The Foundling Saga: Revelation (6 page)

Keller was impressed with the solar plas light as Cormic surveyed the area in front of them. It was far superior to using fire. The light travelled the entire length of the level they were on.

To ensure they had an additional purpose to this temporary absence, Cormic was determined to come back with items to trade. Keller was equally determined to find something of value in the vast wilderness of ruins in the town. He felt they had an advantage over other Outsiders in this area since it was rare for Outsiders to have access to a plas light, and this should allow them to reach some rarely visited remote and unlit areas.

Such was the devastation of the last war, and the resulting sickness, that many towns were viewed as poisoned graveyards. Left unmaintained, they had become ruins before they could be fully scavenged. This meant that it was a difficult process when the few scavengers started to move into the cities. It was also many years before the highly sophisticated Londoners would even trade with the rural survivors. In the end they simply had to. One of their needs, apart from more diversity in fresh food, was metal and other materials. In the last fifteen years the Regents had created a demand that ensured cooperation with Outsiders even if it was across a barrier. The Outsiders had, for a long time, shunned the historical sophistication of the towns. They felt that this sophistication was the cause of all their woes. Eventually, in the mutual interest of trade, they decided to nominate a few of their number to increase their trading potential by ‘recovering’ whatever could be found in the old towns
.

The pair had been searching for a couple of hours, clambering over areas of collapsed floors until they reached the back of one of the larger internal rooms. It seemed to be about the size of a small field.

“There’s been a recent collapse here,” noted Cormic. They worked their way down a large slab of smooth stone, interspersed with cracks and splits but bound together by rusted poles that were visible in the cracks. The level they traversed appeared to show fresh cracks judging by the lack of discolouration. It had collapsed in a manner that left a slope to the lower level. The upper floor had been prevented from falling into the lower level by a mound of rubble in the middle area of the large room below, and by the supporting walls on the near side of the lower level. They walked down the slope stepping carefully over the cracked areas.

When they reached the bottom of the slope, Keller investigated the cavity created by the sloped floor from above with his own plas light. His light revealed a broken door frame in the lower level. It had a heavy-looking grey door leaning outwards at the top but still attached at the bottom. It appeared precarious, but no doubt it would still take some effort to fully prise this door away. He knelt down and shone his light through the gap created by the twisted door and frame.

“Look here. Crates! They’re balanced on top of each other. There must be at least thirty.”

Cormic came over and lay down next to him just poking his head between the door and frame. He pulled his light in beside him. “I have no idea what is in those crates, but they seem intact. They must have been valuable at one time judging by the thickness of this door. You would need a thousand mules to have opened this,” he said, shining his torch up the side of the frame.

Keller was apprehensive and excited at the same time. “Can we go in?” he asked, as Cormic reversed out of the gap. He got up into a crouch, dusting his tunic off.

“Yes. You are a bit skinnier than me, so it’ll have to be you. We just need to take some precautions.” He took off the harness that he had been wearing. He untied the device and extended the two longer lengths that had wooden handles on the end, similar to the spades they used for digging. “My father made this,” he said, by way of explanation. “It does what it needs to do. You need to put this over your head and shoulders, like a mules’ harness, and tie it around your waist. I will keep hold of the wooden handles in case I need to pull you out.”

He helped Keller put the harness on. He unwound the two longer lengths that were a thin, but strong, twine. These extended about five times the length of his body. Each had a handle grip.

Keller crouched down, pushed his light into the gap and slid through. He paused when his harness got caught on part of the damaged frame whilst his companion freed it.

“Look about you before you stand up. You need to ignore the crates for the moment and just make sure none of the structure around and above you appears unstable. Look around the ground so that you can see if you can move forwards and backwards.” Cormic remained outside, but he lay down so that he could see Keller. “Be careful of the twine on the right side, it’s caught on your harness.”

Freeing up the twine, Keller declared that the ground was clear enough for him. He eventually switched his attention to the stacked crates which appeared to be wrapped in some sort of plas covering. One stack only had two crates, which came up to his shoulders. Cormic passed him a fish-knife and lever. “You might need these.”

Just touching the brittle plas covering created a cascade of dust as it fell away to the floor in both large and small pieces. This sent a low cloud of dust across the hard floor. Keller could see that underneath the brittle wrapping the crates were made of a thicker material that wasn’t natural. Cormic sneezed from the low cloud of dust and cursed.

Keller was aware that he needed to work quickly as the dusty atmosphere was uncomfortable for both of them. He moved his hands around the upper part of the box, he could see two metal pieces on each side of the square crate. He tugged at these from the top and then again from the bottom. He realised they were handles that needed to be pulled from below. On one side, one of them snapped and fell to the floor whilst the other pulled out from underneath and seemed to take pressure off the lid immediately. On the other side both pulled out. “The lid is loosening!” he said. “I’ll see if I can lift the lid.” He reached down for the lever.

The lid didn’t take much persuasion but he did use the lever to lift it slowly whilst peering in. He couldn’t tell what was inside, so he completely raised the lid, which was sturdy but light, and placed it carefully on the floor to avoid Cormic getting another face full of the light dust. With that, Cormic sneezed again as though to make the point. “What’s inside?” he said rubbing his nose with his free hand.

“Hmm. Stun guns – similar to those that the troopers carry. At least, I have seen some of them with these - the ones that stand at the far side of the Arpo where the Regents entrance is.” He lifted one of them. “These are different. They seem heavy.” He took the green and brown weapon out and moved back towards Cormic, laying it down carefully. Cormic studied it, placing his hand on it as though to determine its temperature.

“Yes, it’s metal, it’s not a stun gun,” Cormic said excitedly. “Is that crate full of these?” He added, looking up at Keller, who nodded. “This is really something, Keller!”

Keller had moved towards the open crate and counted the guns. “There are two stun guns on each level. I can see five levels with soft padding separating them.”

“Any good condition metal is valuable to the Regents. Amazing! They trade for so much of it that I wonder sometimes if they take it home and eat it.” Cormic mused. “Keller, this is a truly great find. Can you check the other crates, but just go careful.”

Keller had already started undoing another crate behind the one he had started on. This crate was on a stack of three, so he stood on the lid he had discarded to remove the brittle wrapping and locate the handles to open the lid. “Yes, this is the same,” he reported.

Eventually they determined by examination, that half the twenty or so left hand side crates contained the same items. Since they were all the same shape and size, Keller decided to pause and check the other items on the right-hand side of the room. These boxes were a different size albeit the same design and shape. “This one has green and brown bottles.” He continued to examine them for some time. “These have an attachment on the end. I think this attachment fits onto the gun.” He took the attachment over to Cormic, who again worked his way back out of the gap and sat down, leaning against the door frame.

Cormic tried to match the two pieces of gun together. “I think you are right. We need to be careful, as I think it is this little green bottle that makes the gun fire.”

He also paused for some time occasionally looking back into the gap to at Keller. “The small crates – are they also all the same.”

“Yes, they appear to be.”

“Okay, let’s take two each of the guns and four each of the bottles. I can take these to the Arpo next month.” He paused in thought, frowning. “However, we will need to cover this entrance to disguise the room from others. I don’t want to deprive the family of what trade this might bring to us. This is a rare find indeed.”

Keller pushed out the remaining sample of treasures and then squeezed out through the gap. He was glad of the relative fresh air in the larger room and realised he had been sweating a lot inside the tiny room he had just left. The two of them then spent some time moving enough debris from various areas to camouflage the opening. The chances were slim that others would find this in the next month or so, however Cormic explained how rare these treasures were.

“This floor collapse looks a few months old, I believe. It is obvious no-one has been down here to notice the effect the collapse has had on that strong door frame. Mind you, not many visitors to the town would even have the lighting to see down here,” Cormic said whilst removing the harness from Keller.

It was time to return to their temporary home. The guns were heavy but would not pose a problem until the long walk home back to their tents.

By the time they returned to the base, they were both discussing animatedly the impact of trading their new treasure. “Surely we can get many wonders from the Regents for these?” Said Keller.

“We’ll see, I haven’t seen anyone trading these in the past, but let’s hope we can trade well with these.” Keller noticed him frowning as he spoke.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing really, Keller. I am just wondering why they had guns in the towns in the first place. Unlike the weapons the troopers carry, which will make you fall down in pain and you won’t be able to get up for half an hour, these maim and kill. It’s strange there were so many in this town – the old ones certainly seemed intent on hurting each other.”

They ate, talked about the day, and finally settled down to sleep. Keller was wide awake for some time, wondering what it had been like living in this town. The extent of the ruins suggested a crowded place with little escape for any privacy. It was probably a constant frustration to live so close to each other. Like a wasps nest, he thought. It then occurred to him that maybe this led to the war, perhaps, like a disturbed wasps nest, the angry inhabitants storming out ready to fight at the least sign of threat from outside. The thought troubled him. He wondered if the Outsiders’ families would have gone the same way, had the birth rate been as successful as past generations. As it stood, perhaps the low birth rate resulted in the value of life being more appreciated and precious.

He thought of his mother who had been unable to conceive and he knew, that had she been able to have her own children, there would be no sadness about her. His mother had always been loving and cheerful but he did see a fleeting sadness in her sometimes when the subject of children came up. It often did when families sat together of an evening around the fire, usually as a result of news of a pregnancy somewhere and the usual discussions on whether it was likely to go to term.

He thought of Merna. He wondered what her outlook was on this. He could see another girl growing into a woman and yet being unable to fulfil her dreams. It made him return to the occasional questions his family and friends aired about why he had been left beside the family field all those years ago. Nola always viewed him as a gift. Thinking about his childhood and early memories of his mother, he finally fell asleep.

Unknown to Keller and his family, the attention shown to him at the Arpo was precipitated by his Aunt Nerys on the families’ previous visit to the trading area. Her second attempt at trading in an old, but perfectly sound baby’s carry-pod puzzled one of the Regents. He had noticed the carry-pod being offered for trade to one of his fellow female Regents who dismissed the item. He, however, was puzzled as to where this might have come from since it was an unlikely item to have been traded with Outsiders for their own use. He knew they tended to carry infants in baby slings and simply wouldn’t choose to trade for such a luxury when they had far greater priorities.

He asked one of his assistants to scan the item to check for possible contamination, as they did prior to any trade. It was cleared, so he got his assistant to trade a lightweight adult poncho for the item. This poncho was of a material rarely made available to Outsiders, but in truth was standard kit for troopers in certain weather conditions. Aunty Nerys had been pleased with the transaction and thought no more of this.

It would be later that this Regent’s ever watchful wife would also question its origin. She had a role on London’s ‘Growth and Health Conference’, known as G&H. This was a committee group of twenty or so mid-level ranking citizens. It was their role to ensure the health and protection of infants up to the age of a year. The committee had been set up about a dozen years before as alarm grew over the population demographics.

Eventually, the State of London decided to follow the same route as other city states around Europe and took matters of conception, childbirth and rearing of young children under their strict control. G&H, therefore, had a post-natal role which was intended to ensure that nothing was left either to chance, or the possible failings of parents, when it came to ensuring the continuation of the London population. The responsibility for pre-natal health, up to the point of birth, was monitored by the C&H; the ‘Conception and Health Conference’.

The Regent felt justified in his trade when his wife also expressed puzzlement. Her view was that the only babies to ever rest in such a carry-pod would have been from a privileged city background. There had been no known disappearances of infants from the register of children. However, the carry-pod was imprinted on the base with a manufacture date that was prior to the set-up of the G&H, at a time when citizens wouldn’t have been ‘blessed’ with state assistance so closely. Since Outsiders wouldn’t trade for this item for themselves, then it was either found outside of the city or perhaps it was once the carrier of the rumoured illegitimate babies conceived between careless Regents and their servants. Regents often had leasehold rights on lower class Londoners for a set period of years. These leaseholds were a form of slavery with a guaranteed exit, with an accompanying exit payment, for the ‘slave’. They were an economic necessity for some poorer individuals and their family members.

These illicit unions and any resulting pregnancies were a threat to the wealth of any Regents’ own wife or wives. They jealously guarded their position and the position of their own offspring in the family pecking order and would regard an illegitimate child as a serious threat to their own wellbeing. This would have been enough to seriously endanger the new-born that would likely face an accident or poisoning by the jealous wives. Therefore the babies were often aborted, by coercion if necessary. Abortions for healthy foetuses had been strictly illegal in the last twelve years. Prior to this, some babies were perhaps more fortunate to be born illegitimately and taken outside the city for their own safety. The Outsiders were simple folk, but there was no doubting that they valued children.

All of this was interesting, but other concerns drove this from the couple’s focus and nothing more was done. However, during a later visit to the Arpo, the Regent had spotted the woman again. He paid a little attention from afar but her trading was nothing of interest. However, he did notice the tall fair-haired lad in the background, who then spoke briefly to the woman whilst he rested nearby.

This was a young man who was clearly from different stock.

As far as any Regent was concerned the last twelve years had re-focussed the entire London population on sustainability of population. Healthy young men and women were the only mechanism for this sustainability when set against an ongoing low birth rate. The Outsiders suffered from a similar problem. However, their poorer health meant they weren’t of interest in the quest for population growth as they would ‘water down’ the general health of the city inhabitants over time, or so it was thought. A lack of purity was a constant concern in city states and for the off-world traders. They were paranoid in avoiding mixing with the Outsiders. If a city state relaxed their inter-breeding habits the Off-world traders could show their disgust of this so-called high-risk cross-breeding by trading elsewhere.

There was a general paranoia associated with retention of their trading status in London. It guaranteed that London’s control of the purity of its inhabitants ensured a much harder task for those tasked with population growth. However, it did allow them to make gains in applying more rigid control over the population and further imposition of powers in order to safeguard their aims and aspirations.

The Regent had called over the troopers and requested they covertly take some images of the Outsider and his companions. The troopers had weighed up the possibility of simply calling him over but the Regent was cautious that he may disappear completely.

He ordered that these Outsiders be tracked back to the where they came from. In the meantime, he would escalate his findings to the appropriate authorities who would later thank him for his diligence. The authorities passed the matter over to the mysterious ‘Scouts’ as they were known. The Scouts were a specially selected group of guardians who were trained in special assignments to protect the state. They were rightly considered the elite amongst their peers. They were a little irritated that they hadn’t been alerted earlier in the investigation, but the operation would now move on to a more clandestine one.

The relationship with Outsiders was normally a wary but respectful one for the Londoners. They didn’t want to alarm the rural trading population, since both parties benefited from the existing relationship. London would have difficulties without the ‘imports’ brought in from Outsiders at the various trading areas around the capital. The Arpo was one of only five trading points but it was the second most important with the largest being The Royal Arpo to the west of London.

And so the search began.

The Scouts went to work. They interviewed the two returning troopers, then thanked them for their assistance. The troopers had, in truth, done well to remain hidden in the area for a day and had at least identified the field. They noted that the teepees were marked with the three red rings. Within a day the Scouts had two undercover men gathering information; using directional sound tools around the field. They found it impossible to locate the young man more precisely after the decoy efforts of the families but were confident that this was a matter of time.

Over the next eight hours they picked up discussions and gossip that identified names such as Nola, Cormic, Keller and Ida. They had narrowed down the targets as being Cormic and Keller. The one named Cormic being an uncle, whether this was a true relative or otherwise was irrelevant. He was the protector. He was a man used to travelling away, which allowed The Scouts to assume that they were dealing with a particularly resourceful Outsider. He was known to them through his occasional but impressive trading of useful items.

They could wait until another Arpo trading Sunday. However there was the possibility that neither might re-attend. The decoy exercise employed by the Outsiders suggested caution on their part. This was a concern as it implied the Outsiders here had activated what might be seen as the First Act of Resistance. The Scouts and their sponsors would not want the Outsiders to engage in the Second Act of Resistance, which implies taking direct action against the Londoners and the Regents.

The Regents would not want an open escalation of tension between them and the Outsiders.

Nevertheless, the Scouts had been set loose and they would surely conclude their task of locating the young man known as Keller. Whether they then acted on the discovery depended on circumstances when they found him. Their remit was to identify his ‘stock’
i.e.
to confirm that he wasn’t a true Outsider, determine his health and then either leave him to get on with his life or intervene.

If the Scouts found that they didn’t need to intervene, then the most positive result would be that their quarry never even know that he had been investigated. They speculated that the Outsiders would have been aware of the troopers following them on the day but there was little they could do about that. At least nothing further had occurred to increase suspicion.

If the Scouts found that they did have to intervene, then they would need to do this without direct proof of the authorities being involved.

Having determined from the clandestine listening operation that the two had left for the North East, the Scouts rested until night fall and then headed for the next town in that direction. This was a flaw in the apparent plan of the two Outsiders. The North East, from their home, held few towns. However, those towns followed a linear path away from the fields following an old highway. Had they travelled in any other direction, it would have required that the Scouts put more resources into the search. Furthermore, they were unlikely to travel directly east as these led too close to two of the nearest devastated cities, a pair of cities known as the Wiches. These cities were surrounded by shallow lakes and parts of both cities were now permanently underwater.

During their listening operation one of the Scouts had picked up ‘haz-suits’ being mentioned in relation to provisions and kit. They hadn’t picked up any other details of what provisions they were carrying or how long they were likely to be away for. They determined that the carrying of haz-suits was cautionary. It was unlikely to signify that the two Outsiders were going to risk movement towards a known contamination area.

The two Scouts were joined later by two others several miles north east at a small uninhabited site known as Bradfield. They then set off for Saint Edmunds, which was the next most reasonably-sized ruined town. On the outskirts of this town, they set up their sophisticated hand held tools and were able to determine from a range of readings that there were no humans in the town. They moved on.

They rested that night close to the side of the road. Their monitoring tools were set only to alert them to human indications as they rested ready for the next day.

At this time, the two Outsiders were into the second day exploring their ruined town, unaware of the Scouts’ activity further south.

Waking to a sudden downpour, the four Scouts decamped after a short break for food and to plan the day.

They arrived at the larger ruined town of Thetford. This was once a town of 75,000 souls just before the war and evacuated in haste. Many of the population went to large cities further afield only to perish - mainly through starvation, disease or having the misfortune to arrive in a city targeted by the enemy for a fatal strike.

Given the conversation that the Scouts had eavesdropped on, they considered that this town was a likely place for the two men to hide away.

Consequently, they approached the city with some caution and set up a temporary base in a low ruin on the outskirts. They set up various detectors which could be carried relatively easily. They included heat and sound detectors. They would first try to locate a heat source significantly close to that of a human for the distance detected. This was off-world exploration equipment. The Scouts used sophisticated tools like this to retain what they referred to as SQO; the remit of the Scouts was often boiled down to the loose instruction of keeping the Status Quo and maintaining Order. This acronym was used when signing for, and checking out, equipment from the governments closely guarded stores.

The heat and sound scanner equipment would be set in position on a stand and would turn full circle to identify the target scanning area. It would identify and confirm the type of environment (desert, sea, towns, forest etc.) and change its’ operation accordingly to scan intelligently, for example to exclude a body of water. It would locate a satellite for the purposes of pinpointing the exact geographical location to the nearest three metres and would then build up a 3D model of the visible environment subject to applied limits, for example to limit the scan to two miles. The second pass of the scan would then investigate within the set boundaries.

The scanner would need to be relocated more frequently when it was on lower ground. Heat signals can be masked or degraded through obstacles, buildings and so forth. The Scouts scanned their immediate area on low ground to confirm they were alone in the vicinity. They then made their way to a mound that appeared to be an ancient manmade structure. It was probably used for a castle keep or lookout tower but the structure that must have sat on top of this mound was long gone. All that remained was simply an exposed perfectly round hill with a flat top covered in brambles.

The scanner was left to operate itself whilst the Scouts made themselves comfortable out of sight. They had detached the screen so that they could see the progress of the scanning from their hidden position. The screen displayed the outline of the scanned area at such a speed it gave the impression that the viewer was being taking on a fast ride through a series of skeleton structures. The viewer would be breaking through walls and turning back and forth at such speed it would leave a distinct feeling of nausea if watched for too long.