Onas cleared his throat. ‘You can’t have joined. I would have been informed.’
‘Because you have the original list?’ He nodded. ‘Yes, Zatar told me. You can verify it for yourself.’
Onas sunk into this chair. ‘Have you told Nythlia about this?’
Skelos shrugged. Onas’s question confirmed Nythlia knew nothing about the Index. It gave him some small relief. ‘I don’t trust her, but I trust you. We have the same ambition, the same drive, and the same amount to lose.’ The remark was flippant. He had no inkling of what Onas held most dear or the risks he was willing to take assume power.
Onas waved his hand. ‘Take off your clothes.’
‘Excuse me?’ This is a risk too far, even for me.
‘Somehow you managed to get past my sentinel guards, I need to see you have no devices or weapons on you.’ He directed Skelos to a changing screen. A sentinel guard stood beside it.
Skelos went behind the screen and removed all his clothes. He soon emerged from behind it dressed only in his underwear.
He winced as the sentinel guard patted him down with its cold metallic hands.
‘He is clean,’ said the sentinel in a resonance of an echo.
It returned to its place by the changing screen.
Onas removed a disc from a flap on his wrist device. He twisted the disc to unlock it. He then placed it on the table. A hologram screen sprung from it. It hovered above his desk. The names were listed in three columns. Onas found Skelos’s name midway down the list, beside his mother’s.
‘You were once a close friend of Eron’s. It was the only reason why you were not considered. Some thought you might attempt to avenge his death.’ He snorted. ‘I was sceptical about that myself. I don’t think former friends count, do you? What was it you fell out over? A girl, finance, business?’
‘He didn’t support my work – my research.’ Skelos was too young to have conducted any research and the admission made no sense whatsoever to a Citizen like Onas. He and Eron had fallen out because of what Skelos had done in the Red Caves as a child. Skelos had kept both Osaphar and Eron at a distance after that and they had done the same. Immediately after the event, he was ashamed at what he had done in his childish naivety. He later came to justify his actions. It was not an atrocity if the child was an Outsider. Despite the humanoid form they took, they were diseased beasts.
‘I want to show you what we’ve done to some of your cyborgs.’
A door opened at the far side of the room and two figures strode in: one male, one female. They were dressed in the same dark tunics and trousers. Skelos knew they were machines. They were stiff and their purple eyes were lifeless. They had been fitted with artificial faces that looked like masks. Skelos was not impressed. They were nothing more than fancy looking cyborgs.
‘We’ve built in more weaponry. They’re just prototypes. They will eventually become droids that will look and move like humanoids.’
Skelos was unconvinced. He had never come across a droid who could past for human. ‘Who’s we?’
‘I’m in the process of opening up my own cybernetic research facility.’
Skelos nodded. Now it made sense. ‘In my former Stores, I presume.’ He suspected Nythlia was behind Onas’s cybernetic ascendency. The Citizen held no doctorate. He guessed he had not only secured his Stores but his staff as well. He wondered if Denlor was on his payroll. Onas would have also asked his son, Imbrecas, to steal vital information about his work so he could replicate it. With his limited attention span, the boy couldn’t possibly have succeeded. ‘And the Establishment have approved it?’
‘Not yet, but they will.’ He gave the cyborgs an appraising glance. ‘These two will never be seen by the Establishment. They are our Index Eleven assassin cyborgs, and they answer to my command alone.’ He grinned slyly.
Skelos focused on the hologram. He closed his eyes and raised his hands momentarily to force his gift to the forefront of his mind and put it to work.
The names on the list disappeared one by one as he sent them through to the Parliamentary suite where the vice-chancellor, Darlis Sajoyagh, sat in a meeting with several other prominent members of the Establishment.
Onas’s mouth gaped open. He stared through the hologram and met Skelos’s eyes. He snatched the disc from the table, shifting the screen. He attempted to snap the disc shut. With trembling hands, he twisted it clockwise and anti-clockwise. He banged it on the desk. The names continued to evaporate. ‘You!’ he roared. He lurched from his chair. ‘How are you doing this?’
‘It has nothing to do with me.’ Skelos raised his hands. Only two names remained on the list: his mother’s and his own. ‘It must be a virus.’
While Onas continued to fuss over the vanishing files, Skelos moved the female cyborg into position. He directed it with his hands and his mind. Before Onas could react, it detached Onas’s head from his body. It then fired at Onas’s head until it became a fireball. A shrill alarm sounded, followed by another that sounded like a failing buzzer.
Skelos instructed the cyborgs to destroy the surveillance databanks. He gathered his clothes from behind the screen and swept from the room. He heard the first Citizens running behind him. He passed two sentinel guards on his way out. None of them would verify that he was ever there. The only Citizen who witnessed him come into the room was Nythlia and if she took him down, she would take herself down with him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Skelos sat in the Gold Suite. Nythlia had used it to entertain political dignitaries on the rare occasions they had come to their home. He was never present at these gatherings. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been in the Gold Suite. Once, perhaps, a decade ago. And Nythlia had not made him feel welcome.
He sipped from a glass, topped to the brim with Zaskian. The events of the past three weeks had left him drained. He had made sacrifices, and they had cost him. A number of major shareholders had pulled out of Dorm Presteria Energy. These prominent figures had helped bring acclaim to the Dorm industry. They felt that the House of Dorm was on the wane and was more a source of embarrassment than influence.
His mother was so angered over the list’s dissolution; she had cut all ties with him. Skelos felt no remorse for what he had done. He had grown fed up with his mother’s griping.
She should have been nothing but grateful in his opinion. He had saved them from a fate worse than death. She didn’t seem to comprehend that their lives were in danger by virtue of the fact that her name had been on the list in the first place.
Skelos began to care less about the family name and more about his own. Surely that’s all that matters now? His hopes of making recompense were crippled. He had gained a reputation as an unethical scientist. As a result, his fellow Citizens were less keen to open up their research facilities to him. Denlor was the only one of his staff to remain in contact with him. His last faithful confidante.
The destruction of the list had caused a brief ripple among the Establishment. Some of its members had resigned; others had mysteriously vanished. Vacant posts were quickly filled without scandal or skirmish.
Onas’s death was believed to be caused by a batch of malfunctioning cyborgs, which Nythlia had corroborated. Skelos knew she wanted to remove herself from any scandal linked to Index Eleven, and thus to Onas. It was the only way she could protect her career.
Denlor had informed him that Nythlia had not attended Onas’s funeral, but he had seen her walking with Imbrecas, a protective arm around his shoulder. No doubt offering him comfort following the tragic death of his father.
A cyborg showed Osaphar through to the Gold Suite. Skelos had been expecting him. He had been dreading his visit. He had not told his former friend how he joined Index Eleven, the contents of the list or if he had destroyed it. He hoped he wouldn’t ask.
‘I don’t know how you were able to do it,’ said Osaphar as he breezed through the door, ‘but thank the Maker
you did. I assume Onas was involved. I take it you were responsible for his death?’
‘In self-defence,’ said Skelos, not bothering to deny it. ‘He possessed the original list. He was going to turn one of his cyborg assassins on me.’
‘You should have left it to the Establishment to punish him.’
‘It’s that all you can say, after all I have accomplished?’ You’re no more grateful than my mother. ‘He was building cyborg assassins. He slept with my wife.’
Osaphar was silent for a time. ‘So you killed him out of jealousy,’ he finally said.
Skelos bristled. ‘Stop pretending you’re Eron. You’re nothing like him. You act like you have morals. You would have done the same. I don’t want you to speak of my past demeanours ever again. I cannot rewrite history. I’ve lost my family to avenge Eron’s death. You were the one who coaxed me into it. And what have I gained?’ He spread his hands. ‘The right to sit in the Gold Suite.’
‘You’re right, I’m not Eron, but don’t try to hold me responsible for what you have done. I don’t think with your particular talents it would have been too hard to get your hands on that list or to destroy it.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Osaphar took a ragged breath. ‘That I commend you. I assume you didn’t keep a record of the list.’
‘I kept no record of it. Will you stay and have a drink?’
‘No. I think we’re done. I thank you for your assistance.’
Osaphar walked from the suite.
It seems he does did not want to renew our friendship after all.
Skelos smashed his glass of Zaskian on the gold tiles and then stormed out, vowing to have the suite redecorated in blue by the end of the week.
He took the lift to the basement. He had converted into a laboratory. It wasn’t the ideal place to carry out experiments. He hoped one day to find a permanent space. His specimen lay on a makeshift table top. It was about time he created something new, a cybernetic-enhanced human to rival Orel. One who was loyal and obedient, whom he could trust, and who would never leave his side. And why not? You should never put your trust in one Citizen. His father had taught him that before disappearing from his life. He didn’t want to make another Tabiatha. She was too extreme. He wanted something subtler. And there would be no mistakes. No prototypes. Only success. A steady hand and a little addition here and there, I think. He took a breath, picked up a scalpel, and cut into Amelia’s brain.
GLOSSARY
[ Unmarked Ones – non-Citizens]
Skelos Dorm’s adventures continue in The Red Caves.
To learn more about The Other Worlds visit tridanentertainment.com
Thank you
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends