“Bravo” Ptolemy said with an imperial clap of the hands.
“You go, girl,” Bartie hollered, with a clumsy grin on his face.
Zeke gave him a frosty stare. Clearly Bartie had a crush on Pin-mei big enough to eclipse both Martian moons. Zeke disapproved. But what should he do? As Pin-mei’s honorary big brother it was up to him to get rid of Bartie. He just didn’t know how to go about it.
“Thanks,” Pin-mei said, blushing. “The low Martian gravity helps.”
Ptolemy Cusp shifted on his seat. He was a broad-shouldered, handsome man with a wide and easy grin. Although a true-born Martian, he was of Japanese descent and had saffron-coloured skin and jet-black hair.
“Are you sure Ricasso was dead?” he said to Zeke.
“We saw the Dust Devil split his head open.”
“Then he’s been cloned.”
Zeke ran a hand through his blue locks.
“But this man was exactly the same age. The same scars. The same tattoos. All those weird signs and symbols.”
“Pfft, he’s a carbon copy.”
“What?” Zeke asked.
“Carbon copy machines reproduce exact copies. Totally illegal on Earth, of course. Readily available here on the black market.”
“But where would Enki get one?”
Cusp laughed. “From me. I sold it to him, two weeks ago.”
Zeke gawped. “Why would you do something like that?”
“How was I to know he’s a villain. He paid cash. American dollars, in fact, none of the M-dollar trash. I’ll buy a lot of weaponry with that.”
Zeke scowled.
Cusp ruffled his hair. “Come now. Nothing can happen to you while you’re under my protection.”
“Protection or imprisonment?”
Again Cusp laughed. “Once you’ve helped with my little Hesperian problem, Isla will escort you safely back to the Chasm.”
“Couldn’t you take off these chains, then?” Zeke said, shaking his good leg and the ankle bracelet around it.
“Twice before I entertained you, young Mariner. Twice before you absconded. It doesn’t exactly build trust, now does it?”
“At least let me heal my leg first. I need to lie down.”
“Ah, yes. Show me the hyper-spray.”
Zeke fished it from his pocket and handed it over. Cusp examined its markings.
“It’s a dud.”
“What!”
Cusp pointed out some numbers on the base.
“Five years past its use-by date. Inject it now and either nothing will happen or you’ll have an agonising death.”
“B—b—but, she was a nurse.”
Cusp tilted his head to one side. “That wouldn’t be Nurse Sandra, by any chance?”
Zeke nodded.
“Isla,” Cusp called out.
“Little busy!” Isla gasped. Pin-mei had her in a half nelson. Cusp waved instead to one of his guards.
“Sandra Bebinska is back in town. Put out a watch for her.”
He turned to Zeke. “Sorry, but you can’t have a wilderness without some wildness. Nurse Sandra specialises in stolen medicines, fake cures, that kind of garbage. If I ever get her, I’ll feed her to the Craton.”
The hairs on the back of Zeke’s neck tingled. “Did you say—”
Cusp lost his easygoing grin. “And that would be the little job I have for you.”
Zeke gulped. “If you think you’re dragging me back to the Beagle Research Station, you’re bonkers.”
A smug look flashed across Cusp’s face. “That won’t be necessary. It’s right here, in Biosphere Four.”
The cage stood in the centre of the domed hall. The bars gleamed under the powerful lighting. Four guards stood to attention, armed with ferromagnetic rifles.
“Every six hours we blast it,” Cusp said.
Zeke nodded.
“To neutralise it’s psychic powers.”
A dark, sooty boulder lay inside the cage, studded with crystal shards. Nobody would ever guess, from a casual look, that it was alive.
“How on Mars did you catch it?” Zeke asked.
Cusp gestured to Isla. She shrugged.
“The job took six of my best men and two didn’t come back. Those shards are razor sharp. Not to mention the vomit. Blinding, toxic and sticky as a spider’s web.”
Zeke rubbed his chin. “I don’t understand, how did you know it was there?”
Cusp and Isla exchanged glances.
Isla spoke first. “Trixie Cutter.”
“But you fell out with her,” Zeke cried.
Cusp coughed. “You know Trixie. A month after your last little escapade she came back on her hands and knees begging forgiveness.”
“And the fact she’s the number one arms dealer in Mariners Valley had nothing to do with it, did it?” Isla piped up.
There was the teensiest twinkle in her eye.
Ptolemy Cusp threw her a hard stare.
“She told us all about the Craton as a peace offering,” he said to Zeke.
Zeke’s mind was racing. “Don’t tell me, you want to use it as a weapon? If a revolution breaks out.”
“The revolution will break out. And soon. As leader of Freetown I need to do everything to protect my citizens.” Cusp’s voice was determined.
Zeke examined the man’s face, brave but ruthless. Every time Zeke met Cusp he liked him less.
Isla tapped her plasma-watch. “Gotta go. I’m giving Pin a crash course in Marjitzu.”
“Mar-what-zu?” Zeke asked.
Isla puffed out her chest. “Martial arts for the low Martian gravity. Developed by yours truly.”
“You’ve taken that girl under your wing,” Cusp remarked.
Isla nodded. “She’s so frightened. No wonder really. All the perils she’s faced on Mars. I’m just giving her a little confidence.”
Isla walked towards the auto-door.
“I’m surprised you haven’t taken better care of Pin,” Isla said to Zeke, and vanished.
Zeke looked at his feet. Isla’s words stung like disinfectant.
Cusp put a hand of Zeke’s shoulder. “Find out what the creature’s got to offer. Any kind of Hesperian weapons or technology.”
“And what can we give in return?”
Cusp stared blankly at Zeke. “Oh, I see. Obviously, its freedom.”
“You know it’s human,” Zeke asked.
“So you say. To me that’s irrelevant. Now get negotiating.”
He pushed Zeke nearer. A reek lingered around the cage, mud and vomit and chemicals. He leaned against his crutch and practiced a few Hesperian words in his mind. Then a deep breath.
“Kshnmlnwa!”
For an instant nothing happened. Then, the rock unfurled like a concrete flower. Arms, legs, a head. The creature squatted on all fours. Zeke found himself staring into its mutated face. The eyes were shiny white pebbles. Slivers of crystal punctured the lipless mouth. Charred skin cracked as the creature stirred.
“Remember me?” Zeke asked in Hesperian.
The creature said nothing.
Zeke gulped. “I want to help you.”
The Craton hissed. “You imprison me, and say you will help?”
“That wasn’t me. The adult beside me did that.”
The Craton twisted its head towards Cusp. “I will break his soft-body neck.”
Zeke gazed at Cusp uncomfortably. The great leader smiled benignly back at him.
“What do you want with Craton, child-from-the-third planet?”
“This man is after your secrets. Any Hesperian technology he can use in war. That’s why he’s keeping me. To communicate with you.”
The creature mulled over Zeke’s words. “And you are helping him?”
“No. Never.”
Zeke turned again to Cusp and beamed at him. Craton made a sudden lunge and rattled the bars. But the steel cage was unbreakable.
“Free me.”
“I want to,” Zeke said. “But I don’t know how.”
“Find a way. You did in my tunnels.”
So, the Craton did remember him.
“Alright, as soon as I get my powers back. But I need you to do two things for me.”
The Craton hissed again. Bubbles of thick saliva dripped from its lizard-like tongue.
Zeke drew himself up to his full height. “First, promise not to hurt anyone, not even this man.”
“He must pay.”
“Then I can’t let you out.”
The creature shuddered in a spasm of fury. “Craton obeys, child-from-the-third-world.”
Zeke narrowed his eyes. Could this mutation be trusted?
“What more do you ask?”
Zeke focussed on the words he needed. They drifted into the back of his mind. “Tell me your name. Your true name.”
Zeke braced himself, expecting the Craton to throw itself at the bars once more. Instead it greeted him with silence.
“Why is the creature quiet?” Cusp asked, frowning.
Zeke ignored him.
“Well?” he said to the monster.
“I told you before. Don’t remember the flesh name.”
Zeke cast his mind back to the tunnels beneath the ruined Beagle Station.
“What was it you said? Say your name and you’ll give back the vanished.”
Craton clutched the bars in its scabby fingers. “What do you know of them?”
“The astronauts who landed with you, a hundred and seventy years ago. They all disappeared. I think you know where they are.”
Craton spat out a glob of white venom. It hit the ground and sizzled.
“Tell me, if you want my cooperation.” Zeke said firmly.
There was a long pause. “The orb has them,” Craton said at last.
Zeke’s heart leapt. “Yes. You found an orb out in the dunes. Two billion year old technology. And you a psychic.”
“I am psychic,” Craton said in English.
Cusp’s mouth dropped.
Getting Craton to speak in its original language had to be a good thing. The risk was of Cusp hearing Zeke’ true intentions.
“You were born in the twenty-first century,” Zeke continued. “People then were primitive. Nobody knew about psychic powers. You were the one-in-a million, like me, with that power. You just didn’t know. But the orb found you. What do you remember, tell me.”
The creature sat back on its haunches. “The yellow orb. It glowed. So beautiful. I just wanted to touch it. Feel it.”
Zeke felt hot. He remembered his first encounter with an orb. It had called to him too. How he had yearned to touch it. How was he to know it would change his life forever?
“And?” he asked.
Craton pressed its hands against its stony cheeks. “The others didn’t understand. I had to hide them. The orb made me.”
“Hide them where?”
The creature shook its ugly head. “Shnth flrug,” it said. That meant it couldn’t remember. Or didn’t want to?
“Are they alive or did you kill them?” Zeke asked in Hesperian.
Craton erupted in a volcano of fury, rocking the cage from side to side.
“Calm down!” Zeke shouted.
His words only aggravated it further. Now it was straining against the roof of the cage. The bars were beginning to bend.
“Guards!” Cusp shouted.
One of the four soldiers pressed a button on a remote control. Dazzling bolts of electricity crackled around the cage. A smell of burnt flesh filled the room. Craton collapsed in a heap, writhing.
Zeke clenched his fists. Anger soared through him. “I’m getting you out of there.”
“What are you talking about?” Cusp asked.
“Oh, that he needs to obey you,” Zeke said, avoiding Cusp’s eyes.
“The boy is lying!”
The words came out of the blue. Zeke wheeled round to see Doctor Enki in the doorway. A triumphant sneer was plastered across his greasy face.
“Mister Cusp, Hailey’s planning to kill you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Back at Biosphere One
Zeke stood under a spotlight, leaning on his crutch. Ptolemy Cusp glared at him from the comfort of his throne. Enki sat on Cusp’s left. Isla the Incisor was seated to the right. Two guards flanked Zeke, armed with iPistols.
The auto-door swished open to reveal Pin-mei, Josiah and Bartie. Isla beckoned Pin-mei to join her.
“No, thank you,” Pin-mei said, walking to Zeke’s side.
“Young lady,” Cusp replied. “You’re not under suspicion, come to us.”
Pin-mei looked at her shoes and said nothing. Cusp flashed Isla a look but said, “Very well.”
Bartie shuffled on the spot. “Pops, maybe I should stand with —”
“No!” Josiah barked. They took the empty chairs.
Cusp cleared his throat. “Zeke Hailey, three times I trusted you, and three times you betrayed me. You will no longer be welcome in Yuri-Gagarin Freetown.”
“Does this mean I’m off the Christmas card list?” Zeke said softly.
“You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face in a moment!” Cusp bellowed at the top of his voice.
Everyone jumped. Everyone accept Zeke. He was too mad to care any longer.
“So this is Freetown justice? Condemned on the say-so of this crook?” He thumbed at Enki.
Cusp calmed himself.
“Professor Enki is here as my consultant. He was listening in the adjacent room to verify your translations. Do you deny his testimony? That you conspired with the monster to kill me?”
Zeke threw back his shoulders. “That man kidnapped us—”
Cusp raised his hand. “What happens outside the Freetown is not my concern. Do you dispute his allegations?”
Zeke rolled his eyes. “I did not conspire to kill you. I did tell Craton that I would help him escape.”
“After it threatened to break my neck if it got out?”
Zeke hesitated.
“Um, well, yes. But—”
“No buts!” Cusp shouted. “You admit your guilt. The only matter now is to decide your punishment.”
Three hands shot in the air. Even Cusp seemed surprised.
“Let me take them to Edenville,” Cain said.
“No, no,” Enki piped up. “Release him to my custody. I’ll take very good care of him.”
“Tolly, please,” Isla said. “We should send him back to the Chasm.”
“Enough!” Cusp barked. “Put them in the brig until I decide.”
The brig turned out to be a bare, airless cell not much bigger than a toilet. There was one locked door made of cast iron. The empty room stunk of tobacco and sweat.
“Fitch Crawly has it better in the Tithonium asylum,” Zeke remarked sourly. He and Pin-mei were sitting on the floor, with nothing to do but stare at blank walls.
Pin-mei gave him a hug. “At least we’re together.” Her moon-shaped face cracked into a beaming smile.
Zeke tried to grin back, but couldn’t. “You’re always so happy.”
“I am when I’m with you,” she replied.
“But Isla said something. About you feeling scared.”
Pin-mei’s smile faded. “Whatever you’re feeling inside, greet the outside with good cheer. That’s what my mother taught me.”
Zeke scratched the ground with his thumbnail. “So…all the time I thought you were alright with everything, you were feeling pretty awful?”
Pin-mei shrugged.
“I let you down,” Zeke said.
Pin-mei squeezed his arm. “How is saving my life letting me down?”
“I failed to keep you safe in the first place.”
“Zeke!” Pin-mei cried. “Nobody could. We’ve been chased by dust devils, assassin boulders, and a demon from the dawn of time. But you made sure I survived.”
Zeke sighed. “I guess so. What about this marjitzu? Does that help at all?”
Pin-mei thought for a second. “Karate chops wouldn’t stop the Spiral. But they might Enki.”
“That’s a yes, then?”
She nodded.
“It’s like you’re changing,” Zeke said, after a long silence.
“I’m growing up.”
Zeke chuckled. “Well, obviously. Remember when we first landed on Mars. Everything was so different, the land, the air, even the sunlight. It made me…”
“Disorientated?”
“That’s the word,” Zeke replied, rubbing his chin. “That’s how I feel around you now.”
Pin-mei’s eyes opened wide. Zeke always thought they were like fresh chestnuts. Dark and shiny.
“It’s the same for me, Zeke. Now you’re leaving the Chasm.”
A wave of guilt swept over him. “I’ll come back, wild comets couldn’t stop me.”
Pin-mei shot him a look that said ‘don’t pretend’.
Somewhat to his surprise, Zeke choked up.
“Everything’s happening so fast,” he said. “Damn Enki for getting in the way.”
Pin-mei balled her fists. “And if you go, who’s going to stop him freeing the Spiral?”
Zeke’s collar had never seemed hotter. He needed something to change the subject. “Maybe Bartie?”
Pin-mei’s face dropped. “You know he’s not psychic.”
“I mean, you two are so inseparable. I thought—”
“Zeke, are you jealous?”
“Of course not!” Zeke replied quickly.
Pin-mei giggled. “He’s my friend. But you’re my honorary brother and always will be.”
“Pin, don’t you see. He’s got feelings for you.”
She shuffled away. “Zeke, you’re wrong about that.”
“You don’t know how he looks at you.”
Pin-mei’s expression hardened. “You’ve got Bartie all wrong. He’s funny and sweet.”
The Particle Beast Page 8
