by Adam Steel
‘I come to Utopia with the express consent of Mason Katcher and if you delay me further you will answer to him!’ Aarif spat angrily.
Ajit crossed his arms and stared hard into the face of the guard until he retreated.
The alarm was still ‘sounding-off’ as Aarif and Ajit marched straight on past.
The guard stood mouth agape. He was unable to find the words to reply. He was terrified that he might give the wrong response. Grovelling seemed the right option.
‘Of course. Of course. Please continue. Forgive us for any inconvenience,’ the guard grovelled.
The girl behind the glass sniggered.
He mumbled something under his breath as Aarif and Ajit passed through the barriers, unchecked. If they had been carrying illegal contraband then it would be someone else’s problem, but he wanted no trouble with one of Mason Katcher's special visitors.
The guard watched as Aarif and Ajit were greeted by the chauffeur of the limousine who had been waiting patiently to escort them into Utopia and on to Coney City.
Chapter 5: Three Friends
Diamond Square: Sector One
Friday 1st June
Diamond Square was alive with the sounds of chinking glasses, people chatting and soft music. Diamond Square was at the centre of the financial district in Sector One. Glittering tall buildings were interspersed with numerous expensive cafes and wine bars which broke up the gleaming giants and provided light relief for Utopia’s top workforce. The people sat eating and drinking quietly as they talked in the early afternoon sun. The noise filled the square with a dull murmur of bustle from a thousand different conversations that added an undertone to the soft music. It was not unlike that of a dull roar of an ocean. Among the smartly dressed business men, and well-to-do dressed women who were taking a much earned break from their shopping sprees, two women sat underneath a red and white awning that formed the frontage of Jo Jo’s café. Like the others, it was tasteful, well positioned and expensive.
Ellie sat one leg crossed over the other with both her hands on her sparkling glass of white wine Spritzer. She was wearing her hair up in a French pleat and she was dressed in classic French fashion. She was sophisticated and sexy and the way she looked turned men’s heads.
Bridget sat across from her, kicked back against the silver metal chair, reading an open magazine with both hands. Her wine glass sat empty on the table having been drained within minutes of being received.
When the waiter had brought the drinks he had leaned over Ellie to put the glass down on the table and inhaled her expensive perfume as though he was taking a drink. She had smiled at Bridget and a secret look had passed between them. The look that said, “You’re doing it on purpose. Baiting him. Teasing him and rejecting him. Just like all the others.” The waiter had smiled and left. To Ellie that had felt like hours ago.
Bridget was wearing a white cotton and lace dress. Around her slender neck she wore a sheer scarf that was painted with tiny blue seagulls. She had travelled down from Eden City to spend a day off with her oldest and closest friends, Ellie and Irene.
Ellie took a sip of the Spritzer and regarded Bridget with a sour expression. They had been at the café almost forty minutes and after only half that time Bridget had absently started reading the complimentary magazine that had been provided free with the drinks. Ellie thought it was rude of Bridget and she was starting to lose her patience with her.
Between them on the table stood a tall glass vase holding a single orchid in full bloom. Between the edges of the glass a thin transparent holographic strip projected out images of goldfish swimming in the water around the plant’s stem. The illusion was convincing and tasteful. Ellie had to lean in very close to spot the tiny glitches in the fish’s movements. Unfortunately she had been given the opportunity to do just that.
Bridget was nice enough, but she could also be very self-centred and selfish. It wasn’t intentional, Ellie was sure of that, but she was also fairly certain that Bridget simply wasn’t all that bright. She sometimes lacked tact and Ellie thought that she needed to learn some social etiquette. Ellie had been planning this particular afternoon for weeks and (after falling prey to the machinations of the evil Mr Mackenzie earlier that morning) she was looking forward to some decent company. She needed to take her mind off the ghastly scene in the morgue, and the encounter with F.R.E.D. The first twenty minutes had been Bridget bombarding Ellie with all her news. In truth there hadn’t really been any. Bridget had stayed with Brian after Arethusa and they had moved up to Eden City as soon as they possibly could.
Bridget hadn’t liked Coney City much. In the early days there was no power and she was always likening it to having been built on some huge graveyard.
Ellie didn’t like to point out that Eden City was not much different. The entire country had become one huge graveyard, but it still didn’t stop Bridget from thinking she was now ‘better’ simply because she was an Edeonite instead of a Coneyian. So Bridget had regaled her with how perfect her life was, how nice Brian was and how they were going to start a family and all the other ‘news’ she always talked about.
Brian had resumed his dentistry back up in Eden City and they were making a mint at it. Ellie had listened politely. Nodded and smiled. Her own salary far eclipsed Brian’s dental practice takings, but she was too polite to mention it. Bridget had no such modesty though and Ellie just let her enjoy herself. Bridget wanted Ellie to visit her in Eden City. She had been pressing the issue for a while now. Ellie suspected she wanted to show Brian off. It annoyed her. For her Mr Right still hadn’t arrived. A spiteful voice in her head reminded her that she did have Mr Right once in Corporal Richards, until he got split in half to become Mr “Left and Right.”
When Bridget ran out of steam after the first twenty minutes, she had finally managed a “So Ellie, how are you?” Before Ellie could properly get her teeth into a decent response the magazine had come out. Since then Ellie had been staring at The Daily Informer’s front cover for the last twenty minutes.
Ellie let such menial things slide. Bridget was simple, but she was very likeable – except when she acted the way she was acting right now.
Ellie took another sip of the spritzer and looked out across Diamond Square. The whole area was an immense, pedestrianised plaza. The square was vast. The architects had turned to St Peters Square and the Vatican for their inspiration of its architectural size. On the left side of Diamond Square a huge construction was nearing completion. There was a huge banner strung across the building site. It read:
PHOENIX PALACE
OPENING SOON
It would be opening next month with an immense celebration. The ‘who’s-who’ of Utopia would be there for it: including (it was rumoured) some of the masons themselves. It was one of Mason Katcher’s pet projects.
Ellie had arranged to meet at Jo Jo’s’s café so that she could show Bridget the new Phoenix Palace building because Bridget had claimed that she was ‘busy’ during the grand opening in a month’s time. Ellie figured perhaps she was ‘busy’ because despite all of its wonders (and there were many) Eden City did not have its own Phoenix Palace.
Phoenix Palace was a fabulous imitation of Versailles Palace in France. It dripped opulence and fitted perfectly with the design of Diamond Square. Bridget had merely glanced at it and made some hopeless comment about how it was ‘nice’ before continuing her ‘news’ about Brian’s dental practice.
Although Phoenix Palace was certainly better than ‘nice.’ It was nothing compared to Fin-Sen headquarters which occupied the whole right hand side of Diamond Square – and it seemed – most of the sky. It was truly immense: the tallest building in the whole of Utopia. The design was absolutely spectacular. There had been strong competition by the top architects of that time to design what would be the new government of Utopia. The privilege being so great they bid to do it for free, the prestige would mean money and fame for life.
The Vault (which housed the masons inner sanctum
) was sited two floors underground of the Fin-Sen building and was a veritable fortress. The whole building had been built on the site of ground zero after the Day of Reckoning in defiance (as well as in hope) and it held within its walls the hopes and aspirations of every citizen of Utopia. It occupied its own Sector. Sector Zero. It rose up from the ground in monolithic proportions to dominate the whole of Coney City. It was as if the earth had grown a huge crystal which projected upwards to the heavens in glittering reverence. The main doors were designed to be blast proof and the security of the building was likened to ‘Fort Knox.’
In the middle of the plaza a central design of mosaic tiles formed an enormous octagon with the mason’s key of Freedom and Equality embossed in its design. The huge tiles that formed the key were luminescent green and when nightfall came the symbol of the key shone out of the ground like ‘St Elmo's Fire’ lighting up the Fin-Sen building. They had been angled as such that the key symbol covered the whole glass face of the Fin-Sen building. It was a truly stupendous sight which left newcomers feeling in a state of awe as if that had visited some incredible deity.
On the plaza was a gargantuan metal obelisk with the names of every person that had died in the Day of Reckoning and at its pinnacle was the silver key of the masons. The designers could never be sure if they had recorded all of the victims (because they were so numerous) so they created a space where the absent souls resided and filled it with a picture of the sky at night full of shining stars.
Ellie didn’t like the monument. To her, it served as a huge gravestone, a grim reminder of things best forgotten. Some of the names on the monument had died on her operating table in front of her. Corporal Richards (her ex-lover) was not listed on the obelisk, nor were any of the other hundreds of soldiers that had died in the wake of the disaster. Apparently there was a second obelisk in Arethusa commemorating those soldiers, although, she had never seen it. The place was a military fortress now headquarters of the elusive TALOS. She hoped that she would never have cause to go back.
Bridget turned another page of the magazine and began studying the new contents irritatingly oblivious to the annoyance of her host. Ellie took another sip of the Spritzer and placed the glass loudly back on the table uttering a short cough.
‘Bless you!’ Bridget said, absently thumbing the page again and looking for a more interesting article.
Ellie ‘sighed.’
Irene was late.
Ellie was not surprised. Irene was always late.
She had seen her very briefly at work where Irene had been knocking off a little early to grab a few things and seemingly oblivious to her planned meet with Ellie and Bridget. Ellie had started to protest, pointing out their long planned meeting, but Irene had dismissed it before she could even get halfway. “Don’t worry Ell! I’ll be there, definitely! I haven’t forgot!” she had said, as she was half way out the door, with her doctor’s coat trailing behind her.
Ellie didn’t like to point out, that minutes before she had done exactly that. Ellie had gone up the oncology department afterwards, to inform Irene’s co-workers that “Irene had knocked off feeling a bit unwell.” As Ellie had suspected, Irene had forgotten to tell them that she was leaving early and that she had three more clients whom she was supposed to be seeing. They were another minor detail that Irene had forgotten to fit in with her daily plan.
Ellie often had to cover for Irene these days. As much as she loved her she had to admit that the experiences from the Day of Reckoning and the aftermath in Arethusa had left Irene a different person. She didn’t like to admit to herself that perhaps Irene was ‘two sticks short of a bundle.’ It didn’t make Ellie like her any less. In truth the experience had changed her too. Irene had still retained her medical brilliance and natural gift for the subject becoming a respected oncologist at Plastic Paradise. She cared for patients. Except, for when she had one of her ‘Off’days.
Irene would go up and down from day to day. Sometimes she could be on dizzying highs, charging around like a manic whirlwind, filled with a voracious energy. Other days Ellie had seen her barely able to drag herself from her bed. She suspected Irene was a regular visitor to the hospital pharmacy for ‘mood stabilisers’ and ‘anti-depressants.’ She didn’t like to ask.
Irene was still her best friend. Aside from Bridget (and to a lesser degree Brian) she was the only one who really knew what Ellie had been through. That alone made their bond strong and she couldn’t really blame Irene for who she had become, it wasn’t really her fault. The fact she had kept any of sanity at all was a minor miracle. One that Ellie had to admit she was also proud of.
Ellie turned her attention back to Bridget. She’d wait another half hour and see if Irene turned up. If not and Bridget continued to focus on the magazine she’d make a polite excuse and head home.
Ellie had news of her own.
The tour of Genie was in the morning and inside she was waiting with baited breath. She’d have told Bridget the news but after her behaviour she felt Bridget didn’t deserve to know right now. She would tell her after when she had returned to Eden City and the phone could disguise any inappropriate expressions between them both.
Ellie decided to put some effort in during the half hour wait.
‘So, Bridg,’ what’s that you’re reading? Anything good?’ she offered, masking the hint of annoyance in her voice as best as possible.
She needn’t have bothered. The tone of her voice went straight over Bridget’s head.
‘Hmmmm?’ Bridget replied, without looking up.
After a second or two she realised the focus had switched back onto what she was doing and her attention was swiftly back on Ellie.
‘Oh! Hey look, it’s an article on Blair Ridge...’
She turned the magazine around for Ellie to see and pointed at it.
MEMOREXEN SUSPENDED AT BLAIR RIDGE?
Alongside it was a picture of the facility and a picture of a pretty young woman with spiky, blonde hair. She was the freelance journalist who had written the article. It said that her name was “Abigail Winters.”
Ellie sighed inwardly. She wished she had not spoken.
Blair Ridge was the psychiatric facility up in Eden City conceived by Mason Henri Batide and Bridget worked there as a nurse.
That made anything related to it ‘Bridget news.’
She recalled when Bridget had phoned up with the ‘Bridget news’ when she had first been appointed to the facility last year.
“Hi Ellie! I don’t know if you read about the new psychiatric facility, Blair Ridge that was opened recently by Mason Henri Batide up at Eden City? All the new good stuff happens up here. The guy put in charge of every day running is Professor Victor Archer. It’s fantastic. You wouldn’t believe what they can do there. Honestly, I thought I’d seen it all in my profession, but it’s nothing compared to their new treatments. We used to get a lot of problems with the ex-soldiers from the military back in the old days. Some of those guys were off their heads with drugs and all the crap the military had injected them with. We were pretty used to seeing some of that. Remember Richards in Arethusa?”
Ellie had said nothing. She remembered all too well. Thanks Bridget.
Bridget had continued unabated, not picking up on the uncomfortable silence down the line.
“It was an uphill battle to get them back on their feet and doing something useful again and a lot of them never made it back into service again. Not any longer! They have this treatment and I’ve seen it working for myself. It’s great for the clients. Its brand new, some new drug-Memory or Memtox or something, we’re piloting it! Exciting isn’t it? It re-routes their brain function or something but leaves them calm and rational again. It’s amazing. I’ve only been there for a short time now, a few weeks, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. Better than working down at Plastic. They did all the initial work on ex-soldiers, but now, it can be used for ordinary Utopians, who in extreme cases, would normally never make a good recovery. You know. Th
e total psychos.”
Ellie had tried to agree, but there was no stopping the flood of ‘Bridget news’ so she had just listened – swapping hands to stave off phone arm-ache.
“We had this one guy. He was – apparently – an executive of Mason Royale. Although I have heard she can drive men nuts (if you know what I mean) he really had gone mad.”
Ellie had laughed dryly. That much at least was true.
Bridget had started up again.
“They brought him in to Blair Ridge squealing and shrieking some mad garbage about the masons murdering everyone and eating them. I thought, when I saw him, “‘we’ve got a right one here.’” Worse than one of Irene’s boyfriends! I’d never heard anything like it. He was going on and on about Mason Royale and how she was a devil in disguise. It would have been funny were it not for the fact that he actually tried to kill her. He’d gone in to the Fin-Sen building one day armed with a gun and tried to shoot his way into Mason Royale’s office suite. Poor woman, she must have been terrified.
The security guards overwhelmed him and he was dragged up to the new facility in a strait jacket with tape over his mouth – Well – They flung him in a padded cell and we were told not to go near him unless we were in pairs because he was extremely dangerous. I was surprised they didn’t just shoot him there on the spot, but apparently, Mason Royale intervened, and requested that he go for treatment under the supervision of Mason Batide. How thoughtful. Can you believe the strength of character that must have taken? After being threatened like that she still had the compassion to try and help the guy.”
Ellie had swapped arms again as the phone cramp had set in. Bridget had been going for an epic and her input wasn’t needed, just her ear. For once, at least the story had been enthralling. She had waited for the inevitable Brian’s ‘dental practice news’ to overshadow it, and strangle the life out of the story. She had been pleasantly surprised when Bridget had continued.