A Brother's Shadow: Murder, Friendship and Deception, page 23
Bon had a large pot gently bubbling on the stove. The sweet scent travelled to Marco’s nose, making his stomach rumble profusely. The heat in the room was also beginning to build and the aircon sat inactive, watching as the service it was once able to provide became more desirable. Jill was halfway through a story about how she and her friends used to sneak into the Vytech Embassy and leave notes and graffiti around the place, when she paused. After wiping sweat from her forehead, she removed her shirt, showing a vest top underneath. This allowed Marco to see red patches over her upper arms and around the base of her neck.
‘Radiation’s a bitch,’ she said, noticing Marco staring at the scarred skin.
‘Is that really painful?’ he asked.
‘Not really, and in this place, I’m in a lot better state than most my age.’
Before Marco replied there was a loud suction noise and they all turned to the entrance. In walked a peculiar humanoid which was dripping water onto the floor around it. It was waist high and had a pale-brown, skin-like outer layer. The skin’s surface was coarse and covered with thousands of small lumps. It had a long head with a strip of long whisker-like hairs sprouting out in a halo. Each side of its head was an eye that locked on Marco as the creature remained motionless, its four-fingered hands held in front of its chest. All it wore was a severely stained pair of shorts which had long transformed from their previous colour to a dull brown similar to the being’s skin tone.
‘Come ’ere, Manny,’ Jill called.
The being jolted before shuffling forward on its short, slim, twig-like limbs. Moving towards Bon, it stopped and again froze, its eyes fixed on Marco.
‘Well, this is Marco and that’s Manny,’ Jill laughed, looking to the static creature.
Marco awkwardly shuffled in his chair. ‘Um, hello,’ he said hesitantly.
When the creature did not reply, Marco looked to Jill. ‘He’s a Glaebosus. They not the most social species but he can talk.’
‘I’ve never met a Glaebosus before; anythin’ I should know?’ Marco asked.
Bon stepped away from the pot he had been stirring and rested a hand on Manny’s shoulder. ‘Of course, you haven’t. It’s bafflin’ how you V-clones think yourselves too superior to allow aliens into your colonies. But it’s your loss. Glaebosus are wonderful bein’s. They may not be the smartest of sentient life, but they’re forever loyal and, importantly for Mars, have adapted to withstand large amounts of radiation. As you can see from me and Jill, that’s very useful here.’ Bon stroked the series of veins protruding from his neck. ‘It’s alright for you V-clones who’ve mostly abandoned your cities on this planet and only have military on rotations or robots doin’ stuff, but we don’t have the money to just leave.’ With that, Bon turned back to his pot and again began to stir. Manny let off a rumbling cry before going to help Bon.
‘That was him saying he sees you,’ Jill said.
‘So, is everyone here struggling for money? Because those further in the city looked pretty wealthy,’ Marco queried.
‘Yee, they doin’ just fine. They usually make big bucks here then go off to some other blasted planet to get an easy career or retire,’ Jill replied.
‘So, what do you do as a job?’
‘When I was a young lass, I worked on the solar farm but since nuclear fusion reactors arrived, the solar farm was as much use as a man without his stick. Now I work as cleaner in the green domes I’m sure you’ve seen.’
Marco nodded. ‘It looks beautiful in those.’
‘Maybe so, but pay is dismal, so like most in these parts our household relies on our Glaebosus to make most of the money doin’ outside tasks like buildin’ repairs.’
Marco pictured the small being out in the hostile environment trying to maintain structures designed for beings at least three times its size.
Jill’s eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you dare judge us, V-clone. We don’t force them to help us.’
Marco held up his hands defensively. ‘I wasn’t.’
Jill gave a low-pitched grumble. ‘Anyways, without—’
The conversation was interrupted by an eruption of coughs coming from the kitchen. They both turned to see the back of Bon who was bent forward, an arm steadying himself on the stove. His whole upper half pulsated each time he coughed, and his other hand was risen to cover his mouth. Eventually, he turned to reveal blood over his lower lip and pooled in his palm. Cursing, he clenched his hand and walked to the door that Marco had not been through. ‘Look after the food, Manny,’ he snapped as he left.
‘What was I sayin’?’ Jill said, returning her attention to Marco.
‘About Manny making money, which is odd because surely maintenance can’t be paid much more than your job.’
‘The repairs is outside though, so the inner-city workers pay a lot more as they have no desire to leave their buildings’ protectives shells. If a Glaebosus dies, the life expectancy of its human family falls to practically a year as they must take over such tasks. Our neighbour lost hers a month or two back and is already much weaker.’
‘Surely there’s alternatives?’ Marco asked.
‘We had a robot but they’re bloody unreliable. Ours broke many solars ago.’
‘That’d be the fine dust short circuiting the systems,’ Marco said, before continuing under his breath. ‘It really did bite the dust.’ The words came out louder than planned and his stomach tightened as he looked to Jill.
After a pause, she grunted. ‘Whatever breaks them, it pees me off.’
‘I’ll take a look at it if you want? If there’s anything I’m an expert on, it’s robots.’
‘That’d be good,’ Jill replied, and for the first time Marco detected what he thought were the crumbs of a smile. His mind fell back to the years when he was assigned to his moon around Aurum Terra. It had taken a long time but at last something positive could come of it.
Marco adjusted his seated position, wincing as he did so due to a surge of pain from his arm.
‘Oh yeah, your arm. Lemme see if I can find somethin’ for that,’ Jill said, rising from her chair.
…
By dinner the next day, Marco had borrowed trimmers to tame his hair. It was short on the sides and a moderate length on top. Jill had given limited help with his arm which included showing him where to find ointments for his open wound and a brace for the break. The four of them sat around the living room, shovelling their vegetable stew. Jill and Bon were on a sofa, with Manny and Marco on armchairs either side, facing inwards on a slight angle. Marco ate the last spoonful and went to place the bowl in the sink. As he did, the spoon fell and he instinctively went to grab it with his broken arm. He let out a small yelp which was followed by the clatter of the spoon hitting the floor.
‘Hospital?’ Manny said in his croaky voice.
Marco looked back to see everyone watching him. He gulped, let out a long breath and began to speak. ‘I can’t,’ he said, before pausing to consider his words once again. ‘The thing is, there is something I need to tell you guys.’
Marco moved his good arm out of his hosts’ view and under the back of his shirt. His hand rested on the top of his trousers where his knife was protruding. ‘If you want me gone after this, I understand, but I need to tell you as I think I may be putting you in danger. So—’
‘Spit it out,’ Bon hissed.
‘I can’t go to hospital because, although it is not true what they say about me, I am the so-called War Starter.’ Marco looked from face to face, his grip on his knife tightening. They were all expressionless, staring at Marco. With the truth revealed, a sense of relief embraced Marco, but dread was dominant. ‘So…’ He was desperate for a response of some form.
Jill and Bon broke into hysterical laughter. Bon began repeatedly hitting the surface with his bowl and little droplets of stew began to spray about. Manny, who was wide eyed, was still silent. His head turned to Jill and then Bon before letting
out his own bizarre squawking laughter which sounded as if he was trying to swallow a bird whole. After regaining some composure, Jill shook her head. ‘We know, lad.’ She broke into laughter again, then struggled to spurt out more words. ‘Why… why do you think… I didn’t ask if you could call for rescue from your most wonderful comrades?’
Marco was bright red and let out a long breath that he did not realise he had been holding in. He brought his good arm back to his front. ‘I dunno. Why didn’t you turn me in?’
The laughter abruptly ceased, and Bon looked to Jill, meaning Marco could no longer see the front of his face. The way she looked at him suggested that Marco did not want to see his expression.
Jill spoke. ‘Well, Francis, or should I say, Marco, or even War Starter.’ She shook her head. ‘So many names for such a… small man.’ She broke into another cackle. ‘I- we’ve got no desire to help Vytech and I don’t know if you’re some kind of evil super villain, but I could do with some excitement in my life.’
‘Well, thank you. Hopefully I can prove your risk worthwhile.’ Marco stood up with his bowl and walked back to the sink. ‘Where’s that robot? I’ll give it a look.’
After cleaning up the dishes, Jill showed Marco to the robot. He had not noticed it before; it was hidden in the gym underneath a blanket that was below the plants on their shelf. The robot was small but had many arms with different attachments on the ends. Marco had never seen a robot like it but after a few hours of tinkering, he began to get familiar with its systems.
…
The following night, Jill woke and decided to get some water before trying to rest again. When in the kitchen, she tried to move stealthily so as not to wake Marco who was sleeping on the sofa. A small amount of light broke through a slit in the door to the gym which was being kept open by a weight trapped in the gap. The light revealed Manny, curled on the floor by one of the armchairs, with a blanket wrapped in his arms. In the limited light she could not see Marco’s figure. Voices were coming from the gym, and knowing Bon was in her room, she became curious and approached the door. Peeking through the opening, she saw Marco working on the robot. Parts were scattered all over the floor around him and he was muttering incoherent sentences which Jill could not piece together. After a minute of listening in on his conversation, she returned to her bed, her mind trying to work out what she heard and whether it had any meaning at all.
28.
Marco had been staying with Jill and Bon for several weeks. The household was feeling the effects of the extra body, every day being a battle to get the minimum to survive. Despite this, for Marco it was a vast improvement on his prior weeks. The fear of being discovered by Vytech was ever-present but Marco tried to keep his distance from others and so far, he was confident nobody else was aware of his presence. He was prepared to take the plants and leave at any moment, but this was no longer at the forefront of his mind.
With scavenged resources Marco had given his suit a makeover and its primary colour of white was instead a murky brown. Only the helmet remained its original colour of black. His arm was nearly healed, and he was even able to help Jill clean parts of the expansive, vegetation-filled domes. He had attempted to repair the robot multiple times, but had never managed to get it to function longer than an hour. This time though, as Marco put in the final screw, he felt more confident than usual. Bon was standing behind him, watching the final steps.
‘I’d back this to keep going as long as it did when it was new,’ Marco said chirpily.
‘I’ve seen you waste time on that thin’ a thousand times over already. I don’t see why it’ll work any better now,’ Bon grunted.
‘This time I took apart every piece and cleaned them all. I believe some internal systems I’d never accessed before were still short circuiting due to dust.’
‘Right, how about you make it actually do somethin’, then we’ll see,’ Bon said, uninterested in any technical explanation of the problems.
Marco carried the robot to the airlock and typed instructions into a handheld pad. Soon enough, the robot was outside and off to help Manny clean streetlights in the city. Marco headed for the room with the kitchen so he could watch the robot buzz away on its six peculiar wheels which had horizontal, zig-zag ridges around them. While on his way, he passed Jill in the gym. She was tending to her plant collection which Marco had learnt were extremely rare. They had been gifted by a friend who had had enough money to leave the planet when the solar farm became redundant.
Bon had been watching Marco continuously and his eyes continued to track him as he left the gym. The door between the gym and kitchen was just closing when its suction noise was halted before its usual conclusion.
‘What’s in that pouch you have round your waist?’ Bon asked with an air of suspicion.
Marco was at a circular window behind the seating area. He looked down at a small, red, leather bag that was tied by string around his hips. It had not left his side for the whole time he had been at the house. ‘It’s not your concern,’ Marco said, looking back to the window to see the robot chugging away healthily.
‘I hope for your sake you’re right about that,’ Bon replied before letting the door close the final centimetres, sealing Marco in alone.
As the robot disappeared around other small regolith buildings, Marco’s eyes were drawn to a rocket which was rising into the sky. It was being launched on the far side of the city, but its might could be sensed where he stood. Its orange plume roared with fury beneath it. Rockets leaving the surface was a common sight, but Marco found it therapeutic to watch. While observing this one, he considered how they could possibly be a way home, but then he laughed internally, knowing he first had to clear his name. He remained at the window as the rocket disappeared out of view.
Hours later, the robot had returned, and Marco went to the window to see if Manny was also on his way home. With his eyes glazing over, he noticed three figures walk to a house on the street. This wasn’t particularly unusual except for the fact that they were all wearing white suits with black helmets – they were Vytech. Marco saw them communicate through a window with the house owners before proceeding inside. He remained focused on the house until the people left a few minutes later. They then moved to the next house and knocked on the door.
‘Jill!’ Marco called.
‘What?’ her voice shouted in reply, half muted by the separating wall.
‘I think we may be in trouble.’
Calling her to peek through the window, she confirmed he was right to be fearful. ‘Until you arrived, I hadn’t seen a Vytech citizen here for years. Someone must have realised you were here and told them.’ Jill started rushing about the house, pulling at what seemed to be random objects. ‘We need to find you somewhere to hide.’
Marco joined the hunt for hiding spots, but the limited size of the house meant each square centimetre of space was occupied. Bon was in the kitchen area leaning against the cooker. ‘I think it’s best if you put on your suit and do a runner.’
‘That’d be madness,’ Jill said, giving Bon a stern look before pulling out the contents of a cupboard onto the floor. After briefly poking her head in, she confirmed there was not enough room and began piling the crockery back inside. ‘Where are they now?’ she asked Marco who had moved back to the window to check on the Vytech soldier’s progress. ‘They’re two houses away.’
Jill exhaled loudly and put her hands on her hips. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she said. ‘Can’t think of where you can hide in there, but check the gym.’
‘You need to leave now,’ Bon said forcefully. ‘I’m not gettin’ arrested for a V-clone rat!’
Jill tossed a cushion at Bon as Marco followed her orders and went through to the next room.
There was nothing against the walls to provide cover, no cupboards to get inside and no object big enough to hide behind. There was, however, the large shelf that had Jill’s plants on top. Underneath sat the robot which waited patiently under its blanket. Marco hauled off the covering, and the metal parts glistened as light found their surface. Sitting himself on the floor, he pulled the plundered blanket over his head, hoping it was big enough although he didn’t have a chance to check as he heard shouts reverberating from the other room. He pictured the plants above him and considered whether to follow Bon’s warning.
Jill entered the room with a vacant look. She ordered Marco further under the desk and then stood with hands on her hips. Marco tried various positions before settling on kneeling with his head tucked onto the floor. Jill muttered a few words of assurance that, with the blanket over him, he no longer resembled a human but that did not stop him wanting to throw up. As he was about to ask for a final check, there was a firm knock on the door. The house went silent and Marco became still as a rock. There was another knock which was followed by the sound of Jill’s light footsteps moving to the entrance.
‘Can I help?’ Jill asked through a comms system by the door.
‘Sorry to disturb you, ma’am. We’re from the Vytech Galactic Relations team. Are you aware of who the War Starter is?’ a smooth but firm male voice asked.
Jill laughed. ‘You been down the streets? Course I am.’
‘Apologies, ma’am, I wouldn’t want to presume. So, have you seen any strange activity lately or even seen him?’
‘No, I can’t say I have,’ Jill replied calmly.
‘Shame. Do you mind if we have a quick check inside your house? You see, we’ve had reports of the War Starter being spotted in this neighbourhood a few days back and we don’t like the idea of an ex-Vytech citizen putting League citizens such as yourselves in danger.’
‘How thoughtful of you. I’m not sure why I should let you in though.’
‘It is up to you, ma’am, but everyone else has co-operated and we really are looking out for your safety. This War Starter is extremely clever and may be leaching off you without you even realising.’
