It was the memory of Dieter that brought Leila back to herself. She found that she was walking down a pale avenue. Looking around confirmed that the whole city had changed. There were barely any sleepers left. The newly-woken thronged the streets. They had a dream-like air of distraction to them, their wide eyes staring blankly out at Deodatus’ limited world. Every so often, she’d pass small groups of them, gathered together by pressure men, ready to be moved out of the Shining City and – she assumed – into another empty tower block. Deodatus’ tower stretched up above them all. His face loomed out, a relic of yesterday overseeing a city of sleepwalkers.
The cuttlefish pulsed alongside her, a reminder of another past. It contained Cassiel, who was lost to her, and Dieter, who might not be. Leila quickened her pace. She found his workshop but it was empty. She told the cuttlefish to lead her to him, worried for a moment as it queried the local weave for his location. Relief flooded her as it found him. She jumped and he was there in front of her, walking down a street. He was as she’d seen him last, a shimmering, imprecise version of himself. But he was also alert and active, focused on the task at hand. Then, too, there was relief. She hadn’t damaged him.
Part of her wanted to just unmask herself and leap forward. But there was so much at stake. She needed to be sure that she was ready to say the right things in the right way. So, before revealing herself, she decided to observe him. She also wanted to understand a little more about the role he was playing in this revivified city. Thirty-four hours remained before the rock fell. There was still time.
She watched her brother bustle through the streets, moving with an urgency absolutely at odds with the dazed wanderings of the woken. He shimmered through different versions of himself. The most predominant one wore scruffy jeans, a black T-shirt, and a dark leather jacket greyed by time. He stopped when at last he found a sleeper, kneeling down to roll her over. It was a woman. He laid his hands on her face and stared at her intently. She sighed.
‘You’re ready,’ he told her, relaxing a little.
He opened each of her eyes. She stared blankly up. Then he gestured a command into the air. A blue globe appeared, hanging above him. It was about the size of a football, and looked like a perfect drop of deep ocean. Leila recognised the memory ball that Dieter had drawn out of Kedrov and the Pornomancer. She remembered how he’d created a ball of his own memories to share with her. And so, when he reached up and pulled the ball down over his head, she wasn’t surprised. He was immersing himself in the past, ready to pour it back into the present.
He fumbled for the woman’s face, laying a hand over each blankly staring eye. His arms stiffened and his back arched. The veins in his neck were suddenly blue-black. Dark lines wrote themselves across the back of his hands. He lifted up his palms. Liquid memories poured out of them, pooling in the sleeping woman’s eyes but never overflowing beyond them. A minute or so and they slowed. Dieter’s veins lost their dark colour, vanishing back into his skin. The pools subsided, re-exposing the sleeper’s eyes. The globe vanished and Dieter slumped forward, exhausted.
A moment, and the sleeper blinked, then blinked again. She took a sobbing breath. Her body shook. Dieter bent down, his mouth to her ear. Leila could just hear him whisper: ‘Get up. Walk. Reawaken your body. Prepare yourself for further orders.’
The woken sleeper pulled her arms up and stretched out. Her movements were stiff. She rolled over on to her side, then stood, rising awkwardly to her feet. It was as if she was controlling her body for the very first time. A step, then another step, then she was almost walking. She tottered down the street in a straight line, her movements becoming less awkward as she went. When she reached the corner she was moving in a way that was almost human. She rounded it without looking back.
Dieter was still kneeling. He watched her go. He was all slump. He looked exhausted. ‘One more done,’ he said to himself, then: ‘Onwards’. He stood, swaying slightly, and started down the street again.
Leila followed him through the dazed throng. These crowds were his work. Cassiel was right, Leila said to herself. They’d fit right in in a Homelands shopping mall.
Dieter found another sleeper and repeated the process, pushing new motivations into him then watching as he stood up and walked away. Leila glanced around at the silent, busy streets. He must have been working non-stop for days to bring all these people back. And now she had to convince him to return to her and his true past. She touched the pendant. It could no longer force memories on her brother. Instead it described one version of the truth about him – the version that Leila had lived with all her life, and wanted so desperately to find again. Very soon, she hoped, she would.
She waited until he’d finished. He stood up slowly. The degradation had progressed. He was too many versions of himself at once. Every single one looked exhausted. She wanted to pull him to her and hold him tight, forcing comfort on him. But that wouldn’t work.
She decloaked. ‘Hello, Dieter,’ she said, making no move towards him.
It took him a moment to take in her presence. ‘What the hell?’ he groaned. ‘Oh, no. You again.’
‘So you remember the last time?’
‘You tried to force-rewrite my memory. Crashed me.’ He took a step back. ‘Nearly did a lot of damage. It’s not the sort of thing you forget.’
‘Did any of the memories take?’
‘Fuck no.’
‘I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing.’
‘You were trying to take me away from all this. From my work. But you failed. And now I’m almost done.’ He looked around. ‘Pretty much all of them woken. Ready to remake Station.’
Leila wanted to tell him that Deodatus just wanted to destroy Station, that he could only deploy the woken sleepers down here on Earth. But she bit her tongue. She didn’t want to force her brother into an argument.
‘You look sad,’ she said.
‘Of course I do,’ he replied. ‘Because you’re here. A weapon made out of memories. An abuse of history. Did the Fetch Counsellor create you? Or one of the Pantheon?’
‘Nobody created me. I’m the real Leila. And I’ve come for you.’
‘You are very like her. But you tried to kill me.’
‘I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to help you. I was desperate and I got it wrong. I’m very sorry about that.’ She reached up and pulled the pendant from her neck. ‘The memories are gone. It’s inert now. It can’t hurt you.’
A pause. ‘All my shields are up. Damn right you can’t hurt me. And I’ve already told Deodatus you’re here. He’s sending security for you.’
‘They can take me. I’m really not here to attack you. I just want you to remember who you really are. And all we’ve really shared.’ She thought of Cassiel. ‘It would be so sad to lose that.’
As she spoke, the outlines of three fallen minds shimmered into being around her.
Leila stepped forward towards her brother. She reached for Dieter’s hand as she whispered in his ear: ‘Deodatus rewrote our past.’ She pushed the pendant into his hand before he could realise what she was doing. ‘This is the true shape of your memories. The space that your weaveself left behind when you died. Compare it with the shape of your past now, you’ll see so much difference. Look back, there’ll be broken moments.’ She knew she couldn’t push him, but she did want to warn him. ‘The Shining City is going to be destroyed, very soon. If we’re not out of here by then, we’ll both die a true death. I’m going to be taken to Deodatus. I’ll hold out for as long as I can. Think about who you want to be, who you really are. Please, choose me, not him. And then come and find me, and we’ll escape together.’
He stiffened, but his fingers wrapped around the pendant. Then a firm grip pulled her off him. Her arms were behind her back. Handcuffs snapped around them. Holt appeared from nowhere, as unpleasant a presence when virtual as in the flesh. Leila felt a tingle as he scanned her. ‘Yes, it’s built on your sister’s memories. Well done.’
‘Yeah, well,’ sighed Dieter. ‘Hopefully they won’t send another one after me.’ He sounded shaken.
‘Fingers crossed. And even if they do, they’ve pretty much run out of time. Everything’s running like clockwork. That means you’re safe now. Good work, Dieter.’
Dieter didn’t look particularly enthused. ‘Do you need me for anything else?’ he asked.
Holt shook his head.
‘Cheers, then.’
Dieter caught Leila’s eye as he turned. She was sure she saw uncertainty flicker across his face. The pendant was still in his fist. His knuckles were white. She held her breath. Perhaps he’d tell Holt what she’d just said. Perhaps he’d toss the pendant to him or just throw it away. But he remained silent and it stayed in his hand until he turned the corner and was gone.
‘And that’s that,’ said Holt, sounding relieved. ‘I can stop pretending.’ But there was still a vast, twitchy paranoia about him. ‘He’s running all our IT. He’s got the keys to everything. Deodatus would be so angry if anything happened to him.’
Leila was appalled. ‘You manipulative little bastard.’ She felt the skull face itch inside her, hidden deep beneath the Caretaker’s camouflage. She was tempted to open it up on Holt. She almost wished she still had the Fetch Counsellor’s memory virus to drop on him. ‘You know exactly who I am, don’t you?’
‘Oh, yes,’ replied Holt. ‘You really are Leila. You’ve given me so much stress, since we met. You and your twin. But that’s all over now.’ Leila imagined the virus acting on him. At first the thought of it gave her deep satisfaction, but then she realised that it would purge his memory of all his crimes. It struck her that that would be a kind of blessing. He’d never have to come to terms with them. He might even avoid judgement for them.
‘You’ve got to let me go,’ she told him. ‘I’ve seen the laser in the pyramid. I’ve seen the fallen Station. Deodatus is going to blow up our home and kill everyone on it. We have to stop him.’
‘Haven’t you realised?’ A haunted, broken look crossed his face. ‘No one can stop him. We can only try and make things as easy as we can for him. So he does the least possible damage along the way.’
‘Holt, he’s going to blow up Station, corrupt the Totality and take over on Earth. There is no “least possible damage”. There’s only rewriting or death for millions.’
Holt gave her a nervous glance. ‘Oh, no. He’s planning something very different.’
‘Has he broken your memory too?’
‘No, no. I’d know if he had. I’ve made very sure of that. I worry about it so much, Leila.’ He paused. ‘I don’t think you’d ever guess what he’s actually planning. It’s not nearly as melodramatic as you think. I mean – when you understand, you’ll see what I mean. He’s a visionary, in his own way. And nobody can stand against him. We just have to go with him.’ His eyes were full of pleading agony. ‘There’s really no choice, Leila.’
‘Gods. He’s really done a number on you.’
‘I’ve seen people you wouldn’t believe fall to him – like that.’ There was such desperation in his voice. Leila almost felt sorry for him. She wondered how she’d have ended up, if she’d felt as alone as he seemed to. ‘People I’ve looked up to for years. People I thought would save us. I’ve seen him bend a god to his will, Leila.’
‘I’m not like you, Holt. I’d never work for him.’
‘You don’t know what he’s really planning.’
‘He’s lied to you.’
‘No. He really hasn’t. You’ll see when you meet him. He’ll explain it all.’
‘He wants to see me?’ Inside herself, Leila cheered. But there was disquiet, too. If Holt was right, then she might have radically misunderstood her adversary. ‘Why?’
‘He sees you as a lever to help him control Dieter more efficiently. And resistance fascinates him. He finds it so hard to understand. He likes to push against it.’
‘Perhaps I can push back.’
‘Oh no, Leila.’ Holt looked genuinely terrified for her. ‘Please don’t stand up to him. It’ll make things so much easier for you. You’ll be able to keep so much more of yourself safe. Please, just do whatever he wants you to. It’s the only way to survive.’