Guardian (17 page)

“
Yes, ma’am, just got a call now. Bounceback shows the tunnels are swarming with them. A hundred, at least. That’s got to be most of the local nest. So far, the outer doors are holding. Primary has recharged and secondary is ready. But if they find a way in…” He did not finish his sentence.

Meta nodded, and guided us into the building.

“The fuckers followed you,” she muttered. “You led them right down here. And, damn me, we helped.”

I wondered who she was most angry with, me, or herself. I figured it was probably me.
“What will happen if they get past the door and that Flare you’ve set up? Will they come down here? Kill everyone else while they look for me?”

Inside, the building was dark, only a few silex lights were fitted to the ceiling. The walls were bare, the floor created from a strange mix of recycled parts—old floorboards, slats, headboards, windowpanes. Built from the bones of Crust.

“First, they’d have to make it all this way.” Adrian flashed me a grin, teeth bright. “And that’s not easy. There are more barriers than the primary and secondary defence. And the very last resort, we blow the pod tracks and seal the city in. Drastic, dangerous. But if we have to, the Hero will make the call.”

The Hero, again.

“And even then,” Meta continued. “Killing is not a Drone’s primary function.” We ascended two flights of stairs. “They’re designed for recon, more than anything else. Snap pictures of us, of the defences, of the numbers sheltering here and the best ways to get in and out. Then the Legate will send something else, probably Wasps. Either to kill or capture. You can never tell.”

I thought of the undead children carried around on metallic spider legs. Capture, perhaps, was not the best option.

We came to a halt at a door. Words were etched into the wood. They looked similar to the programmers’ symbols—though they did not glow red on a silex screen. Meta knocked, and a voice called from within.

It was cooler inside the room. Condensation dripped from a small box in the ceiling. It added a faint haze to the edges of blue silex lights, and countless, tiny drops of moisture clung to a glowing screen embedded in a tabletop. The room was simple. No windows, the table in the centre, padded chairs like couches against the walls. Diagrams and maps hung above the chairs, some such a complicated mess of fine lining in slightly different colours that I doubted anyone could read them.

Three men, one woman, turned to us as we entered. And one of them was Lad.

“
Lad!” I tore myself from Meta’s support and tried to run to him, but my leg gave way and I would have smashed more silex against the floorboards if he had not already launched himself forward and caught me, just above the ground.

“
Oh Tan!” He pressed his face against my hair and held me tight, for a moment, so tight I feared for the silex but I simply did not care enough to try and dislodge him. “Tan,” he whispered against me. “I tried—I’m so sorry. I tried to look after you.” He drew two more deeply hitching breaths, and I felt the wetness of his tears, before he controlled his words and his fragmented mind, and helped me stand.

He studied me in the cool, hazy light, expression growing horrified.
“Other’s hell, what happened to you?”

For a moment, the screen flickered. A surge in the energy that powered this place?

Fear, concern, and guilt played across Lad’s face. He had tried, he always tried, to do what his brother had asked of him, and look after me. Even beyond death. Even in another world. At least it hadn’t killed him. Not this time.

“
I had to fight two junkies,” I said. “They tried to wire me, but I killed them. I wasn’t sure what to do next, so we ran, but a Drone found us. I killed it too. Then Meta, Kasen and Adrian here brought me underground. But the Drones have followed.”

A moment of stunned silence, then Lad shook his head, a smile slowly spreading across his face, brushing the guilt and the fear away like sunlight after a hard night.

“And here I was, worried about you.” He placed a hand against my cheek. “Typical.” His hand tightened. What was that look, pride? “Although—” a frown, and the worry came back so quickly “—you’ve done some significant damage to your silex in the process.”

“
I know.” But Lad was here, now. He would fix me, wouldn’t he? Was it unfair, to rely on him so much? This wasn’t Half a Lad, this was a whole one. And he was strong. Perhaps he could take the weight this time. “I brought the silex, it’s in the bag. Adrian has it. But there’s hardly any tubes left—”

“
Ahem.” One of the bosses made a noise as though he was clearing his throat, and I jumped. I’d forgotten they were there.

I glanced their way. Both men were heavily bearded, faces lined. The woman seemed the oldest of the lot. She stooped, her hair was long, plaited and grey, but her eyes were sharp. And all three of them watched me with a disturbing intensity.

“Meta,” the woman said. “Report, please.”

Meta—red in the face and glaring at me, furious—began describing the Drone attack. I leaned close to Lad. He wrapped an arm around my waist, careful with the silex and my tender skin, but strong. It reminded me of Kichlan.

“What’s going on?” I whispered in Lad’s ear, as quietly as I could manage. “Are these the gangs you were talking about? Have you been making implants for them?”

Meta increased the volume of her report, and tightened her hands into fists by her side.

Lad shook his head, the movement barely perceptible. “Not quite.” His voice was little more than air and warmth against my ear. “It seems Crust has changed a lot since I was a child.”

“
Thank you, that will do,” the woman cut Meta off, and I was subjected to another of her furious stares. “We are aware of the situation in the tunnels.”

Those sharp eyes met mine, and I lifted my chin.

“So, you are the reason this programmer would risk a drop to Crust?”

“
She—she is Tan,” Lad said, his voice strained between the programmer and the Half. All three bosses watched him, as intent as birds of prey. “I look after her.”

“
I can see that.” The old woman ran her fingers over the tabletop screen. Its light strengthened, and an image wavered on the ceiling directly above it. More red dots, more line drawings. “And now the Legate is after you too. Curious, to say the least.”

I said nothing. It seemed the safest thing to do.

“None of that matters,” Lad said. “Tan’s silex is severely damaged. I need to repair it. I’ve already begun my half of the bargain. Now I need you to stick to yours.”

I frowned at him.
“What bargain?”

“
Not now—”

“
No.” I leaned back from him. “What have you agreed to?”

The bosses did not try to intervene. I had the strangest sensation that they learned far more about us than we would like, with every word we said.

He sighed, and released me. “It seems I’m not as Crust-savvy as I thought I was.”

I lifted an eyebrow at him.
“What does that mean?”

“
The gangs I remember from my childhood are gone. I was ten years old when the Legate removed me from Crust, and gave me to the programmers, but I was much older than my years—Crust does that to a boy. I’d already started manufacturing implants for a local gang. It’s not that hard, really. You just need to steal and recycle some good hardware, wire and reprogram the silex, and weave the lot with an artificial nerve matrix. I could even perform some of the minor surgery required to insert them. That’s what alerted the Legate to my potential, that’s why I was singled out, rescued from what promised to be a short, violent life on Crust, and sent to Fulcrum.”

I nodded. It didn
’t surprise me. Lad was a good Half. The best of them. Of course he was skilled here too.

“
Given the years I spent in training, and then how long his body lay in stasis while I was Lad on the other side, that was close to fifty years ago. I assumed I could just pick up where I left off, only this time with my knowledge as a programmer on my side.”

“
But things have changed,” I said.

“
The junkie I killed, I thought he was proof enough that things were just the same, but it turns out they’re a dying breed. A few more years, and they’ll be gone. So apparently, there just isn’t the demand for wiring implants.”

“
The Hero freed us from the drug,” one of the male bosses said. His skin was dark, but his beard almost white. “When he returned, he showed us just how the Legate was benefitting from a population of mindless junkies, easy to control, quick to subdue, and compliant. It is remarkable what we have been able to achieve since then, with clear minds and a firm desire for freedom.”

“
I didn’t really believe it,” Lad said. “That is, until I saw Core.”

For a moment, he glanced back over his shoulder to a single, thin window in the wall. I couldn
’t see much out of it, only the continuation of grey stone and constant light.

“
Core?” I asked.

“
This underground city. And this, this is not from my childhood. Pods and guards and healthy people living in peace. Resistance against the Legate—who would even try such a thing? The bosses of Core do not want me to make drugs for them, Tan, like I assumed they would.”

I crossed my arms, wincing as loose silex clinked.
“What do they want you to do?”

“
They want me to help them grow. Strengthen their hubs, and add more Shards to the network. Apparently, Cores like this are appearing all over Crust. Well, under it. With enough manpower—and silex strength—the goal is to connect them all, to create a vast civilisation away from the Legate’s control. My help, as a programmer, could make a real difference. That’s why they couldn’t just let me leave. They need my help.”

“
A programmer who has defected from the Legate is a true prize now, indeed,” the boss said. “Aladio here has agreed to help us continue our work. Strengthen the connections that supply our power, generate our defences, and keep us alive. And he will do so in exchange for silex to sustain you.”

“
We were not even sure you were real,” the old woman said. “What programmer would defect in the first place, then feed us such a fanciful tale? Was he a spy, was he the Legate’s clumsy way of attempting to infiltrate us? But here you are. Proof that we can trust this programmer. Proof that the tale he told us is true.”

“
But you have brought Drones on your tail,” the dark-skinned boss continued. “Many more than have ever made their way to our doorstep before, to threaten us.”

“
So we need to decide, what shall we do with you?” With a brush of her fingers, the old woman dismissed the projection on the ceiling. “Are the skills of a programmer worth the attention of the Legate?”

“
If you’ll excuse me, ma’am, sirs,” Meta interrupted. “That doesn’t even take this into account.” She gestured to Kasen. And my heart dropped, as he placed the tube on the table and drew my blankets from it.

“
No,” I whispered, as the bosses recoiled, then leaned close to peer at my son. He looked unsettled, the liquid silex churned by all the movement. And, if it was possible, he had grown again. Lad clutched at my elbow as I jerked forward, kept me close to his side.

“
Don’t do anything stupid,” he hissed in my ear.

“
But—”

“
Hero or no supposed Hero, these people are still gang bosses. We need to tread carefully.”

I swallowed down a fearful lump rising from my stomach.
“Who is this Hero they keep talking about?”

Lad shook his head, and didn
’t answer.

The old woman placed her hand against the tube, and I told myself, over and over, that my son was safe in there. Far safer than out here.

“I did not rescue him from the programmers to give him up again,” I said, as quietly as I could. “I will do whatever it takes to keep him with me, and safe.”

“
Not yet,” Lad breathed back. “Not while you’re in this state.”

“
What is it?” The old woman asked.

“
My child,” I answered. “
He
is my son.”

The old woman held my gaze for a long, silent stretch.
“I realise we have not introduced ourselves to you,” she said, finally. “I am Leola. Beside me—” she nodded to the dark skinned man “—is Adeodatus. And on the other side, Urvan. We are the Hero’s three chosen of Core-1 West. You, we know as Tan.”

“
Tanyana,” I corrected her.

She nodded.
“And your programmer is Aladio.”

Lad did not correct them.

“You have brought us quite a conundrum, Tanyana,” Urvan said. “Aladio is invaluable, you are a liability. So, what shall we do? Do we allow you to stay here, threatening our people and our work all the while? For twenty years Core-1 West has held back the Legate’s forces, but now you are bringing a hive down on our heads. Should we simply cast you back up to Crust, giving the Legate what it wants to ensure our own safety? That would mean forfeiting the services of the only programmer ever to defect from the Legate, because he refuses to be separated from you.” He paused, and her attention turned to Lad. “But, of course, that assumes we will co-operate with the programmer’s conditions, rather than impose our own will on his.”