Deborah Hockney (18 page)

‘Whatever that stuff’s made of,’ complained Ed, ‘it’s irritated my skin and I don’t mean because it was tight.’ He grimaced as blood started trickling down his arm and dropped in large globules from his elbow.

‘Ed,’ Jocasta’s startled voice ran out clearly. ‘Your blood. It’s purple.’

‘Yeah,’ he replied, unabashed. ‘Just like my eyes. It’s okay,’ he continued, ‘I’m not contaminated or a mutant. I’ve been checked out a hundred times time or more.’

He sat down heavily on one of the benches, looking round for something to stem the flow of blood, but the room was quite void of anything likely to act as a bandage. Will’s wrists weren’t quite so bad, and within a few moments he had removed his top and torn it into strips to wrap around his own and Ed’s wounds. The other two helped, David’s deft fingers tying knots as he whispered to the others that he feared they were all doomed unless they thought up a plan to escape really quickly.

‘Look guys, I’m really sorry I’ve landed you in this mess but give me a few minutes and I’m sure I can think of something to get us out of here.’ Will’s voice didn’t sound exactly confident and Jocasta felt a tightening panic rise in her throat, gripping her until it clasped her skull with an icy glove as she sank onto one of the benches.

‘Yeah,’ retorted David sounding quite aggrieved. ‘Well I think this time you might just have overstepped yourself. I don’t see how the hell we’re going to get out of this one. And even if we do,’ he continued. ‘Our chances of being able to stay in the Elite seem pretty slim.’

Jocasta had never heard David take this tone with Will before. Okay, Will had always been the one with the harebrained ideas, but David had never refused a challenge or the chance of excitement.

‘Look I’ve apologised, haven’t I?’ Will sounded genuinely sincere.

‘So we can use your apology to formulate an escape, can we?’ David snapped, tying the last knot on Will’s bandages, and not sparing any force.

‘I know I shouldn’t have pulled you into this,’ Will continued, ‘but if I can only get them to listen to me, explain… I’m sure they’ll let us… or at least let you guys go.’

‘Think that’s a bit unlikely somehow. On my account anyway.’ Ed’s voice was low and calm, but Jocasta sensed an underlying fear. ‘My father’s not the most popular person in this place. Nor’s my mother.’

‘You know about this place?’ Jocasta’s incredulous question cut through the atmosphere which had turned into something like a courtroom accusation.

‘Why didn’t you tell us? Warn us… or something! Why didn’t you let us know, what – who was down here?’

‘Well I didn’t know for sure. I’d heard rumours about the first – well. ‘Fifth’ city as it’s been called. And the so called mutants who live here. But never anything concrete. Every time anyone mentions the possibility, it’s like a wall comes down and people just don’t talk about it.’ His voice trailed off in an apologetic tone.

‘Well we can’t just sit back and do nothing!’ Jocasta snapped, fighting the urge to scream with frustration. But the discussion was cut short by the arrival of two of the guards who had taken them captive in the tunnels, the one named Murf and the woman with the red hair.

‘Hey Mex,’ said the man, with the alarming metal teeth and a bulky physic. ‘Looks like our little chicks are ready to fly the nest, ropes untied and everything.’ He gave a low snorting sound which might have been surprise or anger – Jocasta couldn’t tell. ‘Let’s see how far they get before I catch ’em, he continued, licking his lips with an ulcerated tongue. It’s a long time since we tasted
real flesh.’

A shudder went through Jocasta’s spine but his companion announced, quite tersely, ‘Shut
up
Murf.’ And then turning to the four captives said, ‘Ignore him. Thinks he’s all macho and mean, but underneath all that bravado he’s nothing more than a moron.’

Murf’s look of incredulity and disbelief made him look almost comical and Jocasta feared she might start giggling as much from fear as relief. She dared to think that perhaps their fate wasn’t going to be as bad as they’d anticipated.

The four prisoners, as Murf insisted on calling them, were herded down the narrow corridor to another room, similar in size, with sandy coloured stone walls and yellow lights. More people were waiting, like spectators. One sat on an upturned bucket, and others, some with dark, tattooed faces or strange, cat-like ears, conversed in low, serious voices. In the centre of the room were a series of makeshift booths set in a line, and four figures waited in each, like interrogators.

Will was placed opposite an older man with thin greying hair and sunken blood shot eyes. His hands looked mutilated and his shoulders sagged down under the weight of a heavy brown overcoat. He looked chilled to the bone, even though the temperature felt hot and overwhelmingly oppressive. Jocasta was now experiencing the opposite sensation of her earlier experience; where before she had felt so cold now the heat in this room was becoming unbearable. The air was dense and stifling, she felt her eyelids grow heavier and her movements become slow and clumsy.

David’s inquisitor was a young woman who looked much younger than any of the others that they’d seen before. It looked as though she was no older than her late teens. Her elaborate clothes shone out in stark contrast to everyone else.

The woman, Mex, had a kind of gothic splendour which seemed somehow appropriate down here in this secret, broken underworld, but this girl was different.

She had masses of coloured ribbons tied in her hair, a red top with large buttons that was snugly done up to her neck, and wore large oversized green gloves. But the thing Jocasta noticed most of all was the happy, serene look upon her face. With a shock she realised that she had encountered no-one on Mars who had anything like contentment in their demeanour. There were a few people who could be described as happy; Marcella and Tara sprung to mind, but this young woman radiated a sense of contained serenity that seemed to belong to only her. She leant across the table and whispered softly to David, but loud enough for them all to hear.

‘My name’s Bella.’

Then, much to Jocasta’s surprise, she gave him the most beautiful, dazzling smile, which seemingly charmed him. It certainly helped when she then demanded, but oh so nicely, that he hand over his glasses. Which, Jocasta noticed, he did without a moment’s hesitation.

In contrast Ed was forcibly pushed into his seat by the woman named Mex, who appeared to be in charge of this situation. She set herself purposefully down in the chair opposite him. Her eyes gave the impression of being able to follow everyone in the room, an accomplishment that Jocasta found most disconcerting. But, she felt even more alarmed when she realised who was about to interrogate her; as interrogation was exactly what they had been brought here for. Murf steered her firmly to a seat and shoved her into it; her spine jarred and her palms became clammy as he plonked himself heavily at the table directly opposite her, his metal teeth gleaming in the harsh light.

‘Let it begin.’ The voice rang out clearly and Jocasta involuntarily shrunk away from Murf, who was leering towards her. Suspecting that the voice had authenticated the infliction of pain that she felt in her head she tried to work out where it had come from but found the effort too much. The room became silent, and even the spectators from around the room seemed to retreat further against the walls.

And the voice had no body and Jocasta knew instinctively that it hadn’t come from a techno speaker.

The silence seemed to smother her like a samgee suit, and she was no longer aware of David, or Ed, or Will. She longed to close her eyes… It was as if she was underwater, and the pressure was pushing on her eardrums, she couldn’t hear anything except muffled noises that might have been someone crying, or laughing, or screaming, she couldn’t tell anymore. Her arms and legs felt as though they were melding into part of the chair, and her airways were filling with a substance that stifled her breathing.

Blinded, deafened and almost completely paralysed, her breathing came with a horrible wheezing sound that she could hear deep in her ears, there was a tightness forming in her chest, a knot of anxiety…

And then a noise. No, no not a noise. A sensation. A… scurrying? In the corners of her mind, the scuttling of tiny little feet. What was that? Her eyebrows pulled together a fraction, with momentous effort. What was that noise? Sounded like… a beetle. A small black beetle, like a scarab. Ah, a scarab beetle. Like David had. Oh yes, David, he was there, she was with… And Will, Will was there.
Of course
. Will gave David the scarab… she remembered now… of course…

The pain in her chest began to lessen, and she exhaled deeply, realising only then that her airways were clearing and she could breathe more easily.

An image of Murf and his metal teeth jumped abruptly into her head, and in the deep recesses of her mind she knew she wanted to throw herself back from the chair and get as far away from Murf as she could, but her bodily functions were still so impaired that she only managed a small twitch of her eyebrow in response.

Then in a flash the whole sensation passed and she opened her eyes to find Murf’s nose an inch from her own, and his eyes staring directly into hers. He clacked his teeth together once, as if he would bite her, then gave a short laugh and turned away.

Is that it? she thought, cracking her neck with a sudden pain as she turned to her left to see what had happened to the others. David, closest to her, had a slightly harassed expression on his face as he readjusted the spectacles on his nose and returned her glance.

Ed it seemed had stumbled to his feet and was looking slightly dishevelled, while Will, furthest from her was leaning back nonchalantly, his chair tipped onto two legs and his feet swinging in rhythm, apparently completely at ease.

Ten minutes later and they had been marched back to the holding cell, where they tried to work out exactly what had happened to them.

David it appeared had experienced a most entertaining session with interrogator Bella who had been telling him, what must have been, he felt, wildly exaggerated stories about how she used to have a giant pet owl and she’d ride on it’s back at night across the landscape of Mars, all the way to the top of Olympus Mons and back again.

While Will’s encounter had been more straightforward with a rattle of questions from the man in the brown coat, who had seemed less than satisfied with his answers, Ed had experienced physical pain. His upper body showed signs of lacerations as though he had been cut or whipped. ‘I didn’t give anything away,’ he said, noticing them staring at the wounds on his skin. ‘Not that there was anything
to
give away. But she didn’t like that.’ He gave a grin that was more like a grimace. ‘Didn’t take too kindly to being blocked.’

‘Blocked?’ Jocasta asked. ‘You mean, you were blocking her… she was in your mind? I mean, that is it, isn’t it? That is what they were doing? Interrogating us with telepathy?’

Ed nodded. ‘Yep. But I don’t know what they wanted to find out from us. Must think we’re on some kind of sabotage mission…’

His eyes strayed to Will.

‘Well, that wasn’t so bad,’ David interjected, oblivious to the conversation so far.

Jocasta stared at him in disbelief. ‘Wasn’t so bad? It was, it was… absolutely… horrendous.’ She let out a sigh of frustration as her words failed to elicit a suitable response from David.

It was Ed who spoke next.

‘What’s the plan then Will? I’m hoping you’ve got some ideas, ’cos I’m sure stumped at how we’re going to get out of this mess.’

It was obvious Will had no master plan and they spent the next few minutes arguing over the best way to approach the seemingly impossible situation.

It was apparent that they needed to work on a plan either to escape or overpower their captors, but both these seemed highly improbable, and so perhaps they would need to negotiate their release. None of them could think how anything they said might have a positive impact.

A rattle from the passageway alerted them to another visit. This time it was a welcome one as Bella appeared with some kind of refreshment on a tray.

‘Hello, hello, my darlings.’ She smiled invitingly and with her sing song voice she gave the impression that they had been best friends for years. ‘We have some delicious biscuits for you, full of protein and healthy nutrients, and my very own recipe for cool, refreshing water.’

They devoured their biscuits in just a few minutes; each of them realising how hungry they were, as each mouthful of food dissolved in a delicious, satisfying mass on their tongues, washed down by the welcome relief of cold water. Bella sat cross-legged on the floor next to them and looked on, a benevolent smile emanating from her pretty mouth and sparkling eyes.

As David caught her gaze another different sensation spread through his abdomen and upwards to his chest. It was not exactly unpleasant, but a little disorientating to say the least. He smiled back, trying to work out why he felt so relaxed in this awkward situation. He knew he should be thinking about how they were going to escape. How could they possibly find a way out of this mess?

For the first time since they had met seven years before, David felt a kind of antagonism towards Will. Seeing the amount of scrapes Will had led him into over the years, the feeling arrived as something of a surprise. But now David knew that his whole Elite career might be at stake and besides, he didn’t like the way Will was deep in conversation with the beautiful Bella. Beautiful Bella? Where had that thought come from?