She cleared her throat. “Vomit. This girl needs to vomit.” The word vomit worked better than if Evazee carried a live rattlesnake.
The crowd opened up before her and ushered them through without any trouble. As they passed, the pathway closed up behind them like the Red Sea after Moses.
The bathroom glowed with light from the rock walls. Paintbrush plonked herself down on the stone floor, leaned back on the wall with her eyes closed and her hands across her belly.
Bree pushed through the swing door seconds later and handed Evazee a bottle.
“Give her some water. She’s probably dehydrated.”
Evazee unscrewed the lid and passed the bottle to Paintbrush. She took it from Evazee and pushed herself upright. As she tilted the bottle to her lips, the gold logo on the label caught Evazee’s eye. She grabbed it out of the small girl’s hands.
“Wait a moment. This logo...” She twisted towards the glowing stone for a better look. Faint gold, printed tiny, it would be easy to see it as a decorative mark, but looking close it became clear. Four snakes tied at the tail, writhing outwards. The mark worn on the foreheads of those who belonged to Shasta.
~*~
Kirsten from Marketing swept back into the office with two spots of colour riding high on her cheeks, and her hands stretched out in front of her as if they’d done something to offend her. “I don’t see why I’m always the one to do the dirty work. Honestly.” She held out her hands towards Kai. “Take off my rings and my Naviband. I have to go wash my hands. Come on, quick-quick.”
Kai shuffled over and slipped her rings off, fumbled with the unfamiliar clasp of her Naviband and watched her scuttle off on heels that were high enough to make it look as if she was on the verge of face-planting. The Naviband sat on his palm as light as a feather.
The moment her footsteps were beyond his earshot, Kai bolted in the other direction. He walked as fast as he could without looking suspicious, though everyone in this section hurried about looking worried, so he fitted right in.
He found a restroom, locked himself into a cubicle, and pressed the side of the Naviband, hoping that it wasn’t somehow linked and coded to Kirsten the way Elden’s had been. The screen woke up and options cycled across it. He clicked on find and an empty search field opened up. No letters appeared for him to type, and he frowned. How would he make this work? It nearly slipped through his fingers, but he caught it and put it on. Dropping and shattering it would not help.
If he was Zap, what would he do? They’d been friends for as long as Kai could remember, and over the years, Zap had always come up with some sideways plan that seemed to solve whatever issue they faced.
The Naviband beeped but nothing appeared on the screen. Odd. Zap would love this enigma of a device. As Zap crossed his mind, the strongest compulsion to get up and move washed through Kai. The Naviband seemed to pulse in time to the urge in his mind.
He got up and walked through the doorway. An overwhelming urge to take the passage to the left beat inside his chest. He followed. The compulsion inside changed as he moved. Each time he yielded to it, the next direction came.
Kai found himself alone in a long passage, and he picked up the pace to a jog. Following the promptings took him down a lift and through a warren of turns and passages. It ended with a dull buzz from the Naviband.
Restricted area, not for cleared for access. He hunted around and found a security guard asleep at his station. Could it be this easy?
~*~
“What are you doing? That’s perfectly good water! Why are you pouring it down the drain?” Bree had her good hand on her hip, and the other hung limp again.
Evazee held the bottle under her nose and pointed at the symbol. “Don’t you recognise this?”
“It’s a fountain. What’s wrong with that?”
Evazee squinted at it again, turning it towards the light, this way and that. “How can you not see snakes?”
Bree frowned at her as if she was speaking Spanish. “Maybe you need glasses.”
Paintbrush held out a hand to see. “Snakes.” A shudder of deep revulsion ran through her. “I don’t want that.”
“Well, fountains or snakes, that symbol is on every product used in the kitchen.”
“But that’s terrible. I wouldn’t trust anything with that image on.”
Bree shrugged. “You and a whole bunch of radicals that live outside the city. They too have your issues.”
Evazee’s heart popped in her chest. It beat so fast, the noise of it filled her head. She knew this feeling. This was the Holy Spirit. “Take me to them.”
~*~
The security guard’s Naviband took Kai straight to where Zap and Ruaan were being held, down a passage full of tiny cubicles and holding cells. The Naviband unlocked the cells too.
They came out of the darkness, blinking wildly.
“How did you get us out? I thought you’d be locked up too.” Zap’s pupils were twice as big as usual.
Kai frowned and waved a hand over Zap’s face. “Did they inject you yet?”
“I dunno. I can’t remember much.” Zap rubbed his knuckles into his temples.
Kai grabbed his arm and studied it for fresh puncture holes. The skin seemed intact.
Ruaan groaned and doubled over. “They haven’t fed us either.”
“OK, come you two. We have to get back home. I think this navi-thing will get us out of here.”
20
A sudden sliver of light from the floor broke through the darkness. A trapdoor. They’d been following Bree blindly through underground passages, strangely dark in this city of light.
Zulu slipped in next to Bree and took the ring from her, hoisting the trapdoor higher.
“Come guys, this way. Bree dropped to the floor and wiggled through the gap. Evazee paled at the thought of where they were going. For whatever reason, they were still stuck in the testing arch, and they’d stay that way until they stumbled on the test and passed it. That thought resolved it all for her, and she dropped to her knees and slid on her rear towards the opening. Bree grabbed her legs and pulled her through, guiding her feet safely to solid ground. In a short time, the others had followed and the trapdoor had been lowered.
The room they found themselves in was small and dusty. Evazee sneezed and scrubbed at her nose with the back of her hand. “How do you know about this place?”
“Let’s just say I don’t need much sleep, and the after-curfew patrols seldom venture below.” Bree’s eyes sparkled; a creature back in her natural habitat. “No time to waste. We’ve got to put some distance between us and...” she pointed up and in the vague direction of everything outside of the trapdoor.
They squeezed through a doorway that led out of the tiny room into a narrow passage lit by the stones in the floor.
“This way. Come on. Don’t be slow.”
They followed the tiny passage as it curved and twisted, leading them down. Evazee guessed that they were heading deeper underground. “Where are you taking us?”
Bree didn’t answer other than to hold a finger to her lips. They trudged on in silence. The roof of the tunnel angled down, making it impossible to walk upright. Evazee’s lower back tweaked in a spasm that she couldn’t stretch out without bumping her head. She couldn’t imagine how Zulu felt. Sharp pain shot through her spine. The air grew stuffy. Trapped. She wanted to ask how much longer, but she’d get no answer. Just breathe. In, out. Repeat.
They rounded a bend and the stench of rotting fish slammed into her, an almost solid wall of odour. Evazee choked and blocked her nose. Just as she thought her heart might pack up, the passage ended. The opening at the end was blocked off with a metal grate. Wind blew in from outside, carrying the smell in with it. By the look of it, the grate had been around for a long time, rusted and buckled. If that thing didn’t open...
Bree slammed her fist into the metal three times in quick succession, causing a mini rust-shower. A scurry of activity on the other side made Evazee’s hear
t pound. Were these people like the shack-dwellers?
The grate moved to the side, and they tumbled out the end of the tunnel. It was a long drop from the mouth of the passage to the rocky ground below. Evazee landed with a bump and toppled sideways. Her feet stung from the impact. She shook them out and shivered, rolling herself upright and back onto her feet. Grey gloom pressed in around her and over it all, the choking stench. This was nothing like the soft light of the city they’d just come from.
A company waited for them, not dressed in the standard shift that all the city dwellers wore, but remnants of regular clothes, dirty and old. They stood shoulder to shoulder, arms folded, casual but tightly wound. Evazee hardly dared breathe for fear of setting them off. Behind them stretched the cause of the choking smell. A rubbish dump that went on as far as Evazee could see.
Bree stood silent with her hands hooked behind her back, feet spread—a warrior’s rest stance. She’d stripped off the city shift as she left the tunnel and looked every inch a fighter in leather pants and a tank top.
The guy in the middle eyed the newcomers up and down. He carried himself with a rugged confidence that singled him out as the leader of this bunch. “Why’re you here?”
Bree shifted on her feet. “They won’t use the marked products.”
One of the others pointed to Evazee. “That one’s marked. She shouldn’t be here.”
Evazee’s neck flushed hot, and she fought to stop her hand going to her neck. It was easy to forget that she’d been branded like some show cow. She would do anything to get rid of that cursed mark. Shame and anger sparked through her. Who was he to assume that the mark had anything to do with where her loyalty lay? Her chin raised and she stared at him, half wishing he would say something else for which she could take him down.
Evazee stepped forward to defend herself. The leader turned towards her, and she did a double-take. Something flashed silvery on his forehead. Drawn by curiosity that nullified any fear or good manners, she stepped closer. This man was marked. Not with the twisted snakes of Shasta’s folk, but with the same type of imprint that she mourned the loss of.
A slow smile tugged at her mouth. Before she could say anything, a wind from behind picked up. A slow spin that sped up and tugged them off their feet. They were being taken back through the testing arch.
Back to Zulu’s people.
~*~
Zap pulled the OS van into its parking spot in the underground garage area. In spite of being hungry, Ruaan had whistled and hummed to himself all the way home from the Crux. Zap threw him an annoyed glance before turning back to Kai. “I dunno, man. That all seemed too easy. For such a hi-tech place with all the security bells and whistles, don’t you think we would have been stopped along the way?”
Kai shrugged. “Sometimes these things can get too organised for their own good. You remember that time we were sent to detention, but nobody showed up because each teacher thought the other was supposed to be doing it? Kinda like that.” He slapped the steering wheel and spun around to Ruaan. “Why are you so happy? What’s up with that?”
Ruaan grinned at him and patted the bump under his T-shirt. He slid out of the van and shut the door with his foot.
If Zap had to frown any harder, his face would crack. “That detention was unfair anyway. I wasn’t supposed to be involved in all that.” He thumbed towards Ruaan. “Do you think getting his amulet back has turned him into Mr. Sunshine?” He shut and locked his door.
Kai pocketed the keys. “It’s possible, but the amulet Runt had nearly wrecked her.” The up arrow on the lift button glowed orange in the dim light. Kai chose the floor they wanted and shut the lift door.
“As always, you’re missing the point entirely. All I’m saying—”
Ruaan stopped whistling, long enough to say, “The amulet she had wasn’t hers. Obviously, it would be bad for her.” He patted his chest once more. “This one? It’s all mine. I’ve never felt this content.” He picked up the tune he’d been whistling mid-phrase.
The lift bumped to a stop, and the doors slid apart. Ruaan’s whistling stopped, and he tapped them both on the shoulder. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Kai felt it then too, a thick heaviness in the air that pressed on his chest and made him feel like he was choking. “Come on, let’s go see.”
The place seemed deserted. They searched every level and found nobody. “The only place we haven’t checked is the basement. Maybe they left a clue.”
The trapdoor swung back easily, and they climbed down the stairs and smack into the middle of a group of waiting people who looked a lot like Zulu.
21
Kai knelt on the floor of Torn’s office with his hands tied behind his back. His friends were tied up in the same way on either side of him.
Zulu knelt along the wall with them, but his hands were unbound.
An older version of Zulu paced the floor in front of them, swinging a carved ebony stick as he walked. His bald head gleamed in the pale lamplight. Glowing purple dots were painted along the crease of his frown lines and dipped to trace a circle around each ear.
He rumbled as he walked, a deep thrumming from his chest cavity that unnerved Kai much like nails on a chalkboard. The noise seeped into his skull and made it vibrate. The man stopped in front of Kai and slammed the stick down hard enough for the vibrations to shiver through Kai’s legs.
“Where are my people?” he asked softly, but anger simmered close below the surface.
“I could ask you the same thing.” Kai’s back stiffened in defiance.
A strangled noise came from Zulu, but Kai was in no mood for tip-toeing around the whims of a dictator. He knew where the amulets were, keys to freedom for all the OS kids. They were so close to being completely free. To come back to find them all missing and then being bullied by this despot was too much.
Zulu coughed. “Will you see me?”
“I see you.” The whites of the man’s eyes were bloodshot and tinged purple.
“If we find the boys, will you return the others?”
Zulu’s dad pointed a bony finger at Kai, though he spoke to Zulu. “Find the boys and come home, Zulumange. The curse on our village is from you. The wells are dry. You’ve been unfaithful.”
“The wells were dry before I left home. You can’t blame that on me.”
The old man slammed his staff into the ground. “Your body was home, but your spirit was wandering. That brought the curse.”
Zulu fell silent. The violent clash of emotions were clear in the tight clench of his jaw.
The old one stopped pacing in front of Kai. “This one, he leads here. Yes?”
A faint sheen of sweat broke out on Zulu’s forehead. “Yebo.”
“Let me think.” He took his cohorts just outside the office where they spoke in low, rumbling voices.
Kai didn’t need a gift of foresight to know where this was headed. He hadn’t had a chance to examine Evazee’s amulet, but if Ruaan’s could make such a difference, then Evazee’s might too. He cleared his throat and motioned to Ruaan to come closer. “Take this. Keep it safe until you can give it to Evazee.” He tried to get to his pocket and failed.
Ruaan shuffled closer on his knees, angled himself sideways to reach in, and drew out Evazee’s amulet. He’d just slipped it into his back pocket when the priests trooped back into the office in a straight line of serious faces.
Zulu’s dad came in last. “We keep him as surety.” His bony finger flicked sideways and the priests moved in on Kai.
In seconds, Kai found himself with his nose on the floor, wondering what had happened. The rope around his wrists bit into his skin, but the pain sharpened his hearing. It was hard to protest from your belly on the floor.
A boot smacked into his ribs.
“Onto your feet, skinny one.”
Fight or comply? Kai rolled over slowly, using the time to weigh his options. He rolled onto his knees, wobbling as he stepped up onto his feet with his hands tied behind
his back.
Ten priests stood in the room, the harsh angles of their dark faces gleaming in the gloom. Faint purple rimmed their eyes.
Kai kept his eyes on priests, but spoke to Zap and Ruaan, “This is wasting time. What should we do?”
A sharp smack to the back of the head sent pain through his skull and his knees went limp. He was slung over a broad shoulder and carried like a rag doll, bouncing helplessly on the back of a priest.
~*~
Cold from the floor seeped into Evazee as she sat squished between Paintbrush and the wall. Bree sat opposite with her legs tucked tight against her chest and her head down. The room was small and as more groups arrived back from the arch, they were thrown into this same room and locked in. Evazee didn’t think they would be able to fit in too many more. Her heart sank as the door opened.
Ruaan came in first, his hair more messed up than usual.
Zap followed soon after, his face grim.
“Over here.” She waved them over, hoping for good news.
The guys picked their way between all the bodies on the floor and made space to sit down.
Evazee waved towards the room full of prisoners. “I’m assuming that whatever you guys went to go get to free these kids didn’t work out so well.”
Zap grinned, a savouring-the-moment kind of grin. “Mostly. But we do have...”
Ruaan dug in his pocket and drew out Evazee’s amulet. It swung from his fingers as if he was trying to hypnotize her.
Zap gaped like a goldfish. “Were you born rude, or is it a skill you’ve been perfecting your whole life?”
“I’ll assume that question is rhetorical.” Ruaan bounced the amulet in the palm of his hand. “Do you want this?”
Evazee glanced around the room. They had caught the attention of everyone in the room. Not a difficult thing to do with nothing else happening. She dropped her voice low, leaning close to the boys. “I guess so.”
Zap’s face scrunched up. “Your enthusiasm is overwhelming.”
“I’m sorry. Runt’s pendant caused such trouble.” The back of her neck itched as she thought of the events that lead to her being branded. It all started with an amulet.
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