There was a long silence. When it became clear Addison wasn’t going to reply, Two ploughed on.
“They are on trial for the crime of terracide!”
“What-icide?”
“Terracide. Killing the earth. Five and I are acting as defence and prosecution, Four is security and you will meet One soon. You are to be our interpreter.”
“This is quite unusual,” Addison replied, feeling more than a little lost. “Are you sure I cant have a script?”
“Our employers know what they are doing, Mr. Moore. It would not be this way without good cause.”
“But why an interpreter?”
The actor playing Five leant forward. He looked much the same as his colleagues, thin, grey and off, but there was a sadness around his eyes that made him friendlier, more sympathetic somehow.
“As an actor,” Five began, smiling kindly, “you know communication entails so much more than speech. Body language, slang, cultural references: these things shift over time. What if in the future people advance so much they no longer understand those from the past? After all, you would not understand someone from medieval times, nor they you.”
“But if everyone’s so advanced,” Addison replied, trying to follow along. “How can I understand them?”
“Well observed,” Five said. “The script dictates you have a special device. It was added in make-up, remember? Your neck...?”
Addison hesitated, then his fingers curled around something at the base of his skull. Cold, metallic, and very firmly attached.
Where had that come from?
“But I wasn’t in make–”
“It is settled!” Two cried, so loudly Addison flinched. “You have the part! We will act, you will improvise. The trial will begin presently!”
Without so much as a backwards glance, Two leapt up and scurried out of the room. Four shot Addison an odd look, then headed after her colleague. In the silence that followed Addison turned to Five in pure bewilderment.
“Forgive my associates,” the grey man said, standing. “They are under great stress.”
“Is that why this is so cloak and dagger?”
“There is good reason.”
“And we’re filming right now? Right here?”
“Is that a problem?”
“It’s not the way things usually go.”
“I appreciate this is unusual, Addison, but you have the part. Isn’t that what you wanted? Is there somewhere else you need to be?”
Addison conjured up an image of his tiny room in the mouldy flat he shared with four other jobbing actors.
“Happy to help,” he replied. “Let’s go!”
“Splendid! My advice is to just play along. That is literally an actor’s job description, is it not?”
Five had him there.
Addison shrugged helplessly.
“Now if you’ll follow me,” Five smiled, gesturing to the door. “Your trial awaits.”
* * *
The set was breathtaking.
“How much did you spend?” Addison whispered.
The futuristic court was enormous. Made from a semi-translucent, misty-grey stone, its vaulted ceiling sloped high overhead. The floor stretched away to a vast wall where a winged judge’s bench stood, resplendent and imposing. There were podiums for prosecution and defence, a witness stand, and rows of stone benches fanning back to an ornate pair of double doors. The only thing missing was the jurors’ box.
“Is this office an old court?” Addison asked, feeling suddenly uneasy.
“Your mark,” Five replied, pointing to a chair beside the judge’s bench.
“Where’s the crew?”
There were sleek-looking cameras positioned all around, but only Addison, Two and Five were on set. Four was nowhere to be seen.
“The judge will come soon. That is your cue.”
“Can I speak to the director?”
“Alas, no.”
“Who can I speak to?”
“I’m sorry,” Five said, glancing away. “I must prepare.”
As Five headed off to the defence table, Addison’s sense of unease deepened. Something was off here: the actors, the set, the speedy audition: it didn’t add up. He was beginning to suspect this wasn’t activism but advertising, some corporate attack ad portraying environmentalists as vindictive maniacs. It would explain the secrecy, few in the acting world would consent to a role like this. The thought of Addison’s peers seeing him in such a piece made his stomach churn. He’d be blacklisted for months. Question was, how badly did he need the money? Addison squirmed, his pride wrestling with his pragmatism, then he jumped up.
“Actually,” he began. “I have a few more que––”
A loud voice rang through the court.
“All rise!”
Addison’s heart plummeted.
He was too late.
At their tables, Two and Five turned to face the back. Addison froze, expecting extras and cameramen to start filing in, but instead a lone man strode through the double doors. He was tall, thin, with long white hair swept back from a high forehead. Dressed in a more elaborate version of the levellers’ clothing, he strode down the aisle like a sergeant inspecting his troops. Ascending to the judge’s podium, he cleared his throat and began to speak.
“I am Judge One,” he announced, in a high, clear voice. “This Court of Levelling is now in session.”
Banging a gavel, the judge’s eyes met Addison’s. A sudden pain stabbed into his head, and for the briefest of instances the judge’s face seemed to flicker.
Perhaps it was a trick of the lighting, someone in the rafters realigning a spotlight, but for a second Addison thought he saw several expressions superimposed over One’s face, flickering like the spiral icons on the waiting room clock. The stabbing intensified and Addison grimaced in pain. Unbidden, his fingers grasped for whatever was affixed to his neck. Something shifted, the pain vanished and when he glanced back up the judge’s face was entirely normal.
“Four,” One was saying, acting like filming was already underway. “Our defendant?”
A back door banged open. There was a crackle of electricity, a cry of pain, then a man was stumbling out into court. He was followed by Four, who in turn was followed by something impossible.
“My god,” Addison whispered, the judge’s face forgotten.
It was a drone. Horned, accented in red and black and encased in overlapping plates of metallic armour, it looked more like an insect than a machine: a praying mantis hovering in mid-air. As two dots of electric blue flared at its pincers, some kind of taser, Addison realised it was the most detailed
