The Strange

by Masha du Toit

  “Yes. Wish I could go in and see them.” Elke opened a carton and put it on the floor for Meisje. She pushed another carton towards Isabeau.

  Danger sat, all attention, watching closely as Isabeau unfolded the top of the carton and put it down for him.

  “I must go,” said Alexander, getting up. He nodded to Noor and Isabeau. “I will tell your brother you send greetings, if he is awake.” He edged his way past Danger, who had already wolfed down all the food, and was licking the dregs from the carton.

  “I don’t understand that lazaretto,” said Kiran. “I mean, we’ve all been exposed to this—fungus—whatever it is, already. What’s the point of isolating people only when they start showing symptoms?”

  Elke took a long swallow of tea. “I asked the medics about that. Seems they’re not nearly as sure what’s going on as those announcements make it sound. They’re worried this thing could mutate.” She cradled her mug between her hands. “Apparently the fungus changes into some new stage, once it’s in a human body. Much more infectious. Or that’s what they say.”

  “Ugh.” Kiran grimaced. “That’s not exactly comforting, and you should hear the crazy rumours that are flying about down in Works.”

  “Tell me about it.” Elke took another sip of tea. “I spent a large part of the night trying to persuade a bunch of panicked clerks that we’re not going to eject them out into the void if they test positive. They locked themselves into the main lift going up to Solar. Jammed the mechanism. Now there’s hydraulic fluid all over the place.”

  “They locked themselves in the lift?” Kiran laughed. “Man. I suppose it makes as much sense as anything else. Have you seen the pamphlets that are going around? Real nutter conspiracy stuff.”

  “I saw that,” said Elke. “What can you do? It’s no use trying to stop that kind of thing. It just bubbles up even more crazy somewhere else.”

  Isabeau shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She wanted to ask Kiran and Elke about the pamphlet but didn’t know how to start. Kiran’s scornful tone made her feel somehow guilty that she’d read the thing at all.

  “So, um,” said Noor. “Have you found out anything more about Mom?”

  Elke blinked at her. “Oh yes.” She muffled a yawn behind a fist. “Sorry. It’s just been so crazy with all this quarantine stuff going on. Where were we with that?”

  “Mack Jack said—” Noor glanced at the people at the next table and lowered her voice. “He said he had a contact that knew about the collectionistas.”

  “Oh, yes.” Elke sat back in her chair. “But he’s out of action now. I don’t even know who his contact was.”

  “I do,” said Kiran. “I know the guy.”

  “You do?” Elke looked surprised.

  “He’s a tin-jock. Bit of a sleaze.” Kiran wrinkled her nose. “A glim. Name of Pawel.”

  Elke snorted. “Pawel Pestcontrol? That piece of—” She glanced at Isabeau. “He’s trouble, all right.”

  Kiran nodded. “The very one.”

  Noor looked from Kiran to Elke. “But can’t we talk to him?”

  “We can talk to him,” said Elke. “Question is if he’ll tell us anything. He won’t trust me, that’s for sure. I’ve been on his case more than once.”

  “According to Mack Jack, Pawel says he’s not in direct contact to the slavers,” said Kiran. “He’s just the guy who knows a guy. If you like, I can talk to him. He’s always trying to pally up with me.”

  “Do that.” Elke yawned again. “Noor and Issy, you guys better come to the office with me. Dolly can find something for you to do. Better to stay busy than to sit around worrying all day. And I don’t want you wandering around the roosts. Things are still too volatile.”

  ¤¤¤

  So far, Isabeau’s plan to get Elke by herself to ask about Missy Cloete was not off to a great start. The entire way from the cafeteria to the office Noor had monopolised Elke’s attention, asking about the lazaretto and the kind of treatment Ndlela might be receiving.

  At the office, Elke waited just long enough to ask Dolly if Isabeau and Noor could spend the day there.

  “Plenty here for them to do,” Dolly said. “And there’s another message here from Argent.”

  But Elke was already out the door. “I’ll look at it when I get back,” she called over her shoulder.

  Noor and Isabeau were put to work helping Wozniak organise the paperwork generated by all the new volunteer peace-keepers.

  Wozniak was surprisingly adept at this task. He turned it into a kind of game which involved him sitting, feet up on Dolly’s desk, reading out the list of names, while Noor found the relevant hand-written report, and Isabeau darted about, putting each report on the correct pile of paper.

  Danger tried to help at first but had been banished when his wagging tail swept one too many piles of notes onto the floor. Now he lay just outside the office door, chin on the doorstep, distracting Isabeau with whines so soft and high they were nearly inaudible.

  Isabeau was grateful for the work, which filled her mind and stopped her worrying about Ndlela, and the possibility that a murderous Missy Cloete might be hiding out in Works level. It was fun, like being part of an efficient machine. She liked the volunteers’ names too, and made them into a sort of rhyme, repeating it to herself as she raced to file each scrap of paper in the correct file.

  “Ratel,” she chanted under her breath. “Beitel, Kraker, Graat. Gulde, Hilde, Marky, Laat.”

  Danger whined again, a long, thin, wavering whistle.

  “Stop it, Danger.” Isabeau glared at him. “You sound like you’re leaking.”

  “Maybe he needs to pee?” Noor looked uncertainly at the gardag.

  “How about we take a break.” Wozniak settled more comfortably in his chair and reached for his book. “Why don’t you take that beast for a walk, Isabeau, and bring me some coffee while you’re at it.”

  “I think I’ll go with.” Noor shuffled the remaining notes into a neater pile and found a space for them on the table. “Better not have you wandering about by yourself, Issy.”

  Isabeau wanted to resent Noor’s presence, but she had to admit that she did feel safer, especially going down the stairs to Works level.

  The tension there was palpable. A pipe had sprung a leak just inside the entrance to Works, trickling sour-smelling liquid into a growing pool, but nobody seemed interested in fixing it. Isabeau and Noor glimpsed Sparks through an open door, waist-deep in a tank. The old man was struggling with something submerged in the sludge-green water, shouting commands and questions to a worried-looking mech who was at work at an open ceiling panel.

  Danger kept close to Isabeau’s side, and as soon as they reached the compost heap he relieved himself efficiently and quickly. On their way back, they ran into Kiran, jogging down the corridor, a coil of tubing over one shoulder.

  “Hey,” Noor said. “What’s going on?”

  “Can’t speak now,” said Kiran, but slowed all the same. “Some fool dialled the pressure up when we switched to back-up water supply. Causing all kinds of havoc.” She wiped a strand of wet hair from her face. “Listen, I’m glad I saw you. I managed to speak to our friend Pawel. I’ll tell you about it at the caf— No. Rather make it the restaurant again. We can have supper there. Tell Elke.”

  “Okay,” said Noor. “Thanks.”

  But Kiran was already gone, hurrying away down the corridor.

  They picked up a coffee for Wozniak at a small hole-in-the wall near the office and were soon back at work with the files again.

  Elke looked in briefly over lunch time, dropping off some sandwiches for them. They gave her Kiran’s message.

  “Good,” she said, giving Danger a scratch in a gap between his armour plating and was off again, ignoring the envelope from Argent that Dolly waved at her.

  ¤¤¤

  At the end of the day Elke, Noor and Isabeau went up to the now completed restaurant on Gardens level. Zyta, the proprietor and a friend of Elke’s, insisted
on cooking them a meal in the restaurant kitchen.

  “Might as well feed you,” Zyta had said. “It’s going to be a while before I can open the place now. No supplies coming in from outside while this quarantine is on, and I’m damned if I’ll feed paying customers on bisc and algae paste.”

  Elke was tired and distracted, and either ignored, or simply didn’t notice all Isabeau’s attempts to bring Missy Cloete into the conversation. Noor did notice and told Isabeau to “settle down and behave”, which made Isabeau snap at her, which drew more reprimands from Noor, and soon they were all eating in silence.

  Kiran only arrived when their meal was over. Her overalls were damp, her hair wet and bedraggled, and there were smears of algae on her forehead and neck.

  “Oh, yum!” she said on discovering the plate of food they’d kept for her. “No, no need to warm it. It smells divine.”

  Elke smiled for the first time that evening, and even Noor stopped looking quite so tense and worried.

  Isabeau wanted to ask Kiran about her meeting with Pawel, but Noor kept giving her warning looks each time she opened her mouth. At last Kiran spooned up the last morsel of food and sat back with a sigh. “Oof,” she said. “I needed that.” Then, catching sight of Isabeau’s face, “Sorry. You want to know about Pawel. He’s set up a meeting for us.”

  “A meeting?” Elke said, eyebrows rising.

  Kiran nodded. “With one of his contacts. He wouldn’t tell me their name. Just that they’re another tinjock who can tell us about the collectionistas.” She fished a scrap of paper from her pocket. “Damn. It got wet, but you can still make it out.” She pushed the paper towards Elke, who took it and read it.

  “What’s that?” Isabeau craned, trying to see.

  “Time and place,” said Kiran. “If we’re serious about this, we can meet them later tonight.”

  Elke closed her fingers around the note and bumped her fist on the table a few times, looking distractedly at Kiran. “You think this is a good idea?”

  Kiran shrugged. “It’s something. It’s more than we had before.”

  “Wait.” Noor leaned forward. “This is somebody who might know what happened to Mom? This guy, this Pawel, what did he tell you?”

  “I didn’t tell him about your mom,” Kiran said. “I just let him know, in a general sort of way, that I need to get in contact with the collectionistas. This guy we’re meeting”—she patted Elke’s fist, still closed around the note—“ is either one of them, or knows how to contact them.”

  “You’re going to meet with him?” Noor asked Elke, her face intent.

  “Of course she is,” said Isabeau. “We all are.”

  “Oh, no.” Elke shook her head decisively. “That is one thing that is not going to happen.”

  “But—” Isabeau’s voice rose.

  “Issy!” Noor spoke so sharply that Isabeau, startled, fell silent. “You,” said Noor, “are going to listen, Isabeau. This is not a game. This—”

  But this was too much for Isabeau. She leapt to her feet, sending her chair crashing. Angry tears flew from her eyes as she glared at her sister. “Of course it’s not a game! How can you—”

  Danger, who’d scrambled to his feet at the noise, pushed between the sisters and barked, loudly and emphatically right in Isabeau’s face. Her mouth opened and no sound came out. She stared at the gardag in surprise as he licked her right across her chin, then sat, ears pricked.

  “Danger’s right,” said Elke, putting her hand down to sooth Meisje, who’d risen to her feet as well. “Let’s keep it down, okay?”

  Isabeau stood silently for a moment, then wiped her chin with her sleeve. “Sorry,” she told Danger.

  Noor picked up Isabeau’s chair. “I know it’s tough, Issy,” she said in a calmer voice. “But remember all that trouble you got in when you didn’t listen to me, back on the Muara? You nearly got killed.”

  Isabeau gave her sister an angry look, and sat in the chair again, not saying anything.

  Noor turned to Elke. “I’m going. If anyone is going at all, I should be there. Thandeka is my mother, and I’m not a child. Isabeau is unpredictable— Sorry, Issy, but it’s true. But I’m not.”

  Elke looked at Kiran.

  “Hard to argue with that,” said Kiran. “It’s not like she’ll be alone, after all. We’ll both be there.”

  Elke opened her fist and looked at the note again, biting her lip. “I have a bad feeling about this. Can’t this wait, Noor? Till the quarantine is over, at least? Things are so crazy right now.”

  “But what if they don’t agree to meet us again?” said Noor. “Especially if we don’t show up for this.” She looked earnestly at Elke. “If we wait till the quarantine is over they might leave or change their mind. This is the only thing we’ve found so far, that might help us find my mother.”

  “What about Isabeau?” said Elke. “With Diesel, Tomas, and MJ all sick, there’s nobody to make sure that she won’t follow us or get into some other kind of trouble while we’re at this meeting.”

  “Isabeau will stay at the cubby,” said Noor. “You will, won’t you, Issy? Otherwise I won’t be able to go either. It can’t just be Elke and Kiran, they might not know the right questions to ask.”

  Isabeau looked away, then nodded, a little sulkily. “Okay.”

  “Isabeau can stay with Dolly, can’t she?” said Kiran. “Or Wozniak? No, strike that. Not Wozniak.”

  “Woz is probably asleep already,” said Elke. “And Dolly’s in meetings almost permanently.”

  “Danger can look after me,” said Isabeau.

  “Um.” Elke considered the big gardag, who stretched out on his side. He seemed to be asleep but one cocked ear betrayed his interest in the conversation. “He’s a whole lot better than nothing, but he’s not much more than an overgrown pup.” She looked at Meisje. “You up for it, girl? Looking after these two rapscallions for the evening?”

  Meisje blinked calmly back at her.

  “You’ll make sure she’s safe,” Elke told Meisje.

  The white gardag gave a soft, whuffing bark.

  “Good. That’s settled then.” Elke fixed Isabeau with a serious eye. “And you, Issy? You going to be sensible, for once? Meisje can only do so much, if you’re hell-bent on getting yourself into trouble.”

  Isabeau drew her shoulders up irritably. “I said I’d stay in the cubby, didn’t I?”

  “Okay, then.” Elke smothered a yawn. “We’ve got time to walk you back to your cubby, and still make this meeting. Let’s get going.”

  ¤¤¤

  Getting Isabeau back to the cubby and into bed took longer than Elke had hoped. She’d planned to get to the meeting place early, so that she could scope it out. At this rate they’d be lucky to be there on time.

  “Not that way,” she said as Noor headed for the stairs down to Works. “We’re meeting them on Gardens level.”

  Noor looked surprised. “Really? I thought...”

  “I know.” Elke looked round for Meisje, then remembered that she was back in the cubby with Isabeau. “We’re meeting them at a nightclub called The Void. That’s right at the back of Gardens.”

  Kiran took the lead, followed by Noor, and Elke fell in behind.

  A stream of workers headed in the opposite direction, going to the cafeteria or the roosts. Everyone seemed oddly subdued, with none of the usual end-of-day chat and laughter.

  Zero level was quiet too. The food stalls were shuttered. Instead of the usual bustling evening market, people were putting up temporary shelters for the tourists trapped in the Eye by the quarantine.

  On a normal night, Zero would be humming with the noise of the crowd and the bassline beat of music drifting down from the Gardens level clubs. Now the only sounds were a low murmur of voices, a hammer tapping, the swish of sheeting being pulled into place, and the whimpering of a miserable baby.

  Above it all rotated the solluster, untouched by the crisis. Elke looked up at the cloud of multi-coloured colls,
dimmed now into their evening shades of rich gold, emerald, and amethyst. Their ever-changing patterns were somehow comforting.

  “Elke. I just thought of something.” Noor hung back at the foot of the stair that led to Gardens. She looked so nervous Elke wondered at the wisdom of bringing her along.

  “This guy, this tinjock.” Noor’s face was tense in the rainbow light of the solluster. “We might have to bribe him, right? Thing is, I don’t have any money with me. And I don’t know—”

  “I’m on it.” Elke patted her pocket. “Got a couple of tigers right here.”

  Noor looked horrified. “But you can’t—”

  “We can sort it out later, okay?”

  “Guys,” Kiran called from the turning of the stair. “We got to keep moving or we’ll be late.”

  For a moment, Noor looked as if she might argue, but then she put her head down and started climbing. Elke checked for Meisje and remembered, again, that she was back with Isabeau.

  Up on Gardens level, Kiran took the lead, striding past the rows of shuttered restaurants, and then along a corridor of shops. The normally glowing window displays were all dark and covered with temporary burglar-proofing.

  Elke considered the scene uneasily. Going to have to organise a patrol of peacekeepers along here. Somebody’s bound to take advantage of the quarantine to do a little bit of breaking and entering on the side. She tried to calculate how many people would be needed, and whether they would need weapons.

  Beyond the shops lay a maze of corridors that housed the smaller shops and offices. Here things were darker and more cramped. Every now and then they had to press themselves up against the wall to let a glim-clerk or office worker pass.

  Strictly speaking, nobody should be up here so close to the curfew, but it would take a few days for everyone to get used to the new rules. At least none of these people looked like trouble makers. Just working people on their way home.

  A door opened some way ahead of them, spilling light into the corridor, then darkening as two people stepped through. Elke nearly groaned as she recognised Her-eid Argent and Jinan Meer.