Code Noir

by Marianne de Pierres

  And then what? I’d had a gut full of religion. For something that was meant to give comfort, it had a long track record of getting people killed.

  ‘What about Mei? How did she know me?’

  ‘You are psychically linked,’ said Ness.

  ‘Joke, right?’

  She placed a hand on my arm. I felt a tingle like a double shot of tequila. She removed it as if proving a point. ‘We all are - from our shared experience. That is why we were able to help you. The elder karadji will use this connection as well, if they can. My guess is that they need you to defeat Tulu.’

  ‘What can I do that they can’t?’

  ‘Your psychic energy is uncommonly strong - though raw. That’s why you have not shape-changed. The parasite battles hard to possess you, but you resist. You have it . . . trapped.’

  ‘Y-you can sense it in me? You believe it’s real?’

  ‘As real as we are.’

  I don’t know that I liked that answer. Lately, real had become very unreal. ‘Well, the Cabal can have Billy, but I’m taking the rest of you home.’

  The shamans exchanged glances. For the first time Arlli pushed her dirty veil back from her face. Her skin had started to blister into ugly lesions from exposure to the crawl. In fact all of the shamans showed the beginnings of it.

  ‘You can’t,’ she said. ‘See this?’ She brushed the sores. ‘We have to protect our own people from this sickness, even if that means we fight with the Cabal.’

  I glared at Billy Myora. ‘The Cabal are colonialists. They just want more territory,’ I argued.

  Myora shrugged as if my thoughts were of no consequence to him, but he listened intently.

  ‘No, Parrish,’ said Tug. ‘They seek what was theirs. To heal it.’

  I folded my arms in disagreement but my head told me it didn’t matter if they were right or wrong. Whatever the Cabal’s motives, it had to be better than letting this wild-tek infect the entire Tert.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ I asked.

  Ness spoke for them all. ‘Stay and fight. Perhaps gain them ground.’

  I sighed. Couldn’t someone ask me to do something easy?

  ‘I’ll stay, but you - all of you - go home.’ I turned back to Glida and Roo. ‘The karadji owe me for him.’ I nodded at Billy. ‘I’ll use it to get you across. Roo, you must take the ma’soops back to Torley’s. Tell Teece to find room for them in the barracks.’

  ‘If you use your psychic link again, to bargain with them, you risk losing yourself,’ Ness warned.

  ‘Sure.’ The space around us had begun to creep with noise and movement. ‘The canal is only a few blocks away. Let’s get there first.’

  I stood and urged them forward.

  Fat-tail grabbed my hand and pulled me along. ‘Torlee’s, Tor-lee’s,’ he chattered.

  His excitement spread among the ma’soops. They clicked and squealed with renewed energy. Wombebe snuck under my elbow, her scaly hand stealing into mine. She clicked and whistled in sadder tones.

  ‘M-iss Parr-ish,’ she said.

  I pushed her ahead of me. ‘Don’t.’ I didn’t need that sort of extra attachment. Not now.

  Her scaled face fell.

  As we hurried on, Roo fell into step beside me, his round, young face gloomy. ‘I’m useless. My targeting system is out and my blades are melted.’

  ‘Just take them,’ I said flatly. I had no energy left for holding anyone’s hand. I needed to untangle myself from all of them if I was going to do what I had to.

  ‘But Teece told me to stay with you, no matter what.’

  I fixed him with my most dogmatic stare. ‘Tell me Roo, what do you call Teece?’

  He scratched his hair, eyes fretful. ‘Uuh? Teece, I guess.’

  ‘What do you call me?’

  ‘Boss, boss.’

  ‘So you work it out.’

  He scratched again and gave me a resigned, tired nod. ‘Guess I’ll take them home then.’

  Home. I kept thinking about that word as we found a spot to shelter in the last line of villas that ran along the canal.

  Ness and Chandra Sujin drilled me on how to relink with Mei and the Cabal and explained how they would try to block them if need be.

  Ness clicked her tongue. ‘Concentrate, Parrish.’

  I closed my eyes and attempted to focus my thoughts.

  ‘Empty your mind. A meditative state will allow you to leave your body,’ said Ness.

  But my mind had other ideas. It resisted, running away from my control like a scared kid. ‘Can’t do it,’ I muttered.

  ‘Yes, you can!’ hissed Chandra Sujin. He tugged fiercely on my arm.

  ‘What about the parasite? It killed the others. It killed Vayu. You’re risking your lives as well,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, we are.’

  This time I herded my mind into a corner and invoked the taste of tea with sugar. My mouth watered. Without realising it, my mind lifted and drifted. A vista unfolded below me like one of Jamon’s war-sims - excepting that these contestants only had one life.

  ‘See the channel of light issuing from the far side? That is the Cabal. Get close enough to begin your link with Mei.’ Ness spoke in my head.

  ‘How?’

  ‘Is there something you share in common?’

  ‘No! Well . . . perhaps . . .’

  Daac’s image spontaneously filled my mind. Teeth flashing, dark skinned, intense. His fingers inside me, giving pleasure.

  ‘Stop!’ Mei’s shrill voice shattered the picture.

  It got her attention. ‘I need to link with the Cabal, Mei.’

  ‘You aren’t strong enough—’

  ‘Save it!’

  She gave a mental sigh. ‘Always the tough one, Parrish. Remember you asked.’

  She diverted a thin stream of her energy toward me. I felt it unite with the Cabal and tug like a fast watercourse.

  A storm of power coursed into me. It peeled open my mind and burst my senses with colours and aromas.

  Ancient memories unwound before me - dreamtime rituals of ochre-daubed faces. Wimmen’s business - drinking dugong blood, dilly bags full of cramping berries . . . Then newer ones of stolen lives, urban subsistence and lost stories.

  An instant later the torrent of knowledge vanished but the energy raged on, like a cyclone, tearing me apart. I felt Ness and the others struggling to bind me, keep me whole.

  ‘I want these people to have safe passage across the canal,’ I said.

  The Cabal buffeted me in reply. ‘Where are our karadji?’

  ‘Only Billy Myora lives.’

  ‘Then he was right.’

  ‘Who was right?’

  ‘Bring Myora to us.’

  ‘Only if you give these people safe passage across.’

  ‘We don’t bargain.’

  The wind roared and shrieked. Ness’s grip weakened. Then Stix’s. Slipping . . . Tug. Arlli. None of them strong enough. I began to unwind. Soon I would tear and the watercourse would drown me.

  A shadow fell. A shadow with broken teeth and dripping saliva. The teeth scraped across my neck, hoisted me up high on to its back.

  ‘Can ‘t stay on, it’s too fast.’ I panted.

  I slipped down and the water picked me up and slammed me. Thought blackened. Life squeezed out of my pores. I felt it leave . . . violet and violent.

  No!

  NO!

  The Eskaalim’s protest doubled mine. It lent me strength and resolve. I grabbed the watercourse with my hands and twisted with all my strength.

  It writhed and buckled in pain.

  ‘Give them safe passage or I’ll choke you and Billy will perish.’

  ‘We cannot. The houngan battles us.’

  ‘Find a way.’

  The channel contracted in one angry, complicit thought.

  ‘We try. Bring Myora and we will send someone.’

  ‘Parrish? Parrish?’

  Glida was shaking my shoulders. Dry saliva crusted on my face. My
jaw ached with clenching. Slowly her face came into focus, flushed with colour by the the glow of the fires razing Mo-Vay.

  ‘How long?’ I asked.

  ‘Too long.’ Her eyes were wide and scared. ‘They attack. Roo shoot them. Tug gone.’

  I looked around. The ma’soops huddled around Roo’s legs. Two bodies lay a short distance away. Thankfully they weren’t Twitchers or we’d be dead. A sticky brown substance oozing from the pavement had already begun to coat them.

  My heart hammered at my throat. The shaman lay spreadeagled behind me. All except Billy Myora and Tug.

  Myora squatted in the first patch of sunlight staring at the tide-swollen canal.

  ‘He no help,’ Glida said. ‘Roo try make he. Ness say no - better not.’

  ‘Where’s Tug?’

  She shrugged.

  ‘He came out of the trance before the rest of you and left. I figured I better stay and watch, not follow him. We dragged you away from the others,’ Roo explained. ‘They were screaming. When we moved you from the circle they stopped.’

  I crawled over and felt their pulse in turn.

  Relief threatened to black me out. They were alive. ‘You broke their trance?’

  ‘B-bad thing?’ Glida stammered.

  ‘I don’t know.’ And had the Eskaalim and Loser really saved me from the Cabal? A liaison that mean . . . what? I didn’t . . . couldn’t think what. ‘Where’s the canrat?’

  ‘Gone.’

  ‘What do you mean, gone?’

  ‘When we dragged you from the circle he started howling. Then he just bolted.’

  ‘Remind me to get him some sugar dough.’

  Roo and Glida exchanged the-boss-has-really-freaked glances. I didn’t let it worry me. Freaked was better than dead.

  I think.

  ‘Come on. Get them up. You’ve got a boat to catch.’

  An oarsman in fatigues and dull gold piercings battled the dark, swelling water of the canal to collect them. A faint blur dogged his journey and I wondered what the Cabal had sacrificed to get the raft past Tulu.

  When he landed none of the shaman argued about leaving. They’d spent their courage surviving.

  I singled out Roo. ‘You got ammo left?’

  He patted his leg compartment. ‘A round for each piece.’

  ‘That should do. There’s plenty of snake and lizard on that side. They’re starving. Kill some straight away and eat them but leave the diamond pythons alone,’ I told him.

  He only wrinkled his nose slightly. He was as hungry as the rest of us.

  The raft took two trips to ferry them across. The Gurkha and I forced Billy Myora to stay until the second trip. It might not work against the crawl but on human flesh it was dandy. He regarded me with sullen indifference and I wished again that old Geroo had been the one to survive.

  Ness gave me a renewal before she went - exhausting herself to fainting. Stix gave me a scowl that could have meant anything - probably condemnation of what Ness risked for me.

  Arlli removed her veil and handed it over. ‘It will help you go unnoticed,’ she said. ‘Give it to me later.’

  I took the filthy piece of gauze, smarting at her faith that I’d return.

  Glida and Wombebe were the last to get on the raft with Billy. I squeezed Glida’s arm.

  She nodded. I could see the gratitude and apprehension in her eyes. Neither made me feel good. I watched the raft to the other side with heavy relief. Roo would see them home.

  I believed that.

  A drizzle had started up. I cupped it in my hands and wet my tongue, sucking greedily. The canal turned brown, as if the fresh raindrops had stained it. To the north, below the clouds, the air crackled with a peculiar, unhappy light. Like two worlds rubbing each other raw.

  Mei was right. For a girl who didn’t like spirit shit, I was becoming a real buff.

  It struck me then that none of them had said a word about Tug leaving.

  I spun in a circle. ‘I can’t protect you. I doubt I can protect myself. You can come but you’re on your own,’ I shouted out.

  He materialised from an alleyway and approached. ‘You will need me to heal.’

  I wanted to groan aloud to match the agitation in my belly, but a trickle of excitement quickly superseded it. The Eskaalim was back, stronger. I’d let it loose in order to survive against the Cabal’s spiritual power. Now I would pay for it.

  I glanced around for Loser. The damn unpredictable canrat hadn’t reappeared.

  Not able to think of another reason to stall, I moved on, keeping to the cover of the last line of villas, following the canal north.

  As the clamour of chaos and fighting got louder, I forced my way into the top floor vantage of a villa. With Tug’s help I kicked the boards from an old window. Twitchers roved the banks for several klicks in either direction of the maelstrom. They waded in amongst the mob, hauling them from the sides, trying to drive them back to Mo-Vay.

  Tug grabbed my hand and pointed back east.

  The skyline of Mo-Vay glowed with an unsavoury crimson tinge, as if the roofs were bleeding into the new morning sky. The fibre optic towers glinted: beacons in the sunlight. A heavy scent floated in - cloying, damp, electrical energy and recomposing matter.

  On the gutter of the nearest villa, secretions burst and dripped from abscess-like growths. Dark mould stained the walls behind us, and below thick webs spread across openings. Tiny tremors heralded small eruptions in the pavements. The whole of the Inner Tert seethed and mutated with eerie purpose.

  ‘What have they done?’ I whispered. The blood lust simmered deep inside me, but fear chilled my skin.

  Tug shivered at my side. ‘Maybe it’s too late. Even for the Cabal.’

  I looked back to the canal. Several rafts bobbed upside down slowly sinking, their oarsmen drowned. Were these the decoys the Cabal had risked to get their last karadji back?

  Was he really worth it?

  Along the canal a dull noise built. Suddenly the water began to break its banks: a puddling that turned into a stream, and then a flood across the pavement. Twitchers and punters caught in the rising water convulsed and collapsed.

  On the other side more Cabal launched their home-made rafts. With the upsurge of water, the Cabal seemed to gain a tiny momentum. Tulu’s salvos began to fall short and their earth-heat dissolved them in hot, conquering gusts.

  Where had the extra strength come from? Surely not Billy Myora.

  As the water flooded the first line of villas, hope revived in me. Where it came into contact with the wild-tek, it sizzled and steamed, dissolving the offensive substances.

  ‘Maybe not. I don’t think it can cross the water - must be the copper in it.’

  ‘But what about the people? What will happen to them if they don’t get out? What will happen to us?’ asked Tug.

  In answer to his question Priers crammed the sky with ’Terros hanging from their bellies, their ’corders extended to full range.

  The gust of their props lent Tulu a physical edge and the Cabal’s rafts began to wallow and tip dangerously, the oarsmen fighting natural forces.

  A mob pawed the banks screaming for the rafts to come and save them. Some fled further north and south looking for another way.

  Guilt assailed me. I’d just bargained to get Roo and the ma’soops rafted across. But what about these people?

  Too many of them, I reasoned.

  Or was I just the same as Loyl Daac - selecting who deserved to be saved?

  Tug watched me, sensing my uncertainty. He would follow my lead, and his trust was just another burden.

  I shook a fist at the hovering Priers. ‘I have to get to Tulu. She’s stopping the Cabal’s rafts from crossing,’ I said. ‘Wait here. Watch for them. When the rafts reach this side, get as many people on board them as you can. If something goes wrong and things go to crap . . .’

  ‘I couldn’t abandon others, Parrish.’ Tug flexed his powerful hands as if wanting to touch something.


  I shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’

  I slipped out of the building and on to the pavement. Arlli’s veil cloaked me in an anonymity that made me uneasy - as if I had no identity. I reached for the comfort of the Cabal dagger and remembered Loyl had it.

  Where was he?

  I ran east, pushing past punters running the other way. The majority of them still clustered in villas near the old monorail crossing, watching for the rafts, downwind of the maelstrom. Fear and confusion ravaged their faces. I’d seen it before, in the recent gang war. Yet this was different. These people didn’t understand their enemy, or know how to fight it.

  Nobody recognised me. Nobody stopped me. I shut out their panic and concentrated on controlling the blossoming urge I had to kill anyone who bumped me. The closer I got to the maelstrom, the deeper and more violent my mood became.

  I felt like I was being followed. Using the feral’s mask to block the stench, I ran as close as I could to the flood line. My eyes skimmed the surface of the murky water. Haze arose where it intermingled with the crawl.

  Would the copper stop it? Or would it accustom and continue to spread?

  A racket behind me drew my attention. I turned, searching the teeming pavement for the source. A moment’s glimpse at something dropped the base from my world.

  A shout and a splash as a pair of Twitchers tossed something into the flooding canal.

  Not something. Someone.

  The hat spun away and the body floated for a second before the water gobbled it down.

  I recognised the hat, and the sweet face.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Roo!

  My throat closed over. He must have come back for me! He must have . . .

  Shock and anger took over. With all the energy and malice the Eskaalim could lend me, I burst through the crowd to get at the Twitchers, taking them both from behind with a kicking blow that knocked them down and jarred my foot. Senseless to the pain, I fell on the pair, hoisting one of them to the same fate as Roo.

  I twisted the other one’s neck like a screw top, until my shoulders popped with the strain. He managed to drag my veil and mask away before he sideswiped me with a metal baton.