The man would live if he could get a cast on him — he couldn’t hold him together like this indefinitely. Sal looked around for someone to help. The crowd watched to see what would happen next and the blue fighter turned to look at what had stolen her cheers. Then all eyes moved up to a raised pavilion where an obese sack of a body, clothed in a flowing toga and chains of jewellery, lifted his hand.
‘Fight,’ the doctor heard the hollow voice echo.
Sal stood and turned around, bending his neck up to look at Chiggy’s raised platform. ‘This man needs care.’
‘Fight,’ Chiggy repeated.
Rocks marched to the centre of the stadium and the crowd was instantly on its feet, arms raised high, each person waving for attention. She looked over them twice, then pointed at three. The chosen rushed from their places, pushing the others, down the stairs, and then the ladders, into the fighting pit.
Sal didn’t remember much of the next few moments. There must have been some signal to commence, or maybe just one of the three began their attack. He was fresh meat thrown into a crocodile pit and they each tried to tear a piece off him. He reacted.
It wasn’t much of a show. He knew more about the human body than they did and his cuts were precise. His attackers blinked before they fell unconscious and collapsed.
Even though it was quick, when he turned around again the man he had been trying to save had died … and then Chiggy had defeated the barrier, saved the refugees and named his price.
Sal brought his thoughts back to the present moment. He looked at the bosses standing and watching as their tribute to Chiggy was carried to the benders’ trucks by helpers and bots. They stood well back and apart from each other. Sal noted how each of them had found a way to make themselves feel a little bit safer around the psis.
Boris Arkady had decided to protect himself with two men, each holding a pair of guard dogs. The men were tall and wide and the modified hounds were as high as their chests, grizzling and clawing to be let off their leashes. Arkady smiled his shiny teeth, more than happy with his plan to outwit the telepaths — however, although the dogs were beyond telepathic control, he was forgetting that tappers could just as easily control the holders, and thus the dogs.
Froggy had only brought one protector, a titanium robot, two metres tall, that followed behind him with movements sharp and precise. Though it seemed to carry no weapons, its coordination was warning enough. The thing had been programmed to act according to a pre-configured strategy matrix that not even Froggy was authorised to alter. Impervious to tappers, it would, unfortunately, offer no defence against benders.
Nathan Cusí wore a strange helmet, theoretically designed to prevent tappers getting into his mind. It looked like complicated machinery, but Tamsin had assured Sal it did nothing.
At first, Hilary Carlton had tried to send a remote that she operated from the safety of her pleasure rooms, but this had displeased Chiggy. Now she came with two hostesses in tow, gracefully displaying their bodies to tantalise the benders. That, Sal had to admit, might be the smartest tactic. After all, men are still men.
Piri and the Harveys’ daughter, Molly, came up beside him and tugged his sleeve.
‘Oh, hello there, girls. Where are your mothers?’ He looked to see if Rocks had noticed the children, hoping she didn’t know that Piri was a tapper. No telepaths were allowed to be present at the tributes.
‘Tamsin Grey asked me to bring you something,’ Piri answered. She reached into a bag Molly was holding ready, and took out something very small.
‘What is it?’ he asked, holding out his hand to take it. She dropped a thumbnail-sized metal ball into his palm and he instantly heard a voice in his head.
Hello, Sal.
Tamsin? Where are you? You know they don’t want to see any telepaths.
Don’t worry. I am still at HQ.
How are you doing this? That is over thirteen kilometres away …
Pierre has sent us a gift.
What? This? He looked at the metal ball in his hand.
And many more of them.
With these you can reach me wherever I am?
Not quite. They just extend my range, but a chain of them can reach anywhere.
How did you get these? he asked.
Risom brought them to me. He said they were a gift from Pierre Jnr.
Risom is back? Where has he been?
That is for another time. How is the tribute going?
We are nearly done, he answered.
Chiggy is getting quite a haul today.
Are you looking through my eyes now? Sal asked.
Yes, Tamsin answered. Would you like to see through mine?
His eyes stopped seeing what they were seeing and he was sitting behind a desk in a poorly lit room. It was somewhat like being immersed in an environment on the Weave, but felt more real. Perfectly real. Indistinguishable except for his inability to move.
Stop it, please. Let me go.
I’m sorry, Sal. I have to show you something, that just happened.
Then Tamsin shared her memory with him: Risom’s entrance, the argument that turned into a fight, Piri telekinetically punching Risom’s brain.
The memory ended with Tamsin standing over the body on the floor, looking at Risom, mouth gaping like a fish washed up on the sand.
Are you okay? Are you hurt? Sal asked.
Bruised.
‘Piri, you just can’t do this to people. It isn’t right,’ he said to the little girl by his side.
‘He was hurting me,’ she said simply.
Sal could hear his blood pumping in his ears. Piri sensed his emotions.
There’s no need to be afraid. I’ll never hurt you, Doctor Sal. She smiled at him. She was only six years old …
‘Promise me you will be more careful.’
‘I promise.’
What will you tell the others? he asked Tamsin.
There is only truth between telepaths, Sal. They already know what has taken place.
What will you do with Piri? She must learn to control it. Risom had taken her hostage. He was threatening her.
And her mother? Sal asked.
Was trying to stop her also.
So whenever Piri doesn’t like something, she will do this? Tamsin, you have to make her realise this isn’t right.
‘Piri,’ he said to the girl, ‘it isn’t right to do what you did.’
There isn’t time for this, doctor, Tamsin interrupted. The trucks are nearly ready to leave. And there is nothing we can do for Risom now.
What do you want me to do?
They will ask you to go with them.
Why?
Because I will make them.
Why? he asked again.
Because I want you to take these to him.
Take these to Chiggy? Tamsin, what are you intending to do? Pierre Jnr sent us this gift, Sal. I intend to use it.
To do what? Even though he thought he knew, he wanted her to say it.
That’s right, Sal. I intend to end this struggle today by taking control of Chiggy.
I won’t allow it. You’re going too far, he thought back.
Please don’t make me force you.
You would, wouldn’t you? And anyone else who doesn’t choose what you want them to.
Doctor, spare me.
You think you are giving me a choice, Tamsin?
You can choose to resist. He could almost see her smiling. There is nothing so smug as a telepath.
All power corrupts, he thought to himself. If she heard his every thought, then let her hear these ones. And power corrupts all. I have seen this so many times before, I don’t know why I am surprised.
No, Sal. It is you who is corrupted. You do not see the way. If you can’t do it alone, Piri can go with you.
No. Don’t do that. They don’t allow telepaths.
How would they know?
And no child needs to see what I’ve seen.
Oh, doctor. You still don’
t understand us, do you? I have seen what you’ve seen. And so has Piri. Everyone has seen what you did in the arena.
Everyone …?
Yes. And everyone knows that what you did needed to be done. Chiggy is mad, Sal. You know this. But I can stop him. If you’ll let me. All you have to do is take the baubles and drop one on the ground every two hundred metres until you get close to Chiggy.
Is that all?
Sal looked down at the two girls holding his hands by the fingers. Piri held up the bag full of baubles.
This will bring peace, Sal. That is all I want.
And peace must come with your control? That isn’t peace, Tamsin. That is domination and even you know that is wrong.
Listen to you, doctor. Speaking like a regular Citizen. Please, just do what I ask, Sal. You’ll see. It will work.
When the loading of the trucks was complete, each of the bosses stepped forward to Rocks and intoned, ‘We humbly offer this tribute to the great Chiggy. May he continue to favour us and lend us his mercy.’
His mercy, Sal. Is this not domination? We can end this nightmare.
And what will you become? Dominators of all humanity? Is that really what the psis will be?
No … I … Sal, I truly wish this weapon had not been put in my hands, but it has been. Pierre Jnr sent these to me to use.
You could get rid of them. Throw them in the ocean.
It wouldn’t matter. There are millions more of them out there. Our day is coming.
And he is doing this?
I believe in him. And La Gréle does too.
She would never do this. She would never have allowed these things to be made.
Think about it, Sal. A world full of these and we would have a psi network. Doesn’t that sound a lot like her dream?
So suddenly our battle is not with the WU, it’s between ourselves.
That may be true, Sal. But all we can do is follow his path.
And those who resist you?
No one will resist.
Because you can control them or kill them? Is that right?
Are there other ways?
‘I humbly offer this tribute to Chiggy. May he continue to favour us with his mercy.’ Boris tried to make it sound light and courteous, as if he was proud to say the prayer. The others said it quickly and quietly in the hope the words wouldn’t leave an aftertaste.
Rocks was impassive.
Salvator was last, speaking for the telepaths. ‘We humbly offer this tribute to Chiggy. We pray for his continued favour and mercy.’
‘Praise Chiggy,’ Rocks said.
‘Praise Chiggy,’ the workers, bosses and everyone else present repeated.
‘Plaise Cheegee,’ Molly tried to repeat.
Rocks turned to face Sal. ‘You’re coming with us. Chiggy has a message for the tappers.’
Remember the arena, doctor, Tamsin whispered. There is worse than us.
‘Okay,’ Sal said. Did he choose to take the bag from Piri? Or was Tamsin influencing him? He would never know. He would never know again.
‘Tell Tamsin I have gone to see Chiggy,’ he said to the girls. ‘I will return as soon as I can.’
I will be with you the whole way, she thought back.
Sal was put in the open back of one of the trucks, wedged between a food processor and an air conditioner. He felt the judder of ignition and the vehicle falling into line behind the others. The dust they kicked up made it easy for him to reach into the bag and begin discreetly dropping the baubles over the side.
This wasn’t what she intended. She had only wanted the Cape. One big megapolis would be enough. Somehow we would form a peace with the Union and … well, now I have these.
Tamsin sat at her desk, a silver sphere in each hand. She felt that cold hollow in her chest, sadness for the loss of something impossible. ‘Saudade,’ her father had said to her. It was all she remembered of him. What was it he had dreamt of that could never be?
Her memory was interrupted by whooping and shouting from outside, and a pair of telepaths came rushing in, filled with ebullience.
What is it? Tamsin asked.
It’s the Union. They’ve gone down. The Weave has collapsed.
Collapsed?
They’re in complete blackout.
Tamsin went to the psis who were gathering excitedly outside. It was always night in the basement, but she could sense where every one of her people were. She could feel their hopes catch flame and their flames growing together.
This is our time. Our day is here. The miracle has begun.
The three of them stood uncomfortably in the garden. Zach didn’t know how to introduce her, she wasn’t meant to be there, but she stepped forward with her hand out for Lily to shake. ‘I’m Inez. I was with Zach when he escaped.’
‘Escaped? Zach, what happened?’ Lily asked with alarm.
‘Hasn’t he told you? A hakka was holding us prisoner,’ Inez said quickly. ‘Services rescued us, but then the Weave went down. It was lucky Zach knew the way here.’
‘Zach, is that true?’
‘Yes … it was horrible,’ he said. All the things he was going to say were now stuck behind Inez’s lie. How could he refute what she was saying? It wasn’t completely untrue … ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Lily. I didn’t know what was happening.’
‘Oh, come here, you poor things.’ Lily pulled them both into another hug. ‘You’re home now.’
‘I’m sorry to barge in, I just had nowhere else to go.’
‘Of course, dear. Welcome.’ She warmly patted the girl’s back. ‘It will be safe here until whatever this is rights itself.’
‘You mean I can stay? Until I can get back to my family?’ Inez asked from within the hug, with the perfect note of hope.
‘Of course you can, dear. So long as you don’t mind sharing with the other girls. We don’t have private rooms here.’
‘That’s croom. Don’t worry about me. I’m used to dorms.’
‘We were worried about you, Zach.’ Lily ruffled his hair and released them both.
‘I’m sorry. I just had to get away for a while.’
‘So long as you’re okay.’
‘Yeah, I’m okay. How is everyone here?’
‘Fine, until today. It’s a mess is what it is and whoever is responsible is in for it.’
‘Yeah. Does anyone know what is going on?’ Zach asked.
‘No. Tom went out to find a Serviceman, but they sent him straight home again. They just said we are meant to stay indoors.’
‘Where’s Tom now?’
‘Downstairs, clearing out the cellar.’
‘I should go see him.’
‘You should,’ Lily agreed. ‘And tell him lunch will be ready in ten minutes. Inez dear, why don’t you come with me? We have a few rules you should know about and I can introduce you to some of the girls.’ Lily led her away. ‘Mind, most are a fair bit younger than you so don’t help them grow up too fast. Do you know what I’m saying, sweetie?’
Zach turned and made his way downstairs. The place looked the same — of course it did, he’d only been gone a few weeks — but the corridors seemed smaller. There was nothing to explore here. Nothing new. And Inez would ruin any chance he had of starting over. He just knew it. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t come back.
All the boys were down in the cellar, piling up boxes and making a pile of trash to be removed. They looked up at his footsteps.
‘Zach, you’re back,’ they said.
‘Yeah. What are you doing?’
‘Tom wants these rooms sorted. Because school is out he’s trying to keep us busy.’
‘Zach?’ an older voice said. Tom came out of the doorway from the next room, his arms laden with dusty tools that had been piling up for years.
‘Hi, Tom.’
He took his load to one corner and knelt to drop the bundle of heavy junk. ‘It’s good to see you,’ he said with his back turned to him.
‘Thank you. Lily says lunch wi
ll be ready soon.’
‘Okay. That’s great. Boys, why don’t you start taking away the rubbish and get cleaned up? Zach and I will be up in a sec.’ The boys knew when they weren’t wanted and quickly did as they were told. Zach pressed himself to the wall to let them pass. Some reached out a hand for him to slap, or just nodded their welcome to him.
‘So you’ve come back then?’ Tom said. Zach nodded. ‘Are you going to stay this time?’
‘If you’ll let me.’
Tom looked him over. ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight.’
Zach looked down at himself; his shirt was hanging on his body. ‘I’ve been plugged in a lot.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Out of the city.’
‘Doing what?’ Zach didn’t answer. ‘I guess I’ll find out eventually — if you don’t want to tell me now.’
‘I’m sorry, Tom.’
Tom stood there for a while, steadily meeting Zach’s eyes.
‘Look, you can stay. Of course you can stay, but there are going to be some new rules.’
‘I’ll do whatever you say.’
‘And you can’t just run away like that. Lily and I are meant to take care of you.’
‘I know. I’m sorry.’
‘You know Mister Lizney was worried about you too?’
‘I know.’
‘Well, you seem to forget sometimes that there are people who care for you.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said again, heat boiling up behind his eyes.
Tom put his arm around his shoulder. ‘Just don’t run away again, okay?’
‘I won’t. I promise.’
They went upstairs and found everyone in the kitchen, mysteriously quiet; the boys were watching the new girl who sat amongst them.
‘Who’s this?’ Tom asked.
‘This is Inez. She is a friend of Zach’s,’ Lily said. A look passed between them.
‘Oh,’ Tom said, ‘in that case welcome to our table, young lady. Any friend of Zach’s is a friend of the home.’
‘Thank you, Mister Patch, I’m really grateful you could take me in. You have a lovely home here.’ Inez beamed at Tom and then turned her smile on everyone, especially the boys. Zach didn’t know what it was — she had never been the nicest to him, sure — but now something about her behaviour reminded him of Dungeon. Something in the way she manipulated everyone around her, the same way the hakka had, with seduction and denial.
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