Floodworld

by Tom Huddleston

  Cortez squinted, touching the scar on his cheek. “Is that … Kara? Neptune’s beard, back from the dead. Remick, seize her.”

  “No!” Kara shouted as the guards lunged forward. Nate shoved them back, ignoring the guns in his face. “Let me speak. In a democracy you get to hear both sides, don’t you?”

  There was a rumble from the Shanties and Cortez’s eyes narrowed. Then he nodded briskly. “Very well. Speak your piece. But keep it brief.”

  “I just…” Kara began, realising she had no idea what she was going to say. “I just wanted…” She had to appear strong, even if her insides were quivering and her knees were ready to collapse. She’d watched Remick and she’d watched Cortez; she’d seen the way they used words to persuade people, to win their trust. It was all about confidence and certainty.

  “I just wanted to say, almost everything Cortez said is true,” she started. “I grew up in the Shanties, just over there actually. And I love my home; it’s big and it’s crazy and it’s full of all kinds of people. But I hate it too. There’s hunger and disease, and danger everywhere you look. Most of us wake up each morning not knowing if we’re going to eat, if we’re going to work, or if we’re going to be stabbed in an alley and dumped in the sea.” A murmur of assent rose from the towers.

  “And these people –” she gestured at the City refugees – “do nothing to help. They know it’s tough out here, but I guess they just choose not to think about it.”

  She leant forward, knowing she had their attention. “I lost a good friend today. He died trying to stop all this from happening. He was a MetCo officer, just like Mr Remick. But he was brave and he was honest. Another friend helped us; he’s right here.” She indicated Nate, who blushed to his collar. “He’s a Mariner, but he risked his life to stop Cortez because he doesn’t think killing people is the right way to achieve anything.”

  “That boy’s no Mariner,” Cortez cut in. “He’s a traitor to his people.”

  “Let me finish!” Kara snapped, her words reverberating in the silence. “I’m not speaking to you. I’m speaking to them. My people, not yours. I know you think you know us, but you don’t. I know you think we’ll look the other way but we’re better than that.”

  She took a breath, mustering her strength. “I’ve lived in the Shanties, and I’ve sailed with the Mariners, and I’ve been inside the Wall. And this is what I’ve seen. There are bad people everywhere you go. Crooks and killers who don’t care if you live or die as long as they come out on top. Powerful people who think they can twist you into doing whatever they want. But there are decent people too. People who help each other, who try to do the right thing, and sometimes they fail, and sometimes they don’t.”

  She barely knew where the words were coming from any more; she was just letting them flow out of her, feeling more certain than she ever had in her life. “Cortez is right. Things have to change. But if we do it his way, if we turn our heads and let him kill all these people, we’ll never forgive ourselves. We can find another way. We can make a better world, all of us, together. Please, let’s try.”

  25

  Broken Glass

  Kara’s voice died away and an unearthly stillness fell. Joe felt the tears come, blurring his view through the binoculars. He wanted to cry out, to tell her how proud he was, but she was so far away. Redeye watched silently, and Joe saw conflicting emotions pass across his face – frustration, yes, and bitterness. But was that admiration too?

  Then a spark flared and Joe glanced down. On the boat’s instrument panel the wires were still exposed. An idea began to form and he leant close to Maura. “Get ready,” he whispered, and she nodded.

  Cortez’s voice echoed over the still water. “Now we’ve heard both sides. I’ll admit, Kara makes an emotional case. But she’s a child; she doesn’t understand how the world works. If you let these people live, things will be back how they were within a year. Maybe there’ll be a few different people in charge, a few more schools or hospitals to assuage their guilt. But nothing will have changed. And still the waters keep rising. How long can it go on?

  “It’s time to make a choice. If you agree with Kara, raise your hand. If you want to make a real future for the Shanties, remain as you are.”

  Joe held his breath, squinting through the binoculars. No hands were going up. The City refugees huddled together, waiting for the verdict. The people of the Shanties watched from roofs and window ledges, and to his dismay Joe saw some of them peeling away, dropping out of sight, running from the responsibility.

  Then a voice called out and he saw a hand thrust skywards, above a tangle of red hair. “Kara!” Miss Ella shouted. “I’m with you!”

  “Also me!” A young man reached up, sunlight gleaming on his black quiff.

  A group of ANTI activists joined him, fists raised in a firm salute. Then a gang of Shanty kids followed their lead, grinning at each other. All along the edge of the Pavilion Joe saw scattered hands raised, people looking guardedly at their neighbours before reaching into the air.

  Then the dam broke, rippling across the towers like a wave. Hand after hand was thrust upward, a domino effect passing from block to block, from roof to roof, from ship to ship. Joe saw one man balanced on a crane above the harbour, sticking his hand up so fervently that he lost his balance and toppled a hundred feet into the water. He came up grinning, and shoved his hand in the air again.

  Kara stood firm, her eyes fixed on Cortez. For a long time there was silence, then the Mariner captain shook his head. “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”

  “You made the rules,” Kara replied. “Now take your submarine and leave.”

  Joe saw Cane behind her father, reaching to place a hand on his shoulder.

  He shook her off. “No,” he said. “Democracy be damned. Weapons, fire at will.”

  Below him on the Kraken the rocket banks spun into position, energy cannons humming as they took aim at the Pavilion. “Better move,” Redeye said and turned the key, the motor rattling into life. Joe took a breath, slipping Growly from his pocket. The bear’s legs jutted out like sharpened fangs. He winked at Maura and she nodded, backing up against the gunwale.

  Brandishing his bear Joe leapt forward, jamming Growly legs-first into the instrument panel. Sparks flew, wires sheared and Redeye jerked back in surprise. Joe had been hoping the engine would sputter out, leaving them dead in the water. But instead the speedboat roared into high gear, shooting forward like a rocket. Maura was thrown over the side, her cry cut off as she hit the water. Redeye started up, drawing his pistol, but then a tanker hove into view and he was forced to grab the wheel.

  Joe slid to the railing but before he could jump Redeye seized his ankle, yanking him back. “No, you don’t.”

  Screams rose from the Pavilion and Joe saw missiles streaking into the sky, pillars of fire erupting. Black smoke billowed, lit by the golden sun. The noise was deafening.

  Then for a moment he heard voices on the breeze, a chorus of them, crying the same word over and over. He felt his stomach roll over. Maybe there was hope after all.

  When the firing started Kara’s first thought was of Joe.

  Nate pulled her down as flame-tailed rockets ripped the air and blue firebolts screamed from the Kraken’s rapidly spinning energy cannons. Gangplanks clattered from the submarine’s landward side and the Mariners stormed into the harbour, firing as they came. The Pavilion was a surging mass of desperate panic; Kara could only imagine how many would be crushed in that terrible stampede. Then the missiles struck and the crowds vanished, swallowed by the black smoke.

  “This is your fault!” Remick bellowed, storming towards her. “If you hadn’t spoken up…”

  “My fault?” she shouted back. “You trusted a terrorist and now everyone here is going to die.”

  A missile struck the face of the Zoo, the glass panes shattering outwards. Kara dropped, shielding herself from the storm of shards. When she raised her head Remick was lying on the concret
e, his guards scattered around him.

  “That was too close,” Nate said, picking himself up. “We should get inside where it’s safe.” He gestured to the Zoo, now just a ragged steel hole in the face of the Wall.

  “Not without him,” Kara said, tugging Remick’s arm. “He needs to pay for what he’s done.”

  But Remick didn’t move. Kneeling, Kara rolled him on to his back, his blood-stained wig flapping free. An inch-thick shard of glass was embedded in his neck, his face stricken in a hideous grimace. Explosions flared, reflected in his blank, lifeless eyes. One of the guards staggered to his boss’s side, took one look and stumbled away, fleeing into the smoke.

  Kara shut her eyes, struggling to breathe. It was all too much, all this death, all this noise. The world had gone mad, and she was trapped in the middle of it.

  Then for the briefest second the rockets ceased and she heard raised voices carried on the breeze. It was a rallying cry, distant but unmistakable.

  “Are they…?” Nate asked in amazement. “Are they shouting your name?”

  “No,” Kara said, hugging the ground as her head spun. “That’s not… No.”

  “They are,” Nate insisted. “They’re shouting ‘Kara, Kara’.”

  She turned away, towards the Zoo. The urge to hide was almost overwhelming; she wanted to run inside, find a dark place and never come out. But that was impossible now.

  “I didn’t … I didn’t say those things so people would…” She gritted her teeth, gathering her strength. “I have to go down there. If they’re fighting, I have to help them.”

  “You don’t,” Nate insisted. “Your speech was great but it doesn’t make you responsible for everything that happens after.”

  “I think it does,” Kara said. Then she took his hand. “Run if you want. Go to the Zoo, find those kids that Remick stole and keep them safe. I won’t blame you. But I don’t think I can.”

  Nate stared back at her, his clothes smeared with soot and blood. “Don’t be crazy. We’re in this together. I mean, we’ll almost certainly die a horrible death, but that’s just the way it—”

  There was an ear-shattering whine, echoing hoarsely as the damaged speakers crackled into life. The din of firing ebbed as a disembodied voice wheezed from the smoke.

  “Kara,” it said. “Kara, are you there?”

  She lifted her head. Gunfire rattled in the dark.

  “Perhaps you’re dead already,” Cortez continued, “but I’ve made that mistake before. I just want you to know that I have something of yours. If you come to the Kraken, unarmed and alone, I’ll hand it over. And if you don’t believe me, listen.”

  The speakers hissed and for a moment there was silence. Then a plaintive voice spoke, weak and frightened and very far away. “K-Kara?” Joe stuttered. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  26

  Resistance

  Cortez took the transmitter from Joe’s hand, looking out across the Kraken’s railing to the wall of fire in the Pavilion. “Good,” he said. “She’ll come.”

  “She’ll come,” Joe said, trying to keep his voice steady, “and when she gets here, she’ll kill you.”

  They’d arrived only moments before; Redeye had hauled Joe out of the speedboat and driven him along the sea wall towards the sub, soldiers saluting as they passed. They’d climbed the gangplank into a maze of steel corridors, following a winding stairway to find Cortez waiting on the balcony.

  In the harbour Joe could see the shapes of dockside warehouses, most of them just heaps of rubble. Cries echoed in the gloom and there was a constant clatter of gunfire.

  He clutched Growly; the bear’s legs had melted into one twisted lump, but his fierce face still made Joe feel braver.

  “There’s been scattered resistance,” Cortez was telling Redeye. “Some of the mudfoots are armed, but they can’t hold out for long.”

  “Maura Glass and her Shore Boys,” Redeye growled. “I should have gone back; we could’ve used her. Instead she’s out there, making trouble.”

  “I could talk to her for you if you like,” Joe offered, gesturing at the transmitter. “Maura would listen to me. We could stop all this. More people don’t have to die for no reason.”

  Cortez turned on him. His blue eyes were laced with red.

  “No reason?” he spat. “I gave them my reasons and they didn’t listen. I even gave them a vote; I didn’t have to do that.”

  “But they voted, and now you’re killing them anyway.”

  Cortez looked away. “I’ll do whatever it takes to bring a better world.”

  A grenade detonated close by, the red light dancing on his mask-like face. Looking down, Joe saw Mariner soldiers taking up positions around the sub, their weapons pointed outwards.

  “What’s happening down there?” Cortez demanded, his voice tightening. “What are they doing?”

  Cane stepped on to the balcony, saluting nervously. Her face was smeared with oil, her lip quivering. “Father, I mean, C-Captain, the men are… You have to…”

  “Say it,” Cortez snapped.

  “There are reports from the P-Pavilion,” Cane stammered. “We’re encountering more mudfoots than expected. They say the Shanty rats and the city scum are fighting together. And they’re all armed – apparently these Shore Boys have been giving out guns.”

  Cortez cursed. “Where are MetCo? Where’s that traitor Remick?”

  “They’re saying he’s dead. Some of his men turned against us. The rest ran away.”

  “Cowards!” Cortez exclaimed. “Mudfoot cowards.”

  There was a high-pitched screech and a voice cried, “Incoming!”

  A rocket struck the Kraken’s prow with a blinding flash, sending up a column of steam. Cortez was thrown off his feet, slamming back against the conning tower. Cane dropped at his side but he shoved her away, staggering up.

  “Redeye, get down there and take charge. Drive the mudfoots back. Kill as many as you can. And if Kara comes, bring her to me.”

  Redeye nodded grimly. “It’s done.”

  Kara and Nate crossed the Pavilion, wandering through a scene from hell. The concrete was patterned with scorch marks and blast craters, though there were fewer bodies than she’d expected – most of the refugees must have managed to flee into the Shanties.

  Nate dropped beside a Mariner boy not much older than himself, spreadeagled on his back with a pistol in his hand. “I know him. He was on the Neptune. He punched me once because I trod on his foot.”

  Kara wondered what Cortez had said to the boy, what words he’d used to convince him to do this. “We have to stop him,” she said. “Cortez needs to die.”

  Nate looked at her uncertainly. “Do you really think you can do it? Kill him, I mean.”

  Kara shrugged. “Someone has to.”

  They passed the wrecked fence, clambering over a toppled security tower and into the harbour. The smoke had begun to break ahead of them, eddying on the breeze. Shafts of sunlight cut through and Kara caught a glimpse of something huge and black looming in the fog. The Kraken.

  Mariner soldiers crouched around the forward gangplank, firing at a group of Shore Boys who had taken cover in the wreckage of a dockside storehouse. A rocket spiralled up, striking the submarine, but its armour was too thick – the blast left nothing but a charred smear. And the response was immediate; the Kraken’s cannons spun, battering the rubble with fire and noise.

  “Come on,” Kara said, tugging Nate towards the warehouse. “They might know where Joe is.”

  They crept closer, ducking through shattered walls and around piles of debris. Suddenly a figure stepped from the shadows clutching a rifle.

  Kara put up her hands. “We’re friends. I’m looking for Maura Glass.”

  “Kara?” The young man lowered his gun. His hair was flat with grime but Kara felt her stomach roll over as the Pompadour beamed at her. “Mrs Glass hoped you would come. As did I. Your speech was very powerful.”

  Kara blushed. “Thank
s.”

  “You two know each other?” Nate asked suspiciously.

  Kara shook her head. “A bit.”

  The sun cast long shadows through the demolished storehouse. Groups of people sheltered behind heaps of wreckage, their weapons braced. Kara saw a shock of red hair bright against the grey. Miss Ella held her rifle tight as it kicked beneath her, sending a Mariner soldier spinning into the dust. She nodded to the girl beside her, a long-limbed figure in the tattered remnants of a pastel-green balloon dress.

  “Wow,” Kara muttered to herself. “It’s like everyone we know is here.” But remembering Joe’s words only made her miss him more.

  Maura’s eyes shone as she strode towards them, keeping low. “Kara,” she said. “Your speech was remarkable. I was so proud. So was Joe.”

  “Where is he?” Kara asked. “How did Cortez get hold of him?”

  Maura flushed. “We can discuss that later. Our scouts report that he’s still on the sub, but we can’t get any closer. Their defences are too robust; every time we try to advance they blast us.”

  “I might be able to help,” Nate said. “I might know how to take down the Kraken.”

  Kara looked at him. “Really?”

  He drew the computer tablet from his jacket; it was dirty and cracked but the screen lit up when he hit the switch. “We’re close enough that I should be able to tap into the submarine’s databanks … there.” He held the device up and Kara saw an interior map of the sub outlined in black. “The engineering schematics are classified, but this shows you where all the important bits are.”

  “That’s great,” she said. “But how does it help if we’re stuck out here?”

  “I’m getting to that. Look, these are the fuel cells, right below the engine. Hit them and the whole thing’s disabled. And there’s an access hatch just here; it’s sealed, but if everyone concentrated their fire on it, grenades and rockets and everything, you might be able to blow it open.”