Space Invaders (53 page)

He changed back into his own clothes and tossed the shirt and trousers into a basket which appeared to be for the used uniforms. Ryder stood at the door, silently waiting to escort him.

Ryder maintained his silence as they travelled down from the tower and headed towards the commercial district that separated the tower dwellers from the labyrinth. The district was part of the original cave system, although it had changed a lot over the centuries. While it had once been a mixture of residences and facilities, now the only residents were those who maintained the trading caves. Everyone else had moved to one of the towers—if they were lucky—or down into the labyrinth, if their fortunes were not so blessed.

As they made their way to the pharmacist, AJ missed the chatter that had come so easily to them in the elevator up to the party. Finally, he decided to break the silence.

“Are you a waiter or do you work for Blake?”

“I work for Blake. He likes to make sure I’m on hand at public functions.”

“Is he a good man to work for?”

“I’ve never known anything different,” Ryder said. “My family has worked for him for generations, since before the Last War.”

AJ couldn’t have even said what his family had been doing at the time of the war. Probably scrambling to survive whatever life threw at them if the present day was any indication.

“Which way?” Ryder asked as they walked out into the commercial district.

AJ pointed to the left and quickened his pace. It would be a tight struggle to get the medicine down to his sister and himself back up to the tower in two hours.

The pharmacist recognised him as soon as he walked in the door.

“I told you this morning, no credits, no medicine,” he barked as soon as AJ approached the counter. “This isn’t a charity for lab rats.”

AJ bit his tongue rather than remind the pharmacist he hadn’t been out of the labyrinth so long himself. Only a few years ago the little weasel had been struggling to survive until a lucky break got him a job working for the previous owner of the pharmacy.

Ryder stepped up to the counter beside him. “Place your order, AJ,” he said as he rested his arm on the surface, casually showing the display to the pharmacist.

The pharmacist was suddenly far more helpful and he scurried to fetch the medicine at AJ’s bidding. Ryder made the payment and AJ tucked the small package into his shirt, out of sight of anyone who might see an easy mark in him as they travelled down into the labyrinth. The decongestant was valuable and much sought-after in the labyrinth. He had gone to too much trouble to get it to risk losing it now by being careless.

At the far end of the commercial district they found the elevators that would take them down into the labyrinth. Ryder stepped into the small metal cage cautiously. AJ formed the immediate impression that his escort had never been down into the actual labyrinth before. AJ joined him and hit the lever to start the elevator. The old steel contraption clanked and squeaked as they slowly sank deeper and deeper below the earth. Five levels down they began to see the first smattering of dust in the air. The farther down they went, the thicker it became. On the lowest level, where the drilling continued day and night, it would be even worse. AJ had only been down so far once and hoped he never had to again.

“How far down do we have to go?” Ryder asked.

“Sector U7,” AJ replied.

“That’s one of the roughest areas down here.”

AJ snorted. “Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious. That’s where I live though, so we don’t have much choice.”

Ryder gripped his credit band in an obvious nervous gesture.

“You have much on that?” AJ asked.

“About a hundred credits.”

“Keep it covered up,” AJ advised. Everyone knew someone who had ventured too far into the labyrinth only to be knocked out and robbed of their credits. Whilst the bands wouldn’t work on anyone other than their owner, it was all too easy to illegally transfer credits from one band onto another.

Ryder did as AJ suggested immediately.

“You don’t like me much, do you?” AJ said.

“I don’t like your way of earning credits, if that’s what you mean.” Ryder replied.

“I’m desperate.”

“Whoring seems pretty lucrative tonight,” Ryder sneered.

“I didn’t make Blake bid so high,” AJ snapped defensively.

“No one makes Blake do anything.”

“When you meet my sister, you’ll see why I had to do this.”

Ryder snorted and folded his arms across his chest. “No one has to play the whore to earn credits. You can always find another way. There are plenty of methods of earning an honest living, for those who make the effort.”

“You think I didn’t try and find anything else before I made my choice?”

“Your choice,” Ryder echoed. “You said it yourself. You made the decision to become a whore.”

AJ turned his back on Ryder, unreasonably annoyed at the man’s attitude towards him. On the way to the party he’d thought there had been a connection between them, like they were at least comrades. Now Ryder looked at him as though AJ was beneath him and unworthy of his friendship.

They made the rest of the journey downwards in silence. Eventually the elevator came to a stop at the level they needed. They were nearly at the bottom of the labyrinth with only a half dozen levels below them.

The dust made visibility difficult and Ryder began to cough as soon as the glass doors opened and they stepped out into the tunnel. They needed goggles to see clearly through the dust, but AJ’s last pair had long since been stolen and Ryder probably hadn’t even considered them.

AJ tugged the front of his shirt up over his mouth and nose, encouraging Ryder to do the same. AJ didn’t fancy the idea of returning to the tower and explaining to Blake how his servant had choked to death on the dust.

Thankfully, AJ’s family’s cave was only a twenty-minute walk from the elevator and with the pace AJ set they arrived in less than fifteen minutes.

AJ slipped past the dirty sheet that served as a doorway, Ryder close behind him. The air in the tiny cave wasn’t any better than that in the tunnel outside. Ryder stood quietly at the wall, his mouth and nose still covered, though he couldn’t hold back his coughs. It was obvious to AJ that Ryder had no experience at all in surviving in the labyrinth. He was less concerned for his escort than he was for his sister.

SE5188—Essie—looked even worse than when AJ had left to look for work that morning. Her skin was pale and she coughed constantly. Hers was a sickness contracted by many of the lab rats. The choking dust of the tunnels took a toll on their bodies, and their lungs became congested. Essie had been working in the tunnels all her life, carrying water to the diggers, but only allowed one sip an hour of her own. At nineteen she already struggled to breathe. The life expectancy of the average lab rat was only twenty-five. AJ wanted more than anything to get his family out of the labyrinth, to give them each a chance of seeing thirty. Neither of his parents had lived past twenty-four and one of his two brothers had been lost when a tunnel he had been working in flooded a few years before. Life in the labyrinth was usually short and often dangerous. At twenty-two, AJ might not have many years left himself.

AJ realised in just one week’s time he would have the credits to pay for his remaining siblings to move out of their sector and into one of the higher levels, where the dust wasn’t as bad and they had a chance of surviving just a little bit longer. Maybe they could even afford to take a class on reading. With some education under their belts, there was a chance of better jobs for all of them, perhaps even a permanent escape from the labyrinth.

“Hey, Essie, how are you doing?” AJ knelt down beside his sister’s wretchedly thin mattress and dug the medicine out of his shirt. “I’ve got your medicine.”

“Where did you get that?” JD, their remaining brother, asked.

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies,” AJ replied as he helped Essie to sit up and swallow the liquid that would clear her lungs.

Essie finished drinking down the medicine and coughed again. This time the difference was obvious. Her lungs had cleared and would remain decongested for some time as long as she took care.

“Where did you get the credits?” Essie whispered.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does,” Essie insisted. “What have you done, AJ?”

Essie didn’t give him a chance to reply before she reached up and pulled aside his thin shirt.

“Is that what I think it is?” JD asked as he stepped forward and fingered the collar.

“I did what I had to do,” AJ said. “You’d have done the same.”

JD shook his head vehemently. “Never!”

“What is it?” Essie asked.

“It’s the mark of a whore,” JD spat. “That’s what it is.”

Essie looked horrified. “You didn’t?”

“I’m contracted for one week,” AJ admitted. “After it’s over we’ll have enough credits to get out of here forever.”

JD appeared anything except pleased with AJ’s declaration. “I’d rather choke on the dust down here than live on the credits earned by a whore.”

AJ turned to Essie, hoping to get some support from his little sister.

“JD’s right,” Essie said. “We’ll be outcasts amongst the community if anyone finds out what you’ve done.”

“I did this for you.”

“You shouldn’t have. I never asked you to.”

“Either of you would’ve done the same thing for me, you know you would.”

JD shook his head. “No, we wouldn’t. There are some lines we just don’t cross and this is one of them. I think you should leave now.”

“You don’t mean that.”

JD pointed towards the entrance to the cave. “I’ll take care of Essie from now on. I think it’d be best if you didn’t return here again.”

“But we’re family. You’re all I have.” He turned to his sister. “Essie, please?”

“JD’s right,” Essie whispered. “Life’s hard enough down here. We don’t need the added trouble that comes from having a prostitute in the family. Look at what happened to RC’s family when they found out she’d been earning credits on her back.”

“I’m not RC, and I’m hardly going to end up pregnant,” AJ pointed out.

“That’s not the point,” Essie argued. “RC’s brother had a good chance of getting out of the labyrinth before the scandal. He had a decent job and enough credits to get educated. As soon as people discovered RC had turned to whoring no one would trade with any of the family. The credits of a whore are worthless and the rest of us will be tainted by association.”

“It’s not like anyone has to know where the credits came from,” AJ argued.

“You can’t keep something like that secret forever. RC—”

“RC got herself pregnant,” AJ interrupted. “I’m a bloke. No one has to find out. We can get out of here, move to a higher level and make a fresh start.”

“Or we could end up right on the bottom level where it’s even worse than here. RC’s baby didn’t survive more than a few hours down there. Is that what you want for us?”

“Of course not!”

JD stepped forward. “That’s where we’ll all end up if you remain a part of this family. Now, are you going to leave, or am I going to throw you out?”

AJ could tell there would be no point arguing with them right now. He hoped their reactions were just from the shock, and when he returned in seven days’ time they would be more amenable to the idea of relocating to a new sector, one with better prospects than the pit they had been unlucky enough to be born in.

JD tossed AJ his spare set of clothes, the only things he owned, and pushed him out of the entrance with a shove far more forceful than necessary. Ryder followed after them in silence.

“Don’t come back,” JD warned loudly, drawing the attention of a couple of the neighbours in the next cave along the tunnel. “We won’t have a whore in our cave, no matter how much he earns.”

AJ stumbled backwards at his brother’s harsh words. Any hope of keeping what he had done quiet vanished. He felt sick at the betrayal of his siblings. All their lives they had dreamed of one day escaping the sector they were born in, and now—when he had given them a real chance—they threw it back in his face.

AJ opened his mouth to reply, yet before he could say a word he was pushed down to the ground, not by his brother, but by Ryder. A rock flew past his head and smashed into the wall behind him. AJ saw the neighbour who had thrown it reaching down for a second missile.

“Let’s get out of here,” AJ said as he scrambled to his feet. With no real entertainment in the labyrinth, the people found their own pleasures, and fighting was a common occurrence. AJ didn’t need to end up in the middle of the evening bout. He wouldn’t stand a chance if that happened.

Ryder didn’t argue with him. He simply got to his feet and walked back the way they had come, his pace even quicker than the one AJ had set on their journey there.

AJ cast one last look at his brother before turning the corner in the twisting tunnel. At least Essie would survive a while longer. If nothing else, the extra years his sister would live made his sacrifice worthwhile.

AJ and Ryder returned the way they had come until they reached the commercial district. After passing back through the trader caves Ryder took a different direction than the way they had come before. AJ realised they were headed towards the oldest of the towers. He resisted the temptation to ask whether Ryder was going the right way. The sure-footed steps of his escort answered the unspoken question for him.

“Blake is a descendant of one the first tower dwellers,” Ryder said. “His family has produced some of the most successful scientists ever born. Anything you hear or see whilst in his presence is strictly confidential. That means you can’t tell anyone.”

“I’m not stupid,” AJ snapped.

“That’s debatable.”

AJ stopped walking and waited for Ryder to realise and turn to face him. The servant walked another half dozen steps before he noticed AJ was not with him. When Ryder finally turned and looked him in the eye AJ spoke again.

“You may not like my decisions, but they’re my choices and none of your fucking business. Don’t treat me as though I’m stupid just because you don’t agree with my way of doing things.”