Her voice was far away and dreamy. Unintelligible sounds came from the speaker and the screen was a random blur of drifting colours. A.A. Catto giggled.
‘Who is that wanting to speak to me?’
‘It’s me, Juno Meltzer.’
‘Juno … how nice to hear … from you … Juno.’
The words became gibberish again. A.A. Catto listened to them with rapt interest.
‘I’m not very sure what you’re trying to say to me, Juno. Your words are not very clear.’
Juno Meltzer’s face swam slightly more into focus, but the colour still changed and floated off the screen.
‘If you shut down the alphaset you might be able to make some sense out of what I’m saying.’
‘Now maybe that would be a possibility.’
‘Switch off the damn alphaset for a minute.’
A.A. Catto didn’t like the idea.
‘Juno, I …’
‘Turn it off for god’s sake.’
A.A. Catto’s hand went out to the alpha control before her brain realized exactly what it was doing. She hit reality with a bump.
‘Damn you, Juno. What do you want?’
‘I suppose you haven’t had your vid channel open.’
A.A. Catto scowled. Surely the stupid girl hadn’t called her from her blissful state to talk about vidshows.
‘Of course I haven’t. I’ve been out of my brain for hours. Why?’
‘There was something very interesting on newsfax.’
‘Newsfax? Are you crazy? You called me up to tell me about newsfax. I had the ceiling going and was right out on alphas.’
‘That was evident.’
‘Well now you’ve brought me down, what was so wonderful on newsfax?’
‘Personnel have arrested two strangers in the L-4 area.’
A.A. Catto shrugged.
‘So? Personnel are always arresting L-4s.’
‘No, no, they weren’t L-4s. They were strangers. They claim they’re from beyond the water. They said they came through the swamp.’
‘You mean that they claim to be …’
‘That’s right. They’re real genuine natural-selection humans.’
‘Not gene-jobs or L-4s?’
‘Plain folks if their stories are true.’
‘Then they’re just like us?’
‘I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Just because the DNA structure’s intact doesn’t immediately make them the equal of anyone in the five families. Even when there were plenty of natural humans running around, we were still pretty superior,’
‘That’s true.’
‘Punch up a re-run on the newsfax item. They’re quite interesting.’
‘Hold on then, I’ll split-screen.’
A.A. Catto pressed a series of buttons, and Juno Meltzer’s image was pushed to the left of the screen. On the right was a film clip of two hard unkempt-looking men being led across a compound by an escort of Personnel-3s. A.A. Catto clapped her hands in delight.
‘I want one. I want one.’
Juno Meltzer moved back to take up the whole screen.
‘What do you mean, you want one?’
‘I could have a party or something. They look very different. They look as though they might be interesting.’
‘They look dirty, and like they might be carrying all kinds of horrible diseases.’
‘Oh, they can be cleaned up and decontaminated. I still want one.’
Juno Meltzer looked doubtful.
‘Don’t you think it’s going a bit far? I mean, you know, outsiders?’
‘I always thought you told everyone that you couldn’t go far enough.’
‘Yes but …’
A.A. Catto interrupted Juno’s protests.
‘I don’t care. I want one. I want one before anybody else gets them. I wouldn’t put it past my loathsome little brother to try to get his hands on them.’
‘I heard something about you and your brother …’
‘You keep quiet about that, Juno Meltzer, or I’ll kill you. Understand?’
‘I …’
‘Listen, I’ll talk to you later. I’ve got to call Personnel before Valdo does.’
A.A. Catto cut the connection and punched some more buttons. A hard-faced man in grey appeared on the screen.
‘Personnel. May I help you?’
‘I want the prisoners who claim to be from outside sent up here straight away.’
‘They’re under interrogation at the moment.’
‘The interrogation must be stopped. I want them sent straight up to me, after they’ve been showered and disinfected.’
‘I’ll see what I can do, Miss Catto.’
A.A. Catto slammed her small fist into the console.
‘You’ll do it.’
‘Yes, Miss Catto.’
***
‘Name?’
‘Billy.’
‘Billy what?’
‘Billy Oblivion.’
There were two of them. One playing Mutt, the other playing Jeff. They’d been through his name and origins. The friendly one put a hand on Billy’s shoulder.
‘Where are you from, Billy? Where’s Pleasant Gap?’
‘I’ve no idea. I’ve been through the nothings so many times.’
‘Liar.’
The bad guy lashed at Billy with his fist. His head exploded in a painful shower of stars and he sagged against the restraining straps that held him in the hard, upright chair. The chair was bolted to the floor in the centre of a small bare room. The bad guy pushed the bare light globe so it swung backwards and forwards in front of Billy’s face. The bad guy put his face very close to Billy. Billy could see his strong white teeth and feel his breath on his face. His voice dropped to a vicious whisper.
‘You’re a fucking little liar. You’re a dirty little L-4 who managed to get his hands on a portable generator.’
The good guy smiled sympathetically.
‘You’d do well to tell him the truth. He’ll only hurt you if you don’t.’
‘But I’m not an …’
‘Where did you get the generator, kid?’
‘In Pleasant Gap.’
‘Where’s Pleasant Gap?’
‘I told you. I don’t know any …’
Smash! Billy’s head reeled.
‘Where did you get the generator?’
‘Pleasant …’
Smash.
‘Name?’
‘Billy, Billy Oblivion.’
‘Place of origin?’
‘I …’
‘Are you going to tell us the truth, kid?’
‘I’ve been trying to. I’m not an L-4. I don’t even know what an L-4 is. I didn’t know there were any laws here against porta-pacs. I don’t even know where here is.’
‘How did you get here, then, mister outsider?’
‘On foot.’
‘Through the swamp?’
‘After our canoe sank.’
‘In the swamp?’
‘Yes.’
Smash!
There was a pause while they waited for Billy to be sick. The good guy lifted Billy’s head.
‘You really shouldn’t lie to my friend here. He’s got a whole lot of sophisticated stuff that he could use on you. This kind of thing is only openers for him.’
The bad guy laughed.
‘Think I should tell him about a few of them? Like maybe the needles that you can stick through the flesh and scrape his bones with.’
The good guy shook his head.
‘I don’t think we’ll need it with this boy. I’m sure he’ll cooperates. Let’s try again. Name?’
‘Billy Oblivion.’
‘Place of origin?’
‘I …’
‘Place of origin?’
‘If I tell you, he’ll just hit me.’
‘Not if you tell the truth.’
‘But I WAS telling the truth. I did start out from Pleasant …’
Smash!
The bad guy scowled.
‘I thought we’d sorted out that business.’
‘I don’t know what else to say. It’s the truth.’
‘Why not …’
The door opened and another grey-uniformed figure came into the room. The bad guy smiled at him.