Augmented (eBook)

Kenechi Udogu (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
400 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
978-0-571-38585-0 (ISBN)

Infos

In a future where humans are enhanced to ensure the survival of society Akaego fights to prevent her power to grow plants from being weaponised by a corrupt regime. 'A truly original novel. Brilliant, illuminating, I loved every second of it.' Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Principle of Moments I was going to be a Mechsim. I was going to use my powers to make a difference. In a near future London, where extreme weather has depleted plant life, sixteen-year-olds must surgically augment an ability to contribute to the new utopian society. Akaego moves to a prestigious academy after the late discovery of her rare ability - she can project a vocal frequency that accelerates plant growth. As Akaego learns to use her new skill and is chosen for an internship with the mayor she begins to feel like she can change society for the better . . . and it doesn't hurt that the mayor's gorgeous son, Joon, seems to be flirting with her. But then the Freestakers, an anti-enhancement group, warn Akaego not to get Augmented. Can she discover the truth of her ability, find the courage to rebel and keep her power out of the hands of those wishing to control it? 'Brilliant . . . I cannot get the story out of my head.' Kathryn Evans, award-winning author of Beauty Sleep 'Filled with so many twists and turns . . . I loved it!' David Fenne, author of Overemotional 'Amazing . . .I couldn't put it down.' S. A. Gales, author of iNSiDE 'Exciting and original.' Kathryn Clark, author of Things I Learned While I Was Dead

Kenechi Udogu is a Nigerian-born London-based writer and architect whose work centres on culturally diverse characters, particularly female protagonists in sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres who stand strong in challenging conditions. Augmented was the inaugural winner of the Imagined Futures Prize. Her work was awarded a Highly Commended Text win for FAB Prize , and she was a runner up for the Writers and Artists Year Book Your Next Obsession in YA Fiction Competition, in association with YALC. She is an alumna of the HarperCollins Author Academy and the All Stories mentorship programme. Her short story was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and her sci-fi short story was published in an issue of Dark Matter Magazine. She is a book contributor to Worldreader's free digital library (a literacy global non-profit organisation). She loves singing with choirs, and hopes to one day figure out how to hibernate in winter.

Textauszug

Chapter Three

133 days to Augmentation Day

Jaden: Operation Readmission.

Jaden: Proposal 27.

Jaden: Start saying your goodbyes, because I’ve nailed it this time.

A lump lodged in my throat at the messages flashing on my slider when I finally checked it on the Tube journey home. The memory of the day Jaden instigated my escape plan came flooding back.

‘Are you having a laugh?’ was my best friend’s response when he found out about my transfer from Hendon to the music school in Marylebone.

My reaction would have been the same if I hadn’t been stunned into silence after our head teacher, Mr Kareem, called my parents into his office to share the news that turned my life around.

All because of the footage from the skills lab.

‘Mate, believe me, I wish I was,’ I had sighed, twisting one of my braids around my finger as I bit into a flaky crust. Jaden always shared his mum’s veggie patties with me. I was probably going to miss them almost as much as I’d miss him.

‘You can barely carry a tune. You don’t even sing when I’m blasting Broxxie, and nobody can resist coming in at his riffs. Nobody!’

To prove his point, he hummed the grime artist’s most popular tune, bobbing his head along.

I scanned the buzzing cafeteria. Jaden’s voice was more elevated than I would have liked in our not-so-remote corner, but nobody seemed to be paying attention to us. Same as always.

‘It’s not about my singing voice,’ I whispered, trying to explain a concept I was still unsure of. ‘It’s not really about music at all. Something to do with sound wave vibration frequencies Mechanosimulators produce to make plants grow faster.’

‘Don’t get me started on that mouthful of a name,’ he said, pointing an accusatory finger at me as if I had invented the word.

Back then, I hadn’t sat through multiple lessons on mechanoreceptors, so I just shrugged.

‘At least someone had the bright idea to shorten it to Mechsims,’ I offered. ‘Although it sort of makes us sound like androids.’

‘You sound like you need as much convincing as I do.’

I looked away. I was actually excited about training to become a fully fledged Mechsim but not sure how to say that without making it seem like I was eager to leave him at the engineering academy. There were lots of memories there I was more than happy not to relive. Memories of things that made our friendship stronger but which nearly broke me.

‘You said it yourself, music has never been my thing.’

Mr Kareem had assured us that accidental discoveries weren’t unusual for Mechsims, but I knew most of the kids who were found this way actually cared about music. They wouldn’t all have been aspiring artists, but music had some value in their lives. It didn’t have any in mine.

Ever.

Dad had made sure of that.

‘Your dad must be gutted,’ Jaden continued in a more sombre tone, sensing my thoughts. ‘He was really chuffed when you won that coding prize last year. It’s hard to believe they want you to work on enhancing a new ability so close to Augmentation Day.’

That was what swayed me the most. Kids who turned sixteen had certain abilities surgically enhanced to ensure the survival of society. It was a huge deal, yet everyone seemed willing to let me leave the engineering academy even though I’d been top of my classes. Miss Tyler had been so certain of my future, she’d shown me the location where my targeted core function enhancer would be fitted a whole term ago: on the top-left side of my skull, the same place as hers.

But now more than ever, the possibility of accelerated plant growth trumped anything I could offer with my coding skills. If there was even the slightest chance I was a Mechsim, no one was going to waste a full academic year wondering if the incident at the skills labs had been a fluke.

Jaden came to sit beside me, engulfing my body in his long arms. I inhaled sharply. All the time he was spending with his dumbbells was beginning to show on his biceps. If I didn’t need to breathe so badly, I would have slipped in a compliment.

‘Don’t worry, your boy is one hundred per cent not letting you get hauled out of here,’ he said when I finally twisted my way out of his grasp.

I clasped his hands, widening my eyes dramatically to indulge him.

‘What’s our plan? Stash me away in a bunker until after Augmentation Day? Hack my chip so they don’t realise it’s me coming to school here?’

‘Whoa, slow down. Both solid ideas, but I’ll have to think. All I know is you’re not leaving without a fight.’

He hugged me again, only letting go when I pretended to ruffle his overly shiny afro. It was hard to believe he towered over me. We’d come a long way from the days when, at the age of ten, I’d suddenly shot up a foot taller than everyone in our year. After an entire term of being called Ladder Legs and Stilts, and getting tripped over so I could be the right height, a skinny boy I’d never spoken to decided to grow a spine on my behalf and came to my rescue with his feistier gob.

Jaden.

Now, as the train sped silently towards my destination, I scrolled to the last three messages, gulping to dislodge the lump in my throat. I’d known I would miss seeing his face every school day, but after six years of being friends with only him, the adjustment was more difficult than I’d imagined.

Jaden: How about smuggling you to a Freestakers zone?

Jaden: By the time they locate you, it’ll be too late to find your frequency.

Jaden: They’ll have to let you get Augmented with us instead.

He hadn’t stopped sending me suggestions in the three weeks since I’d left the engineering academy. None of them were vaguely plausible, but at least they were entertaining.

Akaego: Eh, someone isn’t taking this seriously.

Akaego: You suggested something similar last week.

An image of a melting brain flashed on my slider and I chuckled.

Akaego: Want to go out on Friday?

Akaego: Kids at my school are playing at Rush.

Joon hadn’t sent any details yet, but I had no doubt he would. He struck me as the sort of person who would pester me for days if I didn’t show up. There was no way I’d visit somewhere so out of my comfort zone without backup.

Jaden: Noooooo!

Jaden: Who is this and what have you done with Akaego?

Akaego: I’m just trying to blend in. I’ll explain later.

Jaden: Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.

Jaden: Always.

My slider pinged, two sets of numbers flashing on the screen.

Three minutes to my stop. Fifty-four degrees Celsius at destination.

I needed to set up my hydration suit. The extra hour at school had given the temperature time to dip, but not nearly enough. I pulled my visor over my face and clicked one of the buttons on my wrist, shivering slightly as a cool mist hit my skin. By the time I arrived at my stop, the suit’s internal temperature was where it needed to be.

My slider pinged again when I stepped out at West Finchley, but I didn’t look at it. I had eight minutes to get from the Underground station to my front door. To any front door, actually. Any longer and a Grade Three suit was required, and those were reserved for outdoor workers.

I power-walked home past fenced-off, parched earth, where there used to be front gardens. I would have been lucky to spot the odd bird desperately trying to find shade amongst leafless, dried-out trees. There were only a handful of suited-up people walking just as fast as I was. This was more than in winter, when temperatures dropped so low that we were forced to stay home most days.

Standing in our front porch airlock, waiting for the temperature regulator to let me in, I noticed the light on our delivery receptacle blinking green. Nothing had been scheduled for the day when I checked earlier, so I pulled out my slider.

Still nothing.

Frowning, I reached into the slot and retrieved a small blue metal case. My frown deepened when I read the label. It was for me. I wasn’t expecting anything.

‘Mum, is the delivery log broken?’ I yelled when the airlock let me push the door open. ‘This isn’t listed on it.’

I inhaled deeply, a smile curling my lips. There was nothing more welcoming than the aroma of fried plantain and spicy tomato stew after a long day at school. Ever since my transfer, Mum insisted on preparing meals from a selection of my...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.6.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-10: 0-571-38585-0 / 0571385850
• ISBN-13: 978-0-571-38585-0 / 9780571385850