Five Minds

by Guy Morpuss

  ‘I’m Amy, not Kate,’ I said. ‘You can check.’

  She laughed. ‘I’m not going to scan you, Kate. I know who you are. I’m the one who put you inside that body.’

  ‘And now you need to put me back,’ I said. ‘If you want to be an andi for the rest of your life, stuck in this park for ever, then fine. That’s not my choice. I want to be back in my body and out of this …’ I gestured to my andi body. Revulsion overwhelmed me. Each unnatural gesture made me hate this body more.

  Sierra shook her head. ‘You should be pleased. I’ve given you freedom. No more four-hour slots. No more worrying about what everyone else has done with your body. You should be thanking me.’

  ‘Thanking you?’ I took a step towards her, fists unconsciously clenching. ‘You may regret your choices, but I don’t. I like being part of something greater. When they weren’t there I could feel Mike, Ben, Alex – even you. It felt good. This,’ I looked down at Amy’s body again, ‘in this I’m alone. I don’t know how you can stand it.’

  Sierra blinked, surprised at my outburst. Then she shrugged. ‘You’ll get used to it. Embrace the positives. You can be with Alex. I watched the game show. I could see something between you. Alex knows you better than you know yourself.’

  ‘I’m not sure what you mean, but it wasn’t real,’ I said. ‘There was nothing between us. It was just a game I was playing to stay alive. Of course Alex knows me. We’ve been together for twenty-five years. That’s all.’

  What did Sierra think she’d seen? I shook my head. She was just trying to manipulate me. ‘You don’t seem to get it, Sierra. I hate this. You screwed Alex and Emily in Montreal. Literally. Now you are doing the same to me. Why?’

  ‘What choice did I have?’ she said. ‘You bastards stuck me in stasis for three months after Montreal. Do you know what that’s like? Being trapped with nothing but your own thoughts? And Alex wasn’t going to leave it at three months. He wanted to get rid of me for good. Sooner or later I’d have done something that the rest of you sanctimonious prigs didn’t approve of, and he’d have had his excuse to try again. We were never going to live together happily ever after for another hundred years. Either I was going to get rid of you, or you lot were going to find a way of getting rid of me. So I decided to act first.’

  To Sierra’s twisted mind that might make sense. But how had she managed all this? Ben I could have understood. But Sierra? I’d never seen her apply herself to anything other than the pursuit of an easy life.

  ‘Who was Amy Bird?’ I asked. ‘How did you do all this? Was Ben helping you? Is he still alive somewhere? And Mike?’

  ‘Ben?’ she looked genuinely surprised. ‘No. Ben’s dead. So is Mike. They didn’t give me any help.’

  ‘Who did, then? How did you do all this? There’s no way you did it on your own.’

  She hesitated before answering. ‘Let’s keep that as a surprise. You’ll find out soon enough.’

  What did she mean? ‘Why are you still here? You’ve got what you wanted. You’re back to being seventeen-year-old Sierra. Bugger off and leave us alone. What’s left of us. I hope you think it was worth killing Mike and Ben for. I don’t.’

  Sierra grimaced. ‘That’s difficult. I can’t, as you so eloquently put it, just bugger off. I can’t get out of the death park in this body. I had to jump here when Ben shot Bird. But I have no status or time. If I leave the park I’ll be picked up and erased. So I need Mike’s body back. That’s where you come in.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘I need to get Alex to an arena so we can swap back. But he’s not going to agree to that unless I have some leverage.’ She pointed to me. ‘You.’

  ‘Me?’ Was this all a trap from the outset then? ‘How did you know I’d even come here?’

  ‘You’re not as bright as you think,’ she said. ‘I knew if I showed myself it would trigger Ben’s alert, and you wouldn’t be able to resist chasing after me.’

  I looked around and laughed.

  ‘How are you proposing to keep me here, Sierra? I’ve come for you, not the other way around.’ I still didn’t have complete control of Bird, but I was pretty confident I could take Sierra in her new andi body.

  There was a metal rod leaning against the nearest machine. I grabbed it and tested its weight. I would beat the truth out of her if I had to. She had just admitted that it was possible to get back into our body. I needed her to tell me how.

  I took a step forward and slammed the rod into the palm of my other hand.

  Sierra flinched and stood quickly.

  ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ she said. She stepped back and held out her hands.

  The lids on the glass coffins rose silently. There was a hiss, and smoke rolled out of them into the darkness. An icy wave passed over my feet. What was this?

  ‘When you bastards forced me into stasis, I had mandatory counselling,’ said Sierra. ‘They told me I was a sociopath – incapable of change. Which is fine. I don’t need to change. Before they gave up they kept saying that I needed to face my fears. That I couldn’t run away from them.’

  As I was wondering what this had to do with anything, I started to hear sounds coming from the coffins. Squelching, coughing, rasping breath. Suddenly something sat upright in the nearest coffin to my right.

  I jumped away from it. It was white and indistinct, almost glowing in the moonlight. A dandi, waking up and coated in slime. I realised that this was where Guskov kept his stock. Sierra was reviving them all at once. But how?

  ‘What … what are you doing?’ I gasped.

  ‘What’s your biggest fear, Kate? Being stuck in that andi body for ever? This is part of your therapy. I’m giving you the chance to confront it. My psychologist would say it’s good for you. You can run if you like. In fact, I want you to run or there’s no fun in it for me. But they will get you.’ She paused and grinned at me. ‘It’s time to face up to your daddy issues.’

  How the hell did she know about that? I’d only ever told Alex. Had he told Sierra?

  But I had bigger problems.

  The dandis were slowly climbing out of their glass coffins. For a moment I wondered whether I could grab Sierra and use her as a shield. But what would that do? All I had was a metal rod, and they would overwhelm me. I realised that the game had changed. This wasn’t about me catching Sierra. This was about me getting out of there alive.

  I turned and ran.

  Back between the rows of coffins, towards the door where I had come in. Two of the dandis were fully emerged and in my way. They were naked, white, dripping in slime.

  I ducked under the swinging arm of one, and pushed the other away with the metal rod. Not hard enough. I cursed my stupid weak body.

  The dandi grabbed the rod and I stumbled backwards, felt something touch my back, sliding across my shoulders. I screamed.

  I dived away from the touch, between the two dandis ahead of me. I scrambled frantically on hands and knees, slipping on bits of discarded metal. I could hear rasping breath behind me. Close behind.

  I grabbed a handle on the nearest machine and pulled myself up. Something slithered across my neck, and a hand pulled at my shirt. I jumped forward, around the side of the machine.

  I risked a quick look over my shoulder.

  There was a jumble of dandis behind me, shuffling, limbs flailing and uncoordinated, slipping on bits of metal. There was a reason they were known as dumb andis. There was a limit to their AI capabilities. They were getting in each other’s way. Even in Bird’s weak body I had the advantage of speed. If I could keep ahead of them I could get back to the door before they did.

  I darted forward, trying to follow the route from skylight to skylight. Trying to remember how I had got from the door to Sierra. I cut right, round a machine twice my height, then left through a gap between two broken conveyor belts. I cracked my shin on something solid, and stifled a gasp. I could hear the dandis behind me, but I was briefly out of sight. If they had any sense they woul
d be trying to outflank me. Did Sierra have that level of control over them?

  Then everything went black.

  For a moment I thought that Sierra had somehow blocked the skylights. Then I realised that the moon had disappeared behind clouds. The storm had arrived. Rain started to batter the metal roof high above, echoing round the building.

  That worked both ways. If I couldn’t see or hear the dandis then they were equally blind and deaf to me.

  But time wasn’t on my side. I had to get to the door before any of them did. All they had to do was get there first and wait me out.

  I pressed on, shuffling my feet forward, arms outstretched, trying to feel my way through the chaos as I waited for my eyes to adjust.

  Why was Sierra doing this to me? She knew that I’d never liked andis. Was that why she’d put me in one? Without the others I felt so alone.

  A beam of light cut through the darkness to my left. It lit up two dandis just metres away. I ducked under the conveyor belt, trying to calm my breathing. I heard footsteps near where the dandis had been.

  ‘Katie, Katie, where have you gone?’

  The light swung towards me, over me, past me. I stayed still.

  It swung back.

  ‘She’s here,’ shouted Sierra.

  I dived from my hiding place, scrambling through scattered metal. Sierra’s torch tracked me until I rounded the corner of another vast machine. I barely stopped myself running into a wall.

  I was thoroughly lost now.

  The drumbeat of rain overhead wasn’t helping, echoing the thumping of my heart. I thought I could hear the scrape of metal ahead, but it was hard to tell.

  ‘Run, Katie, run.’ A mocking voice from somewhere behind me.

  I needed to know where I was. I could make out what looked like a ladder on the side of the machine to my left. It creaked when I pulled on it, and felt as though it might come away at any moment. But I had no choice. I hauled myself up it and found myself on a metal platform a little above head height. Walkways ran off in both directions. The one to my right ran parallel to what I could now see was the back wall, and ought to bring me out somewhere near the door. I tested it with one foot. It wobbled in a disturbing way.

  Despite the cold night I was sweating now. Why did andis sweat? They seemed to have taken all the worst human attributes and not added any improvements.

  I stepped cautiously on to the walkway, trusting it would hold me. I could see Sierra’s torch flashing between the machinery in the distance. She seemed to have gone in the wrong direction.

  Suddenly there was a deafening crack overhead and the skylights were lit up brighter than before. The storm was right above us. For a moment the entire room was picked out in harsh white light as lightening crackled around the building.

  I froze. Had anyone seen me? Or were they as deaf and blind as I now was?

  Everything was dark again. My night vision was ruined. But in that moment of light I had seen where the door was. Mentally I rehearsed my route. Get to the end of the walkway, drop down a ladder, left round a conveyor belt, right past another of the vast machines, and that was it.

  Then I heard a noise from below. Two dandis were shuffling slowly along beneath the walkway, kicking scraps of metal as they went. Their white slimy skins seemed almost to glow in the darkness. Sweat pooled on my face and arms, and down the back of my shirt. It only needed one drop and they would look up. They couldn’t miss me.

  Without warning I was blinded once again by light. But this time there was no accompanying thunder. It was Sierra’s torch.

  ‘She’s up there!’ Sierra shouted. ‘Get her!’

  I dived, trying to get out of the light. The metal floor of the walkway collapsed under the sudden weight. I plunged through, dragging one of the dandis to the ground with me. As I struggled to my feet the other clawed at me. I turned and punched him in the face with all that I had.

  A blow like that would have knocked him off his feet if I’d been in my own body. But Bird’s puny swipe just rocked him back enough for me to slip past, sliding off his slippery skin, my knuckles aching. I ran towards the door, careless now of making any noise. I could hear movement to my left, Sierra shouting, bodies crashing through the debris that littered the floor. All to the drumbeat of the rain overhead.

  I skidded round a pile of metal to see the door ahead of me, still open.

  There was a dandi in front of it, staring at me with hollow eyes. I barely hesitated, reaching unseen into the junk pile beside me, and swinging something heavy and metallic into its face. There was a crunching sound and a muted scream, but still he tried to reach for me as he collapsed.

  I leaped over his falling body and out through the door. I was briefly blinded by a squall of rain. There was another flash of lightning. Still close, but slightly further away. The thunder took a moment to reach me. I could see the treeline. If I could get amongst the trees I would be safe.

  Something hit me from the side. I crashed to the ground, winded, fighting for breath. As I tried to crawl to my feet again, an arm locked around my neck from behind. Hands grabbed me and pulled me up. I twisted and fought to get away, punching and kicking.

  But there were too many of them. My wrists were pinned tightly behind my back, and I was lifted until only my toes were touching the ground. The arm round my throat tightened, and I felt as though I was about to pass out.

  I was twisted round violently, to see Sierra standing in front of me. She looked at me angrily. The wind was blowing her hair about, the rain plastering it to her scalp. I didn’t imagine that I looked any better.

  I was gasping for air. Sierra gave a signal and the grip round my throat eased slightly. I gulped a breath.

  Sierra was holding a metal rod in one hand. She walked over to me, raising it above her head. Was that wise in the middle of a lightning storm? But it seemed unlikely that a benevolent god was going to strike her down for me.

  ‘Guskov won’t be happy that you damaged the goods, Kate. There’s at least one in there with a broken nose. Maybe I’ll just do the same to you.’ She paused. ‘Or better still, if you hate this andi body so much why don’t we just end it now?’ She drew back the metal rod. ‘I could drive this through your brain and feel nothing.’

  I knew that she was mad enough to do it. I pushed back, to try to get away from her, but the dandis forced me towards her. ‘Please, no, Sierra …’ I hated myself for pleading with her, but I didn’t want to die. I knew then that I would rather live in an andi body than die. ‘You need me,’ I said. ‘You need me to get Alex.’

  I could see her brain calculating. Then she dropped the metal rod. I went limp with relief. I shivered.

  Sierra walked over to me, flicking her wet hair out of her eyes. She put her hands on either side of my face, turning me back towards her. It felt familiar. Intimate.

  ‘You look disgusting, Kate,’ she said. She looked up at the sky, opening her mouth and drinking in the torrential rain. Her eyes flashed reflected lightning as she looked back at me. ‘At least this is washing some of the slime off you.’ She leaned in closer. Her thumbs pressed on my cheekbones, hurting me. Thunder rolled over us. I couldn’t move. Her lips touched mine as she forced herself on me, her tongue flicking between my lips. Then she pulled away.

  ‘You liked that before. Don’t pretend anything’s changed.’

  She was wrong. I held her gaze, then turned from her and spat.

  She stepped back and gestured to the dandis. ‘Bring her inside. I have my bait. Now let’s get my body back.’

  ONE WEEK EARLIER

  MR GUSKOV

  Valya Guskov carefully polished his glasses with a square of silk cloth. He didn’t need to wear them, but they were a part of him now. He’d come across them in an antique store twenty years ago, and had decided that they made him look like an intellectual, as well as lending an air of menace. Although now he had Vincent and Stas to achieve the latter.

  He looked up at the door. They were late. Not the
start he wanted to a new relationship. Still, it didn’t look good to seem impatient, so he resisted messaging Vincent. He would give them five more minutes.

  They arrived in three.

  The man who followed Vincent through the door was tall and graceful, with an easy smile. Not as tall or wide as Vincent. But few were. If Guskov had walked round the desk to greet them the newcomer would have topped him by a good six inches.

  He remained seated.

  ‘Sorry, boss,’ said Vincent. He was rubbing his knuckles. ‘We ran into some trouble in the bar.’

  ‘What sort of trouble?’

  ‘There’s an irritating hed, Karl something, who’s been hanging around for the last few days. He’s barely got any time left. Someone told him that you might give him work, and he seemed to be offended that Ms Summers here is jumping the queue.’ Vincent glanced at his bruised knuckles. ‘I explained to him that’s not how it works.’

  ‘A suitably visual explanation, I trust?’

  ‘Well, he can’t see as well as he could. But he understands.’

  ‘Is he worth anything to us?’ asked Guskov.

  ‘We could give him a supply of pills. Let him do a bit of dealing. Then, when he’s in our debt, we call it in and sell him to an arena.’

  ‘Do it,’ said Guskov.

  He turned his gaze on the newcomer. ‘Sorry, Ms Summers, there’s always something to distract me. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Do have a seat. Can Vincent get you something to drink?’

  She smiled, raising a glass that she’d been holding at her side. ‘I’m way ahead of you. While your man here dealt with Karl I made friends with your barman.’ She sat, crossed her legs, and looked at him quizzically.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked.

  ‘The way Les described you I thought you’d be seven feet tall and breathing fire. He didn’t seem like a man who was easily scared, but he said you weren’t someone to cross.’

  ‘He was right about that. Les and I go back a long way. He knows where a lot of the bodies are buried. A handy man with a shovel, Les, when you’re digging through permafrost.’ Guskov chuckled at the memory. Then turned to Vincent. ‘Go and get the andi.’