Synthetica (24 page)

They sat together in companionable silence. Anais stared out over
the fields, watching the long golden stems swaying in the breeze.
The wind was making a faint rustling noise as it whispered through
the wheat. The sun beat down from the afternoon sky, but they were
protected from the worst of the heat by the creaking veranda roof.
The tiny silver hovers buzzed and hummed through the crops in the
distance. Anais could feel a slight tickle where Xander's fingers
traced light circles over her arm.

She felt her eyelids growing heavy in the afternoon heat. She tried
to fight against it, but it was no use. A combination of worry,
grief, guilt and lack of sleep were all beginning to make their
mark. Her head swam as she shut her eyes. She could feel the light
of the sun on her eyelids, turning everything red. Far away it
seemed, she heard someone calling her name. At first she thought it
was Xander, but the voice was too high, too feminine. She felt as
though she should know who it belonged too, but her brain wasn't
working properly and she couldn't summon the energy to think hard
enough to place it. She knew it was someone important though,
someone she badly wanted to talk to. She heard her name being called
again, and her heart leapt as she finally recognised Dalla's voice.
But there was something else....something that made her feel as
though she shouldn't be hearing this, something was dreadfully
wrong...and then it hit her like a train. Dalla was dead.

With a jolt, she opened her eyes and sat up. All around her, the
wheat was still sighing in the breeze, but the wind now had a cool
edge to it. The sky was streaked with orange and purple as the sun
made it's way towards the horizon. Yawning, Anais checked the time
and was startled to see she'd been asleep for at least four hours.
It felt as though she'd only just shut her eyes. There were several
message icons flashing her vision, but she swiped them away with a
blink, too tired to answer the questions her parents would no doubt
be asking.

She glanced around at Xander. He'd slumped back against the veranda
post, his head lolling backwards and his lips slightly parted. A
small smile spread across Anais' face.

There was a creak and Clay stepped outside, now dressed in a clean,
albeit crumpled, shirt and a dark green wax jacket.

“
It's
time,” he grumbled.

Anais stretched and prodded Xander with her finger. He woke with a
snort and sat up, glancing round blearily. He clocked Anais next to
him and Clay shutting the front door.

“
Oh
right,” he yawned. “It wasn't all a mad dream, then.”

Clay grunted and walked past them, down the stairs and rounding the
corner of the house out of sight.

Anais stood up and followed, her bruised leg feeling stiff. As they
rounded the corner, they saw Clay rolling open the door to one of
the barns, the rusty hinges screeching in protest. He disappeared
into the gloom. Curiously, Anais and Xander poked their heads around
the corner.

Inside was an ancient looking vehicle – even in the half light,
Anais could see that it didn't have magnetic strips, or hover
capabilities. It had four wheels, a large cab, and a flat metal
sheet with four short sides was sticking out of the back of the cab.
Clay had opened the driver side door and was hunting around inside.

Anais walked around the pick-up truck in wonder. She'd never seen a
vehicle this old in real life before, although she'd often seen
pictures of them in History class. She ran a hand along it's bonnet,
marvelling at it's design, even though her fingers came away with an
orange coating. What wasn't rusting away was painted a light blue
colour. Now she realised what must've made the tracks on the path
they had followed.

“
Wow,”
Xander said as he inspected the large black wheels. “How did you
get this?”

Clay stuck his head back out of the cab.

“
It
was my great great grandaddy's. He bought it brand new right before
they stopped the production of fossil fuel cars,” Clay said, a
hint of pride in his voice.

“
Does
it work?” Anais looked it doubtfully. Although she was intrigued
by the truck, she had no desire to ride it if it was going to
explode, or break down halfway there.

“
Runs
like a dream,” Clay said, slapping the bonnet. There was an
ominous
thunk
from
the engine. Anais raised an eyebrow. “She gets me into the city
every couple of months when it's time to stock up on supplies.”

From the back of the truck, Xander made a gesture of drinking from
a bottle. Anais smirked.

“
Where
do you park it?” Xander asked, walking back round the vehicle.
“There aren't any suitable roads for cars like this anymore.”

Clay gave him a withering look.

“
I
know that, peacock - we'll leave it at the city limits. Right, come
on then, we don't have all night,” he said, clapping his hands and
shooing them towards the cab.

Anais climbed in first, the smell of mildew hitting her nose as
soon as she opened the door. Foam was sticking out of the seats, and
there was a large hole in the passenger side floor where the metal
had rusted away. Xander followed her in, wrinkling his nose up at
the smell. Clay climbed in Anais' other side, so she was
uncomfortably sandwiched between the two men.

“
Everyone
in? You, peacock, make sure that door's shut properly. Alright then,
off we go,” Clay said cheerfully, turning the key in the ignition.

There was a loud bang and the truck rumbled into life. Anais gasped
at the noise and at the vibrations that were reverberating up
through the seats. Having spent all her life surrounded by vehicles
that didn't make a noise and moved smoothly, this promised to be
quite an experience.

Clay crunched a long stick into position and the truck rattled off
in a cloud of fumes that left Anais and Xander coughing. They
trundled down the path, bouncing in their seats as the truck rocked
down the uneven road.

Anais squinted through the windscreen as they turned onto the main
road towards the city. The sky was deepening to a dark blue and the
first stars were beginning to shine. In front of them, the truck's
headlights cut through the gathering dusk, illuminating the tiny
bugs and dust that swirled in their path. The shuddering of the
truck was making her feel slightly sick, but that was nothing
compared to the exhilaration she felt as they zoomed towards towards
the city. Or at least, it felt like they were moving fast.

“
You
alright there, Annie?” Clay asked, raising his voice above the
roar of the engine and the rush of the wind through the broken back
window.

“
Fine,”
she called back. “And it's Anais, not Annie.”

“
What
about the peacock?” Clay asked and Anais turned to Xander. His
face was pale, and he was gripping onto the dashboard as though his
life depended on it. He shook his head mutely as Anais looked at him
questioningly, pressing his lips tight together. Clay guffawed.

“
Ah
well, peacocks aren't used to the old ways of travelling,” he said
with a smirk.

“
His
name is Xander,” Anais told him, and she thought she heard Clay
mutter something about ridiculous names these days.

Xander forced his mouth to open.

“
Shouldn't
you be concentrating on the road instead of talking?” he shouted
above all the noise.

“
Ahh,
she's alright, practically drives herself the ol' girl,” Clay
shouted cheerily back.

And in spite everything, Anais couldn't help smiling. She never in
a million years thought she'd end up like this; squashed up in an
old-fashioned car, with Xander and a man a large majority of the
city believed to be a dangerous criminal, on their way to break into
the most powerful company in the city - perhaps even the whole
country. She could've laughed with the sheer absurdity of it.

Beyond the windscreen, fields of wheat streamed past them,
disappearing into the rapidly approaching night, as the white lights
of the Imperial City began to glow on the horizon.

He drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk.

Lines of code streamed past on the computer screen, almost too
fast to follow. With a flick of the wrist, he opened yet another
program and began to type furiously. Blood dripped down over his
clothes. The bandage he'd wrapped carelessly around his arm hours
ago was soaked through, but he barely noticed.

He opened up his modified SLP program and entered the two ID
numbers that he'd plucked randomly from the Central ID Database he'd
hacked into earlier - goodbye Mrs Adeline May and Mr Percival
Hetherington, employees of MediTech and WireX Industries,
respectively. Civitas' rivals really were having an extraordinary
bad week. It was time to let Civitas in on the action.

Before he entered in the last four ID numbers, he brought the
CID back up and typed in the search term 'Civitas'. It took a
moment, but eventually he had a list of all the company's employees.
He scrolled down the list, deliberating over whom to choose. In the
end, he simply closed his eyes and pointed at the screen, memorising
whichever names and IDs his finger landed on.

Finally, he had his last four victims. But the fireworks weren't
all going to happen tonight, oh no. He edited part of the code in
his SLP program and pressed 'Enter' with relish.

He glanced at the old clock hanging on the wall and turned on
the TV. It wouldn't be very long until the unfortunate Mrs A. May
and Mr P. Hetherington would meet their untimely demise. But he
wasn't really particularly interested in them – they were merely
cannon fodder. It was tomorrow that he was really looking forward
to. He felt like a small child waiting impatiently for their
birthday to arrive. Or at least, how he imagined a child might feel,
had they grown up with such concepts as 'birthdays'.

He wanted to see Civitas' empire begin to crumble as four of
their own employees were murdered in front of the entire city. He
wanted to see the chaos and destruction that came when too many
people relied on a false idol, and had that idol snatched away from
them. He wanted to see the light of hope leave their eyes. The
thought almost made him giddy.

Speaking of Civitas, he still had a few jobs to do before the
night was out. He grabbed his old battered canvas bag, double
checking that everything was in place.Once he was satisfied, he
turned back to the TV, waiting for the signal that everything had
gone as planned.

Not a moment too soon, there came an emergency broadcast over
the TV. He didn't have to wait for the silly blonde newsreader to
tell him what had happened. He already knew. He had orchestrated the
entire thing.

He glanced at the computer screen, his desire for perfection
driving him to double check that everything was in place. Satisfied,
he turned away from the four names on the screen.

He threw his hood over his head and headed out of the door into
the night. He hoped Miss Skye Belaforte, Mr Jonathan Parker, Mrs
Freida Macier and Mr Xander Silvas all had something good planned
for tonight. This time tomorrow, they'd all be dead.

Fifteen

The truck ground to a halt with a pitiful wheeze.

As soon as the ignition stopped running, Xander opened the door and
scrambled out, taking in deep breaths of air as though his life
depended on it. Anais followed more slowly, slightly regretful that
the ride was over so soon.

Clay slammed his door shut.

“
Alright,”
he said. “Where to now?”

Perhaps it was just a trick of the moonlight, but Anais thought
that Clay's face had gone rather pale as he stared up at the
buildings around them. His jaw was set and he looked grimly
determined, as though he had resigned himself to whatever fate
awaited him tonight.

“
This
way,” Anais said.

The train station was empty, even though the hour wasn't late. The
moon left stripes of white light and black shadow dancing across the
platform, adding to the eerie feeling that they were the only ones
left in this part of the city. The magnets hummed, almost too low
for human ears to hear, and the train appeared silently, it's
headlight chasing away the last of the darkness.

In the dim light of the carriage, Xander's face had finally started
to gain some colour. Clay, on the other hand, looked distinctly
uncomfortable.

Anais opened her mouth to ask Clay when the last time he'd
travelled on a magnet train was, when a blare of music interrupted
her. What followed next drove all thoughts of polite conversation
from her mind.

The advertisements for new fluorescent DNA that had been showing on
the two screens above each end of the carriage were replaced by the
words 'BREAKING NEWS'. A feeling of foreboding flooded over Anais.
The last time she had seen those words, something terrible had
happened. Almost unconsciously, she stood up and slowly walked down
the carriage, her eyes never leaving the screen above her.

The blonde newsreader appeared on the screen looking
uncharacteristically serious.

“
Two
more murder victims have been found tonight, with the bodies of
their murderers discovered lying nearby. Mr Percival Hetherington
and Mrs Adeline May were involved in separate incidents, although
both attacks appear to have taken place at around 6pm this evening.
In a further twist, police have finally revealed that the victims
involved in the murders this week, all worked for either WireX
Industries or MediTech Corporation. There is a growing fear that the
murderers may have had a malfunction in their ID chips as a result
of the upgrade produced by technology company, Civitas, last month.
A spokeswoman for Civitas has denied these claims.”

The camera cut to the image of woman with blue hair addressing a
crowd of reporters. There was a jolt in Anais' stomach. Behind her,
she heard Xander draw in a sharp breath.

Although Skye looked just as beautiful as always, there was just a
hint of strain around her eyes and her mouth was drawn in a tight
line.

“
We
here at Civitas are deeply saddened and shocked to hear about the
deaths of Mr Hetherington and Mrs May,” Skye said, her melodious
voice carrying over the crowd. “Although they didn't work for our
company, we always respected the knowledge and innovation they
brought to their companies. However, we strongly dispute
any
rumours that their deaths may have been caused, directly or
indirectly, as a result of their upgraded ID chips. We conducted
thorough testing on the new software before we implemented it, and
we firmly believe that there were other factors that led to their
tragic deaths.”

Skye continued to talk but Anais wasn't listening anymore. She
turned to Xander, who had followed her up the carriage. He gave her
a look that meant he was thinking the exact same thing she was.

“
What
do we do now?” he asked. “Civitas is going to be crawling with
people after this.”

Anais struggled with herself. If they went to the building now,
there was a very high chance that it would be busy with people
trying to do damage control, but equally, if two more murders had
already been committed, how many more would it take before someone
stopped whoever was behind all of this?

Anais' eyes met Clay's, and he gave her an almost imperceptible
nod.

“
We're
carrying on,” Anais said firmly. “It's a risk we're just going
to have to take.”

“
Hey,”
Xander said, nodding at the screen. “Isn't that your friend from
the police station?”

Anais glanced back up at the news program and gasped. Officer
Hughes was now speaking to the cameras, her heart-shaped face
looking grim. Behind her, a swarm of securibots, police officers and
medics were scouring the ground or milling around two small white
tents that had been erected over the bodies of the deceased.

“
-
thoroughly investigating all avenues of possibility. We're working
closely with all the families of the murder victims to determine the
motives behind the attacks, as well as piecing together their last
movements. We urge the public to remain vigilant and report any
suspicious behaviour to the police.”

The
film cut back to the newsreader, who flicked back her blonde hair.

“
The
police were considering cancelling Civitas' fiftieth birthday
celebrations, which are due to take place tomorrow afternoon, and
imposing an earlier curfew until the murders have been fully
investigated. However, Civitas have promised to step up their
security measures for tomorrow's parade and have insisted that no
citizen attending the celebrations will be at risk. Although it has
been confirmed that Civitas' CEO, Magnus King, will be attending the
parade, the Mayor of the city has declined, in light of recent
events.”

As the newsreader began to go over the events leading up to the
murders earlier in the week, as well as the ones that had just
happened, Anais turned to her two companions.

“
This
is why we have to act now,” she said, a slightly desperate edge to
her voice. “Who knows how many people are going to die before the
person behind all this is caught?”

She was in agony over the thought that two more people had died
already. She couldn't bear the thought that the murderer was simply
going to keep going – who knew who might be next? Who else might
end up like Dalla?

Clay was still staring at the screen, his eyes wide. Anais snapped
her fingers.

“
Clay,”
she said sharply. “Are you even listening?”

Clay blinked and seemed to come to. He grunted.

“
Whatever
you say, Annie,” he said. His face had paled again as his eyes
flicked back up to images now being shown of all the people who had
died in the past week. Anais narrowed her eyes but didn't press him.

“
The
train's going to get us there too slowly,” she told the others.
“We'll get off at the next stop and get an auto-cab.”

The auto-cab icon blinked in her eyesight as she connected to the
service and ordered a cab for three. As she disconnected the call,
she caught sight of Clay staring at her.

“
What?”
she asked.

“
You've
got one of those things in your eye,” he said squinting at her.
“Does it hurt when it connects to the NIC?”

“
What?”
Anais looked at him, baffled. “No, why would it?”

“
Oh
right,” Clay seemed to lose interest. “That's what my initial
prototype did. One of our fake eyeballs exploded. They've obviously
sorted out a lot of the problems with it.”

Clay stared moodily out of the window at the lights flashing past
their carriage. Anais and Xander exchanged looks.

Despite Clay's assurances that he hadn't murdered his own family,
and whatever she had told Xander, Anais was still cautious; even
though she believed his story, she was also positive spending all
that time living on his own, dwelling on the deaths of his family
couldn't have done any good to Clay's mental wellbeing. There was a
very fine line between genius and madness. At the moment, Anais
still wasn't sure what side of that line Clay was on.

They stepped off at the next platform and found the auto-cab
waiting patiently for them. They got in, Clay needing a slight push
from Xander, and it rolled away towards the city centre. There was
barely any traffic. Anais supposed the news of two more murders
would've kept a lot of people inside. She couldn't help hoping it
would be the same when they got to Civitas, but after the news
report they'd just seen, she doubted it.

The ride to Civitas was tense. Clay was staring ahead, his jaw
tight. Anais could see his fists clenched on his lap. She wanted to
offer some words of comfort to him, but what could she say? 'Sorry
Clay about dragging you back into the building you swore you'd never
go back to, after the company murdered your whole family and framed
you for it. But you'll be okay, just take a deep breath and you'll
feel a lot better. Never mind the fact that if you get caught,
you'll be sent to prison for a very very long time.' No chance.

Xander was quiet too, his face drawn. Anais could only suppose
this was because she'd single-handedly managed to shatter his
illusions about his employer, as well as asking him to help break
into their most secure area. If he got caught, he'd be lucky if he
only got fired, never mind going to prison for breaking and
entering. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to say she was
sorry for dragging him into this, but Clay was sat between them.

Anais could only hope that they would find something, anything,
that could lead them to the person who created the counterfeit SLPs.
She didn't want to imagine the looks of disappointment and anger on
Xander's and Clay's faces if they failed, or if they couldn't find
anything at all. She couldn't think about what she'd do if they got
there and found nothing. This had to work. She had no other choice.

And
there, constantly at the back of her mind, hovered Dalla. Her
funeral seemed like forever ago, instead of just a few short hours.
A fresh wave of pain pierced her heart, but Anais pushed it away,
refusing to give in.
You
can hold on for a bit longer
,
she told herself firmly,
you
can grieve when this is over. Now's not the time. Concentrate.

In
what seemed like no time at all, they were pulling up outside the
Civitas building. Anais got out of the cab and stood staring up at
it, the moonlight reflecting off the dark glass. To her surprise,
the place looked empty. She had thought after the rumours that their
ID chips were to blame for the murders, everyone who was anyone at
Civitas would be in, trying to limit the damage. Or at least if they
didn't want to acknowledge the rumours, surely they'd still have to
set up for the parade tomorrow?

“
Strange,”
said Xander as he stood next to her. “They must have thought they
said all they needed to on the news.”

Clay grunted but otherwise remained silent.

“
This
way,” Xander said, leading them round the side of the building.
They passed a recycling bin at the entrance of a small street, which
lead to a nondescript door in the side of the Civitas building.
There was a small scanner by the door, the light above it glowing
red in the darkness. Xander turned his head, and wave of blue light
scanned the area where his ID chip was placed. The light turned
green and the door clicked open.

They stepped inside, the night lights flickering on in front of
them, illuminating a small bare corridor. Anais squinted in the dim
light. The door clicked shut behind them. Anais felt a sharp poke in
the back from Clay.

“
Well,
come on then,” he said in an irritable voice. “Show us the way.”

Xander led them down the corridor. There were a few glass doors
branching off it, but Anais could see there were only closets beyond
them, holding cleaning supplies and broken computer parts. On the
left was a large steel door that looked like it might belong to a
lift. At last, Xander stopped at the last door at the end of the
hallway and rescanned his ID chip. The door opened and they stepped
out into the empty atrium.

The moon's ghostly light filtered down through the glass that
surrounded them. It was completely silent, adding to the illusion
that the whole place had been abandoned. Anais barely dared to
breathe as they crept around the edge of the room to the bank of
lift pods that would take them to the research labs. It was a much
smaller line of lifts than the ones that serviced the rest of
building. Xander scanned his ID chip for a third time and the doors
to the lift on their left opened without a sound.

As soon as the doors shut behind them, Anais turned to Xander.

“
How
come we didn't have to scan our ID chips the other day when we used
the lifts?” she asked, keeping her voice down.

“
During
working hours the lift scanners are open access, so anyone can use
them,” Xander explained. “There's just too many people coming
and going for the scanners to work properly. It would take too much
time if everyone had to scan their chip every time they used the
lift. Level 55,” Xander added in a clear voice.