10

by James Phelan

  Harry and Larry shared a look—they could see the reasoning in the plan. The German Guardians had left the street below. They were now somewhere inside the building.

  ‘Good luck, my man,’ Harry said, shaking Sam’s hand.

  Zara placed a final kiss on her father’s cheek. Sam took her hand, and they fled the room to the sound of the three men locking and loading.

  27

  ALEX

  Alex and Phoebe swung into step with the Director as he was power walking through the park outside the Enterprise HQ.

  ‘What is it?’ the Director said, stopping in his tracks at seeing the panic on their faces.

  ‘We’ve got news,’ Alex said.

  ‘Oh?’ the Director said.

  ‘It’s about Stella,’ Alex said. He paused, looking for a reaction.

  ‘I’m listening.’ The Director waited for him to continue. He gave them his full attention.

  ‘Well …’ Now that the time had finally arrived, Alex wasn’t sure where to start.

  ‘Stella’s turned, Jack,’ Phoebe said. ‘She’s a double agent. She’s got other interests aside from working for us.’

  The Director stared at them both. The sweat from the humid morning beaded on his forehead, which he wiped away with a handkerchief.

  ‘What do you know about it?’ the Director said.

  Phoebe brought him up to speed with what they knew, but when she finished the Director merely frowned and remained silent.

  ‘Well?’ Alex said. ‘Haven’t you got anything to say about it?’ He ignored his mother’s hand pressing on his arm. ‘She could have killed Sam in Berlin, and other people did die. And she’s in league with Solaris? Are you hearing us?’

  ‘That’s enough, Alex. Let Jack speak,’ Phoebe reasoned.

  I know he’s her boss, but come on! What’s wrong with him? Why isn’t he ordering Stella’s arrest or something?

  ‘I didn’t realise the scale of it, I see that now …’ the Director said. ‘I underestimated how much she’d done and—’

  ‘Whoa! Hang on. Are you saying you already knew Stella was working for Solaris?’ Alex’s voice carried loudly across the park.

  ‘Who do you think you’re speaking to?’ the Director growled. ‘And lower your voice. It’s hardly in our best interests to advertise this situation to anyone who walks by.’

  ‘Alex, calm down,’ Phoebe cautioned, then rounded on the Director in a frantic whisper. ‘But how could you?’ ‘Lives are at stake here, the world is at stake.’

  ‘I am fully aware of that, Agent Robertson,’ he said. ‘Now, will you both allow me to explain?’ He ran his hand through his greying hair and took a deep breath. ‘I’d been warned about something like this. From the Professor. I didn’t want to believe it at first …’

  ‘It’s true,’ Alex said. ‘She’s a traitor.’

  ‘I agree, but I knew she couldn’t be working alone, so I’ve been watching her—had others watch her—waiting to find out who she was working with, to find out what her objective was. I thought we had it under control.’

  ‘Who was spying on her?’ Alex asked.

  ‘Someone I believed could find out anything about anyone,’ Jack said.

  ‘Matrix.’ Alex grimaced.

  The Director nodded and said, ‘I don’t know how he could have missed all of this.’

  ‘Unless …’ Phoebe began.

  ‘Matrix isn’t on our side anymore,’ Alex finished.

  ‘Phoebe, grab your closest Agents, find him and shut him down!’ Jack said. ‘Trust no-one but your most loyal, who knows how many Agents she’s already turned.’

  All three of them began running across the park, heading straight for the Enterprise building.

  ‘There’s one more thing,’ Alex gasped as he kept stride with the Director. ‘Stella hired a fleet of attack helicopters in Austria. Where would she be going with them?’

  ‘Austria?’ the Director said, his eyes wide with terror. ‘That’s within range of the Academy’s Swiss campus …’

  That realisation hit Alex in the gut, hard, and spurred him on.

  28

  EVA

  Eva walked into the corridor from her history class and bumped straight into Pi coming in the other direction.

  ‘Hey, Pi,’ Eva said.

  ‘Hi, Eva,’ Pi said.

  ‘What’d you just have?’

  ‘Literature,’ he said. ‘My favourite.’

  Students rushed by as they headed to the day’s final classes. The two of them walked in the direction of the common rooms.

  ‘I never did ask, where are you from?’ Eva said.

  ‘It’s not obvious?’ Pi said with a grin. ‘I’m an I-I.’

  ‘A what?’ she asked, puzzled.

  ‘Irish Indian,’ Pi laughed at Eva’s surprised face. ‘My dad was born in India and went to the Academy in London, and met my mum there, she’s Irish. They moved back to Dublin, had my brother, who’s a Guardian now, then me and my kid sister. They’ve sent me here for the first couple of junior years.’

  ‘So you’ll go to the London campus for your senior years?’

  Pi nodded.

  Gabriella and Xavier joined them.

  ‘Where are you going now?’ Gabriella asked.

  ‘I’ve got gym class,’ Pi sighed. ‘Not my favourite.’

  ‘Library study, like you guys,’ Eva said.

  ‘I’ve got a much better idea,’ Xavier smiled. ‘Come on, follow me.’

  Eva tried protesting but she had to run to keep up with Xavier, with Gabriella and Pi close behind. He led them outside the main building of the old monastery to a balcony on the cliff edge.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Eva asked as Xavier lifted a leg to get over the stone railing.

  ‘Someplace cool, come on,’ he said. He turned to face outwards—then he stepped off.

  ‘XAVIER!’ Eva rushed to the edge, reaching out, too late.

  ‘It’s OK!’ his voice called up from below. ‘Come check it out!’

  Eva peered over the edge and saw that Xavier was about two metres below, standing on a snow-swept platform.

  ‘Xavier!’ Eva yelled at him. ‘You gave me a heart attack, you lunatic!’

  Then just like that, he disappeared.

  ‘Wha-at?’ Eva gasped.

  Gabriella was already over the handrail. ‘What are you waiting for, Eva? Scared, are you?’ she taunted as she jumped off. ‘Oh, wow!’ she cried out, disappearing from sight.

  Scared? As if!

  ‘What’s down there?’ Eva said. ‘Guys?’

  Pi climbed over and took a deep breath. He shrugged at Eva and said, ‘Has to beat gym class.’

  ‘Pi, you don’t have to—’

  He dropped down.

  ‘—go.’ Eva peered over the edge to see Pi had landed in a mess but dusted the powder snow off his knees and got up.

  ‘Awesome!’ Then he too vanished.

  ‘Great,’ Eva said, climbing over the balustrade and then to the ledge, holding on to it by her hands until—

  Drop.

  THUMP.

  Eva got up and saw that the other three were taking turns to slide down an icefall, so slick it looked like a clear glass water slide. It ended a few metres below in soft snow.

  ‘Come on, Eva,’ Gabriella said, out of breath and laughing as she clambered back to the top of the slide. ‘Don’t be a baby!’

  ‘I don’t really—’

  Gabriella gave her a push.

  ‘Arghhhh!’

  Her landing wasn’t graceful, but the snow was soft fresh powder, blown onto this flat rock shelf by the winds, and it was fun.

  When was the last time I really had fun?

  Pi landed next to her in a splash of snow. Eva took another turn and then another. Taking a break, she stood at the bottom of the slide while the others continued to collapse in giggling heaps, their shrieks echoing across the white valley below. She looked across to the mountain opposite, to where she’d trekke
d a few days before.

  But why would Tobias be out there? Why would anyone be out there?

  Gabriella landed next to her and got up, peering out in the same direction.

  ‘What can you see?’ Gabriella said, ‘Something is there?’

  ‘I’m just thinking,’ Eva replied tensely, edging away from her.

  ‘No,’ Gabriella said, pointing. ‘There is something, beyond the mountains. Si?’

  Eva saw several tiny dots in the air.

  Birds?

  They were slowly getting closer and closer. And they were headed straight for the Academy.

  Those aren’t birds … those are helicopters.

  29

  SAM

  Zara had tears in her eyes as Sam led her from the room. Before the doors to the fire stairs closed behind them, Sam heard the commotion of Hans’ team moving in and the bang-cough of several tear-gas grenades being launched in defence.

  Did they track me here? Did they follow me?

  ‘This way,’ Zara said, taking the lead. They took the steel fire stairs all the way down to street level. ‘Do you know how to get to the Council chambers?’

  Sam retrieved his phone and opened the map app—it wasn’t working.

  ‘My message didn’t even get through to Jedi,’ Sam said.

  ‘Where was the Council meeting place?’ Zara asked.

  ‘Um …’ He couldn’t remember. He looked around to get his bearings and saw the top of the Eiffel Tower.

  Sam used Zara’s phone to locate the hotel, and then the Tower as a point of reference, figuring on following the route he’d walked with the Professor that morning. As they ran, they heard the pitter-patter sound of gunfire from the Sorbonne, streams of police vehicles rushing by.

  Sam found the disguised restaurant entrance to the Council half an hour later. By the time they were underground at the first steel door, he knew something was wrong.

  ‘Oh no …’

  ‘What is it?’ Zara said, waiting to continue as Sam stopped. ‘The door’s open, let’s go.’

  ‘There are no Guardians here,’ Sam said. By the dim lights of the LED strips lining the floor and ceiling corners, he could make out dark stains on the ground, slick and wet. He knelt down and touched it. It was red, and felt sticky and still warm.

  Blood.

  ‘Maybe we should turn back?’ Zara said.

  ‘No,’ Sam said, standing up and peering through the doorway. ‘I have to see.’

  ‘It’s empty,’ Zara said.

  The Council chamber was deserted. There was no-one to be seen. Sam was explaining to Zara what the place was when there was a loud BOOM! and then a long rumbling noise from the direction they’d come.

  ‘The tunnel!’

  Sam ran to the first steel door—beyond it was a solid mass of rubble.

  ‘Someone set an explosion, sealing off the entrance,’ Sam said. The lights flickered a few times, a couple exploding in a shower of sparks, and then they stayed off.

  ‘There are other ways out,’ Sam said, remembering what the Professor said about the exits at each point of the compass. He switched on his phone’s night vision app. ‘Follow me, stay close.’

  ‘What if they’re blown up too?’ Zara said, her hand on Sam’s shoulder as they navigated in the darkness. ‘Or if we’re in them when . . ?’

  ‘Good point.’ Sam paused and looked around the room. ‘Wait here a second.’

  Sam moved off, leaving Zara to stand there in the gloom as he explored.

  ‘My phone light doesn’t work. Sam? Sam—did you hear me? Sam? Where are you?’

  ‘Up here,’ Sam said, lighting the way for her. He was behind the Council Leadership table, standing at an open door. ‘I think I’ve found our way out!’

  Above the Council chamber was a series of rooms that resembled Jedi’s computer lab, only this had equipment that looked about as ancient as the old NASA control boards Sam had seen once in a documentary about the space race.

  ‘What is all this stuff?’ Zara asked as they searched around.

  ‘Something to do with tracking dreams, or, like, reading the global trends of dreams, or something.’

  ‘And you think this is a way out?’

  ‘Yep.’ Sam found a steel-rung ladder set into a vertical concrete shaft. Sam craned his neck to see the way out at the top. ‘I hope you’re ready for a long climb.’ He set his foot on the bottom rung.

  Here goes nothing.

  Eventually, they came to a concrete platform, lit by one small grimy light, where the ladder switched sides.

  ‘Sam,’ Zara said, catching her breath as Sam stopped for a rest. ‘What do you think happened to all the people who were meant to be back there?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But there wasn’t that much blood, and there were no bodies. So I’m thinking whatever went down, it could have been a lot worse.’

  Zara nodded and looked up at the ladder still stretching far above them. ‘Do you know where this is headed?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam said. ‘I think I have an idea.’

  Sam opened a door into what looked like a big engine room, lit by more dirty lights.

  ‘And we are under …’ Zara began.

  Sam didn’t answer her. He went through another door and straight into a museum. It was full of old elevators and pictures of the Eiffel Tower through the years. Tourists turned in surprise to see them coming out of a staff exit.

  ‘La Tour Eiffel,’ Zara said.

  ‘The Council was once plugged into the Tower as some kind of antenna,’ Sam said.

  They exited out of the basement level of one of the four legs of the massive steel structure and into a swirling sea of tourists. Above them towered the most famous landmark in France. Sam looked around for the quickest way up.

  ‘Still no word from my papa,’ Zara said checking her phone.

  ‘He’ll be OK,’ Sam said. ‘Come on, let’s move.’

  ‘Where to?’

  Sam took Zara by the arm and jumped the queue, ignoring howls of protest. He dived straight into one of the elevators, pulling Zara in behind him as the doors shut.

  Outside the elevator, a new scene greeted them.

  Hans. He and four of his German Guardians came running towards them, scattering unsuspecting tourists as they ran, trying to reach Sam and Zara.

  Then, Sam saw something else. As the elevator car rose to the first platform, Sam got the slightest glimpse, of a tall masked figure in black, moving towards another of the Tower’s legs.

  Solaris.

  Where do we hide from him on the Eiffel Tower?

  30

  ‘My phone’s still got no signal,’ Sam said. ‘Let me try yours.’

  In the rising elevator in the Eiffel Tower, Zara passed her phone to Sam. He punched in Jedi’s number and the call was answered immediately.

  ‘Yes!’ Sam said, but then his heart sank.

  ‘Hey, you’ve reached Jedi, I’m saving the world from evil forces right now so leave a message after the tone …’

  Voicemail? Man, not now!

  ‘Jedi! It’s Sam, look, my phone’s out so call me back at this number, it’s Zara’s. We’re in Paris and the Council was attacked. It could have been Hans, he’s here with the German Guardians. Right now we’re at the Eiffel Tower and Solaris is—’

  ‘Sam?’

  ‘Jedi!’ Sam was elated to hear his voice break in.

  ‘I let the computer screen my calls,’ Jedi said. ‘I just heard from the Professor.’

  ‘He’s OK?’ Sam interrupted.

  ‘Yes, but there’s been a cyber attack against us, and all our phone networks worldwide are being jammed,’ Jedi said. ‘Not that it stopped me for long, but I think just about everyone else is offline for now. I’m working on it, though.’

  ‘Jammed?’ Sam asked.

  ‘It must be Matrix,’ Jedi said. ‘Which means the Enterprise are making a move.’

  ‘We’re going up the Eiffel Tower right now.’ Sam
watched as they soared higher in the elevator, the milling Parisians below getting ever tinier. ‘We’re in the last elevator, going to the top level. Solaris and Hans are either going to find us up there or wait for us to come down—there’s no way out on our own.’

  There was silence for a moment. Zara looked anxiously at Sam’s face as the other passengers in the elevator looked out at the view, pointing and taking photos.

  ‘Jedi?’ Sam said, fearing the connection had gone dead.

  ‘There is a way for the two of you to get out, but it’ll be tricky,’ Jedi said. ‘I’m sending some images to Zara’s phone now.’

  The elevator stopped. They had arrived at the top level, the observation deck nearly three-hundred metres above the city, crammed with people taking scenic snapshots.

  ‘Good luck, Sam,’ Jedi said. ‘Call me when your feet are back on the grou—’

  The line went dead and they were being ushered out of the elevator car. Sam could see the city stretching out below as they got near the edge.

  ‘What do we do?’ Zara asked.

  Her phone beeped—Jedi’s images came through. Sam looked at them wide-eyed, and when Zara saw them, she looked like she was going to throw up.

  Jedi’s text read:

  Change your Stealth Suit to this, glide to a landing on the Seine river and immediately change Suit to flotation device. Oh, and probably best not to swallow any of the river water.

  ‘He cannot be serious!’ Zara said, shouting to be heard over the wind which was blowing near gale force.

  ‘Solaris will be in the next elevator up here,’ Sam said. ‘We have to move, and move now.’

  ‘You’re talking about jumping off the Eiffel Tower!’ People around them turned to stare at Zara.

  ‘Lower your voice. We’re going to have a panic on our hands if people think we’re crazy. Look, this is Jedi’s idea,’ Sam said, studying the images closely. ‘And he knows what he’s doing, and he knows it’ll work. He wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise.’