Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) (24 page)

Level 3 – side of her head – fire-

Part of the hull bursts outwards. Loren screams and then her screams choke off. I was not aware my hands were around her slender throat until Harlan prises them loose. Loren makes odd mewling noises and crawls away as my limbs thrash with delirious abandon and utter viciousness. Only Harlan’s greater physical weight enables him to restrain me and even then I nearly break free. I cannot blink; my eyes feel like they blaze white fire. Loren screeches from the ship’s far wall and slowly her screeches become words.

“You cannot kill me, I am too precious; you cannot or all my horror will have been for nothing,” she cries.

It is pity that calms me; pity for this wreck of a woman, this used up scrap of desiccated humanity. I kick for a while longer to wring the madness out and then let myself relax. Harlan strokes my hair.

“We need her,” Harlan whispers as he kisses my neck.

“I know,” I whisper back, too quietly for Loren to hear.

Harlan slowly lets go and I walk over to Loren, who cowers.

“How do we make my mother better?” I say.

Loren peers up at me.

“A virus sent to the file will corrupt it,” she says. “I-I will send it now. When the loop finishes she will wake up.”

Loren blinks a few times and then nods nervously. I watch her for a while. She swallows.

“You will sell VIA Holdings to me for one kilo,” I tell her.

“Wha-? No, it’s not possible Charity; it is not just me who owns it. We guard against the very possibility of me or Bal or any of us being taken like this-”

“Fulcrus then, sell me Fulcrus. That’s smaller and there won’t be as many stakeholders because you need to keep it secret.”

“I cannot do that-”

“Yes you can,” I say. “You don’t need Fulcrus now anyway. If you want to merge with Centria go right ahead but tell Bal to step down as Director of Security.”

Loren shakes with fear and reluctance but after a moment an option appears in my Aerac:

Fulcrus: 1 kilo – BUY?

I accept and a sub-routine opens showing Fulcrus operating patents and revenue calculations. I file them for now and call Keris. When she appears in a window on my eye screen I hear myself gasp with relief and triumph.

“Charity,” Keris says. “Are you all right?”

“Yes thanks. Balatar Descarreaux has stepped down as Director of Security. Please accept his resignation and get him out of Centria immediately.”

Keris’s lovely violet eyes go out of focus for a moment and then fix on me again. I like the most powerful woman in the world doing what I say.

“Done,” Keris says. “I never liked him anyway.”

I go to tell her about Loren and stop. Before any conflict between VIA Holdings and Centria breaks out I need to make sure my sister is all right.

“I’ll be back soon,” I say, “but I’d like Ursula home as well.”

“I agree,” Keris says, “although she’ll have to keep a low profile. Do you think she can manage that?”

“If I have to anaesthetise her,” I say.

Keris smiles and ends the call.

I send Mum a message that says:

CALL ME NOW!

I look at Loren as if I’ve just remembered her. She shakes and cries as I slowly raise my gun arm.

“No!” Loren screams, “nooo-!”

I cut her off with a level 1 stun bolt. She slumps disappointingly against the side of the ship. I let out a long sigh and turn to Harlan, who grins.

“You really are surprisingly awful,” he says.

“Your influence,” I say.

“I wonder,” he says but looks pleased.

I call Ursula but she still won’t answer so I send her a message:

Get back to Centria, they will let you in

My Aerac begins to accumulate profit from Fulcrus. The kilos seem dirty, as if they pollute those Keris and Anton gave me out of love. I try to decide what to do about Fulcrus and Loren but I’m too jumpy, too exhausted.

Mum calls.

“Charity?” she says, sounding irritable.

There is no way I can explain it all now. I just laugh at her cross-looking face as tears make my eyes feel nice.

“I love you,” I say to her. “You are the best and I love you I love you I love you.”

“What-?”

“Ursula will be back soon. I’ll be in touch.”

I end the call and stand there smiling, head cocked to one side. Harlan steps forward and grips my shoulders, working away at the knotty tension that soon drains to pulse between my legs. They tremble and I clench myself to ease the lovely torment but only succeed in making it worse. I remember how Harlan restrained me, the weight of him, the physical power…

Very aware of the friction between my jumpsuit and skin, each breath becomes a sigh. Harlan strokes my hair again and every strand carries pleasure straight to the core of my mind, which lights up. He pulls my head back, kisses me and keeps kissing until my lips feel deliciously bruised.

At some point I deposit the jumpsuit but don’t realise it’s gone until I feel the shiny roughness of Harlan’s clothes all down my shivering front. Through the open wall of the ship assemblies and buildings drift by. I don’t care whether their occupants can see us or not.

Harlan inhales the scent of my neck, right where it ends and curves into my shoulder. As he bites me there my body undulates in response along patterns of delight like music. Harlan pinches my nipples and makes me gasp, then pinches harder and harder again until I’m astonished at the pain and joy of it. As his hands move down my belly I turn away and bend over Loren to spread my palms against the wall. I look back at the beautiful man whose face is almost a snarl with lust for me and push my bottom towards him.

“Mr Akintan,” I say, “if you wouldn’t mind.”

My hair tumbles over one shoulder and tickles my breasts. Simply breathing now seems joyously hard work. When Harlan takes hold of my hips I actually shout with desire! He pulls me towards him but I keep my hands against the wall so I’m arched over Loren. Harlan leaves his clothes on, knowing it will make me wild. However, he has slipped one part out and begins to ease it into me. I squeeze my eyes shut. Millimetre by millimetre he penetrates me and millimetre by millimetre I engulf him.

It’s like being deeply tickled and soothed at the same time. Soon the gorgeous tension spreads through me until I don’t know if I’m fainting or waking. Pleasure dulls every concern until I’m bright and super-aware. I feel like the world! I start to fuck, hard and sweet and long over the sleeping body of my enemy.

37

Lovely, relaxing sleep. The drug-induced comas I put myself into weren’t as good as this. Something, however, is wrong. I should be…

Awake-

I snort into full consciousness. The gentle weight pressed against me is Harlan, whose arms and legs tangled with mine. Everything is deliciously cramped and aching, which gives me a naughty sense of achievement. I look through the punched-out hole in the side of the ship, where the terrible glory of Diamond City moves past as if for my inspection. Increasingly uneasy, my dopy gaze takes in the rest of the cabin.

It’s empty.

I try and jump up as if speed and efficiency now will make any difference. My caught limbs are reluctant; instead I roll onto scuffed knees and climb to my feet. Harlan doesn’t wake so I prod him with a toe. His eyes open as he stands, alert at once and looking around.

“Shit,” he says.

I scan behind us for pursuit but there’s nothing. Part of me is relieved Loren has gone; she served her purpose. I gif the red and yellow jumpsuit and feel it clean off the dried sweat. Sitting down in the pilot’s seat I absently rub my neck and face to freshen them before pulling my hair through. It rustles comfortingly down my back.

“When you do that I can’t concentrate,” Harlan says.

I wriggle on the seat, which feels very good.

“Hmm,” I say.

“How did she escape?” Harlan says.

I get the ship recs up and run the footage backwards. It’s slightly nauseating because one eye registers the ship in reverse while the other, in real time, sees us go forward. Fortunately, Loren appears about three minutes before we awoke. She gifs a cushion up ahead, waits until she is over it and then leaps through the hole. I don’t see her land because the ship flies around the corner of a large building.

“Jumped,” I say.

“We should get off this ship,” Harlan says.

Nervously, I guide us towards the nearest train station as Harlan pulls on his clothes. We land and I jump out with Harlan close behind. As we walk I deposit the ship and get us tickets for the other side of Diamond City.

We get on the empty train and sit down next to each other. Harlan takes my hand, which is now slippery with sweat. I grip him tight and glance out, picturing blue warships, soldiers in white… The carriage doors close. As the train fires itself down the tube I call Keris.

The call is blocked.

“No,” I whisper.

I call Mum. That call is blocked too. I call Ellery. Blocked.

Bal still controls security in Centria. Loren must have sent a message when she was free telling him to stay. What will happen if Keris tries to get rid of him and he won’t go? What will happen to Mum?

Guilt sears me. I had everything under control and let it go, almost wilfully. I stare numbly through the train at the blurred landscape outside. Everything goes at a speed the human brain can no longer cope with. Great forces do their own thing and the view is impossible to make out.

Ursula will be able to get a message to Mum however so I call my sister again. There is still no reply and I get angry. Why won’t Ursula answer? I scan my waiting messages and find one from her sent while I was asleep, thirty minutes ago. It says:

please call thom3 hobb please please

I go from guilt to horror. Why does Ursula want me to call Hobb? If only I’d stayed awake. If only I hadn’t make love with Harlan. If only if only. I pull my hand away from his as self-disgust sours the memory of our lovemaking. Harlan watches me.

“What is it lovely?” he says.

I just shake my head.

“You’re very good you know,” Harlan says.

I don’t deserve to look at him.

“You are,” he says, “you’re all right.”

“I’m not,” I say.

“Look at what you’ve coped with. I don’t know anyone else who could do that.”

“You did.”

“It took me longer. You’re exceptional Charity. I… I’ve known a lot of women…”

“Don’t…”

“I have, but none like you. When Dodge showed me your golden threads I was surprised and yet… not.

“I know it was a mistake to let Loren to get away but people make mistakes. We aren’t meant to be perfect. If humanity ever did manage it we’d die out. Besides, you wanting sex over that loopy bitch was inspired. Wrong, but inspired.”

Despite myself I laugh.

“Everything is beautiful with you,” I say.

He strokes my face.

“Charity, you’re not alone. A lot of people love you; you just have to let them.”

“Okay.”

“That’s better,” he says. “So what’s wrong?”

“Bal is still in charge of Security.”

“I didn’t think he’d go that easily.”

“What if he’s got Keris and Mum hostage?”

“Unlikely. VIA Holdings still wants to merge with Centria don’t forget.”

I start to feel a bit better.

“What else?” Harlan says.

“There’s a message from Ursula to call Thom3 Hobb.”

“Sons of the Crystal Mind Hobb?”

“Yes.”

I wait for Harlan to say something encouraging.

“Oh dear,” he says.

We travel in silence for a while.

Whatever Hobb has to say will not be beyond my comprehension. There will be an answer. I may not like it but I’ve been involved in a lot of things I don’t like recently and have survived them all.

I call Hobb. For a while he doesn’t respond and my certainty wavers. Eventually he appears on my eye screen, his craggy face beatific with rage and the shiny burn scars reflecting an unseen light source nearby.

“Well,” he says, “the Golden Princess.”

I feel dizzy. How can he know that?

“My friend Balatar Descarreaux told me some interesting things about you, Charity Freestone,” Hobb continues.

I stare at him and keep my face very, very blank.

“You have spread lies,” Hobb says. “You have cost us money. You have killed my Sons. You have HURT ME!”

His breath comes in jumpy starts for a while and then he gets it under control.

“And yet,” he continues, “I could respect that. You see, the Sons of the Crystal Mind value women. We need them to breed, to create proper humans not floor-spewed filth.

“I wanted to mate you with every one of the brothers. I thought children by you would be worthy Sons and worthy breeders with strong wombs. But no. You are- You are… a…”

He almost can’t say it, like the word is vomit. He shakes his head as if working up the strength to speak.

“You are a Blank, Charity Freestone. How can you dare to even breathe?”

“What do you want?” I ask.

“I want you here with us, so we can do what must be done.”

“Well that’s just not going to happen,” I say.

Hobb stares at me, his eyes suddenly mournful.

“I think it is,” he says.

The picture changes. I see Hobb in real time rather than the usual eye screen image created by muscle readouts and subtle animation. He must be in front of a rec, which shows him seated on a bench. The surrounding landscape is unpleasantly familiar: a high, dark ceiling, nondescript buildings, a swinging sign…

Hobb smiles as he sees my reaction.

“Yes,” he says, “we’ll always have New Runcton. And look! Your sister is here.”

The view recedes and my mind goes with it. Next to Hobb on the bench sits Ursula, her hair cropped short and her eyes glazed. She doesn’t look at the rec, or at Hobb. Hobb strokes Ursula’s head. There is no tenderness or even desire in it. Ursula does not react.

“She must be a Blank too,” Hobb says.

“No,” I say. “She… she’s not my real sister.”

“The same way you’re not real you disgusting freak?”

“Ursula’s family brought me up,” I say. “I’m not their biological daughter.”

“So Ursula and her family have not only cavorted with a Blank but taken it in as one of their own!”

“They didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know myself until recently. You have no reason to hurt Ursula. Let her go.”

“You think you can order me around? Look how many followers I have!”

The rec opens the view further to reveal a huge crowd of black-clad men, covering New Runcton like some revolting Old World fungus. Hobb laughs and Ursula finally notices him. She laughs too but clearly has no idea why. Love and concern tighten in my chest. The strain must show because Hobb smiles again.

“Your sister hasn’t been harmed, hasn’t even been touched other than to clean her. But that could change. I may conclude you are lying and she is a Blank after all, which will force me to cleanse her from this world with fire. Do you want me to do that Charity Freestone?”

“No, please! Don’t, not her. Take me.”

“That’s the spirit! Oh, Charity, Charity, I hate you more than anyone or anything but I admire you. Why did you have to be a monster? Why? WHY?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask to be who I am. It’s just the place I found myself in.”

The madness goes out of his face as we look at each other, two lost children whose world refuses to make sense to us. Is there a solution here…?

“Don’t try your mind games on me you cunt,” Hobb snarls.

His eyes betray fury at having to destroy me, which will make him even harder to deal with. His hand skitters over Ursula’s cropped hair and grabs her ear, which he twists. She doesn’t notice at first, but eventually she starts to cry.

“Where are you?” Hobb asks me.

“On a train,” I say. “I can be with you in thirty minutes.”

“You’ve got twenty.”

He cuts the connection and I sit here, sick and helpless. Ursula’s death is more unthinkable than mine. In whatever way I love my sister, I love her totally. Centria might have rejected Ursula but she is still my Princess.

“What?” Harlan says.

I don’t know how to explain any of it to him; I just wait for the train to stop so I can go in the other direction. Harlan puts his arm around me but I’m not entitled to comfort. My stupid decisions put us here.

“What is it you think you’ve done this time?” Harlan says, faintly annoyed.

“Hobb has got Ursula,” I say. “He’ll kill her if I don’t go to him.”

“What happens then?”

“What do you think?”

“Why? You’re not a Blank.”

“What if I was a Blank Harlan?” I say.

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

The pause is like that galaxy above me in Keris’s assembly, huge with endless possibility and dread.

“You’ve got a navel,” Harlan says eventually.

“It’s not real, apparently.”

“Oh,” he says.

There’s another pause.

“Is that it?” I say.

“Charity, I don’t care if you’re a Blank. I’m not some racist; I mean look at me…”

I hug him, so relieved and grateful that tears of humility burn my eyes.

We arrive at the station. I let go of Harlan, take his hand and lead him off the train. Hobb gave me twenty minutes; there are eighteen left.

“What are you going to do?” Harlan says.

“I can’t ask Centria for help. Bal controls the army and he’s blocked all communication anyway. Maybe Ashel 5…”

I call her but there’s no reply so I scan the Aer for news. Weather on the other side of MidZone shows the Blanks fighting the Sons. I watch Wrath Umbilica take a barrage of shots and crash into a building. I think of Ashel 6 and shout in panic.

“What?” Harlan says.

“Ashel 6, a little girl; she might be on that ship…”

“You can’t save everyone Charity. Concentrate on what you
can
do.”

Harlan watches patiently. His faith in me helps. I shut off the weather and think for a moment. Presently, an idea rises like the sun over the Old World.

I call Jaeger Darwin.

“Jaeger,” I say before he can speak, “I need the New Form Enterprise.”

Jaeger’s face gives nothing away.

“Really,” he says.

“Ursula is being held by the Sons of the Crystal Mind in some hole called New Runcton. There are thousands of them there. She needs to get out alive and unharmed.”

“I think you misunderstand our mission Charity,” Jaeger says.

“I’ve got something you want.”

“Which is?”

“Help me now,” I say, “and I will let you into Centria.”