margaux was sitting up and talking with Serena. His mate had been looking after her as well as three medics. Laura and Arianna stood beside the medics, looking relieved. Emile stood back from the pair, smiling and nodding, as if he’d been responsible for her recovery.
Stephen walked inside the room. ‘What’s going on here?’
Serena helped Margaux to stand. ‘Oh, I was just coming to get you.’
He noticed the bubble of surface air had retracted inside the insignia rock and she no longer breathed it.
The scene confused him. ‘What’s happening? Margaux?’
There was no wild look in her eye. ‘Great news, Stephen. My illness appears to have passed.’
She sucked in a lungful of District Three’s air as if to prove it.
He took a hesitant step towards her. ‘I don’t understand.’
A smiling Emile splayed his hands. ‘Margaux is well again. This is good news, Stephen. It means things can return to normal around here.’
‘Does that mean you’ll be returning to your District?’
‘Soon, when we are certain things are under control here.’
Stephen focused on the murky colours of the elder’s aura. While a happy green dominated the spectrum, a grey indicated his lack of trust or a hesitation. He couldn’t trust his skill, faulty for a while now. Nor could he trust what he saw.
He wracked his brain for some way to assure the elder he had everything under control. Only one thing came to mind.
‘I’d like the restrictions on hunting to be restored.’
Emile waved his hand at him. ‘Later, perhaps. I think your charges are benefiting from a loosening of regime around here. Just let them enjoy it for a while.’ To Margaux, he said, ‘Good to see you’re feeling better.’
She nodded and smiled sweetly at Emile, her gaze fixated on his back as he left the room.
As soon as he was gone, Margaux’s smile dropped away. ‘Ass.’
Stephen suppressed a smile. He met her in
the middle of the room and grabbed her hands. ‘How are you feeling?’
Margaux lifted her chin. ‘Like my old self.’
That’s what worried him. In her manic state, she insisted on wandering off every chance she got. ‘No more walks by yourself?’
Margaux waved her hand, like Emile had just done. ‘I can’t promise that.’
With nothing left to do, Stephen left the medics to perform some final checks on Margaux—basic mental acuity tests; checking her balance; measuring her lung capacity. Stephen wished his problems could be fixed with a few simple tests. Emile had it wrong. Relaxing the rules now was the wrong approach to take. Serena joined him and touched his shoulder. Her influence spread through him like warm water.
Not now, please. I need my thoughts sharp.
She removed her hand. You don’t believe Emile will leave soon, do you?
Sometimes he wished she couldn’t read his mind. Do you?
She shook her head. I think there’s more going on.
Exactly what he thought.
Stephen strode down the tunnel, forcing Serena to run after him. ‘Where are you going?’
‘To take back control.’
‘What happened to sleeping on it and letting things play out?’
‘I did that. And that’s what I’m doing.’
He kept up his fast pace, calling out to the minds of other Indigenes as he went.
Meeting in the Central Core. Now.
Not all would be listening but he hoped enough would turn up.
Stephen arrived in the large, cavernous space, with its vaulted ceiling and enough room to hold all of his charges. But he discovered that only a quarter of the numbers had listened. Indigenes, some young, many older, gathered in the space, their auras marked by a deep and troubling grey. When exactly had Stephen lost the trust of his charges?
He climbed up on to the makeshift podium that elevated him above the group. A sea of faces stared up at him. Some frowned; others had their arms folded.
‘An announcement,’ Stephen stated. ‘This district shall return to the old hunting restrictions. Only one trip per day will be permitted, and the group that gets to travel will be decided by a lottery.’
A chorus of internal shouting began as his idea fell flat.