• • •
Raven smiled icily as the teenager entered the apartment. She was not happy about the course of action she had chosen. She didn’t like revealing herself in this way, but betraying some of her Hex abilities had been necessary to intimidate Ali. She might have managed to maintain her disguise for a short while at Tarrell’s glitzfest, but she had no expectation of sustaining that image without an added lever. Looking at the slim blonde girl, facing her across the room, Raven was conscious of feeling annoyed. Ali was slightly taller than her.
Raven had never felt inferior to anyone. At nine years old she had forced people to respect her in order to survive. Her ability to do things far beyond the capabilities of other people meant that most of the time she considered herself superior to anyone else. As a person and as a Hex, Ali was beneath her contempt. But Ali was the spoiled daughter of a wealthy and influential man; Kez had told her all about the Gateshall clique before their visit to the Tarrell’s apartment. For an instant, as Ali entered the room, Raven felt like a streetrat from the slums of Denver, and she had to force her hands not to curl into fists.
Ali’s eyes were wide with apprehension as she looked at the younger girl. The sophisticated Elizabeth Black, whom Zircarda had been so jealous of, had melted away. In her place, dressed in black army gear, staring straight at her, was the stranger in the matrix. The veneer of deceptive artifice had cracked, revealing something rawer and much more dangerous. For the first time in her life Ali faced someone who had the power to destroy her and the will to do it. But strangely, she didn’t shudder. She had passed beyond terror and her voice was level as she spoke.
“Who are you?”
Dark eyes flashed, something unpleasant glinting in their depths. But for once, their owner did not even consider dissembling.
“Call me Raven.”
“What do you want?” Ali held herself perfectly still, awaiting the answer. Before Raven could reply, the door opened.
Wraith and Kez stopped dead as they saw Ali. Raven hadn’t expected them to be back so quickly. Now she resigned herself to the inevitable, as Wraith placed the two heavy duffel bags he was carrying on the floor, and turned to confront her.
“Raven?” he asked.
“Come in, Wraith,” she told him. “Both of you, you might as well hear this as well.”
“Hear what?” Kez asked, studying Ali curiously.
“Sit down,” Raven insisted, including Ali in the invitation, and seating herself where she could keep her eyes on the girl. “I think I might have found us a way into that lab.”
Kez’s eyes widened incredulously, but Wraith was quicker to comprehend. He looked seriously at Ali who was sitting uneasily on the edge of a chair, before looking back at Raven.
“Does she know?” he asked.
“Do I know what?” Ali demanded. Now that she didn’t have to face Raven alone she was becoming bolder and Raven realized it. In a moment she had seized the initiative again.
“I was just about to explain it to her,” she told Wraith. Then she fixed Ali with a level stare. “How long have you known you were a Hex?” she asked.
“Me?” Ali froze to her seat, but it was no more than she had expected, and she answered honestly, fixed in the headlight glare from Raven’s eyes. “Only about a month.” She hesitated. “Are you going to turn me in?”
“No,” Wraith replied, unequivocally, earning himself a disapproving sideways glance from Raven.
“You’re a Hex too, aren’t you?” Ali said. “It was you I met in the network that time.”
“Yes, it was me.” Raven leaned back in her chair. “And I’m not going to turn you in, although everything I warned you about still holds true. I’m going to offer you a proposition. And you would be wise to accept it.”
“What kind of proposition?” Ali asked suspiciously. Strangely enough, the dark-eyed girl was beginning to remind her of Zircarda; she had the same look in her eyes that the leader of the Gateshall clique got when she was determined to do something.
“Let me explain,” Wraith intervened. “It’s a long story.”
“Go on.” Ali waited.
“None of us are exactly what we seem to be,” Wraith began and Ali raised her eyebrows expectantly, hardly surprised. He smiled wryly and continued: “Raven and I are brother and sister. We, and Kez,” he glanced briefly at the boy, “have been searching for my other sister, Rachel. . . .”
As Wraith elaborated, Ali slowly began to relax. The story was one of the strangest she had ever heard, involving gangers, government organizations, secret laboratories, and covert plans. It was almost as implausible as a vidfilm, but somehow Ali believed it. The strangest part of all was Wraith’s account of how they gained their information. Ali was fascinated by the idea of how Raven was able to control the network, but the younger girl volunteered no information and Ali was too intimidated by her stark stare to ask any questions. But Wraith’s measured explanation, coupled with the fact that it didn’t look as if she was going to be turned over to the CPS, was gradually calming her down. But when Wraith reached his conclusion her alarm returned.
“You want to use me as bait for the CPS?” she said in shock.
“It’s our best chance of finding Rachel.” Wraith began but Ali didn’t let him finish.
“No chance,” she told him, standing up to leave. “I’m not doing this.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Wraith. But I doubt your sister’s even alive. The CPS kill people, and I don’t want to be one of them.”
“Don’t be so hasty,” Raven snapped. “You might regret it.”
“Are you threatening me?” Ali asked, and Raven smiled.
“No,” Wraith said quietly. “If you’re unwilling to help us, we won’t force you. But please give it more consideration.”
“I can’t,” Ali told him. “I’m sorry.” With that she turned and left the apartment without looking back.
Wraith watched her go with troubled gray eyes, but he didn’t try to stop her. As the door swished shut behind Ali, Raven hissed with annoyance.
“I could have made her do it,” she told him.
“She’s only a child, Raven,” he said sternly. “I refuse to allow you to manipulate her. This is our problem, not hers.” For a moment he looked as if he might say something more, but he changed his mind and left the room without adding anything.
Raven and Kez looked at each other: Outmaneuvered, Raven didn’t seem to know what to say, and Kez didn’t feel in a mood to say anything. Wraith had been scrupulously honest in telling his story to Ali—too honest, Kez felt. The ganger hadn’t neglected to mention how Kez had joined their group and he hadn’t missed the expression of contempt that crossed Ali’s face.
“So much for your idea,” he said eventually.
“It was your idea to start off with,” Raven reminded him. “I simply provided an alternative Hex.”
“Do you know anyone else we could use?” Kez asked.
“What do you think I am?” Raven frowned. “A detective agency? I only found her out by accident when she was fooling around in the net.” She drummed her fingers on the side of her chair with irritation.
“You don’t like her very much, huh?” Kez asked.
“She’s almost as brainless as she looks,” Raven said. Then she gave him a considering look. “Somehow I doubt you’ll be seeing much more of that clique she belongs to.”
“I don’t want to,” Kez said angrily. But he was angry with Wraith, rather than Raven. “Let’s get out of here,” he said impulsively. “Your cover’s been blown now, anyway.”
“You’re right,” Raven agreed. “I’m sick and tired of this whole business. If Wraith doesn’t like my ideas that’s his problem.”
“Are you going to give up?” Kez asked.
“Why not?” Raven shrugged. “Anything’s got to be more interesting than this.”
Kez hesitated. He was angry with Wraith, and Raven’s disenchantment with his way of operating was infectious. But he couldn’t help remem
bering how Wraith had looked when he had thought Rachel was dead, and now that he had got involved with the ganger’s search, Kez felt reluctant to abandon it so easily. Raven was waiting for him to reply and Kez wanted to be able to agree and just take off with her, despite the fact that he didn’t trust her anymore. But he couldn’t do it.
“I think we should stick with Wraith,” he said reluctantly.
“Wraith can’t be helped,” Raven told him scornfully. “He’s obsessed with ethics—it’s like a disease.”
“Do you think we could persuade Ali to agree to help us?”
“I could,” she shrugged. “But it’s no use if Wraith negates everything I say.”
“Then we’ll have to go around him,” Kez told her.
“Oh?” Raven waited curiously, and taking a deep breath, Kez made his suggestion:
“Tell Ali the CPS are already after her,” he said. “Then she’d have no reason not to join us. With her inside that lab, we could find Rachel and break them both out. Without us, she’d be stuck there forever.”
“As long as she lived,” Raven interjected. “We’d have to make sure she got sent to the lab. Otherwise she’s no use to us.”
“You seemed pretty sure she would be,” Kez reminded her.
“I still am,” Raven said. “But there’s an element of chance in everything.” She thought for a moment, then nodded decisively. “We’ll do it. But not yet. I have to make the discovery accidentally.”
“Why?” Kez looked suspicious and Raven sighed with annoyance.
“Because Wraith has to be the one to tell her,” she informed him. “You saw the way she behaved. She trusts him, and she’ll believe whatever he tells her.”
“That means we’ve got to convince Wraith too,” Kez said doubtfully. Raven shrugged.
“We’d have to do that anyway,” she replied. “We couldn’t tell Ali something like that without him finding out. But if we can make Wraith believe Ali’s in danger and tell her so, she’ll do as we say.”
“If Wraith finds out we’ve tricked him . . . ,” Kez began, but Raven interrupted him:
“If he does find out, it’ll be too late to object,” she declared. “Wraith wants into that lab more than either of us. This is the way to do it.”
• • •
When Raven suggested that they move out of the Belgravia Complex, just in case Ali reported them to the Security Services, Wraith didn’t make any objection. He had been against moving into the complex to start off with, and although he didn’t think Ali would risk calling out the Seccies, he preferred to err on the side of caution. The next morning, after having been at the complex for less than a week, Elizabeth Black and Kester disappeared. As far as the housing corporation were concerned, they had notified them of their intention not to renew the lease on the apartment for another month, a removal company had been hired to sell the furniture and forward the proceeds to an American bank account, their flitter had been returned to the rental company, and Nimbus Airlines’ database registered them as having traveled to San Francisco on the 9:00 a.m. flight, together with a Mr. Ryan Donahue.
In actual fact Wraith, Raven, and Kez had moved no further than the Stratos Hotel, signing in under different names and requesting a secluded suite. The hotel had been Raven’s choice and she had brought her collection of disks with her, packed into three large crates in the customized skimmer that had replaced the flitter. Apart from that they had mostly traveled light, taking only what they could carry. But this had included the equipment Wraith and Kez had collected.
It was standard electronic equipment, obtainable perfectly legally from any store, but what Raven was using it for was completely unorthodox. Since she had agreed to go ahead with the decision to keep looking for Rachel, even without Ali’s assistance, she was making elaborate preparations. Wraith allowed her to make adjustments to his laser pistol and didn’t inquire what she intended to do with the rest of the equipment. He considered himself fortunate that she hadn’t flown into a rage after he had stymied her attempts to use Ali as bait. But Kez, who had more or less resolved his difference with Raven, had the heap of electronic innards explained to him in detail during their first day at the hotel.
“Most of this is to do with getting into the lab’s system,” Raven had explained. “If I can find their central control room I’ll be able to control it without physical intervention. But until I get there I’ll have to trip circuits and fool security, all of it manually. For that I need tools.”
“You’re making them yourself?” Kez asked.
“I told you it wasn’t just computers I had an affinity with,” Raven reminded him. “Who do you think made Wraith’s transceiver?” By then Kez had had that device explained to him in more detail than he felt able to cope with, but he knew why Raven had brought up that particular piece of equipment as an example. Among the spaghetti of cables and wires on the long dining table of the hotel suite was a more delicate piece of electronics. It was tiny, involving microcircuitry that the stores could not have provided. Raven had produced the miniature circuit-board and some specialized tools from the duffel bag that she had brought with her to gangland when Kez had first met her. From it she had created a transceiver device similar to Wraith’s. But this one was not intended to be surgically implanted. It took the form of a plain white ear-stud, something that would hardly be noticed. Especially not when worn by a seventeen-year-old girl. Raven had even produced a matching stud for the other ear, although this one was without circuitry. But the first stud was a piece of equipment any electronics designer would have been proud of. Barely five millimeters in diameter, it contained a transmitter, receiver, location beacon, and private sensor. If Kez’s plan worked and Ali went into the lab, Raven would be able to keep complete track of her, every second she was there.
• • •
Bob Tarrell was surprised by the sudden disappearance of his new acquaintances. But Elizabeth had left a message on his vidcom, apologizing and explaining that AdAstra had unexpectedly recalled her to the States, and after all there was no reason for him to be especially concerned. The media was full of the news of his new channel and the shareholders were predicting a roaring success.
His daughter was more alarmed. She watched the morning news with her father on Monday on Populix, one of his channels. The main story was the launch of CultRock, showing that her father had exploited his ownership of the news channel again. But she was not concentrating on the program. Her thoughts revolved round the gangers’ departure and what it signified and she barely noticed the screen until a brief remark at the end of the item.
“While CultRock looks set to be a major success, the US channel that first encouraged this latest music sensation has gone into receivership. AdAstra is no longer online and its database has disappeared from the net.” For a split second the reporter’s expression wavered between annoyed and puzzled and finally settled on tolerant. “The channel has refused Populix access to any footage of its programming and has recalled Elizabeth Black, an AdAstra researcher who assisted in the launch of CultRock.” The reporter adopted a more upbeat tone as the channel moved on to show pictures of celebrities arriving at the Tarrells’ apartment for the launch of CultRock, and Ali subsided.
Despite the matter-of-fact way the story had appeared on the news, she was suspicious of the official explanation. She knew that Raven wasn’t really “Elizabeth Black,” and she also had doubts about AdAstra. It seemed a bit too convenient the way the channel had simply disappeared. Obviously the gangers had decided to cover their tracks when they departed. That suited Ali. She hadn’t wanted to get involved with them in the first place and the further away they were, the better. She had no intention of reporting them to the Security Services though. Aside from the fact that she was nervous of being questioned about her involvement with them, she had nothing substantial to report. To go to the Seccies with the story she had been told, starring a white-haired ganger called Wraith and his sister, a dangerous and perhaps ins
ane Hex named Raven, would be ludicrous. She kept her own counsel. But it had been difficult for her to cope with the questions of the rest of the clique that day at school.
Listening to the vapid conversation, Ali almost agreed with Raven’s contempt for these people, even though it included her. Her encounter with the gangland Hex had affected her in more ways than she had realized at first, and one of them was the way it had distanced her from the rest of the Gateshall students and her clique in particular. Even though she was safely ensconced in the middle of the group she felt as isolated from them as if the CPS had found her out and were already driving her away. Raven’s repeated assertion that she would be caught had sunk in. She was no longer able to convince herself that she was safe. Raven renting that apartment had been like gangers bypassing security and invading the heights of London. Nothing felt normal to Ali anymore.
• • •
Kez was feeling equally uncomfortable. He had suggested that they deceive Ali in order to help Wraith. He wanted to help the ganger find his sister and he hadn’t forgotten that Wraith had promised to take care of him, while Raven had obviously never even considered it. But, despite wanting to help Wraith, he was beginning to feel that he had made a deal with the devil.
In order to take his mind off how miserable he was, Kez tried to make himself useful. Gradually he was beginning to learn some of the most basic concepts of electronic science, despite the fact that Raven was not the most patient of teachers. Her natural aptitude for anything technological, coupled with her years of experience, made him less than a novice compared to her. But at least he was doing something, and in reward for his persistence Raven didn’t subject him to any sudden flares of anger when he made a mistake. He spent most of his time creating the frequency-activated explosive charges with which Raven intended to blast their way into the lab. They were basically simple devices, although Raven supervised the final installment of the charge that would activate the explosive. Wraith obtained more lethal equipment from the Countess and had opened negotiations with her to hire the services of some men to act as muscle backup when they broke into the facility. The whole operation was looking increasingly serious. Kez doubted that it would succeed the way Wraith envisaged it. But he hoped that, with the additional element that he and Raven were devising, the plan might yet work.
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