Kymiera

by Steve Turnbull

  Nothing on the ground floor. He just needed something with her DNA.

  It took less than thirty seconds to discover that the Purity had completely stripped her room. He went and stood in the middle of it. Even the carpets were gone. No furniture, no clothes, no bed.

  Then someone said. ‘Bastards.’

  He spun round and she was standing there in the doorway. So thin she looked almost emaciated. The two growths on her back looked like they might even be longer than they had been yesterday. But it might only be because she was only an arm’s-length from him.

  ‘Chloe.’

  She focused on him. She was holding something in her hand but he did not want to spook her by shining his light.

  ‘DI Mitchell. We have to stop meeting like this. People will talk.’

  ‘They’re already talking,’ he said. ‘They’re wondering why I didn’t shoot you last night.’

  ‘You would have missed.’

  He turned slowly, the flashlight pointed towards the floor; he brought it around so its light pooled to one side of her.

  ‘I’m a very good shot.’

  ‘I know. I used to admire you.’

  ‘When you weren’t in my sights?’

  ‘Yeah. That puts a whole new complexion on the world.’ She glanced away for a moment, looking over his shoulder at the window, then focused back on him. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘I wanted to find some DNA of yours.’

  ‘Why bother? You can see what I am.’ The extra limbs behind her back twitched and moved, spreading out. Wings. ‘My teacher said there are sometimes clean transitions, where everything blends properly. At least at first. But it always ends the same.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve heard of them. You’re the first one I’ve seen.’

  ‘Lucky me.’

  Mitchell hesitated. ‘Can I have a mouth swab?’

  ‘Why? You’re police, not the Purity.’

  He nodded. ‘That’s exactly why I want it. We’re doing our own tests.’

  ‘Why should I—’ She turned abruptly. He flashed his light across her hands. It was a photograph she was holding. ‘They’re back.’

  ‘Turns out my diversion didn’t last very long.’

  ‘You better get out of here if you don’t want them to find you,’ said Chloe.

  ‘You’re concerned about me?’

  ‘They won’t even see me. There have been some benefits to this change.’

  ‘Mouth swab?’

  She hesitated and then left the room. He followed and saw her go into the bathroom. There was the sound of opening and closing a cupboard. She returned with a toothbrush. She put it into her mouth and rubbed it on the inside of her cheek. Then handed it out to him. ‘I hope you have somewhere to put it.’

  He had a plastic bag he’d brought with him. He let her drop it in. ‘Thank you,’ he said as he tucked it inside his jacket. ‘The Purity is no longer trying to catch you or use you to find the kidnappers.’

  She nodded. ‘Just trying to kill me.’

  ‘A freak on the loose, and one that’s had as much publicity as you, it’s not good for their image. They need you dead to save face. Preferably killed by them.’

  ‘I’ll give them a good run for their money while I’ve still got my mind,’ she said. ‘I’m still trying to find my friend and the other girls. Do you have any idea where they are?’

  ‘We’re still looking.’ The question of how much he dared tell her hung in his mind. Ultimately she was still a citizen he was supposed to protect and not put in harm’s way. Yet she was a target and that was now a foregone conclusion. ‘We are sure Utopia Genetics is behind it. They want you and girls like you.’

  ‘You mean Melinda is a freak too? And the other girls?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She nodded. ‘I suppose I knew. It’s the only thing that made any sense.’

  She lifted her head and smiled. ‘They’ve seen the light you’re carrying. They’re coming in.’

  Mitchell heard the doors slam.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll draw them off so you can leave.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  She looked him in the eye. ‘You would have missed,’ she said again. ‘But the fact you didn’t try means something. I won’t forget.’

  In a motion that was so easy it defied analysis, she leapt over the banister and into the stairwell. There was a noise, shouting, and a gun went off. More shouts as the Purity team gave chase.

  He smiled. ‘That went better than expected.’

  Chapter 14

  Sapphire

  ‘Let me in, Saffie.’

  She froze with her hands deep in the washing-up water. She stepped to the side and dried them on the tea-towel without hurrying.

  ‘Saffie!’

  ‘Wait.’

  She looked around the room. There was nothing here that was anymore incriminating than before. Thought crime. Everything she had done was in her head and they couldn’t get at her there.

  ‘Open the damn door, Saffie!’

  ‘I’m coming.’

  She couldn’t delay any longer. He did not push his way in when she unlocked it, but waited until she had opened it and stepped inside. She locked it behind him.

  ‘Hi, baby,’ he said. She let him take her hand and pull her closer so he could kiss her. She turned her head to the side and his lips brushed her cheek instead.

  ‘We broke up, Chris. Remember?’ Not that he didn’t think it was his right to still treat her the way he always had.

  She looked in his face and saw half a dozen scratches down his cheek that were yellowing into a bruise.

  ‘Oh my god, what happened to you?’

  He looked really pissed off and growled. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘That’s not nothing, Chris, you look like you’ve been mauled by a bear.’

  ‘There was an explosion.’

  ‘And you survived?’ she said. ‘Amazing.’

  He ignored her. ‘Get me a drink.’ He turned away and sat down on the sofa.

  If she had had any cyanide she would have put it in the beer she poured for him. Brewing beer continued in Britain. It was one thing they could do even with all the changes. This wasn’t a good beer, and she wouldn’t have minded spoiling it with some poison just for him.

  She even contemplated using the iron to smash his head in as he sat there. But she’d had that thought enough times before that she knew she wasn’t going to do it. Whatever she did to him, it had to be humiliating.

  ‘What explosion?’ she asked as she come round and handed him the glass.

  He said nothing and drank it down in one. ‘Jesus, that’s crap, haven’t you got anything better?’

  She suppressed the fear that kept threatening to engulf her and turn her back into the whimpering submissive he loved to abuse. And that she loved to be. Had loved to be. Putting all her trust in him and letting him do anything he wished to her. As long as he told her he loved her afterwards.

  But she didn’t need his love now. She knew where her love lay—even if Chloe didn’t love her back, that wasn’t the point. She knew that love was selfless, but that did not mean it had to be a victim. She could love Chloe and do whatever she needed for Chloe without being asked and without being forced. Mrs Vogler and those two girls had shown her that, by their distrust. She would prove that she was worthy to be Chloe’s lover.

  What she needed was information.

  ‘Do you want me to put something on that?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s fine.’

  ‘How did you come to be in an explosion? There was nothing on the news.’

  ‘Mitchell wanted to talk to some criminal lowlife about the kidnapped girls. Dragged me down there and the place blew up before we could talk to him. Waste of time.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said sympathetically. ‘You got hurt, and no closer to the kidnappers.’

  He grabbed her by the wrist and twisted it. She bit down on the cry of pain.

  ‘You haven’t asked me about your
precious Chloe Dark.’

  ‘She’s not mine. I’m not allowed to have her.’

  ‘Damn right,’ he said. ‘Well, let me tell you anyway. How your pretty little Chloe is a disgusting freak, sprouting extra arms from her back. Already she’s in the cage fights. Fighting for her own survival against monsters three times her size.’

  ‘She was in the explosion?’ squeaked Sapphire, as if she didn’t know that Chloe had escaped.

  ‘She got away. But she’s not going to get far. She’s got no friends, no one will shelter her and she can’t survive the cold out there.’

  Sapphire wanted to shout in his face: She has friends, people so dedicated to her that they wouldn’t trust me, and I would shelter her and so would they. ‘That’s how it should be.’

  ‘It’s not. We’ve lost face over this, Saffie, we need to get her in the open and kill her.’ He pulled her down on to the sofa next to him and then leaned over on to her. In a moment he had clamped his other hand on her neck. ‘I’m going to find that little bitch and I’m going to squeeze the life out of her with my bare hands.’

  His grip on Sapphire’s neck tightened. The pain increased as he crushed her windpipe and cut off her air supply. She had seen the manic look in his eyes before and that time she had been on crutches for a few weeks while her ankle bones knitted. She felt around with her hand as her body screamed for air and her lungs convulsed in the attempt to breathe.

  She found the cold glass of beer. She smashed it on the side of his head. Glass fragments rained on her face. His hands released her as he cried out. She rolled away and tore her throat as she took a breath. She coughed and drew in another breath.

  She needed to get away. She clambered to her feet, almost tripping over a chair. Chris was swearing and screaming at her. His words incoherent. She got to the door, unlocked it and stumbled out into the passage.

  ‘Get back here, you fucking bitch!’

  She stumbled to number 33 and hit the door with the flat of her hand repeatedly.

  ‘Who is it?’ came the voice from inside.

  ‘Saffie, get back here. Now!’ Chris was at the door. His face was streaming with blood.

  ‘It’s Sapphire Kepple, Mrs James, please let me in. Please.’ Her voice was harsh and it hurt to make any sound.

  ‘Come on, Saffie,’ he said. ‘It was just a joke. You know I wouldn’t really hurt you.’

  The door beside her opened and Mrs James was there. Warm air flowed from the room and it smelled of food and family.

  ‘Can I come in, Mrs James?’

  ‘Jesus, your face. You’re covered in blood.’

  ‘It’s not mine,’ said Sapphire. ‘It’s his.’

  Mrs James peered out.

  ‘Saffie, please!’

  ‘Of course you can come in, honey.’

  ‘Saffie!’

  ‘Fuck off, Chris,’ she said. ‘You can bloody well fuck off forever. And my name is Sapphire!’

  She went into the warmth and Mrs James shut the door behind her.

  Chapter 15

  Chloe

  She climbed back in her bedroom window. Evading the Purity team had been easy, they hadn’t even returned to their vehicle yet but Mitchell was gone. It looked as if those animals had stripped the house of all her stuff. Every shred of clothing, and they’d wrecked the place as well. She went into her parents’ bedroom and sat down on the bare mattress in the cold.

  Being a ‘nice’ neighbourhood, with citizens who helped to support society in clear and positive ways, the street-lamps—a few of them—were allowed to operate. Yellow light filtered in from the outside through the closed curtains. The wardrobe door hung open and she could see herself in its mirror. A shadow of herself. The clothes she had managed to grab protected her to some extent from the cold, but they weren’t enough. She shivered.

  And the hunger was biting again though she thought perhaps it was not as bad as it had been.

  Her extras shifted, she could feel the muscles flexing, and she saw them move in the mirror behind her back.

  She pulled the photograph from where she’d hidden it close to her skin. Fanshawe Crescent. She had never looked it up and the terminal here had no power. She stared at the image of her parents and the Voglers. What if she went to see her Aunt Mary? She wouldn’t turn Chloe over to the police or the Purity. She would tell her where Fanshawe Crescent was. And give her clothes. And food.

  She went back through her room and flung herself through the window with scarcely a thought. A click of her fingers showed her everything she needed to know as she landed lightly on the snow and then bounded into the alley beyond.

  It took her less than two minutes to cover the distance, travelling in a straight line through gardens and over houses that barely slowed her progress. Using a brick wall as a launch pad she jumped to the top of the Voglers’ house then climbed down the outside of the building. As far as she could see the house was not under surveillance.

  When she had been a good citizen and had taken her news from the media, it had seemed that everything was perfect and controlled—even the freaks were killed. Then the facade had been torn away. Now that she was on the wrong side of the law, she could see how the police and the Purity were thinly spread. The appearance of control was only the focus of the media.

  She tapped on the window to the lounge where the interior light was on.

  The curtain was pulled back slightly and she had the strange feeling of invisibility as her aunt peered out and did not look up. Chloe moved slightly and her aunt’s gaze flicked upwards to where her niece’s face hung upside-down.

  Mary Vogler screamed.

  Chloe dropped, turning as she did so, to land on her feet. She brought her fingers to her mouth. Her aunt realised who it was, took a moment to recover and turned her head inside and shouted to her husband to open the front door. She closed the curtains as Chloe dashed for the door and hung in the shadows of the porch until it was opened.

  Her aunt’s arms went round her and held her tight. ‘Chloe, sweetie, oh god, I was so worried.’

  ‘Mary,’ said her husband. ‘Let her go.’

  ‘Don’t be silly.’

  ‘Look at her back!’

  The arms loosened and Chloe stepped away. She knew her uncle wasn’t being threatening. She also understood his caution, but S.I.D didn’t get transmitted by touch under normal conditions.

  Her aunt’s eyes went wide as she took in the extras.

  ‘You’ve got wings, honey.’ The tone of her voice was almost awe.

  Chloe shrugged. ‘I’d be happy not to.’

  ‘Of course.’

  There was an awkward pause. She could imagine her aunt wondering what you said to someone who was on the run.

  ‘Have you got anything I could eat?’

  Her aunt smiled. ‘Of course, dear, what else do you need?’

  ‘Clothes—if you don’t mind? I had to steal these and they really don’t fit.’

  She dodged to one side. ‘Don’t touch me, Uncle.’

  He stood there like a child caught raiding the biscuit tin.

  ‘Geoffrey!’

  ‘Sorry, the wings are fascinating.’

  ‘You don’t go around touching people without their permission normally, do you?’

  ‘Of course not.’ He hesitated. ‘I’m sorry, Chloe. You know I have a thing about birds.’

  She tried to make her smile look genuine. Then she followed her aunt into the kitchen and when she sat she moved her wings automatically so they were over the back of the seat.

  Chloe tucked into a plate of food that her aunt managed to rustle up. She even drank the nettle tea without complaint.

  ‘Your teacher called me.’

  Chloe put down her knife and fork. ‘Miss Kepple?’

  Her aunt nodded. ‘She wanted us to tell her if you came to us. I told her she could stick it.’

  Chloe smiled. ‘I bet she didn’t like that.’

  ‘I think she was going to cry,’ she
said. ‘It was very strange. She had those friends of yours on the line as well, Kavi and the rude one.’

  ‘Ashley?’

  ‘Yes, her. I told them not to listen; they didn’t seem to like her much anyway.’

  ‘No, they wouldn’t. Is that all she wanted? Did she say why?’

  Mary Vogler shrugged. ‘She said she wanted to help you. But she’s the Purity. You can’t trust anything she says.’

  ‘Do you know what’s happened to Melinda?’ asked her uncle finally. Chloe had been expecting the question sooner but the Voglers were so polite they probably felt it would be wrong to push their personal needs on to a guest.

  Unfortunately Chloe could only shake her head. She hesitated to tell them she thought their daughter had to be a freak, just like her. And that Utopia Genetics were probably the ones who had her. The first fact would scare them and the second might have them marching on Utopia Tower. Then there would be questions as to how they knew and they might just be disappeared.

  ‘I don’t know where she is,’ she said carefully. ‘But I’m still looking.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You might be able to help me, though.’

  ‘Anything, sweetie.’

  Chloe dug into her clothes and brought out the photo. ‘Where was this taken?’

  Her aunt glanced at her husband and then back at Chloe. ‘That’s the clinic.’

  ‘The IVF clinic?’

  Mrs Vogler nodded.

  ‘I know what IVF is now. Miss Kepple explained it to me.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You must have really wanted Melinda.’

  Her aunt reached over and squeezed Chloe’s hand. ‘We did, as much as your parents wanted you. You have to want a child very much. It’s ... difficult.’

  Chloe waited for an appropriate amount of time and then said, ‘Can I use your terminal?’

  ‘Of course.’ She gestured to the machine in the corner.

  ‘I know this is rude, but can I use it privately? I don’t want you to know anything about what I’m doing, so that if you have to answer questions you can be honest.’

  ‘Yes, dear.’ She got to her feet and gave her husband a stern look. ‘Have you had enough to eat?’

  No. ‘Yes, thank you.’