Chaos Cipher (40 page)

‘
Yes,’ coach
Krupin nodded.

‘
Why are you
doing this to us?’ Dak implored, taking Sonja into his
arms.

‘
Because you
people make me sick,’ said Krupin suddenly. ‘You fight like
animals, you live like animals. Now you are even breeding like
animals. Gene-freaks. Make me sick.’

‘
Oh my God!’
Sonja incredulously chortled and huffed, and Enaya Chahuán was soon
by her side as well. ‘We are the animals? You monsters in the
hardlands and Atominii are sending cyborgs here to kill our way of
life…’

‘
Transentients!’ Krupin corrected.

‘
Cyborgs!’
Dak shouted. ‘Transentients aren’t all murdering
bastards!’

And Sonja
held Dak’s hand firmly to remind him not to let his anger get the
better of his reason.

‘
It’s our
land!’ Lyov called. ‘We’ll send out whoever, wherever there is
need. And at least we have laws, and rules. You fucks have none,
and you fight just like you have none…’

‘
The fight
was won!’ Daryl reminded sharply. ‘If you cannot accept your
losses, you should not show your embarrassment with the potential
destruction of an entire culture. If you feel Hattle cheated you,
take it up with the Lewis family, not us.’

‘
Is more than
that,’ said the coach brazenly. ‘We get to take back mines for the
Atominii. You would no longer be protected by our international
consensus. All Precariat cities will be destroyed. But you can stop
it. Hosting gene-freak breaks all accepted rules. We in hardlands
at least accept rules, but when you abandon rules then you are
outlaws and will be treated as such. And one rule is…gene-freaks
off the planet! As far as I can see…these mines already are
belonging to us…’

‘
We’d blow
those fucking mines to hell before you ever see them!’ Sonja
growled taking a step towards Krupin. Then Dak took her arm and
slowly walked her away.

The coach sat
back, legs wide apart and distended stomach bloating over his belt,
a mink overfed frog tonguing his bleeding gums with an avaricious
smile.

There was a
moment’s silence when suddenly Daryl Sanders dismissed the guests
to talk with the family alone.

‘
Good,’ said
coach Krupin conceitedly, getting up and leading Lyov from the
proceedings. ‘I’m glad you are seeing reason. I’ll give you time to
think about handing over the boy and Cerise Timbers could just well
survive this.’

‘
I’ll have
someone escort you out,’ said Daryl dryly.

Once they’d
left the room, Dak began the debate with ‘We won’t give Kyo
away.’

‘
We won’t!’
Sonja added sternly.

‘
Do you know
what is at stake here?’ Daryl reminded.

‘
We have to
inform the...’ Enaya Chahuán started but was curtly
interrupted.

‘
NO!’ Dak
shouted. ‘This doesn’t become a democratic issue.’

‘
Need I
remind you both that this city...the entire city will be put at
risk?’

‘
I
know!’

‘
The Atominii
will have all the ammunition they will ever need for gaining
momentum and support in crushing this place to the ground. Like it
or not we still play to their rules…’

‘
Why?’ Dak
almost screamed, ‘and how the fuck does that work anyway? With so
many people out there desperate to get back into the Atominii, why
are they so mystified by it even while denying its responsibility
for their suffering? At least here we’re trying to move on. Why?
Why can’t they join us?’

‘
Dak…’ Enaya
Chahuán tried.

‘…
and we
freed ourselves!’ Dak continued, ‘supposedly, but yet we still
answer to them! Why? What the fuck is that shit about? We still
gotta see eye-to-eye with the blind from the motherfucking
Atominii?’

‘…
Dak…’ Enaya
Chahuán tried again.

‘…
Enaya, I
hear you girl, but you gotta admit this is bullshit! Why do we
still pander to these motherfuckers? Diplomacy? Fuck that!
Diplomacy! Policy! Policy is exactly what somebody said earlier, a
rule put onto people by a group who think they know better how to
manage everyone’s lives. Just like law…They know shit about
respect, they know shit about loyalty!’

‘
Dak they
wouldn’t think twice about erasing us off the map,’ she said. ‘The
only reason they do not is because they want to see us collapse on
our own without hardlanders becoming aware of us. That, and we sell
them something useful from the mines, which we threaten to melt
down they attempt anything. We are sitting on one of the biggest
graphite resources on the continent, that’s all they are interested
in, their quantic electronics.’

‘
So?’

‘
So having an
Olympian here changes the game if they become aware of him,’ said
Enaya. ‘You have to get Kyo out of here.’

‘
Where?’
Sonja asked.

‘
Anywhere
away from here.’ Enaya stated. ‘Take him away. Get him out of here.
We’ll keep in touch. We’ll tell Krupin the kid left and that we’ll
deny he was ever here should he attempt to rat on us to the
Atominii.’

‘
He’s got
evidence,’ said Daryl. ‘Those oculars…’

‘
Leave that
with me,’ Enaya said, ‘I think I know someone who can get rid of
the evidence.’

*

Laux shambled
through the ashes of his workshop and grimaced. There was nothing
on the canister, no evidence of finger prints and no trace of the
vandals. Laux booted a bunch of burned out cables and wires from
under his foot and sighed.

Above him,
Pania walked around the wing support, stepping over the holes that
had burnt into the alloy and peering down at the reticent scientist
as their emotions tacitly filled the space of their destroyed home.
Kyo sat at the top of a ladder with his head in his hands chewing
on a pencil.

‘
I can’t
believe it’s all gone,’ he said. ‘How long will it take you to
build everything back up, Laux?’

‘
Oh-’ he
started, shrugging, pulling out a random figure ‘about eight or
nine months depending on the scarcity of supplies.’

Pania looked
around at the burned out mattresses, the springs and wires, the
charred tables and chairs.

‘
If he was in
here then there should be some bones, right?’ she said. ‘What
temperature does it take to burn away human bone?’

‘
Somewhere
between fourteen thousand to twenty thousand Fahrenheit.’ said
Laux, picking up a blackened machine from the floor. ‘It wasn’t
that hot in here, possibly a little hotter at the back of the
workshop, but not enough to completely disintegrate a
person.’

‘
So where the
hell did he go?’ Pania said.

‘
Laux,’ Kyo
said, jumping down from the ladder. ‘If there was a sudden fire in
here where would you go?’

‘
Well there’s
no escape really,’ said Laux, ‘the fire started at the front of the
hangar and it’s the only entrance and exit. Relatively small area,
it would burn fairly fast.’ Laux started shifting fallen panels and
burnt out machines to clear a path to the back of the workshop. ‘I
think if I’d hide anywhere then…’

Laux stopped
himself short and thought again.

‘
Wait a
moment,’ he said, snapping his fingers. ‘There is
somewhere.’

‘
Where?’
Pania said.

Laux was
suddenly in a hurry, kicking loose items and pushing away fall
gantries still not yet cleared by the volunteers. He hurried to the
back of his workshop and Kyo and Pania chased after him.

‘
Laux, what’s
going on?’ Pania asked.

Laux made it
to a burnt out dust cover that had been half drawn over a large
machine and he pulled it away, the cover falling to pieces in his
hands like fragile aged plastic. Pania and Kyo arrived to find him
staring at a huge machine with incinerated thermometers and
pressure gauges and pipes surrounding a large bronze
coffin.

‘
The nanome
cultivation refrigerator,’ he said, kicking the tub hard. The lid
suddenly popped up and a great splashing of water frothed from the
basin as arms and legs kicked away in shock, and a voice was
screaming:

‘
YOU’LL NEVER
TAKE ME ALIVE YOU BASTARDS!’

‘
Edge!’ Pania
gasped with delight, reaching into the basin to steady him. ‘Edge
it’s me! It’s us! You’re okay!’

Kyo was
laughing with a mix of relief and hysterics, and he hurried over to
help Edge out of the tub.

‘
Edge you’ve
had us worried sick!’ Laux commented as Edge Fenris stood in the
basin, soaked and coughing up the water he’d just swallowed. He
gasped for breath, wiping his eyes, face still stained blue from
spray paint.

‘
Pan!’ He
pointed, his teeth grinding. ‘It’s been god knows how many hours,
but I’m gonna need a cigarette and immediate access to your weapons
locker!’

‘
Why didn’t
you shout to us?’ Kyo asked.

‘
What?’ he
said, fingering water from his ear. ‘I’ve had half my head
submerged in that gross soup. I couldn’t hear a damn thing in
there.’

‘
And what
happened to your face?’ Pania asked.

‘
That’s
exactly related to why I’m gonna need your guns!’ He simmered as
she passed him a cigarette. ‘I’m gonna open up a hail of lead on
that sonva-bitch!’

‘
Who?’ Kyo
asked.

‘
Lewis!’ said
Edge, slogging out into the charred hangar, ‘that meat head Pierce
Lewis and his idiot son Hattle.’

‘
Wait, it was
Hattle who did this?’ Pania raged.

‘
You’re god
damn right it was!’ Edge said as she sparked the end of his
cigarette for him. ‘But they just declared war on the wrong
shitbags! I’m all for the virtues of peace, but as long as that
bastard is around here then it’s never gonna work.’

‘
I love it
when you’re serious,’ Pania smiled.

‘
Don’t even
think about going all Krakatoa Edge,’ Laux warned, ‘we have to keep
a low profile.’

‘
A low
profile?’ Edge said calmly.

‘
Yes.’

Then Edge
Fenris suddenly erupted like his best impression of Krakatoa had
been personified. ‘I’VE BEEN COUPED UP IN YOUR REFRIDGERATOR FOR
WHAT FEELS LIKE A DAY! IT DOESN’T GET LOWER THAN THAT!’

Laux backed
up as Edge moved closer, smoke fuming from his nose like exhaust
from an overworked engine.

‘
Meanwhile
your exposure’s doing just fine professor. Build a few machines
here and there and show them off at a festival. But while I’ve been
locked away I’ve had time to contemplate. It was
soothing…relaxing…even had a little epiphany during my whole
sensory deprivation, a sort of window into the mind. And then it
hit me. I’m gonna cut the little bastard’s FINGERS
OFF…!’

‘
But if you
enrage Lewis any further…’

‘
I don’t care
about that shit anymore Laux,’ Edge said cracking his knuckles.
‘Our cover is blown. We’re here and everybody knows it. And now
it’s on!’

Shadows
shifted in the daylight by the front of the hangar, silhouetted
figures approaching in a steady stride.

‘
Kyo!’ Dak’s
voice sailed. ‘You gotta come with us.’

‘
Why, what’s
happening?’

‘
It’s not
safe here,’ said Sonja.

‘
The
understatement of the week!’ Edge added smoking his cigarette
deeply.

‘
There’s a
problem.’ Sonja continued, lightly taking her son’s arm. ‘We have
to get moving quite fast.’

Enaya Chahuán
and Daryl Sanders entered with them and Enaya suddenly realised
Edge Fenris.

‘
My god,
you’re alright.’ She said slightly aghast.

‘
Is that how
I look?’ Edge snapped, ‘cos I’m feeling pretty fucking nettled if
I’m honest.’

‘
We found him
in the nanome refrigerator,’ said Laux, ‘back from the dead.
Luckily the machine wasn’t working and I never got around to fixing
the temperature setting, otherwise he’d have been out of the fire
and into the ice so to speak.’

‘
A better
fate than cooking to death,’ Edge muttered. ‘At least if I’d have
frozen, you’d all get to see my gelid mug one last time. Maybe I’d
have done so in a funny pose or something to lighten the grim
discovery.’

‘
We also
learned who did this to us,’ Pania added.

‘
Tell em
Edge!’ Kyo said.

‘
It was the
Lewis posse,’ said Edge, sucking in the last few tokes and throwing
down his cigarette before ironically vocalising the ta-dah
sound.

Nobody looked
too surprised. Daryl sighed and shook his head as though all his
suspicions had been confirmed.

‘
I didn’t
think he’d go this far,’ said Pania. ‘I’d have just cleaned up the
stupid painting if I’d have known he would try and kill one of
us.’

‘
He has
motive,’ Daryl said, ‘that’s reason enough to accuse him and if you
say he did it we can now challenge him on it.’