We each have our epiphany, I thought. This was something I couldn’t judge.
Theo was barely conscious when we came back in. He drifted into sleep soon after. His breathing grew laboured as we sat there, as members of the community came in to say goodbye, to hug Elaine and Neil and me, to remember good things that he had done.
Sometime in that afternoon, slowly and without warning, Neil’s mind merged with mine, and we sat with our grief — but comforted because we were together.
At five o’clock or thereabouts Theo died, and Priss howled, over and over, and I wished that I could howl as well.
We buried him next day.
Since the plague most bodies are incinerated, in case they walk again. But Theo’s body is part of the soil of the utopia that he loved, where he found at least partial peace and happiness. Elaine and I have planted a garden on his grave, daffodils and primulas that grow under the apple tree that Neil planted as a headstone.
I miss him. I don’t suppose there is an ending to that either.
chapter 62
Neil and I can Link now as fully as any members of the Forest. Not for very long — for some reason both of us find it uncomfortable to communicate that way when we could use speech instead. But for the emotions that words don’t quite reach … yes, MindLink is wonderful then.
And Michael? There’s another story with no ending; nor any end in sight now either.
chapter 63
Neil had gone over to the apple culture labs. I was pottering on a CityNet — the City still hasn’t Proclaimed me again, so I’m free to use their Net, though they have forbidden the procedure that created me.
I wasn’t Engineering. I think the utopia’s beach is the last Virtual project I will ever do. I have become interested in medicine now, though not in practising it, and in human evolution. I’m learning what I can, and thinking more. What will come of it? Well, ask me in fifty years.
And suddenly, without a sign or comsig, there was Michael, the old Michael, grinning at me — yes, you can grin in MindLink — in the total and complete Link that we’d had before.
It had been weeks since I’d heard from him. ‘What ——’ I began, and MindHeard him laughing.
‘Surprised?’
‘What? How?’ (Think of this happening in a nanosecond, or less.) ‘You had the operation!’
‘No. I told you, the City wouldn’t wear it. And I am the City.’
‘You are …’ Somehow I knew he meant more than that he loved it. ‘Michael, what have you done?’
‘Got rid of my body. Put my brain in stasis. I’m permanently Linked to the CityNet now.’ He laughed again, a laugh of glorious power and freedom. ‘No other Administrator can touch me, Dan. I’m legal, powerful and I’ll go on and on.’
A brain in stasis doesn’t age; not as bodies age, even with regeneration. Michael would be ruling the City when I was dead — by then he would be an institution. No-one would know as much, control as much, and what he decided would be law.
So we talk now and then. Talk? Exchange ideas and data with a flow and rate that no-one else could comprehend. And no, I haven’t told Neil that either — only what Michael did, what he is now. Neil and I are Realife and Michael is something else. A friendship that is purely mental, with — on my part at least — almost every memory of our old physical closeness gone.
I sometimes wonder though if we would be as close mentally if we hadn’t once trusted each other physically too.
As I said, no ending there. Not for a long, long time. Long after I am gone, my ideas will linger in their effect on Michael’s mind …
chapter 64
‘Michael?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m in labour.’
His voice sounded amused. ‘I know. I can monitor the monitors remember. You’re fully dilated.’
‘Am I? Whackydo.’
‘Why did you call me?’
‘I don’t know.’ I began to pant again. Elaine wiped the sweat from my forehead. Useless. Silly. Still felt good.
‘Yes, you do,’ said Michael.
I felt a rush of joy around me: Melanie, and above Mel and Michael, Neil’s unmistakable tone, half filled with joy and half with terror and half with amusement too, and if you don’t know why I was past worrying about how many halves make up a whole then you’ve never been in labour …
Yes, I knew why I’d called. Most of my life I’d been Forest, not a Tree, and now, in the most vivid moment of my life so far, I wanted the Forest around me.
‘Push now,’ said Elaine. (A few Trees around were pretty good too.)
‘I am bloody pushing!’
‘She is pushing,’ said Ophelia, who had borrowed a floater (I wondered if she’d bothered to ask) as soon as I’d called her to say I’d felt the first contractions.
‘Yuck,’ said Portia, gazing entranced. ‘Is Cleo going to have to do this too?’
‘I can see the head!’ said Neil, both Realtime and in Link, and I pushed again and my body split in half but by then it didn’t matter, as I heard her cry.
Heard her in both Realtime and in Link. And the Forest grew larger once again.
chapter 65
No, never complete endings. But, always, more beginnings.
The Outlands Trilogy
Book 1: In the Blood
The body was lying by my gate, half curled around the post as though for comfort.
I tried to feel a pulse. The blood smeared on my fingers. ‘He sucked at my neck,’ she whispered. ‘He said he’d drain me dry.’
Exiled from the City, virtual engineer Danielle Forest hunts a killer in a world of scattered utopias and genetically engineered human-animal crosses. Danielle needs help and finds it in the most unlikely shape of Neil, a member of the local farming community.
Who — or what — committed murder? Was it a psychotic? A genetic modification gone wrong? Or are the ancient vampire legends based on fact?
In the Blood is an enthralling thriller and a love story. It is also a vampire novel with a difference!
The Outlands Trilogy
Book 2: Blood Moon
The body lay at the bottom of the stairs. He wore red and green pyjamas. It took me a second to realise the red was blood.
An old man, his eyes were still open. For one dreadful moment I thought he was still alive. But no one can live with a hole where their throat should be …
Danielle Forest, Virtual engineer, was looking forward to spending some quiet time with her lover, in their stone house in the Outlands. But someone, or something, keeps murdering members of nearby utopias. A family of werewolves is under suspicion and Danielle’s friend Ophelia asks her to prove their innocence.
Before she can say ‘silver bullet’, Danielle is a temporary resident of the Tree — home to the apparently friendly werewolves — and fully occupied trying to deal with another bloody murder, the angry local community and some amorous water sprites; not to mention her bone-loving hosts.
Are the werewolves the killers Danielle seeks? Or are humans more vicious by far?
This thrilling sequel to In the Blood is the second book in the Outlands trilogy.
About the Author
Jackie French
Jackie French’s writing career spans 13 years, 39 wombats, 110 books for kids and adults, 15 languages, various awards, radio shows, newspaper and magazine columns, theories of pest and weed ecology and 28 shredded-back doormats. The doormats are the victims of the wombats, who require constant appeasement in the form of carrots, rolled oats and wombat nuts, which is one of the reasons for her prolific output: it pays the carrot bills.
Jackie’s most recent awards include the 2000 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers for the critically acclaimed, Hitler’s Daughter, which also won the 2002 UK Wow! Award for the most inspiring children’s book of the year; the 2002 Aurealis Award for Younger Readers for Café on Callisto; ACT Book of the Year for In the Blood; and for Diary of a Wombat with Br
uce Whatley, the Children’s Book Council Honour Book, NSW Koala Award for Best Picture Book and Nielsen Book Data/ABA Book of the Year Award.
* * *
Visit Jackie’s website
www.jackiefrench.com
or
www.harpercollins.com.au/jackiefrench
to subscribe to her monthly newsletter
* * *
Books by Jackie French
Wacky Families Series
1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate
3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome
5. My Gran the Gorilla (June 2005)
6. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf (June 2005)
Phredde Series
1. A Phaery named Phredde • 2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce
3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian • 4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom
5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian
6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid
7. Phredde and the Vampire Footie Team (November 2004)
Historical
Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall
Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment
Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance
How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • The White Ship
Valley of Gold • Tom Appleby, Convict Boy
Fiction
Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries
The Secret Beach • Summerland
Beyond the Boundaries • A Wombat Named Bosco
The Book of Unicorns • The Warrior – The Story of a Wombat
Tajore Arkle • Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing
Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories
Non-fiction
Seasons of Content • How the Aliens From Alpha Centauri Invaded My
Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer
How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges
Stamp, Stomp, Whomp (and other interesting ways to get rid of pests)
The Fascinating History of Your Lunch
Big Burps, Bare Bums and other Bad-Mannered Blunders
To the Moon and Back (July 2004) • Read it Right (September 2004)
Picture Books
Diary of a Wombat • Pete the Sheep (October 2004)
Adult Fiction
A War for Gentlemen
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2004
This edition published in 2014
by HarperCollinsPublishers Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
A member of the HarperCollinsPublishers (Australia) Pty Limited Group
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jackie French 2004
The right of Jackie French to be identified as the moral rights author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth).
This book is copyright.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers.
HarperCollinsPublishers
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Unit D1 63 Apollo Drive, Albany Auckland 0632, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
French, Jackie.
Flesh and blood.
For young adults
ISBN 0 207 19887 X. (pbk)
ISBN 978 1 4607 0388 5 (epub)
I.Title.
A823.3.
Cover and internal design by Lore Foye
*See In the Blood, the first book in the Outlands trilogy.
**See Blood Moon, the second book in the Outlands trilogy.
Flesh and Blood Page 17
