Heart of Granite

by James Barclay

  Max slowly became aware of the crowd’s reaction. Some had cheered, some had applauded but most had looked on in awkward silence and now a nervous, febrile chatter began to spread. Simultaneously, Anna-Beth tensed a little and he didn’t try to stop her when she pulled back to take another look at him. He smiled through the chill sweeping his body.

  ‘God, Max . ..’

  ‘I’m still me,’ he said, hoping he didn’t sound desperate and willing the uncertainty to fade from her expression. ‘Just a little, y’know . . . holey. Think “cheese” if it helps.’

  She smiled and put a hand to his face. Max found he was anxious; he was losing the soul-deep connection to Martha leaving him just plain ‘Max’ again and he didn’t know what to do.

  ‘You smell terrible,’ said Anna-Beth.

  ‘Like I said, still me.’

  Anna-Beth clocked movement to his right.

  ‘Uh-oh . .. not sure everyone’s as happy to see you as I am.’ She put her mouth to his ear. ‘I love you. Don’t fuck up again.’

  Max stepped away from her, turning back towards Martha and was greeted by multiple camera flashes from across the crowd.

  ‘Enough of this nauseating homecoming,’ said Solomon. ‘Get that pilot under arrest and out of here now.’

  Military Police raced in, zapons activated, but Inferno-X was faster, knowing what was likely to come. Max found himself completely surrounded by his squad but no one touched him, no one stood too close except Anna-Beth who had her arms around him again. The Mips pulled up a couple of metres from them and Martha moved a step towards them, grumbling a warning in her throat.

  The atmosphere, so briefly of welcome and celebration, became hostile and aggressive. Drakes barked and ground lizards squawked, picking up on the discomfort across the flight deck. Solomon marched up behind the Mips and thrust her way to the front.

  ‘You will stand aside. Halloran will be taken into custody immediately.’ She was staring square at Valera who stared back. Max felt the eyes of some of the squad on him, unable to drag themselves from the sight of the pierce points covering his body. ‘Stand aside.’

  ‘I cannot do that without specific instruction from Commander Avery,’ said Valera. ‘I am concerned for the welfare of my pilot if he is placed in custody and under the terms of his contract—’

  ‘Damn your fucking contract!’ snapped Solomon, her eyes bulging, neck taut. She took a breath, remembering herself but didn’t take her eyes from Valera. ‘Moeller, clear the flight deck. And someone get Halloran something to wear.’

  Moeller spoke through the p-palm network, his voice sounding from hundreds of points at once. ‘Clear the flight deck, repeat, clear the flight deck. All pilots to the squad room, flight crew to your pens and care for your drakes. All marine and ground personnel exit immediately. Move it.’

  People started to break away, some reluctantly, others apparently only too pleased to be released from the show. There were more flashes, more photography.

  ‘Moeller, tell them any published photographs will result in serious individual sanctions,’ said Solomon.

  Moeller did so, his warning stark and bringing complaint and heightened volumes of conversation from the departing crew.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ said Max into the void. ‘It’s not like I’ve grown another head, is it?’

  Nobody laughed. Nobody even spoke and Max looked over to Martha for comfort. She was still staring at the Mips and he could sense the tension within her.

  ‘No, it’s more the bloody hundreds of holes all over you that might have people a little spooked,’ said Anna-Beth.

  He trailed his fingers over a few of them, pulling away slightly as he felt their hard edges. They covered his torso and his limbs and he knew it was the same down his back.

  ‘What are you going to do, eh?’ he said.

  Someone threw a set of flight crew overalls into the squad and he pulled them on over the remnants of his suit.

  ‘All right,’ said Solomon, and she was joined by Avery and Markov, the latter feasting her eyes on Max. ‘Let’s take a pace back. Squadron Leader Orin, you understand the delicacy of this situation. We cannot release Halloran into the general population.’

  ‘Precisely why we’re standing here,’ said Valera. Max zipped up the overalls and focused his attention back on Solomon. ‘You need to call your dogs off. They aren’t taking him.’

  Solomon’s smile was thin but she waved away the Mips nonetheless. ‘Very admirable. No one’s going to hurt him but I want him out of sight right now. His drake’s pen seems the ideal place.’

  Valera nodded and Max cleared his throat. ‘I’ll be fine; I’ve got Martha as a minder after all. But thanks for being there.’

  ‘Once I-X, always IX,’ said Stepanek as Inferno-X began to move aside at a gesture from Valera. Stepanek held out a hand which Max took. ‘Welcome back, freak. You look really fucking weird.’

  Max chuckled and walked to Martha’s pen, walking past her and into the warm interior. The overalls were itchy on his scars and it took everything he had not to scratch himself all over. As soon as he got inside, he was enveloped in a hug by Grim.

  ‘Can’t believe you’re back.’

  ‘Well I am, and I’m going to get Risa back for you too.’

  Grim hugged him harder then stepped back. ‘You mean that?’

  ‘You’re family.’ Grim smiled. ‘Hey, give Martha a scrub, will you? Actually, maybe a bath. She stinks.’

  ‘You smell worse.’

  ‘Behemoth shit will do that.’

  ‘I do not want to know,’ said Grim.

  Solomon coughed and after a clasp of hands with Grim he turned round to see Solomon, Kirby, Avery and Markov joining him through the hole where the pen door had been and where across the burn marks still scarred the floor.

  ‘Can we make this quick? I need a shower and my pod.’

  Solomon waved a hand. ‘You can shower in the locker room but you aren’t leaving the flight deck. There’s a press pack outside that is hungry for meat. I can’t let them get to you.’

  ‘You mean Corsini can’t allow it.’

  Solomon shrugged. ‘He’s the boss.’

  ‘So what now?’ Max felt fidgety, tired, and very, very hungry.

  ‘I won’t lie to you, it’s a delicate situation . . . your death, missing in action, has been widely reported following a swathe of unhelpful stories and interviews.’

  ‘So unreport it.’

  The shrug was apologetic this time. ‘It isn’t quite that easy. There’s going to have to be some unravelling. Actually a lot of unravelling. You’re going to have to be patient, Max. Assuming you are still Max.’

  ‘Well of course I’m still bloody Max. Disappointed I’m not a drooling imbecile are you?’ He jabbed a finger at Kirby. ‘And I bet you’re gutted, aren’t you?’

  ‘Take it easy, Max,’ said Avery.

  ‘Why? What’s this is all about?’

  ‘It’s about what you represent. What you’ve become.’

  Max stared at Solomon. ‘None of you get it. I’m still me, only better. I’ve shown you how much better we are now. Unbreakable. I’m not the problem. I’m the solution. With us, more like us, we can win the war and go home.’

  ‘I cannot take that risk,’ said Solomon. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘So what, going to have me killed? Well good luck with that and the grief-stricken drake that comes for you straight afterwards.’

  Solomon’s smile was condescending. ‘And that means what, exactly?’

  Max turned towards the flight deck. Hey, princess, can you still hear me?

  There was swift movement without and Martha’s broad muzzle appeared in the unrepaired doorway, scattering the quartet of senior executives left and right. Markov stared at Martha, then back at Max.

  ‘Amazing,’ she said, breathless with excitement. ‘We are going to learn so much . . . everything. No one is having you killed Max, believe me.’

  ‘Are you
threatening me?’ asked Solomon, her eyes on Martha.

  Max shrugged. ‘If that’s how you want to see it. I’m the future. You can’t stop what other pilots will choose to do now they know the Fall is not the end but . . . evolution; just like Diana and Dylan said it was. Embrace it, because you can’t kill it. Martha won’t let you.’

  ‘It’s easy to sedate a drake,’ said Kirby.

  ‘I’m sure you remember how well that worked last time. You don’t understand, do you? The present is unwrapped, Marshal General. Best let the kids play with it.’

  Solomon threw up her hands. ‘You have no idea what this will do, do you? Back home the thought of a human symbiotically patched with alien and reptilian DNA is the surest way to trigger extremists into action and dump Corsini out of power. What then? What happens when the new President stops the war and decommissions every behemoth?’

  Max shrugged. ‘So what? We could all be dead tomorrow. Today you have to decide what you’re going to do.’

  Kirby sighed. ‘We don’t want you dead, Max. But we have to control this story. You understand that, don’t you?’

  ‘I understand a whole lot of things. One of them is not to believe anything you say.’ He turned to Solomon. ‘Or you. Ma’am.’

  ‘Enough,’ said Avery. ‘We have a behemoth to fix and a regen cycle to run. There are no coms now and no coms while we’re on the regen so all these questions can wait. No one on the outside is going to learn anything, are they? Meanwhile, Helena will have a thousand questions and tests for Max. Max is my pilot and we know none of the facts, so, there is no need to confine Max here . . . Please, Robert, Alex, would you leave.’

  ‘Don’t let him speak to anyone,’ said Solomon.

  Avery stared at them until they both made to go, and Martha withdrew her head to let them pass.

  ‘Neat trick, eh?’ he said to their backs. ‘Thank you, ma’am.’

  ‘Most of what the Marshal General said was right. You do represent a massive problem on a huge scale. That’s not a compliment.’

  ‘Unusually, I’m not out to cause any trouble,’ said Max.

  ‘You never are. It just follows you around, doesn’t it? Helena, how do you want to play this?’

  Markov’s face was alive with anticipation. ‘Well, I’ll need to conduct analysis on them both separately and together. I note the drake has gunshot wounds and needs ERC biotech intervention so I’ll start with you, Max, if that’s okay?’

  ‘Whatever you want. So long as you put Risa Kullani back in her drake and let them go through the Fall. She’s strong, she can handle it. Don’t let them pump drugs into her in Landfill.’ Max felt hot all of a sudden. ‘She’s my wing, my friend. I’ll cooperate, if you let her Fall.’

  Markov nodded. ‘Believe me, Max, nothing is happening to anyone in Neural Trauma until we understand everything about you. Risa is comfortable, her drake will be sustained and that’s how it will remain, I promise you that.’

  ‘Release her back to the squad, at least. She’s only on heaters. We can deal with that.’

  Markov’s eyes flicked to Avery. ‘I’ll see what can be done. It’s contingent on you, though, and what we find inside you. Assuming we feel we can control it, we’ll let Kullani back to her drake and see her through the Fall. How does that sound?’

  ‘Deal.’

  ‘Good. You need rest and food, and then we’ll begin. Solomon needs a story to tell and me and you have a chance to write it for her.’

  ‘Understood,’ said Max.

  Markov smiled. ‘I cannot tell you how excited I am to get started so don’t relax too much, will you? Right, I’ll go and get the labs set up and brief the team.’

  She began to walk away but stopped as main lights came on and red lights began flashing as the flight deck and ramp began to complete their very belated deployment. A ripple ran through the HoG’s body and her legs began to sway gently as power was returned.

  ‘She’s good, that Eleanor of yours,’ said Avery.

  ‘Hands off. She stays with the ERC.’ She looked at Max for a last time. ‘You’re a bona fide scientific miracle. Look after yourself.’

  Max watched her go. ‘Miracle, eh? I can live with that.’

  Avery cleared her throat. ‘Well, rein yourself in. You know there are going to be tests. A lot of tests. The professor is desperate to get her needles and probes into you.’

  ‘Don’t, ma’am, you’re making me excited,’ said Max.

  Avery chuckled. ‘What are we going to do with you, Max?’

  ‘A nice warm bath and a cup of hot cocoa?’

  ‘Now that is an order I am happy to make on your behalf.’ She shouted through the door. ‘Mister Moeller!’

  ‘Yes, Commander.’

  Moeller trotted over to the pen. Avery was on the move as she spoke.

  ‘Halloran requires a bath and a cup of hot cocoa in bed. See he gets both, will you?’

  She carried on walking. Max turned to Moeller and grinned.

  ‘Good to see you, sir,’ he said. ‘I really mean that.’

  ‘It’s good to have you back, son,’ said Moeller. A thought struck him and a broad smile grew on his face. ‘You’re going to give Solomon and Kirby a whole heap of grief, aren’t you?’

  ‘I think it’s inevitable, sir.’

  ‘Good,’ said Moeller. ‘Good lad.’

  ‘How difficult would you like me to make it for them?’ said Max, warming to the conversation.

  ‘Well, as you know, I cannot sanction any action that would damage a fellow officer, but let’s just say that your honest testimony and a supportive set of test results would be . . . beneficial. To us both.’

  ‘I’ll do what I can,’ said Max. ‘Do I get my bath and cocoa now?’

  Moeller laughed. ‘That you do, Hal-X. That you do.’