Helix Nexus, Chris Lofts [best android ereader .txt] 📗

Lytkin flinched as she rolled to her knees and climbed up, brushing broken glass from the legs of her black trouser suit. She buttoned the jacket. ‘Going to stab me in the back, Major?’

He followed her through the arch. ‘No. I prefer to leave that kind of thing to the politicians,’ he said. ‘Besides, this weapon is too good for the likes of you. If I was going to stab you, I’d use a spoon, so you could feel it.’ He nodded towards the shattered window.

Lytkin brushed her hair away from her face and folded her arms. ‘How surreal to find us here, in the room where it all began,’ she sneered, looking around.

Helix swallowed the rage. Touching Yawlander’s sword was bad enough, it diminished his memory and sullied his honour. The horror of what had passed in that room was made worse by the architect of its design gloating before him. He placed the sword back on its display mount above the nickel-plated scabbard over the drinks cabinet, making sure that the attached General’s knot was correctly presented.

‘I didn’t have Yawlander killed out of revenge,’ she said.

‘The reason is irrelevant. He was one of the few decent people left in this…’ He jabbed his hand towards the window, the sleeping city below.

‘This what, Major?’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘Whatever you think it is, it could have been so much better if only you—’

‘Better?’ He snorted. ‘How could what you were planning be better? People haven’t got a clue what to do with themselves, they have no purpose, nothing to live for in this supposed Gaia-gifted utopia.’

‘Utopia. Yes, Major. A utopia free from sickness, free from hunger, free from stress, with an average life expectancy of 93 years, an increase of 11 years in the last 20. Who knows? Perhaps it will be 100 in the next ten.’

‘And just how long do you think it would last? Humans crave challenge, they’re problem-solving machines, they don’t always want machines solving their problems.’

‘Really? How did we get to where we are now? It is we who gave birth to the technology, it will sustain us in our dotage as any child would care for its parents.’

‘When was the last time you left the city? Looked outside. That’s life, that’s living, that’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Because if you don’t, you’ll go hungry, you’ll be cold, you will die and so will all of those around you.’

‘So, better to be a digger?’ She shook her head. ‘No, thank you. My vision is for a better humanity, a perfect humanity.’

‘And this Government is going to deliver that?’ He snorted again. ‘It can’t fix itself, let alone the human race.’

‘You’re right again, Major Helix.’ She nodded. ‘It is broken and I could have fixed it. I could still fix it. With your help.’

‘Me?’ he said. ‘You really have got a screw loose.’

‘Yes, you.’ She ran her tongue over her lips. ‘Yawlander was of a different generation.’ She laughed. ‘More like a different millennium. He would have done the right thing, not the necessary thing.’

‘No. I might be years younger than him, but you’ve got me wrong. I was nearer to him than I ever will be, correction, would have been, to you.’ He shook his head. ‘Just out of curiosity, was Wheeler telling the truth about what you had planned? I was going to ask if you really meant to unleash that pathogen in Parliament, but having seen what you’re capable of, I think I know the answer.’

A smiling grimace broke across her face. ‘And what of your future, Major Helix?’

Helix ran his hand over his chin. ‘In the short term—’

‘Your new boss is a different proposition.’ She raised her eyebrows.

‘Ortega? Appointing a yes man, sorry woman, makes sense now.’ He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. ‘How odd that the first thing she’ll be required to do is craft your downfall.’

Lytkin snatched away a laugh. Pain etched her pallid face. She pressed her hand to her side. Unbuttoning her jacket, she peeled it away from the blooming blood stain on her side.

‘Thought I’d missed,’ Helix said. ‘It’s a flesh wound. Never mind. As I was—’

‘You might think I’m consumed by revenge, Major, but I’m not. Everything was planned, everything happened for a reason. I said you and I were very similar. You killed my—’

‘Wheeler killed your daughter, not me.’

‘Semantics, Major,’ she said, dismissively. ‘You loaded the gun, he pulled the trigger.’

‘Cliché. Is that what this is to you, a clever word game?’ He ejected the magazine from his gun and checked the number of remaining rounds. ‘You’ve made sacrifices before, that’s what you said. Was the life of your fifteen-year-old daughter worth it?’ He exchanged one gun for the other. ‘You might have thought so, half an hour ago.’ He closed the gap between them. ‘Tempting isn’t it?’

She glanced up at him, her brow furrowed. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The window,’ he said, shrugging. ‘Yeah sorry, General Ortega, I did my best but she jumped. Nothing I could do.’

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ she said, taking a step towards the shattered window. ‘No investigation, no trial and no embarrassing evidence. No exposing the failures of the security services in not identifying an imposter in their midst.’

Helix sighed. ‘That’s the thing with politicians. Always looking for a scapegoat. Why not try taking responsibility for a change?’

‘Maybe Wheeler was right,’ she said, edging closer to the window.

Her glance wasn’t direct, but enough. He lunged as she threw herself towards the gaping hole. The material of her jacket tail ripped as he dragged her back. Dropping his weapon, he clawed at her back with his right hand, missing the collar of her jacket, catching her hair. Her scream drowned the sound of the hungry wind as he yanked her back from the edge. He wrapped her in his arms, stifling her attempts to claw his face,