Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1)

by Wallace, Andrew

  “Did you pay for all this?” I ask Harlan.

  “Of course.”

  “You really can’t keep doing that.”

  “There’s nothing I’d rather spend my money on than you Charity Freestone.”

  “Awww. Thank you though.”

  He smiles and I feel a tug of loss.

  “They broke my n-gun,” I say.

  “You can’t break an n-gun. You can neutralise it but it just grows back. Try.”

  The little target sight appears.

  “Oooo!” I say, delighted. “I’d like to go and shoot something.”

  “Soon baby, soon.”

  “What are these ‘Other Therapies’?”

  Harlan looks slightly uncomfortable.

  “I took the liberty of running some psych programs on you,” he says.

  “Oh.”

  “They work while you sleep, like a mind massage. I was worried you’d have a breakdown.”

  I look at the psych readouts. They are closed protocol so no one except me has access to them. I flick through the findings and notice the words ‘hypersensitive’, ‘resourceful’ and ‘unquantifiable’. ‘Unquantifiable?’ Typical.

  “Did you speak to Jaeger?” I ask.

  “He said to talk to you.”

  “He and I exchanged terms.”

  Harlan sighs.

  “What terms?” he says.

  “To rescue Ursula from the Sons of the Crystal Mind, I agreed to get Jaeger and five hundred of the New Form Enterprise to a set of coordinates one hundred metres inside Centria.”

  “By when?”

  “11am today,” I say.

  “So you’ve only got five hours. How are you going to do it?”

  “I’ve got a plan.”

  “All right,” Harlan says, “what then?”

  “Once the NFE are there, my terms are automatically discharged and I’m released from all obligations.”

  “And if not?” Harlan says.

  “The Basis will automatically assign operation of my Aerac to Jaeger.”

  “That would give Jaeger control over everything you do,” Harlan says.

  “At the time it seemed better to be enslaved by Jaeger than burned alive by Hobb,” I say.

  “And now?”

  “Ursula willingly joined the Sons of the Crystal Mind, who have since all been killed.”

  The Basis may have fixed my body but it can’t do anything about the ambiguous, shifting bruise of guilt.

  “You didn’t do that,” Harlan says.

  “I caused it.”

  “Jaeger made the tactical decision, not you.”

  “Maybe.”

  I want to look at him but instead keep my gaze fixed on the floor as I stand and grow the jumpsuit straight onto me. Dressed, I feel no less awkward.

  “Harlan, Centria fought a horrible war to keep the New Form Enterprise out. I’m going to blow that victory.”

  “‘That victory’ wasn’t as straightforward as you thought though was it?”

  “I suppose not. I just don’t know what will happen.”

  “Have faith,” Harlan says.

  The Basis has cleaned and conditioned me so I don’t need to pull my hair through, which is a relief. Harlan likes it and intimacy seems wrong now.

  “Jaeger thinks Keris has unlimited kilos,” I say. “Keris says she hasn’t. Given that Centria is bankrupt I’m inclined to believe Keris. What will Jaeger do when he finds out?”

  “If it’s true then there isn’t anything he can do.”

  “I still don’t know what the NFE ultimately want. All I’ve got is vague hints about ‘new humanity’, whatever that is.”

  Harlan isn’t smiling anymore.

  “You’ve agreed terms so it doesn’t matter,” he says. “You haven’t got a choice.”

  The room seems chilly as we sit in silence.

  For something to do I touch my face, which feels unfamiliar. I get a holo up but hardly recognise the hard-faced young woman who stares coldly back. My eyes… my eyes are scary. The Guidance glare out of them from a grey and purple bar of bruising. There is a bolshy pride in the mottling on my jaw while more pronounced cheekbones make me seem functional, uncluttered. My chest rises and falls; other than that I am still, more so than I used to be. The soft blonde flow of my hair seems deceptive, like decoration on a weapon.

  Gethen calls.

  “I need to take this alone,” I tell Harlan.

  “Can’t do that,” he says.

  I tut at him. He doesn’t move or react so I cancel the holo and turn. Gethen appears in front of me as a hologram, looking angry and worried. From this angle he can’t see Harlan.

  I watch Gethen calmly. His higher status dictates that I should speak first. I don’t blink.

  “You have Fulcrus,” he says finally.

  I nod.

  “What do you want to do?” he says.

  “I want to listen Gethen, while you explain to me what is going on.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “No? My parents were going to find out about you and VIA Holdings. You couldn’t let that happen. By your own rules you’d have to become an ex.”

  Gethen looks at me impassively.

  “I don’t think you’d have got far though,” I say, “what with all the Centrian exes out in Diamond City.”

  Gethen shakes his head, as if he can’t believe how his valuable time is being wasted.

  “You ordered Centrian soldiers to kill my dad in MidZone,” I say. “Loren knew you’d fail so she and Balatar hired a Velossin to do the job properly.”

  “Nonsense,” Gethen says.

  “Keris didn’t want me and Ursula to become exes and neither did Anton Jelka. You made sure of it though didn’t you?”

  He licks his lips.

  “Have you got any idea what happened to me because you did that?” I say.

  He tries to stare me out but his gaze flickers away.

  “Look at me Gethen. Look at my face.”

  I see him register the damage as if trying to pass the time until I forget what I wanted and move on.

  “Tell me about the Ruby War,” I say.

  His eyes and nostrils both flare.

  “We won,” he says.

  “No thanks to you.”

  Gethen is flustered now. He is too used to people doing what he wants and his experience is turning against him.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says.

  “It was never supposed to happen was it?” I say. “Someone was meant to let the New Form Enterprise into Centria. That someone was you.”

  “No!”

  “Keris wouldn’t have done it,” I say. “She fought them off, and to physically let an enemy in wouldn’t even occur to Ellery.

  “Neither of them had any motive Gethen. You did though didn’t you? You were going to let the NFE in to cover the fact that you lost all of Centria’s kilos to a lunatic like Loren Descarreaux.”

  Gethen jolts as if I’ve shot him with an Old World projectile weapon.

  “Were you hoping Jaeger’s story about unlimited kilos was true so you could rebuild the finances before anyone found out?”

  He looks at me, frozen and then bites his lips nervously and swallows.

  “Anton was too good though wasn’t he?” I say. “He knew the instant Jaeger was near. What a shame Anton’s dead. You’re less safe now.”

  Gethen opens his mouth but no words come and he shuts it again, slowly, with effort.

  “Who else knew that Centria was bankrupt?” I say.

  Gethen groans. His appearance is the same but he looks different, as if all the things that hold him together have begun to collapse.

  “Ellery,” he says finally.

  “No one else?”

  “No.”

  “Not Keris?”

  Gethen looks surprised.

  “Of course not,” he says. “Keris would never have sent your parents after the New Form Enterprise if she
’d known. She authorised the mission when Anton Jelka told her he’d found the NFE. A one-man investigation was nothing out of the ordinary or I would have heard about it and stopped it.”

  “Did Ellery know you were going to betray us?” I say.

  He clutches at his jacket, stares at me and then shakes his head. Without his ruthless exterior he is a sad-eyed, desperate man.

  “Gethen,” I say, “I want you to do something for me.”

  “What?” he says.

  “Balatar Descarreaux is still in charge of Centria Security despite Keris authorising his removal. Get rid of him and shut Security Control Surveillance down for forty-eight hours. No one else in Centria is to know, so leave the army functioning. Do you understand?”

  “I-I don’t know how to-”

  “Find a way.”

  “It’s impossible…”

  “Do it or I will tell Keris and Ellery.”

  “I want to help but-”

  “And Jaeger and Sol and Louis and-”

  “All right!” Gethen shouts.

  His hands tremble.

  “How do you know about… them?” he says.

  “Just accept that I do.”

  Gethen runs his palms back over his head, a mannerism I now realise we share. After a while he looks up.

  “Like anything, Security requires a budget,” he says, his voice shaky. “I shall divert certain funds…” He thinks for a moment. “When do you want it shut down?”

  I look past the projection at Harlan, who smiles.

  “Now,” I tell Gethen.

  41

  Makeup covers the bruising on my face as I stand outside Mum and Dad’s house, which is no longer shielded. Through a downstairs window I see a corner of the sofa and some cupboards against a wall. At the end of the garden our little island hangs in the air, unchanged and sweet as a childhood memory.

  Around me, Centria goes about its business. Jaeger and the New Form Enterprise arrived six hours ago in time for the 11am deadline. They came silently, in small groups without their orange uniforms. There have been no battles, no pronouncements; no soldiers imposing a new order.

  I should enter the house but hesitate. Ursula will have told Mum everything. What if my Blankness repulses her, however much she might not want it to? What if she thinks I was too harsh with Ursula?

  Harlan remains a source of profound confusion; I don’t know if I really mean anything to him or not. After we walked into Centria we reached a junction where Mum and Dad’s was in one direction and Harlan’s unknown destination was in another. After an awkward pause he smiled sadly as if he wanted to kiss me and then we walked away from each other although he moved first. I told myself I was fine.

  I go to knock on the door, then just push it open and walk in. Mum and Ursula sit beside each other on the sofa. Mum jumps up when she sees me while Ursula’s gaze drops to the floor. She stays where she is, hands folded in her lap. Part-healed burns redden her neck and arms.

  Mum was unconscious for so long I forgot how fast she can move. She is on me in a second, her expression weird and intense as she lifts me off the floor. I get my arms around her and grip tight as she makes a keening sound into my hair.

  “My baby, my little girl,” Mum says, over and over.

  Oh, to feel her move again! Her coma and our banishment are like an eerie alternative world now, its presence like the aches in my flesh, resonant but growing weaker. Eventually, I’m lowered to the ground as Mum unhooks herself from my shoulder and looks into my eyes. She has always been so controlled but now her face is wet with tears and almost hysterical. I touch her cheek.

  “I missed you,” I manage to say.

  I feel another presence beside me. Without looking I grab Ursula around the waist and pull the three of us together. I bury my head between the two of them and lose myself in a strange triumphant grief that rocks me on my feet. My mother and sister hold me firmly as gravity seems to recede. No one moves except me and even then I can’t be sure.

  Finally, they guide me to the sofa and my legs buckle as I sit, drained and breathless. I close my eyes and feel their gaze on me. More time passes, during which they stroke my arms and hands and hair. Eventually I open my eyes again and look up at Mum.

  “You know, then?”

  “Yes,” she says, “Ursula told me a lot of it and the rest I’ve gleaned from the Aer. What you’ve achieved is incredible.”

  “I killed people Mum.”

  “They were trying to kill you Charity. It was self-defence.”

  “It doesn’t feel right.”

  “I’m glad it doesn’t darling. It’s never felt right to me or your father either, but that is the nature of this place.”

  “Have you heard from Dad?”

  “No,” she says sadly, “and I don’t expect to. Any contact could be enough for the Velossin to trace him.”

  “We have to deal with that Velossin,” I say.

  “Yes,” Ursula says.

  “We’ll think of a way,” Mum says.

  There is a pause. Mum and I smile again. Ursula doesn’t.

  “Charity,” she says.

  “Yes Ursula?”

  “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m sorry I did that stupid thing. I was so angry and in so much pain and… still am but that’s no excuse. Sometimes though you do something and it’s wrong but when you realise you see… you see a bigger world.”

  I watch her.

  “Thank you for saving me,” she says. “And thank you for saying what you did; it would have been worse if you hadn’t said it. I know how much you loved me; it’s enormous, your love. I’ve never told you what that meant, how it’s helped.”

  Her voice is clear and her face almost without expression as tears trickle down it.

  “You’ve always had my back, but things have changed, forever I think. I’ve got your back now; whatever you need. I hope you love me still.”

  I take her beautiful, ridiculous face in my hands and kiss her. The softness of her lips is a world that blossoms and then sweetly fades. We part like a gentle exhalation.

  “Of course I love you,” I say. “You’re my sister.”

  “Really? Even now?”

  “Always.”

  “Oh,” Mum says, her voice catching.

  “Don’t you start,” Ursula says.

  The three of us sit and hold hands for a while.

  “What was the deal you did with the New Form Enterprise?” Mum says.

  “I let them in,” I say.

  Mum goes white.

  “Eh?” Ursula says.

  “There have been five hundred of them in Centria for the past six hours,” I say.

  Mum looks out of the window.

  “What are they doing?” she whispers.

  “Looking for a mythical kilo source,” I say. “It’s what caused the Ruby War.”

  Mum turns back to me, her face set in its usual reserve.

  “I lost friends in that war Charity.”

  “Should I have let Ursula die Mum?” I say.

  Mum looks at Ursula and then looks at me.

  “No,” she says.

  “That’s good then,” Ursula says to Mum pointedly.

  “There’s something else,” I say. “I own a horrible company called Fulcrus, which has been blackmailing Centria for the past year.”

  “Blackmailing Centria about what?” Mum says.

  “Centria is bankrupt.”

  “How?” Mum and Ursula say simultaneously.

  “Loren Descarreaux tricked Gethen into gambling all our kilos away.”

  “Loren?” Mum says.

  “Loren is an ex. She was in love with Gethen but Ellery made him throw her out. VIA stands for ‘Vengeance Is All’. You were about to find out so she put you in a coma and sent the Velossin after Dad.”

  Mum looks sick.

  “If we’d worked it out sooner…” she says.

  “It wouldn’t have made any difference,” I say.

  “At
least you didn’t put her gimp son in charge of Security,” Ursula tells Mum.

  “Balatar’s role just became vacant,” I say. “It’s yours Mum. Anton would have wanted that.”

  Mum frowns as she thinks about every aspect of the proposal.

  “All right,” she says.

  “Better give Ursula a job,” I say. “She likes thumping people.”

  “I do actually,” Ursula says. “That and-”

  “Not now darling,” Mum says.

  I send Gethen a message:

  Make Julie Freestone Director of Security

  There is a pause.

  “Huh!” Mum says.

  “Got it?” I say.

  “Yes. I’ve accepted.”

  Mum looks at me, impressed.

  “I don’t know how you did it but thank you,” she says. “And well done.”

  This is my best ever moment. If only Dad was here it would be perfect-

  Gethen Karkarridan appears in holographic form, looking scared.

  “You need to come to Security Control,” he says.

  42

  The elevator is a stubby cylinder on its side whose floor stays level as we rise up the enclave’s curved inner wall. We pass the last buildings jutting away from us towards the scintillating hoop assembly and for a while we are in clear air. I gaze down at Centria, whose diamond buildings resemble the frozen beams of a restless, flashing star.

  We pass into soothing clouds but the coloured light pulses here too like a mysterious visual language. We emerge from the whiteness to spend a few moments sandwiched between its puffy upper surface and the ceiling, where the menacing dark slots thin to indistinct lines as we ascend. A second later we pass through the structural layer and see its interior: a silent, apparently motionless piece of technology whose only miracle is its existence.

  We emerge at the flat base of the broad shallow dome and travel up the side of it. Our height reveals training camps and ships spread across the floor, which looks like a strangely decorated plate that slowly angles towards us. The central pillar with its bright upper band enlarges as we approach.