City of the Falling Sky (15 page)

“
Who are those guys?” Seckry
asked.

“
The Brossius brothers,”
Tenk said grimly. “Sons of Amolfo Brossius. Biggest crazydust
dealer in the east partition.”

“
Really?” Seckry said. “Do
you think he’s got something to do with the Blacklear?”

“
I reckon so,” Tenk said.
“That place has got to be the biggest crazydust den in the east.
I’d bet you any money Amolfo is running it.”

“
It looks like they’re
Snibble’s bodyguards.” Seckry pondered, as the twins pushed through
the crowd of students to give Snibble clear access to a
seat.

“
Yeah, they look after him
for some reason. Must see him as a little brother or something like
that. Their dads are best buddies.”

The next morning, Seckry woke to the sound of
the front door knocking. He opened his eyes and walked barefoot
across the hall before opening the door to a delivery man.

“
Parcel for Seckraman
Sevenstars?” he said, and handed a big box to Seckry.

After signing for it and thanking the man,
Seckry ripped open the casing and pulled out a briefcase.

There was nothing else. No letter.

Seckry wiped his eyes to remove the last of
the sleep from them and flicked the briefcase open.

“
Dear Gedin . . .
” he
whispered to himself.

The case was full with wads of money, tied
together by elastic bands. Seckry nervously picked up a batch and
began counting. When he finished he placed the money back into the
case and stared at it blankly.

In front of him were two hundred thousand
notes.

Seckry shut the case and hid it under his bed
before anyone else got up, and the only person he told about it was
Eiya. Having that kind of money was beyond his wildest dreams, but
he was also now petrified. If this was the reward for stealing
those worms, what on earth were they being used for?

Later that day, whilst his mum was watching
the television in the living area, Seckry heard an advert that
caught his attention and he watched with interest. It was a
government message.

“
The Skyfall Patrol are
urging people to come forward with any information regarding
crazydust dens. These buildings are thought to be littered around
Skyfall and act as meeting places for crazydust dealings. Young
children are often used as go betweens and are treated like slaves
by the dealers. If you have reason to believe that a property could
be one of these dens, please contact our crazydust helpline and we
will investigate. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“
The Blacklear,” Seckry said
to Eiya. “Do you think I should phone the helpline?”

“
Are you certain it’s a
crazydust den?” she said.

Seckry screwed up his mouth. Everything
pointed towards it being one, but he just couldn’t be sure. He was
going to have to go back there and do a bit of spying, just to be
certain.

The next day, Seckry and Eiya got up extra
early and walked to school, stopping at the turning for the
Blacklear, and trying to spot any strange goings on.

They watched and waited for about fifteen
minutes before Eiya looked at her watch and said, “We better get
going. School starts in twenty minutes.”

Seckry reluctantly turned away and they both
began heading for the long way around. They could have reached
Estergate in about five minutes if they had gone through the
Blacklear, but Seckry didn’t fancy it again, even if there was
nothing going on down there right now.

Before the Blacklear disappeared out of site,
Seckry glanced behind him, and as he did so, he saw a frail looking
girl sprint out and around a corner.

“
Hey,” Seckry shouted and
ran after her.

The girl glanced back in fear and tried to
run but tripped over the pavement.

Seckry caught up to her.

“
Hey, are you
okay?”

“
What do you want?” the girl
pleaded, crying.

“
I’m sorry,” Seckry said,
feeling awful. “I just wanted to ask you what you were doing down
the Blacklear.”

“
It’s none of your
business,” the girl said feebly. “You won’t tell anyone about it,
will you?”

Seckry stammered. “Is it . . . a crazydust
den?”

The girl gave a short, incredulous laugh, but
there was no humour in it, just anguish. “Please,” she said. “Just
go away and don’t follow me.”

“
I’m sorry,” Seckry said,
“but are they using you as a slave? Where are your
parents?”

“
Don’t enter the Blacklear
again!” the girl said desperately. “And don’t tell anyone about
it!” With that, she jumped to her feet and sprinted away as fast as
she could on her little legs.

Seckry couldn’t take his mind off it the
whole day in school and neither could Eiya. When they arrived back
in the flat, Seckry sat at the kitchen table and began spinning his
mobile phone around in his hand, staring into space.

“
You look like you’re away
with the faeries,” his mum said.

“
Huh? Oh, sorry.”

“
He was always like this,”
Coralle said to Eiya. “He could just sit there for hours, lost in
his own imagination. I bet he can’t even hear me speaking right
now.”

“
I can hear you, mum,”
Seckry said dryly.

After three hours of deliberating, Seckry
couldn’t take it anymore. The girl didn’t want him to tell anyone,
but it was for her own safety. She had to be saved from that
place.

He dialled and put his phone to his ear.
Someone answered immediately.

“
I’d like to report a
suspected crazydust den,” he said.

On the Wednesday of the following week, an
official looking letter arrived in the post, addressed to
Seckry.

He ripped it open and he and Eiya stared at
it.

Dear Seckraman

Thank you for your support in our ongoing
battle to prevent drug abuse in the city. However, upon search of
the premises you reported, we found no evidence of drug related
activity and will not be charging any residents. We would like you
to rest assured in knowing that this property is not a crazydust
den.

Thank you for your concern.

Yours.

The Chief Commissioner of Drug Prevention

Collum Barrs.

Seckry reread the letter. How could the
Blacklear not be a crazydust den? What about the girl?

The Patrol were wrong, Seckry knew. Either
the Blacklear was doing a very good job of disguising themselves or
. . . or the government were choosing to ignore it.

“
It’s time for me to take
you to the emporium,” Tenk said to Seckry that Saturday morning,
and Seckry’s face lit up. He had been looking forward to buying his
own avatar ever since he had first got in Henrei’s Friction pod,
and now he had money to spend, a
lot
of money to spend, he
couldn’t wait to start his Friction experience. It would also take
his mind off the Blacklear, which had been confusing and worrying
him since he had received the letter.

Seckry invited Eiya along, but she had
already planned to go to the Skyfall City Library to do some
research on Endrin, so Seckry and Tenk took the monorail to the
city centre and bought a couple of milkshakes at the entrance.

The emporium was huge, even bigger than
Seckry had imagined. The outside was flooded in blue neon light and
filled with holograms of avatars running around, jumping through
the air, floating, buzzing, and flickering in and out of focus.

“
Hello boys,” said a girl
who was sporting a pair of luminous green socks. “Welcome to the
emporium. You been here before?”

“
Not me,” said Seckry. “My
friend’s gonna show me around.” He turned to Tenk, but Tenk was
licking his dry lips and staring at the girl as though she had
hypnotised him.

“
Come on, Tenk,” Seckry
laughed, and pulled him away.

“
Mate, I’ve never seen her
before,” Tenk said, glancing back at the entrance. “They used to
have this fat guy outside to greet everyone.”

“
Maybe you can show her how
good you are at Friction one day. I bet she’d be
impressed.”

Tenk nodded, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Yeah, she would, wouldn’t she?”

When Tenk lost view of the girl, he showed
Seckry the different sections of the building. When an emporium
assistant became free close by, Tenk called him over.

“
My friend here is new to
Friction, can you get him sized up?”

“
Sure, no probs,” said the
assistant. “Hey, Jerro, slide me over a fitting booth.”

A big tubular booth that seemed to be
hovering just above the floor by some kind of magnetic force slid
towards them. The man grabbed a handle on the side.

“
Step in.”

“
What do I do when I’m
inside?” Seckry asked.

“
Nothing. Go on. You can
take your milkshake in with you if you like.”

Seckry stepped in. He took a sip of his
milkshake and as he did so an array of blue laser beams scanned
over his body.

“
That’s it, we’re done!”
said the assistant, loudly.

“
That was quick,” Seckry
said, stepping out and slurping the foam at the bottom of his
cup.

“
Yeah these things are
great, used to take ten minutes each person about three years back.
It was a nightmare on the weekends. Well, you’re all sized up,
here’s your fitting info card. Looks like you’re a group F – G.
Just slot this card into the back of your avatar and he’ll match
your dimensions.”

“
Thanks,” Seckry
said.

“
Here, I’ll show you the
avatars,” Tenk said excitedly, and dragged Seckry into what seemed
to be the centre of the emporium.

It was an enormous circular space with walls
that were made of hundreds upon hundreds of curved plasma screens,
each one sporting a unique avatar.

There were also a few people wandering around
in zip-up avatar costumes, including some kind of female animal
that was having her tail yanked by a couple of overexcited
children.

“
This half, here,” Tenk
said, “are the uni-fit avatars. And over there are the fitted
ones.”

“
What’s the difference?”
Seckry asked.

“
The fitted ones are
organised by size. That’s where all the organic avatars are, the
animas and humanoids. They’ll be linked up to your limbs the same
way as the training dummy was in the training program. The uni-fit
ones are where you’ll find all the mechas. The mechas work in a
different way. They’ve got seats inside them, and your limbs aren’t
synced up. When you’re in your friction pod it’ll feel as though
you’re sitting inside the mecha’s cockpit kind of thing with all
the controls and levers and buttons in front of you.”

“
But Basher . . . he’s
huge,” Seckry noted.

“
He’s muscular, yeah, but
he’s the same size as me in terms of the length of my arms and legs
and that. Muscle doesn’t really count in Friction, it’s an
aesthetic thing. But you have to get the lengths right. Basically,
you couldn’t have a four foot three guy floating in his pod linked
up to a five foot nine avatar. It just wouldn’t work. The Friction
system links all your joints up to the avatar’s so you’d end up
flailing around on the floor like an overturned spider, trying to
get your balance.”

“
So Basher’s an anima
avatar?”

“
Yeah, animas cover any
avatar that’s a form of creature or beast. And Tippian’s
Apocalyptia is a mecha. A blummin’ great beast of a
mecha.”

“
And humanoid avatars look
like human beings, right?”

“
Yep. You can be a barbaric
warrior guy or a robed priest and all kinds of things like that.
Timotho Rothren, though, the Southern Slayers captain, he actually
commissioned an avatar designer to make a replica of himself. When
he’s in the game he’s just a digital version of himself. How vain
is that? Some people have just got way too much money, man, I’m
telling you.”

Tenk showed Seckry that each part of the room
was split into segments relating to size, and then sub-segments of
male and female. When they found the F – G segment Seckry stepped
back and admired his options.

There were grisly, angry looking humanoids
swinging balls on chains and fierce looking animas roaring and
howling and scratching within their screens, amidst others. But one
seemed completely disjointed from the rest. He was an anima that
looked half human and half cheetah, dressed in cloth trousers and a
sturdy jacket, with a bow and arrow on his back. The most unusual
thing was that, unlike the rest of the overconfident avatars, he
was standing absolutely still, surveying Seckry with a steady,
silently confident gaze.

Seckry looked away. He had never before
experienced a digital video game character looking back at him with
such realism. It was almost like the avatar was understanding how
overwhelmed he was by the choice on offer. Seckry met his gaze
again and the avatar gave a short, silent nod in greeting.

Suddenly Tenk turned his attention to a crowd
of excited people at the centre of the space. They had been
steadily growing in number as they had been talking and now there
was someone unveiling a group of standalone screens before
them.