The Chronicles of Jonathon Postlethwaite: The Seed of Corruption (2 page)

                            This   man   the   ‘Black   Gaffer’,    whose presence the young  Postlethwaite  was  always  aware of like a permanent shadow on his soul, their destinies entwined in a way they would both soon discover.

Jonathon could not resist the temptation to send out his mind and seek out the mind of the man who had filled him with a grief and anger so deep it seemed as if it flowed through the marrow of his bones like a dark faith.

                            He gasped and recoiled in shock. The Black Gaffer was less than an individual, less than human; he was now an instrument and extension of the city's perverted soul, bent to its whim and will.

                            Pre-occupied with his anger and grief,  Jonathon had unwittingly stood too long and too still in the night of a corrupt and  dangerous  place.  Something  in  the shadows noted this and giggled and slobbered  in perverse delight and expectation. The watcher grinned sickeningly, licked its sore riddled and pus laced lips, then slid silently like liquid shadow, towards its young and unwary prey.

Chapter Two

                            Deep  in  a  small  room   in   the   depths   of the  Dubhian  Underworld  a  great  and   ancient wooden clock, swathed in swirling gun smoke and speckled with Postlethwaite blood, ticked on regardless of the terrible events which had taken place in its proximity ity. It was oblivious too of the hollow  and  perpetual hum from the Halls of Machines which permeated every level of the city of Dubh  and  which  raised  the dust of decay from its few dry places, painting  a soothing backdrop to the chaotic lives of the city's wretched  denizens.

                            Here in this world hot iron and howling engines that was the Halls of Machines worked the man who had traded Jonathon's Father for Tan favours;  his  name was Silus Flax, the Black Gaffer.

                            As a man born and raised in  the  Upper  City, Flax found himself a member of the skilled caste, the Meks, by virtue of his parentage.  He  was  ambitious and gifted and soon surpassed his Father's position as mechanic and rising to the position of Line supervisor of Line Nine in the Primary Drive Hall.

                            In these huge Drive Halls, a thousand huge internal combustion engines were coupled together in lines of one thousand to transfer kinetic energy to the Generator Halls on the next level.

                            Flax's post gave him the responsibility for the day to day management of mechanics and machines. His goal, through servicing and maintenance, was to produce optimum efficiency through almost continuous operation of the line. And his engines were rarely idle. Flax's line was considered as an  example  of perfection. His ingenious maintenance schedules prevented, to  large  extent,  the  breakdowns  that plagued other lines. This, combined with his  savage man management, ensured that his line was by far the most efficient of all lines in all of the exalted Halls of Machine.

                            As a Line Supervisor Flax ruled over the men under him with a rod of iron. There was no excuse for failure; mistakes were not tolerated  under  any conditions. One  lapse  of  concentration  meant dismissal     of     the     perpetrator   from   his   post   and

expulsion to the Lower C13ity -usually for a price. Not that any dismissed from Line Nine ever got to the Lower City.

                            Somehow the displaced mechanics found grateful Tans waiting to spirit them away from the gates Upper City to their harsh regime in the mines, farms and production plants beyond the Great Gate. Skilled mechanics were a rarity outside of the Upper City, belonging by blood to the caste of the skilled, the Meks, and protected by the laws of the Upper City Council.

                            But skilled workers were in great demand by the Tans who needed them to tend their machines  in  the lands beyond the Great Gate. Silus Flax was well aware of the Tans' need. He had valuable skilled men at his disposal and he knew it. The Tans would pay generously for engineers and mechanics and Flax exploited this fact for his own personal gain.

                            Payments to Flax varied, the Tans ordered replacements when  death  or  injury  deleted  their work force. For most in Dubh payment would have involved commodities of pleasure, drugs, and the  free use of prostitutes of either sex or any age, or a night of acute perversion in a Tan brothel perhaps,  but  for Silus Flax these types of pleasure were never enough, never completely fulfilling.

                            His  tastes  were  distinctly  different,  his  sense  of enjoyment came from inflicting pain and he was a sadist beyond compare, even in this foul city. A gift to Silus Flax would would die slowly in a dark place in acute agony, whilst he watched on, savouring the results of his handiwork, a slobbering, laughing, dark-eyed beast fuelled towards toward hi own ecstasy by the cries of pain and despair from his usually young victims.

                            His appetite for such pleasures was seemingly insatiable. Then one day his demands to the Tans for this type of payment ceased. During the course of a normal transaction, Flax's Tan contact was surprised when he demanded information, maps of the city and the pressing of adult, healthy and able men into his service in exchange for providing skilled mechanics.

                            His contact obliged, a little confused, but willing to comply with the Line Supervisors new requirements. When Flax was asked why, he answered dryly that he was to become 'an explorer', the greatest  explorer  Dubh had ever known. As the Tan negotiator left, he laughed all the way to the Lower City, reporting to his superiors that Silus flax had gone mad, syphilis he suggested, which rotted the  brains of so many of the inhabitants Dubh, was now chewing on Flax's sanity.

                            But Flax was neither mad nor ill, he was a man obsessed  with  the  pursuit  of  power  and  now  had  the means of achieving his goal. Consequently, when Flax was promoted to the position of Hall Engineer, his supply of skilled men increased and he traded them for healthy but unskilled workers, who were pressed into his service in the Lower City.

                            Flax organised these men and unobtrusively his organisation, dedicated towards his own personal goals, grew. They were known to the Tan's as the `High Hats' because of their distinctive and somewhat eccentric attire, of black, long tailed suits and top hats.

The High Hats were immune from any type of harassment from the Tans.                             Thanks to Flax's usefulness to the Tan hierarchy in the supply of skilled men into their service. The High Hats activities did, to some degree impinge on the business ventures of the Tan's, but never affected their revenues unduly. Flax made sure of that.

                            The High Hats, as far as the Tan's were aware, ran a string of the usual, lucrative businesses in Dubh food shops and drug stores, whore-houses and drinking halls - all which brought in revenue to  fuel Flax's real venture.

                            Flax's new pursuit was truly that of exploration, as he had told the Tans and been pronounced insane. But there  was   method   in   Flax's   'madness'.   He explored Dubh  for  doorways  to  power,  literally  'doors' to other worlds, which he knew existed in the wavering Field Walls which contained the realm of Dubh and its malignancies, and prevented its corruption from spreading into other dimensions.

                            If the Tallmen could open gates to other places and times, as they did when they needed to 'vent' Dubh’s persistently polluted atmosphere and as they had done with the Great Gate, then Flax realised there  were ways out of  Dubh. He had  also heard tales  of places of instability in the citys Fields Walls, where for  a while, the retaining energy walls opened up worm holes to other realms. Such a dimension  door  would  be found  by  exploring  the  Field  Walls  of   this   world, Flax  rationally  deduced  and  had  actually dreamed.

                            His High Hats would, inch by inch, search for his precious   dimension   door.   No   level    would    be left undisturbed, no field wall  anomaly  left uninvestigated. This was Flax's obsession, a door to another world and to the means to power Flax knew lay there. The Tans saw no part of the High Hats exploratory operations, they watched his legitimate businesses closely, but saw nothing to surprise or threaten. It was true that for a time the ranks of Flax's High Hats swelled, but slowly their  numbers  and  interests stabilised. Flax knew his value to the Tans was worth only so much and he would not exceed his usefulness. His  organisation,  therefore,  grew  no  larger  than needed to finance the search for his dimension door, the only other things he needed were time and luck.

                            Initially, the master of the High Hats was surprised at how unstable the Field Walls were. His explorers had found or heard stories about hundreds of rifts and places of instability. Holes, which opened invitingly only to snap shut like giant, energy jaws. Brief glances tantalised Flax and his minions and at these places.

                            They saw deserts and forests, mountains - cities even, which could  be  glimpsed  before  the  doors closed before his men had the chance, or mustered the courage, to dash through.

                            At other places the instabilities were less tangible as dimension doors. From the maps supplied by the Tans, Flax's High Hats were able to judge where the city ended and the Field Walls lay. In very few places were the Walls were actually visible and readily accessible.

                            Most   of them had   been   physically   blocked   off,   at   a time when the  inhabitants  of  Dubh  had  some  degree of feeling for one another's well  being,  with  concrete and brick to prevent the unwary from straying into them. The   normal   appearance   of   the   citys   Field Walls,  when  unobstructed,  resembled  a   hazy extension  of  the  city  which  became  less  distinct  as the view beyond receded, but, as  an  individual advanced toward it, a solid, yet invisible barrier was encountered.

                            At other points,  usually  where  it  had  been hastily walled off, it was possible to walk into this mirage of an extension of the city. Flax's servants, forever willing  to  please  their  tyrannical  master,  often   took this  trip,  but  none of them ever returned. In most instances, those who stayed behind and  watched saw the men, who had entered these unstable areas,  slowly  disintegrate  as  the  vibratory rates  in  the Field Wall              and              that              of              Dubh              changed. The man's  body  would  shudder  and  sag  or collapse  as  bones softened  or  as  internal  organs exploded,  to leave  only  a  thick              red              mist              to disperse              into              the  shifting  currents  of  energy  that made  up  the  barrier. The              unfortunate              High              Hats colleagues              then              would  studiously  mark  down  the position on their maps and make their              observations before              reporting              back to an increasingly frustrated Suilus Flax,  at  other  locations  the  dimension  doors would  collapse  periodically into tunnels of multicoloured light which shifted across the colour spectrum the further in the explorers ventured in, but such 'doors', although promising, were rare and dangerously unpredictable.

                            On all occasions when the High Hats had ventured into such a portal, it had collapsed around them, adding their number              to              the              increasing              casualties              the              High Hat              exploration              teams19 suffered              for              the              sake              of Flax's obession.

                            Progress  towards  the  goal   of   finding   a stable `dimension door' was slow, frustrating and, it could be said, costly in terms of human lives, although, of course in Dubh human lives were cheap, especially to men such as Silus Flax.

                            The High Hats persevered and continued to record and explore every type of Field Wall anomaly, their positions and duration of opening, Flax's disciples always eager to please him. Eager because Flax's harsh and uncompromising management extended beyond the Halls of Machines to them. Eager because working for the High Hats meant  special  privileges,  rewards,  immunity from Tan laws and enslavement, privileged access to all the High Hats facilities offered by Flax's business ventures  and  favourable  terms  for  payment  of services received such establishments.

                            Being a High Hat was a desirable alternative to everything else the city had to offer or the punishing work regime and danger beyond the Great Gate. Flax's captains now recruited from those who had somehow escaped Tan conscription as well as by the direct exchange of skilled men for unskilled workers to make up for their losses during the exploration of the Field Wall irregularities.