BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) (26 page)

River sat next to
Ramesh five rows back in the congregation. The hall had seating for three
hundred people and there were very few seats left empty. Ramesh murmured along
with the preacher repeating his words in total agreement. River on the other
hand looked around and studied the congregation. They were rapt with attention
hanging on his words. River was sure that this was not the first time that they
had listened to this message because they met here twice weekly, but today was
the weekly sermon which he was delivering with pace and with gusto. His
audience was his congregation and the majority were ex-natives, with a blend of
other denizens of the downtown districts. And right now for the duration of
this meeting, they looked like they were inspired and had hope and the conviction
of a better life after this one. River turned around to face the preacher and
listen to his words of the locally renowned Reverend Eli as he reached the
crescendo of his sermon.

“First they tell you
that you are superstitious; then they tell you are mistaken; then they laugh at
you; then they tell you are wrong; then they persecute you; then they fear you
because they cannot break you; because they cannot break your spirit; because
you hold tight to the spirit of god; because they cannot break your resolve;
because they cannot break your faith; because they cannot turn you away from
the redeemer.

You live in an evil
world that has fallen under the control of demon lords. They are the masters
that your masters serve. The same masters that tell you that there is no god,
each day pervert themselves and bow down to worship them. They try to make you
worship them everyday when they pollute and corrupt everything in your life and
leave you only with the fruits of sin. They give you fear, they give you violence,
they give you fornication, they give you hate, they corrupt hope with gambling,
they corrupt love of each other with sex and perversion, they corrupt love of
god with the narcissistic love of oneself. They corrupt the love of life with
fear and doubt. They hold you as slaves. They will control you rather than set
you free. And they control you because they fear you. They fear you because you
can be at one with god but they cannot; because they pretend to be gods and
they are not worthy of worship. They fear you because they fear the redeemer,
and they see his reflection everyday in your faith. And they fear him because
he is the only one true path that will take you by the hand and set you free
and lead you to his father, the creator.”

Eli was definitely preaching
to the converted, based on the enthusiastic reception of his words. His sermon
served as the culmination of the meeting. There had been no liturgy, just a
selection of different speakers and acted out dramas. Now that it had finished,
the congregation all broke ranks and mustered together in a spirit of unison
and mutual support for each other. This was the closest approximation of
community that River had seen in the metropolis. It was very unusual to find
anyone who did not hold atheistic convictions. The only religion which he had
heard of in the citadel was initiate-based and strongly sexually oriented. That
was the mystical cult religion of many of the elite which Nathan had told him
about. Their mysticism was very magically orchestrated, ritualistic, and
directed towards manifesting realities.

This religion espoused
by the reverend Eli was something quite different. River watched the man
threading his way through the congregation as everyone now stood up and
collected in small groups. He finally reached Ramesh and happily shook his hand
and then turned to talk to River. “I haven’t seen you before but I hope to see
you again; thank you for coming today.” The Rev Eli was about to shake hands
and move on to the next attendee, when River replied to him, “I am not sure if
I will come again, but you have seen me before. I am your son.”

Leaving the
congregational hall, Ramesh drove River on to the Memphis Belle which was his working
venue for the night.     

“So will you be
visiting your father again?” enquired Ramesh.

“My birth father that
is; My Uncle acted as my real father. I am not sure Ramesh. You respect him
because of his words, but I disrespect him because of his actions. It is not
easy to forgive someone that leaves you and your mother.”

“What did you think of
his sermon?”

“I found myself in
agreement with some of the message, but the rest comes from a different faith
than mine. I am not sure that I believe in Demon Lords who strive to control
us.”

“Well maybe you will
come round. How is Dakota anyway?”

“She is good. She
doesn’t hang with me so much now, and she definitely didn’t want to come today.
Shondran has her back working as a dancer at the Mira Belle.”

“How is the boss today?”

“He is like a bear with
a sore head with me. There have been a number of PCS officers making enquiries
about me, or at least about Citizen Eli River. I think he will get tired of me
if they continue.”

Sergeant Ray Scott
pulled into the lay-by close to the fast food restaurant beside the main exit
route out of District 16. He was considering joining the queue at the
drive-though for a pre lunch snack, but when he saw the Major’s vehicle already
in the parking lot, he swung his enforcement vehicle around and parked it out
of view of the other car. Exiting his vehicle he switched on the personal
privacy setting which Anton had incorporated on to his audio-visual recorder.
He then set off looking for his friend, whistling ahead as a warning. Nathan
had watched him arrive and had already switched to his privacy setting as he
staked out his colleague and lay in wait for him at an outside table with
coffee and doughnuts.  This was not the first time that they had utilized this
function together. They were almost wearing out the algorithm that ran it. They
had both become masters of stealth, and also made sure not to be recorded
together by any other local surveillance cameras. They also chose to meet away
from their own enforcement vehicles which had in-built audio-visual monitoring.
Most of the time, the two men had nothing actually to hide. They just enjoyed
the principle that they could go offline. Today was different though. They both
had a legitimate reason to be downtown, and had been using the opportunity to
search for River. Anton would supply them with the latest credit transactions
made by River’s re-mastered identity bracelet. They would divide these between
them and make discreet enquiries with those retailers.

“I called at that
Chinese Diner in East Filton again,” said Nathan. “He is placing regular large
orders there but the owner who goes by the name of Wendy is not being helpful.
She makes out that she does not know him by his name Citizen Cactus and nor can
she recall his large orders. I left a message that hopefully she will pass on,
using an alias that he will recognise.”

 “I am getting the same
story with my retailers. They either do not know or don’t want to know,” Ray
Scott sucked his teeth disparagingly. “This is what I hate about policing in
this area.”

“Do you think he is
working for Shondran; Ray? Because that guy has got this whole area wrapped up
tighter than Citizen Naighal’s butt. We have been at this on and off for a
month now and we are no closer.”

“It was the only lead I
gave him. I am assuming he got inside.”

“I am not as familiar
with this Shondran character as you are Ray. You know these ex-natives much
better than me. You are married to one. What can you tell me about our man’s
history?” Nathan knew about the extent of Shondran’s criminal empire, but knew
very little about the man.                                                    

“He was an outlander; a
native Navajo. He was brought in and processed thirteen years ago. He used to
work as a manual labourer underground, but he started stealing to supplement
his income. He was arrested and incarcerated in an underground internment camp.
They are pretty rough places and he was put on heavy work details under strict
guard supervision. However he got away by beating a guard to death and escaped
to the surface. This was about ten years ago and he has never been caught
since. He seems to have found ways to confuse his implanted identity. Shondran
doesn’t exist anymore. He is a ghost. Anyway, the rumours say that he started
working back then as door security. Then he ran door security for a chain of
premises. He developed a security enterprise; it was part security and part
protection. He developed a ready army of tough security and doormen. This was
when he started turning his outfit into a criminal organisation. As you know he
controls nearly all of the native criminal enterprises and all of the port work
detailing. They say that he controls the labour unions, even though they have
free and secret ballots. He controls all of the vice trades enjoyed by ex-natives
and non natives alike and owns many businesses, but always in other people’s
names. He makes out that he looks after these people, but in truth he is a
ruthless cold killer. We don’t know if he has got any serious rivals, and we
think that all of his criminal enterprises do not equal the swag that he gets
from hijacking freight.”                           

 Nathan showed his
respect for Ray’s expertise. “You certainly know this man well. I wish River
really was working the inside for us on this guy, because I tell you Ray. I
would love to bring that sonuvabitch Shondran down.”

Isa had staked out and
watched the cavern from dawn till dusk despite his own prescience which told
him that River would not be coming. Such was his conviction that River would
fail to honour his promise to meet him here that he had chosen not to bring a
horse. Instead he had chosen to run to Lizard Ridge so that he would not have
the concern of returning the horse to his community when he chose to honour his
own pledge. That was to enter the citadel of the Blue Horse, find his brother
and bring him home.

His uncle Geren knew of
this pledge and had expressed only his contempt for it. His reasoning was that
if River failed to return, it would be likely through his own choice. Isa did
not see it this way; he had always had a knowing conviction that River’s
allegiance to Nathan would lead him into some kind of danger. His sister Ishtur
had recently told Isa about a meaningful dream of hers in which she had seen
Isa passing down a dark passageway towards a distant figure who turned out to
be River. Now that River had confirmed his foreboding by not turning up, he had
drawn inspiration and meaning from Ishtur’s dream. He would head north to the
outskirts of old Denver City. There he knew of a location that might offer a
way into the Blue Horse City.

Isa had set off in the
morning at a jogging pace and had reached the south western outskirts of Old
Denver within five hours. Fortunately he didn’t need to venture too far into
the overgrown ruins and streets. Old Denver was known to be a haunt of
disassociated outlanders. These were people who chose to live outside of any
community often on their own. They were targeted by the Citadel’s Rangers and
had become both fierce and elusive as a result of these encounters. Isa
searched through some old ruins of a municipal building with his hunting knife
drawn and ready. It was possible that he was already being watched but if he
was any lone scavenger was unlikely to engage him unless he displayed some
threat to them or reason to be robbed. Isa made his way down into the unlit
basement. He halted for a while letting his eyes adjust to night vision. It was
better moving through darkness without a torch. This way you didn’t give away
your position. He still carried an unlit torch but didn’t want to ignite it
until necessary. He had been here before and he knew of a man made entrance to
a tunnel that was hidden here. When he found it again, he listened attentively
to hear if he was alone and then lit the torch. The tunnel entrance was sealed
shut with a heavy steel hatch which was about eight foot across. He was not
expecting it to be open but somehow he would find a way to open it and enter.
He was convinced that the tunnel entrance would join a fabled network of
underground tunnels which would lead him inside of the city. He didn’t have
bona fide proof of this just old rumours and a complete conviction that he was
on the right path.

This was Isa’s first
opportunity to examine this hatch. When he had first come across it previously
on an expedition to Old Denver with River, they had not realised exactly what
its purpose was and had not bothered to examine it. Since then, Isa by himself
had observed from a distance a similar hatch being opened by Rangers. They were
testing it or carrying out maintenance because some of them disappeared inside
for a while but later came out. That tunnel entrance was located within sight
of the Citadels great walls. It was out in the open with nothing to act as
cover and it was likely monitored by the Rangers. This tunnel hatch appeared
very similar but it also appeared to be impossible to break or force open. Isa
had already considered this eventuality and he planned to use the services of
the Rangers to open it. He was working on the assumption that these tunnel
hatches were being monitored by the Rangers. What he was actually studying
right now was whether he could find some way to stress the hatch so that it
might send an alarm to induce a response from Rangers or some engineers. He
considered finding a water source and flooding the basement but realised that
they would be less likely to open the hatch than if he was to create a fire. He
opted for this solution.

For the next hour or
so, he searched for, collected and dragged much combustible material down to
the place against the hinge side of the hatch. He collected mostly natural
products such as wood as he wanted to create more heat than smoke. He lit the
huge bonfire and whilst it developed its heat, he set about finding the ideal
hiding place. He chose a pit in the floor that was only about 20 foot away from
the hatch on the opposite side to the hinge. He had thoroughly soaked the pit
and rolled a rain barrel over to partially fill it. He then pulled a large
sheet of rusted metal over the pit allowing him enough room to crawl in. He
brought with him some reasonably clean rags to soak and use as a filter against
smoke. Once inside he lay sideways in the shallow pit of water in a position
which allowed him to remain concealed but able to breathe and also watch the
hatch. Now he waited and hoped that some Rangers might take the bait.

The fire raged for a
good hour, creating a fierce heat before he heard the first voices reveal
themselves in the room. He watched and observed and soon saw the three figures
in camouflaged fatigues and heavy boots walking around above. One guy had even
stepped on the sheet metal and it had warped and buckled above his head. The
Rangers cast dark silhouettes and shadows as they stood in front of the still
raging fire directing fire extinguishers at the base of it. The shadows were
soon replaced dense wafts of smoke from the open hearth of the residual smoking
bonfire. Isa breathed through a wet rag which he held over his nose and mouth.
As the fire dampened down and the heat dissipated somewhat, He could hear some
Rangers raking the ashes away from the hatch and he could see them examining
the main hinge for damage. One of the Rangers spoke into a communicator and
asked some remote controller to test the hatch. Isa surveyed the scene and got
ready. Darkness and better adjusted night vision were on his side, but he only
had the briefest window of opportunity and he would have to stealthily run or
sneak past one or possibly two Rangers. He would be obscured from the others by
the large diameter of the hatch which was now slowly creaking open. When it was
approaching vertical axis, he made his move, crawling out of the pit and
running forward quickly in a half stoop. On approach to the open entrance, he
dropped to the floor and rolled in, discreetly sliding along a slight
inclination of the bevelled entrance. He was able to catch hold of one of the
two incorporated ladders that ran the length of the vertical drop. There was no
alarm; apparently nobody had seen him.

As he climbed down the
ladder, he could make out the hatch closing up above. He had noted that there
were no operating controls for the hatch on the inside of the entrance. This
meant that he would not be able to use this as an exit on his return leg of this
journey. Right now his resolve was only to reach the citadel and find River.

This vertical shaft
dropped for some considerable distance. He had climbed down for what seemed
like ages. At regular distances the shaft would open out into small landings with
locked panels which suggested that they served as service tunnels as well as
emergency escape routes. Eventually he reached the bottom of the shaft and
found another steel door that fortunately opened into a 12 foot diameter
horizontal tunnel. This was dimly illuminated by red light emitting diodes
along its length which stretched as far as he could see in either direction.
Isa took out his compass and found that this tunnel nearly had an east west
axis. East was the direction that he needed to go, and the slight
north-easterly bearing off the tunnel strongly suggested to him that it might
take him all the way to the Blue Horse City. This tunnel did not seem to serve
much purpose. It had a flat even floor which might fit one of their vehicles
but it would not be wide enough to even turn that vehicle about. The mystery
became solved after 400 yards when he came across two small 3ft diameter
diagonal shafts which ran downwards in opposite directions. Exploring them both
he found that after about 15 ft they opened out into wider tunnels which were
maybe 20 ft in diameter. He worked out that these identical tunnels seemed to
be built adjacent to each other and held precisely the same axis as the smaller
one which probably served as a service tunnel to them. They did not have a flat
level base but were completely concentric like a long tube. They too were lit
with the same dim red light emitting diodes evenly spaced in lines running as
far as the eye could see.

Isa decided to follow
along the path of the second of the large tunnels. He climbed down an access
ladder and continued walking in the same direction. However after a while he
began to feel a growing sensation of nausea and fear overcoming him. He could
not explain it and nor did he care to find out the cause. So as soon as he
found another recessed ladder leading to another exit shaft he hurriedly
climbed it and found him self back in the same original smaller service tunnel.
Here he continued onwards along its north westerly path. The sensation of fear had
dissipated and the feeling of nausea soon subsided teaching him to associate
these with the larger tunnels, which he decided to avoid where possible.

He continued walking
for a few hours and noticed more sets of the diagonal access shafts spaced at
regular intervals of perhaps a mile. He passed many of them and the trek was
beginning to seem endless before he encountered another person. He was likely
an engineer or a technician and appeared preoccupied with an electrical panel
which he was working on. In the dim light Isa found it relatively simple to
slip past the man undetected. Staying on the blind side of people who didn’t
expect to see you was easy. Continuing his journey, he began to encounter other
branches running off this service tunnel in different directions. Sometimes he
would see a person walking or working along one of these offshoots. He took
this as a sign that he was getting closer to the citadel but also decided to
keep on the same path. He did so, until his path was literally blocked by a
steel partition. He had little choice but to head back to the last set of
diagonal exit shafts.

Isa chose to climb down
to the main tunnel on the right side. He resolved to constrain any sensations
of fear and nausea as best he could. He peered ahead along the large tunnel and
noticed that it was only about a thousand yards before it appeared to open into
to a larger space. Climbing down the recessed ladder, he headed in that
direction believing that he was probably in the right vicinity to now start seeking
a route going up and hopefully an exit into the city. He walked stealthily, but
at a steady quick pace. The nausea was coming back confirming that it must be
something to do with these wider tunnels. There was a throbbing in his head
which resonated throughout his body. At one point it became an audible
throbbing noise which seemingly was getting louder and more intense. He
quickened his pace to a jog but the need for stealth still required him to run
as quietly as possible. This was a strange concept considering the rushing
noise in his head which was disorientating him. He was also experiencing that
creeping sensation of fear again which made him want to look behind. It was
fortunate that he did. What he saw was pulsating rings of light along the tunnel
walls flashing in a synchronised path that appeared to pass backwards along the
tunnel, but at the same time seemed to be getting much closer in his direction
too. He then saw in the feint distance at a point where the light rings merged
an extremely fast emerging concentric bullet shaped train which practically
fitted flush into the tube shaped tunnel. The train was travelling so fast that
he reckoned he had seconds to reach safety. He literally ran for his life and
as soon as he reached the opening, he dived to the side and onto a raised
platform. He made it with no more than a second to spare and rolled and
stumbled to his feet to find him self on a level terrace that fanned out from
the platform. Looking around he could see that there were many more people here
and he quickly ran to a nearby wall and then ran along it until he was able to
dart behind a large steel container.

The train had actually
been decelerating and moved at a decreasing pace along the platform edge to
come to a halt. Some guards checked the trains positioning and then signalled
with a loud alert which brought the whole vicinity into life. Big lights were
switched on to illuminate the train and platform that was abreast of it. Heavy
crane and lifting machinery drove forward on caterpillar tracks to meet the
train. The outer surface of the whole train began to revolve and as it turned
it opened up the train to reveal a long line of freight containers. As a mobile
crane picked up a container from one side and carried it away, another mobile
crane working the platform from the other side of the train would be replacing
it with a new container. Other mobile cranes, each operated by a driver waited
in queues on both sides of the train to proceed to the next relevant container.
Isa watched and observed. He could see that this was a freight depot with one
side unloading imports from the incoming train, and the other reloading it with
exports. The whole operation was fast and efficient, and in no time the train
was ready to be resealed, before it began to accelerate and disappeared back
into the tunnel it had emerged from.

Isa looked around and
noticed that everyone wore similar overalls and high-visibility protective
clothing. He realised that he would also need to wear these if he had any chance
of disappearing amongst the depot workers. He found his chance when he saw a
guy working with a stone grinding machine who was cutting a new recess in a
rock wall. The man had built up a sweat and had stripped to the waist. River
slowly approached him tracing the wall for stealth and then quickly walked
beside him grabbing the man’s jacket and high-vis vest. He slipped it on and
stooped down to collect a hard hat that was close by and proceeded to walk in a
direction of a large gate that many other workers were exiting through. As he
walked through he was astonished at the sheer size and vastness of this man
made underground cavern. It was stacked full of containers which were waiting
to be checked through customs and passed above to ground level.