by Chris Lofts
‘Waiting for somebody else?’ Helix said. ‘There’s space for one more at the end,’ he added, nodding to the empty cell to his right.
The hologram sighed. ‘As I said, Major. Sometimes plans don’t quite work out. You should know that.’
‘Not sure I do. I’ve always been a fan of the old saying: prior preparation prevents piss poor performance. Aka the six Ps. You should try it.’
‘Thank you. I’m not sure what your point is exactly, but how do you think all of this got here?’
‘Impressive, but not quite. The devil’s normally in the detail.’
The hologram waved her hand dismissively towards Sofi’s cell.
Helix flew at the side wall of his as the rear wall of Sofi’s began to slide forward, narrowing the gap between her and the shimmering electric barrier. ‘What are you doing? No!’
Sofi pressed her hands to the wall, her confused eyes turned to his. ‘Helix?’
‘You wanted her alive. What the hell—’
Continuing its relentless slide forward, Sofi’s attempts to hold it back were as futile as her attempts to find grip on the polished floor.
Helix hammered the wall with his fists. With his eyes fixed on hers, and deaf to the buzzing from the front wall, his elbow brushed his own electric barrier. An eruption of pain tore through his arm, a cascade of sparks raining down as he was repelled.
‘Helix!’ Sofi screamed. ‘Stop, Ulyana. What are you doing? You wanted me alive. Please,’ she pleaded. The intensity of the fizzing and rattling from the front of her cell increased as she was bundled towards it.
The pressure of Helix’s hands on the glass partition emitted a plaintive squeal as he slid down the wall, certain he was about to witness her electrocution. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t act, couldn’t watch. He clenched his hands to his ears and rolled away.
The explosion of sparks didn’t happen. The agonised scream didn’t come. Helix rolled up onto his feet. The wall had stopped short, leaving her inches from death. He nailed the holo with his eyes, his jaw clenched. ‘You bitch! If you—’
‘Yes, yes, yes, Major,’ the hologram said, sauntering in front of Sofi’s cell. ‘Your devotion is quite touching.’ She snapped her fingers at Archer. The front of the AI’s cell evaporated. ‘Gabrielle is right. At least she has some utility.’
‘Unlike me and Ethan,’ Helix said. ‘Apart from being simple disposable pleasures.’
The hologram laughed. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself, Major. You brought her to me. Your contribution is more significant than you realise.’
‘Aiding and abetting international criminals to carry out the assassination of politicians wasn’t part of the job description the last time I looked,’ Helix said, feigning confusion. ‘No. Hang on. I might have got that around the wrong way.’ He raised a finger. ‘Yes. What I meant was, aiding and abetting politicians to carry out international assassinations. That’s it. Sorry, Home Secretary, or can I call you Julia?’
‘Home Secretary?’ the hologram said, turning to Helix’s cell. ‘Julia? What are you talking about? I’ve told you—’
‘I know, you can take whatever form you wish.’
The hologram raised her eyebrows. ‘I think someone has an unhealthy obsession with his boss.’
‘You got me there.’ He took his chin in his hand theatrically. ‘I’ve been accused of paying too much attention to detail before. But even a Luddite like me can tip his hat in recognition of what the technology can do. It’s breath-taking. The ability to render the physical characteristics of the host in the most minute detail.’ He leaned casually against the wall of his cell. ‘It’s no good folding your arms now. Your left hand. The little finger.’ He nodded at her. ‘It’s missing. And there is significant scarring between the ring and middle fingers.’
The holo laughed, tossing her head back. ‘And I thought Gabrielle was the doctor.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘Even Archer’s impressed.’
‘Symbrachydactyly. The cosmetic surgery wasn’t as good then as it is now. It’s a congenital condition occurring in around 1 in 32,000 children.’
‘I may have underestimated you, Major Helix.’
‘I haven’t finished. Heterochromia iridium: eyes of differing colours. Less common at 1 in 200,000.’ He pushed his fingers through his hair. ‘You’re not the first to underestimate me. Can we end the charade now?’
‘I meant your imagination, not your intuition.’
‘So prove me wrong. Come out from behind the mirror and prove that you’re not a figment of my overactive imagination.’
‘I really don’t have time for this. Come, Gabrielle,’ she said, beckoning Sofi from her cell.
Sofi hesitated.
‘You can walk to the chair on your own, Gabrielle, or Archer can put you in it,’ the hologram snapped.
‘OK,’ Helix said. ‘Let’s say you and Ormandy aren’t the same person.’
‘Because we aren’t.’
‘Apart from stating your demands, we didn’t agree a time or a place to meet when Gabrielle and I returned to London.’
‘I found you once. And I found you again.’
‘There’s a third cell. It’s empty. It was meant for Justin Wheeler.’
The hologram laughed. ‘Ha. Wheeler. That buffoon.’
‘You hold him equally responsible for your brother’s death as you do us.’ The stubble on his chin rasped under his fingers. ‘I threatened to kill Wheeler, thereby exposing you, unless you declared the letter that Gabrielle sent to me was a fake.’
‘The same letter I sent to Julia Ormandy?’
Helix threw his hands up. ‘Look, fine. It’s complicated enough without you trying to deny the truth every couple of minutes.’
‘So, where is Wheeler?’
Helix continued as Sofi edged towards the chair. ‘Disabling the system that controls the dog collars was a smart move, but it meant I had to keep Wheeler close in case I needed to shoot him.’
‘What is it with men and guns?’ the hologram said to Gabrielle, her hand floating on the AI’s arm.
‘Given the amount of surveillance it was always going to be difficult to remain invisible. The drunk at Paddington planted trackers on all three of us. That was your way of keeping tabs.’
‘If that’s true, why didn’t you remove them?’
‘We were the bait,’ Helix said, interlacing his fingers. ‘You could have taken us at any point, but then you wouldn’t have learnt the location of Wheeler’s information.’ He tapped the side of his nose. ‘You sniffed a chance to get us, Wheeler and his stash, but it wasn’t there, was it?’ He looked towards the control room. ‘The big fella didn’t find it.’
Sofi slid into the chair, her hands pressed flat at her sides. She flinched as the restraints sprang across her body lashing her ankles, hips and shoulders in place.
‘And Wheeler wasn’t there either,’ Helix concluded. ‘But there is one less drug dealer on the streets, so I suppose that’s a plus.’
Helix sensed a shift in the hologram’s demeanour, as if she was no longer listening. Maybe he’d underestimated her. It felt like fine sand running between his fingers.
The hologram put its hand to its mouth as if remembering a last minute detail. ‘I’ve never had a woman in the chair before.’ She brushed her virtual fingers down the side of Sofi’s face. ‘And one so…’ The hologram stepped away. ‘I think we are ready to begin.’ It nodded slowly. ‘Yes. Now we are ready.’
‘Oh yes, that’s right. You have to complete the work of your deranged brother. Sorry, dead brother. Whatever. Like you said, I found you once. I can find you again.’
‘In the spirit-world perhaps. You could come back as a ghost and haunt me.’ The hologram flickered. ‘Look around, Major. You’ve lost. Your position is untenable. I have what I want. What I need.’
Was the pixilation how irritation manifested itself in the software? ‘Almost everything you need,’ he said. ‘I baited the hooks and you took a bite. The prob
lem is that one little fishy got away.’ He turned his palms upwards. ‘You still don’t have Wheeler.’
The hologram shook its hair loose and retied it. ‘All in good time. He will come to me when he’s needed.’ She turned, sauntered towards the door and scattered into a murmuration of a billion pixels.
Helix shrugged as he exchanged glances with Sofi. Archer’s fingers darted over an unseen keyboard the reflection from his monitors casting colourful tattoos across his bald pate. The red light on the panel by the door switched to green accompanied by the solid click of a lock releasing. The door hushed aside. Helix’s nostrils flared as the silhouette in the door frame took form. Julia Ormandy stepped from the shadows into the light.
Archer entered from the control room with a stool. Placing it next to Sofi and a polished metal trolley holding surgical instruments, organised in neat rows on a pale blue cloth, he waited, hands clasped behind his back.
Ormandy dismissed him with a flick of her hand as she unbuttoned the jacket of her black tailored business suit. The scrape from the stool’s feet echoed around the room as she pulled it close and perched next to Sofi. ‘Hello, Gabrielle.’
Sofi’s eyes darted from her face to Helix’s and back. She swallowed. ‘Hello… Should I call you Julia or—’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Lytkin smiled, a hint of resignation on her face.
‘Hallelujah,’ Helix proclaimed. ‘Finally. Julia Ormandy and Ulyana Lytkin in the same room.’ He folded his arms.
‘I’m impressed,’ Lytkin said, extending the fingers of her left hand. ‘No, genuinely. It’s a shame. I could use someone like you.’
‘I’m a dying breed. Like the rest of humanity. We’re not all dead yet, but with the likes of you around, it’s only a matter of time.’
‘I can see where your brother gets his cynicism from.’ Lytkin ran her fingers through the loops of pearls at her neck, . ‘This is only the beginning. There is so much more to do.’
‘Is that before or after you have your revenge by murdering us, God knows who else and starting a war?’ He shrugged. ‘What? Something amusing?’
‘Revenge. Maybe. It’s not a priority. There’s—’
‘Not a priority? What about Yawlander and Blackburn?’
‘Their deaths served a purpose. It brought you to me. I knew what you would do.’
‘And what about wreaking your brother’s revenge?’
‘Valerian had a high sensitivity to negative emotion, neurotic.’ She nipped at her bottom lip. ‘He got it from our mother. I was the son our father should have had.’
‘So why didn’t he have Valerian kidnapped instead of you?’
‘Because he was an arrogant, narcissistic misogynist.’
‘But apart from that he was OK.’
‘In the years of confusion following the pandemic, I travelled with my daughter to the UK. I thought—’
‘Now it’s my turn to be impressed,’ Helix said. ‘Our borders, like everyone else’s, were closed for years.’
‘Our uncle may have been a predatory paedophile but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what was going on in Ukraine well before the pandemic. He’d amassed a substantial fortune in gold and foreign currency.’ She smiled. ‘Dmitri and I used to sneak into the vaults at night to make love on the sacks of money and stacks of gold.’ She slipped from the stool.
‘Kinky,’ Helix said. ‘That’s one for the bucket list.’
‘Anyway,’ she continued. ‘I made it to the UK via Belarus and Latvia and then by ship to Hull.’
Helix raised his eyebrows. ‘With all that gold and foreign currency?’
‘No. I took as much gold as I could carry and all of the sterling. It was difficult with a small child to look after. Later, I sent for Archer. He brought the rest.’
‘And then the reunion, back in the bosom of the family, into the open arms of Daddy and little brother.’
‘No. I didn’t need them. I wanted to prove them wrong, particularly my father.’ She sighed. ‘But I was robbed of that opportunity. He died before I had the chance. But Valerian was impressed. Particularly when we became reacquainted at our father’s funeral. Valerian welcomed us. He adored Christina, doted on her, said she was the child he never had.’ She turned to Sofi. ‘Remember, Gabrielle? The child you denied him.’ Turning away, she added, ‘Then, a few years later, I met an ambitious young politician named Justin Wheeler.’
Sofi shook her head. ‘Was that before or after we were married?’
Helix interrupted before she could reply. ‘And how come Wheeler didn’t work out the link between you and your brother?’
‘I took the name Julia Ormandy as soon as I landed in Hull. Post-pandemic, a new identity wasn’t difficult to obtain. Records were poor or non-existent. How many nameless corpses did you bury, Major?’
‘Enough. But there’s room for more.’
‘I have a lot to thank Justin for. He launched my political career. He was an excellent mentor, but greedy and impatient.’
‘Ha! I’m sure he was,’ Sofi laughed. ‘When was it he discovered who you really were?’
‘That was Valerian’s fault,’ Lytkin said. ‘He was never satisfied with what he had. The empire he’d inherited from our father had more contracts than they could handle. The UK Government, like most others, was struggling to contain the half-baked AI it had unleashed during pandemic-induced panic. Valerian was obsessed with AI. In return for wrestling the utility and banking systems back under control he wanted Government backing to develop an overarching intelligence to—’
‘Gaia,’ Helix shouted. ‘Get to the bloody point.’
Lytkin wandered over to his cell. She tilted her head, studying him like a zoo exhibit. ‘They used me. Both of them. Valerian told Justin that if he didn’t get the contract for what would become Gaia, he would expose him by exposing me. He would claim that Justin had assisted me to enter the country illegally, with a sizeable amount of gold and currency, and to steal an identity. Not exactly the crimes of the century, but he could have conjured up more. For Valerian, the only thing better than having one politician in your pocket was to have two.’ She turned away. ‘But he wasn’t done.’
‘Hang on a second,’ Helix said. ‘If that’s what Wheeler has on you, he’d be shooting himself in the foot. Or did I miss something?’
Lytkin returned to the stool next to Sofi. ‘Valerian is dead.’ She turned to the trolley. ‘Many of his former enterprises have numerous Government contracts. There’s not only the scandal of my identity but also a huge conflict of interest. I think you’ll agree.’ Her fingers came to rest on the smooth handle of a scalpel. ‘But you’re right again, Major. Justin knows my true identity but has, or should I say had, as much to lose as I do. It was all a ruse to get you to London.’ She picked up the instrument. ‘And to get you to deliver Gabrielle.’
‘And thereafter the pathogen,’ Helix added. Something didn’t fit. Wheeler was part of this and the third cell wasn’t for him after all? It was time to up the ante. ‘So, you have no idea where Justin Wheeler is, you’ve disabled his dog collar and you don’t have his stash of information, if such a stash exists at all.’
‘Disabled yes, but I could re-enable it.’
‘Nice try. The charges dissolved the moment you pulled the plug on the system. Or didn’t they tell you that? It wasn’t the most elegant solution, but the fastest way to keep him alive if he entered one of the cardinal cities.’
Lytkin tossed the scalpel back onto the trolley. ‘Why should you care about Justin Wheeler?’
‘I’m just trying to work out where he fits in to all of this,’ Helix said, folding his arms. ‘Frankly, as much as it almost chokes me to say it, you had my attention as soon as you took Ethan hostage.’
‘What does it matter?’ Lytkin spat, marching to the front of his cell. ‘Look around. I have everything I need. Wheeler is an insignificant detail.’ She emphasised just how small with her finger and thumb.
‘He may not agree.’ Helix sh
rugged. ‘Why don’t we ask him?’
Lytkin turned away, snatching up the scalpel again. ‘Where is he?’ she said, holding it to Sofi’s throat. ‘Where is Wheeler?’
Sofi’s eyes widened. Her fists clenched. Blood seeped from below the blade.
‘Wait!’ Helix shouted. ‘No, Ulyana, wait.’
She wasn’t listening. Lytkin fixed her eyes on Sofi. The fingers of her free hand danced across Sofi’s face, brushing her lips. ‘We usually start with the eyes. Sometimes one, sometimes both,’ Lytkin said, her voice almost a whisper. ‘It amplifies the terror. A child’s terror. You’re in bed, in the dark, trying to convince yourself that the monster below won’t grab your ankle if you dare to put your foot on the floor. The terror of what lurks in the dark, when will it strike, how will it strike? You can’t see it, can’t prepare for it and then…’ She moved the scalpel to below Sofi’s right eye. ‘Boom! It hits you.’
‘OK. I’ll tell you.’ Helix held his hands up. ‘He’s babysitting.’
Lytkin’s brow creased. ‘What?’ she said, incredulous.
‘Wheeler’s babysitting.’
‘Babysitting whom?’
‘Your daughter.’
‘Christina?’
‘We didn’t have time for proper introductions,’ Helix said, pointing to his cheek. ‘She was too busy clawing my face.’ He raised himself to his full height as she staggered to his cell. ‘Why don’t we call them?’
‘What have you done?’ she said. ‘She was at home. At her apartment in the school grounds. I checked.’
‘Her tracker was at home. I cut it from her arm and left it there.’ It was partly true. The tracker was in her dead bodyguard’s mouth inside the limo, parked outside her apartment, but it was close enough. He folded his arms. ‘Did you actually speak to her? Oh no, I forgot. She was never going to speak to you again. That’s what she said, or something like that, the other evening in your office at the MoHD. Remember? When you insisted she had to be home from that club on The Strand by midnight. She wasn’t, by the way, because it was me who picked her up. Your security needs reviewing. Her minder was too busy getting a blowjob instead of doing his job.’