by Jack Heath
Another creak. And footsteps.
The old man emerged from the study.
Nai exploded out of the cupboard, racing down the corridor towards him at a superhuman speed. The old man didn’t stand a chance. He barely had time to whirl around, shock written on his face, before she slammed her elbow into his back and jammed her leg in front of his feet, tripping him up, sending him tumbling down the stairs. He threw his arms out in front of himself, but failed to catch the banister or protect his head. His knees and his shoulder and his face all bounced against the stairs with muffled thumps, and by the time he hit the bottom he was dead.
Nai watched him for a moment. If he had looked like he was still breathing, she would have gone down the stairs and bashed his head against the floor, or bent it sideways until his vertebrae cracked – no coroner would find those injuries inconsistent with a fall down the stairs. But he wasn’t moving. He wore the kind of stillness that only comes with death.
She didn’t feel bad. If the old man had lived, ChaoSonic might not buy Lerke’s research, which would prevent him from doing more. And Lerke could save more lives with his experiments than anyone else could with theirs – he was a genius. He’d told her so.
After the first assassination she had performed for her father, she had felt sick. Her breaths were short, and her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. But Lerke had explained – gently, tenderly – that he would never order Nai to kill someone unless it was for the greater good. She didn’t need to worry.
Her hands never shook anymore.
Nai removed a brush from her pocket and smoothed down the coats in the closet, making sure she hadn’t left behind any hair or fibres. Then she swept the carpet in the corridor, to remove any tracks. She took the water glass from the study, walked downstairs, and washed it.
She found some bottles of beer in the kitchen fridge. She took one, unscrewed the top, and poured the beer down the sink. Then she returned to the old man’s body, and pressed the bottle into his hand.
This was just to get his fingerprints onto it. In her experience, ChaoSonic Security operatives liked to feel smart, so they went looking for clues and built a theory around them. If the clues were too obvious, they got suspicious, or made up something more complicated. And Nai didn’t want complicated. She wanted this to look like a simple case of a drunken old man falling down the stairs.
So she didn’t leave the bottle in his hand, or on the floor next to him, or even on the table in the kitchen. She threw it in the bin under his sink, careful not to smudge his prints. The police would find it when they searched his garbage. Then they would test the prints, check his blood alcohol level, and conclude that this death was just an unfortunate accident. With no sign of anything missing, no evidence of forced entry and no witnesses to the incident, why should they suspect otherwise?
She waited until she was on the subway, halfway home, before she switched her phone back on. That way, the phone company wouldn’t register that she was near the old man’s home at the time of his death, not that there was any particular reason they should check.
The phone beeped: 1 missed call. Lerke. She keyed in a number.
‘Nai.’
‘Father,’ she said. She waited for him to explain the reason for his call. She was good at waiting.
Lerke didn’t ask how the assignment went. She never failed, and if she had, she wouldn’t be calling him – she’d be fixing the problem. Instead, he said, ‘I want you to go to the Deck. I have a contact there who has a disk she needs to give to me, but I can’t risk going there myself.’
‘I can be there in thirty minutes,’ Nai said. ‘Who’s your contact?’
‘The Queen of Spades.’
Six and Ace walked into the foyer of the Deck. The agent who’d picked them up from the tunnel was parking the car in the basement – they were checking in alone.
The electric stars glistened high above, a reminder of what the night sky should look like – how it would look if not for the smog that humans had been creating for centuries. Agents stood in clusters, talking quietly out of reverence for their surroundings rather than a need for secrecy.
Grysat was standing behind the reception desk. ‘How’d it go, guys?’
‘We’re not dead,’ Ace said as they approached. ‘So good enough.’
‘Buzz us in,’ Six said.
Grysat’s grey eyes twinkled, but his expression remained polite, inquisitive. ‘Mission accomplished, then?’ he persisted.
‘Buzz us in,’ Six repeated.
Until about a year ago, Six had refused to respond to any of Grysat’s questions. He thought it was ridiculous that he should have to answer to a receptionist as he arrived every single day. Even after discovering that Grysat was one of the Jokers, the agents who supplied intelligence for Deck operations, Six refused to engage in pleasantries with him on principle.
These days he understood human customs better, and had enjoyed many long and interesting discussions with Grysat. But sometimes, after missions, they reverted to their old ways. It was a game – Grysat would try not to run out of questions to ask, and Six would try not to smile.
‘What were you trying to do again?’ Grysat asked.
‘Buzz us in.’
‘I mean, what was the mission? Find the ark of the covenant or something?’
Six kept a straight face. ‘Buzz us in.’
‘Do you need to go to medical?’
‘Buzz us in.’
‘You sure? There’s broken glass in your hair.’
Ace snickered. Six said, ‘Buzz us in.’
‘How’s the weather on the South Coast?’
‘Buzz us in.’
Grysat hit the button. ‘Well played, sir,’ he said. ‘Some day I’ll beat you.’
‘I doubt it,’ Six said. ‘I need you to find out who was logged in as the occupants of some ChaoSonic cars an hour ago – licence plates CSV01788B and CSV09252A.’
‘Were they the ones chasing you?’ Grysat asked.
‘Yes,’ Six said. ‘They killed at least one civilian, possibly three.’
Grysat’s smile faded. ‘I’ll get right on it. You want them found, locked up?’
Six nodded. ‘If ChaoSonic hasn’t done it already. See you later.’
‘Bye, Grysat,’ Ace said.
Grysat waved as they walked into the lift.
The doors slid shut. Six pushed a button. ‘Do you want me at the debriefing?’ Ace asked.
‘I’ll do it,’ Six said.
They were silent for a moment.
‘Thanks for coming,’ he said.
‘Anytime.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you mean that?’
She laughed. ‘Heck no. I’m never doing field work again.’
‘Well, you were great,’ he said. ‘Let me know if you change your mind.’
‘Maybe we ...’ Ace looked hesitant for a moment. ‘We could get together some other time. Like, not for a mission, just for a meal or something.’
Did she just ask me out? Six wondered. On a date?
Ping. The doors opened.
‘Well, I’ll see you later,’ he said, unsure whether that sounded like acceptance or dismissal.
‘Yeah, okay,’ Ace replied. She smiled awkwardly. ‘See you next time you get shot, or burned, or whatever.’
‘Can’t wait.’ Six walked out, and the doors slid shut behind him.
Can’t wait? he thought. That was so dumb. Why did I say that?
Six had come a long way over the past year or so when it came to his social life. He was more skilled at conversation, he understood people’s feelings better, he was comfortable with the notion of friendship. But dating, along with all its intricate rituals and customs, felt way beyond his reach. And the thought of having that kind of relationship with Ace scared him – although it wasn’t the kind of fear he was used to.
But if he hadn’t misunderstood and she’d really asked him out, then their relationship had already changed. Six now had a
choice between moving forwards or stepping back – he suspected that keeping things exactly the same wasn’t an option.
It was a quiet and lonely walk to his office. I wonder what Nai’s doing now, he thought. Picking up Retuni Lerke’s dry-cleaning, probably.
Rather than lightening his mood, the unspoken joke made him feel sick. There had to be some way to save her from Lerke. Perhaps he could abduct her. She was at least as strong as he was, but if Kyntak agreed to help, they might have a shot. Then they could ...
Could what? Tie her to a chair, shout ‘Lerke is evil’ at her over and over again? Hold her eyelids open and make her watch videos of him euthanising his past subjects? Brainwash her back to normal?
That would make them as bad as Lerke was. And there was no guarantee that it would work.
Even as a superhuman, Six often felt helpless – in fact, it seemed to happen to him more than to normal people. But he’d never felt so weak as he did when faced with the power of Nai’s blind faith in her demented father.
Six walked into his office, plopped down on his chair, and started typing. The mission report was short, because this mission wasn’t over yet. He had completed his initial task, by planting the beacon inside the device Chemal Allich had built, but he still didn’t know for certain where it was being sent. And he didn’t know where the girl was, the one who’d been Allich’s guinea pig. And even once he found Port B, he still had to follow the radioactive trail.
He had a long way to go before this case was closed.
Six printed off the document, switched off his computer, and locked the office door behind him. Then he went looking for King.
There must be something I can do, he thought. Maybe I could make Lerke angry somehow, manipulate him into doing something that would scare her ...
But the thought of going anywhere near Lerke made Six’s chest tighten, and the idea of intentionally exposing his sister to her father’s madness was no better.
His phone rang. He answered it. ‘This is Six.’
‘Six, it’s Jack. How’s things?’
‘Fine. What’s up?’
‘I wanted to know if you got the beacon into the machine.’
Six frowned. ‘Why? Isn’t it transmitting?’
‘Well, I’m not receiving a signal from it.’
Six rewound his memory. He’d seen the beacon stick to the girl, he’d seen her go into the machine. ‘Perhaps it didn’t activate.’
‘It was already active when I gave it to you. It was working fine until 19:17, and then it went dead.’
When the girl was transmitted, Six thought. He said, ‘What’s the range of those things?’
‘They’re monitored by satellite,’ Jack said. ‘I should be able to pick it up from anywhere in the City.’
‘Maybe Port B is in a lead-lined room,’ Six suggested.
‘That doesn’t make sense – the teleport wouldn’t be able to receive a signal there.’
Six turned a corner and saw the QS approaching, escorted by five Spades. ‘I’ve got to go,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry, I got an address while I was there – 710 Shuttle Way. Maybe we won’t need the beacon.’ He hung up.
The QS met his gaze as she approached.
He felt the tendons in his wrists tighten up. Only three weeks ago the Spades had tried to arrest him. And when he ran, they had tried to shoot him.
But they were very professional. Now that the arrest warrant had been rescinded, they treated Six no differently to any other agent.
Just the same, Six hoped that the QS would walk right past him without stopping. He had no time to deal with –
‘Hello again, Agent Six,’ she said, beaming.
Six nodded, and moved to pass her. She stepped into his path.
‘How did the mission go?’ she queried.
‘Preliminary success,’ Six said.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Probably Jack again.
‘Excuse me,’ he said, and again tried to walk past. Again, she blocked the way.
‘Answer that,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait.’
‘Don’t you have work to do?’ Six asked.
Her smile grew wider. ‘Worried it might be something private? Someone you’d rather I didn’t realise you’d spoken to, telling you something you might not want me to know?’
Six sighed. He took the phone out of his pocket. The caller ID read pay phone.
He snapped it open and held it up to his ear. ‘Yes?’
‘I know she’s watching,’ a voice whispered. ‘So it’s very important that you keep a straight face when I tell you this.’
A cold feeling trickled into Six’s guts. He glanced at his watch, like the caller was wasting his time. The QS watched him, still smiling.
‘Uh-huh,’ Six said.
‘The Queen of Spades is Vanish,’ the caller said. Then he hung up.
Six held the dead phone to his ear as the hairs on his arms all went rigid. He tried to keep his face from contorting into a horrified stare, and he strained to avoid looking at the Queen of Spades.
‘Uh-huh,’ he said again into the phone. ‘Five minutes, maybe ten.’
He thought of how quickly she had cancelled the arrest order after Six had returned to the Deck. He thought of the look in her eyes as she’d watched him every day these past few weeks. He thought of how her icy demeanour had been replaced by a chillingly friendly one.
He thought of her smug smile.
Six’s instincts screamed at him to run, and he tried to shut them out. If he made any sudden or suspicious movements, the five Spades would act. And Six couldn’t defend himself against five of them at once. Clubs, Diamonds and Hearts were tough, but the Spades were even tougher; they had to be, in order to police the rest. If Six tried to run, or attack Vanish, they would jump on him, restrain him, and probably knock him out.
And then Vanish would know that Six knew. And Six didn’t like to think what Vanish would do next.
‘Okay,’ Six said. ‘See you soon.’ He pushed the disconnect button and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
‘Anyone I know?’ Vanish asked.
‘No,’ Six said. His heart hammered against his ribs. ‘I’ve got to go.’
Vanish’s eyes narrowed. ‘What’s the rush?’
The best liars, Six knew, were the ones who lied to themselves. They inflicted the delusion on their own minds first, and then when they spoke to others it sounded completely genuine.
I don’t know that this is Vanish, he told himself. It’s just the Queen of Spades, getting in my way, bugging me, wasting my time as well as hers.
‘What’s the rush?’ he repeated angrily. ‘Were you there in King’s briefing before, or was that your twin sister? There’s a nuclear warhead hidden somewhere in the City, maybe with ChaoSonic, maybe with the rebels, maybe with someone even worse. It’s my job to find it. That means thousands, maybe millions of lives are in my hands.’
He leaned towards Vanish, fists clenched at his sides. ‘The City is falling apart around us – if you weren’t so busy stalking me, you might have noticed.’
Then he shrugged. ‘But hey, if telling you about my phone conversations is a higher priority, that’s fine. I’ll make sure a copy of my call logs is on your desk within the hour – if we survive the nuclear apocalypse, of course. Excuse me.’
He pushed past Vanish. This time she – make that he – didn’t stop him.
Six resisted the urge to turn his head and see if they were still watching him. Ten more steps to the end of the corridor. Eight, seven, six ...
No noise behind him. They weren’t following him, but they hadn’t left yet either. Four, three, two ...
As soon as he had turned the corner, Six slumped against the wall. His hands were shaking and his legs felt weak.
Vanish had infiltrated the Deck. He had been here for three weeks, learning its secrets, watching its operatives, immersing himself in the system. Who knew how many agents he’d compromised, how many secrets he’d sold �
� and what kind of apparatus he might have set up to protect himself.
He could have recruited his own operatives, slipped them into the ranks of the Spades. He could have a dozen agents loyal to him, walking around in the Deck right now, ready to execute his sinister plan ...
‘Six.’
Six whirled around, a shock of adrenaline fizzing through his body. But it was only Ace, walking down the corridor towards him. She had scrubbed off her makeup, and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. Her hair was wet.
‘I wanted to ... Six? Are you okay?’
Six hesitated. Could he trust her? Of course, he realised. She’s been here a lot longer than three weeks. She’s clean. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m a long way from okay. We’ve got a big problem.’
And then alarms pierced the air – a roaring klaxon that seemed to come from every wall. The sound was suffocatingly loud and close. Six stared down the empty corridor, frowning.
‘Is this the problem?’ Ace shouted.
‘No,’ Six yelled. ‘I think that –’
And then the alarm suddenly stopped and the lights flickered off, leaving them in complete darkness.
Ninety seconds earlier, Grysat was frowning at a security monitor. On it, a black twelve-wheeler truck was easing to a stop just outside the main entrance to the Deck.
According to the computer, the driver had punched in the correct code to get through the outer gate. But the Deck didn’t own any trucks like that. There were no operations scheduled that would require one to be rented or stolen. And he was not expecting any deliveries.
Therefore, he thought as he watched the driver clamber out, this guy could be trouble.
He cleared his throat, and the dozen agents in the room turned to look at him. ‘We have unknowns approaching the entrance,’ he said. ‘I want everyone to go to your defensive positions.’ He hit the button that opened the lift doors.