Gemsigns

by Stephanie Saulter

  ‘This is brilliant,’ Eli said quietly. The man looked at him.

  ‘No, Dr Walker, it isn’t. It’s obvious. But it wasn’t three hours ago. It’s become so because of what you just did up there.’ He swallowed and looked at the floor for a moment. ‘That’s not to say it’s what will happen. There will be serious opposition. Bel’Natur will fight for their proposal.’

  ‘I’ll fight for this one,’ Rob said. Eli nodded.

  ‘That’s what I wanted to make sure of, that this idea would have your support. Both of you. I’ll discuss it with colleagues over lunch.’ He hesitated. ‘It would be helpful to know how the gem community feels.’ Eli and Rob looked at each other.

  ‘It’s not my place to speak for them,’ Rob said. ‘But I’m as sure as I can be that it would be welcomed. Eli?’

  ‘That’s my feeling as well.’

  ‘We’ll run it past Aryel Morningstar and get back to you. Where can we find you?’

  ‘I’ll be working with the legal team when I’m not in the main hall. Here’s my comcode.’ He pulled out a tablet and tapped at it.

  ‘This is pretty brave of you, Mr Temple.’ The man looked up at Eli in surprise. ‘Bel’Natur has a long reach. As do the others.’

  ‘The gemtechs can—’ He stopped himself, shook his head. ‘Fortunately I don’t have to care what they think. This is an issue that my wife and I feel very strongly about.’

  ‘What a dark horse you’re turning out to be, Jeremy.’ Rob chortled. ‘I hear you’re newly hitched. And expecting.’

  ‘Yes, well.’ He was nervous suddenly, but blushing and beaming nonetheless. ‘Once we knew the baby was coming we thought we’d better get a move on.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ said Eli.

  *

  They found Aryel having a hurried conversation with Gaela. She threw Eli a warning look and he put a hand on Rob’s arm, stopping while they were still out of earshot. Gaela looked close to tears. She gave Aryel a brief hug and practically ran from the room. Aryel activated her earset immediately.

  ‘Commander Masoud, I’ve heard. I can be reached for another hour.’ There was a strained anger in her face that Eli had not seen before, but her voice as she left the message was as level and musical as ever.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  She told them about the apprehension of John Senton. ‘Callan identified him from a photo, which allowed the officers to run his DNA. It’s tied him to all three scenes.’

  ‘You mean the godgang sent a spy to try and infiltrate the Squats?’

  ‘That’s what it looks like.’

  Rob swore quietly but forcefully for a good half minute. Eli glanced at the door Gaela had disappeared through, then back at Aryel. She gave him a tiny nod. He hoped that Rob would not think to ask the obvious question.

  ‘How did they spot him?’

  Aryel sighed. ‘Gaela’s son figured it out.’

  ‘Her son?’ Rob frowned. ‘How? I thought he was only little.’

  ‘He’s five. He …’ She shook her head. ‘Will you forgive me if I don’t go into exactly how he knew? Gabriel has a unique ability. It means he often finds things out by accident. This one was a bit too much for a child his age, and he wants his mama.’

  ‘Okay …’ Rob looked from Aryel to Eli, sensing, maybe, some shared knowledge. Eli hurried to change the subject.

  ‘We’ve got some news for you too. On the back of my show this morning.’ He realised that he still did not know her reaction. ‘Umm. I’m not sure it was what you were expecting.’

  ‘I didn’t anticipate you would make the case so forcefully.’ The smile she gave him punched a warm hole in his chest and did something very strange to his diaphragm. ‘It’s official, by the way. You are definitely one of the good guys.’

  He remembered the exchange from their first meeting, and chuckled. ‘I think we might have found another one.’

  She listened to Rob’s account of the conversation with Jeremy Temple while they sat down to lunch.

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘Solicitor. Top firm. He used to do work for the gemtechs back in the day. Stopped a few years ago – from what he told us I’m guessing when all the nasty stuff started coming out he decided he didn’t want to be part of it.’

  ‘He sounds perfect.’ She broke off a piece of bread and nibbled at it. ‘I was hoping someone besides me would float this solution.’

  Rob stared. Eli laughed. ‘You had it in mind all along?’

  ‘I’ve always thought that if the world were as it should be, there would be no categories, no divisions between or amongst us. But we are where we are, and that is not a notion most people are going to be able to accept very easily. I expected to have to fight a rearguard action. I still might. But the chances are better if it’s someone else’s proposal.’

  Rob pushed his chair back. ‘I’ll go and tell him. And then I’m going to see what Conference security know about this guy at the Squats. If they tried it there …’

  ‘I suspect Masoud’s security planning is better than the UC’s.’ Aryel shook her head ruefully. ‘Poor Tobias. He’s going to be apologising for a month.’

  Rob hurried off and they were left on their own. Eli caught the murmurs and sideways glances from the delegates at surrounding tables. The other gems were dotted around the room, one each at tables otherwise full of norms, in what he thought must have been a deliberate strategy.

  A tacit demonstration of what integration might feel like. I bet they’re all like Horace – articulate, polite, non-threatening. He wondered if he should be finding the manoeuvre appalling instead of admirable.

  He had never dined with Aryel before. He was surprised by how much she ate.

  She caught him looking. ‘High metabolic rate.’

  ‘You don’t need to explain to me.’

  ‘Yes I do.’ She smiled. ‘I eat like a gillung.’

  He glanced at the bulge under her cloak. ‘Is that why?’

  ‘It’s part of it.’ Again that sharp blue gaze. ‘What’s bothering you, Eli?’

  He told her what Zavcka Klist had said. ‘Is it true?’

  ‘About my cloak? Yes.’

  She regarded him quietly for a moment as he pushed vegetables around his plate. ‘Look. I have work to do. I need people to listen to what I’m saying. My particular gemsign would be a distraction.’

  ‘If people knew you were using military camouflage to hide it, it would be even more so.’

  ‘True.’ Her brows creased as she mopped up the last of the sauce on her plate. ‘The implied threat, of course, being that Bel’Natur will leak that if they feel like they’re losing ground. They haven’t so far because they think if the world turns in their favour they might be able to get hold of me and find out if what’s underneath has any commercial value. I understand they haven’t got anywhere trying to parse my genome, which must be driving them crazy. But you’ve put them on the back foot now. They must realise the odds are against them getting me or anyone else back into a lab. Even if an unrestricted version of the murder vid mysteriously finds its way onto the streams, its impact will be reduced. And if your friend Mr Temple’s idea gains any traction, discrediting me will become that much more important.’

  She dispatched the final forkful, chewed and swallowed. Eli was staring open-mouthed.

  ‘You knew all this?’

  ‘Just thinking it through aloud.’ She dabbed at her lips with a napkin. ‘How very helpful of Miss Klist. I almost feel I should thank her for the advance warning.’

  ‘I’m sure that wasn’t her intention.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right. But have you noticed? She has quite a temper.’

  24

  Through the open door of their private dining room Felix Carrington and Zavcka Klist could just see Aryel Morningstar and Eli Walker deep in conversation. Felix had furiously instructed the rest of the Bel’Natur team to go out and mingle.

  ‘And remember to be nice to the fucking gems. Since
they’re just the same as us now.’

  As soon as they were alone he rounded on Zavcka.

  ‘What did I tell you? What did I fucking tell you? He’s a secret weapon all right. Just not fucking ours.’

  ‘I didn’t—’

  ‘What the hell is supposed to happen now? You said you had this under control. The right incentives, remember? We were going to present the optimum solution. Not so fucking optimum now, is it?’

  ‘I disagree.’ She felt strangely calm. Maybe it was a reaction to Felix’s hysterics. Or maybe the failure of grander schemes had simply cleared her vision. ‘You heard them. No one was expecting that from Walker. Trench and Morningstar might have known but I don’t think the other gems did. Even the liberals don’t know what to think.’

  ‘How exactly does that fucking help us?’

  ‘Felix, stop swearing at me.’ She snapped it sharply enough to shut him up. He blinked at her in astonishment.

  ‘The result of Dr Walker’s performance is that we are now the only ones who have a solution to present. Everyone else was waiting for him to outline sets of criteria for different classes of gems, onto which they could then map their preferred plan. We weren’t. We started from a position that the only categories that make sense are ours.’

  ‘He’s just said there aren’t any!’

  ‘He can say whatever he likes. There still needs to be a structure. People still want to know where gems fit into the world. We’ll tell them. And if they say it’s not in keeping with Dr Walker’s analysis, we’ll say we don’t agree with him but even if he’s right, so what? We still have a mess to sort out. We still have gems who should be working for a living and aren’t. We still have limited public money with which to support them. We still have companies that were deprived of their assets even though they never broke any laws. Are you listening to me, Felix?’

  ‘I’m listening.’ He spat it out.

  ‘Our plan is based on resources and functionality. We point out that we’ve already built in all the protections to make sure gems aren’t taken advantage of, health and safety, all that crap. It can still work.’

  Oh it’s our plan now, is it? He had got himself under control but he was seething.

  ‘And how do you propose to manage that? Speaking as an expert?’

  She ignored the sarcasm. ‘The press will have his report by now. Since it patently does not solve any real-life problems, I say we release our proposal as well. All channels, just go for it. Let’s see which one the streams like better. Along the way a few other facts will emerge that the public will find relevant. At the end of the day the decision will be made by politicians, and they go where the votes are.’

  Much as he disliked admitting it, she did have a point. Maybe they could still pull it off. But she was not going to be calling the shots, not any more. As soon as this was over he would find a way to get her out. Until then he needed to stay calm, take control of the situation, remind everyone who was really in charge here.

  He entered a drink order on his tablet and tried to make his tone conversational. ‘So you think if we just ignore Walker everyone else will as well?’

  ‘Felix, right now the majority of people at this Conference would love to ignore Eli Walker. We need to show them that they can.’

  *

  Gaela sat on the floor with Gabriel, watching carefully. The electromagnetic signature flickering around his head, always stronger than anyone else’s, pulsated in time with his breathing. She was looking for any change, any sign that the trauma of the day had inhibited his talent. Or enhanced it. It had seemed bigger than usual when she first got home, spiky and strange, and she wondered if the horror he had sensed had scarred him in ways beyond their reckoning.

  He had been calmer by then, but had still flown into her arms and clung on like a limpet while he told her about the bad man and his terrible, terrible thoughts. She had asked him to show her what they looked like, maybe see if they could take the images out of his head and put them somewhere less scary. He was working with his tablet now, little fingers tracing coloured lines and shapes onto the screen. She glanced at what he was drawing, and shuddered.

  Bal reached down over her shoulder, handing her a steaming cup. He dropped a quiet kiss on her head and retreated back to where his tablet was propped up.

  ‘Mama?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Is Aunty Aryel okay?’

  ‘She’s fine. Why?’

  ‘Because of the bad man.’

  ‘He’s in gaol, baby.’ She reached over and stroked his head. ‘Remember? The police took him away and they locked him up.’

  ‘But he has friends.’

  ‘Was the bad man thinking about Aryel?’ asked Bal.

  Gabriel nodded without looking up from his tablet. ‘Yeh. Not out in front like with you and Uncle Donal. Deep down.’

  ‘Deep down, what?’

  ‘Bal,’ said Gaela.

  ‘Deep down she’s who they hate the most.’

  Gaela scooted next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. ‘I just left her at this big meeting where she’s trying to fix things so everyone is safe. She said to give you her love and she’ll come see us when she gets home tonight. There’s lots of people there, lots of police. Dr Walker’s there. Nothing will happen.’

  ‘And, you know,’ Bal said, ‘it’s Aunty Aryel. They’d have to catch her first.’

  Gabriel looked up. Bal raised an eyebrow at him. Gabriel smiled back. Gaela sighed and stretched her legs out, back propped against the sofa.

  ‘You two. Honestly.’

  There was quiet for a few minutes then. Gaela sipped her tea and watched her son’s aura slip all the way back to normal. He glanced up a moment before they heard a knock at the door.

  ‘Sally,’ said Gaela and Gabriel together. Bal rolled his eyes at them and went to open it. Sally Trieve stepped inside, returning his and Gaela’s greetings, drawn face relaxing slightly as she spotted Gabriel sitting cross-legged on the rug.

  ‘Hi, Sally.’

  ‘Hey there, Gabe. How’re you doing?’

  ‘Better.’ He looked up. ‘Thanks for taking care of me today.’

  ‘Oh …’ Gaela and Bal heard her voice catch in her throat. Only Gabriel heard her say, Oh, sweetie. You don’t have to thank me.

  ‘You’re welcome,’ she managed aloud. Then to his parents, speaking softly but without secrecy, ‘I wanted to see how you were. What Gabriel went through today … obviously it’s not quite like anything we’ve dealt with before, but there are things we can do to help children who’ve witnessed tragedies, violence …’

  Gaela rolled to her feet and went over. Gabriel stayed where he was. The grown-ups spoke quietly for a while. Sally refused tea and pushed herself out of her chair.

  ‘The Conference,’ she said, on her way to the door. ‘Someone told me Dr Walker basically started it off with a hand grenade. I know you had to rush home, but did you hear anything …?’

  Gaela chuckled. ‘That’s a good description. He was fantastic.’ She caught herself. ‘At least we thought so. I don’t know if you’d agree.’

  ‘Yes she would.’ Gabriel looked up from the rug. ‘Sally’s good.’

  ‘Gabe.’

  ‘What? She is.’

  Sally Trieve was laughing in spite of herself. ‘Coming from you, my lad, that is a high compliment. And yes, if what I heard is true I’m very much a fan of Dr Walker.’

  ‘His report’s just out.’ Bal indicated his tablet. ‘What did you hear?’

  ‘That he said gems and norms are the same, basically.’

  Gaela shook her head. ‘He didn’t exactly say that. He said the ways in which we were different didn’t mean we were abnormal, and that by and large our behaviour is affected by environment more than engineering. And he said something else interesting, which a lot of people in the room didn’t like. He said that since the Syndrome they had created a homogeneous society, where there weren’t any more big disagreements a
round things like race and sex and religion, and everyone could expect to have good health and long life and strong kids and so on. And he said the reality of gems is a challenge to that, but a healthy challenge. Something the norms should be glad to get back.’

  ‘Wow.’ Sally shook her head. ‘I’m going to have to think about that.’

  ‘But the godgangs do disagree. With everything.’ Bal glanced at Gaela.

  ‘The bishop who came with Tobias pointed that out. Eli said that’s true, and one of the ways to understand the godgangs is as a reaction against the fact that there aren’t really that many divisions any more.’

  Gaela’s gaze drifted over to Gabriel. He had discarded the tablet and was working instead on another tower-tree of blocks. This one had multiple trunks, connected via a network of branches. He was concentrating on it, ignoring the grown-ups. His mother’s face was thoughtful. ‘He had a great line – he said we’re in an arms race between intellect and instinct, and sometimes instinct wins.’

  UrbanNews.ldn/headlines/current

  GODGANG MEMBER CAUGHT BY GEMS

  The police have confirmed that a 32-year-old man has been apprehended in connection with the murders of two genetically modified men in London this week. The men were killed in separate incidents on Wednesday night and in the early hours of this morning.

  The suspect was arrested shortly before 11 a.m. in the neighbourhood known as the Squats, where many gems have settled since the Declaration. His identity has not been released, however witnesses at the scene have identified him as John Senton, formerly a member of a United Churches congregation in northwest London. Current UC members involved in providing relief to the gem community claim that Mr Senton presented himself as a volunteer, and that they had no reason to doubt his sincerity. There is speculation that Mr Senton’s real motive for volunteering may have been to facilitate the activities of a group which has been engaging in violent attacks against gems.