‘Is that how you found it?’
‘His thumb had blown up to twice its normal size. I didn’t notice the incision until I examined the area more closely.’
Daphne had heard enough. ‘Your analogy has been helpful, Doctor. I’ll be sure to pass on details of your cooperation to your superior.’ She allowed the lie to surface. If anything, a damning report would follow. ‘Out.’
With a flick of her index finger, the screen changed and a new face popped up.
‘Did you hear everything, Charles?’ She smiled. It wasn’t something she did often but he was the only person she felt the need to adjust her personality for. It was instinctual, as if that simple action might save her life one day.
Staring back was the one hundred and nineteen-year-old face of Charles Deighton, CEO of the World Government. ‘Yes. Exciting times ahead, don’t you think? It appears our friends are more advanced than we’ve given them credit for.’ His voice crackled with age.
Daphne noticed Deighton’s years creeping into his genetically treated face: his hair was full, but beginning to lose thickness; his skin had lost its elasticity and was starting to sag south. It was a degenerating larynx that gave the raspy sound to his speech. Although he’d been scheduled to have his larynx replaced, Deighton admitted he’d become familiar with the way his voice sounded and liked it. He said it gave him a mysterious edge and he enjoyed being an enigma. Every time he spoke, Daphne fought the urge to clear her own throat.
‘They’ve moved on technologically,’ said Daphne. ‘There’s no doubt about that. And they’re learning faster than we originally expected them to. It appears we may have a stowaway on board the passenger ship. The manifest flagged Bob Harris’s name twenty minutes ago. How would you like us to proceed?’
‘Nobody is to interfere!’
Daphne recoiled from her monitor. In a hurry, she forced a smile. ‘Of course, Charles. I hadn’t intended on sending out an order without clearing it with you first.’
Deighton regained composure and smiled. ‘The ship won’t be here for another twelve days. We’ll send a special team to meet and greet our new friend upon arrival.’
27
On her second day in the new job, Laura was in need of a distraction. Her former colleagues on Level Four popped into her mind as she headed for the cafeteria located on the second floor of the Earth Security Centre and grabbed a tray. She ordered beef stew and a glass of lemonade from one of the replicator machines, then looked around for a table.
She saw Chris and Janine huddled in their usual corner, and walked towards them. Her approach was cautious, but light. It was Chris who saw her first, but pretended he hadn’t. Laura stiffened as he whispered something to Janine who had her back to Laura. She looked down at the purple uniform of Level Five and wondered if she was putting them in danger. She should have turned around.
Laura stopped at their table and waited for them to acknowledge her. Janine met her eyes with a less than warm look. She set her tray down on the edge of the table. If Janine wanted her gone, she would have to say it to her face.
Neither of them spoke to her.
Why Laura needed Janine the drama queen or Chris the sexist pig she wasn’t sure. But she was lonely on Level Five and in desperate need of familiar company. She needed them to tell her she’d made the right decision moving there. She needed Chris to assure her that the lottery had made a mistake and were putting Haymarket back on their transfer list.
She plastered on a fake smile. ‘Hi, guys. Mind if I join you?’
‘Actually, we do,’ said Janine. ‘You can’t be here.’
Chris watched the roving camera that was hovering around the room; it wasn’t currently looking in their direction. He kept his voice low. ‘You’re going to get us into trouble. You know we can’t be seen talking to you. You need to stick to your lot. Bugger off.’ He shooed her away with his hand.
While their reaction was not a surprise, Laura wasn’t willing to give up without a fight. She needed to interact with someone; she was going crazy on Level Five. Was there any way to change their mind? Allay their fears about her new position?
She hunkered down to their level and gripped the table edge to steady herself. ‘Look, I know what the rumours are, but they’re just rumours, right? I mean how much trouble are we really going to get into by talking to one another? We used to work together, for Christ’s sake.’
Janine refused to look at her. Laura wasn’t sure if it was jealousy or fear of the unknown that was driving her former colleague’s current attitude.
‘Oh, shit,’ said Chris. The trio watched in horror as the roving camera hovered over to their table. ‘See what you’ve gone and done now? You’d better talk your way out of it.’
‘Yeah, you’re good at getting what you want, aren’t you?’ said Janine.
Chris narrowed his eyes. ‘If you give a crap about us at all, you’d better fix this.’
The camera moved in close. It scanned Laura’s face. An electronic voice boomed through the device. ‘Laura O’Halloran, please explain yourself.’
She stood up quickly. She could see her reflection in the golden ball. It was the first time she had seen one of the cameras up close; it was shimmering and bright.
She cleared her throat and considered what to say next. It would be easy to drop the pair in it, to save her skin; she felt no loyalty towards them in that moment.
Laura looked at them both, then at the camera.
‘I was just asking—’
‘Just asking what?’ said the camera voice.
She struggled to think of the AI cameras as living entities. It was easier for her to talk to them if she pretended there was a fat bald man operating them, making her squirm.
She took a gamble and lied. ‘I was just asking them if they knew where the swipe cards for the machines were.’ The cards were used to reset the replication machines that were designed to run on cycles. At the end of a cycle, the food quality was at its worst and the machines needed a reboot to begin it again. ‘My stew has a metallic taste to it and I wanted to reset it.’
The camera scanned Chris’s face, then Janine’s. ‘Don’t you three know each other?’
‘Yes,’ said Laura. ‘We used to work together on Level Four.’
‘You’re not supposed to be talking to each other. I will have to report this.’
Laura noticed the look of fear on Chris’ face. She couldn’t see Janine’s but she could sense her coolness.
‘I only asked them because I know them. I don’t really know anyone on Level Five yet, but I promise this will be the last time.’
She meant it. She was done with the pair of them.
The camera made a humming noise as it continued to hover in the air. ‘The cards are to the side of the machines, where they always are.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t see them. I’ll check again.’
It lingered on her face a little longer—or the fat bald man did—before moving away.
Without another word or a backward glance at Chris or Janine, she walked over to the machine. She reset the nearest one and ordered another stew. To keep up the charade, she dropped the original dish in one of the waste receptacle units.
Dozens of eyes were on her as she sat down with her food. Her anger at Chris and the imaginary camera operator sucked all the flavour from the food as she ate. But mostly she was angry Janine for making her feel less about herself. The people around her watched her with caution. Laura began to wonder if the warnings she had received weren’t just for her. Had her former colleagues also been threatened?
Her appetite vanished as she tried to act as if everything was still normal. She forced down a gulp or two of lemonade that tasted more bitter than usual and took a rabbit-sized bite of her average-tasting stew. After an uncomfortable few minutes, she abandoned her lunch and went back to her workstation, immersing herself in her duties.
No further files appeared about Bill Taggart that day.
28
/> Stephen and Anton sat in the recreation room aboard the passenger ship. A brief orientation at the start of their journey, plus their own explorations, had given them a good idea of the massive layout. The room was sparsely decorated; tables and chairs were huddled in a space twice the size of District Three’s core. An information robot had informed them the room was used as an overflow space when the cafeteria was full. At busier times, the place would probably be packed with people. Stephen was grateful it wasn’t like that now.
Sitting down was part of the pretence to fit in with everybody else. They were not alone in the room. At another table, two humans sat together and a third sat alone in a different section. In the presence of others they kept up the charade of acting as human-like as possible. Despite their best efforts, the others kept their distance.
‘Our outfits are drawing too much attention,’ said Anton, quietly. He provided cover for Stephen while he injected a synthesised protein pack directly into his stomach cavity.
Stephen gasped and grabbed the edge of the table; stomach cramps were one of the side effects of injecting protein in this way. Anton protected him from the eyes of others. Stephen squeezed his eyes shut as the pain gripped harder. He concentrated on it, tried to control it, but the others in the room were distracting him. He tried to straighten up and relax but the spasms doubled him up. The pain began to plateau, but not before delivering one final blow to his midsection.
Anton had warned him about prolonged use of the protein packs; they hadn’t been designed to be used in this way. He tried to be discreet while Anton kept an eye on the trio across the room.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Anton. ‘The first thing I’m going to do is correct the protein imbalance. I was under a little pressure before we left.’
Stephen groaned in response to a sharp pain that felt like it was ripping his body in half. ‘Don’t worry about it, please. It will pass soon—’ The pain cut him off.
Anton shook his head. ‘I should have done more tests. It wasn’t ready.’
Stephen drew in a long breath. ‘The alternative is starvation. I’ll take this fleeting pain over the other option any day.’
Anton’s head followed movement from across the room.
Stephen sat up in response. Two of the humans were coming towards them.
‘Don’t let them get too close,’ said Stephen. ‘We can’t allow them time to study our appearance.’ His stomach muscles jerked again.
‘Hey! What’s wrong with your friend? You need a doc or somethin’?’ Stephen recognised the short man from the queue earlier. And his taller friend.
They edged closer until there were just a couple of table-lengths between them. Anton stood up and smiled. ‘He’s just feeling sick. He doesn’t like to travel.’
Stephen groaned.
Both men stopped dead. The stout man spoke again. ‘Gerry here...’ he elbowed his taller friend. ‘He knows CPR and worked as a nurse for a stint. Didn’t you, Gerry?’
‘Eh, sure but—’
‘Well, go and help him, will ya? Don’t just stand there.’
‘I’m not sure. I think he might need a real doctor or something.’
The stout man mumbled. ‘Well, you can still take a look, can’t ya? You’re embarrassin’ me.’
‘Er, sure, I guess.’ He took an unsteady step towards Stephen.
Anton readied to block his path.
‘Hey!’ The stout man looked from Stephen to Anton and back again and jabbed a finger in their direction. His friend stopped. ‘Weren’t you two standing behind us in the queue for this rust-bucket?’
The tall man nodded and smiled. ‘Oh, yeah, I think you’re right. In the queue.’
‘The worst is coming, Anton,’ whispered Stephen. ‘Get rid of them!’
Anton cleared his throat. ‘I’m sorry, but my friend here is on the brink of throwing up, so unless you’d like to be covered in his stomach contents, I suggest you keep your distance.’
The stout man was the first to concede defeat; his shadow wasn’t far behind. ‘Don’t want to see no sick,’ he said, holding up his hands. ‘Can’t stand the sight of anythin’ oozing out of bodies and such. I’m already feeling me own stomach heaving as I think about it.’
‘Me neither,’ said his friend.
The stout man shot him an odd look. ‘Whatcha talking about? You’re trained for this kind of thing.’
‘Only lasted a month at nursing school. Once we started the practical shit, I was out of there, as quick as you like.’
The stout man shook his head. ‘Useless.’
Both turned around and headed for the exit. The talk of vomit was enough to move the remaining passenger.
Stephen felt the worst of it pass. He took a deep breath. ‘That’s better. How about we inject in private next time? By the way, what’s “throwing up”?’
‘Apparently, if they eat too much, it shoots back up. I understand not too many of them are keen to witness it.’
Stephen straightened up and nodded. ‘I don’t like them getting that close. We need to make a better effort to keep under the radar from now on. Maybe we should ditch these hats back at our sleeping pods. We’ll look more natural. We should also try to stick to darkened areas as much as possible.’
They both dropped their human pretences and stood. ‘Referring to them as humans is going to take some getting used to,’ said Anton. ‘What are we looking for when we get to Earth?’
‘Answers, plain and simple. Something that’ll explain how it is they exist at all, and why they’re intent on destroying us.’
They walked back to their sleeping quarters. On the way, Anton asked, ‘Why him?’
‘Who?’
‘You can’t stand being near any of them but you went out of your way to choose the child called Ben. Why?’
Stephen shrugged. ‘Because I saw something in him that the others didn’t possess. Innocence, perhaps. It was easier to be around him.’ He stopped and leaned against the wall. ‘I don’t know, Anton. I don’t know why I feel the way I do about him but not the others.’
‘Could you be coming round to the idea that they’re not all bad? I mean, you saved those men when they were suffocating.’
‘No! I let my guard down. It won’t happen again.’
29
Galen Thompson stood beside Paddy, Maria and the communications operative inside Stuart’s cramped office. They shoved and jostled for a better position. Stuart rarely used his office, preferring to stand on the HJA observation deck and keep an eye on what was going on.
Galen gnawed the skin on his thumb and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. A meeting of all the on-duty controllers was unusual. He wondered if his mother had given the micro file to Laura O’Halloran and news was spreading of her deception. The others shot quizzical looks at each other and tried to guess why they were there. Only Galen remained tight-lipped.
The door opened and Stuart burst into the room, almost knocking into Paddy who was stuck behind the door. A quick arm up to his face saved him from damage.
‘Shit, Paddy,’ said Stuart. ‘What are you doing behind there?’
Paddy straightened up and pushed his back further into the corner. ‘Sorry, boss. No room in here. What the feck’s this about?’
‘Just settle for a mo, I’ll tell you in a minute.’ Stuart squeezed past Maria, who had been allocated the postage-stamp space behind the desk. He dropped into his seat, if only to help free up some floor space.
‘Alright,’ he said, exhaling once he’d settled into the chair. ‘We’re meeting in here because what I have to say is for your ears only. It’s not to be discussed with that lot out there.’ He jerked a thumb towards the observation deck, where five trainee rookies were on duty. ‘They are far too green to hear what I have to say.’
Galen fidgeted, sensing that his place was also out there with the trainees; technically, he still was one. He couldn’t get the ESC memos or the business with the letters and micro file out of his h
ead. He wondered if they were all linked.
Stuart noticed his anxiety. ‘Got something to say, Galen?’
‘Should I even be in here? I mean, I’m not even a senior controller yet.’
‘You are one of our top trainees. Stay where you are. Now what the hell was I saying before I was rudely interrupted? Oh yeah, I have some bad news from the ESC.’ He leaned back in his chair, managing a thirty-degree tilt before the edge hit the wall.
The room fell silent. Paddy was staring at the floor.
The ESC only ever contacted the docking stations if there was a security breach, or if cuts were on the way. ESC had the power to initiate any changes they wanted. Security matters were most feared, and from what Galen understood, the consequences were pretty dire.
Paddy had told him the grim story one lunchtime about a former colleague of his who’d been caught abusing his security-level clearance. Nothing too serious, Paddy had said. His colleague had been obsessed with bettering his career and had broken into the personnel office to gain insider knowledge on his competition. While they hadn’t physically caught him, the ESC had recorded an unusual amount of activity in Section Three. Within hours, security had arrived to escort him off the premises. Paddy never laid eyes on him again. He said he had often wondered what happened to the man, but knew the chances were slim that the World Government would waste good resources keeping him in some high-security facility on the outskirts of town. It was far more likely that they’d done away with him.
‘As you know, we’re expecting a passenger ship from Exilon 5. It’s scheduled to arrive Sunday week. I’ve just been informed by ESC that there has been a breach of security and there’s a possible stowaway on board.’
Paddy looked relieved, but not for long. ‘I don’t understand, Stuart. Why’s this time any different from the two other incidents that occurred last year? It happens.’
‘While I would normally agree with you, the ESC is taking this very seriously. They’re sending over military personnel to monitor activity before and after the ship arrives.’
‘Who is this mystery stowaway?’ said Maria.