‘Talking of which,’ said Helena, ‘don’t you regard these absurd creations as rather excessive?’
‘Oh goodness no!’ laughed Edith. ‘It could be quite lonely here without my dainty harem. They provide me with something to do when I’m lacking... inspiration.’
‘So which specimen is your muse?’ asked Helena.
Edith shook her head emphatically. ‘Muse? Don’t be ridiculous. They don’t have the intellectual capacity of an elevator, despite their shafts.’ Helena shuddered. ‘Oh darling, don’t be such a prude.’ Edith leant back on her high stool, supporting herself with her arms on the back of the seat. ‘Besides, the men I seem to attract aren’t artists when it comes to crafting conversation.’
‘I was always under the impression you chose the men who followed you round,’ said Helena.
Edith watched her daughter for a moment. ‘Anyway, there are few enough women on this planet with whom you could hold a civilised conversation and how many of them would come here?’ Helena looked again through the thin windows to the pouring rain outside. Edith had a point.
‘It’s nice to see you too, Edith,’ said Helena.
Edith shrugged but didn’t disagree. ‘So why did you need to see me?’ she asked instead. It was Helena’s turn to avoid questions she didn’t like.
‘You are coming back with us, aren’t you?’ she asked.
‘Of course not. I didn’t intend to leave when I thought dear old Hal had sent you for me. Come to think of it he wouldn’t have been daft enough to consider you’d be able to persuade me.’
‘Not if he couldn’t,’ said Helena sweetly, knowing they had once been partners.
‘I assure you, young lady, I have not bedded him for more than three decades.’
Helena flicked out a finger against her thumb as if to say she had no opinion either way. ‘If you say so.’
‘Regardless of what you believe, the truth remains,’ said Edith.
‘Just what I was thinking,’ said Helena.
‘I meant,’ said Edith, stretching the word out, ‘I’m not coming back with you, fleet or no fleet.’
‘Edith, Indexiv mean to wipe out everyone living on the peninsula, Normal or otherwise.’
‘Don’t be so absurd,’ said Edith. ‘They wouldn’t have the nerve to follow through on the Khardokovsky plan.’ Helena kept her face blank, knowing her mother couldn’t resist correcting ignorance.
‘Oh for goodness sake Helena, I thought you worked for the diplomatic corps. Vladimir Khardokovsky argued for a number of years regarding the problem of Normals. He was the first to formally propose we, how did he put it, “take the assets off the books”. His voice has been highly influential in a number of the corporations although, thanks to your uncle, not in ours.’
‘Johannes spoke against killing all the Normals?’ asked Helena incredulously.
‘Most eloquently. Regardless, dear, that was just after you were born. No one’s seriously considered it in a hundred years.’
‘Trust me, Indexiv are rolling out their operations right now,’ said Helena firmly.
‘Absurd: there’s no profit in it,’ said Edith. ‘Despite my distaste for their inferiority they aren’t quite cattle to be disposed of as we see fit.’
‘Have you gone soft in your old age?’ asked Helena
‘Liberal, you mean? Hardly. If you want liberal you should read Vlad’s political diaries from the time; oh how dreadfully lily-livered the man was, or is, I suppose. Fat chance he’s died off.’
‘He’s not so popular with Euros, Edith. I’m not sure they’d declassify his diaries for me to just read through for pleasure.’
‘Who said anything about Euros?’ said Edith with a glint in her eyes.
‘You have them?’ asked Helena in astonishment.
‘I never said that, now did I?’ came the flat response. ‘Besides, I’m not coming back because it’s simply preposterous that Indexiv would wipe out everyone in Jutland. Even were they to do so, they’d not harm me. I’m Family. What was it you wanted to see me about?’
Helena could make out the gentle crashing of the waves against the shore. Even with the rain pouring and the wind picking up, the shallow draft of the beach tempered the swell.
‘I’ve seen them do it,’ said Helena. Edith did not speak.
Helena spoke quietly. ‘I’ve seen them kill everyone in a town, a region. It didn’t matter to them who the people were. I’ve stood on bodies piled higher than my own head. Trust me, Edith, they’re coming here to kill everyone. They won’t kill you personally; they won’t even care. You’re just another body to add to the pile, another asset to remove from the balance sheet.’
‘You did come to take me home.’
‘Surprising as it may seem, I came for my own reasons. Someone asked me earlier why you and I have never been close. I said it was because you didn’t care.’
‘A reasonable supposition,’ said Edith bluntly.
‘It wasn’t that really; you care enough for yourself. It’s just you’ve never really felt that caring for yourself extended to ensuring the people around you were OK.’ Helena had drawn her extended vision back and now simply stared into the night, seeing nothing.
‘Are you saying I should have spent my time making sure you got the best jobs? Giving you a hand up?’ asked Edith incredulously.
‘Let me put it another way; you always believed the world revolved around you. If someone wasn’t in orbit you barely knew they existed.’
There was silence, then, ‘And?’
Helena turned around and saw what she’d expected to see in her mother’s eyes: incomprehension.
‘And,’ said Helena.
‘There’s a lot of your father in you,’ Edith said after a moment’s thought.
‘Someone said there was a lot of you in me,’ said Helena.
‘It’s possible I suppose,’ said Edith, clearly unconvinced. ‘Regardless, this isn’t really new ground we’re breaking is it? You and I have been here before.’ She sighed. ‘Fine, I accept the evidence of your own eyes. Indexiv really have bitten the bullet. I’m still not leaving,’ Helena started to speak, but Edith tutted harshly and she subsided, ‘without all my entourage.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Helena.
‘Have you no memory in that mind of yours? I sent my favourite man down to Skagen to get some vellum made for me. He isn’t due back for another week or so; he’s picking up some other bits and pieces for me while he’s there. I’ll happily leave when he returns.’
‘They’ll be here by then,’ said Helena. Down below, she heard footsteps entering the tower. Hardly believing half an hour was up already, she moved to wrap up the conversation.
‘Well I see one obvious strategy then,’ said Edith. ‘Your colleagues will be here momentarily and, knowing you, I suspect you’ll want to wait before telling me why you actually came.’
‘Does your favourite have a name?’ asked Helena as David and Jane reached the floor below.
‘Of course he does,’ said Edith. ‘I’m not a barbarian.’
‘And it is?’ said Helena. The crown of David’s head appeared above the edge of the platform.
‘Six,’ said Edith as the two of them turned to face David and Jane.
The newcomers stood still.
‘David Chalmers, Jane Priestly.’ Helena turned to Edith. ‘Edith Anna Woolf.’
David remembered himself and looked to Helena. ‘I hope you had time to catch up,’ he said falteringly.
‘Good grief man, what is it?’ said Edith impatiently.
‘You look so similar,’ said Jane.
Edith glanced askance at Helena and snorted at Jane. ‘She looks like me, yes. You’ve managed to sum up the grace and majesty of the human genome in one prolish phrase.’
‘I am not a prole,’ said Jane in response. Helena looked at her in bewilderment, not knowing what the term referred to.
‘Perhaps,’ said Edith thoughtfully.
Helena was u
sed to how she appeared. She was happy changing her look as and when it pleased her. She tended to remain the same height and rough weight; she found the process too uncomfortable to feel it was worthwhile changing. However, she frequently changed the colour of her skin, hair and eyes. Despite this, she knew she bore a close resemblance to her mother. Helena had never managed to confirm with Edith whether their similarity lay with gene therapy on her side or her mother’s. Helena took it for granted that one of them had undergone such a process and, if she thought about it, she assumed Edith had altered her daughter’s future appearance in the womb so she would grow into a reflection of her mother.
Standing there in the flickering light of the candles dotted around the room, Helena compared her mother to herself. Edith was born into the first truly long-lived generation of Families. Unlike her own parents, she was born never to age, able to take advantage of technology to extend her life indefinitely. As such, she appeared not a day over twenty-five: no older than Helena looked. Helena appreciated her build and features even if they were closely modelled on Edith’s own. Her mother, at least, had good taste. If Jane’s shock at seeing mother and daughter in the same room discomforted Helena it was only a sensation she’d felt a hundred times before. She’d long ago reconciled herself with the circumstance.
Helena refocused on the room and found David looking at her. He had no way of knowing what she and Edith had discussed but, if he had been in her shoes, she’d be hoping he’d have managed to obtain her father’s location.
Nothing about her relationship with her mother — nothing — was that simple.
‘Miss Woolf,’ began David, ‘I’m sorry to intrude upon you like this.’
‘No you’re not. We’ll get on far better if you are concise and to the point,’ said Edith. ‘As I told my daughter, I’m not coming back to the City with you.’
David and Jane looked sidelong at Helena. ‘Be that as it may, our primary reason for searching you out is almost entirely unrelated to the military task force making its way into Frederikshavn.’
Apart from Edith’s stool, there were no other chairs in the room. David stood well inside the doorway with Jane just behind and at his shoulder.
‘And why would you disturb me out here in Jutland if not to retrieve me?’ asked Edith.
‘I’m assuming you’ve been in enough contact with Euros to know of the bombings in London. Second, I’m assuming you know it wasn’t one of the Companies bombing themselves.’
‘Which leaves only one alternative,’ said Edith.
‘That’s our opinion as well,’ said David.
‘So why here and why now?’ asked Edith.
‘We suspect the network is spread across the continent,’ began David, but Edith interrupted him.
‘You think I’m a target?’ she asked incredulously.
‘If you let me finish,’ said David firmly — careful, thought Helena — ‘it seems likely the network is well embedded in the Families. However, those working with Family members could hardly be the ones planting bombs and living outside the formal economy. The natural conclusion is that there exists a second column supporting them.’
‘Viva la revolution,’ said Edith wearily.
‘I’d hardly say that was an adequate comparison,’ said Jane.
‘So says Marie Antoinette,’ retorted Edith, miming eating a piece of cake. ‘And just who are you my dear?’ she asked testily, as if seeing her for the first time and being somehow irked by her sudden appearance.
‘Jane Priestly,’ said Jane.
Turning her attention back to David without acknowledging Jane’s answer Edith said, ‘Not a single one of my concubines could possibly be involved in a plot against the Families. I have had no direct contact with Skagen, let alone Frederikshavn, in forty years. Why would I know if there were cells of insurgents here?’ She narrowed her eyes on David. ‘Mr Chalmers, what is it you want to ask me?’
Helena knew exactly what he wanted to ask but, from his body language, knew he’d keep away from direct questions. Helena hoped Jane would intervene; she was supposed to be as much a part of the team as either of them were and it would guarantee that Edith would not stumble on what Helena and David actually wanted to know.
‘No one is accusing you of helping them,’ said Jane soothingly.
Edith turned on her. ‘Shut up, you stupid little girl. If there is one person in this room who I am convinced feels Normals are both moral and evolutionary failures, it is me. I do not need you to spell out the obvious to me. Chalmers, I recommend you choose your partners more carefully. If the board ever permitted the two of you to breed, we can be sure the average intelligence of our species would probably go down. In this I do agree with Khardokovsky.’
‘It was the Swedes and the Americans you know,’ said Jane, blood flushing in her cheeks.
‘What are you whinging about now?’ snapped Edith. David moved to the side of the room, his expression obscured by the faint candlelight.
Jane said, ‘It wasn’t Khardokovsky; he plagiarised ideas put forward by the Swedish and American nation states. Both engaged in programs of what they called ‘eugenics’ long before the technology existed to get it right. They adopted a simpler approach to the maxim “survival of the fittest”: sterilise the disabled, the morally despised, the poor. Khardokovsky saw the ideas as concepts whose time had come. Our high technology gives us the power to succeed where he failed.’
‘You agree with his sentiment?’ gasped Helena.
‘Of course she doesn’t, darling,’ said Edith sarcastically. ‘It’s in her own best interest not to.’ Fixing Jane with a stare, she continued. ‘But, like me, she’s quite convinced of their inferiority. Chalmers, you have perhaps not chosen so foolishly after all.’
‘We are not partners,’ said David.
For the first time, Helena thought her mother looked confused. ‘Then why the devil is she here?’
Jane answered for herself. ‘Helena and I are assigned to a team tracing rogue operatives within Euros. We think it exceptionally unlikely any Normal could plan and execute the attacks on the City without help from traitors.’
‘Wonderful,’ said Edith, clapping her hands together. ‘With one breath you demand my respect, with the next you affirm why my gut reaction to you was justified. Normals are not stupid dear. They are quite cunning. For someone with such reasonable historical awareness you seem to forget we were once as they are.’
‘I was never one of them,’ said Jane fiercely.
‘Perhaps not, but I still see no compelling reason to believe there would be any links between the groups.’
No one said anything, but after a moments’ silence Edith spoke. ‘It has always fascinated me that the human brain is an exceptional pattern spotter. Indeed, this strength is one of its strangest weaknesses; it is quite incapable of seeing random patterns without trying to connect them in some way.’
Helena wanted to correct Edith, to remind her she wasn’t the only Oligarch in the room. Yet to do so would inevitably lead to her revealing what had happened at the railway station; that was something she wished to avoid.
‘It is my supposition,’ said David from the shadows. ‘I am in possession of evidence suggesting the link. It is not extrapolation of the facts Miss Woolf, rather corroboration.’
‘Hmm…’ said Edith. Helena knew she would be unwilling to concede the point. ‘I did not say it wasn’t possible, just that it seems unlikely. The strongest argument would fly in the face of such self-destructive behaviour by one of our own, even had they a grievance against their Company. To aid Normals in the acquisition of High Technology or even to grant them access to our world for the purpose of creating terror cannot ever be considered a stable strategy for securing their own ends. The conclusion can only be that the Normals, waking up from their consumptive torpor, have realised how we have denied them what their kind discovered in the first place.’
‘You credit them with a solidarity I have never experienced outs
ide of the Families,’ said David.
‘Don’t dismiss the mob and don’t mistake incest for solidarity,’ said Edith dryly. ‘You have to ask yourselves: what would the Normals want? What would these rogues want?’
‘We know how to do our job Edith,’ said Helena.
‘I’m sure you do,’ said Edith. ‘Still, I’m struck by the absurdity of assigning such a woefully under-resourced team to something which, if true, would be a threat to overshadow anything our little war might cause.’
Her analysis has merit,said Helena’s AI.The circumstance has featured within my models for some time.
‘Why would Euros play so lightly with their own future?’ asked Helena, paraphrasing.
‘Why indeed,’ said Edith. ‘I’m not here to teach you how organisations live, breathe and evolve, darling. If I remember correctly, you were here to remove me from impending ethnic cleansing. I’m tired.’ Edith sighed dramatically. ‘I’ll be retiring now to my private quarters.’ David opened his mouth to speak, but Edith overrode him. ‘My daughter and I have already come to an agreement: I will cooperate and return to the City with you once you’ve returned my favourite boy.’
David thought for a moment and said, ‘Goodnight and thank you for speaking with us.’
Well done, thought Helena, joining them as they left Edith alone in her tower.
Chapter 5
‘WE DIDN’T COME here to take her home,’ spluttered Jane once they’d emerged onto the rain-sodden path at the base of the lighthouse, gravel crunching underfoot. Neither David nor Helena said anything in response but continued trudging back to the manse.
‘Aren’t either of you concerned that we’ve somehow gotten ourselves a passenger? No offence intended, Helena, but I can understand why you don’t get on; she’s aloof and arrogant to the core.’
‘None taken,’ said Helena.
David sighed. On reaching the house, the three of them made their way through to the kitchen, where a mock wood burning stove filled the room with a snug, dry warmth. Helena thought about stopping her nanobots from drying her out so she could better enjoy the warmth of the stove, but she could not summon up the energy to ask her AI to order it.
A People's War (The Oligarchy Book 2) Page 10