Mortal Lock (31 page)
Authors: Andrew Vachss
Tags: #Collections & Anthologies, #Mystery & Detective, #Fiction, #Suspense, #Thrillers, #General
CUT TO:
BUREAUCRAT
Every
Rule is for your own good. That’s because every Rule is for
everyone’s
good.
NARRATOR
Where the break really started—the one between the Rulers and the Book Boys, I mean—was probably about the Bad Babies. A Bad Baby is one born against the Rules. You can’t have sex until Year 14 if you are a boy. And not until Year 17 if you are a girl. The Bad Babies all came from girls under Year 17 since those girls must have had sex before it was allowed.
If a girl had a Bad Baby, she would have to go into one of the Medical Tunnels and get fixed. After that, she couldn’t have babies anymore.
CUT TO A MESSAGE FROM THE BOOK BOYS:
MAKE THE RULES
TIE THE TUBES
BUT THAT HEX WON’T STOP THE SEX
NARRATOR
But the Bad Babies kept happening.
If the Rulers want to know something, they send you to a Synapse Squad. They put this metal band around your head and ask you the questions. Then they just look at the screen and they know the truth. But everybody knows this doesn’t work on girls.
So when a girl would get pregnant before she was allowed, the Rulers would make every boy she knew go to a Synapse Squad.
But sometimes, no matter how far they looked, they couldn’t find the boy who was guilty.
CUT TO:
A man in a lab coat, looking at DNA profiles on a large screen, shaking his head
.
NARRATOR
Remember, the Rulers
never
give up. They started checking the Bad Baby’s own spray. That’s when they found out that the father of those girls was also the father of their babies. The father
was
the father, that’s what the Book Boys wrote. In blue.
The fathers were old enough to have sex, but their daughters weren’t. Anyway, children belong to their parents; they own them. Everybody knows that.
So the Rulers made an Exception. An Exception is when the Rules don’t apply. Whenever a girl had a Bad Baby, they would put her on the HydroFarm. While a girl was pregnant, she wasn’t much good to her owners, anyway. They eat more; and they work less, even if you beat them. Nobody wanted them in the Sex Tunnels either. That wasn’t fair to the owners, so the Rulers took the babies, and paid the fathers compensation-credits.
After the girl did her punishment time, the Rulers would send her back to her own spray, if they still wanted her. If not, they just let her go.
CUT TO:
Adolescent girl standing on a platform, waiting for a Conveyor. The HydroFarm is in the background: It looks like row after row of different kinds of plants, all being hand-harvested by various individuals wearing
the same ecru-colored uniforms with red stripes, working under a sky of Gro-Lights. The girl is holding a plastic carry-all marked DISCHARGE in one hand. She looks more frightened than relieved
.
CUT TO:
On the Wall, in Blue:
WHEN YOU CAN’T CHANGE PEOPLE
JUST CHANGE THE RULES
FOOLS
NARRATOR
Now, if you’re the owner of a girl, you have to bring her to the Medical Tunnel when she reaches Year 11. They give her an implant there, a little fan-shaped thing, five lines with a star at the base. They put it on the outside of the right thigh, where anyone could see it.
The implants work for six years, so there won’t be any more Bad Babies.
A young male steps out of the shadows, a heavy duffel of some thick material slung over one shoulder, with a clearly visible locking device on its top. He is staring at the latest posting of the Book Boys:
YOU CAN’T TAKE THE CREDIT
IF YOU DON’T MAKE THE CREDITS
When he speaks, we realize it is the same VOICE we have been hearing; this is the voice of HEXON, as he explains:
HEXON
(V/O)
My name is Hexon. Even though a Warlock named me, I am a Merchant Boy. People buy and sell stuff all the time. There’s even a Barter Tunnel, where you can trade without worrying about getting your stuff stolen … but you need credits to get in there. Only Merchant Boys work in the Black Market, outside the Charted Zone. We deal in anything. And everything we score goes into our vault. Merchant Boys share. We get
our
marks from bringing in stuff, not from keeping it.
CUT TO:
Hexon offloading his duffel. An older man checks off every item; others carry the stacked-up goods away
.
HEXON
I was the one who heard the whisper first: someone wanted to buy the Bad Babies. That was crazy. With the implants, how could there be any more of the Bad Babies.
But I remembered a message I saw once …
CUT TO:
WHAT CAME FIRST : GREED OR NEED?
HEXON
(V/O)
That’s what Merchant Boys do—we scout for new opportunities. New frontiers, we call them. You have to start in the Charted Zone, but you have
to be
very
careful in the Open Tunnels. There’s a No-Name crew in some of them. They went in there to hide. The Book Boys wrote that it was the Game Boys who started it. Then the Dancing Girls got in on it, too. Killing. Not for stuff, for marks. Marks on their crew clothes. It was like a contest. They only killed No-Names—“bums” they called them.
None of the crews play that game anymore, but you still have to be careful in the Edge-Tunnels. Some of the No-Names never came out, even after the killing stopped. And if they think you’re hunting them, you won’t be coming out either.
CUT TO:
Mob of bums, tearing apart a pair of bodies
.
HEXON
(V/O)
There’s an endless market for baby parts. Hearts are worth the most, but even spares—like kidneys and lungs—are worth a lot of credits. I heard you used to be able to just buy the parts, right in the Medical Tunnel. That’s what the Rulers used the Bad Babies for.
CUT TO VISUAL OF A BOOK BOYS MESSAGE:
THE TRANSPLANTS ARE A FAKE
THE ORGANS NEVER TAKE
THERE ARE NO BAD BABIES
IF YOU BUY THAT LIE, YOUR BABY DIES
HEXON
(V/O)
Now it’s against the Rules to sell a baby for parts. Of course, some people do it anyway, because some mothers and fathers will pay anything to keep their own babies alive.
Underground is a weird place: some mothers and fathers will kill their babies for the credits. And some mothers and fathers, if you even
asked
them about doing that, they’d kill
you
.
The Rules don’t protect babies, because some people will always risk breaking a Rule if there’s enough credits in it for them. Maybe that’s why there’s such a monster Bounty on any Book Boy: they keep telling everyone that, over and over.
CUT TO:
A RULE IS A TOOL
WALK THE PATH, BECOME THE PATH
HEXON
(V/O)
I spent thirteen days in the Open Tunnels, but I couldn’t pick up a clue. Not a whisper, not a trail, not even a scent.
SHOW:
Hexon talking with various people, sometimes furtively, sometimes at a table in what looks like a bar, sometimes using sign language
.
HEXON
(V/O)
Some of the Traders had heard the same whisper I had, but they all thought it was too crazy to be true. Even down here.
I don’t know why, but I wanted to know. The longer I stayed out, the more I needed to find the answer. If the Book Boys said there are no Bad Babies, it must be true. So how could there be a price on them?
SHOW:
Hexon penetrating into the Uncharted Zone. Sometimes, he is recognized, sometimes he hides. Once, he encounters a crew of Bums. He squats, opens his duffel, and hands out various small items
.
HEXON
(V/O)
I went out past the Open Tunnels, past the Black Market, looking for the crew that wanted the Bad Babies.
But I never found anything except those freakish Zone Rats. The noise they make is something you never forget once you hear it.
SHOW:
The mutated rats, their tiny heads almost completely dominated by eyes. They are
much
bigger than conventional rats, and come in every color (and combination of colors) imaginable
.
HEXON
(V/O)
It’s really dark outside the Charted Zone, except for the little pools of light where traffickers set up shop. That’s why it’s called the Black Market, I guess—it’s mostly black, with just little spots of light.
I kept moving, using my crystal-flash only once in a while, to preserve the charge. Once I thought I saw a dog … just a flash of fur, I guess. But it was way too big to be a rat … even a Zone Rat.
I was on my way back when I stopped into a provisions stand near the Rim. They only sell maintenance food, like water or freeze-dry. Zoners too—some of the prospectors won’t go outside the Charted Zone without them.
CUT TO:
Hexon standing at the Provisions Stand, neither casual nor nervous. A girl steps up into view, holding out a plastic card. She is much shorter than Hexon, fairly slim, but with bare, muscled arms. Caucasian, lighter-skinned than Hexon, but not subway-pale
.
GIRL
(business-like)
Four freeze-dries; two green; two white.
Hexon opens his mouth to say something, then slams it shut. Realizing she is about to leave, he approaches
.
HEXON
(proffering his pack)
Would you like a smoke?
GIRL
(polite, but very clear)
No, thank you.
The Girl walks away. Hexon’s eyes are drawn to her hips—a natural reaction, given her more-than-necessary wiggle—when he realizes she is wearing the skin-tight black pants of a Dancing Girl [Note: we should SEE this image within-an-image]. She turns her head slightly, looks back over her shoulder. Hexon immediately forgets any thoughts of razors
.
They find a place to sit—a makeshift bench just a little past the halo of light from the Provisions Stand
.
GIRL
(facing Hexon; straightforward)
My name is Fyyah. Not like the kind that burns. F like Favor, Y like Yellow, Y like Yellow, A like Apple, H like Happy.
HEXON
That’s a beautiful name. Mine is Hexon. But it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t put hexes on people; I’m a Merchant Boy.
FYYAH
Then you already know what I am.
HEXON
A Dancing Girl, you mean? That’s not what you are—that’s just the crew you’re in.
FYYAH
If it doesn’t mean anything, why did you tell me you’re a Merchant Boy?
HEXON
(looking down)
’Cause I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t want you to go. I wanted to say something, I don’t know … cool? But I’m no good at talking to girls.
FYYAH
(giving him an appraising look)
You’re doing pretty good so far.
PULL OUT TO:
Hexon and Fyyah talking. Sometimes earnestly, sometimes very serious, occasionally smiling. They are sitting close, but not touching. Clear impression that a great deal of time has passed, as different people keep walking back and forth in front of them. Everyone who passes draws a look from both of them—threat assessment—but nobody looks in their direction … they’re all there on business of one kind or another
.
FYYAH
I … I wish I could keep … I wish I could just stay here. But I have to find a place to sleep. The cold is coming, and we’re out too deep to make it back across to the lights.
HEXON
I could—
FYYAH
(sharply, with a hint of disappointment)
I don’t trade, Hexon. I know some of the Dancing Girls work the Sex Tunnels, but we don’t
have
to, and I never would. I’m not trading sex for a night in one of the Stay-Overs.
HEXON
(angry and hurt)
I wasn’t going to say anything like that. I already knew you wouldn’t—
FYYAH
(turning to face him; seriously interested)
How? How could you know something like that?
HEXON
Like what?
FYYAH
That I wouldn’t …
HEXON
I just knew. I always know … things like that, I mean. I’m a Merchant Boy, but a Warlock named me. Maybe that’s why. Because I always
do
know, for real. That’s why I’m the top Merchant Boy—I never get cheated.
FYYAH
What’s that got to do with sex? I thought you weren’t even any good at
talking
to girls.
HEXON
Not sex things,
trade
things. I can always tell when somebody wants something, and what they’ll give for it.
FYYAH
(not sure what to make of this statement)
Oh.
HEXON
You could use my sleep-tube. It’s right in my pack; a 33-Z, the very best, one hundred percent Raytell. It’s even got a heat exchanger and a bubble visor. Sometimes I’m out here for a few cycles at a time, so I need to carry one.