by Peter Liney
“Clancy?” Lena started.
“It’s okay,” I told her, though the truth was, I was feeling just that bit faint.
There was this awful scratching, scraping noise and I looked out to see several of the growlers had got their jaws firmly into the bodywork, their legs locked, and with sparks flying from their metallic feet, were doing their best to drag us to a halt. I had to jam my foot down just to maintain our speed, the pain in my leg lancing down to my toes, seemingly impaling me to the floor.
I glanced across at Lena, checking she was holding up okay, her face like day-old ashes, and in that precise moment there was an explosion in my ear, and a growler came through my side window.
I hit the brakes, screeching to a halt with the damn thing actually wriggling away in my lap, its eyes flashing, those huge jaws snapping at everything—Jesus, I thought that glass was supposed to be unbreakable! Somehow I managed to reach through the pain barrier to grab its head with my damaged arm and, hugging it to my laser, shot it at point-blank range—it was taking a risk in such a confined space, but I had no other choice.
The growler went all limp and powered down, in an instant nothing more than a pile of junk on top of me
“Clancy! You okay?” Lena asked.
I picked up the growler, its weight almost too much for me, and with Lena supporting one of its front legs, just for a moment I scrutinized its face only inches from mine. Jeez, that was a killing machine if I’d ever seen one; those teeth could bite your head off. For sure I never wanted to be that close to one again. I was just about to throw it out of the window, to get it as far away from us I could, when suddenly it powered up again: the eyes lit up, the jaws snapped open and it let out a heart-stopping growl right into my face.
I don’t know how I dodged it, but somehow I did, lurching to one side just as those massive jaws snapped shut, taking a huge chunk out of my seat. Around me everyone was screaming. It was bedlam. I dodged this way and that, doing my best to avoid that damn thing’s teeth, its feet scrambling at my lap as it tried to get some kind of purchase. It bit into my parka and ripped it right off me, and somehow, in that moment of confusion, I managed to clamp my good arm around its jaws. The only trouble was, it was so damn strong its mouth kept opening an inch or two, with me straining to snap it shut again. I knew I couldn’t keep it up for long: I would’ve had problems with that thing normally, but the shape I was in, I could feel my grip starting to weaken.
“Clancy—Clancy!” Lena shouted, and I glanced her way to see she had her laser pointed at the growler but couldn’t get in a shot ’cuz I was so entangled with it.
I just about had the strength left to repel it one last time, and maybe, if she could knock it out for a few seconds, get it outta the limo.
“Do it!” I cried, shoving it as far away from me as I could, hard up against the dash.
I don’t know—maybe Specials were issued with different types of weapons or something, ’cuz I didn’t have to worry about throwing it out. Lena blew its head straight off and out the window. Or maybe it’s just she was a better shot than me. Either way, she made a real mess of it and I gratefully heaved what was left out and drove on.
This time I got up a little speed—the last thing we needed was another of those things coming through the window. God knows how fast they could run ’cuz they responded immediately, staying with us all the way, hell-bent on wrenching that limo apart. One of them managed to scramble up on the trunk and I could see it standing there, on the point of puncturing the back window. I slammed my foot to the floor, hurtling toward the gate as fast as I could, knowing I’d have to smash my way through, then, at the last moment, I swerved violently, flicking the tail around, dislodging the growlers, sending them rolling over and over and smashing up against the office wall.
“Special delivery,” I muttered, and glancing in the rearview mirror saw we’d only just made it through, that iron barriers were sliding outta the ground and stingers erecting their teeth across the entrance.
Jimmy, Delilah, Gordie and Hanna were hiding on the other side of the road. I pulled over, shouting for them to get in even before I’d stopped, not knowing how long those emergency barriers and the general confusion would delay any pursuit.
There was a lot of noisy jubilation as we sped away, most of it centered around seeing Lena again, a little at the fact that we had a limo, though Delilah was surprised to see its owner with us.
“You still alive?” she asked the doc, knowing immediately who he was.
“Just,” he complained, like he’d been the victim of a poorly organized adventure vacation.
“Wouldn’t be if I had my way.”
Dr. Simon went quiet at that, shrinking into the corner, appreciating how great the enmity was toward him and probably starting to wonder what his fate was gonna be. I decided to put him out of his misery. We didn’t have any reason to keep him any longer, so a little further down the street I pulled over.
“What about my limo?” he protested. “Do you know how much this cost?”
“I know how much it could cost you now,” I warned him.
He sighed, realizing it was hopeless, and waited for me to unlock the doors, but Jimmy wasn’t happy.
“You just gonna let him go?” he asked. “Back to his luxury lifestyle?”
“What else?” I asked.
He turned to Delilah like they had something planned. “You got it?”
“Yep,” Lile replied, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the hunting knife.
“Do it,” the little guy told her.
I wondered what on earth they had in mind, and Dr. Simon began scrambling at the locked door, pleading with them not to hurt him.
“What the hell you doing?” I asked as Delilah moved toward him, but she ignored me, leaning forward—I thought, about to cut his face—but she just nicked his ear and gave it a squeeze.
“Got it?” Jimmy asked.
“Yep,” Delilah replied proudly.
“You can go now,” Jimmy told the doc.
“But—”
“While you still can . . .”
I unlocked the doors and he got out, scampering off like a frightened rabbit.
“What was that all about?” Lena asked as I pulled away.
“We removed his implant,” Jimmy told her. “I erased all his records earlier. Dr. Evan Simon is now officially a ‘nonperson,’ just like us. He’ll be walking the streets and living outta trash cans until it gets sorted.”
I have to admit I couldn’t help but snigger at the thought of the doc rummaging through garbage in all his fraying finery. “And was it you who messed with the growlers?” I asked.
“Those Infinity people ain’t so smart,” he said. “I also set up a real cool collision with Dragonflies.”
“Damn near got us killed,” I complained.
Hanna and Gordie moved forward, peering over the back of my seat. “So what happened?” she asked.
I told them the whole story: right from when I’d regained consciousness in the hospital wing ’til the moment we’d crashed out through the main gates. Jimmy was as fascinated by Nora Jagger as horrified; kept saying again and again how much he wished he could’ve seen those limbs, maybe even analyzed how they worked. The only thing I didn’t mention—and nor did Lena—was Gigi’s possible collusion with Infinity. Ever since we’d thrown Dr. Simon outta the limo and she’d had no duty to perform she’d gone noticeably quiet, I guess wondering when it was gonna come out. But like I said, now wasn’t the time—and who knew when it would be?
I drove on, no longer feeling faint, relief making my various aches and pains dull into something almost bearable. We were passing through the city center, negotiating the usual scenes of fire and smoke, running gangs, looting and fighting.
“Thank God,” Delilah said.
“What?” Jimmy asked.
“We’re finally getting outta this place.”
Jimmy turned to look out of the window and almost immediat
ely gave this sharp intake of breath. “Stop!”
“What?” I asked.
“Stop, Big Guy! Here! Here!”
I screeched to a halt and he opened his door. “I’ll be five minutes.”
“Jimmy—?”
But it was too late; he was already pegging it across the street, heading up this narrow alleyway—only then did it occur to me that we were on familiar territory.
“Oh no!” I groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Lena asked.
“It’s the place he went gaming,” I told her, and the kids immediately started to snigger.
“What?” Delilah croaked. “You go and haul his ass outta there!”
I was so surprised he’d do such a thing with Infinity probably already combing the City for us . . . “I don’t believe him sometimes,” I growled, “I really don’t.”
“It’s his last chance!” Gordie explained from the back seat.
“For what?”
“To play! He’s going out in the country . . . and he’s old.”
“Oh, thank you,” Delilah commented sarcastically.
We went on like that for some minutes: Delilah and me annoyed, Lena keeping out of it, the kids sticking up for Jimmy so that, by the time we’d stopped, his five minutes was more or less up and we just waited in scornful silence, keeping an eye out for any sign of Specials, until finally Jimmy came pegging back across the street, a huge smile on his face.
“Look how happy he is,” Hanna cooed.
The little guy squeezed in, chortling to himself. “So cool! So cool!” he kept repeating, but Delilah was having none of it.
“What the hell were you doing?”
“Oh . . . You know,” he teased, knowing all too well we didn’t.
“Jimmy!”
“Putting the record straight!” he told her.
“What d’ya mean?”
“We can’t go without saying something, Lile.”
He had that look about him—I knew it so damn well—but I never said anything, just accelerated away. We’d find out soon enough.
In fact, it was only a matter of minutes: we were driving through a busy area, mostly intact and functioning, with not that many fires and plenty of shops and screens, when suddenly all the screens went blank and a familiar face appeared.
“Oh my God!” Delilah croaked.
“You’d be amazed how much power you can get from linking a lot of computers together, even in a video arcade,” Jimmy said, that smug smile now threatening to crack his face in two.
I pulled over for a few moments, sliding down everyone’s window so we could all catch what was being said. He really let them have it: spilling the beans, the can, and everything else too, revealing exactly what Infinity had been up to: how they’d lied about the satellites, that they hadn’t been a force for good at all but had been slowly poisoning everyone. How they’d lied about him, that the price on his head had just been an attempt to shut him up. And he’d left it on a loop, so that as we drove on and people were gathering around other screens, it kept playing over and over.
“Can’t they shut you down?” Gigi asked.
“Not really. I’ve set it up from alternating sources—it’s bouncing around all over the place. Maybe if they shut off the power—I don’t think they’d risk it though. Not tonight.”
In a way, I guess that was it: the sweetest of cherries on the most delicious of cakes. The final evidence that we’d done it: we’d freed Lena and come out best against Infinity. Everyone started congratulating Jimmy, giving him the praise he unquestionably deserved, but really, I think we were all congratulating each other, getting back some of that joy we’d experienced when we were floating across from the Island. Finally we were gonna gorge ourselves on the freedom we’d all got so excited about. Not only were we leaving that hell-hole of a city, but who knew, with a bit of luck, Jimmy might’ve started some kind of revolution. Not to mention that we’d slain the monster that was Nora Jagger. No wonder Delilah started singing, no wonder we all joined in, even Gordie, though he used a funny voice now and then, just to show he wasn’t being serious. Hanna exchanged smiles with him, Gigi looked that bit put out and I wondered if maybe we had a winner at last. For sure it looked like it. And suddenly I let out a long loud yell, frightening the hell out of everyone and giving myself something of a jolt in the shoulder.
“Clancy!” Delilah protested. “What the hell was that?”
“That was the sound of me appreciating the moment,” I told her, reminding her of the conversation we’d had in the churchyard, “’cuz I swear to God, at this moment, I got everything I could ever possibly wish for.”
And I was right. I did have everything: the woman I loved more than life itself was back at my side, our baby inside her and the three of us were escaping to freedom and a better life—not to mention our dearest friends with us. Yeah, okay, if I was really honest about it, I would’ve liked Arturo to be there, too, but I guess you need a little sadness to understand the true nature of joy. It was as close to perfection as anyone had a right to be, and how often do any of us get to say that? And for how long?
I drove slowly on, soon beginning the climb up into the hills. The smoke was nowhere near as thick as when we’d tried to leave before, and even with my broken window it was being pretty efficiently handled by the limo’s air-conditioning, so that, apart from visibility issues, we were barely aware of it.
I have no idea why it suddenly occurred to me—only that it did. I was going over what’d happened, the way you do after a little excitement—the things that could’ve gone wrong, the things that thankfully went right—and having this slight pang of guilt about the people I’d killed, the number of Specials’ lives I’d ended. I even started to count them, ’til finally I decided that wasn’t such a good idea and gave up. At least I’d only stunned those guys in the hospital . . .
And then, slowly, oh so slowly, it began to creep up over me, to get into my head, to burrow down into my mind. Oh no—don’t tell me . . . I couldn’t have!
I never said anything, just fumbled my laser outta my pocket, keeping it down in the gap between my seat and the door, pressing the status button and taking a quick look.
Aw, shit! Shit! How could I have been so stupid? That’s why Lena’s laser blew that growler’s head off while mine only stopped it for a few seconds. Jeez, how could I have been so damned forgetful? I never changed the setting after I zapped those guys in the hospital! I hadn’t killed anyone that night, just stunned them . . . and oh Jesus . . . oh God . . . Gigi used my laser on Nora Jagger! The same one I shot her with again as we left . . . She ain’t dead!
“Oh no!” I moaned, so desperately trying to keep silent it came out as a kind of tortured whisper.
“What’s the matter?” Lena asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just can’t believe we’re actually going free.”
Delilah gave a cheer from the back, the kids joined in, but Lena looked at me a little quizzically.
“Finally,” I added, as if to reassure her, but I could see she still wasn’t entirely convinced.
When we got to the top of the hills, we found a lookout point and stopped, everyone tumbling out of the limo, anxious to say goodbye to the City. Even in the dark, you could see how much less smoke there was, and fewer fires. We could only spot a couple of really big ones, and the others looked to be dwindling, on their way to dying, all that concrete and construction material impregnated with rogue rocket fuel finally degrading to nothing.
Lena came up behind me, carefully putting her arm around my waist, anxious not to cause me any pain. “You okay?” she asked.
“Fine.”
“You’ve gone a little quiet.”
“Too much excitement for an old guy,” I told her.
She smiled, though I still wasn’t sure she was convinced. “I’m so happy, Clancy,” she told me, maybe thinking I needed a little reassurance.
“Me, too,” I said, just about managing a q
uick squeeze.
I’d already decided I wasn’t gonna let it upset me, nor anyone else, come to that. I mean, maybe I was wrong—maybe there was another explanation? In any case, sometimes when people get stunned they end up having a heart attack and dying anyway. As far as I was concerned, Nora Jagger was dead, and that was an end to it—where we were going, it wasn’t gonna affect us one way or the other.
“You sure you’re okay?” Lena asked. “You took a bit of a beating.”
“Nah,” I replied, male pride winning out over the simmering fire that was my pain. “I was more worried about you and the baby. How hard she threw you up against that wall.”
We kissed and I had my first go at gently stroking her stomach. Lena laughed for maybe the first time since I found her in that hospital bed, and I fell in love with her all over again. And again.
Was she really the only woman in the City capable of producing a baby? Surely not; there had to be others—’cuz if there weren’t, they were gonna come after her for sure, and we’d never be safe, no matter where we went.
Thing is, I didn’t want any of this, and nor, I was sure, did she. We just wanted normality, to find somewhere nice to raise a family and have a full and happy life. What else would you expect from a simple old big guy? What could possibly bring him greater pleasure? Nothing I know.
“We’d better go,” I said, not wanting to chance staying any longer.
“Take a last look,” Delilah called over, and we all paused for a moment and did exactly as she suggested, gazing down at the smoky, smoldering carpet of a city, wishing that hell-hole the meanest of farewells.
“Think I can see the Square,” Delilah said. “Over there.”
I nodded, though actually the direction she was pointing seemed all wrong to me.
The kids turned back toward the limo, Jimmy and Delilah tagging on behind, but when I went to follow, Lena suddenly stopped, gripping my hand so tightly her nails were digging into my flesh.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, but she never replied, just remained perfectly still. “Lena?”
“I can’t see anything.”
“Yeah, well, I think that’s Delilah’s fanciful imagination,” I told her. “The Square’s over there.”
