Requiem (19 page)

'I think
you
just need to get arrested by more open-minded
people.'

'I didn't get
arrested.'

'Well you're
locked in this cage aren't you?'

'It's not a-
wait, I should be angry at you right now.'

'You're always
angry.'

'Shut up.
You're the one who told me to go back to Earth to follow up on that
message.'

'I told you to
go talk to a woman, not get kidnapped by the Yurrick special ops
and imprisoned in what must be the most boring city in the known
galaxy.'

'I'm not
imprisoned. And you're the whole reason I'm in this mess
anyway!'

'This situation
has your name written all over it.'

'You don't even
know what the situation is!'

'It could
bloody well be anything with you. I bet it has something to do with
that big fucking blank spot in your memory.'

'Hello pot. I'm
kettle. And I'm black.'

'What are you
talking about?'

'I bet that you
can't even remember what you did last week. That's what I'm talking
about.'

'That's
different. I'm in mourning right now.'

'You took a
hundred grams of Angel Dust all because Danny Zephyr threatened you
with a restraining order.'

'You know Danny
and I were made for each other.'

'You were
running all over the station for five days.'

'We all have
our own coping mechanisms.'

'You were
naked.'

'So?'

'You tried
cooking a chicken in a tanning bed.'

Belameir smiled
proudly. 'Don't pretend you didn't think that was a good idea,' he
said, no longer feigning indignity. He casually walked around the
room and examined it as if he were thinking of moving in. 'Speaking
of coping. Tell me what's going on here so we can figure out how to
start having fun. So you went to meet whatserface. Abercrombie?
Amapur? What was her name?'

'Abigail.'

'Right. You
went to meet Abigail and then what happened?'

'She gave me a
blackbox,' said Seline, directing her eyes towards the floor.

'And that's
it?'

'And NeoCorp
kind of got involved.'

'NeoCorp? What
do they have to do with anything?'

'The Yurrick
didn't tell you?'

'Well, I was
kind of passed out on Cynthia's couch when they came and got me. I
don't think they could be bothered waiting around. Hell, I only
woke up about thirty minutes ago.'

'Why am I not
surprised?'

'To be honest,
I would have been surprised if you were. More importantly, what did
you do to piss NeoCorp off?'

'They want the
blackbox, apparently.'

'Wait, why did
Abigail give you the blackbox in the first place?'

'… It was my
mother's. She was returning it.'

Belameir
thought for a moment. 'So is that what this is all about? Your
mother?'

'Pretty
much.'

'So where's the
blackbox? What's on it?'

'They gave it
back to me just before you arrived. They think-'

'Who
thinks?'

'The Yurrick
and NeoCorp, I guess.' Seline went on to tell Belameir about who
her mother was, about what kind of information might have been
stored on the blackbox, and the type of memory encryption that had
led to the sudden interest in her existence. Belameir had relaxed
himself on the sofa as she retold her story. Her vague
generalisations were often interrupted and made specific by his
frequent questions.

She looked
across at Belameir, chewing his nails and picking at the dirt caked
beneath them. He flicked some of the dirt onto the floor. 'So let
me get this straight,' he said. 'By virtue of being your friend
I've officially become a wanted terrorist?'

'Afraid so,'
she said.

He peeked over
the top of the sofa at her. 'You know what I think? I think you're
enjoying this.'

'There's no way
I'm enjoying this as much as you are. You've been trying to get on
that list your whole life.'

'That's not
even funny,' he said, getting up from the sofa and walking towards
the window.

'Oh, I get it.
You just don't like that I had to do it for you. I stole your
thunder, didn't I?'

'No, that's not
it.' He hesitated for a second as if he were afraid to let the
words slip unguarded from his lips. 'I just think it's unfair that
your bounty is fifty thousand credits. That's twice mine! And not
only that, they want you alive and 'unharmed' while they're more
than happy to let me be beaten half to death on their way to you.
I'm starting to have doubts about these NeoCorp guys. I don't think
they're really interested in being fair at all.'

For the first
time in days she finally relaxed, if only a fraction. She poured a
cup of coffee for herself and a bourbon for Belameir. She walked
over and handed it to him. He took it without comment.

'Pretty nice
view for a prison cell,' she said.

'It's alright I
guess. Looks like a fake movie set or something. It's too tidy,
like they're hiding something.'

'And you call
me cynical.'

'It's called
being cautious. And it's got me this far.'

'From what I
can see, you're about as far as I am.'

'You can't tell
me these guys aren't hiding something. How can you trust somebody
with black eyes? Not to mention their complete inability to express
any sort of emotion outside of condescending indifference.' He
looked at Seline. 'No wonder you like them so much, you fit right
in.'

'I didn't say I
liked them. They just aren't actively trying to kill me.'

At that moment
Mercer walked in from the hallway. He opened the refrigerator and
stared into it, considering its contents for a long time, both real
and hypothetical. Seline and Belameir watched him quietly. He
finally closed the door and looked over.

'Belameir,
right?' he said.

'Yeah,'
Belameir replied.

'You're a lot
taller than I imagined,' said Mercer as he filled a glass from the
dispenser and disappeared from the kitchen.

'You've only
been here a day and you're already sleeping with one of them?'
whispered Belameir. 'Why didn't you tell me he was here, you
hussy?'

'I'm not
sleeping with Mercer.'

'Then what's he
doing here?'

'He's my
“guardian”', she said before lying back on the couch. 'I just
forgot he was here for a moment. Why does it matter anyway?'

'Well, how the
hell are we going to escape with a guard in the next room?'

'What do you
mean escape? You just got here. You barely know what's going
on.'

'I know
enough.' He looked at Seline who was now lying on her stomach on
the couch with an arm dangling over the side, her cup of coffee
resting on the low table. 'Alright then, what's
your
plan?'

Seline shrugged
and pouted her lips. 'We wait, I guess.'

'We wait?
That's your solution to everything.' He sat up and approached the
door. 'If you want to wait then you can do it on your own
time.'

'Why do you
want to leave so badly?'

'Why do I want
to leave? Oh, I dunno, so that they don't lobotomise me as I
sleep?'

'You're the one
who told me humans and Yurrick are practically the same species. I
thought you'd be a bit more trusting.'

Belameir didn't
reply. He turned and walked out the front doors.

'I doubt you'll
be allowed to leave here,' said Seline, getting up to follow
him.

They stood at
the balustrade where the maglev carts docked. 'Not everyone wants
to lobotomise you, by the way,' she said.

Belameir looked
over the lip of the building. 'Name one person.'

Seline said
nothing.

'How do you
call a cab in this place?' asked Belameir.

'How would I
know?'

A cart quietly
pulled up to the docking platform they were standing on. Seline
shrugged. 'Voice activated, I guess.' The cab door opened. Belameir
stepped in. Seline glanced back over her shoulder but there was no
sign of Mercer.

'You have no
idea what you're doing do you?' she said to Belameir.

'Nope. That's
why you're coming with me.'

'Just...
promise me you'll keep your clothes on.'

Belameir smiled
as Seline stepped into the cart.

They sailed
above the city with no idea how to direct or control the maglev
cart. The map, displayed on a small screen on the wall told them
they were en route to The Cardian Institute for Research and
Education but offered them no means to divert from their
course.

'This doesn't
feel right,' said Belameir, staring out the window and repeatedly
opening and closing a thin, stainless steel cigarette case.

'Well, you're
the one who wanted to leave.'

'They're
probably rail-roading us straight to the meat-works.'

'The Cardian
Institute for Research and Education? Doesn't exactly sound like a
meat-works. I would guess we're just going to the most frequently
programmed destination from that apartment or maybe that's the last
place it visited.'

'It was a
prison not an apartment,' Belameir corrected.

'Well, I kinda
liked it.'

'Yeah but
you're a masochist.' Belameir looked out the window of the cart.
'Do you think those trees and lakes down there are fake?'

'Why would they
be fake?'

'Have you
still
not read a Cole Bram novel?'

'Who the hell
is Cole Ram?'

'I've told you
about Cole
Bram
about a hundred times. I gave you all thirty
books in his thirty volume series
The Invisible Sleuth and the
Martyrs of Time
.'

Seline
shrugged.

'Well that's
the last time I give you my recommendations for reading.'

Seline traced a
finger from her eye down over her cheek, indicating a tear. 'Oh,
actually that reminds me. I got a present for you,' she said. 'A
book.'

'A book?' said
Belameir. 'You mean an actual, physical book?'

'Yeah. I got it
from Abigail. Remind me to give it to you later.'

'What's it
about?'

'It's that
Sherlock Holmes guy you keep going on about.'

'Sherlock
Holmes?! He's pretty much the reason Cole Bram started
writing.'

Belameir was
about to explain to Seline, for the third time, the 'spine
shanking' quality of Cole Bram's prose when the cart came to a
stop. They stepped onto the cab landing, avoiding eye contact with
the idle Yurrick populating the concourse.

They walked
through the crowd to the curved face of the building which was
rising like a great frozen wave of glass to hang over the
forecourt.

'Where are we
going?' Seline muttered to Belameir.

'In there, I
guess,' he said.

'This all seems
a little too easy don't you think?' Seline asked Belameir.

'That's what
I've been trying to tell you. We're just like Sage and Francis in
Mired Sleuth and Shameful Martyrs
. They're planning
something, I'm sure.'

'I was thinking
more along the lines that we're actually allowed to be here.'

'You're too
naïve for your own good, Seline.'

A few weary
faces turned to observe the two humans as they passed inside and
directly through the foyer. Something about the stark alertness in
Belameir's face and the strained confidence in Seline's walk gave
them away. Not that anyone seemed to care what they were doing.

Once they had
passed into the building the murmurings of the crowd outside
vanished into nothing and were replaced by the hollow sounds of
their own footsteps upon the polished stone floor. The entire
building appeared empty.

'Do you have
any idea where we are?' Seline asked.

'No. I can't
even access the exonet around here.'

'Me
neither.'

They stopped in
the centre of a large, sunbathed antechamber. They looked over the
room, figuring which of the doorways or stairs or open corridors
they should take. Seline noticed a large patterned disk engraved in
the smooth marble finish on the ceiling. The sunlight exaggerated
the rippling textures and faded colours of the image. There was
some kind of script running the edge of its circumference but she
couldn't make sense of it.

A bustling
sound came from behind one of the doors. They were frozen in the
centre of the room. A voice, female, Yurrick, came from one of the
rooms; it was impossible to tell which room it came from but the
voice was unmistakeable. Seline sprinted off in some apparently
random direction. Belameir noticed her running, almost on the tips
of her toes, trying to remain silent. He followed her up one of the
staircases.

'Why are you
running?' he said.

'Shh!'

'Why are you
running?' he whispered.

'Sorry, I
panicked.'

'Well, you're
still
panicking.'

They stopped at
the top of the stairwell and crouched down to the floor. One of the
doors opened and a classroom's worth of Yurrick students began to
pour out into the antechamber. Seline scoured the faces in the
crowd and found who she was looking for. Blueish-green skin, long,
slender limbs, thin, slanted eyes.

Seline thought
about calling out to her but the memory of her fist colliding with
the centre of Therin's face kept her mouth shut. She watched
silently and realised that Therin was heading towards the
stairs.

'Shit,' she
said.

'What?'

Seline pointed
at Therin. 'I punched her in the face the other day and I'm pretty
sure she's mad as hell. We have to get out of here.'

Still
crouching, she moved away from the stairwell with Belameir close
behind.

'What hand did
you use?' he asked behind her.

Seline noticed
a door with a thin, slit window down its side. She pointed it out
to Belameir. Belameir shuffled past Seline and pressed his body
flat against the wall. He looked across at Seline.