Free Body Harvest by Malcolm Rose Page A

especially majors?’ Lexi asked with a frown.
    ‘We’ve got an inbuilt brake on behaviour – our religious code.’
    ‘You don’t need a god to be nice to each other,’ Lexi objected. ‘Everyone’s got moral instinct. Outers included. We all know killing and removing someone’s organs is a bad thing to do. Anyway,’ she added, clearly offended, ‘even with all that religion, majors do horrible things.’
    Troy nodded. ‘What do you think would happen if we got rid of you and me – the law – tomorrow?’
    Shrugging, Lexi said, ‘All countries have laws. That tells me everywhere goes crazy without them.’
    ‘That’s what I mean. It’s really sad.’
    ‘I guess ninety-nine per cent of people would still be nice to each other.’
    ‘That leaves one per cent who’d turn us into a lawless mess. One per cent too many.’
    Reaching the car, its door unlocked for Lexi. ‘Let’s ignore the one per cent right now,’ she said, ‘and just concentrate on one person. Our bad guy.’
    Settling inside, both of their mobiles began to ring at the same time. The caller was the same as well. Terabyte.
    ‘Hi,’ Lexi said. ‘How did you …?’
    ‘I’m a genius with phones as well. Anyway, I wanted to speak to both of you. I got hold of The Solitude Network supervisor. After Samaritan 999’s last chat with Wily Fox, he was banned from the site. He kept asking for contact details of people who didn’t want a date. Three strikes and you’re out, apparently. A waste of time if you ask me. He could log in from a different device under a different username.’
    Eagerly, Troy asked, ‘Did you get any info on him – or her?’
    ‘Admin weren’t as protective as they usually are – maybe because he’d been a bad boy and got booted off. Anyway, he ticked the bloke box, registered with an email that he abandoned straight after, and gave afalse name and address. That’s another breach of the site’s rules.’
    ‘Not much help, then,’ said Troy.
    ‘Did you follow up any of the visitors he’d tried to meet? Meet in reality, I mean, not virtual get-togethers,’ Lexi said. ‘Because if he succeeded, they could be victims as well. And we’ve got at least one more casualty – L4G#4 – an outer whose heart ended up in a major.’
    ‘Of course I followed up,’ Terabyte replied, as if insulted by her question. ‘I couldn’t get any personal information but – here’s the big news – two of them logged on from Foreditch Homeless Centre. No idea what they posted or when they did it, but the place is about forty kilometres away from where you are right now.’
    ‘Thanks, Terabyte,’ Lexi said. ‘We’re onto it.’

SCENE 18
    Thursday 10th April, Early evening
    ‘Chapulines?’ Troy turned up his nose. ‘What are they?’
    ‘Grasshoppers toasted with garlic and lime. Want to try?’
    ‘Er … No, thanks. I’ll stick with sausages.’
    ‘Any scorpions in them?’ Lexi asked with a grin.
    ‘It’s a mystery. No one’s quite sure what they’re made of. Pork, offal, horse?’
    ‘You don’t even know what you’re eating!’
    ‘I know they taste nice, especially when they’re swimming in brown sauce.’
    Lexi tried to imitate her new partner. ‘Weird.’
    Under a darkening sky, she was still licking her dessert – an ant lollipop – when they arrived at the homeless centre.
    The building was at the edge of Foreditch’s commercial hub, next to the temple, in the grounds of the cemetery. It had probably once belonged to the temple but now it was dedicated to helping the displaced. The manager was not much older than Troy and Lexi. She introduced herself as Skye and she showed them around, pushing open doors so they could see inside every part.
    ‘We provide hot meals and drinks,’ she said in the main room, which was a modest self-service canteen and seating area. ‘Our most important function.’ She opened another door on a small dormitory. ‘And a few beds. On a first-come, first-served