Elites

by Natasha Ngan

  He raised a finger to her lips, stopping her. ‘We will,’ he said firmly.

  Silver watched out of the corner of her eyes as her brother cupped his wife’s face in his hands and kissed her. He whispered something Silver couldn’t hear, but she could guess what it might have been. They pulled apart. Percie nodded, kissed Joza fiercely one final time, and then stood back, shutting the door.

  They sped off straight away. Joza’s truck led the group. Butterfly held Silver round the waist with one arm but she still had to press a hand against the dashboard, the truck was bumping so violently. They hurtled down the leeward side of the slope before speeding across the wasteland, their spinning wheels throwing up a cloud of dust that wreathed the truck, filling the air with a sound like rain as grit and dirt flung against the windscreen.

  ‘The Pigeons bombed a part of the wall?’ Silver shouted above the noise. She couldn’t believe it. She’d always thought of Neo-Babel’s wall as indestructible.

  Joza nodded. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

  ‘But where did they get the explosives?’

  ‘Your friends at the Council made a kind donation,’ he said, and grinned for the first time that day.

  Joza drove so quickly they were soon approaching the exploded part of the wall. The cloud of smoke billowing from the gap was thick, opaque, turning the world into a swirling, white-grey ashscape.

  ‘Hold on!’ he cried.

  Silver grabbed the dashboard just in time as the truck began to buck and bump even more than before, hitting the debris of the destroyed wall. There were metallic crashes and tearing sounds as the truck collided with unseen obstacles, just looming shadows out of the clouds that were too close to avoid.

  ‘Be careful!’ Silver screamed as they narrowly missed a chunk of wall that lay across the ground, the truck swerving madly, throwing them sideways in their seats.

  Joza’s grin was more of a grimace. ‘Just be thankful you’re not in the back of the truck.’

  After a minute, the ash and smoke started to clear, and Silver could make out the blocky shapes of buildings beyond. The truck began to slow.

  ‘We have to wait here,’ Joza explained. ‘Just a couple of minutes to meet up with the Pigeons, and then the four of us will head to the tunnel in the hydroponics that’ll get us into the Council District.’

  ‘Four of us?’ asked Butterfly.

  Joza nodded. ‘Cambridge is coming with us. He’s the leader of the Pigeons.’

  Silver shifted uneasily as the truck crawled to a stop, still cloaked in a veil of shifting smoke and ash. ‘Is it really a good idea to be stopping here?’ It felt strange to be still after hurtling along at such high speed, and the poor visibility was making her feel uneasy. Anything could be hiding behind the clouds of smoke.

  ‘We were actually meant to meet the Pigeons on that ridge outside the city,’ said Joza. ‘But something happened that meant Cambridge had to stay in Neo.’ He opened the door to leave the truck and noise rushed in; the wailings of alarms, screams and shouts, a low rumble as debris from the explosion shifted. Joza had to shout to be heard over it all as he added, ‘I think he said something about retrieving a lost Pigeon.’

  At the same time, up on a windswept balcony high above an inner-city street –

  ‘Hello again, Allum.’

  Even with a gun pressed to his forehead, Cambridge was polite. Akhezo had to admire him for that.

  Allum didn’t respond.

  The other two Pigeons drew their guns, but before they’d even aimed them at Allum, he flicked his gun at both of them in turn. The gunshots were so loud Akhezo felt them in his heart. Two hard pulses, and then nothing.

  His breath came out in ragged drags. He was certain Allum would turn the gun on him next, but the man did not even look in his direction, and with an almost gentle carefulness, Allum returned the gun to Cambridge’s forehead.

  ‘Ah, of course you wouldn’t kill the boy,’ said Cambridge, and Akhezo was amazed to see a smile on the Pigeons leader’s face. ‘How is Taiyo doing?’

  ‘Don’t you dare ask about her.’

  Cambridge clasped his hands together. ‘I apologise. Will you at least tell her I said hello?’

  Akhezo had no idea what was going on. He stared at the two men, his mouth hanging open.

  ‘She does not need your pity, Cambridge,’ said Allum. ‘None of us do.’

  ‘When we met that time –’

  Allum growled. ‘You had no right to ask us to leave the Council and join you and the Pigeons. To try and turn us against our own family.’

  ‘Family?’

  ‘Yes. Family. That is what the Council is to us. To me. Even to Ember, who behind all her tough act I know to be just a girl fighting for what she believes in. That is why she would not leave with you, even if you are her father.’

  Akhezo felt his stomach drop. The daughter Cambridge was so distraught over losing to the Council was Ember? He shook his head. It couldn’t be true. How could a witch like her be related to the man who had given him everything?

  ‘How is Ember?’ whispered Cambridge, his voice broken.

  ‘Well,’ said Allum.

  ‘Good.’ There were tears in Cambridge’s eyes now. ‘You’re not going to leave the Council, are you, Allum? No matter what I say.’

  Allum shook his head. ‘I will defend them to the grave.’

  Cambridge looked hurt. He said softly, ‘That might be sooner than you think.’

  Allum replied by pulling the trigger.

  Akhezo screamed. He screamed, but he didn’t hear it. He just felt his mouth open and his lungs burn and his throat scrape raw. He made a jerking, lunging movement towards Cambridge’s body but Allum grabbed him and twisted him round, pushing him towards the door leading off the balcony.

  ‘I hate you!’ cried Akhezo, thrashing under Allum’s grasp. He hit out, his punches falling softly on the man’s muscular bulk. ‘All of you Council snobs! You and that red-haired witch and everyone else!’

  Allum didn’t say anything. He just dragged Akhezo off the balcony, his face set back in its expressionless mask.

  Those two minutes waiting for the Pigeons to arrive were the longest two minutes of Silver’s life. She, Butterfly and Joza stood in the drifting, wind-churned clouds of ash and smoke, their backs pressed against the truck, guns ready in their hands. They waited in tense silence for shapes to move towards them out of the grey cloud.

  None came.

  ‘Let’s get the motorbike,’ said Joza, glancing at his watch and tucking his gun away. ‘We can’t wait for Cambridge any longer.’ He slid open the side of the truck, lifting out a large motorbike. One of the Ghosts left the truck too, and Joza grasped his hand as he opened the door to get into the driver’s seat.

  ‘For a New Neo,’ the man said, pulling the door shut.

  Joza sat down at the front of the motorbike, a grim smile on his face. Silver climbed on behind him. Butterfly linked his arms round her waist from behind. They pulled away quickly with a growl of the engine, and Silver heard the trucks begin to follow.

  ‘Are we going to be all right without the Pigeons?’ she yelled over the roar of noise in Joza’s ear.

  ‘They know the plan. I’m sure that once they’ve dealt with whatever’s held them up, they’ll join us.’

  She was about to ask for more details about the plan when the wind shifted. The smoke that had been enveloping them since they’d entered the city cleared, and Neo-Babel was suddenly in front of them. For a few seconds, she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes roamed over the squat shapes of the factories of the Industrial District they were travelling through, people standing around or leaning out of their rickshaws, staring at the motorbike and the trucks behind it as they passed, their faces dumb with surprise. Beyond, the buildings of the inner city rose, dark against the cloudy sky.

  It was strange coming back. Though nothing had physically altered, everything looked different to Silver. Buildings and landmarks she was used
to seeing on a daily basis – the skylungs lining the eastern stretch of the Outer Circle, Storm Point Tower, the tallest building in the inner city – had changed somehow.

  No. She was the one who had changed.

  The motorbike twisted through the morning traffic, Joza driving so quickly she was amazed they didn’t crash. They crossed a bridge over the Outer Circle of the river, heading westwards.

  Silver leant in close to his ear. ‘Why’re we going through the tunnel in the hydroponics?’ she shouted. ‘Surely we could just attack the police directly to get into the Council District? They’ll know we’re here now.’

  ‘We need to divert attention away from the Council District,’ he explained, his gaze still trained ahead on the busy street. ‘We need them to focus on the other locations we’ve sent the Ghosts and Pigeons to. And if we storm the Council District, it’ll be too difficult to get to the Bee-Hives. The Council might block access to them, and then even with your friend Cobe’s help we won’t be able to get in.’

  As they drove, the trucks behind them swerved away one by one, heading to create the diversions Joza talked about. By the time they were alone, the motorbike moving slower now, they were passing along a pretty street in the Mediterranean Quarter lining a part of the river Silver knew as the Tuscan Intersect. Residents crowded the ornamental balconies pocketing the pastel-coloured facades of the buildings. They stared at the bike as it squealed to a stop. With the engine off, everything fell unnervingly silent.

  ‘The entrance to the tunnel is just a couple of minutes from here,’ said Joza. He pulled out his gun, Silver and Butterfly following suit. ‘We can’t take the bike in case they follow us – we’ll be as good as dead if they corner us in the tunnel.’ He nodded, mouth set tight. ‘Let’s go.’

  They scrambled off the motorbike and started running, Joza leading the way. Silver didn’t even hear the cries and shouts of the people they passed. All she could hear was the blood pounding in her ears – a tribal drumbeat, hard and intoxicating – and the burn of her feet as they slapped against the floor. At the end of the street they turned left. Ran down another street. Turned right, left, left again.

  ‘Here!’ hissed Joza, swerving off into a narrow alley between two buildings.

  Silver and Butterfly followed. They slowed as they approached Joza bent over something on the floor.

  ‘This is it?’ asked Silver, catching her breath.

  He nodded. He stepped back to reveal a square hole in the ground. She peered into it, seeing nothing but murky blackness.

  There was the sound of running footsteps in the street behind them. Silver noticed now the wailing siren of police bikes, drawing closer.

  ‘Come on!’ urged Joza.

  Butterfly went down the hole first, then Silver, who discovered in the darkness a ladder attached to one side of the shaft. Joza went last. He pulled the heavy grate overhead back into place just as shouts came from the alley entrance.

  ‘Alley’s clear,’ said a gruff male voice. ‘They must have gone up here.’

  Silver didn’t breathe until she heard their footsteps grow faint. ‘Now?’ she asked after silence fell.

  ‘Now we go down,’ said Joza.

  37

  Into the Stacks

  After descending in total darkness for ten minutes, a watery blue light appeared at the bottom of the shaft, glowing brighter as they drew closer. Silver had only been to the underground hydroponic farms a handful of times. The thing she remembered most about it was its eerie twilight glow that gave the whole place a dreamlike, underwater feel.

  At the end of the ladder, they stepped down into a narrow tunnel, so low-ceilinged that Butterfly and Joza had to bend their heads. Beneath their feet the metal was grated. They caught glimpses of the farm-chamber below; water boxes in neat parallel rows, hydroponic workers moving around, tending the plants. The whole place was filled with the low humming of the farm-chambers’ filtration system.

  ‘They haven’t used this ventilation system for years,’ Joza said. ‘We should be able to follow this tunnel all the way to the Council District without any problems.’

  ‘How do you think it’s going up there?’ Silver whispered to Butterfly as they started down the tunnel.

  He didn’t meet her eyes. ‘We know better than anyone what the Ghosts and Pigeons are up against.’

  She thought of her parents in the city above. It was strange how she’d left Neo-Babel to find them, and now here they all were again, back inside the city walls, and she still hadn’t been reunited with them. She knew Joza would have prepared them well for battle, but she still felt anxious. She wished she could have met with them before they left Iarassi. Not knowing how they were was making Silver even more nervous, and the minutes passing by felt like years. She couldn’t wait for this all to be over, and she could finally see her parents, finally hold them in her arms, and know that the danger was gone.

  It felt like it had only just begun.

  They’d been walking for an hour before Joza finally stopped. They were below an opening which led to what looked like a shaft identical to the one they’d climbed down.

  ‘We’re here?’ asked Silver, peering up into the murky darkness.

  He nodded. ‘This leads to the workers’ dormitories round the back of the Stacks. Once we get out, things are going to get hectic. You ready?’

  Without hesitating, Silver and Butterfly nodded.

  ‘Then call Cobe,’ Joza said. ‘Tell him we’re coming.’

  Allum had dragged Akhezo off the balcony where Cambridge’s body lay, through the abandoned apartment it led into and halfway down the stairs before pushing him against the wall and saying, ‘If you are not quiet, I will have to knock you out.’

  Akhezo was silent after that.

  He was silent when they walked out of the building and into the street they’d both been high above just minutes ago. The air-tram they’d been riding in was now a twisted lump of metal on the floor. The street was packed with people and rickshaws, police surrounding the crash site. A body hung from one of the broken air-tram windows. The man’s arms hung limply down, as though waiting for someone to grab his hands and pull him free.

  Akhezo continued to be silent all the way back to the Council District in the rickshaw. He was silent as it stopped outside the Stacks and they stepped out, Allum tossing the driver a few coins. And he was silent when, before Allum could place his hand back on his shoulder, Akhezo pulled out the gun Cambridge had given him, aimed it with shaking hands at Allum, and pulled the trigger.

  The kickback of the gun threw Akhezo’s aim off. Rather than hitting Allum’s chest, the bullet shot into his thigh. Swearing, the man pressed a hand to his leg, blood spurting between his fingers.

  Before Allum could recover, Akhezo ran for it. He sprinted up the wide steps towards the glass front of the Stacks, a mad grin on his face; all his running work had finally come in useful. Before he knew it, he was outside the atrium. He raised the gun to shoot the glass of the tall doors blocking his way, but just then they slid open. A crowd of people streamed out. They rushed past him, a stream of colour and anxious faces. None of them noticed the small Afronese boy moving through them in the opposite direction.

  Butterfly and Silver were running through the Stacks. They’d lost Joza in the chaos after emerging from the ventilation shaft, somewhere between the workers’ dormitories and the east wing where they were now, but there was no time to stop and look for him. Joza had told them that if they got separated, they were to continue to where they were meeting Cobe on a floor above the Bee-Hives. They could regroup there.

  They ran out into a large hall. One of its walls was completely clear, and through it Silver could see the manicured trees and bushes of the senior Council members’ private ornamental gardens. On the adjacent wall were the lifts they needed to travel to where they were meeting Cobe. She barely had time to feel relief at reaching their destination before a group of masked soldiers ran at them, gunshots studding the a
ir.

  Silver ducked, returning fire. She hit two soldiers in their arms, forcing them to drop their guns, but missed the others. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Butterfly didn’t seem to be shooting, though his gun was in his hand. A bullet clipped past her left ear. She swerved to avoid more as the soldiers fired, gaining on them. The lift Silver and Butterfly needed was just metres away. If they could just –

  Something knocked into Silver, throwing her to the side. Her body slid across the varnished floor. She twisted round and moved to sit up when a foot slammed down on her chest, a masked face leering towards her as the soldier raised his gun –

  Bang!

  The soldier swung sideways off her. Blood spurted from one side of his neck.

  ‘Come on!’ Joza cried, grabbing Silver’s hand to help her up, and they sprinted to the lift.

  Butterfly was waiting inside. He had an arm locked round the neck of a struggling soldier. ‘Need to use him for his birthchip to pass the scanners,’ he said as they ran inside. The next moment the doors slid shut, the lift moving downwards. ‘His authority level will get us to the floor one above the Bee-Hives, where we’re meeting Cobe. From there, Cobe’s birthchip should see us through.’

  ‘Then why is he still alive?’ Joza raised his gun, aiming it at the soldier.

  Butterfly smacked it down. ‘We don’t have to kill him.’

  Joza shrugged. Then he jerked forward, hitting the soldier round the side of the head with the hilt of his gun. The soldier slumped to the floor.

  ‘Can’t have him telling anyone where we’re going,’ Joza said in response to Butterfly’s accusatory stare.

  The lift stopped at a long, narrow corridor. Both of its ends curved out of view. After the chaos of their run through the floors above, the silence was unnerving. Silver could hear her own heartbeat thudding hard in her chest.

  ‘Where’s Cobe?’ she asked.

  Joza turned to the left. ‘I’ll check down here. You two search that end.’

  Butterfly and Silver nodded. They started down the right-hand path of the corridor, moving slowly with their guns raised. Silver could see Butterfly’s arms were shaking.