‘And?’
‘It looked to be an attack of some sort. Services were putting out the flames by the time we arrived.’
‘So it was in hand?’
‘Yes. I guess so but …’ His words shrank quietly into mere thoughts. There was an attack, Mother. Doesn’t that mean something?
‘Do you have more information to tell us?’
Takashi looked up at her. ‘No, Mother.’
‘Then this visit has achieved its purpose. House Shima thanks you for your concern. Please leave us. The family has private matters to discuss.’
Takashi was confused. From habit, he waited for them to begin the agenda, but they maintained strict silence. They were waiting for him to leave.
‘The Regent can show you the way if you have forgotten,’ the Alpha said. His father stood and walked around behind him.
‘But, I can help,’ Takashi said.
‘If we require you, we always know where you are.’ His mother turned her face away from him.
He spluttered and said nothing coherent.
‘Come now, Taka,’ the Regent bent down to whisper, as if talking to a child. ‘Only the high Shima can be part of this discussion.’
‘I am still your son.’
‘Then start behaving as a Shima if you want to be invited back to this room. This audience is over. Come.’
Takashi let his father guide him out, twisting his neck to look back at his mother. ‘Mother, please,’ he begged one more time. But she wouldn’t look at him.
‘Father, why was she like that? I know I’ve embarrassed you, but this is a crisis.’
‘Taka, please don’t pretend you don’t understand. You brought shame and loss of status upon the whole family. It will require a great effort on your part to shed this burden.’
‘Father … I’m s—’ His tongue was getting bound up. Since leaving the palace he hadn’t said sorry to anyone. Nobody wanted him to. But now he had returned he felt the constant need to repeat the mantras he’d been relying on for years. Apologies ad nauseam. ‘I am sorry, Father.’ I am sorry, Mother. I’m sorry, Sato.
‘We all are, Taka.’ Hachiro led him gently away, a flat palm on the back of his elbow.
‘I know the way.’
‘Taka, you must understand. Your mother is also Alpha of the House. As a mother she still loves you, but as Alpha she must make choices for the family.’
Takashi didn’t want to open his mouth. He didn’t want to apologise again. He hurried up the steps, pushed the doors open to the rooftop and began making his way towards the squib and Cindy.
‘Takashi!’ Hachiro called him back. He was holding his hands out, ready for the traditional farewell. Takashi paused, unable to look him in the eye. He was feeling hot, and only wanted to escape and find a dark room. Reluctantly he placed his hands in his father’s and they bowed to each other.
‘Be safe, my son.’
‘You too, Father.’
‘What happened?’ Cindy asked as Takashi climbed back into the squib.
‘Get me out of here,’ he said.
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing. Nothing happened. Let’s just go.’
‘Okay, Takashi. We’ll go.’ She pulled on the controls and they lifted up in a sharp tilt, causing another squib to honk at them as it dodged out of the way. Cindy yelped and then straightened out at the normal flight level.
‘I want to visit Ryu,’ Takashi mumbled. Cindy looked at him curled in his seat. The symbiot covering his back and arms made him resemble a scared lizard.
‘Okay, Takashi. We can do that. Just show me the way.’
He looked up and about, then wiped his eyes. ‘Just go down there. It’s the needle at the end of that boulevard.’
He should have seen it coming. He could be buoyant and full of ideas, but it only took the eliminating gaze of his mother, or the patronising hand of his father, and he felt useless once more. He was the useless one. Good for the tech stuff, but whose civic input was valued by no one.
He couldn’t think. He could barely breathe. He wanted to cry. He wanted to escape in the mesh. He didn’t want to be seen the way they saw him, but he didn’t want to change into what they wanted a Shima to be. To coldly weigh up the value of others; to use and be used to raise your status and the status of the family; to have no relationships that weren’t for gain.
Takashi hadn’t felt like this since leaving home. The kids at Cybermesh, even Lewis and his helpers, all looked up to him. To them he was a Shima and a hakka, but here at the palace they wished he didn’t exist. I am less than nothing.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered. His mantra for the first twenty years of his life. I’m sorry I was born and that I’m not like you.
Cindy followed the wide straight causeway. Below them people were moving to and from the palace. Some had set up impromptu market stands to sell their produce, capitalising on the perpetual human need to eat and pretend that everything was normal.
When they got closer to Ryu’s needle, they could see that it too was under siege from curious Citizens. The entire plaza was filled, right up to the walls of the neighbouring buildings. Cindy raised their altitude and landed on the top deck. Marauder units immediately rushed out to encircle the squib. In their armour they were even more menacing than the Shima guards.
‘Leave this area immediately,’ an amplified voice commanded.
‘Not this again,’ Cindy said.
Takashi opened his door and raised his hands. ‘We are unarmed,’ he called out loudly, wind ripping at his robe. He detected a network in the needle and tried to connect. His ping was bounced by security walls, but he drilled through and patched himself directly to his brother.
Takashi: I am on the roof. Will you see me?
Ryu: I cannot be seen with you.
Takashi: We have to talk.
Ryu: I cannot talk right now.
Takashi: I can help. Whatever it is, I can help.
Ryu: No, Takashi. You have been tainted.
Takashi: Ryu, let me in. Please. They’ve just rejected me at the palace. Please.
He waited, eyes cast down to avoid the violent glare of the sun off the metal of the soldiers.
Ryu: No.
Takashi didn’t know what to say. Something must be seriously wrong for Ryu to act like this.
Takashi: I know you are no longer Prime. What else has happened?
It seemed an age between messages. Cindy was squirming for his attention and asking him what they should do.
‘Shhh,’ he blew softly through his teeth. He was picturing Ryu, sitting somewhere below. Thoughts percolating.
Ryu: We are at war. And you are a breach.
Takashi: War? What does that mean? With the psis? Pierre Jnr?
Ryu: I have to go.
Takashi: So that’s it? You have turned your back on me forever?
Ryu: I have to go.
Takashi: Ryu, don’t cut me off. Speak to me.
Ryu: Goodbye, Takashi. I hope I do get to see you again.
Takashi was stunned.
‘What’s happening?’ Cindy asked.
‘He won’t let me in,’ he said.
‘What? Why not?’
‘Because I’m not a Shima any more.’
‘They’re your family, they can’t just kick you out. Those kutzo f—’
‘It doesn’t matter. We just need to go. Now. Let’s get back to the café.’
‘But —’
‘Now, Cindy. We have to get to shelter.’
Zach had already been disconnected from the Weave before it went down. The soldiers had stripped him and the other protégés of every last scrap of tech. Even Inez’s nose stud had been confiscated. Their wrists were cuffed with loops of smart wire and the backs of their hands were stamped with e-tattoos.
At one stage while they were flying, Zach saw the two soldiers who were monitoring their cage look at each other in surprise and pause as if hearing something. They then returned to watching the
prisoners.
When they landed at the airbase, there was a long wait before the Ten of the squad opened the side hatch and ordered the squad to shepherd Zach and the other protégés to a processing office. Nobody was at the desk and the soldiers looked at each other. As they turned about, Zach noticed their movements triggering the automatic door. The grey-panelled wall divided, revealing the outside world of beige and tarmac streets.
Zach decided to run for it. The soldiers had relaxed their attention and he inched towards the door. He waited until one of them stepped back, the door parted and he leapt through as if he was jumping from a cliff. Then he was out, feeling the bad breath of a hot wind and the spit of rain that fried away before it hit the ground.
Someone ran past him, Inez. She must have followed his lead and now she was sprinting for a tunnel entrance half a block away.
They ran down the stairs three at a time. Here at the track station there were more people. They were milling around the local Servicemen, asking questions. The tracks were still running and Inez jumped on the northbound route, heading to the megacity core. Zach followed and together they jumped lanes until they were on the fast track, with an eighty-kilometre per hour breeze in their hair, looking back to see if they were being chased.
‘Where are we going?’ he asked breathlessly.
‘I followed you,’ she said.
‘I didn’t think that far ahead. What is happening?’
‘I think the Weave is down.’
‘Down?’
‘Off,’ Inez snapped.
Zach didn’t really comprehend what that meant. They couldn’t connect, or that the Weave actually wasn’t there? How could anything work if the Weave was gone?
They let the tracks pull them north. He began studying the expressions on the faces of people going the other way. He thought they looked worried, or as confused as he was. When a passing Citizen glanced sideways at their wrists, Inez wriggled her arms under her waistcoat to cover the bands. Zach clumsily did the same with his jacket.
‘Do you think they are following?’ Zach asked.
‘They will. We should disappear while we have the chance.’
‘Where?’
‘Out of the wu.’
Zach thought about this. It was a long way to a non-union town. Now that the Cape was off limits and Mexica … Kutzo, had they really been helping Kronos? he asked himself. ‘I think I should go back to the home.’
‘Didn’t they kick you out?’ she asked.
‘They’re good people. They might take me back.’
‘Suit yourself.’ Inez began walking ahead of him. ‘I’ll see you around, Musashi,’ she said and then took a diversion route eastwards. The sign said that way led to the MT. She could go anywhere from there.
Zach watched her disappear down another tunnel as he headed towards the home. The last time he saw these tracks he was going in the other direction. There were eleven moving walkways in near-parallel with a Services line on either side, and beyond that the same again in the other direction. The hum was deep and the walls dark with age. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but it seemed that everyone else was going in the opposite direction.
He stayed on the track north and got off when he saw exit 61. Above, the people on the streets were trying to get to somewhere else fast. Zach ducked his head and did the same. Nobody looked at him, which was good. He had a moment to breathe and relax. He’d done it. He’d gotten away from them. His wrists were still cuffed and … Zach twisted his hand over to look at the mark they had given him: a circle with an x across its middle.
Of course, he’d seen it many times. It was the same symbol used for areas of the Weave he wasn’t supposed to enter. It was on doorways and portals all through his old neighbourhood. Places the unauthorised weren’t allowed to go. He’d never really thought about what it meant before. Nor what it meant when it was stamped on a person. He’d never seen one on a person before. Not in real life.
He couldn’t go back to Tom and Lily like this. He wouldn’t be able to look at them. Oh, Musashi, how you have fallen, he said to himself.
It was sheets day. Every Sunday they washed the sheets and pillowcases for the whole house and the washing line crisscrossed the vegetable garden. Fifteen sets of bedding drying in the sun.
He knew Bronwyn would come out to collect them at some point. She volunteered for this chore, and she would hum a little tune as she folded the linens into the basket. It was her only time to herself, when she could be alone to enjoy the garden.
‘Bron,’ he whispered as quietly as he could when he heard her hum getting closer. His voice was too soft to be heard over the rustle of her taking down the sun-dry sheets and he tried again a little louder. He could see her shadow stand still with her hands at her sides. He called again: ‘Over here.’
‘Zach?’ she asked.
‘It’s me.’
She pushed past the sheets and came towards him. ‘Come out here. Why are you hiding?’
‘I can’t come out,’ he answered.
Her hand pulled back the last of the sheets and then he saw her face, her duck-brown hair loosely tied and hanging over her shoulder, face ready to smile — but she immediately saw the cuffs and stiffened in shock. ‘Zach, what have you done?’
‘I was caught hakking.’
‘Oh, Zach. Why?’ she asked.
‘Keep it down. I don’t want Tom and Lily to see me like this.’
‘Then you should have thought about that before.’
‘Well, I didn’t. I didn’t think, Bron. Is that what you want to hear? I was stupid. I did something really stupid and now my life is ruined.’
‘Is it that bad?’ She suddenly changed to soft concern.
‘Look at this.’ He thrust his arms out and turned over his hand so she could see the x and circle mark. ‘Have you ever seen one of these before? Do you know what this means?’
‘It’s a no-go. Why is it on your hand?’ she asked.
He sighed and sat down on the grass. ‘Because I’m doomed.’
Bronwyn stood for a moment, looking down at him, then knelt and took his hand. She was so much like Lily, the mother of the orphanage, always ready to help and forgive. ‘Tell me what I can do,’ she said.
‘There’s nothing you can do. I did this to myself.’
‘Then you can undo it. You can repay your debt. That’s how it works.’
‘How can I? You don’t know what I’ve done. I didn’t know what I was doing.’
‘It doesn’t matter. “We can always choose to go in another direction.”’ That was one of the sayings they had at the home. He could hear Lily’s voice in the way she said it. ‘No matter how far we have gone.’ Suddenly Bron stood up.
‘What is it?’ Zach asked, turning about to see if something was behind him.
‘Nothing, just stay right here.’
‘Why? What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going to get Bjorn. If anyone will know how to get those things off you, it’s him.’
Bjorn was one of the older boys. He’d come to the home when he was thirteen. His guardians hadn’t been able to control him and had had to let Services re-place him. At least until he’d cleaned up his act. He’d been at the home for three years now and was making no signs of leaving. Tom relied on him for everything. Even though he used to be a thief.
Thievery was somewhat romanticised by the boys at the home. With the ever-present Weave and the behaviour-modifying effects of the Will, stealing was almost an impossible task. They read troves of stories about cat burglars and pickpockets: the most adroit of the heroes had to have a combination of cunning, acting ability and a mastery of gymnastics.
Bjorn looked none of these things now. Puberty had made his limbs jut uncomfortably and his face was pudgy and guileless, resting by default in a loose grin. Bron led him to the back of the garden and Zach stood up from his hiding place. Bjorn’s grin dropped.
‘Aw, I don’t want to see this. I don’t want
to be involved in this.’ He immediately turned around to go.
Bronwyn caught his arm and said, ever so sweetly, ‘Now, Bjorn, let’s not forget who dishes up the servings at dinner. You help him or you get used to feeling hungry.’
‘But Bron, I can’t get mixed up in this kutz again. I’m on the path now.’
‘Nobody has to know.’
‘And when they ask how he got the cuffs off? What will you say?’
‘I’ll say I did it myself.’
‘Then do it yourself,’ Bjorn said.
‘Bjorn, please,’ Zach begged.
‘Please, Bjorn,’ Bronwyn said softly. ‘Everyone gets another chance, remember?’
He gave in reluctantly then stepped closer to Zach and made him lift up his arms so he could look at the cuffs. ‘You’re marked.’
‘I know.’
‘You know this means they can find you, don’t you?’
‘Then it doesn’t matter if you take the cuffs off then.’
Bjorn looked at him and sighed. ‘You owe me something big.’
He left and came back long minutes later with something in his pocket. When he pulled it out, it was two metal loops connected by a cord.
‘What, are you going to cuff me again?’
‘Just trust, Zach. Just trust.’
Bjorn slipped a loop over each of Zach’s hands and then clicked them tighter. He held them in position for a moment. Zach looked at him, waiting for something more. Then there was a series of rapid clicks and the cuffs came loose.
He threw them to the ground. ‘Thanks, Bjorn.’
‘Don’t thank me. Seriously, I wasn’t here. I didn’t see you.’
‘Okay.’
Bronwyn stood on her tiptoes and gave his cheek a quick kiss. ‘Thank you.’ The older boy smiled and then departed.
Zach rubbed at his wrists, still feeling the circle of the cuffs. ‘Thanks, Bron.’
‘It’s okay. If we don’t give second chances, then no one has a chance to learn.’
‘Yeah. I know.’ He knew every motto spoken in the Patch home. ‘What should I do now?’
‘Now you go inside and apologise to Lily and Tom.’
‘Do they hate me?’
‘No, of course they don’t. They have been worried sick about you. Services wouldn’t tell them where you had gone. We thought of you all the time — and then your teacher, Mister Lizney, disappeared too.’
Convergence Page 4