Chaos Cipher (86 page)

‘
You have
made a friend,’ he noted, leaning over to pick up the crumpled
paper. B’Two’O took the slip and stared at it, the congenial smile
on his face abiding.

‘
Oh that is
very nice,’ he told Kyo. ‘Want me to read it to you, little
one?’

Kyo could
only stare. He could not even bring himself to answer less this
monster found the sudden caprice to bite his head off his
shoulders.

‘
It says… You
are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.’

Kyo would
have appreciated the note. He suddenly realised whatever he had
feared of the person in the other cell, his fears were deeply
misplaced. All that he should fear now manifest before him, a thing
no longer human, not even doing a good job to resemble anything
close. The monster stood nearby, removing a cloth from his inner
pocket to dab the boy’s bleeding lip and eye, staring at the wounds
with some feigning compassion, retaining a convivial tone. ‘We’re
both bound by our mutations, you and I. I’m told you are from a
city of anarchist misfits, is that true? I’m an anarchist as well,
did you know that?’

Kyo found the
courage to look up with his good eye but saw nothing compassionate
about this creature and recognised nothing of his brotherhood in
it.

‘
I think
anarchism is a very interesting practice. I believe in freedom too,
people should be allowed to do as they want. Especially, if they’ve
the means. That’s what we have been struggling to do. We’re trying
to free the world. I don’t like governments; thankfully such things
are in the past. I don’t like state authority, they hold back the
miracles of powerful neuro-commerce associations, they should be
allowed naturally to flourish and evolve, free to provide services,
to share if they choose and to be charitable out of free will.
Freed this way, we grow in power, an unmitigated market,
unregulated to make our own rules. What could be more human than
that?’

‘
It’s not the
same,’ Kyo whispered dejectedly. ‘Markets are not about compassion.
I’m from a place of compassion and play not deception.’

‘
Compassion?’
B’Two’O questioned with a smile. ‘Compassion is an individual
feature something of an outlier, a statistical anomaly that must be
ignored for the average norm which, in the Atominii, is simply
about individualism. Compassion is for empaths! Besides, this is
freedom I’m talking about, something much more
important.’

‘
I know the
difference! It isn’t freedom, when a few people decide the lives of
others. It isn’t freedom, if your decisions destroy communities
without recourse, or are too cowardly to communicate their
intentions’ Kyo argued. ‘And your individualism is uniformed. You
keep people in prisons like this one, or torture others. And no
billionaire humanitarian ever prevented poverty with charity. I was
always thought that poverty is a systemic violence. I am from
Cerise Timbers, and we believe in democracy! I was participating in
freedom! I was free to play, to be creative and to think
laterally.’

‘
Democracy?’
Krupin laughed. ‘Play? The liberty of a few must always depend upon
the restraints of others. Let me simply say this. Two wolves and
one sheep wanting something to eat. There’s your, democracy my
little empath.’

‘
In a
democracy,’ Kyo scowled, ‘there are a hundred sheep and wolves
deciding how best to coexist. And the wolf is not an animal of
destruction like you, but of harmony. You’re no wolf! You act more
like parasites to me. And I’ve never seen a sheep bow to any
wolf.’

‘
You will
show respect two, one, nine.’

‘
What’s the
boy’s name?’ asked the monster with a delighted laugh. ‘His spirit
is phenomenal.’

‘
They call
him Kyo.’

‘
Oh my poor
boy,’ B’Two’O said stroking his face with the back of his long
skeletal finger, the claw like talon scratching his brow. ‘Do you
have any idea the peril you are in? Wakey wakey, Kyo. The only one
keeping you here so far is you. I’m sorry to tell you child, but
nobody cares for a people’s anarchism. It has never been applied
because nobody really believes it can work. It is a nice idea, but
too utopian, you see. Humanity is too fickle to undergo utopia
without technological instigators and without the reminder of
violence. Nobody wants real equality…humans are vain creatures, far
too narcissistic and self-interested to care about equality. It’s
human nature that orders you into hierarchies, it’s your genetic
characteristic.’

‘
I don’t
believe in your terms of human nature,’ Kyo managed, gulping
fearful breaths, heart racing.

‘
I will tell
you something very true now Kyo about your micro-city. When your
anarchist friends overtook their old managers and professionals,
they were quite violent with them, which made for an interesting
analysis. What do you think they sacrificed for your little utopian
project? Hmm? When they organised Cerise Timbers differently into
their federations, syndicates, three circle ideologies and
factional republican militia, do you know what Moscowai did? They
allowed them to have their freedoms, they allowed them to feel they
had earned something and won it, they allowed them to celebrate,
and do you know why?’

Kyo glared
with his good eye as the monster drew a circle in his palm with his
clawed finger and then clenched a fist.

‘
A happy
worker is a productive worker, all enclosed in a super-factory. The
experiment worked beautifully and it costs the Moscowai Atominii
nothing, while Cerise Timbers still has all to lose. They’re a
petri-dish for resources…all hardland trade to control the poorest
of your kind, almost ready for harvest. The best thing is, we’re
amused at how you busy yourselves believing you’re free. But you’re
not, child.’

‘
That’s not
true…’ Kyo whispered.

‘
We don’t
even need you anarchists. Do you really believe we need your mining
product when we can simply compile carbon-nano material from the
air? Let me assure you, we don’t. What we need is for hardlanders
to keep fighting and squabbling over hardland resources so they can
keep fantasising over access to the Atominii. So knowing that, how
long do you think your little paradise can last? I know you people
must have spoken about what to do when the mines become empty. But,
we’re finally getting bored of your little experiment.’

Grinding his
teeth, it was anger that now overcame Kyo’s fear; it was bilious
hatred at what he was hearing.

‘
Today, we
the corporate anarchists are the New Oligarchy, because nobody
stands in our way. Nobody can stop us child, we are the future, and
we are Utopia prescribed via neuromancy. And you?’ B’Two’O
chuckled, a light clacking at the back of its throat like wet
stones tumbling down a canyon. ‘I’ll tell you what Cerise Timbers
is. It’s a Theme Park. It’s a tourist attraction. Your whole ethos
is a lie…anarchist boy!’

‘
BULLSHIT!’
Kyo screamed, spitting and scrambling back to the wall, shocked at
his own performance. B’Two’O took a deep breath and sighed as Kyo
glared back at him. The monster with the endless eyes was indeed
humoured, laughing off the kid’s explosion of rage. It wiped the
blotch of spittle from the collar of its suit and regarded the
young anarchist again.

‘
Like I said,
you have spirit, so...I will make you an offer. You seem to find
nobility in suffering and I would not wish for it to go to waste.
Therefore, I will make you the camp’s entertainment, the main
feature. What do you think about that, Kyo? We’d have a dance
performance before your feature presentation. We’d have a dazzling
trapeze act for the interval, while we prepare you for the next
showing, scalding you with hot water, boxing you to death, whatever
the crowd cheer for, now that’s democracy. We’d even turn it into a
nice quiz show for you. We’d arrange to get in our best comedians.
Make a spectacular performance; yes just think of your family.
Remember why you’re suffering. I can even arrange to have their
photographs displayed on the projection units during the event, all
your family and friends suspended around your altar of
pain.’

Trembling,
Kyo’s guts stirred and he thought he might vomit with fear.
Palpitations pounded at the back of his breastplate and he thought
his heart might flee, but stay calm Kyo, you’re teetering on the
edge of this creature’s mercy by a hair thread, but don’t play all
your cards, your friends are coming for you! Kyo looked away from
the abyss of the pale creature’s sable eyes. And B’Two’O keeled low
until its eyes were level with the doomed young prisoner who shrank
away and began to sniffle, fighting to hold back his emotional
anguish. Kyo turned his head to the light above him, away from the
monster. He’d look at anything but those unfilled eyes.

‘
We can start
setting something up right away,’ the creature continued frostily,
‘just utter the word and I’ll arrange it. We can call it... The
spirit of Cerise Timbers?’ he offered, ‘yes, that ought to remind,
you what you’re suffering for. Perfect. Perfect, we’ll call it
that.’ And he nodded, apparently pleased with himself. B’Two’O then
rose to his full height and his head almost found the high bars
above, casting a long and solid shadow.

‘
Tell me you
want this.’ The monster offered. ‘Follow through with your
proclivities, Kyo. Tell me you believe this is justified…or betray
your spirit for the path of least resistance and learn to be my
Blue Lycan.’

Kyo bit into
his lip until his fangs broke the skin and drew blood. He was
scared as hell and he wanted to let Krupin have his victory, just
to alleviate the future pains that he might endure. It was starting
to dawn on him now that perhaps these Blue Lycans were working for
this very monster, that everything he was saying was true. He
wanted to surrender and promise to behave and fall in line. But he
saw Krupin’s fear of B’Two’O. He wouldn’t give in to the monster;
he wanted Krupin to see it now more than ever. He looked at the fat
man and remembered why he was here. He remembered they were coming
for him.

I won’t live
in fear! I will not live in fear! Anger is better. I hate you! I
hate you for what you’ve done to me! You took my dignity, my
passion, my hope and my family and I’ll never forgive
it!

B’Two’O
watched the boy muttering under his breath as he glared up into the
swinging dull bulb above: ‘Is that a prayer?’ it asked slowly,
apparently able to recognise fear and madness without being able to
feel much and it offered out its bony mandible and said ‘-Would you
like this bit of paper? Maybe you can read it again?’

And the
monster drew close to Kyo and whispered lightly in his ear, giving
one last push to see if he could get the kid to finally break and
finish the job that fat stupid fucking Krupin couldn’t
hack.

‘
Do you know
I once ate a child’s heart? About your age, I believe. Very tender
meat when killed properly, one should have very good knives for
such a meal, you see.’ And B’Two’O smiled tauntingly, dark
sharpened incisors gleaming with all the qualities of
steel.

Krupin didn’t
doubt the story, and he backed out of the cell as B’Two’O continued
to push Kyo’s buttons, testing his limits. He was impressed the boy
hadn’t broken yet, his teeth were still clenched, there was a fight
going on within him.

‘
Better to
steam the meat, makes the tendons nice and loose. This is always an
option; I’m sure Olympian flesh will be much tougher.’

‘
You’re
right!’ Kyo suddenly snarled, his nose almost touching the Titan’s
own, eyes meeting in a sudden and unexpected stand-off of wits that
surprised even Kyo, all things considered by gosh it did, and a
moment of doubt might have surfaced were it not for the rush he got
out of humiliating the creature. And Kyo, heightened by his pride
at the challenge, heightened with adrenaline now to the point he
could feel his lip tremble and he couldn’t control his breathing,
like he was fighting with a hiccup. But he’d started now, there’s
no turning back. He’d done it. He’d passed the barrier of his own
fear and now stared right at the monster with vacuous eyes, still
afraid, but a little less. ‘Olympian meat is tough! You would eat
the hearts and minds of others. It’s because you have so little of
your own to offer. You call me an empath…I’m calling you a
shell…they didn’t even give you a name.’

Krupin
suddenly found himself nervously backing away from the cage, the
tension between these two hostile foes made him wonder what
violence would be inspired in B’Two’O. He’d never seen such courage
from someone as young as Kyo, he’d never expected the boy to show
it, thought he’d beaten it out of him before his client came here,
yet clearly he’d failed. This was bad news for him, that’s for
fucking sure. The prisoner was not supposed to be dissenting now!
His conditioning always subdued the subject. What the hell is going
on?

‘
You can do
your worst,’ Kyo challenged with a smile wide enough to flash his
fangs at the Titan. ‘I at least know who I am…Titan!’

‘
Good,’ said
the monster. ‘Spoken like a true Olympian.’ And B’Two’O collected
his black suitcase and he added ‘-today, we’ll give the camp a
taster of the entertainment. I think you will do fabulously. I do
love a good show.’