by Mike Essex
“Not going to happen,” said the monster, back in my mind once again.
“Fair enough,” I replied as I tossed the knife to the far corner of the room.
No sooner had the knife left my hand the door to the room opened and a purple haired woman entered. She was extremely pretty and her perfectly proportioned, yet tiny, facial features made me suspect she’d undergone surgery. Most likely she was another “have” like Cleon, and the resemblance was uncanny.
“Hi, I’m Corinna. You gave us quite a scare there,” she said being oddly nice. She laid a silver briefcase onto the operating table and faced the clasps towards me. “Take this as a sign of trust.”
“Stand by your brother,” I told her and she obliged, stepping far away from me. “Don’t try anything, either of you.”
I took a quick glance to confirm that the knife was still in the far side of the room and that they couldn’t easily get to it. I clicked the latches on the briefcase open and the top part started to rise up revealing the contents inside.
Sat in the black foam lining was a pistol and two clips of ammunition.
“What you do with those bullets is up to you now,” explained Cleon. “You can either kill us and go back to a life of compliance or you can seize back control. It’s your choice.”
“Choice is something I haven’t had in a long time,” I replied as I slid one stick of ammunition into the gun.
“So what will it be?”
FIVE
Corinna fitted a comms device inside my ear and a tiny microchip inside my mouth so I’d be able to speak to and hear them wherever I went. I didn’t like that they’d be able to hear me but I wasn’t in a position to bargain, the opportunity they presented me with was too good to miss.
We agreed that the best way to take down Eli would be to disable the machine first and then take him on directly. I’d be back in my own body and I’d be able to make sure Will was safe and that there was no chance of anyone double crossing-us. This way we’d have the advantage as Cleon assured me no-one would be aware I was gone whilst I used the snatcher’s body.
Eli could still control people with my body for now but at least I wouldn’t be aware it was happening. They told me I may get the slightest glimpse of these other events but they were unlikely to affect me unless he had me controlling a large amount of people at once.
They’d masked my connection to the snatcher by tricking the machine into thinking I was controlling Cleon and then hiding that link so no-one could detect it. If Cleon died, then the system would be controlling a negative number of Tethers, the hack would be detected and I’d go back to my own body. They could have just hidden my connection to the snatcher but then Cleon wouldn’t have an insurance policy to protect his own life.
Their use of Tether technology was impressive, almost on the same level as Tobias. Cleon explained that he’d been able to progress so fast thanks to the information provided by the snatcher and old Seperationist blueprints. I presumed these must be the same blueprints that had led the snatcher to conduct his own experiments back at Javon prison.
Everything rotten in our world always had a habit of coming back to the Siege and the Seperationists. Part of me was glad Tobias had made them pay for what they did, even though they hadn’t meant to damage the world in such a drastic way.
We waited until nightfall so the cover of darkness would help me get out of the city. Corinna and Cleon explained they had spent years searching for Eli’s base and had never found it. I needed to reunite with my friends so we could find it together. After all there was one thing neither group had that only I could provide: the monster in my mind.
He’d been fairly negative about the whole thing, although that was par for the course with Tobias as far as trusting others went. He always wanted to believe he was right and that he alone knew the best outcome. Even now I could feel him thinking of a way to kill Cleon and keep the link going to the machine. He wanted me trusting only him and it killed him that someone else might help me stop Eli.
Cleon and Corinna served me a dinner of steamed chicken and rice. It felt strange to be eating again for the first time in seven years and I was thankful it was something bland. Keeping the food down was difficult as the snatcher didn’t have the best constitution and mentally I was used to being fed by a series of tubes.
Regardless of how hard the food was to eat, it was necessary. I wasn’t superhuman and if this body gave out then I wouldn’t be able to jump into another one. Because of the link I’d made with him, the snatcher’s body was the only one I could control and if he died that would be the end of this opportunity.
Corinna made me promise to get the snatcher back in one piece and the delicate phrasing of her words made me wonder if she had feelings for him. The very idea made me feel ill, that someone could love this monstrosity, despite all he’d done. After she told me I stood up suddenly, almost throwing up as I did and asked them to let me leave. The longer we sat around the more time we gave Eli to catch us.
Whilst Cleon checked his computers, Corinna handed me some clothes to change into. The snatcher’s golden mask and purple cloak would have led to me being spotted very quickly so I took the clothes with thanks. They were nothing fancy; dark jeans, a grey hoody, a navy blue jacket and a backpack that I stored the spare clip of ammunition in. The knife fitted in the jacket’s lining in a deep pocket that seemed custom made for it.
I looked at myself in the mirror. The outfit wasn’t fashionable but it would hide me well in the darkness and that’s what counted. My eyes were drawn to the snatcher’s face, my new face, and for a moment I couldn’t take them away. I looked across the many scars that he’d given himself in a misguided effort to save his sister.
Those scars must have been a constant reminder that he had failed her. It was no wonder he chose to hide his face behind a mask.
I pulled a black ski-mask over my face and hid the scars from view. They were starting to remind me of my own sibling and the times I had failed him so I was thankful to cover them up. It would also hide me better in the night and that was something else to be thankful for.
We left the base in a metallic black saloon car with blacked-out windows. Cleon sat driving in the front, whilst Corinna sat next to me in the back. She didn’t hold a weapon against me, she just sat there looking straight ahead.
“Does it hurt you seeing him this way?” I asked her.
She didn’t reply, she just kept looking ahead.
“Corinna,” I grabbed her arm. “This body belonged to a broken man, he did terrible things to me and my friends.”
She turned to look away from me and out of the window.
“I know what he did,” she replied. “Not all men are good but any man can be saved if they ask for forgiveness.”
“And did he?”
A long silence passed and she simply replied with. “Yes. Any of God’s children deserve forgiveness if they ask for it.”
I didn’t care for religion. It hadn’t saved our world when the Siege ripped through a billion people and any God that could allow that to happen wasn’t one I could believe in.
We drove past a row of nightclubs and I looked out of the window at the nightwalkers, the drug dealers and the alcoholics. These were the people Eli had left behind, even he couldn’t save everyone by taking control of them. They simply weren’t his priority.
“Could you forgive Eli?” I asked. “Some say he made the world better.”
“If he was prepared to seek forgiveness and put things right again then yes I could.”
“You too Cleon, what do you feel?” I asked.
“I think that’s enough talking,” he replied. “We’ve laid a lot on you today so let’s not embark on a spiritual debate right now. We do actually have to get you out of the city before daybreak.”
They stopped talking and I looked out of the window as the city passed by. It was no less breath-taking than the last time I had come here. Almost every building was a skyscraper of some
kind, even the smallest of corner shops had floor after floor of apartment space above it. The few buildings that weren’t countless feet tall were mostly churches. Somewhat ironic given that they had once been some of the few buildings to ascend up to the heavens.
“Soon,” said Tobias, inside my mind.
“What?” I replied to only him.
“I’ll figure out a way to get you free.”
“I am free. This is what we’ve been hoping for.”
“You call this free? First The Deck, then Q-Whitehall and now these fools? When are you going to stop working for others and start working for yourself?”
“I could start by shutting you out Tobias. Remember that you’re the one in my mind. I own you, not the other way around, ok?”
He didn’t reply. I’d probably pushed him too far but it drove me crazy how much resentment he had towards Corinna and Cleon. Sure, I didn’t trust them completely but it was either go along with them or kill them and go back to a life of servitude. I’m sure Tobias would hate that outcome even more.
Regardless of what he thought I reminded myself that he was just a voice in my head. I was the one with the real power.
Cleon parked the car outside of a large mansion on the outskirts of the city. I looked around in all directions to see that the estate was surrounded by trees that seemed to go on for miles. In the distance I could hear the rhythmic thudding sound of a train barrelling along tracks.
The mansion looked immaculate. I could see twenty windows each across three different floors that seemed to extend back a considerable distance. If I had to guess I’d say it contained at least fifty different rooms. Four of the windows were lit up, suggesting that people were inside waiting for us but I didn’t get to meet them.
Cleon beckoned me over and I followed him down a gravel path.
“Is this your home?” I asked him.
“One of them,” he replied. “It’s been in my family for generations.”
“But it’s on the edge of the city. Isn’t this where the have-nots lived?” I’d never seen a building in such good condition in the poorer parts of the city.
“Very observant,” he replied. “My family took in some of the poorer residents of the local area following the Siege and in return they helped to rebuild and guard this home.”
“So they were your slaves?”
“Ah, that’s such a tainted word, don’t you think? We gave them a second chance, we fed them and gave them a home. In return they worked for us. Is that wrong?”
Compared to the hard times I had experienced living in Smyth West, Cleon’s version of living didn’t seem so bad at all. Although it did make me further suspect the only order he wanted to restore was putting the have-nots back in their rightful place.
“We didn’t force them to do anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he replied. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or something like that.”
“So you’re religious like you sister?”
“Not quite. She sees religion in everything and turns even the tiniest of gestures into proof of some higher power. For me I just see it as a good set of values to live by. A little something to keep me on the right path when things get unclear.”
After ten minutes of walking, a ridiculous amount of time given that we were still on the same piece of land as when we started, we arrived at a double garage. Cleon retrieved a key from his pocket and slid open one of the doors. The lights of the garage flickered on, rebounding off the granite floor and illuminating the space to reveal a set of motorbikes proudly on display.
They were all classics from before the turn of the millennium, vintage Harley-Davidsons, Hondas, Kawasakis and other brands I didn’t even recognise. As beautiful as the bikes were my eyes were drawn to one of them in particular.
In the middle of the garage, raised on a pedestal like a trophy, sat the same type of motorbike that I’d had to leave behind in this city the last time I’d come here.
“Take it,” he said. “It is yours after all.”
“How did you get that?” I asked him.
“Oh, I have my ways,” he replied.
I walked over to the bike and ran my hands over the handlebars. The bike had been a gift from Will, one of the few that we’d been able to give each other. I’d always regretted having to leave it behind and seeing it again gave me a sense of relief.
Someone had given the bike a new paint-job, coating it in a metallic black that glimmered in the ambient light. Cutting through the black, ran a single white line that splintered as it got to the front of the bike and broke up into different colours, like light refracting.
“We made some cosmetic changes,” he explained. “But it’s still your bike. It still handles just like you remember it. We’ve also fitted some off-road tyres which you’re going to need.”
“Is it charged?” I asked. “It runs on solar power, so I won’t get very far in the darkness.”
“It’s been outside the past few days so should have plenty of charge,” he patted the seat. “It’s all stored in a battery just under here. You’ll have plenty to get to London.”
“And how do I do that?” I asked. “London is locked up tightly now with security checks.”
“Oh it’s simple really,” he replied, as he handed me a pair of night vision goggles.
SIX
Cleon’s plan was simple, but it was also crazy and dangerous.
Thanks to Eli bringing the country together many of the restrictions between cities had now fallen and it was easier to travel between them. However there were still perimeter checks around the outskirts of London and documentation had to be presented.
Whilst they could provide me with fake identification, being the snatcher didn’t exactly make me inconspicuous. I would draw attention and that was something I didn’t need. Cleon knew he’d need a better solution to get me inside.
After the State of London was opened a high-speed rail connection was built between it and Birmingham to encourage the rich residents of Birmingham to try the new city and hopefully move or set up businesses there. Because the train ran directly between both cities with no stops, documents were only checked at the start of the journey and the end of the journey.
This presented us with an opportunity. If I could somehow cut out the start and end of the journey then I’d be able to slip into London unnoticed. Unfortunately the train would be completely locked down whilst travelling. This would make it impossible for me to sneak onboard and meant boarding the train and jumping off before London was impossible. With the train travelling at over 150 miles per hour that also put an end to that plan.
That’s where the bike came in. I was to ride alongside the train-tracks all the way into London and then slip in unnoticed before the train stopped.
Sadly riding the bike proved difficult. Although I could mentally remember what to do, physically the snatcher’s body had no idea how to do it. For three hours I rode around the estate, learning all over again how to ride and how to make my new body respond to my old mind’s commands.
As I hit the floor for the twentieth time I shouted out in frustration and kicked the bike away from me. I’d landed hard this time, worse than the others and the bike had come down heavily on my leg. I got up to limp away from it and then fell back down. My hands hit the ground to support me and scrapped along the gravel path.
All I wanted to do was leave and yet it felt like starting again. A new body meant new rules and that meant using up time that I simply didn’t have. In-between the rows of trees I could see the faintest rays of sunlight starting to seep through. Morning had broken and we’d have to wait for another day if we wanted the cover of darkness on our side.
Corinna bought over a cold compress for me to place on my leg and she checked it to make sure I hadn’t broken anything.
“Don’t be discouraged,” she explained. “There’s a plan for each of us.”
“That’s right,” said Cleon. “And part of that pla
n is falling over again and again,” he laughed.
I didn’t laugh, it wasn’t funny and I was very aware of the fact that I could be dragged back to my own body at any time.
“You need to rest,” said Corinna. “That body can’t keep taking the beating.”
I wondered if she was worried for me or if she was just worried for the snatcher. I was running on adrenaline and didn’t want to stop. The sunlight continued to grow, its warming rays putting my plans on hold for hours.
“A good sleep is what you need,” said Cleon as he held out a hand to help me up. “You’ve got to give that body chance to adapt to all of the things it just learnt.”
“But I already know them,” I replied.
“Sure, but those muscles don’t and that body has been awake for a long time now.”
I asked them to let me sleep in the garage. I wasn’t ready to meet everyone back at the house, especially in someone else’s body. They agreed and made up a bed for me on the pedestal where the bike had once sat. They closed me in the garage and the lights switched off.
As I lay there in the darkness, with the faintest bits of sunlight poking under the doors, I started to wonder if I could even sleep. Back in the machine time made very little sense; I was pulled in and out of the light to different bodies in any given time zone and then returned back to the darkness in between. Was I awake in the light and asleep in the dark? I had no idea how it worked or if I’d return to my own body once I fell asleep in this one.
“We could leave now,” said Tobias. “You could take your gun, board the train and go to the city without your bike.”
“You heard them,” I replied. “The train goes at 150 mph, I can’t just jump on board.”
“Well then park the bike on the train-tracks. When the train has to slow down for it you can slip onboard.”
“But the doors won’t open.”
“You’ve still got your gun. I’m sure you can think of some way to make the driver open them.”
His plans were starting to sound desperate. They’d never let us onboard and even if they did we wouldn’t get into the city on a stolen train. Deep down I think he knew they were flawed plans but they were the best he could come up with right now.
