‘So, Origins is getting girls to foster. It gets money from the department to foster them, then as the girls grow up Origins offers them to the Church of the Seraphim and they make even more money out of them that way. This is fucking bizarre. Origins hates the church and everything it stands for.’
‘Yes. Hates them enough to take them for all the money they can.’
‘Seems to me, whoever Brilliant called must be connected to Origins,’ I said. ‘Always knew Jones was a nasty piece of work. Poor Luisa, she had to endure a whole childhood imprisoned with them, then, even when she thought she’d escaped, she found she was still caught in their web, just one more product making profit for them. No wonder she was upset. And she was going to blow the whistle on them.’
‘In a way, she succeeded,’ said Henryk. ‘Shame it cost her her life.’
‘That’s Origins. What about Harper?’ I said.
‘Harper comes into the picture later. She targets them when they’re old enough and brokers deals too. Some deals are directly between Origins and the church but many are between Little Angels and the church.’
‘Understandable,’ I said. ‘The church wouldn’t want to depend just on Origins.’
‘God no,’ laughed Henryk. ‘Having at least two suppliers, maybe more, would bring a bit of competition into the market.’
‘Explains why Peri would have been so attractive to Harper. She’s got class in her background, you can tell by looking at her. She’s not the usual RaRA-land leftovers.’
‘Speaking of Peri,’ said Henryk, ‘guess what Mick found in RaRA-land? A Raptor. Quite a dead one. Washed onto the coast south of Pandanus.’
I sat down abruptly and held my head in my hands, waiting for my sudden dizziness to pass.
‘Are you okay?’ said Henryk.
‘Sure,’ I said, raising my head. A dead Raptor! What did that mean for Peri and Hugo? Was it more or less likely that they were still alive? Wild hope fluttered painfully in my chest like a trapped bird.
‘I’ve told Mick to keep his eyes open for Peri and Hugo,’ said Henryk, ‘but at least we haven’t found their bodies. That has to be a good sign.’
‘Yes, I hope so.’
‘Peri wasn’t fostered by Origins though, was she?’ Henryk said.
‘No, but she did come to Little Angels through the church. That was mentioned in her Little Angels file. As you say, they’d want a few different suppliers, even if Origins is their biggest one. Henryk, in the stuff I’ve given you you’ll find a project attached to Hermes called Nest Egg. A series of little programs with non-fliers across the regions.’
‘I see,’ said Henryk. ‘Nice. Nest egg—capital, something for a rainy day.’
‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But nest egg has another meaning. A nest egg can be an egg, real or artificial, that’s put into a hen’s nest to get it to continue laying, after all its other eggs have been taken away.’
‘Jesus. They’re spreading their bets.’
‘Think so. It’d only take a few people connected to Nest Egg, wouldn’t have to be all or even most of them. Just enough to make sure they’re not dependent on Origins.’
‘So, why is this such a big deal, Zeke? Why so much money changing hands?’
‘Couple of reasons,’ I said. ‘I’ve spoken to a specialist who said there are some fertility problems for fliers, especially women. Peri told me many flier women don’t want to get pregnant, especially if they’re going to have more than one. If they’re not careful, months or even years go by and they risk never flying again. Imagine putting in all the work and money you need for the transition to Flight and jeopardising all that. Especially when there’s such an easy and, let’s face it, relatively cheap solution.’
‘You told me about that doctor working with Diomedea on the surrogate pregnancies and doing the research; you think they’re involved in the trafficking?’
‘Haven’t seen any evidence of it,’ I said. ‘Why would they risk it? I don’t think they have any involvement with the Church of the Seraphim and they certainly wouldn’t with Origins; way too dangerous. No, I think they just sit back and wait for fliers to come to them and they go ahead, keep doing their research. Whatever the fliers do to get themselves their babies is their own business, know what I mean? Can’t see Diomedea gambling their reputation on anything to do with that side of it.’
‘Why does the church risk it then?’
‘That’s different. Their whole thing is that this is the way forward for the elect of all humanity. No way forward without children though, without enough children, without as many children as fliers want. They want more fliers and more children of fliers; ensuring that not only removes the downside of the treatments and increases the size of their flock but as the broker of these deals, it gives them power. Lots of fliers wouldn’t think much of the church—can’t imagine someone like Chesshyre going along with their hare-brained theology, for example—but they’re not going to stand up to them if they’re using them to have kids.’
A temple bell. Bong, bong, bong. Muffled, like the moon now behind cloud, resonance sounding from deep under the sea. One cicada started up, competing.
‘Makes me wonder, Zeke—you going ahead with the treatments for Tom or what?’
‘Oh god, not you too, Henryk!’ I stood up again, paced the deck. ‘I can’t go more than a few hours without arguing about this with Lily. Well, now I have real news. The treatments have begun, it’s too late to turn back no matter what I find out and we’ve already had our first medical emergency.’
‘So you’ve plunged in, just like that? What happened? Thomas okay?’
‘Don’t know what happened. He was unconscious, we couldn’t rouse him. Seems alright now. His specialist says there’s no problem and Lily won’t even consider going slow for a while or waiting till he’s older.’
‘Yes,’ said Henryk. ‘She thinks it’ll give him a better chance in life.’
‘Assuming he survives the process. Anyway, how do you know?’
‘Because it’s what Vivienne thinks.’
‘You two cannot be having this discussion. You don’t have the money.’
‘Vivienne thinks we should have one twin done, if we can’t afford both. She says it’s the least we can do.’
‘You can’t be serious.’
‘You can talk. You’ve only got one to worry about. Anyway, I wasn’t asking for your approval. I just wanted to know what you thought about it for Thomas.’
‘I still don’t know, even though the treatments have begun. He’s so excited I’m worried he’ll blow a fuse. Maybe that’s what happened to him in the car. Still, how the hell did we get into this mess? Now we’re forced to consider these things because, no matter what we want, the bar of what is desirable, or even of what’s merely good enough, keeps being raised. Even if you hate the idea, you have to keep up.’
Henryk stared down into his beer. ‘The Red Queen. Have to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place.’ He was grinding his teeth. ‘It’s unbearable having to make so many choices. People think you’re eccentric, some sort of religious nut, if you don’t want to choose. I mean, I don’t know how tall I want my son to be! Who the hell knows—what’s the right height for happiness? A little taller than other men? But we can’t all be a little taller, or a little smarter or better-looking! Didn’t know how lucky we were when we didn’t have these choices. Now kids can really blame their parents. For everything. Wings are a startling point of difference but even that currency will be devalued eventually.’
‘Yes, by people like you and me, Henryk, sacrificing our retirement funds and peace of mind to push our children that extra bit ahead. Should be grateful for Origins, I suppose. Our only reservoir of pure, unaltered genes. Living relics. A bridge to our past.’
‘God, how did we get this way so fa
st? Fliers have only been around for—how long, Zeke? Twenty-five years?’
‘Thirty or so I guess. Prototypes’ve been around for longer. You know, the various defence projects, the ones run by the AIRPA?’
‘Well, there’s weirder things going on. Mick tells me there are more extreme modifications. If you can think it, you can do it. That’s what Mick says.’ Henryk swallowed some beer and slumped down into his chair. ‘Glad I’m more than halfway through my three-score years and ten. Things are moving too fast for me.’
‘Hate to break it to you, Henryk, but you’re not halfway there. You’ll live longer than seventy years.’
Henryk sighed. ‘I’ve always been an optimist. Stolid, Vivienne says. Mr Plod when she’s being bitchy. I like my life, mostly, but I can only endure it because I know it’s going to end. They’d better not take that certainty away from us too.’
Henryk put down his drink. ‘Since time began / the dead alone know peace. / Life is but melting snow.’
Henryk and I finished our beers and stared out into the night. It grew so quiet, only the breek breek of a cricket, that we could hear the chanting from the temple.
‘I’ve saved the best for last, Zeke. We did find out who Brilliant called. It helped that you pointed us in the right direction. It was Waterhouse.’
I turned away from the railing to look at Henryk. A long breath out. Of course. ‘I’ve heard Waterhouse speak in the House. If he meant even half of what he said, killing a flier might not bother him. One less abomination.’
‘We’ll arrest Brilliant quite soon, as soon as we can get more on Waterhouse, now that we can scan some of their past communications, and as soon as I can get a warrant. We’ll scare the crap out of Brilliant. Weak bastard, he’ll sell Waterhouse down the river, long as we give him a deal.’
My thoughts drift with the chanting as I look out. A cloud hangs over the City, its silhouette darker than the night. It hovers, ominous. A feeling rises in me, a most unchristian feeling, a most unBuddhist feeling, despite the hypnotic chanting. It is primal.
Winged balancer of life, dark-faced goddess, daughter of Justice.
This goddess is ancient; she is first, before all others. I learned this poem to her as a child. She broods over the City and in the chill breath of her approach, the stasis of my black mood is whirled up, dispelled into a baleful exultation in her dark, cloudy wings. We are her instruments—me, Cam, Henryk. She’s the only deity we three truly serve. She is coming. Punisher of hubris. Deliverer of justice. Avenger of crimes.
Nemesis.
Peri woke suddenly very early in the morning after she saw the Wild. Bending over her, blotting out the stars, was a dark shape and, still half-asleep, she saw the clawed hands reaching for Hugo. Though the creature was ragged, gaunt and Wild, she could see that it was Peter, come to take Hugo back. Come to steal him again, as he’d stolen Hugo from her right from the beginning, from the moment he’d made her pregnant. She grabbed Hugo and scrambled to her feet, the scream dying in her throat as she heard a woman’s voice and felt a light touch on her back.
‘Don’t blame you for being jumpy,’ said Finch loudly, seeming not to care that the other Audax fliers still slept around them under the overhang. ‘The others should be too but they have no idea what we’re up against. Help me wake them,’ she added over her shoulder as she stepped over the sleeping bodies. She bent down and grabbed Leto’s arm, shaking her awake, half pulling the younger woman to her feet, against her complaints. ‘Niko and Jay have been arguing about what to do. Now they’re calling a meeting. Starts at civil dawn so shake a tailfeather.’
When all the members of Audax had gathered around the ashes of the fire, Niko and Jay appeared, still arguing in an urgent undertone. Jay was carrying his crossbow and as they moved into the centre of the circle Jay shook his head, as if signalling he would say no more, and sat down, cross-legged. Niko stood, ignoring them all for a moment, looking at something on his slick. Jay broke down his crossbow and cleaned it, checking each part meticulously.
The other fliers observed Jay and Niko expectantly, a few chewing energy strips. Peri gave Hugo a banana and watched Jay as he reassembled the crossbow, noting exactly how he snapped each piece together; behind him Shaheen sat on her perch, following each movement of Jay’s as intently as Peri did. The threatening snick, snick of the crossbow mechanism clicking into place was the loudest sound in the quiet morning.
Niko flung up his head and stared across the circle at Peri.
‘Would you tell all of us exactly what you saw last night, please?’ he said.
Peri started. This was the first time Niko had spoken directly to her.
She tried to describe what she’d seen, unsure if she was remembering it all accurately or whether the darkness and her fear had made the creature more monstrous than it really was.
It did not reassure Peri when she saw that those who looked most grave at her description were the older, more experienced fliers. Only the younger ones did not look worried.
‘That is a description of a Wild,’ said Niko, staring at each flier in the circle in turn. ‘Definitely Wild. We’ll have to move.’
‘What?’ That was Raf. Young, strong Raf. He wouldn’t want to leave without a fight.
‘Wild pose a real danger,’ said Niko. ‘Unless you want to get serious about fighting over territory with them we have no choice but to leave Heavener. Besides, I’m not risking what we’ve just gained from the raid in a fight with Wild.’
‘I’m not running,’ said Raf. ‘They can piss off.’
‘Did I ask for your opinion?’ barked Niko. Peri had never heard him raise his voice before. Raf blinked as if Niko had slapped him. A shirring of feathers whispered around the circle as the other fliers shifted. ‘You don’t tell Wild to piss off, Rafael. They don’t negotiate. They fight or they flee.’
Jay looked up from where he’d been fitting his crossbow into its case and stood up to face Niko. ‘That’s the question. We don’t abandon Heavener until we know whether it, or they, will fight or fly.’
Niko glared at Jay. ‘We don’t know how many of them there are but if they need territory then they need it more than we do. We’ve got other ways of getting food. They haven’t. Wild fight hard. They could easily kill someone and we will have to kill to make them leave.’
Peri noticed she was not the only one to draw her breath in sharply at that. She put her arms around Hugo. When was Jay intending to let her and Hugo go?
But Jay was staring at Niko with a look that would have terrified Peri if it had been directed at her. She was seeing Jay the Raptor, the trained soldier, survivor, hunter, killer; a creature more altered, more removed from the normal human than any being she had ever met (except the Wild, she reminded herself) and he was in no mood to give up Heavener without a fight.
‘Fuck it,’ snarled Jay as he paced back and forth. Peri admired his glossy brown wings with their lightning slash gleaming in the level rays of the rising sun. ‘Flying conditions here are optimal. We’ve got ridgelines, thermals, long-distance flights in all directions without having to worry about being seen, and more glass-offs than anywhere else.’
There was a murmur of agreement at the mention of glass-off.
‘I agree with Raf.’ Niko bridled visibly at that. ‘It’s stupid to run away,’ Jay continued, ‘just because one Wild was scavenging food from us. Besides, we’re armed. He’s not.’
‘Yes, I know we’re armed,’ replied Niko, clearly making an effort to rein in his anger. ‘But weapons are useful only if you’re prepared to use them. How many are you willing to kill, Jay? They may not appear human to you but they’re still human in the eyes of the law. You aren’t a murderer.’ He paused, staring at Jay, who returned his stare.
‘We should go to the winter roost,’ Niko said.
‘What’s to stop them following
us there?’ said Jay.
‘Nothing,’ said Niko. ‘But we have to—’
‘What’s the winter roost?’ said Peri. Niko shot her a look of rage and she quailed. In her anxiety—would she be taken further away from the City by Audax, would she be forced to leave and fly to the City alone with who knows what stalking her out there?—the words had been out of her mouth before she could stop them.
‘We have more than one camp,’ said Raf. ‘The winter roost is further north—’
‘As I was saying,’ said Niko, ‘we should go to the winter roost, but we need to decide on our strategy first. We’re surrounded by enemies. The Wild hate us and want what we have and City fliers fear us because they think we’re turning Wild. We think we have the edge on everyone when it comes to flying but these Wild know a thing or two. And they’re neither willing nor able to let us in on their secrets.’
‘In the City they don’t believe there are any Wild,’ said Raf.
‘Officially no. They start believing pretty damn quick when they lose a relative.’ Niko turned on Raf. ‘Is that what this is about? You don’t actually think there’s any such thing as Wild? Is that your problem?’
Raf’s jaw worked but he said nothing.
Niko turned back to the others. ‘The official silence is not surprising when no-one knows what turns them Wild, what the warning signs are or who’s susceptible. No-one has any idea how many there are out here. Or how long they last.’
‘It didn’t look in great shape to me,’ said Peri.
‘Perhaps not,’ retorted Niko. ‘But that doesn’t tell you much about how tough it is.’
Leto shuddered. ‘How human are they?’
When We Have Wings Page 39