After what felt like an age, he stopped. ‘We’re here,’ he murmured.
She heard him press his hand against the wall and there was a click. Then the wall split down the middle, a line of brightness that widened into a doorway. She covered her eyes, felt him draw her forwards through the opening. She heard a door slide shut behind her and felt clean air on her face.
The room she found herself in was cool and dry. It was well lit, a kind of antechamber with several doors leading off. Nebn was greeting two people, a man and a woman. The man was older, with a diagonal scar running from above his right eyebrow and down across his nose to his jaw, the eye hidden behind a black patch. She noticed the hair of his beard had turned white where it met the scar, then he turned and she found herself transfixed by a single violet eye.
‘This is Kelbee,’ said Nebn.
The scarred face was expressionless. ‘Yes. Welcome,’ he said in a deep, rolling voice.
Nebn seemed about to continue but was cut off as the other person, a tall young woman, wrapped him in an embrace.
The woman looked to be a little older than Kelbee, with long hair that was an unnaturally bright yellow. She let Nebn go and turned to look at her with a face that was fine and proud, with high cheekbones and full lips. She was as tall as the men. Kelbee didn’t like how her hand rested in the crook of Nebn’s arm, casual and familiar. Then the woman grabbed her hands as a warm smile crinkled the edges of her mouth. Her movements were confident and her long legs and lithe shoulders made Kelbee feel small and clumsy.
‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I’m Tani.’
Kelbee smiled through pursed lips, but the woman’s smile widened into a grin. She wrapped her arms around Kelbee’s shoulders, giving her a squeeze. Kelbee tried to mumble a greeting of her own as her face was pressed into soft yellow hair that smelled at once of flowers and engine oil. Tani released her, even white teeth beaming.
Nebn shot her an embarrassed look. ‘Sorry about her. She’s never understood about personal space.’
Kelbee lowered her head to cover the redness in her cheeks and managed to croak out, ‘Glad to meet you…’
‘She’s a beauty, Neb, you were right,’ said Tani.
The flush spread behind Kelbee’s ears. Somehow this willowy woman made the utility shirt and heavy-duty trousers she wore look glamorous; perhaps it was the length of her legs. She realised she was staring and snatched her gaze away.
The scarred man spoke. ‘Let’s get out of this hallway, shall we? You men can stand down.’
Kelbee heard a soft movement. Two men moved from behind her; both were hooded and masked, armed with compact machine guns. She hadn’t heard anyone even though they must have been there the whole time, close enough to reach out and grab her. A chill ran up her spine.
What had he brought her to?
* * *
It was a section of the sewer network, Nebn told her as they walked, sealed off because of flooding and collapse. A helpful hand in the right department had declared the tunnels condemned, then they’d come here and made it their own in secret. The waste had been drained, the tunnels cleaned and lit and soundproofed. Generators kept the place aired and dry.
‘It’s small, only two dozen of us, though there’s room for more,’ said Nebn. ‘We can live and sleep and work in relative safety.’
The man with the scar turned. ‘Perhaps the tour can wait until after I’ve had time to speak with our guest.’
Nebn inclined his head. ‘Sorry, Brennev.’ He gave her a smile that was meant to reassure, but only made her feel more nervous.
They came to a panelled door in the tunnel wall and stopped.
‘Kelbee,’ said Brennev, opening the door. ‘This will only take a moment.’
Nebn gave her arm a squeeze and Tani smiled at her.
‘If you would,’ said Brennev, his voice low and soft.
Kelbee stepped through the door into a small, functional office. Just a desk, two chairs and a small couch facing a low table. In one corner, near the ceiling, a small ventilation fan whirred in its plastic housing. She heard Brennev close the door behind her. He indicated the couch with an open hand and she sat, expecting him to take the large chair behind the desk; instead he picked up another made of light wood and set it down opposite her. He sank into it, holding his hands together, elbows resting on his knees.
‘Can I get you some water?’ he asked.
‘No, thank you.’
He cleared his throat. ‘You must realise that what we’re doing down here is very illegal.’
She gave a small nod.
‘Nebn has brought you here because he thinks you can be of help to us.’
She frowned. ‘He told me you could help. I – we have a problem.’
‘I know about that, Nebn told me. He’s also said how sharp you are, how resourceful. He’s very attached to you.’ The lone violet eye held her. ‘This may sound unkind, but we aren’t a refuge. We are doing serious work here and a slip-up could see us all killed. I told him he could bring you here, but it wasn’t out of charity.’ He laced his fingers. ‘I’m interested in you, Kelbee. More specifically, I’m interested in your husband.’
In the silence that followed, she became acutely aware of the whirring fan in the corner. There could be a camera there, or a recording device. Were they watching even now, assessing, waiting for her to say something?
Brennev saw her glance over. ‘You’re thinking this is some sort of test. That you’re being set up. That’s understandable. You’ve been taught to feel that way your whole life.’ He smiled, a bitter parting of the lips. ‘I suppose we all felt like that at one time.’
He leaned forward. ‘People disappearing in the night. You must know what I mean? People who showed a lack of respect, who talked or thought too much. You never saw them again, did you? It’s a powerful tool, that quiet kind of fear.’
He reached across the low table and took her hand; it was big and warm, but she wanted so much to snatch her hand away because of the single eye boring into her.
When he continued his voice was almost gentle, lulling. ‘I want you to believe what I say, so I will give you something now, Kelbee. Just a little thing, just some words. But words that could kill me.’
Her pulse pounded in her ears and she found herself transfixed.
‘I hate it all, Kelbee,’ he said. ‘This city, this world. What it has been made to be. The watchers in the streets, the checkpoints. Neighbours reporting on each other for fear of being under suspicion themselves. Power rationing, though the mausoleum of a mummified corpse is lit and heated every hour of every day. Men deciding the fate of millions with the stroke of a pen.
‘This world is a cruel joke, Kelbee. A running sore, made so by a five-hundred-year-old hypocrite.’ His grip tightened. ‘Let me tell you, if I had one chance to go back and meet the Seeker, just one, I would choke the life from him.’
She gasped and ripped her hand away. She looked around at the door, expecting at any moment for it to be kicked in. Those words were unthinkable, criminal! Sedition of the worst kind!
The room stayed quiet and the door stayed still. The only sound was her breathing and the fan in the corner.
Brennev’s voice was wry. ‘That appals you. That’s because they’ve done their work – on you, your parents, everyone going back half a millennium. But the truth is, Kelbee, some of us have had our eyes opened and we see the Hegemony for what it is. A broken, unjust tyranny that has stagnated a whole world. It is a lie and I’ll die to bring it down.’
He stood and walked over to the desk where he pulled a file from one of the drawers.
‘So, there you have it. My gift, a little bit of power over me. Even a senior official caught saying such things would disappear.’ He returned and placed the file on the table between them. ‘I’ve done this so that you’ll believe me, maybe even trust me a little. That’s all it takes to begin with.’
Her eyes were drawn to the file on the table. A thick manila fol
der of loose sheets, scuffed and crumpled at the edges. She felt his eyes on her as if he were waiting for some sign to continue. She reached out and flipped the cover, setting the first leaf fluttering.
It was a picture of her. She was leaving her apartment block. The image looked recent, made in the last year. It had been taken from close by, at street level.
She flicked through the file, finding more photos, ID documents, certificates of employment, tithe records, permit applications. All with her name. Someone had gathered the paper trail of her life in Karume. She came to the last page, another picture. It was her, much younger. Her mouth was drawn in a serious line, but her eyes were alive. She remembered when it had been taken: six years ago on her first day in the city. The processing had taken hours until she was tired and hungry, but she’d been so full of excitement.
‘This file is you,’ said Brennev. ‘We make sure to watch your kind.’
She flushed. ‘What “kind” would that be?’
‘When officers apply for a wife, we open files on the girls they bring in. It’s sensible intelligence. Most of those files just sit gathering dust, but sometimes we get someone like you.’
Kelbee looked him in the eye. ‘I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t mean to come here. I don’t know who you people are.’
‘You’re valuable.’
‘I don’t like any of this. I want to leave.’
He held up his hand. ‘Before you do, tell me what you know about your husband.’
That caught her off-guard. He relaxed into his chair as her head spun.
What about him? This had to be a trap, an elaborate construction in which she would incriminate herself.
‘I’ll tell you: you know barely anything. We, on the other hand, do know some things. Where he works, where he was born. Where he goes after work, the men he drinks with.’
She glared, but said nothing.
‘We know you have been married for six years and have no children,’ he continued. ‘We know he spends much of his time away from home, but that he has no mistresses.’ The eye speared her. ‘I know what he does to you.’
‘That’s enough,’ she snapped. ‘I don’t want to do this any more. I thought you were going to help.’
‘I want to. Both you and Nebn. But this man, whom you live with, who beats you—’
‘Stop it. Just stop.’
‘—who treats you like meat, you know nothing about him.’ His voice had dropped even lower, rumbling in his throat. ‘He is worse than you know. Far worse. Where he works, the operations he runs, what his orders do to ordinary people. I want you to help us to stop him, and others like him.’
Her breathing was sharp and rapid. Her eyes had started to water and her throat felt swollen, her tongue thick. ‘What the hell can I do? Poison his… damn soup?’ As soon as she’d said it she clapped her hand over her mouth.
‘No. We just want the little things. We know he’s been promoted and permanently attached to Intelligence, though he’s been their creature for some time. We have no eyes inside his new posting – the security level is too high. I don’t like to have blind spots.’ His hands were clasped, his face serious. ‘I want to know what he brings home with him and which people he talks to. Things he would only let slip at home, with a drink in his hand.’ He leaned in. ‘In return, I promise I will help you when the time comes.’
He doesn’t talk at home, she thought. He never discusses anything with me. This is madness, just all a huge mistake. For all that he stirred her blood, Nebn was a stranger to her and now she was being asked to commit treason. It was all too much.
She found her hand had drifted to her bump. She needed help, and she knew it.
‘I turn traitor and you keep my child safe. That’s your price, is it?’
‘Look at him, Kelbee.’ He held up a picture of the Lance Colonel in his everyday uniform. He was standing on a balcony, talking with another officer, a drink in his hand. ‘Look at this man. For all the times he hurt you, I’m giving you a chance to hit back.’
‘I want to see Nebn.’
Brennev’s shoulders rose, then fell. He replaced the photograph and closed the file. ‘I understand. This is a lot to take in. You’re right to be scared and smart to be sceptical.’
He left the file on the table and stood. He held out his hand with a face that was half-apology, half-question. After a beat, she took it.
‘Nebn is a good soldier. He’s risking a lot. I hope you make the right decision.’
‘I just… there’s so much. I don’t even know what I could do for’ – she waved a hand in the air – ‘all this. I just want us to be safe.’
‘You can do more than you give yourself credit for.’ With that, he opened the door.
Nebn was waiting for her in the corridor. When he saw her, the boyish relief on his face made her smile.
‘You’re all right?’ he asked. ‘It’s a lot to take in, but I knew you were up to it.’
Kelbee held his hand, kissing him on the cheek, feeling an urge to reassure him though her mind was whirling. ‘I’m not so sure.’
‘Don’t you see, though?’ he said, his voice low. ‘You’re perfect. You’ve never put a foot out of place; you blend in. And you’ll be helping so many people.’
Kelbee looked at his wide eyes. She heard Brennev shut the door behind her and again saw his questioning look.
She took a deep breath. ‘I’d like a little while to think.’
The scarred face was unreadable. ‘Of course. I have to be going,’ he said. ‘Nebn will see you out. Goodbye, Kelbee, I hope to see you again.’ He turned and walked off down the corridor.
Tani was leaning up against the wall, chewing on the end of an elegant finger. She caught Kelbee’s eye. ‘How long do you have?’
‘The Lance Colonel’s away until tomorrow,’ answered Kelbee. ‘Outside the Walls; an inspection, I think he said.’
‘You see, you’re already useful,’ said Nebn. ‘I want to show you something; come with me.’
‘Mind if I join?’ said Tani.
Irritation skittered across Nebn’s face, but he nodded. ‘Fine.’
‘More secrets?’ said Kelbee.
‘Just something that’s important to me.’
Nebn led the way through twisting corridors until they came to a heavy metal door. It didn’t look part of the sewer, more like a hole had been punched through the tile and concrete. Nebn entered a code into a keypad and led them through.
The room beyond was circular and low. The walls domed up to form the concrete ceiling and the air was ancient, tinged with something like copper.
‘We found this place by accident. It’s my favourite place to come and think.’
Kelbee felt the rough surface. It was like standing inside a large bubble; the floor was made of perfectly fitted stone flags that curved downwards in a shallow bowl. Inset, the metal gleaming like new, were concentric lines running around a stone hemisphere in the very centre of the bowl, each track carrying its own, smaller dome.
Tani’s voice echoed. ‘It was bigger, but whoever built the sewers wanted to bury it, so they poured in tons of concrete. They did it too fast and a bubble formed, leaving this.’
‘It feels… old.’
‘It’s from before the Ruin.’
Kelbee shot the other woman a look, wondering if she was being mocked.
‘It’s true,’ said Nebn. ‘It has to be, look.’ He crouched and tapped the largest dome, the one in the middle. ‘This is Ras, we think.’
Kelbee shook her head, not understanding.
‘All of these,’ he continued, ‘are meant to be other worlds. They move around Ras in circles. Some slower than others.’
‘Ras runs on a track set in the sky, the same as Marna. Everyone knows that.’
‘That’s how I know this is so old,’ he said. ‘They used to believe ours was just one world of many, all circling around Ras in a great black emptiness.’
The thought of all that empt
iness, the idea of hanging in nothing, made her feel dizzy.
‘It’s something that was lost and then found by chance – I like that,’ said Tani. ‘All this about other worlds, it doesn’t make much sense. But then, our boy’s a sucker for anything pre-Ruin.’
Nebn’s face clouded. ‘They were ahead of us in so many ways. We should learn all we can.’
‘That’s what destroyed them,’ Tani countered. ‘Their decadence brought the Ruin down on them. It’s why we’re in this mess.’
He snorted. ‘You sound like a Teller.’
‘Suppose you’re right, suppose that crazy old witch at the Elucidon is also right and it was some kind of milk-and-honey wonderland before the Ruin: all plentiful food and automaton servants. It doesn’t matter. They still wrecked the world, for all their magnificence.’
‘We could learn from them.’
‘What could they have that’s worth knowing, if all it did was smash the world?’
Kelbee looked down at the globe at her feet. Unlike the others, it wasn’t smooth, but was covered in a fine grid of lines that stood out a fraction from the surface.
‘What’s this?’ she asked.
‘Us,’ said Nebn.
‘So, these are…’
‘Map lines, maybe. Or what the Lattice might have looked like before it fell.’
Tani sighed dramatically.
Kelbee saw this was an argument that had run, so she headed it off. ‘It’s very beautiful in here.’ She took his hand and smiled. He held her by the waist and she felt the heat of him through her clothes.
‘I’m getting that third-wheel sort of feeling,’ said Tani. ‘See you outside.’
When she’d gone, Nebn kissed her. ‘I remember the first time I came here. The first time I tried to swallow the idea. It’s scary, I know, because it makes you wonder… what else could be different from what we think is the truth?’
‘Who’s this woman Tani mentioned?’
‘Sulara Song. She does research at the Elucidon, but they starve her funding. They’d like all talk of the pre-Ruin to disappear, and maybe it will – not many seem to care any more. I know of only one other person who does, and he’s with Professor Song now, keeping her safe.’
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