Rats in the Pipes

22: One More Rat

Once we were standing on Level 1 I felt the tension drain out of me. I led the way over to the top of the stairs.

"We're now safe. The next tricky bit is emerging into Mid Cit but that's not for another twenty eight levels." I sat on the top step. "Now tell me why the Tesh Viks have a price on your head."

"Because I'm the last Esta left alive."

"What?"

"You don't know? No of course silly of me. If you live down there you wouldn't know that Foran Tesh Vik ordered the extermination of our entire family and the confiscation of all our property."

I swallowed. Per's special duty. "I knew a large number of elite had been killed. I didn't know who they were. Jan I'm, I don't know what to say, there's nothing I can say. It's beyond awful." My voice caught and I fought the constriction in my throat. Tears started to trickle slowly down my cheeks. They might have had elite status but they were warm, normal human beings. My grandfather Da is part Esta. Jan is my cousin. Uncle Claude is his father, his mother is an Esta. The Norins and Estas go way back. I used to spend time at their villa when I was a child. Now there might just be the two of us. He put his arm round my shoulders and leant his head against mine.

"Don't cry Val. I cried enough for both of us."

"What happened? How did you manage to survive?"

"Pure luck. I was at Con's parents practising routines." Janvier is a keen acrobat and juggler. Not a normal occupation for someone who has elite status but he's half Norin and he's good. Con's mother was an acrobat, so is Con. He and Jan had a double act that they started working on when they were ten. "I was trying out a new somersault on the wire, misjudged and fell. I sprained my ankle and my wrist and knocked myself out. Mum was furious" his voice choked "that was the last conversation we had. Her telling me I was a useless idiot but she loved me." He stopped and swallowed. Tears streamed down his face. I hugged him close and we cried into each other's shoulders.

After a bit he resumed "Grandpa had organised a celebration for Great Granddad's birthday. There was a family get together in the evening but the main event was lunch the next day. I promised Mum I'd make it for that. It never happened. They were all dead by then including our most trusted employees. I don't know what happened to any of the other employees. I just hope they weren't stripped of their free status. I've been hiding at Con's ever since. Lately I've been masquerading as a female friend of Lewisa's. There's a reward for information leading to my capture. Thirty thousand creds to be exact."

I whistled "That's huge. They offered ten for me and I thought that was hefty. Why, and why did they kill everybody? Malf doesn't usually go in for wholesale slaughter. He prefers destroying people financially and making sure they lose status."

"Ah well Malf is not in charge any longer. Foran seems to be running things. Malf proposed Foran take on the role of CEO of the Board as well as being Deputy President. Grandpa made his opposition plain. Not just because Foran is mad and couldn't organise a two buggy race but also because the CEO is never from the same family as the President. That has always been one of the fundamental principles of power in Esperance. Not only did Grandpa make his opposition public but he started lobbying other Elites to support him. Quite a lot of people are unhappy about the prospect of Foran running things so Grandpa was having some success despite the fact we're the least powerful family and normally he's regarded as an eccentric nuisance and ignored. The rest of the family was not backward in voicing their opinion either."

"So they killed everyone? That's barbaric even by Tesh Vik standards."

"Not by Foran's standards." Our eyes met. We both know what Foran is capable of. "After the fall I spent the night at Con's parents. The advantage of having bio-meds; the swellings had gone down and the bruising was negligible by the time I woke up next morning." Jan's status earned him bio-meds together with the right to live in the Elite enclave and draw a dividend but because one of his parents is a non-elite he can never inherit any Esta property or have a seat on the Board. Jan is kind of half elite but that's obviously elite enough to be slaughtered. I stopped thinking and listened when he started speaking again.