She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 25

This is the opening of part two: Smugglers

There was a huge protest in downtown Freetown. It amazed Gabriel. He'd never seen rich people protest. What did they have to be upset about? But here they were, wanting reforms just like the poor.

Other than wanting reforms, the protest was nothing like what was happening in the ghetto. This crowd was large and festive. It was far more racially mixed than the ghetto.

A band was playing to one side and there had been several speakers talking about freedom for different people. There had even been one man who could have been Gabriel, but all grown up. He described himself with a word that Gabriel had only heard as an insult, and was often aimed at Gabriel. But the man used it for himself and didn't seem to think any less of himself. In fact, he argued that those people, his people ought to have rights as well.

He would have loved to find the man, ask him what the word really meant, or why people called him that. But he had a mission.

So he ran through the crowd, a small messenger bag at his side. Not far away was his cousin, Favour.

Towards the edge of the crowd, the festivity only grew more apparent. A handful of food trucks had arrived, serving hungry protestors.

Gabriel shared a look with his cousin and rolled his eyes. If the rich wanted to change things, they could start by driving some of that food up to the ghettoes on the hills above the city.

The poorer sections of town were still mostly barricaded off, or under military control. It was a bitter choice, barricade yourself off and hope they didn't charge in any way, or surrender the leaders in your community, who were wanted on various charges. No one believed the charges, and everyone feared worse reprisals once the leaders were in jail.

There were police here as well, standing clear of the crowd. But they were different too. There was a small group of men in riot gear to one side but mostly the police wore uniforms with no such gear. They watched the protest but made no move to interfere. A few even seemed to be listening, as though they maybe agreed with some of the demands.

They had the same blind spot that the police up in the ghettoes had, children. Gabriel and Favour were allowed to pass by with barely any notice. Gabriel gave one glance back, wishing he could order food from one of the trucks, or listen to the music, maybe dance. But he and Favour had a mission.

Another set of children broke from the crowd. Gabriel recognized one of the kids from school, Tamba. They gave each other a nod of recognition and then both took off on a parallel course. Several more children their age followed them but none of the adults.

They met in an alley a few blocks away. Gabriel pulled a small jar from his messenger bag and held it out for Tamba to inspect.

"That's it?" Tamba said, obviously underwhelmed. He shook the bottle. The contents were a yellowish coarse powder.

"Yeah, that's it," Favour snarled.

"Add one teaspoon to a litre of the cleanest water you got," Gabriel said. "In a wide container. It takes three days to grow, thick and spongy like. Then it can be dried and eaten."

Tamba made a face.

"It tastes better than it looks," Gabriel told him. "You'll see."

Favour had another jar filled with seeds.

"These are?"

"They look like cassava," Gabriel told him. "But the others changed them somehow. They grow faster, have more nutrients in them." He thought of the kurgara, Devaki. He'd talk to hir on the communication device once since zie had left. Zie wouldn't be able to come back, zie told him. But zie would send help. Somehow. "Their soldiers eat those two things, the mycobactim and the plant. You can survive on just those. Forever if you need." He didn't add what Devaki had said after, "ain't fun, but you'll live."

"Their soldiers eat this?"

"And they are stronger than anyone Bundi's got," Favour said. "You all know it. Besides we ate our first batch yesterday. It's not bad. You'll see."

Tamba nodded and pocketed the two jars. "Yeah, I suppose we will have to. And otherwise? You guys okay."

"Okay," Gabriel said. "You?"

"Fatima is in our section," Fatima was their schoolteacher. Tamba made a face. "So we got lessons even so."

Favour gave him a sympathetic look but Gabriel liked school. He wished the white woman, Holly, had been able to remain. He had thought he'd seen her in the crowd at the protest, but when they passed by the woman it wasn't her and that woman had been speaking Afrikaans, not English.

The next boy Gabriel didn't know. He identified himself by the ghetto he was from and accepted two more jars. "You heard?" Gabriel asked.

"A teaspoon to a litre, cleanest water in a shallow container."

Gabriel nodded. They handed out a half dozen jars of each, mycobactim powder and seeds. The kids lingered in the alley, no one too eager to get back to their own ghettoes. Then a cop appeared at one end of the alley. They scattered at a run, though when Favour slowed down and Gabriel looked back, there was no sign of pursuit. They fell to a walk.

"Now what?" Favour asked.

Gabriel shrugged. "Let's go back through the protest again."

Favour nodded her approval.

A spaceship shrieked overhead as they approached the crowd, flying low. Gabriel smiled at the sight. But it was only a single ship, a diplomatic crew or something, heading away from Bundi's palace and another round of failed talks.