The Last City

by Nina D'Aleo

  The commander and Diega fearlessly moved within striking distance of where Keets stood facing the wall. Staying as far from Keets as possible, Eli studied her back. What he could see of it, between the wraps of chains binding her arms, was a collage of mismatched skin grafts stitched roughly together, forming jagged scars, crisscrossing over faded and broken tattoos and symbols. Ev’r’s head hung low; her white-blonde hair, shaved short at the back and left long at the front, fell in her eyes.

  ‘I knew you weren’t dead.’ Diega was the first to break the cold, dragging silence.

  ‘Good for you,’ Ev’r responded, her voice emotionless.

  ‘You know how I knew you weren’t dead?’ Diega asked. ‘Because only the good die young.’

  ‘Like Fen children – right, fairy-girl?’ Ev’r shot back.

  Eli cringed. The rainbow colours of Diega’s skin flared vibrant.

  ‘Or like gypsy girls, Zingara,’ Diega said.

  Ev’r’s back arched in a predatory way at the sound of her real scullion-gypsy name. She turned to face them. Her gaze flickered over Diega and locked onto Jude. Her eyebrows lifted and an unpleasant smile curled her lips. ‘You.’ She made the word sound simultaneously like a question and a threat.

  Jude crossed his metal arms over his chest and met her stare from behind his tinted glasses. Eli felt a definite struggle of energy between the criminal and the tracker, and he noticed Copernicus looking from one to the other, studying their expressions.

  ‘Didn’t you die?’ Ev’r finally asked Jude.

  Diega stepped across, blocking the fugitive’s view of the Ar Antarian. ‘You don’t get to ask questions,’ she spat.

  Ev’r glared at Diega, but spoke to Copernicus. ‘Call off your yapping little girlfriend, Kane, before I break her trutting neck.’

  Diega laughed. ‘It’s your neck you should be worried about, Zingara. The guilogutter that silenced Englan Chrisholm is still assembled. I’m sure the king would happily roll it out again for you.’

  Ev’r cursed at Diega and the force of the dark-words stung Eli’s eyes and tugged at the protective amulet he wore on a chain around his neck.

  ‘Enough.’ The commander’s voice rose, echoing around the walls. ‘You won’t use the cursed magics in my presence.’ Lightning flashed in the darkness of his eyes.

  Ev’r gave a derisive snort. ‘Why not, Kane? Hits too close to home, does it? Reminds you too much of Daddy? Well too bad!’ she yelled and Eli shrank back. ‘You can’t command me! I’m not your soldier or your servant or your whore-like fairy-girl here.’ She turned to Diega. ‘I know about you two. I know about what you did together – what he did to you.’ She gave a spiteful laugh. ‘Your family must be so disappointed. I bet they wish you had died – instead of your sister.’

  Diega sprang forward and shoved Ev’r against the wall. The fugitive pushed off it with her bound body and knocked Diega back, landing on top of her on the ground. Diega flung her off and Ev’r rolled, her chains clanking, across the ground towards Eli and Silho. Eli dodged her with a flying leap, informed by the years of dance training his gran’ma had forced him to attend, but Silho stayed frozen where she was. Ev’r crashed into the wall beside the new recruit and leapt straight onto her feet, whipping around to face Silho. The others were all behind Ev’r, making Eli the only one to see the immediate, drastic and momentary shift of Ev’r’s features – from bloodthirsty hatred, to sheer shock, shadowed by sadness so extreme it could be mistaken for pain. As soon as it appeared, it passed into a neutral stare.

  Jude launched himself at Ev’r. He grabbed her and, with the strength of his metal arms and legs, dragged her back to the table and slammed her into one of the chairs. She tried to rise to her feet, but Jude forced her back down. Diega came at the prisoner, her fists clenched, but Copernicus stepped between the two of them and said, ‘That’ll do.’

  After a moment Diega shrank back, glaring hatred at Ev’r. Eli exhaled, his heart thudding fast. Despite years as a tracker, violence still appalled him to the same degree it had on his first day. He had only pursued a military career to follow Copernicus, his best friend for most of their younger life.

  The commander spoke to Ev’r. ‘You know what you’ve done. You know why you’re here. You know what’s going to happen. You’ve been marked as a state traitor. You won’t get a trial – just death by whatever means the magistrate decides, and you know it won’t be quick. I can influence that decision if, and only if, you cooperate.’

  Ev’r watched Copernicus with eyes that were dead calm. Their colour reminded Eli of the dangerous green of a storm rising.

  ‘What do you know about the recent murders and disappearances?’ the commander asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ Ev’r replied.

  ‘Is it gang-related? Is Christy Shawe involved?’

  ‘No idea.’

  ‘What can you tell me about this ring?’ The commander took a gold ring out of his pocket and held it up in front of Ev’r’s eyes.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Why is your body-heat signature altered? What’s happened to you?’

  The abrupt change in questioning made the corners of Ev’r’s mouth jerk and the skin beneath one eye twitch. Ev’r swallowed slowly and held the commander’s stare. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  The commander nodded. ‘You know, Keets, before they execute you, I can have your mind purged. I will see everything you know, everything you’ve seen, one way or another. I can hold you here for seven day-cycles with an Assistant to Investigation order, after which time, if you don’t give us anything to present to the courts, palace enforcers will come for you – and then it will be too late.’

  ‘It’s already too late.’ Ev’r finally spoke. ‘For everyone.’

  She turned her face away from the commander and he said, ‘Think, Keets. You of all people should know there are bad ways to die and there are tolerable ways. Your crimes have brought you to this place where you have no control over the time, but you can choose the way. It could be painless. That’s more than most people get. Think about it. We’ll be back.’

  *****

  Eli deactivated his security system and waved the others into his office laboratory. A vast organised jumble of machinery bits and pieces, computer parts and partially made inventions shared space with countless collections of odds and ends, anything Eli could lay his hands on. In one corner, behind glass, he kept his antique paper books, his written word – almost-extinct relics from an era long past. Each book was well used, well loved and holographically stored in his memory. Sensing she was back in her own territory, Nelly shot out of his pocket, up his body, and jumped onto one of his long workbenches. She raced up and down, dodging piles of objects, chiding Eli in a high chattering voice. The sound of her scurrying claws syncopated with the clicks, ticks and taps of his equipment and inventions. Eli noticed Nelly instinctively avoided the area where his latest weaponry advance sat in a transparent box. It was skunk bombs, made from the excretions of skunk-heritage human-breeds. His donors had been very happy that their socially offensive spray could now be put to a good use. Nelly bounded from the bench onto her table, where she snatched a pinkfin fish from her dish and, snapping it down, dived into her pool.

  The commander offloaded Keets’ bag onto the table beside Eli. He noticed Copernicus was keeping his eyes down, not wanting to view the mess Eli called home. He didn’t feel offended. He held the belief each to their own. The boss liked extreme organisation; he liked productive chaos.

  ‘I’ll set the liquids to analyse now,’ Eli told him. He reached into Keets’ bag and withdrew the vial of green potion and anything else liquid he could find. The bottle and vials clanked in his hands as he hurried to the far end of his office and put them into his compound-assessor. He shut the glass door and pressed the setting he desired – stage 7, deep and thorough analysis. He knew it would take that level of analysis to ascertain the ingredients of Keets’ concoctions. She was known to use prod
ucts sourced from places most people would never dare to tread in a billion years.

  Opening the cooler beside the compound-assessor, Eli searched for some ice for Silho’s head. He thought it would be a nice gesture, but all he had was a bag of raw bones he was storing to give to the Headquarters’ guard dogs later that night. He abandoned the search and turned back to the others.

  Diega was pacing, swearing about Ev’r Keets, while Jude sat on one of Eli’s patched and mismatched lounges. The chair creaked unhappily under his bulk. He sighed and massaged his neck and Eli sensed his friend’s unease. Silho stayed near the door, watching the ground.

  The commander was talking on his communicator to the Custody Superior with instructions on how to house and contain Keets for the next week. Observing the commander reminded Eli that the upgraded communicator system he’d been working on was now complete and ready to go active. He trotted around the office, rounding up the various parts. As he worked, he heard Copernicus give a direct command to the Custody Superior that no information on Ev’r Keets was to be given to the media. He also wanted a blanket ban on any United Regiment personnel discussing the fugitive with anyone outside of the force. Eli thought this was a good move, but also knew without a doubt that tonight, with or without the ban, every single soldier would tell their family about the capture of Keets, and then their family members would tell their friends and their friends would tell their families and so on. He gave it a day and a night maximum for the streets in front of Headquarters to be overcrowded with people either protesting or supporting the death penalty, or just there for a good old look. Copernicus, obviously thinking the same thing, began giving the Custody Superior instructions to reinforce security at all entrances and exits of Headquarters.

  As soon as he ended the conversation, Diega burst out, ‘She knows something for sure. She’s playing us. We have to go back and make her talk. We can drug her, mesmerise her – whatever. It’s not like we have to stick to protocol with her. She’s as good as dead.’

  Copernicus shook his head. ‘Nothing will work on her. We’ll have to have her brain purged before her execution.’

  ‘There’s no guarantee the courts will allow that,’ Diega argued.

  ‘I’ll have a psychic analyst evaluate her and rule her as withholding information. Under the present conditions in the city, the courts will grab at anything to stop the deaths.’ The commander rubbed a hand over his forehead in an uncharacteristic display of stress.

  Jude shifted uncomfortably on the couch and said, ‘I’m sorry, Commander, but how could Keets have anything to do with what’s going on? She hasn’t been anywhere near Scorpia in year-cycles, before I even joined the Regiment, and besides, aren’t Keets and Christy Shawe enemies?’

  ‘So?’ Diega asked.

  ‘So if he’s the instigator, he wouldn’t have recruited her, would he? What’s the point of purging her mind if she doesn’t know anything?’ Jude said.

  ‘She knows everything,’ Diega insisted. ‘This is Ev’r Keets we’re talking about. And since when have you been against purging?’

  ‘What do you mean since when have I been against purging?’ Jude demanded, sitting forward in his chair. ‘You know very well how I feel about that sort of thing.’ SevenM moved restlessly on his shoulder.

  Diega shook her head. ‘You’re against the death penalty, you don’t agree with imprisonment, you don’t like purging. Are you sure you’re in the right profession, Jude?’

  The Ar Antarian’s face flushed deep grey. ‘I’m in the profession of saving lives, Diega. What’s your vocation?’

  Diega laughed. ‘My vocation? You know what Jude, come back and talk to me after you’ve been a tracker for a few more year-cycles, because you obviously haven’t been on the job for long enough.’

  ‘Long enough for what?’ Jude raised his voice. ‘To become so desensitised and cold that I stop feeling anything at all?’

  Diega snorted and Copernicus stepped in. ‘Jude, Keets has been marked as a traitor by the king himself. He will want to make an example of her. Keets won’t be shown any kind of leniency.’

  ‘And neither should she,’ Diega added. ‘She is a murderer. She took life, she deserves for her life to be taken, and before she does, we’ll split open her mind and expose her thoughts. She will be of use to us whether she agrees to it or not.’

  ‘Commander,’ Jude said. ‘Maybe if we just reasoned with her —’

  ‘Did you not see what happened back there?’ Diega talked over him.

  Jude ignored her and spoke again to the commander. ‘Just keep talking to her. Maybe she will give us something.’

  ‘Why would you even care what happens to Keets?’ Diega demanded.

  ‘I understand how you feel,’ the commander replied to Jude. ‘But Keets won’t give us anything. I know her. She’s a scullion. She will never talk. She will never change. There is no way to reach her. There’s nothing I can do. End of story.’

  Eli thought of the way Ev’r Keets had looked at Silho and wondered if this was completely true. It had definitely appeared as though she had recognised the new recruit. Eli glanced at Silho. She was keeping silent so he decided not to mention what he’d seen in front of everyone. He would talk to Copernicus when they were alone. In the meantime, there was an unveiling to be done.

  ‘Okay,’ Eli jumped in at the pause in conversation. He dumped an armful of equipment onto the table in front of the others. ‘As promised – the new and improved tracker communicators.’ No one responded, deep in their own thoughts. It wasn’t the level of excitement Eli had hoped for, but he ploughed on regardless. ‘New functions of the Communicator 8020 include holo-speak, multi-talk and multi-message, which means I could call everyone on the team at once and either have a conference call, with or without image display, or leave a group message, which you could all access. Additionally, it has an automatic message function, so if the connection doesn’t go through or the machine is switched off, you can still leave a message, which will sit in the lines until the other system can receive it. As well as that, it has improved sound quality, range and speed of connection. It works underwater, underground and at high velocity, and it also has the highly anticipated detachable locator function, so we can check our systems and see exactly where everyone is at all times.’

  ‘Great,’ Diega said, her tone flat. ‘Exactly what I needed – minus zero privacy in my life.’

  ‘You’ve done well, Eli, as always,’ Jude said. He sat forward and took one of the new communicators. SevenM scurried down his arm and patted at the locator screen with one metal limb.

  ‘See,’ Eli leaned in and pointed to the screen, ‘we’re all a different-coloured marker. I’m yellow, Diega is pink, Silho is green, the commander is black and you and SevenM are blue. And the whole system is fingerprint operated, so if anyone else grabs your communicator it will immediately shut down, and if someone tries to access the internals without a security pass the communicator will explode. I’ve already programmed them to override the old system, so all we need to do is activate them and you can hand in your old machines.’

  ‘I don’t want to be pink,’ Diega complained.

  ‘You’re pink. Deal with it,’ the commander said. He leaned over and took one of the communicators. He powered it on and pressed the locator screen to activate the machine. As he did, the communicator emitted a deafening high-pitched squeal. Eli hurriedly fiddled with the settings and managed to stop the sound.

  ‘It may take a bit of time to iron out all the glitches.’ He gave a nervous giggle.

  The commander’s new communicator buzzed with an incoming call and Copernicus answered.

  ‘Yes.’ He paused. ‘Yes.’ He moved away from the group to talk.

  The others handed in their old systems and activated their new machines. Eli noticed Silho didn’t have to take off her gloves to activate her system. She just flipped up the capped end of one of the fingertips. He found himself staring. She really was unusually stunning. />
  His stomach rumbled, gurgled and gave a flatulent squeak. Diega looked at him and raised an eyebrow. ‘Hungry?’

  ‘I was up before dawn this morning and early rising gives me gas,’ he explained.

  ‘That and everything else,’ the Fen teased.

  ‘Not everything,’ Eli said. ‘Just silence, emotional speeches, running, sudden bouts of laughter, baked beans, lentils, cabbage . . . Please, like I’m the only one.’ He grinned. Nelly sprang off the edge of the bench and landed back in Eli’s pocket. She curled up and fell asleep.

  ‘What’s that?’ Diega asked, pointing to something on Eli’s workbench.

  ‘This,’ Eli said grandly, picking up the object, ‘is my latest design in shielding technology.’ He showed them the large mirror-faced shield. ‘It’s made of smash-proof, lightweight sagittarian glass, resistant to extreme heat or cold, with the unique radiating protection designed to completely shield the holder, even the parts of the body not covered.’

  ‘Dimenef reflets,’ Diega said. The shield shivered and shrank down to a compact palm-sized mirror. She gave a teasing grin.

  ‘It’s a work in progress,’ Eli said, mentally kicking himself for not taking morphing skill into consideration when he was designing it. ‘Here.’ he handed it to Silho, ‘a welcome to the team gift from me!’

  The new recruit spoke a soft thankyou and took the mirror.

  Copernicus rejoined them. ‘There’s been another attack – another hollow body.’

  Diega cursed. ‘Where?’

  ‘Fortitude Hill. Eli, I want you on site for this one. I want you to evaluate the injury and tell me what kind of weapon could have made it.’