Ferrassie awoke thirsty and aching. She opened her eyes. Light, coming from a window on the wrong side of the dorm, sent a bolt of pain through her head. The ceiling above her was missing the shoeprint from when she’d piffed her boot at a mozzie. Where was she? Something far away beeped insistently. She squinted and pushed up onto her elbows. She was in a small room. Not the barracks. Three other beds in the room were empty, the covers flung back and rumpled as though the occupants had got out of there quick smart. A needle in her arm was connected to a flat, empty plastic bag hanging from a metal pole.
The medical centre.
She’d been taken to the Neo medical centre because she was crook.
She sipped from a glass of water on the table beside her bed, the crud lining the inside of her mouth turning to a sticky paste. She’d be all right. The medics would sort her out. She lowered herself back down and closed her eyes.
♦ ♦ ♦
Amud was shaking her by the shoulders. His mug was only centimetres from hers, his cheeks shiny with tears.
‘What the fuck, Amud?’ Ferrassie batted his hands away with rubbery arms. He was so dramatic.
Amud crushed her to his chest and she had to spit out a mouthful of his coveralls to get a breath.
‘Aw, Rassie. You’re alive. I don’t know what I’d do if you were dead or a vegetable or whatever.’
‘You don’t have to do anything. The medics are looking after me.’ This whole thing was over the top, even for Amud.
‘No, you don’t understand.’ He fluffed up her pillows and raised the head of the bed. ‘They’re all dead.’
Amud wasn’t making any sense and she was so knackered. ‘You woke me up and I think I’ve been on some serious pharmaceuticals. I should have another kip.’ That was an awesome suggestion. Her eyelids drooped.
‘No! Don’t fall asleep again. We have to go. Can you walk?’ Amud slapped her softly on the cheek.
‘Go away.’ She tried to turn onto her side, away from him, but he pulled her back.
‘Ferrassie, listen to me. The Sapiens are all – well, mostly all – dead. It’s not safe here.’ He lifted one of her eyelids with his thumb.
The Sapiens were all dead? That was the daftest thing she’d ever heard. ‘Is this some kind of joke, Mud? Because I’m not in the mood. Let me rest.’
‘No, it’s not a joke.’ Amud peered out the window. ‘I’ve left a message for Shuqba. She can probably help us get out of the city. When I hear from her we can move.’
Ugh, Shuqba. ‘What are you still buddies with her for? She’s LC to the core.’ Ferrassie had overheard things during her house arrest in the barracks. The other Neo coppers weren’t keen on Shuqba because she was so far up the commander’s arse they didn’t trust her.
‘No, Shuqba’s a Neo first. She’s our best hope.’
‘She was going to send me to medical research.’
‘She had no control over any of that. She was hassling her boss to have you pardoned. She told me how wrong she thought it all was.’
Ferrassie closed her eyes again. He was probably right. Everything would make sense after she’d had a kip.
Amud propped her eyelids open with his fingers. ‘Look, your beef with Shuqba’s not important right now. The Sapiens are all dead and we gotta get out of the city.’
Ferrassie pulled out of his grasp. ‘Wait, what? Come again? The little-brains are all dead?’ Why did he keep saying that? That couldn’t be right. It was crackers. The nurse would clear it all up. She pressed the call button.
‘For fuck’s sake, Rassie. I’m not lying. The nurse has flies crawling out of his nose. Do you want me to drag his corpse in here to prove it to you?’
She’d never seen Amud so wound up and he’d never been much of a practical joker. A surge of adrenaline cleared some of the fuzz from her brain.
‘What’s happened to them all then? What about Lars?’ The little-brains couldn’t just croak all of a sudden. Especially not Lars. He was so healthy and had all those special health thingies on his brain implant.
Amud swallowed. ‘Lars and I got through to the free-Neos. If we can find transport out of the city we can meet up with them.’ He smiled and raised his brow ridge.
She didn’t care about the free-Neos right now. She cared about Lars. ‘But how’s Lars, Mud?’
Amud groaned. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get in touch with him today.’
‘We should go to his place.’ Ferrassie ripped the needle out of her arm and pushed away the blanket.
‘Do you know where he lives?’ Amud put a steadying hand on her upper arm.
Ferrassie’s head spun with the sudden movement. ‘No. I’ve never been to his place. Have you?’
‘No.’
‘Crap.’ Ferrassie put her feet on the floor and paused to let her dizziness pass. ‘Shuqba could probably find out for us.’
‘Huh. So now you want Shuqba –’
‘Shut up, Mud.’
Somewhere in the building a door creaked. Amud and Ferrassie stared at each other. She was wide awake.
‘Do you think that’s Shuqba?’ Ferrassie said in a low voice.
Amud bit his lip. ‘Could be. I left her a message saying I was coming here.’
The suck of rubber-soled shoes on the polished floor came steadily up the hall. Her heart hopped around like a loose cricket.
Amud stood facing the doorway, clenching and unclenching his fists. ‘Who’s there?’ he called out.
The footsteps paused and then continued towards them. Amud took a step towards the door.
Ferrassie grabbed his hand. ‘No, stay here.’
‘It’s probably another Neo patient. I thought they’d all cleared out, but one of them could’ve come back for something.’ Amud wiped his brow ridge.
The barrel of a large black gun came around the edge of the door. At the other end of it was a Sapien in a light green Neo Control uniform.
It was him.
The bloke who – along with the organ harvesters, Peony and Ferdinand – wielded the scalpels, syringes, electroshock paddles and other unnameable instruments of medical torture in Ferrassie’s persistent nightmares. Neo Control copper Noon.
‘Hands in the air, slowly,’ Noon said.
Ferrassie touched her neck, still faintly bruised in the shape of his hand, and then raised her hands. She had to be dreaming or hallucinating with all the drugs they’d pumped into her.
‘Chill out, mate. We’re not doing anything,’ Amud said.
‘All Neos must return to the workers’ barracks until we can restore order.’
‘Sure. We can do that,’ Amud said. ‘No need for the gun.’
‘This is a dream. I’m out of it. None of this can be real,’ Ferrassie murmured.
Noon stared at her. ‘I remember you. You’re headed to medical research. You have contacts with Neo rights groups, don’t you? Did you have something to do with this terrorist attack?’
Ferrassie’s throat was dry. ‘No,’ she croaked.
‘I don’t know what you’re on about, mate. Rassie here has been crook. Let us through and we’ll go back to the barracks.’
‘I should kill you now. Before you’re all wandering the streets, congregating and making plans to finish off the rest of us.’ He shifted his grip on the gun and moved further into the room.
‘Please, mate. You don’t gotta do that. We don’t want any trouble.’ Amud shoved himself between Noon and Ferrassie.
The room whirled around Ferrassie’s head. She was going to pass out.
‘Both of you, turn away from me and get on your knees.’
‘Please, no. Please. We’ll leave the city. You’ll never see us again. Please.’ Amud’s voice broke and his whole body shook.
‘I SAID ON YOUR KNEES.’