by JT Lawrence
Jackson feels his eyes on them, and turns to him. “Maistre?”
Her neck is covered in a skin-coloured platelet plaster that has beads of dried blood showing through. A red pearl necklace.
“Yes,” Lumin says.
“Yes?”
“Kill them all.” He begins to walk away.
Jackson’s grinning lips bare her fangs. She grasps the handle of her sword and swishes the steel, cutting the midnight air with elegant figure eights. Infinity.
The other Resurrectors move towards them and they’re surrounded by muscles and blades and perfumed thorns. Kate grabs Silver again and holds her close. It feels as if they’re about to be eaten by a shivering cluster of night-spiders. Oily guns glint with starlight. Jackson swirls her sword. The mask-faced members eat the ground with their feet till there is nothing left between them and Kate realises that this moment, this terrible, dirty, green-bitter moment, will be the last she ever has. Her scratched skin stops stinging, and she can smell the ribbons of rose-scent, like silk streamers floating across her vision. She hugs Silver so hard it’s as if she wants their bodies to meld. Seth is back on his feet, ready to fight, to protect them, but his tethered arms are drooping under his realisation – the one that is the mirror-twin of hers – that this time, there is no escape for them.
Chapter 82
Elegant Arrows
Cornered by the army of Resurrectors and Jackson’s sword, Kate feels her back come up against the petals and thorns of the maze’s inner hedge. Torso to torso, Silver’s arms are wound around her neck. The lights in Jackson’s eyes dance; there is nowhere to go as the killers advance.
Kate closes her eyes against the terror. Heartache threatens to consume her as she waits for the blade to run through her body. Who knew there could be so many different kinds of pain?
She stops fighting. She’s not welcoming death – would never welcome death – but at least she won’t have to live without Mally. She can’t imagine that, and now she won’t need to, and she forces herself to focus on that shimmering consolation. She buries herself in her love for Silver, drops her lips to the little girl’s neck, and loses herself in the intense embrace. If this is her last moment, let it be one of fierce and exceptional love.
All of a sudden there is the sound of a whistling projectile and Kate’s eyelids instinctively click open. A Resurrector in the back row gasps and clutches his chest. Furrowed brows and slippery fingers: blood like ink. He stutters a last breath and falls forward, and everyone jolts at the sight of the long white arrow that’s embedded in his back. They’re frozen for a moment then there is further whistling, whispering, whizzing as more elegant arrows find their meat targets. A row of ten Resurrectors cries out and falls down, then another ten. Jackson curses, drops something, and vanishes. Seth hurls himself over Kate and Silver to protect them from the missiles. She tries to see what’s happening but Seth forces her head down.
Out of the small shape that is left to her through which to witness the battle she sees scores of women appear, dressed in white robes that glow in the lunar light. They’re armed with bows, and crossbows, and as Kate picks Solonne out of the crowd of SurroSisters, she watches her extend her arm backwards, pull a diamond-tipped arrow out of her quiver, and with a practised hand place it in the bow and send the shaft straight into the chest of an approaching Resurrector. The white robes dazzle the Resurrectors’ night-vision goggles, forcing them to tear off their masks and leave their faces exposed. There are shouts and cries as men and women fall like black dominoes all around them. Lumin climbs up onto his golden plinth and starts shouting to stop the fighting, stop the fighting, while his men writhe and bleed on the ground.
When Seth realises what is happening he lets Kate go, and joins in the battle, scooping up a gun from a nearby dead body. Kate feels drunk with all that has taken place and imagines the SurroTribe as glowing warriors on horseback, or glorious cream centaurs. She watches as their pearlescent bows release bolt after bolt of retribution. Holy avengers. But as Solonne approaches, she sees that there are no horses, that the Surros are on their feet, wearing leggings and sneakers to keep them nimble.
The Resurrectors are camouflaged by the night, so Seth picks up Jackson’s dropped Tile and activates a holo flare that rises up like cobalt smoke.
More Resurrectors tumble. Solonne reaches Kate and Silver, slits the cable ties binding her wrists, and pulls them to their feet, then goes to untie Mally. Kate’s caught in a wave of anguish as marble-faced Solonne unlashes the boy’s limp body, steadies his lolling head, and draws him towards her, listening for breath or a beating heart.
Kate sees a glint of metal through the Delphic maze. Jackson. She passes Silver to a nearby Surro and runs after the steel that is flashing through the thorns and roses.
“Stop!” says the Surro, but Kate keeps running, picking up a relinquished gun as she goes, snapping it into readiness to fire, and placing her finger firmly on the trigger. She dodges the flying arrows and the bodies that litter the ground.
“Stop! We need to stay together!”
Kate hears the words but they burn up in her head. Gun cocked, she runs further into the maze.
Chapter 83
The Soundtrack is the Scent of Roses
Kate follows the flashing of the sword. As she enters the first passage, a man jumps out at her, wraps his salty fingers around her mouth, whispers hot breath into her ear. The closeness of his lips – vibrations of Zeebee – makes her body respond automatically and she elbows him in the solar plexus and head-butts him. The knock sends her skull blazing, but she blinks it away just in time to see him lurching for her again, and shoots him squarely in the chest. He falls to his knees, and his gun lands on the ground. The three bullets slow him down but his arachnasilk protects him from serious damage. While he scrambles for the weapon she darts away, and as she turns the corner, she twirls and shoots some more in his direction, not stopping to see if she hit her target.
After a while she slows down, and puts her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Just above the rambling canes she can see Seth, who now has two blazing guns. Solonne is carrying away Mally’s body. The battleground is strewn with corpses hemmed to the ground. Pinned with ivory needles. The soundtrack is the scent of roses.
She starts jogging again but something trips her and she sprawls forward, smacking her jaw on the ground. Instinctively she kicks at the object that made her stumble, not knowing if it’s a rock or a grasping hand of the enemy, and points her gun at it. It’s an arm, which, on closer inspection, turns out to be attached to a body. A Resurrector with a snapped-off arrow in his heart.
Kate’s thin coat offers little protection so she strips the dead man of his soft armour and zips it onto herself. The suit is still warm and the front is wet with blood, and it’s too big for her so she rolls it up at the bottom and pops the generous collar to shield her neck. She picks up the dead man’s gun. It’s bigger than hers; an automatic that she doesn’t know how to use, but she pockets it anyway. She moves forward again, this time feeling more like a hunter than the hunted. Armed and armoured: the protective suit seems to bring with it a sense of calm. A shape comes around the next corner and Kate shoots it without hesitation. The Resurrector – this time a woman – is taken by surprise, and Kate’s blasting gun explodes her skull with ten metres to spare.
Kate jogs on, turning corner after corner. A part of this feels surreal, like a video game; she can even see the VR artwork in her head: a circular rose maze studded with hidden treasures and enemies, but when she stumbles and falls into the brambles, it’s a painful reminder that this is very much her reality. She extricates herself from the clawing canes. Without the spider silk her arms would be stripped of skin.
Another woman appears, and despite the darkness, Kate recognises her. Would recognise her anywhere, because she was used to seeing her in her house, in her kitchen, hugging her children when they were both still alive and healthy and undamaged.
Bongi.
Surrounded by blooms, they face each other with loaded guns. Bongi’s expression betrays shock and disbelief. She lowers her gun, and holds it, shaking, at her side.
“Ma,” she says. “Will you forgive me?”
Kate pictures the dead Safeguard escort, garrotted in the train station’s public restroom stall, pictures the discarded pink backpack; the abandoned cuddle-bunny. She thinks of how the nanny slapped Silver, how she handed Lumin the secateurs.
“Ma?” Her beseeching eyes are liquid.
Kate pulls the trigger. An aperture opens up on Bongi’s forehead: there is a mist of blood. Kate pushes her sagging body to the side and keeps going.
There is movement ahead of her and she quickens her pace. Suddenly the petalled passages open up to another small clearing where a light-fountain gives the impression of a water feature. The splashing white noise calms her, and it’s as if there is a clean light inside her head and she can think clearly.
Now there are ten different lanes to choose from, so she stands on her toes, trying to catch a glimpse of any movement nearby, a clue to where to go. Her pulse is jagged.
“Lumin’s long gone,” says Jackson’s injured voice, making Kate jump. She fires the gun without meaning to, putting a single bullet into the fountain, and scrambles around, looking for Jackson, who steps out from one of the alleys, sword hanging by her side. “You’ll never find him.”
Kate’s hatred bubbles up inside her again, like before, but this time she’s got hot bullets in her hand and without thinking she squeezes the trigger as many times as she can until there is a haze of gunpowder all around them and Jackson has disappeared. The blasts ring in her ears, bouncing around like jumping metal spirals and the air is flavoured with flint.
Kate hears the swishing behind her now, and spins around. Jackson comes at her like a panther in the night, growling, and knocking her down with a perfectly-placed kick to the chest. Her head hits something hard and her bruised jaw cracks. She lies spreadeagled on the fragrant ground, trying to visualise Jackson through the camouflage of pain. She tries to stand but her legs aren’t listening to her brain. Gun still in hand, she doesn’t wait for a clean shot, and just fires into the darkness in front of her. Five bullets make it out of the gun, then she realises she’s out of ammo. She tosses the weapon aside and grasps in her pocket for the other one. She fantasises about shooting Jackson through the pocket, surprising her with a face full of bullets, but she can’t find the trigger.
She can’t find the trigger.
She can’t find the trigger.
Her fingers are blind worms. Where the fuck is the trigger? The holo water feature rushes and gurgles.
Jackson appears above her, bright teeth replacing the stars.
“There’s no point in struggling,” she whispers. “We’ve won. Don’t you see?”
Kate tries to get up but it’s as if her legs are sewn to the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Jackson says. “It’s over now. I’ll make it quick.”
Kate’s Helix screams midnight.
Jackson, shiny-faced with sweat and triumph, holds her sword above her.
Chapter 84
Fatal Crimson
Another whistling sound, one that will feature in Kate’s dreams forever. A short shrill whisper in the fresh night.
The whistling and then … it’s stopped by a smack of flesh and bone. Jackson’s eyes bulge as the arrow shoots straight through her back and emerges from her chest. She blinks and her lips move, but she doesn’t say anything. She drops the sword and wraps her hands around the stained shaft of the arrow. She coughs, a wet hack, and blood begins to trickle from her lips. It dyes her teeth fatal crimson. Her eyes begin to close, and she swoons like an actress in a vintage film. One step of an elegant death dance, and then it’s over, and she’s on the ground. Despite the clear night, a bolt of electricity cracks open the sky, illuminating the entire garden for a split second.
Kate’s losing her grip on reality. Is this the end of the world?
The bright white flash reveals the person responsible for Jackson’s demise.
Three years old, and shorter than the crossbow she is holding. Lightning highlights in her hair.
Silver.
Epilogue
Johannesburg, 2024
“M’lady,” rasps Marko. He opens his right eye for the first time since the attack. His hand travels up to the designer eye patch and his fingers run along its edges. He frowns.
Keke pulls his hand away from his face.
“Damn it, Marko,” she says, and kisses him hard. “You bastard.”
“Why don’t you guys get a room,” says Kate, and Seth smirks.
“I’d love to,” says Keke.
Marko blinks at the blank walls, the antiseptic in the air. A machine next to his head shows a steady green heartbeat.
Themba bustles in, ready to scold. “You need to be gentle with him.” Her intern badge has been replaced with a resident brooch. “Nothing too exciting, yet, please.”
They stay by his side as he drifts in and out of consciousness. Keke doesn’t let go of his hand.
The next time his eye clicks open is when a small body climbs onto the end of his bed.
“Silver.”
Silver grins and waves. Her new little finger is made of feather-light aluminium, and printed bone. It’s covered in soft, stamped silicone.
As good as the original, the Dark Doc had said, evaluating his work post-surgery. Silver had said no, which made Kate want to weep, but then she had looked at the Doc and said, it’s better.
“Thank you, Marko,” says Silver. He frowns. He hasn’t yet realised what he’s sacrificed to find her. All he can muster is: “Cool finger.”
“I also want a cyberfinger,” says Mally in a muffled voice.
Kate pulls the curtain along the rings to open up his side of the room. “Good morning!”
“Hello, roomie,” he says to Marko. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
Marko looks so relieved to see Mally, but then he takes in the boy’s full-body exocast and it makes his pulse race. He sees the quadriplegic sticker on the headboard.
Kate can see he’s trying to talk, trying to figure out what happened. When the words don’t come out, emotion takes over and his lips pull to the side. She can see the quiet devastation rolling over him.
“Easy, tiger,” says Seth, patting Marko’s shin through the cotton sheet. “Everything’s okay, now.”
Marko, anxious, puts a hand on his chest, feels the stem cell dressing, then traces his eye patch again.
How do you tell someone what we need to tell him?
Arronax clears her throat. “Alright, Mally,” she says in her crisp accent, “Marko’s awake. You know what that means, right?”
“It’s time to put on a show,” he says.
“That’s right. Are you ready?”
The boy tries to nod, but his cast keeps him from moving his broken neck. Themba fusses around him, adjusts his bespoke hospital gown, removes his catheter. Arronax snaps open the catches on the cast and levers Mally up by the arms, like a baby, while Themba supports his back. They leave his neck-brace on. They lower the bed and help him off, and everyone holds their breath. Kate lets out a small gasp when she sees him standing, and when he starts to walk, one jerking step at a time, something bursts in her chest, and she launches into full-blown sobbing.
“Look, Mom,” he says. “I can walk again!”
Silver claps and claps. Keke’s also crying now, and Themba joins in.
The picture of Meadon comes loose from the wall and flutters to the tiles below. Arronax had given it to Mally before the surgery, saying that the synth slamander was the perfect mascot for his recovery. Meadon, she had told him, is the reason he’d be able to walk again. The procedure had taken five hours, and they had implanted a 32-electrode stimulator near his C-5 vertebrae in the middle of his neck, just below the site of injury. If the break had been just a millimeter higher
–
“Well done, Mally,” Arronax says, “well done!”
Mally beams at them. “Can I go home now?”
Kate wipes her face, hugs him gently. “Soon. I promise.”
His eyes shine with tears.
Marko whispers: “Who will be my roomie, if you go home?”
They help him back into bed, smooth the starched white cotton over his pallid legs.
“I have a gift for you, Mally,” says Arronax, “for being such a strong, brave boy.” She picks up a big box from the corner of the room. It’s been wrapped in animated gift paper: a cartoon drawing of a boy playing with a dog. They race around and around the box.
Seth shoots her a look of disbelief.
Mally’s tears vanish.
“Well?” says Keke. “Open it!”
Mally rips off the paper and opens the white box. His face lights up when he sees what’s inside.
“I can’t believe it!”
Arronax helps him lift the soft nut-brown puppy out of the box and onto his lap. “It’s the brand new version of the K9000.” She switches it on and it yaps. “It’s a Loyal Labrador. Chocolate Coat. A limited edition.”
Mally’s face is already soft with love. He brings the small dog up to his chest and buries his lips in her shiny fur. “She’s warm,” he says, and the dog pants happily. “Thank you, Arro,” he says. “I’ve always wanted a RoboPup.”
“I know,” she says, winking at Seth.
The word ‘RoboPup’ and the realistic nature of the bot makes Kate shudder. It makes her feel uncomfortable, but she’ll live with it, if it makes Mally less homesick; if it offers him some happiness. God knows he deserves it, after what they’ve all been through. She looks up at the ceiling, which is crowded with white helium soft-pop balloons: A gift from Solonne.