End of Women: Part Five

Deep Water

Robin took a drink from a champagne glass, swilling the buzzing liquid in his mouth. He almost gagged. Bubbly stuff had never been his kind of thing. He didn't even like Coke or Pepsi. Holding the glass up to eye-level he could see the tiny bubbles rising and popping like miniature fireworks.

The light coming through from behind his glass was a faint blue. He lowered the glass and took a look again; it was a huge tank of water, big enough to fit a shark or two inside, and out of context it would look like he was standing in an aquarium checking out an empty exhibit. The water was rippling at the surface, as if recently disturbed, but underneath it was all settled, quiet and peaceful.

Robin set the glass to one side as he heard the siren sound. Awwoooooh. A shadow descended over the surface, drawing nearer and nearer, until all at once the surface was cut apart by steel mesh and bars, and a mish-mash of women's bodies all crammed up against the framework. It sank down gently, and the women inside began to float, bobbing like corks. He watched one of them, a thickly set girl with a kind of demure look about her. She might have passed out from the pressure above, but now she was wide awake. After a few seconds she began to kick and struggle, eyes wide and bulging, bubbles streaming out of her mouth. Those same bubble trails came from the noses and mouths of every woman in there, and made columns in the tank just like those in Robin's champagne glass. 

She thrashed like a beached fish for a full minute before her body convulsed, her mouth popped open and suddenly her eyes went still, lids drifting lazily, and she hung there in grave silence. 

Robin sighed and bowed his head. 

"You don't mind the fucked up stuff, do you?"

Symon appeared at his shoulder, dressed up in a full tux. The smart-looking kid even had a bowtie on, and had somehow managed to find a beer bottle in the place.

"Not saying I don't mind it." Robin replied absent-mindedly as the last of the women stopped kicking. "But its like history, its like reality. You don't look at it for too long and it runs up on you, bites you in the ass. Always better to look reality dead in the face."

"Your Pa taught you that, I'm betting."

"You know him." Robin turned away from the tank as the water started to drain out and the burners were lit in the trap underneath. "Come on."

In the grand dining hall behind them a party was going on. They had only been told an hour beforehand that some dignitaries and generous benefactors were showing up to the site, and that meant the Arrowheads had to put on a kind of show for them. There was a cluster of round tables laid out with a banquet's supply of food items, beverages and silverware. A few of the stationed Troopers were there, noticeable by their tri-weave fibre uniforms with the sigil lapels worn only on special occasions. Most of the crowd were Bluenorth regulars - FCOs, Tormentors, admin guys and the higher-ups. Robin recognised the guy with the bald head, red beard and jacked-up physique as being the Ekpow CC, the Compound Commander. He would have known him just by sight. CC's were famous men, always on the news, and Ekpow was the first and therefore the most famous compound. How he really knew it for sure was that every CC had a tattoo somewhere on him. In the case of Terrance Lichen it was on his forearm, two black bars parallel to each other. It didn't sit well with Robin, since that meant something to any man who ever served in the military or with the Troopers. It meant Captain. The CC's started doing it as a way of keeping the Compound divisions as allies of the Troopers, like they were suggesting that CC's were just Trooper Captains by another name. 

"I don't like that shit either." Symon said as if Robin had spoken his thoughts out loud. "But we spend too much time dividing up, you know. What's coming is coming, and we have to get with it. Time is to be friends with our enemies, friend."