CARNIVAL (The Spark Form Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Even if Lana is completely detached from Meera, she would need to have the same lack of feeling for Carnival to place her in a similar situation. She at least seemed open to the possibility of Carnival being alive when I was with her last night. Providing she doesn't think that I put her up to the late night visit, having Carnival drop by like she did may even push her more towards believing us too. Plus, if she didn't think there was any chance of Carnival being what she's looking for, she wouldn't have agreed to a deal in the first place.

  Or would she? She was pretty freaked out while I was there to play master of ceremonies. With Carnival busting in on her own, she may have been receptive because she thought that she needed to save herself.

  No, Carnival would have picked up on that. She can tell when someone's lying. Most of the time. It's harder when she's panicked though. Which I guess she probably was last night.

  Tap. Tap-Tap. Drum fingers. Sigh. Tap.

  So what do we need to know? Let's make a list.

  How does Lana view Meera?

  How does this compare to how she views Finn?

  What has happened to Meera exactly?

  Why did it happen?

  How long ago was it planned?

  How does Lana view Carnival?

  Was she sincere in her agreement to cutting a deal?

  Is she likely to stick to the deal?

  That's a lot of questions. None of them have simple answers either. Plus, we'd be basing any answers on guesswork right now. Which is why, as much as I'd like to put her mind at rest, I can't discuss it with Carnival. It's all gotten me a little paranoid too.

  Tap. Tap-Tap. Drum fingers. Grunt loudly.

  No, she'd know how I'm feeling. Which wouldn't help either of us. Stupid paranoia.

  Knock on the table. Another grunt

  And so we play the waiting game. Which is both dull and conducive to the growth of the aforementioned and potentially unfounded worries. Is it dull though? There is the anticipation which is kinda cool and excited-jittery-making-me. Usually anyway. I'm not sure excited would be the right word this time.

  "Ow." My response is slightly belated because, while thrown with enough force to get my attention, a mystery loo roll was never going to be hard enough to do any major damage. Turning, I can see that Carnival is pointing at her tablet and scowling at me. Oh yeah, she grunted. I was so wrapped up in trying to get my head back on track that I missed the change in routine. Whoops.

  I pick up my sandwich, the towering mass of veggie goodness that it is, and walk over to sit beside my fuzzy companion. The first thing I notice is that Lana has chosen the username 'Cruz_Control'. I'm not sure if that's imaginative or not. Personally, I prefer Carnival's handle, 'ImLopineIt'. The second thing I notice, which should probably have been the first thing I noticed, is that the message is actually pretty short and to the point.

  'Sorry for the delay. We're working on the paperwork and will have it with you soon. If you're still happy to go ahead, we'll pick you up straight after the final for a battle test. If there are any issues, let me know.'

  "I'm guessing she kept it short in case anyone else gets in and sees the message," I say. "So. Do you feel ready to talk about that last condition?"

  Carnival shakes her head quickly and makes a sound that sits somewhere between a whine and a nervous growl.

  "Not a problem," I reply with a smile and a playful rub of her hand. "Beer?"

  She nods and lets her head collapse into her hands with a relieved sigh.

  CONNOR FORD - 13:59

  Silence. Or it would be were it not for Jenkins and his infernal bloody tapping. At least he paid attention when I pointed out that I could not give less of a shit about the message boards and their reaction to Laqueta being carried out of the Battle Zone.

  "I am not completely heartless," I harrumph at last.

  "I'm sorry?" Jenkins replies, looking up from his laptop.

  "I just don't give a damn what other people make of it all. The girl. The thing with the girl."

  "Laqueta?" he asks, pushing his glasses up onto his forehead and rubbing his eyes.

  "Yes, yes, Laqueta," I reply, dismissing the name with my hand. "Tell me Jenkins, did Carlston tell you what it is I wish to achieve here?"

  He cocks his head slightly. "You want to win? Or finish highly at least."

  I smile. At least the bastard hasn't spread my business all over the bloody arena. "I may take great pleasure in torturing those who stand between me and my goals, but anyone stupid enough to go through this," I say, tapping my spinal implant. "They have their purpose, their role. Laqueta had hers the same as everybody else, and this whole mess puts that in jeopardy. And not just for her, but for me. It would suit me better to be angry Jenkins, but I am not so blood heartless that I feel nothing for a fellow competitor."

  "I know Sir," he replies with a gentle smile.

  "Oh, go back to your sodding gossip hunting," I growl at the patronising arse. "I didn't ask you for sympathy."

  He opens his mouth to respond but stops and looks past me to the changing room door.

  "Jenkins," comes an all too bloody familiar voice. "Do you think that I could have a private word with Mr Ford please?"

  "Of course," he says, shutting his laptop lid and shuffling quickly past me. "I'll just go grab us some coffee."

  I can feel my mouth form a sneer as the door shuts and Sean Carlston's measured footfalls move around the chair to the seat opposite me. "I don't recall uttering the Devil's name Carlston. Have you not toyed with me enough today?"

  "Did you watch the last match?" he asks, ignoring my jibe.

  "Of course I bloody did. Why?"

  "And the second half? With Fahrn and Dorian?"

  "Second half? Is that what you call it? I call it a man punching a woman on Colonial television. What of it?"

  "So you heard that Laqueta was taken to hospital?"

  I give an angry roll of my eyes. "Yes, I heard that she was taken to hospital. And you're here to tell me that my next match is delayed. I am not a bloody idiot Carlston."

  "No Connor, you're not an idiot," he replies with a tired sigh. "Which is why you know that I would have sent someone else to tell you if your match had been delayed."

  "Well spit it out then," I snap.

  "I have received word that Laqueta ... Meera Thorne ... died before the ambulance could reach the hospital."

  I knew what was coming before the words left his mouth, but even that is not enough to stop my body reacting on instinct and forcing its way to its feet while I roar, "She's dead? You let a child, my bloody opponent, go out there and ... and ..."

  My legs shake and give out from under me, dropping me to the floor. I see Carlston move from his chair just before I hunch into a ball and scream. Tears? Bloody tears as well? Were I twenty years younger I'd kill the bastard for forcing me into this state. "Must everything be taken from me?" I growl. "Illness took my wife. This miserable fucking life took my health. And now even my death is to be taken from me. Have I not suffered enough?"

  I feel Carlston's arm go around me, fumbling for a way to help me up, and I bat it away. "I don't need your pity," I groan, slowly pushing myself back onto my seat. "Nor will I be defeated so bloody easily. I will compete in the post tournament tour."

  "Connor," Carlston replies, "think about this. Maybe this is a second chance for you. We're not powerless here, we can help you. Sure, Emblem care more about money than they do about you, but we can work around that. If you really want to continue competing, then maybe we can run a documentary. We could go public about your health, hire the best doctors out there, on Emblem's tab of course, and follow your road to recovery, at least as far we can. Then, you'll either return to active competition or have one last big match, with an opponent of your choosing."

  I laugh. It hurts, but the fool deserves to see that he has amused me if nothing else. "I have tried many doctors. Trying more will not change ..." The coughing fit takes me by surprise. A nice reminder
for both him and me that I am right. "I will say this once only Carlston. You are a smart boy. The documentary idea plays into Emblem's goals and saves you from having to sanction a suicide without first doing everything in your power to prevent it. The only problem is that I don't want to recover. I will compete in the tour. Try to stop me and I will drag Emblem through the courts for breach of contract."

  He's unphased. He expected this.

  "OK," he nods, then gets to his feet. "At least think about it though. If you change your mind at any point, the offer will still be on the table."

  I nod, and he starts to walk back towards the door. "Carlston?"

  "Yes?"

  "Find a cameraman. I would like to be the one to announce Laqueta's death." I say, turning to face him.

  "Why?" he asks, suspicion dripping from his voice.

  "You saw her play in the qualifiers, Carlston. She didn't stand a chance here. We can at least give her something positive to be remembered for. If you let me announce her death, I will forfeit the play-off to her. She can be the girl that didn't finish a match but still came third."

  He goes quiet for a moment and I fight to hold back the smile. Got you, you bastard. "OK," he says, finally, "I'll send someone over shortly. Or call you to an interview room."

  "Either way," I reply. "If need be, I'll do it live."

  He nods and leaves.

  I let the smile wash over me.

  JOHN FORRESTER - 14:15

  I don't know if it's good luck or not, but seeing Lana and Finn up ahead is definitely useful. That I saw them before they saw me, now that's good luck because it gives me the chance to power up a big ol' smile like it's the best disguise in the world and bury a bunch of worry before I bound up to them. Can't be giving too much away now, can I?

  "Mr McCourt," I say in a passable auditory impression of the man himself. The smile means it fails as a physical impression. "How surprising to encounter you and your associate Miss De La Cruz here at this time of day. Why, perhaps it will even turn out to be a fortunate piece of happenstance for us all."

  "I apologise Miss De La Cruz," he says, turning to Lana, "but it appears that I am unable to ascertain the correct response to Mr Forrester's introduction. Would this be an appropriate time to laugh, or did his attempt at humour fall flat?"

  "Very good," I laugh. "It's good to see you loosen up Finn."

  "Do you require my assistance," he asks Lana, "or shall I continue as discussed?"

  "It's fine," she replies. "Go keep an eye on Hong Chan. John won't do anything stupid, will you?"

  "Well, I can't promise that," I say with a grin, causing Lana to roll her eyes.

  "Very well," Finn sighs. "I expect that you will be absent now until after the match. Please do hurry back though. I feel that any major delay would only cause Hong Chan to panic further."

  Lana nods and Finn walks past me with nothing more than a curt "Mr Forrester" as a ... what would that be actually? The opposite of a greeting ... it wasn't really a goodbye so, maybe an anti-hello? "So," Lana says, pulling me back from the brink of a long-winded descent into nonsensical internal rambling. "I'm guessing you didn't drop by just to piss Finn off?"

  I laugh. "He doesn't like me much, does he? He's capable of that, right? Hate, dislike, stuff like that?"

  "I don't know," she shrugs. "I like to think that I did a good job with what emotional responses he has. Is it really emotion though ..." Lana trails off, then squints and looks right at me. "What do you want John?"

  "Carnival told me about the deal you guys made, or most of it I think. There's a condition that she won't talk about until she sees the paperwork. She said that she's scared I'll reject her, so she's kinda stalling on it a bit."

  "Scared? That's interesting."

  "Is it?"

  "Well, it wasn't something that was in Robert's brief when he was given his primary variables. Or mine actually."

  "Really? Meera seemed pretty scared when I last saw her."

  "That was different," she replies, her voice a little sad. "She was created for a specific purpose and fear was necessary for that. It isn't necessary in the main models. Apparently."

  "Huh. Why's that then?"

  "John," she replies, shaking her head, "just because you're chatting casually doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you every little thing about what's going on."

  "Caught me red handed," I laugh, shaking my hands in as close to a guilty manner as I can manage. "I am curious though. I mean, Finn said that SSF's are supposed to be indistinguishable from human life. Fear is a pretty human trait, right?"

  "I can see what you're doing there too," she says with another shake of her head, this time with an added smile. "Yes, it is a very human trait, but pointing that out after stating that Carnival is scared is not going to add any weight to your claim that she's alive. I'd need to study her for that to work. So, having failed in that line of questioning, you'll either switch to asking what happened to Meera or to asking about the project as a whole right?"

  Oops. Guess I was too obvious. Abort John, switch to cheeky and wink in a knowing manner. That seems equally appropriate and inappropriate at the same time.

  Lana sighs. "I'll tell you this because it won't give you any form of advantage other than to settle you down a bit. Even if she doesn't know that you're here, Carnival would no doubt pick up on it if you walked away from this without learning anything. The reason for that is that your mood would change the moment you enter a situation that you feel that you can let your guard down. Believe it or not John, I'd much rather deal with both of you when you're calm and rational. The timing of the first stage is unfortunately a necessary evil due to time constraints. So, Meera. She was shut down due to a fault that we found after her match yesterday. If certain safeguards were not introduced, she could have glitched on live TV. The nature of the safeguard means that she will not be returning.

  "As to the nature of the project, I don't know what the overarching goal is. I have my brief, and that's that. My best guess would be that either fear was deemed a secondary requirement that can be developed later or that the main goal relates to a situation where fear would be a hindrance. What that could be, I don't know. I'd say military, but again, that would be a guess."

  Well now I'm confused. I guess it makes sense that she wants clean negotiations but can I believe everything that she just said? Carnival would have been able to tell if she'd been lying. Me? Not so much. Ah well, I'll take what I can get. "Ya know, I wasn't actually expecting to get quite so much out of you. This was all kind of a spur of the moment thing."

  "I figured that. You weren't as sloppy last night. Or if you were, you caught me off guard enough that I didn't see it. Look, John, as much as I'm enjoying reaffirming to myself that I'm a cut above you right now, I have something that I need to take care of before my match. The schedule said that you should be recording an interview right now, right?"

  "Yeah, but I figured they could wait. This was more important. So, before I ride off into the sunset-slash-interview-room, any word on the paperwork?"

  "It's in my changing room. I can grab it for you now, or I can drop in to Carnival on my way to the entrance area. Oh, and before you say anything, no I'm not going to tell you what her main condition is. That's between the two of you to sort out. And don't take that as a sign that I'm beginning to accept her as being alive either. What I'm accepting is that you both view your relationship as ... I don't what, but it's human in nature. Out of respect for that, I'm leaving you to deal with the repercussions of it. I suggest that you both read the contract carefully though."

  "I wasn't going to ask about what the condition is. I wouldn't have stopped you if you'd told me, but I wouldn't have asked," I laugh. "You should give her the papers though. It'll mean more to her that way."

  "OK," Lana nods. "I'll do that."

  "Cool. Well, in that case, I shall take my leave my dear foe. Give my regards to Mr Serious."

  With a flourish of arms and a half leap,
half strut, I depart and resume my trek to the interview rooms. I do believe that I nearly fluffed that entirely. Still, acceptance of the 'human nature of our relationship' is a good start. I think I can take that as win.

  LANA DE LA CRUZ - 14:23

  Watching John walk away, I wonder if I should have asked him about Carnival changing version for the match with Connor Ford. There's wasn't really a need to though. We already knew that she could heal herself up or she'd look permanently wrecked, and looking back on it, I'm certain that she can turn her glow in the dark markings on and off. The base character model was the same, so a change in costume shouldn't be any bigger a job for her than the damage animation changes. Given that the techs didn't pick up on anything, she must have changed her stats too. Asking him for confirmation would have been pointless. There's no guarantee that he would have told me, and besides, if all goes to plan we'll be able to confirm it ourselves soon enough. It'll be interesting to find out if she can change her model too though. I honestly doubt that they've tried.

  Anyway, you're getting ahead of yourself Lana. Time to deal with the business at hand. "I know you're there," I say, raising my voice slightly. "How much did you hear?"

  After a moment of silence, Maria Grace skulks around the corner. "Enough," she replies. "How many more of those things are there?"

  "Other than?"

  "Finn McCourt, John Forrester's Carnival and," she swallows, "Meera."

  "Here, that's it. Both Finn and Meera were ours, Carnival is ... she should have been ours to begin with, but there was a mix-up. I'm here to rectify that."

  "And outside the tournament?"

  "You don't need to know. None out in the real world if that's what you're worried about."

  "You said that Finn and that other one were 'ours'. Who do you work for?"

  "For someone who heard enough, you ask a lot of questions Maria." She glowers at me and I remember the slap that she gave Hong Chan. I'm pretty sure that she can't do much more than that, but Fahrn would be another matter. I guess I'll have to give a little to get a little. "Fine, fine. I work for a specialist department in Emblem. That's all you're getting out of me on that though."