Read Online The Trouble With Heroes.... by Jo Beverley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jo Beverley
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Earth.
Helga stopped reporting and Jenny missed her
stony solidity, but the good news kept coming. The red swath around
the equator shrunk thinner and thinner, and Jenny linked it to
Dan’s return. He was working hard, to his limit, destroying
hellbanes. When that shrinking stain disappeared, Dan would come
home.
Then one day she realized that her magic had
gone. No, no, that wasn't quite it. That strange bit of her brain
that shouldn't be there was still there, but it felt.... alone. As
if the rest of the magic had gone.
As if the fixers had gone?
She clicked on the screen, heart pounding.
More jubilation. More stupid speeches. Say something about the
fixers, you berks!
After an hour or so of nothing, she phoned
the station. She managed to talk her way through to the newsroom
and asked why there were no interviews with fixers.
"I thought you were offering to set up an
interview with a fixer," a woman snapped.
"It's hard?"
The woman cut the connection.
With the screen on mute, Jenny closed her
eyes and tried to sense Dan. She probed for him, hunted him,
blanked her mind so something could come on its own. Eventually she
opened her eyes, defeated. It was as if the magic didn't exist any
more.
As if the Dan didn't exist any more.
Surely if the fixers were gone someone would
say so.
Stomach churning she scanned multi-cells.
She stilled on one that showed people returning to their homes. The
camera was like a predator itself, seeking the moments of horror,
the faces of loss. Even while thinking that, Jenny couldn’t move
on. The continuing scenes of return were made weirder because all
the buildings and machinery were intact simply waiting for the
inhabitants to return, but sometimes with blotches of ash.
A camera swooped in on a woman scrubbing,
weeping, saying over and over, "Who am I cleaning up here? Who am I
cleaning up?"
^^^^^^^^^^
Soon it was almost as if the Hellbane Wars
had never been, and yet, and yet, it seemed to Jenny that people
held their breath as she did, not really able to believe that the
terrible things were gone for good. And no one mentioned the other
terrible thing -- that they might have to carry on without
fixers.
Eventually Jenny had to pick up her old
life. She cleaned Dan's place one last time and moved home. Her
family was coming back anyway, so she had to stock the house with
basics and restart the energy sys. She kept regular work hours
again, and her family returned for a tearful reunion.
And then she heard that Dan's family was
back, too.
Jenny hurried over there and her last hope
died. They’d heard nothing and they assumed he was dead. A hero,
but dead.
Someone designed a poster of Dan Fixer,
Hero, and it hung everywhere. Heaven knows where'd they'd found the
shot to start with, but it didn't look much like Dan in the end.
Square-jawed and rugged, he looked resolutely into the distance
against a flaming red sky.
Jenny bought one and kept it, knowing he'd
be amused.
Hoping he’d be amused.
Her last hope wasn’t really dead.
Then Angliacom announced that in view of the
lack of response from the fixers, a team of Mayan reporters was on
its way to the Gaian Center for Investigation and Control of the
Hostile Amorphic Native Entities. They would carry the thanks of
the world and report back on the situation.
Needing privacy, Jenny watched on Dan’s
screen, watched through the camera's eye as the reporters
approached the pale rock walls that looked like part of the Mayan
mountain. The gates stood open, but no one waited to welcome
them.
With the benefit of top-reality technology,
she wandered empty streets and peered into deserted buildings. The
mikes picked up only silence broken by breeze-blown dust and
rubbish. At least the dust seemed ordinary dust, sandy and dry.
Were any of the houses places where Dan had
been? Had he shopped at that bakery, drunk at that tavern? A
reporter was droning on about Hellbane U in former days. Jenny made
herself listen.
New
Helga stopped reporting and Jenny missed her
stony solidity, but the good news kept coming. The red swath around
the equator shrunk thinner and thinner, and Jenny linked it to
Dan’s return. He was working hard, to his limit, destroying
hellbanes. When that shrinking stain disappeared, Dan would come
home.
Then one day she realized that her magic had
gone. No, no, that wasn't quite it. That strange bit of her brain
that shouldn't be there was still there, but it felt.... alone. As
if the rest of the magic had gone.
As if the fixers had gone?
She clicked on the screen, heart pounding.
More jubilation. More stupid speeches. Say something about the
fixers, you berks!
After an hour or so of nothing, she phoned
the station. She managed to talk her way through to the newsroom
and asked why there were no interviews with fixers.
"I thought you were offering to set up an
interview with a fixer," a woman snapped.
"It's hard?"
The woman cut the connection.
With the screen on mute, Jenny closed her
eyes and tried to sense Dan. She probed for him, hunted him,
blanked her mind so something could come on its own. Eventually she
opened her eyes, defeated. It was as if the magic didn't exist any
more.
As if the Dan didn't exist any more.
Surely if the fixers were gone someone would
say so.
Stomach churning she scanned multi-cells.
She stilled on one that showed people returning to their homes. The
camera was like a predator itself, seeking the moments of horror,
the faces of loss. Even while thinking that, Jenny couldn’t move
on. The continuing scenes of return were made weirder because all
the buildings and machinery were intact simply waiting for the
inhabitants to return, but sometimes with blotches of ash.
A camera swooped in on a woman scrubbing,
weeping, saying over and over, "Who am I cleaning up here? Who am I
cleaning up?"
^^^^^^^^^^
Soon it was almost as if the Hellbane Wars
had never been, and yet, and yet, it seemed to Jenny that people
held their breath as she did, not really able to believe that the
terrible things were gone for good. And no one mentioned the other
terrible thing -- that they might have to carry on without
fixers.
Eventually Jenny had to pick up her old
life. She cleaned Dan's place one last time and moved home. Her
family was coming back anyway, so she had to stock the house with
basics and restart the energy sys. She kept regular work hours
again, and her family returned for a tearful reunion.
And then she heard that Dan's family was
back, too.
Jenny hurried over there and her last hope
died. They’d heard nothing and they assumed he was dead. A hero,
but dead.
Someone designed a poster of Dan Fixer,
Hero, and it hung everywhere. Heaven knows where'd they'd found the
shot to start with, but it didn't look much like Dan in the end.
Square-jawed and rugged, he looked resolutely into the distance
against a flaming red sky.
Jenny bought one and kept it, knowing he'd
be amused.
Hoping he’d be amused.
Her last hope wasn’t really dead.
Then Angliacom announced that in view of the
lack of response from the fixers, a team of Mayan reporters was on
its way to the Gaian Center for Investigation and Control of the
Hostile Amorphic Native Entities. They would carry the thanks of
the world and report back on the situation.
Needing privacy, Jenny watched on Dan’s
screen, watched through the camera's eye as the reporters
approached the pale rock walls that looked like part of the Mayan
mountain. The gates stood open, but no one waited to welcome
them.
With the benefit of top-reality technology,
she wandered empty streets and peered into deserted buildings. The
mikes picked up only silence broken by breeze-blown dust and
rubbish. At least the dust seemed ordinary dust, sandy and dry.
Were any of the houses places where Dan had
been? Had he shopped at that bakery, drunk at that tavern? A
reporter was droning on about Hellbane U in former days. Jenny made
herself listen.
New
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