The Hunt for Pierre Jnr

by David M Henley

‘Do not question the command.’ Of course, you wouldn’t want to put a powerful and temperamental bender like Risom in the hands of a chronically depressed telepath.

  When Pete saw Ten at the bottom of the elevator, he asked him, ‘Just out of curiosity, how long have you known about this assignment?’

  ‘Two days.’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’

  ~ * ~

  Arthur Grimaldi had confined himself to a prison boarding house on Kowloon. Prisons in this area were different from the penal islands of other WU precincts, in that inmates were not completely cut off from the outside world. The prisons themselves were open to the flow of pedestrian traffic and only the prisoners themselves had to remain within the boundaries.

  It was more of a boarding house than a jail. These places were stepping stones that could be used by people progressing up or down the path of life. Some inmates, like Arthur, took to living in the prisons by choice, to protect themselves from incurring deeper debts, from harm in general, or because they simply found living in the wider world too confronting. Anyone could request sanctuary.

  There was only one portal in and out, an open footway, two metres wide and sensitive to the passing of its restricted members. If one of the prisoners tried to leave, their ankle-locks would cripple them with pain and a guard would have to drag them back inside the zone.

  Tamsin had heard of Arthur from Okonta and she wanted to know more about how he did what he did. Services had had Okonta do a probe on a collection team that had failed a mission and come out scatty. Okonta had told her that Arthur seemed to have an ability to project emotions and thoughts onto others. He soaked in everything around him and then redirected it. This was what had happened to the previous team that tried to collect him.

  It was easy for Tamsin, under the guise of Maria, to request entry and then explore the floors of the prison house. Lighting was clearly not a priority in these dark bamboo corridors.

  When she knocked, he didn’t answer. The door was unlocked and she stepped inside. She could feel his mind at the furthest end of the room.

  He kept himself in the dark. He ate from the cans that were put by his door and left them where they fell. The room smelt of breathed air, food gone bad and human juices. Arthur lay in the corner, feeling everything around him.

  ‘Arthur?’ she called gently.

  ‘Go away,’ the rags and blankets replied.

  ‘I’ve come to help you, Arthur. I’m a friend. I’m like you.’ ‘You have the curse. You have been touched by him! Don’t come near me, or you’ll regret it.’

  ‘Don’t be like that, Arthur. Come with me. It’s time to get you out of this hovel.’ She stepped toward him.

  No. You brought him here. Why did you bring him here? Who are you talking about? I came alone.

  No. ’No. You have the taint.’ Like I do ...

  She felt fear and pain, the echoes of suffering. The urge to cry was injected into her heart and made her hands shake. It was just as Okonta described.

  ‘What are you doing, Arthur?’

  ‘I said not to come near me.’

  ‘I’m not going to harm you. I’m a friend.’

  ‘Leave now or you’ll hurt. I’ll make you feel what I feel.’

  How do you do that?

  It’s just how I am.

  Though her breath stalled, she pushed further into Arthur’s mind, bracing for the cold black fear. He didn’t know how he was doing what he was doing, but Tamsin could see, and she could learn.

  When she pulled out, she was on her knees, tears flowing from her, and her body shaking with irreconcilable tremors. She hadn’t cried since she was a child.

  ‘Are you happy now, Tamsin Grey? Now you think you can do what I do? It won’t work for you. First you have to let the emotions inside you.’

  ‘I can help you. Join us.’

  Arthur pushed himself to his feet, laborious as an old horse. ‘You don’t want me. You’ve got what you came for, now go.’ I live in gloom. I don’t want anyone else in here with me.

  She felt again the cold brush of his mind, soaked with every dark emotion he had ever come into contact with. ‘I won’t be the only one coming to you, Arthur. You’ve got about five minutes before Services come in through the roof and cart you off to the islands. I don’t want that to happen to you. It shouldn’t happen to any of us.’

  ‘They’ve come before. They’ll come again.’

  ‘It will be different this time. They will have a man with them.’

  ‘Peter Lazarus will succumb like the others.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that.’

  ‘Then I shall make you sure.’

  Wave after wave of tangled emotions slapped inside her, corroding her resolve. Tamsin had no choice but to raise her block and run from the room.

  She hated herself for giving in so easily and thought about going back inside. One look at her shaking hands changed her mind. Arthur was too dangerous to control and he was right, she had gotten what she needed from him.

  As she stepped onto the footway outside the prison house, she felt a familiar mind approaching and kept her block raised. He was close and there was nowhere to hide.

  On the corner a group of rentals were displaying their flesh to the passing public. With the fakes so real, and the realsies so augmented, it didn’t take much work from her symbskin to make her blend in with the clique of dolls. She stood amongst them and influenced one of the humans to lend her a burner to smoke. Tamsin tried not to inhale — the last thing she needed after meeting with Arthur was mesh making more of her emotions.

  Peter Lazarus walked past, his eyes trailing over the prostitutes. Body willing, mind fraught. Poor Peter, Tamsin thought. He had changed, or been changed. He had lost a lot of weight since she’d last seen him upright, and with his head shaved he looked gaunt and slightly ... predatory. Was it desperation or determination that was driving him?

  She felt the squad of shadows that circled him. She had once been assigned a shadow like that. Orbiting around her as she moved from place to place, only seen when needed.

  So Peter was fully on their side now. Tamsin found it hard to believe. Then again, what choice did he have? One day I will come for you.

  He stopped walking.

  ‘What is it?’ a short slippery-looking man asked him.

  Pete raised his hand for silence.

  Tamsin?

  The one and only. I like your hair like that.

  What are you doing here?

  The same as you, I imagine. Do take care with Arthur. He is extremely sensitive.

  You tried to take him?

  Something like that.

  Is Pierre here?

  No, Pete. He’s gone.

  Gone where?

  Have you missed me, Pete?

  I don’t have time for this. Where is Pierre? And what is he planning?

  I don’t know, Pete. I wish I did.

  Pete looked around him; she must be close. His eyes scanned the group of flesh renters, focused for a moment on her and then made a show of looking elsewhere.

  Ten to Pete: What’s the hold-up, Lazarus?

  You look different too. We’ve seen your new face on some footage.

  I bet you have. What do you think? You want to take me home with you? A special discount for my friends.

  Come back.

  Never.

  I need you.

  Maybe you do, but we don’t want the same things.

  You want war.

  Freedom.

  And Pierre? You admire him.

  Of course.

  He’s killed innocent people.

  Nobody is innocent in this world. None of us.

  How can you say that?

  Pete: I think Tamsin Grey is close.

  Ten: Understood. Can you be more specific?

  Pete: Her block is up. I think she’s in the building somewhere.

  Pe
ter, we are on the same side. You just don’t know it yet.

  I can’t let you go.

  You can’t stop me either. Don’t be a puppet, Pete. I can see what they are doing to you. Don’t let them control you.

  I won’t become like you.

  You already have. If you go in there and help them collect Arthur, then you’re exactly what I was.

  They are helping me train. I’m stronger than I was before.

  I can see that. Stronger and angrier, and twisted up inside. Look at what they are doing to you.

  Enough!

  ‘I felt Tamsin Grey. She’s gone,’ he told Gock.

  ‘Really? We must alert the team.’

  ‘I already have.’

  ‘Very good, Mister Lazarus. Your behaviour will please the Prime. Is she gone?’

  ‘Gone or quiet.’

  Peter and Gock stood for a moment longer while the squad checked every room before clearing them to go into the prison.

  For cover, in case the surveillance was watching, Tamsin tempted a pedestrian to be her customer and together they wandered away.

  I will come back for you, she promised.

  I’ll be waiting.

  He didn’t watch her go.

  ~ * ~

  Pete walked up the two flights of stairs in silence, ignoring Gock’s questions about what had transpired between him and Tamsin. The door to Arthur’s room was unlocked.

  Stepping across the threshold of Arthur’s room felt akin to stepping from a humid summer day into a chilled room. The air was too sharp to breathe and the cold froze your soul. Pete commanded his symb to turn the lights on and one pathetic lamp flickered, casting the room in yellow and black.

  A man in filthy rags was standing at the other end of the room, as if he had been waiting for them.

  ‘She said you would come and you did.’

  ‘Did she?’ Pete turned to Gock. ‘Tamsin was just here.’

  ‘How did she know we were coming?’ Gock whispered back. He felt the fear on him thickly and wouldn’t take another step forward.

  ‘I won’t go with you either,’ the rag man replied, presumably Arthur Grimaldi.

  ‘Why didn’t you go with her?’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. Why can’t you people just leave me alone?’

  ‘We just want to ask you some questions, Arthur. That’s all.’

  Arthur peered at him, as if he could only just see him in the gloamy darkness. ‘You’ve got the taint on you too.’

  ‘Taint?’

  Taint? Gock frowned.

  ‘So many of you now.’ Arthur spoke so low Pete had to use his symb to amplify. ‘All touched by him. All cursed.’ A cold ripple lapped over Pete and Gock, both hunching over with the foreboding emanating from the rag man in the corner. Arthur was so used to it that he no longer noticed the emotion field that surrounded him.

  Pete: His moods affect everyone around him. He can’t control it.

  Ten: We’ve got the command to grab him. Ask your questions quick.

  ‘Arthur, what can you tell me about Pierre Jnr?’

  The name triggered a storm of primal fear, which was redirected at his visitors. Pete was suddenly an infant without thought, defiled and awestruck with undefined fear. Inside him he saw those eyes, those eyes that always stared, never blinking, patient.

  ‘When did you last see Pierre Jnr?’ he asked, doing his best to ignore his own mind. Arthur? We don’t want to hurt you.

  He is here. He is there. He is everywhere. He is here, he is there, he is everywhere ...

  Pete was filled with hate. It poured in from outside of him, but he couldn’t deny it. Arthur ... Stop this. Please.

  The flood didn’t stop. Arthur felt and Arthur made others feel. Pete’s teeth crushed each other, his tongue caught between, filling his mouth with blood taste. He was decomposing from the inside. Frothing, phlegmy loathing. He bit over his lip, top teeth digging deep into the skin. The pain was enough to break the spell and Pete shielded his mind.

  He wasn’t sure how, but the raging torrent was blocked out, the window closed so it could be seen and not heard. Inside, he floated and was able to see that there was only a dark figure standing at the far end of a dark cell. He grabbed Gock by the collar and dragged him from the room.

  Pete: Do what you have to do. Gas first, Ten. You don’t want to go in there with him awake.

  ~ * ~

  The journey home was silent. Pete practised his new skill. On, off. Open, shut. How the block worked was hard to explain. It was like opening and closing your eyes, not so that you couldn’t see out but so that no one could see in.

  Now that he knew the difference it seemed only a small effort to raise and lower the drawbridge of his mind. He felt silly that it had taken him this long to discover it. All his life he had been like a talkative moron who could not close his mouth.

  ‘Another excellent performance,’ Gock repeated Ryu’s words verbatim. Unfortunately Gock was still shaky from his exposure to Arthur’s field and he did not manage to convey Ryu’s message with the assurance intended.

  Pete too couldn’t get his mind off Arthur.

  ‘Thank you, Prime. I didn’t know what else to do. I’ve never seen a psi like him.’

  ‘You followed procedure to the letter.’

  ‘What will become of him now?’

  ‘Well that, Peter, is up to you and Geof. If you think you can work with him, he may be of use to you.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘His sensitivity is unprecedented. He could be useful as a sniffer.’

  Pete nodded. Early psi detection.

  ‘You said Geof and I. Does that mean we can have contact again?’

  ‘Yes. I will inform him once we are done.’

  ‘Is my trial over then?’

  ‘No. But your performance today, with Arthur, and reporting your possible contact with Tamsin Grey, has been noted.’

  And now he is beginning to trust me? Did it really take so little? Pete wondered. Or was there more to this? Was this just preparation for something else?

  ‘How do you feel about Arthur Grimaldi?’

  ‘I feel sorry for him.’

  ‘Oh, and why is that?’

  Peter struggled to formulate an answer. He felt bad for Arthur because he had felt the darkness he lived within. He was unable to control his powers and had to shut himself away. ‘It just didn’t seem like a good life.’

  ‘No. And why do you think Tamsin Grey would have been there, at the same time as you?’

  Ah, so the trial continues. First he praises, then he questions.

  ’I don’t know about the timing, that is most likely coincidence, but I presume she was trying to win Arthur to her cause.’

  ‘And he did not go. That is interesting, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not every psi wants to become a combatant.’

  ‘Such as yourself, you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’ Pete articulated the word precisely.

  ‘Did she offer to free you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you had one of your conversations with her, did you not?’

  ‘I was trying to locate her. I notified the squad as soon as I knew she was close.’

  ‘So you say.’ Gock felt better being able to inflict some discomfort on another after the day he had had. He was looking forward to double tranqs and sleeping this nightmare off. ‘Tell me what took place in this conversation.’

  ‘She said she liked my haircut.’

  ‘Don’t play games with me, Mister Lazarus.’

  ‘She said that I had become like her and warned me not to let you break me.’

  ‘And have we broken you yet?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘We will have to try harder then.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘If you disobey me, Lazarus, you will be shipped to the islands. It is as simple as that.’

  ‘To li
ve out my days in peace and harmony?’

  Ryu saw Gock sneer. He had no need to answer.