“The New Form Enterprise,” I say.
Steeber looks surprised.
“Were there other files?” he asks.
“Some more like the one I sent you,” I say.
“Has anyone else got this information?” Steeber says.
“Dad and one other.”
“Who?”
“Someone in Centria.”
Lin Lin Lin and the guards surround us.
“Who?” Steeber says again with that polite, otherworldly calm.
For the first time Ursula looks scared.
“Our mother. She’s Dad’s Operator. They’re soldiers. If you kill us they will-”
“Yes, yes,” Steeber says. “Where is your father?”
“I don’t know.”
I feel a gun against the back of my head as two guards seize Ursula’s arms. She kicks her long legs ineffectually. Lin Lin Lin punches both of Ursula’s thighs in terrifying quick succession. Ursula’s feet thud to the floor as the feeling leaves them. Lin Lin Lin jumps onto Ursula’s lap, pinning her to the chair.
“Hmm, hmmm, mmm,” Lin Lin Lin says with dead-eyed intensity.
She grabs Ursula’s throat as a small knife with a serrated edge grows out of the floor. The guard with the Blank girlfriend picks up the knife and hands it to Lin Lin Lin.
“Ah,” Lin Lin Lin says, “Budget Stabmaster 5000. Lovely.”
“Wait!” I say.
The gun barrel traces a scratchy little circle in my hair. Lin Lin Lin taps the knife against her chin thoughtfully as she examines every contour of my sister’s face. Eventually, Lin Lin Lin nods to herself and holds the point of the knife against Ursula’s left eye.
“Dad’s hiding!” I shout.
Lin Lin Lin grunts and seems to restrain herself reluctantly.
“Why?” Steeber says.
“There’s a Velossin after him,” I say.
Steeber’s gaze doesn’t waver but something changes in the tense atmosphere, as if he has come to a decision. Lin Lin Lin slowly moves the knife away from Ursula’s eye and turns to me.
“We can find you,” Lin Lin Lin says.
“Understood,” I say.
Lin Lin Lin takes her time getting off Ursula and steps back. Shakily, I get up and so does Ursula. Steeber remains seated.
“Your father must be quite a problem for someone,” Steeber says.
“How so?” I say.
“Velossin are incredibly expensive,” Steeber says. “Part of the deal is that if you do manage to kill the one after you – and you won’t by the way – another is despatched in his place.”
I try not to stumble as I grab Ursula’s arm. The floor whisks us back to the elevator in a traumatic blur.
19
Our vehicle is a graceful silver lozenge, six metres long by three across although the interior is smaller to hide the Basis interaction pads. The hull can be one or two-way-transparent and is currently set to reveal a strip of MidZone view around the sides with another across the ceiling and floor. Operated in-Aer with a set of backup controls at the front of the cabin, the ship will get us out of trouble fast although the patent commission was a ruinous 15%.
In the three hours since Fulcrus we have tried to get over our experience there with limited success. Ursula slumps on the long seat opposite mine, her expression glazed. At least she has stopped shaking.
I feel less shocked than depressingly resigned. Everyone outside Centria seems so much more cunning and worldly than I am. How are we going to last long enough to learn basic survival?
I look down through the window. We are on an unplotted, unpredictable course and fly equidistantly between the ceiling and the floor. This part of MidZone is called Gereleye. Diamond roads, mezzanines and graceful buildings curve gently away. With its subtle, almost muted colours, Gereleye lacks Centria’s dizzying glamour or the dark pulse of other MidZone districts but is more calming for it. Daylight is standard throughout and adverts appear to be planned so they don’t deteriorate into a storm of blinding noise. The even spread of landscape has a pleasant effect and I actually start to relax.
Suddenly I get a strange feeling. Ursula hasn’t moved; the ship’s interior is unchanged so I look outside. A few other vehicles are on courses similar to ours but none are close. In the distance a dark green warship drifts behind a set of assemblies that descend from the ceiling like giant frozen waterfalls. I turn to study the area behind us. There’s nothing there, which surprises me because I now recognise the sense of being followed.
“What a dick,” Ursula says.
Her voice is a welcome interruption to my unease.
“Who?” I say.
“Loke. Why would Centria do business with someone like him?”
“I don’t understand that either,” I say. “The answer is in the mission files.”
I get them up and go through anything to do with Fulcrus, which is easier now I know their business model. The accounts detail payments from Centria to Fulcrus for a product called ‘Zero’.
“Did you ever hear about anything or anyone called ‘Zero’?” I ask Ursula.
“No.”
I sink back into the data.
There’s no pattern to the payments from Centria; even the timings are off. Remembering what Steeber said about interest payments I factor those in but the information still doesn’t make sense. Increasingly frustrated, I buy an advanced accounting program and feed it the numbers. They tell me Centria’s payments to Fulcrus total nearly a million kilos.
I find a new focus, partly from fear and partly from Ursula. I look over at her. Scruffy and scared she is no less wonderful and here with me alone, just how I always wanted her. She sees me looking and bugs her eyes. I smile. Everything seems easier.
I start again. With effort, I don’t project any expectation onto the figures and try instead to understand what is actually there. Soon I settle into a rhythm. Comfortable on the seat, I concentrate all my energy on analysis and fly over the data like the ship over MidZone.
* *
My head hurts despite fatigue adjustments made by the eye screens. In-Aer coordinates show the ship is still in Gereleye, where we have flown in a long loop for the past hour.
I open my eyes to look past the data at Ursula. She lies on her front looking sadly down at the seat. I want to put my comforting arms around those familiar shapely shoulders and stroke that shiny dark hair, which is kinked on one side now that Ursula has abandoned her rigorous beauty regime.
I will give the data ten more minutes, after which we can land and get a drink. I close my eyes and start to work again. Distracted by the prospect of relaxing with Ursula I skip over a familiar name and read on.
The name tugs at me. I go back to it and gasp as my eyes fly open.
“What is it?” Ursula says.
“Fulcrus is owned by VIA Holdings.”
Ursula jolts towards me as the facts jostle in my mind.
“Bal suggested the meet and greet,” I say. “The Sons of the Crystal Mind sabotaged it. Bal’s company, VIA Holdings, secretly backs the Sons. VIA Holdings also owns Fulcrus, a company that seems able to hold Centria to ransom.”
“What has Fulcrus got on Centria?”
“Whatever is wrong with it I suppose.”
“And Mum and Dad’s mission uncovered VIA Holdings using Fulcrus to blackmail Centria…”
“Just as VIA Holdings and Centria were about to merge,” I say.
We stare at each other.
“The merger will benefit VIA Holdings enormously,” Ursula says.
“Yes…”
“It will go from a crappy tenth-rate outfit to the most powerful company in Diamond City.”
I watch Ursula put it together.
“Mum and Dad’s discovery could properly screw that merger up,” she says.
“So Bal and Loren had a strong motive to attack Mum and Dad and discredit us,” I say.
After the icy calm of analysis, rage lights up inside me. I shout and thump
the ship’s wall. The impact on the light craft satisfies.
“Let’s go and fucking beat it out of them,” Ursula says.
As the ship changes course and accelerates I picture 88 Rabian’s burning face. Balatar Descarreaux was the architect of that atrocity and the cause of everything that has happened since. Loren is as guilty but inspires less hatred; unlike her, Bal has never bothered to hide his contempt. He considers me a minor being he can take his frustrations out on. Something about his disdain chimes unpleasantly with my ignorance about myself, confusion Bal obviously regards as weakness.
Ursula doesn’t feel this despair; she just wants to destroy them. Her aggression is a tangible force, simple and beguiling. It gives me clarity. I let my rage build.
Ursula climbs onto the front seat while I slip in beside her. She engages the ship’s controls and opens the front view until the great curves of Gereleye spread before us. They begin to streak past as Ursula increases our speed, her expression fixed and ferocious.
We finally leave Gereleye and swoop through a glowing cavern hung with slender white spires that taper down, their pointed tips suspended just above the surface of a motionless black lake. The ship yaws automatically to avoid the spires or I’m sure Ursula would just smash her way through.
I grip my seat as we pitch forward and then bank right through an arch into a more familiar MidZone chamber: big, noisy and full of clashing adverts. Speed breaks them into bright fragments and my restraint vanishes in a blinding kaleidoscopic rush.
I’ve got the n-gun up and its target sight jumps around my vision. I swat at it. I could kill anyone. For the hell of it I go to fire-
I stop. Slowly, I force myself to relax. I have to protect Ursula and stop her doing something mad that will get us both killed. How many more chances are we going to get? This is Diamond City, where luck is as rare as trust.
Also, Mum said there was something wrong with Centria. VIA Holdings is outside Centria, so whatever Bal and Loren are up to relates to the wrongness but is not the main problem. I’ve got more work to do on those files and less on obliterating Bal, which is a pity.
“Ursula,” I say.
She doesn’t hear.
“Ursula,” I say again. “They’ll cut us to pieces.”
She looks at me. Our brief exhilarating link is broken.
“An excuse to get rid of us permanently might even be what they want,” I say gently.
The ship slows down.
“I’ve got a plan,” I say.
“Go on.”
“We buy part of a building… in VIA Holdings.”
The ship speeds up again.
“Ursula!”
“Seriously Charity? Buy a building? That’s your plan?”
“We need to outsmart them!”
“By giving them business? Fuck no!”
“We can spy on them from there! They both move freely around the complexes. We get closer to the centre, room by room so we’re there at the right time and-”
“We waste them,” Ursula says.
“We question them! Don’t you want to know what’s really going on?”
“That could take years!”
“We’re hardly busy!”
Ursula’s mouth is tight and her breathing heavy with anger. She blinks a few times and calms down slightly.
“They won’t sell to you or to me,” she says eventually.
“We can set up a trading identity so someone else can buy the building for us…”
“There isn’t time Charity. How long are they going to keep Mum hooked up in Centria? And Dad…”
“You need to help me Ursula,” I say quietly.
She huffs and stares out of the window. Suddenly, she looks at me.
“I know who will buy the building,” she says.
“Who?”
“Ruben Toro.”
“Really?”
“Oh yes,” Ursula says. “He genuinely loves me, not like those other phoneys.”
“The ifarm will alert Security if you call him.”
“I’ll ask him to meet us near Centria. He can lose them long enough for us to let him know what we want.”
“Will he really risk becoming an ex?”
“Never underestimate obsessive love Charity.”
Why do I think of Harlan? He’s not obsessed with me and I’m not obsessed with him.
Ursula’s eyes go out of focus for a moment as she sends Ruben the message. I think she grasps the uncomfortable truth that this plan is all we’ve got. The alternative is an entropic spiral to the Outer Spheres, looking behind us all the way.
“Ruben says he’s coming,” Ursula says. “We’re on.”
The ship changes direction. I shift on the seat uneasily, conscious that even if we do find out what’s wrong with Centria we will never be able to go back there.
20
I look out of the ship’s window as we touch down at the edge of a square bordered by three giant buildings on the inner curve of MidZone. One building is a tower of green tile facing another whose featureless white facade is partially obscured by a sheet of milky liquid. The liquid pours unendingly from the ceiling four hundred metres above us to hit the floor nearby with an uncanny lack of spray. The third building is a sensuous cylinder that rises to a blunt point. Every imaginable colour pulses in it and there are no dark areas; the colours bloom alongside each other in a slow riot of gorgeous light.
The cul-de-sac opens onto the rest of the chamber, which is filled by a wooded park. Light blue trees are sculpted into loose knots above dark blue grass. A pink lake glows softly in the centre.
We sit and watch the colours change in the cylinder as the white liquid falls in silent majesty. People cross the square from one of the three buildings to another and at one point a man with a dekpak lands, which gives me a little start of sadness.
“There,” Ursula says.
Ruben Toro walks into the square from between the green tiled building and the coloured cylinder. Although Ruben wears chunky dark clothes that obviously contain armour he still manages to look scared and needy, while his surgically rendered Ursula-beauty makes me even more uncomfortable here than it did in Centria.
“We should take him up in the ship,” I say.
“I can’t see Security yet.”
“Stick your head out for a second then.”
Ursula opens the ship’s hatch and stands there.
“Come on,” I hear her mutter.
“What?”
“I don’t know. He’s stopped.”
“Has he seen you?”
“Yes!”
A strange pulsing, metallic hum has grown subtly in volume. Ruben starts to back away, staring in fear at something above us. I look up and see the dark green warship I glimpsed in Gereleye. This close I can see how huge the craft is, much bigger than the ones Keris had in Centria. Its name, visible on the lower hull, is Wrath Umbilica.
It must have been waiting for us to land.
A flash jerks our ship from under me. For a moment there is silence and a peculiar sense of suspension as if time has become physically tangible. The ship’s inner wall recedes with alarming, inexorable speed until my back hits Ursula’s seat and the air is thumped out of my lungs.
The base of our ship is now its side and through the window strip I see Ursula scramble to her feet. Ruben stands as if frozen and then begins to run towards Ursula. The silent white fluid drops obliviously behind them both.
The view changes again and I feel a sickness in my ears. The brief screech of another shot cuts through it, then I’m in freefall before slamming down. All air leaves my body again as the ship scrapes across the square and judders to a halt. I feel heat close in and turn to see a wall of energy buzz towards me as our attackers burn the ship millimetre by millimetre.
Suddenly it melts as Ursula deposits the remains to prevent our precious kilos from evaporating and I fall beside the last fragments as they’re absorbed into the floor. The awful buzzing heat d
isappears; I roll over to see Wrath Umbilica hanging above us and glimpse Ursula run toward me. I want to tell her to get away but haven’t got enough breath to speak or move.
Ruben backs off and then stops. Something grows out of the floor in front of him. From this angle and distance it’s hard to make out but when Ruben grabs the handle and swings the thing around I see it’s a cannon, so large that the barrel rests on a stand embedded in the floor. At any other time the weapon might look impressive but not against that warship.
I mentally urge Ruben to run but instead he fires a volley of shots over our heads. A blinding white flare from Wrath Umbilica removes Ruben’s arm and blood sprays over a luminous yellow pulse in the cylindrical building. Ruben spins and falls to his knees, sagging towards the floor until he puts out his remaining arm to stop himself. He looks at Ursula and then uses the cannon controls to pull his bleeding body up. He actually gets a shot off before another blast from the green warship vaporises him and the cannon completely.
The seconds are long and packed with incident. It seems to take an age to register grief for Ruben, whose love for my sister drove him to try and help her even with his arm shot away. It takes even longer for Ursula to complete her facial expression: rage I think and also terror.
The local security systems finally open fire on the warship, which shoots back. Gunfire is a grid of crackling energy as diamond shards drop slowly towards us.
I reach for Ursula, remember the n-gun and select level 3. There is a flash and Ursula falls in front of me. Something hits-
21
I feel my eyelids move as they open and close but I can’t see. Everything is white. A slap to the side of my head shocks a hoarse, pathetic shriek out of me. I try to move my arms and legs but can’t.
“Wake up.”
It’s a woman’s voice close by, charged with the kind of rage that smoothes out all inflection.
“Who are you?” I say, shaky with fear.
“Scan me why don’t you, you stuck up little bitch?”
“I can’t,” I say, “I can’t see.”
There's a charged pause as blindness enhances my other senses, especially touch. I feel the woman nearby, coiled and ready. When the second blow thuds into the other side of my head it should be a relief but she knows how to hit. Echoes of it lock my trembling neck as I cry out and stinging tears crawl down my face.
Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) Page 14