A Day Of Faces by Simon K Jones Read Free Book Online

dad’s dead because he fell onto your stupid head. There’s no going back from that. Now, I’m still dealing with it up here, and I’m probably going to have a whole lot to say down the line, but right now I just want to take some proactive fucking action.”
    “You don’t get it,” said sweater and jeans. “These people, they will just kill you both.”
    I reached out, made a best guess, and grabbed at where his jaw probably was. Yep, just there. I gripped it, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “This isn’t just about you anymore, Cal. You flew into my shed and turned my life upside down. Half the time it’s awful and I wish I’d never met you. The other time, it’s the best thing that ever happened. Even as I think of my dad with holes in his chest, I’m thinking just how rad this is. I have some issues that I need to work out, OK?” I took a deep breath. “And for dramatic purposes, try to ignore that my thumb’s been kind of in your mouth this whole time.”
    I let go of his face.
    “I did wonder if you’d realised that.”
    “Kinda gross.”
    There was a chuckle from behind me, and Marv clapped. “So, you know, I work a lot of jobs,” he said. “I got a lot of a mouths to feed, right? So here’s my question, Cal. When you just happened to shack up with Kay, and then just happened to end up in my basement, was it pure coincidence that every Saturday I’m the janitor at the Aviary? You know, I’m just curious.”
    I glanced back and forth between Marv, who was still seated but clearly poised to leap up, and Cal, who remained as a selection of disembodied items of clothing.
    “Well?” I asked. “Is it true? 13 ”

infection
    ɪnˈfɛkʃ(ə)n/
    noun
    the process of infecting or the state of being infected.
     
    Here’s how it went down. 14
    If you thought of the city as a bicycle wheel, the Aviary was where all the spokes met, right in the middle. It was a spire, reaching hundreds of feet into the sky. Most of the spire was office space, occupied by lowly peons who slaved away to keep the city - and the country - actually functioning. I think they’re called civil servants. As you go higher up the spire the pay gets better, the offices fancier, and the view better. Then, right at the top, perches the Aviary, inaccessible to anybody without wings or a really long ladder. The spire ended, and then the Aviary sat on top, with no connecting walkways or elevators or stairs.
    From there they ruled the world. Turned out that being able to fly gave you a certain advantage over everyone who couldn’t fly. The year that the wings were born changed the socio-political landscape on a global scale, first in subtle ways and then totally. I wasn’t even born back then, obviously, but I’ve been living in a world run by them my whole life. An alisocracy, maybe?
    The Aviary was parliament, so only some of the wings actually worked and lived there. But even those that didn’t still had fancy elevated apartments all of the city, slightly divorced from their neighbours, and always looking down - literally - on everybody else.
    Point is, getting in wasn’t really possible. The first five floors were packed full of security, and nobody got past them. A couple of climbers had tried to scale the outside of the building but had been shot down before they’d reached the third floor. ‘Aviary’ made it sound too nice, really. It was more of a fortress.
    Marv and Cal went in first; Marv with his cleaning staff pass and Cal following close behind in his spectre form. I’d pointed out ahead of time that Cal would have to be completely naked for it to work, but Marv didn’t seem to be bothered.
    Me, I sat in the park the surrounded the base of the spire, leaning against a fountain and trying to tell the difference between birds and people flying around the top of the building. Wings didn’t bother going in the ground entrance, of course. They just flew in from wherever. It was a school day, so I got a few