Paradigm (9781909490406) (19 page)

‘They thought that I would lead the revolution?' said Carter. ‘Why me and not you?'Isabella shrugged. ‘I guess I was too obvious. Your father thought he could get you in under the radar, being so perfect, so
Industry
.'

‘Your uncle was frozen,' said Carter, squinting in the dark. ‘And they tore the house down—the whole thing—because it was contaminated or something.' For the first time he saw that there were tears in Isabella's eyes and the corners of her mouth trembled.

‘My uncle was killed,' said Isabella. ‘They destroyed the house because
you
told your grandfather about the books,' said Isabella. ‘And then he told the Industry.' The evening air was quiet and warm as the stars began to gather in white clusters though the trees and branches above them.

‘We managed to save a handful of them and bury them in waterproof casing in the forest before they came,' said Isabella. ‘Your father had hoped that when Professor Mendoza became Controller General, they could introduce books back into the Community and start expanding beyond the Barricades, but when she failed and Alderney got in, things turned ugly. The revolution was Plan B—to wait until you became Controller.'

Carter could barely understand what he was hearing.
How
ugly?'

‘Things were strict enough when we were teenagers. It got worse after you left. The Industry put Chess in charge to try and soften the way things looked but it just made some people more determined. Lucia picked up on it from a very early age—all questions and curiosity. I had to stop her coming out here so often—they thought I was trying to abduct her. She's brave, just like your father, Carter—he'd have been so proud of her.'

As much as he didn't want to hear the answer, Carter needed to ask the question. ‘What happened to my parents?' he said. ‘What
really
happened to them?'

Isabella dragged a stick through the dirt. ‘No one really knows,' she said. ‘The few people who really knew what their intentions were don't speak about them. Most likely, they were killed by the Industry. When your mother was found to be carrying your brother and scans showed that he was, well, imperfect, most took it as a sign that your parents were cursed and they were to be forgotten about. Your grandfather was different from them. He was Industry, like the boy, Ariel, wants to be. He wanted to see you become Controller General, but as time went by, his mind had begun to go. They couldn't risk him ruining your chances. It was sad what they did to him—he was just a lonely old man.'

Shock and disbelief came over Carter in waves. He wanted to know everything, but at the same time he wished he hadn't heard any of it. Everything he had ever believed in felt like it was coming crashing down around him.

‘So is there anything else?' he said ‘Anything else I need to know?'

‘You have a choice,' said Isabella. ‘The Industry wants you to unite the people. There are a few rebels gathering—you can lead them out of the Community. If you're going to be a leader of either side, you'll need to choose which one. And in choosing, you'll need to be committed. Personally, I don't know if you have the bravery of your father.' She stared at him boldly.

Despite the aching to make things right for Isabella, Carter felt rage boiling in his blood. ‘And what would
you
suggest?' he said.

Isabella's voice quietened to a whisper. ‘You want my opinion? Save us all. But only do what you feel is right for you. But either way, do it in full possession of the facts. Go out there into the Deadlands and find out the truth for yourself. If you're still intent on being Controller General, you'll have much more to unite people with. You'll have been there and seen what's on the other side of those Barricades. Your knowledge will be more of a Contribution to this Community than anything anyone else has ever seen or done.

‘I might not survive out there,' Carter said, still trying to absorb everything Isabella had told him.

‘You won't survive in here, not knowing.'

‘I've survived so far.'

‘There's surviving and then there's
living
,' said Isabella slowly. None of us just want to
survive
—what would be the point of that? We want something more, something joyful. Something to survive
for
. We had that in the past; our lives had
meaning
when we could create something for ourselves. If you give people what they are seeking, Carter, then they won't need to go looking for it.'

I
n the darkness
of the hole in the ground, Carter felt excitement and terror building in equal anticipation.

‘Even if it was a good idea, it isn't possible.'

‘Anything is possible, Carter. Didn't Mendoza teach you anything?'

‘Mendoza? What did she know? She didn't even make Controller General.'

‘True,' said Isabella flippantly. ‘I mean, she dedicated her career pretending to tutor you to become a Contender and then, when the Industry sends you to the Catacombs because they think you're a threat, she risks everything to give you a chance at staying above ground by becoming a father. As much as I hated her for it, she didn't do it soon enough. Either way, I lost you.'

Carter pushed his back into the earth wall behind him; it felt firm and solid against his body and gave him strength.

‘You're right,' he said, finally. ‘I have to go.'

‘And you might even find your daughter,' said Isabella. ‘A win-win situation, as they used to call it.' In the murky half-light there was still something of the girl he used to know.

‘So how do I get out here? ' he said, feeling his body tingle. ‘Expeditions have been cancelled.'

In the darkness of the hole, Carter could just make out Isabella's smile.

‘Like I said, there's always a way,' said Isabella. ‘Always.'

Carter looked at her directly. ‘Then tell me what it is. And tell me quickly because if there's a way out into the Deadlands without a Transporter and without the Industry, then I need to know.'

‘Yes, there's a way out: a tunnel nearer to the Barricades. I started it years ago and then I got a little help from the few people I could trust. We dug it through until we could join up with one of the old subway passages that ran under the river in the west of the old city.

‘There's another side alcove that we tapped into at the end of the tunnel that leads into a maintenance shaft. We took it all the way, apart from the last bit. We cracked the final passageway just before news of your release came out. Lucia wanted to wait for you. She thought that you should be the one to lead the people out of the Community.'

Isabella coughed hard and Carter looked at her in half-disbelief.

‘The entrance is here, hidden between the two black moss-covered rocks and covered with branches thick enough to hold your weight. No one would notice it, not out here. It should come up far enough away from the Barricades for you to escape without being spotted.' There was something in Isabella's eyes that looked dangerously like pride.

‘If that's true, how come nobody has been out there yet?' His eyes narrowed at Isabella.

‘I don't know for sure that nobody has,' she said.

‘Who knows about this?'

‘Now? The others have been taken for freezing. So it's just the three of us.'

‘Me, you and…' Carter allowed some of the pieces inside his head to fall into place.

‘Lucia, yes' said Isabella.

Carter scratched around in the dirt and then touched her hand gently. ‘Will you come with me?'

Isabella shook her head. ‘I can't,' she said. ‘It's too late for me.' She lifted up her clothing to show the creamy brown of her skin with the silvery metallic line running through it, framed with a yellow bruise and a lick of pus. Carter shivered.

‘I keep the wound open so I still have a chance to remove it,' she said. ‘It's a tracker and death trap. If I go within twenty feet of the Barricades, it will electrocute me from the inside out. I can't even try to get out of here unless I can get rid of this.' She pulled at the metal that was meshed into her skin.

‘Don't,' said Carter, grabbing her hands. ‘Leave it alone.'

‘You have to go without me. And make this happen, Carter, for all our sakes.'

Carter looked at the wound. ‘Did the Industry really do that?' he said. ‘It's barbaric, inhumane.'

‘As inhumane as splitting up families? And banning creativity? As inhumane as killing whatever isn't perfect? Mendoza destroyed everything
we
had to have you raise the revolution. She knew I couldn't be the one to keep you here so she found someone, anyone, to give you children. She struck a deal with the Davenport grandmother—no one knows how, but she did, with a promise of keeping the girl safe and away from the Industry. It wasn't random; that's why I can't hate you. Iseult wasn't just anyone. She was chosen for you.'

‘So I hear,' said Carter. ‘So Mendoza wanted me above ground by making me a father and made sure you knew about it. So why did people think I should be the one to lead the revolution?'

Isabella smiled through the darkness and somehow the world seemed lighter.‘Because you are your parents' son,' she said. ‘And for most people, that was enough.'

Feeling the softness of her skin against his, Carter felt a pulse in his brain.

‘I remember what we did,' he said. ‘It was the day before they called for me.'

‘Yes,' she said. ‘The day before you went away, we tried to be together but the Industry found out. That was the one thing Mendoza had in common with them—she saw what was happening between us and she wanted to erase all traces of me from you. They all thought us being together would be too explosive, and with what was happening with Mendoza, the Industry decided to put you in a safe place until everything became calmer. They killed her too, you know. And then things got worse. Now everyone, including the Industry, thinks you're the one who can make everything right again. For them it's the fact that your parents died in the Deadlands and you—more than anyone—will keep the Barricades standing. For the rebels, it's genetic, and you'll die to see the truth. You see how they're using you, Carter?'

Carter looked her straight in the eyes. ‘How do I know that this isn't all lies and
you're
not using me?' he said. There was a groan and then a grinding sound, like teeth and metal, and Carter felt something warm and hard drop into his hand.

‘Remember this?'

From inside the wound, Isabella had pulled out a hardened ring of slivery microfibre that had been baked in the sun to secure its orbicular roundness. It was the tiny piece that the FreeScreen fitters had given him as a child. His initials were still carved in the surface.

‘We can't go back in time but there's a part of me that still wants you to change the world—my world. I still love you.'

C
arter pulled back
the branches that covered the well hole and looked upwards into the pinpricked sky above, as black as the river he could hear in the distance. Something skittered in the trees and the air smelled different, cleaner almost.

‘I'll go,' he said. ‘If nothing else, to find Lucia. I can't just abandon her.'

Isabella nodded.

‘Your father would be proud,' she said. ‘And if you are going to lead anyone, first you have to follow.'

As he pulled himself upwards, he held out his hand to help Isabella from the corner in which she was crouched. Then he remembered something.

‘Lucia said strange words to me before she disappeared. I couldn't understand them. It was in some other language.'

Isabella thought for a second and then smiled to herself.

‘
Veritas liberabit vos
?'

‘It sounded like that. I'm not sure.'

Carter watched as a smile crept over her face. It starter in the corners of her eyes and then brightened in her soft, green eyes. She looked just like he had remembered her, the first time he had been compelled to wheel his body around in the classroom on the first day of his Censomics class. The day that his heart had throbbed hard against its chamber and made his cheeks pulse crimson.

She touched his hand gently with hers and cleared her throat. When she spoke, there was something about her words that both excited and terrified him in equal measure.

‘It means
the truth shall set you free
,' she said, her eyes sparkling in the starlight as she pushed the ring onto her finger, letting her hand swing softly to one side as Carter climbed out into the night.

I
t was
several planning sessions and almost fourteen months to the day after her first excursion to the control room that Alice was woken up in the middle of the night by Helen Watson, who looked sick and terrified. Her thin curls, greying and worn, dragged down towards her neck. Ian stood staunchly behind her, a hand on one shoulder.

‘There's someone here for you,' she said in a frightened whisper. ‘Did you do something wrong?' Alice turned over on her rester and rubbed the creases from her eyelids.

‘Is it Kunstein?' she said, although she knew exactly what was happening. She could feel it. Her fingers tingled with an apprehension and an excitement she hadn't felt since the first time she had escaped along the corridors of the Ship and watched the secret conversations of the Industry elite. This was her time.

T
he thick muscles
on her arms pulsed with excitement as Alice stepped into the room. Although they'd been through training individually, she knew well most of those who had been chosen—all had been selected on her recommendation to Kunstein.

‘Is it the gym tonight?' Helen would call absently as Alice left each evening.

‘Netball,' she would call cheerfully back before making the sixty-floor lift ride to the shooting range where Wilson would line up targets and shout encouragement as she fired shot after shot into the round circles of paper.

A great deal of what she had learned in microbiology and synthetics classes would help outside with food preparation, but it was the hard, physical workouts that she knew would be the most useful. There was even a swimming pool—the biggest she had ever seen—way down in the depths of the Ship. Then, twice a week, she donned scuba gear and sank into the sparkling depths of the underlit lake that sparkled white in the darkness. Things she had never dreamed of doing she was now expected to be an expert in—climbing, diving, shooting and living. And she excelled at them all.

T
he ten scouts
were called to the main hall on the fifteenth floor of the main building and asked to assemble into their teams. There were two groups of five each comprising a mixture of Industry professionals and hand-picked residents of the Ship, including Jonah who, puffed out in his thin translucent suit, paced back and forth checking his breathing equipment and radio over and over. The two Industry officials Alice had never seen before.

Jonah looked the most nervous; his eyes flitted from one person to another and every few minutes he wiped his palms down the softness of his suit. When she had been asked to pull together a group of people whom she trusted, people who were genuinely committed to something new, Alice had picked Jonah—more because she was scared of what would happen to him if she left him behind. But, like her, he needed a chance. And for him, this was it.

‘What if it doesn't work?' he said. ‘What if we get radiated from whatever came out of the nuclear places? What if there's still water everywhere? What about all the dead people?' Alice grabbed his hand and pulled him over to sit next to her.

‘You've done the training and seen the footage—you know that it's going to be carnage out there, right? But the radiation levels are safe and the water levels have almost equalised. The landscape will have changed and we probably will see…' she lowered her voice ‘…dead people. But there won't be zombies and monsters or anything from the movies. This is our chance to see the sky. Imagine that—the actual
sky
.' They held each other for a second and through his suit she could feel his heart beating.

‘It'll be okay,' she said softly. So softly that not even Jonah could hear it.

The creases that had held Jonah's mouth in a cold nervous line broke out into a half-smile and he lifted off the microfibre hood with its firm-fitting skullcap.

‘The sky,' he said. ‘I can't imagine it. That's the problem—I really can't.'

T
here was
a quiet in the room as each held their own thoughts in quiet contemplation, punctuated only by Jonah's short wonderings. He looked upwards at the ceiling. ‘But what if…' he started.

‘It's okay, Jonah,' said Alice. The worst monsters are those we create ourselves. You should stop letting your imagination go crazy—we will deal with what we have to deal with.' She almost believed it herself. ‘And you can take off the over-suit for now,' she added with a quick grin. ‘We won't be leaving for hours yet.'

W
hen the doors
slid open with a soft grating slipping sound, four people walked out into the centre of the room with broad smiles on their faces. Alice recognised two of them—Wallace Wilson and Kunstein—whose first name she had never known—but the others weren't people she ever thought she had seen before. One of them winked at her and nodded his head in recognition but she ignored them both and looked straight ahead.

‘Good morning,' said Wallace Wilson. His voice sounded less tinny and marginally friendlier in person, Alice thought. But not enough to make her particularly interested in getting to know him in any depth. There were some mumblings of good morning and an exchange of formalities. He switched on a screen that linked directly to the control room. Alice had since spent most afternoons with Kunstein in there, reviewing the protocol and developing plans. The screen focused directly on the red button, which now radiated a perfect shade of bottle green.

‘This,' began Wallace Wilson, ‘is a momentous day. As you can see, at approximately 3:37 a.m. this morning, the water levels that we have been so closely monitoring dropped to what we consider to be an acceptable level. For the past six months, weather patterns have stabilised to what we would expect for this time of year and in this new climate patterning. Air quality is actually of a higher standard than when we last breathed it without purification assistance and there have been no dangerous predators spotted on the cameras in the last two weeks.'

‘What about radiation?' Jonah's voice sounded hollow and small in the big room, scratchy and childlike in the oversized trousers of his protection suit. All eyes turned towards him, and Alice thought he looked delicate, vulnerable. In that moment, more than any other, she loved him.

‘Just coming onto that Jonah,' said Wilson with a curt snap in his voice, although it was not altogether unfriendly. ‘The radiation levels that we have been able to manage using the remote equipment and sentinels indicate that everything above ground within a radius of at least five miles of exit point four, which is the exit point you will be using, is safe. But I suggest you wear the suits for your own protection. Just in case there's something we haven't managed to monitor.'

Alice looked over at Jonah. His dark grey eyes, the colour of lead, watched every movement on the screen intently, thick with a cloud of worry and concern.

‘You don't have to do this,' she whispered to him. ‘There are others who would love to be out there; let them have the chance if you don't want to.'

Jonah stood up straight and pulled his shoulders backwards.

‘I'm not going to let you go anywhere without me,' he said defiantly. ‘You might be in charge of this whole thing, but you're not going alone.'

A
fter the first briefing
, they were taken to a classroom adjoining the main hall and given a demonstration of various pieces of safety equipment, some of which, Alice imagined, they could never possibly need. She fiddled with the paper-light suit, barely believing that it could protect her from anything. Apart, perhaps from when she knocked her knuckles against the smoothly curved skullcap attached to the outer edge of the hood. It was a daring fusion of what felt like household cling film and plated steel.

‘Is this trophene?' asked Jonah.

Wallace Wilson nodded.

‘Hardest and most flexible substance to have been created to date. We piloted its use on the mechanical scouts and sentinels. This is its first use as a fashion accessory. Maybe we should patent it?' Wilson laughed somewhat more heartily than was appropriate and Kunstein shot him a sideways glance.

‘These support suits have been through a rigorous design and development process,' said Kunstein. ‘You have nothing to worry about at all. They have everything you need to make this first expedition a success. There is an automatic Geiger sensor in the suits you have been provided with, to warn of any unexpected rises in radiation levels,' said Kunstein, ‘and in your hoods there are cameras and a small amount of processed oxygen which will allow you to breathe underwater.'

‘We're not going swimming,' said the boy whom Alice knew from her floor. Filip Conrad. He'd come from another floor less than a year earlier. He was taller than her with jet-black hair and slightly crooked teeth. His accent was clipped and European. He looked at her sideways and added, ‘Are we?'

Alice shrugged back at him. ‘If we do, I don't think it will be intentional,' she said and let out a curtailed giggle. Kunstein looked at them with mock annoyance. Jonah's irascibility was significantly more genuine and he narrowed his eyes in grumpy irritation.

‘If you do not need any guidance in how to approach a half-drowned world, Filip, then please do let us know,' said Kunstein and the boy, Filip turned a pale shade of pink. Jonah said nothing but continued to frown, his eyes black with jealousy.

‘Let's get down to business,' said Wallace Wilson. ‘We have a lot to cover in the next two hours. Alice, Filip, as our two team leaders, I am expecting exemplary behaviour from you both. And,' he gestured to the others in the room, ‘I expect the rest of you to support them one hundred percent. With absolutely no exceptions or you'll be dead—or, worse, back to the Ship.'

Around a few trays of food, they talked strategies and objectives. Wallace Wilson projected a map onto the wall that was more patches of open blue than it was land. The thin snake of the Thames that had previously wound its way through the city was shown as a thick arc, encircling the two districts and completely flooding others. The whole thing looked a completely different shape to anything Alice remembered.

‘This is what we have to work with,' said Wilson. ‘We are here, towards the north side of the city, south of the main curve in the river. This area surrounded by the red dotted line is where we know to be immediately safe from radiation or anything critically dangerous.' He stopped for a second and curled a thin tongue over his lips.

‘I cannot tell you how exciting this is,' he said. ‘I'm sure you understand that this is probably the single most important task you will ever undertake in your lives. What we're doing today is testing the water… so to speak.' He chuckled again but this time glances from Kunstein, Alice and Filip cut him short. He turned back to the screen and Kunstein continued.

‘Team A, headed up by Alice, will take this route,' she traced her finger across the screen, ‘but you will all leave using exit shaft number four. The shaft runs upwards from the highest floor underground and will lead you directly upwards into one of our divisional sub buildings, on the fifth floor. From what we can see, that building has been pretty well preserved, the top floors remaining above the water level for most of the last five years. Depending on the state of the building, once you have exited the shaft, you should be able to use the stairs to get out onto the street. This will place you here.' Kunstein tapped the screen with her finger. Every pair of eyes in the room remained fixed on the map.

‘Old Arnott Road,' said Wallace Wilson. ‘At least, that was what you used to call it.'

‘The area in a one-mile radius of this is now known as Area X,' said Kunstein. ‘Your first job will be to investigate whether what we have observed on the monitors in the last few months is accurate and representative. Your second job will be to identify and secure a base camp. Over the coming weeks, we will need to build other teams that will help with the reconstruction work and it will not be energy-effective to keep returning them to…' she paused, ‘to the Ship as you like to call it. But we will need teams of people we can trust. As you can imagine, this is a very delicate situation. So we'll need to work together and that might mean making some very
difficult
decisions. Team B, headed up by Filip, will follow this route…'

A
lice bit
the skin around her fingers. Everything felt like it was shifting too quickly for her to understand. Suddenly, she and Filip were in charge, with the backing of Kunstein under the strategy of Wilson. Jonah was melting into her background. The idea of her mother and her life before seemed like a different world.

‘At this point in time, we will not be notifying the general population about our plans. We will, however, be letting them know about our intention to place you in isolation training, in preparation for an ascent, although we cannot and won't be specific about timescales, thereby ensuring that your nearest and dearest do not worry about your wellbeing. We also have a team of people who will be joining you—some of our finest engineers—who will help you to set up your base while you are there. They're behind-the-scenes kind of people so they won't be missed here.'

‘Is the plan the same?' said Alice.

‘To the letter,' said Wallace Wilson. ‘Firstly, I need you to get out there and test the air with your samplers to get an independent measure—but your suit scanners should do the rest. We'll use the readings to get germ and bacteria ratings within Area X and then take a look around. Remember what we agreed was usable—metals, core materials and combustibles for energy. We'll run a collection service from the shaft back here to our storerooms in the core underbelly of the Ship. But more important than anything else is our need to cleanse this town. To remove all traces of what it was before. Try to remember that the biggest danger to us comes not from anything outside, but from ourselves.'