10

SONGS FROM THE DESERT

"How's it looking?"

"Like I could jump higher if it weren't for my leg," Mike replied, amused by her attempts to climb the wall of their cell.

Helen slid back down the meagre half-foot. "Well honestly," she huffed. "I'd like to see you do better."

"The only way we're getting out of here is if one of our captors wanders along and releases us," Mike pointed out frankly. "So unless you've got a guardian angel in the rafters we're shit out of luck."

"Blimey, I forgot how defeatist humans can be."

He was sure that was meant as an insult. "I remember the stories my grandfather used to tell about you," Mike gently touched his rib cage and grunted. Yeah, still cracked. "Helen Magnus – he would say – always the bloody optimist."

Helen was about to share a rather embarrassing story about Mike's dear old grandfather when a rope smacked down the wall beside them. Its heavy weave of metal and organic thread swayed for a moment then went still against the stone.

"What the devil?" she looked up, but the rope was dangling over the edge of their prison, seemingly unguarded. Cautiously, she tugged on it. "Well, well, well – guardian angel."

Mike thought the universe was far too fond of her for its own good. "A Trap?"

She shrugged, testing her weight on the rope. "We don't have a lot of choices. Trap or not, do you think you can haul ass out of this hole?"

"I fucking hate you..." he muttered, dragging himself off the ground. "Ow – ow, ow..." he gripped his ribs again. This was really going to hurt.

"And I despise this dusty rock," she countered, nudging him toward the rope. "Move."

"That was close," the major poked his head up through the service access grill embedded in the street. He heaved against the metal bars and, without any help from the vampire, pushed it to the side with a loud screech of metal. The security patrol had vanished by the time the major climbed out onto the sand-choked street and relished the cool Martian air on his face.

"Give us a hand..." a vampire growled from below.

Despite knowing for a fact that the vampire didn't need any help getting out of the hole, the Major helped anyway, tugging hard until Dr Tesla was out in the open again. He kicked the grate back into position and then stared at the large conglomerate of office buildings in front of him. They looked like a coral reef, reaching toward the filtered sunlight, bound by the city's forcefield as reefs are by their warm sea. The sun was starting to dip.

"Back at the start." The burned fourth floor still had yellow police tape flapping in the wind but now it was joined by a skeleton of scaffolding. It was withered, like ruined flesh on a piece of fruit. "I didn't think this place had any money to burn on supply ships," the Major said, nodding at the Ecological Sciences building.

"Perhaps it doesn't," Nikola dusted himself down. "But one of its employees certainly knows someone with deep pockets."

"You think there could be a mole inside the department – someone willing to kill?"

"It wouldn't be the first research centre targeted for valuable information. Who knows what kind of data these guys keep on file. This place may be built on the principle of shared knowledge but I know for a fact that NASA and its subsidiaries are keeping secrets. Here on Mars, they could house the only truly remote servers, impossible to crack without a hard line."

"Secrets like your field generator technology?"

Tesla narrowed his dark eyes. "Exactly."

There was an awkward silence where the vampire did nothing except stare menacingly in the direction of the building, plotting.

"No," the major said firmly.

"No – what?" Nikola purred.

"No, I am not helping you break into a government facility."

"...you helped me trash a government ship," he pointed out.

"That was different!" he protested, then sighed realising, "No, I guess it wasn't."

"Shall we, then?"

"I still think I should take all this back to my superiors. We have no evidence at all to link anyone in my team to what is going on in this city. We arrived after the murder."

"Until we know what these people are willing to kill for we cannot possibly know who to trust. I'm not even sure I can trust you yet let alone a full company of half-cocked, single-celled organisms."

"I'm a multi-celled organism, thank you very much and if you step too far out of line, Dr Tesla, then I'm pulling this whole covert operation to a stop. I'll march you straight back to our base for a debriefing with my boss – so don't push me."

Nikola chose not to point out that the major's neck could be snapped in half a second without a hint of guilt. Instead he decided to play along a while longer – at least let the human feel as though he had some kind of power. A military man might come in handy.

"Fine but on one condition, junior."

"...what condition?"

"You stop calling me, 'doctor'. It's just, 'Mr Tesla' if you insist on formalities. The establishment was never fond enough of me to endow me with a title – something about, 'not playing well with others'."

Gee. What a shock. The major nodded and started off toward the side entrance of the building.

The police had dispersed leaving only a few bored security guards staring at the desert. It was a snap to swipe a few lab coats and flash their real ID.

"Top security force – I feel safer already," Nikola sneered as they headed into a lift.

The Major was annoyed because the vampire was right. The place was a walk in the park for even a lowly miscreant.

"Why are we going down?" Nikola asked, as the lift groaned and he felt his stomach surge. "The murder scene is upstairs." He pointed a fang in the direction of the roof. If you tilted your head right you could accuse the vampire of a crude gesture.

"The colour panel on the man's tags say he belongs to the Hydrogardens department, they're located in the basement levels."

"The Hydrogardens," Nikola whispered. "Why do they keep popping up?"

"They are the life blood of Mars. Don't you know the famous quote, 'Mars; monster of red dust with blue blood, Earth's freezing hell for dreams.'

"Blimey who resurrected Byron..." Nikola was quietly counting the seconds it took for the lift to fall, the speed of its descent. "Long way down," he noted, when they still hadn't hit the bottom. "We must be inside one of the caverns."

The major nodded. "This whole city was constructed to cover the largest Hydrogarden. It's not rock beneath your feet but metal. My report suggested that this was where the original organic lifeforms of Mars survived the cataclysm, evolving for millions of years in the few puddles of ocean left."

"You and I read a different brief," Nikola whispered, as the lift came to a stop. He'd been preparing a clever lie to get past whatever security was down here but again, it was ridiculously lax. The smattering of researches, littered around the glass bays, didn't even look up from the work. Apparently a white coat and ID tag was enough to avoid suspicion in these parts.

"Hey – isn't that the du-" the major didn't get to finish as he was yanked sharply into a side room by his collar. He was met by Tesla's black eyes and a finger to his lips telling him to hush. When he peered around the corner he saw an enormous man sweeping through the room. He had to be six-nine, perhaps more with those boots. His forehead reflected the hundred spotlights above but the light failed to reach his overly chiselled features. Without even meeting the man, he felt a shiver of something run down his spine.

"John Druitt..." Nikola whispered, keeping the major pinned to the wall with one of his hands. "What are you doing, so far from home?"

"Who is that?" the major asked, certain that a creature from the underworld had awoken to wander the Earth.

"An old nightmare," Nikola replied, ducking out of sight. "I'm not sure how much of history has survived into your generation but is one of the most brutal serial murders of all time. Major, meet Jack the Ripper, London's finest villain."

If that was meant to intimidate the major, sadly it failed. "Was he famous?"

Nikola deflated. "You know, this era is insufferable!"

"Take it you know him from more than books."

All Nikola did to that was narrow his eyes sharply and show a hint of fang. "But what's he doing all the way down here... If anything he's a lawyer by trade, he never showed a damn hint of interest in the sciences for science' sake. Do you know who that is?" Nikola pointed to a another man who seemed to be in charge of things.

"Yeah that's Professor Hill, he took over when Dr Edwards was murdered. I sat in on his interview. He didn't know much. He was outside the shield working on a new excavation when it all happened. They're digging behind the hills in a fossil bed, looking for something but they won't tell us what."

"Open book..." Nikola muttered. Clearly it wasn't.

"Exactly. I think there are some people up here that are sick of Earth calling all the shots. Woah..." the major watched as John smashed his fist straight through the glass walls of Hill's office. They all spectacularly shattered, vanishing in a shower of dust. With the barrier gone, the heated discussion spilled into the room.

"I will find my daughter, one way or another. Even if I have to tear this world apart. She's here somewhere. What about all your goddamn sensors? Are they all useless scraps or can they do some actual work?" John growled at the man, who was backed up against the ruin of his office, pressing against the door which was the only thing still standing.

"They were never designed to look for macroscopic life," he replied, hands shaking. "They're too sensitive-"

"Do something," John loomed over the man. "Before I do something."

"What was all that about?" the major whispered to Nikola.

Nikola looked troubled, his eyes back to a human blue as he watched John stalk into the lift. "Ashley..." he whispered.

Robert Hill collapsed into his chair, several of his frightened minions rushing to him. "Someone get me a glass of goddamn water," he snapped, hands shaking as he gripped the edge of the table.

"Never, in a thousand years, did I think I'd see your scrawny ass on this wasted rock." John was deep into a glass of scotch when Nikola wove his way into one of the Martian bars. It was a small affair, cramped and dark like London back in the day without the second atmosphere of cigar smoke.

"I got bored," the vampire replied dryly, sitting opposite. He sat upright against the booth's wooden back. All his guards were up, his conversation careful and deliberate. "Grey..." he gestured at John's hairline.

John was a lot harder to taunt now that dear Watson was no longer in the world. "That's not what I heard." He took another sip and spun the remaining ice around the base of his glass. The scratch of it against the bottom still made Tesla flinch. "I knew you'd come eventually, willingly or otherwise. Appropriated technology rarely lasts. When the shield generators started to fail it was only a matter of time."

"You knew they were mine."

"I'm more than just a pretty face. I organised the transference of your patents into private holding."

Nikola's cold blood boiled. What an ass. He took a steady breath. He wasn't here to pick a fight. "Skip to the part where you're useful."

"I'm not in the mood," and John really didn't look it either. "Records office is next door. You can do your own homework if you want to recover lost profit. Door's that way."

Tesla didn't leave. "Does Helen know about Ashley?" he tried not to hiss.

John tensed, his large hand nearly breaking the glass. "How do you know about Ashley?"

"I'm the genius, remember?"

"Stay out of it, Tesla, or Mars will get a darker shade or red beneath your feet."

That touched a nerve. Nikola stared at John for a while. It had been a few hundred years since they'd seen each other and Nikola was glad for every hour of it. "I am not crossing paths with you deliberately."

"That I believe."

Nikola waited for something – a hint from John about what was going on but the man offered nothing and to ask a direct question would reveal that Nikola knew nothing. "You're not going to help me, are you?"

John laughed sardonically. "Surprised?"

Nikola shook his head. "I'll be around if you change your mind," Nikola left, barely making a ripple in the crowd as he slipped out into the street.

"I'm guessing that was a no?" the major fell into step beside Tesla as they strolled through the afternoon light. "Are you okay?"

"Ashley is Helen Magnus's daughter with John," Nikola explained. "I know – very long story. I've never seen John that quiet. I think – I think he lost her."

The major passed Nikola a folder with a police report.

"Paper...?" Nikola eyed the manilla folder with fondness.

"Well I thought they'd notice if one of the tablets walked off. That's a missing person's log launched after the accident in the Hydrogardens. A young boy died – and a woman is missing, presumed dead."

Nikola quickly flipped through the pages until he reached a photo of the young woman. His hands went cold. "Ashley..." he whispered.

"Thought so. She's using a different name but it's the only thing I could find that might be related to Druitt's outburst earlier. Good grief, what is that sound?"

Nikola stopped, staring out toward the desert. He frowned, closing his eyes.

It started as a dull roar, a haze of unintelligible noise lost on the horizon but then he felt it start to pulse. Soft, slow thuds like a machine turning over for the first time, shaking its rust free. "It's coming from all around us," he whispered, reaching out to touch the stone building next to them. Nikola could feel the vibration through the stone. "A – wave..."

The major looked up as the forcefield above their head went a stunning shade of violet as its frequency shifted. "Tesla – Tesla look!" he tugged on the vampire's sleeve.

"The shield generators," he whispered. "They're – singing to each other."

"Tesla..."

"I told you the virus I wrote was intelligent. Well, it's evolving."

"Evolving into what?"

Nikola shrugged. "The chaotic nature of the process is by definition unpredictable."

"Yeah but I doubt it's evolving into an orchestra."

Helen stopped as a strange sound moved through the air. They were outside, hiking through the sands near the border of the forcefield. Mike held onto her arm, trying to keep some pressure off his leg and chest. They both looked up as the soft afternoon hue turned to purple, making the rocks beside them pink.

"It sounds like a distant song," Mike whispered, listening to the machines wail at each other. "Like creatures in the sea."

"Oh god Tesla, what have you done now?" she whispered.