Chaos Cipher (38 page)

Pania
wondered through the heads and shoulders, Kyo squeezing through the
crowds behind her.

‘
You ever
heard of the Cymorgs?’ she shouted back to Kyo.

‘
No!’ He
shouted back over the elated cries and blasts of sound. He hopped
up over the towering heads to catch a glimpse of the avant-garde
visuals and projection mapping lightshows taking place on
stage.

‘
They are a
culture from the Atominii,’ she explained. ‘They’re cyborgs who
created a whole new subgenre of music. They use ultra-sound as a
kind of communication. They use music to speak to each other,
really complex tones which we can’t pick up or sense. But because
they’re cyborgs, they can detect higher and lower frequencies. You
and I would need an ear piece or an implant.’

‘
Cymorgs?’

‘
Yeah!’

Pania pointed
onstage and Kyo saw one. He was a skinny man, his chest and arms
bare and sinewy. He wore gloves that vibrated with sound, pads
giving off beats by which he could manipulate the fire. His mouth
was covered by a sort of speaker, a round plate that also vibrated,
translating his words into a technical language, turning poetry
into electronic resonance.

‘
Awesome!’
Kyo cried as Pania led him deeper into the crowd. They danced
together and raised their hands, calling out to the stage. A
circulation of bodies in the middle began to move around and began
a pattern of waving arms that spread right to the back of the
crowd, and it went this way for hours.

At the
closing of the set, the music went down and only the mutterings and
murmurs and laughter could be heard. On stage, the lights went dark
and a single line of flames kindled at the back like candles. A
silhouetted figure shifted before the light, stalking toward centre
front. A moment later and a spotlight shone onto a man in a long
white lab coat, and both Kyo and Pania saw that it was Laux.
Together they jumped up and down excitedly as Laux held up his
right hand to the sky, and a single key tone bled through the audio
amplifiers. From the stars he summoned a single pink mote of light,
drifting down to his palm. It hovered there a moment, and Laux,
doing his best to demonstrate his dramatic skills, turned away from
the light as though in fear, and gently peered back, drawing the
pink light into his grasp.

Then it
vanished.

The lights
cut to darkness, and the holographic image of a woman appeared on
stage, dressed elegantly in a long hemming skirt. The hologram
woman had a monotone colour of pink, with shades and depths to her.
She moved, dancing on stage, circulating Laux and he pretended to
chase her. And she vanished, only to reappear behind him. He
approached again and fell to his knees, the hologram vanishing once
more. Laux was alone, the subtle and doleful music bolstering his
performance. Then cries of astonishment from the crowd. Pania and
Kyo felt squashed as bodies moved backwards, parting to make a
space for the hologram woman that now appeared in the audience. She
interacted with them, holding out her hand to strangers, inviting
them to dance. She drew them one by one into the space they’d
created, curtseying, waltzing beneath their arching arms. She
vanished. The stage lights returned to Laux, he was smiling,
holding his arms out to the audience. They saw now that
Lieutenant Jack-Wire and the Magic Racket
had all returned to their instruments, and an
epic ostinato of sound commenced. The stage lights were thrown up
and a multitude of holographic personalities appeared. Laux began
to tap-dance, leading the way for the holograms programmed to
follow his lead. A roar of cheer and laughter erupted as he
interacted, playfully responding to the holograms while in turn the
projections also responded to him. And a razzmatazz of improvised
music carried the crowd long into the night.

*

In the
darkness of Hangar 15, the celebrations were still within earshot
from the nearby forest, and the long drunken snores of Edge Fenris
droned through the hollow space. He slept on his back with his head
hanging off the end of his bed, an empty flask tucked into his
armpit. The headache started to kick in early this time. Since he
was out drinking with Kyo the night before he’d assumed the
hangover would have no end in sight, so maybe a few more hours
sleep wouldn’t hurt. On the wing support, three beds were set up,
arranged around a dressing area where hangar stands supported coats
and hats and shirts. All kinds of attire lay across the floor and
bed sheets sat ruffled into the middle of the mattresses like
unsolved homeomorphic bundles.

A single
light from above shone on it all, the only light left on in the oil
scented workshop. And beneath it, shadows did creep. Quietly, the
figures ascended the metal ladder and around the stairs to see
where Edge Fenris was sleeping. They loomed above him, disturbing
the light over his eyelids and Edge Fenris, being a light sleeper,
reacts to this. He sucked up his last snore and humbled himself
awake, gradually growing aware of the intense pain surging through
his head.

‘
Oh shit my
head’s banging!’ He complained. ‘Pania…are you you back early or
are you late? For god sake I hope it is early.’

‘
If you think
your head’s hurting now,’ said a familiar and unwelcomed voice,
‘just give me a minute.’

And before
Edge Fenris could react a fist came down heavily against his head.
He was dragged into the air in an instant and found himself being
flung over the railing Laux had welded to the wing support. He
dropped almost twenty feet towards the solid ground but before he
hit the floor Edge cried out in pain as his leg snagged him back,
suspending him in the air. A noose tightened around his ankle and
he thought he felt something dislodge.

‘
You assholes
aren’t gonna get away with this!’ he roared, punching the air as he
spun above the ground. His head tracked them on the ladder, dark
figures climbing down to his level, eager to discern who was
there.

‘
Cut me loose
and fight like the shit-slinging gorilla you are!’

One man
stepped into the light. He was especially big, his smile damaged, a
set of teeth that weren’t quite full. He’d seen this bloke before,
knocking around with the Mercs in the garrison, he was one of them.
Then a face he wished he hadn’t seen.

‘
Now we’ll
find out,’ said Pierce Lewis moving forward. ‘Now we’ll find out
properly, the way it ought to be done.’

‘
Nope!’ Edge
Fenris insisted. ‘Didn’t see your faces, don’t know who the fuck
you are.’

‘
You know me,
Mr Fenris.’

‘
That’s
comrade to you, buddy!’ Fenris snapped. ‘We’re equals here asshole,
don’t think you can tickle my balls with the mister
title.’

‘
You don’t
look on equal terms to me,’ said Lewis.

And Berengar
the Bear booted Edge hard in the gut and sent him swinging,
coughing up bile and he thought he might vomit what contents of the
alcohol wasn’t yet digested from last night’s binge. He heard a
rattle, the familiar sound of a vandal’s toolkit, the soft hiss of
spray and the smell of paint. Hattle stepped forth with a spray
can, his face concealed behind a mask.

‘
Did you
spray my property?’ Lewis asked.

‘
Eat a
dick!’

Hattle
sprayed the blue paint over Edge’s face and he spluttered and
coughed and gasped for air. He stepped back, allowing Lewis to
kneel beside Edge and he asked again.

‘
Did you
spray my property?’

‘
Lewis!’ He
coughed. ‘I can’t get you out of my mind. I swear all I think about
is you and your fucking house.’

‘
Sounds like
a confession to me.’ Said Berengar.

‘
Of course it
does, meat-heads like you aren’t programmed to understand irony.’
Edge snapped.

‘
Who did it
Edge?’ Lewis asked again. ‘Who did it?’

Edge squinted
through the runs of paint and stared vengefully at Pierce
Lewis.

‘
Fuck
you.’

Lewis stood
and kicked Edge in the head, sent him spinning around and around,
strung up and still dangling by his leg.

‘
My father
used to own this city.’ He declared while roaming around Edge. ‘The
worker rebellion cost him his life. Those savages murdered
him.’

‘
You just
don’t wanna admit it, buster!’ Edge grinned, ‘your daddy just
didn’t see it coming.’

‘
Regardless,
we learned a few things to keep the population in line back then.
Fear is an affective mobiliser. Fear for the lives of their family
more than their own usually. I think, though, I’ll need a different
approach with you.’

Hattle
dropped a canister by Berengar’s foot and began pouring a thick
brown liquid around the workshop. He saturated the dust covers and
hauled it over Laux’s equipment.

‘
Hey!’ Edge
shouted, kicking with his other leg, trying to catch one of them.
He smelled oil, and then he saw Berengar kneel beside him. He
handed Edge Fenris a penknife and smiled wide.

‘
Good luck,’
he said, walking away.

Then Lewis
took out a metal snap lighter, and started the flame. Edge stared
at him in horror.

‘
Taking
bets,’ said Lewis.

‘
I’m betting
he won’t make it,’ Hattle commented as they shifted towards the
hangar door.

‘
Wait! WAIT
you cocksuckers!’ Edge shouted, already struggling to reach his
ankle with the knife. ‘Have you got my fucking
cigarettes?’

‘
No last
requests, Edge.’ Lewis said.

‘
Are you
really gonna kill me because you’re pissed off about your painting?
I thought you looked beautiful, with the tash and the Third Reich
swastika.’

‘
No,’ Lewis
laughed. ‘We’re making an example of you for fucking around with my
shit. I knew it was you Edge. Ever since you came here you crossed
me, you have been real vocal about my views.’

‘
That’s
because you’re the only one here who wants to make it so everyone
sees things your way you unconscionable fuckwit!’

‘
Burn in hell
you Marxist shit-bag.’

And with
that, Lewis tossed the lighter and the fires started small and
wide, roaring up gradually into six foot smoking flames.

-27-

T
he fire had disturbed the festival
celebrations and a swarm of people began running to the
event.

‘
What’s
happening?’ Pania asked.

‘
Fire!’ Kyo
shouted, grabbing her wrist and dragging her to the air zone.
‘There’s a fire on the air zone!’

From the
stage, Laux saw the roaring red flames surging out of the hangar
door, red and white hot dentations licking the night, shining
through the corrugate failings in the walls. His jaw dropped in
shock and he turned to one of the Cymorg musicians.

‘
You!’ He
pointed. ‘I’m going to need that amplifier; does it have an
independent power supply?’

The skinny
man with no shirt looked back at the large cymatic amplification
disk on stage and nodded. He removed his Cymorg mask and
spoke.

‘
Yeah, but it
won’t last long.’

‘
Unlatch it
from the stage and get some strong people to shift it. I need to
acquire a vehicle.’

Laux vanished
into the crowd and hurried towards the hangar doors. A few were
unwinding a pressure hose from the emergency fire pumps built into
the air zone in case of a crash. And they unleashed a large spray
of foam into the flames. Pania arrived near the front, screaming
into the fires with distress and calling for Edge
Fenris.

‘
EDGE!’ She
roared at the top of her voice, trying to get close to the ravenous
fire. ‘EDGE!’

Kyo pulled
her away and she fought with him for a while.

‘
You can’t go
there!’ He shouted. ‘Not until the fire’s out…’

‘
But he’s in
there!’ She said through tears.

Suddenly, a
four wheel drive jeep sounded its horn, parting the crowd as it
bounded towards the hangar. Laux rode up on the back, his voice
amplified through a huge cymatic plate which also rode on the back,
wobbling unstably. The jeep turned around and faced the plate
toward the fires.

‘
Back!’ Laux
yelled. ‘Everyone back!’

The Cymorgs
all unloaded from the jeep and ushered people away from the device.
Once they were at a clear distance, Laux set the amplification
drivers to maximum, and adjusted the cymatic frequency. A single
ultrasonic bass sound rumbled through the air, vibrating through
the bones of anybody quite close. A long collimator telescoped from
the amplification source, changing the nature of the ultrasonic
frequencies, focussing the sounds deeper into the Hangar where the
fires burned hottest. They watched as the fires in the hangar were
driven down by the sonic waves, and the driver reversed the jeep
further into the hangar, urging down the flames further still until
only smoke issued from whatever was left smouldering in the
darkness. Once the fires were out, the device powered
down.