Wants of the Silent

by McPartlin, Moira;

  I felt my face pink. She was right, I had gone to an all boys’ academy where the norm was of porn cards, passed and pawed; chat and locker room boasts of what had been done to native girls. It was so wrong.

  I looked at the girl curled in the corner. What was life like for her in the prison ship when even a Privileged boy wouldn’t have been safe there? I knelt beside her.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.

  ‘Sorry for what? You never done nothin.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  I knew my Privileged genes were diluted but even so, Pa had been pure Privileged. Hadn’t he been a decent man? And then it hit me. If the natives were to win this war, they needed Privileged sympathisers on their side. They need my Privileged side whether I wanted to help or not. I had no choice.

  Ishbel

  ‘They’ll look after you here.’ Sorlie said to Reinya. ‘They took care of me.’

  Poor Sorlie, he had so much to learn about women. That little Harkin had tried to attach herself to him like a limpet but the man Con had other ideas for her.

  They were in a container fashioned into a home. It was basic but Ishbel was impressed with what she had seen so far of the set-up at Steadie.

  ‘What are we going to do about Merj?’ Sorlie asked when they all settled on the plastic furniture that crowded the room.

  Ishbel sighed. ‘Don’t be such a worry wart.’ She saw him flinch at her use of his father’s common taunt.

  ‘Don’t put me down with that one, Ishbel, I see you’re worried too.’

  ‘Sorry.’ It was funny being reunited with Sorlie. Ishbel immediately felt back on duty as his native, responsible for his well being. They had been separated for almost two quarters, ever since she’d taken him to Black Rock and handed him over into the care of his grandfather. Only two quarters and Sorlie had changed so much.

  She’d deceived him with her motives and she now had to make it right. Things had gotten complicated, what with her mother’s irrational behaviour and play acting at being a revolutionary. Sure, Vanora had orchestrated the Black Rock prison break but if Ishbel was honest it was Arkle who had been the brains behind that. Now from what Sorlie told her, Arkle was no more.

  Sorlie had grown quiet after her worry wart quip. Ishbel rose to stretch her limbs and to look for Con and Dawdle. Harkin arched her back at her approach to the door, she looked like a cat ready to spit. What a strange girl. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black and her hair coarse. Ishbel had seen her likes before, hidden ethno genes.

  ‘S’OK Harkin,’ Sorlie said. ‘Ishbel’s my kin.’

  Ishbel raised her eyebrow. ‘Kin?’

  And he started to laugh and patted his waistband. ‘I carried my passport there for so long and then I found your paper that told me you’re my aunt, Davie’s daughter.’ His face fell at the mention of Davie. ‘Did you see him, dead?’

  Ishbel nodded. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘It was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill him. Scud will tell you.’ Reinya shifted at the mention of Scud. She moved towards Harkin but Harkin melted into the wall.

  ‘It was your name that tipped the balance. He’d already lost the plot of his mind but then I pointed out if he killed me you would be the only one left of his bloodline…’

  ‘What did he say about me?’ Ishbel knew it was a useless question. He would never have loved her. Her life had been a loveless wilderness.

  ‘He didn’t believe it at first but then he seemed to recognise himself in you. He was going to kill me, Ishbel. When I tried to stop him he blew his face off. I’m as good as a murderer.’ His voice quivered but his face remained grim. He’d grown up so much.

  ‘It sounds like he killed himself because of his discovery of me.’

  ‘No, he was mad,’ Sorlie said. But she could see he was lying. ‘We have to leave him alone. He’s destroyed so many lives. He’s not destroying mine – or yours. We have to move forward and find Vanora and Jacques and find out what’s going on. Find this Prince everyone is talking about.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why? Are you crazy?’

  ‘No.’ Ishbel nodded towards Harkin and Reinya. ‘Look at the mess of them. We could take them to Freedom. They would be safe there.’ She smiled. ‘You never wanted this life. Aren’t you tired of all this?’

  ‘Of course I’m tired of this. I want my old life back but that’s gone.’ He gnawed at the angry nail on his thumb and Ishbel could see he was tempted. He shook his head. ‘No. What about The Prince? What about Merj, the Military? There are too many unknowns. How do we know we’ll be safe?’

  She whistled through the gap in her teeth. ‘We can get the revolutionary operation going once we reach Freedom.’

  ‘What operation? All the operatives on the ticker wall are disappearing.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Sorlie described the state of the wall, how worried Vanora had been about her disappearing empire.

  ‘If The Prince is picking them off cell by cell, how long do you think it will be before Freedom is breached? Don’t you see? He’s taking over Vanora’s operation. She thought it was the floods but it isn’t. We met people fed up of waiting for Vanora to act. People who have been living in suspension for years. They’ve had enough and want action now.’

  ‘What’s happened to the boy who just wanted to sit at home playing with his wrestling station?’ For the first time she noticed a dark shadow on Sorlie’s upper lip and chin. His hardening jaw.

  ‘I can’t even imagine that life now,’ he said without emotion.

  ‘OK,’ Ishbel had to fess up. ‘Jacques had wanted to join forces with Vanora, that’s why you made the trip. I called her down here for a meeting with Jacques. He said The Prince is growing strong. No one knows who he is and what his motives are. Jacques thought if the Noiri join with Vanora they can defeat the Military on Lesser Esperaneo then move over the channel to Esperaneo Major. The Capital is the prize. Jacques had it all worked out, but Vanora being Vanora would not be easily persuaded.’

  ‘Then we have to find them.’ Sorlie said.

  ‘If they’re still alive.’

  ‘If they were dead, wouldn’t there have been some boasting rumours? There’s nothing, there isn’t even a ransom note. And the Military seem to be pretty ineffective here.’

  Ishbel rubbed her wrists where the ropes had chafed. He noticed. ‘Their Transports were blown out of the water. Your man Dawdle had to take care of the boat guys.’

  ‘I don’t think we can trust Dawdle.’ Ishbel said. He had disappeared as soon as they arrived at Steadie.

  ‘I bet the Noiri can tap into the Military systems.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I keep my eyes and ears open.’ He brushed his hair back from his eyes. ‘Look, Ishbel, I didn’t ask to be an outlaw. I know my parents are dead. Something happened to me on that island. OK, I’m an orphan.’ He smiled then. ‘Davie used to say, ‘get over it.’ Well, I have. I’m not just an orphan, I now have a purpose.’ He walked to the door and pulled back the flap. ‘Maybe it was being here. Look at those specials out there. They’re safe here only because they’re living on a radioactive site. But outside the reservation they’re dead meat, and every now and then the Military don their protective suits and come in to crush them. We need to stop this, I see it now. The catastrophic change Pa warned me was coming is here. The DNA experiments will soon be rolled out, but that’s only part of it.’ He pointed to Reinya. ‘And yes, we’ll be safe in Freedom, but for how long and what about all the others like her?’

  Ishbel began to smile. She had known he would shine in the end. She had brought him up well.

  Ishbel heard dogs barking. Dogs? She hadn’t heard them since her childhood. The natives in the North West Territories where she was born had kept dogs to pull their cargo sledges. But there had been a mass cull of dogs in Espera
neo in the past, when the Land Reclaimists came to power. The plan had been to preserve dwindling resources. Another short-sighted policy. They didn’t understand that some of these domestic animals could have been put to work when fossil fuel was banned. Now wolves and bears were trained for illegal sport, always for profit.

  Reinya was asleep. Harkin had given her something to drink. ‘Betty will be along to take you to the canteen soon,’ she said before she disappeared.

  Sorlie sat in the corner, tapping into his comm. They only had one between them now and he’d been trying to contact Kenneth.

  Ishbel stood when Dawdle entered. She wanted to punch him but knew they needed him.

  ‘Where have you been?’ she asked.

  ‘He’ll have been checking his consignment,’ Sorlie said from his corner.

  ‘Watch it, squirt.’

  ‘What consignment?’

  ‘They have my grandfather’s books. They’re more valuable than the rest of us put together.’

  Dawdle reached down and hauled Sorlie to his feet. But Sorlie undercut him, twisted, hooked his left side and threw him over his shoulder. Dawdle sprawled on the floor looking surprised.

  ‘Nice one, china,’ he said, getting to his feet. He held out a hand to Sorlie who ignored it. ‘The books were in the van I was kidnapped in. They belong to Ishbel so you better look after them.’

  ‘Ah think ye’ll find they’re salvaged goods and in Noiri law they’re finders keepers.’

  Sorlie moved in but Ishbel stood between them. ‘Stop!’ Dawdle side-stepped and disappeared under the flap.

  ‘How can you defend him?’ Sorlie said as the tent flap slapped insolently back in place.

  ‘He’s good with Reinya and we need him.’

  Betty came in. She hugged Sorlie. ‘You came back. Come, come.’

  Ishbel woke Reinya, ‘Come on, we’ll get you some food.’

  Reinya stared and pointed at Betty. ‘What?’ Reinya said in too loud a voice. ‘Is that one of those oldies?’ Betty hirpled with exaggeration towards her. She hooked her arthritic finger at her and chuckled when she saw the young girl’s horror.

  ‘No need to be afraid, lass,’ Betty chortled. ‘Plenty more where I came from. C’moan, I’ve made you all some nourishing soup.’

  ‘You should take it,’ Sorlie said. ‘It’s delicious.’

  As they walked from the tent Sorlie pointed to the buildings. ‘There’s the processing plant where they recycle plastic into yarn. And all sorts of products for the Noiri to barter.’

  ‘Is it really contaminated?’ Ishbel asked Sorlie as they walked across the duckboard to the big top.

  ‘Yep. If the Steadie’s stay, they’re safe because they have adapted but if they leave they can get sick.’

  ‘Is that not psychological?’ Ishbel asked.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s what they believe.’

  ‘What happens if we stay?’ Reinya asked.

  Sorlie shrugged. ‘We may get sick but it could take years.’ He tapped the monitor they’d been fitted with. ‘They can tell with these. They’ve some medicine but I don’t know what it is and if it works.’

  Ishbel took one last look around the site. It was some operation and she couldn’t help thinking Dawdle had a hand in it.

  Dawdle was in the big top, deep in conversation with Con. Ishbel gently removed Betty’s guiding hand from her arm and strode up to Dawdle. He held his hands up in apology.

  ‘Settling in, Ish?’

  ‘Just how powerful are you, Dawdle?’ she asked. ‘Do you know who kidnapped Jacques and Vanora?’

  He rubbed his chin and looked as though he had all the time in the world. ‘Give us a minute, pal,’ he said to Con, who looked miffed at being dismissed.

  ‘Who carried out the kidnap, you ask? Well aye, ah’ve an idea, but ah’d rather no speculate.’

  ‘Do you know why, then?’

  ‘Tae get thum out the way probably.’

  ‘Are they dead?’ Sorlie had come up behind. Ishbel could tell by the set of his jaw, he cared. He’d only just found his grandmother and despite her failings she was now his next of kin.

  ‘Are they dead?’ Ishbel repeated Sorlie’s question. ‘Tell him, he has a right to know.’

  ‘Ah don’t know.’

  An old woman shuffled up to them and stepped between Ishbel and Dawdle. She shoved Dawdle aside, snatched Ishbel’s hand and turned it palm up. She traced her finger along a line and a smile appeared on her lips. She dropped to her knees and kissed Ishbel’s hand. The sound of tables scraping the floor filled the tent. Specials and natives crowded round.

  ‘What?’ Sorlie asked.

  ‘Shsh, Shsh,’ the old one said. Ishbel felt a tingle scrape her spine. Others peered at Ishbel’s hand and knelt in supplication.

  ‘Stop this.’ Ishbel said. The crowd knelt back on their heels shocked. ‘What’s going on? Why are you treating me like this?’

  Many produced from their pockets, and from around their necks, Celtic knots with the blue enamelled pearl at its centre; replicas of the one Dawdle owned.

  ‘The messenger,’ the old one said.

  Ishbel felt a stab in her brain as if she had just swallowed an ice cube.

  The old one took hold of a table edge and heaved herself to her feet. No one but Harkin moved to help her.

  The woman patted Ishbel’s side pocket. And she suddenly understood. She took out the chess piece that rested there. She looked at Sorlie and saw the colour drain from his cheeks.

  ‘The ancestors are guiding you,’ he said. ‘I felt them on the island, I feel them here.’

  Ishbel examined the chess piece again. Dawdle leaned against the tent wall as if bored but his eyes were intent on her actions. She held the piece to the light, she twisted the body. It moved. The natives gasped. The specials crowded her but the old women shooed them back. Ishbel twisted harder, pulled the head off. The audience ooh’d and aah’d. She tapped the upturned figure, a small roll of paper tipped out. The room held its breath. She unravelled it and smoothed it flat.

  ‘It’s from The Prince.’ She felt something tighten in the silent specials. Even the natives retained an expectant quiet. She was aware of Sorlie standing by her shoulder.

  ‘The paper is from the Penguin books in Black Rock’s library,’ he said.

  ‘What does it say?’ At last Dawdle spoke.

  Ishbel read inwardly without expression then cleared her throat to read aloud, aware of how the words would sound.

  ‘We have Jacques and Vanora. They will not be harmed if you do the following.

  1.Alert Base Freedom that no further action be taken against Esperaneo Major and Esperaneo Lesser

  2.The native Ishbel must travel to Base Freedom where the boy Sorlie will be released into her care

  3.Deliver Ishbel and Sorlie to Black Rock Penitentiary before the close of the third quarter

  4.Send the native Scud and the library of David Pringle to Base Freedom. This library is the property of Sorlie Mayben, no one else.

  Failure to carry out these demands will result in the execution of Vanora and Jacques followed by the systematic elimination of the Noiri network.’

  ‘He doesn’t know you have left Freedom, Sorlie.’ Ishbel said.

  ‘But who is he?’ Sorlie said.

  Dawdle was shaking his head. ‘Ah dinnae care who it is but ah tell ye this – the books belong to Noiri.’ This was not going to be as easy as it sounded.

  Sorlie

  ‘Black Rock,’ my voice, a shout amidst the silence. ‘I’m not going back.’

  Ishbel bit her lip. ‘Yes you are, and Dawdle...’

  ‘You’re not going.’ Dawdle’s face was red as if the news had come as a shock to him.

  ‘We are. And you’re taking us.’

  ‘Nut…’<
br />
  Ishbel held her hand to stay his words. ‘Yes. You were the one who said you knew who’d kidnapped them. You have the Blue Pearl badge, you know more than you’re letting on, so just shut it and let’s get this show moving.’

  While Ishbel was having it out with Dawdle, Harkin sidled up to me. She seemed to have recovered from her siren fright and was back to the way she was when I was injured in the tent.

  ‘You’re going?’

  ‘Not if I can help it.’ Ishbel threw me a sharp look. I knew I would go even if she had to knock me out and carry me. ‘Yes, I’m going,’

  ‘I’m coming too.’

  ‘You can’t. Stay and look after Reinya.’

  Ever since their arrival in Steadie Harkin had cared for Reinya; washed her hair, scrubbed her face almost raw, leaving a pretty apricot colour on her cheeks. Despite this Reinya still looked feral.

  I knelt down beside Reinya. ‘You have to stay here too, for a little while.’

  She shook her head.

  ‘You heard the note, just Ishbel and me. Your grandfather will go to Freedom, he may already be there with Kenneth.’

  She rested a protected hand on her stomach. ‘Uh don’t want my baby to get sick.’

  ‘It won’t.’ I pointed to her bar badge. ‘You’re in a safe zone. Harkin will make sure you stay safe.’

  ‘Reinya,’ Ishbel spoke. ‘We’ll send someone for you. We promised Scud we’d keep you safe and we will.’

  ‘Ah’ll come back for her,’ Dawdle shouted from across the room. Whatever Ishbel promised him seemed to have worked because he was ordering specials to crate up the books and giving instructions over his comms to have them shipped to Freedom. He was smiling but a tick throbbed in his throat betraying how beeling he really was.

  Harkin put her arm round Reinya like the little nurse she was. She smiled at me but I could see her hopeless tears behind the bravery. She stood on tiptoes and kissed my lips in full view of everyone. Reinya sighed and turned away. My throat closed in pain as I looked down into those chocolate eyes and realised I might never see her again. And I could see she understood she could never leave unless she chose to shorten her life and that was too great a price to pay for her freedom.