Reaper

by Janet Edwards

  He lifted his head and laughed. “Everyone else was disappointed about the Leebrook Ashton bill, but it was a huge relief for us. We had an extra year before the other kids would start asking why we hadn’t entered Game yet. Now we’ve had another stroke of luck. We see Tomath as our big chance to salvage our futures. We couldn’t know about Tomath’s record being cleared, but we’re sure a Game Tech will be able to do something to help us.”

  “Very good,” I said. “I’m pleased with the way you’re entering into the spirit of this.”

  “You’re my girlfriend, Emma, I always try to please you.” Michael pointed at the black item of clothing on the bed. “It looks like you try to please me too. I think we had a few fights after we were questioned by Unilaw. You blamed me for getting us into trouble, but now you’ve forgiven me and we’re working together to solve our problems.”

  “We had a few fights, yah. You think I’ve forgiven you, but I’m still holding a grudge about you getting me into this mess. I was the one who spotted Tomath acting suspiciously with the delivery trolley. Once I heard about the Avalon crash, I realized Tomath had been involved with the bombing, and came up with the plan to get his Game Tech friend to help us. You understand that I do the talking?”

  He nodded. “You understand that I do the fighting?”

  “I’ve been told that several times, yah. Have you got a gun?”

  He smiled. “I have two guns and three knives.”

  I studied him carefully. “I can’t see them.”

  “People aren’t supposed to see them.”

  “You work for Unilaw?”

  “That’s right,” he said. “I chose to take the career cadet approach to paying my lifetime Game subscription, and signed up with Unilaw.”

  “Sorry to pull you out of Game like this.”

  “That’s not a problem. I volunteered for this. If you don’t get hurt then I’m promised a six month holiday when I’m back in Game. If you do get hurt, then I lose my holiday and a Founder Player is going to make the rest of my Game life unbearable, so please let me handle any rough stuff.”

  I laughed. “Are we ready to go and visit Tomath?”

  “I think we are.” Michael addressed thin air. “Surveillance, are you ready? What’s the situation with Tomath?”

  A female voice spoke from a tiny ear piece in my right ear. “We’re ready. Tomath left his room briefly an hour ago to buy a stack of sandwich packs. He’s back in his room now.”

  “You’re hearing that too?” Michael asked me.

  “Yah.”

  “Let’s get moving then. Unless you want to model that little black scrap of clothing on the bed for me.” He gave me a mischievous look.

  By now I’d decided I liked the boy despite the fact he worked for Unilaw. He wasn’t exactly handsome, but he was clearly very bright and had a sense of humour. I laughed at him. “You behave yourself.”

  He pulled a face of mock innocence at me. “I’ve no idea what you’re complaining about, Emma. I’m your boyfriend. I see you wearing that black lace every night.”

  We went out of the room, walked along a couple of corridors, and stopped outside a door. I double checked the number on it was right. I was feeling nervous now. That was fine. Emma would feel nervous doing this.

  I pressed the doorbell, and heard it ring on the other side of the door. There was a long pause. I rang the bell again, and then a third time. Finally, I gave up on the bell, and tried talking through the door.

  “I know you’re in there.”

  There was no response.

  I gave a loud sigh. “I know you’re standing on the other side of this door. You’re listening to me talking, and hoping I’ll give up and go away. That’s not going to happen. I saw what you did. I found out your name and where you lived. You’re very lucky that I was the one who saw you, because most kids would have gone to Unilaw right away. As it happens, I’d rather stay clear of Unilaw because I’ve had my own problems with them. I’m happy to keep quiet about the whole thing so long as you do me a small favour.”

  I thought I heard a faint sound on the other side of the door. I waited a minute before speaking again.

  “Why don’t you open the door and talk to me, Tomath? If you’re scared there’s a whole mob of Unilaw officers out here, then you’re being ridiculous. Unilaw officers wouldn’t be standing here arguing with you, they’d just smash the door down and wave guns at you.”

  I waited a few more seconds. “All right, I’m getting tired of standing out here. Most of the local kids will either be asleep or at work right now. First of all, I’m going to start kicking your door to wake up all the sleeping kids in nearby rooms. Then I’m going to keep screaming the word Avalon at the top of my voice until they all come to see what’s going on. Then I’m going to call Unilaw and tell them you were the one who planted the bombs.”

  I gave the door a kick. There was a sudden scrabbling noise on the other side of it, and a voice called out. “Wait!”

  I heard what sounded like furniture being dragged aside, and then the door opened a few inches and Tomath peered out at me. He had lank, greasy, fair hair, and was wearing what must have been an expensive outfit once, but was stained and crumpled now. He gave me a calculating look, and then I saw his pale blue eyes widen as he saw Michael standing next to me. He tried to close the door, but Michael leant on it.

  “Yah, there are two of us,” he said. “I thought you were more likely to open the door if I kept quiet.”

  “Shall we go inside to talk,” I asked, “or do you want us to discuss the bombing out here in the corridor?”

  Tomath stood there frowning for a couple of seconds, and then backed away. We followed him into the room, squeezing past the cupboard that he’d been using to barricade the door.

  “I’m Emma,” I said, “and this is my boyfriend, Michael.”

  Tomath spoke in a hostile voice that had only the faintest trace of an accent. “Why did you force your way in here, and why do you keep making wild threats about the Avalon bombing? I know nothing about it.”

  I gave him a pleading look. “You’ve got to help us. Michael and I got in trouble with Unilaw over fertility drug smuggling. A woman died. We were totally innocent, but Unilaw put everything on our Game records. We lost our jobs, had to move rooms to a different area, ended up having to move a second time and leave England entirely.”

  “I’ve no idea why you’re telling me these things,” said Tomath.

  “Because this is going to stop us getting into Game.” I waved my hands in a despairing gesture, and hoped I wasn’t overacting my part.

  Michael gave a heavy sigh. “You should let me do the talking.”

  I glared at him. “You keep quiet. It’s your fault that we got into this mess.”

  “I thought you’d forgiven me,” he said, in wounded tones.

  “You were wrong.” I turned back to Tomath. “I know you’ve got a Game Tech friend who can help us.”

  I was studying every shifting expression on Tomath’s face, and saw his surprise and alarm at my mention of a Game Tech.

  “I don’t have any Game Tech friends,” he said.

  “Yah, you do.” I reached out a hand in appeal, and Tomath backed away from me. “Please help me.”

  “Us,” said Michael.

  I gave him an angry look, and then turned back to Tomath. “We know you planted the bombs. We don’t want to have to go and tell Unilaw about it. We’d much rather that you help us get into Game.”

  I’d built up a mental image of a Tomath that was utterly devastated by what had happened to him. I’d expected him to be terrified by our arrival, not ask too many questions about how we got our knowledge, just eagerly agree to do whatever we wanted. I was disconcerted when he gave me a defiant stare.

  “What makes you think I know anything about the Avalon bombing? You said that you saw something. Exactly what did you see?”

  “We live a few corridors away from here,” I said. “I was coming
home from work, walking back from the transport stop, when I saw you with the delivery trolley. I noticed that it didn’t look right.”

  I knew the minute I’d said it that I’d made a mistake. Tomath’s face was suspicious now.

  “You couldn’t have seen that.”

  I thought fast. The closest transport stop to Tomath’s room was on the same line as the transport stop for the Avalon server complex. Hawk and I had guessed that he’d brought the trolley to his room, made the modifications, given it the bombs, and sent it on its way. It only had to go back to the transport stop, get into a freight pod, and after that there’d be no one to see it on its journey. The bomber would have checked the schedule to make sure it didn’t run into any maintenance crews at the server complex.

  Our guess had been wrong. Tomath had known he was doing something illegal, so he hadn’t risked bringing the trolley anywhere near his room, but made the modifications somewhere else. I had to bluff my way out of this, but how? My ear piece was dead silent, which meant surveillance didn’t have any helpful ideas.

  “You didn’t see the trolley when you were coming home from work, Emma,” said Michael, his voice making it an accusation. “You’ve been visiting Ivan again, haven’t you?”

  “What if I did call in to see Ivan on my way home?” I watched Tomath out of the corner of my eye. He must have worked on the delivery trolley near a different transport stop, but it would surely have been one on the same line. There’d be no point in risking the trolley going to a busy interchange.

  I remembered that transport stop where Hawk’s carriage had stopped to let me out. We’d chosen it because most of the rooms in that area were empty and being refurbished. That meant there wouldn’t be many people around, just delivery trolleys taking items to and from the neighbouring storage area.

  I took a desperate gamble. “Ivan’s just moved into a newly refurbished room. It’s only two stops away, so I thought I’d call in to say hello on my way back from work.”

  Tomath’s expression flickered when I said two stops. My gamble was right. He’d grabbed a delivery trolley at that storage area, and taken it to one of the empty rooms to make the modifications.

  “I told you to stay away from Ivan.” Michael gripped both my arms and shook me.

  I pulled my arms away. “You’ve no reason to be jealous of Ivan. He’s just being friendly, and I lost all my other friends after you dragged me into that fertility drug business.”

  I turned back to Tomath. “I didn’t pay much attention to you and the delivery trolley until I saw the Game droid spying on you. I didn’t understand what was going on at the time, but then I heard about the bombing and worked out that you were involved. After that, I just had to ask a few questions to find out your name and room.”

  I shrugged. “We don’t care why your Game Tech friend wanted to blow up a server complex, or why you helped plant the bombs. All we want is for the Game Tech to fix things so we can get into Game. If you arrange that for us, then we’ll keep quiet, and everything will be fine.”

  Tomath’s expression had changed to one of acceptance now. He believed that his employer hadn’t trusted him and had been spying on his movements.

  “All I can do is leave a message,” he said, in a defeated voice. “It could be a while before the Game Tech sees it.”

  “That would be wonderful.” I dug a piece of paper out of my pocket. “These are our Game identity numbers. I’ve put my phone number as well, so the Game Tech can call us. Just get us into Game and I’ll be ever so grateful.”

  “You can believe that,” said Michael bitterly. “Emma’s grateful to everyone. Ivan, me, you, the entire neighbourhood!”

  I whirled round to face him. “Don’t talk about me like that!”

  Michael grabbed my arm and turned towards the door. “We can discuss this when we get home. Come on!”

  The grip he had on my arm was painfully tight, but I decided I’d better delay complaining about it until we were outside. I was shocked when Michael suddenly shoved me forwards so I went sprawling on my hands and knees by the door. I heard the sound of a blow and a loud gasp of pain from behind me, grabbed hold of the cupboard beside me to drag myself to my feet, and turned ready to join in the fight. It was clear that my help wasn’t needed though, because Michael was already advancing on a staggering Tomath.

  Michael hit Tomath again while he was still off balance, sending him toppling backwards and colliding heavily with the wall. Michael took another rapid step forward, and snatched a knife from Tomath’s flailing right hand.

  “Did you really believe I was fool enough to let a pathetic creature like you stab us in the back?” Michael gave a contemptuous shake of his head. “You’d better make sure that the Game Tech contacts us, because if we don’t hear anything then I’m going to beat you to a pulp before I go and talk to Unilaw.”

  Michael and I went out into the corridor, and walked back to the room that we were supposed to share. As soon as the door was closed behind us, I turned to Michael.

  “You did well stopping Tomath from stabbing us.”

  “I was just doing my job.”

  “But I was supposed to do all the talking.”

  “I thought you needed some help at times. It worked, didn’t it?”

  “True,” I admitted. “I wonder how long we’ll have to wait before something happens.”

  “Maybe hours. Maybe days.” Michael gave an oddly one-shouldered shrug, and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m in no hurry. We can spend the time getting to know each other better.”

  I gave him a dubious look. Surveillance had this room filled with spy eyes and ears, so he couldn’t be suggesting anything too intimate, but I pointedly sat down on a shabby chair in the far corner of the room anyway.

  “There’s no point in getting to know each other. As soon as this job is over, you’ll be going back into Game.”

  Michael gave me an assessing look. “You must be nearly eighteen though, so you’ll be in Game yourself very soon. We could meet up again there.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was serious. It didn’t matter whether he was or not. I pointed out the obvious problem with his suggestion. “You’re forgetting the Leebrook Ashton bill. I can’t enter Game until I’m nineteen now.”

  He laughed. “A good thing is worth waiting for, and a year isn’t all that long. We can exchange Game names now, and you can contact me when you arrive in Game.”

  I hesitated. I liked the boy, but ...

  “You clearly aren’t interested,” said Michael, “so please forget I suggested it. Let’s talk about something else instead.”

  “No,” I said. “I think you’ll have forgotten all about me by the time I enter Game, but if not ... I’ll be Jex Thorpe Leigh Grantham, hopefully of Ganymede.”

  “I’m Michael Dans Lincoln Washington. Call me as soon as you’re in Game. In fact, there’s no reason why we can’t exchange calls before then, and make a few plans for ...” He broke off, and gave me an anxious look. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  Michael’s one-shouldered shrug had seemed strangely familiar, but I’d been too stupid to figure out why. I couldn’t miss the name though. Hawk had been my hero for years, so I knew all the Game trivia about him, including the fact his real life name had been Michael Dans. I’d no idea where he’d got the Lincoln and Washington from, but ...

  “You’re Hawk!”

  Chapter Twelve

  Hawk hesitated, clearly considering denying everything, and then sighed. “I was being careful to speak like a teenager today, saying yah instead of yes. How did you know I was Hawk?”

  “Because of the joke you were playing on me. You thought it was funny to pretend you wanted to contact me when I entered Game, but telling me a Game name that included your real life name gave you away.”

  I was annoyed about the joke. No, I was far more than just annoyed. I was deeply hurt and disappointed that Hawk had made fun of me like that, but I mustn’t lose my temper with
him. Even if he looked like an ordinary kid now, he was still a Founder Player. Hawk could mock me all he liked and I just had to accept it meekly.

  “That wasn’t a joke,” said Hawk. “I wanted to meet you as my real self, as Michael, because I thought ... Moment.”

  The skinny kid, who was the real life body of the legendary Hawk, took a phone from his pocket and raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Surveillance, I’m afraid I need some privacy now. Don’t worry, I’ll turn off the jammer as soon as something starts happening.”

  He clicked a button on his phone and looked back at me. “If the device in this personal messenger works properly, then I’ve just jammed all the spy eyes and ears surveillance planted in this room.”

  “We call those things phones, not personal messengers, these days,” I said coldly.

  “Ah, the real world has gone back to using the phone word again,” said Hawk.

  The jamming device in Hawk’s phone definitely worked, because the female voice of surveillance started whining away in my ear about their lack of sound and vision.

  “Surveillance sounds a little upset,” I said.

  It was about two minutes before surveillance accepted that Hawk wasn’t going to turn off his jamming device and the voice shut up.

  “Peace at last,” said Hawk. “As I was saying, I wasn’t playing a joke on you. I didn’t tell you I was defrosting because I wanted to meet you as the real me, as Michael, and I was perfectly serious about exchanging Game names.”

  My anger was mixed with confusion now. “You weren’t making fun of me when you suggested that?”

  “Of course I wasn’t making fun of you,” said Hawk. “Since the first moment I saw you, I’ve been struck by the way you think through problems, the way that you keep fighting your cause even when you’re scared to death, and the way your face burns with anger at injustice. I wanted to tell you how much I liked you, see if you liked me too, but you only knew me as Hawk the Unvanquished.”