His words steal all the oxygen from the room.
Kane 148’s legacy.
The legacy that has haunted Anaiya and the Peacekeeper Corp for almost a decade. The legacy of being intimately associated with the original Resistor.
Pressure, like an invisible cage, closes in on her. Her brain grinds through the rational considerations, holding out against the confusion and a rising sense of panic.
This is what she was trained for. What all Elementals are conditioned for. Beyond whatever responsibilities their position demands, the first duty of all Elementals is to maintain the Orthodoxy. Anaiya has diligently defended and enforced it for years. Detaining offenders and punishing breaches. Protecting it from even the slightest threat of Unorthodoxy. Safeguarding it.
As a Fire Elemental.
Anaiya sits stiffly in her chair, not daring to move. She feels the weight of Niamh’s gaze on her. She nods her head. Defeated.
The Commander peers at her. “If you are compatible, you will be realigned.”
Anaiya’s skin tingles and her throat feels as if it has shrunk in on itself. But her decision was made for her the moment Niamh collected her from the Wild Rover.
She nods again, mute.
The Commander permits herself a small smile, tapping on her desk screen and standing up. “Excellent. We will commence the testing immediately.”
The high-pitched beeps and loud click announce the visitor before he is seen. He steps over the threshold and walks straight to the Commander’s side, gripping a small glass screen and ignoring Anaiya and Niamh in true Water Elemental style.
“I want to know as soon as you get results,” she says, passing him a mobile storage unit, which he promptly connects to his screen.
The male, nondescript in his blue suit, nods obediently.
“Anaiya 234, you are dismissed,” the Commander says, taking her seat again behind the desk.
Anaiya looks to Niamh, who this time has the decency to look back at her. He gives her a smile that fades at the edges and never reaches his eyes. Anaiya’s stomach leaps with a thousand synthflies.
“Control the fire, Ani,” he murmurs, the words magnifying in the cavernous room to be heard easily.
Her heart stings with the same feeling she gets when looking at the Heterodoxy, when remembering Kane 148. A sharp, fine-pointed blade piercing its depths.
Betrayal.
But there is nothing for it – her path has been set – so she controls the fire and follows the anonymous Technician out of the room and down the hallway.
* * *
THE NEURAL LABORATORY IS SMALL, white and brightly lit, like so many of the pathology rooms in which she has deposited overdosing Air Elementals or wounded Earth Elementals. A light cottonex slip hangs on a small hook next to the gurney: the only soft thing in the room.
“Please put the slip on and lie face up with your feet closest to the door,” the Technician says before leaving her alone.
Anaiya undresses quickly, hampered only by small tremors that shake her hands. The slip is thin and provides no warmth in the sterile environment. She ignores the protests of her mind and body and clambers onto the gurney as per her instructions.
Minutes stretch together, amplifying the silence and providing too much space for her mind to twist and tumble. The torrent of potential outcomes, borne of one future-search after another, gives rise to a growing panic. Desperate to escape the mind loop and distract herself from ominous thoughts, Anaiya eventually resorts to accessing the basic entertainment features of her wristplate.
The default time screen clicks over and presents Anaiya with an ascending row of cards. Her fingers flick across them rapidly, the game honing the Fire skill of snap decision making. She doesn’t think, just reacts – swiping, tapping in quick staccato movements, watching as the cards flip and move and stack. A smile plays at the corners of her mouth, triggered by the memory of a Water Elemental playing the same game before a Peacekeeper briefing years ago, his games spanning large expanses of time as he deliberated his every move, fingers hovering over cards for eternities before they tentatively descended.
Eventually, the Technician returns, ending her petty distraction. He is followed by three other lab-coat-wearing Water Elementals. The first takes Anaiya’s lifeline and plugs it into a small machine beside the gurney. A wallscreen flashes to life, revealing a dashboard of her vitals. Her heartbeat becomes a soundwave of peaks and troughs; her pupils, black circles on a micro-measured target. Graphs and three-dimensional brain maps flicker as they receive updated information from her lifeline.
Another Technician steps forwards to blindfold her. She doesn’t need to see the wallscreen Graphics to know her heart rate is spiking. She forces herself to regulate her breathing, drawing deeper breaths and exhaling slowly. Warm hands fit her ears with a dense material. At once she is both blind and deaf, completely isolated in the cold and sterile room.
Her heightened senses of touch and smell sing with the pinch of skin on the inside of her elbow and the sharp smell of too-sweet chemicals as a needle burrows deep into her basilic vein. A rush of warmth runs up her arm and calmness floods her body. Anaiya wraps herself in it, sinking deeper and deeper into overwhelming contentment and peacefulness.
It doesn’t last long.
The blackness is punctuated with a vivid image of the dead female from her last patrol with Niamh. The vision is breathtaking in its details – the head has collapsed in on itself, opening up a large part of the cranium. Blood, red and sticky, clings to the exposed bone and coats short brown hair. Globs of blood spill onto the floor, mingling with the crushed brain matter.
Anaiya vaguely remembers the fire that erupted in her when she first saw the image, standing in a run-down apartment in Precinct 20. But there is no fire this time. There is nothing. Just the image in all its detail.
Screams and shrieks fill her ears. The sounds are primal and full of pain and despair. Anaiya’s brain ticks over with the thought of citizens in danger, but the fire is absent.
Confusion pushes its way to the forefront of her mind. Should she be worried about this? Is something wrong? Where has the fire gone?
The questions trip over one another on their way to her consciousness, urgent and insistent. She doesn’t flinch, letting them wash over her.
The darkness and silence eventually return to her. On the edge of her thoughts, she registers her skin being prepped for another injection. Unlike the first, this one is an icy cold torrent raging along her nerves.
Anaiya gasps as her limbic brain switches back on and the memories of the vision and sounds replay in her mind. Her back arches, threatening to throw her up into a sitting position, but her arms catch in tightly fastened restraints. She doesn’t remember them.
Panic and rage are now fully blooming in her and she thrashes on the gurney, trying to escape her confinement. Trying to escape the darkness and silence that are now thick and oppressive.
She barely feels the pinprick of the next injection. Her body ceases its death throes and falls heavy and immovable. Her mind becomes fuzzy before shutting down into a sedated and dreamless sleep.
When she wakes, it is in a large, dimly lit room. An unfamiliar Water Elemental walks over to her and checks the recovery history flashing up on the small terminal screen beside the bed.
“Your recovery period has concluded,” he says matter-of-factly. “You can take the lift down to the ground floor exit.”
Anaiya looks around, taking in the empty room. “Is the other Fire Elemental still here?” Her voice scratches along her dry throat.
The Water Elemental frowns. “I’m not sure what you mean. You were the only admission to recovery we had all night.”
Anaiya looks down at her wristplate to check for any missed messages. A single encrypted note sits in her inbox. Waiting until the Nurse leaves, Anaiya opens it using her inbuilt decoder and waits a few seconds as the garbled text rearranges itself into a message.
Sec Level 5. R
esults are positive. Present to Room 35.1. 48.8917° N, 2.2408° E at 0900 hours on 18 Capricornia 205 AE
She sits up slowly, struggling to make sense of what has happened.
Results are positive.
Her brain buzzes with flashes of half-formed memories of the testing. She regulates her breathing in the hope it will clear her mind, but panic is a rabid mutt, tearing around her brain, gouging scratches with every twitch.
Positive.
She struggles to make sense of her rising panic. With each shallow breath, scattered thoughts coalesce into one fundamental conclusion.
I will be realigned.
FIVE
THE MORNING IS UNUSUALLY WARM when she exits the Administration Building. Ducking her head, she avoids the glances of Water Elementals who seem to swarm the streets around her, intent on getting as far away from Precinct 8 as she can.
Ignoring the steady trickle of sweat that itches between her shoulder blades and pools in the small of her back, she slams her feet along unfamiliar roads and boulevards until she reaches Precinct 3. Noises, smells and colours call to her, pulling her along the satellite streets that shoot off from the Starboard Road and into a large crowd of Elementals.
The Samedi Markets stretch lazily along the full stretch of the road, backing onto the northern river ramparts and spilling into the tributary laneways and arcades. Earth Elementals browse ugly plastic jewellery and second-hand polyester shirts. Water Elementals rifle through broken technology for salvageable parts and even Air Elementals wander around soaking up the atmosphere and gliding their fingers over digital sketchbook pages. She weaves in and out through them, slowing down and speeding up to twist and pivot into gaps and take advantage of the invariable lulls in the swell.
The scent of cola-roasted pigeon wafts in the stale air. It is a Samedi Markets speciality and a welcome respite from the synthetic nutrition pressed into pills and swallowed daily by all Elementals. The smell of the pigeon mixes with the guano smoke, evoking for Anaiya memories of childhood dares along the riverfront. Her stomach growls in anticipation and she realises that she has not eaten since yesterday’s shift. Unable to resist, she makes her way to the hawker’s stall, finding a small group of Peacekeepers standing casually around the fire pit.
Lumen, one of the Fire Elementals, nods in greeting as Anaiya approaches. Both assigned to the Eastern Area Command upon graduation and only a generation apart, they have patrolled together numerous times before.
Anaiya nods back. “Hey, Lumen,” she says, reaching the group.
Lumen finishes the last of her pigeon, tossing the bones into the pit and wiping her stained fingers on dark kevlar jeans. “Want some?” she asks, indicating new pieces of marinated pigeon roasting on the grillplate.
Anaiya nods as Lumen reaches back to grab a piece. She wraps it in one of the polyester scraps poking out of a plastic dispenser and hands it to Anaiya. “We bought fifty pieces,” she explains, laughing.
“Thanks,” Anaiya says, before biting into the hot flesh.
Meat juices coat her lips and fingers, crunchy skin gives way to a thick layer of rendered fat, flavour explodes on her taste buds. It has never tasted so rich, so sweet.
The other Fire Elementals continue to talk around her. Their tone is casual, but Anaiya notices how they position themselves to form a collective watching post that eliminates any singular blind spot. Even the Trainee is on alert, his laugh absent-minded as his eyes flicker across the crowd.
A flash of movement at her feet catches Anaiya’s eye and her foot slams down immediately in response. The rat’s ripened body collapses and splatters underfoot, leaving a mangled mess that Anaiya wipes off the bottom of her boot and on to the rough stones of the market floor. She thinks back to the dog in the Edges.
That’s what happens when you don’t belong to an Element.
The thought is bitter and sharp. She turns away from it and lets her eyes wander across the crowd. Tension pulls at the festivity, a taint to the sun-filled streets. A weight.
“Getting heavier,” she notes to Lumen.
The older Peacekeeper nods, breaking away from the conversation to stand next to Anaiya. The Trainee fills the space between them, keeping the circle’s vision complete.
“There’s a few of us scattered along the ramparts, but I’m not sure whether we’re keeping an eye on the situation or increasing the weight,” Lumen confides.
Anaiya scans the crowd. Lumen is right, the presence of the Fire Elementals is affecting the crowd’s behaviour. Nearby, a group of Air Elementals catches her attention. Like the Peacekeepers, they are an odd collection comprising males and females of different generations. Some of them scowl openly at the Peacekeepers. Others refuse to look, keeping their heads down and fidgeting. One, a male the same generation as Anaiya, stares straight at her. He doesn’t scowl or shift his feet; he just stands there, arms folded against his chest, unblinking. She senses his weight, his defiance.
Her fire flares bright and hot and she finds herself staring back. He doesn’t flinch under the scrutiny. Doesn’t cower as he should. The fire builds. Lumen stirs beside her: her hand on Anaiya’s shoulder breaks the standoff. She doesn’t speak the words, but Anaiya hears them anyway.
Control the fire.
But she no longer wants to control the fire. She wants to feed it. To sear it to her insides. To bring it to a white heat that can never be extinguished.
She stares back at the Air Elemental, relishing the slow build of heat in her core. It is easy for her as to build animosity with him, their two Elements diametrically opposed in the Elemental design. There has always been tension between opposing Elements, but never has it escalated into direct conflict – the strict order of Otpor and conditioning to Orthodoxy setting an upper limit to natural animosities.
But the world is changing and Anaiya’s mind swims with visions of Heterodoxy, with Air-created blasphemy and Resistance. The weight of the crowd around her grows heavier, feeding her latent rage.
And then it erupts.
A loud crash shatters the ambient noise of the market, followed by loud shouts and high-pitched screaming. It is not the fight she wanted, but she turns from the Air Elemental and towards the commotion.
Beside her, the other Peacekeepers break into pairs and advance on the melee with speed and precision. Not to be left behind, Anaiya breaks into a sprint and reaches the edge of the intensifying chaos as Lumen breaks through the first layer of offenders.
Anaiya shoves her way past her immediate obstruction, sending a young onlooker stumbling to the ground. From her left, a hand reaches across her chest to prevent her from moving forwards. She brings her forearm up quickly in a counter-strike, ignoring the sudden give as the opposing ulna breaks, unmoved by the scream of pain that follows. Across the crowd she sees one of the male Peacekeepers bring low a heavy Air Elemental with a strong blow to the face and quick injection to the neck.
A sharp jostling to her right is diffused quickly with a leg sweep. A heavyset Earth Elemental turns around, arms flexed and biceps tense, her eyes lit with excitement. Anaiya pushes out at the Elementals to her side, giving herself enough room to time a well-placed roundhouse kick to the female’s kidney, dropping her to her knees where she can offer no resistance to the restraint serum.
Stepping over the motionless body, Anaiya pushes her way into a better position, the remaining crowd thinned out by the relentless advance of the other Peacekeepers. This close, she can see the core of the skirmish – three dominant Air Elementals raging against a Compliance Enforcer. A light-footed female brandishes a large broken shard of glass at the Fire Elemental, her screams of ‘Corruption!’ and ‘Oppression!’ reaching above the wall of noise to either side of Anaiya. The other two Air Elementals overturn nearby stall carts, throwing random projectiles at the Enforcer as he ducks and moves – prevented from escaping by the insistent push of the crowd.
At the other edge of the conflict, Anaiya spies Lumen approaching the final circle of on
lookers, the two of them making eye contact and silently communicating their plan. Lumen nods and Anaiya strikes out with a swift push kick to the kneepit of the Elemental in front of her. He falls to the ground, providing the prop she needs to launch up and over the final circle of spectators.
She reaches the inner core at the same time as Lumen and two of the other Peacekeepers, her fingers already cradling a syringe down by her side. Without needing to communicate with each other, the four Peacekeepers rush to restrain their targets while covering the Enforcer.
The glass-wielding Air Elemental screams at her, pulling her arm back to hurl the jagged blue weapon. With a quick flick of her wrist, Anaiya shoots the perfectly weighted syringe across the space between them and into the Air Elemental’s thigh. Advancing rapidly on the offender, she registers the sight of the shard falling and shattering on the ground. Easily deflecting the amateur attempts to fend her away, Anaiya pushes the Elemental into a submissive position before properly restraining her with an injection to the neck.
“Clear,” she yells, spinning around to appraise the rest of the situation.
The other two Air Elementals lie in crumpled heaps, rendered unconscious by the restraint serum or their fall. The two male Peacekeepers have been joined by four others – spread along the circumference of the inner circle, their focus is outwards, supervising the gradually dispersing crowd. Lumen kneels by the injured Compliance Enforcer, hand pressed to her ear where her lifeline patches her in to headquarter communications.
The heat of the day and Anaiya’s exertion registers faintly at the edge of her consciousness, but it is a cold sweat that breaks out over her skin. Her fingers tingle, leaching out the adrenalin that had rushed through her body seconds before. The tremors do not lessen; instead they grow, spreading out along her limbs until her arms, torso and legs tremble in unfamiliar spasms.
She tries to still her mind, to focus on her breathing and calm her body. The threat of the shocks becoming more violent spurs her to move her feet, one shaky leg in front of the other. She passes through the gaps in the crowd silently, the faces of Elementals around her failing to coalesce in her vision.
Resistance: Divided Elements (Book 1) Page 5
