Feed the Machine (30 page)

A door opened in the back wall and a thin man with slicked-back dark hair came out wheeling a trolley in front of him. He pushed it against the wall near Garrick and pressed a button on the side. Nola saw it was a cooking surface, a metal griddle. Sitting next to it were a carving knife and a pair of tongs.

“Ah, right on time,” he said and rubbed his fingers together.

“Carter, come out here please,” he called into the back room. When he didn’t receive any response he made a tsk noise and walked out there. He returned holding Carter by the hand.

“Remember him? You drained a lot of his blood and part of his brain died.”

Carter was dull in the eyes, staring straight ahead. A small bead of spit was collecting on his lip.

The metal door opened behind them again and this time Candle turned Nola around in her chair.

It was Fat Man. He waddled through the door, something sweet and sticky in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other.

The guards closed the door behind him. He took a bite of the food and walked over to offer it to Nola. He was close enough that she could smell him. He smelled clean and sweet. It seemed wrong.

Nola took the food with shaking hands and bit into it. A sweet pastry drizzled in icing and cinnamon. Then Fat Man sipped his coffee before offering it to her. She took it. It was warm and sweet too with a hint of chocolate. She gulped down the pastry and coffee, feeling the sugar rush straight to her heart.

Fat Man walked back to a wide comfortable seat and sat down, waiting for Nola to finish eating. She couldn’t help being absorbed in the food—even as Garrick gasped behind her on the chains. Gardner was watching her, her arms crossed.

Candle took the cup from her once she drained the last drops. They were ridiculously sweet. Undissolved sugar collected in the cup.

Fat Man clapped his hands together, for a moment looking like a kid.

“You were seducing Garrick with the idea to steal his warehouse key so you could take my platinum. Then Danton, sadly deceased and Carter, sadly braindead, decided to break the law. You murdered Danton and ‘murdered’ Carter.”

Fat Man made air quotes with his pudgy fingers.

Candle hit her in back of the head hard enough to sting.

“Answer him,” he grunted.

“Yes,” Nola whispered.

“Did Garrick know about your plan?”

Nola shook her head. Candle hit her again.

“No, he didn’t know.”

“The night before Feed the power went out and the gates opened. You left Cago with Hefnan, sadly deceased, and rescued your brother and another boy. How did this come about?”

Behind her Garrick gave a soft groan and his chains clinked. She could smell his blood and behind that, the metallic scent of the griddle heating.

“Somehow the power went off. I was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it.”

Fat Man tilted his head and looked at her sideways. It was a very birdlike movement, quite like Hello when he was pondering something.

“Garrick told me he gave you a map of the holes. He told me that after he gave it to you he blacked out and when he came to consciousness his nose was bleeding.”

“He gave me the map. I don’t know what else you’re talking about.”

Fat Man rubbed his chin and grasped one of the many fat rolls under it between his fingers, tugging on it. His skin seemed stretchy, like wet bread dough.

He nodded. Candle turned her around to face Garrick.

The thin man had been busy behind her. He’d set up a small stool next to Garrick. He was standing on it pouring black heal into his mouth. Garrick gulped down the liquid and as Nola watched, he healed.

Glimmers of silver appeared along his nose which shifted back into position. Cuts on his body closed and vanished and the swelling of his face resided. Even his wrists, still in the chains, healed, the skin becoming smooth and unbroken.

The slim man stepped down and went to his griddle. He picked up his carving knife and tongs.

Garrick gasped to fully awake as his cheek healed. He started begging.

Candle clenched his hands on Nola’s shoulders, holding her in place.

“Please, I’ve told you everything. Please!”

The thin man gripped some of Garrick’s belly fat between the tongs and deftly sliced it off with the sharp knife. Garrick screamed in agony, bucking his body but he couldn’t get away.

“Stop, stop!” Nola yelled. She tried to move but Candle was too strong.

The thin man dropped the bloody piece of flesh on the griddle. It sizzled on the hot metal. The scent of cooking meat filled the room. He cut it into pieces and put it on a plate. Then he stepped back up on the small stool and held a piece of cooked flesh in front of Garrick’s mouth.

“Eat it and it will all be over soon,” he said.

Garrick was gasping and crying, taking huge breaths. The wound on his belly shimmered silver and healed over as the medicine inside him did its work.

Then, he ate.

The sweet pastry and coffee coiled in Nola’s stomach and threatened to come back up. She closed her eyes but could not escape the smell. Small bits of Garrick were still on the griddle, burning.

“I’ll tell you, please, I’ll tell you.”

Candle turned her around to face Fat Man. Behind her she heard the thin man step down from his stool and start scraping the griddle with his tongs.

“Garrick gave me the map. His voice went all strange. His accent changed. It was like someone else. They told me the power was going off in ten minutes and would be out for an hour. I asked him a question but then it was like he was drunk. He was slurring his words and didn’t seem to know what happened. Please, that’s the truth.”

Fat Man leaned forwards.

“Do you know Ella?”

Nola shook her head and then remembered to answer. “No, I don’t. Who is she?”

“Are you sure? Garrick is looking hungry.”

“I don’t know anyone called Ella!”

He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers over his stomach.

Fat Man stared at her for a minute more before hauling himself up. He nearly didn’t make it in one try, waving an arm to steady himself. He looked over Nola’s shoulder at the thin man and Candle.

“Get rid of Carter. Have her take care of Garrick with the other knife. Leave her in here with the bodies to think about things.”

He looked at Nola then.

“After that you’ll go back to the bar. I won’t put you in the brothel.”

Gardner snorted from the corner but shut up when Fat Man looked at her.

“There have been some wonderful new developments today and I’m feeling very excited for the future. Even a little merciful.”

Then his face turned to stone.

“Don’t steal from me again or I’ll chain you in a dark room with endless bottles of heal and all you’ll eat for the rest of your life will be bloody chunks of your own family who will never die.”

He bashed on the door and the guards slid it open.

Behind her, Carter gave a soft gasp. She heard him hit the floor. Candle turned her around again. The thin man had slit his throat. His blood gushed from his throat. A moment later he was dead, his legs jerking and then becoming still.

“Knife please,” Gardner said. The thin man handed it over. He returned to his griddle and turned it off. He left the room without another word.

Gardner held the knife in front of Nola so she could see it.

It was soaked in Carter’s blood but the handle was still legible.

Wire Pub

Gardner knelt down in front of Nola.

“So, this is how it works. I’m going to give you the knife and you’re going to kill Garrick there. He is still full of that black heal so you need to get it in his heart and hold it there until he’s dead. Then we’re going to leave you here until tonight. If we return and he’s still alive then, well, you heard the gourmet. Yum yum Rose family.”

She dropped the knife on the floor and moved over to the door. Candle followed. They both took shocksticks from the guards.

“Get it done,” Gardner hissed and hit the shockstick against the metal door. It arced, small sparks dropping to the ground.

“Please, please,” Garrick whispered. His eyes were half-closed and his head lolled as though he didn’t have the energy to hold it up.

“See, he’s begging for it. You have two minutes before I shock you, take the knife and lock you in here with your hands and feet tied. The idea of you eating your family until you all die of old age sounds fun.”

Nola picked up the knife and stood. Her body was aching but the sweet pastry and coffee had revived her somewhat.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Gardner warned.

Nola looked at Garrick. He was crying silent tears. They were trickling down his bloody face, tingeing pink as they went.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She drove the knife into his chest, stabbing his heart. Garrick gasped. His body shook and then he went limp.

The thin man had left the metal tongs resting on the griddle. Nola grabbed them and whirled around to face Gardner and Candle.

“Now lock the fucking door,” she commanded, holding the tongs out in front of her.

Gardner laughed. They left the room, the guards locking the door behind them.

The moment it clanged shut Nola dropped the tongs. She gripped the knife sticking out of Garrick’s chest and started pulling on it. It was stuck in the bone.

“C’mon you fucker,” she grunted.

Chapter 48

Silver

The first bomb had detonated on time, just before dawn. Silver had smiled to herself at the sound of the explosion. Hello, Kin and Raj were moving like perfect game pieces across the board that was Cago.

After Hello had told her that Nola had been captured last night trying to escape, Silver had to change her plans. She whispered a message to a bug and told Hello to tell Kin to see Gress. Then she gave Hello the bug and he flew away.

She’d wanted to get the gold first—there was a risk Miss Honey wouldn’t deliver it if there were bombs exploding—but she couldn’t wait. Her sister had been caught trying to escape. That meant something bad was going to happen to her. Silver couldn’t allow that.

When she got to the lab, Ed and Michael were already there working away on the inhibitor chip problem. Michael was still deeply hurt and Ed wasn’t talking to her in solidarity. Silver didn’t like it.

You’re sad because they are your friends and they are upset with you.

She nearly answered the voice back aloud. If they knew what she knew then they wouldn’t be upset! Besides, she
was
smarter than both of them. It was obvious. Why would they get upset about that?

You’ll never understand, will you?

The voice seemed less angry today now that there was a plan in motion. It was gleeful at the thought of what might come next.

Silver sat down and got to work on the shockstick modification. She’d removed the main circuitry and recased it yesterday. Now she checked the final wiring she’d added and the armband.

She’d written some calculations on her pad, making a guess at her weight and other variables. If this worked she maybe had thirty shocks before it died. If it didn’t work… well, the first shock would kill her.

Miss Honey swept into the room beaming like the sun. In her hand she held a long gun made of vivid green plastic.

“Good morning beautiful people! Look what I have here!”

She took the gun to the central table. Silver left her shock project and went over. Ed and Michael deliberately stood on the other side.

“Oh, before I forget, Silver here is your gold.”

She took a chuck of gold out of her pocket and passed it over to her. It was small and square. It looked like it had been sliced off a much larger bar.

Ed watched it go, his lips trembling to say something but he stayed silent.

“Now. This is a type of laser weapon. It fires one shot every three seconds. We need to make it faster. Be careful, it’s very dangerous. I’ll bring in some more once they become available but for now you’ll have to share.”

They’re going to kill everyone.

Silver couldn’t argue against the voice. The shocksticks were bad enough. If you got zapped enough you could die. But now laser weapons?

“How many shots does it have?” she asked.

Miss Honey shrugged and smiled at her. “They’re still finding out. These are very new. I know they’ve fired one at least four thousand times.”

A few of these they could kill everyone in Cago. A few more and it’s the entire Scour.

“Miss Honey, can I show you something?”

She smiled at Silver again. She was so full of joy and happy it was possible to forget she worked for an evil tyrant.

Silver returned to her bench and slipped the wristband on. She pulled it up her arm and tightened it. Miss Honey walked over to stand beside her. She smelled sweet and pure.