by Steve Feasey
‘Don’t worry. I’m in a gonkshop. Downtown. This comms console is a temp, so it won’t be traced.’
Another silence followed. ‘How do I know you are who you say you are? The ID label on this call says your name is Stark.’
Tia fully understood the woman’s wariness. Eleanor was a well-known friend of Tia’s father, and as soon as he’d been arrested as an enemy of the state, it was inevitable that the former city police chief would also be on Melk’s radar.
‘You don’t. That’s why I’m sending somebody to prove it to you.’
‘Explain to me again why you can’t come with me?’ Rush asked. They were standing on another moving walkway, this one taking them through a long clear tunnel high in the air between two buildings. Tia told him it was best if they kept moving, sticking to public spaces so their chips weren’t flagged. They must have been twenty or thirty metres off the ground, and Rush couldn’t see what, if anything, was keeping the tunnel-bridge suspended.
‘Thanks to your chip, you have access to the VieTech site. It’s one of the reasons Juneau selected that identity for you over the one that was closer to your real age.’ Rush didn’t need to be reminded that the only way he was in the city at all was because somebody – a young man, no less – had died. ‘Eleanor also has access to the same site, thanks to being a security advisor for the firm. It’s the best way for you to meet so she’ll feel sure it’s not a trap.’
‘That’s what she does? Eleanor. Security advice?’
Tia nodded. ‘It is now. Of course she used to run the CSP – the City Security Police.’
‘Oh, great.’ Rush rolled his eyes and stared at her incredulously. ‘That’s just what I imagined when I signed up to come with you. I thought to myself, if only I – a wanted “terrorist”, who helped to bomb this very city not so long ago – could somehow get to meet the head of that city’s police force.’
‘She doesn’t do that job any longer. She quit.’
‘Oh, that makes me feel so much better, Tia.’
‘Will you stop worrying? Eleanor is on our side.’
‘No. Eleanor is on your side. She’s probably on your father’s side. But you have no idea how she’ll react when she discovers who I really am and what she’s getting herself into.’
‘She’s a good person, Rush. I trust her.’ She paused. ‘Like I trust you.’
He looked at her then. Really looked at her. She was beautiful, that was obvious, but at that precise moment he realised it wasn’t her looks that made his heart clench whenever he was with her. It was her humanity and spirit that really made her stand out from all of the other ‘beautiful’ people swarming around inside the city walls. She didn’t have to risk her own life to help him and the others, yet that was exactly what she was doing – her and her father, who was locked up somewhere in this vast metropolis. So if somebody like Tia Cowper thought Eleanor was a good person, who the hell was he to question that?
‘Fine.’ He sighed. ‘If you trust her, I guess I do too.’
Elegant – that was the first word that sprang to mind as the door to the meeting room slid open to reveal Eleanor. She was standing before a window on the other side of a glass table, staring out at the cityscape before her. She was tall. Very tall. And in Rush’s opinion her incredible height was matched only by her beauty. The tight-fitting black-and-gold outfit she wore perfectly complemented her ebony skin, as did the simple gold bands that she wore around her upper and forearms.
‘Come in … Adams,’ she said, turning to look at him.
He stepped inside and the door silently slid shut behind him. When she spoke again, she addressed her words towards a dark glass panel beside the door. ‘No interruptions, please, but I’d like to be informed if anyone else should approach this room.’ The command was confirmed by two short bleeps. For a moment or so Eleanor stood staring towards the door and panel as if she was expecting something to happen.
‘I wasn’t followed,’ Rush said, finally realising what was going on.
‘As if you’d know,’ she said by way of a reply. If she was at all scared, she didn’t show it, and she appeared to be unarmed. Despite this, Rush got the distinct impression this woman was more than capable of looking after herself if things should ever get a little ‘agitated’.
Rush gave her a nod. ‘I wanted to thank you for agreeing to –’
‘Shh,’ Eleanor said, shaking her head and putting a long, slender finger up to her lips at the same time. She walked over to the youngster and shocked him when she lifted his arms up on either side of him and started to frisk him down.
‘Hey!’ he said, dropping his hands and taking a large step backwards.
She smiled and shrugged. ‘We can do it my way, or you can strip butt-naked for me.’ She looked him up and down. ‘What’ll it be?’
One look at her face told him she wasn’t joking. The young mutant puffed out his cheeks and reassumed the position while her hands moved expertly across his clothes and body, pulling him this way and that as she felt for either a weapon or any sort of listening device. It took no more than a few seconds.
Eventually, satisfied he wasn’t concealing anything, she seemed to relax a little, stepping back round the table so that it was between the two of them again. She nodded for him to take a seat.
‘I’m sorry about that, but I can’t be too careful these days. You want some water?’ she asked, gesturing towards a jug and two glasses on the table between them.
‘No, thanks.’
‘Straight to business, huh? Well, that suits me. So … our mutual friend – Citizen Stark? – she said you’d be able to show me something that would make me trust that she really is who she claimed to be when we spoke.’
Rush nodded.
‘Well?’
‘I’m it.’
She gave him a blank look. ‘You’re what?’
‘I’m the proof. My name is Rush and I was recently involved in the bombing of your city. I’m a hybrid: part Pure, part Mute. I can do this.’
She watched as he took a deep breath and looked at the glassware on the table again. There was a jittering noise as if the tall jug was being jiggled back and forth, and then the entire thing rose, hovering about a hand’s length above the surface.
Eleanor gasped. ‘What the … ?’
As the jug began to tip, one of the glasses rose up from the table to meet the spout, catching the water as it started to pour forth from the lip. When it was half full, the jug returned to its original position with a loud clonk! and the glass floated, slightly unsteadily, over to hover just in front of Eleanor, who looked at it as if it might be the most dangerous thing in the world.
‘Not thirsty?’ Rush said, his voice sounding a little strained. Once she managed to drag her eyes away from the floating vessel and look at the boy, it was clear he was struggling to do whatever it was he was doing: tiny beads of sweat stood out on his forehead, and he looked markedly paler than he had a few moments earlier.
‘You’ve made your point,’ she said shakily.
The glass floated away from the woman towards the boy, who reached out and took it out of the air, visibly sagging a little as he did so. ‘In that case, I think I’ll have that drink after all.’
Anya
Despite being in the body of a winged reptile-thing, she was still able to cry, and what remained of the tears she’d shed earlier had frozen among the scales of her face. It was so cold, the wind against her as she flew aimlessly onwards like an icy slap now that the sun had slipped below the horizon. It didn’t seem possible she’d been up here that long.
Her thoughts were a scrambled, ragged mess.
After her argument with the rest of the group, she’d morphed and flown away, raging at the heavens. She’d swooped and soared, hissing angrily at invisible foes, striking out into nothingness with her taloned fists and feet.
She hated them.
She hated the way they ignored her, or shut her down when she spoke, saying she was being
negative and unhelpful.
She hated the way they’d formed into little groups – groups that seemed to have no place for her.
Most of them could go to hell. Most, but not all. She cared about Rush. But she was furious with him as well. Because he too had turned on her. Why? Why would he do that? She wanted so much for him to want her in the same way she wanted him, but he didn’t.
She ‘screamed’ into the skies again, except it wasn’t a scream; this body was incapable of making that sound. Instead a loud, harsh hiss came out.
Why? Why couldn’t he see her? He saw the Pure girl all right! He seemed to see nothing but Tia.
Anya punched out at the air again, before folding her wings and plummeting towards the ground. The wind roared in her ears, the ground rushing up at her with sickening speed. She could end it. She could stay like this and smash head first into the ruined land so that nothing but an ugly smudge was left.
Instead she pulled up at the last moment, the muscles where her wings joined the back of her torso screaming out in pain as she did so.
Tears came again.
She flew on into the night.
Tia
Eleanor stared at the teenage girl sitting across from her. ‘First things first,’ she said. ‘Who is Stark, and how is it you’re masquerading as her?’
‘I won’t be for long. I’ve got a little over ten hours left before I have to get out of the city. I’m officially dead.’
Eleanor raised an eyebrow.
‘It’s a loophole,’ Tia said.
‘Pretend I didn’t ask.’ The former police commander looked out of the window and nodded her head in the direction of the mutant boy. Rush had decided to leave the pair to talk alone in the eatery they’d chosen as a safe place. ‘So he really is one of them?’
‘One of whom?’
‘The mutants who bombed this city.’
‘In order to save their friend.’
‘You’re defending what they did?’
The severity of her tone took Tia aback, and she wondered if she was doing the right thing by being here. ‘No, just clarifying the situation.’
Eleanor studied her companion. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was that had changed about her, but she was a different person to the young girl she’d first met not so long ago in the safety of her home. Back then she’d come across as a little immature – spoilt. Now there was a steeliness to her, and she seemed more self-assured and … harder. She looked a lot like her father, and unknowingly mimicked a number of the facial expressions he made when he was in the debating chamber, determined to get his point across.
‘What have you got yourself mixed up in, Tia? I helped you leave this city so that you could document the mutant plight. That’s what you told me when you originally came to me. Your father also believed that was what you were doing. Now you tell me you’re mixed up with a group of individuals who were illegally created by President Melk?’
Tia nodded in Rush’s direction. ‘He’s part of the mutant plight. Look at him, Eleanor. He could pass, does pass, for one of us. He didn’t ask to be cooked up in some secret laboratory any more than you or I asked to be born. If Silas hadn’t rescued him and the others, who knows what Melk would have done to them. Silas believes he was planning to create a super-army by cloning them. That in itself is outrageous. Rush isn’t the terrorist here, Melk is. The man’s a monster. You know that as well as I do, and I can’t just sit on my hands and do nothing if I have a chance of exposing him as such.’
Eleanor remained silent for a few moments, still looking at the mutant boy outside. ‘He’s cute.’
‘Is he?’
‘Oh, come on, Tia.’
‘We’re friends.’
‘Just friends?’
The suggestion angered Tia, but she held her tongue. She refrained from pointing out to Eleanor how she’d been a long-time activist for mutant rights and was not just some sappy, doe-eyed fool. This conversation was too important. She certainly didn’t want it reduced to anything as trivial as ‘cute boys’.
Eleanor stared at her. ‘I’m just trying to establish the motive for your actions, Tia. Trying to figure out if you’ve got yourself mixed up with these “freedom fighters” because that boy has used his romantic charms on you? Because if that is the case, I’d –’ She stopped when the girl laughed. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Rush? Romantic charms? He’s about the least charming person on Scorched Earth. If either of us has feelings for the other, it’s me for him.’ She paused, frowning, surprised at how she’d blurted out those words, finally admitting her feelings for him aloud. ‘I’d appreciate it if you kept that to yourself. He has no idea. He’s … oblivious to that sort of thing. In one way I find that quite endearing; in another it’s utterly infuriating.’
‘I know how that feels.’
Tia caught the tinge of sadness and said what she’d often wondered but never dared ask.
‘My father?’
‘Let’s just say that by the time he realised how I felt about him, it was too late. He and I danced around each other for too long. We flirted and hinted about our feelings, but neither of us had the courage to come out and say it. Then your mother came on the scene. She didn’t play silly games – she came straight out and told him she was in love with him– and they married shortly after.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Eleanor waved the apology away. ‘I just wanted to be sure you were involved in this for the right reasons.’
‘Regarding the bombings,’ Tia said, glad to bring the conversation back on track, ‘there really was no other choice. Melk wouldn’t release Brick, another of the kids – the healer I told you about. Our “beloved president” wanted to cut him up to discover how Bio-Gen could best use his unique powers. The bombs were the last resort, only to be detonated if Melk refused to hand his prisoner over.’ Tia leaned forward, her eyes locked to those of the other woman. ‘But those explosives were judiciously placed to cause damage to infrastructure, not cause death.’
‘You make it sound as if you knew it was all going to happen.’
‘How couldn’t I? I helped them plan the entire thing, and got them inside the Wall.’
Eleanor gasped. ‘You did what?’
‘Until now, all I’ve ever done is document the things I’ve seen happening on the other side of the Wall. I shot footage, commented on the thuggish actions of the ARM, made the odd cutting remark about Melk or the Principia, then packed up my stuff and hurried back to the safety of C4 and my father’s fortune. But sometimes it’s not enough to stand on the sidelines and watch. Sometimes you have to take action to change the world. Especially if that world is as cruel and barbaric to some of those living in it as this one is.’ She knew she sounded preachy, but she meant every word. It occurred to her that she would never again feel the same about the world she’d grown up in. She looked about her; the place was still almost empty, the staff preparing for the midday influx when workers would fill the place. ‘How is my father?’
‘They’re treating him well enough – for now at least. But if the trial goes against him, he’ll be made to wish he’d never said the things he did. There’s talk of sending him to TS1.’
‘They can’t! That place is a hellhole.’ TS1 was a high-security prison set on an island in the middle of a toxic lake. Nothing was allowed on to the place except those sent there as criminals. She’d done a speculative piece on the prison a year or so back. The worst offenders (murderers, rapists and violent thugs) were housed there, and just the thought of her father among such men was enough to cause a rising sense of panic in her.
‘Treason’s a serious charge.’
‘Who’s representing him in court?’
‘As you might imagine, he has the best lawyers money can buy. But with Melk and eighty per cent of the Principia desperate to make an example of him, he’s going to find it hard to get off.’
‘Not if somebody could prove Melk was a criminal who’d b
roken just about every law the Six Cities have ever devised.’
‘Proof?’
‘Melk’s brother. He is living proof that my father wasn’t lying when he said Melk had caused all of this to happen. Silas is willing to give evidence about a secret installation Melk set up to perform illegal activities. He’s a former citizen, so his testimony should be taken seriously.’
‘Former – exactly. Melk would try to discredit him, and at the end of the day it would be one man’s word against another; the big difference being that one of those men is the president.’ She sighed. ‘Things are different here since the bombings. The people are different. Melk has realised he’s the kind of leader they want right now, and he’s taking advantage of it in every possible way.’
‘What if I had proof in the form of videos and interviews?’
‘How would you air them? Your father’s media corporation has been “temporarily off air” since his arrest. All we get on our screens at the moment are state-sanctioned broadcasts. I tell you, Tia, we’re about this far away –’ she held out her forefinger and thumb – ‘from being a military state.’
‘Could I get the news channels up and running again? Challenge Melk’s right to take them down?’
The former police chief narrowed her eyes as she thought this through. ‘Possibly. But you’d have to be inside the city to do that.’
‘That’s where I’m hoping you can help. Do you know where Buffy is?’ Tia asked, referring to the marmoset monkey she’d had her chip placed inside in order to fool the authorities into thinking she’d never left the city in the first place.
‘Of course I do. As soon as I heard of your father’s arrest, I made arrangements to have the animal brought to me. As far as the authorities are concerned you’re living in my apartment, too upset about your father even to go outside.’ She stared at the girl again. ‘What you’re planning is very dangerous, Tia. I’ll help you as much as I can, but this could get nasty, very nasty.’
‘I’ve seen plenty of nasty, Eleanor. Besides, I don’t have much choice.’ She stood up. ‘I think it’s time Tia Cowper came out of hiding, don’t you?’