Alida gasped. The chick locked gaze with her and screamed a shot of terror straight into Alida’s heart. Alida fell back out of the tent. She jumped up and bolted with no clue where she was running to. Her implant began to scroll through different augmented realities. She couldn’t turn it off. She wanted to rip the thing right out of her head.
Some sort of medieval world, with rolling green hills and castles, pixelated and faded away. SHUQBA flashed in her vision. She stopped running and answered, her breath ragged and grating against her throat.
Alida! I’ve been trying to contact you. Are you all right?
‘Hell no! It’s a mess out here. People are dead. I’m spinning out. My implant is playing up. I couldn’t make MindLine work until you called.’ Alida collapsed to the ground and sobbed.
All right. Calm down. Look, something similar has happened in the city too. I think it has something to do with the implant calibration.
‘Graycie! Have you heard from Graycie? Did she have her implant fixed? Is she okay? Zave’s … blood and no breath. I can’t breathe.’ She hugged herself to contain her shaking.
Take some deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth. You’re panicking right now.
‘Okay, okay. I’m okay.’ She blinked fast and breathed deeply.
Look, come round to Gate 4 and I should be able to get you into the city. We can find Graycie together. Call me when you get there. All right?
‘Yep. I’m on my way.’
CHAPTER 39
Ferrassie awoke thirsty and aching. She opened her eyes. Light, coming from a window on the wrong side of the dorm, sent a bolt of pain through her head. The ceiling above her was missing the shoeprint from when she’d piffed her boot at a mozzie. Where was she? Something far away beeped insistently. She squinted and pushed up onto her elbows. She was in a small room. Not the barracks. Three other beds in the room were empty, the covers flung back and rumpled as though the occupants had got out of there quick smart. A needle in her arm was connected to a flat, empty plastic bag hanging from a metal pole.
The medical centre.
She’d been taken to the Neo medical centre because she was crook.
She sipped from a glass of water on the table beside her bed, the crud lining the inside of her mouth turning to a sticky paste. She’d be all right. The medics would sort her out. She lowered herself back down and closed her eyes.
♦ ♦ ♦
Amud was shaking her by the shoulders. His mug was only centimetres from hers, his cheeks shiny with tears.
‘What the fuck, Amud?’ Ferrassie batted his hands away with rubbery arms. He was so dramatic.
Amud crushed her to his chest and she had to spit out a mouthful of his coveralls to get a breath.
‘Aw, Rassie. You’re alive. I don’t know what I’d do if you were dead or a vegetable or whatever.’
‘You don’t have to do anything. The medics are looking after me.’ This whole thing was over the top, even for Amud.
‘No, you don’t understand.’ He fluffed up her pillows and raised the head of the bed. ‘They’re all dead.’
Amud wasn’t making any sense and she was so knackered. ‘You woke me up and I think I’ve been on some serious pharmaceuticals. I should have another kip.’ That was an awesome suggestion. Her eyelids drooped.
‘No! Don’t fall asleep again. We have to go. Can you walk?’ Amud slapped her softly on the cheek.
‘Go away.’ She tried to turn onto her side, away from him, but he pulled her back.
‘Ferrassie, listen to me. The Sapiens are all – well, mostly all – dead. It’s not safe here.’ He lifted one of her eyelids with his thumb.
The Sapiens were all dead? That was the daftest thing she’d ever heard. ‘Is this some kind of joke, Mud? Because I’m not in the mood. Let me rest.’
‘No, it’s not a joke.’ Amud peered out the window. ‘I’ve left a message for Shuqba. She can probably help us get out of the city. When I hear from her we can move.’
Ugh, Shuqba. ‘What are you still buddies with her for? She’s LC to the core.’ Ferrassie had overheard things during her house arrest in the barracks. The other Neo coppers weren’t keen on Shuqba because she was so far up the commander’s arse they didn’t trust her.
‘No, Shuqba’s a Neo first. She’s our best hope.’
‘She was going to send me to medical research.’
‘She had no control over any of that. She was hassling her boss to have you pardoned. She told me how wrong she thought it all was.’
Ferrassie closed her eyes again. He was probably right. Everything would make sense after she’d had a kip.
Amud propped her eyelids open with his fingers. ‘Look, your beef with Shuqba’s not important right now. The Sapiens are all dead and we gotta get out of the city.’
Ferrassie pulled out of his grasp. ‘Wait, what? Come again? The little-brains are all dead?’ Why did he keep saying that? That couldn’t be right. It was crackers. The nurse would clear it all up. She pressed the call button.
‘For fuck’s sake, Rassie. I’m not lying. The nurse has flies crawling out of his nose. Do you want me to drag his corpse in here to prove it to you?’
She’d never seen Amud so wound up and he’d never been much of a practical joker. A surge of adrenaline cleared some of the fuzz from her brain.
‘What’s happened to them all then? What about Lars?’ The little-brains couldn’t just croak all of a sudden. Especially not Lars. He was so healthy and had all those special health thingies on his brain implant.
Amud swallowed. ‘Lars and I got through to the free-Neos. If we can find transport out of the city we can meet up with them.’ He smiled and raised his brow ridge.
She didn’t care about the free-Neos right now. She cared about Lars. ‘But how’s Lars, Mud?’
Amud groaned. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get in touch with him today.’
‘We should go to his place.’ Ferrassie ripped the needle out of her arm and pushed away the blanket.
‘Do you know where he lives?’ Amud put a steadying hand on her upper arm.
Ferrassie’s head spun with the sudden movement. ‘No. I’ve never been to his place. Have you?’
‘No.’
‘Crap.’ Ferrassie put her feet on the floor and paused to let her dizziness pass. ‘Shuqba could probably find out for us.’
‘Huh. So now you want Shuqba –’
‘Shut up, Mud.’
Somewhere in the building a door creaked. Amud and Ferrassie stared at each other. She was wide awake.
‘Do you think that’s Shuqba?’ Ferrassie said in a low voice.
Amud bit his lip. ‘Could be. I left her a message saying I was coming here.’
The suck of rubber-soled shoes on the polished floor came steadily up the hall. Her heart hopped around like a loose cricket.
Amud stood facing the doorway, clenching and unclenching his fists. ‘Who’s there?’ he called out.
The footsteps paused and then continued towards them. Amud took a step towards the door.
Ferrassie grabbed his hand. ‘No, stay here.’
‘It’s probably another Neo patient. I thought they’d all cleared out, but one of them could’ve come back for something.’ Amud wiped his brow ridge.
The barrel of a large black gun came around the edge of the door. At the other end of it was a Sapien in a light green Neo Control uniform.
It was him.
The bloke who – along with the organ harvesters, Peony and Ferdinand – wielded the scalpels, syringes, electroshock paddles and other unnameable instruments of medical torture in Ferrassie’s persistent nightmares. Neo Control copper Noon.
‘Hands in the air, slowly,’ Noon said.
Ferrassie touched her neck, still faintly bruised in the shape of his hand, and then raised her hands. She had to be dreaming or hallucinating with all the drugs they’d pumped into her.
‘Chill out, mate. We’re not doing anythi
ng,’ Amud said.
‘All Neos must return to the workers’ barracks until we can restore order.’
‘Sure. We can do that,’ Amud said. ‘No need for the gun.’
‘This is a dream. I’m out of it. None of this can be real,’ Ferrassie murmured.
Noon stared at her. ‘I remember you. You’re headed to medical research. You have contacts with Neo rights groups, don’t you? Did you have something to do with this terrorist attack?’
Ferrassie’s throat was dry. ‘No,’ she croaked.
‘I don’t know what you’re on about, mate. Rassie here has been crook. Let us through and we’ll go back to the barracks.’
‘I should kill you now. Before you’re all wandering the streets, congregating and making plans to finish off the rest of us.’ He shifted his grip on the gun and moved further into the room.
‘Please, mate. You don’t gotta do that. We don’t want any trouble.’ Amud shoved himself between Noon and Ferrassie.
The room whirled around Ferrassie’s head. She was going to pass out.
‘Both of you, turn away from me and get on your knees.’
‘Please, no. Please. We’ll leave the city. You’ll never see us again. Please.’ Amud’s voice broke and his whole body shook.
‘I SAID ON YOUR KNEES.’
CHAPTER 40
Shuqba leaned her brow ridge against the entrance of Graycie’s building. ‘Please, BIS. Can you at least tell me if the girl’s alive?’
The Building Intelligence System had steadfastly denied her access. The fact that she was a Neo negated any authority she had as an SFO. ‘I am not authorised to share that information.’
Shuqba sighed and retreated from the building. ‘All right.’ If she tried to force entry BIS would barbecue her.
Windows stretched up to the grim grey clouds. She wasn’t sure which belonged to Graycie. She called the number of the Omni-Screen she’d found in the girl’s bedroom. There was no answer.
Shuqba was worried about everyone: Graycie, Alida, Ferrassie. Even Commander Rayne, who hadn’t responded to any of her messages or calls. They were in the middle of a crisis and there was nothing Shuqba could do. Security Force Headquarters had been full of confused Neo SFOs and med droids working fruitlessly on fallen Sapiens. If she didn’t help someone she’d fall into despair.
A message came in on her OmniScreen.
What the heck is going on? Everyone’s saying all the Sapiens are dead. I’m heading over to the medical centre to get Rassie. Come and meet us there if you can. Mud.
Shuqba sent one more message to Graycie’s OmniScreen and headed for the Neo med centre. She couldn’t think of anything else to do. She kept her head down and pretended not to hear a Neo male calling out to her from a side street. She couldn’t help any of them. The Neos roaming the streets had been stopping her and asking the same questions all morning. She had no more intel than they did.
She turned a corner to avoid a group of labourer Neos eyeing a surveillance camera and collided with a Sapien boy. He was barely a teenager, dressed only in boxer shorts, his eyes tinged pink with blood. He grabbed onto her.
‘You’re alive!’ Shuqba said. He was the only living Sapien she’d seen all morning.
His short fingernails scratched at her. He didn’t seem to understand what she was saying. Subhuman, animalistic sounds came from his mouth. He was alive but he wasn’t right.
‘Back off.’ She held him in a sanctioned self-defence pose. To take any further action would breach Security Force protocol for Neo officer interactions with Sapien Citizens.
He grunted and struggled. His long Sapien limbs reached for her. He leaned forward to bite her arm.
The time for inaction was over. She pushed him away roughly. He hit the ground bottom first, arms and legs flailing. She thrust the electropacifier she’d taken from Officer Nguyen into his ribs and his body convulsed.
Shuqba left the Sapien on the ground and jogged the rest of the way to the medical centre. The glass sliding doors opened automatically as she approached. The foyer was empty, the reception desk unattended. Moulded plastic seats awaited the backsides of walk-in Neos with health issues. Shuqba wasn’t about to search for the bodies of the Sapien night shift crew. There was nothing she could do for them anyway.
The swinging doors to the ward pushed open with a quiet whoosh. Raised voices came from the far end of the hall. Ferrassie’s room. She stepped quietly. One of the voices belonged to a Sapien male. Another sounded like a Neo, possibly Amud. She moved as stealthily as she could, gripping the electropacifier. The beds in each room were empty, some of them smooth with perfect corners, others with their covers and pillows rumpled. Halfway down the hall, at the nurses’ station, a corpse sat with its forehead on the desk.
A uniformed Neo Control Officer blotted out the light coming from Ferrassie’s room. He was holding a civilian-issue automatic rifle. Ferrassie and Amud were somewhere on the other end of that rifle. The officer told them to get on their knees. He was going to shoot them. He was going to kill two Neos for no reason. He was going to kill her friends, her people.
Shuqba stretched the electropacifier towards his back. He wasn’t subhuman like the teen who’d attacked her. He was a completely conscious agent of LeaderCorp. To assault him would’ve meant medical research for her, before. The Sapiens no longer had the power of numbers and she no longer cared about Security Force protocol or upholding LeaderCorp’s laws. She was no longer their tool. Everything that had happened since she’d arrived in the city had proven Karain right. LeaderCorp was a corrupt slave-driving junta.
She stuck the electropacifier into the middle of his spine and discharged. His legs collapsed underneath him and he fell to the floor. The light from the window opposite blinded Shuqba for a moment.
Ferrassie was sitting up in bed, her face pale and blotchy and her cheeks hollow. The wasting that had begun with her relegation to medical research had taken a firmer grip through her illness.
Amud’s eyes were red and tears dripped down his cheeks. ‘Shuqba! Thank fuck! This psycho was gonna kill us.’
The male on the floor groaned. Shuqba kicked him over onto his back. Yaphet Noon. Of all the Sapiens who could’ve not only survived but also been completely in control of their faculties, it had to be a violent, Neo-hating extremist. LeaderCorp had put this individual in a position of power and hadn’t cared about his actions until it affected their profits. She clipped the electropacifier to her waist, squatted and took his rifle, sliding the strap over her own shoulder.
‘I should shoot you right now. I saw the reports on how many Neos have been hospitalised and even killed by you.’ Shuqba kicked him again.
Amud stood over Noon, his fists clenched. ‘Is this the Neo Control arse who hurt you, Rassie?’ Amud wiped his wet cheeks with an open palm, his bravado returning.
‘Yeah.’ Ferrassie was almost as frozen as the man on the floor.
Amud spat in Noon’s face. ‘How does it feel to be the one without the power for once, huh?’
‘Could you collect some sheets to tie him up with, Amud?’ Shuqba steered Amud towards the door.
‘Sure. Aren’t you going to …?’ Amud drew a finger across his throat and poked out his tongue.
‘I should.’ Shuqba poked Noon in the ribs with the toe of her boot. ‘However, solving problems with a body count is the Sapien way.’
Amud’s shoulders sagged. ‘You’re right.’ He left the room.
‘Do you think you’re well enough to move, Rassie?’
Ferrassie gulped and pulled her focus away from Officer Noon. ‘I gotta find out what’s happened to Lars.’
Shuqba pulled out her OmniScreen. ‘I’ll give him a call.’ She didn’t have much hope he’d be alive.
Ferrassie shook her head. ‘Amud already tried that. I need his address. I’m gonna go see him.’
‘I … my apologies, Ferrassie. I don’t know his address.’
‘You’re a copper. You must have a way.�
�� Ferrassie’s face twisted with grief.
Shuqba shook her head. ‘Not without my supervisor’s authorisation. I’ll leave a message for Lars. He’ll get in touch if he can. All right?’
Ferrassie’s face reddened. ‘It’s pointless.’
Amud returned with the sheets Shuqba had asked for and some coveralls for Ferrassie.
‘You’ll all be strung up and flayed for this.’ Noon’s muscles had loosened enough for his tongue and throat to work again.
Shuqba gave him another belt of electricity, shoved the long edge of a sheet into his mouth and knotted it at the back of his head. They encircled him with two other sheets and tied him to the leg of the bed.
‘We should get out of the city. Away from troublemakers like this.’ Shuqba kicked Noon in the thigh.
Amud helped Ferrassie pull on the coveralls. ‘What the heck’s going on with all the Sapiens?’
‘Something to do with the implant calibration – I think. There’s no official word, I’m afraid. I have the codes for the armoured vans. I can drive us out of here. Except I’m not sure where we could go.’
‘I know where we can go.’
Ferrassie scowled at Amud. He held her hand between his and nodded. ‘We can trust her.’ He stood over Noon. ‘But we shouldn’t talk in front of this arse.’
They shut the door on the Neo Control Officer.
Amud held a hobbling Ferrassie as they walked down the corridor to the foyer. He spoke with his voice lowered. ‘Lars and I got in contact with the free-Neos.’
Shuqba stopped by the door to the foyer.
‘The free-Neos?’
LeaderCorp had spread the rumour that the free-Neos were a myth and then instigated a special task force to locate them. Only a month or so earlier she would’ve run straight to Commander Rayne with this sort of information. Only a month or so earlier she would’ve reported Amud for having an OmniScreen. She hadn’t done that either.
‘There’s a meeting point, away from the actual secret location. If we can make it there they’ll collect us.’
The Shining Wall Page 20