Freedom Incorporated (15 page)

“
Do you mind
if I stay here?” Jen dreaded returning things to their place of
purchase, even if it was just an Elustra store. “I don’t feel
comfortable-”

“
I know,”
Samantha said, cutting her off again. She smiled and added, “It’s
okay. I understand, remember?”

Jen breathed
easier. “Thanks.” Everybody had something he or she couldn’t do.
For Jen it was returning clothes, pulling the bits of soapy hair
from the shower drain, and visiting her mother. Samantha
understood; she had
quirks
of her own.

“
I’ll be back
in a moment.”

“
Okay, I’ll be
here,” Jen said as she watched Samantha reintegrate with the crowd
on the main arterial walkway
.

An elderly man
shuffled past on his way to the medical centre and
she heard
the
automatic doors
whir
r
before
a hospital smell
engulfed her. There she waited, patiently
observing the passers-by and absently wondering how the
consumerist-cycle had so thoroughly sucked everybody in.

*

The Raven irritably
paced, incapable of ordering himself to stand still. The swish of
his cloak and the squeak of hard leather boots complemented the
sound of rubber squealing on an overly waxed floor whenever he
pivoted on his heels.

He froze.

Was this
it?
He listened with his mind, feeling a
slight vibration in his temples that meant something important was
about to happen. The vibration rapidly spread to his back teeth and
he knew he was about to receive the omen he so desperately desired.
It shivered in front of his vision, a gelatinous eye, staring back
at him with cold hatred in its piercing gaze. The Raven waited,
obediently. He dared not ask questions, all he could do was wait
for the signal. He risked flicking his gaze to the girls below. The
innocent one was walking away, leaving the Cameron girl
alone.
Perfect timing.
He wired his mouth shut
lest
he
start
beg
ging
for his omen.

The other
patrons in the mall ignored him. To them, he was just another drunk
lunatic staring into space, drooling at something his eyes alone
could see. The Raven was fine with that; he cared nothing for the
cattle around him.
He
was the hunter and
they
were the prey – things for him to
use and toss aside as need dictated. They were certainly not worthy
of human compassion, if he were still capable of such a
feat.

He quivered slightly,
feeling a sudden chill as the eye puffed up larger than he
remembered it ever swelling before. It was football sized now and
still growing. Finally, it spoke into his mind with a volume that
made his knees tremble.

“
I give thee
sanction.”

The Raven bowed in
respect and started backing away, irritating the cattle nearby and
eliciting more than one oath.

He said merely, “It shall
be done in your honour.”

*

Jen was
absently tapping a rhythm on the seat cushions, lost in thought
when the commotion began. It all happened so quickly her mind
couldn’t untangle the blur of activity. She first noticed something
was wrong, very wrong, when a brute of a man slammed into her at
chest height and she thumped her head on the unyielding tile floor.
She reeled from the shock and her vision faded briefly to white
before recovering to a dull semblance of its former clarity. A
distant, disengaged part of her mind warned that she was
concussed.
What was
that?
She heard something that sounded like
shattering glass.
An
earthquake?
Her mind hesitantly offered the
answer but she quickly rejected it. Elustra giga-malls were
earthquake proof.

What
then?
She brought her head off the chilly
floor to find the man pressing her down. “What?”

“
Shut up.” He
snapped roughly and thrust her
down
more forcefully. His voice rasped like a chainsaw
badly in need of oil.
But what
else?
Jen wondered. There was an important
piece of information she knew she couldn’t grasp in her stunned
state.

I’m being
robbed.
It was the next most logical
conclusion, though at that moment she didn’t realise he’d demanded
nothing of her except silence. She tried reaching for her wallet
but couldn’t move her arms, he’d pinned them to the ground behind
the bench.

She turned her head and
saw the bench: a solid block of old-growth wood, carved with seats
and padded with cushions. It was a corpse. It had been alive for
centuries until someone had attacked it with a chainsaw. Such
details were lost on most mall patrons. But if someone hadn’t
forced Jen into such a supine position, she wouldn’t have noticed
either.

Is that
it?
She wondered with dread whether he was
going to use the solid frame of the bench as cover for rape. Her
head was starting to clear.
No, it’s too
visible from the medical centre.
It
frustrated her not to know what was going on.
What then?

As suddenly as he’d
knocked her to the ground, he yanked her up, nearly wrenching her
arm from its socket. He certainly wasn’t a weakling; he could toss
her around like a rag doll.

Like a leopard
carrying its prey, the man thrust her into the corner and shoved
her against a mock-stone pillar. She got her first look at him. He
was 30-something and quite good looking
with
a cleft in his chin that she’d
always admired in her father. He looked neatly groomed, though his
choice in clothing spoke volumes about his disdain for modern
fashion. He reminded her of a thug, except he couldn’t possibly be
one. Thuggery was dead, forgotten to everyone except Hollywood
producers. But his bulky clothing couldn’t conceal the vitality of
his frame and it alarmed her to think about his willingness to
handle her so roughly.
What else might he
be capable of?

His eyes were
feral. She recognised something viciously animalistic
burn
ing
deep within
him and fretted that he might aim it at her. He appeared to be
searching for something in the crowd.
Nobody’s noticed.
The truth shocked
her.
How could he do this without anyone
lifting a finger?
Her stunned silence gave
way to anger and she squirmed under his vice-like grip only to have
his fingers bite harder on her flesh.

“
What the fuck
do you think-” Jen’s voice was shrill with fury but she didn’t get
any further.

“
I told you to
shut up.” He spoke with such calm authority that disobedience
didn’t occur to her. His voice was different now, cold, detached.
It retained none of the raw energy that’d perforated his words
before.
Businesslike?
She couldn’t be sure, but neither could she fathom how he
remained calm after doing something so anti-social.

Jen’s head was
pounding with a latent headache from the knock
.
S
he tried to
move an arm to feel where her scalp
was
st
inging,
but couldn’t budge under his
control. “Ouch.” Her whisper was barely more than a wince but it
instantly transformed her captor. He lessened his grip and
permitted her to trance a finger along the bruise at the back of
her head. It was already swelling into a lump but there wasn’t any
blood.

“
Where the
fuck do you get off pushing me
around
like th
is
?” Jen kept her voice low and it was
nearly cracking on every word. She didn’t really feel in danger,
not with so many people and cameras around. Elustra security would
be there soon.
Won’t
they?
But that brought perils too.
They
’
d be sure to
discover she was unchipped and hand her to the resident chipping
squad for surgery. That though brought primal fear to her eyes and
she froze.
What if he
is
a chipping
officer?
The idea revolted her.
How could I have been so
careless?
She cursed herself for coming to
Elustra
and fervently hoped Samantha would
escape a similar fate.

“
Let me go.”
She wriggled with all the strength she could muster but it was
useless in his grasp. He squeezed harder on her wrist until she was
sure the ligaments were about to separate. His other hand was
pinning her right shoulder to the column and she may as well have
been struggling against a thousand tonnes.

He thrust her harder
against the pillar and the jolt freshened the bruise on the back of
her head, ending her struggle.

“
What part of
‘shut-up’ don’t you understand?” His frustration felt rushed and he
only took his eyes off the crowd
for
long enough
to scowl
quickly at her.
“Do you want to
die?”

The question caught her
by surprise and she stammered, “N-no, of course not.”

“
Then relax
and listen very carefully.” He let go of her shoulder and pulled an
oversized handgun from a holster
concealed
by
his jacket. Jen stared at the black
carbon-steel barrel, fascinated by the fact that he felt the need
to draw a weapon on her. It didn’t register in her dazed mind that
he wasn’t aiming it at her. “There’s a bounty-hunter over there,
and he’s coming this way.” Dan waited a few seconds, allowing time
for his words to sink in. “Do you understand what I’m
saying?”

Jen nodded, mute. She
thought she did.

“
He’s coming
over here to kill you.” Dan emphasised it with a
piercing
look, then his
eyes roved the crowd again, looking for signs of his nemesis. He
knew he was there, he’d seen him. He was close – close enough to
fire those damned glass pellets. Three of them
would
’
ve struck Jen
in the chest if he hadn’t knocked her from the bench. “You’ve been
targeted for apprehension by the WEF,” Dan said. “They’ve
authorised him to kill you if you don’t co-operate, but he’s not
the sort to ask politely. Do you understand?” He needed to be sure
she comprehended everything he was saying. If she struggled when he
made his move, the Raven would kill her and it would place him in
jeopardy.

“
Yes.” She was
too stunned to say anything else. She
stared at
him with wide-eyed
suspicion, wondering whether
he
was the real hunter.
At least that would explain the
gun.
But then another possibility crossed
her mind:
What if he’s an
activist?
The thought of an altruistic
activist saving her from a bounty hunter appealed to her
romantically
,
but
reality quickly shattered the struts that held those thoughts
aloft.
How would he know? And why choose
to help now?

“
You don’t
believe me,” Dan said, reading her expression.

“
I don’t
know.” At least she was honest.

Dan grunted. “Well make
up your mind.” He released her and she nearly collapsed on unsteady
knees. “He’s coming this way and I’m not staying here to argue with
him. You can follow me if you want, but if you head that way,” – he
nodded in the direction of the thinning crowd – “it’s your
funeral.”

Jen scanned
the throng, trying to find something that would corroborate his
story. Nothing.
Bloody
nothing.
She either had to trust him on
faith alone or not at all. She searched his face. There was no fear
in his copper-green eyes. There was something seasoned about them,
something that spoke of routine and repetition.
Maybe he’s deliberately luring me away. Maybe he has
something devious or perverted in mind.
The
seconds dragged by and he expected an answer. And Jen didn’t know
how much longer he’d wait for one.

“
Okay, what do
you want me to do?” The cautious part of her mind screamed for her
to reverse the decision.
It’s a trap.
Surely it’s a trap. And not a very original one
either.
But another part, a more trusting
and naïve part that believed people were essentially good-natured,
overruled it.

Dan nodded once and said,
“Wise decision.” The impish smile that flirted briefly across his
lips didn’t help reassure Jen that she’d made the right choice.
“He’s close. I don’t know where and that makes me nervous. But he’s
fired at you already so he probably has a clear line of sight.” He
waved at the glass that was glistening on the bench and the floor.
Sticky black fluid – nanotoxin – was oozing down the
cushions.

Jen eyed it warily,
remembering the sound of shattering glass but having no idea what
it meant. It wasn’t the solid confirmation she was looking for,
this strange man could’ve planted the shards himself.