The Rainbow Maker's Tale (14 page)

With that completed, I
struggled to my feet, ignoring the stiff pain in my legs from
sitting so long, and moved to the clearing behind the rock
overhang. I reached into the branches at the base of a large bush
growing there, and pulled a section away. A clump of soil clung to
the roots of the small bush I held in my hand, being careful not to
damage the roots I set it carefully aside on the ground.

The perfect disguise
… I
grinned down at the small bush. When I had been looking for a safe
place to keep my secrets, I realised that literally burying them
was not a bad idea. After digging a hole beneath the large bush, I
had installed a waterproof box to hide everything away. The only
problem was that, even though nobody else seemed to come up here,
it was obvious the earth had been disturbed. I took a cutting from
the original bush, nurturing it as a sapling, caring for it until
it could be planted on its own, beneath the larger one. The roots
of the smaller plant remained shallow, growing over my box of
secrets, lifting easily in and out of place when I required.

Symbiosis. The bush needed me:
I cared for it, fed it and gave it life. I needed the bush: it gave
me security and camouflage. We were two living things, dependent on
each other.

When I thought of this now, why
did Cassie pop into my head…?

Because I was mildly obsessed,
maybe…?

Probably.

A light sprinkling of soil
covered the top of the box. I brushed the dirt aside with the back
of my hand, so that I could lift the lid away cleanly. The soil
felt a little dry. Moving back to the overhang, I returned a moment
later with my bag and flask of water. After liberally splashing the
roots of the small bush with the water, I turned my attention back
to the box. Reaching into the hole, I opened the crate for the
second time that day.

Placing the lid beside me, I
looked down into the plastic case embedded in the ground. One metre
by forty centimetres, it held nearly everything precious to me:
every tool I’d stolen, every gadget I’d made…every answer I had
found. For a few seconds my hand hovered over a large black box. It
was a rainbow maker I’d made for a school science project. I smiled
briefly, as I remembered this creation as my first attempt to talk
to Cassie. Obviously, it hadn’t worked!

We were ten years old, and
during a geography class on meteorology I overheard Cassie telling
Ami how much she would love to see a real rainbow. When the science
fair was announced a week later, I had seen it as my chance to make
an impression. The rainbow maker had worked well, if not perfectly,
and I won the competition. Needless to say, Cassie hadn’t come near
my display and I had not made the impression I had intended.
Perhaps, that was when I’d given up on the idea of following
Scarlett’s instruction to engage with Cassie…?

Pushing the memories aside – I
wasn’t here to reminisce – my gaze darted around the case looking
for what I needed. In the far left corner was a small chilled
cylinder: white plastic outer casing with a vacuum wall encasing a
storage space, permanently cooling the contents. Gripping the
cylinder securely I pulled it from the case, placing it onto the
ground and settled down beside it.

The clasp on the flask was
stiff, holding the lid tight over the contents, ensuring there was
no gap between the two seals that might allow air to seep in. I had
re-appropriated
it from The Clinic that afternoon, not
thinking that I might need it so soon. Inside was a single syringe,
filled with a virus/gene-therapy mix I had developed myself and
finally been able to put together today.

Our rotation in the labs this
afternoon was the first time I’d
ever
gotten close to
materials I needed, although not through lack of trying. I
remembered a number of failed attempts to get into the virology
area during “visits” to see Mother at work, but they had always
been off limits, no matter what I tried. Today I had just walked
straight in – it was the easiest thing I’d ever done – and it had
all come about by accident, because Olivia was too lazy to do her
own work.

Olivia had actually been given
the easier task this afternoon, but “stock taking” obviously hadn’t
sounded that interesting. Of course, I was happy to swap with her
when I realised where it would take me. For the first time ever, I
was grateful that she was my partner! Once I was inside the
virology lab there was no stopping me. This plan had been
six-months in the making…who knew that stalking a classmate onto an
early placement rotation would throw up such good opportunities on
the first day?

As requested by our Medic, I
diligently undertook an inventory of the virology lab stock. It was
here, among the existing stock of gene-therapies designed to help
with specific conditions we treated in The Clinic, that I found the
raw virus components I needed for my own project. Each of the vials
contained the basic virus, which could be used in conjunction with
any specified gene-therapy to deliver genetic changes to the person
it was put into. Of course, you had to accept being ill as a side
effect of whatever improvement was being made, but I saw that as a
small price to pay.

Our technology was based on a
technique that biologists on Earth had developed at the start of
the twenty-first century. It had been used to cure genetic diseases
initially – as we used it now – but on Earth improving quality of
life was not where the money had been, and it was the military
applications that developed most prolifically, according to the
research I’d done. It sounded simple: new genetic material,
attached to a virus, which could be delivered directly into a
soldier’s system. Within days the body would fight off the virus,
but the genetic enhancement – strength, intelligence, indifference
– placed inside the body would remain as a permanent change.

It sounded simple, but it
wasn’t. Delivering the right changes to the right areas of the body
was the crucial part. The historical records I had access to
excluded any references to failures there had been during research,
but I knew there must have been; it was a simple fact of
science...few things happen as you might expect in your first
experiment. So that had ruled out experimenting on myself: as much
as I
thought
I knew about human biology, I just had no safe
way of creating my own virus delivery system.

Now I didn’t have to. The
perfect virus sat beside me, a gift from my first placement day at
The Clinic. Reaching into my bag I pulled out another chiller
cylinder, identical to the first. This was all my handiwork: the
genetic material to be introduced. If my calculations were correct
I would see a five percent increase in muscle capacity, which
didn’t sound much, but the associated benefits: faster regeneration
and repair; improved strength and flexibility, were what I was
interested in.

For some unknown reason, The
Council was changing us physically: suppressing our natural human
chemistry and replacing it with one of their own. Well, two could
play at that game and I was happy to give up a few days to sickness
in order to take my life back. I would prepare the dose today and
then inject it on Friday afternoon, I could hide being ill for a
couple of days over the weekend. Who was there to notice except my
absent parents?

It had been another very long
day at The Clinic. In all honesty I was unsure how much longer I
could survive the daily onslaught on Olivia’s one-sided
conversations, whilst having to be mindful of dumbing myself down
in her company, so that it did not appear out of place that I was
on the extended rotation. Nearly two weeks on from my initial
decision to join Cassie on her placement at The Clinic and I was
still only managing to see her for a short while at lunch and
sometimes at either end of the day, if I was lucky enough to get
the timings right.

That’s why I currently found
myself racing along the near-empty ninth floor corridor towards the
bank of lifts at the end. Medic Levi had sent Olivia on an errand
elsewhere in The Clinic a short while ago, which provided me the
opportunity to complete the tasks in the lab at my normal pace.
Naturally, I’d finished well before the allocated hour was up and
so – slightly surprised by my unusually quick work – he’d allowed
me to leave early as there was nothing else on our schedule for
that day. Without Olivia’s presence to slow down my work, or
commandeer my attention as an audience to her latest monologue, I
was virtually skipping out the door, guaranteed to be in time to
see Cassie.

Making a swift detour via the
dressing room to collect my bag, I didn’t bother to change back
into my day-suit from the clinic whites, intent on not wasting a
second of the short time I would have with Cassie before her father
appeared to walk home with her. I was at the entrance to The
Clinic, ready to wait for her, half a minute later.

But, Cassie was already there
when I appeared by the doorway. Even with my early finish she’d
still managed to get away before me. Grudgingly I had to
acknowledge that she and Joel worked well together: they were
always the first pair to complete any of the joint tasks we were
given. Slightly arrogantly I thought that if I was working at my
normal rate I would have been able to finish similarly to them, but
that never happened because of Olivia’s permanent presence by my
side. I cast my mind back to the first day of the placement and
recalled Joel’s comments about “not being the best at science.”
Perhaps he and Cassie were more alike than I thought, and were both
more modest about their skills than necessary. I liked this idea.
It explained their regular success and – for me – was much more
palatable than concluding that the pair of them together made a
good team.

“Hi there,” I called cheerfully
as I ambled toward Cassie. At the sound of my voice she turned
around, a bright smile filling her face. The mid-afternoon light
bounced off the overhead mirrors illuminating warm, golden
highlights in her dark hair. As I drew closer I looked for the
familiar green sparkle of her eyes and was not disappointed when
her gaze met mine.

All of the casual conversation
openings I’d been practising in my head, as I trudged through the
basic tasks in the lab, were instantly forgotten when I saw
Cassie.

“Beautiful,” I murmured to
myself, realising a moment too late that I had not been quiet
enough that she wouldn’t hear me, now that I was so close.

“Pardon?” Cassie’s expression
was a perfect combination of surprise and bemusement as the
single-word question fell from her lips.

What could I say? Cassie had
heard what I’d said, it was obvious from her face. How had I let
one word from my head slip out of my mouth like that? As soon as
I’d spoken I wanted to take it back but couldn’t. I’d not even
given Cassie the chance to say “hello” and I was already being
stupid.

What could I say?

My mind, very unhelpfully, was
completely blank, and so I was left with no choice but to repeat
what I’d said originally.

“Beautiful.” I muttered my
inadvertent admission more loudly this time; looking away from
Cassie’s face with embarrassment and staring into the
middle-distance. Deep breath…clear throat…“I meant to say that you
look beautiful today.”

My intestines cringed into a
tiny ball as I explained myself. The attempt I made at a dismissive
shrug – to lighten the mood that had settled over us – was
laughable. I still wanted to take back what I’d said but there was
no way that I could that now and so I blushed.

Blushed!

I couldn’t believe it as I felt
the crimson heat rise on my cheeks. There was nothing to stop
Cassie seeing it and that only made me blush even more. Then it hit
me: a sudden realisation – something a hundred times worse than the
redness blossoming on my face – I was in love with her.

Love.
At least I was
starting to love her. I should have realised this before now! I
might have done if I’d been paying attention, but I hadn’t been and
now it was too late. When had our relationship stopped being about
my plans to get out of the Family Quarter and started being
something else?

Idiot!
I laughed at
myself for being so blind, so ignorant. Had this – whatever
it
was – ever really been about my plans? Had there been any
point, since the day I first spoke to Cassie that I had focused on
her only as a source of information?

No. There had always been
something more; I just pretended not to see it.

Ambushed by my emotions, I now
found myself caught up in an unexpected whirlwind of confusion,
embarrassment, hope and excitement… Was this
love?
Is this
how it felt when you loved someone? A thousand thoughts and
impressions a second, with no time or ability to focus on a single
one, because the only thing I could see was her.

Cassie.

Whatever else I knew or wanted,
would now – and always – be overshadowed by her. In my own head,
this sounded extreme, but at the same time, I knew it was true. The
centre of my world had shifted in what felt like a single second
and I realised it was too late for me. There was no way back from
here.

“Thanks,” Cassie’s shy sounding
voice startled me from the reverie I’d fallen into. My eyes were
lured back to her face as she spoke and I saw an embarrassed but
happy smile playing about her lips. Something in my chest leapt:
hope surged without me understanding why. All I could think was
that Cassie didn’t appear offended by my admission – even if
I
was mortified by what those few small words actually
meant.

“No problem,” I replied weakly,
unable to think of something better to say but feeling compelled to
respond all the same.