Maxwell Jali lasted a full minute before he graciously gave in to Hugin’s prompting. “You’re right, you’re right,” he said, dragging a platter of fried brinjals closer. “I need to keep my strength up, after all.”
Elke looked around at her friends as she ate. All of them had drawn their masks aside, and even Kiran’s face was fully visible. None of them smiled or spoke, apart from the polite requests for food or cutlery.
Thandeka had her plate on her knees and seemed intent on shredding a piece of bisc into ever smaller pieces, and Noor hardly ate at all, frowning down at her food and pushing it around her plate. She had an air of contained tension, like a runner just about to leap into a race.
Now that her mask was pushed aside, Elke noticed something about Noor’s throat.
“Oh!” Elke could have bitten her tongue, but the involuntary exclamation was out before she could stop herself, and her hand went to her own throat.
Thandeka nodded grimly. “She went ahead and did it.”
“Oh,” Elke said again, trying for a more measured tone. “Is that an implant, Noor?”
“Gills,” Noor said, fingering her jaw self-consciously. “Or it will be, when it’s finished.” She shot a defiant look at her mother.
“The menha did that for you?” said Elke. “You must have made quite an impression.”
Noor relaxed a fraction. “They’re really nice,” she said, earnestly. “You should speak to them. And Kiran should, too. I told them all about you, Kiran.”
“How did it happen?” Elke asked. “I mean, how did you get on with them so well?”
Noor brightened at this. “It was because of the diving. They said I swam really well, for somebody with no enhancements or equipment. And I guess it helped when I told them that I’m Thandeka’s daughter, so they knew they could trust me. But it was speaking Kazi that really did it. And the fact I can speak so many realside languages. They said somebody like me, who’s got a knack for learning languages, could be really useful to them.”
“Can I see the implant?”
Noor lifted her chin to let Elke study the marks of the bio-implant, several parallel lines of barely visible beading, starting at her jawline and continuing down her throat.
“This is good work,” Elke said, with a glance at Kiran. “What do you think?”
“Excellent,” Kiran said firmly. “They know what they’re doing. That would cost you several months’ wages, back in the Eye, if you could even find somebody to do that quality of work.”
Noor flashed her mother a triumphant look.
“The menha are more than competent,” Thandeka said, but her tone was far from admiring. “That’s not the problem, Noor, and you know it.” She dusted bisc crumbs from her fingers. “It’s the way you just threw yourself in there. You don’t know these people. You don’t know what you are getting into.”
“You work with them, don’t you?” Noor shot back. “Help them getting people out, I mean.” She glanced over at Maxwell Jali.
“Oh, Jali knows all about our arrangement,” Thandeka said.
“Us realworlders should stand together,” Maxwell said, beaming at Thandeka. “Although you must understand, my hands are tied. I cannot do much about this slavery situation. I don’t have much influence as it is, and what I have, I have to apply judiciously for it to be effective.”
Thandeka’s eyebrows twitched, but she just inclined her head again, as if agreeing.
“But anyway,” Noor said. “The menha are on our side. They said they can use somebody like me.”
“We’ll talk about this later.” Thandeka put her plate back on the table.
“No.” Noor didn’t shout, but her tone got everyone’s attention. “We’ll talk about it right now. What are we going to do? How are we going to get back?”
The awkward silence was ended by Thandeka’s tired sigh. “We talked about this already—”
Noor wouldn’t let her finish. “You mean, you talked about this. What about what I want? And what about Elke, or Kiran? Don’t they get a say?”
“I’m staying right here. I know—” Thandeka held up a hand to stop Noor, who looked as if she wanted to interrupt again. “You want me to go back to Issy and Ndlela, but I simply can’t, Noor. Not now that I’ve managed to get such a powerful ally here, with Maxwell. And anyway, you talk about ‘getting back’, as if that’s such a simple thing. But how exactly are we doing that? Especially now, with this siege, and all that will mean.”
“Well,” Kiran said, shifting forward in her seat. “I’ve got some ideas about that.” She turned to Maxwell. “Is it a stitch-gate? Or something else?”
Maxwell, who had a mouthful of bread and brinjal, had to hold a serviette to his lips, stalling while he chewed and swallowed. “I really don’t know what you mean,” he said when he could speak again.
Kiran smiled. “You know exactly what I mean. I’m talking about how you sneak into the Babylon Eye without anyone knowing.” She looked at Hugin. “I’m assuming that you know?”
Hugin, who was seated next to Maxwell, nodded. “It’s not a stitch-gate,” he said. “Nothing as dangerous.”
Maxwell turned to him, speechless with surprise and outrage, and Hugin returned his look coldly.
“Tell me,” Hugin said, in measured tones. “Just why you let me think my brother was dead?”
“What?” Now Maxwell really was astounded. He floundered, grasping for words. “Your— Your brother? What does that have to do with— Besides, I never—”
But Hugin would not allow this. “Don’t.” He eyed his employer. “We can discuss that later. The fact is that my brother has been stranded on another world for decades, all the time I believed him dead. You have the means to let these people go back to their homes, and to bring my brother back.”
“Stranded?” Maxwell’s voice was thick with self-righteous outrage. “I tell you, he chose to remain there. And how do you know that he doesn’t choose to stay there still? Maybe he doesn’t want to come back.”
Hugin inclined his head. “That’s possible. And when I go there to find out, I might as well take a few of our friends with me.”
“Wait, wait,” Noor said. “I don’t understand. Who’s your brother?”
“Crosshatch,” Elke said quickly. “Can’t you see the resemblance?”
“Oh!” Noor gazed at Hugin in surprise. “You’re Crosshatch’s brother?”
Hugin gave a little bow of acknowledgement.
“I can see it now!” Noor’s face eased into a delighted smile. “He’s the greatest guy. He helped us so much, me and my brother and sister—” She turned to her mother, and for the moment, seemed to forget the tension between them. “Crosshatch kept checking that we had enough food, Mom. He helped to sell the stuff that Issy and Ndlela found on the beach. He really looked after us.” She turned back to Hugin. “And you thought he was dead? But how did you find out about him, I mean, that he’s alive?”
“Elke told me,” said Hugin.
Kiran gave Elke a surreptitious thump on the shoulder. “Good for you!” she muttered.
“But what’s this about a gate?” Noor looked around at the others. “There’s some way for us to get back? Without going all the way to that other place, with the trains and all?”
“There is,” said Elke. “Straight from here. That’s how Maxwell’s been getting into the Eye all this time. You remember Sneeze?”
“Oh, you are him!” Noor sat back in triumph, smiling at Maxwell. “I thought so! But I wasn’t sure, and when nobody said anything...” She turned to her mother again. “So, you see, we can go! We can all go back. You can’t argue with that!”
But Thandeka was shaking her head. “Not so fast.” She turned to Hugin. “You’re telling me that there’s a gate, right here, in this apartment up here? A stitch-gate? Aren’t those incredibly dangerous?”
“Not a stitch-gate!” Maxwell snorted with exasperation. “How many times do I have to— Not a stitch-gate.” His voice took o
n a pedantic tone. “A stitch-gate is a temporary portal directly from one world to another. By its very nature, it is extremely dangerous. The odds of getting lost or split into a million atoms are unacceptably high. I would never risk such a thing.”
“So, what is it, then?” Noor asked. Thandeka shot her a warning glance, but Noor didn’t seem to notice.
“Well— I’m really not sure that I should—” grumbled Maxwell.
Hugin said, “When they were building the Eye and Ishtar gate. Maxwell arranged a private portal, known only to him, and to his closest friends. It opens—”
Maxwell made an inarticulate sound of protest, but Hugin ignored him.
“It opens into a small addition to the Eye. A private flat up on the Solar level. If you’re careful, you can come and go without anyone noticing. We used to do so quite frequently, in the early days. But by now, most of that circle of friends have died. I think, by now, it’s only me and Maxwell that know about it. And I’ve not used it since Maxwell moved in here.”
“It’s not open all the time?” Noor asked.
“That would be impossible,” Maxwell said. “It operates by carillon, just like the big portals do, but much, much smaller and more confined. If I’d wanted to, I could have sold that technology and made a killing, but that would have meant the end of my secret. And anyway”—he gestured vaguely at the surrounding room—“ I have more than enough money.”
“See, Mom?” said Noor.
But Thandeka was not convinced. “Noor, sweetheart, I wish it was that simple. It’s not that I don’t want to go. I wish— I wish it with all my heart. Don’t you think I miss Isabeau, and you, and Ndlela? But if you knew how many— The children here— I just can’t—”
“How many people do you save, anyway?” flashed Noor. “It can’t be all that many. And how can you put perfect strangers before your own children?”
“My own children, yes, but they are not in danger of their lives,” said Thandeka.
“That we know of,” said Noor hotly. “Isabeau and Ndlela are all alone, back there in the Eye. Ndlela was pretty sick when we left him.”
Thandeka rubbed her hands across her knees, her face tense. “But surely, you, and Elke and Kiran—”
“If there is one person who certainly cannot go back to the Babylon Eye, that is Kiran,” said Hugin.
They all looked at him in surprise. Kiran sank back into the cushions, as if she wanted to avoid what was coming next.
“I ran those tests,” said Hugin. “And they show some quite remarkable results.”
“What does that mean?” Elke reached for Kiran’s hand.
“I don’t really know.” Hugin frowned to silence the chorus of voices that rose in response to this. “What I do know,” he said when they fell quiet, “is that Kiran has come in contact with a viral lathe.”
“A what?” Noor looked horrified, and Thandeka sucked in her breath.
“It’s a kind of factory virus,” Hugin explained “Don’t worry.” He turned to Maxwell, whose face had gone quite ashen. “There is no chance that you have been exposed. The form it’s taken now, it would need a blood transfusion, direct exposure to bodily fluids...”
“You’re sure?” Maxwell said faintly.
“But what the hell is it?” demanded Noor. Shocked tears were standing in her eyes, and she jumped up and went to crouch by Kiran’s side.
“A viral lathe,” Hugin said, “Is a type of factory virus used to prepare an entity for genetic editing. I have never seen this particular variety before, and in fact, the chances are that nobody has. These things mutate, and the changes are utterly unpredictable.”
“But—” Elke’s voice came out in a hoarse croak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “What does that mean for Kiran?”
Kiran’s eyes were huge as she watched Hugin.
“We simply do not know.” Hugin turned to Kiran. “It would need extensive testing to determine what changes the lathe has made to you already. Tests that are beyond the scope of any of my instruments. Of anything here in the Carsera, even.”
“And can you do anything?” said Elke. “To help her?”
“I can certainly help,” said Hugin. “I have some patches here that will boost your immune system, Kiran, prevent secondary infections like this fungus that’s been taking hold already. And a number of other treatments that will slow the progress of the lathe, although it’s risky, not knowing what the thing’s designed to do.”
“But what you are saying,” said Thandeka, “Is that Kiran cannot go back to the Eye. Not with this infection.”
“But if it can only spread by—” burst out Noor.
“She isn’t dangerously infectious,” said Hugin. “But she’d be committing a very serious crime, knowingly bringing a viral lathe, and a mutated one at that, into the Eye.”
“And one that might mutate further, and possibly become more infectious,” said Kiran. It was the first time she spoke since Hugin’s revelation, and Elke was impressed at how calm she sounded.
“There’s that,” acknowledged Hugin. “But more important, from your point of view, is the fact that, unless things have changed beyond my knowledge in recent years, you won’t receive the treatment you need in the Eye.”
“There’s treatment?” said Elke, just as Noor said “Where should she go then?”
Hugin glanced at Maxwell Jali, who’d sunk back in his chair, and was plucking at the edge of his blanket.
At the silence, Maxwell looked up and met Hugin’s eyes. For a long moment they locked their gazes, until at last Maxwell threw up his hands in exasperation.
“Very well!” Maxwell drew his blankets more tightly around him. “You might as well share all my secrets. Why not, after all!” He gestured angrily. “Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest.”
Hugin waited till Maxwell had subsided into mutterings. “The gate we have here,” he said, “has been tuned not only for the Babylon Eye, but also for the Fata Morgana.”
Elke felt Kiran stiffen with shock. She looked at her in concern, but Kiran seemed unable to speak.
“Isn’t that the one you told us about, Elke?” Noor turned to Elke. “Fata Morgana. Isn’t that one of those cities that drive you crazy? That you can never leave?”
“It is one of the mesmeric cities, that is true,” said Hugin. “Without the necessary precautions, the landscape, the shape of the place, the air, the particles you breathe will edit you, and not just physically like the viral lathe. It will tune your psyche.”
“What does that even mean?” said Noor.
Hugin started to answer, but Kiran was already speaking. “It hooks you. You cannot leave, or if you leave, you cannot bear the longing of it. You start remembering other people’s memories. You lose yourself.”
“That is correct,” said Hugin. “Those who enter the Fata Morgana unprepared can be caught, as you describe. They lose their minds’ boundaries, experience the thoughts and memories of others. It has been described as a kind of extreme empathy, rather than insanity.”
“But there is a way to prevent this?” Thandeka eyes were intent on Hugin. “You said, those who enter unprepared. So, there is some way to prevent this?”
“There is.” Hugin hesitated, and glanced at Maxwell again, who flapped a hand at him to continue.
“You see, the reason we tuned the gate for the Fata Morgana in the first place is that it is— It used to be, Maxwell’s dream, to visit. But somehow, we never have.”
“Deteriorating health,” Maxwell said, looking away.
“We’ve got a stock,” continued Hugin, “limited stock, of prophylactic patches that make such a visit possible.”
“And you’ll give those to Kiran?” said Thandeka.
“But she can’t go alone?” Noor looked from Hugin to Elke, and back again. “She can’t—can she?”
“It would be best if she had a companion,” agreed Hugin. “We don’t know how your condition will
deteriorate,” he said to Kiran. “But it’s very likely that it will. Anything might happen. You might lose your sight, for example. I simply do not know.”
“Can I go with you?” Elke said to Kiran. “I can go with you.”
“If anyone has to go back to the Eye, it has to be you, Elke.” Kiran withdrew her hands from Elke’s grasp. “No. Let me finish. What about the slaves that are being smuggled through the Eye? Somebody has to put a stop to that. And if Thandeka won’t go, Noor certainly can’t go back all by herself. Who knows what’s going on over there? And what about Meisje? I’m sure she’s fine by herself for a little while, but you owe it to her, to go back. She’ll be waiting for you.”
Elke winced as if Kiran had thrown cold water in her face. She’d forgotten all about Meisje, and it was true that somebody had to deal with the smuggling of slaves. Noor might be able to warn Dolly, but what if Dolly was no longer in charge? Anything might have happened in the days since they’d left the Eye.
She groaned. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“You’re supposed to go back and do your job.” Kiran looked her in the eye. “And there’s Mack Jack, too. What about him?”
That startled a laugh from Elke, although she felt more like crying. “I forgot all about old MJ. He was pretty sick, when I saw him last. But he’ll be fine without me, at any rate.”
“Maybe,” Kiran said. “But Meisje won’t be. I’ve been by myself for most of my life, after all. I can look after myself. You’re going back.”
¤¤¤
And so it was decided, although it seemed to Elke that nobody was happy with the arrangements.
Noor and Hugin would go through Maxwell’s private portal back to the Babylon Eye.
Hugin planned to track down his brother Crosshatch, and since Thandeka refused to go, Noor was the one who had to go look after Isabeau and Ndlela.
Elke was still undecided, although Thandeka also urged her to accompany Noor and Hugin and stop the slave traffic through the Eye.
The Strange Page 42
