The Hunt for Pierre Jnr (45 page)

‘If you can hide, then hide. If you can run, run. But if you can hide no longer, and you are tired of running, then join us. We’ll be waiting.’

Even before her final words she was reaching out and nudging the minds of the nearby spectators. You didn’t need to put a thought in someone’s head. It was nearly impossible to craft a clear thought with compatible reasoning. People had stray thoughts all the time that they dismissed. Overheard lyrics, news items, a glanced conversation on the Weave. Rejected from the mind as alien.

Emotions on the other hand were rarely questioned. If someone felt happy, they rarely asked why. And when someone feels fear they don’t stop to wonder, they just look for what is causing it. Emotions are primal. She didn’t know why she hadn’t tried this before. It was so simple. As La Grêle had shown her and just as Arthur did it. Feel the emotions around and then push it back upon them.

Tamsin stepped down from the Shima gate and spread fear in pulses. They feared the psi before them and she created a feedback loop to turn their fear into panic. Tamsin pulsed again, stirring the pot until they started to move. Like spooked cattle, like the frightened herd they were, they began a stampede and she raised her cowl and disappeared into the maddened crowd.

~ * ~

Epilogue

~ * ~

Shen Li sat at his workbench, continuing to fuss with the metal sphere he had constructed. He was using a hot pin to seal in the fluid he had just injected. It was a delicate and repetitive process as each time he raised the temperature even slightly, the liquid expanded, forcing itself through holes he hadn’t completely sealed. He had been at it for hours.

‘Nearly done,’ he said to himself.

‘I’ll wait,’ somebody responded.

When he next looked up, the sensors told him that someone was in the room, but looking around he could see no one. It was impossible that anything could make it down here without him noticing, without him allowing access through the cage. He didn’t think he remembered doing that.

‘Who goes there?’ he ventured.

‘I am Pierre.’

A chill ran through him. ‘Are you the one they are looking for?’ No answer. ‘Can I see you, please?’

Shen blinked and in a chair beside him sat a boy. His head looked painfully large, but his eyes were placid.

‘Hello,’ Shen said.

‘Are you not afraid of me?’ the boy asked.

‘Are you as terrible as I’ve been told?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I suppose I should be honoured that you have come to visit me.’

‘I heard a lot about you. You have an interesting mind.’ ‘Thank you.’

‘You don’t think like others do.’

‘I try not to.’

‘Do you like it here? By yourself?’

‘Enough. I can’t think around the distractions of others.’

‘What are you working on?’

Shen sighed. ‘A toy.’

‘May I see it?’ The boy’s small hand reached toward him and Shen uncomplainingly placed the metal ball in his palm. ‘What does it do?’

‘It is meant to react to your thoughts. I’m not sure it works yet.’

‘Oh, I see now.’ The boy laughed, making Shen laugh too. ‘It is a good toy.’

‘I didn’t want to tell anyone.’

‘I understand. Is there anything else you want to tell me?’

‘Yes.’ Tears began flowing from Shen’s eyes.

‘It’s okay.’ The boy patted him. ‘You don’t have to say. I know already.’

‘Can you make it stop?’

‘Yes. I can do that for you.’

Shen wondered why he had been crying. He felt more buoyant than he had in a long time. He took a screwdriver to the far end of the room, to the reinforced door that ticked as if someone was on the other side. He tapped back to it with the tip of the screwdriver and the ticking stopped.

‘Why did you call him Kronos?’ a voice behind him asked. He turned to find a young boy standing near him. He seemed a boy of seven or eight, young at least, and dressed in fitted linen. Shen couldn’t remember where he had come from.

‘He was my eleventh experiment: K. I didn’t mean to name it; the word just sprang to mind.’

‘Why do you keep it?’

‘He was alive ... he is of my mind. It would be like killing myself and I couldn’t do it.’ He tapped again at the door. ‘Hello, me.’

‘Does it hurt you?’

Shen nodded. ‘He is going mad in there.’

‘Would you like me to make it better?’

Shen nodded again. There was such a pain in his heart for what he had done, birthing an innocent monster.

He didn’t know why he was leaning with his head pressed against the cool metal of the vault. He didn’t quite know where he was. Everything in the room looked familiar, it looked like he had been here before. He knew the tools, the scraps, where he was up to with each project. He knew this door.

‘Where does it go?’ he asked. No one answered. He seemed to be alone. Wasn’t there someone with him?

The door was secured with a code lock and a thick pin. It opened easily.

‘Kronos?’