The Novida Code (10 page)

He sighed: “You are very young, Lauren. I do not want to take advantage of your inexperience.”

I asked myself how many men in his place would react like that. And promptly dismissed that thought.

“
It doesn't matter”, I replied, turning away from him. “I understand. You don't have to be polite with me.” My face crumpled and I started to move away.

He pulled me back by the arm and asked with a look of incredulity, “You think I'm not attracted to you?”
“Well, that's how it looks.”
“That is not true, Lauren. Do not think that!”
“You're very kind, but there's no need to lie to me.” I tried to pull my arm away and he gripped hold of me again. He stood still behind me, holding me tight. Then he spun me round to face him and gently took my face in his hands.

“
Lauren…” he sighed. “You mean a lot to me. A tremendous amount. But I do not want to hurt you. I saw how upset you were by the relationship between Olden and Auxana.”

My heart stopped. I'd seen him watching me the morning I'd discovered Auxana had spent the night with Olden, but I hadn't realised how well he could read my thoughts. This was scary.

As I still made no reply, he added: “It is true, there is something between us. But I prefer to be your friend than the one who hurts you.”

I said nothing. But for some very strange reason, my eyes began to prick. Gently, he took me in his arms: “Do not cry Lauren, I beg of you.”

I wasn't crying. I hadn't cried since the day I learnt my mother had died before I'd been able to see her again. And yet… my cheeks were wet and there was a lump in my throat. He hugged me more tightly and planted little kisses on my hair. And I saw at last that Oniar was infinitely more dangerous than Amar. And that I should never have taken up with him. Without a word, I looked up at him. We gazed into each others' eyes.
This is my enemy!

I looked deeply into his eyes, brimming over with tenderness, and waited for him to kiss me. But he did nothing. He took his hands from my face and took a step backward.

“It is too soon, Lauren. I prefer to wait until you are quite sure of your feelings.”
“But I am…” He silenced me by placing a finger on my lips.

“
In my world, we court our women for a long time before they choose us.”
“You'd like to date me?”
“Yes, if you will let me.”

I beamed at him. “Yes”, I said, suspecting all the while that I was probably making a terrible mistake. But it was too late to go back.

“So we'll see each other again?” I asked, eagerly.
“Yes. As often as you like.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Very well. You can have lunch at my table if you wish.” 

My eyes widened: “That would be fantastic! Can Auxana come too?”

He smiled, “Of course. No more tears then; is that a promise?”
“It's a promise, Oniar.” I breathed. And at the same time, I promised myself.

              I've no idea how Lauren managed to wangle us an invitation to Commandant Amar's table, but it was a stroke of pure genius. What's more, it was this that enabled us to carry out what was later dubbed the turning point of the war. But in the beginning, of course, I was petrified.

I knew of no-one – not even Afren – more terrifying than Commandant Amar.
I shrank beneath his sharp, piercing gaze. He gave the impression of being able to read you like a book and waiting patiently for the right moment to divulge what he knew. I was terrified of making a false move. And this was exactly what I did, on the very first morning.

The morning had begun atrociously. My brother Ethan had come to pay me a visit. I knew this would happen eventually, but had tried to put it off as long as possible, refusing to reply to messages from my family or to meet them.

Of course, my brother wasn't going to let such trifles get in his way, and kicked up a big scene at the HQ. He was convinced that I was being held against my will and threatened to tell the population at large through Intel. Commandant Amar himself asked me to come and talk to him, and for his own safety, I agreed. I knew only too well that he'd never give up.

My brother was waiting for me in the council office's former waiting room. I had decided to wear the black and silver collaborator uniform so he'd understand straight away where my loyalties lay. It broke my heart to see the look on his face when he saw me coming.

“Auxana! What on earth are you doing?” He was horrified, and for a split second, I was unable to answer him. I would have given anything to be able to tell him the truth, but that was too risky – for him as well as for me. I pulled myself together:
“Ethan…” I began, speaking very calmly. “Please, try and understand me. I'm here of my own free will. I know you'll find it hard to understand, but we have to co-operate with the Efeghis: it's for the good of the Earth. They don't mean us any…”

“
Shut up!” he shouted. He gave me such a stricken look that I went up to comfort him. He pushed away from me: “It's not possible Auxana! Not you… It was Lauren, wasn't it? It was she who pushed you into this?”

“
I've told you, I chose to come here. It's for the best. In fact, I could see no other possible solution.”

“
You sound like a robot. This isn't you speaking!” He gave a bitter little laugh: “I was the only one left who still stood up for you Auxana; I couldn't believe you were a traitor.”

Those words tore me apart, and my eyes began to mist with tears. I reached out to him: “Ethan please, try to understand me.”
 

But he pulled away again and his expression grew cold: “You're not my sister, Auxana. If that's what you think, I no longer have a sister.” Without another word, he turned and left the room. And I fell to the ground in tears.

The Efeghis are gallant, I've discovered. The guard who was monitoring our discussion helped me up and accompanied me back to my room. But I hadn't the strength to remain stoical when, a few hours later, I realised that Stephane was absent from the class. I asked Afren about it, but he refused to answer.

I couldn't stop imagining him being executed on my account. And in my mind, it was Ethan's face I saw. It was in this state of mind that I took my place for the first time at the officers' table, followed by the hateful stares of the
idiots
and the envious ones of the
enthusiasts
.

Lauren sat down first, opposite Oniar, and I sat facing Olden. This whole masquerade had me terribly ashamed, confused and even furious. Commandant Amar, sitting diagonally opposite me, took all this in at a single glance.

“What is the matter, Auxana? Not bad news from your family?” I froze. I was certain the guard would have made a very full report of that morning's scene. His question wasn't only needless, it was incredibly cruel. I felt like hitting him but just managed to control myself.

“
No, my family are fine”, I replied faintly.

“
I hope you were able to reassure your brother regarding your position?” He pronounced this word with such irony, such thinly-veiled scorn that I nearly lost it. Until Lauren turned to me and gently put her hand on my arm: “Are you sure Ethan is OK? You look really upset”, she asked softly.

She was acting her role of the fragile young lady, and nobody could have seen her foot crushing mine under the table. I promptly saw through Amar's game: he wanted to make me lose control to test my loyalty. And I had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. I calmed myself down and managed to reply: “Ethan doesn't understand us. He thinks you've forced me to collaborate against my wishes.”

“Don't worry. I'm sure he'll soon understand that it's the best solution.”

She looked so hopeful that I smiled at her. She was right. It
was
only temporary. As soon as we'd gathered enough information, we'd leave and then Ethan would know the truth.

I promised myself I'd make Lauren get hold of a siphon at the first opportunity. Her Trojan horse might perhaps enable her to break into the less-protected IT networks, but the core of the Efeghi systems must surely be protected against that type of attack. Besides, we were going to need a larger and faster storage system than the one in her holo camera.

The siphon was the hackers' favourite toy. It broke access codes and stored data in a ridiculous space, scarcely larger than a wine cork. But it was very costly. And not just in terms of money.

Before the invasion, being caught in possession of one was punishable by a five-year prison sentence, regardless of whether or not you'd used it. It didn't take much imagination to figure out what the penalty for possession would be now. But I was prepared to take the risk.

I relaxed and the rest of the meal passed without any major incident. All the while I could feel Amar's beady eye on Lauren and me, and – had I been on my own – it's quite likely I would have buckled. But I was reassured by the knowledge that Lauren was quite capable of beating Amar at his own game.

I used the break after lunch to prepare a crystal for Lauren, explaining my plan. After activating it, she nodded discreetly in agreement.

That afternoon we decided to take a walk to the indoor market. This was on the other side of town and Lauren asked Oniar if he could drive us there. At the market, Oniar and Lauren began to lag behind me and I very soon found myself separated from them.

I decided to stroll by the jewellery, and had no difficulty spotting a man selling carved wooden figurines. I admired them at length before choosing a particularly magnificent carving of a boat. I toyed with it for a while and then replaced it – facing the wrong way – in the front row of figurines. I carried on walking along the stalls. I stopped once again in front of the cheese seller, and paused in front of his shop. A shadow slunk up to me:

“Do you like sailing, Miss?” hissed a voice in my ear.

“
I like adventure”, I replied under my breath.

“
And you're looking for one?”

“
I've found one”, I whispered.

A hand grabbed my arm roughly, and I gave a little yelp.“Quiet!” breathed the voice. “What do you want?”

“A siphon.”

“
And what would a collaborator be wanting a siphon for?”

“
That's none of your business. I'm paying.”

“
10,000 marks”

I gave a start: “That's crazy!” I tried to pull my arm away, but the hand wouldn't let go: “Don't turn round; I'd hate to have to ruin your pretty eyes.” There followed a moment's silence. Finally, the voice said: “5,000, take it or leave it.”

“I could buy five siphons for that price.”

The shadow sneered: “That was before the invasion my girl; now we're rationed.”

“OK. Where and when?”

“
In one hour, in front of the greengrocers.”

“
That's too late.”

The hand started to grind my arm again, but this time I didn't cry out.

“You're in too much of a hurry, my girl. The hour is so I can make certain your fine friends haven't set a trap for us.”

“
I can think of more subtle traps than that”, I replied, whilst priding myself on having kept my cool so far.

“
That's the reason you're still alive and we're having this conversation. See you in an hour.” The shadow disappeared before I could reply.

I went off in search of Lauren to explain to her that she'd need to figure out a way for us to spend an extra hour in this place, with Oniar.

I found it incredibly hard to hide my anxiety from Oniar. I'd already been strolling around with him for quite a while, but now I had to spin it out for another half hour before Auxana could get back with the siphon.

Using the hackers' contact codes for sourcing illegal supplies had been a piece of cake for her. But I'd been unpleasantly surprised when she'd told me the conditions of our purchase. The hour we had to wait was not a big issue, as it wouldn't be too difficult to distract Oniar for that length of time. It was the price that dismayed me. It was outrageous, and if it was now that expensive to buy anything illicitly, we'd soon run clean out of funds.

But what was troubling me at the moment was the scene I'd stumbled upon just before setting off for the market. Josiane having a surreptitious word with Marc, a fervent enthusiast.

I'd been able to confirm my suspicions regarding Josiane's real role in the days after her attempt with me. She was definitely on Amar's payroll. I used to see her approaching the enthusiasts with her weasel words, but so far nobody had fallen into her trap. Until today, that is.

Marc would have been the last enthusiast I could have imagined playing our game. He was the perfect little collaborator, satisfied with his lot, and sporting his uniform with pride as though it were a medal. He was small-minded, fawning and humiliatingly servile.