MINDFRACK

  ***

  Logan was a few hours into a dreamless sleep spooning Wanda on the bunk when he awoke to Shala’s voice calling him. Was she outside the shop?

  So as not to disturb Wanda, he carefully rolled off backwards.

  Carrie watched him from a seat in the corner of the room. He placed his finger to his lips.

  He pulled on his trainers and headed out ensuring he placed the chair back behind the door as best he could.

  No Shala; just a big, mean-looking Xeno with lots of iTatts standing across from the door.

  Had he had dreamt up her voice?

  He decided it didn’t matter. Since he was wide awake now, he decided to go for a walk and work through some ideas that might help their predicament.

  The guard acknowledged him but didn’t dissuade him from walking away from the shop; neither did he nor anyone else follow him, which seemed odd to Logan, given what Shala said about their security.

  There were only two options in terms of his route. He’d already explored east, at least as far as he could go within twenty minutes, as that meant a round trip of about an hour, allowing for stops. Down here it was a rabbit warren and he could easily get lost. There weren’t any maps available – not even via the commune cloud.

  Geographically, the commune occupied an indeterminate area since they had spread into other disused stations and track, including the linkages or old track inter-tunnels. There could have been acres of unclassified real estate.

  West, it was. He would, again, keep to the “fringe”. This was the outermost area, and they’d left much of the subway décor as it was originally created.

  He came to a stairway and headed down.

  It was night, though he couldn’t physically verify it. He knew there was a conformity of sorts to circadian rhythms, as the lighting was more subdued than usual.

  There were plenty of Xenos around, but nothing too weird in the area he was touring. It wasn’t a hippy-like kibbutz, as the media would have him believe, with people that had nothing to do but smoke ganja, shoot up, or jack in to a virtual life all day.

  On the contrary, he discovered there was real innovation going on. There were academics and engineers to rival anything in the city above. The most interesting constructs were the vertical green farms and enzyme vats. He’d learned that the commune was more than sixty percent self-sufficient in terms of food requirements. They could produce nutrients and protein, but basic calories were another matter. Their stock was supplemented with rice, flour, beans, etc. City Government supplied electricity and sanitation outlets, as part of the agreement that the sub-world would keep to itself and acting responsibly. It all worked.

  Impressive.

  Logan did find it hard to grasp their basic ideology, though. They shunned 5th- and 6thgen technology, yet welcomed bio and nano, which was a conflict in his reckoning. They wanted to avoid the inevitable singularity – the runaway, self-propagated, AI evolution and the ultimate melding of technology with man. iSense was one step toward that. Individuality would ultimately be lost, they said. And individuality was their prime driver, hence the extreme bodymod.

  They were correct in stating there’d be no going back. Tell that to the ape who picked up a bone and fashioned it into a weapon, Logan thought soberly.

  He was interrupted from his musings by Shala, who once again appeared out of nowhere. He wondered if he was being tracked by the Xenos. If so, he didn’t know how, as he hadn’t seen any of the ubiquitous cams or drones like there were topside.

  She greeted him by holding her scaly hand out.

  “Shala. I’ve been admiring your set-up here.”

  She matched his progress, walking lithely, with her tail swishing back and forward in rhythm to her clicking, scratchy steps. “Do you know how the commune ended up here?” she asked.

  “Not fully, except that there were conflicts up top. Didn’t read up the whole history.”

  She didn’t need much goading to offer more information. “It was a political ploy to quash Xeno culture. The City Government at that time were taking Washington’s lead. They were afraid of what we represented. They thought that by shifting the culture underground it wouldn’t have a chance to thrive.”

  “They got that wrong then.”

  “Yesss. And now there are communes everywhere, many underground in other cities. And in many other countries.”

  Logan had a grudging admiration for Shala’s convictions. But he wasn’t sure their fundamental ideology was right. He thought technology was moving forward in ways humankind didn’t understand. The outcomes unknown. A brave new world, of course. He considered that he, along with everyone else, could do nothing about it. In any case he would probably be dead and buried before they were all borgs jacked into a central computer hive-mind. And who was to say that was a bad thing?

  “So you’re second generation bodymod. What does that mean exactly?”

  “It means I have a combination of active bodymod together with genetic bodymod hand-downs. My mother was genetically altered – the tail and the scales. And some other parts of my physssiology.

  “Ah, that.”

  “Amongssst other things.”

  Logan noticed they were in a much quieter corridor and recognized it for what it once was, a maintenance track between stations. He hadn’t noticed when they had left the village area. He checked behind, feeling disorientated.

  “Mark, you are a good man,” said Shala.

  “I’ve been told that a lot lately,” he said, his tone glib.

  “You know that you can trussst me – and the Council?”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible, Shala. See, here’s my problem: if I feel I can trust you, then how do I know that you haven’t planted that thought in my head? A conundrum.”

  “There is a way.”

  “A way to what?”

  “For you to make up your own mind about usss.”

  “How?”

  “By showing you everything…”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Would you like to see the Xeno Umbra?”

  “I thought it was part of a bureaucratic hierarchy, not an actual place.”

  “It isss, but also so much more.” She smiled at him. “You seem surprised.”

  “I know you value your secrecy and want to keep out people like me – the, uh, normals?”

  “Normals?” She huffed. “At the end of the day, we are all humanssss.”

  “All right, then yes, I’d like to see the Xeno Umbra.”

  “Can I ask you to wear this please?”

  “See what I mean? You just happened to have a blindfold handy?”

  “I’m not forcing you. This is your decision …”

  He considered his options. Had he been subtly coerced into this “opportunity”? He couldn’t know for sure. But then, it would have been easy for a couple of their giants to hood and abduct him and take him to the Council against his will. Curiosity won out and he reached out to take the blindfold. Shala snatched it back with a hiss-chuckle. “I predicted you would – step through here firssst.”

  She pointed to a door that was set into a recess within the wall. It opened by silent command and they stepped into a small storage room, or so Logan thought. At her instruction, he placed the blindfold over his eyes and waited. She turned him around a few times. He smiled tolerantly at her paranoia.

  To his surprise the small, box-like space was an elevator car. There was a sideways lurch and he felt speed building up, though he couldn’t tell which direction they were heading. iSense couldn’t help as it was restricted by the local cloud. The car seemed to twist and turn, and come to a stop, before descending.

  “Why the blindfold? I wouldn’t have a clue where we are anyway.”

  “Adds to the disorientation. A precaution.”

  They left the elevator, Shala leading him, and walked about twenty steps before entering another elevator. Off it went.

  It pulled up abruptly and he had to reach out f
or a wall to steady himself.

  “Thisss is it. You can take off your blindfold.”

  Logan stepped out of the elevator car and blinked away the after-blur of having his eyes closed behind a wadding of material. His first impression was one of depth. He’d felt their short descent and guessed they must be a few levels below the subway, but it was the exposed bedrock that now exerted an overwhelming sense of their deep subterranean location. Shala was right, he had absolutely no idea where abouts they were under the city.

  Astonishingly, it was more spacious here than the subway tunnels above. Buildings extruded from the walls on both sides, and passing through the single-level structures was a wide corridor or, perhaps, a street.

  And more Xenos. Once he began looking at them, he found it difficult to stop, his attention leaping from one oddity to another. Many were similar to those Xenos on the upper levels. But there were others that were much more extreme. They looked back at him but gave scant attention. He guessed it was because of Shala’s presence.

  It was difficult to see the full extent of the cavern because of the buildings and other structures that filled it. “How is this possible? I mean, unless these caves already existed, how could you hew these out without the city knowing – and keep them a secret? Where was the material deposited? Who engineered this – how …?”

  “My, you have lots of quessstions, Mark Logan. We have developed methods of mining that does not rely on heavy machinery or explosive charges. I do not know the full scientific details, but it did take many years – and is still unfinished. Maybe, one day, you can talk to our engineers. Now we have a meeting to go to, they are waiting …”

  “They? A meeting?”

  “Before you ask. I took a gamble. I was hoping you would agree – and you did. So I asked for an asssembly of the Umbra Council.”

  He stopped in his tracks. “ I haven’t ‘agreed’ to anything … Ah, so you did wake me with your mind trick, didn’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “And planned all of this?”

  “Yes, but –”

  “Why? Why not just ask me? No, wait, I think I understand … you didn’t want me to talk this through with Wanda. You and your friends thought I wouldn’t come down here, didn’t you?”

  Shala didn’t reply. Her tail swished gently back and forward, raising a little fine dust into the air.

  “You want to know what I think, Shala? Or maybe you already do.”

  She remained quiet.

  “I’ll tell you. You’re all hypocrites. You despise the Guild because you say that they want to control everyone. Yet here you are, regularly applying some sort of mind-control shit on me. I want you to stop it right now. No more. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. My apologies. I only did so because of the importance. I couldn’t take the chance that –”

  “Next time – just ask – okay? I might surprise you.”

  “Agreed ...”

  They set off again with an awkward silence settling between them.

  Logan thought about the Guild and Grist and realised that Shala perhaps had a point. In her eyes, he guessed, she couldn’t take the chance that he wouldn’t come. He sighed, and said, “They must have a lot of faith in you.”

  “Yes, they do.”

  “But what do you or they want of me?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable about the whole thing, but decided he wanted to see it through. Perhaps they could help him and Wanda out of their predicament.

  Shala led him along the street for about a hundred yards before they turned off into a tunnel that was narrow enough that he could inspect the walls up close. The bedrock was silky smooth. A memory surfaced of a scientific article he had read.

  “Nano-mining. That’s what it is,” he said. “No wonder it took years.”

  “I believe so. Here we are …”

  The corridor opened into another cavernous area but with stone structures of a different Xeno architectural style. One of the buildings stood out from the others, being larger and more ornate; their destination. They pushed through an impressive entrance, and, after passing through a vestibule, approached another wide door. Logan could hear muted voices beyond. The entrance was pulled open before them and they walked through into a large, circular room, again smooth-hewn out of bedrock. Around the outside were a dozen or so designated seats, loungers, a glass water tank and a small tree, he assumed for decoration. Xenos occupied most of the positions. The bodymod on display was beyond extreme, and, he thought, verging on nauseating.

  Logan recognised Button-eyes sitting at centre position.

  Shala walked to a free seat, one that had a section removed at the back for her tail.

  Leo was standing by the entrance. The giant grinned at him, though Logan wasn’t sure whether to take it as friendly or menacing.

  Button-eyes spoke. “Quiet all. We have an important visitor from the outside.”

  All eyes settled on Logan.

  45

  As the Xeno Council hushed, Logan noticed that not all of them were happy about his presence. One had a furry snout and he or she was wrinkling it to good effect, like a dog that was threatened. Another had an additional eye in the middle of her forehead; it added a new dimension to frowning.

  Logan caught sight of movement in the water tank. A young, naked male swam to the front. Logan could see gills in his neck. His body was sleek and muscular, quite beautiful, Logan thought, and his face, Asian. He smiled disarmingly before raising a hand and giving a curt wave, like a salute. Logan perfunctorily returned the gesture. Nearer to him was an odd, elongated lounger that supported what he could only describe as something from a carnival freak-show. Roll up, roll up, welcome to the snake-boy ... He was distracted from the abomination by movement at his far right. It was the tree, only it was a someone, with branches seemingly growing out of his or her torso. The body looked incapable of self-locomotion, hence the wheeled structure it sat in. Later, he was to learn from Shala that this genetically engineered woman could photosynthesise her own nutrition from light and only needed water and a small basic chemical soup to survive.

  There were others here that were equally grotesque. He pried his gaze from them and back to Shala, as she was among the least disturbing in his eyes.

  She was studying him.

  “What is he thinking, Shala?” said Button-eyes.

  Shala smiled at Logan. Quietly, she said sorry to him and then, to the council, in a louder voice, she said, “He is deeply shocked, but you don’t need me to tell you that.”

  “Shala?” Button-eyes insisted.

  She sighed. “I have read him. He’s trussstworthy and his intentions remain good. He’s perfect for our needsss.”

  “Then we can begin ...” said Button-eyes.

  “Hey – just a minute. What are you saying? You can read my mind? And – what sort of needs, exactly?”

  “No, Shala is a second-generation ‘extended’ empath,” said Button-eyes. “None of us have the ability of pure telepathy. But we do have other gifts that would surprise you.” He glanced over to the tank. “We have the ability to evolve in directions other than with hard technology. Mankind is not done yet,” he said pointedly. “Many of us here see things in a different way. We are the most advanced Xenos.”

  The fish-boy floated, inert, for a moment. Did the water glow around him? thought Logan, not believing his own eyes. Fish-boy nodded knowingly.

  “Look, what is it you want from me?” demanded Logan, his eyes jumping back to the others. He couldn’t help but feel frustrated and angered at being manipulated, despite what Shala had told him earlier. He caught dog-person wrinkling his or her nose again, while fish-boy was now circling his tank.

  “Mark, please, you are feeling discomfort simply because you do not undersssstand,” said Shala.

  “You’re damn right I don’t.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not a xenophobe. I have nothing against what you’re doing here.
In fact, I admire you. You allowed us into your commune and hid us, protected us. That must put you at risk from the authorities. I’m grateful for that. But, yes, I’m shocked. And of late I’ve had more than my share of shit to deal with. It’s just a lot to process.”

  “We know. We understand,” said a beautiful and harmonious female voice. It was coming from the tree – the singing-tree, he thought in wonderment. She added, “You need to understand you are first outsider that has been permitted to see our Xeno Umbra. Some members of our council disagree with bringing you here.”

  “I know you must have many questions,” said Button-eyes, “but first we need to address our common cause.”

  “Do we actually have one?” asked Logan, opening his hands wide. He couldn’t help but push back, as he was feeling increasingly railroaded.

  “Yes, we do. To be clearer, we have a common enemy. George Grist, GNG, the Guild,” Button-eyes went on. “He wants you, simply because he thinks you have the 6thgen, Carrie. Make no mistake, once he has Carrie in his hands he will have you killed, or you will simply disappear. He is responsible for the death of Susan, or, as we named her, Dexy. She was his own flesh and blood. A deeply disturbing crime. He will not give up. You have few options.”

  “I get that. But it doesn’t explain why I’m here.”

  Button-eyes and the fish boy looked to each other. Button-eyes turned back to Logan and said, “It’s very complicated.”

  “People tell me that a lot lately. Dexy did, and I’m still here. Try me.”

  Button-eyes snickered. “Her complications were something else.”

  “I’m still waiting. I’m not moving or doing anything to help you until you explain – fully.”

  They turned to Shala. She looked to him, and he felt a familiar warmth in his brow. This time he didn’t object. She turned back to the others and said, “He’s not bluffing.”

  Button-eyes sighed lengthily. “All right – then we will try to clarify, but it will take –”

  “I have a better solution,” said Shala, getting up from her seat and facing them.