by H. R. Moore
‘And you even turned on Guy,’ added Ben, despising his brother more than ever, and enjoying seeing his parents finally give him what for. ‘You’ve turned on everyone who’s ever helped you and that’s made you think you’re an evil mastermind. The reality is that everyone can see through you, and you have no one left to give you the adoration that you need.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Penny. ‘About turning on Guy?’
Ben turned to face his mother. ‘Thomas went to Iva and informed on him. He told her everything about the Africa project, and all the robots, whatever that means. As I said, I only know what I overheard at work. Apparently, Guy had to destroy everything.’
‘What?’ asked Penny, going white. She rounded on Thomas. ‘You did what?’
‘He was breaking the law, committing treason, and so, might I add, were you.’
‘He was helping starving people in Africa.’
‘He was breaking the law,’ repeated Thomas.
‘How did you even know about it?’ asked Gerry, his face a cold, angry mask.
‘Someone had to skim off the money to pay for it all,’ Thomas said with a shrug.
‘What?’ Penny said again, banging the table with her fists to vent some fury. ‘Guy let you into his inner circle. He trusted you, and no doubt paid you for your services, and you betrayed him?’
Thomas looked at her like she was an idiot. ‘He was breaking the law,’ he repeated, slowly, as though she hadn’t understood when he’d said it the first two times.
‘And so were you, you despicable little excuse for a human being,’ Penny hissed. ‘But I bet you’re not taking responsibility for your own illegal actions. Surely if you were so outraged, you would have turned down any role in it, and gone to the authorities straight away. But you didn’t, did you? You profited from it for as long as you could, and then used it to get Guy out of the picture, knowing you could never be half the CEO he is.’
‘You’ve never understood business,’ said Thomas, in his most patronising tone.
‘Get out,’ Penny whispered, suddenly calm. ‘You’re a monster and I never want to see you again.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Thomas, full of pomp. ‘I’m your son, the only son to have made anything of himself; you’re not going to disown someone like me.’
Gerry gasped in shock. ‘You’re living a delusion,’ he said, trying to make Thomas understand. ‘You might want to see someone about that. And if you do, then maybe we would talk to you again, but we don’t care about your position in some company. We care about you as a person, and unfortunately, you’ve turned into a horror show. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid we don’t want any part in your life any longer.’
‘You will regret this,’ said Thomas, a look of dawning realisation crossing his face; they were serious. ‘You were working illegally at the factory for Guy. Iva’s going to come after every single worker who did extra hours, and I’m not going to do a thing to protect you. You’ll have to take your fate along with the rest of the ants.’
‘I think it would be best if you left now,’ said Gerry, flashing a disbelieving look at his wife. He walked to the door, opened it and waited for Thomas to leave.
‘You will wish you hadn’t done this,’ said Thomas, furiously getting up from the table, toppling his chair over backwards.
‘On the contrary,’ said Penny. ‘I have a feeling it will be the best thing we’ve ever done.’
CHAPTER 16
Lulu turned up at the airport with two large bags full of possessions. Benji had told her not to take too much stuff or it would look suspicious. As it was, there was a high chance she and all her baggage would be searched, over and above the usual automated checks. She’d brought a few clothes and some toiletries, but she reasoned wherever she was going, she would be able to buy new things, so she’d given over most of the available space to her painting supplies. She wasn’t sure rural Africa would have much in the way of her usual paints and brushes.
She waited, as she’d been instructed, outside the Chutney Café, but she wasn’t sure what she was waiting for. She’d only been there for a minute, when a skinny, barely noticeable guy in his late teens handed her a magazine. ‘You dropped this,’ he said, thrusting it into her hand before walking away.
She frowned in surprise, but accepted it, then went into the coffee shop, ordered an Americano, sat down, and pretended to casually flick through the pages. Stuck to the back cover was an old-school mobile phone. She detached it as subtly as she could, turned it on and tapped the envelope icon that indicated there was an email waiting to be read. Can’t remember the last time I used one like this, she thought, as the email opened, or the last time I was sent an email for that matter. Everyone used messaging services through their smart glasses now.
The email was a confirmation and e-ticket for a flight to India. Lulu had been expecting a flight to Africa, so wondered for a moment if the teenager had given the magazine to the right person. Of course he did, she chastised herself, how many people just turn up at the airport and wait for someone to contact them? The whole thing seemed ludicrous to her, like something out of a film.
E-tickets had long been almost irrelevant, because the airlines had access to biometric information about their passengers, so all you had to do was use a fingerprint and face scan to register for your flight and again to go through security and then again to board the plane. It would seem that this ticket wasn’t assigned to anyone in particular, so she had to go to an automated check-in desk and assign the ticket to herself. It wouldn’t show up on her banking app, should anyone be monitoring that, and the only trail would be through her biometric and passport data, which was difficult for anyone to get hold of, unless the police suspected you’d done something illegal, or that you were a threat to national security. Nevertheless, the authorities would be able to track her, should they want to, so Lulu wondered how Benji planned to get around that; the last thing she wanted was to lead Iva straight to Guy.
Once she’d been biometrically linked to her ticket, Lulu went to the bag drop, where she used her fingerprint to deposit her luggage. Usually this would have been sent ahead in a separate autonomous car, to a separate area, meaning passengers didn’t have to haul their bags into the airport, but seeing as she hadn’t known what code to put on her luggage, she’d had to do it the old-fashioned way, garnering several pitying looks as she struggled with her ungainly load.
Her luggage was whisked away to be scanned and loaded, leaving Lulu free to enter security, again, with a press of her finger and scan of her face. The days of putting all your personal possessions in little trays and walking through metal detectors were long gone. Security was now just a pod, like a kind of vacuum chamber.
Lulu stepped into a scanning pod, and to her immense relief, it quickly let her through to the other side. She was taking an atmosphere flight, where the plane would travel high in the Earth’s atmosphere, able to travel much faster than a traditional plane, given the reduced air resistance. It would only take a couple of hours, after which she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She hoped that would become clear once she arrived. The flight was boarding, so she hurried to the gate.
* * * * *
Iva was sitting in her office in London, going through everything they had to date on Guy, still fuming that he’d managed to get away without leaving a single breadcrumb for her to follow. She’d still take the case to court, and he’d still be convicted, but she wouldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing him led away and visiting him behind bars.
Iva jumped as her smart glasses went crazy, beeping and vibrating around in circles on the desk. She played the message they wanted her to receive. ‘Alert for Lulu Banks,’ said the message, ‘she is currently at Heathrow Airport, about to board an atmosphere flight to India.’
‘Send a team to arrest her,’ said Iva, without hesitation.
‘We have no grounds on which to arrest her,’ said the robot.
‘I don’t care,�
� said Iva, furious, knowing that Lulu, the one person who could lead her to Guy, was about to slip away from her too. ‘This is it. If we let her go, we’ll never find Guy Strathclyde. Arrest her,’ she repeated, full of authority.
‘I am afraid that the robotic team are unable to arrest Lulu Banks, given there are no legitimate grounds on which to do so. Please gain authorisation to override the protocols. Until then, I am unable to assist you.’
Iva let out a primal scream, throwing her smart glasses across the room. There was no way her boss would give her authorisation to arrest Lulu; as the robot had said, there were no legitimate grounds. Fucking robots, thought Iva. Everything has to be black and fucking white, no room for judgement.
Iva jumped up, retrieved her smart glasses, and ran to the lift, ordering a car to meet her at the front door. The car was waiting for her by the time she got there. ‘Hyperloop to Heathrow,’ she said urgently. ‘As fast as you can.’ Though, of course, the car always travelled as fast as it could, within strict safety parameters, which, even in an emergency, couldn’t be broken. I miss the old days, thought Iva, sitting forward and tapping her hands together, nothing else for her to do but sit and wait.
* * * * *
Lulu nervously looked around. Benji had given her strict instructions: exact times she should turn up, exact places to stand, an exact order in which to do things. She’d got the impression that if she did any of it wrong, the whole trip could be in jeopardy. She had remembered everything and done it perfectly, of that she was sure, but that didn’t prevent her from worrying.
She was the last person to board the plane, getting to the gate just before it closed. She pressed her finger to the scanner, stood in the designated spot for the face scan, and boarded, taking her aisle seat and strapping herself into her harness.
She willed the doors to close, for the attendants to work faster, for there to be more urgency about getting underway. The attendants, who on this expensive airline were still human, were joking around at the front of the plane. Even if they worked faster, it wouldn’t make a difference because the plane was operated by a robot. They’d done away with the pretence of a human captain almost a decade before, so the plane would leave the gate exactly when it was scheduled, and would take off at precisely the time the software said it should.
The doors closed and Lulu exhaled, not realising she’d been holding her breath. They were still on the ground, but at least they were making progress. The attendants started talking over the speakers, telling the passengers what to expect from their weightless flight, detailing what to do in an emergency. Some things never change, thought Lulu, remembering back to her first flight when she was a kid.
The plane started moving and Lulu felt her spirits lift. Almost there, she thought as the attendants sat down and put on their harnesses. They taxied to the runway, on time, as ever, and took off, much to Lulu’s astonished relief.
* * * * *
Iva didn’t even get as far as the hyperloop by the time Lulu’s flight took off. For all the brilliant developments in transport, getting across cities at rush hour could still be painfully slow going. The old tube network in London had been upgraded where it could be, but it had to stop every two minutes to let people on and off, so there was no getting away from its laborious speeds, and it didn’t always take you exactly where you wanted to go. This meant people still travelled overground, and for all the developments in autonomous vehicles, which improved the flow of traffic, and for all the increases in flexible and remote working, which reduced the volume of people, there were still just too many people trying to move around at the same time in a finite amount of space.
Iva’s smart glasses summoned her once more. ‘Yes?’ she snapped.
‘Lulu Banks’ flight has just departed Heathrow on schedule,’ said the annoying robot. ‘It is due to land in Delhi in two hours.’
Iva was about to say, ‘Track her when she arrives,’ but knew she didn’t have the authority to make that happen, and had no grounds on which to gain the authority either. ‘Fuck,’ she said, out loud, cutting off the transmission, before hurling her smart glasses across the car.
* * * * *
Lulu landed in India, got off the plane, collected her luggage, and entered the arrivals lounge. She looked around, trying not to be conspicuous, although not at all sure what she should be doing. She decided the best option was to sit in a café and wait. She trusted that Benji would have a plan. But, before she even got that far, a plump middle-aged woman approached. She was wearing a headscarf and holding out her arms as though Lulu were a long-lost friend. Just go with it, Lulu told herself, hugging the woman back.
‘New ticket in pocket,’ the woman said, in a strong Indian accent. ‘Wig in bag. Flight take off in forty minute, need get going.’
‘I need to change my hair?’ asked Lulu, surprised. ‘The robots will recognise my face anyway.’
‘Yes, but people not. No robots.’
The lady pulled back, patting Lulu’s arm before walking away. She wasn’t sure she fully understood, but followed the instructions as best she could. She tried to make it look as though being hugged by a total stranger were an entirely normal occurrence, and headed to the rest rooms to don her wig before repeating the same check-in and bag drop process that she had in London.
This time her flight was to Baghdad, where a similar thing happened, but she was also given new identity documents along with a new wig and coat, then to Madagascar, where she was driven (in a banged-up old manual car) to a boat, which took her to the African mainland. From there, she was loaded into a Toyota pickup, which drove for almost a full day before depositing her in a vegetated area at the edge of a village full of huts, right next to the coast. The truck drove away and she took off her wig, reasoning the blonde mop was more conspicuous than her natural colour.
She looked around, disorientated, wondering if she should sit tight and wait or explore the place a bit. She’d been deliberating for a couple of minutes before curiosity got the better of her, but just as she was scanning around for a good place to stash her luggage, a tall, lean, tanned man came walking out of the foliage.
‘How do you like your new home?’ asked Guy, striding towards her.
‘Guy?’ she asked, not sure if she really believed it.
‘In the flesh,’ he laughed, scooping her up into his arms and pulling her to his chest. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said, leaning down to kiss her.
‘It’s been what? Two weeks?’ she laughed.
‘Yes, but I miss you after two hours, so two weeks felt like an eternity,’ he said, kissing her again.
‘Well, I suppose I missed you a little bit too,’ she said, smiling mischievously.
‘Only a little bit?’ he asked, pretending to be offended. ‘I might have to send you back.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ she ordered. ‘I think I’m going to like it here.’
‘There’s not much in the way of tech,’ he said, his tone hesitant.
‘Sounds blissful,’ she replied, looking up into his eyes. ‘Are there drinks in pineapples?’
‘Ha! There can be if you want there to be.’
‘Come on then, hurry up and show me around.’
They each took one of Lulu’s bags and Guy led them into the village. They walked through an open area in the middle, past a collection of small market stands and what looked like a bar, a few of the villagers turning to watch as they went. Lulu smiled and waved, and they waved back warmly, but they didn’t avert their gaze. Guy led her to a small, nondescript hut on the far edge of the village and dumped her bag on the packed ground outside. ‘Welcome to my humble abode,’ he smiled, pushing open the flimsy door with a halting flourish, having to unhook the floor matting before it would open fully. ‘It’s going to be an adjustment,’ he said, his brow furrowed in worry, trying to work out what she made of it all.
‘Guy,’ she said, dumping her bag and looking up at him. ‘I love it.’ She kissed him enthusiastically, pushing
him backwards into the single room inside.
* * * * *
Lulu and Guy lay on two makeshift sun loungers on the beach. Guy had made her a cocktail in a pineapple, as promised, and they lay back and listened to the waves lapping against the sand.
‘This is heaven,’ said Lulu, rolling over to face Guy, smiling broadly.
‘I know,’ he laughed, ‘but I’m worried it might get boring after a while.’
‘Why would it?’ she asked. ‘I’ve got enough art supplies to last me for ages, and we’ve got money, so when I run out, we can find somewhere to buy more. I’ve got you, and there’s enough to do here to keep us busy, although I did spot a few robots around the place; I take it that was your doing?’
Guy laughed. ‘Guilty. We put robots here in the last wave of drops. That’s part of the reason I decided to come here. The locals showed particular interest in them and an aptitude for understanding them. I thought I might be able to teach them a thing or two.’
‘So that explains all the electrical kit in the hut next door,’ she said. ‘Just couldn’t help yourself, could you?’
‘Again, guilty as charged,’ he said with a smile. ‘But just think of all the things we could build that would help them.’
