Pearl City is eight huts on stilts, a warehouse made from fibrebloc and a rotting jetty that slips below the waves at its far end. A couple of upturned boats decorate the narrow shingle that stretches between the city and us.
Another half-dozen boats dot the horizon, their triangular sails dark against the sky. A shimmering on the horizon looks like smoke, but it’s Hekati’s far wall painted a pale blue so it blends.
An island rests halfway between this beach and that horizon. On the island, we will find catalytic burners and a cryogenic-distillation system that removes volatile oils and simple molecular gases. That’s Haze again, his face shining with joy as if offering me life membership of a strip joint.
We know there are no Silver Fist hunting us nearby. Haze has already checked. So I’m letting him play. He’s happier than he has been in weeks, and it has to be those braids. In the two days we take to reach Pearl City, his scalp heals so cleanly it almost looks normal. Well, as normal as it’s ever going to look.
‘You can sense the machinery?’ asks Colonel Vijay.
He nods.
‘Can it sense you?’
Haze shakes his head. ‘A subset,’ he says.
So Colonel Vijay asks what a subset is. And Haze thinks the colonel is asking, a subset of what? Most of what he tells us is of interest only to Haze. This applies to most things Haze talks about. The colonel stops him at one point to make Haze repeat something.
‘Quantum time?’
We get another bout of enthusiasm.
Translated, it means AIs live faster, much faster. A generation for us is an age of history for them. I don’t know what an age of history means, but something strikes me as obvious.
‘So they’re old?’ I say.
Haze is worried. Mostly, about how to disagree with me without getting himself thumped. ‘Say it,’ the colonel tells him.
‘Most AIs self-replicate. And thinking keeps them young.’
I look at him. ‘Thinking about what?’
Not that it matters, they’re machines. But I need to be careful, because our beloved leader is also a machine.
Well, maybe. Or part of one.
It’s complicated and not relevant, since no one can do anything to change it anyway and some things are best left unmentioned.
While Haze works out his answer, we keep heading up the beach.
I offer my water bottle to Colonel Vijay. When he shakes his head, I take a swig of my own and pass it to Neen, who gulps deeply and nearly chokes. A gasp draws spirit vapour into his lungs, and he is looking at me goggle-eyed.
‘Fuck,’ he says finally. ‘What’s that?’
I shrug. ‘Got it from Kyble.’
Iona puts out her hand, although it’s not her turn. We work on seniority, and she’s last. All the same, Neen gives her the bottle and she sniffs, and then grins.
‘Rak,’ she announces.
Tipping a little into her hand, Iona dabs it on Neen’s lip. Apparently, rak’s an all-in-one antiseptic, alcoholic drink and fire-starter. It’s also good for keeping off flies and sterilizing wounds.
Franc drinks next, then Rachel. It’s Haze’s turn, but he is still inside himself. At a nod from me, Rachel hands the flask to Ajac, who swigs and hands it to Iona. Haze comes out of his trance just in time to see Iona choke.
‘What’s so funny?’ he demands.
Neen slaps our new recruit on the back, takes the flask from her fingers and offers it to Haze, who shakes his head.
‘Sleep,’ he announces. ‘That’s what Hekati’s thinking about.’
A burnt-out hut tells us that Pavel has already taxed this area. A dog bares its teeth at me, but keeps its distance. A woman comes to a door, sees we’re strangers, retreats and locks a bolt firmly behind her. A child cries, is slapped, and cries louder.
‘Where would Pavel head next?’ Colonel Vijay asks Ajac.
‘Towards the other Pearl City,’ he says.
And before I can shout him out for an idiot, Ajac points up the coast towards smoke curling into the sky. It could be a cooking fire. Equally, it could be another village in flames. Tax-collecting is a grim business. Believe me, I’ve done it.
‘OK,’ says Colonel Vijay, ‘then that’s where we’re going.’
No one wants to go up against Pavel tired, but we’ve lost time and the colonel wants to make it up.
‘Sir,’ says Franc.
Turning back, I realize Haze is missing.
Then I see him, out on the far end of the jetty, with waves lapping at his boots. The idiot has his back to us. He’s staring at the horizon.
Neen should be dealing with this shit. Only Neen’s flicking glances at Iona, and she’s staring at the ground and pretending not to notice. Fuck, I think. Give me a whore every time.
It’s simple, it’s fast. You get what you pay for, and no one whines about it afterwards.
‘Sergeant,’ I say.
He snaps to attention. Follows my gaze and realizes it’s no joking matter.
‘Get him back here.’
There are still boats on the horizon. Only not as many as there were. At least three of the fishing vessels are close to the shore. Paying Pavel is bad enough, but paying a second group . . . Plus, their women and children are in those huts. Time to leave, or time to fight. That covers most of my life.
‘Well?’ I demand, when Neen returns.
Stopping in front of Colonel Vijay and me, he hesitates. He still has a black eye, a swollen lip and stitches holding the top of his nose to his face. Fuck knows what Iona sees in him.
‘Sir,’ he says. ‘Haze refuses to move.’ Neen’s voice is carefully neutral. Although he is watching to see how we’ll react.
‘Really,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Did he say why?’
‘No, sir.’ Neen shakes his head.
‘Sven . . .‘
Turning back, I see the colonel is watching me with amusement in his eyes.
‘Yes, sir?’
‘Listen to him first.’
I leave Colonel Vijay where he stands and I stamp my way onto the jetty to find Haze still staring at his bloody horizon. Only it’s not a horizon, is it? I remind myself. It’s a wall painted blue and grey. And that island is a stack of machinery. Should have known Haze would get like this.
‘Trooper,’ I say.
He would retreat, but the sea is behind him.
‘Permission to speak, sir?’
‘Make it brief.’
‘We need to find Shil. Right, sir? So we have to find Pavel first. And we’re looking for a U/Free . . .’
This doesn’t sound like keeping it brief to me, it sounds like a series of pointless questions. There is undoubtedly a technical term for that.
The colonel would know.
‘Sir,’ says Haze. ‘Hekati would like to help.’