The Babylon Eye, page 23
part #1 of Linked Worlds Series
“Yes.” Diesel was breathing heavily from the run. “You have not all the cups in your cabinet?”
Elke did not reply. She must be upset. She doesn’t usually make language mistakes.
Diesel face was tight with anger. “That was bloody dangerous. They could execute you. And are you really recording all the time?”
“Only when things are dexter.” Elke slowed even further.
“Torka did that to you,” said Diesel. They had reached Short Storage and headed into the stacks of cans. “No. This way is shorter. You can cut through here.” Diesel pointed to a gap in the stacks. “But you haven’t answered my question. Why did you tell them? Don’t you know what they can do to you?”
“I thought they’d maybe think twice,” said Elke. “Easy to decide to kill a dog you’ve never seen. A bit different to do that to a person you’ve been talking to.”
Diesel grunted but didn’t make any further response.
As they approached the cellblock, Elke heard excited shouts and the banging of gates. Something must have happened to stir up the guards but she didn’t stop to wonder what it might be. All she wanted was to see Meisje.
The guards outside the cellblock were distracted by whatever was going on, but they opened the gates without argument. Elke followed Diesel down the narrow corridor to a cell like the one in which she’d been not so long ago.
Justice was on the floor inside, sitting right next to Meisje, who lay on a pad of blankets.
“Is she awake?” whispered Elke, but her question was answered before Justice could speak. Meisje turned her head to see the visitors and her tail thumped the cement floor.
“She knew you were coming,” said Justice, smiling up at Elke. “She started whining minutes ago. I didn’t know what she was going on about but she must have heard you.”
Elke crouched down. “Hello, girl. How you doing?” Meisje panted happily as Elke stroked her head, smoothed an ear, rubbed the flat of a hand over Meisje’s eyes, making the dog squint and groan in satisfaction. The tail thumping increased in volume and speed.
“Don’t let her try to get up,” said Justice. “She’s still a bit woozy. They must have put a lot more of the drug in her than we realised.”
He grinned as the dog dropped her head back to the floor. “See?” he said to Elke. “She’s clever. She understood everything I said to her while we were fixing her leg. You know it wasn’t broken after all, did I tell you? Just dislocated. Still, she must be sore.”
Elke ran her hand over Meisje’s shoulder joint. It felt perfectly normal.
“She might limp for a while,” said Justice. “Some of her muscles are damaged. We pumped her full of stuff to make it heal quickly. She’ll be okay.”
“Thanks,” said Elke. “For looking after her so well.”
Justice bounced to his feet, making Elke feel old. “No problemo! We live to serve. Or something like that.”
“So what happened in the stolik?” Hergeist Ochse had arrived and was standing in the corridor.
“It’s all fine,” said Diesel. She gave him a quick rundown of everything that had happened in the stolik, ending with, “And then Dolly said she wanted to speak to the rechters. She said she had a proposal for them. What do you think that’s about?”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” said Hergeist Ochse. “All we can do now is wait.”
There was another bang of a cell gate further down the corridor and more shouting.
“What’s going on?” Elke gave Meisje a last pat and started to get up off the floor.
“Didn’t you hear?” said Hergeist Ochse. “It’s those two Nexico people. That man, Russel, was found dead in his cell just now. Dead. Nobody knows how. Not a mark on him. And the other one, Moraes, she disappeared en route from the stolik to the cells. They’re going to search the Eye for her, but there’s a good chance she got out by the latest train.”
Elke sat back down again, her breath quite gone. “What?”
“Gone. Dolly’s livid.” Hergeist Ochse pulled a face. “Obviously Nexico weren’t keen on either of those two being interrogated by the stolik and made plans to avoid that.”
“It must be an inside job,” said Diesel. “One of the guards here must have been in on it. Or maybe Moraes is dead too. Would be convenient for Nexico to get them both out of the way.”
Elke buried her fingers in Meisje’s fur again, closed her eyes and leaned back against the cold metal of the cell gate. “You know,” she said. “Somehow, I don’t think Moraes would let herself get trapped like that.”
To her surprise, she felt like laughing in relief. So she’d gone. I hope she gets away. Despite everything she’s done, I hope she gets away.
¤¤¤
The wait was shorter than Elke had feared. A few hours later she was back at the table. One of the rechters straightened a sheaf of papers while the rest made their way to their seats. Everyone looked calm and business like and Elke wondered if they’d heard the news about Russel’s death and Moraes’s disappearance yet.
She sat between Diesel and Herr Kroll. The old man was clearly agitated. She could hear it in his shallow breathing, although he sat perfectly still. He’d said not a word to her since her confession.
Dolly was seated further down the table next to Inspecteur Ncita. The two of them were chatting in a relaxed, friendly way Elke found quite disconcerting.
At last, the elegant female rechter tapped the table for attention.
“We have come to a decision,” she said and waited for the room to grow quiet. “We have discussed all aspects thoroughly and considered all the evidence available to us. For the record, I must add here that we are grateful to the contribution of Inspecteur Ncita, who has taken the time to visit us and share his expertise. For those of you who don’t know him, Inspecteur Ncita is the head of a gardag unit out in the real.”
The rechter cleared her throat, took a sip of water from a glass.
“Our decision is that the gardag Meisje and the citizen Elke Veraart are both, in fact, unmarked shades.”
Herr Kroll jerked as though he’d been slapped.
Elke closed her eyes, feeling dizzy. It was as though somebody had drained all the oxygen from the room and she could not quite catch her breath. She could not hear anything. The rechter’s lips were moving but the words didn’t make sense. When she finally emerged from the shock, the rechter was still talking.
“—held liable. Torka will be fined a sum I will disclose in a moment and also lose the following privileges.”
She read out a list of technical terms and numbers that meant nothing to Elke. And now she’s going to tell me how I’ll die. And Meisje too. Will they kill us in the same way? Will I at least get to see her again?
“—which is, of course, what it would cost to create, raise and train one gardag.”
Elke blinked. What just happened? Diesel had grabbed her by the arm and was bouncing in her chair. “They’re going to—” she said. “I know what they’re going to do!”
Further down the table, Inspecteur Ncita had turned and was grinning at her. How can he look so calm?
The rechter flipped a page of the file she was holding and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
“In lieu of the fine, we will require Torka to sign the gardag over to the Babylon Eye Coalition. Unharmed, of course. We will take full ownership of and responsibility for the gardag from this day forward.”
Elke sat unmoving, her heart thundering. The relief was so great that she nearly missed the rechter’s next words.
“As we don't have any appropriately trained personnel we require that Torka will honour their agreement with Elke Veraart: to pay her legal costs and do whatever is necessary to get her out of the prison sentence she was serving.
“Instead of completing that sentence she will become a full citizen of the Babylon Eye and work for the Babylon Eye Coalition as a gardag trainer and handler under the authority of Dolly Ngcobo, our chief of police.”
“Yes!” Diesel pumped a fist in the air, then sat back, apparently embarrassed by her own outburst. She was still grinning widely and hit Elke on the upper arm. “You hear that?” she said. “You hear that?”
“What?” Elke leaned forward, rubbing her arm. “Aren’t you killing us?”
The rechter regarded her coolly. “You will have time for questions later.” Then, catching sight of Elke’s expression, she relented. “But that is correct. As I have already explained we came to the conclusion that as both you and the gardag are not shades in the usual sense of the word. Your memories can be wiped and the recording devices removed. Or, if Hoofdinspecteur Ngcobo prefers, one or both of you can be marked as shades, the data you have recorded to this point be removed but your recording ability remain intact. That will be Hoofdinspecteur Ngcobo’s decision, as she is now your commanding officer.”
So that was Dolly’s plan. Elke felt her mouth stretching into an involuntary grin and she had to fight down an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh out loud.
She’s got herself her very own gardag unit.
¤¤¤
Things were sinister by the time Elke walked into the cafeteria that evening with Meisje at her side. The lack of dexter music didn’t make any difference to the noise level. Somebody had dragged several tables together to form an impromptu stage and a group of musicians was up there. Their drums, gongs, cymbals and trombones didn’t need electronic amplification to fill the cafeteria with a pounding, driving music that had many of the people dancing.
Elke felt a little overwhelmed. People she’d never met before called out her name and held up their drinks to toast her as she passed. Got to get used to that. This place, everybody knows everybody.
“Elke! Over here.” That was Otto, of course. He and the others were crowded around their usual table. Mack Jack was there too, taking up two seats and grinning at her shyly.
“We got you—everything,” he said as she drew near. “We didn’t know what kind of food you liked so there’s all kinds of things.”
“So you’re a cop now, hey?” said Ricardo, thumping Elke on the shoulder. “And hello, dog. What’s her name again? Is she an officer too?”
“Her name’s Meisje,” said Elke, grinning at the way the dog clearly revelled in the attention. Meisje’s ears were down and her whole body was wiggling with pleasure as she shoved her nose into the hands of her admirers. She’s bit of a party girl then. It feels as though I’ve known her for years, but actually I’m only really getting to know her now.
“Elke’s always been a cop,” said Justice, sipping his beer. “I could tell.”
Elke shook her head, refusing to rise to the bait. The last thing she wanted was for Justice to see that his words had hit a nerve. She was far from used to the idea of being a gardag handler again.
At least it looked as though she wouldn’t be the only one in the unit. Inspecteur Ncita had cornered her after the stolik, partly to congratulate her and partly to hint at the possibility that he might be joining her soon.
“Dolly’s made me some interesting offers,” he’d said. “I’m getting old for the real-side stuff. Maybe it’s time for a change. And you need somebody to keep an eye on you, Veraart!”
Diesel took hold of Elke’s arm, pulling her attention back to the present. “Actually,” she said, “I think you have a confession to make to Elke, Justice.”
Justice lost a little of his confident swagger. “Huh?”
Diesel shot a look at Elke. “You know that Rent graffiti that’s been appearing everywhere lately?”
“You’re joking.” Elke stared at Justice, who seemed increasingly worried. “Was that you, dude? Yes, don’t tell me, it was you. Why’d you do it?”
Justice drew himself up. “Dunno? Why shouldn’t I?” Then he dropped his gaze. “Okay, yes. It was me. I just, I was just so pissed at you. Dragging me away from the fugados like that as though you were the boss of me. And then you didn’t want to tell me anything about the Rent. It was just a joke. But how did you know, Diesel?”
Diesel took a long swallow from her drink before answering. “You left your pens and aerosol cans lying all over your father’s place, Justice. It was obvious.”
“You going to arrest him, Veraart?” Ricardo looked vastly amused.
Elke shook her head. “Just don’t do it again.”
“Have they found that woman yet?” asked Zyta. “That Nexico spy?”
“Moraes? No. Dolly thinks she’s no longer in the Eye. Seems she’s got clean away.”
“Ah, forget about that,” said Ricardo. “Come, you’re a constable of the Babylon Eye now. We’ve got to drink your health.”
Elke smiled as she watched him pour her a drink. Constable of the Babylon Eye. She dug her fingers into the ruff of fur around Meisje’s neck. The dog pressed against her leg and looked up at Elke, face relaxed into a huge, tongue lolling, canine grin.
“Good girl, Meisje,” Elke whispered, pulling at a white ear. “Good girl.”
THE END
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About the Author
Masha du Toit is an artist and writer. She reads far too much, draws pictures that tell stories and writes stories about every-day magic. She lives with her musician husband Brendon and dogs Anna and Pippin in a sunny house in Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa.
Books by Masha
The "Crooked World" series: Crooks & Straights and Wolf Logic
The "Sisters" series: The Story Trap and The Broken Path
Strange Neighbours: A collection of ten fantasy short stories set in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Masha du Toit, The Babylon Eye
