The Hunt for Pierre Jnr (28 page)

He closed his eyes and tried not to see the eyes that always seemed to wait for him in the darkness. It was only a small step from reading someone’s mind to writing something inside.

‘Tell me, Prime, you’ve shown me how you track down and disable telepaths and benders. How would you approach a psi like Pierre Jnr?’

‘It is good that you are now asking this question. It shows me that you are willing to learn.’ Gock paused, slack lips ready to repeat what was said to him. ‘I think, if he is fully manifested, as he was, it would be beyond us to stop him. We must try to strike before he is ready. This is presuming, of course, that your Pierre Jnr is a single entity rather than an organised group.’

‘A group of psis? Is that your other possibility?’

‘One of them.’

‘Is that what I am on trial for?’

‘Yes,’ Gock confirmed. ‘It is conjectured that you are a plant by a psi group.’

‘That could be a hard thing to prove either way.’

‘Yes.’

‘And the trial will continue forever?’

‘Indefinitely.’

‘How am I meant to find Pierre Jnr like this?’

‘You should know by now that your team is not leading the investigation. Geof Ozenbach is in charge of finding Pierre. Your team, and others, are training as response units. If there is a Pierre Jnr, and we locate him again, we must have a way of defeating him.’

‘I was never really leading the investigation before, was I?’ Pete wondered aloud.

‘No. Did you think that you were?’

‘Then who was? The Colonel?’

‘Services, of course.’

‘Yes, but who in Services?’

‘You really are a simpleton, aren’t you? I didn’t think there could be that many left in the world. Services is never one person. Every command goes through a decision-making tree. Many minds voting at many levels with different authorities and the combined result is the directive. “The command is the command”, as the soldiers say.’

Pete had heard that refrain reverberating in the mind of every Serviceman he’d ever encountered. Something learnt by rote and a lifetime of reinforcement.

‘Services really is something I never fully understood,’ Pete admitted. ‘I didn’t realise that the people within it believed in it. It makes sense to you.’ By you he meant Ryu Shima. Gock’s grasp of the system-based governance of the WU was as loose as Pete’s own. His only interest was how he could use the system to benefit himself.

‘It is better than the alternatives.’ As was taught in schools, all the old systems failed: capitalism, communism, democracy, psycho-socialism, cooperativism. The Services system did not segment the population into positions of governed and governing. It was a system that made every Citizen a working component.

‘I must go. You must rest,’ Gock ordered.

Yes, rest for more training tomorrow.
 Pete wondered if the twins would now be involved in his reorientation program.

‘I will leave you with these thoughts, Mister Lazarus. For now, I am at the front of this challenge. This threat, be it Pierre Jnr, or a psi rebellion, must be met one way or another. But finding an enemy you can’t see is like catching the wind. It is a great challenge and we must be patient and prepare for the day when the enemy finds us. You did well today.’

‘Thank you, Prime.’ The words slipped out before he could stop them.

~ * ~

‘Without further ado, I would like to invite Charlotte Betts to the stage.’

The room applauded as she came out from between the curtains and took her place at the podium. There were close to three hundred students attending, aged from eleven to seventeen, each of whom had declared their rights as a Citizen of the World Union.

Charlotte smiled warmly as their clapping eased and began her speech. ‘If I recall correctly, when I was sitting where you are now, the speaker made a comment that they felt like it was only yesterday that they had taken their own vows of Citizenship. It would be nice to reiterate that, but I can tell you that for me it feels like a very long time ago.

‘I have been asked to speak to you today about the new period of your lives you are entering. But if any of you know anything about my past, I may seem like an odd choice for promoting social responsibility. Most of my life has been spent 
not
 being a good Citizen. I didn’t contribute and for twenty years I didn’t vote.

‘When I was sitting where you are now, I didn’t really know what it was all about and whatever the speaker tried to tell us just went out my spare ear. I knew that I was meant to use my opinions wisely and I understood that my actions counted toward something, and in the vast machine of the Weave those who were in the Primacy were there because they had the support of the Will.

‘I knew all that, but it was only recently that I understood where it all came from, and how causality made it all fit together. I realise now that it’s all about history and history takes time to focus. Much like the events of your own lives will only seem clear once they are long past. Viewed too closely an event’s significance and implications are often hard to determine. Only time brings the necessary distance to events to make their meanings, and the reactions to them, clear. The more distance one can have from events, the more clearly one can see how they are connected. And thus is history born.’

Charlotte paused for a sip of water. The auditorium was silent but for shuffling. That was part one done, now for the push.

‘There are academics who suggest that the great collapse was unavoidable, that the foundations of society were unable to bear the burden of the swollen population and the imbalances within the social ecosystem. But I think it was more than that.

‘The climate is often described as the tipping point. As it became more and more erratic and farms began to fail, the hunger of the population could no longer be sated. But one can only blame the weather for so much.

‘It was an apocalypse. A true ending of an age. Infrastructure broke down, the weather and rising seas provoked mass, emergency migrations. Much of civilisation was destroyed. Over fifty years, the population dropped from thirteen and a half billion to five. There is no end to the horrors that people visited upon each other in those bleak decades.

‘It was only when a pact was made between the Asiatic peoples to resist the Örjian threat that the spiral was reversed. They welcomed all comers, and the new World Union spread across the globe until there are now only a few small areas that are not included.

‘You know this. You have read and seen records from that darkest of times in human history. You have seen how the people of the time thought they were doing right. They thought they were doing what was best for their survival, and their way of life. You have seen what can become normal in the mind of a human being.

‘There are some today who say that we are in extraordinary times. That we are living now and should not worry about how history will record us, but the truth is that we stand facing the past with our backs to the future.

‘The future is the past we will see once it has happened. It is not history that will judge us. It will be ourselves. Every action you take in your lifetime will be with you forever. It takes no special talent to fear the future, but it takes a wise person to fear the history they are making.

‘You have taken your vows at a time when we need you the most. There are big changes taking place in our world. Some are obvious, but others are so subtle we won’t see their effects for many years. I ask you, as a reborn Citizen myself, to be aware. And be active.

‘Please rise. You are now part of the World Union. You are Citizens and you are the Will. Be wise.’

~ * ~

After listening to Charlotte Betts’s Citizenship address, Ryu Shima was not in his best frame of mind when his mother called him to share tea with her.

‘How are you, my son?’ his mother asked.

‘I am well.’

‘Do you sleep enough?’

‘As much as I can.’

‘And are you still trying to reconcile the world?’

Ryu didn’t have time for this. Not only was he trying to tame the rising fervour of the Weave and its constant demands for him to deliver details of his progress and strategy —

Ryu to Colonel Pinter: Colonel, I want something for the next report. I want an outline of our defensive lines.

— but that ridiculous woman was growing in popularity, largely in reaction to the measures he was taking to protect them. For doing what he was elected to do ...

No, Ryu Shima did not need to be called before his mother this day to discuss how he was sleeping.

‘Ryu Shima, I asked you a question.’

But he could not deny the request because she was the Alpha of the house and he could not afford to be out of her favour.

‘Ryu? You can hear me, can’t you?’

He looked down. She had placed a hand on his knee. She looked at him with such worry.

‘I’m sorry, Mother. I have much on my mind.’

‘What troubles you, my son?’

‘Easier to ask what does not trouble me. For the burdens of the world are the burdens of the Prime.’ She smiled at him, patient, indulgent. ‘I see my weariness pleases you somehow.’

‘First comes the weariness and then comes wisdom.’

‘I have not heard that one before. I fear it may be true.’

‘Can I lighten your burden in any way?’

‘Are you asking as my mother, or as the Alpha of House Shima?’

‘Can I not be both? You will return to the house in time, Ryu san.’

‘But for now my house is bigger than that.’

‘It is. Perhaps you can share the essence of your problem without sharing the details?’

‘Is not the essence of every problem the same? A demand meeting an insufficiency.’

‘I shall get your father to talk with you if you want to speak philosophically. Where is the insufficiency? In you?’

‘Of course, but also in everything. We have insufficient information.’

‘And the demand?’

‘There is a demand to act.’

‘I see the problem.’ His mother nodded. ‘Let us enjoy the tea. It will give me time to think.’

She rang a bell and the tea service was presented. He knew that this was deliberate stalling on her part. Making him take his time. Time to sift through the build-up of unfinished notions that accumulate when one is too hectic to think.

‘As Prime I must appear active, or I will lose my position.’

‘And if you lost the position?’

He could not answer.

‘What is it you fear would happen if you were no longer Prime?’

He could not say that he thought the threat to the world would overtake them. He couldn’t speak his fear that without him there would be no one who could marshal the World Union to do what needed to be done.

The fine lines around her mouth deepened as she tightened her lips. He was just like everyone else. The only fear was that he would no longer be Prime.

‘Your father gave me one piece of advice when I rose to the Primacy. Perhaps it may serve you now. No matter what happens, no matter how much is happening, no matter how they push you: don’t react. If your actions are reactions, that means someone else has control. Respond. Never react.’

‘I understand. Thank you.’

‘I won’t keep you any longer. Your wellbeing is of great importance to me.’

‘I am looking after myself,’ Ryu insisted.

‘You are not. You are isolated and carrying too much of this burden by yourself.’

‘Who else is there?’

‘There is a whole world of people, my son.’

‘No, Mother. There is only me.’

‘You trust Takashi, don’t you? You seem to share everything with him.’

‘I already rely on him too much.’

‘Perhaps you would consider taking him to live with you. He would be a good companion as well as a comrade.’

Ryu smiled. ‘Are you asking this for my benefit or for yours?’

‘Well,’ she spread her hands in mock innocence, ‘there is a charm to striking two birds with one stone. He needs to move out, experience more of the world, break some of his bad habits.’

‘He enjoys himself.’

‘I mention it only for your consideration.’

~ * ~

Bidding his mother goodbye, Ryu took the elevator to Takashi’s floor.

Takashi’s room stank, as always. Ryu’s brother lay sprawled on the floor with a mesh evaporator thrumming by his side. There were more dolls than chairs. They draped themselves over the two large day beds and over each other. A tangle of delectable limbs.

‘How was Mother?’ He wasn’t sure Takashi had noticed him until he spoke. His eyes were concealed behind the oculars he wore to immerse in the Weave.

‘She wants you to move in with me,’ Ryu replied.

‘In the needle? There isn’t enough room for my friends.’

‘No. There isn’t. What are you doing?’

‘Our sister is about to pact with Alderson.’

‘Mother didn’t mention it.’