Darwin's Paradox (15 page)

As Gaia took Angel’s hand and led her into the hallway, Angel realized that she hadn’t even introduced her to Aileen. Hadn’t that been rude?

“Who was that lady?” Angel asked when they’d entered the mall.

“No one you need to know about,” Gaia said almost crossly. Then she seemed to recover herself and squeezed Angel’s hand. “Aileen Rourke maintains the Circle, the governing body of the collective Icarias, of which I’m a member.” Then she winked at Angel with an impish smile. “She’s convinced that she runs the Circle, but we all run circles around her.” For a stunned moment Gaia looked like a mischievous child. This was an interesting side of Gaia Angel hadn’t seen before.

It was clear to Angel that Gaia ran Icaria-5 with stern command and tight control so Angel had thought it would be impossible that anyone else could have authority over Gaia. Yet here came Aileen, who’d clearly unsettled her. Aileen, whom Gaia obviously respected—and disliked—for the very power the older woman wielded over her. There was always someone above you, Angel decided. Even over Gaia...

Darwin
Mall sparkled with the magic of excitement. Its shops were filled with glitter and wonder the likes of which Angel had never even imagined in the heath. Gaia laughed as Angel ogled everything. Gaia purchased several things for Angel with her card as they drifted from store to store: a digital watch that planned her day for her and several new sets of clothes, including a pair of silk pajamas. Gaia had all of the items sent to her office-residence in the Enviro-Center via the chute.

As they passed a shop called “Special Occasions” with a holo of a beautiful model in a gown in the shop’s façade, Angel halted.

“You don’t get married every day,” the holo ad said and the woman winked at her. Angel started then remembered that the woman was just a holo ad. The gown was stunning; snug at the top and flared at the waist to the floor, flowing like a cascading river as the holo woman walked with swinging provocative steps, showing off the material and her own striking lines.

Gaia smiled. “You won’t be needing one of those for awhile. That’s a wedding dress for those who wish to indulge in something different.”

“What do you mean?” Angel asked, thinking of her mother and father. Her mother had betrayed a mild yearning when she’d confided to Angel that they’d exchanged their “marriage” vows of committed love beside a small waterfall a year after they’d left Icaria. While her mother had never come out and said it, Angel got the impression that while she’d exhilarated in the beautiful and spiritual setting, she would have preferred a real wedding, here in Icaria. She would have looked perfect in that dress, Angel thought.

“Most people just wear their best work outfit when they get married.” Gaia said. She then amended, “Actually, most people don’t get married and don’t stay together for long either.”

“What do they do?”

“They just live together for awhile. Then they separate and find a new partner, usually after a few months.” To Angel’s distressed confusion, Gaia shrugged. “It’s the Icarian way.”

“Is that what you do?” Angel asked Gaia and was bewildered to find the woman look briefly uncomfortable.

“I suppose,” Gaia responded thoughtfully. “But I haven’t had a lover for quite a while. Too busy taking care of Icaria. And no one making me any overtures.”

Angel couldn’t believe that Gaia had no admirers. Had she betrayed loneliness just then? Angel stared at the wedding gown. “My parents stayed together for twelve years.”

“That’s because they had you,” Gaia said kindly and took her hand. “Let’s go. I have a special place to show you.”

Gaia took Angel on a tour of the Isabo Square Rec Center where they swam in a heated pool that had a waterfall, ocean waves, whirlpools, climbing walls and water that tasted like cherries. Then it was off to a spectacular live show at the Isabo Center for the Performing Arts.

But Gaia saved the best for last: the holo-vid center, which everyone simply called the “Games Room”. When they entered the monstrous hall, alive with hundreds of teens playing lively, interactive holo-vid games, Angel’s heart leapt in a dance. It was like entering another world. If Darwin Mall sparkled with excitement and colour, the Games Room of the Rec Center was a stunning galactic symphony of shifting colour and sound. The mood in here was fast and intense and Angel soaked up the energy instantly and felt the booming music pulse through her.

Gaia tutored her in a few of the games and Angel learned fast. She seemed to excel in the games that involved hand and eye coordination, quick reflexes and sharp aim. Gaia would laugh each time as Angel left her far behind in the virtual air-board race or she found her way in record time out of the
Black Labyrinth
or solved the
Virus Attack
mystery.

As they wandered the warehouse-sized floor, Angel spotted a pair of cycles and veered straight for them, Gaia following. Angel mounted one of them and was about to engage the virtual game, when she spotted a boy hunched over a vid game with the familiar, long straggle of brown-gold hair. She knew she was looking at the back of Manfred’s head. She hadn’t noticed that she was staring until Gaia nudged her.

“That’s Carl’s son, isn’t it?” Gaia said. “Should we say hello?”

Angel resisted. “I don’t think he likes me.”

“Manfred doesn’t like anyone,” Gaia said. Then her amused smile warmed and she leaned close to Angel and lowered her voice, “He’s just shy, I think. He’s a veemeld like his father. His mother had Darwin disease and passed it on to him.” Gaia hiked an eyebrow. “You see, you have something in common.”

Angel wanted to ask her if Manfred also heard the A.I.s and Darwin’s insect sounds in his head but instead she threw on the virtual helmet. Gaia dropped the subject and wandered to another game. Angel tripped the switch and found herself in a forest, piloting a hover-bike at top speed through the trees. Abruptly, another hover-bike slid beside her—someone must have taken the cycle beside her—and the race was on. They tore through a beautiful tall-treed forest, weaving around obstacles. Angel juked and jinxed around mammoth trees, sped through hollow logs and under low branches, managing to keep a few metres ahead of her competitor all the way to the finish line.

Angel removed the helmet and as she glanced to check out her competitor, she came face to face with Manfred and started. He met her gaze with those sudden eyes and she felt that silly feeling again in the pit of her stomach.

She expected him to snarl belligerently at her, particularly since she’d beat him. Instead his eyes shone and he smiled out of the corner of his mouth as he leaned casually over the handle bar, long tendrils of hair curling over his shoulders.

“You’re good,” he simply said. Angel felt her face heat with excitement as he appraised her, eyes sweeping her appreciatively from top to bottom. Then he surprised her with his next words, “I’m sorry for how I behaved in the lab. Me and my old man sometimes have disagreements, but we usually work it out.”

“By leaving him in a huff?”

He barked a laugh. “You sure don’t pull punches, do you?”

I get that from my mother, Angel thought and smiled apologetically. Her father was the diplomat in their family.

“You’re kind of weird,” Manfred went on, dampening Angel’s initial joy at seeing him again. Perhaps she deserved that remark for her own rude one, she thought. Tit for tat. But he continued, “My dad said you came from the heath and that’s why you don’t have any manners.”

“Carl would never say that,” Angel huffed, feeling that initial blush smolder with annoyance.

He pulled back his unruly mane with both hands and firmed his lips, briefly looking away from her. “You’re right. He didn’t.” When he returned her gaze, his was intense and direct. “He’s just too kind-hearted and lets everyone walk over him. I never see him anymore. Those ass-hole politicians get the best of him and I get what’s left.” He shrugged, dropping the subject, and she was suddenly sorry she’d been so direct with him. She’d gotten the very best of her own father, Angel thought and now realized how lucky she’d been. “Hope I didn’t make the wrong impression on you,” Manfred went on. “I’m a bear sometimes.” Then he grinned out of the side of his mouth. “But I don’t bite. Not often, that is.”

“That’s okay,” Angel said with a coolness she was far from feeling but met his intense gaze head on. “I don’t bite often either.”

Manfred’s half-smile lit into a full grin that sent a thrill of delight through her.

Gaia sidled up to them. “Hello, Manfred,” she said, looking amused.

Manfred slid off the cycle and, shaking the hair off his face in a dramatic sweep, returned her a barely civil nod. “Hello, Gaia,” he said, shifting his voice from friendly to cold.

“Well, enjoy yourselves. I’ll be right back,” Gaia said and abruptly left them alone again. Angel felt a sudden wave of panic and almost lunged after Gaia. She stopped herself and smiled stupidly, she thought at Manfred.

“She gives me the creeps,” he muttered with a cold glance after the beautiful woman.

“Why?” Angel asked, tilting her head. “She’s nice.”

“Shit, you don’t know her very well, do you?” he said, tilting his body into a slouch over the bike.

Angel frowned at his cynicism and his awful language. What she did know of Gaia she liked. What was there not to like? “Gaia’s kind and generous to me. And she’s trying to help me find my mother.”

“Sure, she’s nice to you,” he went on with a smirk, “so long as you do what she wants you to do.”

“That sounds more like my mother,” Angel admitted with a laugh. She leaned back on her bike. No, she reconsidered. That was unfair to her mother. “Actually my mother was always nice. Just bossy sometimes about chores and responsibilities. But Gaia’s so...”

“Charming? Pleasant? Exciting?” he sneered. “Shit, you’re so damn naïve, letting the smell of glamour overpower you!”

“Well, you’re overly cynical,” Angel retorted, particularly piqued by his suggestion that she’d let something like glamour sway her judgment. “And you swear a lot. It doesn’t impress me, you know.”

Manfred raked back the long hair dangling in his eyes. “Okay,” he nodded. “So, I’ll try something else.” He smirked and his eyes sparkled with exhilaration. It sent a thrill coursing through her and she wondered if there was a thread of truth beneath his cavalier remark. He leaned forward as if to share a confidence. “Well, I still think you’re too gullible about Gaia, Angel. She’s a clever witch. Your mother sounds okay, though. I’d take her any day over Gaia.”

Angel cast her eyes past him to the glittering games and exhaled. “She’s missing. Gaia’s trying to find her for me.”

“I’m sorry to hear she’s missing. But like I said, I wouldn’t trust Gaia. You’re better off looking for her yourself. That’s what I’d do.”

Manfred was awfully cynical, Angel thought; and she didn’t like those things he said about her benefactor. Angel changed the subject. “What about your mother?”

His lips compressed and his eyes grew dark. “She’s dead.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She recalled Manfred’s reference to his mother during his argument with his father. “I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s okay. She died right after I was born. My dad says she barely made it through the pregnancy. She’d been in remission from Darwin but somehow the pregnancy made her sick again.”

“My mother has Darwin too,” Angel offered.

His eyes flared with a new intensity. “My dad said that you can hear Icaria’s machines in your head.”

He’d caught her off guard with his blunt remark. “Yes,” she replied. “Can’t you?”

He shook his head. “But I can hear those other sounds.”

“The chirping?”

He nodded. “Yeah. But we’re keeping it a secret. Don’t tell Gaia. My dad thinks it’s Darwin’s way of communicating. My mom never heard them or the machines. “

“Mine did, I mean does.” She hoped her mother was still alive. “We could even talk to one another sometimes through Darwin.”

“Cool!” Manfred said, genuinely impressed. He grinned and Angel thought it brought out his beautiful eyes. “Must be neat to hear the machines of Icaria in your head like that. Can you understand them?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s kind of weird having them around all the time, though.” She shrugged.

“Hey!” His thundercloud eyes flashed and she felt a surge of excitement as he touched her arm. “I know three other kids who were born from Darwin moms. Po and Jenna have a veemeld mother and Tim’s parents are both veemelds. The kids can all hear the chirping sounds even though their Darwin moms can’t. You want to meet them?”

“Yeah!” she said, before she had a chance to think about it. The idea of other kids like her was exciting. She wanted to ask them if they also had strange dreams. She found herself stealing a glance over her shoulder for Gaia. “But, I should ask Gaia first.”

“Why?” he said sharply, looking obviously annoyed. He seized her arm. “Listen, she doesn’t know about us four being able to hear Darwin. It’s a secret. Besides, she isn’t your mother.”

She felt like a mother, Angel thought. When Angel’s world fell apart, Gaia was there. She’d taken her in, fed her and given her comfort and support. And love. Angel pursed her lips. “I promise I won’t give away your secret but I can’t just go without telling her. She’s taken me in like one of her own.”

His grip on her arm tightened. “Angel, she could never have one of her own. That witch’s ovaries are probably shriveled raisins, just like her heart.”

Angel broke from his grip with a gasp. “She’s all I have right now.” She spun away from him and looked for Gaia. To her relief Angel saw her at the far side of the games room, talking with a tall man. Heart hammering, Angel struck toward her, leaving Manfred behind without a backward look, and she felt a pang of regret.