Skyfall (38 page)

‘But—'

‘There is no “but”. I don't want attention, Lari. The last thing I need is people noticing me, talking about me. If word was to get around that Ratz's daughter can handle full exposure, then that'd make the Underground even more feared, by the clans and the shifties, and certainly by the bloody Prelate. So I hide myself under this piece of rag, and everyone thinks I've been horribly disfigured since birth, and as long as I don't do anything to prove otherwise or draw attention to myself, that's the way it stays.'

‘I get that.' Kes nodded her head slightly.

‘Get what?'

‘Not wanting to be noticed.'

Another look passed between the girls. Not friendship, not by a long way, but something, Lari thought, like … understanding.

‘This way.'

They traipsed after Jem again for what seemed like hours, until she finally stopped, pulled her mask back on, then led them around the base of a domestem, across a narrow square and through a low door into a pitch-black room.

‘Who's that?'

The voice came from the darkness, echoing, so it was impossible to tell where the speaker was.

‘Jem.'

‘An' who's that with you?'

‘The mixie and the Mann boy.'

‘You brought them here?'

‘Where else? You heard what happened to 87b?'

‘Sure. But that didn't prompt me to bring the son of the head of DGAP down here to our muster point.'

‘He has information for my father.'

‘So he tells it to you and you pass it on.'

‘Listen, shiftie, how about you stop being a shi and get some light on in here?'

Something scuffled in the darkness and a moment later a portalamp flared into life, throwing a bright circle onto the floor and revealing three men, all shifties with various scars and burns, seated on upturned boxes. One of them, the speaker, held a heavy-looking club loosely across his knees.

‘So where's my father?' Jem demanded.

‘Ratz?' A look passed between the three men. ‘Dunno. Haven't seen him.'

‘Since when?'

‘Hours ago. He took a couple o' blokes and headed off for the Land of the Dead.'

Jem's brow furrowed. ‘Why?'

The man shrugged. ‘I don't ask. You know the rules as well as I do, girl.'

‘Does he know about 87b?'

‘Guess so. We sent a bloke after him as soon as news got down here.'

‘And you haven't heard anything since?'

‘Nope.'

‘What's the Land of the Dead?' Lari asked.

‘Shut it, lad!' growled the shiftie with the club.

‘We'll go and check the other refuge. If you hear from him, tell him we're looking for him, okay?'

‘What's the hurry?' The big man stood up. ‘Why don't the three of you wait here with us a while, eh?'

‘This is important.'

‘Nothin's so important it can't wait a little. Seems to me that at least two of you could help me and the boys here to keep ourselves … entertained.' He was closing slowly on the three of them, the club still dangling loosely in his hand and a sly grin splitting his face. ‘The mixie's a pretty little thing, and I must admit I've always wondered what's under that face-cloth of yours.'

‘Back off!' To Lari's amazement, Jem didn't sound even slightly unnerved. ‘You won't get another warning.'

‘Make me!' The club whizzed up almost faster than Lari could see, but Jem had been expecting it and she deftly ducked inside its arc. The pacifier came from a pocket and less than a second after the man had started his attack he was lying in a trembling heap with Jem standing over him. She threw a hard kick into his chest then turned to face the other two men, who'd half risen but were now back on their boxes as though glued there.

‘Now, I'm betting the three of you have decided the Underground is done for, so I'm going to say this once, and once only.
As long as there's one of us alive down here, then the Underground lives!
You got that?'

The two men nodded.

‘Good. Wait here for my father. He'll be along eventually. And tell
that'
– she nudged the unconscious man with her toe – ‘that Ratz'll want a word with him, too.'

Then she turned and stalked outside, Lari and Kes close behind.

‘What now?' Kes asked, once they were out of earshot. To Lari's surprise, Jem looked uncertain.

‘I don't know. It's pointless to keep looking for Dad. We'd probably just pass him somewhere. We could go to the other refuge and wait there, but the longer we leave it, the less chance we've got of getting that girl out of DGAP.'

‘I've got an idea.'

‘What?' Both girls stared at Lari, who looked a little surprised at having their attention.

‘You've got the pacifier, between the three of us we can probably still re-route the maglifts, and the chances are that I've still got access to DGAP. Why don't we go and get her now?'

Jem's eyes behind the mask widened.

‘You serious?'

‘Never more.'

Somewhere in the night, a faint creak echoed through the city as one of the ancient buildings shifted slightly. Jem looked at Kes.

‘Are you in?'

Kes didn't answer. She fished the pendant out from under her top and rubbed it between her fingers.

‘Yeah. Of course.'

Abruptly, Jem pulled off her mask and smiled – a hard, cold smile that reminded Lari of her father.

‘Let's go, then.'

There has been a change in the skyfire.

An ebbing.

A fading.

Saria can feel it all around her, something different in the quality of the light, in the pulse of energy through the walls and under her bare feet.

She reaches.

And it burns, like always.

Or not quite like always.

Not quite so much.

Not so deeply.

So she takes a breath and reaches again, and the lights flare around her hut she barely notices, because, for a moment, she's outside herself, surging out, up, down, and ever outwards.

She's riding the skyfire.

And it burns, and it bites, and it starts to hurt more than she'd ever thought possible.

But she's doing it and she's still herself, and she pushes out, further and further, until she finds him.

He's coming. She knows that in an instant. And he's not coming alone. He's bringing somebody – two somebodies. One is just like him – all skyfire and heat.

But the other, the other is different. There's something about her.

Something vaguely familiar.

(Burning. Hurting.)

She knows it.

Like she knows herself.

Earthwarmth …

DARKLANDS GENETIC ADAPTATION PROGRAM
The illuminated sign was the only source of light in the empty foyer. It cast a red wash over the vacant reception desk, the light spilling across the polished floor like blood. The words made Kes shiver.

Her breathing felt as though it was echoing around the darkened foyer. Everything was silent, and strangely, even for this time of night, DGAP seemed utterly deserted. No security, no lights. Kes crouched alongside Jem, trying to keep calm.

Getting in had been ludicrously easy. They'd simply used what Jem referred to as ‘dead I.D.s' and magged up to one of the Port North Central hubs, then cautiously, with Jem leading, had crept through the back alleys until they arrived at the DGAP building, which towered, silent and ominously dark, along the easternmost curve of the dome.

‘Are you certain this is a good idea?' Kes had asked as Lari had reached out to wave his wrist across the scanner.

His reply, the first words he'd spoken to her since down
there,
was curt. ‘Can you think of another way?'

‘But it'll be recorded.'

‘That's a chance we'll have to take. Hopefully we'll be long gone by the time anyone checks the entry logs. You agree, Jem?'

The shiftie girl nodded. Her face was hidden behind its mask again.

‘Good.' Without any further discussion, Lari waved his wrist over the scanner and the door opened immediately. ‘Looks like I'm still cleared,' he whispered and they stepped inside. Then he turned to face them, the red light throwing his features into bloody relief.

‘You two wait down here while I go up and get her.'

‘Can't we come?' Jem asked.

‘No. It'll be faster and easier if I go on my own. Less risky, too. And Saria knows me. She won't panic if it's me who gets her. You two find somewhere to hide and I'll be back soon.'

He turned and marched towards the internal lifts, leaving the two girls alone.

‘We'd better settle down somewhere.' Jem looked around the largely empty space.

‘How long do you think it'll take?'

‘No idea.'

‘If our maglift redirect sets off alarm bells …'

‘It won't.' Jem sounded smug. ‘I've been messing with the mags a lot longer than you, mixie. I know how to cover my tracks. Over here …' She led the way to where two of the high walls of the foyer met at a tight angle, which threw the corner into deep shadow. ‘This'll do.'

‘But there's no cover.'

‘You don't always need cover to hide, mixie. Sometimes nerve is enough.'

‘What if someone comes?'

‘Then don't move. Don't make a sound and they'll never even notice we're here.'

Unconvinced, Kes hunkered down beside Jem, resting her back against the hard wall and feeling its coldness seep into her shoulders.

‘So, why didn't you tell him?' Jem asked.

‘I couldn't. How would you tell your best friend that your whole relationship was a setup from the start?'

‘I wouldn't have to.' The girl didn't try to hide the superior edge to her voice. ‘If I was in your position, he wouldn't be my best friend. He'd be my assignment, nothing more. And if things changed and I had to let him know, then I'd just do it then and there.'

Kes said quietly, ‘That explains why you've got so many friends.'

Jem turned her head sharply and Kes could feel those dark eyes flashing.

‘You don't know the first thing about me, mixie, so don't pretend you do. If I needed friends, I'd have them, and unlike you I'd be honest with them, above everything else.'

‘Even the Underground?'

The girl didn't answer, but her shoulders tensed and Kes thought that she was about to lash out at her, but instead she simply shook her head.

‘That's why I don't have friends. So that's a choice I'll never have to make.'

‘You hope.'

Jem abruptly stood. ‘I'm going to look around. You wait here. Don't move.'

‘But—'

‘Do what I tell you, mixie.'

She skirted along one of the foyer walls and melted into the darkness. Kes tried to see where she went, but it was uncanny the way the girl moved and vanished. Alone now, Kes glanced at the time readout on her wrist. Lari had been gone almost twenty minutes.

‘Come on, Larinan,' she whispered, but barely louder than the volume of her breathing.

There was no sign of Jem. It was like the shiftie had never been there. Kes tried to ignore the nagging anger that Jem's whole demeanour seemed to trigger in her. She was a fine one to talk about people not making assumptions. She didn't know the first thing, didn't have the faintest clue what it had been like all those years, living one life and knowing there was another lurking somewhere around the corner.

Until now, Kes realised. Until finding out she had a sister, a Darklander, and that the past had been waiting for her to catch up to it, too.

It still didn't make Kes like her, though.

She was still thinking about the differences and similarities between herself and Jem when the front doors of DGAP slid open, their slight ‘hiss' sounding like the scraping together of two large blocks of plascrete.

Heart thundering, Kes froze, peering at the figure who quietly walked into the foyer and then stood motionless in the crimson glow, listening for any signs of life, of having been observed.

Kes held her breath, her skin prickling into gooseflesh. Then the man turned and she recognised him.

Doctor Dernan Mann. Lari's father.

For a moment the red light caught his face at such an angle that Kes found herself staring not at the familiar visage of a thousand newswebs but at Lari in thirty or forty years time. The angle of his chin and the sweep of his brow were so familiar.

Dernan Mann stood there silently until satisfied that he was alone. Then, slowly and steadily, his footsteps not even ringing a whisper off the hard floors, he walked across to the reception desk, slid behind it, and settled at the terminal.

Kes watched all of this, petrified. From the desk, Dernan Mann had a clear view directly into the corner where she huddled, and she felt horribly exposed despite the deep shadow. All he had to do was glance this way, just once and …

Kes fancied she could hear the shiftie girl's voice in her ear.
Don't make a sound. If you don't move, he won't see you. Keep your nerve.

Carefully, Kes drew in a deep breath and concentrated on staying completely still.

Over at the receptionist's station, Dernan Mann's attention was fully occupied by whatever was on the display.

‘Shi!' she thought she heard him mutter at one point, but other than that he remained almost as silent as her. Only the occasional soft tap of his fingers against the interface betrayed his presence.

What is he doing?
she wondered. If she wasn't so completely exposed she'd be able to creep around and try to see. No chance of that, though. If she moved even a muscle he'd look up and spot her right away.

Then a more horrible thought occurred to her.
What if Lari comes back?

Involuntarily, she glanced down at her wrist again. Almost half an hour. He must be close. If he came out of the lifts with the girl while his father was sitting behind reception …

To Kes's horror, the internal lift chimed softly and the doors slid open, throwing a dim rectangle of white light out across the hard floor. Kes tensed, getting ready to spring to Lari and Saria's defence, but when she glanced across she was surprised to find Dernan Mann vanished and the terminal dark. He must have slipped under the desk.

From the lift, a lone figure emerged, walking confidently out to the middle of the foyer.

It wasn't Lari.

‘I know you're there.' Even though she'd never met Janil, Kes knew him immediately. Lari's older brother stood in the red light, his arms folded.

‘You might as well come out now and save me the bother of calling Jenx.'

Kes's heart raced. Perhaps if she gave herself up, it'd give Lari and Jem enough time to get the girl and …

‘Fine.' Dernan Mann rose from behind the reception desk and Janil gave a quiet snort of laughter.

‘Honestly, Father, hiding behind a desk. Is that the best you can come up with?'

‘How did you know I was here?'

‘Did you really think I wouldn't have monitor programs set up for this kind of situation? I knew you were here the moment you hit the system.'

‘It was worth a try.'

‘Worth a try? Look at you, Father. What did you think you'd accomplish by coming here? I'm almost done, you know? Only a few more files to close on and then I can … finish your project completely. Did you think you'd be able to get to her before then?'

‘Janil, listen, son—'

‘No, Father, I'm done listening to you. It's your turn to listen to me now. I thought the Prelate made that quite clear last night.'

‘If you do this thing—'

‘Then the city will be no worse off than it was before we pulled that little piece of desert weed out of the sand, and possibly a lot better for it.'

‘You know that's not true.'

‘I know that I've run out of patience with you trying to interfere with proper scientific protocols, just because you're still soft on Mother's insane ideas.'

‘This isn't science, Janil. This is politics. Surely you can see that?' Dernan Mann took a couple of steps towards his son. ‘If I've taught you anything, I must have taught you that.'

‘The only thing you've taught me, Father, is that sometimes even the most brilliant minds lose their way.'

‘What are you going to do, Janil?'

‘Now? I'm going to put you outside where you belong, then I'm going to call Jenx and have him retract all access to DGAP for both you and the copygen, and then I'm going upstairs to terminate this project once and for all.'

‘Janil …' Dernan Mann spread his hands towards his son in appeal, but before he could say anything more, the internal lift opened again and both men's eyes snapped towards it.

‘Sky above!' Dernan Mann exclaimed, as Lari struggled out of the lift, supporting a semi-conscious Saria.

‘Shi!'

Janil was the first to react, hurling himself at Lari who, startled by the sudden appearance of both his father and his brother, stumbled back towards the now-closing lift doors. As soon as he realised that Lari had nowhere to go, Janil stopped his charge and closed on his brother slowly, dangerously.

‘You devious little shi! I suppose this was your idea too, Father?'

But Dernan Mann looked as stunned as Janil. ‘Larinan, what in the sky are you doing?'

‘Please, Dad …'

Saria was mumbling and staggering and her weight, slight though it was, was enough to pull Lari off balance, and the two of them crashed to the hard floor in front of the lifts. Janil closed the space, his eyes narrow and his fists tight as Lari struggled to disentangle himself from the girl.

‘This is for what you did to my face.'

Janil's fist slammed out at Lari, aimed squarely at his nose, but Lari managed to twist his head at the last moment and the blow caught him across his left cheek. A grinding crunch echoed around the bare foyer.

‘And this is for everything I've had to put up with because of you …'

He cocked his fist again and, frozen in the shadows, Kes realised with a sickening feeling that Lari, dazed from the first blow, wouldn't be able to avoid this one at all.

But then a shadow slipped from a small alcove beside the lift, slid across to Janil as silently as a ghost, pressed something to the back of his neck and immediately there was a sharp ‘crack'.

Janil didn't even have time to scream before he hit the floor.