Becoming Zodiak

by Craig Jones

  Crabbe ran his fingers through his unruly hair, unable to hide his concern. Never had he seen her look so out of place. Feeling much too agitated for his liking, he pushed the thought from his mind and quickly spun his chair towards Pisces.

  “Emma, how long until the amphibian is up and running again?”

  Emma Sease, champion Australian kick boxer, wasn’t used to being called anything else other than her call sign, and she didn’t answer immediately.

  “Pisces!” Crabbe boomed.

  “Another day,” she replied, flustered. “But we’re making sure the sub is fully charged, Sir.”

  Crabbe’s sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry. I should not have shouted.”

  Pisces didn’t have a chance to respond.

  “We are all under stress, my friend. These are troubling times.”

  The voice was fragile, but all of Zodiak turned towards Virgo. For the first time Crabbe saw how weak she looked, how tired and pale.

  “My senses are failing me,” she continued, “my power is weak. I am unsure if this is the right direction for us to travel in. If I am unsure, I cannot blame you for having doubts, but we are at our strongest when we are unified, when we are twelve.”

  “And twelve we shall be again soon, Virgo. I promise.”

  “Hovership imminent!” Leo called out.

  “I can’t believe we’re even considering this, let alone allowing them to shout about it on television,” Aries whispered under her breath.

  Only Aquarius heard her. He raised a finger to his lips and shook his head.

  The gigantic gate of the hangar began to soundlessly slide apart, and a rush of warm air gusted through the space. Virgo’s hair was picked up in the draft and floated around her with the energy that Crabbe and the rest of the team were so used to witnessing. It gave Lord Crabbe hope, like he was witnessing some portentous glimpse of a stronger future.

  The pulse of the hovership reverberated around the hangar and then it was there, filling up everything. Libra was visible through the front windows, his hands working dexterously across the control panels that directed the ship. With a blast of high-pressured air, four landing platforms lowered themselves out of the bottom of the ship and, at a gentle bounce Libra brought the craft to a halt and killed the engines. Seamlessly and soundlessly, a hatch opened in the belly of the ship and an exit ramp emerged.

  Scorpio and Sagittarius descended from the craft with a tall man dressed in a strikingly expensive suit between them. He looked every part the professional businessman except for the blindfold tied over his eyes. Scorpio and Sagittarius each held one of his elbows and instructed him where to place his feet. Crabbe met them as they reached the bottom of the ramp and signalled to Scorpio to remove the blindfold.

  “Mister Walsh, I am about to uncover your eyes. You may find your new surroundings somewhat bright,” Scorpio said in a perfunctory manner and pulled the blindfold off unceremoniously.

  “We make no apologies for our cloak-and-dagger approach to security,” said Crabbe, “but as you can imagine, Mister Walsh, there is a need for discretion in our business.”

  “Of course, I understand,” William Walsh said. He blinked rapidly for a moment and then he shook Crabbe’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Lord Crabbe.”

  Walsh was six feet tall at least, and for someone in his mid-fifties, he had escaped the gravitational pull of middle age. His skin was well tanned and his physique toned, from what the suit gave away. His hair was dark, thick and shiny, and his teeth were as white as the walls of Zodiak’s base.

  Crabbe offered him a mild smile and made to turn his wheelchair around. “Let’s go to the briefing room, Mister Walsh. I’ll introduce you to everyone there.”

  “Just a second, just a second,” called Libra as he ran down the ramp, holding a pen and clipboard. “I need you to sign that I got you here safe.”

  Half of the team groaned or shook their heads and Crabbe’s ginger eyebrows rose into a disbelieving, inverted V.

  “Do we really need—?” he began.

  “Not a problem,” Walsh said, and pulled a pen from inside his suit jacket. “I fully understand. I deal with health and safety in the workplace every day.” He took the clipboard from Libra, signed the sheet of paper attached to it with a practiced flourish, and returned it. “There you go.”

  “If that’s quite all, Libra?” Crabbe asked, the stern look on his face negating any need for a response. “Good. If you’d follow me, Mister Walsh?”

  Crabbe led the way, slowly, with Virgo on his left and Walsh on his right. Apart from Walsh asking about Virgo’s health, a question she dismissed with a polite but monosyllabic answer, there was little conversation along the way. The rest of the team tucked in behind and dutifully followed, a red-faced and angry Aries bringing up the rear. Scorpio positioned himself close to her.

  “The main consideration must be the team, Ariel,” he said under his breath. “Now we know Martin is to be okay. We must consider the team.”

  “Martin was my team. You know how close we—”

  “It is his decision. No one is forcing him out.”

  “Are you sure about that?” she asked sharply and marched away from him, knowing that he had no answer.

  “This is not that different from my boardroom, actually,” William Walsh exclaimed as they entered the briefing room. A large oval table of glass sat in the middle of the room with eleven black leather chairs around it. A space was left at the head of the table for Crabbe to position his wheelchair. Behind Crabbe, mounted on the wall, was a sprawling computer monitor, and the keyboard was built into the table in front of him.

  Walsh paused as the team took their seats. “Where shall I…?”

  “Take Taurus’s chair,” Aries barked, drawing surprised looks from her colleagues. “It’s not like he needs it anymore.”

  Walsh studied Aries for a moment. “Please, believe me when I say I am here to help, not to make this more painful for any of you.”

  “Aries understands that, Mister Walsh,” Crabbe said, shooting what he hoped would be a silencing stare at Aries. “This is still all very raw. But please, be seated. You are our guest and you will be treated as such. Now,” he said as the team took their seats, “I have spoken with the Prime Minister this afternoon and we have his full support. He wants us to be back to our full strength as quickly as possible, and he sees the role you have to play in that. Please tell everyone why you’re here.”

  With a reluctant nod, Walsh sat. “You all know who I am? William Walsh, owner of WWW News. And right now you see me as someone trying to benefit from the loss of your teammate.”

  “He’s not dead,” Aquarius said in his soft Argentinean accent. He wore combat pants and a training vest, his insignia tattooed onto his left shoulder: ♒

  “But we mourn him as if he were,” he continued. “So for all your good intentions, you must, of course, recognise that this is a difficult time for Zodiak.”

  “I do, I do, but Aquarius, you must understand that I have a duty. This process of finding a new Taurus is not to benefit me, or even to benefit you, but to send a message to the criminal elements in our society, a visual threat to the growing community of thieves and murderers who see this as a time of weakness. By building upon the passion generated by the millions of people who have viewed the announcement, I say we can turn this into a time of strength.” He brought his fist down on the table and was pleased to see at least a few heads bobbing in agreement. Leo, Sagittarius and Libra looked supportive.

  “When I first met with William, I too was sceptical,” Crabbe said. “After all, what place did the media have with Zodiak? But I fear that for every day we are not twelve, there are twelve, twenty, a hundred more criminals on our streets.”

  “But this is not how we were found, how we were recruited,” Scorpio stated, gesturing to his colleagues. “Virgo found us. She…she knew…”

  All eyes in the room turned to Virgo. For some, to look at her in her aged
condition was more painful than even losing Taurus.

  “I remain as unsure as you, my children,” she said. “But you know as well as I do that we need to find our twelfth member quickly, and I am unable to trust my senses to guide me to the correct decision. This process will help me. I fear it is the only way.”

  “We could always convince Martin to return,” Aries blurted, bringing her own hand down on the glass surface in front of her.

  “That is simply not possible,” Crabbe sighed. He could feel the sudden rise of tension in the room. He could see by the eyes of his young charges that they were conflicted, and, for the first time, he saw the cracks of dissent begin to spread amongst this tightest of teams. “Do you not think Virgo and I have tried?”

  “Martin is currently recovering from stress and anxiety at my health spa in the country,” Walsh confided. “He is receiving the very best of care, and I swear I will always look out for him and his best interests.”

  “But whose interests will you look after first?” Aries spat. “His or yours?”

  “Aries, that is enough!” Crabbe roared. “I will not have our guest—”

  “Lord Crabbe? May I?” Walsh asked, and with a frustrated flick of his wrist, Crabbe gave him permission.

  “You all see me as the head of an international media organization? Nothing more, right?” His voice was calm, tone slow and steady, his eyes confident. “But, more than that, I’m a citizen of this country. A country you have protected so well and without question these last five years. My ‘empire’, for want of a nicer word, was built on the foundations of producing great entertainment before the laws changed. It made me rich and it made me famous, and do you think I objected to the Entertainment Law when it was passed?”

  He paused and met each of the younger members’ of Zodiak’s stares with his own unblinking, uncompromising glower. His eyes were bright with verve.

  “Yes, I did. With every fibre of my body. Television and movies blamed for the violence on our streets? Films and programmes first censored and then banned? I was appalled. And then I experienced what everyone else had been talking about. My wife was attacked…”

  He took a small pause and wiped at his eyes.

  “I lost her… And then I had clarity. I saw it too late, but at least I could do something. So I stopped my objections and I changed my company, committed myself and everyone who worked for me to a new way of working. The right way of working. And now all I want to do is help you put crime back in its place. I’ve seen first-hand how the law change has made our country a good place to live. I’ve seen how you make it even better.”

  Walsh’s gaze swept around the room once more and saw far more heads nodding in agreement with him. He sat back in his chair and turned to face Lord Crabbe.

  “Together we can find your twelfth member, a new Taurus.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Aries said.

  “I have asked you—”

  “I don’t care! Martin Bull is Taurus!” she shouted. “Virgo, do you have nothing to say? You call us your children, but when one of us needs you the most—”

  Crabbe smashed his fist into the table.

  “Damn you, Aries! Can’t you see she’s dying?”

  The silence in the room was suffocating. Virgo, who had sat tall and unmoving, slumped back in her seat, tears tracking a path through the wrinkles in her face.

  “You are all my children,” she said softly. “Do not ever doubt that. My powers…we are eleven when we should be twelve…”

  “But this…sideshow,” Aries implored. “It’s not your way. You found us. We were all, each of us, alone. You gave us a place to live and a reason to be. Don’t you see that this competition is just going to be an opportunity for the privileged and the rich? It’s not the Zodiak way.”

  “Those selected for the trials will be orphans like the rest of you,” Crabbe stated.

  “Trust me,” Virgo whispered. Her attempt at a smile held no true hope. “As you always have.”

  In the midst of this, Pisces stood up, taking off her baseball cap as she did and placing it on the table. Her logo adorned the front of it:)(

  “I wasn’t in support of this before, but I am now,” she said, then turned to Aries. “Martin is going to be okay. We can’t say the same for Virgo.”

  Aries rose from her chair and went for the door. “It looks like you’ve gotten your way,” she snarled to no one in particular. “I won’t object.” And then she was gone.

  William Walsh was able to enjoy the return flight to his business headquarters knowing he had done the right thing. It wasn’t easy. He was, after all, a businessman first and a citizen second, but Zodiak had a place in the nation’s heart, so he was driven to do whatever he could to help them.

  Libra had landed the hovership on Walsh’s private helipad, constructed at the top of Walsh Towers, the largest skyscraper in London. Scorpio and Sagittarius escorted him down the ramp before removing his blindfold.

  “Sorry about that,” Sagittarius said. “Seems such a strange thing to have to do when you’re helping us.”

  Both Walsh and Sagittarius missed the sneer etched across Scorpio’s face.

  Walsh only nodded in reassurance. “It’s no problem. Thanks for the ride. I’ll—”

  “Mister Walsh, if you could just sign…” Libra called as he ran down the ramp.

  “Of course,” Walsh acquiesced, patting his jacket. “May I borrow your pen?”

  “Certainly.”

  Walsh signed the form and bid the three Zodiak members goodbye.

  Scorpio watched him go with a scowl.

  Sagittarius nudged him. “Come on, Arnold. He’s just trying to help us.”

  “What’s he going to do when Aries walks out too?” Scorpio asked. “And when a few more of us walk with her?”

  13

  “Which photo do you think they’ll use?” Shane asked, his voice trembling with anticipation. “The one we took at paintballing or you in the boxing ring?”

  “Not a clue, Shane. I’m not keeping my hopes up, anyway,” Jimmy replied, the nervous grin on his face clearly in conflict with his words. “The last I heard, there were over a hundred thousand applicants.”

  “Boys, it’s starting,” Claire, their foster mother and Brian Mills’ wife, called from the living room. Jimmy and Shane got up from the dining table, dumped their plates in the dishwasher, and hurried from the kitchen to be met with a smile from Claire. She was, at least in looks, the exact opposite of Brian. She was less than five feet tall and very petite. With her short black hair Brian liked to tease her that she was his elf, but she was quick to remind him that if that was the case, then he was her ogre. In personality, she was and always had been the stronger one.

  The boys took a seat on the sofa at either side of Claire, and she put an arm around each of their shoulders.

  “No matter what happens, Brian and I are so proud of you both,” she said. “Jimmy, for being brave enough to try, and Shane for being such great support.”

  Both brothers smiled and Jimmy felt a flutter in his stomach that was a brutal combination of nerves and fear. He stared at the huge television, trying to keep calm. Like everything in their house, the television was state of the art and top of the range. Brian and Claire had set out to ensure that every child they fostered was able to enjoy the better side of life while they were with them.

  On the screen, the red, white and blue logo of WWW News filled the screen and the music blared out just as the front door of their house opened.

  “Is it on?” Brian called out.

  “Just starting,” Claire shouted. “Get in here.”

  “I’ve been training. I stink!”

  “Get in here!” all three of them hollered.

  “Okay, okay,” Brian conceded, and he appeared seconds later. He wore knee length shorts, a grey hoodie and trainers. Instead of sitting on the couch he stood behind Claire, Jimmy and Shane as if they were posing for a family portrait. Towering over them, he k
issed each of them on the top of the head, but no one paid attention as they were all focussed on the unfolding programme onscreen. The WWW logo had just morphed into the two words that no doubt had grabbed the whole world’s attention: “Becoming Zodiak.”

  “Here we go,” whispered Brian. He ruffled the boys’ hair. Claire glanced around with a warm smile, so he messed her hair up too.

  The screen cut to a television studio. In the background sat Virgo, Lord Crabbe and William Walsh. To their right sat two men at a computer terminal, and to their left stood a suntanned, man with a shaved head that anyone who had ever watched WWW News knew very well.

  “Good evening,” said Paul Jordan. Once one of the biggest celebrities on the planet before the Entertainment Laws had been passed, he, like Walsh, now made news his business. He looked in his mid-forties but had seemingly been on television forever, and there were rumors that he used both surgeons and pharmacists to help him keep up a younger appearance. “Welcome to the Selection Night of ‘Becoming Zodiak.’”

  The screen cut away to a montage of people filling in forms online, lifting weights, training, and then a succession of photographs sent in by the hundreds of hopefuls from across the globe. A female voiceover, instantly recognizable as Jennifer James—one of the WWW network anchors— spoke as the photo montage continued.

  “Over one hundred and fifty-five thousand people…from over one hundred countries…are preparing themselves to come to the newly reopened London Dome…to find out if they are lucky enough to be in the final five…the final five in the competition to become Taurus… All of them hoping…dreaming…that they will be the lucky one…”

  The camera shot cut away to different cities across the world. New York. Melbourne. Paris. Moscow. All showcased massive crowds watching the programme in front of gigantic screens in town squares and sport stadiums. Thousands of people, all of whom, when they saw their city, vibrated with a life that made them look like they were tidal, being pulled by the power of the moon.

  “Wow,” said Shane. “How cool would it be if you were in the middle of that?”