‘I don’t know what happened to my mum and dad. I know I’m just trying to create a family for myself, but what’s wrong with that? Everybody needs a family. People they can rely on to help them.’
Dog looked up into Jason’s eyes. The freak-boy was looking at him but it was impossible to tell what his expression was behind those tentacles.
Dog shrugged. ‘I don’t think I’m talking crap. Do you?’
Chapter 11
Sapphire
The school records had given the information needed and she sat in front of her terminal screen. She knew that Yates had not told her everything about Chloe, but she was confident he had not been lying when he said she had been seen alive. There was a little pang of jealousy in her, though, when he said she was with someone else. It was silly of her, she knew that, but it couldn’t be denied. She felt she ought to be the one helping Chloe.
When she tried to analyse her feelings it made no real sense. She had committed her life to preserving life and helping to protect people from S.I.D, and here she was trying to help an infectee, to protect them from her own people. She sighed. That was what love did to a person. But that confirmed for her that she really was in love. Sometimes it was hard to tell.
So she had sat and thought about how she could help Chloe. The first thing she had to do was find her. The weather was terrible. Chloe would need shelter and she would want to know what had happened to her parents which means she would contact either her two friends or her mother’s friend, Melinda Vogler’s mother.
Sapphire had considered the best way to go about it and decided to talk to them all at once. The numbers had been cued up on the machine and it was waiting for her to confirm the call.
It had been waiting for twenty minutes.
Sapphire was scared. Up until now she had broken a few rules but nothing too bad. Once she made this call there would be no going back. If it became known to the Purity she was trying to help a freak they would lock her up and throw away the key. That would be the end of it for her.
And Chris would be able to do whatever he wanted to her and nobody would know or care. She shuddered. That was assuming they did not simply execute her. Or experiment on her. That was the rumour among the rookies. If you disobeyed they deliberately infected you with S.I.D to see what would happen. They always laughed about that, but underneath the fear persisted.
But to do this to spite Chris would be empowering. It would give her strength.
She pressed the button.
Ashley Crook appeared first, then Mary Vogler, finally Kavi Moorthy. The first and last recognised her immediately; from her expression the older woman knew that she should know, but could not put a name to the face.
All of them had been tainted by S.I.D in one way or another. Quarantined at some point in their lives.
‘Mrs Vogler, I am the Purity teacher at your daughter’s school.’
‘Oh yes, Miss—’
‘Kepple.’
‘Kepple.’
The following few seconds of silence were awkward. Sapphire realised she did not know how to start; these were people whose only contact with the Purity in the past had been difficult.
‘Thank you for not hanging up,’ she said.
‘You called us,’ said Mrs Vogler, automatically taking the position of spokesperson for those on the other side from the Purity. ‘We should at least give you the opportunity to have your say.’
It wasn’t supposed to be like that. The Purity defended humanity from corruption and should be loved. Sapphire knew that was not the case. They had to take drastic measures and that put them against the people. It was like being a mother forced to punish a child for wrong-doing.
‘Yes.’ Sapphire hesitated again. Treason waited on the tip of her tongue. ‘I wanted to talk to you about Chloe.’ There was not a flicker of recognition from the woman, or Ashley—but she was a very selfish girl—however, Kavi’s head came up with the slightest look of hope. Did she love Chloe as well?
‘Have you heard something?’ asked Mrs Vogler.
‘Unfortunately not. At least nothing you might want to hear.’
‘Can you tell us anything?’
‘She was seen last night and has not been kidnapped.’
‘I suppose that’s something.’
Of the two girls, Ashley continued to look mostly disinterested, Kavi was delighted. But it was them Chloe would turn to for help, Sapphire was sure of it.
‘How was she?’ asked Kavi.
Sapphire shook her head. ‘It’s just a report of a report told to me in confidence. There was no real detail. There was no mention of her being hurt. But she has S.I.D and it is developing quickly.’
Their faces dropped simultaneously into sorrow—except Ashley who frowned. ‘S.I.D doesn’t do that. I may not be the best student but I know that’s wrong. It happens slowly, and Chloe was getting all her tests.’
‘She is deformed, Miss Crook,’ said Sapphire. ‘That tells us everything we need to know.’
‘So why are you telling us?’ said Mrs Vogler.
Until that moment the treason had not escaped her mouth. A few things that she shouldn’t have said, a few secrets, but nothing that would have her locked up. Was she brave enough? She pictured Chris.
‘I want to help her.’
Ashley Crook made a derisive sound. ‘You’re the Purity. We all know what your help is like.’
‘No. I really mean help her, not as the Purity. I—’ She hesitated, the words were hard to say. ‘—I want to help her escape.’
‘I don’t know what game you’re playing, Miss Kepple,’ said Mrs Vogler. ‘But we have all suffered at the hands of the Purity and there is no reason why we should trust you now. You think that Chloe might come to one of us, and you want us to tell you if she does. It’s not going to happen.’
‘But there’s nothing you can do. I have influence. I can get her out.’
‘Out of where? To where?’
‘Out of Manchester, out of England.’
‘And why would you do that?’
The expressions of the faces of the younger girls—young women really—changed. They knew the stories. Sapphire felt herself blushing, and hoped it wasn’t visible. She had to say the words, and why not? She denied them in every conversation with Chris, with anybody in the Purity. She claimed this was her treason, but in truth her every thought was treason and every emotion a crime.
It was time for the truth. ‘Because I love her.’
Kavi’s hand came to her mouth as she gasped in surprise. Ashley smiled but Mrs Vogler’s face remained hard.
‘And we’d do this because you, a teacher, claim to be in love with one of your students?’ Mrs Vogler shook her head. ‘I think we’ll just stop this right here. Girls, you don’t need to hear any more of this, I suggest you disconnect now.’
Ashley Crook did so immediately and Sapphire felt her heart sink at the rumours that were going to spread in school. Kavi Moorthy was slower to respond but she went as well.
Mrs Vogler took a deep breath. ‘If I thought for one second that reporting you to the school authorities would do any good at all, that is exactly what would happen. I cannot express how appalled I am at this call. Either you are telling the truth, in which case you should be prevented from being a teacher, or you’re lying and this is some Purity scheme to get at Chloe.’
Sapphire opened her mouth to try to explain again but she was cut off.
‘Just don’t. I am not interested. Stay away from those girls, stay away from me and my family. We have suffered enough. And so has Chloe Dark.’
Her face faded from the screen.
Sapphire sat for a long time staring at the blank screen. She wiped tears from her cheeks. She did not know which was worse, the embarrassment of revealing her heart or having her gesture slapped back in her face.
No, the worst of it was she knew she deserved it. And there was nothing she could do.
Chapter 12
Chloe
Her b
ody had been demanding food again. She hoped that this would only last as long as these changes were happening. But what if it didn’t stop and she would turn into something utterly grotesque, demanding food until she died. She shook her head. She had to believe that wouldn’t happen. It was important that she stay as positive as she could.
She had climbed in through an upstairs window and raided the kitchen of an empty house. It was a very nice house and the owners had plenty of food, though she had depleted it considerably by the time she left. Strange how easy it had become to steal now that she was a fugitive. She didn’t like doing it, but her personal survival was more important than the niceties of civilisation. Such as it was.
She had found a road that led home through Hulme, Chorlton, past Southern Cemetery and to the Didsbury area. And she had taken it. On the one hand it was a crazy idea, but she wanted to go home. She wanted to smell the house she had grown up in. She needed more clothes—and she wanted to see that photograph again. The one with her parents and the Voglers. The one outside the IVF clinic.
So she followed the direction of the road but stayed off it as much as she could. There were always cars and as she passed the islands of humanity there were pedestrians. They pretended nothing had changed, that life now was just the same as it had been before the plague. They deluded themselves. You only had to watch the movies from before to know that they were nothing like that anymore. They were ghosts.
Travelling along the rooftops seemed a good idea, she thought. It was getting dark but her acoustic sight meant she could see perfectly well—even better than with her eyes. She found she could scoot across the ridges of the houses, make ridiculously long jumps when roads blocked her way.
As her confidence grew she found herself speeding up to the point where she was almost running as fast as she might on the ground, but with the long strides that came with her reduced weight.
She was high up on a four-storey building that was part of a shopping frontage when her foot came down on ice. The leg went out from under her and she was flung sideways. The ridge tiles struck her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, and she found herself sliding. Pain shot through her back as her extra limbs tried to stretch and balance her automatically. They were trapped by the stolen coat.
The ice formed a perfectly smooth sheet with nothing she could grab on to. The street below was busy with people and vehicles. Dislodged snow tumbled with her, forming a personal avalanche.
She hit the guttering at speed. She had hoped it would break her fall, but it must have been in desperate need of repair as it collapsed beneath her feet.
Her legs went out into empty space and she threw out her arms as wide as she could. Pain shot through her back again as her extras tried to do the same. Something ripped and freezing air invaded her torn clothes. The extras waved around in the cold. Just as she was about to fall she managed to grab the guttering on either side that had not given way.
The slide halted and she hung there.
The broken gutters and snow crashed to the ground. Someone screamed. There were cries of ‘Look out!’ and ‘Someone’s up there!’ and then, after a slightly longer pause, ‘Freak!’ as they spotted the extras that were still trying to give her extra balance.
She felt the gutters give and realised they weren’t even going to hold her light frame. She could see the crowd gathering below. The vehicles moving and the tram coming down the street. If she tried to climb, the gutter would give immediately. She only had a few seconds.
The act of pulling her legs up to her chest dislodged the gutter on the left. With a grunt she jammed her feet into the ridges of the wall and pushed off. She dived backward, turning over in mid-air. Although she tried to keep her extras flat against her back, they lifted into a V and balanced her as she turned.
At one hundred-and-eighty degrees she could see the tram moving underneath her and the crowd watching the leap. When she had turned a full three-sixty her feet touched down on the roof of the carriage and she absorbed the energy of the fall in her legs. Then she fell back as the vehicle slid away underneath her.
That saved her from the first stone that pinged off the pantograph unit. The sound gave her a clearer picture of the tram, the people on it and the wires—which she had only just missed. That was the second time she had made that mistake. She needed to be more careful.
The next stone that came her way wasn’t even on target. She let it go without moving. The cries of freak were becoming louder and more frequent. She sighed. She couldn’t really complain, this time they were right. It was a good job the tram was automatic because a human driver might have stopped. The vehicle was moving faster than the people on the street but the next stopping point was not far.
They were in the middle of Chorlton, one of the more densely populated areas after Didsbury. She needed to get off. They would be calling the police and if she was unlucky someone might have recognised her. Freaks weren’t that common and most of them didn’t get to be on TV until they were dead.
The station was in sight and the tram already slowing down. The crowd behind were still a good distance away but a couple now had bicycles and it was possible the cars coming up knew about her. Only the people ahead did not know what was coming.
A bullet tore through the ceiling of the tram next to her, followed by the crashing of shattered glass. The sound of the gun going off reached her but it flashed her acoustic sense into overdrive—like a whiteout. All she knew was that it had come from one of the cars.
She needed to get off now, before they hurt someone. Launching herself into a run she made for the front of tram, passing from the rear carriage to the forward one still gaining speed. Moments later there was no carriage left and she leapt for all she was worth.
Maths had not been her favourite subject, but she remembered the lesson where they had calculated the trajectories of projectiles. Forty-five degrees was the best angle to give the greatest range. She didn’t know if she had taken off at that angle, but as she flattened herself out to reduce her air resistance, she had time to think.
It was almost like flying. Perhaps falling with style. The velocity of her run plus the speed of the tram had pushed her fast and high. She rocketed over the station, which she had been planning as her landing point. She was almost tempted to wave at the people below who turned their heads as she went over them.
Unfortunately, her trajectory was taking her directly towards a brick wall where she would hit it twenty feet above the ground, and at an awkward angle. She rolled in the air and her feet struck first to absorb the energy. She dropped to the ground. A building with no windows seemed like a good choice. She jumped and managed to grab the edge of the roof. Moments later she was over it and leaning against the parapet, panting.
In the distance she could hear the sounds of pursuit. They dissipated as they lost the scent.
She cursed her clumsiness and overconfidence. She needed to be more careful.
Chapter 13
Mitchell
He sat in the car watching the snow fall lightly. It was already covering the windows.
‘I need to get in there.’
‘I understand that,’ said Lament.
‘Are you going to help?’
‘You’re assuming I can.’
Mitchell reached over and activated the wipers. The snow was brushed aside and he could see the Purity van parked outside the Darks’ house. No lights, of course.
‘How many are there?’
‘I do not have access to Purity riffies, you know that.’
‘Yes.’
Lament gave a sigh. It was the first time Mitchell had ever heard that kind of reaction from him. Mostly he was all machine efficiency.
‘Can I ask you a question, DI Mitchell?’
The policeman frowned. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get into a heart to heart with the wirehead at this point. ‘What?’
‘Are you going to kill Chloe Dark?’
‘That’s my job.’
Mitchell did not answer. It was a question he had asked himself. It was not that he had never killed a female freak. It was not that he had never killed someone close to him. His wife had not been the first one he shot. She had been the hardest. She had begged him in her lucid moments; he could not do it then. It was not until the lucid moments came to an end and she was nothing but a raging monster chained to the bed that he could pull the trigger.
‘I don’t kill them as a punishment.’ It’s a penance.
‘And there’s a possibility she isn’t an S.I.D infectee?’ said Lament.
‘Yes.’
‘So you’re not going to kill her?’
‘Not yet, anyway.’
‘That’s good.’
Mitchell turned to look at the expressionless face on the screen. ‘Good?’
‘Because she’s heading this way—at least I think she is. There’s been an incident in Chorlton.’
The Purity van’s lights came on and it pulled smoothly away from the kerb.
‘An incident in Chorlton?’ said Mitchell.
‘Someone answering Chloe’s description fell off a roof. The locals decided it was a freak and set up a lynching mob.’
‘And that Purity team?’
‘May have got an exaggerated report.’
‘Convenient.’
‘Well, it’s not made up. She really did fall off a roof and then escaped the locals.’
Mitchell grabbed his hat and popped the door. ‘Let me know if they come back.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll peep the horn twice.’
With his hands jammed into his pockets, collar turned up and head down against the wind, Mitchell walked the two hundred yards to the Dark house. The door lay broken and pushed to one side. Mitchell shook his head. The Purity didn’t care that the Darks would be back from quarantine in a few months and, in the meantime, their house would be looted and then ruined by the weather. Yet their only crime was being connected to an unlucky person. For the Purity, it was punishment. It was always about punishment.
He didn’t switch the lights on but flicked on his flashlight. What he wanted was simple enough, but he could not resist wandering around. There was always the possibility he would find a clue; they turned up in the damnedest places.
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