Sins of the Father (15 page)

Briefly, a feeling of panic swept over him. He felt his chest tighten, the pulse at his temple pounding as hard and fast as his heart. Shaking, he took deep breaths and turned his mind to calming thoughts. Closing his eyes, he envisioned himself lying still and motionless in a serene white room, and used the techniques his therapists had taught him.

This room is my mind, he told himself. There is nothing to harm me here. There is nothing to be feared once I am inside it. When I am in the white room, I am always safe.

The spasm passed. His panic subsided. His pulse and his heart rate slowed, and returned to normal. His equilibrium restored, Joseph opened his eyes again and cautiously moved one of the boxes slightly to one side to allow him to open the refrigerator door. Taking the carton of synthi-milk from inside it, he quickly poured some over his plasti-flakes, mindful not to spill or drip any on the countertop. Next, replacing the carton in the refrigerator, he closed the door and moved the box back in place, spending several minutes shifting it fractionally back and forth until he was absolutely sure it was in exactly the same place as it had started. Pronouncing himself satisfied at last, he turned back to his breakfast, only to find himself confronted by sudden disaster.

He had spent so long re-positioning the box, his cup of synthi-caf had cooled and his plasti-flakes had gone soggy. His breakfast was ruined.

Sighing, he scraped the contents of the bowl into his kitchen dispose-all and poured the synthi-caf down after it. Cleaning the bowl, spoon and cup as the grinder in the dispose-all pulverised the remains of his abortive breakfast, Joseph picked up a towel to pat them dry and packed them away in another box. Then, he turned to the kitchen cupboards, the contents inside all shrink-wrapped and labelled, and set about making his breakfast again.

Abruptly, as he opened the door to the cupboard where he kept the plasti-flakes, he heard a small voice inside him, reminding him of the vow he had made only the night before. Last night, like every other night it seemed in as long as he could remember, before lying down to sleep he had promised himself the next day would be different. Come morning, he had told himself, he would begin to clear away the detritus that cluttered his life. He would go through the hundreds of boxes and crates that clustered in ceiling-high stacks throughout his apartment, he would sort through them and choose only those things inside that were of value, then he would throw the rest away. It was the same vow he made each and every night. Now, in the cold light of day, he reached the same decision he did every morning.

Tomorrow. He would leave it all until tomorrow.

Admittedly he had been promising himself the same thing for years, but this time he told himself he meant it. Tomorrow, he would clear the boxes away. Tomorrow, he would feel stronger. Tomorrow, he would overcome the tyranny of his fears and start his life afresh. Convinced that tomorrow, finally, his resolve would stand firm, he redoubled his efforts towards making breakfast. Tomorrow, he reassured himself, the thought like a prayer deep within his heart. Tomorrow, he would begin his life again, writing a new chapter in the book of his existence.

For Joseph Kapinski, there was always a tomorrow.

It was morning. The beginning of a brand new day.

It had been a long night. First, they had killed the man called Jimmy Nayles. Then, there had been all the hurry and bustle at the warehouse as the news spread that Jimmy Nayles was dead. In the space of barely an hour everything inside the warehouse had been packed up and put into vans to be taken away. Now, Leonard and Daniel sat in the back of a hover van with the other mutant workers as Freddie Binns drove them down towards City Bottom. But though Leonard was tired, and looked forward to sleep, Daniel did not seem ready yet to let go of his vengeance.

Remember your promise
, Daniel said as they sat in the back of the hover van.
You said you'd help me with the bad men. We should punish another one today, before you go to sleep. I don't want to have to wait until tonight
.

The next one doesn't live far away
, Daniel said, after another moment, continuing the theme.
We could go there and be back within the hour. We should go there now. I shouldn't have to wait until tonight
.

The windows in the back of the van were tinted so people outside couldn't see inside them, but one glance at the lightening sky in the distance told Leonard that daylight was fast approaching.

"But it's nearly dawn," he said to Daniel. "And I'm really tired."

He felt a vague current of unease pass through the van. Looking about him, Leonard saw the other mutants shift in their seats as they tried to pull further away from him without his noticing. Abruptly, he realised his mistake. He had spoken to Daniel out loud. To the other mutants, unaware of the boy's invisible presence, it no doubt seemed he was talking to himself. They probably thought he was crazy.

It's going to be daylight soon
, he told Daniel, careful this time to think the words in his head the way the little boy had taught him, instead of saying them aloud. A guard sat in the front of the van next to Freddie, and as Leonard continued his conversation with Daniel he saw the man gaze at him in suspicion. In response, Leonard tried to keep his face emotionless, concentrating on stopping his lips from moving as he spoke to Daniel.
You know I shouldn't go about in daylight. People might see me
.

But we can go through the sewers
, Daniel said. The boy's voice was insistent.
It'll be just like last time. Nobody will see you, Leonard. And it will only take an hour. Remember what you promised me
.

As he spoke, Daniel's face was set in an uncompromising line. It was an expression Leonard had seen often enough in the past to know there would be no use in arguing. Once Daniel had an idea in his head, he refused to give it up. He would go on and on about it, until Leonard finally gave in.

All right
, Leonard said at last. The hover van had left the streets and megways of the Big Meg behind and was descending towards City Bottom.
Once Freddie drops us at the hostel, we'll go find one of the bad men
. He sighed, as much in weariness as in sadness.
We'll find one and then we'll kill him
.

Satisfied by his answer, Daniel turned to look out the window and watch the world go by as the van slowly dropped down to City Bottom. Meanwhile, sitting beside him, Leonard thought of what lay ahead of them and felt sorry for the next man they would kill - whoever it might be.

He only hoped, this time, Daniel did not want him to cut any more messages into the body.

"All right, everybody out," Freddie said as the van pulled up outside the hostel. He pressed a button on his steering column and the side door of the van slid open. "I'll pick you all up tonight, at the usual place. 'Til then, get some sleep. There's going to be a lot of work tonight, getting the coffee lab back on track at a new location. Who knows, if we get things up and working fast, maybe the bosses might even pay everybody a ten-cred bonus." He turned in his seat and smiled at the mutants as they exited the van. "An extra ten credits each, boys. Think of that. I told you I'd help you all make money. Stick with me, friends. Freddie Binns will see you all right."

With that, Freddie closed the door and drove off, the hover van kicking up a choking flurry of dust as it rose clear of the darkness of City Bottom and made for the more lighted climes of the criss-crossing streets of the mega-city high above their heads. Yawning and muttering amongst themselves, the mutants turned to trudge wearily towards the hostel. Listening to them as they walked away, Leonard heard a familiar litany of complaints.

The majority opinion among the mutant labourers who worked in the coffee lab seemed to be that Freddie Binns was cheating them somehow. They complained about the quality of the clothing and food he brought for them. They complained about the place he had found for them to live; about the lack of amenities, and about how the nearest source of running water was a broken leaking pipe half a kilometre away. Most of all they complained about the prices Freddie charged for these services, and the deductions he made from their wages to cover breakages and his expenses. Admittedly, by the time Freddie had finished with his weekly deductions, the mutants were rarely allowed to keep more than a few credits from their wages as their own. All the same though, Leonard found his fellow mutants' dislike of their charge-boss to be confusing. It was hardly Freddie's fault if living in the city cost money. Besides, so far as Leonard could see, the mutants should be grateful.

The mutants owed everything to Freddie Binns. They relied on him for so many things: food, clothing, shelter, never mind their jobs. True, Freddie charged for all these services. True, he lived up in the city in luxury while the mutants were forced to live in the hostel. True, the place wasn't even really a hostel - it was a ruined apartment house, falling apart and abandoned like hundreds of other similar buildings all along City Bottom. Still, to Leonard's way of thinking, none of these things were Freddie's fault. The charge-boss could not be held responsible for the fact Leonard and the others had to live where they did. City Bottom was one of the few places in the city that the Judges almost never visited. That made it a safe haven for mutants. If Freddie's workers tried to live anywhere else in the city, all they would get for their troubles would be a quick ride back to the Cursed Earth. No, to Leonard's eyes, Freddie Binns was his saviour. Without him, Leonard would have never experienced the benefits of civilisation.

"You know, you've become a real civilised-looking mutie in the time I've known you, Lenny," Freddie had said to him once. "I remember what you looked like when I first found you. You remember that? Not that I'm casting aspersions, but the first time we met you put me in mind of one of them savage muties from the Cursed Earth like you see in the shows on Tri-D. You ever seen a Tri-D player, Lenny? Let me tell you, they're the bee's nuts. Maybe, if you earn enough money, you'll be able to buy a player one day and watch Tri-D for yourself. Wouldn't that be something! Anyway, first time I saw you, carrying that spear and dressed all in furs like some caveman from way-back-when, I'll admit I had my doubts. I thought to myself, there ain't no way this guy has got what it takes to make it in the city. But look at you now - wearing shoes and that nice new coat I brought you. You look civilised, Lenny. And for a civilised man in this city, the sky's the limit. Break my neck if I am lying."

"Break my neck if I am lying." It was one of Freddie's favourite expressions: the charge-boss used it all the time. But Leonard, who had broken more than a few necks over the years for one reason or another, would no more have tried to hurt Freddie than he would have Daniel. Granted, he did not see Freddie as a friend so much; Daniel was Leonard's only friend. In the time since he had met Freddie, though, Leonard had come to trust the charge-boss.

Admittedly, Freddie tended to exaggerate things at times. Leonard hadn't been wearing furs when he came to the city, though his clothes had been pretty threadbare and ragged. Nor had he been barefoot: though, again, the boots he had been wearing back then had holes in them and had seen better days. Granted, he had been carrying a spear, but that was only because he had made one to hunt with after he had run out of ammo for his rifle on the long trek from the Peterson farm to the city. The Petersons were the family who had raised Leonard in the Cursed Earth. They were his adopted family, not his real family, but they had raised him and taken care of him as good as though he had really been their blood. They had given him food and shelter, and taught him the ways of the wilderness, same as Freddie Binns was now teaching him the ways of the city. Freddie had guided Leonard ever since he had come to the city and he had never yet steered him wrong.

As for all the other stuff, the wage deductions and charges that Freddie imposed on the mutants, Leonard had come to understand it was part of the big thing called "civilisation" that Freddie talked about all the time. Civilisation was what living in Mega-City One was all about it. It meant you lived in an apartment, even if it was in a ruined building without windows. It meant you had money, and you used it to buy food and clothing. It meant you lived in safety, not having to spend all your time worrying whether raiders or Gila Munjas were going to try and sneak up on you to kill you.

Really, when Leonard thought about it, this whole civilisation thing didn't seem half bad.

We should get going
, Daniel said. The boy's voice was impatient.
We need to head north. There's an old access hatch to the sewers about half a kilometre awa
y.

Ahead, the other mutants had entered the hostel, leaving Leonard and Daniel standing alone amid the rubble and deserted streets of City Bottom as the sun began to rise. Reluctantly, Leonard took a last look at the hostel, thought about how much he needed his bed, and turned to begin walking in the direction Daniel had told him. As he did so, it occurred to him that while civilisation was all fine and good, there were things that were more important. Friendship, for one. Daniel was his friend, and that meant sometimes Leonard had to do things for him even if he didn't want to.

In this case, it meant somebody else was going to die.

It was a longer journey than Daniel had said. Leonard did not own a watch, but it seemed to take them hours. They went via the sewers, then from the sewers into the maze of underblock maintenance tunnels that ran everywhere beneath the city. From the maintenance tunnels, they made their way into the ventilation ducts of the housing block where the bad man lived, climbing higher and higher towards their destination. Until, at last, pushing aside a flimsy air-conditioning grille, Leonard finally emerged inside the bad man's apartment.

From there, like every step of the way before it, he simply did what Daniel told him.

Joseph Kapinski was cleaning his teeth in the bathroom when he heard the crash.