The Hunt (2 page)

Mara found Catherine standing in the living room, inspecting her bookshelves. She was amused to see that the journalist had also put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. “I didn't think anyone except me still read Joan Didion,” said Catherine, looking up from the shelf she'd been examining.

“
I guess we have a lot in common,” responded Mara with a smile as she took a seat. “We even dress identically when we're not obliged to.”

Catherine laughed and sat next to Mara.
“I prefer this uniform.”

Mara nodded.
“I hate having to wear skirts. That's one of the reasons I don't go out much these days. I was home-schooled, so I could wear whatever I wanted, and I've always preferred masculine clothes. But my preferences no longer count for anything. There's a Japanese saying:
Deru kui wa utareru
. In English, it would be, ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered down’. That's me! I'm exactly the kind of non-conformist our government had in mind when they passed the Compulsory Female Uniform Act.”

“
I can't understand why they found it necessary, though. It seems such an elaborate way of making some obscure point about gender roles.”

“
You have to remember that the men who run this country are products of the malinist movement. They believe gender roles are absolute, and should be enforced by law. Their definition of reality doesn't correspond with mine, but they have the power to impose that definition on me. It's all about control. Make a woman wear a skirt when she'd rather wear trousers, and you're forcing her to set aside her views concerning gender-appropriate behaviour and act in accordance with yours. Once you've established that kind of control, you can more easily take things to the next level. Look at the history of the Holocaust. If the Nazis had announced that they planned to wipe out Europe's Jewish population, there would have been an outcry, probably even armed resistance. So they started by disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda and forcing Jews to wear yellow stars, then banned them from working for newspapers, then from marrying or having sex with non-Jews, then from professional jobs, then from owning businesses, then from going to state schools, then from cinemas, then from all public places. After that, Jews were rounded up and sent to live in ghettos, where many died of starvation. It was only a short step from the ghetto to Auschwitz and Treblinka. If the Jews were willing to tolerate one thing, it was less difficult for them to tolerate the next, then the next. And that's essentially what's happening here. I'm not suggesting women will be exterminated; men still need us for breeding purposes if nothing else. But there's no way the British public would have accepted something like the Hunt if women hadn't already been categorised as lesser beings who can't vote, make reproductive decisions, or decide for themselves what they're going to wear. Once you've marginalised a group in this way, it's not so difficult to argue that its members should be hunted down like animals.”

“
Have you ever had to go on a Hunt?”

“
No, but I've been eligible for the last four years, so I could be drafted any time.”

“
I can't imagine what it must be like living with that hanging over you. The main reason I'm leaving London so quickly is that I find the place scary.”

“
I suppose you can get used to almost anything. Apparently, some girls regard the Hunt as a rite of passage.”

“
Have any of your friends been conscripted?”

“
No. Most of them are over thirty or male.”

“
You have male friends?”

“
Yeah, there's still some good ones. My lover's eligible, but so far we've both been lucky.”

“
Your lover? So that means you're...”

Mara realised she'd been speaking too openly.
“But none of this is for publication. Homosexuals are sent to prison here.”

“
Trust me, I won't repeat anything you just said, let alone include it in the interview. Speaking of which, shall we begin?”

“
Yes, of course.”

Catherine placed her mobile phone on a nearby table, pressing the record button as she did so.

“Let's start by talking about your background. Gorki's a Russian name isn't it?”

“
Yes, but I'm so far removed from my Russian roots I couldn't tell you anything about them, though I love Russian literature.”

“
Maxim Gorky must have been one of your ancestors.”

“
He was, actually.”

“
You're kidding! I mean, I was kidding.”

“
Well, it's a very distant connection. His cousin was related to my grandfather in some way.”

“
So you have writing genes.”

“
The only thing my work has in common with his is its autobiographical basis.”

“
Does that mean you used to be a private detective?”

“
Oh, no. But Melissa Valance is basically me working as a private detective. Of course, she's a lot braver than me.”

“
How did you come to write the books?”

“
It started soon after my parents died. They left me this place and some money, so I didn't have to worry about making a living. And I had plenty of time to read. Reading and watching films were the only things I really liked doing. But it frustrated me that I could never find any novels which dealt with life in Britain today. There were some, but they all felt divorced from reality. So I had the idea of creating a female British private detective, and setting her against a recognisable background. I started
Kill Me Goodnight
a few days after I turned twenty, and the first publisher my manuscript was submitted to accepted it right away. But the censor rejected it, so my agent suggested sending the book to America, and it took off immediately. I'm not entirely sure why. I guess Americans like getting a glimpse into what goes on in the U.K. I wrote
Kill and Tell
the following year, and again the censor rejected it. After that, I accepted the fact that the books weren't going to be published here, which freed me up to start discussing things I felt passionately about. So the third book,
A Kill to Build a Dream On
, dealt with illegal abortion, something I'd never have attempted if I'd been hoping for British publication.”

“
Are you writing a new novel?”

“
Absolutely. It's called
French Kill
, and it has Melissa investigating a murder that took place in Paris, even though she can't visit France to view the crime scene. Obviously, this book is going to focus on the law against women leaving the country.”

“
Your work has dealt with several of Britain's anti-female laws, but although you've touched briefly on the Hunt a few times, you've never tackled it directly.”

“
That's because people who haven't taken part in the Hunt only know vague things about what goes on, what Hunters do to women once they've caught them. I've heard rumours, of course, but...anyway, I couldn't describe a Hunt without experiencing one first-hand. Which I hope never happens.”

“
How about the scene in
A Kill Under the Mistletoe
where Melissa is given a judicial caning?”

“
That happened to me, exactly the way it happened to Melissa, though my crime was being out of uniform. I needed some things from the local shop one freezing winter evening, and decided to wear jeans. I'd gotten away with doing this several times before, and I thought I'd be safe, since it was after dark. But a police officer spotted me and scanned my thumbprint. A few days later, I received a registered letter ordering me to report to Camden Punishment Centre for ten strokes of the cane.”

“
That's outrageous!”

Mara shrugged.
“Women can be caned just for wearing the wrong shade of tights. Going out in jeans was a stupid thing to do.”

“
Or a brave thing.”

“
If I'd really been brave, I'd have refused to let them successfully modify my behaviour. But the caning proved so painful that I resolved to never again leave my apartment unless I was dressed 'correctly'. So you see, the punishment had its desired effect, and turned me into a good girl who obeys the law. I have to be satisfied with expressing my frustrations on the page.”

“
Melissa's opinions obviously correspond closely to yours. I can see where her anger comes from. But are there more pleasant things about your life that you've used in the novels?”

“
Oh, sure. You can see that this apartment, with its piles of books, is Melissa's apartment. Melissa's office is the room where I do my writing. And Melissa's assistant Wakako is based on my friend Yuke. Off the record, Yuke is my lover.”

“
I assume you made Melissa heterosexual to avoid arousing suspicions about your own sexuality.”

“
Exactly. Melissa is so obviously me that if I'd had her come out as gay, it would have started alarm bells ringing. I told you I wasn't brave. But Yuke is an important part of my life, so she had to be in the novels. The real Yuke is a film critic, and she was writing long before me. I wouldn't be able to work without her support.
Kill Me Goodnight
is dedicated to 'Y', and that's Yuke. But all the novels should be dedicated to her.”

Mara decided to open a bottle of wine, and the conversation became more relaxed as they began discussing the similarities between Melissa Valance and other female private eyes, such as Sara
Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. When the interview ended, Catherine took some photos, and Mara ordered a takeaway curry. They spent the rest of the evening chatting about their very different lives.

The following morning, Mara walked Catherine to the
Eurostar. While the journalist waited to board her train, she hugged Mara. “Thank you for being so considerate and putting me up last night. I can't wait to tell everyone I stayed in Melissa Valance's apartment! But don't worry. I'll be careful what else I say, even to people I trust. I know how rumours have a way of getting around. If there's anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask.”

“
There is one thing. When you get back to New York, could you take some photos of the shelves in those stores you were telling me about? The ones where my books are on display. It's something I've never seen.”

“
It must be awful for an artist to be so cut off from her audience.”

“
It happened to Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak and Henry Miller, so I'm nothing special. At least there's no law against importing individual copies.”

Catherine put her hand on Mara's shoulder.
“Eventually, all this will change. Perhaps someday you'll be allowed to visit me in New York.”

Mara smiled and said,
“Yes, perhaps.” But she sounded unconvinced.

The two women embraced once more, and Catherine ran to catch her train. Before disappearing behind the
Eurostar gate, she turned and waved. Mara knew she would never see her again.

Chapter 2

As a child, Mara was protected from mid-twenty-first century Britain's worst excesses by her parents, a pair of radicals who raised their daughter to believe herself the equal of any man. Refusing to let her attend a state school, where she would inevitably be treated as a second-class citizen, they insisted on educating her themselves, ensuring she understood how the country had changed since the days of their youth. It was from her parents that Mara learned about the destruction of Britain's National Health Service, which enabled a fanatical right-wing government to pursue its reactionary agenda. To Mara, the idea of healthcare being available to anyone who needed it, regardless of their financial position, was pure science-fiction, though she understood such things still happened in Europe. According to her parents, the NHS had once been part of everyday life, though by 2039, when it was officially abolished, it had long since been reduced to a pale shadow of its former self. Once the 'survival of the most privileged' principle had been established, the Conservatives felt free to run with it, drafting legislation which made life increasingly difficult for various minority groups. Over the next four years, state censorship was introduced for books, the press and the Internet - films having been subjected to such treatment since the 1980s - homosexuality outlawed, immigrants deported, and schools purged to eliminate Leftist teachers. The malinist movement, rooted in the theory that feminism was responsible for most of society's ills, didn't really get going until 2042, but once it started, there was no stopping it. The Conservative assault on women's rights proved so savage it was difficult to believe the party had once been home to female MPs, and even a female Prime Minister. Politicians now adopted as their motto the Roman orator Cato's statement: “Give women freedom in one sphere and the floodgates of immorality will open in all the others.” By 2043, the year Mara was born, women could no longer vote, seek public office, or be employed in any position a similarly qualified male had applied for. The compulsory uniform for adult females was introduced in 2044 - the state obviously considered men responsible enough to choose their own clothes, though transvestitism was illegal -and later that year, women were banned from driving, taking out mortgages, having abortions, and travelling abroad. Had the latter law not been passed, a significant number of women, Mara included, would eventually have travelled abroad and stayed there.