Skyfall (39 page)

The darkened foyer whirled crazily around Lari for a few moments as he lay there, dazed.

Then a shadow leaned over him. ‘Larinan? Are you all right, son?'

‘Dad?' Slowly, assisted by his father, Lari pulled himself upright. His cheek throbbed. ‘What's going on? What are you doing here?'

‘We haven't much time. Here …' Lari allowed himself to be hauled back to his feet. ‘How did you get her out of the chamber?'

‘Janil left the lab suddenly, to look for you, I guess, and he left the security program running on his terminal, so I overrode the airlock.'

‘Good boy.'

At their feet, Saria groaned softly.

‘Is she all right?' Lari asked. Dernan Mann knelt beside the girl, pressing his fingers into the soft skin of her neck and peering into her eyes.

‘Janil had her sedated. She'll be coming out of it soon, though. You should get her away from DGAP, fast as you can.'

‘You want us to take her?'

‘Of course. You're the only hope she's got, now.'

Saria groaned again and Lari started to bend down to her, but a hand reached out and stopped him.

‘Let me.'

After pacifying Janil, Jem had blended back again into the shadows. Now she elbowed Dernan Mann aside and knelt beside the girl on the floor.

‘Hey! You hear me?'

Saria didn't respond, but she seemed to relax slightly.

‘Who's this, Larinan?' Dernan Mann said, looking down at the slight figure and the masked face.

In answer, Jem stood and faced him. ‘You really want to know?' Her voice was a glittering whisper.

‘If you're taking that girl …'

‘You bet we are.'

‘Then, yes, I think I have a right to know.'

‘A right? A
right
? Ha!' Jem's sharp laugh rang off the plascrete walls. ‘You've got no rights, Doctor Dernan Mann. No rights at all. If I hadn't just heard what you said to this shi here' – she nudged the still-unconscious Janil – ‘then it would've been you on the other end of the pacifier and I'd have set it a lot higher, too. No. You got no right to anything, as far as I'm concerned.'

‘Larinan …' Dernan glanced at his son, but Jem stepped close, whipped her mask off and shoved her face up towards his. Lari thought she looked as though she was about to kiss him.

‘Do I remind you of anybody, Doctor Mann?'

Even in the bloody light, Lari could see the colour draining from his father's cheeks.

‘Jani!' The name escaped from his lips.

‘No, not Jani. You killed her twelve years ago. I'm Jem …' ‘You're …'

‘Jem.'

Dernan Mann looked shocked to his very core.

‘You lived. All this time we've been looking out there and you were right here. Right below our feet…'

‘And happy to stay there. DGAP never did pay enough attention to what goes on below.'

‘But you lived. This could have changed everything.'

‘Nothing changes, skyman. Not in this city.'

Saria groaned again and, turning her back on Dernan Mann, Jem knelt once more beside her sister.

‘Hey! You hear me?'

Slowly Saria's eyes opened and focused on Jem.

‘What's …'

‘Shh … Don't talk. Just lie still and get your head together, eh?' Saria nodded mutely, and Jem looked into the shadows on the far side of the foyer.

‘You still here, mixie?'

‘Yes.' Kes appeared from her corner.

‘Come and give me a hand.'

‘I can help.' Lari started to assist, but Jem pushed his hand away.

‘You talk to your old man and find out what we need to know to care for her.'

‘Why don't you?'

‘I've got nothing to say to him.'

‘Listen, Jem,' Dernan Mann said, but Jem spat on the floor at his feet.

‘Nothing
to say,' she repeated, then returned her attention to Saria, who was now trying to sit upright. Dernan Mann watched the three girls, his face etched with regret.

‘Come over here, Larinan.'

Lari followed his father across to the reception desk, where a few quick instructions soon had the terminal active again.

‘You'll need to get her out of the city as fast as you can. I was going to try and fly her out, but there's no way that'll work now.'

‘Why not?'

‘Once Janil comes round we wouldn't have a chance of getting away. And there's too many of you. Besides, it's years since I've flown and I doubt Jem would come anywhere near a flyer with me at the controls. Your best bet will be to take her through the underworld.'

‘But—'

‘Don't argue, Larinan, there's no time. Once you get down to ground level, take her east, out of the city. Don't wait around hoping to come back up again, because it's only a matter of time now before things are as bad up here as down there.'

‘Dad, listen—'

‘No, you listen, Larinan. It's started. The entropy scenario. It's started, and there's not a thing anyone can do. Sky! Nobody even
wants
to do anything about it. This is all we've got left. You, and those two girls. The three of you need to get out.'

‘And go where?'

‘Anywhere. East. Inland. Get away from the coast and follow the sunrise until you find a safe place.'

‘And then what?'

Dernan Mann made a hopeless gesture with his hands.

‘Then you try and live, Lari. Try and survive. If you meet anyone down there who you can persuade to come with you, then do it. The more genetic diversity you have, the better our chances. But the bottom line is that you, Jem and Saria need to get out of this city and you need to do it tonight.'

‘What about you? And Janil?'

‘Janil can do whatever he wants. I imagine the Prelate will keep him busy.'

‘But the city's dying.'

‘I know. I helped cause it.'

‘No, you didn't.'

‘I didn't prevent it, Larinan. That's just as bad. In any case, you'll need me to cover your tracks as best I can.'

‘How?'

His father smiled. ‘I've got a few ideas. Janil's not the only one in the family with a devious mind, you know.'

Lari glanced down at his unconscious brother.

‘What will we do about him?'

‘I'll deal with your brother. You get the girls and go.'

Lari looked at his father. Bathed in the glow of the DGAP sign, Dernan Mann looked old all of a sudden. Old and exhausted.

‘Here.' His father had been entering commands into the interface pad, and now the display flashed up a map which meant little to Lari, but he looked anyway. ‘These are remote survey stations. They're dotted all the way across to the Darklands. Most are non-functional now, but a few still have uplinks to the skyeye system, so you might be able to use them to scout out the land. They're also pretty well shielded, so you'll be able to use them for protection.'

‘Protection?'

‘Shelter. The girls should be okay, but you can still max out, Larinan. Never forget that. More than a few minutes of direct sunlight and you'll be beyond help. You'll need to shelter during the day, wherever you are.'

‘Where am I supposed to find shelter out there?'

‘There are places – these survey stations, caves.'

‘Caves?'

‘Deep caverns in the ground. This continent is geographically ancient, Larinan, and a lot of fissures opened up during the Pacific Circle catastophe, so you should be able to find shelter during the day. The girls can always scout ahead. Here…' He punched a series of commands into the terminal. ‘I've set your access level so that you can enter any DGAP facility.'

‘Janil will just change it back when he wakes up.'

‘Janil will never realise. Trust me, Larinan. I know more about this system than your brother, even though he'd like to think otherwise.'

‘Are you certain this is the only way?'

‘Lari, look at them.'

Lari stared across to where Jem and Saria stood facing each other. Saria was tracing her forefinger silently down the line of her sister's cheek, her expression unreadable.

‘They're creatures of sunlight, Larinan. Both of them. They belong outside and they belong away from this dying world we've built. And so do you.'

‘Me?'

‘You're just like your mother, so yes, of course you do.'

Kes walked across to them. ‘Jem says she doesn't know how long Janil will be out, but she thinks it won't be much longer.'

‘Then you should go.' Dernan Mann took his son's shoulders and turned him so they stood face to face. ‘Goodbye, Larinan. Look after them.'

‘Dad …'

His father grabbed him in a brief, awkward embrace, then pushed him away.

‘Go!'

‘But—'

‘Now!'

Jem and Saria were making their way towards the hub, Jem supporting Saria with an arm around her waist.

‘Jem!' Dernan Mann called, and the two girls turned silently to face him. The similarity between them was unsettling, Lari thought. ‘Your father …'

‘What about him?' The girl's voice was cold.

Dernan Mann hesitated. ‘Tell him I said he was right.'

For a long moment Jem didn't move, and Lari thought something like relief might have flickered across her expression, but then her face became frozen again, almost as blank as if she was still wearing her mask.

‘I will.'

They turned back to the hub, where Kes was already summoning a maglift.

‘Goodbye now, son. Be careful.'

Propelled by a gentle shove from his father, Lari allowed himself to join the three girls. There he looked back, taking what he suddenly realised would be his last look at the world he'd always known. His father still stood behind reception, the glowing red lettering behind him casting his shape into a bloody silhouette. Over by the internal lifts, the pile that was his brother groaned and shifted slightly.

The maglift doors slid open.

‘Let's go, Lari.'

He was barely aware of Kes taking his elbow and gently pulling him into the lift. All he saw was the empty foyer and the sad, gentle smile on his father's face.

Then the doors closed and the four of them dropped into the bowels of Port City for the final time.

Falling …

The room was falling around her She feels it deep in the pit of her stomach and in the delicate connections of her inner ear.

But her eyes tell her that nothing is moving and her brain struggles to cope with the mixed signals.

None of the others seem worried, though.

They just look … empty.

Around her, she can feel the skyfire throbbing and pulsing.

This room is bathed in it, flaring and surging and sizzling at the edges of her awareness.

Falling …

Saria feels her legs turning to jelly, even before they start to tremble, and a rush of bitter bile rises up inside her.

‘Saria!'

The girl. The other her is shaking her gently, one hand on her bare arm.

‘Look at me.'

She does. Saria stares into those dark eyes so like her own. And she reaches instinctively. Through the intrusive, pervading hum of skyfire, she reaches through that tenuous thread of contact and searches until she finds what she's looking for.

There.

Faint, so faint, hut so familiar.

Earthwarmth.

Falling …