Chapter Fourteen – Hostages
(A/N: BansheeCat – if you're reading this – there's a kiss about two-thirds through the second scene, but it's only about two sentences long so please don't avoid the chapter! *begs*
Everyone, I'm sorry this chapter's so long, but I had a slight mix-up involving 2 Chapter Fourteens which I only noticed when I was proof-reading and the only option was to link the two together. Anyway, please r+r!)
***
The morning wore on. It was getting hotter.
Future Gum and Piranha and Mari, and Past Gum and Slate had arrived back at the Benten loft, to be greeted by a despondent Beat. Future Gum immediately took charge.
"Come on. Go after him."
"Why should I?" Beat snapped. He wasn't crying, but he looked like he might do sooner or later.
"Because I've had enough of you two pissing around."
"I thought you thought I was a traitor."
Gum sighed. "I still think you were dumb. But I like Tab, and I don't want him joining the Noise Tanks. Besides, you make a cute couple."
Beat glowered at her.
"Oh, come on!" Gum hauled him to his feet. "Get out there and locate him. Now."
"I'm still technically leader, you know," Beat muttered. "I don't have to listen to you."
"But you will, cos I'm always right."
Beat rolled his eyes, and headed out of the room.
***
Tab sighed. He'd tagged up all of Kogane-cho, and he still felt furious. The heat wasn't helping. It was making his head ache, and the sun was burning his eyes.
Now he was on the roofs of Kibogaoka, surrounded by white Noise Tank tags, and trying not to be miserable. Miserable was stupid. Keep the anger.
"Damn you," he muttered, wondering if he was mad enough to brain a bystander with a paint can. "Why'd you have to do this to me?"
Suddenly he heard the rattle of skate wheels hitting tiles. He looked round to see a familiar figure leap down from the path leading to the factory, landing on the rooftops.
Tab quickly turned away and started tagging over one of his own tags.
He felt the roof tremble slightly as Beat drew near to him, but didn't look round. If he did, he might…well, some of that rage might fade away.
"Tab, why are you tagging over a tag with an identical tag?"
Tab realised that he was, and shrugged. "None of your business."
Silence. But Beat didn't move. Tab tried to ignore him, but even with his back turned he could sense him standing there, and it was making it too hard to concentrate.
At last he swung round, and snapped, "What the hell do you want, traitor?"
Beat stared at his skates. "I…I just came to tell you I was sorry, I guess. I mean, about telling on you…and the garage…and everything."
Tab wanted to snap something back at him, but looking at him standing there, one arm in plaster, goggles and headphones missing…he'd always thought Beat looked more defenceless without his goggles and headphones.
Suddenly he felt mean.
"Thanks," he said.
"Yeah. Well. That's all I wanted to say." Beat turned to skate away.
Come on, return the favour, Tab's mind muttered.
"I'm sorry I called you a traitor and all," he said. For a moment it hurt to say it, but only for a moment. "You're right. It – it wasn't so bad."
Beat turned back. "You mean that?"
"Duh. Course I do."
Tab glanced at the ground, stared at the tiled distance between them, and wanted to close that distance.
So he did. He stepped forward, put his hands on Beat's shoulders, and kissed him.
Oh, yes. After five years it still worked. It was still like the missing piece of the mental jigsaw. He was breathless. And everything was all right.
Bang.
"Get that rudie!"
Tab leapt back from Beat like he'd been burnt, fear and fury scorching his throat. "You –"
"Tab, I didn't, I –"
"You bastard!" Tab yelled. He hit out – Beat doubled over – Tab looked over at the ground below the roofs – a bullet pinged off a tile near them.
"They…they can't get us…" Beat gasped. "It's all right…"
"No thanks to you! That's all it was, right, just a plan to keep me here long enough!"
"No! No, I swear I didn't know he was coming!"
"Like hell you didn't!"
Fury roared up in front of his vision. Beat was staring at him, eyes full of hurt, and that stung, and damn it, how could he have been so stupid? He hit out again, Beat stumbled back…
The roof sloped…
His skates gathered momentum…
Tab watched in horror as Beat fell off the roof. It wasn't a long fall – but –
He dashed over to the edge and cried out without meaning to as Beat crumpled under a blow from a truncheon.
"Get off him, you punks!"
Onishima looked up. His eyes narrowed. "Try and stop us."
A small, sane part of Tab yelled NO! but the rest of him didn't listen, and he jumped.
He dashed forward, dodging through the cops. On his left lay the windows, he could jump through them, he'd be safe.
And on his right was Beat, struggling between two Keisatsu.
Oh, nuts, Tab thought.
He dashed towards Onishima, and wrenched the gun out of his hand before the police chief could react. Then he aimed it at the first cop –
Please let Oni have put rubber bullets in –
And fired.
The cop yelped, clutched his chest, but there was no blood. Tab breathed a sigh of relief and fired at the second cop, who also let go of Beat. Then both rudies started to run up the steps.
"You pushed me off the fricking roof…" Beat gasped as they ran. "What the hell was that for?"
"I thought you tricked me."
"Thanks."
"Don't start arguing, we got more important things to –"
"Fire!" a voice called from the roof.
"Shit –"
There was a bang like someone coughing, and tear gas sprouted out of the ground around them.
Tab squeezed his eyes shut, tears stinging them, and gasped for breath. It didn't work. He couldn't stop choking, and whenever he opened his eyes they stung so much he had to shut them again.
It was almost a relief when the cops grabbed him and dragged him out of the gas towards the panda car. He took slow deep breaths, then suddenly remembered Beat, and twisted round to see what had happened to him.
The other GG was being marched towards the car as well, his face aching with terror. Tab swallowed. There was a lot of guilt stuck in his throat.
"I'm sorry," he whispered as Beat was shoved into the car next to him.
Beat didn't answer. He was trembling.
The car moved off.
***
Beat swallowed as the cell door slammed shut behind him. Okay. Don't freak. Don't panic.
It was difficult not to panic. He was back here again, and after the freedom it seemed ten times worse. He wanted to scream, he wanted to beg to be let out, he wanted to switch off so he didn't have to notice anything.
Don't panic. He forced a lot of nasty memories out of his head.
He looked round the cell, at the schoolgirl standing staring at them. She looked familiar…
"Tab?" she gasped, hurrying over to them. "Beat?"
"Mew? How long you been here?" Tab hurried over to her. "They told me you got arrested, like, ages ago…"
Beat stared at her. Pleated skirt, shiny shoes, face bare of makeup – but Mew. Another GG alive. A GG he hadn't failed. Had he?
"I got put on probation," Mew said. "I've been failing classes at Shibuya High School – hey, quit sniggering!"
"Sorry." Tab grinned. "You look sweet in a school uniform, that's all."
Mew glowered at him. "Anyway, I can see you're with the Noise Tanks still."
She'd changed, Beat thought. Like everyone had. Taller. Face more secretive, more…what was it? She'd been crying, he could see her eyes were red-rimmed. But it wasn't just that. She was humming with anger.
"Sort of," Tab said. "I been hanging out with the GGs for some time."
"What happened to you guys?" Mew said. "Beat, I thought you were in jail anyway."
Beat shrugged. "Gum and Yo-Yo got me out. Now I'm back in." He tried to keep his voice steady, not let it show the ice water terror in his veins.
"Well…well, at least it's only us three, right?" Tab said.
"Four," Mew said. "Cube's here, too."
"Cube?" Beat said. "I thought she was in the Skulls. That's what Gum told me."
"She is. That's why she's here."
Mew indicated the cell bed running along the wall. Cube was sitting on it, knees drawn up to her chest, eyes still closed.
Beat shivered. She looked shut down. She looked unreal. She did not look like the girl he'd known.
What had happened to everyone?
"She's…I don't know." Mew sighed. "She won't talk, she won't open her eyes, she's totally withdrawn. I saw her twice before. First time she was all right…a little freaked to see me, though…"
"Yeah?"
"Second time she was a wreck, couldn't stop crying, kept seeing blood everywhere and muttering Improvise under her breath. And now…now…"
Tab walked over to Cube.
"I've been trying to talk to her," Mew said. "She came in this morning…but she just won't answer!"
"Cube?" Tab spoke gently. "Cube, it's me, Tab. You awake?"
She didn't move.
"They hit her when they brought her in," Mew said. "And she hasn't spoken since."
"What happened to her? I thought Skulls were supposed to be tough."
"She said…when I last saw her she said she wished she hadn't killed all those people…and…and I think her partner was doing something to her."
Tab touched Cube's arm, and she tensed, and her eyes opened, and she shoved him away. Then she slammed them shut again, and buried her face in her arms.
"Man, she's sure not got her people skills, has she?" Tab rubbed his arm where Cube had pushed him.
Beat sighed. At least Tab was here too. At least other people were.
Even if it was all Tab's fault he was here.
But if he hadn't betrayed them once, Tab wouldn't have thought he was about to the second time…
He rubbed the graze on his arm. It had hurt – not just physically – when he'd been pushed. Because Tab thought he deserved it. And that had echoed his own thoughts. He did. He was a traitor. The thought gnawed at his mind.
That rage. Rage in people's faces as they looked at him. Seemed to have been happening way too much these days. His parents, as he admitted what he was. Onishima as he said he wouldn't tell. And now Tab.
But Tab's forgiven you now, okay? If it wasn't for the tear gas…
Tear gas on the roof. Onishima must be desperate…
Oh, shit.
Beat froze, suddenly remembering what Gum had read out from that notebook.
"Guys…"
Mew and Tab both turned to look at him. Cube didn't move.
"I don't want to freak you out," Beat said slowly, "but Tab, what were you saying about something scientific and permanent?"
Tab swallowed. "Oh, yeah. But he wants all ten of us, right? Right?"
"What?" Mew stared at them both, nervousness rising on her tear stained face. "What do you mean?"
"Onishima needs us to test something that'll wipe us out," Tab said.
"You're kidding, right?"
"I don't kid about that stuff."
"Oh, help…" Mew started to pace the floor. "This isn't cool…this is so not cool…"
Beat silently agreed. Onishima hated them. What he was gonna do…
"Don't panic," Tab said. "The others'll get us out."
Tears started to well up in Mew's eyes.
"Mew, it's gonna be okay –"
Footsteps were coming down the corridor towards them. Onishima, followed by four cops.
Beat shrank back against the wall, acutely conscious of his broken arm. Memories of the last time he'd spoken to Onishima stung his thoughts. And it would be worse if it happened again, the other three would see…
Cube drew her knees up even closer to her chest.
"Right," Onishima said to the cops. "Bring 'em out."
They were marched down the corridor and into Onishima's office. Every step of the route was familiar to Beat, and he felt sweat mingling with the Kogane dust on his palms.
Mew stumbled as they entered the office.
"Oh, Miyako. Lost your balance?"
There was a girl perched on the edge of Onishima's desk, wearing a white T-shirt with black crossbones on it.
"You been crying?" she said, studying Mew's face. "I guess weak little rudies whores like you do that a lot. Is it Isas breaking your heart?"
Mew looked up, and Beat saw her eyes narrow, and her jaw tighten as she gritted her teeth.
"You cow," she hissed. "You bitch, you slut, you sneaky murdering fat whore, you killed him!"
The girl raised her eyebrows, and flicked her thick dark hair over her shoulders. "Ooh, touchy. Actually, I didn't."
"What?"
"He managed to break out of his room," she said. "But no worries. The cops'll hunt him down, him being a killer and all."
"And you're not?" Mew yelled.
"This is what happens when you fraternise with rudies."
Beat watched as Mew was forced to sit down in front of the desk. He wondered what had happened. He didn't remember her ever being this angry.
"Suki, zip it," Onishima said, walking round to the unknown girl. "And get off the desk."
Suki scowled. "Why the hell should I?"
"Just do it!" Onishima slammed a fist down onto the desk. Suki rolled her eyes again, and said, "Careful, daddy, your blood pressure must be going through the roof."
"Daddy?" Mew said.
"Duh," Suki said. "You don't think I just hate rudies because they're idiots, do you?"
"Mew, who is it?" Tab asked.
"She – she – oh, she's just a bitch and she –"
"I tried to kill a guy she fancied," Suki said. "You see –"
"Suki, sit down!" Onishima roared.
Suki glowered, but slid off the desk and onto a chair a few feet away from it.
"Right. Okay." Onishima drew a deep breath. "Where's your gang now?"
Beat realised Onishima was talking to him, and gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to betray them again. He wasn't.
"Onishima, give it up," Tab said. "Why bother trying to catch us all the time? All it does is stress you out."
Onishima glowered at him. "I am going to put all ten of you out of commission – permanently – if it kills me. Now listen, can you contact your gang?"
"Why?" Tab asked.
"Because they might just want to know if they don't turn up at the police station in the next half hour, you four will be dead rudies."
"That's a little excessive, even for you," Tab said. "Last thing I heard, murder was still a crime."
Onishima shrugged. "Who'd care about a bunch of dead street punks, tell me that?"
"Can you contact them?" Mew asked Tab.
"Yeah…"
Beat stared at her, and Cube, and Tab. Dead. He wouldn't. This couldn't happen.
It could and will. Onishima's serious.
"What else can we do?" Mew had gone white, only the skin round her eyes coloured.
Betray the other GGs. Again.
"No."
Beat sat up a little, forced himself to look at Onishima, suddenly furious.
"No. I'm not letting you get them."
Suki snorted. "Come on. They're rudies, aren't they? They'll be got sooner or later so you may as well give in."
"You spilled your guts once," Onishima said. "You can do it again."
Beat felt his strength evaporating. You're nothing. You know he's right.
You spilled your guts once…
He wanted to hide.
Oh, real brave.
"Leave him alone," Tab said. "He – he never did anything to you!"
"That's what you think," Suki snapped.
"Oh, yeah? What? Run you over in the street? Paint over your favourite area of wall? What did he do to you?"
"It wasn't him!" Suki yelled. "Well, I dunno. It might have been. It's all you rudies, you swan around acting like you're the shit and then people listen to you and then they get hurt and then they – they…"
"That's enough!" Onishima roared, grabbed a gun and fired it into the ceiling. "Suki, if you don't keep your mouth shut you'll have to wait outside."
"Yeah, Suki," Mew said, smirking. "Listen to your daddy." Suki glowered at her, and rubbed a hand across her eyes.
"Anyway," Onishima said, "if you don't speak up, it's three other deaths on your conscience."
"And if we do, it's six," Mew said. "We lose either way, don't we? Thanks a bunch, Onishima."
Beat let his hands curl into fists, his nails hurting his palms. Mew was right. It didn't matter what they did. Either way, he and the girls and Tab would die.
"So call 'em," Onishima snarled. "One of you. Or I start shooting. I've had a hard day and I'm not taking any crap from rudie scum like you."
Mew gulped. Suki tittered.
"I'll do it," Tab said. "It's my fault me and Beat are here in the first place."
"No –" Beat stared at him. It's not your fault, don't say that. I don't care what happened, just don't do it…
"I said, I'll do it. Care to give me a phone, shorty?"
Onishima gritted his teeth, and pushed the phone out from under a pile of papers towards Tab. "Tell 'em to get here in the next half-hour. All six of 'em. Or else. You get the idea?"
Tab nodded, and started dialling the number.
They waited in the stuffy office. Beat wanted to get up and snatch the phone from Tab's hands, but if he did, he'd seal their death warrants.
"Hello?" Tab said at last.
"Uh – hello?"
Garam's voice echoed into the heavy air. Speakerphone, Beat realised. Mew scowled.
"Garam, it's Tab. Look, we got a little situation here."
"What?"
"Me, Beat, Mew and Cube, we're all at the police station."
"Shit," Garam said. "You all okay?"
"Yeah, but Onishima's sorta turned evil. Well, eviller. He says you guys have got to come to the station and give yourselves up in the next half hour, or he'll kill us."
"What?" Garam's voice crackled with static. "He can't be serious."
"I know, but he looks serious from where I'm standing. He wants all six of you…"
Tab stopped a moment.
"Yeah," he said at last. "All six of you. Get it?"
"Uh –"
"Sorry to put the pressure on, but I've got two members of the Onishima family on my tail and at least one seriously depressed rudie. Tell the others I'm sorry too."
"Okay, um, don't worry. We'll help you."
"Cool. Bye, Garam."
He put down the phone.
"Happy now?" he said to Onishima.
Beat felt the hate boil under his ribs.
"I'll be happy," Onishima said, eyes narrowed, "when I've got all ten of you down here and I can get rid of you at last."
***
"Guys!"
Past Gum looked round as Garam burst into the room.
"Huh? I thought you were still out tagging," Future Gum said.
"I came back early. Yo-Yo's still out there. And just as I got in the phone in the hallway rang and it's Tab and Beat and Mew and Cube, Onishima's kidnapped them."
"No way," Piranha said.
"Oh, hi, Piranha…" Garam surveyed the room. "Hi, Slate, hi, Slate and Piranha's kid. He says if all six GGs don't go up to the station in half an hour, he'll kill 'em."
Past Gum swallowed. Her stomach was slowly turning to ice.
"What're we gonna do?" she said at last.
"What can we do?" Future Gum said. "For one thing, we don't have all the GGs…"
"Guys!" a voice yelled from outside.
"Ooh, déjà vu," Piranha muttered.
Yo-Yo burst through the door. "Guess what? I got another one!"
"What?"
"Another GG! Combo, get in here!"
Past Gum watched as Combo strolled into the room, and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked practically the same – indeed, he didn't look like he ever would change.
"I met him looking for Cube round here," Yo-Yo said. "He stayed with her last night."
"Okay, good to see you and all, Combo," Future Gum said, "but now we do have a problem." She quickly explained the situation.
"Why are there two Gums?" Combo said at last.
She explained that as well.
"Well…come on, guys, we can't exactly just leave them in there," Yo-Yo said. "Even if Oni don't kill 'em, he'll still bang 'em up behind bars for life."
"Cube don't need that," Combo said, his face darkening. "She don't need that at all."
"Nor does Beat," Future Gum said. "But if Onishima knows there's six of us and he wants us all there…"
Past Gum nodded. There didn't seem to be much of a way out of this. Six rudies, six remaining GGs out of the ten…
Wait.
"But there aren't six of us," she said.
"Huh?"
"Look. There's seven of us." Past Gum grinned. "Onishima doesn't know about me, does he?"
"So?" Slate said.
"I can – I can stay here, stay out of jail, try and do something."
"Why you?" Future Gum demanded. "Why not me?"
"Cos we don't want him to suspect. If I look five years younger than everyone else…nuh-uh. Come on, this is our only option."
"But what can you do?" Garam said. "We got less than twenty-five minutes now. Not like you can bust us out on your own."
Past Gum shrugged. "Look. It's a chance. It's something he doesn't know about. It may save your hides."
"So…we're going?" Piranha said. She looked over at Mari, who was playing awkwardly on the computer.
"You guys have anyone – anyone at all – you can leave her with?" Future Gum said, following Piranha's line of sight.
Piranha shrugged, looking like she was about to burst into tears. "I won't go," she said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry about them but I'm not letting Mari get in trouble. I won't go."
"Piranha, look, we can leave her with the Osakas," Slate said.
"Who're they?" Future Gum asked.
"Our next door neighbours. Kids're all grown up. They worship Mari. She'll be safe there, you know it, safer than here."
"But –"
"What else can we do?" Garam said. "Anyway, if this all works, Gum'll bust us out and you'll be reunited with your kid by this evening."
"All right," Piranha said, slowly. "But…what if something happens to her? And they don't know where I am…"
"They're competent people, they can deal with it," Slate said. He walked over to Piranha and hugged her. "It'll be all right, okay? I'll take her over there now. We can tell 'em we're having a little cop trouble, they'll know where to reach us –"
"If we're not permanently zombiefied or whatever it is Onishima's planning," Yo-Yo said. "Okay, let's get moving, then."
Past Gum watched as the GGs plus Mari trudged out of the room. All except one. Yo-Yo.
"What do you want?" she said, scowling as she remembered he'd been snogging her future self not long ago.
"Look…uh…I wanted to say good luck, okay? And, and if I don't see you, then…I really like you, that's all. And I'm sorry I ain't handling this past self/future self situation better. I don't want to hurt you, either of you."
"Thanks." He really likes me! He really really likes me! Gum felt a huge grin spread over her face.
Yo-Yo stepped forward, and kissed her on the lips. Just a quick kiss this time, but Gum felt her fingers clench.
"Now you better try and save us," he said. "Or I won't ever be able to do that again."
Gum watched him walk out of the room. The sunlight seemed brighter, and soft music was playing in her ears…
And if she didn't think of a plan, the GGs would be wiped out for good.
***
She slunk out and shadowed the GGs to the police station, keeping some distance away from them just in case the cops were looking. She watched them walk up the steps to the front door. She watched them get dragged inside.
And then she wanted to panic.
What the hell was she going to do?
She crept closer to the police station, and tried desperately to think of a plan.
"Uh – hello?" someone whispered.
Gum turned, slowly, heart beating. "Yes?" She tried to look as if hanging around outside police stations was a perfectly normal thing to be doing.
A dark-haired boy wearing a rumpled black T-shirt and black school trousers was staring at her.
"Um, you're a rudie, aren't you?"
Gum frowned at him. "It's the skates, isn't it?"
"Do you know a rudie called Mew?"
"Yeah. She's in my gang. Well, she was –"
"She got arrested," the boy said. "Last night."
"How do you know?"
"I was there. My name's Isas, me and Mew, we're, um, friends."
"Oh. Okay." Friends. That's why you're twitching like that, is it? "Well, Onishima's caught the whole gang except me, and I need to get them out, so any ideas?"
"I've been round here quite some time," Isas said. "I heard them say they're gonna take a bunch of rudies up to the Rokkaku building."
Gum was suddenly cold. "No way."
"Way." Isas closed his eyes a second. "I don't know what to do."
"What can we do? If they go there you know they're not meant to come out…" Gum heard her voice crack, and swallowed. "Sorry."
"We could –"
"Leave her alone!"
Combo's voice echoed from the back of the police station.
Gum and Isas glanced at each other, and crept forward.
The GGs were being marched into one of those police vans by what looked like most of the cops in the station. Gum flattened herself against the wall. Onishima must be worried.
She wanted to rush forward and just grab those bastards off her friends.
But she couldn't. She couldn't.
Yes, they were all there. Mew, wearing a crumpled school uniform, taller, more serious than she'd been five years ago, biting her lip – Gum heard Isas catch his breath. And Cube, eyes closed, looking so much weaker than she had been. Gum felt sick. Someone else she wished she'd been able to save.
The last GG – Slate – stumbled into the van, the doors were slammed shut and locked, Gum heard a roar as the engine started up. The cops began to walk back into the building through the side entrance.
And Gum realised what to do.
"Listen," she said to Isas. "Go and tell people what's happened. Tell them a bunch of kids are gonna be murdered at the Rokkaku building. Tell them everything."
"What about you?"
Gum watched as the van passed them, gathering speed.
She dashed forward, grabbed hold of the back of it, and instantly shot along the road. As she was dragged away, she stared back at Isas, and gave him a thumbs-up. Then the van turned a corner – her arm muscles wrenched painfully – and he was gone.
***
The van pulled up to the Rokkaku complex at one minute past midday. The heat was almost intolerable now, the sun burning Gum's skin and making her squint.
She watched as the driver got out and walked over to the intercom on the front door. The Rokkaku building stared down at her, the symbol like a warped red eye. We know what you're doing. You're not supposed to be here.
I'm a rudie, Gum thought, trying to sound insolent because it gave her confidence. I'm never supposed to be anywhere.
The driver was saying, "The rudies – uh – Miss Camilla Rokkaku requested are here. With Captain Onishima."
The intercom buzzed, and a voice said, "Thank you. Please take your vehicle round to the underground car park. Someone will be sent along to direct you."
Gum licked her dry lips. Okay. Timing.
The van jerked forward, and she clung on, fingers hurting. It turned round the side of the skyscraper and drove down a slope into cool, oil-smelling darkness.
Gum let go, dropped, rolled, ducked behind a car, and watched as the van was directed to a space. Slowly she slithered round the side of the car, keeping low, trying to ignore the grime getting smeared over her dress.
Onishima had got out of the van, with the driver, and a girl about Gum's age with dark hair and a scowl. They stood, waiting, and then Gum's heart gripped her chest as a large group of Golden Rhinos came walking forward, afros, sunglasses, dodgy moustaches, all complete.
Shit, she mouthed to herself.
She saw the doors opened in the flickering industrial lights, saw the GGs being dragged out, saw their faces as they recognised the Rhinos. She wriggled a little nearer. Be careful, be careful, one slip and you're dead and so are they…her heart was so loud she could hardly hear anything else. She took a few deep, silent breaths and watched as the group headed towards a lift in the far corner.
Nearer. Nearer still.
"Floor ninety-nine," one of the Rhinos said, and the doors closed.
The only person left was the driver, who walked back to his van and sat there, waiting. Soon Gum heard music echoing out over the car park from the van radio, and saw the driver take out his newspaper. Excellent.
She walked up to the lift, and pressed the call button.
***
Tab let himself be shoved forward by the Rhinos, and tried to ignore the terror on everyone's faces.
This was his fault. They could've held out, he didn't have to call them. And he had.
Was this how Beat had felt?
I am so sorry, he thought silently. I am so, so sorry.
But what else could he have done?
It made no difference, his brain pointed out. You, Beat, Cube and Mew are dead whatever happens. But you could have protected the others.
And I didn't.
I couldn't let them kill him…
You idiot, he told himself. They'll kill him anyway. Just a bit later on. You hear me? They'll kill him.
It didn't seem real. Something would turn up.
If you'd let Onishima shoot us at the station, at least people would have seen. At least Oni might have got in trouble. Now – no one'll know. And, as usual, no one'll care.
The others could have survived. You just panicked, you just couldn't bear to see anything happen to Beat.
And what is so wrong with that? He's had enough happen to him already. I just…
You just screwed up.
They were being marched along a corridor towards a door at the end. The small windows showed tempting glimpses of Tokyo-to, miles below them. Tab tried to think of something that could make the situation better. All he could come up with was well, at least we're not dead yet.
They'd reached the door now. The leading Rhino knocked.
It swung open, and an amazingly beautiful woman stared out at them. Her jet-black hair was tied back in a sensible ponytail, which ran down her back, contrasting sharply with her white lab coat. Large blue eyes narrowed as she saw them, and the shapely mouth curved into a smile.
"Excellent," she said to Onishima, who was standing next to the leading Rhino. "Ten of them?"
Onishima nodded.
"Bring them in," she said.
The group moved into the room, which was a large laboratory. Sunlight from the wide windows glittered on the tall cylinder-shaped machine that dominated the lab, and on the ten chairs next to it.
"Please, sit down," the woman said to the GGs.
Not like we have a choice, Tab thought as a Rhino shoved him down into a chair. He had Beat on one side of him and Gum on the other. Beat grinned as their eyes met, but it was a nervous grin.
Tab swallowed. He especially didn't want to see them test whatever this thing was on Beat.
Onishima and Suki stood next to the machine, both eyeing it nervously, and the Rhinos ranged themselves in a line behind the chairs.
"Good afternoon," the woman said. "My name is Camilla Rokkaku, and I am here to demonstrate a machine that the Rokkaku Corporation has developed."
"Oh, yeah, and what's it gonna do?" Gum's voice was louder than normal, and Tab could see she was sitting very straight. "Disembowel us? Electrocute us? What? What's today's murder?"
"Please, it's not murder," Camilla said. "It's simply alteration of a critical variable to adjust time in order to create a desired effect."
Tab felt everyone looking at him. "What?" he asked them.
"Translate her for us, kid," Combo said.
"Come on, Camilla," Beat said. "Give it to us in plain Japanese."
"Very well." Camilla sighed. "This machine scrolls through time, and adjusts one critical factor. For instance, someone will decide to take a walk where originally they stayed at home."
"And?" Slate said.
"This changes our present."
"Oh, get on with it," Onishima snarled. "You can basically erase all these punks from time."
"What?" Gum yelled. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"He's right," Camilla said. "One change and I can prevent all the drunken one-night-stands that created you ten."
Tab swallowed. This sounded crazy. But – but if Past Gum could time travel…
Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
"Yeah," Onishima said. "She can make it so you pests never existed. And that's gotta be good."
"No way!" Garam yelled. "That is just freaky!"
Camilla shrugged. "All great scientists got called that." She walked over to the control panel next to the machine, and typed something in.
There was a hum, and a blue light spilled down from the ceiling, bathing the GGs in sapphire.
"This is crazy," Gum said, her voice shaking. "This is crazy. And you're out of your head. This won't work."
"And besides," Tab said, "you got no right to do it! You can't decide who should exist and who shouldn't, you're not a god."
Camilla scowled, her eyebrows rising with exasperation. "Look. I'm doing you a favour. I've got your pasts, presents and futures all set out on this screen. And let me tell you, the futures – if I never developed this, if you never were brought here – are not good."
"Yeah, that suits you, doesn't it?" Gum said. She jumped to her feet, hair ice-coloured in the light. "Try and tell yourself this is for the common good, then you can avoid the guilt. Yeah, right!"
Camilla glanced down at the screen, then said, "I suppose it's you seeing your father rape your mother that's made you so antagonistic."
Gum's face whitened horribly, and she dropped back into the chair. Tab wanted to leap up himself and knock Camilla's smirk off her face, but he could feel the Rhinos behind him, their presence hurting the back of his neck.
"I told you," Camilla said. "I have your lives here. You…" She pointed to Beat. "Getting thrown out of your home and coming to Tokyo and founding this two-bit group of troublemakers…you…" She glanced at Combo. "Losing your best friend to my father's henchmen…you…" She turned to Piranha and Slate. "Conceiving the brat you've left with the Osaka family."
"You don't talk about my daughter that way," Piranha snapped out. "Wow, you know our pasts? Well, we're not ashamed of those pasts. If anything, I'd be more ashamed if I was like you. Born with a silver spoon up my ass."
Camilla shrugged. "Whatever you think. It's your futures I'm concerned with."
"Ain't that kinda nosy?" Combo said.
"Maybe. But really interesting. I mean, take your friend Cube, who if I'm not much mistaken is sitting next to you right now."
Tab glanced at Cube, who still had her eyes shut.
"She will be tried for all the murders she's done, and found guilty. Obviously. And on 15th April, 2007, she will be executed."
There was a silence. Tab saw Combo's face become motionless, like carved wood.
"No," he said.
"Do you even know what she did?" Camilla said. "Onishima does. And his daughter has some idea."
She glanced over at the police captain, who said, "Yeah. She killed seven families. All of 'em, shot them in front of each other, tortured them. Real bitch you have, kid."
Combo leapt to his feet this time, but two of the Rhinos rushed round and pushed him back down again.
Tab looked at Cube, at her drowned face, and his throat ached with a mixture of misery, fury and horror.
"You, of course, didn't like that too much," Camilla said to Combo, a singsong note entering her voice. "You visited her, you tried to keep her strong. You saw her die. Then you went back to Grind City, and boy did you go bad! Not just rudie stuff this time. Theft, violence, drug smuggling. The cops weren't too happy. On 23rd January, 2008, you'll be shot in a police raid."
Onishima's face was twisted into a pained smile.
"Now, who do we have next?" Camilla surveyed the GGs. Tab found himself shrinking into his seat. "Ah, Mew. Or Miyako, I suppose you could be known as. Now, you're right, you did fail your exams – you violated your probation, so you went to jail. Isas failed his too…"
Mew's eyes widened. "You know about Isas?"
Camilla indicated the screen. "He visited you all that time. When you came out, he stuck by you, you set up house together. But you see, intellectually he is far your superior."
Suki gave a snort of laughter. "No shit."
"You started having rows, terrible, terrible rows. You drank to cope with the pain, and that didn't help. One night you threw a lamp at him, and in a horrible twist of fate it struck him in a vulnerable spot, and killed him."
Tears spilled from Mew's eyes, making her suddenly look younger.
"In your intoxicated state, you couldn't think straight, so you decided to kill yourself, and shoved your head in the gas oven. You will die 14th June, 2015."
"Serves you right," Suki said to Mew, sounding childishly angry. "Wish you'd do it sooner."
Tab wondered how much more of this he could take. Tears were thinking of stinging his own eyes, and he didn't want Camilla – anyone – to see them.
"Now, you two…" Camilla indicated Yo-Yo and Gum. "Your futures are closely bound together. You finally sort out your little romantic problems and start dating. Then you have a row. He walks out, and gets in the way of a paratrooper's bullet on 10th October, 2006…"
"Shut up!" Gum screamed. "Just shut up!"
The Rhino standing behind her chair caught her on the back of the head with the side of his machine gun.
"Gum, you aren't too happy about this, so you quit the GGs completely. You head to another city, and being the rudie dropout that you are, and unable to find a gang to hook up with, turn to prostitution to support yourself. You then catch a rather nasty disease, and die 5th December, 2020."
Gum snorted. "That is the biggest load of crap I ever heard. You are just making these up, or at least making 'em worse than they are, cos they all read like the plot of a really bad novel."
"Rudies read novels?" Camilla said. "No, sorry, they're all true. Now, who else? Oh, yes, Slate and Piranha. Well, you're not too bad. You live in Kogane-cho, your kid grows up, she goes to school, you carry on working at your menial jobs for the next forty years. Slate, you have a heart attack and die on 7th November, 2050. Piranha, you struggle on single for a nice long time, before succumbing to Alzheimer's Disease and finally dying 2nd March, 2065."
Piranha buried her face in her hands, and Slate put his arms round her.
"Garam."
Garam jumped, then tried to look like he hadn't.
"You quit the Skulls."
"He's a Skull?" Onishima yelled, grabbing his gun.
Camilla glared at him. "You don't need to do that. They'll all be gone soon. Now, as I was saying, you quit the Skulls. Which is good. A pity Cube never got the message about your rendezvous…"
"What?" Garam yelled.
"Saburo never told her. Seeing as how he was copulating with her – oh, sorry, you don't know what that means – screwing her behind your back, I'm not surprised."
Garam's jaw tensed as he gritted his teeth.
"You can't take Cube getting caught and all, sadly. The guilt thing, you know. So you slit your wrists on 4th January, 2008."
Garam swallowed. At last he said "What happens to Saburo?"
Camilla shrugged. "Sorry. I haven't scanned him, have I? Anyway, who have I got left? Oh, yes. You two."
Tab swallowed and hoped he didn't look as terrified as he felt.
"Now, there's a problem with you two," Camilla said, her perfect eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "You see, there's two different futures, and I'm not sure why."
"What, you had two great ideas and you couldn't decide which one to use?" Beat said.
"In one," Camilla said, "Beat is sent to Dobuita Prison, and is murdered there in a knife fight on 4th July, 2007. Tab, you really start to miss him…"
Tab felt hot fury start to bubble in his ribcage as Camilla rolled her eyes.
"But that doesn't last for too long. A train puts you out of your misery on 12th February, 2009."
Tab considered the information, but was unable to absorb it. It wasn't real. It couldn't be real.
"But here's the conflict," Camilla said. "In the other future, Beat is rescued while en route to the prison. And you are reunited."
"But not for long, right?" Tab said.
"No. You have a spat, as it were…about Beat's instance of betrayal while in custody…"
Tab glanced at Beat, and saw him tense.
"It's okay," he hissed. "No one cares about that any more."
"Hey, it's what she says next I'm worried about."
"Beat is arrested again, and commits suicide on 31st August, 2005. Understandably. And then, well, Tab, you just get totally depressed and throw yourself off the highest point in Kogane-cho into the river on 1st November, 2005."
Tab swallowed. Today was 24th August. He looked over at Beat. In a week Beat would be dead…he felt his throat tighten.
"I'm still here now," Beat whispered, and gripped his hand. "Come on. Don't let the science bitch see she got to you."
"So…" Camilla said. "Let's get going."
She turned back to the control panel and started to type. The machine's hum changed in pitch, and Tab felt his skin tingling.
"It will take up to ten minutes for all the variables to be altered," Camilla said. "Then it will take anything between one and five minutes for you all to be erased."
Onishima laughed. Camilla stared at them, her face mildly pleased, looking like someone who would advertise washing powder.
"I suggest you make peace with each other, and prepare to depart this earth."
***
Past Gum crouched behind the table in the laboratory, and tried to think, but her head was buzzing with terror and rage, and it drowned out her thoughts.
She can't do this. She just can't.
Seeing your father rape your mother…
Prepare to depart this earth…
A paratrooper's bullet…
Slowly she crept forward. She'd have to get to the machine and try and…try and reverse it or something. Not that she had any clue how to. She swallowed back a sob. She couldn't do this. She couldn't save any of them. This wasn't fair!
Move it! Move it or they'll all be deleted!
And then she heard a Rhino call out, looked round, saw them hurrying towards her, leapt to her feet, catching her side on a table, pain shot through her hip as test tubes shattered and piles of books toppled to the ground, she ran towards the machine –
"Don't shoot!" Camilla yelled. "You'll break something!"
Running feet, she was cornered, the door was blocked, she tried to reach the control panel, Camilla shoved her back, and her arms were grabbed, and she was caught.
Camilla looked from Gum to Future Gum and smirked. "I see," she said. "This explains the aberration I noticed. I presume you helped him escape from prison?"
"Woah," Suki gasped. "Freaky. You're like twins."
"Get used to it, bitch," Gum snapped. She struggled to break free, but the Rhinos clutched her wrists like iron.
"Let go of her!" Yo-Yo yelled.
Camilla shrugged. "It doesn't matter whether I do or not. She is simply a past version of Gum. They'll both be erased."
Gum swallowed. Oh, shit. Camilla was right. Soon she wouldn't be. Soon she'd disappear. Soon…
The humming of the machine rose, stinging her ears. Camilla walked over to the control panel and checked it. "Yes," she said. "Not long now."
This can't be how it ends, Gum thought. This can't be…
"I imagine it was the virus someone unleashed onto the Rokkaku computer system that brought you here," Camilla said. She studied the screen on the control panel again. "No – it was you, wasn't it?" She stared at Tab. "You created that virus."
"You did that?" Onishima roared.
"Didja like it?" Tab sneered.
"Do you know how crazy the station has been –" Onishima began, but Camilla cut him off, and said, "It was mildly amusing. The obsession of the younger age group with sex is truly extraordinary."
"Come on," Onishima muttered from behind Gum. "When's this gonna work?"
"Soon. Please, captain. Patience."
"What's with him?" Garam said. "Why's he got such a beef against us anyway? You know so much, tell us that!"
Camilla shrugged. "Gladly. His daughter was a rudie."
"Shut up!" Onishima roared.
Camilla carried on like she hadn't heard. "She spent every single night out of the family house, skating and tagging. Onishima turned a blind eye to it – she was his daughter, after all…"
"Yeah," Suki muttered. "You'd have turned a blind eye to everything Mimi did, wouldn't you?"
"I mean it," Onishima yelled.
"Then one night – in December – she came home, and she'd been gang-raped by a bunch of rudies. She became very depressed, and then finally hanged herself in her room on 1st May, 1999."
"That's right," Suki snapped. "Tell them. Then they can see what their kind's really like. See that, Mew? That's why I hate rudies." Tears trembled in her voice. "That's why I hate them, because they screwed up my life and I can't get away from it. You know what a pain it was to have to see you every day at school? You sauntering around like you owned the place? When I knew what you were, and, and what you did to Mimi, you wrecked our family…"
Mew looked up at her, face smeared with tears. "Your life's been screwed up? Join the club."
Onishima glared at Camilla, a vein throbbing in his temple. "That's right. Tell 'em. Let 'em laugh like they always do."
"Why would I laugh?" Past Gum said. Her wrists were starting to throb where the two Rhinos were gripping them.
She felt the next phrase form in her mouth like a toad, and spat it out, hating herself. "I figured your daughters would be whores, so it doesn't surprise me."
"You bitch!" Suki yelled.
Onishima, face almost inhuman with anger, grabbed his gun and aimed it at her head. Gum struggled to dodge –
"Why waste a bullet?" Camilla said. "She'll be gone soon."
Gum opened her mouth to retort something, but she never got a chance to, because she was cut off by a shriek from Piranha.
Slate was fading. Gum could see the back of his chair through him – he turned to look at Piranha – then froze – and then suddenly he just wasn't there any more.
Piranha gave a little sob, put out her hand to touch the space he'd been occupying.
Her clothes changed from black to white, her body slimmed, the stretch marks faded away…
"What's wrong?" Camilla said. "He never existed. So you don't remember him, do you?"
"I do," Piranha said. "I do…I…"
Gum frowned, trying to remember herself who had disappeared. No – not disappeared – something had happened – but what? Camilla's time machine was going to erase them all, but it couldn't have started yet, because they were all there, all nine of them plus her…
In the Osaka house, Mari dropped her red crayon. By the time it hit the floor, she was gone.
Gum watched the GGs, desperately trying to notice when they'd vanish. But they couldn't. They were her friends. They wouldn't vanish. This was impossible…
Piranha was going flickery, like a badly-tuned ghost.
Only for a second.
"Piranha…Piranha's gone…" Mew's tearstained face paled.
"How is that tragic?" Camilla asked. "Who's Piranha?"
Gum nodded. Who was Piranha? Something funny was going on, but she couldn't see what.
Back in 2000, eight GGs prepared to save the city. There'd always been eight. Everyone knew that.
"Get on with it already!" Garam yelled at Camilla. "I thought you said it'd take like fifteen minutes!"
Camilla shrugged. "I've started."
"No, you haven't! No one's disappeared!"
"They have," Tab said. "Think about it. I don't know who Slate and Piranha are either, but they must be people she's just erased. Now they never existed, we don't remember them, but we used to. Five minutes ago, we knew them."
"So – so we're all gonna forget each other?" Combo said.
"I guess so."
"You sick, twisted bitch!" Garam leapt to his feet – ran towards Camilla –
He shimmered –
Camilla shrugged.
"Garam?" Gum said.
No answer.
Well, of course, there wouldn't be, would there? There was no one there.
Cube entered the Skull HQ, and her heart pounded at the sight of Saburo. She hadn't had a boyfriend since Coin. She was feeling desperate.
Seven GGs, plus me, Past Gum thought. It won't take long to erase them, and then she'll erase me, and – and I just won't be…She struggled again to break free of the Rhinos, but they weren't even breaking a sweat keeping her still.
"This is just crazy," Yo-Yo said.
"You're telling me." Mew flicked her tangled hair out of her eyes –
Her hair froze –
Her face was outlined against Gum's vision like a lightning flash, then it faded away.
"Mew," Tab said. "Don't forget her name, she did exist, Camilla just wiped her."
"Who the hell is Mew?" Future Gum demanded.
"See?"
Isas blinked as he stared down at his maths book. For a moment he'd had a sense of something – something else he should have been doing.
Yeah, like getting out of maths, he answered himself. He stared down into his bag, where a book of tags was tucked under his chemistry folder. Maybe one day he'd actually get to meet a real rudie. Though they'd probably just laugh at him.
"This is crazy," Future Gum said. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. You're just fucking around with our minds."
"She's rewriting history," Tab said. "If I go next, you won't remember me."
"Yeah, right!"
"Right," Camilla said. "Give it up, Tab. You're just remembering possibilities. Things that never happened. Things that never needed to happen."
"Yeah," Onishima said. "This'll get rid of all rudies, and that's for sure."
"You can't just delete them all!" Tab's voice rose with incredulity. "That'll send time into a tailspin, you don't know what effects it'll have on the future!"
Suki rolled her eyes at him. "Like we care, skate boy."
"Anyway," Camilla said. "It'll be a better future. That's because –"
"Cube – no!"
Combo's voice echoed round the laboratory as Cube opened her evaporating eyes.
"Combo, I –"
The rest of the sentence vanished with the speaker.
Combo leapt to his feet. "You killed her, you – you –"
"What did I do?" Camilla said.
Combo blinked. "I – you did something. I dunno what, but something."
The Toriyama children were going back to school soon. They'd survived all these Skull attacks.
And Combo was lurking in the garage, feeling lonely. He'd never had anyone to talk to since Coin died. He missed Grind City, and he missed his friend.
"Let go of me!" Gum screamed at the Rhinos. Something had happened. She had to get to that control panel and stop the machine!
"Gum, when I go, I won't have made the virus that brought you here," Tab said suddenly.
"So where will I be?"
"Back in your own time, I guess. Till Future Gum goes."
"You have no sense of timing," Yo-Yo said to Future Gum. "Couldn't we have got it on some time in the last five years before we confronted the Rokkaku maniacs?"
Past Gum heard Combo laugh, a laugh which suddenly stopped. She stared at him as he flickered, wanting his strength to keep him here – but –
The GGs stared at the record pieces they'd got from the three gangs.
"What the hell is it?" Gum asked.
"No idea. And I don't think we're really gonna be able to find out," Tab sighed.
Two days later the Assassins struck Tokyo.
Gum watched the four GGs. Herself. Beat. Tab. Yo-Yo. The only friends she had back five years ago – and Yo-Yo? More than a friend? She stared at them again and again –
Beat's image was flickering, like she was looking at him through tears.
"No!" she yelled at the same time Tab did.
Beat looked over to Tab – smiled –
No one was there.
Professor K blinked. Something had changed…
Suddenly he realised he sounded like he'd forgotten what to say. And he hadn't, this was obvious.
"And in the south, from Shibuya-cho, city of the daylight – it's those troublemaking punks, the Love Shockers!"
Gum shook her head to clear it, and stared at the red-headed kid sitting next to her future self. "Who the hell are you?"
"Who the hell are you?" he retorted. "What's going on?"
"Someone's changed the past…" Tab's eyes narrowed under his hat…
What happened to his Noise Tank uniform?
What Noise Tank uniform? He's always worn that boiler suit.
I've got to get free, Gum thought, dismissing the detail of Tab's clothes. I've got to save Tab, he's my oldest friend…and me…and that other guy, I don't know him, but…
She concentrated, raised a foot, and drove her skate backwards into the first Rhino's groin.
He yelled, let go of her, she swung, gathered up her fear and fury and punched the other one.
Then she ran for the control panel.
"No!" She heard Camilla's heels clattering on the shiny floor as the woman rushed towards her. She'd reached the control panel. The mass of buttons swirled in front of her eyes, she didn't know what to do…
"Get her!" Onishima roared.
She felt Camilla grab her round the throat, struggled, her hand scraped along the buttons, switches flicked…
"Gum," Tab yelled, "You're going, so am I, so's the other dude, good luck –"
Gum looked down at her hand, saw it start to fade, she elbowed Camilla away from her, slammed her fist down on a random button…