Legacy, page 4
She smiled coyly. ‘Always Yuri… And what can I get you today?’
Yuri winked at her wickedly.
She raised an eyebrow admonishingly.
‘The usual…’ he said. ‘Your half-pounder, bacon, eggs, side of fries – and make it…’
‘Make it rare – yes I know. Plenty of blood,’ she said, imitating his accent. She turned to Jacob. ‘And what about your friend?’
‘Sounds good – I’ll have the same.’ Jacob was too tired to give the subject much thought, but he was hungry, and he liked the sound of what he’d heard.
Yuri smiled.
‘But mine is well done please – not so much of the blood.’
Yuri frowned.
‘Anything to drink?’ the waitress asked.
‘Just a mineral water please – sparkling,’ said Jacob with an ingratiating smile.
Yuri rolled his eyes.
‘And a double espresso – I know,’ said the waitress, winking at Yuri. She noted the order on a slip of e-film. Flicking a finger across the bottom of the sheet, she forwarded it to the kitchen. ‘No Kyle today?’
Yuri shook his head solemnly. ‘Not today.’
‘Anything I should know? I haven’t seen him around lately.’
‘Nothing I can tell you.’
The waitress shrugged and left.
‘Who’s Kyle?’ Jacob asked, noting that with just these few words the waitress had inadvertently corralled Yuri’s enthusiasm.
‘A colleague. Kyle comes from Columbus – AEREs Corp – out at the edge of the Nevada Desert. AEREs is another of the “underworld” corporations. Like your own home I believe. And AEREs is triad also. So, it is not very popular here. I myself come from the Hephaestus Mines of the Eurasian Polity. Also underworld. The people here see us as loud uneducated brutes. But our life was tough. Lots of physical labour… And we adapted. I make no excuses for the way we are.’
Jacob nodded in sympathy. The word “underworld” had quite sinister connotations, though it was not in fact a reference to criminal activities. The corporations he’d just named had been built, quite literally, “under the world”. Jacob’s home in the Colorado Deeps had been built into the depths of the Grand Canyon. Columbus had been bored into the ground in an area known as Crystal-tips in the Nevada Desert. And the Hephaestus Mines had been excavated into the side of a mountain. But the Triad was another matter. Once again, the reference was not to some criminal institution as alluded to in historic references, but an alliance of three of the America’s larger and more militaristic corporations – AEREs, Microdyne, and Urigashi. An alliance that was inclined to make many of the other more peaceable city states rather nervous. ‘Aren’t you worried that something might have happened to him?’ he asked.
‘A little. But it happens from time to time. New Chicago is not a small city, despite what you may have been led to believe. Sometimes when he is working, he disappears for a few days. But not usually so many.’ Yuri sighed deeply.
‘Do you know where he might be?’
‘No idea. According to his personal files, he was doing background research into a guy named Ezra Caine. This Ezra was apparently close to a breakthrough in something called cellular permanency. Then two months ago Kyle disappears. Drops completely off the grid. His last reported location was in the H3 slums, east-one-o-seven, but nobody has seen him since. Hours later there’s a massive explosion in the Capitol One district. According to the official reports, the repulsors failed on one of their vans, causing it to fall from the sky. It takes out an ERT responder team, along with a good chunk of the surrounding architecture. The first responders designated the area as hazardous and no one from the WMC has been allowed within the cordon. And now the city’s officials treat us like unwanted guests, and they do not so much as give us access to their field reports.’
‘You sound sceptical.’
‘Of course – if it was nothing more than an accident – why not give us the reports?’
The waitress returned with an espresso and a mineral water. Yuri raised his cup and swigged it down, seemingly impervious to the scalding hot liquid.
Jacob left his mineral water to stand. ‘What about witnesses?’
‘No one. After the accident, the city’s administration generously rehoused anyone within the immediate vicinity. They claimed that the core breach left radioactives that might prove hazardous to health. But here… I don’t think so. The sprites would have cleaned it up by now.’
‘Sprites?’ Jacob did not recognise the reference.
‘The little nano-constructors that built and maintain the city,’ Yuri explained. ‘And the funny thing is… this Ezra Caine is listed as one of the casualties.’
‘A coincidence?’
‘You tell me.’
Jacob quietly contemplated the bubbles rising in his glass. ‘So why am I here?’
‘That, my friend, is a very good question. The WMC have been petitioning for a new posting here for almost a year. We recently lost Imogen Sykes, one of our veteran reporters, to Urigashi. We applied for a replacement, but the city administrators turned us down. And then you come along… What makes you so special?’
‘Damned if I know,’ Jacob replied, his anger piqued. No one had given him the choice. ‘I’d applied to Mainframe Dynamics and the Gemini Domes for my next rotation. New Chicago was the last place I’d expected to find myself.’
‘Yes, I’d noticed…’ Yuri observed. ‘So, tell me about you.’
Jacob gave Yuri a succinct accounting of his past – an abbreviated version of the one he’d rehearsed for Tegan and Roberto, delivering it between mouthfuls of his meal, which had by then arrived.
For Yuri, meals were a serious affair, and his inquiries became less pressing now that he had his breakfast to contend with. Nevertheless, he would interrupt from time to time to expand upon or clarify some detail or other. It seemed that the reporter in him did not entirely defer to his stomach.
Yuri had a second espresso and Jacob continued to sip his mineral water, and at the end of it all, the waitress returned to take their plates, leaving a copy of the bill on the table.
Yuri settled the account with an almost subliminal touch of a finger to the corner of the e-film. ‘You must be tired,’ he announced. ‘Perhaps it’s time I showed you to your apartment?’
5
Tammy lay on the couch, stripped to the waist, and scrutinised beneath the harsh glare of a theatre lamp. A windowed piece of green drapery covered all but a square of flesh above her right breast as the needle hovered apprehensively in Ezra’s hand.
There was a tugging sensation as it pierced her skin, sinking into the space between her ribs.
She fought the urge to flinch away. The damn thing was huge! It was maybe three or four millimetres wide, and as long as her forearm! But mercifully, the local anaesthetic had worked, and the procedure was over as quickly as it had begun.
The cryopod that had served as a home to her damaged body stood somewhere beyond her head. She couldn’t quite see it from where she lay, but she could feel its presence, full of ominous portents. Though she owed it her life, she was well-aware that she had not emerged the same woman as the one entrusted to its embrace.
‘All done,’ said Ezra reassuringly. With a steady hand, he withdrew the needle and deposited it on the tray next to him. ‘Now just lie still a moment longer.’ He applied a drop of tissue sealant to the wound, stemming the trickle of blood that had dared to leak from it.
Antoine had been waiting expectantly. He gathered up the sample and carried it to one of the more antiquated looking pieces of machinery, then slid the needle into the machine and watched as images appeared on the screen. He’d wanted another sample of her tissues to test before administering the serum. According to him, they needed to be sure that the new organs had matured properly. He appeared satisfied. ‘Okay Tammy. You can get dressed now. As soon as you’re ready, we can administer the serum.’
Tammy swung her legs over the edge of the trolley and hopped to the floor. Her top, an unexceptional black intelliweave number with long sleeves, adorned a neighbouring chair. Ezra turned his back as she dressed, its intelligent microfibers adjusting to support her in all the right places, while Antoine, who was now entirely absorbed by the images on the screen, appeared to pay no notice.
‘I hope you haven’t started without me!’ The interruption startled her. Elijah was standing in the doorway, slumped with his left shoulder against the frame. He was clutching his electro-mag limply in his right hand as if it was too heavy for him. His words were coarsely articulated, and he had to concentrate on each one. His eyes were glazed, but his gaze was steady. She’d almost forgotten all about him – or more accurately – she’d tried to forget all about him. The man gave her the creeps. His manner was always so cold and passionless, and that scorpion tattoo on his arm articulated every detail of the man she thought he might be… Venomous and poised to strike.
Unfortunately, she’d not been able to forget that he was still alive. Ezra had broken that piece of news to her along with a warning to keep well away from him. The man had apparently become quite “unstable”. They’d found the tumour in Elijah’s brain easily enough, and by the time they’d performed the scan, it was already the size of a pea. It hadn’t seemed much, nevertheless, it had been enough to distort the surrounding matter of his brain, and with it, his perception of reality. He’d become quite paranoid – a delusion stoked by the many random analgesics he’d been taking to control the pain. Was this what Ezra had to look forward to? Would he become similarly wild and deranged?
‘What do you want?’ Ezra demanded.
Antoine watched, irritated but otherwise unthreatened by the man’s appearance.
Elijah nodded to the trolley next to the couch. Ezra had prepared it for the operation. It was draped in a sterile green cloth and arrayed with a number of different instruments. With a flick of his gun, he pointed to a dermaspray filled with oily looking fluid. ‘That...’
‘Why? What good is it to you?’ Ezra edged a little closer to the trolley and the precious serum.
‘I think you know the answer to that question. Now pass it to me.’
‘It’s too late for you. The cancer has already developed. The serum won’t cure you. It will only prolong the pain.’
‘You lie!’ Elijah swung his gun so that it was now pointing at Ezra’s head. His eyes glowed with murderous intent, but something stayed his finger from the trigger.
‘Jericho – put the gun down!’ Antoine commanded.
Elijah ignored the compulsion in his words, having failed to register them through the noise of narcotics in his bloodstream.
Ezra glowered at Antoine. ‘Are you going to let him take it?’
Antoine shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I’m in any position to argue with the man,’ he admitted.
‘Give it to me – now!’ Elijah commanded. ‘Or I’ll shoot you.’
Ezra plucked up the dermaspray. ‘Shoot me and I’ll drop it. I can’t give it to you. This is the only sample we have, and without it, Tammy is going to die. It’s too late for you Elijah. And it’s too late for me.’
Cuing Tammy in with a wink, he lofted it towards her.
And she caught it without difficulty.
Elijah fired.
But his drug-addled brain was too slow, and he missed by a wide margin, hitting the monolithic cryopod at the head of the bed.
In a flash of insight, Tammy knew what she had to do. There would be no time to prepare.
She lowered her shoulder and charged at Elijah.
He snatched off another shot. He’d been aiming for Ezra this time and had missed by a narrower margin.
Tammy’s elbow struck Elijah just beneath the ribs, winding him and knocking him to the floor. Then, moving with preternatural speed, she snared the e-mag as he fell and twisted it from his grip.
Without further hesitation, she leapt towards the door, leaving both Ezra Caine and Antoine quite taken aback by her sudden display of energy.
The door was locked.
It shuddered as she flung herself at it.
A quick salvo of shots from the e-mag solved that problem, weakening the mechanism sufficiently for her to force entry into the room beyond.
Elijah crawled to his feet, leaving Antoine where he was, seemingly unwilling to place himself at risk.
The room beyond the door was much like the one they’d discovered in the disc, albeit darker, dingier, and with an even more oppressive feeling of age.
And like that room in the disc, this one was crowded with a forest of cryopods, arrayed from one end of the room to the other, tiny lights winking on and off as if to a heartbeat while fat cables hummed them lullabies of resonating power. The light was feeble, nevertheless, Tammy was somehow able to see, despite the enshrouding gloom.
Ezra had described an area where the pods gathered in concentric semi-circles at the far end of the room, and taking a best guess, she headed in what she thought to be the most promising direction. Her feet were light on the ground, making little sound, until a careless misstep gave her away.
Somewhere behind her, Elijah yelled in triumph and came running in pursuit.
Tammy raced on, her heart beating like wings inside her chest, sending fresh surges of cryogen-thinned blood to her muscles. Ahead of her, she could see the crescent-shaped gathering of cryopods facing an aperture in the ceiling and a square marked in faded yellow lines on the floor beneath it.
Tammy headed towards them, her nimble feet extending her lead over the clumsy Elijah. With luck those few seconds would be enough.
She inspected the nearest pod. It was marked simply as JE0007 and displayed no other personal information whatsoever. At the touch of a button, a halo of soft light doused the face of its sleeping occupant. It looked as if it had been chipped from a block of ice; ghostly pale and with that blue tinge that came from the cryogens.
Elijah!
No – maybe not?
There were distinct similarities to that sullen man drowning in narcotics. The eyes were the same. He had green eyes, the right one slashed through with a blade of brown. But his features were distinctly different.
Her heart began to race.
She tried the next coffin. She needed to know that it was empty. She wasn’t prepared to kill its occupant, no matter how tenuous their hold on life might have been – or how much they might have looked like the man from her nightmares.
JE0006.
The face was the same – almost. It had the same abhorrent right eye…
And the next – JE0005!
Every face had that same reflection of hate and rage...
Having spotted Elijah scuttling towards her between ranks of the coffin-like cryopods, she raised her gun and sent two shots winging in his direction. A chiming of metal and a flurry of sparks marked the near miss. ‘Stay out of my way!’ she warned.
She was out of options…
Selecting a pod just a few feet from the platform, she grimly set about the task of detaching it from the pipes and tubes that tethered it in place. Ezra had explained exactly what to do. Then, having released the canopy, she grabbed a hold of the membranes within and heaved, toppling the body to the floor. This was not murder. The occupant was already dead; a vessel composed of biomimetic gel and shaped into that mockery of life that looked so much like the man pursuing her. At least, that’s what she told herself…
She heard a scuffling. Despite his lack of stealth and guile, Elijah had somehow worked his way around the ring of machines unnoticed. He lunged at her as she heaved the coffin towards the platform. The pod had wheels, but they were stiff and somewhat inadequate for the job in hand and it had required all of her efforts to get it moving.
Elijah was holding a scalpel, having somehow appropriated one from the medical room.
He slashed at her.
Reacting with a grace and speed that should have surprised her, Tammy stepped to one side. She caught Elijah wrong-footed in his attempt to stab her and propelled him over her shoulder. He crumpled against the side of another pod, his head connecting with enough force as to render him momentarily unconscious.
Without hesitating, Tammy flicked the switch on the pedestal to the “up” position and hammered the start button. There was an arthritic grinding of gears as the platform began limping its way towards the ceiling. She climbed inside the cryopod. The interior was appallingly cold. She could feel it sapping the strength from her body.
Ice insinuated her flesh.
She was numb.
She thought she heard the sounds of a struggle; the grunting cries of two men locked in hand-to-hand combat…
But her eyes had become like cataracts as her sight failed her…
The coffin was nearing the aperture.
It opened with a sound like grinding teeth.
The canopy had failed to close. It caught the edge of the aperture and was slammed into place. The glass shattered, turning into a mosaic of broken pieces that somehow retained its original form as the pod continued upwards.
6
The man pulled out a chair, tucked his briefcase beneath the table, and then nudged it just a little bit further in with the tip of his shoe. He handed his hat and jacket to the waiter and sat down.
‘Perhaps sir would like something to drink? Can I get you a copy of the wine list?’
The man shook his head. A movement so slight, it was almost subliminal.
The waiter scuttled off, promising to return with a copy of the evening’s menu.
Someone laughed, his voice carrying above the desultory habits of the other diners. The reveller occupied one of the restaurant’s VIP tables at the other end of the room. His two beautiful lady companions dutifully echoed his laughter as they sipped from slender-stemmed champagne flutes and nibbled at the assorted canapés.
