“Don’t they deserve a choice?” asked Helena. “If you won’t give that to them how are you any different?” She looked at Denholme, “is this what you really want?”
“He can’t answer you unless we allow,” said one of the masks.
“Who are these others?” asked David.
“You don’t know, David Chalmers. But we know you.” His tone was full of sneering secrets.
Helena moved forward to subdue him but her knees went weak before giving way beneath her. Landing heavily in a kneeling position, she saw Denholme prise the Hound’s blade from his fingers and walk back towards her with it.
“As you can see you’re no longer the top of the tree. Your money and bullshit empire can’t save you from what’s coming.”
“What’s that?” asked Helena, through gritted teeth, her eyes on Denholme who was watching his own hand with the look of someone who didn’t like what they were seeing.
“The Oligarchs have ruled long enough. It is time that what you’ve kept from us is released. We deserve it as much as you do. Just because you were born wealthy, you think you deserve life more than we do. That time is coming to an end.”
Helena tried to stand but couldn’t. Why hadn’t her AI taken control of her body like last time.
You asked me not to, came the response.
Do so now, otherwise these telepaths will stop me doing anything, said Helena.
I cannot; I will not violate your desires.
Listen, she said to it. If you don’t then we’re both dead.
There was no comment from her AI, and she wondered if her own need to be alone within her head had doomed her to die.
Denholme stood in front of her with the sword in his right hand. He swished the air once, the smell of ionised oxygen reminding Helena of a thunderstorm.
“We must go,” said one of those with Denholme. “This has cost us too dearly. The woman no longer concerns us. Bring the Hound.”
The figure looked at one of his companions momentarily. Was the message for him more than Denholme? wondered Helena.
“Security teams are on their way,” said a second. “This is a disaster. We must not give them any more evidence.”
The other Normals had already left, skulking away until the three whose guns were trained on Helena and David walked away as well. They pulled the dead and injured after them. Hovercraft lifted off outside the station.
Denholme stood over Helena holding the blade tightly in one hand. She could see the struggle on his face, knew that she owed these bastards her life, in more than one way.
“What did I ever do to you?” asked Helena.
Denholme sighed. “You were born in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Two of the telepaths turned and began to walk from the station. The Hound followed stumblingly after them, his hands raised as if still holding the sword.
Abruptly, as if being controlled remotely, Denholme followed after them, leaving one last masked figure watching over Helena and David. As Denholme left he passed the blade to the flickering form, the sword appearing like a fixed point in a moving image.
The figure stepped in close, lifted the sword into the air above her head and swept it down.
Helena watched as her hand shot out and grabbed the shadowy wrist in a grasp so strong she heard his bones crack. He gasped but did not cry out. Instead, he looked around in shock. The man’s mask covered any expression he might have had, “You can’t do that!”
Helena felt herself stand, twisting the hand in her grip, forcing him to his knees.
“Her mind is caged!” said the Telepath, speaking as if someone else were there.
“Let the Hound go or I’ll kill you here and now,” said Helena, peeling back his three sculpted fingers one by one to take the sword for herself.
“Helena, don’t kill him,” said David, still kneeling. “It won’t stop them.”
Somewhere from a few kilometres away Helena could hear incoming sky hoppers. Time was running short for everyone.
“Listen to me,” said the telepath, grimacing in pain, “I’m nothing. Insignificant. There are five billion Normals waiting to see you fall.”
“You’re not one of them. We know what you are. Besides. I don’t care,” said Helena, and raised the blade. “Release the Hound or I’ll kill you now.” The last telepath flinched.
From the exit emerged one of the other telepaths, the Hound at their side. “Take your Hound. Release him.”
“Not so sweet when it’s you being threatened?” asked Helena bitterly.
“Being forced back into the slavery we’ve lived in for decades? No, it is like ash on the tongue, not that you’d understand. Take your Hound.”
The Hound stood upright and brought his hands down reflexively, as if completing the blow he had not been allowed to land.
Looking briefly at the telepaths he walked back to Helena’s side.
“You said…” pleaded the telepath.
They are trying to get into your mind, I can see the electrical impulses they generate as they disturb your consciousness. They are not aware of me except as something they can feel but not see.
“I said nothing of the sort,” said Helena derisively, feeling ascendant, beyond their ability to control.
You may be unique, said her AI.
“Let him go Helena, we know him now, besides we have our own problems,” said David. The sky hoppers were within five kilometres. Another two minutes and they’d be at the station.
“David,” said Helena, wishing for all the world that he would shut up.
“I’m staying. There are survivors, they need my help.” Looking at him, she knew it was a calling he would not deny. For the first time in twenty years, she felt her heart beat faster for another person.
“We’ll take one of your hoppers,” said Helena, turning back to the telepaths. “Your friends should be more than capable of helping you escape.” She let go of his arm. He stood, pushing up with his one good hand.
“We have only begun,” his voice full of venom.
“I was trying to help,” said Helena. “I am going to do what’s right. That’s where we differ.”
“What do you know about what is right?” asked the other telepath, her voice one of despair.
The telepaths faded, the air shimmering around them for a moment until they were almost gone.
David watched them go. To Helena he said, “Go. The ones on our side need the Hound now, not later. If you’re still here when the authorities arrive it’ll be too late.”
“What about you?” she asked, realising she cared deeply about the answer.
He smiled, “They need me.” He pointed towards the far platform. “Explaining why I’m here will not come up. All anyone is going to care about are the dead.” He looked around, a deep, human, sadness on his features. “Now go, you need to take the Hound to our telepaths. He’s the key to their freedom. If you get stuck here they’ll have no choice but to go back to Euros. We’ve come too far and made decisions that won’t allow us to go back. I’ll see you soon Helena.”
He turned and jumped down onto the track, before leaping back up onto the wreckage of the other platform, carefully approaching the nearest body to check for life.
Helena’s hearing was slowly returning; she could hear the whimpering and plaintive cries of the injured through the ringing aftershock of the blast.
Helena turned towards the exit, knowing she had about a shrinking stock of seconds in which to leave.
“We need to go,” said the Hound. “I am the key to your father’s work. He has ensured you were appropriately prepared to bear me to those telepaths seeking liberty. We must go.”
It was the most erudite and self-aware she had ever heard him. As she pondered his change, Rex led Helena to the last of the hoppers in the dock, just beyond the concourse entrance.
As they lifted into the air, Helena’s AI spoke up; I am sorry, I will never take control again.
She almost laug
hed out loud. If ever such a situation arises again you had my prior permission to act as we feel necessary.
Behind them, the first security teams to arrive at the scene settled down, only to find Commander David Chalmers already tending to the wounded.
He was right; no one was interested in how he had come to be there.
chapter 14
THE FLIGHT to the hotel took just a few minutes, but even before they touched down the explosion was splashed across the Cloud. A statement had been posted across multiple volumes claiming it was a bomb.
The claim was anonymous but the fact it had been placed in so many different places at the same time meant it was simply too present to ignore or excise from coverage. Helena kept rolling updates scrolling down the inside of one eye throughout their trip, analysing every word for signs Euros had been there for her, for an announcement they were looking for a woman of her description.
There was nothing. Broadcasters, bloggers and other commentators were interested in the wounded, the carnage and in trying to guess who was responsible.
Helena put the hopper down on the roof of the Hotel. Isaac and the twins came running out to greet them, their expressions grim.
“What happened?” they asked.
“Later,” said Helena. “This is Rex.”
The Hound gave them the look a sated wolf might give a lamb.
The twins each took a hand of his, pulled him forward into the hotel. Once inside they found her something to eat while they pummelled the Hound with questions. Rex answered some of the questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.
Helena left them to it. What they wanted to know meant nothing to her, the phrases they used were nonsense as often as not.
She slipped out of the hotel, wandered the edge of the green belt most of the day trying to forget the twisted limbs, spattered bodies and broken lives of the morning. She replayed their challenge to her, Denholme’s uncertain resolve driven by what they’d been through together.
Was what they had done worse than killing people herself? Were they even trying to achieve the same end?
She didn’t know the answer.
What now? she asked her AI. She’d found a large, solitary oak underneath under which she’d sat to think.
You need to leave. Euros know you had the Hound, know you were on that station. There are only so many places you could have gone from there.
She nodded, knowing it was right.
Have I done the right thing?
I cannot answer that for you, said her AI.
I wasn’t really asking you, she thought. I’ve stolen the Hound, fled a bomb site, hidden the existence of these telepaths from my team. She sighed. My only job was to find these people. They fell into my lap but I’ve done nothing about it. It’s only a matter of time before my role in all of this is spotted.
If I had the freedom I would try to halt this war. I cannot criticise your choices, said her AI.
She wondered on what caused Denholme to flip, about how other telepaths had come to be working with Normals.
She did not understand what he was doing but felt responsible for what he had become.
He wasn’t in charge, said her AI. But she wasn’t interested in stopping whatever it was these Normals were doing, just in saving Denholme.
If it was you, would you protest quietly or fight to the last drop of your blood? Would you use every means at your disposal to live?
There has to be a way to talk this through, to find a peaceful solution, thought Helena.
Indexiv see the solution in black and white. What if you truly cannot reason with that?
I don’t know, thought Helena.
MUCH LATER she made her way back to the Trumpet. The telepaths were in the common room; the Hound was asleep on the floor, curled up on his side like a child.
Isaac and the twins looked disappointed but when they saw her they tried to sound encouraged.
“What’s wrong?” asked Helena.
“We thank you for what you’ve done Helena Woolf. You have very likely saved us but the Hound cannot free us from our dependence.”
“What do you mean? You said it would be OK?” She wanted to cry with frustration.
“He was able to tell us there is a much more common drug, Leak, which we can use to deal with our dependence but it won’t free us from what others built into us,” said Isaac.
“Helena?” asked Remus, after they’d made their depression evident. “Your mother is our only hope. If anyone knows the location of your father it is her.” Then he fell silent.
“How long can Leak keep you alive?” asked Helena.
“Months, years. We don’t know,” said Isaac. “It gives us time.” He sighed. It was so much less than what they had hoped for. “I’m grateful. We’re all grateful. You’ve done something for us that we had thought impossible. We know the difficulties you’ve faced in choosing us and we’re sorry we can’t be more than helpless babes in return.”
Helena smiled sadly; she’d had enough death. “Can you stop the war?”
“You’ve seen what our peers think about your war,” said Isaac carefully.
Helena nodded, “You don’t agree with them?”
“It’s the eternal question; reform or revolution. We are not on the side of revolution.”
“So?”
“We will do what we can, think of ways in which we can change the nature of the discussion.”
“Thank you,” said Helena, not sure if he was promising what she hoped for but glad they were on her side. The Hound stirred at their feet and, seeing Helena, stood up straight before stretching like a sun-warmed cat.
Isaac watched the man for a moment, his eyes unreadable, then left the room.
“Helena,” said the Hound, in a voice she didn’t recognise.
“Yes.” She waited for him to continue. He looked around the room and finally sat down carefully on one of the chairs, his eyes never leaving hers.
“I’m very proud of you,” said the voice. “I knew you’d outwit Johannes. He’s always thought too much of himself.”
Helena wasn’t sure what to say.
“So you know, I’m giving you essentially the same message I gave my other creations.”
“Creations? Who are you?” asked Helena.
The Hound paused, “The voice you are listening to is your father. I recorded a simple AI a few months back, when I realised there was only one way out. I can answer some of your questions, but probably very few of the ones that will really need answers, at least as far as you’re concerned.” The Hound smiled crookedly.
Just how aware are you of what your mind is being used for, thought Helena.
The AI had a set presentation it was required to deliver; she saw no point in interrupting it further. After a short pause, the Hound spoke again.
“I have told the children about Leak. I won’t bore you with the details, but John Elkin mapped the compound after one of our junior researchers became addicted. The drug Euros uses to keep them on such a short leash is, ironically, a derivative. There is, of course, more to it than that, but you should have the relevant clues by now.
“Helena, to have found the hotel, to have snaffled the Hound from under my brother’s nose, to have survived, means you are the woman I’ve been watching for these the last six decades. There’s a lot of your mother in you, which I realise isn’t welcome news. Don’t underestimate her, it’s her strength you’ve got driving you on, not mine. If it hadn’t been for her perceptiveness I wouldn’t have seen things clearly enough in time.”
Helena found it strange how most of the men to have ever loved her mother continued to hold some sort of flame for her, despite her predations and callous indifference to how other people felt.
As if in answer to her thoughts the Hound said, “I know her faults, but you need to know her strengths, because they’re your own. They are what had brought you this far, saving my telepaths’ lives in the process.”
She rolled her eye
s and waited for the AI to get to the point.
“The Hound doesn’t know where I am, no one does. However, your mother has an intuition which might be correct.” The Hound’s eyes dulled for a second before coming back to life. “I don’t think you’d agree with my morality Helena, but I’m not looking for your affirmation. I chose you out of all your siblings because you have the talents and drive to stop both Euros and Indexiv. None of the Corporations are to be trusted, but these two brothers in arms have made it something of a mission to control everything. I wasn’t concerned, or involved, until we were successful the first time. Until the riots.
“Isaac and the others offer a route to that control, a lever long enough to move the earth if you’ll excuse the misquotation. Watch for Heider or Griffin, both Indexiv’s men, and key architects of the events unfolding around us now. If they cause you to fear, it would not be something to be ashamed of.
“If you answer my request, if you find your mother, you are stepping into something bigger than I believe you’ve ever suspected existed. If you search for your mother, it is because you want to stop Indexiv and Euros from achieving their ends. Eventually you’ll see there’s more to it than this, but at the risk of sounding patronising, ‘baby steps child, baby steps’. If you decide to look, you will be found by me.
“Helena, a last word. Genocide is an adjunct of what both Companies want, a side effect and nothing more. I know it will be painful for you to accept that, but they have other priorities.”
The Hound stopped speaking and, counting to ten in her head, Helena reasoned the presentation was over. She only had one question.
“When were you last updated?”
“Three years ago,” said the Hound. Helena nodded. As far as she knew no one had seen her father for decades, and in all that time the Company had been actively searching for him. She’d never heard of the men he’d mentioned, couldn’t see the objects his allusions pointed towards, but one thing stuck in her throat: she had been powerless to help Indexiv’s victims, but now she was being told she had the chance to make a difference. It wasn’t much, but right then it was something she was willing to bet her career on.
A Family War: The Oligarchy - Book 1 Page 33
