by Mark Lingane
“Where’s the mayor?” Sebastian asked. “I was told he wanted to see us.”
“He’s presently indisposed and has asked me to deal with the situation.” The woman continued to sign her paperwork, keeping her head down.
“What situation?”
“If you wish to continue these practices of dark deeds you will be thrown into jail and never allowed out.”
Isaac’s head snapped up. “We had nothing to do with it,” he protested.
She put down her paperwork and stared at them. Her eyes shimmered yellow in the early-morning light falling through the windows. She tilted her head, smoothed her hair back off her forehead, folded her hands and focused on the boys.
“Are you stupid, child? I saw you with my own eyes, with those poor creatures thrown at your feet.”
“This isn’t fair,” Isaac said. “We turned up, they were there, and then you turned up. After that, we were chased. The crowd got ugly and was baying for blood.”
“If you wish to incite anger in a crowd, you must deal with the consequences. Cause and effect, child. Responsibility is the responsibility of each resident of the city in these difficult times.”
Kerry looked at the guard and waved him away. He nodded and left. The sound of the old wooden door closing firmly spoke of secret meetings and unseen acts, fear and corruption.
“If you wish to continue to deny what was evident for all,” she continued, “then we shall see that you minors are going to need some guidance. We shall instill some commandments, I mean rules, that you shall follow, or severe punishment will be enforced.”
Isaac and Sebastian looked at each other.
“Rules?” Isaac said.
“Rules?” Melanie said. “What rules?”
“Curfew,” Sebastian said. He sat down on her chaise, normally the reserve of Gavin.
“Hah! Has little Sebastian got to be in bed early so he’s ready for school in the morning? Is he getting a little too tired at night? Annoying teenage boys off the streets late at night. What a sensible idea.”
“When she says minors, she means everyone under the age of nineteen.”
An icy quiet descended over the room.
“Right.” It was all she needed to say.
They debated whether they should go straight to the mayor or to Nikola. Nikola won. They walked with purpose toward the administration building. Melanie was so furious she had stopped swearing and gone quiet. He had never seen her like this and it was inspirational, exciting and petrifying all at once. She was crimson with rage.
As they approached the city center they spotted a large, unruly group of young men imbued with an attitude of aggression. One in the group pointed at Sebastian and shouted.
Melanie thrust Sebastian away and told him to run to their safe place. “I’ll handle it,” she said. If they wanted a tesla they were only going to get one through her.
The alley was narrow with tall buildings hemming them all in. A short man carrying a thick piece of wood, and the expectant air of a hooligan, stepped up to her. The other young men crowded in behind him, the occasional one brave enough to lob a denigrating comment from the back of the crowd, where his face was well hidden.
“Out of the way, girl. We don’t want to hurt you,” said the short man, watching the fleeing figure of Sebastian. “We only want the tesla.”
She stared, unblinking, into his eyes. “You shall not pass,” she whispered.
He gave her body a close, leering look and ended up with his face inches from her own. His breath stank of cheap liquor and foul meat, and his rotting clothes were covered in the grime of a man who chooses the street as his bed after a long night in disreputable places.
“I know you. I’ve seen you with them. You’re one of them tesla lovers,” he drawled.
The way he said tesla was meant as an insult, so Melanie took it as one. Before the man could blink he found the barrel of a small pistol rammed against his forehead.
“Some may use that tone of voice among their friends and think it’s acceptable, possibly even funny and clever. But out here, right now, I’m guessing your friends are having a change of opinion, and it isn’t funny or clever. Most teslas are young boys who are so weakened by their talents they can’t stand up for themselves. And maybe that makes you feel better about yourself and your own miserable life with its lack of achievements, picking on someone weaker than you, which, let’s face it”—she looked him up and down—“is a fairly small pool of opportunity. But I’m here to tell you there’s more to teslas than meets the eye. For one thing, there’s me.”
She paused, letting her words sink in. She brandished the pistol.
The man started sweating profusely.
“Consider me their lucky charm. So drop your wood and show me how you can grow as an individual.” She cocked the pistol. At this close range he could see the bullet drop into the chamber.
The wood clattered to the ground and he raised his shaking hands into the air. She stood in front of him, glaring unflinchingly into his eyes until she could feel his spineless mentality crawl further up his own backside. She stepped back, raised her pistol and slowly released the hammer. She turned to leave.
The rest of the men let out a collective sigh of relief.
Except for the spineless man, who saw an opportunity. He scooped up the wood and lunged after her. She spun and raised her pistol. There was a shot and the man fell to the ground.
The men went crazy. Never before had a shot been fired in anger between the inhabitants of the city. There was a surge from behind the fallen man, pushing her against the wall. She twisted, leapt up on to a streetlight, swung out over the throng and landed on the other side of them. They all turned and charged toward her. She ran.
“What happened?” Sebastian said. He had spent several anxious minutes waiting in their secret place, hidden in the depths of the industrial zone.
Melanie was still furious but pale. She paced frantically around the small, abandoned storeroom. “There was some tough talk. One guy felt lucky. There was a shot and the guy dropped dead.”
Sebastian’s face was a mask of shock.
She stopped her pacing. “The problem is,” she said, “I didn’t fire. Something’s going on. You go to my quarters. I’m going to get some answers.”
28
“YOU SHOT HIM?” Nikola said.
Melanie had managed to sneak to his office via a series of well-disguised service routes. The streets were alive with aggressive, idle young men with more liquor inside of them than common sense. Some, disturbingly, had wrapped copies of the city flag around themselves like capes.
“No.” She withdrew her gun and slammed it on the desk. “This is a Century 051, designed to make a loud sound rather than kill someone. At best, it delivers a flesh wound. Even at point-blank range it doesn’t have the power to pass through ordinary bone let alone the thick layers of a skull. Particularly thick in his case,” she added.
He picked up the gun and rotated it in his fingers. He nodded. “I recognize it.”
“What worries me is that everyone’s going to think I shot him. I need my name cleared on this. Can you call in some favors from the council members?”
“They’re not the same people as before. The old members have either left or are dead. The council’s full of new faces of people from out on the plains.”
“All of them are new?”
“I don’t need to tell you there’s a different mindset now. In short, the council won’t help. We’re the old guard, and I think they want us to fade away.”
“We have packs of idiots running around looking for trouble, and houses, schools and hospitals needing to be rebuilt and we have this.”
“The mayor says he’s looking into it.”
“Looking into … Nikola, what’s happening? This is our home. It’s all falling apart.” She turned and abruptly left the office.
Kerry Constantine signed off on a collection of papers regarding increased church services
around the city. Churches were on the increase, and finding the right people to carry the appropriate message as sanctioned by her was slow going. She didn’t look up when she heard the noise.
“How did you get in here?”
“Through the window,” Melanie replied. She stood up from her crouching position and stepped out of the darkness. She was wearing night-combat clothes of matt black leather for concealment in the shadows.
“That is most unladylike. Very uncivilized.” Kerry neatened the papers and filed them on the pile of completed work.
“Where is he?”
“Who?”
“The mayor, of course.”
“He is indisposed and would not wish to see you.” She clasped her hands, as if in prayer, and looked directly at Melanie. “I’m looking after things until he’s available.”
“What are these people doing running around the streets causing trouble? Why are they focusing on the teslas?”
Kerry placed her hands over her ears. “Don’t mention that name to me. Those evil creatures only bring destruction and disruption to our peaceful city.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. They hold no danger for you or anyone else. I would argue they even hold little danger for the enemy. Most of them are barely boys. What is this vendetta you have against the teslas in aid of?”
“I said don’t mention that name to me.” Her bottom lip trembled and she burst into an aggressive steam of tears. “What have you done? I cannot deal with this. I must be alone. Be gone from my chambers.” She turned and hurried out of the room, screaming for the guards, leaving a fuming Melanie robbed of confrontation.
She stormed back to her quarters, relieved to see Sebastian still there. He’d actually done what he was told for once.
“Sebastian, I don’t know how to say this, but … go to your quarters and pack an emergency bag. I’m worried. We need to be on high alert. If things don’t calm down we might need to get out of the city until things cool down.”
“Can’t Nikola help us?”
“Have you seen him? He looks so ill. I hate to say it, but I don’t know if we can rely on him.”
“I know. He’s looking like my father did when he started to die.”
“Oh, that’s not good.” She sat down on her bed and put her head in her hands. She took a couple of deep breaths.
There was a loud clattering from outside. Her head snapped up, the decision made. “Okay, go and tell the other teslas they should be prepared to get out of here. Go now. I have to find Gavin. You’re all in grave danger.”
The wire cutters made easy work of the thin wiring. The figure looked around furtively. A cowl covered the face, revealing only one eye that shone in the dark night air. The figure dropped to the floor and rolled under the cutting into the compound. The figure crouched and scanned the area. All was quiet. A few hurried steps, a quick duck under the passing flash of late-night traffic, testing of a cold steel door, the crack of a lock, the hush of a door being quietly opened.
A handful of assorted fruit was scattered into the baskets. Some loaves of bread were slotted into specific locations. Another furtive glance, early-morning mist floated past, and the compound was empty.
The doctors came running, the ambulances rolled up and all but the youngest boys were taken away. A crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. Two boys walked out, escorted by guards. When questioned by the police, they were found to be teslas studying at the local school. The murmuring began.
A few days later, a duplicate occurrence frightened a street, and the police were called in instantly. Again, another tesla was found, healthy and untouched in the center of it all. A week later, in a small complex, a group of out-of-town homeless people was found dead, behind the tesla school.
That had been enough. People had searched their areas looking for any tesla that could be living nearby. Quietly, groups roved around looking for the telltale signs. The teslas with families were quick to leave. Those with families elsewhere had to wait, huddling together in pairs or more, and be brave in the face of adversity.
The jeers grew louder and more brazen on the streets. Many teslas took to staying inside.
Sebastian wanted to make a stand, to show he was not afraid, although he was shaking in his boots.
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.”
“Is she describing a dragon?” Isaac asked. He and Sebastian had gone out in disguise. Isaac had left his cape at home. “That sounds a lot like a dragon to me. Fire. Loud roar. Coming down from the skies. Come on, that’s a dragon. Surely.”
Kerry stuttered to a halt, mid-recitation. She pointed a finger at Sebastian.
“He is one of those devil children who are slaying our loving pets for their own amusement. Those near them are falling sick. Will you be next?”
“What?” Isaac yelped.
“This is really bad,” Sebastian said.
He grabbed Isaac’s arm and started to pull him away toward the back of the crowd. The task became almost impossible as people deliberately bumped into them and blocked their exit. The chorus of boos built, and the shoving became more violent until moments later they were able to break free.
And from her podium Kerry Constantine preached on, mainly to herself as the crowd had taken off in pursuit of the young boys. “And he that sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
The pack roared as it pursued Sebastian and Isaac. Sebastian waved to the right and Isaac peeled off toward The Rise, with its wider streets but greater police presence due to its wealthy inhabitants. Alone, Sebastian headed toward the industrial area with the majority of the pack behind him.
29
THE SHADOWS OF the steam monorail flicked over him as his feet pounded on the cobblestones. He ran up the stairs to the inner-city train station and a small group split off in pursuit. The northern train was steaming toward him along the upper-tier track, rapidly approaching the station.
Sebastian leapt across the track ahead of it. The train driver frantically sounded the horn. The train barreled through the station, narrowly missing Sebastian.
A southbound train was pulling into the lower-tier platform. Sebastian clambered over a barrier and down a safety ladder, hanging from the metal as the train pulled in underneath. He dropped onto the slowing train, landed awkwardly and rolled. The side of the train and the precipitous fall loomed in front of him and he fought to maintain his grip.
He slipped. His feet scrabbled against the smooth brass of the side of the train. He managed to get purchase on a window ledge and clambered back onto the roof.
The train came to a halt and he slid down onto the platform. Steam billowed out of the sleek, swept-back chimney and the doors opened. He pushed his way inside, to the annoyance of the throng of people trying to get off. They poured out of the train just as the third group of pursuers emerged from the stairs and onto the platform.
He hid at the end of the carriage. The men entered, pushing through the exiting passengers, and began searching in each section.
Sebastian waited until he heard the wail of the departure blast. He dashed out through the closing doors and sprinted along the platform. Trapped inside, his pursuers pounded frantically on the doors and watched his fleeing figure.
He leapt onto the side of the train several carriages back and clambered up onto the roof once again as the train pulled out of the station. He stood up, ready to grab the safety ladder. The train began to pick up speed, causing him to crash heavily into the ladder. He clutched it and clambered back onto the upper tier of the station.
The first group had made their way onto the opposing side of the platform and erupted in fury a
s they saw him rise up on the original side. He glanced at them as he dashed down the wide stairs into the station’s main thoroughfare.
He heard several men shouting closely behind him. He charged out onto the main street straight into the rest of his pursuers. He was jostled back and forth. The second group appeared from the south platform and he was quickly sandwiched between the two. He looked from side to side. There was no escape either way.
He was between two upmarket homes owned by senior merchants. He spotted a chute, and without knowing where it went he leapt for the metal lid, hoping for the best, and disappeared into the dark cavity.
He tumbled down through the dark, stinking tunnel. Jagged stumps of metal tore into his clothes and skin as he rolled uncontrollably down. He crashed through another flap and found himself flying through the air. He landed with a heavy thump in a pile of food scraps and other soft items whose origin he didn’t want to speculate on.
It was dark, and all was quiet. He rolled over into a sitting position and took stock of his bearings. He was outside the city. The trash tube, against all regulations, had dropped the waste from the rich directly out into the environment. He thought he should have a word with the authorities about that.
He stood up to work out where on the outside he was. He scouted around until he could get a gauge on some of the taller landmarks within the city. He sighed. It was going to be an hour’s walk at least to the nearest gate. Then there was going to be all the complications of getting in through the guard, explaining how he got outside.
He started to make his way around the great wall. Darkness had set in, and a heavy layer of clouds made the night pitch-black. Occasionally he tripped on the uneven ground. The terrain became increasingly rocky as it gave way to small ravines and deep holes formed by a long dried-out river. He tripped and stumbled along, often having to hold himself up by putting a hand on the side of a boulder.