Chaos Cipher (48 page)

‘
I got my
own.’ Berengar smirked a little, changing the subject. ‘You seen Mr
Valdek around here?’

‘
Mr Valdek?’
Gus laughed. ‘Jesus Bear, hanging around those Lewis’ really rubbed
you the wrong way, huh?’ and Gus nodded to the outside. ‘Artex is
out back, flying his hawk, Cedalion.’

Berengar
stalked through the fields. In the distance, he could see the
animal shelters where the chicken huts stood for almost half a
kilometre. The animals were nervous about Artex flying his hawk,
but Cedalion kept away the other predators. Artex stood in a large
open area alone. He swung a long line, spinning the end like it was
a lasso, primed with fresh meat instead of a noose. He spun and
swung the line, letting it up into the sky where the hawk circled,
dove and chased the meat, swooping around him as he spun and led
it. Berengar stopped and watched him do this a few times before
Artex finally held out his falconry glove and let the bird feed
there. He approached the Bear at last.

‘
Can I help
you?’

‘
That’s a big
bird,’ said Berengar. ‘What’s her name?’

‘
Cedalion,’
said Artex, stroking the loyal hawk’s head. ‘She looks after the
skies in these parts.’

‘
How can you
tell her apart from the others?’

Artex pointed
to the neuro-ligature cap on the hawk’s head and then tapped his
own temple. ‘We’re connected.’ He explained. ‘Also…she’s tagged. In
case I die.’ Artex gently pulled the hawk’s wink open, much to the
animal’s frustration, to show Berengar the Three Circles insignia
burned onto the wingspan. And Berenga saw it clearly;
Cognition, Liberty
and
Ludus.
Cedalion snapped her wing back and rustled her feathers,
continuing to feast at the strip of meat Artex pinched between the
fingers of his padded glove.

‘
Any rookies
for training?’ Berengar asked.

‘
Not really,’
Artex shrugged, ‘probably not the person to speak to even if I did.
You looking for work?’

‘
I’m
looking,’ said the Bear.

Artex carried
the hawk over to a large pole and set the soft ruby flesh onto a
nail and the hawk dug its talons into the top and continued to rip
at the flesh.

‘
You could
speak with Zeff,’ he suggested.

‘
No, thought
I’d come speak with you,’ said the Bear. ‘Need to give you a
friendly word of warning. They’re looking for the
gene-freak.’

‘
Who
are?’

‘
I heard Mr
Lewis is,’ said the Bear. ‘I heard he’s sending a few moles around
to ask for information.’

Artex sneered
at this.

‘
Why’s he
looking for the kid?’

‘
Wish I
knew,’ Bear chuckled. ‘He’s always cooking up some crap I don’t
know. Maybe he wants to enrol him into the boxing or something. You
know these gene-freaks are potentially tough little
bastards.’

‘
Anyway,’
Artex breathed, removing his falconry glove. ‘Kid’s gone away. Not
quite sure where. They took a SkyLark.’

‘
So that’s
it, huh?’ Bear said. ‘Packed his bags and left? Said nothing to his
parents?’

Artex stared
at Bear a little longer, curious now.

‘
Where’ve you
been all this time?’

‘
Been
training The-Uppercut-Kid.’ He said, spitting to his side as though
something had started collecting suddenly in his mouth like a rabid
dog.

‘
Why are you
back now?’

‘
Kid won the
fight,’ said Bear. ‘Apparently…they don’t need me
anymore.’

‘
Then welcome
back to the garrison I guess,’ said Artex, leaving the hawk to chew
on its post.

‘
Can you
imagine leaving your home like that?’ Bear asked, following Artex
with his gaze as the scout master sauntered back to the training
grounds. ‘Just going suddenly without keeping in touch.’

Artex trudged
through the field and ignored him. He’d done talking with Bear.
Their conversation was over and he made sure the Bear was getting
no more information on the Olympian kid. He’d cursed himself
quietly for saying as much as he had, but he was onto that slimy
fucker now. Bear should have stayed in the ring, he’s a terrible
infiltrator.

-35-

B
ack and forth through the
Perigrussia Skybus Pierce Lewis had paced for hours, irritably.
Hattle was sat rubbing his eyes, eager to get some sleep. The day
had been long and they hadn’t been home all night. Suddenly,
Pierce’s Quantic-W sounded and he rolled up his sleeve and cursed
at the name on his forearm. He tapped the name and the screen
opened over his skin.

‘
Danuta this
is not a good time-’

‘
Where on
earth have you been Pierce?’ she said hoarsely.

‘
What’s going
on?’

She pushed a
black curl of hair behind her ear and came closer to the screen as
though it would improve the confidentiality of their
conversation.

‘
I’ve had
that rotten woman Enaya calling my Quantic all night.’ She hissed
in a raspy whisper. ‘She’s asking for you. Whatever you’ve gotten
up to Lewis I want no part of it. I do enjoy my peace in fact and
as much as I loathe what has become of this place, I will not have
my time bothered this way. Now, I insist you shut her
up!’

‘
Why is she
asking for me, what has she said?’

His father’s
tone had caused Hattle to straighten up and he listened
carefully.

‘
She’s
complaining about a fire or something, I don’t know,’ she said
shaking off her hand. ‘Apparently, you need to have an audience
with her immediately, she claims to have enough evidence to pin
you. She also said she has more witnesses who want justice or
something.’

‘
I’m being
framed,’ Pierce told her. ‘Listen to me, Danuta. I’m on the
Perigrussia Skybus…’

‘
I have no
idea what that means, just please stop her from bothering me. This
woman is tenacious.’

‘
I won’t be
coming back until my work is done,’ Pierce insisted. ‘Don’t say
anything about where I am. Hear me? She seems to think I started a
fire.’

Danuta
sighed, vexed and with closed eyes she shook her head and jingled
her ear rings. ‘Yesofcourse!’ she said at last, finally opening her
eyes. ‘But don’t ask too much. Just do what you need to and I’ll
cover you on my end until my patience will allow.’

‘
You’re an
angel,’ Pierce smiled.

‘
Oh…go away
you silly little man.’

And with that
Danuta ended the call.

Pierce took a
deep breath and scrolled through his list of contacts. It was a
short list. He found Berengar up near the top and sent out the
call. There was a moment and then the Bear’s familiar grizzled face
appeared.

‘
No news
yet,’ said the Bear. ‘It’s not good. I get the sense Valdek is onto
me.’

‘
Who is
Valdek?’

‘
He’s a
mercenary, a chief scout. He’s the one who always finds who needs
finding and trains the militia. He flies a big fucking bird around
the air zones to keep away other birds. I don’t know how, but it
looks like he’s got a working neurophase with the animal. It’s had
its eyes on me ever since he left, had to go somewhere quiet just
to answer and duck the son of a bitch.’

‘
His
neurophase is working?’

‘
Looks to
be,’ said the Bear. He was moving, visibility wasn’t clear, and
Lewis got more visuals of the man’s nostrils than he did of his
face. ‘He told me the gene-freak took a SkyLark out of
here.’

‘
He’s not old
enough to fly one solo,’ said Pierce, ‘he must be with someone who
is authorised to activate the auto-pilot. Wherever he’s gone, he’s
not alone.’

‘
Who’d be
with him?’ asked the Bear.

‘
His parents
I suppose,’ said Pierce. ‘Get to the air zone, check which SkyLark
was logged out, maybe we can track it.’

‘
Take a bit
of digging,’ the Bear sighed. ‘I could call in a favour or two, get
some help.’

‘
Whatever,
just do it,’ said Pierce. ‘Find the missing SkyLark and let me know
when you do.’

He cancelled
the call in time to see Krupin and Lyov enter the cabin with big
proud smiles on their mugs.

‘
Not sleeping
well?’ he asked. ‘You’re my guests. I insist that you make
yourselves comfortable.’

‘
I’m being
framed for the fire,’ said Pierce, rolling down his sleeve. Krupin
rested his hand on Pierce’s shoulder and feigned a sympathetic
look.

‘
But you did
the fire, no?’

Krupin’s
countenance soured.

‘
I’m sorry
you don’t trust me enough to share with me your activities. I let
you on my ship, offer you sanctuary.’

‘
We caused
the fire,’ Hattle suddenly said.

‘
I said SHUT
IT!’ Pierce snapped viciously, turning back to Krupin. ‘We did,
yes. I wanted to put an end to those pests in Hangar-Fifteen. One
of them is a highly engineered techno genius and inventor. I
destroyed his equipment and, I’m sorry to say, I was not successful
in killing that bastard Edge Fenris.’

Krupin nodded
as Pierce spoke, taking everything in.

‘
There is
something else,’ said Krupin. ‘The Mercenaries and militia are
getting uncomfortable, said we’re over staying our welcome. They
want us off the air zone.’

‘
My hands are
tied,’ said Pierce.

‘
So then,
explain to me,’ Krupin said, putting his large stinking arm around
Pierce. ‘How close are you to finding this gene-freak
kid?’

‘
I’m working
on it,’ Pierce Lewis steadily promised.

There was a
long silence and Lyov moved to sit with Hattle in the main
cabin.

‘
Vilen!’
Horace suddenly shouted from the cockpit. ‘The subroutine’s gotten
through to the Federal building.’ He appeared at the doorway
looking tired and frustrated. ‘Enaya wants to speak with
you.’

‘
Hold the
thought, Mr Lewis.’ Krupin said, hitching his belt and striding
towards the cockpit. ‘Things are just getting
interesting.’

When he got
to the main pilot seat, Krupin stepped up to the platform and
squeezed into the seat with a determined huff of air and smiled his
usual sleazy grin.

‘
Greetings
Enaya, I’ve been trying to reach you.’

‘
For what
reason?’ she asked, displayed on the large heads-up screen above
the pilot seat.

‘
For
starters,’ said Krupin, picking his teeth as though oblivious to
the usual cultural proprieties of polite conversation. ‘I am locked
out of your Q-net servers it would seem.’

‘
That’s
right,’ she nodded, ‘and you want to know why?’

‘
We used to
be able to use it.’

‘
Your
privileges have come to an end Vilen,’ she said. ‘You should be on
your way.’

‘
Of course, I
have been meaning to speak with you about something delicate
indeed,’ he insisted.

‘
Which
is?’

‘
My data has
been scrambled. Everything since I got here, all scrambled. I want
to know who did it and why?’

‘
I do not
know anything about this,’ she said, ‘nor do I care. This is your
business, Vilen. You made your intentions clear after you decided
you would frighten our people with the threat of Atominii
violence.’

‘
Because you
are harbouring a gene-freak!’

‘
I have no
idea what you are talking about,’ Enaya told. ‘Furthermore, you’ll
be requiring proof. The Atominii won’t be drawing attention to
alternative societies like ours unless it is failing. As you can
see, we are a growing success in Cerise Timbers and destroying such
a place will get people in the hardlands wondering why they bother
to chase the lost Atominii dream when another way is
obtainable.’

‘
You think
they won’t be afraid?’ Krupin challenged, ‘afraid to start-up their
own settlement for fear of being fire-bombed? You will be made
example of.’

‘
I suspect
you are aiming to tarnish our success,’ Enaya continued unabated,
‘because you lost a fair fight with one of our citizens Hattle
Lewis.’

‘
Oh,’ Krupin
spoke darkly. ‘That’s how you want to play it? I know this game
well, Enaya. I know how dirty tricks can work.’

‘
Yes we’ve
already witnessed that when you threatened Atominii force for human
traffic. I’m afraid our citizens are not for sale, neither do we
give ourselves over to threats and empty bargains. We’ve lived
under tyranny and beaten it. You can enforce no threats on us
Krupin. We are seed to a free world.’

‘
Where’s my
information?’ he thundered, slamming his fists.

‘
You need to
leave Cerise Timbers.’ She said, finishing the call. And Krupin
raged, pulling at the screens and thumping the dashboards until
Horace hurried inside to stop him.