Watcher's Web (14 page)

Her friends
from world-wide chat groups for overseas adopted children confirmed
her feelings. Those girls had one thing she didn’t: they knew they
had come from China or Vietnam or Korea; that their parents had
been too poor to look after them. Some even had little mementos: a
grotty, hand-written birth certificate, a singlet they had worn, a
grainy photograph taken by an adoption agency. The lucky ones knew
their mother’s name. Jessica had nothing.

She had posted
pictures of herself to the chat groups.

You
look Eastern European,
a boy had said, and she had spent days reading up on the
Romany people, the gypsies.

How
about South America?
someone else had suggested.

Reading
about both parts of the world had left her empty. Did you
feel
something when you found your
ancestry?

Yes, because
she felt it now. Everything she had seen in the cave was true. This
was what she had been looking for all her life.

I’m not
even human.

A tear ran
down her nose.

Goddamnit, I’m an alien. A fucking alien.

She bit her
lip in a desperate attempt to keep herself from crying, but
resistance was futile.

Another tear
trickled down her nose. Jessica freed her hand from under Ikay’s
head to wipe it away, but it splatted on Ikay’s face before she
could do so. Ikay stirred and opened her eyes, meeting Jessica’s
with a look of concern. Her tail moved up to stroke Jessica’s knee.
Jessica laid her hands on top of Ikay’s and Ikay curled her tail
around them. Warmth flowed through the skin.

Ikay blew out
a long breath and closed her eyes again. The first rays of sunlight
touched her face.

*     *     *

A whoosh of
air went over Jessica’s head; Dora’s tail cracked like a whip. Ikay
shook her head and heaved herself up from Jessica’s lap.

Dora in the
bow stood still, watching the river bank with the eyes of a bird of
prey, every muscle tense, her tail quivering at waist-height.

Clearly,
something was wrong.

The beach of
the lagoon stretched before them, edging the rainforest with a
silver margin. Boats lined up abandoned in neat rows, fishing nets
folded over their bows. But another, larger boat lay at the water’s
edge, reed baskets on its floor.

Dora and Alla
jumped out of the canoe as soon as it bumped into the shore. In
swift strides, they crossed the beach to the strange boat.
Footsteps led from it into the forest. Large, deep and booted.

Alla shouted
something; Maire replied.

Wondering what
the heck was going on, Jessica followed Ikay and the others up the
beach, along the rainforest path to the settlement. The structure
of rough wood and branches—like a bee hive several storeys
high—blended in perfectly with the forest. Some lights still burned
in the large central hall, visible through the arched entryway. The
sound of many voices drifted from this entrance. Cracks of whipping
tails split the air. Above all that din called a male voice.
“Jessica Moore, I’m looking for Jessica Moore.”

What?

Jessica ran
inside, past the guards at the archway and into the crowd of
onlookers that had gathered in the hall.

A group of
Pengali carrying huge knives had assembled around a much taller
figure: Brian. He struggled against the Pengali who tried to tie up
his wrists. “Oh, fuck off. Can’t you see a man’s harmless?”

“Brian!”

“Oh, you are
here after all, good—” His eyes widened. His white eyebrows
rose.

Jessica’s
cheeks grew hot. Damn, she was still completely naked.

She shrank
back, crossed her arms over her body, stammering, “They
. . . they took my clothes.” Speaking English, or even
hearing the sound of her own voice was so strange, but so familiar
and homely.

Now the
Pengali let go of him, and he came out into the light. Yes, it was
Brian, but he looked so different that she hardly recognised
him.

He no longer
wore the stained shirt, or the jeans. His hair was combed and neat.
In the shaft of light falling through the roof, it looked like
quicksilver. He wore a tight-fitting khaki shirt, fastened with
hooks down the front; sturdy khaki trousers, held up by a broad
belt with metal studs; and boots halfway up his calf, lined with
dark mottled fur. Golden loops glittered in his earlobes. He looked
like . . . she didn’t know, but whatever someone with the
name “Brian” was supposed to look like, it wasn’t anything like
this.

Without a
word, he shook out the cloth the Pengali had been using to try and
tie him up, muttering, “Honestly, what were these people thinking?
Letting you run around naked. No dignity at all.”

He tossed the
cloth to Jessica. “Get that around yourself. As interesting as
those, um, body paintings are, you won’t be allowed in town like
that.”

Face burning,
Jessica whispered a barely audible “thank you.”

She proceeded
to wrap the cloth around her body while the uneasy silence
lingered.

“What happened
to you when we—”

“When you ran
off?”

“
Excuse
me? When
I
ran off? Those guys were after
us—”

“Those guys
were rescuers.”

“Rescuers? And
how did you know that?”

He just looked
at her.

“Come on, tell
me. You seem to know an awful lot all of a sudden. I bet your name
isn’t Brian. You’ve been lying to me.”

Tribespeople
watched from all around the hall; tails swishing, ready to spring.
He looked uncomfortable, sad almost.

“I’m sorry,
but I was lying for a reason.”

“And what is
that reason?”

“I thought
you’d appreciate some help getting home.”

“So you admit
you know where we are.”

“Yes. I do. I
honestly didn’t know when we were in the forest, but I know
now.”

“Tell me.”

“Later.”

“No. Now.”

“
Listen.
I don’t want to sound like I’m pushing you, but we should be going.
I’m lucky I got here. If you think this adventure is over, think
again. We’ve landed in a tribal war. We really, really have to go.
It’s . . .” He glanced up at the ceiling windows,
“already mid-morning and we
have
to get
into town by dark. You’ve seen the killers following you after you
got to the beach. They’re hiding on the other side of the
river.”

“We came past
the river mouth twice today. No one was waiting for us there.”

“
So it
seems to you. They’re hiding. Waiting for their mates to arrive so
they have enough force to come into the tribal lands. They don’t
belong to this tribe. They’re outcasts who work for people in the
city. And these people are
nocturnal.
They can’t see much in daylight, but once it gets dark,
we’ve got no chance at all. We have a dangerous journey ahead of
us. Let’s get out of here.”

“To the island
city?”

“Yes.
Come.”

He gestured
and made to leave, but Ikay ran across the floor and threw herself
into Jessica’s arms with a fierce blow that made her stagger back,
while paper-skinned arms enveloped her in a hug and her
characteristic minty smell.

“Anmi.”

“Oh, Ikay,
don’t be silly, he’s not trying to attack me.”

But the
voice of her subconscious said,
Who is he? He still hasn’t said.

Another part
of her rejoiced. No more sex orgies, no more stares from leering
males. He might not have been truthful about his identity, but in
three days with Brian alone, he hadn’t done any more than stare at
her. And he did look different now. He knew what was going on. He
knew how she could get back. With all the will in the world, and
off it, she couldn’t see Pengali in command of a space craft.

She pushed
herself out of Ikay’s hug. “I . . .” She pointed at
her chest. “Go with him. He will help me now.”

Ikay waved her
finger. “Poh-poh-poh-poh.”

Jessica pushed
the finger down. “No, you don’t understand. He can help me. He
understands what I want.”

Ikay waved her
other finger and spoke a few unintelligible words.

Jessica
turned. “Brian, do you speak their language?”

The way in
which he gaped at her was probably answer enough. “How come you’re
so friendly with them?”

She
hesitated on the verge of telling him about the cave and the
carvings, but didn’t. If he knew
she
had caused the accident, would he still be willing to
help?

“They saved
me. Without them, I would not be alive.”

She stroked
Ikay’s arm, whispering, “Thank you.”

“Come on,
let’s go,” Brian said. “We’ve got a long way to travel.”

Jessica
hesitated. Well, that was a shitty choice. Stay with natives who
knew something about you but whose language you couldn’t speak, and
half of whom wanted to fuck you, or go with a stranger who knew
stuff and who could get you home, but who had been holding back the
truth?

Home
won.

“Sorry
Ikay.”

Ikay slowly
lifted her hand. Her eyes, dark as the night, bore an expression of
immense sadness. Her whisper carried through the silence.
“Anmi.”

After one last
look, Jessica followed Brian into the forest.

Chapter
12

T
HE UNKNOWN BOAT
on the beach, of course, was Brian’s.

A bundle of
rags amongst the baskets moved, and revealed itself to be a Pengali
youth. He climbed out of the boat and stood, holding the rope
attached to the bow, wide eyes roving the opposite river bank.
Eddies of water gurgled around his knees, tugging at the hems of
his turquoise trouser legs. With his skin patterns covered under a
thigh-length tunic, also turquoise, and his hair cut short, he
looked almost human. And where was his tail?

Brian stepped
in the boat and shoved some crates aside.

“You take
this.”

He passed
Jessica a small object, which felt cool in the palm of her hand. It
looked, for all she could think, like one of those gadgets her
father used to clean his telescope: a brush on a tube attached to a
rubber balloon that hissed air when you squeezed it. Except this
thing was made from silvery metal and had no brush.

“What’s
this?”

“It’s a
zapper. What do you do with it? Blast the living daylights out of
anyone who follows us before they blast the living daylights out of
us.” And at her horrified look, he added, “Sorry about this, I
know, it’s no job for a lady, but we can’t take any chances.”

Holy shit—was
this trip going to be that dangerous?

“How does it
work?”

He beckoned
and she held up the device.

“It’s easy.
You point. Wait until they’re about thirty yards away. You press
this button with your thumb. It shoots a narrow beam of energy. You
won’t see the discharge until it hits something. Don’t get
frightened by the flash and drop the weapon in the water. Give it
to me after you’ve discharged. It only fires once and I’ll reload.
The important bit is the distance. Don’t discharge too soon.
They’re not powerful at a distance. But they’re the only weapon you
can legally own.”

Jessica pulled
her thumb away from the button, oval and also made of metal.

“Is this how
the others were killed?”

“Most likely.
They’re very effective at short range. Pengali messengers are
stealth killers. They’d use knives and catapults before anything
else. Proper charge guns are illegal anyway. They do a lot more
damage. They flash blue.”

“But . . .” The flashes in the forest had been blue.
Hadn’t he seen them? “Is this . . . the only weapon you
have? What about if they come from the air?”

His eyebrows
flicked up.

“We’ll be
fine. Get in.”

Well, he’d
said that before, and maybe she would have been fine if she hadn’t
jumped off that cliff. But without any explanation, she had no way
of knowing. It was all about trust and, right now, she wasn’t
entirely sure if he deserved it.

Jessica
clambered into the boat and wriggled sideways against a stack of
baskets, pulling her knees against her chest. He might have given
her a cloth to serve as dress, but she still had no underwear and
couldn’t sit cross-legged.

As soon as
Brian had settled himself, the turquoise-clad youth jumped into the
bow and pushed off with his stick.

The expanse of
slowly churning water between the boat and the shore grew. Behind
the beach rose the rainforest like a wall of green. Ghosts of
shadows moved between the trees, small figures blending with the
forest.

A chill
crept over Jessica’s back. The look on Ikay’s face still lingered
in her mind. Her lips moved in a soundless whisper,
Avya.

The secret of
the link between them might forever remain a mystery.

Who were these
tall alien refugees?

Her
thoughts whirled in circles. Maybe she should have stayed. Maybe
she could have found out who she was. Whoever these tall people
were, they had never cared about her. Why should this discovery
change it? She might want
them,
but
they sure as hell didn’t want
her
or they wouldn’t have abandoned her.

The man
Daya is looking for me.

Well, he’d had
seventeen years to catch up with her.

What if
he never knew where I was?