Idols (20 page)
“Even Catallus? He’s a right bastard, if I recall.” The words float out over the water, and I don’t answer. Instead, I wait for them to disappear.
Then I change the subject.
“Why send a boat full of Remnants to the SEA Colonies’ Projects, anyway, when the Hole has Projects of its own? It makes no sense.” The boat rolls beneath my feet, and I grab the rail again to steady myself.
Fortis smiles. “Sea legs, Grassgirl. We’ve got at least a week on this ship. You’ll get them yet.”
“Don’t hold your breath. And don’t change the subject, Fortis. What’s so different about these Projects, that they have to ship in Remnant slaves from around the world?”
“All right, then.” Fortis gives me a strange look, as if I don’t really want to hear what he is about to say, which is wrong. It’s all I want to hear, at this particular moment. “I told you I’d help you find your little jade girl. This missing fifth Icon Child, if you say she exists. The girl of your dreams. And I will.”
“Which is why we’re on this Remnant ship,” I say, prodding him along.
“Which is one of the reasons why I agreed to see to your passage on this Remnant ship,” Fortis corrects. “I probably should have told you I have a few reasons of my own.”
He looks back out to the water. “I also probably should have told you that the SEA Colonies are home to the biggest Project in the world.”
Biggest. In the world.
Out of all the Icons and all their fallen cities, that is no small claim.
He nods, as if I’ve asked a question, which I haven’t. “Entirely built on reclaimed land, pushin’ so far out into the big blue sea that it’s not really clear what part of what country or city or government it ever actually was. A bit of Greater Bangkok at first, I think. Modeled on United Singapore. With a bit of the Eastasia Coast and the Viet Collective thrown in for good measure.” He smiles, humorlessly. “The SEA Colonies used to be home to something called the Golden Triangle. Now it’s more like the Golden Pentagon. An’ within spittin’ distance of the Shanghai Icon.”
I try to take it all in. “Hard to imagine anything bigger than the Porthole.”
“Bigger than the Porthole? This little Project of Projects makes the pyramids look like ant farms. They could fill every ship on this planet full of Remnants, ten times over, and still not be able to fully man the SEA Projects.”
I can’t even imagine it. The Porthole Projects seem hulking and horrible enough. Something bigger—something worse—it’s not a pleasant image.
“Are there Grass like us there? I mean, not Remnants? Is there an organized resistance?”
People to help us take on the Icon?
And if so, are we going to take it out?
That’s the real question. Because the Idylls have fallen, Nellis has fallen, and the way I see it, we’re running out of time. Time and support—and options. And on top of all that, the thing I’m worried most about is getting sucked into battle when all I want to do is find the one person I came here for.
The one person who matters, according to the old man from the Benevolent Association. According to my dreams. According to every cell in my body, whether I’m asleep or awake. The person for whom I carry this small menagerie of jades.
“Not so fast. I’ll answer all your questions. But this isn’t just about an Icon. There’s something else—a little thing we need to take care of first.”
“There is?” Little things, to Fortis, are sometimes near catastrophic to the rest of us. This much I know.
“The SEA Colonies,” Fortis says, his eyes glinting, “are also home to the General Embassy and GAP Miyazawa himself.”
“What?” I feel like he’s just taken a bucket of seawater and dumped it over my head. Walking into the home of the GAP, that’s more than I ever intended. “How did I not know that?”
“The General Embassy moves from continent to continent—safer that way. Harder to target, harder still to rebel against. Only now it seems that the GAP, he’s settling in over at SEA. Hence the overgrown Projects, I suppose. If you think about it, it makes a kind of sense. Bad apple like that, wants to make sure his tree is bigger than anybody else’s.”
Of course.
I shiver at the name. Not just an Embassy, but the General Embassy. The whole place will be crawling with Sympas. Sympas, and who knows what else.
Because GAP Miyazawa isn’t just an Ambassador, he’s
the
Ambassador. The direct line to the Lords themselves. The ultimate traitor to humanity.
A slave trader to a planet.
Because he’s the richest man on Earth—and his only trade is human flesh.
Even the thought of him makes me physically sick. I look at the Merk. “What are we doing, Fortis?”
“We’re going to find your girl, and like I said, we’ll see what she brings to the table. If she really is one of you—well, you’ll only be that much stronger.”
“And?”
“And then it’s time to destroy the GAP and his overgrown Projects.”
Fortis’s face darkens and his words cut. Everything becomes perfectly clear.
“I thought we were trying to destroy the Icons. That without the Icons everything falls apart. You never said anything about the Projects. Our powers can’t do anything about human cruelty. We can’t do anything about the GAP and all his Sympas—and all their guns.” Even for Fortis, it’s madness.
“We’ll find a way. One way or another, we’re here to take down the whole SEA Colonies, love.”
I’m staring. I can’t believe what he’s saying. It’s all so—big.
I can’t do it.
He can’t think I’ll do it.
Can he?
“Don’t look at me like that. You wanted this, Grassgirl. It was your idea to come.”
“To find the Icon Child. To destroy the Icons and break the grip the Lords have on our planet. Not to destroy the whole Colonies. I don’t know what the Lords did to you up there, but you’ve lost your mind, Fortis. We need to keep our eyes on our actual capabilities here.”
“Not the first to tell me that, pet.” His eyes grow wilder. “But maybe we’re closer aligned than you realize. Think about what you were able to do in the Hole, just yourself. Imagine what you could do now, with all four of you, or if there really are five.”
“We don’t know anything about her.”
“No, we don’t. But we know you shouldn’t have to be hiding, or living on the run. We know you could put a stop to all of this.”
“One day, maybe. Twelve Icons from now.”
“Maybe we don’t need to take out one Icon at a time. Maybe we should be taking out the entire system, the network. From the top.”
“You sound like Ro.”
“I sound like a soldier, which is what I am.” The words have a familiar ring, and I think of the desert, when we imagined Fortis was dead.
A soldier’s death.
Maybe that’s still waiting for him, for all of us.
I look at Fortis. “You’d really do that?”
“Cut off the head of the Embassies? Blow open the Projects? Kill the GAP? End it—the time of willing human slavery to the Lords?” He looks at me, and his eyes are cold. “In a heartbeat.”
I think of the sudden silver ships. I think of the Icons themselves, threatening every skyline, every city that matters. I think of the jade girl—the jade bird—living in the shadow of it all.
The whole world is a dark place now.
The blue sky above us, the warm sun—it all seems strangely incongruous. Suddenly I’m not sure we’re headed toward hope.
Where we’re headed is somewhere I’ve never been at all.
GENERAL EMBASSY DISPATCH: EASTASIA SUBSTATION
MARKED URGENT
MARKED EYES ONLY
Internal Investigative Subcommittee IIS211B
RE: The Incident at SEA Colonies
Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.
FORTIS
Transcript - ComLog 12.31.2052
FORTIS::NULL
//comlog begin;
comlink established;
sendline:
Good morning, NULL. So, I wanted to verify that you do realize I am an indigenous biological entity, correct?;
return:
Yes.;
sendline:
So I am to be recycled?;
return:
Yes.;
sendline:
You know, there are a lot more like me here. Quite organized, stubborn, prepared to fight back. Could make your job quite difficult.;
return:
I was provided tools in the event of some indigenous resistance.;
sendline:
I noticed. However, I can tell you, if you want to succeed, you could use some help. Expert opinion.;
return:
I do want to succeed. That is why I exist.;
sendline:
Well then, why don’t you tell me more about your plans? Perhaps I can be of service. Perhaps I can offer my aid in exchange for, say, not being recycled?;
return:
This is outside the bounds of my initial tasking. I will attempt to evaluate your offer and return with a reply.;
comlink terminated;
//comlog end;
//lognote: Did I push too hard? Happy New Year, NULL.;
Fortis and I don’t speak. We just look out at the horizon, side by side, as if it is the one thing we have in common.
“That’s some talk, Fortis. I don’t know.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Did I ever?”
“Fair enough.”
He turns to look at me, and for a moment it’s like talking to a regular person.
“I’m sure about this, Dol. I won’t let anything happen. We won’t have to go it alone. I have a few friends left in the world, you know. In the Colonies.”
“And a few more enemies,” I add, my mouth twisting.
“You have no idea.”
Fortis winks, and we look back out to the water. Then—suddenly, awkwardly—Fortis clears his throat. “Speaking of enemies. It’s none of my business, the mushy stuff, you know. Friendship and true love and all that rot. But you and your boys, you seem a bit out of sorts.”
I can feel my face turning red. “Whatever point you think you’re making, don’t.”
He ignores me. “That Padre of yours did an all-right job. You turned out all right. And he’s not all bad, the other one.” Fortis smiles. “When he’s not busy beatin’ on the whole world.”
“Ro?”
He nods.
I sigh. “He’s just like that, I guess. He likes a challenge.”
“You mean he likes a fight.” Fortis looks at me, leaning closer along the rail. “I’d watch that one if I were you, Grassgirl.”
“Why is that?”
“Fellow like that, never know what he’ll do. When he’ll blow. Boom.”
I shiver.
Fortis pats me on the shoulder.
“You’re smart to stick with Buttons. He’s going to be a sight cracked, what with the whole Mama Ambassador thing, but there’s always medical science to take care of that.”
“You mean, like a Psych. Virt?”
He grins. “I mean like a lobotomy.” He turns away. “I’m off to scare up some breakfast. Get back in the hidey-hole before someone sees you, will you?”
“Promise.”
I say it and I mean it, because the minute he’s gone, I make my move.
Something’s going on with Fortis and I’m not letting it go past me.
