Metal Fatigue (43 page)

Footsteps rattled the walkway and Katiya nervously emerged from the shadows. As she came closer, Roads made out patches of rust on her clothes and grazes from when she had fallen; otherwise she was unharmed.

She began to say something, but the voice cut her off, instructing her to join Cati and Roads in the middle of the roadway. They stood motionless together, waiting to see what would happen next. Katiya's eyes were fixed on Cati, studying his face, his wounds, the blank rigidity of his posture.

If Katiya believed her presence would help Cati break the power of his control codes, then Roads hoped she was right. That possibility certainly existed, if Cati's mind was flexed just the right way, just often enough ...

Fatigue stress
, he recalled from the CATI file. Take a metal rod and bend it one way, then the other; repeat until it snaps. That was exactly what might happen to Cati if he was pushed too hard for too long.

Whether that would be a good thing or not depended on how Cati snapped, and when.

Footfalls sounded from a point behind Roads, breaking his train of thought. The controller had finally emerged from his hiding place.

"Phil, you have to get a look at him," whispered O'Dell into Roads' ear.

"Be patient," he said. "I'll do what I can."

The controller came to a halt behind Roads and Katiya. "Well," said the voice. "Here we all are. How cosy."

Roads shrugged. "Not really."

"No. Hardly a satisfactory outcome for any of us." The controller moved closer. "I should kill you both now, you realise?"

"I'm wondering why you haven't already," Roads said.

"Because I don't need to." The controller stood so close that Roads could almost see his body-heat reflecting off Cati's broad, hairless chest. "Not yet. Not until I find out how much you know."

"I told you," Roads said. "We know everything about you and Betheras."

"Then why haven't you addressed me by name? And why are you two alone? If you'd known before you came here, you would have told someone else, and the bridge would be crawling with people. The fact that it isn't suggests that either you
don't
know, or for some reason you've told no-one. Which is it?"

Roads shook his head slowly. Cati's controller was clearly unaware that Barney and O'Dell were already on the way. That slightly improved his chances of surviving the next few minutes.

"The rest of RSD is back at Mayor's House, dealing with the situation there," he said, hoping to convey the impression that he had decided to be honest. "I managed to trace the last call you made to Cati, and decoded it with Katiya's help." He indicated the woman with an inclination of his head, the lie coming easily. Anything to keep Katiya's true connection with Cati a secret. "Nobody would listen. There wasn't even time to convince Barney to come with me. It all happened so quickly."

"Yes. General Stedman's little trick took even me by surprise." Reluctant admiration made the voice pause, but only briefly. "What about Betheras? How did you know his name?"

That stopped Roads for an instant, until O'Dell said via the cyberlink: "He was a member of the original envoy. You recognised him as a technical consultant, one of the three at the first meeting with the Mayor."

Roads echoed the information, and was gratified to feel some of the controller's tension ease. He had supplied the correct answer.

A low groan issued from the RUSAMC officer, as though the reference to him had pulled him back to consciousness. He stirred sluggishly at Roads' feet like someone emerging from a bad dream.

"Good," said the controller, seeing Betheras' movement. His voice hardened. "It's not too late, then. Help him up, Roads. Remember: don't make any sudden movements, or it'll be the last thing you ever do."

Roads did as he was told, and finally came face to face with Cati's controller.

Wednesday, 19 September, 12:35 a.m.

Sanctuary!

She was so close he could have reached out to touch her, had he been permitted to. A wide scrape marred her cheek, and her swollen temple forced one eye into a lopsided squint. The rectangular pendant around her neck glinted in the cold starlight: the only hard point of her whole being. She looked so small, so vulnerable. She shouldn't be here!

Caught between two worlds — those of his despised past and his fragile present — Cati could only watch as the woman he loved joined him and Roads in the centre of the roadway.

Voices echoed around him — Roads' and the controller's, mainly — but none were directed at him. Most of the words were therefore blurs without meaning, unstructured sound lacking form or purpose. Unless one of them used the control code, his attention was focused solely on Sanctuary. Every time she spoke, his whole body shook, yearning to be set free — to flee with her back to safety, back to Peace, and away from the shadow-man, who so closely at times resembled the
thing
.

"A person is a person," Sanctuary said, "no matter what they're made of. You can't say that someone doesn't feel — or have rights — simply because they're not like
you
."

The words struck the very core of his dilemma. He was imprisoned by his own exotic nature; even he knew that. He didn't know why or how he had been programmed to obey, but he could feel the imperative deep in the heart of him. Iron-hard, inflexible, it held him still while every cell strained for release.

"You're crazy," she continued, defending him when he had no defence of his own to mount. "And ...
evil
for doing what you've done to us."

The controller moved around to confront the three of them again, mouthing incomprehensible words as he did. Roads watched warily, but the pistol in the controller's hand never strayed. The shadow-man, bleeding from a broken nose, still worried at the straps and buckles of the garment being fitted across his back. The discussion became more heated, heavier with the threat of violence. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke.

But it wasn't going to be him. He had too much self control, voluntary or not, to allow disobedience. No matter how much he wanted to. He felt exposed and vulnerable, just as he had in the dream the previous night.

"That's not fair!" protested Sanctuary. "You have no right to use him like that!"

The controller laughed. His voice mocked her in reply. Then Roads spoke, and the controller turned the pistol on him, eyes shining with anger. Raised voices ricocheted from the stanchions and girders of the bridge surrounding them. All he wanted to do was to reach out as the controller brushed past him, grasp the thin neck between his fingers, and
squeeze
as he had been trained to do —
squeeze
until the life ebbed out of the one that hurt him so much ...

As though the controller sensed the mutiny in his thoughts, his hand flashed out and slapped him across the face. He blinked, but made no other response. The controller seemed to find that amusing. Sanctuary stared at him with a horrified expression on her face.

"You have no right to do this!" she gasped. "Why can't you just leave us
alone
?"

This time the controller didn't laugh. The man took several paces back and looked around, noticing for the first time the sound of sirens that had been growing gradually louder during the preceding minutes. Small lights moved on the city shore as vehicles pulled to a halt.

There was a scuffle. Roads grappled with the shadow-man; a shot was fired. But he paid little attention to anything other than Sanctuary, who had taken shelter behind him; even if the controller's orders actively forbade him from helping her, at least he could stay still.

Then the voice of Lucifer spoke directly into his mind once again:

"They've found us, Cati. I'm going to have to leave now in order to avoid them, and I don't want any evidence left behind. When RSD arrives, put up a fight and make sure they see you, then throw yourself off the bridge. We don't have time for games any more."

The controller waited until he sent confirmation via the inaudible voice reserved solely for such direct communication.

"Good," said the controller. "Before you do that, though, there's one other task you have to perform. Roads is a traitor, a threat to the security of the United States of America, and this is his accomplice. I want you to kill them both — Roads first and then the girl. Do it now, before either of them tries anything. Understood?"

Horrified to the core of his very being, he could only nod
yes
, and obey ...

12:35 a.m.

"Remember," said DeKurzak, "don't make any sudden movements, or it'll be the last thing you ever do."

Roads helped Betheras sit upright, then stepped back when the RUSAMC officer waved him irritably away. DeKurzak stood with one hand holding the gun on Roads and Katiya; the other remained hidden in his coat pocket. He looked nervous, as though the appearance of Roads had startled him more than his voice revealed.

"The sonofabitch," whispered O'Dell in Roads' ear. "I thought he was in Mayor's House!"

"That's obviously what you were supposed to think," replied Roads, fighting a terrible sense of tiredness. "This is starting to make sense, at last."

"Now we know who took our query about the boxes in security control," said Barney.

Roads nodded. So much was falling into place: DeKurzak's protectiveness of the Kennedy datapool on the day of Blindeye; his furious over-working of Roger Wiggs in the hunt for the killer; his shock at seeing Cati's face on Roads' office monitor; and his about-face once he realised how close Roads was getting.

"What's the matter, Roads?" asked DeKurzak, moving to confront his captives. "You don't look terribly surprised to see me here."

"Should I be?" Roads asked. "Nobody else was in a better position to do what you did. You had access to the city's archive files, and knew enough about data processing to erase entire sections without them being missed. You knew who to kill in the Mayoralty because you were involved in the Reassimilation debate. You helped coordinate Stedman's arrival as a representative of the MSA, so you knew how to smuggle Cati into position. And once you managed to worm your way into the RSD investigation of the murders, you were perfectly placed to keep us looking in the wrong direction.

"If I didn't guess before," he said, "it was only because I underestimated your ambition. I thought you were after RSD, not all of Kennedy."

Betheras groaned again, and climbed unsteadily to his feet, clutching his broken nose. His voice was rough, a low growl:

"What's going on, DeKurzak?"

"It's not as bad as it looks," DeKurzak said. "Roads decoded the last command I sent to Cati and followed us here; that's all. It doesn't change anything. It might even make things easier, in the long run."

Betheras grunted. Under the nightsuit, the RUSAMC officer's frame was stocky, less imposing than it had seemed before. No wonder, Roads thought, he had been so easy to overpower.

The RUSAMC officer turned to look around him, seeking something.

"An engineer, you said," Roads subvocalised to Martin O'Dell, "on Project Cherubim — the Mole, in other words. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm trying not to," replied the RUSAMC captain.

Betheras spotted what he was looking for, and headed off along the bridge to collect it. He returned a moment later with a sealed black bag that he put between himself and DeKurzak.

"So now what?" he asked. "Do we go ahead?"

"Of course." DeKurzak waved the gun, indicating that Roads and Katiya were to step away from Cati. "Our plans are unchanged."

"What about these two?" Betheras cocked his head in their direction.

"I don't know yet. They may come in useful, depending on how things develop. Particularly Roads."

"If you think I'm going to help you — " Roads began.

"Whether you like it or not, you will." DeKurzak's fingers tightened on the pistol. "At the very least, all we really need is your body, so don't push your luck."

"You still want to frame me as the Mole?" Roads feigned incredulity. "Is that it? You'll shoot me yourself — instead of getting Chong to do the job for you — and call yourself a hero?"

"That's one option. There are others worth considering." DeKurzac smiled. "You can join me, or become a victim. The first option relies upon how far I believe I can trust you. The second is simply a matter of timing: how best to discredit you, and which crimes to 'solve' by the application of your death."

Roads did his best to look sceptical. "You make it sound so simple."

"I'd be offering them a quick solution, and they'd take it. Who wouldn't, in their shoes?"

Beside them, Betheras had opened the bag and laid out a number of items on the tarmac. He glanced up at Cati as he worked, clearly nervous of the giant's biomods and size.

"And what do you hope to gain out of all of this?" Roads asked DeKurzak. "To be King of Kennedy Polis as it falls to pieces around you?"

"Not yet. It'll be some time before I'm ready to move against the Mayor."

"The city's going to die no matter what you do, or who's in charge. Nothing will keep it going longer than a decade without input from the Outside you're so afraid of."

"Who said anything about being afraid?" DeKurzak snapped. "I've nothing against the Reunited States or anybody else. We can have all the resources we want without sacrificing the city to their pathetic cause."

"You really don't get it, do you?" Roads shook his head. "As you yourself said: we don't have any choice. Kennedy is just a small pool surrounded by a rising sea. Cut it off from that sea, and it will die. It'll smother on the inside."

"But that doesn't mean it has to be
engulfed
— that we must give up and let it happen. Whether or not it makes any difference in the long run, it's our choice to remain isolated for now."

"
Your
choice. Not mine."

"But you're not one of us, are you? Maybe if you were, you would feel differently." DeKurzak raised one hand to scratch his cheek. "You were so close to the truth. Of course old-timers like you wouldn't fight to keep Kennedy intact. You're all so pathetically grateful just to be alive. Kennedy needs someone like me — vital, and prepared to act — to keep it from being taken over. To give its citizens a
reason
to live."