Fish Tails (82 page)

“What in hell did they think they were doing!” cried Abasio.

“Growing new bodies for themselves,” said Arakny and Precious Wind, as though with one voice. “Seagoing bodies,” continued Precious Wind. “They planned to put their brains in bodies made out of the stinker goo, goo their bodies created from humans the stinkers had eaten. They probably planned to swim and kill and eat what they killed and go on living.”

The truck down on the shore had started its siren. The sign on its side blinked on and off, repeatedly:
TRIAL 9: FAILURE . . . TRIAL 9: FAILURE . . . TRIAL 9: FAILURE . . .

“That siren's going to bring someone else,” said Abasio heavily. “Where's our closest cover, Arakny? The place the Oracles gave us? Right.” He raised his voice. “Please, everyone pay attention. As you can see, that stuff is deadly. We must not touch that material. We're going out in single file following me, and I will follow Coyote if he'll start us out . . .”

Coyote looked at Xulai, who pointed in the direction of the stable-­cum-­camp: “That way is our closest safe territory.”

There was a consensus as they went, pointing, murmuring, everyone's eyes raking the ground before them. They set out in single file. Arakny beckoned Grandma and Needly past her so she could keep an eye on them. Coyote leading, they went to the north. The crawling bits of stuff were everywhere. Coyote went a few steps at a time, sniffing, double-­sniffing, using his eyes as well. Abasio, behind him, checked each step. It seemed much farther than they'd remembered, in time if not in distance. Abasio found a clean piece of metal, turned it over with a stone, found the other side clean, and used it to flip the closest stuff farther away. Deer Runner followed his example. By the time they reached an area where Coyote could smell no more, where none of them could see any more bits of the red-­tinted fattiness, writhing, twisting, trying to crawl, each person in the line felt as though miles had been walked.

Looking behind them, they saw that it wasn't as far as it had felt. They still had a good view of the area. The large whale shape was in clear view, along with the cart from which the brain had been taken. The
ACTIVATOR: DANGER
truck had evidently gone back where it came from. The big whale was still there. The giants had been eaten, almost to their waists. Their bottom halves still sat, slowly disintegrating.

Grandma said, “We can summon help from the observation post. The Oracles could probably supply us with what would be needed . . .”

The group cast glances at one another, doubtfully. Arakny said firmly, “NO. Before we make plans to do any cleanup, and definitely before we attempt to involve the
Oracles,
let's see what the Edgers do. That truck said ‘Trial Nine.' I think we can assume they've had at least eight failures before, so they may have devised a way to clean up that will be quicker and safer than anything we can do. Let's get inside and watch. It's this way!” Arakny moved into a grove of stunted trees, saying loudly, “Arakny-­oops-­Needly.”

The door opened and they all went through it . . . hurriedly. There was a sudden demand upon the bathrooms.

Grandma, just inside the stable entry, turned to Coyote and Bear, putting one hand on Coyote's head, the other on Bear's shoulder. “This place is something the Oracles loaned to us,” she said. “We can't be seen, felt, or detected from outside. Don't ask me how it works, I don't know. Kitchen is over there,” pointing. “Let me know if you're hungry or thirsty. Beds and bathroom up those stairs. You can stay here, with the horses, or inside.” She stopped, noticing some nervousness on the part of the two horses who had stayed in the stable. “Better go either upstairs or outdoors, but don't go anywhere near where that mess happened. This is an observation room, observation windows along that wall, the code we set for the shore area is S A.”

“Whats a Es Ai?” Bear asked Coyote.

“Writin',” said Coyote. “I can't do it.”

“I'll show you,” said Needly, who was already glued to one of the screens, moving it back and forth, finding nothing alive but the crawling bits of flesh. “It just shows you a little piece of the place at a time, but it's a lot safer than being out there.”

Abasio came to stand next to her. “What would happen if we put some of that stuff in a bottle?” she asked. “Suppose we fed it, kept it alive, then used it against a giant. Just throw it at him.”

Xulai shuddered. “That stuff came off a stinker. And you know what the stinkers ate. They eat humans. And giants eat humans. And that's what the stuff they were making the fish out of eats also. It eats humans or things that eat humans.”

Needly slowly shook her head. “Xulai, it lives only when the activator stuff is sprayed on it. They sprayed the white stuff all over the small fish with the brain in it, and no one was even wearing special clothes. It wasn't until the activator was added that everyone was scared.”

Xulai nodded, rubbing her forehead. “Yes, of course you're right, Needly. I knew the white stuff was harmless. Precious Wind took samples of it from the stinker that Bear killed. She and I both touched it with our bare hands . . .”

“We did,” agreed Precious Wind. “It smelled terrible, but it was harmless. Flies lit on it and flew away again. However, the trial they conducted out there this morning verifies why they are experimenting with it. It does attempt to take a shape. I told you about making a solution of the stuff and watching it try to coalesce. The problem, of course, is that we don't know what shape it was trying for, and evidently the Edgers don't know either! If I had to guess, I'd say ‘embryonic stinker.' ”

Abasio said, “I wish we knew exactly what they're trying to do. If it tries to take a shape in the flask, then it does have at least one shape it can take. All those wires and nets were their attempt to force it into other shapes, force it to make tissues that do other things, and it won't go!”

Arakny had found her own window and focused it on the shore. “Abasio, part of what they're doing is trying to fix the shape and make it permanent. That's what the activator stuff was meant to do. However, Edger expertise was almost entirely electronic and mechanical, not genetic. Oh, I know, they produced giants and various living characters for the archetypal villages, but they didn't design anything new. A giant is just a human being with increased bone structure and the genes that govern growth turned off.
IF
they made the Griffins, they used known sequences. Eagle and bat wings combined, lion body, feathered, and eagle beak. They'd have made little ones first. Then, when they had the pattern, they'd make the bigger ones.
If they did it at all. Somehow, I think the Griffins are too beautiful to have been made by Edgers.
”

Needly remarked, “Add in the fact that Griffins talk. I think that would puzzle Edgers.”

Precious Wind smiled. “Needly, Coyote has a voice, and Bear, and Blue and Rags. The speech center can be copied. It takes different genetic signals to build in different creatures, but the device built is pretty much the same in each case. But it works only if the creature's brain is . . . speech discerning. It isn't accidental that the creatures first domesticated by man are those who discern meaning in speech. I don't mean they understand the words, but they know different sounds have different meanings.

“The thing about all this that baffles me is why would Edgers think the shaping can be guided by a brain? Growth and development aren't brain-­directed! They're purely genetic. Cell A next to Cell B always makes Cell C. When enough Cell C's get into a bunch, that signals the next one will be Cell D . . .” She shook her head furiously. “We have learned one thing, Abasio.
We do know what they're trying for.
They are trying to grow an aquatic body for a human brain.”

Arakny added, “And don't ignore the fact that
the thing did move,
the fins did move, it tried to get into the water. That brain was thinking before it died: thinking and talking and hurting.”

“You think they've succeeded?” Xulai was appalled.

Arakny frowned at her feet, thinking. “No, but I know what Precious Wind is thinking. They wouldn't have expended all that time and effort unless they had had positive results in earlier experiments. Probably with something smaller. What we saw out there involved an enormous expenditure of time and effort, and treasure—­that is, whatever they use to buy things with. Without some positive results, would they go so far as to acquire a human brain?”

Abasio put his hand on her shoulder. “The Edgers wouldn't consider it was going far to grab a human brain. Believe me, if they wanted one, they'd grab one at any distance, with no compunction whatsoever!”

“You ­people,” yelped Coyote, who had his eyes fixed on the window showing the shore. “If you want to see who came to clean up, they're down there.”

They turned. Indeed, they were down there, trucks carrying humans, dressed in all-­over protective gear, working in pairs, one of each pair carrying a device that spat flame, the other helping him locate moving bits.

“They've done this more than a few times before,” Abasio remarked, heaving a deep breath. He remained at the window, watching the men work. One ­couple was in trouble. Moving bits were climbing their clothing. Someone else picked up a torn shred of metal and scraped them off.”

“I think you're wrong, Abasio,” said Precious Wind. “They haven't done this before. If they'd had anything like this happen before, all of those workers wouldn't have been sitting around down there without protective clothing, just watching. This trial was based on some previous success . . . Look down there now!” She pointed to one side of the screen.

There were several men who seemed to be onlookers: no hazard clothing, no moving about. Abasio fiddled with his window, bringing the picture closer. “Oh, for the . . . !” he exploded. “Well, this removes all doubt!”

Xulai said, “What is it, Abasio? Someone you know?”

“I didn't really know the bastard, but I definitely recognize him. The man on top of the blue truck, the gray-­haired fat one to the right, that's old Chief Purple.” He turned to the group, raising his voice. “When I was a boy, I ran off to the city and joined a gang, the Purples. Gang chiefs accumulated treasure by digging into the buried city for things the Edgers wanted. Story was, old Chief Purple found something one of the Edges wanted a lot. He got hold of enough of whatever it was to buy himself into one of the Edges just outside Fantis. He spent most of his time there. He left his son behind to take over as chief of the Purples. Poor little rodent couldn't have been chief of an empty mousehole. He had never matured. Old Chief Purple couldn't accept that he was sexually and mentally just a little boy. He bought Sybbis as a wife for the kid. That's the same Sybbis who is now the leader of the Catland ­people and owner, supposedly, of a ­couple of dozen huge stinkers. I'll bet at any odds she's keeping them for papa-­in-­law, old Chief Purple. His private supply! To provide the substance for his own whale when the time comes!”

Arakny bared her teeth. “All of this establishes the definite link between the Edges and the stinkers. And they still seem to be creating giants, though the ones that were here today didn't seem inclined to eat babies.”

Abasio shook his head at her, saying, “Arakny, please keep in mind that if these giants are the same as most of them now—­a different sort from the ones who took part in the Place of Power war—­then they'll eat ­people unless they're prevented from doing so. These were probably created to be workmen, so they were made with a block against eating humans.”

“Ah,” she said. “Well, if the four they had here were the only ones, they're gone now. Enough. We have the link. Are we agreed that we need some of that stuff they called the activator? We should probably get a sample to Tingawa, if we can. The Edges have the better part of two centuries yet before they drown. They can do a lot of damage in that time. How many men died down there? Including the observers? Thirty, fifty? They weren't all Edgers, by any means.”

Abasio pointed to the screen. “They're leaving. They're headed back the way they came. I guess they just came to see the extent of the disaster.”

The others turned to the screen, watching the truck turn around and move away, no one looking back.

Xulai turned toward Coyote. “Coyote, could you follow the ones who're cleaning up? When they finish down there by the water, they'll go back to wherever they're camped or based. They were here not long after sunrise this morning, and the cleanup crew showed up very promptly after the explosion, so it can't be far from here. Some of us will wait here for you to come back.” She looked up at Arakny. “You want to know where they are, don't you?”

“We do,” she said.

Coyote drew himself up, as high as his legs could push him, and said to Grandma. “I think that would be worth . . . several chickens, don't you?”

“Oh, I should think so,” she said. “Perhaps as many as ten, delivered at intervals.”

“Roasted!” said Coyote, saliva dripping from his tongue.

“Oh, very definitely roasted.”

“That truck is leaving,” said Needly. “If you're going to follow it . . .”

Coyote was out the door, circling east and then south up the hill behind the ridges they had lain on earlier. Wherever the truck went, it would come out south of that hill. He yapped as he went, and several of the group saw Bear come out of the trees and amble after him, not hurrying.

“If the Oracles ever look at what their food-­supply machines are doling out, they are going to be wondering what I'm doing with all those roasted chickens and combs of honey,” Grandma murmured to herself, watching the two creatures scuttle over the hill and disappear in the south. “Such good, helpful creatures.” She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the metal tag Coyote had given her, murmuring to herself, “This might be enough by itself. Depending on records, of course. Old records . . .” She thought for a moment. “I
will not
ask the Oracles.”