Adaptive Consequences Read online

  ‘Wait here one moment,’ Odgerel said, as she walked out the lab. ‘I’ll be back.’

  She returned in a few minutes with a red bracelet in her hand. Jun recognised it from the interwoven scarves Odgerel had hung to decorate her living quarters. ‘Here,’ she said and placed the knotted-charm bracelet in the palm of Jun’s hand. ‘You know the endless knot? It symbolises the infinite love and interdependence of all things. I trust you, Dr Jun. I need you to trust me.’

  Accepting it was like making a promise Jun wasn’t sure she could keep. She heard a creak coming from the corridor – what if it was Markov? Jun thrust the bracelet into her pocket. ‘I won’t be able to do anything about the rota tonight for Dr Markov’s observation – I can’t stay myself – but don’t worry Ms Zaye… I’ll sort it out, I just need 24 hours.’

  Jun had rushed out to the corridor, but there had been no one there. She went into the observation room and had restarted the cameras and microphones. She had tried not to think about what had gone uncaptured and what on Earth she was going to do about it.

  That was before Markov called in ill and for once, abandoned his tradition of inconveniencing her, and instead, done her a favour. She could postpone her guilt and fear until tomorrow because Odgerel would be alone this evening, and able to get the rest she so clearly needed.

  But there was no way around it – Jun would need to walk through the fire. She needed to check her UA Laboratory Manuals and Codes of Conduct, as well as the Counsel’s database. The thought made her guts twist. The fallout from this would reverberate to the top, and Dr Wei would want the recording of Odgerel’s account and Jun’s head on a block. She would have to lie about why she turned off the recording equipment, but what did that matter? The study had been built on people lying. Why should she be any different?

  * * *

  The lazy descent of the sun burned an amber glow in the kitchen. Jun powered down her Interface. She had completed hers and Markov’s evaluation for tomorrow. The only urgent thing left to do was research around the procedures concerning Odgerel’s statements, but that would have to wait till after the PSA meeting. Meeting Adalbert and co. was the last thing she needed right now; more controversy and more battling. Deflecting Jonquils’ barbs and worrying about the UA’s stronghold.

  Jun was tired, depleted of energy and impetus. She walked over to the blinds and was about to close them when she saw two tall, thin shadows cast on the walkway. The home-comp chimed.

  ‘Ms Xie, you have two United Adaptive officials waiting for you outside – a Ms Blum and Mr Golov. Please respond to them directly.’

  Her first thought was Fan. He had gone to visit his parents just outside the CMCD. What if something had happened? What if his Intuimoto failed?

  Things hadn’t entirely been the same between them since he’d asked her to marry him. She hadn’t known what to say; the silence had swallowed the room. Marriage, children and all that came with it, it was too soon. He’d put the ring back down on the crystal as if burying precious stone into precious stone. She’d picked it up and pushed it into his fingers.

  ‘It’s not never, it’s just not now,’ she had said, a hollow inside of her crept wider, like the cavities that formed the crystals. She had pushed Fan into a corner, and he withdrew into himself and work, in ways that she was still getting used to.

  Jun rushed to the door. It swung open with such force it jolted her with it.

  ‘Dr Xie?’ Two faces stared at her with a vacant-pleasantness. They were dressed formally, with orange-bands around their wrists. One was a woman, smaller than Jun, with a thin smile like a lizard, which stretched across her face from ear to ear. Next to her was a thick-set man, stood rooted like a bison; his skin was the colour of grit. The lizard-woman thrust a hand in Jun’s and shook it, her spindly fingers coiled themselves around hers.

  ‘Is Fan okay? Or… it’s not my parents?’ Jun said breathless, looking from one to the other.

  The lizard-woman smiled again. ‘We’re sorry to call on you unexpected, I’m SIEO Blum – this is IEO Golov – we’re from the Adaptive Governance Department of the Russo-Chin Province. May we come in?’

  Jun closed the door an inch, carving away some of Golov’s thick arm from her view. ‘Might I see some identification please?’

  In unison, they both stretched their forearm to reveal their wrists, and Jun scanned their chips. Both of their passes illuminated in front of her as the scanner read aloud their information.

  ‘Ms Elena Blum of the United Adaptive Administration, Adaptive Governance Department, Senior Internal Emissary Officer.’

  ‘Mr Grigory Golov of the United Adaptive Administration, Adaptive Governance Department, Internal Emissary Officer.’

  Blum smiled lazily but took a forceful step up into the doorway. ‘Of course. I should stress, there’s no need to worry about Dr Li or your parents…’

  Their ambiguity grated. ‘Well if that’s the case, what’s this about? I need to leave. I have plans…’

  ‘Those plans are the reason we’re here. If you can spare two fellow UA colleagues a little of your time?’ Blum smiled again, but this time held it more firmly.

  The reason for their visit firebombed Jun’s mind, but she couldn’t say no. She opened the door ajar and turned her back to them to pad to the kitchen, taking deliberately slow steps to consolidate her thoughts. Desai would have warned her, wouldn’t he, before they sent two UA bureaucrats round? That was assuming that he would have known; a chill ran down her back. Maybe they’d found out about Desai too.

  Blum cleared her throat, and her steady rhythm made it sound like she was reciting a script verbatim. ‘We understand you’re planning to petition against your local Public Service Announcements this evening. While we promote and encourage freedom of opinion, we don’t feel that as a wider member of the administration, you should lead and direct such a discussion.’

  Jun thought about Fan. His recent angst at her survey response; his tone when they talked about her involvement with the anti-PSA group; his shrug that suggested their visit had been inevitable.

  ‘Are you suggesting I forgo my opinions because of my position?’ Jun’s voice rose.

  Golov folded his arms across his broad chest; his biceps flexed and tensed, a silent language of their own.

  Blum laughed. ‘We’re not suggesting that, Dr Xie. We would hope that as a partner of the UA you would consider the consequences of your actions.’

  ‘What consequences?’

  Blum looked to Golov, and they both shook their heads resigned and piteous like they were explaining something simple to someone who didn’t get it. But Jun did get it. She just wasn’t inclined to let them hide behind their evasive words.

  ‘It puts us all in a rather embarrassing position, you see,’ Blum said. ‘You, being part of the UA family, and publicly going against one of our policies. We all look ridiculous. Besides that, we’ve proven multiple times that the PSAs protect and serve the community.

  ‘We would hate to be in a position where we are forced to look at the reciprocal value of our relationship. It would be unfortunate if you and your partner were de-valued by the UA because of this,’ Blum said.

  Jun pursed her lips, knowing her silence would force Blum to spell it out for her.

  ‘Dr Xie, I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation,’ Blum tried again.

  Jun forced herself to breathe slowly to dissipate the rage inside, and not give Blum the reaction she wanted.

  Blum finally broke, her voice determined. ‘I’d like to remind you that this house was paid for by the UA.’

  ‘For services rendered. We weren’t given it; we earned the money to buy it.’

  Blum’s hair-line crack of a smile grew. ‘You and Dr Li should talk, but in the interests of time… he owns the majority share of the property. The UA gift-loaned him the funds, which allowed him to purchase that majority. Your father accepted a similar gift too. The UA looks after its loyal employees.’
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  Golov casually dropped his elbow behind him on the kitchen counter and leant against it, an animal marking its territory.

  Blum was as contrived and synthesised as the PSAs. Jun felt like she had been cut open, deliberately in one long slash. Fan the knife, and Blum the butcher. Fan had warned her not to go to the meetings. All along he’d known the stakes.

  ‘We consider our employees with a long-term vision, but if you don’t share that vision, then there are plenty of others who would benefit.’ Blum’s hands clasped together, as if in false prayer to an even falser God.

  Jun was desperate to say something, biting and dismissive, but she couldn’t. She knew the UA well enough to know they would always argue back with some legal or contractual jurisdiction up their sleeves. No one ever beat a cheater playing by the rules. She thought of Adalbert’s codewords and looked around the room. The Interface, the home-comp, the Telestream, they all had microphones. ‘How did you know about my involvement in the petition?’

  ‘We’re not at liberty to say, but it’s not difficult with the resources and intelligence we have available,’ Blum said.

  Golov heaved himself off his arm. His elbow cracked, and Jun’s nerve cracked too.

  Jun pounded out of the kitchen and into the hall. ‘I think you should leave now,’ she said and opened the door.

  ‘I do find your reaction odd,’ Blum said and stopped a little too close for comfort to Jun. ‘Your current research project…that was only possible thanks to the UA’s data-scraping technology. How could you walk into that room to petition, knowing you’re a hypocrite?’ Blum wrinkled her nose and gave Jun a searching look.

  Golov began to laugh, deep and guttural, echoing from the inside of his belly.

  The sound of it echoed deep inside of Jun. ‘Get out, now!’ her throat growled.

  ‘Dr Xie,’ Blum tutted. ‘There’s no need to be unpleasant. I trust we won’t see you at the petition?’

  ‘Out!’ Jun thrust her finger at the door.

  ‘I’m glad we’re agreed,’ Blum said as she walked out, Golov followed behind her. Neither looked round as Jun slammed the door behind them.

  She waited till the tri-click of the lock went, and burst into angry, sharp tears; they pierced her skin and stung her neck. The likes of Blum and Golov pushed paper and threats. She wasn’t like them, was she?

  Tears bled from her eyes, eventually steadying to slow, fat, beads oozing down her face. Jonquil had been right. She’d been foolish to think she could co-exist.

  She collapsed on the couch, brought her knees to her chest and closed her eyes. Her limbs and muscles relaxed as she cried with the shame and guilt, dancing between states of consciousness with one recurring vision of Odgerel screaming her name and asking for help.

  * * *

  She felt a sensation on her shoulder. Her body rattled like she was falling through the air, without the final impact. She opened her eyes, and Fan’s face was floating above her head.

  ‘Jun, Jun. You’ve got to wake up. Dr Markov called…something happened at the lab.’

  What day was it? It was still Saturday. She’d received a visit from Blum and Golov and didn’t go to her petition meeting. Markov had been ill, and she’d been at the lab and seen… ‘Odgerel, is it Odgerel?’

  There were so many beats as she waited for him to respond. Three breaths, countless pumping of her heart and a twitch above his lip.

  ‘Yes, Zaye, Odgerel Zaye.’

  She tried to force herself upright but was stuck, tacky in stale tears and sweat. It was dark outside; their windows framed it like a black canvas. How long had she been asleep? She used Fan’s arm to pull herself up and blink away the salty taffy. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but the woman, Zaye. She’s dead. She killed herself.’

  CHAPTER 11

  21st – 22nd September 2037 – Week 3/4 (Day 20/21) of the study

  Jun pushed through the swing-doors in the lab like she was shunting old railway carriages. With each jolt, the indistinguishable voices got louder, and grated against a low-level buzzing in her ear. It started just after Fan told her what happened at the lab; perhaps it was her body’s way of reminding her that she wasn’t dreaming.

  Markov said to go directly to Dr Wei’s office and talk to the Police, to someone whose name she’d forgotten. With every step, a voice inside shouted at her to turn back, afraid of what they would say. That Odgerel had left a note, admonishing the lab’s plans to continue the tests. Maybe it was all a pretence to arrest her. She’d lose her job, or worse, she was to blame for Odgerel taking her own life.

  Jun held her breath as she shoved through the last set of doors, pushing them with all her might, as if the force of it would drive the thoughts out of her mind. But she and Odgerel had an understanding. It was out of character; Jun couldn’t believe it of her. Odgerel who had known so much and had spoken to Jun honestly and without agenda, would have said something. But then Odgerel had said something.

  Jun arrived at the lobby, which fed into the central lab. The lab doors were closed, as they often were, and someone had blocked the windows so you couldn’t see in. An unidentifiable person came out wearing a forensic-suit and mask. From behind a sliver of a panel, a pair of beetle black eyes, fixed on hers. The suit then walked where Jun had just come from.

  She snatched a look inside the lab before the doors closed. She felt like a child who wasn’t allowed to see what the grown-ups were doing. There were more people in the lab than she’d ever seen, before. All amorphous suits and masks that concealed they were people at all, but no Odgerel. To catch a hint of her, her pin-thin legs or pendulous curls would confirm that it was true. But not her face. Jun couldn’t bear to see her face. She took a step forward to the blocked-out lab doors. She didn’t want to go in but being closer to them made her feel less impotent.

  She sensed it before she felt it. A tap on her shoulder, only gentle, but it made her bones rattle. She turned around still feeling the hand’s violation on her skin and saw a tall man with a hook nose and deep-set eyes. In any other light, she imagined shadows gravitated to his face.

  ‘TSssh… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you,’ he said with a Russian accent, and ruffled his fingers through thinning wisps of grey hair.

  ‘I’m Dr Xie, co-lead of the study…the one concerning Subject Zaye,’ she said quietly. That title had a different meaning now. ‘And you are?’

  ‘Major Polzin, UA Procurator, I’m leading the investigation of Odgerel Zaye. I say investigation, but it’s all fairly straightforward. Shall we?’ he said and began to walk towards Dr Wei’s office.

  Was suicide ever straightforward? She heard Fan’s voice as he had broken the news to her.

  They had journeyed mostly in silence, Jun’s last conversation with Odgerel playing around in her mind. The talk of extending the study, her feeling threatened by Dr Wei and Markov; what if Odgerel made it impossible for herself to stay by the most extreme means? Jun’s analytical mind kicked in; there would have been signs. It didn’t make sense. Then a darker thought crawled over her like a spider creeping to its prey. What if Odgerel’s fears about Dr Wei and Markov had come to pass? But that idea was equally ridiculous; she was too valuable to them.

  The Intuimoto glided to a halt and the engine cut. Despite the probable commotion inside the building, outside was quiet and static. To anyone unaware, Jun was just another person arriving for a night shift. The artificial lights of the car-park jarred against the night’s consumption of the sky. This wasn’t supposed to be Odgerel Zaye’s story.

  ‘I’ll wait here, okay? Just keep me updated,’ Fan said and released his safebelt.

  Any other time she would have shrugged it off. She might look in one piece, but beneath her skin she was shattered. ‘Will you come in with me?’ she whispered. Her face turned back to the base; the static in her ear revved.

  Fan looked at the floor. A few beats passed before he spoke. ‘I don’t think I can,
Jun,’ he turned to her. ‘For one thing, I don’t have security clearance.’

  She was reluctant to cry in front of him, and instead a lump crystallised in her throat. What was the second thing?

  Fan reached for her hand and pulled her neck to his in one movement. He kissed her softly, but when she pulled away, her lips felt that they hadn’t been touched at all. His fingers went to graze her face, but she shook them away.

  ‘Call me when you’re done. I’ll be here waiting – all night if I need to.’ His face turned away from hers and looked at his feet, which he pushed around like an animal pawing at its prey.

  ‘Some UA friends visited me yesterday after work,’ she said, her frustrations from earlier playing out. ‘They dropped by for a little light coercion.’

  She waited for him to respond, but he didn’t. ‘They knew some interesting things about you and me.’ He still didn’t react. A surge of energy licked her skin. ‘Did the UA give you money to buy our home?’

  His eyes lingered on the building he wouldn’t walk in to. ‘It was a gift-loan to me, and it made it possible for us buy the house.’ His voice raised. ‘Do you really want to talk about this now?’

  He reached for her hand. ‘There are more important things to think about, surely?’ Something relented in his voice. ‘You should go, they’ll be waiting.’

  But she hadn’t wanted to move. She’d been scared that her insides might fracture some more.

  Jun and Polzin were in front of Dr Wei’s office, but she didn’t remember how she got there.

  The severe departmental lights blurred her vision, and it took a moment for her to realise that Dr Wei was standing in front of her, guarding his door. But instead of his usual hardened marble, for once, he appeared soft, like weathered clay. He looked at her quizzically, as if trying to read her thoughts.

  ‘Just a few questions,’ Polzin said. ‘An irregularity here or there… but I won’t take up too much of your time.’ Polzin arched himself to square with Dr Wei; the effect was awkward and clumsy. ‘Might we borrow your office again?’