Paul Hardy - The Last Man on Earth Club

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I do.”

“People had powers . They used their powers for all kinds of things. For themselves. For the good of humanity. To kill people. To fight crime.

“I fought crime. But it didn’t do any good. It kept getting worse. We lost the infonet. We lost all our food crops. We lost the moon!

“Do you know what else we lost? Calafaria. In the volcanoes. That’s where my parents were keeping me, that’s where the Quillians lived while they were dong their surveys, wasn’t it?”

“I really don’t know without—”

“And it was all in the name of science, yeah? The way everyone on my world was special? ”

“I don’t know what it is you’re implying—”

“Do you know what happened to them all? All the people on my world? My friends? My real parents, the ones who raised me after I was abandoned ?”

Vawlin listened, suddenly aware of a trap. The Mediator saw it, too, and said: “Ms. Doe, are you sure you wish to continue—”

But Liss ignored him. “They all died. At the same time. They burnt to ash, all at the same time. Somebody used their DNA to kill them. Somebody put a deathtrap in their genome. Somebody gave them powers so they could experiment on them and put in a way to hide their tracks. But it didn’t get me. Because I’m one of you. Do you understand me?”

Vawlin’s jaw wobbled. He didn’t understand, to begin with. Then his eyes went wide for a moment.

He shot to his feet and the diplomatic mask slammed shut.

“This meeting can serve no further purpose.”

“Security,” said the Mediator. Liss jumped at him.

Vawlin barely had time to see what happened before she had the Mediator by the neck and groin, making him gasp. She lifted him above her head, hardly noticing his weight, as two guards in power armour ran through the ripple of air into the room, weapons already raised and pointing at her.

She flung the Mediator at them, absorbing the stun bolts they fired at her, then knocking them down as he crashed into them. They pushed his dead weight off, but she was already on them, ripping off their helmets, crushing their weapons and banging their heads against the fake stone floor before they could do anything else.

Vawlin gasped, finding her between him and the exit, with no one to protect him. The blur mask stayed on her face, and her posture was all he could read: legs apart, still tensed and ready to fight.

“You’re under arrest,” she said.

He was incredulous. “What…?”

“By the powers granted me in the One World Accord of NR 643, I detain you as a material witness to the crime of genocide. You have the right to silence but may be subject to neural interrogation under circumstances outlined in paragraph ten subsection three of the Emergency Powers Annex, which most certainly fucking applies in this case!”

He gaped. “You’re insane!”

“If you cannot supply an advocate of your own choosing the court will supply one for you except, oh yeah, they’re all fucking dead! ”

He tried to rush past her but she whipped him round and pulled his arm behind his back. He was strong, but she had the edge of training and desperation.

“You — don’t have — jurisdiction!” he gasped.

“Call it a citizen’s arrest if you like.”

“This is assault! ”

“This is justice.”

“What do you want…?”

She jerked him back and he gasped as she shouted in his ear. “Three billion people are dead! ”

“How do you — what do you think you can do?”

She gritted her teeth.

“What are you going to do with me?”

She didn’t have an answer.

“They’ll send more security… You have to let me go! I understand… I understand you’re upset, you’re traumatised, I will not press charges!”

“You know, don’t you?”

“I don’t know anything!”

“I saw it in your eyes.”

“Please, what do you want? ”

“I want the truth!”

Instead, they both heard a gentle hissing sound. “What’s that?” she demanded.

“Tranquilliser gas… if we’re the same species… should work the same…”

“I can hold my breath.”

“Please… give yourself up…”

But it was too late. The first wave of grogginess hit them both.

“Oh fuck. Skin absorption?” she muttered, disgusted. They sank to their knees. She released her hold, but he found he lacked the strength to crawl away, and collapsed. Liss held out a little longer.

“Vawlin…” she murmured with a hoarse voice. He looked around, barely conscious. “Give my parents a message.”

He stared back at her.

“Tell them they’re dead to me,” she said, as she fell forward.

He didn’t nod. He didn’t have a response. He just looked back at her with the eyes of a shocked animal, until they closed and blackness took him.

I was on my way to pick Liss up when I was ordered to present myself at Henni Ardassian’s office instead. Liss was being held by the Diplomatic Service security section, and I got the basic details of what happened from Mykl Teoth while my car whisked me through the streets to the gold and silver castle of the Refugee Service HQ.

Henni didn’t get up when I went in. She had a look of barely controlled exasperation. She drummed her fingers and watched me sit down, like a cat allowing a mouse to take a seat before pouncing. She didn’t pounce, though. Instead, she stroked a control and brought up two images on the screen behind her: an official spokeswoman from the Quillian Embassy, and the text of a letter of complaint below the Quillian Supranational Government crest on the right. Henni let the video begin part of the way through.

“—object most strenuously to this premeditated entrapment of one of our officials who was acting in a purely humanitarian capacity. We are particularly unhappy that this has happened while we are preparing to place enormous material resources at the disposal of the Refugee Service. We therefore demand an apology and explanation for this incident and expect your reply within forty eight hours.”

Henni paused the spokeswoman at the moment she finished, still with a look of official displeasure printed on her face. Henni’s own look of displeasure was greater, if anything.

“Did you know about this?”

I shook my head. “She wanted to find out about her parents…”

“And that’s what she told you.”

“Yes.”

“And you believed her?”

“I had no reason not to.”

“After all the lies she told before? Are you out of your mind?”

“I judged—”

“I don’t give a damn for your judgement! Did you hear what they said? That’s diplomatic language for ‘ We’re incredibly pissed off and we’re going to throw our toys out of the stroller if you don’t do what we say .’ Your judgement might cost us sixty ships we could have used in the evacuation! And pilots to go with them! And doctors, and medical supplies! They could save a million people all by themselves! ”

“They wouldn’t do that—”

“Oh, wouldn’t they? Would you like to take that risk? Would you like to leave a million people to die?”

“They can’t!”

“Are you sure? Really? Well I’ll just call and tell them to jump in a lake. Shall we see what happens?”

“But they’d look — I mean, people would think—”

“You reckon they want people to think they committed genocide?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“Well I can’t take the risk. I need those ships. And I don’t have any more time for your experiment, nor do I have the resources. I’m transferring you to the triage team on the Lift. You can do some good up there rather than giving me grief down here.”