CARNIVAL (The Spark Form Chronicles Book 2) (16 page)

              I don't know if it's good luck or not, but seeing Lana and Finn up ahead is definitely useful. That I saw them before they saw me, now that's good luck because it gives me the chance to power up a big ol' smile like it's the best disguise in the world and bury a bunch of worry before I bound up to them. Can't be giving too much away now, can I?

              "Mr McCourt," I say in a passable auditory impression of the man himself. The smile means it fails as a physical impression. "How surprising to encounter you and your associate Miss De La Cruz here at this time of day. Why, perhaps it will even turn out to be a fortunate piece of happenstance for us all."

              "I apologise Miss De La Cruz," he says, turning to Lana, "but it appears that I am unable to ascertain the correct response to Mr Forrester's introduction. Would this be an appropriate time to laugh, or did his attempt at humour fall flat?"

              "Very good," I laugh. "It's good to see you loosen up Finn."

              "Do you require my assistance," he asks Lana, "or shall I continue as discussed?"

              "It's fine," she replies. "Go keep an eye on Hong Chan. John won't do anything stupid, will you?"

              "Well, I can't promise
that
," I say with a grin, causing Lana to roll her eyes.

              "Very well," Finn sighs. "I expect that you will be absent now until after the match. Please do hurry back though. I feel that any major delay would only cause Hong Chan to panic further."

              Lana nods and Finn walks past me with nothing more than a curt "Mr Forrester" as a ... what would that be actually? The opposite of a greeting ... it wasn't really a goodbye so, maybe an anti-hello? "So," Lana says, pulling me back from the brink of a long-winded descent into nonsensical internal rambling. "I'm guessing you didn't drop by just to piss Finn off?"

              I laugh. "He doesn't like me much, does he? He's capable of that, right? Hate, dislike, stuff like that?"

              "I don't know," she shrugs. "I like to think that I did a good job with what emotional responses he has. Is it really emotion though ..." Lana trails off, then squints and looks right at me. "What do you want John?"

              "Carnival told me about the deal you guys made, or most of it I think. There's a condition that she won't talk about until she sees the paperwork. She said that she's scared I'll reject her, so she's kinda stalling on it a bit."

              "Scared? That's interesting."

              "Is it?"

              "Well, it wasn't something that was in Robert's brief when he was given his primary variables. Or mine actually."

              "Really? Meera seemed pretty scared when I last saw her."

              "That was different," she replies, her voice a little sad. "She was created for a specific purpose and fear was necessary for that. It isn't necessary in the main models. Apparently."

              "Huh. Why's that then?"

              "John," she replies, shaking her head, "just because you're chatting casually doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you every little thing about what's going on."

              "Caught me red handed," I laugh, shaking my hands in as close to a guilty manner as I can manage. "I am curious though. I mean, Finn said that SSF's are supposed to be indistinguishable from human life. Fear is a pretty human trait, right?"

              "I can see what you're doing there too," she says with another shake of her head, this time with an added smile. "Yes, it is a very human trait, but pointing that out after stating that Carnival is scared is not going to add any weight to your claim that she's alive. I'd need to study her for that to work. So, having failed in that line of questioning, you'll either switch to asking what happened to Meera or to asking about the project as a whole right?"

              Oops. Guess I was too obvious. Abort John, switch to cheeky and wink in a knowing manner. That seems equally appropriate and inappropriate at the same time.

              Lana sighs. "I'll tell you this because it won't give you any form of advantage other than to settle you down a bit. Even if she doesn't know that you're here, Carnival would no doubt pick up on it if you walked away from this without learning anything. The reason for that is that your mood would change the moment you enter a situation that you feel that you can let your guard down. Believe it or not John, I'd much rather deal with both of you when you're calm and rational. The timing of the first stage is unfortunately a necessary evil due to time constraints. So, Meera. She was shut down due to a fault that we found after her match yesterday. If certain safeguards were not introduced, she could have glitched on live TV. The nature of the safeguard means that she will not be returning.

              "As to the nature of the project, I don't know what the overarching goal is. I have my brief, and that's that. My best guess would be that either fear was deemed a secondary requirement that can be developed later or that the main goal relates to a situation where fear would be a hindrance. What that could be, I don't know. I'd say military, but again, that would be a guess."

              Well now I'm confused. I guess it makes sense that she wants clean negotiations but can I believe everything that she just said? Carnival would have been able to tell if she'd been lying. Me? Not so much. Ah well, I'll take what I can get. "Ya know, I wasn't actually expecting to get quite so much out of you. This was all kind of a spur of the moment thing."

              "I figured that. You weren't as sloppy last night. Or if you were, you caught me off guard enough that I didn't see it. Look, John, as much as I'm enjoying reaffirming to myself that I'm a cut above you right now, I have something that I need to take care of before my match. The schedule said that you should be recording an interview right now, right?"

              "Yeah, but I figured they could wait. This was more important. So, before I ride off into the sunset-slash-interview-room, any word on the paperwork?"

              "It's in my changing room. I can grab it for you now, or I can drop in to Carnival on my way to the entrance area. Oh, and before you say anything, no I'm not going to tell you what her main condition is. That's between the two of you to sort out. And don't take that as a sign that I'm beginning to accept her as being alive either. What I'm accepting is that you both view your relationship as ... I don't what, but it's human in nature. Out of respect for that, I'm leaving you to deal with the repercussions of it. I suggest that you
both
read the contract carefully though."

              "I wasn't going to ask about what the condition is. I wouldn't have stopped you if you'd told me, but I wouldn't have asked," I laugh. "
You
should give her the papers though. It'll mean more to her that way."

              "OK," Lana nods. "I'll do that."

              "Cool. Well, in that case, I shall take my leave my dear foe. Give my regards to Mr Serious."

              With a flourish of arms and a half leap, half strut, I depart and resume my trek to the interview rooms. I do believe that I nearly fluffed that entirely. Still, acceptance of the 'human nature of our relationship' is a good start. I think I can take that as win.

              Watching John walk away, I wonder if I should have asked him about Carnival changing version for the match with Connor Ford. There's wasn't really a need to though. We already knew that she could heal herself up or she'd look permanently wrecked, and looking back on it, I'm certain that she can turn her glow in the dark markings on and off. The base character model was the same, so a change in costume shouldn't be any bigger a job for her than the damage animation changes. Given that the techs didn't pick up on anything, she must have changed her stats too. Asking him for confirmation would have been pointless. There's no guarantee that he would have told me, and besides, if all goes to plan we'll be able to confirm it ourselves soon enough. It'll be interesting to find out if she can change her model too though. I honestly doubt that they've tried.

              Anyway, you're getting ahead of yourself Lana. Time to deal with the business at hand. "I know you're there," I say, raising my voice slightly. "How much did you hear?"

              After a moment of silence, Maria Grace skulks around the corner. "Enough," she replies. "How many more of those
things
are there?"

              "Other than?"

              "Finn McCourt, John Forrester's Carnival and," she swallows, "Meera."

              "Here, that's it. Both Finn and Meera were ours, Carnival is ... she should have been ours to begin with, but there was a mix-up. I'm here to rectify that."

              "And outside the tournament?"

              "You don't need to know. None out in the real world if that's what you're worried about."

              "You said that Finn and that other one were 'ours'. Who do you work for?"

              "For someone who heard enough, you ask a lot of questions Maria." She glowers at me and I remember the slap that she gave Hong Chan. I'm pretty sure that she can't do much more than that, but Fahrn would be another matter. I guess I'll have to give a little to get a little. "Fine, fine. I work for a specialist department in Emblem. That's all you're getting out of me on that though."

              "For someone acting so secretive, you talked pretty openly with Finn and John," she says, mocking my tone. That's fine, I deserved that one.

              "That's because, one way or another, they're involved ..."

              "... And now
I'm
involved," she cuts in.

              "Not in the same way you're not."

              "You let that bastard lie to Fahrn," she snarls.

              "And
you
are clearly considering doing the same or you'd be with her right now," I reply, my voice stern but calm. Now, that was talking on instinct. Finn would be appalled I'm sure, but from the conflicted look on Maria's face, I called it right. "My changing room's just around the corner," I say, nodding the way that John went. When Maria doesn't answer I just say, "Come on," and start walking.

              If nothing else, the silent treatment I'm getting from Maria is a nice change from speaking with John. Just assuming that she was going to follow was risky, but I was pretty sure that there was more chance that she would than she wouldn't. The fact that she hasn't gone running straight back to Fahrn bodes well for me. Actually, 'fact' may be too strong a word. I don't know for certain that she hasn't spoken with her. Her reactions say otherwise, but she could just be acting I guess. Jeez, you can tell it's nearly go time. The paranoia is creeping in.

              Once we arrive, I instinctively point Maria to the 'Oh-Hell-No' chair while I head to the fridge. As much as I feel guilty for what I'm doing to her, I'm not
that
nice a person. Or rather, I am a perfectly nice person, I just can't afford to be right now. That and my toned ass takes enough punishment in the gym to achieve its TV friendly appearance that I feel it most definitely deserves the 'Comfier' chair.

              The moment Maria sinks into her seat, she winces. Realisation quickly dawns on her face and she shakes her head. "I thought they'd gotten rid of this thing."

              "Sorry?"

              "They gave us this one the first time that Fahrn qualified. We kicked up about it and they swapped it for another one. I thought they'd have binned it, but I guess not."

              "Well, well," I reply, plopping myself down comfortably and tossing a bottle of water to my unhappy guest. "Who knew they were so cheap?"

              "It's all Emblem, right? Shouldn't
you
know how cheap they are?"

              "Nuh-uh. Emblem has fingers in hundreds of pies, and very few of them are joined up."

              "But they know what you're up to, right?"

              "Nope. Only the fake staff that we got in on temporary contracts have any idea what's going on, and even then they only know what they need to. As it stands, I'm the only one completely in the know."

              "No," she says, shaking her head as she fiddles with the bottle cap. "You don't even know the main aim of your own project. You said that yourself."

              "True, but I choose to accept that those on different rungs of the ladder don't need to know everything."

              Maria flips the bottle cap open and takes a mouthful, her face fixed as she contemplates something. "Fahrn told me once that fear is what kept her and her team alive back when she was a Merc. She said that sometimes, fear was the only thing that let them take a step back and evaluate what was going on rather than act without thinking about the consequences. If you're right that this is all military, then removing fear is a stupid idea."

              "Perhaps," I nod.

              And now I wait. One way or the other, she'll tell me what she's planning to do. If she wasn't planning on doing that, she wouldn't have come.

              Finally, she says, "All her life, people have ... Fahrn's ..." She trails off, takes a deep breath, and tries again. "Fahrn has been to Hell and back. Ever since I've known her, people have tried to screw her over. They've hurled abuse at her, they've tried to take advantage of her, they've ... they've lied to her. Her whole life's been like that. And not just other people, she does it to herself too. She's had it so ingrained in her head that her people are bad people that, even when she's fighting against it, part of her can't let it go.

              "The only time she was ever certain that she was doing the right thing, that she was doing what
good
people do, was when Meera found her. Then, when she left us, the fall-out was horrible. It was months before she got back to normal Lana, months. And there was nothing I could do to help her. There was nothing I could do," she says, the tears finally coming out. "Last night, when she got to speak with Meera again, when she had that second chance to make it right, she was so scared. But she did it."

              Maria looks up at me, a proud smile pushing through the tears but quickly fading as she continues, "She did it, and this morning, you could see it in her. She did more healing last night than she has in the last three years combined. In all that time, I couldn't do
anything
to help her heal properly, but talking to one little girl for one night helped her start to come to terms with things. I can't take that away from her. I just can't."

              The tears aren't helping my guilt. I want to say something to comfort her but the problem is, I know that doing so may risk pushing her into looking for an alternate solution to the one that she's chosen. On top of that, I can see that she has more to say. No, I'm going to have to ride this one out, provide anything necessary to assist her course of action and take it all out on Finn later.

              "I love her," she sobs, "and I never wanted to be just another person that's lied to her, but I can't see any other way around it. Having this second chance with Meera was so important to her. If she knew what Hong Chan had done, or that she could never have a
real
second chance with Meera, it'd tear her apart all over again. And I know that I should, I know that telling her is right, but I can't. I can't hurt her like that."

              OK Lana, time to go for the kill. "I hadn't realised how bad things were for Fahrn ... or how big an impact this would have on her," I say sadly, and mean every word of it. "Obviously, I'm glad that you've made this decision, but you don't have to do it without support. The arena staff will have been told about Meera's death by now, so if you want to say that you were in the ambulance or anything like that, I will personally ensure that no one says otherwise. And if there's anything we can do the support you after today too, then ..."

              "An Offland Funeral," she says suddenly. "Meera should get a proper send-off. And I want Hong Chan out of our life."

              "Done," I reply. "It's the least I can do."