DoriaN A

by Jon Jacks

  It was a tracking device, an outmoded yet still workable one he’d taken from a pile of the arms stacked on the table behind him.

  It was a brilliant idea, slipping it into my pocket while Diana was unsighted by our positions.

  Only he hadn’t had chance to give me the codes had he?

  That, of course, would really have alerted Diana’s attention!

  But without the codes, I couldn’t use the tracking device.

  And without a usable tracking device, I couldn’t find Dean.

  And without Dean – well, without Dean, I couldn’t do anything, could I?

   

   

  *

   

   

  ‘Kerrsly,’ I said quietly enough to ensure we wouldn’t be overheard, but not so quietly that it would seem odd to anyone nearby, ‘I didn’t–’

  ‘Everything is to your satisfaction I hope, Miss Havisham?’

  Mr Bodor was suddenly alongside us, beaming like he was my favourite puppy dog.

  I’d left Fullerana and Gilleria at the table, tidying everything away into their handbags while I’d approached Kerrsly. I was hoping to catch her just as she left the table she was serving, and before she headed off for the kitchen once more.

  Unfortunately, the ever-attentive Mr Bodor had been following my every move, and had swooped towards us even as I’d begun to open my mouth.

   ‘As you see,’ he said, directing his wide smile at a cringing Kerrsly, ‘Kerrsly here has being reemployed, as you expressly requested!’

  As I requested?

  No, as Diana had requested.

  But why would Diana insist on Kerrsly having her job back?

  I hid my confusion with a smile as wide as Mr Bodor’s.

  ‘Yes, yes, Mr Bodor; as I said, I’m sure she meant no harm!’

  Now how would I know Diana would have said that as part of her reasoning for offering Kerrsly her job back?

  Well, she was me, wasn’t she?

  And even if I were wrong, and Diana had said nothing of the sort, Mr Bodor would probably find it extremely difficult to exactly recall what Diana had said. And even if he did, he would be far too polite to correct or even think ill of me for being mistaken.

  ‘That’s very gracious of you Miss Havisham, in light of the girl’s unfortunate and undoubted rudeness on the day.’

  Although his smile never faltered, he still somehow managed to give Kerrsly a sidelong frown,

  ‘Kerrsly, you should thank Miss Havisham!’

  ‘Oh yes, yes, thank you ma’am,’ Kerrsly said half mockingly, half seriously.

  She’d judged it just right. Mr Bodor seemed unsure whether he would be giving her another telling off or granting me a parting smile after successfully persuading her to thank me.

  ‘Now that’s enough lingering Kerrsly; back to work. Miss Havisham’s got much better things to do than hang around talking to you, I’m sure!’

   

   

  *

   

   

  I hadn’t managed to pass on my warning to Drad through Kerrsly, as I’d originally hoped.

  As I’d just found out that it was Diana who had insisted she was rehired, however, perhaps it was for the best that I hadn’t tried to use Kerrsly as messenger after all.

  What was the connection between them?

  It didn’t make any sense.

  Kerrsly had been literally murderously furious when she believed I was Cally’s killer.

  Now here she was accepting a job through Diana, Cally’s real murderer.

  And I was still left with the urgent problem of somehow letting Drad know that the Tigerdroids were still as powerful and dangerous as ever.

  By the time I had made my way back to my apartment, I was still dreading opening the door and finding that both Dorian and Diana were already there. But I had also reached such a point of complete exhaustion and disillusionment that a large part of me no longer cared.

  All I wanted was to throw myself beneath a hot, fiercely stinging, cleansing shower.

  To dress myself in something sharply clean, light and untroublesome.

  Even so, I didn’t linger in the shared part of our apartment; I rushed through it towards my own section, not wanting to run the slightest risk of bumping into numero uno and his copy.

  Wait.

  That’s what Dean had said, more or less.

  He’d said he was numero uno’s copy. As he’d handed me the tracking device.

  I rushed over to the drawer where I’d hidden the tracker beneath my lingerie.

  I pulled it out, quickly examined it, working out where and how you inserted the code you were wanting to track.

  Numero uno. That’s 1.

  And his copy – A.

  1A.

  As I clicked the code into the tracker, a map appeared on the small, quasi 3d screen.

  A map with our very own building towards its very centre.

  And there, as a flashing red dot lying a few floors below me, was Dean.

   

   

  *

   

   

  I either heard or sensed a movement behind me.

  I whirled around.

  She’d already managed to draw incredibly close to me.

  ‘Angeic,’ she said.

  ‘Kerrsly,’ I replied nervously. ‘How…how did you get in here?’

   

   

  *

 

  Chapter 31

   

  By way of an answer to my question, ‘How did you get in here?’, Kerrsly smirked, producing and holding up what looked like a lipstick.

  She twirled its base.

  Instead of lipstick, a small, bloodied little finger rose up from its holder.

  I shook my head, both in horror and disbelief.

  ‘Ah ah; DNA locks aren’t fooled that easily. They detect decay.’

  ‘Not when it’s encased in a miniature freezer developed by your husband to be.’

  ‘Dorian? Why’s he helping you? Don’t you realise he’s responsible for Cally’s death?’

  She nodded grimly as she slipped the ‘lipstick’ back into her pocket.

  ‘Of course I know! And I also know that you’ve failed; you didn’t manage to neutralise the Tigerdroids, did you?’

  ‘All I’ve got to do is scream Kerrsly and–’

  ‘Scream?’ she laughed bitterly. ‘Is that what you think Cally would’ve done if she thought she was in danger? Scream? And you call yourself her twin?’

  She was right. Cally wouldn’t scream for help; she’d respond to a scream for help!

  ‘Luckily for you, I’m not here to hurt you; I’m here to warn you. I reckon Dorian’s put two and two together and worked out you’ve gone native with the rebels and are trying to sabotage the Oasis’ defences.’

  ‘He caught me wandering around in areas I shouldn’t have been in. But…how do you know all this?’

  ‘Because she came to me, didn’t she? Cally’s murderer. Pretending to be you, of course. Telling me that you’d – she’d – supposedly managed to negate all the defences. And that I should tell the rebels. If she’s telling me that, that means all the defences are still working; and they’re wanting Drad to fall into a trap.’

  ‘How did you know it wasn’t me, that it was Dia – my copy?’

   ‘Hah! You, you still remember how close I came to killing you. So you’re wary, a little bit frightened, when you talk to me. Even when you approached me in the restaurant earlier. Her, goddamn her, she’s as confident as anyone comes. Plus, I felt like strangling her right there and then. Oh yes, I knew it was her right enough.’

  ‘She was the one who got you your job back,’ I said, still suspicious.

  ‘It was part of the deal.’ She hung her head, ashamed.

  ‘Deal?’ I was more suspicious, more wary, than ever.

  ‘I…I needed my job back; my family were starving, homel
ess. And…and I didn’t know you were Cally’s sister. I just couldn’t understand how close you two were. So suddenly close! I just wanted you out of the way again! They were just supposed to rescue you! I didn’t think Cally would be killed!’

  ‘Kerrsly! You betrayed us? You betrayed Cally?’

  ‘I just thought they’d rescue you! I didn’t think Cally would be killed!’

  ‘You saw what happened last time the Tigerdroids rescued me! How could you think no one would be killed?’

  ‘I thought we’d all just run away, leaving you to be rescued! I thought we’d all run because we’d seen the damage the Tigerdroids had done last time!’

  ‘Cally was my sister! She’d fight to the death to save me!’

  ‘I didn’t know she was your sister then, did I?’

  She hung her head ashamedly once more.

  ‘Kerrsly, if it helps – you’re not entirely to blame for Cally’s death. They were tracking me; there was a tracker in the ScoutBot, that machine I arrived in.’

  She shook her head.

  ‘No, ScoutBots don’t have trackers; they’re protectors, remember? That’s why he approached me, promising me my job back, promising you’d just be safely whisked away.’

  ‘He?’

  I was increasingly surprised by Kerrsly’s knowledge of Dorian’s weaponry.

  ‘We know him as Barrel; the gunrunner who keeps us supplied with weapons. We didn’t know he worked for Dorian, of course. He told us he got all his equipment through smuggling. I must’ve been muttering a few snide things about you around him, because he sensed I’d like you out of the way. Cally never trusted him fully, see, which is why she let me deal with him. So he didn’t know where she was, or you. But he did know that you were outside the Oasis, because the guards on the gate always let Dorian know what’s going on.’

  ‘Then – wait! Kerrsly, anyone from outside who isn’t an evening worker is supposed to have left the Oasis by now. They’ll know you haven’t left!’

  She smiled.

  ‘I’ve already left, as far as the gate’s guards are concerned. See, once I confessed to Drad what I’d done, so I could warn him that Barrel was working for Dorian, we managed to persuade Barrel to tell us about the secret tunnel. A tunnel he used to get weapons out of here to the outside world.’

  ‘Persuade?’ I repeated doubtfully.

  She raised the gruesome finger once again.

  ‘Whose DNA do you think I’ve been using to get around?’

   

   

  *

   

   

  ‘He even had access to my rooms?’

  I was appalled. I was almost glad that we were now using his finger to once again gain access to the areas Dorian restricted me from entering.

  ‘He was Dorian’s spy, rather than a gunrunner,’ Kerrsly explained. ‘Supplying us with weapons was probably just Dorian’s way of ensuring we always posed a threat to the Oases.’

  ‘Ensuring increased sales of his more sophisticated weaponry to the Oases themselves, right?’

  ‘Right!’

  We were moving through the dim rooms quite swiftly, following the course the tracker was leading us on.

  A course leading us to Dean!

  I might not have failed in my mission after all.

   

   

  *

   

   

  We were entering the building’s lower rooms, rooms I’d always taken to be the Droid factory’s main working areas and therefore of no interest to me.

  I’d naturally stayed away from them, whether they were restricted to me or not.

  There were laboratories and test labs here, vats and glass cases containing various degrees of intermingled biological matter and machinery.

  There were half-formed Animadroids and Animabots, or experimental limbs and internal organs, all kept alive, even jerkily moving, by languidly blinking computers.

  Disconcerting eyes watched our steady movement through the displays, mouths moved as if about to cry out an alarm.

  Worst of all were the areas where outmoded Animadroids had been sent back for recycling, their usable parts collected in large, transparent freezers, the parts deemed useless strewn casually across motionless conveyor belts and silent machine feeders.

  But at least we were nearing the red blip that was Dean.

  We entered a larger, much less cluttered laboratory than all the others.

  The glass cells here didn’t contain sections of animals.

  They contained human parts.

  Human lungs, breathing.

  Human stomachs, gurgling quietly.

  Hearts beating (not as fast as mine).

  Fingers grasping.

  Elbows flexing.

  Eyes winking.

  And Dean!

  Dean was in the very centre of the displays, a lazy smile on his face as he noticed my surprise at seeing him

  His dreadful injuries had been miraculously treated, his face entirely whole and beautiful again.

  I ran towards him.

  ‘Dean! You’re cur–’

  I skidded to a horrified halt.

  He was suspended on cables and tubes descending from the ceiling.

  His lower half had gone. A mix of neatly curled and collected bio machinery and human material hung down from his torn torso

  ‘Dean? What has Dor–’

  His head, his eyes, followed me, observing my confused shock.

  He smiled, tried to talk, but nothing came out.

  ‘Terrifying, isn’t it?’ he somehow managed to finally, faintly say, even though the mouth’s movement didn’t match the words.

  ‘Angeic…’

  Kerrsly was alongside me. She nodded off towards the area beyond Dean’s hanging torso.

  I realised I’d been frozen to the spot. I pulled my eyes away from the hanging Dean.

  Someone was drawing closer.

  It was Dean.

  The real Dean.

   

   

  *

 

  Chapter 32

   

  ‘Dorian’s earlier experiments,’ Dean said, indicating the terrifying half or even quarter formed copies surrounding us. ‘Best that could be said of them is that they all suffer from various degrees of success or failure.’

  A butcher’s yard, a human slaughter house, couldn’t have been any more chilling than what we were seeing here. Many of the parts here were still being kept artificially alive, moving, bubbling, blinking.

  And, ostensibly, they were all parts of the same person.

  Dorian.

  There were multiple, partially or horrendously deformed examples of his face.

  There were numerous versions of his hands, some painfully clenched like crab’s claws.

  Legs and arms came in different sizes.

  ‘I came across this as I explored my relatively extensive prison,’ Dean explained. ‘No doubt Dorian enjoyed the thought of the horror I’d feel when I came across my predecessors; it’s a very clever way of reminding me how humble my beginnings really were. Formed from little more than butcher’s wastes and offcuts.’

  He stopped by a transparent cell, from out of which various eyes stared and mouths gawped.

  ‘They suffered so I could be born.’

  ‘Ah, but you should see Angeic’s own little collection.’

  Diana silently stepped from behind a more solid line of high cabinets.

  ‘Would you like to see that Angeic? Your very own predecessors?’

  Before I could answer, Kerrsly had rushed past me, flinging herself in a flurry of whirling clothes at Diana.

  ‘Diana!’

  Kerrsly was no problem for the lithe Diana.

  Diana twisted, spun out of the way, bringing her hands down hard across Kerrsly’s back. Utilising the girl’s own momentum, Diana sent Kerrsly plummeting onwards and ungainly struggling to stay on her feet.

  B
efore either Dean or I had time to react, Diana brought a leg up high as part of her same spinning movement, brutally striking Kerrsly across her midriff.

  Kerrsly was sent sprawling across the floor.

  With a skip, hop, and jerking kick to the head, Diana knocked Kerrsly unconscious.

  It was all over before I could even scream.

  And Kerrsly was one of Cally’s well-trained rebels.

  What chance did I have against Diana?

   

   

  *

   

   

  Kerrsly’s forehead was cut far worse that I’d thought possible.

  Blood poured from it no matter how much I tried to stem its flow with my swiftly soaked handkerchief.

  Diana tut-tutted mockingly.

  ‘Such a shame; she’s been very useful to us, of course.’

  ‘She realised her mistake in trusting you.’

  ‘Really? But I’m here, aren’t I, catching you once again in a place you aren’t supposed to be? How would I know you were here, if Kerrsly wasn’t helping us?’

  I gently pulled Kerrsly’s sleeve back, feeling the bared flesh of her upper arm.

  There! A small disc just beneath the skin.

  ‘Tracker! You were tracking her!’

  Diana grinned merrily.

  ‘Oh, didn’t you know? Anyone from outside with an Oasis job is implanted with a tracker while they’re put to sleep for their health checks. Double security, see?’

   ‘That’s hardly betraying us.’

  Kerrsly seemed weaker than ever.

  I hoped Dean would return quickly with the first aid pack he’d gone for. (‘Oh, don’t bother looking in the weapons room,’ Diana had sneered. ‘You’re not allowed anywhere like that anymore of course.’)

  ‘No? True, she didn’t know of the tracker, but she certainly knew she was leading you to where we wanted you; somewhere where we could be sure you weren’t up to something that might jeopardise everything.’

  ‘Why would she help you? You killed Cally, the girl she loved.’

  ‘Well yes, loved – in the past tense! Young girls are so fickle, don’t you think? Besides, what do you think she’d do if her beloved was effectively resurrected in an almost perfectly identical yet more beautiful and exciting form?’

  I looked down sadly at the dying – yes, I believed she was dying now – Kerrsly.

  Did she really love me?

  I couldn’t believe a word Diana was saying.

  ‘This was all I could find,’ Dean said as he stepped into the room holding up a first aid box he’d obviously had to rip off a wall.

  ‘Tut tut; damaging company property!’ Diana grinned happily at her own witticism.

  ‘I don’t think any first aid box could help her Dean.’

  Kerrsly was growing colder by the second. Her skin was greying.

  ‘Oh, that really is so unfair,’ Dorian said, entering the room from the other side of the room and deftly throwing a screen globe into the area between us. ‘She won’t be able to see the massacre of your sister’s rebels, Angeic!’