Green Jay and Crow

by D. J. Daniels

The next thing I know there’s light streaming in the window, and people are expecting me to get up and going, back to the High Track. I take my time, why the hell not, but then it’s all goodbyes. I give Judith a hug, which surprises her, but I’m actually glad to see her again. Ed too, but he’s not a hugging man.

  Of course I angle for a detour through the marketplace, hoping for a heart-to-heart with the Chemical Conjurers, but nothing doing. Olwin wants back to Guerra, so back to Guerra we go. The short way, up staircase number 4 and then to the left.

  Both of us make a better fist of the stairs, though neither of us is what you’d call elegant. Carine is waiting at the top, along with a couple of other buddies. Guerra’s obviously glad to see us back where we belong. No sign of any Tenties, which is probably a good thing; I’d hate to think I’d released them into Guerra’s tender care.

  We walk in the direction of admin, Olwin happily ignoring our guards. It’s awkward, to say the least. We’ve just passed staircase number 3 when we see Aleris lying out on a deck chair, taking in the sun with one of Guerra’s people standing guard close by. I don’t recognise the guard. Tal, I think, would like to go see how she’s faring. As would Olwin: she stops, and so do we all.

  She takes a seat beside Aleris. They’re the kind of push-back chairs placed side by side but oriented so that the head of one is beside the foot of the other. Olwin don’t lie down. She just sits sideways and leans over a bit so that she can look at Aleris eye to eye. The rest of us stand around, waiting, our lowly place in the scheme of things underlined by our lack of movement.

  So I’ve plenty of time to look around and admire the High Track. And that’s when I see Mac and Eva, standing close to the outside railing. They’re behind some kind of sculpture and, of course, there’s plenty of that fluffy grass between them and us, but still, they’re completely out in the open. It will only take a moment of distraction on the part of a guard and they’ll be spotted. And shit, there’s someone with them. A Tentie. They’ve probably brought her back for Aleris, more fool them.

  Olwin straightens up, her heart-to-heart with Aleris obviously over. We’ll be off in a minute, leaving Eva and Mac to whatever foolish plan they have in mind. I look over towards admin, hear a crack, see Olwin fall back onto the chair. She’s been pushed over by one of the guards, who is running towards Mac and Eva. Tal disentangles himself from my leg and shoots over to Olwin; she’s got enough tech of her own, but he can’t help himself. Aleris is sitting up, when she’d be better off lying down. Carine gives me a look, which I interpret as, This better not be anything to do with you, Brom. And for once, it’s not, though Carine is probably betting the other way.

  Then all four guards are running into a murky yellow green mist the Tentie’s released. One of them pushes at me as he goes past, so I stick out a leg to help him on his way. He stumbles, but then he’s up and off. That’s as much help as I can give, I’m afraid. Olwin, Aleris and Tal are moving towards admin, which is a fine plan, but not one I’m particularly interested in. Instead I walk to the side, across to the stairs and then down.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Green Jay

  AS SOON AS I see the Crow I know our plan will go awry. He is the only one who notices us; the others are paying attention to Aleris or looking around bored. Rose-Q is trembling and letting off a little mist, but it drifts away without being noticeable. Blue Jay is calm, so calm and still. I see the Crow look away and I try to see what he is looking at. And perhaps it is because I turn my head, or perhaps it is just bad luck, but one of the guards sees us and comes running.

  Blue Jay lifts the pole, ready to draw us into Time Lock and away, but, of course, the guards think it is a weapon and then all four of them are running, yelling, guns drawn. Rose-Q is so afraid that she surrounds us with mist. It keeps us safe, stops them from firing, but Rose-Q is agitated. She keeps moving up and down the edge of the High Track so that Blue Jay cannot create the field. And then it is too late. Hands grab at us through the mist; someone has my arm and is pulling me back towards the middle of the High Track. Rose-Q screams, a strange noise that I have never heard before. I hear the guard hit her; I hear something like a sob. I pull away from my guard, trying to get to Rose-Q, but the guard is stronger than me and I am forced to keep walking.

  And then we are out of the mist, standing in front of Guerra’s building. Olwin Duilis is there, with Aleris and Tal. Tal has pulled himself into some type of shield, but Olwin Duilis steps around it and out into the open. She holds out her hands and the guards soften their grip, but do not let us go. She looks at Blue Jay, looks for so long, in complete silence. Me, she will not look at, but I suppose I do not especially matter to her. I am one of many.

  And then Blue Jay steps to the side and the guard lets him go. He moves the pole up and across and I pull myself away from my guard and step inside the dome he is making. Olwin Duilis watches us all the while, watches us disappear. We have left Rose-Q, but they will not harm her, they will ask her to help Aleris. And of course, we can come back for her at another time, although it will be more difficult now.

  Once again, we have failed.

  Crow

  I’M WALKING THROUGH the marketplace. Easily, not drawing attention. Though it’s good to recognise the market stalls, nod to the owners. It makes me feel at home. I head towards the Chemical Conjurers, who are towering over the rest, doing something with streamers. There are small things like flying jellyfish about their shoulders and head. The jellyfish push themselves up on unseen air currents and then drift off around the marketplace. They remind me of Tenties, though I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it’s just the jellyfish/sea creature association.

  If I had any sense I’d drift away with them. But though I’ve got myself out of whatever’s happening up on the High Track, I seriously doubt that this is the last I’m going to see of Olwin Duilis; and the only people I can think of that might actually help with that are Felix and Oscar.

  Okay, not technically people. In some ways, better.

  Their trick this morning seems to be knocking down empty takeaway coffee cups by standing way back and pointing something like a cardboard box at them. It’s a good trick; it looks like there’s a bit of magic in the cardboard box. Of course, it’s just air. I’ve seen them do it before with smoke, which takes away the mystery but adds a bit of atmosphere. So the theme today seems to be light and airy, which may or may not work in my favour.

  I choose a spot where they can’t help but see me, settle down to watch. For a while, it’s as if I’m not there at all. But that can’t last.

  “Didn’t think you’d run away,” says Felix. He sends a jellyfish flyer my way.

  “Wouldn’t call this exactly ‘away,’” I tell him.

  Oscar makes one last pass at the coffee cups and manages to get them to spin up and around before they inevitably fall to the ground. Felix sends the rest of the jellyfish flyers up high into the air, so they float away over the market and disappear. Some appear to be heading to the High Track.

  “Sick of dragonflies?” I ask.

  They take a seat beside me, one huge robot on either side. It’s almost like I’ve come home. At least they don’t seem to be about to pick me up and take me back to the High Track. But they do seem ready to comment on my moral choices, robot to human.

  “I thought you were a better friend,” says Oscar.

  “I thought I had better friends.” That’s a little unfair, but only a little. I haven’t forgotten the time they lifted me up and took me to the High Track. I’m still extraordinarily pissed off with Mac, but then if your best friends turn out to be a pair of robots, what does that say about you?

  “Explain it to me,” I say. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “You’re asking us how to help Olwin Duilis?”

  “I’m asking you how to get Olwin Duilis off my back.” Which probably amounts to the same thing, but I want my position clear. Admittedly not leaving her up on the High Track in the middle of a f
ight would have been a good step, but it’s a bit late for that now.

  “You can’t do anything about Olwin’s problems, Brom.”

  They’re probably right, but it don’t help to hear it.

  “Then tell me how to get away so that she don’t harass me anymore.”

  “There’s no need,” says Oscar. “She will find a different way.”

  “A less biological solution,” says Felix.

  And that’s about as much information on Olwin Duilis I’m going to get out of them. And at least they’re not insisting I go back to the High Track.

  “You have damaged your leg,” says Oscar.

  The leg in question is stretched out in front of me, because it aches when I bend it. “Yeah,” I tell him, “no more Time Lock for me.” I look up at the stars on their faces. “Is this what you’ve been doing all along? Trying to get into these alternate realities, find out what’s going on?”

  “That, of course, is a contradiction,” says Felix

  “By their very nature,” says Oscar, “they are alternate.” Both of them are highly pleased with themselves.

  “And if we sent you to see an alternate version of yourself, that does not mean you have seen your future.”

  “A possibility, at best.”

  “So Guerra don’t become the Barleycorn King?”

  Both of them start laughing, a deep metallic rumbling that is incredibly disturbing and may actually be damaging some of my remaining internal organs. And maybe because of that, I miss something important, because all of a sudden there’s Mac standing in front of me. He’s wearing fingerless gloves and holding onto some kind of long plastic pole as if he was a destitute ninja. Presumably it’s yet another alternate reality device. Less dodgy than the last one, I hope, though it pretty much looks cobbled together from pieces of the previous incarnation.

  “MacIver,” say the Chemical Conjurers. Mac hands Oscar the pole and they toss it from one to the other and wave it alarmingly through the air.

  “We would need something larger,” says Felix.

  “But still,” says Oscar, “impressive.”

  “It’s easier to work with,” says Mac, “but it’s not entirely stable.”

  “No,” says Felix in a who-the-fuck-cares, this-is-quite-cool kind of way.

  I stand up, because this seems a good a time to go as any.

  “I’m sorry, Brom,” says Mac. “For everything.”

  The blue tracings have worked themselves further down his arm. Right now he looks to me just as alien as the Tenties, and certainly as strange as Eva. They deserve each other. I shrug, which is about all I can manage.

  “I have to get back to her,” he says.

  “Of course you do.”

  “I… I didn’t think that Olwin would become so obsessed.”

  “Why not, Mac? You knew she’d made a double of herself. I mean you helped keep the double alive. You can’t really criticise anyone for being obsessed. And now you get to dance through all this Time Lock shit and I’m left here with bloody Guerra and Olwin Duilis. Who is, frankly, a less obsessed version of herself than Eva. And I can’t just wave some ridiculous pole and get away. Well, fuck you. Just—fuck you.”

  Mac offers me the pole. “You can take it now and go.”

  I stretch my leg out in front of me. “Can’t. Medical advice.”

  “Since when do you take advice?”

  “Since I can feel my leg disintegrating underneath me.” Since I’ve realised it could be me who turns into a crazed man up on the High Track with only an AI for company. But I’m hardly likely to admit that.

  Mac spreads his hands. “Then what do we do?”

  There’s really only one thing that can be done and Mac knows it. “How about you have a heart-to-heart with Olwin Duilis?”

  Mac looks deeply uncomfortable but he agrees.

  “Okay, then,” I say and somehow things with Mac don’t seem so bad. I like having him around; I’m used to him, after all. And I guess his love life is his own business as long as I don’t get dragged into it. And since we’ve come with up a tentative dealing-with-Olwin-Duilis plan, we decide to get something to eat and coffee first. Because you can’t go into battle on an empty stomach.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Green Jay

  BLUE JAY HAS left me on the High Track, up in the section overlooking my greenhouse. I am safe here, at least for now. He wanted to leave me back in the world that has become our home, but I refused. I need to see that Aleris is safe and cared for. No, more than that. I need to see if Aleris can choose her own life. And then Blue Jay and I will be free.

  I find the spot where I can see the greenhouse most clearly. It is strange to be looking in from the outside. I feel so foolish thinking about my younger self, thinking that I was unobserved and free in that space, when all the time Guerra was able to look straight in at me and report back to Olwin Duilis. I was never free at all.

  I wonder if Aleris will feel about me the same way as I feel about Olwin Duilis. That here is a person who claims to be part of you, but whom you want nothing more than to push away, to bury them so far that they cannot influence you at all. She seemed so passive, so young, so malleable. It makes me sad to think I was once like that.

  I think of all the things Eila told me. About the other Evas, about the humants. Aleris cannot be sacrificed too. I think about my time in Guerra’s care. I know where they will have her. I know the room, and the books that are in there. I imagine Rose-Q bending over her, filling her with drugs because Guerra and Olwin Duilis have asked her to. Rose-Q may have no choice, not up here under Guerra’s nose.

  And I know I must not wait for Blue Jay. If I am careful, I can sneak in, find her, at least tell her what she needs to know. I cannot wait here for Blue Jay to do all the work.

  Crow

  WE MAKE IT all the way to the top of staircase number 3 before anyone stops us. Even then they don’t do much; I guess we’re heading in pretty much the direction they want us to. It’s almost like old times: me, Mac and Carine wandering the High Track, Carine pissed with us for some minor misdemeanour. Yeah, it’s not really like that at all, but I’m pretending for the next few steps that we’ve got things all under control. Because, really, we have no plan, other than Mac talking to Olwin Duilis. Carine’s taken his ninja pole away from him but, as usual, Mac seems okay with that.

  Olwin Duilis comes out to meet us, and it’s a strange little moment. The dragonfly detaches itself from her hair and flies over to Mac, who holds it in the palm of his hand. He says nothing, and it’s almost as if the dragonfly is telling him all he needs to know. But bioenhancements or no, Mac’s got no way of directly communicating with the small machine, or none that I know of.

  “Where is she?” asks Olwin.

  “Couldn’t you just let us be?” asks Mac. “Turn off the time nets, live your life?”

  Nothing like getting straight to the point.

  “This is my life,” says Olwin. “All of this. You know that, MacIver. All of it is a way for me to live my life.”

  “Except that it didn’t work that way, Olwin. You didn’t create a better version of yourself. You created someone else.”

  Olwin says nothing. There’s a look on her face which seems part-fury, part-sorrow. I’m not sure I can tell which way she’s going to tip. There’s movement by the admin door and I’m stupid enough to let my eyes focus there.

  Because it’s Eva. Of course it’s Eva, trying to sneak in and rescue Aleris, I have no doubt. Because both she and Olwin are just the same, in that they can’t leave well enough alone. They’re both obsessed. With themselves, above anything else. And now, with their doubles.

  I look at Olwin and Mac and there’s no sign that either of them are any the wiser. On the other hand, there’s no sign that this talking is going anywhere either. The dragonfly has settled back in Olwin’s hair, but I’m not sure that means anything much. Carine, naturally, is focused on us. I doubt that she’s seen Eva. In fact,
she seems almost bored; she’s swinging the ninja pole back and forward. You can hear it swish through the air.

  Mac turns to her. “Don’t. It’s not safe.”

  Carine turns the pole in a complete circle just to piss him off. Mac makes a grab for the pole, but it’s too late; Carine’s gone, presumably into Time Lock.

  “That’s got to hurt,” I say.

  And then Carine re-appears, except now she’s extremely pissed off, but, luckily for us, also extremely nauseated. Mac tries to take the pole. Carine holds on to it, even while doubled over and retching. A consummate multitasker.

  “That’s clever,” says Olwin.

  “That’s really, really stupid,” says Carine.

  They’re both right, actually. Carine shifts the pole from one hand to the other and I can see the burn the pole left. No wonder Mac wears gloves. Rose-Q appears at the doorway. She looks over at Mac. Mac shakes his head slightly, which, naturally, is enough to make Olwin look around. Rose-Q’s one step out of the doorway, two figures behind her. Figures with dark green skin and a cloud of black curls. They’re holding hands. Rose-Q turns her head, tells them something and then steps backward so that she’s blocking the door.

  “Let me talk to her,” says Olwin.

  Rose-Q don’t move. But Eva does.

  She walks forward and Rose-Q lets her past. She don’t come far, just a few steps out of the doorway, but there’s no pretending this is someone random, an alternate reality glitch. She’s more like Olwin than Aleris is. More worn, more obviously troubled. Though she’s obviously found strength somewhere. That whole damsel-in-distress thing is over. There’s no sense that she’s about to collapse at any moment. Maybe it’s because she’s finally standing up for herself.

  Olwin is very still. So is Mac. Carine positions herself so that she can grab Eva, but she don’t do anything to stop her. What’s to stop? Eva’s just standing there.