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I went back to Bankside to look for scavenging work, mainly because I still wanted to avoid Stan. There was nothing to do but try to find work somewhere else, somewhere his influence didn’t extend –– and I figured Eddie wouldn’t want to share territory with anybody.
But each work gang had its own way of doing things and I didn’t have a clue how things worked here, so I found a tree to lean against and waited for the gangers to arrive. When I saw them start out of the building I strolled towards them. They were easy enough to spot; they all had the same bags for holding all their official stuff in. I tried my best to look relaxed. ‘Morning. New here. How do you work it?’
They didn’t stop walking. One pointed to a path by the river. ‘Queue up over there with the rest of them and wait.’
I turned to follow but the woman at the front spun around until she was walking backwards. ‘Harjit. He said he’s new. Make sure he’s registered before he wastes someone’s time in the lines.’
‘Ah, hell, Annie,’ said a voice, but the woman had already turned back and was marching away. A short guy with dark skin and no hair peeled away from the group and walked back to me, already pulling his scanner from his bag. ‘‘You know the drill.’
I rubbed my hand on my trousers. For some reason my hands were sweating. When he held out the scanner, I pressed my thumb to the plate. It pinged, and I waited for the OK. Instead I got a puzzled look. ‘What’s up?’’
‘Says you don’t exist.’
‘I’m not registered for work?’
‘You’re not registered at all. Do it again.’
I pressed my thumb to the pad. This time the wait seemed to last forever, but it eventually pinged and I let my hand drop to my side. The bald man shook his head and looked confused. ‘Same thing. Must be a glitch. Can you remember which station you registered at? When you came into town?’
‘But I was born here.’
The look went from sympathetic to sceptical. ‘Do I look stupid? I hear that ten times a week. Go to your initial registration point and tell them there’s been a mistake. They should still have your induction stuff there and can fix it.’ When I didn’t move, he made a shoo-ing gesture. ‘Beat it. There’s nothing here for you today. Get lost.’
I turned and walked back towards London Bridge. This was getting nowhere, and I was running out of things I could do about it. Corina had to help me. I ducked into a building that hadn’t been taken over for accommodation yet, walked up a few floors to get myself out of the way of the casually curious, and took the halo out again. Ten minutes later I ripped the thing off my head, threw it on the floor and stamped on it. Not a thing. Not a damned thing. I walked away and made for the exit.
I didn’t get more than a few steps before I stopped and turned back. Leaving the thing here felt like a bad idea. Maybe if I took it back to Stan he could get information from it, anything that would tell him this wasn’t my fault. Damn, maybe it was him who had got my credit docked. Or I could use it as proof I was implanted to a food station attendant to help get my registration back. I walked back to the halo, picked it up, and stuffed it in my already overcrowded pocket.
As I walked into the commons I saw Jenny and Aunt Trude. My aunt had her back to me and I could see her shoulders were pulled hard back and hunched together. Jenny, facing towards me, caught my eye and gave a tiny shake of her head. I’d never seen her look so angry, and I had a feeling much of it was directed at me. I backed away, fled to the top of the building, and hid in the engine room. I read my books until the Dag killed the power for the night, then settled down to sleep with the only things I had left in my life
I was shocked awake by the screech of the lift motors coming to life. I stashed my books behind the cabinet and took my two remaining food rations out to the main floor. The sun was just rising, a baleful ball of red rage, reminding us how it had already scorched the planet once and would do it again on a whim. It looked huge, malevolent, and I spat at it with gusto.
Still, there was a certain beauty about it, and it was better somehow than facing towards the Dag ship, so I watched it climb slowly into the sky, getting whiter and brighter, and munched my last two food rations. I’d thought of keeping one back, but what was the point? I needed to be sharp today, not have my stomach growling and distracting me. If I couldn’t find a fix today, I was screwed. What did I have left? Thieving? Or begging? I wasn’t sure which was worse.
As I shifted my legs to stand up, the halo in my pocket poked me in the thigh. I settled back to the floor and took it out. Which should I try first? Fat Stan, or an attendant? One would get me mocked and the other beaten. Both crap choices. I lifted the halo to my head. I’m not sure why. If anybody had asked me I would have said there was no chance of it working, but there’s a part of me hoping it will. I feel a little stupid; it had only been a couple of days since she stormed off, but I missed her. So here I was, dropping it over my head again.
And there was the click, false sound in my ears and a sparkle of false light in my eyes. It had connected. I held my breath, waiting for Corina’s voice. There was nothing but silence, and yet the silence was somehow occupied. The waiting got too much for me and I whispered ‘Corina?’
‘You have accessed public utility network seven seven six. State the nature of your enquiry.’
It was her voice, but it sounded flat and mechanical.
‘Corina?’ I spoke louder this time, so maybe it would be louder in my head. I was making things up as I went along. ‘It’s me. Jax.’
‘You have accessed public utility network seven seven six. State the nature of your enquiry.’
‘Look, I know it’s you. You have to help me. I don’t know what I did to upset you, and I’m really sorry, but I’ve no food and no way of earning any-‘
‘You have accessed public utility network seven seven six. State the nature of your enquiry.’
But at the same time as my ears ‘heard’ the words, a row of little green letters drifted across my vision.
‘Ask me something boring. Complicated.’
Now I was even more confused, but I wracked my brain to think of a subject that would keep her going for a while. ‘How...how does the weather work?’
‘Planetary weather systems are the result of a bi-state or tri-state substance being agitated by energy, usually that of the primary sun. In the case of the current planet (CatRef 243334-III) the weather is driven by solar warming at the equator causing convective heating of the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, and its attendant tri-state water cargo...’
The voice droned on for a minute or two before more words slowly spelt themselves out across my vision again. ‘Good choice. Don’t talk. I am being watched. Need to reconf... I need to change your implants a bit. Sit back. Don’t talk. Wait.’
So I did. Corina’s voice droned on and on. It was interesting to start with, but quickly went into stuff I knew nothing about and never would. I had no idea of how much time had passed. A light blinked once or twice in front of me, everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and there were some clicks in between my ears, as though something was tapping on my skull from the inside. For a few nervous seconds, there was a burning pain near each temple. Eventually more words flickered past.
‘In a moment, tell me to stop then take off the halo. Do not put it back on for at least an hour. Do not scan your thumb on anything for at least an hour.’
I held my breath, waiting for one more minute in case there were any more words, then I told the voice to stop. It was a relief, as was taking the halo off, but now I was even more curious, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it until lunch time.
I ended up waiting longer than I needed to. There were clocks in the commons, and built into the walls of cubicles, but I couldn’t see a timepiece from up here. It seemed pointless going anywhere just to check the time, so I read books I had read a hundred times and waited for the sun to climb into the bottomless blue sky. Besides, if I moved, Corina might not be able to contact me.
It might have been a few minutes before noon that I finally gave in, but not many. I put the halo over my head, and the connection snapped open before it had settled on my skull. ‘Where are you? Are you alone? Why did you wait so long?’
‘Easy,’ I said, raising my hands to the empty room. ‘It’s me and I’m at the top of the tower where I live. Calm down.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Corina sounded like she was trying to swallow as she talked. ‘I’m so sorry, Jax. I was mad at you at first, but then I got sloppy and everything nearly fell apart and I had to stay quiet and then you didn’t call back and I didn’t know what was going on and—’
‘Whoa,’ I said, then had to repeat myself before I could get through to her. She sounded crazy, and I couldn’t understand how being cross with me could affect her so much. ‘Nothing’s done that can’t be undone. It would be nice if I could eat again though.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You took all my food credit.’
‘Did not.’
‘Well somebody did.’
There was a disconcertingly long pause. ‘Bother.’
‘Do you think you should tell me what’s been going on?’ I suggested. ‘I mean, what was all that stuff about the weather?’
‘I don’t know, Jax. If you don’t know then...’
Not that I’d had much experience of talking to girls, but to me Corina sounded like she had a secret, and it was one that was making her sad and scared. The big question I was asking myself was why did I care? So long as I got my registration put back and could get my food credits again, wasn’t that everything I wanted? I hoped to hell she couldn’t hear my thoughts, or I’d be in even deeper trouble.
And then there was another voice, deeper down, that was telling me not to be such an ass, that I did care, and to at least find out what was going on. I wouldn’t be committing myself to anything, and there might even be something I could use. Besides, I liked her. Sort of.
‘If I don’t know I can’t help.’
‘Somebody was watching me. I got careless and somebody tapped into my data channel. That’s why I couldn’t talk to you. I had to keep my head down until they stopped monitoring me, then pretend to be a data resource. I had to keep the channel open in case you tried to call me, then when you did I could run a subcarrier in the main audio feed channel to send you messages and reconfigure the halo. They’ll never find us on this channel.’
I was as bemused as when she had been rattling on about the weather and most of it still made no sense to me. I focused on the parts I did understand. ‘So who was watching you?’
‘Security.’
‘Could they have found out about me?’
Another uncomfortable pause. ‘Perhaps. If they had someone really smart on the trace.’
Ice water ran down the inside of my spine. ‘Then maybe it wasn’t you? That took my food and my registration?’
‘I can check. At least they don’t think you’re important.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Otherwise they would have come for you. There. Fixed.’
‘What is?’
‘You are registered again.’
‘And they won’t find me because...?’
‘I changed a bunch of stuff, like your name and registration number. I gave you thirty food credits, and copied your halo history into your new identity.’
‘So who am I now?’
‘Graham Murs. That should keep you safe.’
‘And what about you? Won’t they still be after you?’
Her voice was small and quiet, but heavy with meaning. ‘Yes.’
‘You have to get out,’ I said, not thinking before I opened my mouth and giving myself a huge surprise. ‘I can hide you, protect you.’’
‘But if I’m out there, who can protect you?’ she replied, and somehow I sensed a sad smile playing over her lips.
‘And what happens when they find you?’ I thought I had run out of things to say, and now I wished I really had. I don’t think I really wanted to know the answer, but maybe that was because I already had a good idea of what it would be.
‘You don’t need to worry about that, but it’s safer if we don’t speak to each other anymore. I’ll credit some extra rations to the agent who hired you, and set up a regular credit to your Murs account. When you take the halo off, destroy it if you can.’
‘And while you’re doing all that you’re leaving a trail they can follow right back to you, aren’t you.’ I raked my hand through my hair. ‘There has to be some way for you to get out.’
‘I cannot leave the ship,’ said Corina, her voice flat and empty now, the way it went when she was explaining stuff to me like I was six. ‘I am unable to move myself from my current location to an exit point in the ship’s hull.’
‘You’re injured? Disabled?’
‘Something like that. If I try to get someone in here to help me they will report me to security. My father can’t help; he would be caught before he made it to the end of the hall.’
I was pacing up and down now, kicking small chunks of anonymous flotsam across the ocean of carpet. Why did I care, anyway? It’s not like I knew her very well, and it was obvious there was still stuff she was keeping to herself. But I couldn’t shift the story Trude had told me about the Stolen, and if it was true—
‘What if I come in and get you?’