by Eliza Green
Gunnar took them from him and checked where he’d just looked. ‘Heavier patrols mean only one thing. I’d say Harvey is definitely in New Tokyo.’
Just what he thought too. But he couldn’t see a way inside.
‘Our only option appears to be through those heavily manned front gates.’
Laura made a rude noise. ‘That’s not a plan. That’s suicide.’
Bill sat on the bonnet of the vehicle. Everything had been clear up until now. Even getting out of New London had been child’s play. Faced with this new task, he couldn’t see how to get to Harvey and ultimately rescue Ben Watson. But he’d put that kid through too much to give up now.
Laura joined him and touched his shoulder. He jerked back from her, feeling on edge. She removed her hand slowly.
‘I’m sorry, love. I’m just a bit nervy.’
‘I know. You’ll figure it out.’
She glanced at the city, then at Bill. She was about to suggest something, something he wouldn’t like. He knew her too well.
His erratic heartbeat picked up a new pace. ‘What is it?’
She fixed her round, green eyes on him. ‘I think I should get Stephen. He might be able to help.’
The idea of having numbers appealed to him, but not if it meant separating. ‘We can’t be sure the Indigenes aren’t behind this.’
‘Stephen wouldn’t...’
‘I mean the ones who opposed Stephen’s authority. What if they’re watching the entrance to District Three?’
She glanced back at the city. ‘I know how to be careful. There are four of us and dozens of them. We need numbers, Bill.’
He gave in with a sigh. ‘I know you’re right. I just don’t want you walking into a trap.’
She flashed him a smile. ‘I know other ways to get in. Ones that not everyone knows about.’
‘Okay, but I still don’t like it.’
‘And I don’t like you sitting out here a stone’s throw away from dozens of renegades.’
Bill half smiled. ‘Fair point.’ He kissed her on the mouth. ‘Please be careful.’
She smiled. ‘That was going to be my line.’ She hopped off the bonnet. ‘Don’t make a move until I return with help.’
‘I promise.’
She checked beyond the boulders the vehicle was hidden behind, before disappearing from sight. He slid off the car and tried to track her in the open landscape, but she was running so fast she had become a blur.
Gunnar made a shocked sound beside him. ‘Shit, I’ve never seen one of the Indigenes run. In my company, they’re usually standing still.’
‘It’s an impressive sight.’ He still wasn’t used to it. Bill shook his head and focused on the two men before him. One was a problem. ‘We need to get Jameson somewhere safe. Harvey wants him for something.’
Jameson folded his arms in defiance. ‘Do you know how to get inside the city?’
‘No...’
‘Well then, I stay.’
Bill countered, ‘Do you know how to get inside the city?’
Jameson dropped his arms. ‘Well, no, but Deighton liked his tunnels so there’s likely to be one leading inside the city. There must be a way to use one of those covertly.’
‘I have Gunnar for that.’
His chief-in-command nodded. ‘There’s a tunnel my men like to use to get in and out of the city. I don’t think it’s one of Deighton’s, though. More of a water supply tunnel than a private entrance.’
‘And that’s why you need me with you,’ said Jameson. ‘I’m not going to hide and let Harvey do what he wants.’
Bill couldn’t see how it was possible to let the doctor stay. ‘If Harvey gets hold of you, he’s won. What he wants with you has to do with your connections. I don’t know if it’s Deighton’s research he’s after or your specific experience of working with the Elite. But he makes me nervous enough that I don’t want to risk your safety.’
‘But I can help...’
‘And you will, but when the time’s right.’
The doctor relented with a sigh.
Gunnar said, ‘Where can we hide him?’
‘What about the hospital?’ said Jameson. ‘Harvey isn’t likely to look for me there.’
‘You don’t know that.’ No, Bill needed another place that Harvey would not dare to look for him. He clicked his fingers. ‘I’ve just the place.’
Both men asked, ‘Where?’
‘A place none of us has mentioned yet.’
He ordered the men back into the vehicle. Defying Laura’s orders to stay put, Bill headed west, to a mountainous range in the distance. After a short drive, he stopped at a familiar cluster of rocks not far from the environ built by the Elite. That damn environ had started all this mess.
‘The Conditioned, Bill? You want to take him there?’ Gunnar threw his hands up. ‘Are you mad?’
For the first time since the power outage, Bill had clarity of thought. How long it would last was anyone’s guess.
‘It’s our only option.’
He exited the vehicle and headed for the boundary line, marked by a row of boulders. He climbed up and over, then dropped down the other side into a dipped area that belonged to the Elite and Conditioned.
Knowing the Conditioned still had their heightened skills, he walked on.
A silent Jameson followed. A cursing Gunnar brought up the rear. They trekked past the environ—the sight of it gave Bill the chills—and deeper into Conditioned territory. Bill held his hands up, knowing full well the Conditioned could see them on their screens, located inside the caves.
Right on cue, three tall, ghostlike figures dressed in white approached them.
‘Go no farther,’ said one.
Bill stopped. He wished Laura were with him. She might have been able to gauge how much danger they were in.
The pale Conditioned resembled humans more than the Elite, who’d looked closer to Indigenes in appearance. The Conditioned could move lighter than air; Simon Shaw, his former boss, had told him that on this very spot. He’d also told him the Conditioned could block their thoughts from others at will.
‘What business do you have here?’
Bill lifted his hands higher. ‘We need your help.’
‘With what?’
The lead Conditioned male eyed the three of them. Bill had more practice dealing with and reading the moods of the Indigenes. The Conditioned were a more recent encounter and harder to read than their pale cousins. Even if Laura had been with them, she probably wouldn’t have picked up anything useful.
Bill nodded at Jameson. ‘You recognise him?’
The lead male nodded. ‘The Elite are dead. We have no need for their doctor.’
‘That’s not why we’re here. Someone bad is after him. We are looking for sanctuary.’
The Conditioned male laughed. ‘We owe this doctor nothing. He helped to turn ten of our Conditioned into hosts for the Elite.’
‘Yes, I know, but he also freed those same hosts.’ Bill hoped they might see reason.
‘The Elite are dead,’ the male repeated.
‘Yes, your captors are dead... That’s a good thing. We still need your help.’
The lead Conditioned didn’t look convinced.
Bill splayed his hands. ‘Please, we just want to talk.’
The lead Conditioned spoke to the pair with him. He nodded reluctantly.
‘Follow us.’ It appeared the mystery shrouding Jameson had won Bill an audience.
As the trio ran ahead, Bill looked back at Gunnar and Jameson. The doctor was looking at the ground while Gunnar’s eyes were wider than he’d ever seen them. Neither Gunnar nor the underground operatives had ever dealt with the Conditioned. That role had been Bill’s and Laura’s.
The Conditioned moved too fast for them. Bill picked up the pace, worried they might change their mind. The three waited outside a door set into the cave facade. A DNA scanner bathed the
trio in a blue light. Then it scanned Bill, Gunnar and Jameson.
The door opened and the Conditioned led them inside the caves. The interior was exactly how he remembered it: a corridor, small and roughly hewn, followed by a larger room with smooth, rendered walls and a smooth, tiled floor. Large lights illuminated the space, showing off the screens that gave the Conditioned a perfect view of their surroundings. The platform that Tanya Li used to command from was still at the back of the room.
A dozen Conditioned, male and female, stared at the trio. They looked similar enough that Bill couldn’t tell them apart. But one he recognised. The male appeared from behind a white privacy screen and jumped down from the stage to the floor.
This was Conditioned Seven, the first of the hosts they had woken from stasis, and the first to have had the difficult Elite mind removed from theirs.
He stood there, stony faced, eyeing up his visitors.
‘I hear you need our help,’ Seven said.
The stage filled with more Conditioned, looking more curious than threatening. Although, Bill couldn’t be certain.
He stepped forward. ‘We need to hide Jameson. Harvey Buchanan has taken over the cities and he’s looking for him.’
Seven eyed Jameson. ‘You released me from my hell.’
Jameson nodded.
‘But you also put me in it.’
Jameson made no reply.
Seven asked Bill, ‘What does this Buchanan want with him?’
‘We don’t know, but he’s taken over our cities. We think it has something to do with whatever plans he has for our doctor.’
Seven nodded. ‘We’ve been monitoring the new activity there and we’re not interested in taking sides.’
Bill put his hands up. ‘I’m not asking you to. I’m just asking that you hide him until we can figure out what the hell’s going on.’
Conditioned Seven walked over to the screens and studied them.
He walked back. ‘Do you have a picture of Buchanan?’
Bill fished his DPad out of his bag. He flicked to two images: one of Harvey as he’d known him on Earth, the other with his altered face. The latter was a still taken from the docking station upon his arrival.
‘He’s had this face since he arrived,’ he said, pointing to the alias, ‘but he could have changed back to this man.’ He pointed to the face he hadn’t seen in eight years.
Seven walked over to the group of males and females gathered on stage. They appeared to be speaking silently to each other.
He turned back. ‘We will help you, but you will help us when it is our turn to need something.’
Bill balked at the idea of a second hostile takeover of Base Station One. Although, Tanya Li had been the driving force behind that idea and she was dead. He didn’t see the same ambition in this group.
‘I’m not going to give you just anything you want.’
Seven stared at him. ‘Do you want our help or not?’
Bill glanced back at Jameson, who had his arms folded and was looking pensive. Gunnar shrugged at him.
He looked back. ‘Yeah.’
16
Laura ran as hard as she could. She hadn’t been affected by the same virus that had disabled the abilities of half of District Three. For that she was grateful, but time was not on her side. Harvey had her DNA on file, including whatever mutations in Stephen’s DNA that had forced her body into a rapid change, eight years ago.
She’d been keeping positive all day while Bill clearly struggled to find a way out of this. Now, alone, she released her worry in a frustrated yell. Harvey had gotten the jump on them and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it. The former geneticist appeared to be holding all the cards.
Her fear pushed her on faster to the main hatch for District Three. Nearing it, she slowed. A trio of what looked like metal wrecking balls wrapped in wire had been deposited outside the entrance. The air came alive with static. She slowed to a walk and rubbed the static away. The blockade was new. The drag marks in the dirt said the balls had probably been dropped and rolled into place.
Harvey’s men most likely. And possibly with the Indigenes’ help.
She moved nearer. The static flicked at her skin once more, making it tight and uncomfortable. A shiver spread through her. She stepped back out of its biting range.
Laura checked around her, expecting a trap and several Indigenes to be waiting for her. But the day had been a hot one and the evening not much cooler. The Indigenes would not have tolerated the heat waiting for someone to come along. Even still, it worried her to be out in the open like this.
She darted from the main entrance to a second entry point known only to Stephen’s charges. She found that one blocked, too, with similar metal balls, electrified wire wrapped around them. Laura stayed out of the electricity’s nipping range. This confirmed that the Indigenes had been behind this, because the ITF hadn’t known about this second entrance.
Some Indigenes had been using this secret entrance for months to defy Stephen’s rules, before the virus had hit. Laura and Margaux had also used it recently to sneak back inside the city.
And now Harvey knew about it.
She turned around, not sure where to go next. One thing was certain: She had to get out of plain sight.
A collection of tall, jagged rocks a few miles out broke up what was otherwise a flat and uninteresting landscape. It was in the opposite direction to Bill and Gunnar. Laura raced for it, needing somewhere to think without being seen. She couldn’t return to Bill without help and Stephen was the best help she could think of. Without backup, she feared her impulsive husband would push on with his stupid plan to rescue Ben alone. She would do everything to make sure that didn’t happen.
Halfway to the rocks, a gust of wind caught her off guard. Her heart pounded thickly in her chest as she stopped and looked around. Indigenes were close by. Friends of Harvey’s? Laura wiped beads of sweat from her brow and tried to steady her pounding heart. A blurry figure darted before her and she jerked back. She’d been spotted. The blurry figure came closer and she clenched her fists. Then Laura felt a tingle against her mind.
An Indigene. One she recognised.
‘Clement?’ she whispered. She relaxed her hands.
The figure solidified before her. He pulled her towards the collection of rocks, which was providing partial shade from the evening sun on one side of them.
Out of the sun, Clement relaxed a little. He wore a rechargeable unit for a spare air-filtration device on his hip. Anton’s design. It used the kinetic energy of the body to recharge.
‘What are you doing out here?’ he demanded.
‘I could ask you the same thing. Did you see the blockades at the entrance to the district?’
Clement nodded. ‘I’ve been running around here for hours. Trying to find another way in.’
She blinked. ‘What the hell happened here?’
‘I could ask you the same thing.’ He looked around, as if nervous. ‘I went out hunting last night, but when I returned I saw men in ITF uniforms dropping the balls wrapped in wire from the back of trucks and Indigenes rolling them into place. Then the area around them became static.’
Just what she had presumed.
‘Did you recognise the Indigenes? Which district were they from?’
Clement glared at her. ‘I don’t think that’s the question you should be asking. Why were ITF men blocking our district?’
Laura touched Clement’s arm. He flinched a little and she pulled her hand back. ‘Something’s happening. In New London and other cities. Harvey Buchanan has mobilised men and women—dissenters—from the ITF, and his own crew, and probably Indigenes from the districts.’
Clement’s eyes widened. ‘Mobilised, to where?’
She leaned against the heated rock. ‘The power is out in New London and the ITF is vulnerable. The way in and out of the city is blocked and none of it is Bill’s doing. He would neve
r order this.’
Clement dropped his visibly tense shoulders. ‘I didn’t think he would—you would. But why are they blocking the district’s entrances?’
‘Harvey’s got Ben Watson, and he also broke a dangerous criminal out of prison. I think he did this’—she pointed to the blockades—‘to cut Bill off from the Indigenes.’
Clement sighed. ‘This is all we need. Half the district walked out not two days ago. It’s possible Harvey recruited them straight after, got them to block the entrances.’
Laura had been there when Stephen had laid down the law. She supposed the dissenters had had to go somewhere. Deep down, she hoped they were not all helping Harvey with his plan.
Laura slumped to the ground with a sigh. Things had become a lot more complicated. ‘What now? Bill’s been trying to get in touch with Stephen but he’s not picking up.’
Clement drew up to his full height and looked around at the wasteland. He stiffened. ‘Someone’s here.’
Laura checked, but all she saw was mostly flat terrain, littered with boulders and rocks of varying sizes. ‘Where?’
Clement pointed at a lower collection of rocks a short distance away. ‘Over there.’
He crouched low and Laura did the same. They inched around the edge of the last rock in their collection. Laura looked over, seeing a head pop up and a face she would not forget.
‘It’s Emile and Marie.’ She straightened up.
The nervous-looking pair ran over to them. A wide-eyed Emile was out of breath. The pair wore white tunic and trouser sets and a scarf each that covered their heads.
‘What are you doing out here?’ she asked Emile.
He looked better than he had a few days ago. He and Marie had almost died from the virus.
The elder of District One glared at her. ‘We could ask you the same thing.’
He darted for the cooler spot she and Clement had vacated, then breathed out. Marie joined him, saying nothing.
Laura stalked after him. ‘Do you know what’s happening here, Emile? Did you help the ITF block up the district entrances?’
‘I was going to ask you the same question, human.’ He readjusted the scarf on his head.
