Cadence

by Wilson, Dianne J. ;

  Zap and Ruaan frowned at each other.

  Zap stuck a hand in the air as if asking for permission to speak, but blurted out, “It’s that bit about unknown danger that makes me twitchy.”

  “Fine. Stay here with this bunch. Wipe their noses. I’ll be back soon. Hopefully.”

  “No! Wait! We’ll come. Won’t we, Ruaan?”

  Ruaan sighed as if he was about to give away his last block of chocolate. “Whatever.”

  Kai nodded, satisfied. “I’ll go work on Elden.”

  “The things we do for you.” Zap waggled a finger at a Kai, but Kai just grinned at him from halfway up the stairs.

  12

  Kai stuck his head into the sleeping hall.

  Paintbrush had finally fallen asleep. She had tossed, turned, and hummed to herself long after the others had nodded off.

  Kai tiptoed across the room to where Evazee lay sleeping with Peta in her arms. He stuck a note on her pillow. Runt’s bed was next to them, and she lay on her side, pegged in by the two kittens.

  Evazee would look after her. Before his resolve could soften, he walked out the room without looking back.

  Ruaan and Zap were waiting inside the charred hole in the wall. Ruaan ate a sandwich that could have been peanut butter based on the smell. They should have done something about that hole before leaving, but it was too late now.

  Elden stood up out of the shadows as Kai got to the other two. He wore his cap pulled low over his eyes and carried four syringes in his hand that glowed green in the dark.

  “What are those?” Kai wished he could see the guy’s face.

  “Cotton candy. What do you think they are? Our ticket to the spiritual realm.”

  Zap backed away with his hands up. “That’s dark Affinity Enhancer. I didn’t sign up for more of that. No ways. I won’t do it.”

  Elden checked the caps on the syringes and tucked them into his bag. “Just kidding. Let’s call these Plan B.” He shouldered his bag and shifted it onto his back. “Right. Let’s go. Follow me, gentleman. The van is this way.”

  Ruaan’s face was thunderous. “It’s not like we have any choice in the matter, now is there?”

  Elden pushed back his cap and his eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “You always have a choice. Always.”

  ~*~

  Kai lost count of how many hours they’d been driving. They’d cleared the city, leaving behind the broken brick buildings. On the outskirts of the city, the landscape changed to a less formal dotting of houses. Moonlight softened the scene, but the brief flash of broken fences and overgrown gardens hinted at neglect, poverty. The road had taken them past suburbia, into an industrial section with tall, blackened buildings belching smoke continuously into the air. Noxious gasses made it hard to breathe without gagging.

  Beyond stretched a great expanse of nothingness, unlike anything Kai had seen before. It rolled on for miles, greenery yielding to desert sand that formed soft deceptive curves. The road cut straight through it.

  Ruaan and Zap had fallen asleep, Ruaan—a tightly contained ball propped up by his knee, Zap, a sprawling, snoring thing.

  Kai thought sleep would be a good idea, but his jumpy insides wouldn’t hear of it. “How far is this place?” Kai checked the time on the dashboard. It was past 3:00 AM.

  Elden squinted at the dash, his brow furrowed as he calculated. “Another half-hour or so.”

  “What are we walking into? Will we have to sneak in?”

  Elden shrugged. “Just take your cues from me. I’ll talk you through when we’re there.”

  “Tell me something about the place. I prefer knowing what I’m in for.” Getting information out of Elden was proving to be quite impossible. It did nothing for Kai’s levels of trust.

  “The Crux is headquarters for a global operation. Some say it’s impressive. High tech.” Elden faltered. “Probably easier for you to wait and see.”

  “If some say it’s impressive, what do you think?”

  “It’s big and organised. Unstoppable.”

  The word fell between them like a dead whale, and their stilted conversation died.

  Kai stared out the window at the rolling, moonlit hills. There was something hypnotic that soothed his insides, and he found himself nodding off.

  “Guys, we’re here.”

  Elden’s words hit him like ice water dunked over his head, and he was instantly awake. The two in the back groaned and stretched as they pulled up to a gate in an electric fence as tall as a triple-story house. As far as Kai could see, nothing but more desert sand stretched away beyond the fence. How odd.

  To the right of the gate, stood a guardhouse.

  Through the tinted glass, Kai thought he could see people moving. Pins and needles prickled all down his back. For such a harmless-looking place, it had rattled him.

  Elden unbuckled his safety belt and eased out of the van. “Sit tight. I’ll be back, now.”

  Kai watched the man stroll up the guardhouse and walk straight in as if it were his family’s home. What had they gotten themselves into?

  ~*~

  Evazee’s arm had gone to sleep underneath Peta. It was hard to believe that such a tiny girl could be such a dead weight when she slept. Early morning sunlight shone through the gap in the curtain. Loathe to wake Peta, Evazee inched herself upright, gently extracting her numb limb. Something fluttered off her pillow. A note.

  She fumbled it open using one hand and her teeth instead of her useless arm. Squinting through sleep-crusty eyelids, Evazee had to reread it three times before the words sank in.

  Zee,

  We’ve gone with Elden to untie what is holding the OS kids back from being free. I can’t tell you more. We’ll be back soon. Look after them all.

  Kai

  Evazee’s belly flipped. He was trusting Elden. The same Elden who’d let her be marked and had done nothing to stop it. Not only that, Kai had taken Elden away before he could take her through the arch. This was not good. She crept from the room on quiet feet.

  Zulu crouched next to her door. Her heart jumped as she saw him.

  He stood up, towering over her. “Friend-Evazee, where is Kai? I need to speak to him.”

  “You gave me such a fright. Walk with me. He’s not here. He’s gone with Elden on some secret mission.” Her neck grew hot. She was annoyed. Annoyed and angry. How could he just leave like that?

  Zulu’s face crumpled. “That is not good news.”

  “How are your boys? The injured ones?” She aimed towards the lounge where they’d settled them.

  “I’ve watched them through the night. They are resting. More than that, I cannot say.”

  “Let’s have a look.” She pushed the door open, unsure of what waited for her on the other side. The couch was empty, as were all the makeshift beds they’d set up on the floor. The boys themselves were nowhere.

  Zulu’s dark skin paled, and he blinked rapidly. The sound of faint singing drifted through the open door.

  “Do you think they’re on the roof?” Evazee had helped them get settled the night before. She knew without a doubt that some of them would have been unable to leave this room on their own legs.

  Zulu’s eyes were so wide, Evazee worried they might pop right out. “How do we get there?”

  “Follow me.” Evazee strained to hear who was singing. She couldn’t hear the words, but the song tugged at her insides. They climbed the staircase, and the song washed over her as she pulled the door open. Their voices were pure, and they sang words in a language that Evazee couldn’t understand but raised gooseflesh all down her arms.

  Zulu spotted them first. The boys were standing in a circle in the centre of the roof, all of them on their feet.

  “This is not possible.” Evazee’s pulse raced.

  As Zulu came close, the circle opened to a straight line, and the boys stooped from the waist.

  “Be content.” Zulu held up a hand to dismiss them, and the boys relaxed. “How is it possible that you are here? What
about your burns? Boety?” The boy he addressed was clearly his brother. They had the same nose and jaw line. Boety’s eyes were different though—pale icy blue.

  “We found water to drink.” He shrugged his skinny shoulders as if the rest should have been obvious.

  “And then?”

  Boety laughed. His white teeth gleamed against his dark skin. “We sleep, woke up better.”

  Zulu checked them one at a time. Evazee peered over his shoulder, curiosity getting the better of her hesitance. Second degree burns had healed to first degree. First degree burns had healed completely. Bruises which should have been dark had lightened, and some were gone completely. She’d seen these boys come off the bus. She’d known that they were in for a long recovery, and yet here they were. There was no natural way they should have healed this fast. Evazee tugged on Zulu’s arm. “Do you think they drank water from the Healing Stream?”

  “Blue water? Like your Peta-child?”

  “Yes! It’s the only thing I can think of.”

  She turned to Boety and held out a hand to shake his. “I’m Evazee. I’m Zulu’s friend.”

  He eyed her shyly, but at a nod from Zulu, he shook her hand and smiled.

  “Where did you find the water? Is there more?”

  “One bottle in the room, is all.” He held his hands apart, palms up—he didn’t know about any more. “Very thirsty.” He grinned and pointed to all the boys in the circle.

  Evazee leaned close to Zulu, “They’ll probably be hungry too. You should send them downstairs. I’ll make them something.”

  Zulu squinted at the sky. “One, Three, Five, Seven, and Nine, stand watch from the roof. Eleven and twelve, watch the wall-hole downstairs. Two, Four, Six, Eight and Ten follow me.”

  Boety’s shoulders slumped. “But my stomach growls.”

  “You forget your rank, Number One.” Zulu said nothing more, but his brother turned to the others and directed them to different sections of the roof.

  Evazee tackled him on the way downstairs. “That was harsh. Why don’t you call them by their names? Your brother went from being Boety to Number One. What’s up with that? And surely they can all eat and then split up for guard duty?”

  Zulu’s mouth stayed shut, a tight line between his clenched jaw muscles. Only when they were alone in the kitchen did he answer.

  “My people will come. They will come with the fire of their anger as hot as the sun. We have to be ready.”

  Evazee had her hands on her hips in spite of a sliver of fear down her spine. “What about their names? It’s rude.”

  “No names until they pass their tests. Calling Number One by his name was a mistake.”

  “Maybe I’m wrong, but surely that is the system you brought them here to be free from. Can’t you see that?”

  Zulu’s eyes narrowed and Evazee swallowed hard. This was not a man to be messed with. Still. What he was doing was wrong.

  He passed a hand over his face with a shudder. “I’m sorry Friend-Evazee. I took the boys without thinking. Right and wrong? I don’t know those yet. I’m only learning now.”

  She patted his arm, rock hard muscle under his skin. “We’ll figure it out. But first, food.”

  13

  Elden jogged back to the van with three badges that said Maintenance in bold red letters. “Here, take these. For now, you three are on my maintenance crew. Shut your mouths and we’ll get to do what we came here for.”

  It took another five minutes of driving through empty desert before they arrived. The sun broke the horizon as they crested a hill. In a dip on the other side stood a glass and aluminium structure unlike anything Kai had ever seen before. Rising out of the sand, the multi-storied building angled off in two directions with a tall glass tower rising up where the two corners met. Two more sections rose up tall, but neither of them rivalled the central tower. One could get lost for days wandering around in a building this size.

  Elden pulled in to a parking bay. He opened up the cubbyhole and took out a laptop. It booted within seconds and he opened up a program that was unfamiliar to Kai and tapped away through a number of changing screens. “Just give me one more minute.” Elden pressed enter and folded his arms to wait.

  “What are you doing?” Zap asked what Kai was thinking.

  “Creating a reason for us to go where we need to go. Here we go, in three, two, one. Done.” The screen winked out, and Elden’s mobile rang.

  “Maintenance.” The man on the other end sounded like a tiny angry gnat. Elden pitched his voice low, deep, and soothing, “Sure, right away. What is the reference?” He listened with his eyes shut and his lips moving before ending the call and turned to the others. “Our time starts now. Follow me and hush up.”

  At the top of a flight of polished marble stairs, Elden aimed his thumb at the fingerprint reader mounted on the side of the glass door. It scanned his thumb with a green light, and the door popped open with a hiss. The security man at the front desk called him over and stood as they approached.

  “We’re responding to a call for Maintenance. Reference ZE459.”

  The guy behind the desk scrolled on his monitor and tapped the screen. “You’re cleared for sections S through Z.” He gave Elden a device that looked like a wristwatch. “You’ve used one of these before? I’ve set it to take you to S.”

  Elden clipped it to his arm and studied the buttons along the edges. “I’ve used an older one. I can figure it out. Don’t I need a passkey?”

  “Nah, I’ve updated the fingerprint logins for those sections. New tech. Just don’t go where you aren’t allowed.”

  “Sure. Thanks.” Elden’s mouth was set in a thin, unimpressed line.

  In the shiny silver lift, Kai asked, “What is that thing?”

  “It’s a navigation device—a Naviband. This place is so big, even those who work here get lost.”

  Zap took it all in with owl eyes. “What? You’re kidding, right?”

  Ruaan elbowed Zap in the ribs. “He never kids. Never.”

  Kai watched Elden closely. He was not happy at all. “What’s the matter? Are we in trouble?”

  Elden checked the Naviband and ran his fingers through his hair. “They used to issue passkeys. I know how to tweak those. The room we need to get into is just next to the sections that he’s given us access to. With the new fingerprint thing? I’m not sure we can get in there.”

  ~*~

  Bree was sleeping in a corner away from the others with her knees pulled up to her tummy and her bare feet sticking out from under the blanket.

  Evazee didn’t know how to wake her. She prodded her shoulder and dodged as Bree swung around, hands swatting. “Stop that! Wake up. I need you.”

  Bree’s red curls fanned the pillow, surrounding her head like a messy halo of simmering flames. Her eyelids fluttered but stayed glued in a tight line of lashes. “Need sleep. Go away.”

  “Your brother has left.” There wasn’t time to ease Bree out of sleep. The girl had to wake up, and she had to wake up now.

  “What?” Bree pushed to a sit and rubbed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Elden, Kai, and the other two have gone off on some half-baked quest to release something that will apparently free all these kids.”

  “Well, that makes no sense.” Bree scraped her hair off her face and tied it around itself to make a bun. “What are we supposed to do with them all in the meantime?”

  Evazee slid down to the floor with her back to the wall next to Bree, her arms looped around her knees. “Exactly. To make it all more fun, Zulu’s enraged family are on their way over and, according to him, they don’t want a nice chat over tea and cake.”

  Bree shrugged. “Why, then? Do they want their boys back? We should just hand them over, really. We can’t fight. What does Zulu say?”

  “He won’t let any of them go back. It would be like handing them over to be slaughtered. They don’t look kindly on deserters.”

  “But surely if they just leave us he
re and go somewhere else, they’ll take the heat with them.”

  “Zulu said his family and the elders will want to avenge the fact that we harboured the boys here. They aren’t too strong on being reasoned with. Also, they’ll try to get information out of us by whatever means they have to.”

  Bree snuggled back under her blanket. “They can’t be that scary. Most people can be reasoned with if you choose your words right.”

  “No, Bree. I’ve seen them. Their world is cruel, and it’s shaped them.”

  The door burst open without a warning knock. It was Boety, Number One, Zulu’s brother.

  “Where is Zulu?” Whites showed all around his pupils.

  “Boety? What’s the matter? You are almost as pale as me.”

  “They’re coming.”

  “The elders from your village?”

  “Yebo.”

  “How much time do we have?”

  “Sixty minutes.”

  “Find Zulu. Find him now.”

  ~*~

  For all his talk of getting lost, Elden didn’t use his Naviband much. He seemed to know exactly where they were. “The maintenance tunnels run separate from the general passages. This door should take us there. It should be a bit quieter on the other side.”

  Kai studied everything around them. It was all common office stuff. Nothing clandestine or sinister and yet his skin crawled at being in this place. He’d been telling himself to stop being paranoid, but no matter how much ordinary surrounded him, adrenalin pumped through his veins, and his nerves were shot.

  Elden squinted at a sign on a door. “I think the vault is close. We need to get through this stretch of warehouses.”

  Elden walked with a confidence that Kai admired, but it also provoked suspicion. He was way too comfortable in this environment that had Kai twitching like an ant under a magnifying glass.

  The maintenance passage ended at locked stainless-steel doors, big enough for a truck to drive through. A thumbprint reader was mounted to the wall on the right. Elden shrugged and stepped close. His thumb was enough to make the doors click open and swing backwards. Kai stepped through, expecting it all to be dark and ominous. A torture chamber of secrets designed for terrible deeds.