Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) (28 page)

43

The elevator opens onto a beautiful park, which seems abnormally peaceful after Security Control. I run out over the grass past tall spirals of plump white blossom and boulevards of precision-cut hedges studded with dark red roses like flung blood. As the park gives way to a sinuous diamond road I try not to think about Harlan fighting Jaeger.

My limbs are heavy; I wish I could rest for a moment or a year. Instead I pump more energy into my legs and gif a flybike ahead. As it comes to rest on the road surface I vault onto the saddle and key up. I fly behind the nearest building and rise towards the rotating assembly.

As I close in on one of the great hoops I see a square opening in the side. I fly through it, down a slope and into a hanger where I hover for a moment and then set down between a sleek plane and a rectangular sky bus.

My legs feel even heavier but I force myself off the flybike. I walk slowly through an arch to a deck in the out-facing wall. In front of the broad window is a semicircle of chairs; I sink into one and gaze numbly at the view. From in here the movement is less violent than I expected and the enclave seems to rotate with smooth, easy elegance. When I look up though I see the great shadowy slots in the ceiling and picture Jaeger dropping through towards me…

Mum calls and I jump. I accept and watch her on my eye screen.

“Charity! Where are you?”

“In the… swirly thing. Who else is there?”

“Ursula and Harlan,” she says.

“Harlan? Is he all right?”

“Not really.”

I call Harlan so I can talk to them both simultaneously. He accepts voice only.

“Thank you for saving me,” I say.

“I couldn’t risk him hurting you.”

Harlan’s voice sounds higher and thicker than usual. I recognise the sound of damage.

“Mum?”

“He’ll be okay Charity.”

“Harlan, why aren’t you healing in the Basis?” I say.

“I can’t,” Harlan says. “My kilos are all gone.”

“But you’re richer than Centria!”

“I agreed my own terms with Jaeger a long time ago. He would teach me everything he knew but if I ever rebelled he would automatically get my wealth.”

I shut my eyes tightly.

“You gave up everything to save me?”

“Yes. I love you, you see.”

There is a very long pause. I go to speak but notice the call is terminated from Harlan’s end.

“Harlan?” I say softly.

“He’s passed out,” Mum says.

“Can’t you help him?”

“Yes, but he wanted to talk to you first.”

“Where are you?” I say.

“At home. Ellery and Gethen are here too.”

“What about the NFE?”

“They’ve all gone,” Mum says.

“After everything Jaeger did to get in?”

“What he wants isn’t here Charity.”

“Has Keris come back?”

“No.”

“Where is she?”

“We don’t know,” Mum says. “That Security Control transmission was the last we’ve heard from her.”

“If only she and Dad were there.”

“Come home sweetheart.”

I end the call and new energy surges through me. I jump up, run to the hangar and climb onto the flybike. When the corridor faces Mum and Dad’s house I squeeze the accelerator and the flybike leaps up the ramp and out.

I soar laughing over the glittering landscape as the bright cloud catches my flight in a beam of gold so powerful it seems to light my soul.

I found out what is wrong with Centria. I know who I am. Harlan loves me.

Ahead is the little island with Mum and Dad’s house behind it. I swoop down to land in the garden, climb off the flybike and run inside.

Mum is halfway to the door; she grabs me and swings me around. Nearby, Ursula’s smile is touched with sadness and when Mum lets go I walk up to my sister and put my arms around her waist. Unexpectedly she seizes me to her and I feel the strange warm pat of her tears on my hair.

Ursula holds me for a long time. I lock against her with my eyes closed but can still almost see her emotions as they swirl around me like magnetic fields. For the first time she feels like my sister rather than an embodiment of impossible beauty through whom I vicariously live my life. I feel her awkwardness and her confusion, her anger and her grief. She reminds me suddenly of Diamond City itself, with which I have such a confused and powerful relationship.

Ursula slowly lets go.

“Stay in reality,” she whispers.

“Be subtle,” I whisper back.

She strokes my hair as I wipe the tears from her face. Eventually, she looks down to her left at a large shadow in the floor. I let go of Ursula and kneel over Harlan.

“He’ll be in there for a while,” says a voice that seems strange in these surroundings.

I look at Gethen Karkarridan, who sits on the sofa next to Ellery. Gethen’s left ear is half pulled off and one eye is obscured by swollen purple flesh. His right hand is at an odd angle and he holds it away from his body with the elbow resting awkwardly on one knee. Ellery says nothing, her eyes huge as they gaze at me with a potent mixture of wonder and fear.

I get up.

“So Gethen,” I say. “What are you going to do now?”

He takes a deep, slightly rattling breath.

“I don’t know,” he says. “What do you think?”

“It depends,” I say. “By rights you should be an ex by now.”

There is a long pause.

“Unless of course we did away with that policy,” I say. “Perhaps we could re-engage with exes out in Diamond City and make the best of their experience. Call it a new business model. Harlan could help.”

Gethen looks at Harlan in the floor.

“Yes,” he says, “Of course…”

“Hn,” Ellery says.

Suddenly I need to be on my own. This new way of being mustn’t be rushed.

“Can you all give me a minute?” I say.

I leave without waiting for a reply and cross the garden. The day lights dim and suffuse the air with soft amber light, which plays gorgeously over the plants as I gif a diamond bridge to the little island. Walking across I look over the side. The view is different to when I was a teenager but I get the same thrill imagining what would happen if I hung there by a fingertip, a hair, a thought…

I shiver with nervous pleasure and step over the little stream. The springy grass is a welcome change to the roads I’ve walked and I seem to drift across the island to the pool. I slowly sit and watch Centria’s night lights begin to wink on, their luminescence rippling through the water like stars.

Another glow lights the pool surface. I smile when I see it and turn to a hologram of Keris. She smiles too, down past the soft curtains of her hair.

“Hello Charity,” she says.

“Hello Keris.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yes. Everything’s fine. Everything’s… better.”

“Good.”

I look at Keris and she regards me calmly, waiting.

“Keris, would you have let Jaeger shoot me?”

“He wasn’t going to shoot you.”

“I’m not so sure.”

Keris looks out over Centria.

“I want you to have all of this one day Charity.”

“All of…?”

“Centria. And everything that goes with it. When that happens you will understand.”

“Understand what Keris?”

She thinks for a moment.

“The scale of everything,” she says.

“I wish you were here.”

“So do I. But it’s too dangerous and not just for me.”

“When will I see you again?”

“I don’t know. Is that all right?”

“Yes. I really want to talk to you again soon though.”

“You will my Golden Princess. Good night.”

“Good night Keris.”

Her hologram fades and I’m alone over Centria.

Perfection is possible because I feel it now: a fleeting, unexpected thing, tiny and vital like one of the microscopic machines that built this place; that built me. It can’t last though; try and someone ‘imperfect’ gets pushed out. Instead it is a little milestone, like a girl on an island in the air with a strange journey behind her and a stranger one ahead, by a house full of loved ones and others with potential.

Whatever else happens I will always have this moment, when everything made sense. It takes my fear and changes it in a hidden flash to strength and certainty. I feel radiant with a joy and sureness I have never known. It will be my own source of cloud light amid the ever-moving fabric of my life, throwing brightness and shadow in equal measure on the astonishing landscape around me.

A breath catches in my throat. The darkening view blurs so I hear rather than see my first tear splash into the little pond. I start to cry but laugh as well because the tears are not born of grief but of love.

44

I head back across the bridge to Mum and Dad’s garden. It’s nearly full night and the lights in the house are on. I no longer want to be alone. I want to be with Mum and Ursula as we wait for Harlan to come out of the floor; I even want to see Gethen and Ellery.

Jaeger Darwin calls. I consider ignoring him because of the battering he gave Harlan; however, Jaeger is as much a part of me as Keris so I stop walking and accept the call. Jaeger appears as an image in the corner of my vision, superimposed over the almost unbearably alluring house. I wait for him to speak.

“Keris was right,” he says eventually. “It seems I can’t kill you any more than I could kill her or Gethen.”

“You nearly murdered Harlan.”

“He knew what would happen.”

“What are you going to spend his money on?”

“Secrets,” Jaeger says.

“What can I do for you?”

“Meet me outside Centria. There’s something you must see.”

“Must?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Now.”

“I’m…”

“You’re not busy Charity and it won’t take long.”

I look past him at the house. I could just peek in, see everyone and then meet Jaeger but if I do I won’t leave.

“All right,” I say. “Where?”

“Just outside the main door.”

I end the call and climb onto my flybike. The weariness has returned, as if I move through a narrowing tunnel of awareness. I’m going to need a long, slow rest after all this.

I key up and fly towards the main doorway. This evening seems particularly warm. I fly smooth and even, not too far off the ground but above the heads of people as they stroll below. Voices and laughter mix with the soft rush of air across my face.

Soon I leave the pathways behind and weave through great diamond buildings, their lit facades sheets and patchworks of thrilling colour. The buildings thin out as I head for the great door, which slowly opens for me.

Jaeger waits alone on the diamond road that leads to the train terminal and I slow down to land beside him. He wears his orange NFE uniform again and has no visible injuries despite Harlan’s terrific assault.

“Thank you for coming,” he says, his expression quietly quizzical as I get off the flybike.

“That’s all right. We are… linked Jaeger. There’s no reason we can’t make the most of that.”

“I agree Charity. I regret what happened with Harlan because his potential will never be realised, but terms are terms.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for.”

“Not yet,” Jaeger says.

“Jaeger, Centria was bankrupt,” I say. “There was no unlimited kilo supply.”

“We’ll see,” Jaeger says.

“You’re so obstinate.”

“As are you.”

I smile but Jaeger continues to regard me with that strange expression. I think about home, about Harlan and wonder why I never let myself have what I want; why there is always some other thing that must be done before I deserve it. If I just solve the mystery, if I just rescue Ursula, if I just prove that Harlan loves me before I will admit to myself that I love him and acquiesce in that roaring bright cascade…

“What was it you wanted to show me?” I say.

Jaeger looks over my shoulder and indicates with his chin. I turn and see the five hundred New Form Enterprise soldiers walk from behind Centria, dressed like Jaeger in their orange uniforms. As the NFE close in to surround me I look at Jaeger and then at the flybike.

It sinks into the floor without any decision from me and I watch stupidly as the Basis takes the vehicle apart. I try to go in-Aer for an explanation.

Nothing happens. My Aerac fades and the world is naked, as if I’ve lost part of my ability to see. I feel my head whip from side to side in uncontrolled panic.

“What…?” I stutter.

“Your terms are not discharged,” Jaeger says.

“They are!”

“I was serious when I said I wanted you to join us. Now I know who you are there is no question.”

“Jaeger, I got you and five hundred of the NFE into Centria at the place and time we agreed,” I say, my voice rising to a shout.

“No,” Jaeger says. “I sent one of the team back to MidZone.”

And my heart feels like a vast empty diamond sphere.

“But…” I say.

No other words come because there are no other words.

“So Charity, you got me and four hundred and ninety-nine of the New Form Enterprise into Centria. You therefore broke the terms of our agreement.”

I stare at the floor where the flybike was absorbed as if doing so will gif it again.

“I have had control of your Aerac since eleven o’clock this morning,” Jaeger says.

I watch helplessly as my red and yellow jumpsuit dissolves off me into the floor. For a moment I am naked among these strangers and then a new suit grows up over me. It’s orange.

Jaeger smiles.

“You are mine, Charity Freestone,” he says.