Paradigm (9781909490406) (9 page)

‘Is she okay?' said Carter.

‘She did great,' said Chess. ‘Now it's your turn.'

On the screen there was a close-up of Carter's mother. Then, as she turned away from the camera, rain started to fall from the sky. Heavy, thick balls of ice pelted against her back and one caught her on the left side of her head. As she fell to the ground, the camera angle widened and there were a group of children, Carter's Academy friends amongst them. In the distance, he could make out a shelter and, then, Carter himself ran onto the screen. He wasn't sure how old he was, maybe twelve or thirteen. He stood there staring at his mother on the floor.

‘This didn't happen,' he said. ‘My mother was already dead.'

‘Think about what you are seeing,' said Chess softly. ‘What do you do next?'

Carter watched as a trickle of blood seeped from one of his mother's eyes. He could almost smell the scent of her skin and the softness of her energy. The version of Carter on the screen knelt down next to her and put one arm under her shoulder. There was a scream from the group of children and one, Isabella, fell, clutching her arm as the ice rained downwards.

‘You want me to save one of them,' he said to himself and pressed his finger down into the card. The boy on the screen stood up and looked over at the children. They were younger than they should have been and Carter was older, stronger. As the ice rained around him, he shouted across at the group.

‘Run to the shelter,' he said. ‘Go quickly.'

‘Carter,' said his mother. ‘Don't leave me, please. Save me.'

He knelt back down and ran his fingers through her hair. The line of blood ran as far as her neckline and pooled on the ground. There was another scream from the children.

Chess rubbed his shoulder. ‘With complete power comes great responsibility,' she said and took a step backwards from the booth. Carter swallowed.

‘I have to do what's right,' he mouthed and held his mother's hand tightly. He pulled her towards him and tried to lift her. She was much lighter than he had imagined. It would be easy enough to take her to the shelter.

‘I love you, Carter,' she said. ‘We can be together again, like a family.' Her eyes filled with tears and something jolted in Carter.

‘I don't think I believe in love,' he said. ‘I believe in what's right.'

Sheet hail started to fall all around him and the rain was getting stronger. Isabella screamed again, this time as a spear of lightening hit the ground near to where the children had gathered. Carter hesitated for a second and then dropped his mother, who shrivelled into a ghostly pile of rags. He ran towards the children, herding them into the shelter. As he did so, the screen went blank and a bead of sweat trickled from his forehead onto the desk in front of him.

‘Good start,' said Chess. ‘A little slow, but you got there in the end.'

‘You wanted me to save the future over my past,' said Carter, breathless.

Chess shrugged. ‘You'll do what you have to do,' she said. ‘And that will make you a leader or a failure. The choice is yours.' Carter looked at the clock on his screen—less than three minutes had passed since he started watching the footage.

‘Is that it?' he said.

Chess smiled. ‘That was just the warm-up,' she said. ‘Now we get into the interesting stuff.'

There was the usual set of tests that Carter had expected—electronic circuitry to be rewired that, surprisingly, Jenson mastered more quickly than the other two, and some synthetic mixing to create new strains of plant material. From the time he'd spent during his visits to the Industry Headquarters as a young boy, Carter knew he had aced that one completely. He couldn't hide his smile. Synthetics was a great deal more valuable than electronics—the points Jenson had won would be worth very little. But, from the look on her face, Elizabet had done exceptionally well too and stood smiling. The Industry technicians cleared away the materials and, just briefly, the three of them were left in the room alone.

As the door closed, Elizabet glanced over at Carter, her eyes tight and angry. ‘Wait until we start on Censomics,' she said. ‘We'll see who's best placed for Controller General then. I know the Model better than anyone.' She threw off her shoes and did an elegant, athletic handstand against the wall, her thin arms much stronger than they looked. She lowered her body downwards, allowing her arms to take her full body weight before she pumped them back up again.

‘Cryonics will come first,' said Carter, trying not to look impressed, ‘and that carries some fairly big points too. And, by the way, I...'

‘Yes, you fixed the Model when you were, what, seven or eight?' said Jenson in a deep, bored voice. ‘We've all heard about that. Your reputation precedes you.'

‘That may be true,' said Elizabet, kicking her legs down again and standing upright. ‘But I'm related to one of the original Scouts and he was there when the Model was first developed. He oversaw its design in fact.'

Carter recalled her surname—Conrad. Filip Conrad. Again, he tried to dismiss her. ‘That was over eighty years ago,' he said. ‘It doesn't mean you have any more insight than anyone else.'

‘It's not always
what
you know,' said Elizabet as if she were telling someone a secret and smiled a sweet, sickly grin back at Carter.

When Chess came back into the room, the three of them were sat in an awkward silence. She popped her head around the door briefly.

‘There will be one final challenge today, but this will come later this afternoon,' she said. ‘I'll just get you some refreshments before I take you to meet your mentors.'

Carter looked at Elizabet who had kicked up another handstand, poised with one leg against the wall and the other in the air, eyes closed.

‘Where do you come from?' Carter asked her, somewhat interested but more just curious.

‘I'm from before you,' said the girl. ‘That's all you need to know.'

‘You don't
need
to tell me anything. I was making conversation.'

Elizabet opened her eyes briefly, flashing a smirk at Carter. ‘You're Nikolas Warren's son, aren't you?'

Carter spoke slowly. ‘You knew my father?'

Jenson looked up slowly at them both.

Elizabet laughed and let her body sink to the floor elegantly before bouncing upright. ‘Yes, we were at the Academy together—so sad what happened to him. I thought he'd have been destined for much greater things than marrying your mother.'

Carter let the tension in his body release before he spoke, ignoring her comments.

‘So do you have an idea for your Contribution?'

‘Of course; I've had it for years—but I shan't be telling you anything about it.'

‘I have an idea too,' he said. ‘But I'm making sure it's still relevant to the world—things do change, you know.'

Elizabet shook her head.

‘Nothing changes here,' she said. ‘The Industry won't allow it.'

T
he door opened
and Chess came back into the room carrying a plate full of synthetic foods and handed them to the Contenders. Jenson was still looking outwards blankly and refused to have anything to eat. Chess ignored him and started talking.

‘Thank you for your work this morning,' she said. ‘The results are being processed as we speak and will feed through to the final evaluations. As you know, this is about who you are as individuals and what decisions we can expect you to make if you are elected as Controller General. Everything here is designed to find out exactly who you are. Are
you
sure of who you are?'

Carter looked at Elizabet who was dipping boeuf sticks into a sauce and popping them into her mouth one by one.

‘That was interesting,' she said, her mouth full of food. ‘Do we get to do that again?'

Chess shook her head. ‘I'm afraid not, Elizabet. Most of the other work will be done directly with your mentors who have been chosen to bring out the best in you—and I am sure you are eager to meet them. For those of you who may have had previous mentors, you should sever all ties with them. Your new mentors are experienced returners who have served this Community well. They will answer any questions or concerns you may have. And,' she paused as they were about to leave, ‘you each have a challenging road ahead of you. I suggest you concentrate on your own journeys and don't focus on each other. Now you will meet your mentors and I shall see you later today.'

And with that, she was gone. Carter and the others were shunted by a security officer out of the door and directed down a flight of stairs towards the Synthetic Food Plant. Jenson was shuttled out first, still quiet and miserable. Then Elizabet was siphoned into a side room.

‘Goodbye, Carter Warren,' she said. ‘I'm sure you'll make a great professor.'

Carter smiled at her. ‘And so will you,' he said. ‘I'll make sure you get a good position when I am Controller General.' She flashed a sarcastic grin at him and then was gone. He wondered whether she, like him, had always wanted to go through the process and what it had been like in her time as a child growing up with his father. He wound his way down the next flight of stairs until they reached the bottom floor.

‘In here,' said the guard. ‘Your mentor is still on her shift.'

The Synthetic Food Plant clicked and buzzed with the patting and shaping of material by the machines and the manipulation of various levers by those operating them. One button added flavour, another included different materials to differentiate textures, and a pair of grab claws defined the shape. Carter scanned the floor and on the far right he could just make out the lumbering shape of Alexis. The guard directed him to the middle of the room, next to a girl with white-blonde hair and an old man in his forties with wizened fingers who stood on one leg then the other, operating his machine with rapid dexterity. From behind, the girl resembled a young Isabella so much that Carter had to look at her several times. As he moved closer, the woman started to speak.

‘Carter Warren?' she said, not taking her eyes away from the machine for a second. ‘I'm your mentor, Lilith McDermott—but, please, call me Lily. We've been waiting for you and it's so good to finally meet you.' There was genuine excitement in her voice and something else that sounded a little like relief.

It was partly the shock of seeing an almost ghost-like image of the old Isabella and partly tiredness that suddenly sparked irritation and anger in Carter.

‘My mentor? You can't be more than, what, sixteen?'

Lily stopped the machine, smiled brightly at him and took off her gloves, touching his hand softly with her own. The clicking sound of metal whirred to a stop.

‘I'm eighteen, actually.'

The tone of her skin was soft and warm. There was a bright sparkling in her eyes that was so much like the young Isabella it made Carter's heart beat fast. Her hair was long and light, tied back neatly, and her lips were rounded perfectly. For a split second, Carter was transported back to that cool summer morning in the classroom when he'd first been sat next to Isabella. Then he remembered the professor.

‘What about the professor, Professor Mendoza?

Lily smiled and shook her head. ‘I'm afraid she's no longer with us. She has been called to the Catacombs. And, in her absence, we've been electronically matched to each other because the Industry believes I can contribute to you, get the best from you and complement your skills more than anyone else in the Community today.' She flashed him a self-assured smile. ‘And I've been around a bit too. This is my fourth tenure, just so you know.'

‘Fourth tenure? How can that even be possible?' Carter asked, puzzled. He'd heard of a couple of people being frozen for a second time, voluntary punishment for breaking minor rules in the Industry Code of Conduct. But never
three
freezings—and never by choice.

Lily grinned back at him.

‘Let's just say I am a girl with much experience, not just in the Food Plant. And, I'm here to help you. My job is to make sure that you, above the others, become Controller General. But there'll be plenty of time to talk later. We'll need to get to work straight away—you have a Contribution to prepare for. How did your orientation go?'

Carter felt himself soften slightly. Lily clearly wanted to help him it seemed.

‘It was tough,' he said. ‘But nothing I couldn't handle.'

‘And the other Contenders?'

‘I think the boy isn't going to be a problem but the girl...' Carter stopped for a second. ‘There's something about her—something special. She's smart, really smart, but it's like she knows something more. Like she can anticipate what's going to happen next.' Carter thought back to her almost predictive replaying of the electronics exercise. ‘She's, well, she's different to other people.'

‘You all are. That's why you've been chosen.'

‘But she seemed... like she was from somewhere else. I just can't fully get her. That doesn't often happen to me. Maybe it's the effects of being underground, I don't know. I can't read her yet,'

‘And don't try to. This is about
you
, remember. And what
you
can bring to the Community. The next step will be for us to run through what your ideas might be for your Contribution and then we need to get you making some decisions.'

‘I can make decisions already,' said Carter. ‘I'm here, aren't I?'

Lily smiled and pushed the hair from her eyes. ‘You are indeed, Carter Warren. You are indeed.'

‘So right now I'm going to do something useful. Show me how to work that machine and then we can get out of here and start work.'

‘Well, food shaping should accelerate your physical reactions, speed up your adaption. Then I am assuming that you'll be reassigned to somewhere more…' she paused for a second, ‘…fitting to your circumstances and aspirations.' Her tone was daring, flirtatious even, Carter thought. He nodded his head slightly.