Release date: November 13, 2018
Subgenre: Biopunk, Genetic engineering
About The Strange:
Constable Elke Veraart and her cyber-dog Meisje are peace keepers,
patrolling the Babylon Eye. It’s a good job, but there must be more
to life than chasing smugglers and settling domestic disputes!
Then three children ask Elke to find their mother, who’s been missing for more than a year. The search attracts the wrong kind of attention. Elke and her young friends are in desperate danger.
Unable to resist the powers that have been unleashed against her, Elke is swept out of the Babylon Eye and into another world. While she struggles to regain her freedom, the children are unprotected. They must face, all alone, a new danger that stalks the corridors of the Babylon Eye.
The Strange is the third book in the Linked Worlds series.
Then three children ask Elke to find their mother, who’s been missing for more than a year. The search attracts the wrong kind of attention. Elke and her young friends are in desperate danger.
Unable to resist the powers that have been unleashed against her, Elke is swept out of the Babylon Eye and into another world. While she struggles to regain her freedom, the children are unprotected. They must face, all alone, a new danger that stalks the corridors of the Babylon Eye.
The Strange is the third book in the Linked Worlds series.
Excerpt:
"Teeth."
Constable Elke Veraart poked at the charred fragments with a piece
of wire. "Human teeth. And these are bits of bone."
"You're sure?" Elke's boss, Hoofdinspecteur Dolly Ngcobo, steadied
herself with a manicured hand on the incinerator's door.
"Sure." Elke sat back on her heels, trying not to breathe too
deeply. The incinerator chamber reeked of ash, burnt rubber and the
fumes of a disinfectant so strong it stung her eyes and nose.
"Do we know who it could be?" Dolly turned to the workers crowding
the corridor behind her. "You lot have any ideas?"
"Kipper's been missing since three days ago," said one of the
workers. "I bet it's him." The speaker was a burly young glim, an
algae tech Elke often saw working at the tanks on her daily patrol
of Works level.
"What about his badges?" said a young woman behind the algae tech.
"Those bits of metal. Kipper had all these badges..."
Elke looked more carefully at one of the blackened lumps, warped
and charred but still recognisably oval, and stamped with a star.
"Come have a look," she said to the woman. "Recognise this?"
The woman pushed through the crowd. She was small, almost
child-sized, her bronze skin patterned with pale tattoos, and wisps
of dark hair curled from under her tight, waterproof cap. The
name Ghatak was embroidered on the pocket of her algae-stained overalls.
"Hard to say, with it all burnt so much." Ghatak considered the
charred remains with calm interest. "Kipper collected Prussian army
badges. Kind of looks like that, don't you think?"
"Kipper?" Elke rose from her crouch. Ghatak and Dolly stepped back
so that she could get out into the corridor.
"That's what we called him," said the algae tech. "Kipper. Short
for something."
"Benderek Kiprosomov," said Ghatak. "Old guy. Realworld. Been in
the Eye forever."
Elke dusted her hands on her trousers. "Did you know him? Work with
him?"
Ghatak shook her head. "Nope. I'm a biotech. He's a mech, and
pretty much a loner. Always worked by himself."
The crowd of technicians and mechanics murmured their agreement.
They were glims and realworlders, some with safety goggles pushed
up on their heads, others wearing stained aprons or rubber gloves.
These were the people who kept the Eye going. They maintained the
air and water filters and oversaw the processes that converted
waste into energy.
"Meisje got anything to add?" Dolly said as she stripped off her
latex gloves.
"Not with this disinfectant stink." Elke looked at the white
gardag, who was waiting at the far end of the corridor. "This stuff
kills her nose."
"When you've recorded all of this"--Dolly gestured at the
incinerator--" bag those ashes. We'll see what the tests show."
She turned to the crowd. "You people can go back to work. If any of
you know anything about mijnheer Kipromosov, give your statements
to Constable Veraart. And you," she said to Elke, "come to the
office when you're finished."
She tucked her gloves into her handbag and pushed her way through
the dispersing crowd of workers, her heels clicking on the concrete
floor.
"Poor old Kipper." Ghatak was still looking at the heap of burnt
fragments in the incinerator tray. "What a way to go." She smiled
wryly at Elke. "Not much for you to work on, is it."
"Nope." Elke crouched again, peering at the ashes. "You can say
that again."
Amazon
About the Linked Worlds series:
- Book 1: The Babylon Eye (only 99 cents all November long)
- Book 2: The Real (only 99 cents all November long)
- Book 3: The Strange
About Masha du Toit:
Masha du Toit is an artist and writer living in Cape Town. She was
trained as a visual artist, majoring in sculpture at Michaelis and
went on to study bronze casting at the Natal Technicon. After many
years as a teaching the creative use of digital technology, she
finally focussed on her true passion: writing and illustrating her
own stories. The second book in her "Linked Worlds" series,
"The Real", was shortlisted for the 2018 Nommo awards for best
speculative fiction by an African writer.
