“I don’t suppose you know where she might be heading, Mr. McNamee?” Rowe continued in the same tone of long-passed judgement, but I was already up and scrabbling around for my shoes.
“Mr. McNamee!” Rowe went on. “I’m going to ask you one more time-”
“I’ll get her,” I said. “It’s alright, I can take care of it.”
“That’s not how it works, Mr. McNamee. And anyway, we can track her; you can’t. We’ve got a team ready to inter-“
“-No, no!” I insisted, rushing up to the com screen. “I can find her; I know where she’s going.”
“And would you care to share this information wi-”
But I was already gone, leaving Rowe talking to an empty room.
****
I hardly ever used the car. It was an expensive luxury that I told myself I should sell at least ten times every year. With your arrival and the travel restrictions that came with you, much of the little purpose there was in owning it had disappeared. Yet, I had somehow never been able to get rid of it.
No doubt the CyberG Security had access to my car’s GPS – even if I somehow did manage to reach you first, they would be only minutes behind. But I didn’t want them taking you without me there, simple as that.
I hadn’t thought to get your current position from Rowe before running from the bedroom, but I supposed that they had to be pretty much on top of things and that they must have called me within minutes of you leaving your zone. Finding the car still in the garage, I wondered what transport you had taken to Drewsteignton. That is, of course, if you actually were heading for the religious party as I thought. But where else would you be going?
All I could do was power up on the direct route to that small village on the fringe of Dartmoor, find some high ground and hope to spot you. I hadn’t been to Drewsteignton in about fifteen years, but I knew that there weren’t too many ways in and out. However, I didn’t know how close to the village this party was going to be. Too many variables, too much chance to miss you if you had done this in broad daylight, let alone on a moonless night.
Then I had a thought and ran back in to grab the night vision binoculars that I had bought to help you in your endless vigils and snooping into the goings-on in the park. Your interest in that place never waned, never even faltered slightly. You were as fascinated by it still as you had been on the day you arrived. But we never seemed to share that any more.
****
The countryside was a different world to the city, even a small city like ours. We lived in one of the ever-dwindling ‘old’ sections of the city, and I could see the similarity, however slight, between somewhere like Drewsteignton and our little area of St.Thomas. It was the same in every other one of the – admittedly – small number of cities that I had spent time in; this... gleaming fungus growing across the landscape that was the new build, the regeneration of a stronger, more efficient, more coherent Europe.
It wasn’t just the houses that changed with new build, it was the streets – the very pavements and roads themselves – every surface, every lamp and post, the cars... even the people were somehow not quite the same once it had passed through the landscape. And from the top of a hill above any city that I had ever been to you could see it as a physical thing, an entity whose tendrils snaked out from the central complex that was the commercial and administrative heart of every regenerating European city. It wouldn’t be too long now, surely, before Sector 9G’s capital city was fully consumed by this seemingly accidental uniformity, the ordered chaos which, however many colours it was made up of always gleamed white from a distance. Soon we would all be the same.
But, stood in Drewsteignton’s old cemetery – the like of which you would never now find in a city – and with the old church tower rising far above me, I found myself oddly calmed by my surroundings, this place that at least still had the façade of some autonomy, some freedom and independence from life’s incessant conditioning.
I looked up at the tower, leering above me rather like a smaller version of the cathedral back in Exeter’s High Street Complex. You didn’t see the city’s churches dominating the landscape in the way that this one did out here, either. Did they still worship here, like the folks had in the cathedral? Religion had always seemed to be bigger with the country folk, and the fact that this party was being held nearby lent weight to the idea. If anyone showed up here at the church, then I guessed I should ask them about it. I’d have to sound... well, less disgusted about the whole thing than I really felt. It would be like being undercover, or something.
I did another sweep with the binoculars, covering the lane along which I expected you to come and speculatively scanning the steep slopes of the field beyond. Nothing at all. This was ridiculous; CyberG had probably caught you already, and here I was sat alone in an exposed cemetery, buffeted by a relentless and damp wind.
At least I was contactable, though. With the GPS tucked away in my car and virtually impossible for all but the most sophisticated car thieves to remove, let alone lil’ old me, there had been no good reason to leave either my personal com or my Efi Card back at home when I had popped back in for the binoculars. So now I was findable three times over.
Sweeping back across the fields and towards the lane, I caught something moving out from a line of trees at the eastern end of the largest field on the opposite side of the valley from where I stood. As it came further out into the field, I could clearly see someone on horseback. Zooming in and tracking as steadily as possible I took a photo, looking hurriedly from the viewfinder to the dim shadow moving across the field as the image enhancement software did its work, sharpening the picture and replacing the black and greens of night vision for daytime colour.
I was surprised to find myself smiling. So that was how you had managed to keep ahead of the CyberG security. I couldn’t imagine anyone at CyberG being equipped for pursuit on horseback. You looked so comfortable in the saddle and I wondered how on earth you had learned to ride so well. Was it something you could have, you know, come with?
You headed towards the top corner of the field and I started to hurry from the graveyard to follow, but stopped suddenly as something caught my eye back towards the east... a flashing blue-white light somewhere around the horizon. CyberG were not far behind and I had to reach you first, so I ran like I hadn’t run for years.
About thirty seconds later I was deeply regretting all those years of bodily neglect and that slight pot belly which had been slowly extending my profile over the past couple of years. My entrance into the field was sudden, uncontrolled and through a hedge. Struggling to my feet, my face felt like most of it was bleeding and my right wrist was kind of numb, but I carried on up the steep slope and towards the corner where I had last seen you, coughing to suppress a strong urge to throw up.
When I reached the top of the field, I’m telling you now, I nearly shit myself.
Yeah, go on, laugh.
You’d left that bloody horse there, hadn’t you? I was hardly a horse expert, but the ground was so steep at the top of that field, and the night so dark – especially under the trees which stretched away from the other side of the fence to which you’d tethered your mount – well, you must have realised that the horse had taken you as far as was possible.
I startled the horse and he...
...I guess?
Yeah... he did a lot more than just startle me back. Rearing up in the darkness, one of his hooves missing me by centimetres, he took a good twelve or fifteen years off the shelf life of my heart, that’s what he did.
Man, do I love your laugh...
So, I hopped the fence and continued after you, not really knowing where you were going, but just following that basic instinct to head upwards, I guess. I was soon making my way out of the trees and looking down into another valley. I could see the party – or whatever it was – in a field about four or five hundred metres away and, probably only visible against the light coming from the party beyond, about half way between
me and the thing which had compelled you to leave your habitation zone and put our whole life together at risk, I could see you.
It wasn’t surprising that you heard me coming as, desperate to get to you before you reached your objective, I bounded rather than ran down the field like an overweight and soon-for-the-lions gazelle. You turned around and let out a small squeal at the sight of this dark shape hurtling uncontrollably in your direction.
Stopping just before I flattened you, I tried to speak but was foiled by a desperate need for air.
“Tim!” You couldn’t have sounded more shocked – not just that there was someone there, but that it was me. “You followed me?”
“N-ot ex-actly,” I wheezed. “Hey... h-ow long you be-en able to ride... ride a horse?”
“More than a year and a half,” you replied. “There’s a lady keeps horses just two kilometres or so away. She taught me for free when you were at work.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
You didn’t answer and were silent for a moment, then looked briefly over your shoulder at the light coming from where some forty or fifty people gathered less than fifty metres beyond us.
“She said I was a natural at it. That’s what she called me: a natural. How could I be natural at anything?”
“CyberG are only a few minutes behind,” I said, “if you want to go to your party, you should do it now.”
It was getting so that I could see your face a little better. Your eyes went distant for a moment. “No, I think I’ve come as far as I wanted to.”
“So what,” I asked, “why did you do this if you’re not going to go in?” And I then jumped to the most obvious conclusion from my point of view. “Is this about me, is it your way of saying you don’t want to be with me anymore?”
Shapes and lights appeared at the top of the hill. They could probably see us already.
“No Tim,” you answered with a roll of your eyes. “We can safely say this has absolutely nothing to do with you.” The way you said it, it cut a diagonal slice into my heart and across my stomach.
And that was it. I could have asked you what you meant, but there was a look in your eyes that stopped me. Three years and you had never felt more like a stranger, not even on the day you had walked into my little flat. So CyberG came and took you away, binding you and manhandling you like a criminal right in front of me, and all you did was hold my gaze, as if attempting to etch the image into my memory.
It worked.
* * *
Chapter 14
“So, Mr. McNamee, what I’m really here to do is make sure that Mina has a good environment to return to.”
Rowe, CyberG’s Head of Security, was sat in our lounge with a glass of water in his hand and wearing a terribly officious look.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “I don’t remember anything being said about this before; don’t I just get her back?”
Rowe looked appalled by my turn of phrase, deliberately so.
“Mr. McNamee, it’s a very serious matter when a companion is found outside their habitation zone without prior permission. We don’t want to put Mina back here just for it to happen again. And I’m sure you don’t want it to happen again, either.”
He did have a point.
“Now,” Rowe continued, “we know where Mina was going, but the question is ‘why’?”
“You should probably ask her,” I replied without scorn.
“But we would like to know what you think, Mr. McNamee.” It’s always a bad sign when a lone man expresses his desires as a ‘we’.
I guess I must have looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Well, we were at the cathedral in the High Street Complex on Egg Day and some guy told us about this party thing.”
“Why were you in the cathedral, are you a religious man?”
“No!” I almost exclaimed. “No, not at all. It was Mina’s idea.”
“Is Mina religious?”
Careful, I thought to myself. There were few rules which separated cyborgs from any normal member of human society, and I was pretty sure that not being allowed religious beliefs wasn’t one of them. Nevertheless, there was something in the way he had asked his question that I didn’t like, not one little bit.
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “I think she was just... curious.”
“Very curious, as it turns out.”
I laughed so he’d think that I had taken his comment as a joke.
“But really, Mr. McNamee, why do you think she would willingly jeopardise her place here with you to visit some religious, er... gathering?”
I had been deliberately playing a little dumb, trying to avoid the question which I now found myself facing.
“Um...” What was I supposed to say? That three years together had done nothing but leave you with a total lack of regard for your place there with me? That I obviously didn’t know a thing about you, despite night after night sleeping by your side? What exactly did he expect me to say?
Maybe Rowe took pity on me, or maybe he had got exactly the amount of silence that he was after; either way, he changed the subject.
“Has Mina been acting differently at all in recent weeks? Has she met anyone new?”
“No,” I replied. “She’s been fine. And as for meeting people... she doesn’t really do that.” I was thinking of a couple of months before and you sat talking to a man on a bench. For the first time since school I was lying to an authority figure, but if that guy whose name I couldn’t quite remember at that moment was anything to do with what was happening... well, it seemed more my business than it would ever be Rowe’s.
****
It went on like that for a while, I’m sure you’ve got the gist of where he was generally trying to go with it, so I won’t bore you with more. It was humiliating, though, you know? Like the guy really enjoyed his job of going round making a man who already felt pretty shitty feel even worse about himself.
Finally he was leaving, yet at the same time managing to find something else to stop and say every few steps. I willed him towards the door and at last we stood with it open onto the world and whatever stone Rowe had to go back and crawl under.
“Oh, and one more thing Mr. McNamee...”
Argh!
“I’m required to let you know that your behaviour on the evening of Mina’s flight was completely unacceptable.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just kind of panicked.”
Rowe frowned and his grey-topped temples seemed to collapse before my eyes. “Well... whatever the reason, you need to be reminded, Mr. McNamee, that Mina is first and foremost the property of CyberG and that your ownership of her is no more than a rental contract that can be terminated at any time... if such measures are deemed necessary.”
I nodded eagerly... dumbly; that fucker had me in the palm of his hand. I would have got on all fours and barked like a dog if he had told me to.
“Furthermore, Mr. McNamee, I’m sure I needn’t remind you that as a subcontractor to Cyberlife Systems, well... we’d hope that you might feel a little more loyalty to us than you would to a pretty toaster.”
He turned to leave, adding over his shoulder as an afterthought, “We’ll let you know our decision in a couple of days. Good day.”
I couldn’t believe... I just, I really couldn’t believe it. Had he just threatened me? Threatened my job? Could he really do that?
****
It was another week until they told me that you were being allowed to come back. Five more days until they actually released you. With the eight days which had passed between your capture and Rowe’s visit, that was a twenty day point that CyberG’s local security section had made about how much they disliked AWOL cyborgs in their area.
It was a Saturday morning when Rowe himself (I was starting to think that there weren’t a whole lot of staff in Cyber G's local 9G section) brought you to the door, and I was almost finished packing. I left the bags in the bedroom until after Rowe was gone, then brought them i
nto the lounge where you were stood as sheepish and as awkward as the day I had first met you. Whatever punishment that CyberG might visited upon you during the last three weeks, they hadn’t denied you the means for another overhaul of your look.
Now you wore a jet black bob and thick, dark make up, your lips shining a deep, dangerous-looking purple and your almost-olive skin suddenly seeming a lot more like porcelain. You couldn’t have picked a more poignant moment to take my breath away and remind me how much I had come to take your beauty for granted. Once I would never have believed I could do something like that.
Your eyes widened at the sight of the bags, but I spoke before you could ask.
“What did they do to you?”
You stared blankly at me for a moment before pointing to your hair. “Oh, you mean this? Yeah... yeah I know. Different, huh?”
“Um... yeah. Yeah, it's different alright.” This one was among your more out-there looks, but that hadn’t been what I was getting at. “Although, I actually meant, you know... really, what did they do to you?”
“Oh, right. Nothing too bad... bunch of tests and that.” You saw my look. “They really do like their testing. But honestly, nothing horrible or mean. It was fine. They were even quite nice after the first couple of days.”
“Good,” I said. How many times we say ‘good’ or ‘right’ when we really should have had lots more to say on the subject. We should try banning a few of those words from the English language and see if people start having more proper conversations.
You eyed the bags; of course you would eye the bags. I had planned to broach it, but in the event the words got stuck in my throat too long for me to get in first.
“Going somewhere?” you asked. Then, pointing out the obvious just to make sure it’s out there: “You know I can’t apply for any travel for at least six months now...”
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