Alyzon Whitestarr

  Raoul shook his head. “Of course, we don’t know anything for sure, but from the little Sarry has said, I’d say infection would occur all at once. I’d also suspect that at the moment of infection, the spiritual wound that makes a person vulnerable would need to be reopened or deepened.”

  Peeling a kiwi fruit, Gilly said, “Alyzon told us those guys who were with Harlen didn’t smell infected. Why wouldn’t they be, if this virus is so hungry?”

  “I think infection cannot be so simple a matter, especially if, as we have reasoned, the infected person does not know what they carry,” Raoul said. “I think only certain types must be naturally vulnerable, and they have to be set up for it.”

  “You think Alyzon is that type?” Harrison asked.

  “We don’t know what attracts the virus. It may be something quite random, like a certain scent or something else that we can’t identify,” Raoul answered.

  I thought of the way the air churned between Rayc and Da and wondered if it was simply that the sickness in Rayc was drawn to something in Da’s scent that it identified as a weakness; the ammonia scent, maybe? Or the smells that expressed his love for his family?

  Raoul began to dish out fruit salad, and dimly I registered that the others were talking about how infection might take place, but I shut out their voices and focused on my train of thought, sensing that it was carrying me somewhere.

  Aaron Rayc had stopped or altered the output of those artists he had been involved with. I just didn’t believe that could be an accidental side effect of whatever else was happening. And such a fortunate side effect it would be, because the dark stuff they produced after getting involved with Rayc was enough to wound anyone’s spirit.

  My mind made a quantum leap, and I stood up so abruptly that the chair I had been sitting on crashed to the ground.

  “Oh God!” I whispered. “I know what Aaron Rayc wants from Da! He wants to change him so he can use him to reach people, soften them up so that they are easier to infect. That’s why he messes with all those artists! Some of them must work fine just as they are—ones like the Rak who produce bleak, dark, and hopeless stuff of their own accord. He’d only need to promote them and make sure people hear and see what they do. Then there would be others he just manipulates until they are broken enough to produce the sort of art he wants from them. And the ones that won’t change, he stops from working.”

  “But your da won’t change,” Gilly said soothingly. “He’s too strong and kind and good.”

  I sat down, because of course she was right. Aaron Rayc had manipulated Da, but he could not change Da’s essential nature. Put him with two confused and angry young rappers, and he would help them to build on their strengths and lift their spirits. Give him someone like Portia Sting, who was wounded in spirit, and his instinct was to heal her.

  I had a sudden vivid image of the way the air around Aaron Rayc bent inward while the air around Da pushed out. The first time I had noticed the effect, I had thought it looked as if they were opposing forces. And now I saw that this was exactly what they were. Aaron Rayc carried a sickness that urged him to wound and break and darken people, and Da carried something that lifted and strengthened people.

  Raoul’s last words were that we had to find some way to break Aaron Rayc’s influence, since we could not go to the police. We needed to learn something about him that could be used against him, and maybe the activities of the Shaletown gang were his weak point. If we could establish a real connection between them, all we would need then was a way to publicize it.

  I thought of Gary Soloman then, and told them I knew just how to get publicity, if we came up with something.

  The next day Serenity caught the early bus to school and I did as well, having set the alarm to make sure I was up in time. It was early enough that once I had seen her go into the school, I was able to double back out of the school yard and call the newspaper office. I didn’t expect Gary Soloman to be in, and I had written out a message for the receptionist to leave, but she insisted on putting me through to his voice mail. I hate leaving recorded messages, so I just read out my note, asking that he meet me at the Quick Brown Fox so that we could discuss matters of mutual interest.

  I felt a bit pompous saying those last few words, but I hadn’t wanted to be specific. The time I had given him was when Serenity would be with Mum in the studio for at least a couple of hours. Keeping tabs on her at lunchtime and recess was no small feat, and I had little time to talk to Gilly. She would have come with me, but that would have made us too conspicuous. The one good thing about tracking Serenity was that it brought me face to face with Harlen’s old friend Cole at a moment when I knew that Harlen was on the sports field with the rugby team.

  “Hi, Cole,” I said, stopping him with a bright smile. “Listen, I was just wondering if you’ve always lived here.”

  “I have,” he said, looking puzzled. “Why?”

  I feigned disappointment. “Oh, I’m just doing this project and I need to interview someone who used to live somewhere else. Someone said you used to live in Shaletown.”

  There was no mistaking his reaction. He paled and looked sick. But at the same time he seemed to brace himself. “I never lived there,” he said.

  “Oh, damn,” I said lightly. “Do you know anyone who did?”

  “Live in … Shaletown?” The faintest hesitation, but again unmistakable. It was as if he disliked saying the word.

  “Not just there,” I said airily. “Anywhere other than here. It wouldn’t have to have been for long, but it has to be living there, not just visiting or vacationing.” I was babbling, wanting to allay any suspicions.

  He mentioned a few people I might speak to, and I muttered as if I were fixing the names in my memory. I thanked him and at the same time I reached out and lightly tapped his hand. Then I walked away without looking back.

  My heart was hammering from the jolt of electricity I had got from the touch, but I had been expecting it so it shook me a lot less than the accidental touches. I had wanted to know something in particular, and for a second I had gotten a flash of something. Cole standing on a white sandy road blazing with reflected sunlight except where the blocky shadow of a building fell over it. Some long grass by the road, shimmering in the heat. Not enough to guess where it was, but enough to tell me that it was a place Cole had been, which he associated with Harlen Sanderson.

  Next period I was separated from Gilly by one of those teachers who seem to think close friendship in class is a bad thing, and made to sit next to Marilyn Bloom. I would have been annoyed except I suddenly remembered that she had a younger brother named Karl who was in the same year as Cole. On impulse, I asked if she knew him.

  “He came round a couple of times,” she said. “He was a hanger-on type who’d do anything to belong. You couldn’t like him no matter how slavishly he tried to please you. I don’t think the teachers like him any better than the kids, even though his aunt’s a teacher here.”

  “His aunt?”

  “Mrs. Barker,” Marilyn said. “Her sister is Cole’s mother.” I stared at her. Could what had happened between Cole and Harlen be the reason that Mrs. Barker had acted so strangely about Harlen?

  * * *

  Back at home that afternoon, once Serenity was in with Mum, I changed out of my uniform, shoved some homework into a shoulder bag, and set off, calling out to Jesse that I was going to the mall. If Gary Soloman didn’t come, and it was a definite possibility, I would simply do my homework at the Quick Brown Fox.

  I reached the mall at ten past five, and twenty minutes later Gary Soloman strode in, frowning. When he sat down in the booth, he emanated annoyance. “All right, what is it? I don’t have time for these sorts of games,” he said.

  I lost my temper a little. “Fine, then I won’t take too much of your valuable time. I just wanted you to know that I am investigating Aaron Rayc with my friends, and we have found out some things you might like to know. I haven’t mentioned you to my friends be
cause I promised not to, but I want to suggest we give you what we’ve learned, and that would mean breaking my promise.”

  His expression tightened as I spoke. “Alyzon, I warned you to be careful ….”

  “I have been careful,” I said firmly. “We all have.”

  “Who is ‘we’?”

  Two could play the secrecy game. I looked into his eyes, smiled, and said, “That’s none of your business.”

  He smiled, too, briefly. “Well, you are discreet, I’ll give you that. And you keep your word. Look, I’m sorry I was so sharp just now. It’s just that it was a hell of a job to get here, and I was afraid that you were going to tell me that … well, anyway, what have you found out?”

  “I can’t tell you until I talk to the others.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” he asked, offering me his handsome prince’s smile.

  “Won’t,” I said coolly.

  He shook his head with amusement. “All right, you can tell them. When will you talk to me?”

  I considered for a moment. “Next week maybe.” After Raoul had been to the ORBA function, and after Daisy found out what she could about Rayc Inc.

  Despite his avowal that he didn’t have time to spare for such meetings, the journalist spent another twenty minutes trying to talk me into giving something away. Then he switched tack and began asking me about myself and my life and my interests. He was being so nice and smooth and friendly that alarm bells rang, and I thought of a film I had seen a while back.

  “You can’t romance it out of me,” I said bluntly.

  For a moment he looked astounded, then he burst out laughing. His eyes were so admiring that I flushed with plea sure in spite of myself. He offered me a lift home, but I said I’d call my brother. The truth was that I wanted a few quiet moments to think before I headed home. Ten minutes later I rose and turned to leave—and was shocked to find myself face to face with Harlen Sanderson!

  “H-Harlen,” I stammered. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled coldly. “Looking for you.”

  I knew he must have called the house and spoken to Jesse, and I prayed that he hadn’t seen Gary Soloman, because he would certainly remember that Gary was an investigative journalist and wonder why I was meeting him.

  “I needed some time out of the house,” I said, trying not to sound guilty. “My sister is acting so crazy these days, you wouldn’t believe it. You know her, don’t you? You gave me that CD for her?”

  “I was just passing it on,” Harlen said lightly. But his thick rotting smell deepened and became momentarily more horrible. I swallowed hard, because the faint scent of violets and licorice had been mixed up in that dreadful stink. Which meant he knew exactly who Serenity was. I wished I dared reach out and touch him, but even the thought of it made my danger sense go off.

  “You want to go for a walk?” Harlen invited.

  I didn’t need any warning from my danger sense to refuse. “I’ve just called Jesse to come and get me,” I lied.

  “So,” Harlen said, leaning across the table. “Any news on who torched Gilly’s place?”

  Fury clawed at me that he could mention it so casually, when the smell of smoke and gasoline wound so revealingly through his awful smell, but I held his gaze guilelessly and shrugged. “I think the police are putting it down to vandalism.”

  “Useless bastards, the cops,” Harlen said pleasantly. “So what about the drive-in?”

  “I still have to pin down Da,” I said.

  “Your da,” Harlen mocked. “Well, OK, let’s go ask him now. I’d like to meet the famous Macoll Whitestarr.”

  “How do you know his name?” I asked.

  “Everyone knows his band outdid Urban Dingo,” Harlen said easily.

  He had given me an opening and, without thinking, I took it. “It’s funny you should mention that gig, because ever since, Da has been getting a lot of work through this guy called Aaron Rayc.”

  Harlen’s smell altered, but rather than becoming darker and stronger, I had the weird impression that it drew back and faded. Then my danger sense began to scream, and I had the utterly strange and dreadful impression that something dark and ancient was looking at me out of Harlen’s eyes.

  I clamped on my senses to stop myself giving way to screaming hysterics and bent to suck childishly and loudly at the froth in the bottom of the tall glass. Harlen got jerkily to his feet and said he had to go. His eyes were like fogged green pebbles. He sketched a stiff, unnatural-looking wave and went out.

  I stayed sitting there until my legs recovered, then I did call Jesse. It was only after I got home that I cursed myself for not having called Harrison from the mall when I had the chance, because I arrived right at dinnertime, when there was no possibility of making a private call. I ate veggie moussaka distractedly, sitting between Serenity, who sat dissecting her meal in stony silence, and Mirandah, who had clearly had another fight with Ricki and ate with tears trickling down her cheeks.

  It was lucky that Da and Jesse were talking intensely about music or there would have been dead silence at the table. The only time my ears pricked up was when Da reminded Serenity that she had a dentist appointment straight after school the next day. He said he would collect her with Mum and Luke, and they would all visit the dentist on the way to look at Mum’s new gallery. His voice was light and friendly, but I saw how he watched her and I smelled the ammonia sharpness of his concern for her. Then Mum called down to Serenity, her voice croaky with weariness as it always was when she stopped being nocturnal for a while.

  I escaped upstairs as soon as Serenity had gone up, taking Luke with me and playing with him on my bed until Da came and got him for a bath. Then I went down to the kitchen to call Harrison, but Mirandah was sitting by the phone staring at it pitifully. I sighed and went back upstairs and did some homework.

  I fell asleep without realizing. It was nearly midnight when Da came in to say Harrison was on the phone. I went to the kitchen, where Neil and Tich were eating doughnuts and drinking coffee.

  “Alyzon!” Harrison almost shouted.

  “Is something wrong?” I could feel Tich and Neil listening and struggled to keep my voice low and calm.

  “Is something wrong?” Harrison growled, his accent strong. “Christ, Alyzon. Ye scared me half tae death. I called hours and hours ago, and yer brother tells me you’ve gone out tae meet Harlen Sanderson! And ye dinnae call back!”

  “Oh, Harrison! I didn’t get the message. My brother can get … distracted. And I wasn’t meeting Harlen. I had gone to the mall, and he called here and found out where I was going. We only talked for about ten minutes in a coffee shop, and then he left.”

  “What did he want?”

  “Same thing as usual,” I said carefully.

  “Someone’s there?” Harrison guessed.

  “Of course. Maybe we could meet tomorrow after school?”

  “What about your sister?”

  “That’s fine,” I said guardedly.

  “All right. I dinnae get it, but I get it. After school it is. You can come with me tae Raoul’s.”

  I agreed, then hung up to find Tich and Neil looking at me sympathetically.

  “Boyfriend problems?” Tich asked.

  “Of course not,” I said, feeling myself blush annoyingly “He’s just a friend.”

  “A pretty good friend if he called this late to ask about another man,” Neil said, grinning coyly at me. Despite everything, I couldn’t help smiling. “There, that didn’t hurt, did it?” he said. “Despite what the world says, love is a laughing matter.”

  “I am not in love!” I laughed.

  “Laughter is the best medicine,” Tich said wisely, which cracked Neil up. Tich regarded him with wounded amusement. “I read that in Reader’s Digest!”

  Neil nearly convulsed with laughter. His big belly wobbled like jelly. Da came in carrying some music and looked at us all in puzzlement, which made it even funnier.

  On the way up the stairs a few m
inutes later, it struck me that it had been ages since I had laughed so hard; I noticed how light it had made me feel for a moment. But when I was back in bed, wakeful now, my smile faded at the memory of my conversation with Harlen and the queer certainty that for a second the sickness he carried had been fully awake and fully aware, because I had mentioned the name of Aaron Rayc.

  Despite my increasing feeling that school was irrelevant, I was glad on Friday to be plunged into a day that turned out to be full and demanding, even if half of it was taken up with making notes for holiday homework. Gilly told me at recess that she and her gran were going house-hunting that night. She said they were both sick to death of living in a hotel and eating in the restaurant or ordering room service. I told her about Harlen finding me at the mall, and her eyes widened in alarm.

  “Do you think Harlen will tell Aaron Rayc you mentioned him?” Gilly asked.

  “Maybe, but it came up naturally enough. And it was worth the risk to see how Harlen reacted.”

  * * *

  At the end of the day I hung around after class, helping to tidy up because I had the feeling Harlen would be waiting to find out if I had asked Da about the drive-in. When I judged that enough time had passed for it to be safe, I slipped out the side door and made my way through the backstreets to meet Harrison at the same cafe we had sat in when I had told him the truth about myself. We had planned to meet inside in case of rain, but the sun was shining and he was waiting outside, leaning against the wall. He had a complicated expression of sadness mingled with resignation on his face before he noticed me, and I wondered if he was thinking of his father. Then I called his name and he swung round and smiled.

  “I’m sorry about worrying you last night,” I said.

  “What happened with Harlen, anyway?” he asked, setting out for the bus stop.

  I asked if he’d mind if I waited until we were with Raoul, because I had already told it once to Gilly that day.