by Steve Feasey
The woman had no teeth, but she puckered her lips in his direction and drew her grey eyebrows together. ‘That so? Then what do you want?’
‘I was just wondering what was going on here. Why are so many people packing up their stuff?’
‘You kidding me?’
‘No, ma’am.’
‘You weren’t at the announcement?’
‘The announcement?’
‘That president.’ She spat into the hard-packed dirt beside her. ‘Melk. Up there on the giant screen.’
The albino gave her a shrug. ‘I’ve just arrived here. Been out of the slums for a few days.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Well, you picked a helluva time to return, youngster! Muteville is being relocated. Everyone’s gotta put their names down to be settled in these new reservations. There’s a place set up on the west side to register everyone. I went in yesterday with my people.’
‘So that’s what it is?’ He nodded his head as if this confirmed something. ‘I just came from over there. Lots of ARM on display.’
‘It’s crazy, isn’t it?’
‘What did this registration involve?’
‘Not much. Got asked a load of stupid questions about this, that and the other. Then they stuck us all with a needle and sent us on our way with a little card which is supposed to be our ticket to the Promised Land.’
Jax tried to keep his voice level. ‘They gave you an injection?’
‘Yep. Something about trying to minimise the risk of disease prior to us being resettled. If you refuse to have the jab, they don’t let you put your name down.’
‘This injection – can you remember what colour the stuff was?’
The old woman gave him a searching look. ‘Blue. Why?’
‘No reason.’ He paused for a moment, considering what her information might mean. ‘When does all this happen? And why is everyone so keen to be shipped out like this? Surely there are some who want to stay?’
‘There are three more days left to register, and two more after that to have all your stuff packed and be ready to go. Anybody left after that will be viewed as an enemy of the Six Cities: a terrorist. So if I were you, I’d get myself in that queue, because there isn’t going to be a Muteville soon.’
‘What?’
‘Melk and his thugs are going to have it destroyed after they’ve moved everyone out.’ She sniffed and looked around her. ‘It’s funny, but I’ve always said the best thing that could happen to this place was for it to be razed to the ground, but now it looks as if that’s actually going to happen, I’m not so sure.’
‘Those all your possessions?’ he asked, giving a nod at the tower of what appeared to be junk behind her.
That suspicious expression quickly returned, as did her fear. She raised the club again.
He sighed. ‘Like I said, I’m not here to rob you. Honest.’ He pushed a thought designed to assuage her fears in her direction. It seemed to work, and he saw her relax a little.
‘Each family is only allowed to take what it can carry or load up on to one cart. According to the man who registered us, the housing at these reservations is much better than anything here, so there’s no need to take our old place down and load it up.’ The thought of this seemed to upset her, tears welling up in her rheumy eyes. ‘My children and grandchildren were born in this place, and now we’ve got to go to some place we don’t even know.’ She sniffed and visibly pulled herself together. She was typical Muteville stock: tough and resilient, and Jax couldn’t help but admire the old bird. ‘ “A new start” – that’s what my son says it is. A new beginning for us all.’
‘I hope so. Thanks for talking to me.’ He gave her a nod and wandered away, thinking through everything he’d heard. One thing was certain: Rush and Tia had better find out what those syringes contained, and quickly.
Juneau
The ‘surgery’ was off a dingy, rubbish-strewn alley in one of the less inviting areas of Muteville. Rush, Tia and Dotty on either side of him, approached the passageway from one end, but they’d taken no more than a few strides between the buildings that made up the lane when a group of men and women emerged from the shadows. Rush didn’t like their body language as they moved in front of the trio, blocking their way. The rogwan, sensing her teenage owner’s apprehension, responded by hurghing loudly, pulling back blackened lips to reveal rows of vicious-looking teeth.
That a girl, Rush thought, enjoying the look on the men and women’s faces at the sight of the rogwan.
‘All right, Dotty,’ he said, patting her on the head without taking his eyes off their would-be accosters.
One mutant, a tall woman with high cheekbones and hair so black it seemed to suck in the light, was clearly in charge. Stepping in front of the others and approaching the youngsters, she pulled aside one side of the long leather coat she wore to reveal a large knife hanging from a scabbard at her waist. ‘Your little freak pet there isn’t the only one with “teeth”. Best you turn around – I think you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.’
Rush stood his ground. He felt a familiar sensation inside him, a swirling coalescence or power that he knew he could tap into almost instantly if the group chose to follow up their words with actions.
‘How can you know we’ve taken a wrong turn when you have no idea where we’re going?’ he replied. He was about to say something else when Tia halted him with a touch at his wrist with her fingers.
‘We don’t want any trouble, remember?’ she said to him under her breath, before fixing her most winning smile and addressing the tall woman. ‘We’re here to see Juneau.’
‘He expecting you, Pure?’ The woman eyed the younger female slowly, her expression suggesting that she wasn’t particularly impressed with what she saw.
‘No.’
‘Then I suggest you turn your pretty little rear around and go back the way you came. Juneau don’t see anybody without an appointment.’
‘Maybe you’d give him a message for me? I think you’ll find he’ll waive his “no appointment” rule if you tell him that Tia Cowper wants to talk to him about her CivisChip.’
The woman gave her a cold stare, but didn’t move a muscle. When it became clear neither of them was going to back down, Rush stepped forward. ‘It’s important. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.’
That stony look was turned on him. ‘You look like a Pure. Like a City dweller. You’re not though, are you? She is, but you are one of us. A pretty one, but one of us just the same.’ She reached out a hand, touching his face and gently dragging one of her long nails across his cheek. When Dotty hurghed threateningly at her, the left side of her mouth twitched a little. ‘I like your beast,’ she said without taking her eyes off the boy.
‘She’s a rogwan. When she’s upset she’s every bit as terrifying as she looks. I think the two of you probably have a lot in common.’ He was pleased when her mouth twitched again, this time a little higher, in response to this. ‘It’s important that we speak to Juneau.’
The woman thought for a moment, then seemed to make up her mind up. ‘Grub!’ she called out, and a man who’d been hanging back unseen at the rear of the group shuffled forward. Deformed and misshapen, the man craned his head up so she could whisper something into his ear. Then he limped off, surprisingly quickly, in the direction of a building set halfway along the passageway.
A moment or so later, he appeared in the alleyway again and gave a nod.
‘Well, what do you know?’ the woman said, addressing Rush as if the girl was not there. ‘It seems as if Juneau’s got a slot available for you after all, honey lips. That thing – the rogwan? – can’t go in though. She’ll have to stay out here with me.’
Rush narrowed his eyes at her. Food was always scarce in the slums, and anything on legs could be considered fair game to hungry eyes.
‘If you hurt her in any way, I’ll hurt you. Is that understood?’
‘Why would I hurt her?’ the woman responded. ‘Like you said
, she and I are quite alike.’ Her face softened a fraction. ‘She’ll be safe here.’
The building was much larger than it first appeared, and although, on the outside at least, it was as dilapidated as everything else around it, the room immediately inside the entrance was relatively clean and tidy – a waiting area of some kind. Furniture that had probably been rescued from one of the city’s dumps lined the walls, the chairs facing a small table with leaflets and other reading matter on it. The room hardly registered with Rush though; his attention was fully on the bizarre-looking individual waiting for them in the centre of the space.
Thin to the point that his face had the look of a skull, the backstreet bioengineer, Juneau, stared back at the pair, his expression conveying both amusement and ire. His unkempt hair stuck out in all directions as if he might have just woken up, and he was in need of a shave. Judging from the smears and spatters on it, he’d not bothered to change his green surgical shirt following his last procedure. But none of this was what made Rush stare so openly at him; his astonishment was due to the extra pair of arms that emerged from the man’s back – two strangely long limbs, ending in hands with spindly, delicate-looking fingers which were clasped together at his waist, as if some unseen person was hugging him from behind.
‘Do you like ’em?’ he asked the staring boy. ‘In my line of work, two pairs of hands are definitely better than one, and it saves on having to employ a theatre nurse. I designed and grew them myself, then had them surgically grafted in place. Neat, huh?’
‘Er, yeah, I guess.’
‘Now let me see if I remember this correctly,’ he said, a broad grin revealing a mouth full of perfectly white teeth that looked at odds with his otherwise shabby appearance. ‘Young Ms Cowper, right?’ He pointed with one of those long digits on his ‘extra’ arms.
‘Juneau.’ Tia nodded back at him.
The man lowered his arms again and looked at Rush.
‘And who’s the rather startled-looking young man with you?’
‘This is my friend Rush.’
‘Rush,’ the bioengineer said with a nod, as if he was logging the information. ’Well, now we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, perhaps you’d like to explain just what the hell you are doing here.’ The smile still adorned his mouth, but there was no humour in his eyes any longer. ‘The work I did for you –’
‘Work for which you were paid an extortionate fee.’
‘That’s completely beside the point.’ He sniffed. ‘The procedure I performed on you involves certain dangers for the person carrying it out, should their work be discovered. As the punishment is death, and the person in question is me, you’ll understand why I’d rather not have former clients calling in at my place of work! I thought I made that very clear to you, Miss Cowper.’
‘You did. And I’m sorry to have turned up like this. I wouldn’t have come if I thought there was anybody else with half the brain power and intellect you possess, Juneau.’ She swung the backpack off her shoulder and undid the zip. ‘We need you to look at something. Something that has been made by Melk. Something I think your unique abilities and knowledge can help us with.’ She pulled a syringe from the bag and held it out to him.
If he was flattered in any way, he didn’t show it. Instead he peered at the item in her hands.
‘What is it?’
‘We don’t know. But we think it’s dangerous and we’d like to know if there’s a way it can be rendered harmless.’
‘Why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why do you think it’s dangerous if you don’t know what it is?’
‘Melk and his people went to great lengths to hide it.’
Juneau sniffed. ‘What’s in it for me? Handling stuff that’s been taken from the Cities is a serious crime.’
‘Another one?’ Rush said, but quickly shut up again when Tia shot him an angry look.
‘We’ll owe you a favour.’
‘I can’t eat favours.’
‘Juneau, please. This is important.’
The scientist paused, but it was clear his curiosity was piqued. Without saying another word, he leaned forward, reached out with one of those long arms and took the vial from her. Crossing the room, he pressed a button on a small device hanging around his neck. Perfectly disguised to look like the rest of the wall around it, a door slid away to reveal a laboratory on the other side. Juneau walked through, leaving Tia and Rush looking at each other, not sure what to do next.
‘Are you coming, or are you staying out there all day?’ the scientist called out to them. As the pair followed him inside, the door slid shut behind them.
Juneau was already seated at an impressive-looking piece of equipment that was almost as tall as the room was high. Staring at the device, Rush took in the bewildering array of buttons and numerical keypads, unable to guess what on earth any of them did. Juneau, taking the syringe, put a tiny droplet on to a glass slide which he placed into a small square opening in the front of the device. With a flip of a switch, the slide disappeared into the guts of the machine, accompanied by a sharp hiss and a series of staccato taps. The scientist peered through two eyepieces set in front of him. ‘OK, let’s see what we’ve got here,’ he mumbled to himself. The extra pair of arms reached up and began to press a series of buttons on a panel overhead, without the apparent need for Juneau to look up.
‘Wow,’ the scientist said.
‘What is it?’ Tia asked, crossing the room towards him.
‘I mean, seriously. Wow.’
‘Juneau …’
At the press of another button, an image appeared on a screen beside the equipment, a duplicate of what the scientist was looking at.
At first glance they looked like a weird jellyfish of some kind, although it became immediately apparent that the things were man-made and had nothing to do with the natural world. The microscopic medusas had an ugly look about them. The body was egg-shaped with a flared ‘skirt’ around the bottom. Emerging from beneath this were a series of tentacles that were almost twice as long as the body. Some of the tentacles had what appeared to be hooks at the end of them, others what could only be described as blades and drills. Suspended in solution, they were inert and unmoving, as if in some kind of stasis and awaiting reanimation.
‘Impressive, eh?’ Juneau said, swivelling round on his chair to look at them for the first time since entering the lab.
‘What are they?’ Rush asked, unable to take his eyes off the screen.
‘That, my young friend, is a miracle of engineering. It’s a nanobot of some kind.’
‘A whatbot?’
‘A nanobot. Each one of those things is about six microns in size.’ He paused when he noticed their baffled expressions. ‘About the size of a red blood cell?’ He shook his head in dismay. ‘Imagine a perfect little robot so small it’s invisible to the eye. Brilliant. And like blood cells,’ he continued, ‘you can get an awful lot of them in the tiniest drop.’ He thumbed a small toggle switch and the image slowly began to zoom out. The three machines in the tiny area they were looking at became ten, a hundred, a thousand, tens of thousands, and then a haze of indistinguishable specks in a sea of blue. It was clear the number of the things was colossal, and the image was still zooming out. ‘There are hundreds of millions of red cells in single drop of blood. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I’m guessing there’s a similar number of these nanobots on that slide. They appear to be utterly inert at the moment.’
He lowered his head to the viewing apparatus again, and when he spoke it was more to himself than to his visitors.
‘Fascinating. Way more advanced than anything I’ve seen before. You’ve got to hand it to the Pure scientists, they really are quite innovative. The big question is, what are these things doing in your syringe, and what’s their ultimate purpose? If I were a betting man, which I am, I’d say cellular nanosurgery of some kind.’
‘This might give us the answer,’ Tia said, removing the holo-image
player she’d taken from the case. ‘There’s a file on it that shows what these things are for. The trouble is, it’s encrypted. It needs Melk’s very own passcode.’
‘It’s a private message to the president?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then it’s not just the password you need; it’s Melk’s voice too. For about a year now, the government has been using an advanced form of speech cryptology as an additional cipher.’ Despite this revelation, Juneau held out a hand, gesturing for Tia to pass the equipment over to him. ‘Shouldn’t be too hard to get access.’
‘But I thought you just said –’
‘You want to see what’s on that file or not?’
‘How are you going to break the code?’ Rush asked. If he was honest, he was far from sure they could trust this crazy individual. There was something about the man that just wasn’t … right.
‘Kid, I work with the greatest encryption known to man – DNA code. Compared to that, I tend to regard most other ciphers as relatively easy to crack. Having said that, something like this might take a little time to figure out.’
‘How much time?’
‘A day or so.’ He paused, removing the slide from the machine and placing it carefully on the side. ‘But I haven’t said I’ll do it yet.’
‘What do you mean?’
The Mute scientist sighed and settled back in his chair, crossing both pairs of arms over his chest as he regarded the two teenagers. ‘What’s in it for me?’
Tia met his stare with her own stony look. ‘Ten thousand credits?’
Rush gaped at her. In total contrast, Juneau didn’t even blink at the figure.
‘Do you have it?’ the bioengineer asked.
‘My father does.’
Juneau narrowed his eyes at her as if he was gauging if she was joking. Rush couldn’t read the strange expression on his face. ‘You don’t know, do you?’
‘Know what?’
‘Dammit! I’m sorry, kid.’
‘Know what?’
‘Your father? Melk had him arrested last month.’
Tia stared at the four-armed man for a moment as she took this news in. ‘W-what was the charge?’