Trinity

by Patrick Morgan

  ‘Roy,’ she asked impulsively. ‘Can I ask you something personal? Is Nara your mother?’

  Jacobs laughed, making her feel instantly foolish. ‘No,’ said Jacobs. ‘She’s my aunt.’

  ‘Your aunt?’ said Katherine, wide-eyed and grateful for at least a degree of vindication. ‘I didn’t know Nara had a sibling. But that’s how you knew that she’d asked me to send that data back to her alone?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Jacobs. ‘Nara told me about that. She’s a strong-willed lady, just like my mother, who, believe it or not, moved to the slums of her own free will when I was old enough. My father brought me up after she left and I ended up taking his name, Jacobs. Really I’m a Falla. I see her from time to time, she does a lot of good there but it’s no easy life.’

  ‘Does she know you’re out here?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ he said, very seriously. ‘She practically signed me up. Don’t get the wrong impression,’ he gave her a look of reassurance. ‘I don’t do everything she says, of course.’

  ‘I’m sure you don’t.’ Katherine now knew him well enough to recognise he was strong-willed in his own right.

  ‘Some of her people, as she thinks of them, her flock if you like, left with your sister. She’s worried to death about them. Besides,’ he added, ‘I was going to volunteer anyway. GVX MK2 is some way off and I needed a little excitement before getting into that.’

  Katherine said nothing more, her gaze levelled fixedly ahead. The sky was completely clear and littered with a million burning stars. Across the snowy landscape, the greyness was bathed in the diffused, pink glow of moonlight, which kissed the tips of far-away trees as if giving a spark of life to their inert, grey bodies.

  ‘Time to start thinking about turning north, Katherine,’ said ROOT in a soft, thoughtful tone. He was right; they were within sight of the edge of the ice.

  ‘Agreed,’ said Katherine, readying herself. She pulled gently back on her left splint and the view yawed gently in that direction. The V10s picked up, as if momentarily roused, before returning to a lazy slumber as GVX straightened and headed out towards the far northeast.

  041: Epilogue

  The Drop-Off, 7,654km from Skala

  The woman’s eyes flew open as a shot of adrenaline took hold. She felt the cold line of a blade against her throat give way to a stinging heat, as it made a shallow incision, stopping just short of the cartilage of her windpipe. For a moment, she gripped the rails of her camp bed, using the compression force of her palms as a means to focus. She drew a slow, measured breath of cold, dry air, not daring to put any more pressure against the razor edge of the metal. She felt dribbles of warm blood meandering along different paths down her nape, before reaching the confluence of a blooming, damp stain on the rolled-up shirt she used as a pillow.

  She moved her eyes down, a stage at a time, until the gaunt, snarling features of Jody Vaughn came into focus through the dim, blueish light that illuminated the cave. She couldn’t see the blade he held but she was sure it was the stubby skinning knife he carried and had put to good use practically every shift over the course of the last half of a frantic cycle. He was saying something, but she couldn’t read his lips, the angle was too acute. She moved her eyes to the right, trying to indicate she needed her hearing aids to understand him, but he seemed not to recognise the gesture and became more aggravated.

  She tried again, but Vaughn was caught up in his own rhetoric. He moved forward until his face was above hers, and she felt an increase in the pressure exerted on her neck. She would have to do something fast if she was going to avoid serious injury. She didn’t dare speak and was not at all confident the words would come out clearly if she tried. Tensing the muscles in her left arm, she flicked her eyes to the right. This time he followed her gaze and, after a moment’s hesitation, registered her meaning. It was all the time she needed.

  Before he could react she brought her right arm up fast, making contact with the pommel of the knife. Pushing it away she exerted all the strength she possessed to turn her body and swung it hard into the man beside her. She uncoiled her legs in a fluid motion that took Vaughn’s feet from under him. In the blink of an eye, he was on his back on the floor with her straddling him, the knife, still in his hand, pointing down at his left eye. She pinned his other arm, with her shin pushing down into his bicep. Shifting her weight a little, she dug it in harder, just to make a point.

  She leaned into him, using all her upper-body strength to bear against the knife, forcing it closer to his eye. He strained to keep it immobile as her blood dripped onto his face, making him wince.

  ‘Whatever it is you want, Vaughn, I can’t hear you without those.’ She nodded over to the two aids, which had been carefully placed next to HEX on a small ground mat less than a metre away. He appeared to understand, so she supposed the words must have come out as intended. ‘We’re going to relax, we’re going to put the knife down and move away so we can talk through whatever your problem is. Is that acceptable to you?’

  She could see by his expression that it was, just. He was an ugly but straightforward man, which made him easy to read. She thought of him as a dog, but bereft of loyalty. Reducing the pressure on his hand, she felt him reciprocate. He released his grip on the knife and she took it, then flung it to the side. Climbing off him, she backed towards the camp bed and sat down, reaching behind her for the two sculpted earpieces which she inserted with the instinctive familiarity of a lifetime’s practice. The moment they were in place, HEX’s voice hissed through them as if present in her mind.

  ‘He’s got a shiv tucked into his belt, it’s around the back on his right side. There’s a second knife in his left boot, concealed on the inside under the trouser leg. Clearly right-handed this one…’

  Without a moment’s hesitation she launched herself off the camp bed and into Vaughn, taking him by surprise. As he fell back with an agonised grunt she reached around him and found the shiv. She pulled it out and threw it back into the cave in the same direction as the skinning knife. It clattered against the hard rock surface of the cave’s uneven floor. She dug a knee into his stomach to wind him. With deliberation she reached down to his trouser leg and found the second knife. Withdrawing it slowly, to emphasise to him that she had known it was there, she brought it into his eyeline. Vaughn looked in pain and was clearly startled: he must have believed he had kept this last weapon to himself.

  She admired the long blade as it glinted in the cold, artificial light cast by the globe she had placed next to the camp bed rotations before. The metallic surface was ground perfectly flat, and polished enough that she could see her dim reflection upon it. She examined the cut to her throat. It looked superficial, but there was a significant amount of blood soaked into the grey shoulder straps of her vest. She fingered the edge of the blade and was impressed by how keen it felt. It looked very new and unblemished by the scratches inflicted by manual sharpening.

  ‘It’s very nice, this one,’ she said, hearing her voice clear and strong this time. ‘I might keep it. Now what the hell did you want, Vaughn?’

  He drew a deep breath and she realised she had hurt him more than she’d intended. Worth remembering, if the situation were to occur again.

  ‘Like everyone else,’ he said, and winced as he tried to rise, ‘I want to know what the hell I’m doing out here, Kyra.’

  She drew in a deep breath, polluted by the foul stench of the man’s body odour.

  ‘Tell him nothing,’ said HEX in an emphatic whisper. It was a suggestion that didn’t need repeating.

  ‘You’re being paid, that’s what you’re doing here,’ she said, pointedly. ‘You’re Rika, aren’t you? You’re supposed to be used to this sort of thing.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Vaughn, with a trace of sarcasm. ‘But not in this environment. Harsh doesn’t cover it, it’s bloody murder out there.’

  ‘Just deal with it,’ she replied with disinterest, and moved as if to tuck the knife into the belt of her trousers. Realising s
he had no holder, she thought better of it and offered it back to Vaughn.

  ‘Take it,’ she said to the man now sitting propped up on one arm. He was holding his gut but managed to reach out for the blade. ‘Just don’t pull a stunt like that again.’

  ‘Sure,’ he said, in a tone that implied the word meant nothing.

  She sat back on the camp bed and pulled on her boots, wondering where the other crew were. Preparing to undock Unit Hydra, she hoped. Tying her laces she gave Vaughn a last scathing look. He met her eyes with a level, slightly amused glare that unsettled her. She had to remind herself that, despite his complaining and now this apparently mutinous outburst, overall he was an asset.

  ‘I’m going outside,’ she said. ‘Are you coming or are you going to stay in here and sulk?’

  ‘I’ll come,’ said Vaughn and levered himself upright. He was tall and a thug, but a reliable enough man when he wasn’t holding a knife to her throat. Reaching the mouth of the cave, the heat and the dazzling light of Hellinar hit Kyra full force. She was used to it, of course, but it never failed to arrest her attention after a few rotations under cover. The sun seared through the invisible layer of barrier cream she wore and into the skin of her face, shoulders and arms.

  The cave’s entrance was cut into the exposed strata of a bare rock face, overlooking a depression that extended out to a bank of compressed shale. In the centre of the depression, docked together to form a three-legged star, were the vehicles that made up Unit Hydra. They faced nose-in to each other with lowered tail ramps pointing out, three faded tarpaulins strung between the hulls supported midway along their edges by poles driven deep into the fissile mudrock.

  ‘Do you really think we’re safe, staying out here this long?’ asked Vaughn as they approached the ad-hoc shelter.

  ‘Why wouldn’t we be?’ asked Kyra, an amused inflection in her voice.

  ‘Because the Council’s going to throw everything they can at following us, maybe?’

  ‘They’ll be looking in the wrong place, if they’re looking beyond Skala at all,’ she said confidently.

  ‘Because of the snow chains and the other crap we had to ditch?’ said Vaughn, grunting sarcastically. ‘That’ll be a tenuous misdirection at best.’

  ‘Big words for you,’ she said in a patronising tone. ‘But yes, you’re right. On their own the tracks are tenuous, if they were found at all before the dust eradicated them. There’s a lot more to it you don’t know about.’

  ‘Like what?’ he said, doubtfully. After all the effort she had put into getting this far, his insinuation riled her, and it was clear in her voice when she explained.

  ‘Like the man Connor had convert Hydra for Ayon – we made sure he kept the drawings. Like the photos I had him take in the slums, the ones that show Hydra kitted for Ayon. Connor even used his own name to infiltrate T24, so he can mislead anyone asking questions into thinking we’re out on the ice. That was a huge risk for him. The whole operation’s been thought out in ways you’d have no appreciation for, and that’s before we even start to talk about actually getting HEX out without anyone knowing.’

  ‘Yeah, about that…’ said Vaughn, intrigued despite his simmering anger. ‘How the hell did you do that without being caught?’

  Kyra considered her answer. She thought back to the endless rotations she’d spent in the dark corridor of the abandoned part of the Vault. Huddled with her back to the original door to HEX’s chamber, she had listened to the Intercessor impart her incredible story, her version of history, through hearing aids she could inexplicably link to. When she had finally convinced Kyra she had to act, they had conspired to get the door to work again. Through a single, sleepless shift she had fillered, rubbed and matched the joint to make the opening invisible. They’d had some close calls as the Vault’s monitoring staff came and went but HEX, through the CCTV, had always given Kyra a precious few moments to get out, seal the door and disconnect the emulator that masked her presence from the chamber’s environment sensors. Throughout the whole ordeal she was sure someone would notice the cracked plaster and the progressive repairs she was making. However, HEX, revelling in antagonising the staff, kept any visits brief and attentions diverted. As far as she could tell, no one had noticed a thing.

  She went back further, to the terrifying exploration of the 7075 service tunnel and her encounters with the mysterious dark-skinned people that called themselves the Hadje. She felt a pang of guilt – they had after all taken her deep into their own territory, welcoming her and appreciating her interest in the history of her people, the ‘Cauldron Born’ as they referred to her kind. That in the terror of their first encounter she had misspoken her own name amid the ringing of her hearing aids, ironically added yet another layer of confusion for any would-be pursuers. The inhabitants of Buni Sound, Hadje and up-worlder alike, knew her only as Myra.

  She drew a breath and looked back to an expectant Vaughn. ‘That’s a story for another time.’

  ‘So what next, boss?’ he asked, clearly disappointed.

  ‘I’ll show you.’ She turned to walk past Hydra towards the bank.

  Together they climbed, scrabbling up the loose rock, which further disintegrated underfoot. Cresting the escarpment, Kyra drew herself upright. Vaughn, a few paces behind her, noted the determination in her posture. She stood with her feet slightly apart, arms folded across her chest as her long bound hair swayed with serpentine grace in the hot breeze. A moment later he joined her and drew himself up, similarly resolute in the face of the view set out below them.

  The ground was gently sloping and even for around half a kilometre before them. Beyond that was a sheer drop of indeterminate height. From its base extended an unending expanse of rocky canyons and craters, mountains and deep, deep valleys.

  ‘You see the cliff?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ said Vaughn. ‘But I see the drop. It’s mighty big.’

  ‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘It’s literally called the ‘drop-off’. We’ve had geologists this far out before, but they can’t figure out how it was formed. The most popular theory is that it’s glacial, from when this part of the planet was Ayon. But for that to be true, you would expect there to be a wall the other side, and there isn’t one.’

  ‘And we’ve got to get down it? How?’

  ‘Those winches you fitted, they’ll get us down,’ said Kyra. ‘There’s a pass, like a pathway down that we can take some of the way. After that it’s remote-release ground anchors and lots of wires.’

  ‘Then what?’ asked Vaughn, as if the descent wasn’t enough.

  ‘Then,’ said Kyra, looking out into the wilderness. ‘Then we cross Hellinar.’

  ‘I didn’t sign up for that,’ he said with a trace of malice.

  ‘No,’ she agreed, not looking at him. ‘But that’s what we’re doing.’

  The big man grunted and pushed out his lower jaw. He stood with her a moment longer, then turned and descended the slope, skidding over the loose rocks underfoot. She considered again HEX’s reasoning for the journey and how her account of history had been reinforced by the stories of the Hadje. She had seen the ancient city of Mayak for herself, the tombs in which ROOT and HEX had been imprisoned countless ages before. She had seen and heard enough to find HEX convincing, but explaining it to the others was a risk she was not willing to take. For the time being at least, it was safer if they didn’t know.

  She wondered whether her father had discovered the truth yet, that it was she who had removed HEX. A part of her hoped that he had. She was sure he would be as shocked as anyone, but equally she knew he would be impressed by the audacity of her actions. Katherine would no doubt be preaching some moralistic diatribe, vilifying her. Megan would be left as confused as their mother.

  She thought again about Katherine. If there was a danger it would likely come from her. She might be overcomplicated and frustrating to be around, but she wasn’t stupid and had an infuriating knack of putting things together where others could not. If any
one were effectively marshalling resources to retrieve HEX, it would be Katherine at the helm. If she had even the slightest suspicion Kyra was involved, which by now she most likely did, her zeal would at least be doubled.

  Kyra stood a while longer, considering the immensity of the task before her. The cloudless sky was hazy in the distance, the horizon lost to an indistinct blur. Heat radiated up from the rock below, as the unrelenting sun beat down on her from above. Presently, she heard the unmistakable ringing of aluminium poles being piled and loaded. She took a last look across Hellinar then turned to descend the slope after Vaughn.

  Glossary

  Locations

  Aya

  A new-build city set 1,009km east of Skala.

  Ayon Borderlands

  Mountainous region lying from approximately 1,000km to 2,500km east of Skala.

  Ayon Research

  Large Council-owned building in the Eastern District of Skala City. The building itself has been extended multiple times. Occupants include Privy Councillors Katherine Kane and Nara Falla.

  Ayon Tundra

  Vast area of frozen wasteland located to the east of Skala City. Experiences perpetual darkness.

  Buni Sound

  Water storage and accompanying network below Skala.

  Fulgurite Fields

  Large areas of desert located to the south of Skala lined with lightning conductors to produce fulgurite glass from sand when a strike occurs.

  Gygath Slum

  One of three slums bordering the western edge of Skala.

  Hellinar Plains