Authors: Justina Robson
a distance for the duration of the testing, but
had now come to Lila's side. She made the last of some
notes with a fountain pen on an old-fashioned clipboard before setting it down. Williams observed the
room in an almost
bored fashion until the other techs had gone and the two of them were alone. Lila gave
the white-haired old woman a smile and began to get dressed.
'I'm fine,' Lila said.
'Not what I hear.' Williams sat down beside her on the side of the table, hands in the pockets of her lab
coat.
'Someone with pointy ears been talking to you?' Lila felt bad, and worse that it was coming straight
out
of her mouth. She sucked a breath in between her teeth. 'I mean Special Agent Sarasilien.'
'He expressed his concern.'
Williams' observation, the way she spoke as Lila continued dressing, made Lila acutely aware of her
underclothes and the way she put them on. She wanted to hide herself as fast as she could, feeling that
her body gave her away all the time and that everyone here seemed to think they had a right to take an
inspection on anything they wanted.
'Everything still regulation and organised. Routines?' Williams asked, for all the world like a
grandmother asking whether or not she brushed her teeth each night.
'I like my routines. They keep everything working,' Lila said, starting to pull on her trousers but
deciding that
she'd be better wearing the heavy greaves and armoured foot coverings of her active
defense gear, rather than trying to carry it all, She began to put them on instead, feeling their additions of
strength and power expand her awareness, making her lower legs feel invulnerable, like they were in
seven league boots.
'Okay. So everything's perfect.' The old woman's voice dripped with irony. 'Did you do what we
agreed and take time for yourself? Did you go and get clothes that are not. . .'
'I have suits. Proper suits. Designer labels.'
'Which you wear for work, no doubt'
'Hello? I am at work twenty-four seven.' Lila glanced at herself in the exam room's full length mirror
and saw an upscaled toy action figure: oversized robot
legs, slender silver arms as shiny as stiletto blades,
a relatively tiny human torso in a crop top and vest, silver eyes taking almost all warmth from her
expression with their harsh statements and
the mane of red hair overcompensating for it, too sexy, too West
Coast; a doll in a soldier's clothing. 'I
had my hair done for this job. All Hollywood
.
Look, see?' Her hair was dusty, messy, unkempt
in spite
of the expensive cut
.
'You need another trip to the salon,' Williams said drily. She plucked at Lila's vest. 'You know what
I'm gonna say.'
'And you know that I think it
could wait
until this job is finished
.
Yes, I am still a young woman, despite
having no arms and legs to call my own, and I don't think I despise my body any more than those girls
down at Glory Beach who diet and pop pills and have surgery to look like faeries and glimms so they get
their pictures on the pornopops
.
So?'
'Start the talking, or I start signing you off the case,' Williams suggested. 'Your advocate down the hall
here seems to think there's something you're not telling him, and he hinted that it was sexual in nature, so
he understood you didn't want to discuss it with him, but he thinks you should discuss it with someone,
and given the fragile status of you, Lila, not
as a project
and not as an officer, but you personally girl, I
think he's dead right.'
Lila couldn't imagine Sarasilien hinting sexual
.
She didn't want to
.
'My personal life is none of your
business.' Lila locked her angry gaze on the gentle, amused expression of the psychiatrist
and found
herself cracking into a laugh. It
was a little hysterical.
T hear that all the time,' Williams confided, and patted Lila on the knee. 'Put the rest of all that
hardware on and give me a clue.'
Lila told her about the Game. T don't know if it is - what you said.'
'Come on Lila! Can't you even say the word?'
Lila hung her head and sat back. The table creaked ominously and she had to stand up again before it
broke with her weight. Say that the Game was certainly based on a sexual forfeit? The embarrassment
made her feel sick. It would have been like being one of those fan girls, worse, because she was
supposed to be beyond and above all that teenage, physical stuff. 'No, I don't think so.'
The doctor shook her head and shrugged. 'Okay. That was reasonably honest at least. I'll let you
carry on, unless you'd rather I didn't. Do you want me to sign you off?'
Lila straightened and thought
about
it. As soon as she imagined it, two conflicting feelings came to her.
One was profound relief and longing. The other was resentment
at
the notion she could quit. Her
self-doubts were very strong and having Williams offer her the easy way out
only made her more aware
of them. 'No. I can do it.'
'You're not thinking that
you're the only one that
can? Just
because the NSA built
you for the price of
half an army doesn't
mean you have to take on everything for them.'
'No. It's like what you'd call - something I have to do. For me. And for the rest
of it.' Lila tried to
mean it, but there was a knot of resistance in her stomach that made her feel nauseous as she did so.
'Okay.' Williams stood up. 'You said the magic words of responsibil-ity and autonomy, so you can
go. But I want you to carry on with our program just
as much as you're doing with the easy physical
stuff, hmm?' She glanced at
the heavy bag of ammunition. 'If I find you're stiffing me with a line you'll be
back here in rehab for six months.'
'I'll call you,' Lila said, backing away before she had time to change her mind.
It was a relief to get out of the building. Lila wove through the rush hour and arrived at
Solomon's Folly
at
dusk to find the driveway beside the house full of cars. Besides the Doublesafe guard on the door a
huge scarlet-skinned demon with impressive horns stood outside, smoking
.
Lila recognised a fellow
bodyguard by his evident relief at having time off for doorstep duty, and his severe suit. The human
guards told her that
this retinue had arrived two hours ago, unannounced.
'We did all the checks we could,' the Doublesafe guard said and the demon bodyguard bared his teeth
and growled, indicating that
it
had been a matter of some contention.
'But you didn't tell me about it,' Lila snapped.
'The boss, Jolene, said we wasn't to. Something about no press.' He wasn't an Incon agent, only an
ordinary Doublesafe employee. Lila ground her teeth and glanced at the bull-faced demon guard over
the human's shoulder. The demon mimed peeling a banana and snorted in the human's direction, his
meaning clear - you hired monkeys
.
Deeper inside the house, on the ground floor where the games rooms and other entertaining areas
spread out, Lila found most
of the band plus a vast entourage of humans, demons and faeries sprawled
amid a scatter of open champagne bottles and half-empty plates
.
Music was just quiet enough to permit
conversation between people next to one another. The house servants moved among them carefully,
bringing and taking away. Lila, still carrying her pack and bag, saw Poppy get
up and hurry towards her.
Eyes and faces turned quickly onto her with
this attention and through the aid of her sound filtering she was able to hear everything that was said
about
her,
'Who's t
ha
t
?'
'What
is
she wearing?'
'What's she
doing
in here? I thought all the chaff was being left outside
.
'
Lila ignored the comments. She put her bags down beside a seated demon and his friends and glanced
briefly down at him as he looked her up and down with great interest
.
He was about to touch the bulk of
her leg armour with one scarlet finger.
Lila put on a stiff British accent, 'I don't think you're ready for this kind of jelly.' She went back to
scanning the room. The finger retreated.
'Whoo hoo, man!' one of the demon's friends said. 'What
the hell?' Which was a kind of demonic
approval, but
Lila barely heard it. She was looking for Zal, excusing herself until she moved around the
corner and saw him and the explanation for the massed courtiers.
He was standing in close conversation with a female demon in a glittering black bodynet and little else.
Her coruscating crimson and black skin glowed and shone with the lustre of a fresh conker
.
Lila knew
her immediately, for her sensuous dimensions, fiery cascade of flame hair and delicately lovely features
were plastered over every billboard on The Avenue and in every magazine on the stands. It was Sorcha,
queen of pop, and that was why the door demon had looked so familiar - he was on most of the
paparazzi snaps that Lila had seen Sorcha in, always there, minding her, staring out of shot.
Zal's cool, elfin poise and Sorcha's vibrant, dynamic energy were complete counterpoints and they
were so close and secluded that there could be no doubt
as to their intimacy. Lila stopped in her tracks
but Zal must have heard her because he lifted his head from where it almost touched Sorcha's and looked
up. Lila was aware of a degree of rubbernecking starting up behind her as the room's hubbub quieted a
little and music became audible over the heavy drumbeat. She wondered if Zal was about to order her
out too, and was getting ready to fight over it, when he excused himself and came across to her over the
empty margin that he and Sorcha had to themselves.
In her heavy armour Lila was now taller than he was, and well aware that she must look freakish. Zal
was grinning by the time he reached her. He touched the back of her gauntleted hand with his fingertips in
a curious, fleeting gesture.
'Is this what
you went
to get?'
'I read your letters,' she said, considering that
adequate explanation.
'I need to stay here tonight,' he countered
.
'Anyway, I thought
you read them before
.
'
'Oh yeah, the elvish stuff on the surface all about the way you're bringing the race into disrepute and
corrupting the magic of the old kingdoms. Death to the infidel bringing shame on all their houses. And
then I read the other things
.
I think you and me need to have a talk, don't you?'
But in the time it
had taken for them to get
this far Sorcha had followed her curiosity. She slid in under
Zal's arm and wrapped her long tail around his waist. 'Who's this, Zal?'
Sorcha looked Lila up and down much as her followers had done, and Lila was surprised by the
interest, approval and admiration she saw there. She hadn't
met many demons, and then only before her
accident
.
They had a universal adoration of strange, occult
or unusual things and now Lila realised that
she must be one of those things.
'Hey girl,' Sorcha said to her with a respect that
confused Lila even more. She'd thought
someone like
that, so famous and powerful, would brush her off as invisible, or worse.
Sorcha's eyes were red fire, surrounded by yellow glowing lava where white would have been. Her
mouth covered beautiful, sharp white teeth. She really was astonishingly sensual. Nearly naked, she
purred up against Zal's side and moved closer to him, teasing.
Lila kept her face completely still. She felt angry at Zal and angry with herself and could not, would not
admit that
she was hugely disappointed
.
She suppressed a blush with a self-administered shot
from her
resupplied internal medic system
.
She wouldn't give way
.
No way.
Zal's smile broadened as he looked into Lila's face. He took his hand from Sorcha's shoulder and
slapped it on her bottom, giving her a pinch and making her squeal. 'Sorcha, this is Lila, my new shadow
.
Lila, this is Sorcha, also known as Sorcha the Scorcher
.
My sister
.
'
Lila was still reeling over the revelation an hour later. She had communicated with Sarasilien about it and
to begin with he had not believed her. He said that it
must be some publicity stunt. But Sorcha insisted it
was true. The conversation had taken them out of the party room and up to Zal's where they continued
talking as he packed.
'Don't
you have opposed magical... I mean aetheric ... I mean, aren't you antibodies or something? Elf
and demon . . . like . . . ?'
'Angel and demon?' Sorcha laughed and snarled at
the same time, quite a feat. It showed her pointed