by Guy Morpuss
I cleared up the mess that I had left on the table and sat back.
‘Let’s set all this aside for the moment,’ I said. ‘We need to focus on what we can do about it. I can’t stay like this. Apart from anything else, I’ll never be able to leave the park as long as I’m Amy Bird. She was purchased here illegally. I need to get back in with you. Back where I belong. If I can’t then I’m going to end up stuck here for ever.’
‘To do that we need to find Sierra,’ said Alex. ‘We need to know how she has done this and how to reverse it.’
‘I don’t understand what she’s doing,’ I said. ‘If she wanted to offload herself into an andi, why not just do it and be gone? Why didn’t she just take this body once she had it? None of us would have really cared if she had wanted to spend the rest of her life in a death park. I know you would have been glad to see the back of her. Instead she’s probably killed two of us, as well as the dealer, Karl, the other night. And she’s presumably stuck somewhere in the park in another andi body.’
‘Unless she’s found a way of getting out of the park,’ suggested Alex. ‘Maybe there are ways.’
‘Then why not do it with Bird several days ago? These bodies can’t be cheap. All she’s done is wasted credit on an extra body and made it much more likely you or I might come after her. Or at least report her. What about that?’ I said. ‘Should we be reporting her?’
Alex thought. ‘I don’t like that idea at all. How can we ever prove that Sierra was the one who did all this? We’re likely to get chucked in a cell, or stasis, while they try to work it out. When we tell them that Sierra is to blame but that she has somehow managed to run away they’ll be all the more suspicious of us. To them, that just isn’t possible.’
‘So how do we find Sierra? We don’t even know what she looks like or what she’s called now.’
‘No, but we know someone who does,’ said Alex. ‘If Sierra had another body stashed away somewhere, odds are that she bought it from Guskov.’
‘He’s not going to tell us,’ I said.
‘He’s greedy,’ said Alex. ‘We know that from the fact that he didn’t kill Ben. We offer him time for information. He was willing to overlook a murder in return for ten years. Telling us the name of Sierra’s new andi is a lot less risky.’
‘OK. Maybe,’ I said, unconvinced. But I didn’t have a better plan. ‘How do we do this?’
‘We know where Guskov is,’ said Alex. ‘So why don’t we just go and ask him?’
Which was what we did.
ALEX
DAY FOUR
17:30–23:02
It was starting to get dark as we walked down the rubble-strewn alley that led to the Death’s Head. A drone followed us, no doubt beaming images back to Guskov.
I glanced across at Kate. She had been silent for most the walk. She was still wobbly, and I didn’t know if that was from the medication she had been given, the alcohol, or the trouble she was having controlling Amy Bird’s body. When the medic had told me to get fluids inside her he probably hadn’t meant four shots of single malt.
I was worried about her. She had reacted far more violently to the body transfer than I would have expected.
The Death’s Head was busy. We threaded our way through the crowd to get to the bar.
‘What can I get you two?’ asked the barman.
‘Mr Guskov,’ I said. ‘We need to speak to him.’
The barman paused for a moment, no doubt communicating with someone. Then he nodded to his left. ‘Go over there. The door marked PRIVATE.’
As we approached it opened. The doorway was entirely filled by a large figure. Vincent. Or Stas. I couldn’t tell the difference.
‘I know you two,’ he said. ‘What do you want?’
‘We need to speak to your boss,’ I said. ‘There’s time in it for him.’
‘Follow me.’ He led us down a long corridor and up some steps to the room where Sierra, and later Ben, had been before us.
Guskov was sitting behind a large desk, and gestured for us to take the two remaining seats.
‘Ms Bird,’ he said, nodding to Kate. ‘My merchandise doesn’t usually come back to see me. I wonder who you are now?’ He studied her. ‘As you’ll have realised, scanning doesn’t work in here. Perhaps it’s better that I don’t know who you are.’ He looked down at her bloodstained clothes. ‘You look as though you have had an … interesting day.’
He turned to me. ‘Which of you do I have the pleasure of meeting this time? I advised Mr White not to come back. Ms Summers?’
‘Alex Du Bois. We haven’t met.’
‘Delighted,’ said Guskov. ‘You lot are becoming quite the regular customers. It’s the nature of my work that I don’t usually get repeat business. Are you back for another body?’
I sat forward. ‘We’re after information. We’re prepared to pay for it. We know that Sierra – Ms Summers – bought the original andi, Ms Bird,’ I nodded towards Kate. ‘We think that she bought a second one as well. We want to know what it looks like. We’re willing to pay you well, five years, if you can tell us.’
Guskov sat back and sucked his lips. ‘An interesting proposal,’ he said, ‘with a certain dilemma for me. As I told your Mr White, I have a reputation to maintain. Part of my reputation is for preserving my clients’ confidences. If I lose that reputation I lose business worth much more than five years. On the other hand you, Mr Du Bois, at least in one of your many manifestations, already know the answer to your question. In truth I don’t know whether I am talking to Mr Du Bois, Mr White or Ms Summers. Or someone else. I am simply taking your word for it. So I could just be reminding you of what you already know, and getting paid for it.’ He tapped his fingers on his desk, the sound echoing round the silent room. Then he looked from Kate to me.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said. ‘Make it ten years and I will give you what you need to know.’ He corrected himself. ‘What you know already.’
I glanced at Kate. She nodded. It was a high price but we had already agreed that we would pay whatever it took. ‘All right,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘Vincent,’ he said. The andi walked over to me and held out his hand. ‘Give him the time and I’ll give you the identity in return.’
We lightly touched our fingers.
‘Ms Summers told me she needed another andi,’ said Guskov. ‘Again, she was quite particular about what she wanted. As you can see, young, female, blonde.’ It was confirmed by the data that he sent across. The andi looked rather like Sierra when we had first met her.
‘Did she say why she wanted it?’ Kate asked.
‘Don’t push your luck, Ms Bird,’ said the dealer. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal. In any event, I never ask my customers what they intend to do with their purchases. I am a sensitive man. I would probably be quite shocked if I knew.
‘So, Ms Bird, Mr Du Bois, I think that concludes our discussion. Vincent will escort you out. As ever, it was a pleasure doing business with you. If this leads to trouble it would be best for all of us if you don’t mention my name. Wherever you end up. I do have a long reach.
‘If, on the other hand, you ever feel the need for another andi, you know where to come.’ He chuckled to himself. ‘I might start a loyalty scheme just for you.’
•
We retreated to the high-rise to decide what to do. Kate wasn’t keen on the climb but I pointed out that Sierra would be looking for us, and we needed somewhere safe to regroup.
We found an abandoned suite on the top floor with a lock that worked. Kate collapsed onto the bed and a cloud of dust erupted around her. She looked exhausted. Quite apart from the difficulty of controlling it, her new body was nowhere near as fit as mine. I had ended up virtually carrying her up the last few flights of stairs.
I walked over to the window, staring out at the lights far below. At night the park looked more desolate than ever.
Kate sneezed and I turned around. ‘Bless you.’
‘What’s the
plan?’ she said. ‘We need to be doing something. If we find Sierra, what are we going to do? Beat the information out of her?’
‘If we have to,’ I said. ‘First we have to find her.’
Kate looked puzzled. ‘We know that she has another body, but I still don’t understand why. Why didn’t she just leave the park in this body? If she can. Why pay for another one?’
‘Who knows how Sierra thinks,’ I said. ‘Maybe she wanted to look like her seventeen-year-old self again. There’s a resemblance. Maybe she’d agreed with Guskov to swap Bird for the new andi, so it wouldn’t have cost her much. But Ben wrecked that by shooting Bird. Or maybe she was in Bird during the game, panicked when she thought Bird was dying, and jumped to the new andi as fast as she could.’
‘Possibly. But that doesn’t explain why I ended up in Bird. Was she doing that to kill me?’
‘We’re going to have to find her to get the answer. But in the meantime we have another problem,’ I said. ‘Read this.’
HIGH PRIORITY, DO NOT IGNORE: ParkGov to Mr Du Bois. We are contacting you as the current representative of your commune. We understand that your challenge today was inconclusive due to a systems failure in the arena. You must accept and complete a challenge by the end of next cycle. If you do not choose a challenge, one will be randomly assigned to you at the start of the cycle.
Kate sighed. ‘Again. How do we even do this?’ she asked. ‘It would need to be you playing the game. Unless Sierra is still in there with you. Which I doubt. But I wouldn’t trust her to play anyway.’
‘I’m not sure I have the energy for another challenge,’ I said. ‘We could just leave before midnight.’
‘You could, I can’t. Not in this body, anyway. We need to find Sierra and get me out of this.’
‘Then I’d better find an easy one,’ I sighed.
‘Not that it really matters now, but how much time do we have in credit?’ Kate asked.
I checked. ‘Not as much as we had, but still quite a lot by park standards. After the ten that we gave the dealer we have 13.4 years left. It’s well worth fighting for.’
‘All right. You find an easy challenge and I’m going to see if I can get cleaned up. I’m still covered in blood.’
‘Last time I tried them the showers were still working,’ I said. ‘And the printers are still good too, so you can get some new clothes. You need them.’
I was sitting cross-legged on the bed when she emerged ten minutes later. She still looked tired, but at least now she was clean and freshly dressed.
‘How are you feeling?’ I asked.
‘Just wonderful. The best day of my life.’ She paused. ‘How do you think I feel, you git?’
‘You look …’ I stopped myself. She looked great, but she wasn’t going to react well to my telling her that. Not in that body. ‘You look … better …’ I trailed off.
She dragged an armchair round and sat opposite me. ‘So, what have you been doing?’
‘I’m trying to find Sierra. I’m not as good at this as Ben, but I’ve managed to modify Ben’s last search to look for Sierra’s new body.’
‘Is that it?’ Kate said. ‘We sit here and hope that she happens to walk past a camera. And that Ben’s search routine will recognise her new body? There must be something better that we can be doing.’
‘Not tonight,’ I said. ‘We’re both exhausted. You’re still in shock. We need to rest. Besides, even if I’m the only one left in this body presumably I’ll still drop out at 2:00. When Mike left we still shut down for four hours R & R overnight.’
‘All right,’ she said. ‘We are going to have to come up with a better plan for tomorrow. Sitting here all day and waiting for something to happen is going to drive me mad. If Sierra’s found a way to leave the park in her new body I don’t want to be the one stuck here for the next fifty years.’
‘Fine, but I still need to play a game tomorrow. We have over a hundred challenges now. I’d half expected to have one from Sierra’s new andi, but there isn’t one.’
‘There is another option,’ said Kate. ‘We could be bold and issue a challenge to Sierra. She’d probably accept it.’
‘I’m sure she would,’ I said. ‘But we know she’s subverting the games somehow. It’s too risky. We’re better off finding her in the real world.’
‘You’re right,’ said Kate. She sounded tired. ‘It was a bad idea. I’m exhausted and my brain’s not working properly.’
‘It’s been a rough day,’ I said. ‘You need to let that body sleep. It’s not like a schizo with rest programmed in. You get some shut-eye while I find a game for tomorrow.’
‘All right, but wake me if there’s any sign of Sierra.’
‘I promise.’
I climbed off the bed as Kate slid under the covers.
I dragged the armchair over to the window. I wondered what it was like trying to get to sleep, proper sleep, for the first time in twenty-five years.
I was meant to be reviewing challenges, but there didn’t seem a lot of point. Instead I found myself staring out at the darkness. I could see a half-reflection of myself staring back, and beyond that the dim lights of the park.
Four days ago there had been five of us in this body, here for a bit of fun and to try to win some time. Cocky and confident. Now I was on my own. Mike dead. Ben dead. Kate beside me in a body she hated.
And somewhere out there in the darkness was Sierra. Waiting for us.
KATE
DAY FIVE
02:38–04:02
I was woken by an alert. It took me a moment to remember where I was. Who I was. How I could be woken like this.
I rolled over and felt Alex lying next to me.
2:38. It wasn’t really Alex, then. His mind was shut down while his body simulated sleep. I wouldn’t be able to wake him.
I sat up.
Sierra Summers detected. One alert: view?
I was still being copied in on Ben’s old alert, which Alex had modified. I was surprised that she was openly going by her real name. How had she even managed that when I was Amy Bird?
I opened the clip.
Sierra was standing at a darkened crossroads, beneath one of the few working streetlights, looking around. She was near the Death’s Head. Was that where she had been since the game? Had she been there when we visited Guskov? Had he lied to us? Or was she heading to the bar now?
This felt like a trap. Why had she appeared at a time when she knew Alex would be gone? Or did she think that she was safe for this period, that I wouldn’t go after her on my own? Did she even know that I was still alive and inside Amy’s body? It had all been pretty chaotic at the end of the game, and the andi had been wounded. Maybe she thought she was safe while we slept.
But if we lost her again I lost the chance to get my body back.
I climbed out of bed, trying to be quiet so as to not wake Alex, which made no sense. I dressed quickly. As I did so another alert popped up, showing Sierra entering the Death’s Head.
I couldn’t count on her staying there until Alex woke up. I left quickly.
It was cold and dark outside. Deserted. There was some light from the moon, but there was rain in the air, with clouds scudding overhead. I kept to the centre of the streets, away from the shadows. I was vulnerable in Amy’s weak body.
How was I going to do this? Walking in through the front door of the bar seemed like suicide. I needed to find another way in. As I walked I brought up a map. A jumble of buildings backed up to the bar, behind which was a small park.
It took me a good thirty minutes to get there. I hoped that Sierra was still inside. The park was thinly populated with trees, most half-dead, but providing some cover. I picked my way carefully from tree to tree, trying to stay out of the moonlight.
The nearest building towered a good seven or eight storeys above me. It was in shadow. There was no obvious way in, no doors or windows that I could see. I needed to get closer. To my right was a pile of fallen masonry, which wo
uld provide some cover. I scuttled towards it and scrambled up, keeping my head down.
I needn’t have worried about Sierra looking out. From close up it was clear that there were no windows, just a blank wall with a small door in the bottom right-hand corner. It was open, swinging back and forth in the wind.
A chance sighting of Sierra. An invitingly open door. This felt more and more like a trap. But what choice did I have?
I slid back down the mound of rubble and approached the door cautiously. I stood and listened, but could hear nothing over the sound of the wind. Eventually I plucked up my courage, slid around it and peered inside.
The building was huge and poorly lit. There were five skylights running the length of the roof, high above. Shafts of moonlight pierced the gloom like dim spotlights. They picked out jumbles of towering machinery and oddly angled walkways.
I stepped cautiously through. I couldn’t see enough to stay near the wall in the darkness. This body didn’t have the lens enhancements that we did. I needed the moonlight. It was strange that despite being sixty-seven years old, and having time in credit, Amy Bird didn’t seem to have thought it worth spending anything on enhancements. Maybe andis were like that. So divorced from their bodies and the real world, so obsessed with their rational minds, that they wouldn’t spend time on improving themselves physically.
I wound my way carefully through the debris from one pool of light to the other, trying to stay in the cover of the broken machines that loomed over me. Eventually there was only one skylight to go. I looked cautiously out from behind cover.
I had found Sierra.
She was sitting in the centre of the shaft of moonlight, cross-legged, facing the door I’d come in through. Her eyes were closed. But I had no doubt she knew I was there. On each side of her, on the edge of the light, was a row of glass-lidded boxes. I couldn’t see what they contained, but they looked horribly like coffins.
I stepped out into the moonlight.
Sierra opened her eyes. She looked me up and down. ‘Kate,’ she said. ‘You’ve aged since I last saw you.’
