Zero World (49 page)

Deciding he could trust this man, and not keen on being alone,
Skyler told him of the disease-control facility in Abu Dhabi. “I intend to fly there. I think this doctor was right—there might be something about us they can study.”

“Us?”

Skyler nodded. “Come with me. You seem resourceful. And, Christ, there might not be anyone else.”

The other man stood abruptly. “There’s something else you need to see.”

He led Skyler to an office a few floors up. Inside he gestured to a wall display. On it, two news anchors sat across a table from Neil Platz, the famed business tycoon. All three looked at once tired and yet hyperalert. There was no sound.

“What’s this?” Skyler asked. Then, “Shit, you didn’t record them as the infection set in, did you?”

“Nah, man, this is live.”

Skyler glanced from the screen to Skadz, then slowly back. “Live? So it hasn’t spread that far—”

“It has. No need for sound to tell you what they’re talking about. They’re saying Darwin is safe. That bloody alien cord, the Elevator, is protecting the city.”

“What? You’re joking.”

“No, I am not.”

“But that means…” Skyler said, and stopped, the words too ridiculous to voice.

“That means the disease and the space elevator are related,” Skadz said for him. “Fucking Builders, man. Mental, isn’t it?”

Neither spoke for a long time. The image shifted from the interview with Platz to live scenes shot around the Australian city. The streets were packed like Amsterdam’s, but not with the dead or infected. Skyler saw anxious crowds praying in front of a church, then a shaky shot of a running street battle. The camera cut to the now-famous sight of Nightcliff, where the Elevator connected to the
ground. A line of riot police stood between the complex and a throng of citizens.

“It’s no picnic there, either, mind you,” Skadz said, “but if Abu Dhabi doesn’t work out you’ll want to head there.”

Skyler looked away from the screen and regarded the man standing beside him. They couldn’t be more different, yet they shared the immunity. “Come with me,” Skyler said. “It’s possible we can help.”

Skadz cracked an unexpected grin. White teeth in stark contrast to his dark skin. “Beats hanging around here, I suppose. But if they want to poke us with needles, I’ll volunteer you for the job.”

Promise of Violence

HOWARD SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA

15.APR.2278

The rusted shell of the ancient Land Cruiser rang like an enormous bell when the bullet tore through. Another finger-sized hole among the thousands already there, the result of a century or more of target practice.

Samantha lowered the rifle, satisfied. She slipped the butt under her arm and rested the barrel across the crook of her elbow. With her free hand she plucked a bit of orange foam from her ear and looked at her student. “See? It’s pretty easy.”

The teen removed an earplug as well, copying her counselor. “Doesn’t it hurt your shoulder? You know, when it kicks?”

With a shrug Sam stepped behind the girl and, using slow, deliberate movements, helped her get the hunting rifle into a proper hold. With the sound of the gunshot receding into the bush, birds restarted their chatter in the trees around them, as if providing commentary on Sam’s aim and the shot to come. Beneath that conversation droned the constant hum of insects and other, nastier things. Sam knew that as long as they were shooting, the crocs would stay away, but that didn’t stop her from flinching at every movement in the shadows among the low zamia palms. Under the press of the noon sun, the waist-high trees glowed like jade-green torches below the much higher ironwood canopy.

A whip-crack Sam felt more than heard radiated through the forest,
silencing the birds again. A few took flight. Ferns rustled as something small fled through the undergrowth.

“Wasn’t quite ready,” Sam said, using a pinky to dig at her ringing ear.

The kid, Marni, fifteen and already a dropout, lowered the barrel. “Did I hit it?”

“I didn’t see. I wasn’t ready.” Sam knew she’d missed, though. The Land Cruiser hadn’t rung.

“Sorry.” Marni spoke too loudly, ears plugged.

Sam stuffed her own plug back in and sighed. “Try again.”

The girl fired. Her shot sailed high, making a thin noise as it passed through foliage. “Fuck,” Marni said.

“Language.”

“Sorry.”

“And you don’t always have to apologize.”

“Sorry! I mean…shit. Sorry.” Her shoulders heaved as frustration built like a gathering storm.

Sam rested a hand on the girl’s back. “Just…relax, okay? It’s your first try. Take a deep breath this time. Fire at the end of your exhale.” Snipers did that, she’d read somewhere. Sam never bothered, but then, she’d never shot at something this big and missed.

Marni fired again. Missed again. She slumped her head forward, blond hair falling across her face. Sam, who had seen this posture before, swallowed. It was the reason they were out here, in the middle of the reserve, shooting things. Bonding. Trying desperately to find something the troubled child was good at. A skill she could wear like a badge. Apparently guns weren’t going to fill that void. Probably for the best, really.

Moreover, Sam had been tasked by the camp leaders to teach Marni how to avoid the kind of funk she’d just descended into. Sam knew the feeling well; she’d lived it at the same age, attended the same camp. Anger had been her problem. Violence. Three neighborhood boys ended up in the hospital for trying to get a peek up the only skirt she’d ever worn.

“I’m worthless,” Marni said with a tight voice.

Sam took the gun then. Gently, but she took it. She pulled the magazine and stuffed it in her pocket, then emptied the chamber and slung the weapon over one shoulder. Marni just stood there, head down, facing the carcass of the old truck.

Just like me at that age,
Sam thought. Same attitude. Same blond hair and sky-blue eyes. A hint of freckles across the cheeks. They could be sisters, except for the difference in height. Marni was a few centimeters shorter than most of the girls at the camp. Sam towered over all of them—even the ranger, Kirk, who would be considered tall except when standing next to Samantha. She had him by half a head.

“Just…” Sam paused, considering her words. “We just need to figure out what you’re good at.”

“And then what?”

Sam shrugged. “Depends on what it is. If it’d been shooting—”

“I don’t own a gun.”

“If shooting was your thing,” Sam said, willing patience, “you’d join a team. Aim for the Olympics, or the police.”

Marni folded her arms. “I want to live in orbit.”

At that Sam had to suppress a snide reply. Every kid on the planet wanted to get off, and not in the colloquial sense. They wanted to live above, thanks to the constant barrage of info-sensories that Platz Industries released into the airwaves. Wanted to ride the vaunted Darwin Elevator up to gleaming space stations, perhaps see the alien craft firsthand. Such jobs were afforded to a very select few, and none of them were troubled fifteen-year-olds. “They have security guards up there,” Sam offered, vaguely remembering that. “They carry guns, I’ll bet.”

The girl dropped to her knees and curled up. She wrapped her hands around her head and weaved her fingers together, rocking back and forth slightly.

“Look,” Sam said, resting a hand on her shoulder. “So you’re not good at shooting. So what? There’s a million other things—”

Marni let out a soft cry. More of a moan, really.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Sam’s slate chirped from the car, a short distance behind them. She’d left it on the front seat and had ignored similar chirps all morning. It could be only one person: Ranger Kirk. He was the only one allowed to have a comm able to link to the outside nets. Sometimes he’d share news, big important stuff like rugby scores, but otherwise he kept quiet about the wider world. Camp policy. It seemed like a burden lately, too, Sam thought. The man had become withdrawn, even jittery, in recent days. Maybe there’d been a terrorist plot against the Elevator or something. Whatever. He’d refused to talk about it, and Sam didn’t much care.

Kirk should know not to interrupt a one-on-one like this. Sam sighed. Now seemed the perfect time to give Marni a little room. Saying nothing, she left the girl where she was and walked to the rugged, mud-splattered vehicle. Behind her Marni moaned again. Sam rolled her eyes and stuffed the rifle behind the driver’s seat before picking up her slate.

It vibrated in her hand as she read the screen. Ranger Kirk, who else. Sam answered, pressing the device to her ear for privacy. “In the middle of a tender moment here—”

“Sam! Jesus! Get back…fuck. Get back! Get—OH HELL!”

Sounds popped and gargled through the slate, automatically switching to the external speaker when she yanked it away from her ear. The noise temporarily drowned out the queer, hollow moan that Marni was still making.

“Kirk!” Sam tried to shout above the scuffle coming through from his end. One of the kids must be having an episode, Sam thought, and if she wasn’t careful Marni might start one of her own any second now. “We’re on our way back. Try to—”

A roar came through the device. A sound so loud and savage that Sam jumped, dropping the little slab into the dirt between her feet.

She knelt. The fuck was that noise? A dog or something? It
couldn’t have been one of the kids. No human being could make a sound like that. “Time to go, Marn!”

The slate had landed facedown, activating the passive screen that covered the back. She’d set the thing up to display a large clock and some other bits of info that might be worth knowing when her alarm went off each morning. The clock read 12:04
P.M.
The information below read:
22 MISSED CALLS
. 16
NEW MESSAGES.

“What the hell?”

Sam didn’t get sixteen messages in a week. Kirk must have really lost his marbles. Then she noticed the little globe in the lower right corner. The outside feed had been restored. Baffled, she plucked the thin slab between two fingers and brushed the mud from it. Then she walked to Marni and hauled the moping girl by her arm to the passenger’s seat. The kid never stopped holding her head, and she let out a fearful yelp as Sam thrust her into the vehicle.

Sam barely looked at the girl as they bounced down the dirt trail toward the campsite. Showers of brown water went up from both sides of the vehicle as Sam took the deep puddles without slowing. Marni cowered in her seat as if they might die at any second, a stark contrast to the eager delight she’d shown on the drive out at similar speeds.

“Maybe driving is your thing,” Sam said. “Tomorrow you take the wheel, huh?”

No reply. Ahead Sam could see the lodge between the trees.

“Look, we’ll find it. Something you’re good at, or you love to do. And we’ll figure out a plan for you. Okay? Everyone has a niche. You just have to find it and grab on. All right?”

Marni had her legs drawn up, knees touching her chin, arms still clamped around each side of her head.

“Jesus,” Sam said, reaching toward the shaking girl with her left hand.

She froze. Marni’s neck bore an angry, mottled rash. “Are you sick or something? I’ll slow—”

Something thudded against the hood of the car, rolling up and over the windshield, leaving a smear of blood on the glass. Sam stood on the brakes, capacitor-regen whining in response as the car skidded to a halt.

Sam’s heart hammered in her chest. “Stay here,” she said, and pushed her door open without waiting for the inconsolable girl’s response.

Outside Sam’s feet landed in an ankle-deep puddle. Mud sucked at her shoes as she worked her way toward the rear. The road was quiet. The birds, the wildlife, silent.

A body lay in the road, ten meters behind. Samantha’s hands went to her mouth as she recognized the uniform even under the dirt and mud. Ranger Kirk.

To her amazement he moved, groaning, and pushed himself up to a half stand. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Sam found the nerve to speak. “I’m so sorry! Are you…I mean, are you okay? Jesus Christ, man, what were you doing in the road? I…” Sam trailed off.

Kirk’s head had tilted to one side, as if he hadn’t understood a damn thing she said. And then he coiled, rocking back on his feet, his movements primal, more animal than human.

A car door closed. Sam jumped at the noise, turned. Through the window she could see the empty passenger seat. “Shit. Marni!” The sound of rustling foliage caught her attention, a dozen meters into the underbrush. Sam raced around the back of the vehicle, half expecting to see a crocodile waddling across the open ground toward the sick teen.

What she saw instead was worse.

The girl was running.

Marni was fifty meters away already, racing between the low palms, oblivious to the fronds that whipped at her legs. And, Sam realized, she was screaming. A high, warbling sound born more of fear than pain.

Sam started after her, then remembered Kirk and turned to where he’d been.

The ranger was two steps away and closing, hands outstretched, face an ugly snarl.

There was no time to think, no time to try to make sense of anything—the spooked girl, the fact that Kirk had been hit by the car and now apparently wanted revenge. Sam just reacted. She ducked under Kirk’s hands and drove a shoulder into his midsection.

The older man grunted, whirled, and clawed—fucking clawed—at her face. A clumsy move from a bloke half dazed after getting thrown over the top of a vehicle. Still, one finger ripped across Sam’s nose and cheek before she could swing. Her fist took him full in the face. She felt the cheekbone give, heard the sick rattle of teeth grinding.

Kirk staggered, went down on his ass, and then came again. His arms, she realized, were covered in blood halfway up to the elbows.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sam screamed, stepping back.

He kept at her, spitting blood. She could see redness around his neck for a brief instant, some kind of rash. Then he was on her, hands going for her face again.

“Enough!” Sam yelled, driving her knee up into his groin. He wailed but didn’t stop. She swung again, this time not holding back. Her fist lifted him off his feet and sent him down on his back.

He groaned once and went still, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth to the reddish brown dirt.

There was no sign of Marni.

Sam glanced ahead. She could see the camp a few hundred meters down the road. And she could hear more sounds. Screaming, a racking cry, and worse, laughter. Insane, maniacal laughter.