by Natasha Ngan
Silver did not see. If their city meant so much to those left in the ruins of the outside world, how could the Council not open it up to them? Not let the ones that had lived through the horror of the Great Fall have a chance at enjoying the life she and all the others had led whose home hadn’t been destroyed?
She shook her head. ‘Surely that gives Neo even more responsibility to help those people?’
Yasir gave her an almost pitying look. ‘Only a young person as selfless as yourself would think like that. Just think about it for me. Think why the Council would want these hills and valleys kept as ghost-lands in a magic man’s tale.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ Silver agreed, but she didn’t say what she added in her mind: Though I doubt I’ll ever believe it.
Yasir leant back, a wry smile creeping across his face. It crossed her mind that he might know more than he was letting on. She wondered for the first time who exactly this man was. Who he’d been back in Neo-Babel before he’d exchanged its world of grey streets and metal walls for this quiet green place where only trees and rivers stood in anyone’s way.
19
Red
Silver slept badly that night. She wasn’t used to the openness of lying in a bed, and the conversation with Yasir kept replaying in her mind.
Considering what had happened to Butterfly’s family, it did make sense, but she was sure there had to be another explanation. An explanation in which the Council were not murderers, razing whole settlements to the ground just because they … because they what? They were afraid that the arrival of outsiders would disturb the balance of the city? That they’d not have enough resources for everyone? Slaughtering people just to protect resources seemed horribly ruthless. Silver couldn’t image how the people she had grown up admiring – the people who’d taken her in and taught her to be exceptional, to be an Elite – could at the same time deal out death so coldly to people who had done nothing to deserve it except exist.
Then she remembered Senior Surrey’s threat of tracking her birthchip. She remembered the feel of Ember’s blade on her neck, the misery of the Limpets, and thought that maybe it wasn’t so unrealistic after all.
The hours crawled on, moonlight filtering in through the window above the bed. Emeli had given Silver her bedroom in her and Leanor’s house, while Butterfly, Leanor and Emeli were in Leanor’s bedroom. The three of them had not stopped talking since lunch. Silver could hear their voices coming from the neighbouring room. It made her think of her parents, and how happy they would all be when reunited.
She couldn’t bear to think of the alternative.
Finally too restless to try to sleep any longer, Silver pushed back the blankets and got out of bed. A long walk might help clear her mind. Taking care not to make any noise so she wouldn’t be called in to join Butterfly, Leanor and Emeli, she pulled on her jumper and trousers and opened the door.
Light seeped across the wooden floorboards from under the door to Leanor’s bedroom. A peal of female laughter sounded from behind it, and Silver recognised Butterfly’s low, slightly husky voice. She was just turning to leave when the sound of him speaking her name stopped her.
She took a few tentative steps closer to Leanor’s bedroom. The wood creaked under her weight, but no one seemed to hear it.
‘I remember Silver when she was young,’ Leanor was saying. ‘Always following you everywhere you went, like a little shadow.’
‘I can’t believe we’ve been friends for so long,’ said Butterfly, a smile in his voice.
‘Yes.’ There was a pause, and when Leanor spoke again her voice was quieter. ‘Now Emeli’s asleep, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. Silver – is she … is she your girlfriend?’
Butterfly laughed, a little too quickly. ‘No! She’s just a friend. My best friend.’
‘I know you, sweetheart,’ Leanor said. ‘Even if it has been ten years. You care more for her than just as a friend.’
There was a tense pause. Silver crouched behind the door, her heart racing, waiting for Butterfly’s answer.
‘You love her, don’t you?’ prompted Leanor gently.
Another pause. Then, so softly Silver almost didn’t hear it, Butterfly said, ‘Yes. I love her. I have done for years. For as long as I can remember.’
At his words, a thousand feelings rushed through Silver at once; excitement, fear, something new she couldn’t identify. Hope? Something brilliant, something terrifying. But what Butterfly’s mother said next swept all those feelings away.
‘I was afraid you’d say that.’
Butterfly gave a strangled laugh. ‘What?’
There was a long pause.
‘What, Mum?’ he repeated, his voice hard now. ‘Why were you afraid –’
‘Sweetheart, isn’t it obvious? She’s a Red.’
The words dropped like bullets in the thin night air. Silver shrank away from the door. Of course, she thought. It should have been obvious. No Mainlander would want their son to be in love with a Red. She was angry with herself. After a lifetime of insults and dirty looks, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. It shouldn’t hurt this much. Still, she didn’t want to hear any more. Her eyes filled with tears. As she turned to go back to her room, Butterfly’s voice stopped her for a second time.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? Silver is a Red?’
‘You know what I mean, sweetheart. I thought you’d know better than to fall in love with one of them –’
‘One of them?’
‘Well, yes –’
‘What does Silver being a Red have to do with anything?’
‘We know what Reds are capable of, dear,’ said Leanor. There was a pleading tone in her voice now. ‘We’ve heard stories from the travellers that have come through the village. The tales of the magic men. And remember the planes all those years ago –’
‘She’s nothing like that!’ Butterfly interrupted, so loudly Silver flinched. ‘You can’t judge her that way, shoving on her what other people have done. She gets that every day from people in the city. I would’ve thought at least she wouldn’t get it from you.’
The silence was tense. When she next spoke, Leanor’s voice was surprisingly cold. ‘Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ she said. ‘I can’t control what you feel or think, even though you are my son and I would have thought you’d have better sense than this. Love her if you must. Just don’t forget her blood runs Red.’
It was an old saying, one Silver hadn’t heard in a while. To hear it now was like a punch to the gut. She felt tears sliding from her cheeks as she crept back silently to Emeli’s room. Still fully clothed, she climbed under the blankets on the bed and curled into a ball.
Just don’t forget her blood runs Red.
Silver saw now that in leaving Neo-Babel, she herself had forgotten. Away from the taunts and whispers and looks of other citizens, away from the Stacks and the Limpets and the very fabric of the city itself, where the word Red and what it meant was stitched into the geography of the city, she had forgotten what she was. But she promised herself that night, as she lay crying, her tears riding the waves of Leanor’s words, that she would not let herself forget ever again.
The next morning, Silver slipped out of Leanor and Emeli’s house just after sunrise. Birdsong filled the air. A wispy fog clung to the bottom of the buildings as she made her way to Yasir’s house on the north-western edge of the village. His house was set apart from the others, facing out over neat patchwork land where the villagers grew vegetables and fruits. She was surprised to see him sitting on the steps of his porch, a glass of steaming liquid cupped between his hands.
Yasir smiled as she approached. ‘An early riser too, I see.’ He touched the space on the decking beside him. His smile disappeared. ‘Or perhaps just a restless night. Has our talk yesterday been troubling you?’
‘That’s not it,’ Silver replied, sitting down. She picked at a loose thread curling from the bottom of her trousers, gritty with dirt. ‘It’s
just … well, I’ve decided to leave the village today.’ She saw the look on his face and continued quickly before he could speak. ‘Seeing Butterfly with his family reminds me too much of my own parents. I have to keep looking for them. I was just coming to ask if you had any ideas of places I could try.’
‘To find them?’ Yasir stretched his legs down the steps. ‘I am not in contact with the other settlements nearby, but I do know where a few are. I can give you directions.’
Silver nodded. ‘Thank you. You’re not going to try and stop me?’ she added jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.
He barely smiled. ‘Your reasons are your own. I should not try to stand in the way of them.’
‘I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what your reasons were for leaving Neo?’ She’d asked him this question many times yesterday, but he’d not yet given her an answer.
Yasir laughed gently. ‘I do not suppose you will stop asking me?’ He met her eyes and smiled, before looking back out at the forest, his face solemn. ‘You are a sweet girl, Silver. You obviously care for Neo very much, and respect the Council. After all, they raised you into this fine girl that sits beside me. I do not wish to upset you.’
‘I know the Council aren’t perfect,’ she said, feeling a prickle of annoyance at his patronising tone. ‘I’ve seen the Limpets and the anti-birthchip demonstrations, and gods know I’ve had my own share of bad experiences with them. I don’t expect them to be perfect. But they’ve done a lot for me.’
If it weren’t for the Council and DNA streaming, Silver knew she’d have been nothing but another Red, struggling to make an existence in the worst-paid jobs in Neo, or maybe even running away to the Limpets to make a career as a criminal. I owe my life to the Council, she thought. I’m not about to turn my back on them just yet.
Yasir sighed deeply. ‘I suppose you should know the truth,’ he said. ‘See, back in Neo, I too worked for the Council.’ He set his cup down and folded his hands in his lap, looking out at the forest beyond. ‘I was a senior member of the Department of Engineering and Resources, managing a team handling the production and distribution of Neo’s sustainable energy. I take it you understand how the city’s energy supply works?’
Silver nodded. ‘The majority of energy comes from sustainable sources like the geothermal processor and solar panels. Then it’s transmitted across the city wirelessly.’
‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘And people are given energy permits based on their jobs, their household data, and so forth. Well, have you ever heard the term energy leeches?’
She shook her head.
‘It is a term the Council use for people who take energy from the wireless transmitter without permits, or who take more than their permits allow. It is very difficult to accomplish, and requires a lot of resources that are not freely available in Neo. But it does happen.’
‘Isn’t it easy to trace where the stolen energy is going?’ Silver asked.
‘Most of the time,’ agreed Yasir. ‘But sometimes it is more difficult. The energy has taken a by-route, meaning it has been leeched from one place but is consumed elsewhere. In those instances it is more difficult to uncover the leeches. We would shut one source, just for another to spring up. And there was a further problem. We started to notice that more and more energy was being leeched, but despite leeching sources being uncovered, thousands of watts of energy were un---accounted for. I checked the numbers again and again, but they remained the same. When I brought it up with the Head of Energy at the time, he was sure I was mistaken. He said we must be missing some of the leeching sources.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘I did as he instructed – checked for leeching sources we might have missed. But I could not find any. I became convinced there must be more to it. With Lee, one of my most trusted colleagues, I began a secret investigation into the missing energy. We went again over the numbers and kept exacting records on all energy transactions in the city. We managed to get help from an analystician called Nico, who built a model for us to test energy trajectories. And we modified our machines to expand the boundary for energy detection from that of the city walls to five miles beyond.’
Silver’s frown deepened. ‘Beyond the city? But why?’
‘One night,’ continued Yasir, ignoring her question, ‘we finally found what we had been searching for – an energy transmission that went over the wall.’
She gasped. ‘You mean energy was being leeched from the Outside?’
He nodded. ‘The numbers correlated with the un---accounted leeched energy, so we knew for certain that someone was leeching energy from beyond Neo.’
Silver shook her head, amazed. ‘Do you know who it was?’
‘We never found out,’ said Yasir. ‘But I have my suspicions. Having lived here in the village for six years now, I have seen many people from Neo pass through. Some have no idea where they want to go. They only know that they had to get away from Neo. But others head straight for a settlement just a couple days’ walk from here. I have never been myself to check, but I am fairly certain there is an anti-birthchip resistance there.’
Silver bristled. She was about to ask why there’d be an anti-birthchip group outside the city and why they were leeching energy when Yasir continued his story.
‘But just to find that energy was indeed being leeched from outside Neo was an incredible discovery. The three of us celebrated that night. After hours of drinking, Nico said he wanted to go back to the lab to run some tests. Lee went with him. I had too much to drink, so could not go with them. I dragged myself home, and the next day headed off to work as normal.’ He let out a deep, heavy sigh.
‘What happened?’ she asked quietly, fearing the answer.
Yasir looked at her. There was a hardness in his eyes that scared her. ‘There had been a terrorist attack by one of the anti-birthchip groups in the Council District,’ he said. ‘A bomb. When I arrived, there were policemen everywhere, and most of the Council District was cordoned off. The bomb had taken out half the Department of Engineering and Resources. My office and labs were completely destroyed. They had found the bodies of three employees who’d been working late that night. One was a policeman, and the other two …’
‘Nico and Lee,’ breathed Silver.
‘A little more than convenient, do you not think? All that work destroyed, and two of the people who had known about it gone with it. I have no doubt they wanted me dead too.’
She nodded. ‘That’s why you left. Otherwise they’d have done to you what they did to Nico and Lee.’
‘No,’ said Yasir, surprising Silver. ‘No, I was not afraid of dying. I left Neo because now I knew there were people outside. That people were leaving, and surviving, and learning about a life without walls. It had nothing to do with fear, or even rebellion. I just was not able to continue living in Neo after knowing what I now knew.’
They sat in silence for a while, looking out over the farmland, the dark line of the forest beyond. Silver thought about whether she could have stayed in Neo-Babel knowing what Yasir knew. What he’d told her yesterday and today changed everything. Everything she knew about her city, about the Council. Even her own place in it all had been tarnished and twisted and spoilt.
Yasir broke the silence. ‘The instructions to the nearest settlement. When would you like them?’
Silver had almost forgotten the reason she’d came to see him. ‘Can you give them to me now?’
‘Now? You mean to leave right away?’
She nodded.
He touched her shoulder. ‘Then we will miss you and Butterfly.’
‘Actually, I’m going on my own,’ said Silver, avoiding his eyes. ‘I want Butterfly to stay. He’s only just found his mother and sister again. I can’t take him away from that so soon.’
Yasir watched her carefully. ‘If you are sure. One moment.’ He went into his house, returning a minute later with a sheet of paper.
‘Thank you,’ Silver said as he gave it to her.
She looked down at the hand-drawn map and remembered something he had said earlier. ‘Yasir, you said something about a settlement two days’ walk away that people from Neo have been going to. The anti-birthchip one.’ She held up the map. ‘Is this it?’
‘Yes,’ he said, his expression growing dark. ‘And if my suspicions are correct, they are a very extreme anti-birthchip resistance.’
She smiled wryly. ‘I’ve been dealing with those all my life.’ She thought of the most extreme anti-birthchip group in Neo-Babel. ‘They can’t be as bad as the Pigeons.’
Yasir shook his head. ‘If what I’ve seen over the years is true, they might in fact be working with the Pigeons. That is why I thought you should know. You should not expect them to welcome you warmly, Silver, especially not once they discover who you are, and who you work for.’
20
A Chance
‘You’re sure they said tonight?’
‘Yeah.’
‘As in, Thursday? Thursday night?’
‘Yes.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Akhezo,’ growled Neve, ‘if you ask me again I’ll cut your tongue in half. I know what I heard. It’s tonight.’
Akhezo scowled. It felt as though they’d been hiding behind the stack of crates in the stairwell at the Limpets’ tunnel entrance for so many hours the night had come and gone, and he was growing increasingly restless. The only positive of spending the whole night in the stairwell was being so close to Neve. She’d brought along a book she’d stolen from Cambridge’s collection and was teaching herself to read. The book was propped against her thighs, and she leant back against the wall behind the crates, her fingers tracing lines of text. Akhezo kept stealing sideways glances at her. He liked watching her eyes moving as they followed the letters across each page. It made him think of her eyes roaming over him.
