Tod crossed his arms over his chest. ‘If we had some sort of bait – say, another surrogate womb for them – maybe they’d open the domeshield to let it in.’
Nanzee pushed her chair back from the table. ‘Uh-uh. Not me. Not this time. I won’t be bait again. You need me to help take out the two guards. I’m a better shot than you, Dad, and there’s no way we’re giving a Neo one of our guns.’
‘You’re right, Nanz.’ Tod stroked his chin and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Maybe they’d also open the domeshield for a child.’ Tod lowered his eyes to rest on Graycie.
Shuqba’s heart skipped. His proposal might be more effective than her long-shot ideas of searching for an EMP blaster or attempting a hack. She’d been prepared to put herself in peril, but not Graycie.
‘That’s risky. She’s a child.’
‘They won’t hurt a kid. Kids are important to them. That’s why she’s perfect as bait.’
Just like Commander Rayne, Tod was willing to use a child as a tool to get what he wanted.
Tod continued, ‘There are only two guards and Nanzee and I will wait in the bushes to take them out. Then we’ll all retreat to a place in the forest Rhea knows about, a bunker. Simple. Minimal risk to the kid.’
Shuqba could see it: flesh tearing; the deafening, disorienting pound of bullets cracking the air and lives ruined without a thought. So Sapien-like.
‘What do you say, Graycie?’ Nanzee ruffled the child’s hair.
‘Don’t put this on her. She’s no more than five years old.’
‘I’ll do it. If it’s the only way to make Alida safe.’ Graycie looked up at her with that trembling lip. ‘Come on, Shuqba. I can do it.’
Shuqba tutted and shook her head. The child was tough and they had no other plan to reunite her with her sister.
‘Let’s consult Alida about this.’ She activated her OmniScreen.
CHAPTER 53
The sun busted holes through the morning clouds, spreading patches of blue above the almost pearlescent domeshield.
‘It’s like we’re inside a huge soap bubble.’ Except Alida knew she’d be the one to pop if she touched this bubble. She chucked a leaf at the shimmering barrier and it crisped like a mosquito in a bug zapper.
Rhea rose up and down on the balls of her feet. ‘Are they in place yet?’
‘They’re on their way.’
Today was the day. Alida plonked onto the lawn before her legs gave out. The weirdly identical blades of grass tickled the palms of her hands. Not a single rebellious weed or wildflower messed up the perfection. The mansion loomed above the greenhouse behind them.
An alert came through on Alida’s implant. Shuqba, Graycie and Rhea’s Rewilder family were close. Alida sent a message through to Shuqba. We’re outside, pretending to be working in the greenhouses. I’m ready for the visual feed. If anything went wrong Gray could be hurt or nabbed by the transhumanists.
A blur of trees and bushes burst onto the feed rectangle on the left side of Alida’s vision panel. Graycie’s bright blue eyes and gappy teeth filled the screen for a second and then she was off, gunning down enemies with an imaginary gun.
‘Kid, you need to shut up now,’ said a male voice somewhere to the left of the screen. Alida wanted to bust Tod’s nose, even though he was right.
A jigsaw of the front of the mansion appeared through some leaves, all its slick lines and creamy rendering dreamily distorted by the domeshield. Alida’s guts were in a tangle. To top it all off she needed a shit. Anxiety was truly the best laxative. She pressed her knuckles into her belly. She’d shit her pants before bolting back into the mansion in search of a dunny.
Rhea darted from one greenhouse to another, peering around at the back door of the mansion and muttering some prayers.
‘Someone’s gonna clock you acting so suss,’ Alida whispered as loud as she dared.
Rhea gave her a dirty look and kept on darting.
‘They’re not gonna kill Kiama and Vinod, are they?’ Alida asked for about the hundredth time. They’d all been so cagey about it during the planning. The goons weren’t all that bad. This was just a gig for them. They hadn’t done anything nasty – to her, anyway.
‘It’s in God’s hands now.’ Rhea squatted on the grass beside her. ‘They’re keeping us prisoner here. They have to answer for their sins. You just worry about your sister.’
How Tod and Nanzee’s decision to shoot or not to shoot the goons had anything to do with God Alida didn’t know, but Rhea was kinda right about one thing: she needed to concentrate on Gray.
Shuqba whispered through the feed, ‘Once Tod and Nanzee are in position I’ll send Graycie out to the driveway to attract attention. As soon as the domeshield’s down I’ll retrieve her and run. I won’t let any harm come to her, okay?’
‘Okay. Can I have a quick chat to her?’
Graycie pressed her snub nose against the screen, distorting the rest of her face. Alida wished she could give her a hug and hold her hand through it all and calm her fears like she had in the old days, before Mum carked it and their whole world disintegrated.
‘Be brave, little bird, okay? And bolt when Shuqba says.’
‘I know. Shuqba has been over it with me a bazillion times.’ Graycie rolled her eyes and the feed shifted back to the mansion.
‘What’s happening?’ Rhea tapped the side of her fist against the thick plastic of the greenhouse.
‘They’re getting in place. Any minute now.’
Shuqba’s voice came through the feed. ‘It’s time, Graycie. Remember, don’t touch the domeshield, just wave your arms around close to it and the security system will detect you. As soon as the domeshield falls, run back to me.’
Alida imagined Graycie rolling her eyes again.
Graycie walked away from the screen. Her blonde hair was knot-free and in a plait down her back. There was no way Alida could ever thank Shuqba enough for everything she’d done for them. She held her breath and tensed all her muscles.
Shuqba’s arm shot into the frame, pulling Graycie back and jerking around the feed. ‘Something’s coming … a vehicle,’ she whispered.
Alida shot to her feet. ‘Who is it?’
‘What’s going on?’ Rhea dug her fingers into Alida’s upper arm.
‘I dunno. A vehicle just rocked up.’ Alida shook Rhea off.
‘Standby,’ Shuqba whispered. ‘We may have to retreat.’
‘Let me see what’s happening.’
An armoured van with tinted windows crunched the rocks of the driveway under its tyres, stopping a few metres back from the domeshield. Alida gulped. It looked a hell of a lot like the van Freel had rocked up in just a few days before. The back doors opened and two of Freel’s thick-necked goons emerged with guns dangling over their guts. She knew it. There was no way Freel would stand for being turned away. The front doors opened and out stepped Ganya and Freel, without a care in the world despite the fact they were messing up her life again. Alida held her breath; she didn’t want to give away Shuqba and Graycie’s position with any sound.
Freel and co walked up to the domeshield. Freel didn’t seem quite as chill as the last time he was there. He looked just as cocky though, hands on his hips and crotch thrust forward like he was going to piss on everyone who’d ever messed with him. Graycie whispered something in the background. Shuqba shushed her. Ganya turned her head and gave the bush a looking-over, her gaze passing just above the screen. Alida gasped as though it were her standing only metres from her former pimps.
‘What in God’s name is happening?’ Rhea’s reeking breath was in her face.
‘Those intruders from the other day are back.’
‘Where are Tod and Nanzee?’
‘I can’t see them. They’ll be fine.’
‘Holy heck.’ Rhea punched the greenhouse.
One of the goons slapped something that looked like a thick black pipe into the palm of his hand.
‘An EMP blaster,’ Shuqba whispered through the f
eed. ‘Get ready to move. They’re taking the domeshield down.’
Ganya scanned the bush again, only this time she zeroed in on the screen and saw straight through it into Alida’s eyes like she bloody knew. Alida cut the connection in a panic. Her titchy grip on Graycie slipped away. Everything was out of her control yet again.
The domeshield in front of her pulsed red and an alarm blared. ‘Assault detected on domeshield quadrant A,’ HIS repeated between blasts of the alarm.
‘What’s happening?’
For a Rewilder Rhea relied a lot on Alida’s tech. She should stop whining about the evils of technology and get her own bloody brain implant.
‘Electromagnetic pulse. Domeshield’s going down.’ And Graycie and Shuqba might have been spotted. She hoped Ganya had more important things to do, taking the mansion and all that, and didn’t bolt after them.
A grid of tiny lines appeared in the shield. Rhea pogoed up and down like an athlete limbering up for a sprint. A sharp crack and the domeshield was down. Gunshots punctuated the blaring of the alarm. Alida was glad she no longer had the feed. She didn’t want to know if Kiama and Vinod had been shot. She’d just pretend for the rest of her life that they were fine and everyone had a happy ending. Except for the plastic-faced transhumanists. They could rot.
‘Let’s go.’
Alida and Rhea ran through the flimsy layer of air where the domeshield had split their world only seconds before.
Rhea soon pulled ahead. Alida’s breath crashed like waves and her feet thudded against the dirt. She’d worn through the soles of heaps of shoes walking the Demi-Settlements and the burbs all her life, but running was something her body wasn’t sweet on. The bush was a lot messier and scratchier than it looked from a distance. Fallen branches, rocks and dead plants made it impossible to run in a straight line. She weaved and ducked her way through, all the while having shit-all luck reconnecting to Shuqba’s screen. They would be okay. Shuqba wasn’t dim. She would’ve got Graycie away. Up ahead Rhea stopped, not puffing at all. All that obsessive exercising was paying off for her.
Alida leaned forward with her hands on her knees, gulping in air.
Rhea climbed a tree. ‘I’ve never been to the bunker from this direction before. I just need to check we’re going the right way.’
‘What? Are you lost?’ Aw, hell no. Rhea’s only contribution to this rescue was getting them to the bunker. She’d asked Rhea for the coordinates so she could plug it into her implant location services and Rhea had said that she and God’s will were the only location services required. Once this was over, Alida never wanted to see Rhea ever again.
‘No and shut up.’ Rhea reached a fork about three-quarters of the way up the tree and turned herself slowly in a full circle. She shimmied down. ‘You know your Neo friend will probably be dead by now, right?’
‘What?’
‘There’s no way Tod would let a Neo live. Don’t worry. You and Graycie are welcome to come with us. Transhumanists aren’t the only ones building their communities right now. This way.’ Rhea took off in the direction Alida reckoned they’d just come from.
CHAPTER 54
Shuqba shoved the OmniScreen into her pocket and hoisted Graycie over her shoulder.
‘Quiet as a sniper now.’
Gunshots rang out behind them. She didn’t confirm that Nanzee and Tod were following. She had no loyalty to them. Let them have their firefight. The free-Neos may have had the right idea after all. If they waited long enough the Sapiens would destroy each other.
Shuqba moved swiftly and stealthily, taking the path they’d travelled earlier that day. She noted the marks she’d memorised – a bright spray of poisonous berries, an animal burrow that could turn an unwary ankle, the burnt-out husk of a tree rising up like an empty black cape – until she reached the fallen log covering a hatch that led to a cornucopia of weapons, tinned foods, water, blankets and other survival gear. The Rewilders’ insurance policy against times such as these.
Crashing noises came from the bush behind them. Tod and Nanzee were close. Now she’d helped them defeat their common enemy, they would dispose of her. All her life Shuqba had blindly accepted she was a soulless product created by the Sapiens for their use. Karain and Ferrassie had shown that Neos could be so much more than what was designated by the coding on their clone tattoos, and they’d been destroyed for it. Shuqba’s best chance of saving herself was to reach her cached assault rifle before the Rewilders caught up.
She heard a yell. The Rewilders weren’t even trying to be quiet. It wasn’t like those militants to be so careless. Something must have gone wrong. Whatever had happened didn’t change Shuqba’s mission. As soon as Alida arrived they would bug out. Shuqba lowered Graycie to the ground. The little girl’s eyes were wide with fear.
‘Are they coming for us?’
‘The SEM people didn’t even know we were there and they’ve got other problems to deal with now.’
‘But what about Ganya? She saw us.’
The pimp. ‘I’m sure she’s occupied now too.’
Graycie clung to Shuqba’s leg, the collar of her SunSuit wedged in her mouth. ‘Where’s Alida?’
‘She’ll be here soon.’ Shuqba removed Graycie from her leg and took a step towards the pile of rocks, only metres away, where she’d hidden the rifle after Tod and Nanzee fell asleep the night before.
Nanzee crashed out of the bush waving her handgun. ‘Dad’s been shot,’ she yelled. Her face was distorted and wet with tears.
She turned and shot once into the forest, her hands shaking too much to take any kind of useful aim. A second shot rang out almost immediately. Nanzee fell to the ground, hands on her chest. Blood soaked the greens and browns of her camo to a wet black. A lethal shot.
Graycie screamed and grabbed onto Shuqba. Shuqba held the girl’s face to her belly, covering her head with her arms too late to keep her from witnessing the slaughter.
Blood bubbled out of Nanzee’s mouth. Shuqba didn’t have time to consider her own safety or retrieve the rifle before the pimp strode out of the bush, the floral tattoos on her scalp alive with dappled sunlight. She held her handgun aloft and put a foot clad in sturdy knee-high boots on Nanzee’s chest, like a cloned-mammoth hunter posing for a photo.
‘Rewilder cockroaches. They drove us from one home – they won’t drive us from this one.’ She stooped, picked up Nanzee’s handgun and pushed it into the waistband of her skin-tight slacks. ‘Shame she ran. Freel would’ve liked her.’
Shuqba sidestepped, with Graycie clamped to the front of her, towards the rocks concealing her weapon.
‘Don’t move.’ The pimp pointed her handgun at Shuqba. ‘I checked your heat signatures loitering outside the mansion. Now, what I wanna know right now is what the hell’s going on here and what’s a Neo doing with my little mate Graycie?’
Graycie slid around Shuqba’s waist and breathed hot sobs right into the crack of Shuqba’s backside.
To their right the crunching of twigs and the shuffle of leaf litter underfoot broadcast the arrival of Rhea. She came around a tree, her hair dishevelled and her white overalls smeared with dirt.
‘Nanz!’ Rhea lurched towards her niece’s corpse.
The pimp kicked Rhea in the face and she fell back with her hands to her nose. Shuqba glanced towards the stashed rifle. She’d never be able to reach it and move the rocks away before the pimp shot her. She’d have to bide her time and hope the pimp’s connection to Alida and Graycie was enough to safeguard all their lives.
‘Who the holy heck do you think you are?’ Blood sprayed from Rhea’s mouth. ‘Alida told me you and those dipshits you came with are nothing but whoring Demi sinners.’
‘Alida’s here too?’ Ganya laughed. ‘Hectic. This is going to be a great story.’
CHAPTER 55
A branch snagged Alida’s hair and ripped out a chunk. The whole left side of her body was scratched up because of the blind spot from her vision panel. And she’d lost Rhea. T
he jerk had bolted ahead. Every lost second messed up her chances of saving Shuqba even more. Although she had no clue what she could do against armed Rewilders. She wished she’d never got Shuqba tangled up in all this shit. And she should never have made an alliance with Rewilders.
A flashing red message maintained that Shuqba’s OmniScreen was offline and untraceable. She hadn’t even had a chance to give her a heads-up that the Rewilders wanted to kill her. Alida disconnected from her implant. It was worth shit-all right now.
The bush around her looked the same in every direction. There was no sound of Rhea’s movements or flash of her white threads in the dense bush. Why couldn’t the jerk just wait for her? She wasn’t that slow.
Two gunshots, one after the other, silenced the birds and insects. Then a scream – Graycie’s scream – hit Alida right in the guts. Not far away. Her breakfast rose up her throat. Had she just heard Shuqba’s death? Was she too late to do something, anything? Every survival instinct told her to run away from gunshots and screams, but Graycie was where the violence was and there was always the chance Shuqba was still alive.
Alida stepped as quietly as she could towards the voices. The going was slow. Shards of dried bark crunched beneath her shoes, branches brushed against her shoulders, and she slid on rocks and gumnuts. She was only a little less noisy than if she’d stomped through waving her arms about. How had Rhea done it so quietly?
The voices became clearer. One of them was Rhea, cracking the sads about something. She couldn’t hear Graycie or Shuqba. The other voice, calm and cocky, was bloody Ganya. What was she doing there? Didn’t she have a mansion to storm?
Alida pressed against the trunk of a large tree and peered around. She wiped sweat from her eyes. Only metres away, in a small clearing, Rhea’s niece lay on the ground with Ganya standing over her. Rhea was a crumpled mess, pissing blood out of her face and all over her white threads. Graycie and Shuqba were very much alive and clinging to each other. Alida muffled a sob in her hands. She needed to act. Ganya had her gun pointed at Shuqba and Graycie. She didn’t have time to come up with one of her useless plans. Maybe that was for the best.
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