Skin (3 page)

“
Get out
of here,” I said to the boy, my voice crackling in the rawness of
my tender throat.

“
Nah, he
should stay,” the Mech who had held me said. “The kid has a few
more lessons to learn tonight and you’re gonna be his
teacher.”

Two Mechs
grabbed me from behind, pinning my arms back. I was trapped. My
shoulder screamed. The woman watched, I could see the green of her
dazzling eyes from across the room, shining like twin alien flames.
She didn’t move, just leaned against the glass wall with her sleek
arms folded over her chest. The city lights streaming behind her as
the world moved on outside, unaware that this woman who I had not
stopped thinking about in twenty-four hours, was about to witness
my death by Mech.

The Mech who
had held me stepped forward, stretching his arms and lengthening
his neck like a batter stepping up to the plate. Did a Mech even
need to stretch? It was the last thought I remembered before the
weight of the steel implanted arm drove deep into my guts. I
couldn’t fall, I couldn’t bend and double to protect myself. The
others held me tight, open to take another beating and another. A
hit to the stomach. One to the ribs. One to the jaw. The kid ran,
skidding past the snake eyed woman who continued to spectate.

They let me
fall and I crumpled to the floor like cloth. Was that it? Would
they leave me alone now? No. Mech versus Natural was ongoing and
would continue to be long after they’d landed their final blow.
They had me circled like wolves around the still quivering fresh
carcase. A shoe planted into my ribs, another in my back, my legs,
my groin, my stomach. There was no room for any more pain. I closed
my eyes and felt every blow as a simple pressure piled on top of an
already insurmountable mountain of hurt. My vision darkened,
whether I closed his eyes or just slipped into blindness, I wasn’t
sure. There was pain. There was black. And then there was
nothing.

I heard birds.
I had moved into that grey space between dreams and waking and
became aware that I was in bed, cocooned by soft sheets. I was
comfortable and safe and let I my sleep addled mind drift back
under the tidal pull of sleep.

Birds. Since
when had there been birdsong in Guessing? The usual sounds that
floated into my apartment were traffic and sirens, the thuds and
bangs of neighbours through thin walls, an occasional raised voice.
Sometimes a dog barked. There were never birds. Consciousness crept
closer and I realised I was naked. My eyes flicked open and set on
a white roof textured like whipped cream. The walls were pale green
and strung with what looked like forest vines. The muted light
coming through the curtained window suggested it might’ve been
close to dawn.

I propped
myself onto an elbow and saw a room I did not know; a giant bed
made with crisp white linens, a closed door. My glasses were on a
nightstand beside me. That was definitely the sound of birds,
chirping and tweeting. Something cried out in a strange honking
squawk. Was I in the zoo? That might explain the plants and the
wild sounds, but the bed? The room? The fact I was naked? Was this
the fallout of a one night stand? What had happened the night
before? The gym. The Mechs. The beating.

My awareness
came back to my naked body and I lifted the sheet to inspect the
damage. I’d taken a thrashing, pounded into burger meat by steel
and flesh. I had expected violet and black bruises on my abdomen to
tell the story, but instead there was just a few slightly dark
patches and no pain. Even my bad shoulder was loose and pain
free.

The door
rattled and opened. A short, round woman shuffled into the room.
She wore a stiff black maid’s tunic which contrasted starkly with
her crimson hair pressed firmly into a bun on the back of her head.
She was so tight and straight, she looked like she was made of
plastic.

She smiled a
small smile when she saw I was awake and shuffled out of the room
again, leaving it slightly ajar. She wasn’t wearing any shoes. The
musical sound of the birdsong was louder through the open door. I
didn’t know the first thing about birds but it sounded as if there
were at least a dozen different types. A deep growl ripped through
the sweet avian chorus and every bird fell silent. Was that a
lion?

I strained to
see through the crack in the door without moving from the bed. The
room seemed to be off a hallway, the narrow view providing a
glimpse of a wall the same pale green as the walls of the room I
was in. The floor out there was covered in smooth grey pebbles, not
the soft cream carpet of the bedroom. I became aware of the sound
of trickling water, like a stream and quickly realised I was
busting for the bathroom.

The round maid
shuffled back into the room, beaming, holding a large tray. The
smell of food pinged every one of my senses and my mouth rushed
with saliva and I forgot about needing to pee. She set the tray
down on the bed and I could not believe what I saw.

Eggs, perfectly
poached, quivered deliciously atop two thick slices of golden wheat
toast. Two strips of dark pink, glistening bacon, a rainbow of
fresh fruit slices, a series of small white bowls each containing a
sprinkling of different types of nuts and seeds; almonds, cashews,
chia, walnuts and things I didn’t know. It was the kind of
cornucopia I had only dreamed of in between chewy dried insects and
whatever wilted vegetables I could afford from Thel’s.

“
Eat,”
the woman said, still smiling. She had an accent I couldn’t
place.

“
Where am
I?” I asked.

“
Sveta’s
home,” she said. “She brought you here to heal. Looks like you
have. Now eat.”

“
Sveta?”

“
Eat
first. Then talk.”

I didn’t need
another invitation. I propped myself up on a bank of pillows and
started to eat, barely able to bother with cutlery in the rush to
take such an incredible feast into my mouth. The maid stood,
watching me eat the whole thing, continuously smiling. Ordinarily
that would have bothered me.

My taste buds
exploded with sensory overload. Sweet sweeter than anything I’d
known cutting through the delicious salty meat. Creamy and crunchy.
Hot and cold. I had to remind myself to chew and swallow before
taking another bite. In an embarrassingly short time, the entire
meal was devoured. I lay back and belched. My body had never felt
so replenished.

“
OK,” I
said, almost breathless after the event of the meal. “Who is Sveta?
Where am I, specifically? What's going on? How long have I been
asleep?”

"Two days," she
said. She took her tiny steps to the window and threw back the
curtains. I saw the sky, all of it. We would have to be in one of
Guessing’s tallest buildings. The highest points of the city seemed
like they were miles below. I could barely make out traffic on the
streets everything down there was so small. Was this a dream? Had I
died and was now in heaven, looking down from on high? That would
also explain the food.

“
Sveta
says to bring you to her when you eat and dress. Bathroom,” she
pointed to a door I hadn’t before noticed. “Robe inside. I come
back soon.”

She took the
tray and left me alone with the city vista.

I showered. It
was hot and hard and almost as amazing a sensation as the meal. In
the mirror, I looked good for someone who had taken such a
pummelling just the night before. A few pale bruises, a couple of
small cuts on my jaw, but otherwise, I looked lively, fit and I
felt the same.

I changed into
the robe left for me. There were no shoes.

As if she knew
the moment I was ready, the maid came back into the room.

“
Follow,”
she said.

The source of
the birdsong was quickly obvious. At the end of the narrow, pebble
paved hallway, I stepped into a massive room. It was a jungle.
Trees and vines stretched to a high glass ceiling. Birds of every
kind and colour whipped and flitted about the tree tops, squawking,
singing and squeaking. A small waterfall tumbled over a low rocky
edge, collecting in a pool and then flowing in a soft stream that
wound about the room, cycling back to the waterfall. I stared,
slack jawed.

“
It is
lovely beyond words the first time you see, yes?” the maid said,
clearly amused by my agog expression. She kept walking and I had no
choice but to follow her along the path.

I looked up
into a tree and a little golden haired face looked back down on me.
A monkey? Seriously? The tiny yellow monkey chattered as if it were
talking directly to me. As it spoke, its fur changed colour from
gold to dark brown, into black and back again to yellow before it
scampered up higher into the branches where I couldn’t see.

The maid took
me down another hallway and stopped before a huge double door
carved with vine patterns in dark wood. She pressed a button
camouflaged in the wood, and told me to wait. She turned and left,
her gentle smile never faltering.

I did not have
to wait long before the huge doors swung open from the middle. It
was a large room, not so big as the jungle room we had just came
through but still impressive. The walls in here were also were hung
with vines and small tangled shrubs lined the perimeter. The
pebbled path continued into the room, cutting through a floor
covered in what looked like actual green lawn. A row of tall,
narrow windows set into the far wall revealed a further angle of
the far below city, I could see the docks and the wide harbour that
from this height looked like nothing more than a pond.

In the centre
of the room there was a huge desk clear of anything save a single,
sleek silver computer console. Above the desk, a huge wooden panel
hung from almost invisible wires. On it was carved an ornate symbol
of a hand, a wing and an animal’s paw, entwined in a tight grip on
a skeleton key. The end of the key grew into an ancient gnarled
tree with a single sprouted leaf.

Beside the
desk, an enormous cat, a cougar, grey and sleek and deadly, slept,
stretched out in contented recline. Behind the desk, the snake eyed
woman stood, staring right into me.

“
Welcome
to my home,” she said. Her voice was as gorgeous as the rest of
her. Soft and commanding, everything about her made me think of
velvet. She wore that same black jumpsuit as it were a uniform. Her
face was neutral though there was something in the way her eyes
pushed into me that made it feel like she was smiling. Those eyes.
She made me feel like a little boy, small and weak and
compliant.

“
My name
is Sveta."

"Rev," I said.
She nodded and told me she already knew.

"You were in
trouble,” she said. “Those mechanical men at your Saturn’s. They
were going to kill you, I’m sure.”

“
You
stopped them?” I asked, hoping she would say no. The cougar’s tail
twitched as I spoke. It might have been resting, but the beast was
no less alert, no less aware and likely no less ready to tear my
throat out.

“
My
associate intervened.”

I hadn’t seen
anyone else with her, but the way the night had been going, she
might have had an army behind her and I probably wouldn’t have
noticed.

“
Forgive
me, I know this must seem strange, like you have been kidnapped.
But you needed medical aide, and from what I know of you, Rev, I
suspected you would be resistant to a hospital or any place that
might treat you with unnatural medicines.”

“
How do
you know who I am?” I asked.

“
I know
some about you,” she said. “Please, you can’t think of this as
anything sinister. I have been tracking you, but I scout all of my
own new talent. I know a special creature when I see one, and when
I saw you, I knew.”

“
Talent?
What are you? Some kind of agent? Modelling?”

“
I
suppose you could think of it that way,” she said. Sveta did
actually smile this time, it was a small stretch of lips that
seemed unused to the action. It was still beautiful though. She
could have pulled any face, I thought, and still be the most
stunning human specimen ever created.

“
Please,
let me show you around my home.”

She circled to
the front of the desk and the cat woke. Yellow eyes like moons
marked my every move. Sveta bent to stroke its rump and it
stretched upwards like an ordinary kitty. It pulled itself slowly
into sitting beside its mistress and I saw its chest, from its neck
to some deep unseen part of its belly, was covered in a layer of
fine pearly scales that glistened like opals.

“
This is
my Marisoa,” Sveta said, patting the cat and cooing in its ear.
“She is a special girl, aren’t you, darling. A true gift from
God.”

“
What is
it?” I stammered.

“
She’s a
mountain lion,” Sveta said as if it were the most ordinary thing in
the world. She did not mention anything about the fact that this
mountain lion seemed to be part reptile or fish and I was not
comfortable enough to press the point. She moved to the door and
the cat followed, padding silently. I followed too, an obedient,
nervous puppy.

“
I have
to get to work,” I said as we walked. “I need to get home to
change.”

“
Simone—
you have met already—will print you some new clothes. She has
already scanned you. We are minutes from your club, you won’t be
late. Though I must note I have seen the takeover in place down
there. Such an antithesis to your personal beliefs, it is
remarkable you are still willing to work there.”