Skyfall

by Anthony Eaton

  ‘Let’s go. Slow and steady,’ she yelled, her voice almost completely whipped away by the breeze.

  Gradually they descended through the lowest layers of the city into the twilight, into the underworld. Even a low dome like 87b was still several hundred metres above the highest of the old city towers, and it was a solid ten minutes before something emerged from the gloom.

  ‘I think we’re almost there,’ Lari shouted to Kes, who simply nodded without glancing towards him.

  The square remains of an ancient tower loomed out of the murk, only a few metres from the stem. The top floors had long since crumbled inwards, and Lari could see the internal walls of the old building, cracked and leaning on one another at crazy angles. Out of curiosity, he started counting the number of floors. Ten, fifteen, twenty … At twenty-eight he looked down and there was the ground, just a few metres below.

  ‘We did it!’

  They were all down, standing in the shadows at the base of Dome 87b. The crumbling entry to the old tower was just across from them and a few metres away in the other direction, half-hidden by fallen debris, the stem of another dome reached into the sky.

  ‘Kes, we’re on the ground!’

  ‘I know.’

  Kes was pale. Her hands trembled slightly and then, unexpectedly, she bent and retched onto the ground.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘No.’ She looked up at him, wiping her mouth. ‘Lari … there’s nothing …’

  Suddenly he remembered. She’d never been outside before. Ever.

  ‘Kes, it’s okay. It’s night. We won’t be exposed and when daylight comes we’ll find shelter.’

  ‘It’s not that, Lari. It’s just … too big.’

  She was about to retch again and Lari reached towards her, but before he could touch her Jem grabbed his hand.

  ‘Leave it. She’ll get used to it.’

  ‘I want to help her.’

  ‘You won’t be able to. And besides, you don’t owe her anything.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You haven’t worked it out?’

  ‘What?’

  Jem looked down at Kes, still wretchedly crouched on the ground. ‘You haven’t told him, have you?’

  Kes glared back into the girl’s hidden face, but Jem just laughed, turned back to Lari, grabbed the bottom of her mask and swept it off her head in one fluid motion.

  She looked just like Saria, only bigger. Her skin was a slightly lighter shade, but her hair was the same tight curls, her eyes also dark and almond-shaped.

  Then he saw the side of her neck. And Jem, watching closely, saw him make the connection.

  ‘Recognise this?’ She tilted her head and turned so the tattoo was clearly visible, the two sideways tridents, curled back against one another. ‘Remind you of something?’

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘This, Larinan Mann, is the symbol of the Underground. This is how we identify ourselves to one another. This is the mark you wear when you commit yourself to the fight for equality, at any cost.’

  Lari stared at Kes, who’d lifted her chin defiantly.

  ‘You’re …’

  ‘What difference does it make?’

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘As long as I’ve known you.’

  ‘Go on,’ Jem interrupted. ‘Tell him the truth.’

  ‘What truth?’ Lari stared at his friend. ‘Kes, what’s she talking about?’

  ‘Didn’t you ever wonder why your friend became the first and only mixie ever to attend the advanced school, Lari? Didn’t it occur to you that perhaps she might have been put there for a reason?’

  ‘What reason?’

  Suddenly, the fight seemed to go out of Kes. She lowered her eyes and stared at the ground.

  ‘You.’ Her voice was so soft Lari could barely hear her.

  ‘Me?’

  ‘My father picked her especially. A mixie, therefore she’d be an outsider in the school, just like you, copygen. Intelligent enough to stand out in the aptitude testing, and from a suitable enough background that she could be taught to feel… sympathy … for what the Underground stands for.’

  ‘Is this true?’

  Kes didn’t reply.

  ‘Kes?’

  It seemed like ages that the three of them stood there, the only sounds those of the dead city, shrouded in all directions by the night. Finally, Jem spoke.

  ‘Come on. We’d better move.’

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘To find my father. If we’re gonna get this girl out of DGAP and the city, we’ll need the Underground.’

  Without another word, she turned and set off west along the crumbling thoroughfare into which they’d descended.

  ‘Coming?’

  Lari and Kes didn’t move. Then Kes looked up again.

  ‘Lari …’

  ‘Not now, Kes. Just leave it.’

  He turned and followed the shiftie girl, and after a few seconds, having no other choice, Kes followed.

  Their footsteps rang off the deserted buildings. Occasionally small creatures scavenging in the rubble and startled by their passage would scurry away into the shadows, but for the most part the city was deserted. Dead buildings loomed over them, grey and hollow and echoing. They reminded Lari of the ancient tower in the Darklands, but here there were so many of them disappearing into the sky that he soon lost all perspective.

  ‘Where are we going?’ he asked, as much to make conversation as anything.

  ‘There are a couple of places we’d organised in case the dome got compromised,’ Jem replied. ‘Any Underground ops who didn’t get caught up in the sweep of 87b will be heading for those. Us too.’

  ‘Is that where we’ll find Gregor?’

  ‘Dunno. If he’s not there, someone will know where he is. We’re good that way.’

  ‘And then what?’

  ‘Then we’ll think about this girl.’

  ‘Your sister. Her name’s Saria.’

  ‘You told me that already.’

  ‘So why don’t you use her name?’

  ‘Listen, Larinan.’ She stopped and faced him. ‘Don’t think you can just blow in here, telling me I’ve got a Darklander sister, and expect that to make everything all right. Sky! I’m not even convinced I believe you, yet.’

  ‘You’ll believe me when you see her.’

  ‘If I see her. Dad might decide just to let DGAP finish her off. That’d probably be safer than attracting more attention.’

  Lari shook his head ‘He won’t.’

  ‘I wouldn’t bet on it.’

  They travelled deeper into the old city, twisting and turning to avoid unstable areas of ground and to detour around buildings that time had reduced to piles of shattered rubble. Once, off in the distance, they heard voices, some kind of strange singing echoing along the cavern-like streets, and Jem stopped, cocking her head to listen before changing course.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘One of the clans. Riverfolk, I think.’

  ‘How can you tell?’

  ‘I know their songs. Even if it isn’t, we’d better stay out of the way.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘Not all the clans like the Underground. And they’ll know we’ve been hit hard tonight.’

  ‘Already?’

  Jem laughed.

  ‘You don’t need a com system for news like that to get around, Lari. Shi, I’d bet you anything that down here we know most of the skycity news before you topsiders do. Anyway, I want to avoid the clans. At least until I’ve spoken to Dad.’

  She led them through the lower level of an empty building. The lobby was blackened and cavernous and nobody spoke until they came out the other side into a street that looked exactly the same as the one they’d just left.

  ‘How do they live down here?’

  ‘The clans?’

  ‘Yeah. Don’t they get exposed?’

  ‘Of course. But they’re not like you. They seem to be abl
e to take it. At least, more than topsiders. They still shelter during the day, of course, and nobody knows for certain how much it takes to max them out, but it does happen occasionally.’

  ‘Could they live in full light?’

  ‘Don’t be an idiot. Nobody can. Even us shifties.’

  Lari looked for a moment at Jem’s dark skin and tightly curled hair.

  ‘Even you?’

  ‘Why should I be any different?’

  ‘Your mother was a subject. From the field.’

  ‘And my father was a topsider who got maxed out and left down here for dead.’

  ‘You must have wondered, though, whether you could.’ She didn’t answer. ‘Imagine what it’d be like.’

  Now she looked straight at him and there was anger flashing behind her dark eyes.

  ‘Listen, copygen, for as long as I can remember I’ve had to wear this …’ She fished out her mask and waved it in his face. ‘Do you have any idea why?’

  ‘To hide your … features.’

  ‘Exactly. And why should I have to do that, do you think?’

  Lari searched for an answer, but Kes spoke for the first time since they’d started walking.

  ‘So people don’t know how different you really are.’

  The two girls made eye contact, then Jem nodded.

  ‘Exactly. People are scared of difference, even down here, where everyone’s supposedly outcast and exiled. It doesn’t change the fact that people fear anything they don’t understand, and if they can’t handle someone who looks strange, do you really think they’ll be able to cope with a person who can walk around in the middle of the day with no problems?’

  ‘But—’

  ‘There is no “but”. I don’t want attention, Lari. The last thing I need is people noticing me, talking about me. If word was to get around that Ratz’s daughter can handle full exposure, then that’d make the Underground even more feared, by the clans and the shifties, and certainly by the bloody Prelate. So I hide myself under this piece of rag, and everyone thinks I’ve been horribly disfigured since birth, and as long as I don’t do anything to prove otherwise or draw attention to myself, that’s the way it stays.’

  ‘I get that.’ Kes nodded her head slightly.

  ‘Get what?’

  ‘Not wanting to be noticed.’

  Another look passed between the girls. Not friendship, not by a long way, but something, Lari thought, like … understanding.

  ‘This way.’

  They traipsed after Jem again for what seemed like hours, until she finally stopped, pulled her mask back on, then led them around the base of a domestem, across a narrow square and through a low door into a pitch-black room.

  ‘Who’s that?’

  The voice came from the darkness, echoing, so it was impossible to tell where the speaker was.

  ‘Jem.’

  ‘An’ who’s that with you?’

  ‘The mixie and the Mann boy.’

  ‘You brought them here?’

  ‘Where else? You heard what happened to 87b?’

  ‘Sure. But that didn’t prompt me to bring the son of the head of DGAP down here to our muster point.’

  ‘He has information for my father.’

  ‘So he tells it to you and you pass it on.’

  ‘Listen, shiftie, how about you stop being a shi and get some light on in here?’

  Something scuffled in the darkness and a moment later a portalamp flared into life, throwing a bright circle onto the floor and revealing three men, all shifties with various scars and burns, seated on upturned boxes. One of them, the speaker, held a heavy-looking club loosely across his knees.

  ‘So where’s my father?’ Jem demanded.

  ‘Ratz?’ A look passed between the three men. ‘Dunno. Haven’t seen him.’

  ‘Since when?’

  ‘Hours ago. He took a couple o’ blokes and headed off for the Land of the Dead.’

  Jem’s brow furrowed. ‘Why?’

  The man shrugged. ‘I don’t ask. You know the rules as well as I do, girl.’

  ‘Does he know about 87b?’

  ‘Guess so. We sent a bloke after him as soon as news got down here.’

  ‘And you haven’t heard anything since?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘What’s the Land of the Dead?’ Lari asked.

  ‘Shut it, lad!’ growled the shiftie with the club.

  ‘We’ll go and check the other refuge. If you hear from him, tell him we’re looking for him, okay?’

  ‘What’s the hurry?’ The big man stood up. ‘Why don’t the three of you wait here with us a while, eh?’

  ‘This is important.’

  ‘Nothin’s so important it can’t wait a little. Seems to me that at least two of you could help me and the boys here to keep ourselves … entertained.’ He was closing slowly on the three of them, the club still dangling loosely in his hand and a sly grin splitting his face. ‘The mixie’s a pretty little thing, and I must admit I’ve always wondered what’s under that face-cloth of yours.’

  ‘Back off!’ To Lari’s amazement, Jem didn’t sound even slightly unnerved. ‘You won’t get another warning.’

  ‘Make me!’ The club whizzed up almost faster than Lari could see, but Jem had been expecting it and she deftly ducked inside its arc. The pacifier came from a pocket and less than a second after the man had started his attack he was lying in a trembling heap with Jem standing over him. She threw a hard kick into his chest then turned to face the other two men, who’d half risen but were now back on their boxes as though glued there.

  ‘Now, I’m betting the three of you have decided the Underground is done for, so I’m going to say this once, and once only. As long as there’s one of us alive down here, then the Underground lives! You got that?’

  The two men nodded.

  ‘Good. Wait here for my father. He’ll be along eventually. And tell that’ – she nudged the unconscious man with her toe – ‘that Ratz’ll want a word with him, too.’

  Then she turned and stalked outside, Lari and Kes close behind.

  ‘What now?’ Kes asked, once they were out of earshot. To Lari’s surprise, Jem looked uncertain.

  ‘I don’t know. It’s pointless to keep looking for Dad. We’d probably just pass him somewhere. We could go to the other refuge and wait there, but the longer we leave it, the less chance we’ve got of getting that girl out of DGAP.’

  ‘I’ve got an idea.’

  ‘What?’ Both girls stared at Lari, who looked a little surprised at having their attention.

  ‘You’ve got the pacifier, between the three of us we can probably still re-route the maglifts, and the chances are that I’ve still got access to DGAP. Why don’t we go and get her now?’

  Jem’s eyes behind the mask widened.

  ‘You serious?’

  ‘Never more.’

  Somewhere in the night, a faint creak echoed through the city as one of the ancient buildings shifted slightly. Jem looked at Kes.

  ‘Are you in?’

  Kes didn’t answer. She fished the pendant out from under her top and rubbed it between her fingers.

  ‘Yeah. Of course.’

  Abruptly, Jem pulled off her mask and smiled – a hard, cold smile that reminded Lari of her father.

  ‘Let’s go, then.’

  There has been a change in the skyfire.

  An ebbing.

  A fading.

  Saria can feel it all around her, something different in the quality of the light, in the pulse of energy through the walls and under her bare feet.

  She reaches.

  And it burns, like always.

  Or not quite like always.

  Not quite so much.

  Not so deeply.

  So she takes a breath and reaches again, and the lights flare around her hut she barely notices, because, for a moment, she’s outside herself, surging out, up, down, and ever outwards.

  She’s riding the skyfire.


  And it burns, and it bites, and it starts to hurt more than she’d ever thought possible.

  But she’s doing it and she’s still herself, and she pushes out, further and further, until she finds him.

  He’s coming. She knows that in an instant. And he’s not coming alone. He’s bringing somebody – two somebodies. One is just like him – all skyfire and heat.

  But the other, the other is different. There’s something about her.

  Something vaguely familiar.

  (Burning. Hurting.)

  She knows it.

  Like she knows herself.

  Earthwarmth …

  DARKLANDS GENETIC ADAPTATION PROGRAM The illuminated sign was the only source of light in the empty foyer. It cast a red wash over the vacant reception desk, the light spilling across the polished floor like blood. The words made Kes shiver.

  Her breathing felt as though it was echoing around the darkened foyer. Everything was silent, and strangely, even for this time of night, DGAP seemed utterly deserted. No security, no lights. Kes crouched alongside Jem, trying to keep calm.

  Getting in had been ludicrously easy. They’d simply used what Jem referred to as ‘dead I.D.s’ and magged up to one of the Port North Central hubs, then cautiously, with Jem leading, had crept through the back alleys until they arrived at the DGAP building, which towered, silent and ominously dark, along the easternmost curve of the dome.

  ‘Are you certain this is a good idea?’ Kes had asked as Lari had reached out to wave his wrist across the scanner.

  His reply, the first words he’d spoken to her since down there, was curt. ‘Can you think of another way?’

  ‘But it’ll be recorded.’

  ‘That’s a chance we’ll have to take. Hopefully we’ll be long gone by the time anyone checks the entry logs. You agree, Jem?’

  The shiftie girl nodded. Her face was hidden behind its mask again.

  ‘Good.’ Without any further discussion, Lari waved his wrist over the scanner and the door opened immediately. ‘Looks like I’m still cleared,’ he whispered and they stepped inside. Then he turned to face them, the red light throwing his features into bloody relief.

  ‘You two wait down here while I go up and get her.’

  ‘Can’t we come?’ Jem asked.

  ‘No. It’ll be faster and easier if I go on my own. Less risky, too. And Saria knows me. She won’t panic if it’s me who gets her. You two find somewhere to hide and I’ll be back soon.’