the sheared fringe brushing her demurely lowered lashes. He did not care, at that moment, what her motives were. She had given her name to the west, knowingly and absolutely. Glancing across to Feodor Rechnov, he saw that the Councillor’s cheeks were tinged with red.
“Then do you have anything to add to Mr Bai’s statement?” the woman pressed.
Adelaide’s smile blossomed.
“I feel Mr Bai has explained the situation clearly enough. I only hope that the subject matter is not too distant for our esteemed Council. After all, many of you do not step outside over the course of twelve months.”
Vikram saw the Minister of Resources lean forward and tap the shoulder of the man in front. The man got to his feet.
“I can hardly imagine that the cosseted lifestyle Miss Mystik enjoys includes outdoor excursions in adverse conditions.”
“On the contrary,” said Adelaide. “I regularly waterbike as far as the ring-net. Without the insulation of my bike-suit, I would probably die of hypothermia. As Mr Bai has explained, there are no such suits in the west, in fact, there is barely any heating. It does strike me as somewhat unfair.”
“Forgive me if I say this is a very abrupt demonstration of concern,” said the man. Adelaide was unfazed.
“Indeed it is, Councillor. I confess until I met Mr Bai, I was entirely ignorant of these circumstances. Now that I have been enlightened, I am compelled to support his cause.”
Vikram stifled a laugh. There was shuffling amongst the Councillors, and the Minister of Resources tapped her spokesman on the shoulder again.
“May I request we open to the floor, Speaker?”
They don’t like dealing with Adelaide, Vikram thought. She disarms them; she knows the language. He looked for Linus. Adelaide’s brother’s face was serious, but Vikram had no doubt that beneath the calm exterior lurked a satisfied smile.
“Granted,” said the Speaker’s voice overhead.
This time, there was no rush to stand. Then the woman Linus had been speaking to earlier rose.
“It seems a reasonable request,” she ventured.
The word reasonable was the spark. At once the left side of the crescent were on their feet, arguing over what could be considered reasonable, questioning the criteria for the demand, the lack of available resources. It was difficult enough to keep the City in good repair. Where would the money, or the materials, come from for the west? The liberals jumped up in response. Dmitri Rechnov said nothing. Linus was vocal. The demands, he argued, were so basic as to be almost unreasonable in their conservatism. They should be doing far more. Through the debate, the voices of the first generation Councillors sounded like thin, disconsolate reeds.
An elderly woman turned to the podium.
“Mr Bai, I recall that the last time you were here there was some incendiary talk of demilitarization. May we assume you have dropped that aggressive stance today?”
Vikram leaned both hands on the podium. “I hardly consider it an aggressive stance,” he replied. “Rather the opposite. I won’t say that my opinion has changed, but today I am here purely to request funding for a winter aid scheme.”
“You have not mentioned costs in all of this, Mr Bai,” said a balding man who Vikram recognized as the Minister of Finance. “I assume you have some form of budget in mind.”
“A figure of fifty thousand credits would comfortably encompass the schemes I have mentioned. Thirty-five thousand would be the absolute minimum required.”
Exchanges fired through the ranks of the Executors. Vikram exchanged a glance with Adelaide. They had agreed the asking price should be high, but now he wondered if they had pushed too hard. Adelaide clasped her hands and brought them to rest upon the podium, her white cotton sleeve brushing against his arm.
The Chambers quietened. Feodor Rechnov was rising. His eyes were riveted on Vikram. He did not spare his daughter a glance.
“Mr Bai,” he said, and the Chambers hushed further. “You have made an impressive case, an-emotive, case. I congratulate you on the almost inconceivable improvement. You must realize, however, that you are asking this Council to supply you with a large sum of money on the basis of your word-and your word alone.”
There were murmurs of approval from the reactionaries. The Councillor of Finance was nodding.
“I take your point,” said Vikram calmly. “The reason I am standing here today, is, very simply, because there is nobody else to represent my side of the city. There are no westerners, ladies and gentlemen, in your assemblage. The labyrinth of administration with which this Council surrounds itself makes it almost impossible to gain a hearing. As to my qualifications-I can only tell you my own experience. I am, however, happy to escort any Councillors who wish for further proof on a tour of the west, and there I can show you all of the disease and poverty of which I speak. I’d advise you to wrap up warm.”
A ripple of laughter from the liberals.
“Perhaps you’d like to go, Councillor Rechnov,” called out a girl from the balcony. Vikram recognised the voice as Adelaide’s friend, Jannike Ko. Feodor’s face remained impassive, although Vikram thought that the red spots in his cheeks intensified.
“I believe the Council would prefer a more scientific assessment of the situation,” Feodor countered. “Rather than the rhetoric of a westerner.”
There was a collective gasp from the balcony, purely theatrical, as Vikram doubted there was a single person in the room who was not secretly thinking what Feodor had voiced. Vikram crushed his own anger. He even smiled. Adelaide had already supplied him with all the ammunition he needed, and now Feodor had given him the incentive to use it.
“Councillor Rechnov,” he said. “Forgive me if I have my facts wrong, but didn’t your own father, the Architect, remarry a refugee? Surely you feel a degree of responsibility towards the west, even if you do not feel compassion?”
Uproar followed. Vikram saw Feodor’s jaw clench, and the red spots burned brighter for the paleness that infected the rest of the Councillor’s face. Vikram did not take his eyes off the man, but sensed, at his side, Adelaide’s initial surprise melting into expectancy as she, too, sniffed the resolution that had to follow.
The Speaker asked for a vote. Vikram watched the hands raise and hover in midair, swaying in an impossibly complicated semaphore whilst the Speaker took his count. There were too many hands, a hopeless number. The hammer rapped. In the commotion from the balcony, the Speaker’s words were swallowed. Councillors were on their feet, imperial surcoats swinging. Vikram’s heart went numb. We’ve lost, he thought.
As he stepped down from the podium a surge of people gathered around. Hands clapped his back, pummelled and tugged at him. He was aware of voices, offering congratulations, hollering questions through the clamour. He blinked in a barrage of camera flashes. How did you meet Adelaide, Mr Bai? Adelaide, why are you helping the west? He heard his lie of a surname repeated over and over, and thought dizzily that in the last half hour he had managed to become someone he was not.
Vikram turned to his accomplice. Her face was ablaze. He realized, finally, that they’d won, and he felt his face split in an answering grin. A wing of pure joy trembled in his chest. It rose to his throat, filled it, had to fly out. He grabbed Adelaide and lifted her shrieking off the ground. As he spun her around she was pressed against his smart new jacket and her brother’s letter. He put her down. Her smile was a solar beam. Then, in full view of the Chambers and the krill, she kissed him.
27 ADELAIDE
Her eyes opened. It was not yet light, and she was very still. At first she thought she’d had a nightmare that had frozen her muscles. But then her lungs expanded and she realized the restraint was physical. A pair of arms wrapped around her upper body, pinning her against the hard heat of the man’s chest. Her heart beat faster, in confusion, and anger, that she had allowed this to happen. The hands that were not hers were nonetheless familiar; she had seen them manipulating her Neptune, peeling an apple with a penknife in one long strip, unfastening the strap of a watch. And now they were warm on her skin.
