Skyfall (30 page)

The waiting room was the most spectacular place Lari had ever visited.

The Prelature was easily the highest dome in Port, located far out on the western edge of the city, so far out, in fact, that its stem was anchored deep below the surface of the ocean, which had flooded inland hundreds of years earlier, drowning that portion of the underworld which once crouched along the coastline.

The room was opulent and huge, even by the standards Lari was used to. Unlike regular domes with their multiple towers clustered around a central common, the Prelature filled the whole structure. The room into which they'd emerged from the maglift was a perfect half-circle, and an enormous plascrete window stretched around them, offering a view that progressed from vast, empty ocean thousands of metres below to the almost equally vast cityscape to the east.

Lari perched on the edge of the padded armchair where they'd been directed to wait, fidgeting. It wasn't that the chair was uncomfortable, just the opposite, in fact. Like everything else in the room, the chair was luxurious beyond anything he'd ever experienced.

‘Sit still, Larinan.'

‘Sorry, Dad.'

‘He can't help it,' Janil said. ‘He probably needs worming.'

At one end of the room, directly facing the private hub which brought authorised visitors directly into the heart of the city's rule, a receptionist sat behind her console, her attention on the terminal in front of her. Two blue-armoured guards stood either side of the lift doors, portable scanners at their belts, screening anyone who magged in before they'd even had a chance to step out of the lift.

‘Can I walk around?' Lari asked.

‘If you want.'

Lari crossed to the window at its westernmost extremity, starting where the inner wall bisected the clearcrete outer wall. From here, the view looked over the ocean. He'd heard stories of the ocean, of course, but like most kids his age he had never had cause to venture this far west across the city and had never seen it. From this height it seemed both massive and insignificant. Far below, sunlight wrinkled the surface of the sea, throwing a silver cast across the waves, which humped forward in slow motion.

Following the window south, more and more of the city came into view. Other domes, most far below, were dotted across the watery landscape, sporadically at first, then with greater and greater density until the city proper began.

‘It's spectacular, isn't it?' Lari whirled round, startled to find the Prelate standing behind him. Like the last time he'd met her, the first thing that struck him was her thin, pale skin. ‘I don't think I'll ever get sick of looking at it.'

She moved to stand beside him, also peering out across the endless clusters of domes. The early afternoon light threw them into sharp relief, making them gleam and shimmer. ‘It's hard to believe that something made by humans can be so beautiful, isn't it?'

‘It's not all beautiful.' The words were out before Lari had stopped to think. The Prelate turned her pale blue gaze on him.

‘Whatever do you mean, Larinan?'

Lari cursed inwardly. He'd been thinking about the broken-down dome, 87b, which Gregor had hijacked him to three months earlier.

‘Nothing, Madam Prelate. I was just thinking out loud.'

‘You should learn to guard your thoughts better, Larinan.' The old woman turned and Lari followed her across to where his father and brother were still sitting in their armchairs.

‘Doctors Mann, I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long. Do come in.'

The three followed the Prelate through a large doorway into an office instantly familiar as the scene of a thousand webcast addresses to the city. The Quarter Room, as it was known, was in fact more like a third of the entire floor. The view out to the north-east across the city was as spectacular as the view from the waiting area. The Prelate's desk sat facing the door, the window behind it.

‘I face my desk towards the door, otherwise I'd never get any work done,' she said. ‘Please, do sit down.' She ushered them across to a set of low couches similar to those in the waiting area, deep and heavily upholstered. Lari and Janil sat on one, their father on another, and the Prelate lowered herself into an armchair between them.

‘Thank you all for coming. I know how busy you are at the moment.'

‘Not at all, Madam Prelate,' said Dernan Mann. ‘Though I must admit to being intrigued at your summons.'

The Prelate smiled. ‘Before we go any further, there's somebody else I invited.' She flipped open a small panel in the arm of her chair and pressed a button. ‘We're ready.'

A moment later another door slid aside and through it strolled a man Lari recognised.

‘Of course you all know Mr Jenx, my head of security.'

The security agent seated himself beside their father. He threw a cold smile at Lari. ‘Good to see you again, Larinan. And in much nicer surroundings and circumstances this time.'

‘What is he doing here, Madam Prelate?' His father kept his voice deliberately calm.

‘What we're discussing this evening may well have an impact on the entire population of Port, Doctor, so I felt it only appropriate that my head of citywide security be here as well as the three of you.' The Prelate sat back in her chair. ‘I've brought you here because I need to know what progress is being made with the girl.'

Lari noticed his father and brother exchange a quick glance, before Dernan Mann said, in a carefully measured tone, ‘If you don't mind me asking, progress in what area specifically?'

‘Are we any closer to discovering the genetic adaptations required to enable us to survive outside while maintaining viable fertility?'

There was a long silence. Finally, Janil spoke. ‘Madam Prelate, may I speak frankly?'

‘Of course.'

‘It's going to take years before we're even close to locating the specific alterations that we need.'

‘Surely it can't be that hard to find the gene that darkens skin tone?' Jenx said.

‘What we're looking for is far more intricate than that,' Janil replied with studied courtesy. ‘We're dealing with a thousand years of accelerated human evolution here; every aspect of the subject's physiology has adapted to the outside environment, not just her skin.'

‘Explain, Janil.'

‘The skin is just one of thousands of differences between the Darklanders and ourselves, Madam Prelate. It goes much deeper. Their kidneys and liver have adapted to require less than a quarter of the water you or I need to survive, with about three times the efficiency. Their respiratory system can handle much higher levels of methane and carbon dioxide in the air than our systems are used to. Their muscle tissue is adapted for long periods of exertion – they can walk for days if necessary. Their eyes can handle the higher levels of ambient light and radiation without forming cataracts, their hearts …'

The Prelate held up a hand. ‘So what you're saying, Janil, is that there is no single factor responsible for their ability to survive in the external world?'

‘There might be. We've only had the girl three months. We've barely scratched the surface of her genetic coding. And on top of that, there are other differences, too, that we've not yet been able to even ascertain reasons for.'

‘Such as?'

‘The subject has a number of tiny but significant differences in the development of her brain. Her neurology seems far more advanced than ours in some areas, and is retarded in others. We have no idea what effect these differences have on her, or how they help in the day-to-day business of survival.'

‘So there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of us producing a viable population of people capable of surviving outside the confines of the city?'

‘Certainly not in the next twenty years, no.'

‘Doctor Mann, do you agree with your son's assessment.'

‘Absolutely, Madam Prelate.'

‘Can we consider another possibility?' Jenx interjected.

‘By all means.' Dernan Mann's tone was cold but still carefully polite.

‘I understand that your younger son here was born outside of reproduction protocols as some kind of control subject, in the unlikely event that this girl did in fact exist.' He paused for a moment. ‘Is that right?'

‘It is.'

‘Then why aren't you simply cross-breeding the two of them? Surely if you're seeking to maintain our fertility with the Darklander's resistance, then the simplest way is to—'

Lari felt colour rising in his cheeks.

Janil interrupted. ‘Naturally, Mister Jenx, we've already considered that option. As I said earlier, we simply don't know how or why this girl works the way she does. We don't have any idea what she'd pass on to a new generation. We don't even know if we can viably cross-fertilise between us and them.'

‘It's been done before.'

And I'm sure we all remember what a success
that
turned out to be.' For the first time in the conversation there was an edge to Dernan Mann's voice, but Janil interrupted, addressing his answer to the Prelate.

‘It's quite possible that we've become two completely separate species by this time. If we were to just randomly reproduce as Jenx suggests, then as likely as not we'd end up with a child with no environmental resistance and zero fertility.'

‘And besides,' Dernan Mann added, ‘even if, for some reason, it worked perfectly this time, all we'd be left with would be one viable child. That's not nearly enough to establish a genetically stable population. We need to keep in mind a bigger picture. We need more time to unravel this girl's DNA slowly and methodically. Just as we've been doing.'

‘Sadly, Doctor Mann, time is a luxury we no longer have.'

The Prelate spoke in her usual soft voice. She considered all three of the Mann family, one by one, before continuing.

‘What you are about to learn must never leave the confines of this office. Do you understand?'

‘Of course.' Their father spoke for the three of them.

‘Mr Jenx.' The Prelate nodded at the security agent.

‘In the last three months, since the recovery of subject 45698F, the city has undergone a 230 percent rise in system failures. Unrest in the underworld and lower levels has increased to a level never experienced in the entire history of the city. Crime is up almost 300 percent and citywide productivity is down by 155 percent. This final figure would be higher if not for the increased enforcing of labour protocols by the security division.'

‘And you're attributing this to the recovery of the girl?' Dernan Mann's tone was incredulous.

‘Not at all. These trends, I'm sad to say, are completely driven from within the city. In short, your “entropy scenario” is fast becoming reality.'

Jenx's words seemed to echo around the office. Dernan Mann stood up and crossed to the window, where he stared out at the vast, glittering city beyond.

‘There's been nothing on the webs,' Lari said.

‘Of course not,' Jenx replied. ‘The last thing we want is panic. We're having enough trouble holding the lower levels down, without spreading unrest into the middle and administrative levels.'

‘Are you certain?' Janil, far from being pleased at this vindication of his ideas, simply looked stunned. ‘I mean, that's even faster than I'd predicted.'

‘It's accelerated, certainly, but its happening just as your mother theorised years ago, and as you reiterated in your report,' Jenx answered. ‘Environmental system breakdowns are already endemic in the lower levels – water and protein recyclers, lift systems, filtration, power distribution, autotint; we're having problems with all of them. Processing systems that haven't showed so much as a logic fault in a thousand years are suddenly riddled with undiagnosable errors. And naturally, social unrest is following hard upon the heels of the systems breakdowns.'

‘Do we know what's causing the acceleration? I mean, why now?'

Jenx shrugged. ‘I have a theory as far as the social unrest goes, but you of all people should know that, in a system as vast and interrelated as a skycity, cause and effect are always going to be difficult to determine. It's not just Port, either. The same thing is happening in New London, Haig, Jing and Addisab. All the skycities are having the same problems, and the Prelates are powerless to stop it.'

‘Why are you telling us this?' Dernan Mann turned away from the window and returned to the group. ‘How does this affect the project?'

‘More than you know, Doctor Mann.' The Prelate motioned their father to sit down again. ‘Mr Jenx, please tell us about the report you received earlier today.'

Jenx looked surprised. ‘Madam Prelate, that information is highly—'

‘Now, please, Mr Jenx.'

‘Very well. Doctor Mann, it would appear that for some time now word of your little Darklander pet, and indeed of your entire agenda, has been circulating in the underworld.'