The Last City

by Nina D'Aleo

  ‘You have three new messages, Commander Kane. Would you like to hear them now or later?’ holo-Eli asked.

  ‘Now.’ He took a mouthful of drink.

  ‘Message one playing now.’

  ‘Kane,’ High Commander Levis Kline coughed his name and glared through the holo as if it were a window. Copernicus couldn’t help but snarl in disgust. Levis was high ranking and highly annoying. He was part of the upper echelon of the United Regiment made up of ancient has-beens who refused to die, gaining their high status only through a process of elimination. He was so old his skin looked like it was melting off his face.

  The holo of Levis continued, ‘Kane, this week alone I’ve had twenty-four more complaints about the conduct of your trackers – twenty specifically about you. I’m getting fed up with your antics and disrespect. Reel yourself in, or you’ll be disciplined – again!’

  The message ended and Eli’s holo-face re-appeared. He started to ask, ‘Would you like to —’

  ‘Delete,’ Copernicus said before the options could be given. He gritted his teeth – disciplined again. How could it be again when it hadn’t ever happened? They kept threatening him, but no one was really going to touch him. They needed him too much. After Oren Harvey had vanished, city conditions had deteriorated badly and though the soldier who had replaced her as commander, a human-breed called Sammael Sy, had tried, he had been largely ineffectual in policing the city. Once in power, Copernicus had lifted the standard again – until now, anyway. He tipped back the glass and drank some more of the Araki mix.

  Holo-Eli said, ‘Message two playing now.’

  An aging woman with masses of dark curls and blood-red lipstick popped up on the screen. She spoke with a breathy voice. ‘Hello, Commander. It’s Madame V from Club Fantasia. We haven’t seen you in a while. We miss you. Call me.’

  Copernicus snorted. ‘You miss my money . . . delete.’

  The holo-Eli’s face reappeared, a grin quirked his lips as though he’d actually heard what Copernicus had said. ‘Message three playing now.’

  The real Eli flashed up on the holo-screen. ‘Hey, boss, it’s me, Eli, as you can see,’ he giggled, then gulped it down. ‘I’m in the Summer Holiday. And I’m heading back to Headquarters now. Silho’s home safe and beautiful . . . I mean sound . . . so I’m just heading back now, as I said. Okay, I’ll see you soon. Talk to you then . . . bye-bye.’

  Copernicus checked his chronograph and compared the time with when the message had been sent. Eli would have arrived back a while ago.

  ‘Return call,’ Copernicus said.

  He heard the static whirr of his system reaching out to Eli’s. The systems connected and he heard Eli’s recorded voice, ‘Sorry, I’m not available, please leave a message.’

  ‘Eli, call me when you get this. End,’ Copernicus said.

  ‘End of new messages,’ the holo-Eli told him. ‘Would you like the news headlines now or later?’

  ‘Later,’ Copernicus said. He exhaled and massaged his forehead. First he had to do something he hated doing.

  ‘Call Forensics,’ Copernicus said to his system. It reached out and linked with the Forensics branch.

  ‘Yes, Commander Kane. How may I help you?’ The lead forensic investigator’s assistant, a human-breed man with a skinny pinhead, possibly of mantis-blood heritage, answered. His prim and patronising cheeriness always irritated Copernicus to the extreme.

  ‘I need the fluid results from today’s Moris-Isles murder scene,’ Copernicus said.

  ‘Why of course, Commander. Just one moment please while I check the files . . . Ah yes, we will have them ready for you in . . . three day-cycles.’

  Copernicus inwardly cursed. ‘Can they be ready any sooner?’

  ‘Ah, no, sorry, we have a backlog. How about I have them delivered to you just as soon as we have them?’

  ‘End,’ Copernicus said curtly and the connection hung on just long enough for him to see the assistant purse his lips with indignation.

  Brabel’s mistake had cost them time, and two of the things he hated most in the world were waiting and wasting time. His thoughts focused in on the new recruit. Diega disliked her, but Diega disliked virtually everyone who wasn’t either male or Ohini Fen. Jude liked her, but Jude thought everyone deserved a chance – even murderers. Eli also liked her, but attractiveness dazzled Eli like staring into the suns. The impartial judgement would have to be his.

  ‘I want you to run a face match on new recruit Silho Brabel. Match six points or more,’ he told his system.

  It retrieved her file and projected her image. It was a bad picture, not capturing the unusual depth of her eyes. The computer system mapped her features and started the search, flicking through millions of faces a minute, of both the living and dead, looking for facial points in common. He’d set it high at first and would work down from there.

  Copernicus leaned back in his chair. He took the ring out of his pocket and examined it again. Ev’r Keets would have known immediately who had made the band and from what, but as he had told the others, Keets would never help them. Scullions never changed.

  His chronograph alarm sounded, signalling it was time for his scheduled training. He placed the ring back in his pocket and went to the training area of his apartment. Panels of wall pressed back and the floor lifted up to reveal mirrors and his well-worn equipment. He bent down, took his secondary blade from his ankle holster and spun the weapon, twisting it around and over his fingers. He glanced into the mirror and, before his eyes, the steel of the blade blended in with the black, purple and blue of his viper bloodline marks and vanished. Copernicus jolted back, shaking his hand and dropping the knife. This was happening more than it used to. Like the unstoppable release of anger when pent up for too long, his skills were releasing themselves even though he wanted nothing to do with them. He cursed himself for his weak reaction and snatched up the blade. The movement sent pain stabbing through his chest. Gritting his teeth, he gripped his ribs until the ache lessened. He put his blade down on a side table and unbuttoned his shirt, slipping it off his shoulders. Blue and black bruises spread out over the entire right side of his chest. Copernicus cursed again, thinking of Christy Shawe, once his best friend, now his worst enemy – a grand title considering the number of people he arrested or aggravated on a daily basis.

  He abandoned his training and, turning to the wall beside him, punched a code into the security panel. A hidden door, the entrance to his diagnostic chamber, slid open. He unbuttoned his trousers, dropped them and entered the chamber naked. The chamber’s holo-screen activated, thankfully not in the shape of Eli’s face in this area of the apartment.

  ‘Body scan in process,’ the system told him, and he felt the heat of lasers crossing his body, analysing his condition. After a few moments the system spoke again. ‘You have a visitor.’

  ‘Show me,’ he instructed and the holo-screen displayed an image of Diega standing outside the door of the All Hallows Corridor, repeatedly ringing the bell-alert with one hand and holding a black case in the other. She had the look of grim determination on her face that she always wore when she felt the need to force him into conversation about personal matters. He seriously considered telling her to come back later, but decided against it. Putting her off just made things worse. Besides, he needed to see the file he’d asked her to compile from the data they’d gathered at both crime scenes.

  ‘Unlock for Sergeant Diega Bluejay,’ he ordered his system.

  Diega walked up the corridor and entered through his front door. He sensed the vibration of her footfalls as she approached the chamber until she appeared in the doorway, holding the black hardcopy case notes. He didn’t bother to turn around or try to hide his nakedness. She’d already seen everything he had. Ev’r Keets had spoken correctly. They’d had a brief relationship, and he called it that only because Diega objected to him saying ‘sexual encounter’.

  She’d come up to him after attending one of his lectures on serial k
illers at the United Regiment training facility. She’d asked if he wanted to get a drink. He had said no, so she’d asked if he wanted to go back to her place. To that he had agreed. He’d actually known her as an acquaintance many year-cycles before that when they’d both lived in the gangland, but he’d never been with her then. She had been only thirteen at the time, three year-cycles younger than him, and too young for his taste.

  Diega looked him up and down then set her lips together and crossed her arms. He’d been right, she wanted to talk or, as the Fens said, endai sefrents seres – discuss at loud volumes. The conversation was inevitable.

  ‘So, you and Jude, then,’ he said.

  Diega tilted her head to one side and her hair slipped down over one eye. ‘How long have you known?’

  Copernicus sighed. It never failed to amaze him when the people closest to him forgot he could see body-heat. ‘I knew before you did.’

  She shook her head. ‘And you’re the one who’s always complaining about having no privacy. We can’t even like each other without you reading us.’

  Copernicus laughed. ‘If I could turn it off I would. I don’t know why you’d even bother being secretive. I don’t care if you’re together as long as it doesn’t affect your work.’

  Diega picked up his knife from the table beside the wall and ran a finger down the flat of the blade. Her eyes lifted to his, her expression subtly changed. She looked more deeply at him, into his eyes, and he understood from that look, the flare of her body-heat and the shape of her thoughts, why she hadn’t announced her and Jude’s relationship to everyone.

  ‘We have no chance,’ he said bluntly. ‘You’re my soldier, my friend – that’s it.’

  Diega’s colours flared, and she looked for a moment as though she was going to throw the blade at him. ‘What are you talking about? I can’t believe how conceited you are! Why would I want someone who treats me like leftovers when I could have someone like Jude?’

  ‘Are you asking me or yourself?’ Copernicus said.

  ‘Kitcher,’ she swore at him in Fenlen. ‘So you’ve known about us all along – good for you. Go buy yourself a prize or something.’

  The laser scanners paused. The system informed him of his fractured ribs and asked if he’d like treatment now or later.

  ‘Now,’ Copernicus told it. Several mechanical arms extended from the walls of the chamber and clamped onto his skin. He felt intense heat around his injury.

  ‘I don’t want to argue with you,’ he told Diega. ‘You like Jude, that’s good. Just make sure there’re no repeats of today.’

  ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘Meaning you were more focused on your arguments with him than on the job and —’

  ‘That’s not true,’ she cut in. ‘And you know it.’

  ‘I know what I see. I know what I sense.’

  ‘You know what you think you see, you know what you think you sense. It’s your subjective view, Copernicus, and I know you think you’re always right – but you’re not.’

  ‘Okay, Diega,’ Copernicus said, wanting to end the discussion.

  ‘Regeneration complete,’ the system said and the machines retracted. Steam puffed out to clean the site of the wound. Copernicus stepped out of the chamber and inspected the injury in the mirror. The bruising had faded to yellow and the skin was no longer tender. He swung his right arm around several times to test for pain. Diega watched him and he felt her eyes moving over his body like fingertips brushing over his skin, touching him in sensitive places. He quickly stepped back into his trousers and pulled them up. Fens were good lovers, probably the best, but he couldn’t. Diega had feelings for him, which meant it had gone way past the point of being able to call anything that happened casual.

  He held out his hand for her to give him his blade and the hardcopy file. She pushed the black case into his grasp, but as she was handing over the weapon, she spoke words and morphed his knife into a bracelet.

  ‘Change it back, Diega,’ he ordered.

  She shook her head.

  ‘Fine.’ He stepped around her and went to his desk to load the file.

  Diega followed him. She took his glass and drained the rest of the Araki and juice. He gave her a look and she said, ‘What? It’s like four thousand degrees in here. Why do you have to have it so hot all the time?’

  ‘Because that’s the way I like it.’

  ‘It puts people off visiting you.’

  ‘Even better.’

  Her eyes focused on Silho’s image on the holo-screen and her face darkened.

  ‘It’s disgusting,’ she started in. ‘That the superiors would try and push that girl onto us. You and I both had years of military service before we became trackers. Eli had been contracting technology to the United Regiment almost all his life and even Jude had been learning martial arts, weaponry and strategy since he was a child. As far as I’ve been able to find out, this girl just blew in from the desert, enlisted and five seconds later, we’re babysitting her. It’s a trutting joke,’ Diega fumed.

  Copernicus tried to speak, but she cut in over him. ‘The only logical explanation I can come up with is that either she’s an Internal Affairs spy sent in to investigate us, or she’s playing lover to one of the superiors and got preferential treatment. How can you stand by and let them get away with this? It makes a mockery of our work. It —’

  ‘Diega.’ Copernicus raised his voice. ‘You know I didn’t request Brabel, and I could have her transferred out, but I’ve chosen to give her a chance. She’s not a spy or anyone’s lover. She was posted to the trackers because she scored exceptionally on all facets of her training.’

  ‘Exceptionally!’ Diega laughed. ‘True – she’s exceptional at leaving evidence at the crime scene, getting in the way, staying on duty when she should have retired herself, not having a clue what to do.’

  Copernicus sighed, tiring quickly of her yelling. It was one of the reasons he could never be with Diega. They were alike enough to be close friends, but opposite enough to make it impossible to stay in a relationship.

  ‘End of the day,’ he cut in again, ‘if I decide she should go, then she will. But if I think she should stay then she will, and you will have to accept that. End of discussion.’

  Diega rolled her eyes again and the computer continued to flick through faces searching for a match for Silho Brabel. Copernicus’ communicator buzzed and he picked up.

  ‘Yes?’

  Eli’s voice came through the receiver. ‘Hi, boss, it’s me.’

  ‘Eli, I need to talk to you about something. Meet me on the roof and leave your otter at home.’

  ‘I’ll be there in a flash,’ Eli said.

  ‘End.’ Copernicus stood up, deactivated his desk and activated his wardrobe. It dropped down from the ceiling.

  ‘You’re going back out?’ Diega eyed him. He knew she considered herself to be second in charge and hated being left out of anything.

  ‘Yes – privately.’ He selected a black shirt and dressed, then pulled on his socks and boots and swallowed a deodorising capsule.

  ‘Are you seeing someone?’ A possessiveness flared Diega’s body-heat.

  ‘Yes, I’m seeing Eli. Do I have your permission?’ He jabbed impatiently at his touch screen, uploading the case files to his transflyer and to Eli’s system.

  ‘If that’s the way you like it.’ She turned and headed for the front door. ‘You know,’ she looked back at him, ‘not all women are your enemies – xpel.’ She morphed the bracelet on his desk back to his blade.

  ‘I could say the same to you,’ he muttered at her disappearing back. He strapped the blade onto his ankle. ‘Call Jude,’ he said to his system as he dragged on his jacket and secured his weapon belt around his waist.

  ‘Commander.’ Jude’s face appeared on the holo-screen. He was sweating and his training equipment sat in the background.

  ‘Do you have the coordinates for Christy Shawe?’ Copernicus asked him.

  ‘Right he
re.’ Jude leaned forward and grabbed something off-screen. ‘Twenty-three twenty – Greentown. SevenM is still there on surveillance.’

  ‘Anything interesting?’

  Jude blinked, changing his vision to see through the robot’s eyes. ‘No, just a lot of drinking, smoking and gangsters doing the jig to terrible Galley music.’

  Copernicus snorted. ‘Keep me updated and don’t tell Diega. She’ll want in.’

  Someone knocked at Jude’s door and Copernicus saw from the nervous swivel of the Ar Antarian’s eyes that it was Diega.

  ‘And Jude, I know . . .’

  The Ar Antarian’s face tensed.

  ‘. . . about you and her,’ Copernicus finished the sentence. ‘And she knows I know.’

  Jude’s features relaxed and he said, ‘Good. I knew you would. Don’t know why she wanted to keep it a secret.’

  ‘Who knows,’ Copernicus said, feeling a slight unease. ‘End.’

  12

  The commander’s transflyer, the Ebony Rain, was a jet-black speed machine with a full jacket and windows tinted to the darkest dark. Eli had created the custom weaponry hidden both inside and outside the flyer. Copernicus brought the Rain down onto the rooftop. The passenger side door lifted upwards and Eli hurried forward. He slid into the moulded seat and greeted the commander with a smile.

  ‘Boss.’

  Copernicus nodded. ‘Alright?’

  ‘Ready to roll.’

  The door lowered, sealing them in. Unlike his own craft, the interior of the Ebony Rain always smelt and looked brand new. Eli ran his hands over the supple fabric of the seat. Copernicus steered the craft up and swung it sideways, directly into the flow of traffic. He punched the jets and the flyer zoomed forward, leaving everyone else behind. Some kind of rhythmic bassline pounded through the speakers of the craft. It was the kind of music Diega liked to dance to. Sweat slicked Eli’s skin, not because of the commander’s driving – he drove like he walked, fast and smooth – but because the temperature inside the flyer must have been somewhere just over boiling. Being cold-blooded, Copernicus’ sense of heat was unusual.