Jun peeled back the writhing plasma from Kodi’s scalp. Markov tried to pull Jun’s hands apart, but it was too late, the plasma was off and dangling from Jun’s fingers like jelly. She dropped it in Markov’s hands.
‘You’ll desist at once!’ Wei said, banging his fist on the table by the Interface.
Markov smoothed down plasma slurry into its protective case, the corners of his mouth twitched as he turned back to face her. ‘What do you want?’
‘I thought my message was clear. I’ve come for Kodi.’
Five security guards appeared, a Voltarm in each hand and a grimace on their face. Jun felt for the phone in her fingers. All she needed to do was send the alarm for the Ghettoites to storm in. She just needed to make sure she gave them enough time to do it.
Wei took two purposeful steps from the monitors to Kodi. ‘I’m not sure who you think you are, threatening me, making demands.’
Though his greying skin hung loosely on his face, and his eyes were hidden underneath folds of skin, Wei still held that psychotic streak.
‘I’m not leaving without Kodi.’ She stared him down.
Markov moved closer to Jun and lowered his face close enough that she could smell liquorice on his breath. Another habit picked up from his master. The bitter-sweet vapour clung in her throat.
‘The girl is staying here. That’s a direct request from the United Adaptive headquarters.’
‘And I’m telling you, she’s leaving.’ Jun put an arm around Kodi’s shoulder.
‘Always insubordinate,’ Wei raged. ‘Years I tried to get you just to be quiet, do as you were told. This time you’ll listen to me!’ He looked over at the security guards, their stocky silhouettes shunted forward a few steps.
The years that his condescension had paralysed her, Jun saw now he had hidden behind shouts and fury, while others did his bidding. Markov, Yeung, UA muscle, but she would not be subservient, not this time. ‘I have proof of what you did to Odgerel Zaye. If your men take one more step and if I don’t leave the building with Kodi, I’ll release it into the homes of everyone in the Province, and the world.
‘There’s some great footage of you both. Force my hand. See how hard I bite,’ Jun said.
A smile crept on both their faces. Their eyes looked as though they were staring straight through Jun. It was only when Wei nodded, did she realise there was someone behind her.
A bear-like frame swelled in the room, and Kodi began to shake. He barged past the security guards, imposing himself into the lab like he was posturing to an invisible audience.
Jun pulled Kodi closer to her. At that moment, there was a flicker of something familiar. Her heart felt as though it was being carved from her chest.
Anton had arrived, and he wasn’t alone.
CHAPTER 19
7th May 2062
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Kau slammed his fist against the Intuimoto dashboard as it pulled into the UA car park. He jumped out of the car and was struck by the phosphorescent blue base lights, haloing the night sky. Invisible crickets and their clicking-finger chirrups ratcheted his nerves and pressed him onwards.
He hadn’t been to this base before. Anton’s and his day-to-day office was further up and west; he hadn’t been inside any others, but from the outside they’d seemed much of a muchness – pervasive and monolithic. This building at least had a frame of reference now. How many pies had Anton’s fingers in them?
After Kau left his parents talking on the side of the road, he immediately tried to call Anton, but there was no answer. It was late enough that Anton feasibly could be at home, but not quite late enough that it was guaranteed. Kau had been there once when they’d finished a steering meeting late. He’d dropped Anton home, as Anton’s Intuimoto was needed elsewhere; Kau hadn’t asked any questions. Even then, he’d known Anton wouldn’t take him into his confidence easily.
Kau had pulled up and raced to the front door, but Anton hadn’t been there. Instead, a confused and irritable Helena, answered.
‘I haven’t seen Anton for at least 24 hours – but he called a little while ago. There’s an emergency AS meeting. It sounded like a level 5. He’s at Chinowate.’
Chinowate was the epicentre of the UA administration. It housed the highest-level officials, as well as hosted the Global Governance meetings. So to Chinowate he’d raced, behind on time and hope that he could contain the situation, and his mother. Hopefully, his father had found success where he’d been blindsided. It had been his second visit to the Ghetto that day, and another monumental lie to his mother. He was still reeling that she had met Kodi before; and then learning Kodi’s abilities and the entanglement with his mother’s old Subject, the ground had been pulled from beneath his feet. His mother was working against what he’d been working towards. Albeit blindly. And though it was restricted information, it was too significant a decision for him to make alone. That’s why he’d told his father everything. He was probably the only person who could make his mother understand, but he’d also appreciate the scale of what they’d lose. Sure, he’d broken protocol talking about Kodi and Project Epomenzoic, but his father’s security clearance was enough of a credential, and not forgetting that he was basically the UA, he’d worked there so long. No one else had a shot at stopping his mother. She could fuck everything up, but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know there were bigger needs at large. And this was bigger than Kodi and his mother, it was bigger than them all.
Kau charged to the front desk where a ReceptAi-ssitant sat eager and expectant. As he didn’t have the right clearance level, he couldn’t go straight through security, and where would he find Anton anyway? He ironed out the panting in his voice. UA employees were always composed. ‘I need to see Anton Cheyka, I believe he’s in a level five meeting.’
‘And you are…?’ The Ai-ssitant’s skynthetic stretched into a smile.
‘A level one. My name’s Kau Li,’ he said and flicked his wrist to show his chip, but then, they would know all of this already. The burden of formalities wasted time he didn’t have. ‘It’s imperative that Anton’s interrupted from his meeting. It’s to do with the Subject. He’ll know what it means.’ Kau nudged his head to the Interface behind.
Kau hadn’t known himself how much bigger than them it was until his mother unpacked the missing pieces of the puzzle. Now he knew about Kodi’s abilities, he understood why Anton wanted, needed her. Why they all did, but they’d gone about it in the worst way possible. If Anton would have told him what was at stake, if he’d known in the first place, perhaps it could have all been different. Maybe the Chirchirs wouldn’t have been so defensive and armed themselves; perhaps the UA task force wouldn’t have been forced to react. Maybe that would be all it took for his mother to relent, knowing the consequences, so she could see past Kodi the person, and know what pulling her out of the equation meant.
The Ai-assistant had been as efficient as ever, and Anton lumbered into the lobby. The kind of day he’d had was evident. There were tea-leaf brownings on his underarms, petal-shaped stains on his stomach, and wisps of chest hair foraged through strangled buttons on his shirt. Anton’s eyes were full of questions, but he settled on one.
‘What do you know of Subjects?’
* * *
There was a banana-curve of a table that catered to more people than there were seats. There were a few familiar faces around the room that Kau had seen in the corridors of his base. The others were unknown; men and women that were his father’s age or at least a good twenty years older than Kau. Half-eaten plates of vegetables and noodles pocked the table; there was a bullet-smattering of glasses everywhere, and even the condition air smelled over ripe. Kau sensed he’d interrupted something important. When Kau had suggested they went somewhere to talk, he didn’t for one-minute think he’d be joining their meeting.
‘Kau Li, everyone,’ Anton said and nodded to the wearisome faces hunched around the table. ‘A name you’ll know very well in the future, he’s Fan Li’s
son.’
Some faces nodded in recognition; a few eyes rolled.
‘One moment,’ Anton said to them, his finger went up in the air. Anton edged Kau past them like he was parading him around a circus ring.
Anton swiped his wrist and ushered him into a room concealed behind boardroom screens. Two reading-style lamps flickered on. The room was no bigger than a cupboard, and the ceiling was low, low enough that Anton had to stoop to stand. Two chairs were positioned opposite each other in mutual interrogation, with a small coffee table pacifying in between. The wall by the entrance door looked like it was one-way glass – it must be an observation room of sorts. It was odd though, that the chairs faced towards one another instead of out into the boardroom. They both stood awkwardly for a moment. With Anton’s size and the small proportions of the room, they were forced to sit on the chairs.
Kau had so much to say, and no time to say it, but there was a sudden drought of words. He didn’t know where to begin, and how could he make sure his mother wouldn’t be in trouble?
‘The Ghetto,’ he said finally, struggling to find the right words, ‘is planning on breaking Kodi out.’ Once he’d been able to start, it all came. That he knew about Kodi’s capabilities and her importance; that it must have started with Odgerel; about his mother plans and Chandra’s expertise. That he’d told his father everything, in the hope he could convince his mother to back down. ‘I get it now. Kodi can mitigate challenges beyond our comprehension and calculations…,’ he said, part excited, part running on a tangent. He had to remember his priority. ‘Before we do anything else, you have to promise you won’t punish my mother. Between my father and I, we can handle it. She doesn’t know what’s at stake.’
Anton’s mouth twitched in disapproval, and he leaned back into the chair.
‘At the very least, it’s embarrassing for everyone,’ Kau tried, hoping his gall would pay off. ‘A UA Senior’s wife disrupting our best secret weapon…it’s hardly a positive-sell story.’
Anton slammed his fist on the arm of the chair and gave Kau a look that could kill. ‘It’s too high risk! And I’ll be fucked if I can control Jun Xie…’ his brain chewed something over. By the look of Anton’s face, it was grisly and unpleasant.
Anton inched himself forward, squaring towards Kau. His bulk swallowed the space. ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to stop this. So you better hope and pray that like last time, your mother falls into line.’
* * *
There was a whoosh and flapping by Kau’s head; something rustled amongst the trees. Anton’s torch tracked the noise to show bat wings blinking beneath palmy-branches. It had been then, walking through the forest to the lab, with every step cranking up the tightness in his throat, that he realised he’d forgotten to tell Anton – that there were Ghettoites posted at the secret passage as his mother’s back-up. They were walking right towards them.
A breeze clapped the leaves around him, an ironic round of applause in honour of his fuck up. But it wasn’t until Anton had ushered him from the car and into the forest, that he’d even told Kau where they were going.
As Kau’s eyes drowned in the darkness, it was impossible to sift through the silhouettes that in the daylight, he’d have recognised. He couldn’t help but wonder if the body of a Ghettoite would appear. That they would be ambushed, and rather than making it better, he’d made it worse.
Despite his best attempts not to, Kau’s footsteps snapped twigs and compressed leaves like a clumsy jungle cat, stumbling toward his prey. With every step, it had been more difficult to come clean that the Ghettoites knew about the secret passage, so he’d decided to say nothing. He hoped that if the Ghettoites were out there, they’d stay hidden and stick to their plan.
Anton strode on, a charging bear attacking its way through the forest. Perhaps, he was blowing it all out of proportion. Maybe his father had made his mother see sense, and she’d called the whole thing off. He hoped, rather than thought, it was true.
Something cracked behind them, interrupting his stream of consciousness; his heart choked in his throat.
‘Ssssh,’ Anton said, his hand pawing the air. ‘Did you hear that?’
Kau scanned the forest, the shadows transformed so that he saw bodies everywhere. The tree had unfamiliar lumps and bumps that could have been a body pressed against it; an iridescent glimmer, could easily have been a pair of eyes.
Anton’s hand still hung in the air. ‘Does she have reinforcements?’ he hissed.
It was far too late now to tell Anton the truth. At best he looked like an amateur, at worst, like he’d led them into a trap.
‘No. Not that I know of,’ Kau whispered back. ‘Come on,’ he walked ahead with a false bravado, ‘it was probably an animal.’
Kau strode passed Anton, though he didn’t know where he was going. If any Ghettoites were around and wanted to pounce, rational thought said they would have by now. Though he knew Anton was watching him, he picked up his pace and waited until he heard Anton’s heavy steps before turning around. ‘Let’s hope we’re not too late.’
‘You’ve changed your tune,’ Anton said, as they came up to a bush in between two ropey-looking trees. ‘Over the years I’ve come to doubt even the slightest changes in currents…’ Anton said, as he pulled aside the pink and purple plumes of the bush and heaved himself underneath it.
Kau went in after him. ‘I’m still figuring out the currents.’
‘Is that so? Well, consider this your first and last lesson in oceanography.’
Though there was no reason that Anton should know any different, he’d made it clear there wasn’t room for any of Kau’s misgivings. Whatever confusion and deliberation Kau had felt before, Anton had let him know it wouldn’t be tolerated.
It was only a few minutes later, as they walked into the lab and Kau heard his mother’s voice, he knew his misgivings had only really begun.
CHAPTER 20
7th May 2062
As excitable as flies around something sticky and putrid, Markov and Wei hovered around Anton, drunk with anticipation for what he was about to say or do, but he only smiled. It was the kind of smile from a man who’s used to everyone waiting for him. He put his hand on Kau’s shoulder and held it there as Fan often did. There was something in the way in which he did it, that made Jun want to tear his hand off.
Kau shifted uncomfortably beside Anton. He wouldn’t look at Jun. Instead, his eyes were glued to the floor, like he used to do as a child when he had done something wrong. But never, ever, anything like this.
‘I have to say we couldn’t have done it without you and your son,’ Anton finally said. ‘A combined effort from your family made this so much easier for us.’
Wei panted in delight, his wretched lungs clawed for air; he was as gnarled and twisted as the liquorice roots that he chewed.
Kau rushed to Jun’s side, but it was her turn to look away from him. What had he done, and why was he with Anton? The realisation slowly filtered through her head – he’d been the enemy all along.
‘You never did tell me what work you were doing…’ Jun said. ‘Now I know why.’ She pulled Kodi closer to her and turned her back to him. She could still see Wei, Anton, and Markov in her periphery.
Kodi had stopped shaking and she moved closer to Kau, so they were almost toe-to-toe. Her eyes mauled at him, full of hate. ‘My family trusted you. I trusted you.’ She threw her hands on his chest so hard it made a hollow thud, and she pushed him with all her might.
Kau stumbled back into Anton.
‘Thanks to you both,’ Anton said with a smile that ballooned his face. ‘Kau, for helping us gain the trust of Kodi and her family, and to you, Jun, for leading us to her.’
Jun shook her head; who was this person standing in front of her?
‘I didn’t know their intentions to begin with, I swear,’ Kau said, imploring at Jun ‘Seeing the news reports about what happened, I was suspicious. But I didn’t know till you told me. You have to believe me!’
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‘I knew the Chirchirs from the migration relocation. I knew them, you,’ Kau gestured to Kodi, ‘pretty well. I didn’t know it was going to end up like this-’
Anton stepped forward and clasped Kau’s shoulders, pulling him back. ‘Now, now, Kau. I know you’re upset, but there’s no need to play all our hands. Your mother here wants to take our evolutionary prize away with her.’
Jun’s hand dropped into her pocket, and she thumbed her phone. One push would signal Lucas, Batz, and the Ghettoites to break in through the passageway, escalating a battle of Voltarms, Immobilisers, pain and terror. ‘You’ve barely evolved yourselves. Externally you give the illusion you have, but you’re worse than animals.’
Anton’s frame juddered as he laughed, his ankles looked unsteady under his load. He turned to Markov and Wei, and on command, they began to laugh too. ‘Is that so? You’ll never get what you want talking like that.’
‘If you don’t release Kodi, then I’ll release the truth about Odgerel Zaye to the world.’ Jun’s hands were clammy with sweat but still gripped the phone. She thought of Chandra, sitting in the West bunker his finger weighing on a button too, waiting for her signal. He would send out the truth about Odgerel, enough to keep people guessing, and enough so they would see what was at stake if they didn’t release Kodi. Failing that, she would need to call the Ghettoites for back up, and Chandra would reveal it all. Jun had two hands to play but didn’t want to play either of them. Not if she could help it. She thought of Solo, waiting in the Intuimoto, watching and hearing it unfolding; her blood boiling.
‘Decades-old information that no one cares about?’ Anton laughed again, but it was forced, Jun could see she had unsettled him. He looked to Wei and Markov, but he got no reassurance from them. His eyes shot to Kau. ‘Did you know about this?’
Kau went to open his mouth, but Jun interjected. ‘He knew nothing.’
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