by Jay Aspen
‘Severin, I know how you feel. I feel the same. But he’s already suffered for at least some of his crimes and I don’t think he’s going anywhere for a while. If you stay here it’s a chance to spot whoever else might be involved in this.’
Severin nods acceptance and turns his attention to giving Alis the updates and asking her to upgrade protection for Safi and her family. I run the three blocks to Janna’s house, hoping that all this focus on not speeding up my metabolism isn’t as serious as Alis has been making out.
The address my newly-appointed support-mother had given me is a low building near the foot of another slender white tower. She answers the street door, towel in her hand and her short red hair still wet from the shower. One look at my blood-splattered clothes and she drags me inside.
‘What happened?’ She’s already probing my arms and shoulders, looking for the damage. It occurs to me that although I only met Janna a few days ago when I moved to Merkaan, I already feel I can trust her with the dangerous new information I’m gathering.
‘Not me, friend of mine.’
I manage to extricate myself from her examination. ‘Do you have some of your new improved surgeon-clamps here? We need one that does hands and fingers.’
Janna reacts with the cool efficiency of someone used to dealing with medical emergencies on a regular basis. She opens a large wall cupboard and selects one of the neatly labelled boxes stacked inside.
‘I’m coming with you. Tell me where we need to go.’
I’ve been expecting this and give her a brief outline of the unfolding disaster, ending with my request for her to find somewhere safe for my parents until this is all over. Janna gives me a disapproving frown.
‘I can’t let you go rushing back into a dangerous situation like this.’
‘Janna, I think it’ll be more dangerous if I don’t know who these people are. We must be quite close to identifying them now.’
‘That is precisely what I’m worried about!’ She hesitates, then reluctantly decides that maybe I don’t have much choice. ‘All right. But you get me a link to the secure message-net you’re using with this Alis person and check in with me each day. Here’s some painkiller spray to go with the clamp. Your friend won’t be able to get his hand in the thing otherwise. And if you do it for him he’ll just pass out with the pain.’
‘Thanks Janna.’ I take the two packages and shove them into pockets originally designed for weapons. ‘And please keep me updated with news that my parents are all right. And ... tell them I’m sorry if they’re worried.’
She rolls her eyes. ‘I suspect they’ll assume you’re sorry. But it won’t stop them worrying.’ She opens the door and we both step out into the street before heading in opposite directions.
I get back to Vander’s apartment to find him already passed out with the pain. He’s lying on the kitchen floor with a glass of peach champagne spilled in a sticky puddle tinged pink as it mixes with the blood already there.
Hoping he’d not managed to actually drink any of the alcohol before he spilled it, I drag him across the floor and prop his shoulders against the wall. Then I fill the largest salad bowl I can find with water and throw it in his face. He isn’t appreciative.
When he’s finished swearing, he glares at me furiously.
‘Was that really necessary? Or just the first course of your carefully planned revenge?’
‘Some of us have more important things to think about.’ I’m not quite focused enough to avoid feeling just a teeny bit pleased at the put-down look on Vander’s face. I carefully grasp his left arm and lift the mangled hand so I can spray it with painkiller.
‘Did you drink any of that alcohol? Because it won’t help what has to happen next.’
He shakes his head, waiting impatiently for the painkiller to kick in. I lower one of the hover-seats to use as a makeshift table and lay the open clamp on it. Then I check the instructions on the box, grasp his good hand and lay it palm up in the hand-shape of the clamp.
‘Hold still while it scans.’ I switch on the scan mode and the clear, glutinous bio-lining of the clamp swells until it envelopes the whole hand. I wait a few seconds until ‘scan complete’ flashes on the readout and the bio-lining retracts and releases. Vander withdraws his hand with an anxious look on his face.
He knows what is coming next.
I cautiously reach for the mangled left hand and steer it towards the clamp, sensing Vander’s reluctance to move it in spite of the painkillers.
‘Palm down, and I’ll try to help you get your fingers into the slots.’
‘I think I can see which way round the shape is,’ he snaps irritably.
I hold my breath, telling myself his manners might improve when the pain goes off a bit. I guide his hand into the open shape, carefully helping him separate each crushed finger into its appropriate groove, and click the pre-activation sequence.
Then I wait, still following the instructions on the box and hoping the presence of a trained medic isn’t too essential for a successful outcome. Janna had mentioned that her work taking prototypes on expeditions into the wilderness was in hope of developing emergency lightweight versions that can fit into a first aid-kit. Meanwhile they’ve almost completed a new set of clamps that everyone can keep at home, avoiding the extra risk of delay waiting for a shuttle to take them to hospital.
Looking at the state of Vander’s fingers, I can’t help wondering if this level of damage might always be the exception to home treatment, however smart the new prototypes might be.
‘Vander, could you shut up for a few minutes? I’m learning some interesting new swearwords but it’s messing up my concentration.’ I don’t mention that I was hoping for a few more thought-messages but the ayan is wearing off now and what with that and Vander’s obvious distraction, it isn’t looking very hopeful. I finally get all the fingers settled in their slots and check the instructions again.
‘It says there might be a bit of a sting as it starts, then it gets better.’ I spray the last of the painkiller onto his fingers and click the activation sequence.
‘Bit of a sting! Understatement of the century!’ Vander clenches his teeth as he forces himself to keep his hand still.
The clear bio-lining slowly wraps itself around the damaged tissue. Vander relaxes a little as it releases its own painkiller, then looks away in disgust as the nano-needles sink slowly into the crushed flesh and bone of his fingers. I check that everything is still in the right place then close the top half of the clamp and clip it shut.
‘The instructions say it’ll take about a week. Just don’t bash it on anything or we might have to start over again.’ I hesitate, then decide to at least try to persuade Vander to tell me what he knows. It probably isn’t much but it might help. I just have to hope that if we stay in the apartment Severin will be able to stop the gang returning for the same purpose, using their rather more unpleasant methods.
I can tell by the reduced volume and quantity of Vander’s expletives that the clamp is finally doing its job and reducing the pain at the same time. I help him to his feet and push him back onto the hover-couch. Then I readjust the height of the hover-seat I used as a table and pull it across to face him.
‘Vander, I think if you’re going to survive what these people have planned for you, it might be a good idea to cooperate. Tell me what you know.’
His mood is sullen. ‘I told you. I don’t know who these people are.’
‘Try harder. Start with the row you were having with Deron when I found you outside the Blue Fish café the other day.’
Vander shrugs angrily, very obviously hating the way his sneaky younger brother has once again got the better of him.
‘He found out what I was dealing and threatened to tell Ravan if I didn’t pay him off. A lot of credits.’
‘So it was a bit more than you just not having a license?’
‘Brilliant deduction. You want me to keep the rest of it that simple?’ He tries to stare me down
but the sarcasm hasn’t had the desired effect. He lowers his eyes after a few moments.
‘All right. You win. He’d messaged me a couple of days before you were due to leave for Kar. I paid him off and an hour later he was back with more threats and demands for another meeting. Just as I’d suspected, except what could I do about it? That’s why I told you to meet me by the café. I didn’t want to risk the row kicking off outside Ravan’s emporium.’
‘And the second time the demand was to take a package to Karesh?’
‘Yeah. I usually pay for the ayan with valuables like watches and holo-vids. Ayan powder concentrate isn’t exactly the sort of thing you can put through the central credit banking system. But never guns. I swear!’
‘You’ve done enough swearing for one day. He told you it was guns?’
‘After I insisted. I suppose he figured it was better to tell me than risk me opening the package myself. Which I threatened to do. But... he seemed genuinely terrified of the people he was working with and he said they’d come after me and Ravan if I didn’t do what they wanted. So...’ His voice trails off. ‘Look, I’m sorry I got you into it. But your trip was already set up and I couldn’t see a way to unravel it all.’
‘Like taking those damn guns to Karesh yourself?’
‘Well you wanted to go see your sister didn’t you?’
I don’t reply and Vander might look a bit sheepish. I can’t be sure though.
‘So where does Talaya val Laveran come into all this?’ I watch the rapidly-changing expressions flit across Vander’s face and wish my heightened perceptions would produce thoughts or images I could use. His comment is exactly the kind of avoidance I expected.
‘You’re just jealous of the competition?’
I hold his gaze without blinking. ‘Vander, do you seriously think I’d have any interest in someone who tricked me into breaking the law, not to mention supplying weapons to people planning a civil war?
‘Fine. Seeing as you asked, I’ve known Tala for a year and she’s been really supportive and helpful. She understands how important it is for me to build a successful business and be independent of my family.’
Everything is suddenly falling into place as my gestalt pulls the random pieces into the right order. At least, the kind of order that makes sense of what has happened. All I need is confirmation from Vander.
‘And it was Talaya who suggested you start trading in ayan concentrate. And she gave you the contacts for it.’
‘Just to help me get started! It wasn’t ever a plan to do it for more than a couple of years. And it was working so well––’
He falls silent as I start slowly shaking my head.
‘Vander. Think about it. I expect she had all the right answers when you asked her about how dangerous it was. To stop you thinking about how it would probably ruin Ravan if you got caught, never mind breaking his heart. And didn’t you wonder how Deron found out what you were doing so he could blackmail you? Talaya is in the same year as him at uni and in two of his tutorial groups. And he really fancies her.’
‘You’re just saying that to try to break us up!’
‘Vander, you can believe what you like, but be careful. If you’ve no more to tell me I’m going. You need to find somewhere safe for a few days where these people can’t find you or Ravan.’
‘Wh––’
But I’m already through the door and then I’m running towards Oceanside where Severin is waiting, the wasp already flattened limpet-like on the curving road.
6
All my plans to follow up the clues Vander let slip disappear a few seconds after I scramble into the cramped seat of the wasp.
‘Severin, we need to get back to the university and find Talaya––’
‘She’s gone.’ Severin eases back on the controls to take the wasp rapidly up and out, carving a smooth ascent over the ocean. ‘Alis has been checking at the university and Talaya didn’t turn up for lectures or tutorials this morning. It’s too much of a coincidence given the way things are playing out. Then Alis got a message that her police contacts in Kar didn’t quite get Safi into the safe house in time––’
‘What!’ I’m anxiously gripping the edge of the seat, never mind maintaining a low pulse-rate.
‘They were just getting the family out of their dome when they were attacked. They managed to push them all safely inside the landcar but Safi dropped the kitten-basket in the scramble and the kittens escaped. They saw a girl dash out from behind one of the domes to rescue them, but instead of handing them back she picked them up and ran off with them. Before Safi had even reached the safe house a message arrived on her holo-vis saying they’d exchange the kittens for a couple of items you stole from them.’
I let out a groan. ‘And if they’ve been monitoring Safi’s message-pages they’ll know that she’ll be totally devastated if I refuse and they do dreadful things to her precious kittens! The only way to buy some time is for me to start negotiating and hope Alis can think of a solution that doesn’t involve giving them what they want. Does the wasp have the range to get as far as Karesh?’
‘We’re already on the way there. Alis sent me coordinates for an airspace window where we’re unlikely to meet a shuttle ambulance or a fire-crew. Can you handle a high-speed journey without getting too disoriented?’
‘Ugh. The train was bad enough, but I’ll figure a way to cope. Go ahead.’
Severin pushes the controls to their limit and the wasp shoots forward, heading south above the rippling blue-grey of the ocean. I feel the lurch of disconnect with the resonance and quickly focus on the rapidly shifting signals my body is picking up. I hold my attention there and find it helps, but not much.
After a few minutes I can tell that my attunement is being distracted by this newly-awakened gestalt awareness, busily running through recent events of its own accord. I decide to go with it. Maybe I’ll notice something useful.
It isn’t long in coming. ‘Severin, did anyone get a pic of the girl who grabbed the kittens?’
‘Sure you want to focus on this instead of your attunement?’
‘Can’t seem to stop the gestalt thing. It keeps interrupting. Go ahead.’
‘I assume you guessed who it was. The police landcar cameras were running the whole time and picked up the full sequence. Here.’ He keys the images to my screen so I can watch Talaya running across the open space outside Safi’s domehouse and scooping up the confused kittens before suddenly turning and disappearing between the pink-flowering shrubs Safi had so lovingly planted around her home.
‘Didn’t they go after her?’
‘No. Too much risk to the family. There were more armed attackers than the small group of police Alis feels she can fully trust.’
We are clear of the city now and Severin turns the wasp back inland, heading southwest above the Merikeen prairies towards Karesh. He hesitates before speaking again. I can tell he knows he sounds unfeeling, but these are difficult times.
‘Hannik, we’re going straight to the safe house to see your sister and work out what to do. But you really need to stop thinking about them for the next hour while we’re flying and focus on your attunement. I’ll need to rely on you for that side of things if we have to go searching for armed thugs in the forest.’
‘Why?’ I’ve picked up enough of his apologetic thoughts not to be offended by his request, but my gestalt hasn’t figured out this particular piece of the puzzle. ‘Experienced ranger like you? I’ve always felt like you were the one who knew exactly what to do.’
Severin keys the screen image so I can see him as we talk.
‘Hannik, I’m fine in certain situations. I was still in school when I made the choice to focus on my vacation work as a ranger. I didn’t discover till later that the volunteer rangers are actually overseen by a branch of Qat. I guess it’s how we get permission to use a lot of tec; dart guns, recon shuttles and a few other things. And now on top of that I’ve been spending a lot of time in tec research a
t the university. And, well, you can’t have everything. I don’t suppose my attunement ability was ever as good as yours anyhow, and focusing on using tec has limited it even further. So if we’re out in the forest I’m going to need you to pick up the subtle signals I’m going to miss.’
I fall silent for a few moments, feeling strangely reassured by the calm way Severin is able to own his shortcomings and figure out a way to compensate by working as a team. It brings back the words of the sensei during that first fateful combat session in the Merkaan dojo.
Always remember to balance determination with realism about your own limitations.
He might have added the bit about teamwork, but maybe he was planning to reveal the process step by step as I gradually learned to integrate the stages into my fight training. I probably won’t get to his next session so I’ll have to learn details of close cooperation from Severin.
‘Fine. I’ll try to stay focused the whole distance to Kar. I can go quite deep when I want to, so can you find a quiet way to tell me we’ve arrived?’
‘How about this? Should reduce the shock of shifting back to base awareness.’ Severin searches the wasp’s database for a moment, then keys in. The faint, deep sound of a bell echoes through the cramped space, growing gradually louder with each peal.
‘Nice. See you in an hour.’ I focus on my breathing and let my mind sink into the cool, clear space of lieth concentration on the planet’s resonance, the fundamental experience all Pangaean children learn so they can safely roam the wild forests and prairies around their homes.
First Principle; Focus.
Second Principle; Attunement.
THE DEEP, RESONANT sound of the bell brings me slowly back to base awareness, with the powerful, vibrant sensations of infinity-connection still thrumming through my body. I can tell from the change in the resonant frequency that we’re flying above Karesh, even before I look out of the side of the wasp’s clear hood and see that we’re skimming low over the rippling windblown leaf-canopy of a vast tropical forest.
