Toxicity (56 page)

“Of course,” smiled Mr Candle. “It
always helps to know what the ruffians are going to do next. The power of
information, my dear. Never, ever underestimate its worth. It’s worth more than
gold, diamonds, and even lirridium.”

Jenny put her face in her hands
and shook her head. She groaned. “I have been such a fool,” she said.

“Nonsense, my dear! You have been
doing your father’s work!”

“No, no, that’s not how it was.
He wanted me to destroy Greenstar! He wanted me to bring it down. It was the
last thing he told me before he died.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” said
Mr Candle, and there was a crack in his voice; a fracture in the crystal. He
quickly recovered. “Old Tom liked his drink, did he not?” He laughed. “Yes,
prone to saying some wild things on occasion. But the fact of the matter is,
and we have paperwork and filmys to show you to back this all up - Old Tom
wanted
his half of the business to go to you. You would become
Ruling
Director
on the Board of the Greenstar Recycling Company. You would help us grow the
business, expand to take over other worlds. For as you must have noticed,
Amaranth is nearing the end of its Pollutant Cycle...”

“Pollutant Cycle?”

“We can only abuse a world for so
long,” said Mr Candle, smiling kindly. “Every planet can only take so much
before it reaches capacity. You met the psi-children, did you not? Down in the
laboratory, where you planted your little HighJ devices? They emerged from the
toxic pipes, killed a few of my soldiers - those naughty little children.” He
was laughing. “Oh, yes. That reminds me. This so-called
Trigger
of the
psi-children is coming up the lirridium pipe network, in the firm belief he can
set the detonators on the HighJ. The idiot. Doesn’t he realise we have disarmed
all the det and ignition systems? You there, Helle. Go give the order to have
this
creature
flushed and fired from the system...”

The small, nasty-looking woman
rose to her feet.

Suddenly, Jenny lifted her SMKK
and pointed it at Helle Mic. “Don’t move, bitch, or I’ll blow your fucking head
off.”

“What do you think you’re doing?”
said Mr Candle, his voice neutral.

Helle moved, and Jenny fired five
bullets, exploding her skull. Blood rained down over the other shocked
managers, and the woman’s body slapped the carpet. An awed hush descended on
the room.

“That was a
very
foolish
move, child,” said Mr Candle. Now his eyes blazed with anger.

“I am no fucking
child,”
snarled
Jenny, “and you, all you people, you are the fucking
enemy!”

“How can we be the enemy?”
snapped Mr Candle. “We own you. Your terrorist outfit
belongs to us.
You
are our
employee.
And...” - his voice softened, and he took several deep
breaths - “this is not the outcome your father wanted. Think about it, Jenny.
Think hard. Your old father, Old Tom; me and him, we built a world of toxicity!
For
you!
And now it’s yours, girl, all you have to do is
believe,
believe
in me, believe in your father, come to us, lay down the weapon! You will be the
richest woman in Manna!”

“I don’t want your fucking money!”
she screamed, and the SMKK rounded on Mr Candle. Her eyes were on fire, and lit
from behind by the dying green sun, she appeared like some demon-eyed blazing
angel of death. Calmer this time: “I don’t want your money. Or your position.
Or your job. Maybe what you say about my father is true; maybe he did help
build this company. This dark
Empire.
But at the end, on his deathbed,
he saw what he had done. He understood. He hated Greenstar. He wanted it
annihilated. And now, yes, I can do this. I SAID, DON’T FUCKING MOVE!”

Renazzi Lode had stood and was
sidling towards a comm. She froze, eyes locking on Jenny and the SMKK, which
had swung to point at her. Renazzi looked at Mr Candle, who gave a small hand
gesture, as if to say,
sit down, I’ll handle this, it’ll be okay in a few
moments.

Jenny turned the SMKK back on
Candle. “So, uncle. We find ourselves in a little bit of a stalemate.”

“You are talking about the HighJ?”
He gave a brittle laugh. “You have no method of detonating the explosives. It
needs the right frequency electronic trigger. Even if this so-called messenger
of the psi-children arrived, he could do nothing...”

“I believe you are wrong,” said
Jenny, softly. “Now, sit down. Sit down, all of you. Or I’ll fill you full of
bullets and spit on your graves.”

“What do you propose?” said Mr
Candle, stiffly. He, too, was eyeing the comm.

Jenny smiled, and moved to the
high-backed Director’s chair. She sat down, and surveyed the Board. “Well,
Uncle. I propose that we simply sit here and wait awhile...”

~ * ~

HORACE
SURGED THROUGH the tox, feeling the lirridium pushing into him, pushing through
him, filling him up with its fire and holy purity... every muscle ached,
expanded, contracted, expanded, every molecule buzzed with the raw hot energy
of Horace’s converting physiology... and every atom vibrated and screamed and
screeched like a banshee in a tight cage clawing to be free...

The tox parted before Horace’s
onslaught.

And he felt the proximity...

Felt the pressure building....

This is it,
thought The Dentist.

This is
it.

~ * ~

“YOU
WON’T GET away with this,” said Mr Candle. He was sat, body tensed, as Jenny’s
SMKK swept over him, past him, covering the other members of the Greenstar
Board.

Jenny laughed. “Get away with it?
Hell, I’m just happy to live to see the destruction of this shit-hole.”

“Think about what you’re doing,”
said Renazzi Lode. She stood up, and Jenny waved the SMKK with scowl, so she
sat down again. “This is a great and honourable organisation; we turn the Manna
Galaxy’s waste into
lirridium starship fuel!
Without our input, the
whole galaxy would grind to a halt. The Shamans will not allow you to get away
with such atrocity.”

“I seem to be getting away with
it so far,” said Jenny. She gave a tight smile.

“If you destroy this facility,
hundreds more will spring up to take its place.”

Jenny gave a mocking laugh. “Well,
if that’s the case, why are you sitting there like your pants are full of ants?
No. This place is special, and you fucking know it. I don’t know what you and
the Shamans have been up to -
never trust a fucking machine
is my motto
- but you’re not doing it on my watch. Not whilst there’s still breath in my
twitching, bullet-riddled body.”

“Think about it.” Mr Candle’s
voice was soft. “Think about what your father created. What he built up, with
me as his right hand man. This is Old Tom’s dream, child. Don’t you see that?
And half of it is
yours.
Come, stop this nonsense, take my hand, we can
do this thing together - we can make Greenstar Recycling Company truly
great!”

“But you don’t recycle,” snarled
Jenny, “you fucking pollute, you take the waste, remove what you need and dump
the rest of the shit, and everybody on the planet suffers. The world suffers!
Can’t you see the destruction you’ve wrought? Can’t you see the nightmare you’ve
created?”

“Nightmare?” Mr Candle looked
genuinely hurt. “We have created an Eden, child. We have created a world where,
once we vacate, and move on to the next planet in the Chain, everybody can
begin again... they will start with a fresh palette, a blank canvas on which to
paint the broad strokes of a new civilisation...”

“You are dreaming,” said Jenny,
shaking her head. “How can you be so twisted? So fucking deviant?”

Her head snapped right. “Where is
she? The bitch?”

Renazzi Lode hit her around the
midriff, one hand punching Jenny in the cunt, the other slamming the SMKK
skywards. Bullets screamed, tearing a new arsehole in the ceiling. Jenny
gasped, staggering from the chair and back, and Renazzi followed her, her
squat, powerful form pushing down and raining down punches onto Jenny’s face.
The blows came so fast that Jenny didn’t know what hit her, and when Renazzi
Lode finally stood, knuckles dripping blood, Jenny’s face was unrecognisable.
Her nose and one cheekbone was broken, her lips smashed, her teeth shattered.

But Jenny was laughing. Laughing
through the snot and the blood.

“What’s so fucking funny,
bitch?”
said the Director.

“You.” Jenny’s words were
garbled, forced through swollen lips. “You’re not human, are you? You’re a
fucking android... no human moves that fast. No soldier I ever met.”

Mr Candle gave a great sigh, and
Jenny’s eyes turned on him.

“And you! You as well!”

“All of Greenstar,” said Mr
Candle, giving a narrow smile. “No empathy, you see? We don’t care how many
shitty worthless humans we abuse. Put down.
Exterminate.
You’re just
rancid, raw meat. Something rotten to be put out with the garbage.”

Jenny and Mr Candle stared at one
another for a long time. “That’s why father turned against you. You didn’t see
it. He was human. He cared.”

“No,” said Mr Candle, shaking his
head briefly. “He was an Anarchy Android - just like the rest of us. And you,
my sweet little child, are an anomaly.”

The words sank in. Jenny frowned,
and leaning to one side, spat out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth.

“Androids can’t have children.”

“This is so.”

“So if Old Tom was an android...”

“He did the impossible.”

“He learned to care.”

“Maybe.”

“So what now?”

Mr Candle shrugged. “You had
every opportunity, Jenny. Every opportunity.” He made a gesture to Renazzi
Lode, and turned away.

“No!” hissed Jenny, and rolled
fast. Renazzi’s knee landed, slamming the floor, cracking the boards. Her hand
slapped out, hitting Jenny in the throat, and she scrabbled back, choking, her
own hands squeezing her throat which, had she been an inch closer, would have
been crushed.

Renazzi Lode stood, as Jenny
shuffled backwards until her back hit the wall. Jenny rubbed at her windpipe,
making choking sounds, her eyes crazy with pain, and watched Renazzi Lode
approach her. The android knelt, grabbed her jacket, and picked her up, kicking
and struggling, and pulled her close, and stared directly into her eyes.

“Now you die, half-breed,” she
said.

Her finger came back, aimed
directly at Jenny’s eye, and the soft mortal brain within.

Outside, just as the sun sank -
and Jenny turned thirty - there came a heavy, bass
boom.

Fire flared up, igniting the
darkness.

Mr Candle stared through the
tinted glass.

“No,” he whispered, eyes growing
wide.

“Yes,” snarled Jenny through her
broken face.

“It’s... impossible,” said
Candle.

“Nothing is impossible,” said
Jenny.

“Kill her,” he said.

~ * ~

HORACE
FELT THE proximity of the lirridium centre, the core, the HighJ, and it all
came together in the heart of his mind, the centre of his being, in a beautiful
Whole. The pressure built, built, built, and it wasn’t just the lirridium
starship fuel - although there were many billions of gallons of it, stored in
the tunnels and lakes and cities and pipes circling the cities and continents
of Amaranth... it was the toxic pollutants, it was the psi-children, it was the
liquidised forms of the children’s souls, for they were a connection to the
planet, they were part of the world, an extension of a consciousness that went
beyond human comprehension. Horace felt himself
become
a part of
something Huge. Something Galactic. And the Something could see the Shamans of
Manna, see their machine logic and machine planning and machine focus. They
were not organic. They were not human. They were not alien. They were...
machine.
And as such, they could never understand the great Cycle of Life.