He had let slip details about immediate family who were still in the town and, more importantly, who were still alive. She smiled as what had been troubling her showed itself. The boy who refused to look him in the face … it had been his own son. That was why he’d had the child bring her food. The Normal hadn’t forgotten to feed her at all. Instead, he had brought his child to meet her, to underline the gulf between their worlds. She tutted to herself in grudging admiration of his strategy. He had successfully gambled on her holding onto her own identity sufficiently well to castigate the boy, to live up to the caricature.
Does this surprise you? She asked her AI.
Her AI said nothing. Helena frowned at its deliberate silence and set to fathoming out how she could use the man’s son to gain her freedom.
THERE WERE no more large explosions, but when the lights in the office dimmed for a moment before returning, Helena knew to expect the Normal. Her tertiary AI informed her that the electro-magnetic fields in the room had changed. It surmised that the power source for the Spire had been switched to an alternate supply. This time, Indexiv are on the outskirts of the city.
They’d be following standard procedure: cut the enemy off from power and other essentials such as water, food and freedom of movement. Helena wasn’t a strategist and regretted not having uploaded the strategy routines when she’d had the chance in London. She was stuck trying to coax out of her AI what it believed the most likely approach to taking the city would be.
Street by street, herd the Normals together and then kill them, came its terse response the first time she asked. Not satisfied with such a clipped conclusion, she tried other ways of asking the same question, hoping that it would expand on its statement. It refused, saying anything else would be both irrelevant to the outcome and little more than speculative anyway.
As expected, the Normal entered the room shortly afterwards. He was looking anxious, the thin brown hair that sat atop his head, like a wisp, was out of place. Helena watched his eyes, seeing their dilation, the fear evident in them.
Cruelly she said, ‘You are not so happy to fight now, are you?’
‘Damn you woman,’ he replied hatefully, refusing to actually come into the room. Helena waited for him to speak again, ensuring he could see a clear and deliberately stereotypical sneer on her face.
‘I don’t expect they’ll make your child suffer.’ The words caught in Helena’s mouth as she recalled the splattered brains she’d witnessed in Africa. The poor fool in front of her had no idea what was coming and she, who knew better, taunted him with it. She’d do anything to live.
‘What do you want, since you’ve decided not to let me go?’ asked Helena as languidly as she dared. If she played him wrong, he’d leave her there to rot, to face Indexiv’s troops when they took the building.
‘You have to come with me,’ said the Normal. ‘Unless you want to suffer the same fate as my son.’ Helena was shocked that his son was already dead. What kind of risks has he been running?
‘Whatever decoy you used didn’t work this time, did it?’ she said.
The Normal didn’t respond; his gaze hovered just above the floor, telling her everything.
‘You’re standing there now thinking to yourself that they couldn’t have known what to expect, that your lure this time was completely different to the last one. You need to remember something, Normal.’ Helena moved towards the door, waiting for him to back away and allow her to leave. ‘We are smarter, faster and stronger than you. Some low level battlefield AI already planned out your most probable moves within a couple of hours of your first victory, before you even knew them yourself.’ She stopped in front of him; his eyes remained lowered. ‘I am your only chance to get out of this town alive.’
‘I don’t want to leave.’
It was not what she’d been expecting. ‘Pardon?’
‘This is my home; better to die here, now, than to leave without my family.’ He’d set his jaw. She knew he had other children; perhaps his wife was still alive.
Given his previous statements, it is highly likely he has extended family within the town, said her AI.
‘Then where are we going?’ she asked impatiently.
Saying nothing, he turned and walked from the room. Helena followed him, immediately aware of the taste of smoke in the atmosphere.
‘They’re here already?’ she asked incredulously.
The Normal walked away from her towards a lift at the end of the dim, grey corridor. Her tertiary AI informed her that the smoke particles were not from materials used to construct the Spire.
Puzzled, Helena followed him into the elevator. They emerged onto the ground floor. She’d been held directly below the reception; it was strangely embarrassing to have been that close to freedom and not have made it out.
Two bodies had been laid in the foyer; the burnt odour came from their blackened flesh. Helena took in the injuries: severe flash burns. One of them had a gaping wound in his chest; the other was missing part of his or her face.
Her orderlies were nowhere to be seen, but two women stood in the doorway. They both looked around as Helena and her captor came out from the lift. Their eyes opened wide; they stopped watching the street and just stared at her.
The Normal didn’t seem to notice this. Helena, thinking of her own safety, barked at them, ‘What are you looking at? Get your eyes off of me now!’ The women, who had few obvious physical augmentations and who were holding Insel-issue rifles, jumped as if they’d been slapped. Glaring at one another they turned back to the street.
Helena saw the Normal watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. Conflicting emotions played across it, but he said nothing to her.
‘Now what?’ she asked him.
‘We’re leaving,’ he said. ‘Most of the staff have made it out into the countryside north of here. Some were foolish enough to try to head south. I don’t expect to see them again.’
‘You think they won’t come for you there?’ she asked bitterly, angered by the man’s refusal to accept the reality of the situation.
‘We refuse to die just because you’ve decided we should.’ The Normal looked over at the women on the door. They were peering round without making it obvious. He motioned to Helena to follow him as he headed for the stairs that led up into the Spire.
They climbed to Daniel’s office on the top floor. The room had windows looking south over the town and facing the harbour. Helena was glad to feel daylight on her face but knew better than to stand too close to the glass.
Rain had set in once again over the peninsula, and the outskirts of the town had vanished in an ephemeral shroud. She was briefly reminded of a detective story she’d once read about a murder on a moor which had harboured a monstrous hound in its forbidding mists.
Collecting her thoughts, Helena said, ‘I’m not clear on why you’ve brought me here.’
‘Indexiv’s troops are at the edge of the Skagen Klitplantage.’ At Helena’s blank look, he said, ‘The woods to the south of here. They border the residential area on the outskirts. The two you saw downstairs died trying to booby trap the road. Indexiv delivered their bodies into town themselves, leaving them hanging from a bandstand about a kilometre away after they’d removed the man’s testicles and shoved them into his mouth.’ He paused for a moment. ‘My son never returned.’
‘You’ve yet to answer my question,’ said Helena.
‘You said you’d help us if I let you go.’ He left the statement hanging in the air.
Helena’s immediate urge was to tell him it was too late, that he’d missed his chance. She’d never intended on requesting troops for the town; now he was begging her to fulfil a promise she’d made when her bargaining situation had been even worse.
‘I used to be able to see my home from here. It had three bedrooms: one for my wife and me and space for my two children as well. Our family lived all around us, four generations within three streets.’ Helena thought he was about to beg, but
when he continued he said only, ‘You’ve killed Skagen.’
‘I had nothing to do with it,’ she said.
‘Don’t be deliberately obtuse. Between my Company, Euros and Indexiv you’ve managed to wipe this town from the land.’
‘Buildings can be rebuilt,’ said Helena dismissively, annoyed by his insubordination.
‘Lives cannot,’ said the Normal; it was obvious to Helena that this was what he had meant all along.
She didn’t know what to say; there was nothing she was prepared to offer him and she was coldly aware that Euros would not be trying to reclaim the territory of another Company from Indexiv when it was in such dire straits itself. She had nothing to bargain with except a lie, but the Normal had nowhere left to turn. He was a dead man walking, they all were. It was futile to say, ‘Run to the countryside.’ Indexiv was intent on solving its problem. That problem was a class of people who were still drawing breath. Whether they stood and fought or chose to run and hide, they’d not survive long once Indexiv’s troops chose to clean up. She’d seen first-hand what they’d prepared for the people of towns like Skagen.
‘If you won’t help us, why should I let you go?’ he asked her bitterly, his voice seething with a vicious rage she’d not heard in him before. ‘You never meant to help us.’ Helena looked at him before she could help herself and, as he saw her face, he spat the rest of his words at her. ‘At no point did you consider actually aiding us. You were so frightened that your own body, your own life, would end that you were prepared to say anything to me, proclaim any lie, in order that we might let you return home. If I’d asked for the moon, I imagine your words would have soothed my lunacy, promising me action if only I set you free.’
Helena thought she could make it past the two women on guard duty. All she had to do was wait for him to take her back downstairs.
‘I’ve a good mind to let the mechanics kill you now. At least we could chalk up another of your kind before we’re slaughtered.’ Helena gazed back at him. Her mind was detached from his words, but she knew a threat when she heard one. She examined his body language and, satisfied that he was simply venting his feelings of impotence, she went back to thinking about how to best leave the city.
‘You’re not even listening to me, are you?’ said the Normal as Helena looked out over the city, trying to match the ruins beneath her with the map in her mind.
‘Fine, then stay here alone; when they’re done with us, you’ll be the next one they come to.’
Almost before Helena could focus on him, he was making for the door. Helena started after him, but he stopped and shook his head. ‘We ran this town; we know everything there is to know about how our Company works. I’m walking through this door and you won’t be able to follow me. I suggest you don’t try it but your arrogance ensures you’ll attempt it. Whatever. I’ve warned you.’
He stepped across the threshold. Helena’s AI informed her that an electromagnetic field had just rolled down the doorway like a curtain. She bared her teeth at the Normal. ‘It won’t help you, keeping me here,’ she said calmly, keeping her anger on a tight leash. ‘Indexiv won’t kill me. We don’t kill each other like that. Only your kind were ever so happy to take each other to pieces.’ She knew it wasn’t true but was willing to gamble that he didn’t know any better.
‘Then you’ll be fine won’t you?’ said the Normal. ‘Enjoy the entertainment.’ before he walked away, he said one more thing. ‘We will die, but we won’t die as easily as you, or they, expect.’
With this, he was gone, leaving behind an empty space Helena couldn’t reach. Hearing his warning again in her mind, she stepped away from the door and set her AI the task of finding a way round the lock he had put in place. Once she’d done that, Helena stood at the window taking in the bird’s-eye view of the rubble that once was Skagen, thinking over whether he’d planned all along to bring her there and trap her. Of course, she surmised, that would mean he knew I was planning to deceive him. She granted that he would be able to deduce that much, but the calculating way he had trapped her in her deceit made her uncomfortable. He had no right to be quite so efficient.
A few minutes later, Helena was startled to see a young girl standing on the other side of the door. She had the look of the Normal about her. Helena guessed she was his daughter and sole remaining child. The two of them locked gazes, the daughter not suffering the same lack of confidence that the son had shown. Eventually the girl looked away, a slight rose colour rising in her cheeks. She was older than the son, in puberty but not yet an adult, and she appeared unaugmented.
Growing bored by her presence Helena said, ‘Does your father know you’re here?’
The girl, whose eyes were now fixed on the floor, turned and ran away.
Happy at being alone again, Helena checked on her AI’s progress and, finding it hadn’t made any, returned to the window. She could make out the woodland to the south of the town; it stretched almost from one coast to the other. Indexiv’s troops, most likely mercenaries, wouldn’t wait long before entering the city. If the Normals weren’t making harrying attacks, the combat AIs would soon conclude that they were too weak to constitute an effective resistance. And then they’ll set about the place with a remarkable lack of restraint. Helena tried not to think about what Indexiv were about to do, especially to her.
Hearing footsteps beyond the barrier, Helena turned and waited for the doorway to fill again. Listening carefully, she made out two pairs, one lighter than the other.
Father and daughter, perhaps, she thought.
She wasn’t disappointed to see the girl and her father; the family resemblance was striking now they were standing side by side.
Helena decided it would be a good time to keep quiet and hoped they would show their hand before she had to say anything. The girl was holding her father’s hand and, when they stopped outside the door, she looked up at his face.
‘She wants to talk to you,’ said the Normal, looking back into his daughter’s eyes. ‘Her name is Analise, and she tells me she has a way for us all to live.’
Chapter 9
ANALISE is a pretty name, thought Helena. Perhaps she has a head full of AIs and she’s been planning the most effective way to beat Indexiv back long enough for the majority of the Normals to flee to the lighthouse and for Euros to evacuate them. She knew the Company would never act in such a way but was interested to hear what the young computer on legs had to say.
Helena felt no need to show she knew the girl was his daughter. He already knew that she knew. He also knew how few employers cared whether their staff were related or not.
Analise was attractive, as the young always are. Helena couldn’t see any signs of age on her yet — for all appearances, she looked like an Oligarch. The telltale signs of her real age were in the narrow hips and undefined face; she had yet to grow into herself.
Helena leant back on one foot and turned away from the girl, watching south over the city. Somewhere out there Indexiv’s splinter force was heading towards them. The town was already dead. The Company was simply ensuring that the last vestiges of life were properly sterilised.
There was a sudden shooting pain in her side. Helena winced.
Sorry,said her AI.Your kidneys are not repairing themselves quite as anticipated. For the time being do not eat concentrated acids, vitamins or proteins.There wasn’t much she could do with the information, but it distracted her long enough for Analise to move to the centre of the room and stand facing her.
‘What is it you have to tell me?’ asked Helena.
‘If we can get you to the lighthouse, Lysander will stop the soldiers.’
Helena swallowed and tried to keep control of her face.
‘Pardon me?’ she said, as normally as she could.
‘Lysander will stop the soldiers,’ repeated Analise.
‘I take it you know this Lysander?’ asked the Normal of Helena.
‘You should leave us,’ said Helena in response, without looki
ng in his direction. Keeping her eyes fixed on the girl, she waited until the vibrations of his footsteps had receded and said, ‘When did they tell you this?’
‘The day you killed my friend Ellen,’ said Analise.
‘Why didn’t you tell me then?’ she asked without thinking.
‘Chief engineer Clerk denied my request,’ said the girl.
Noting that the girl’s father’s name was Clerk, Helena tried to gather her thoughts. ‘What else did they say to you?’ she asked, baffled by the utter implausibility of the situation.
‘They didn’t say anything,’ said the girl.
‘Tell me everything,’ said Helena, growing weary of the girl’s refusal to adopt an informal tone. Does Insel not spend time instructing them on etiquette?
‘In my dream, I was running from my home, with my family. We left the town and were heading towards the Nordstrand when we saw you and stopped. The soldiers were close behind. Some of us were shot then. I didn’t trust you because you killed my mother. But the man told me to trust you. So you took my hand and led us north, fighting with the men all the way. You kept knocking them down, but every time you did, they got back up again. When you got us to the lighthouse, many of us had gotten lost along the way, but it wasn’t safe for us to find them because of the soldiers. The people at the lighthouse tried shooting us as well, but you told them to let us in and they did. I saw the moon in the rain. All night the soldiers tried to get into the lighthouse. I was scared but the man held my hand and stroked my hair, telling me not to be frightened. He didn’t mean for me to die then.’ Here Analise paused as if remembering something. Helena watched her for a moment but, seeing she hadn’t finished, she remained silent.
A People's War (The Oligarchy Book 2) Page 20
