“It means everything to me.”
“Well, isn’t it worth a shot, then? You never know, Cabre might turn out to be your white knight after all. If he likes what you have to say, Cabre might even offer to give your people protection as a reward.”
“I’m not asking for that.”
“Okay, man, whatever. But do you see what I’m getting at?”
“Yes.”
She gave me a little punch on the shoulder. “So go see Cabre. Lay it on the line. From where I stand, it seems to be your only option.”
I thought about the security that surrounded The Midway. “There’s every chance he’s not even going to see me, you know,” I said.
Malyn gave me a crooked smile. “That’s something I can’t help you with, Cleanskin. You’re going to have to figure that part out for yourself.”
“Thank you, Malyn. I, uh…”
I paused awkwardly, unsure of how to say goodbye.
“Go on,” she said affably. “Get out of here. I hope it works out for your people.”
“You too.”
She laughed. “Have you seen my people?” She jabbed her thumb toward the doorway. “No chance.”
Then she was gone, disappearing into the next room, where the sound of work had already resumed. I made my way back out into the street and headed toward The Midway.
16
The cluster of soldiers grew thicker as I neared The Midway, as if the building itself were exerting some kind of gravitational pull that drew them together in tight concentric circles around its axis. Their interest in me grew proportionally as well, and they were no longer content to let me pass by unhindered. I was intercepted and interrogated more than once as I approached the Ascension hub. Several of them recognised me from a few days previous and allowed me through, while others demanded to know who I was and what I was doing there.
I had reached the second to last line of soldiers when I was stopped by a short male clank wearing a black bandanna.
“Name and business,” he said curtly.
“My name is Brant. I need to speak to General Cabre.”
“Has he requested your presence?”
“No, but what I have to say to him is important.”
“I’m sure it is, but if you want to see him you’ll need an appointment.”
Over his shoulder I could see The Midway’s front entrance, where the female soldier with the top knot still stood guard. Gazing in my direction, she lifted her radio to her belt and a barrage of static crackled on the soldier’s radio.
“Say again,” the clank with the bandanna said, but once again there was only static.
“Goddamn radios are out again,” Top knot yelled down the street. “That guy,” she said, pointing at me. “He goes no further.”
The soldier turned back to me and shrugged. “You heard her. Move on.”
“Come on, at least let me–”
The soldier took a menacing step toward me. “I’m not going to repeat myself,” he said. “Move, or I’ll make you move.”
I held up my hands placatingly. “Okay. Okay.”
I stepped away from him, casting a wistful glance over at The Midway. This appeared to be the end of the road. As it stood, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to even get my foot inside the door, let alone wheedle my way into an audience with Cabre, or find the words to convince him to do as I wanted. Standing here uselessly in the street, I realised there really was no other course of action for me now. My only option was to try to make my way out of Ascension City and brave the wasteland again as I attempted to return home.
But what would I see on the faces of those children when I returned empty-handed? What would Arsha and Mish think? Putting myself in their place, I knew they would be devastated. All of their hopes were riding upon me and this ill-fated journey into the darkness, and now it seemed that I would accomplish nothing.
There had to be another way.
“Move on,” the soldier said again.
“Calm down, I’m moving,” I said irritably, and the soldier’s face hardened. As he began to step toward me there was a commotion over toward The Midway, and the front doors were cast hurriedly aside as half a dozen soldiers spilled out. In amongst them I could see the distinctive black uniform of Cabre himself.
“General!” I called out as the soldiers bustled across the street. They seemed headed for a cluster of Humvees parked nearby.
“Get back!” the soldier before me barked, placing a hand roughly on my chest.
“General!” I called again, unperturbed. “I need to speak with you!”
Cabre glanced at me, vaguely registering my presence but offering no acknowledgement or reply. He continued to stride onward as one of those in his retinue held a door open on the nearest Humvee.
“General, please!” The soldier with the bandanna shoved me again, pushing me backward. Cabre reached the Humvee and began to climb inside. “General!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, “I can give you back the Grid!”
Cabre stopped and looked back at me, his expression somewhere between irritation and curiosity. Those around him also turned in my direction, their apathetic stares driving into me like icicles. Cabre watched me for a moment longer, one foot in the Humvee, as if trying to decide whether there was merit in what I said or if I was just another crackpot.
Then he shook his head and said something to the soldier next to him before dropping down into the Humvee. The soldier broke away from the group and came running over toward us.
“I tried to warn you, buddy,” the soldier with the bandanna said. “You’re going to the lock-up now.”
But when the soldier reached us, he beckoned for me to follow him.
“You, come with me,” he said. “And this better be good,” he added.
He led me back to the Humvee and slid inside, next to Cabre, and indicated for me to sit beside him. No sooner had I sat down than the door slammed shut and the vehicle lurched forward, pressing us back into our seats with the sudden momentum.
“I want someone out at Checkpoint Lima by sixteen hundred hours,” Cabre said, wrestling with a map in the small confines of the Humvee. “With all this interference we’re blind out there. Get patrols out here,” – he jabbed a finger at the map – “and here. See if we can’t knock out some more of their jammers.”
“Yes, General.”
“What about our surveillance? Do we have any active Cloudpunchers out there?”
“The Marauders have shot down three in the last ten days, General. The only ones left are in the workshop.”
Cabre grunted. “Get word back to Gunrix to pull his finger out. We need those things in the air. Otherwise we’ve got no long-range eyes available to us.”
“Yessir.” The Major paused, then added, “Sir, are you sure you want to head out there yourself? It would be safer if we just sent back a report.”
“Like I told you, Major, I want a look at one of these things first-hand,” Cabre said. “When have you ever known me to sit behind a desk for more than a day at a time?”
“Never, sir.”
“Well, all right then.” Cabre peered more intently at the map, and then we were slammed to the side as we rounded a tight corner. When he’d straightened himself, Cabre went on without looking up from the map. “You. This better be good.”
It took me a moment to realise that it was me he was addressing.
“General?” I said, uncertain.
“Spit it out,” he said. Outside the Humvee the checkpoint at the edge of the city flashed past as soldiers stood aside to allow us passage.
“Uh, yes,” I said. “General, I have knowledge of the Grid that I think you will find very useful to your cause.”
“And why is this the first time I’m hearing about it?” Cabre said, still staring at the map.
I took a moment to frame my response appropriately. “Because I have concerns that, by restarting the Grid, I would be jeopardising the safety of those I’m trying to protect.”
“I’m worried that once the Grid restarts, the Marauders will be able to use it to locate and destroy my community.”
“Why didn’t you just bring them here? Your ‘community’.”
“It’s not safe to do that, General.”
His eyes left the map and he regarded me for the first time. “How did you come by this knowledge of the Grid? And how much do you know?”
“Before the Winter I worked for a very large and powerful corporation. As it turns out, this corporation was one of the founders of the Grid. They helped to build it. We found information about the Grid stored on their local repositories – how it was built, how it works. How to manipulate it. I can gain access inside the spires and manipulate their inner workings. But, more than that, I can give you access to as much information about the Grid as you could ever need. You’ll be able to restore it to full working condition, just the way it once was, if that’s what you want.”
Cabre looked at me thoughtfully. “Quite a story. I’ll be interested to see if you can prove it.”
“I can. At least, I can show you what I know. For you to access the rest of the information, I’d need to download the rest at my source back home.”
Cabre glanced out the window as the next checkpoint slid past. “All right. You have my attention. Sit tight here, and once we get back to the city we’ll see what you know.”
“General, I need to ask you for something in return for my help.”
“Ah, that’s right,” he said, recalling our previous conversation. “These fires you’re so concerned about.”
“Yes. If you could spare some manpower to starting putting them out–”
“Tell me,” Cabre said, shifting his weight so that he could look at me more directly. “Why is this so important to you? Why can’t your community do without sunlight for a while?”
I glanced around at the other soldiers in the Humvee, trying to weigh up whether or not to reveal my last secret. I’d come this far. Did it really matter if they knew about the children as well? What interest would they have in those humans when they were in the middle of a war, anyway? I couldn’t imagine anything they would have to gain by possessing them. On the other hand, providing this last piece of information might be the pivotal moment that persuaded Cabre to provide me with the help I needed.
“Okay, General, I’ll tell you,” I said. I took a deep breath. “Back at my home, there’s a couple of clanks I’m working with to restore life to the world. We’re growing plants, insects and animals from frozen embryos that were kept in cryostorage. We’ve made a good start, with a fledgling ecosystem spreading out across the city. Obviously this darkness is reducing the sunlight and the temperature to such a degree that it’s killing off everything we’ve tried to create. You have to understand, what we’ve created is largely irreplaceable. If it dies off now, there will be no bringing it back.”
Cabre watched me, inscrutable. “Is that the whole story?”
I twisted my fingers, agitated. “We’re not just restoring plants and animals there. We’re also bringing back humans.”
The General nodded, showing no surprise or great interest in this revelation. He lifted his hand and scratched idly at his chin.
“I see how the stakes would be high for you, then, Brant,” he said.
“Yes. They’re high.”
Cabre returned his attention to the window as we bounced our way along the road that led away from Ascension City. The other soldiers in the vehicle sat stoically, staring straight ahead and betraying no emotion. Either they were unimpressed by what I had said, or they had been drilled well enough to retain their composure.
“Well, let me say this,” Cabre said eventually, turning back to me. “I have nothing against your plants and insects, your animals or your humans. I certainly don’t wish them harm. But by the same token, I have no vested interest in their well-being, either. To me, it wouldn’t make one iota of difference if they survived or they perished out there.” He held up a hand as I opened my mouth to protest. “Now, I’m not a monster. Don’t get the wrong impression about me. I think every creature should have its chance at life. But the thing is, I have my own priorities. I have my own allegiances. Those are to the men you see around you, and the other clanks that reside in Ascension City. Those are the beings I’ve sworn to protect. Those are the beings who I want to see rise from the ashes of this dying world.”
“But General, can’t you do both? Save my people and yours?”
“Maybe, Brant. But if I went down that road, if I tried to save these humans of yours and it caused my own people to suffer and die because I failed to protect them… that would be unacceptable. Unforgivable.” He spread his fingers wide. “My interests lie with my own species, Brant. With the clanks who survived the Winter. They’re depending on me to provide safety and security.”
“So you’re willing to let all of those other species die?” I said, exasperated. “Their blood will be on your hands, General.”
He drummed his fingers on his lips. “Did you ever hear of polar bears and rhinoceroses?”
“What?”
“Did you ever hear about those species of animals?”
“General, I don’t see–”
“You heard about them, but you never saw them in the flesh, right?” he went on. “They were gone a long time before you and me ever arrived in this world. Do you know why that is?”
“They became extinct.”
“Right. And do you think humans had the power to stop that from happening? Could they have saved the polar bears?”
“Probably.”
“Of course they could have,” Cabre said, sitting back as he folded the map in his lap. “And I’m sure that if you’d asked the average man on the street, he’d have wished no harm to come to those species. He’d have wanted to see them live. I mean, the humans didn’t want those species to die out, did they? No. I don’t think they did. But they never made any great effort to try to stop it from happening, either. They were more concerned with driving their own progress. Building bigger cities, faster communications systems, developing more ways to entertain themselves. Given the choice between saving the polar bear or giving up their Grid connection, I know which they would have chosen.” He looked at me again. “They never really cared about what was left in the wake of their industry, did they? They just kept feeding the machine to keep it moving, and they accepted the collateral damage.”
“That doesn’t justify anything,” I said.
“I’m not saying it does. It is what it is. And after all, we were built to mimic the humans, weren’t we? It’s only natural that we’d behave as they did, that we’d look after ourselves first and foremost.” He leaned forward again. “Look, this isn’t some sort of genocidal crusade I’m on. This is just natural selection. If there are species out there that can’t survive in this world, that’s not my fault. Don’t try to paint me as some kind of cartoonish evil doer for looking after my own interests, Brant.”
One of the soldiers up front turned to look at Cabre. “General, it’s just up ahead.”
“Good,” Cabre said, stowing the map under his seat. Then he turned to me, circumspect. “Brant, I won’t weaken Ascension to save your humans. But if this knowledge you possess can help to bring an end to this war sooner, then maybe that will in turn be of benefit to them. I won’t promise anything beyond that.”
The Humvee came to a sudden halt, pitching us forward unceremoniously, and then I was being bundled out the door and onto the sand. Two other vehicles had accompanied us, and they also slid to a halt nearby, sending up clouds of dust as soldiers poured out.
Nearby there were several clanks milling around a charred wreck. From what I could tell, it seemed to be the remains of a buggy or an off-roader, and judging by the flames that still licked at its innards and the pungent odour of burnt gasoline, it hadn’t been here long.
“Status report, Captain Lam!” Cabre barked as he strode over t
oward the wreck.
“General, we monitored this vehicle coming in out of the west at approximately oh eight hundred hours this morning. We tried to capture it as instructed, but the occupant ignited the vehicle when cornered.”
“What have you been able to determine?” Cabre said.
“They’ve boosted their ability to cause interference to our comms, sir,” Lam said. “This one looks like it had a high gain antenna fitted into the rear of the vehicle.” He indicated a blackened column in the wreck. “We estimate they could use this to jam anything within a five-kilometre radius.”
Cabre began to circle the wreck. “They’ve been sending these guys through our area for months to create disruptions, but nothing like what we’re seeing today. We’ve had interference across the whole damn city over the last few hours.”
“Yessir, we’re just now receiving reports that four other vehicles just like this one have been sighted around the city.”
“They’re trying to do more than just annoy us this time,” Cabre said.
“It seems that way, sir,” Lam said.
“They know we’re planning to hit the enclave,” the Major said. “They’re buying more time, trying to disrupt our preparations.”
“Maybe,” Cabre said. “Or they’re disguising the movements of their reinforcements across the wasteland so that we can’t intercept them.” He shook his head, annoyed. “We need Lima back on the air.”
“Sir, we’re working on that. Unfortunately we can’t reach them by radio until we’ve located and destroyed the rest of the jammers.”
Cabre grunted. “Well, get on it.”
“We are, sir. We have every available patrol out looking for them.”
“What?” Cabre seethed. “Did I just hear you correctly, Captain? Every patrol?”
Captain Lam took a step backward as Cabre advanced on him. “Yes, General.”
The Fires of Yesterday (The Silent Earth, Book 3) Page 14
