Pink

1

The darkness hid most of the depressing garbage and filth in the street from view but the nauseating smell of the Thames still seeped into the car. Challen watched through the window as the driver negotiated yet another burnt out and rusted shell.2

“Stop on that corner.” Challen’s voice was calm; he seldom had need to raise it. “Wait for me here and keep your eyes open.” He knew the rare sound of a car, especially at this time of night, could alert the target.3

Challen moved as gracefully as a cat down the rest of the block and slipped into the building. He didn’t even glance at the graffiti covered walls or the crumbling brickwork - for most of London this was not the exception but the rule.4

The sleazoid behind the desk had his head in a dog-eared porn magazine and jumped in shock as Challen slapped a hand on the counter.  “Wayne Rice?”5

“You can’t come…” the doorman blustered to his feet.6

Whatever else Challen couldn’t do was cut off, as he gripped the pressure point in the man’s neck. “Wayne Rice?” he asked again, his voice still showing no emotion.7

“‘oom shix! Up the stairs on the left.” the man gasped out, as Challen released the hold.8

Challen watched the man for a moment but there was no fight in him. With the shadow of a smile, he held an index finger to his lips. “Shhh.” he urged, then slipped away silently towards the stairs.9

Wayne chewed his top lip as he worked at the keyboard. Twice before he had been this close and then the power had gone down. “Five minutes, just five minutes, that’s all I need.” he pleaded out loud, to the computer.10

“Times up.”11

Wayne jumped to his feet, the chair crashing to the floor behind him. “Challen!”  The silhouette in the broken doorframe was his worst nightmare.12

There was nothing obvious about Challen to inspire the fear that was written across Wayne’s face, in bold capital letters. Mid thirties, average height, solid but not large framed - his black hair, high cheekbones and sallow skin gave him a slightly Asiatic look - the dark suit and tie added a business like appearance.13

Wayne had no need to guess, for he knew what Challen was.14

“How flattering that you should remember me.” Challen didn’t smile but there was just the hint of a sparkle in his dark eyes. “It seems you have been a naughty boy again, Rice…” Challen admonished as he moved into the room.15

Challen was between Wayne and the door; there was no chance of escape that way.  He bolted for the window. He didn’t care that it was the first floor, or that the few things he owned were still in the tatty boarding house room - the need to flee was the only thought in his mind.16

Hardly seeming to even make an effort, Challen kicked his legs out from under him before he had taken two steps. 17

Wayne lay on the floor, his last slim hope now gone. He hugged his knees up to his chest and began to weep. “Please, I didn’t mean no ‘arm, I wouldn’t damage Bern. Please! Please don’t kill me!”18

Challen’s eyes swept around the almost empty room - the tatty unmade bed, the stained and worn armchair, the dirty patch of carpet and back to the prone form yet still not even the flicker of an emotion showed on his face. “Get up, we have to go and see Doctor Green now.”  He offered no hand - his eyes however offered encouragement of the most terrifying kind. 19

The man on the desk had been going to demand Wayne Rice’s rent before he allowed him to leave but another glimpse of Challen, guiding the humbled figure before him, changed his mind.20

The car wound its slow way back through the debris littered and potholed roads; not until they reached Westminster could they travel at much more than a walking pace. The area around Parliament was one of the few areas of London where any effort was made to keep the roads in repair, or clear of debris. 21

The huge steel gates at the bottom of the ramp slammed down behind them and the guard gestured for the driver to open the tinted windows of the car. Challen nodded to the sentry and he hastily reached for the switch to open the inner gates. The lift from the car park took them to the fifteenth floor. Wayne was no-longer sobbing but was like a broken toy, going wherever Challen directed.22

Doctor Green’s office was large but more like a laboratory or workshop, all sorts of items strewn around and a number of electronic instruments in various stages of dismemberment. Doctor Green almost lived in the room and electronics was more his hobby than his work.23

The doctor looked up from the bench as Challen entered the room.  “Ah Challen, you found our hacker. Wayne, how good to see you dear boy.” Green’s narrow features, large hooked nose and thin ring of hair, gave him the look of a vulture, and as he sneered at the forlorn figure, it was a vulture that had just seen a particularly fat and tender water buffalo expire.24

“I didn’t mean no ‘arm, I was just….” Rice’s thin frame was trembling under Green’s hard stare.25

“You didn’t mean any harm!  I took you in and nurtured you – But no, you had to try to run before you could even crawl, let alone walk! And then when you fell some of the mud splashed on me! Hurt him Challen!”26

Wayne didn’t even have time to flinch as Challen’s fingers, hard as steel, probed the rich cluster of nerves near his kidney. For a moment he could not breathe and just lay where he had fallen as the waves of pain gradually subsided. 27

“Get up!” the Doctor’s sneer of disgust did nothing to improve his looks. “Now, tell me why you were trying to get into my computer?”28

Wayne thought for a moment. He knew that Challen could and would repeat the ‘treatment’ for hours, if not days. If he talked at least there would be an end to the pain.29

“Challen.”30

“NO! Wait, I’ll tell you.” He got slowly to his feet. “I was tryin’ to get in to search for some kids.”31

Doctor Green wiggled two fingers in a running motion. “Hurry, hurry, Wayne.”32

“Have you ‘eard of Professor Straw?” he asked nervously.33

“Should I have?”34

“He worked on genetics, back before the Gehsa.”35

“Ah yes, the clone man. Ivan Straw?”36

Rice was nodding vigorously. “Yes, yes, that’s ‘im!”37

Doctor Green’s eyes were narrowed in thought. “If I remember correctly he was caught working on human embryos, the embryo was terminated. They planned to give him a big show trial, just to prove the new laws had teeth but then he topped himself in jail. So?”38

“What they didn’t know was that ‘e had completed a set of experiments. They thought they had caught him on the first one but it was the first of a second set.” Wayne looked pleased with himself for a moment. It quickly evaporated under the hard ugly stare of Doctor Green. “They’re ‘ere!” he blurted out.39

“Here? Do you mean here, as in this country?” Green’s face showed his surprise.40

“Yes, I don’t know why, but ‘e got them out of the States and had them brought ‘ere – I was just trying to find ‘em. God’s honest truth, I swear that’s all I was doing!” 41

Doctor Green took a silver cigarette case out of his pocket and ritualistically stroked the side.42

“Please it’s the…”43

Doctor Green’s lifted hand silenced Wayne. The Doctor continued stroking the case and eventually took a cigarette out, tapped it a few times on the side of the case and finally lit it. After a few slow drags he seemed to come to a decision. “Take our prodigal son and dump him in a cell, then you can get off Challen. I’ll look into this and decide what to do tomorrow.”44

Challen slipped out of the side door and into the night. He could have taken a car from the pool but preferred the walk, a walk that most people would pay good money to avoid.  Two punks had once attacked him; he almost smiled at the memory. 45

It had been a disconcerting evening. He had expected Green to have had him lean on Rice for a while and then taken him for a swim in the river. Usually Green would have had a fit at the very thought of anyone getting into Bern. 46

A shadow moved in the darkness of an alley and he was immediately ready, but it was only a mangy cat. 47

Challen moved on. The Network was not what it had once been. Herbert Arnold was just too greedy, power hungry and far worse, stupid. In the old days under Dante, the whole country had been in The Network’s iron grip. Dante had swept to power on the wave of quelling the pink riots and the ruination of the economy by the Gehsa but had barely even lived long enough to enjoy the victory. The Network had been able to coast for years on the strength he had given it but it was now on the slide. Challen knew the time to leave was fast approaching.48

“Oh! Mister Challen, sir, I got them veg you wanted.” the elderly doorman greeted Challen. 49

“Evening Percy - how much?”50

Percy would have charged any of the other residents of the building twenty pounds but under the unwinking gaze of Challen’s eyes replied. “Err… ten quid Guv.”51

“But Percy, that gives you no profit, here take this fifteen.”52

Percy’s mind was in a whirl. ‘Oh my God! He knew what I paid – what if I’d overcharged him!’ The thought was too much for the old man and his hands trembled a little.53

“You should take care Percy, you look like you’re coming down with a summer cold. You didn’t forget the girls for Saturday?”54

“No, no sir, that’s all sorted.” Percy swallowed.55

Challen checked the high security locks on the door to his apartment. Not even The Network’s best people could get in here by stealth. They could blast their way in of course, but some of his neighbours were active members of The People’s Party and would be very interested in such overt acts. 56

Challen locked the door behind him and flicked on the generator. He stood for a moment and glanced around the plush interior. If he bailed out he’d have to leave all this behind and where to go? The States were still in poor shape, Australia maybe? It would be tough and he’d have to minus a few people in The Network, otherwise the risk would be unacceptable. 57

Maybe it would be better to hang on for a while longer, he thought. The vegetables made him reconsider. He knew Percy wouldn’t try to cheat him; they were just the best that could be got. Knowing that did little to improve their quality.58