4
When the strange girl returned and left the bright, shiny coin by the food she had put on the grass beside him, Alex Chang rolled over and watched in fascination as she disappeared. Fortunately, the terrifying animal he had thought was about to savage him went as well. Had he heard of such things? Tame animals? Yes, dimly. He had hardly thought the tales could actually be true, though. Did that mean it had worked?
He was confused and dizzy. He couldn’t remember who he was, let alone where. There’d been a hum; that was the first thing that came back to him. He remembered a blurring in his eyes. Then nothing. All the chatter in his head suddenly stopped, leaving him in a terrifying silence. He kept his eyes closed, trying to calm himself, then carefully started to breathe. That was all right. The air was warm, but full of strange smells, things he had never smelt before. Not unpleasant, certainly.
Then he began to sneeze; he searched around in his head for an explanation but there was nothing. Panic swept over him; it took some time to discipline himself and analyse the situation. Pollen, dust, particles of organic matter, came the answer eventually. The unfiltered air was thick with it. Some part of his mind took over, and gradually the spasms were isolated and confined, then controlled, leaving only one thought hammering away at his consciousness.
Eat. You have to eat. An odd idea, as he didn’t feel hungry. Far from it. One part of his mind was urging him to eat, another part rebelled at the very notion and knew it would make him sick. Reluctantly and carefully, he reached over and picked up the thing the girl had given him. It looked disgusting. Oval, a light brown colour, squashy with a slight feel of grease oozing out as he squeezed it. He sniffed it cautiously, then recoiled, revolted. It came from an animal.
But the urging returned. Eat. Eat. Very carefully, he put it to his lips, tried not to smell it, and bit. Then again, and again, stuffing the little cake into his mouth, almost choking, and swallowing.
Immediately thoughts, memories, sensations flooded back into his mind, jumbled, confused, meaningless, but a whole range of images and recollections, so many he could not absorb or listen, or interpret anything. He concentrated, trying to pick out one as a start. History. It meant nothing. A renegade. Finally, an image of two men formed, one standing. A tall man, curly hair, powerfully built. He felt slightly afraid of this man, but also pleased. Why? More. That was the name. His name was Jack More. What about the other? A slight, cowed, timid-looking fellow. Sitting down, an air of cautious resentment. He realised he must be looking at himself. He lay back on the grass, closed his eyes and tried to relax. The scene pieced itself together, and he remembered the conversation with Jack More. Two days ago? A countless age? Or a mirage? He had no idea.
‘You were one of Angela Meerson’s team, I believe,’ More said. ‘I have been asked to interview everyone to see if they have any useful information.’
It was a few hours after Angela had vanished, and the entire place was in a state of panic. Chang knew that More had questioned many of those who had worked with her, and would be questioning many more in due course. He didn’t mind; everybody had their job to do and he was perfectly polite, almost diffident in the way he put his questions. Many would have put on a show of authority to demonstrate how powerful they were.
‘That’s right. I am a physicist by training, although my job here is to analyse data, mainly. It doesn’t really matter what it is. Often enough, I don’t know myself.’
‘You are low-grade, low-level.’
‘Yes,’ he said with the slightest hesitation.
‘I see you have had an unusual career.’
Chang sighed. ‘That again. I once expressed doubts about whether the organisation of society was either permanent or necessarily beneficial.’
‘I’d be careful how you speak.’
‘Oh, don’t worry. Angela disabled all the listening devices in here. She hated eavesdropping. As I say, I expressed doubts in a vague way. It was picked up and I was offered reconditioning to sort out any latent antisocial tendencies. I refused, one thing led to another and I briefly ended up in a Retreat. That was more than thirty years ago. It is still on my file. I suppose it will be for ever.’
‘Angela recruited you?’
‘Two years ago. I was cheap. It was hard to get a job.’
They were sitting in Chang’s cubicle in the far distant, most insalubrious part of the operation, a mile or so from the centre through ever more depressing and neglected corridors, then buried three floors underground. There was a smell of stale air, and oil from the heating system, which Jack found almost insupportable.
‘Can you shed any light on this mess? Where she’s gone? You understand, I’m sure, that it would be a good idea to have some conspicuous display of loyalty from you at the moment.’
Chang shook his head. ‘I realise that, and I am trying to come up with something. If you mean did she say or do anything that should have aroused suspicion, then the answer is no. On the contrary, she had been working hard and was looking forward to completing the next stage of the project.’
‘Tell me about her. The file on her just has information. I want to know what she was like.’
‘I can tell you a bit,’ Chang said, ‘but she was never very forthcoming about herself. Apart from working and popping stimulants, I don’t think she did much. She was very obsessed.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Actual age is seventy-eight; biological is early twenties. She got a top-up three days ago, and there’s some gone missing. I checked. If she took some with her, she might well live for another century or more.’
‘Character? Is she capable of sabotage, terrorism, illegality, subversion?’
‘Oh, easily; she’d love it.’
‘Did you like her?’
‘What a question! I never really thought about it. She was certainly the most stimulating person I ever worked for. Once you learned how to handle her moods she could be very kind as well, although she was completely ruthless in the way she worked. So — yes. I suppose I liked her. I liked working for her, certainly.’
More grunted, then stood up to leave.
‘Good luck in your hunt,’ Chang said as he watched the man open the door. ‘You may be wasting your time, though. You won’t find her if she doesn’t want you to.’
‘Where do you think she’d go?’
Chang thought. ‘If it was me, I’d hide out amongst the renegades. But then, it isn’t me. So,’ he said with a smile, ‘that’s not much help.’
‘Then if you can think of anything...’
‘I will certainly tell you. In fact, I do have an idea, but it is a silly one. If it comes to anything I’ll let you know.’
That was it. The scene faded, a bit like a screen going dark, and he became aware of his surroundings once more. He was now sitting down, in an open space, in the open air. There was a cool breeze, which gave him pleasure.
After half an hour he tried to stand, and found he could do so easily, although he was a little unsteady at first. Then he began to walk — this was harder and more tiring, but he went slowly, stopping for a rest when his legs began to ache. He walked east; there were buildings he could see above the trees, and they might jog his memory some more. In the other direction there was nothing except wildness.
After a while he came to a street. Houses with little gardens and trees, extraordinary flowers growing everywhere. More birds. Black ones, ones with red patches on their breasts, big fat grey ones. Once he jumped in fright. There was another wild animal on a wall, furry and looking decidedly dangerous. It examined him with pale green eyes and he stopped uncertainly until he noticed that everyone else ignored it as though it was the most normal thing in the world. The beast stared with what appeared surprisingly like disdain, then looked away and began licking itself. It, at least, saw nothing unusual in him.