Trojan Gene

by Meg Buchanan

  Nick and Joe are a known quantity. We’ve hunted together since we were kids. They can both handle themselves in the bush, use a gun, but how much use will that be at the Outpost? I haven’t been there, but I think it will be more like the vault than the bush. There won’t be too many trees to hide behind. Curley, on the other hand, probably hasn’t been closer to a tree than his mum’s garden since he was a kid, and he’s a bit on the chubby unfit side. But at the Outpost he knows the territory as well as Nick does. I can’t even imagine what use Scott will be, he’s all talk and noise, and unless a vehicle breaks down, I can’t see him being an asset.

  “Not much of an army.” I stick the lid back on the chocolate.

  “Yeah.” Nick gives a bit of a sigh. He must realise our chances aren’t good.

  Ela pours the boiling water then adds the milk. She still hasn’t said anything, but I can nearly see her ears flapping with listening.

  “Do you have a plan?” I ask Nick.

  “Get there about midnight tonight, have a look round then figure it out.” And Jacob and Fitzgerald think this guy is more responsible than me?

  “Great plan.” I stir the chocolate and hand a mug to Nick. He holds it with both hands, elbows on the table, and blows on the steam.

  “You got a better one?”

  “I’m thinking.” I hand Ela her mug then pick up my own. I lean back against the bench. “Where are Joe and the others now?”

  “Downstairs.”

  “You were sent to sound me out?”

  “Yeah.”

  I put my mug down on the bench again, move enough to get my Com out of my pocket, make the call.

  “Are we on?” asks Scott.

  “Come up. We need to talk first if we’re going to do this.”

  I put my Com on the bench, still not too happy about the whole idea.

  Ela grins, all anticipation. I really might have to tie her up and stick her in a cupboard this time. She gets three more mugs out of the cupboard and refills the kettle.

  Chapter 23

  WE’RE ALL SITTING around the dining room table. Curley’s Tablet is in the middle. His face is all chubby and enthusiastic. He’s brought up the image of the Outpost on eSerch. We all cluster closer so we can see. It looks big. Lots of buildings surrounded by some sort of fence, then a huge clear area, then bush.

  Curley adjusts the view, zooms in a bit closer, so we’re focused on the gate.

  “Right,” I say. “How do we get through that?”

  Joe moves a bit, so he can get a better look. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since Vector got Lucinda, and he looks older. He’s still big and blonde like Nick, but usually he’s got this confident, relaxed grin on his face. Now he looks fierce. He looks the way everyone looks when they come back from University. Vector just got at him early.

  “This is the entrance.” Nick shifts the image, so we can see the barrier with the guard house beside it. We all lean closer and concentrate on the image like our lives depend on knowing this stuff, which, if you think this through, they do. A fence twice the height of a small building stretches out from the right and the left. “Me and Curley can get in if we have authorisation.”

  “How do you get authorisation?” asks Joe.

  Curley touches the screen of the Tablet. He brings up a list of names.

  “I’ll create a fake emergency call-out for me and Nick. I can hack into the computer from here.”

  “What emergency do rogue plants cause that needs a midnight call-out?” I ask.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll delete the call-out record as soon as we’re back here.”

  He touches the screen so it’s back to the eSerch image of the Outpost.

  “Can you get us through too?”

  “No,” says Nick. “That’s the part we can’t figure. The guard’s not going to let us in if we have a bunch of passengers.”

  “Can we get through the fence further around?” Joe slides the image and the perimeter fence moves across the screen.

  “No. It’s all protected by a continuous circuit. If it’s touched anywhere there’s an alarm in the guardhouse. The guards go into lockdown and they send a squad to check the breach. We don’t want that to happen. The whole Outpost stays on alert for hours afterwards. Vector everywhere.”

  “Can we hide in your vehicles?” asks Ela.

  “You can’t come,” I say. “You’re staying here.”

  “I’m not. I want to help.”

  “No, Jacob would kill me.” I haven’t seen him for a while, but I don’t need to have done anything he can find fault with when I see him next.

  “I’m going. You need more people,” says Ela.

  “Nope.” I lay down the law.

  “I am so,” says Ela.

  “Nope.”

  Nick gives a bit of an eye roll and interrupts. “There’s nowhere to hide. Me and Curley have utes, and they check the cabs and the trays and underneath when we go through the barrier.”

  I study the map again. Ela goes over to the bench, picks up my Com and slides her thumb across the screen.

  She shimmers in a haze then disappears. “Do you think this will work?” she asks.

  It doesn’t take long to get the App onto everyone’s Com.

  *

  We drive to the Outpost. It’s a cold night, the moon is behind cloud, and wind cuts through the dark. Ela’s with us. In the end I couldn’t leave her on her own due to lurking Willises. And I didn’t want to leave her with Mum because then I’d have to explain what we were doing, and I don’t think this qualifies as being careful.

  Me, Ela and Curley are in Curley’s ute. Scott, Joe and Nick are following behind us in Nick’s vehicle. We see the lights of the Outpost ahead. It’s huge and lit up like a beacon with floodlights everywhere and this high mesh perimeter fence like Nick said.

  We’re about a hundred metres away from the entrance. The road’s dead straight. We’re stupid doing this. But I seem to be the only one thinking that. Bloody Curley’s on a high.

  “Time for you to disappear,” says Curley, like he’s in some sort of spy Vid.

  Ela nods and slides her finger across the screen. She fades out and there’s just a bit of a shimmer where she’s sitting. The HazeApp doesn’t make you completely invisible – there’s always that residual shimmer in the air, like something’s disturbing it – but you’re invisible if no one looks too hard.

  I do the same and see my hand fade and then the shimmer spread over the rest of me. The ute looks empty except for Curley, just a couple of black holes beside him.

  We get to the barrier, a huge gate in front of us, heavy mesh, massive steel frame. The guard checks inside the cab when Curley pulls up.

  The guard’s old and pretty relaxed, his black VTroop uniform straining at the seams, helmet and visor sitting on the desk in the sentry box. Another guard is relaxing in there too. Gives a bit of a yawn. Vector don’t use their crack troops for midnight guard duty, I guess.

  “We don’t usually see you this time of night,” he says to Curley.

  “There’s some panic,” says Curley.

  “Isn’t there always?” The guard checks the tray then waves the Detect under the ute. Finds nothing. Nods at the other guy in the sentry box. The gate slides out of the way.

  Curley gets waved through.

  I look back and Nick gets through as easily. A bit of a chat, a cursory wave of the Detect, and the guard steps back.

  Curley drives along the roadway. It’s all parklike, open on both sides.

  We get to the parking area. Curley stops beside a couple of new Ecos.

  “Stay where you are,” he says to us as he gets out. “I’ll come around and open your door. You give me my jacket and I’ll put it on while you’re getting out, then shut the door.” It’s like he’s been in the spy business for a while and knows all about how things are done. Thinks he’s bloody James Bond.

  “You okay?” I ask Ela and feel her nod. I slide out, see the seat slow
ly depress then puff back up as Ela follows me out of the ute.

  *

  Me, Ela and Curley carefully work our way across the open area of paving, all white and sleek and shiny. I move carefully. Curley’s acting all nonchalant, got a swagger on.

  Everything around us looks like the inside of the vault. One truckload for here, one for the vault is the way it went, I guess.

  We get to the main building, keeping noise to the minimum. We stop in the shadows and look around. The building’s massive and white, like some sort of monument. We see Nick’s ute pull into the carpark beside Curley’s.

  “I’ll take Ela in. You wait for Nick.” Curley fishes in his pockets while he’s talking, then stands there like he thinks he might have left something in the ute. It all looks pretty dodgy to me, but no one stops him.

  “Okay.” I reach out to where I think Ela is and touch her arm. “Be careful. If anything goes wrong, hide under Curley’s desk. I’ll come and get you.”

  I think she nods, I’m not sure, and I’m not sure she’d even consider hiding and waiting for me to rescue her if something goes wrong after seeing her in action at Egans’.

  Curley moves away, and I hear a second set of footsteps following lightly behind him, and there’s a sort of disturbance in the air. They go up the steps of the main building then through massive entrance doors.

  Nick comes over.

  “You there, Jack?” he asks as he walks past me.

  “Yeah,” I say. “Are you there Scott and Joe?”

  I hear a couple of ‘yeahs’ and drop in behind them.

  We go through the entrance of the building too.

  Nick keeps walking. We follow him through wide, brightly lit and tiled corridors until we get to his base room.

  We still don’t see anyone. The place is deserted. I guess Elite sleep at night.

  We’ve already planned how this will work. Ela and Curley have gone to the control centre where Curley has his workspace. Ela’s going to stay in haze mode while she’s there. It’s her job to keep in contact with us by Com, so Curley can just look like he’s doing his normal stuff.

  The rest of us are going to get Lucinda. We’ll all be hazed. We’ll tell Ela what’s happening – if we need a door unlocked, where we are, and so on – and she’ll relay the information to Curley. Curley’s fixed it so all the Locates on the Coms show us at home in bed. It’s Curley’s job to unlock all the doors to the infirmary just before we get there. We’ve got Joe’s mum’s Com with us too, so when we find Lucinda she can haze and come back with us and we’ll do the whole thing in reverse on the way back. The doors will be unlocked then locked behind us by Curley. It should work.

  Nick figures the whole mission will take us about twenty minutes max. But there’s a dodgy bit. At the pub we couldn’t decide whether it was better for Nick to stay on lookout or come with us since he knows the way. Me, Joe and Scott would have to work from the NavApp Curley put on our Coms if Nick stays here.

  “I’ll come,” says Nick at the last moment. “It will be quicker, and there’s no one in this part of the building. You don’t need a lookout.” He undoes the knife on his belt and I do the same. We decided the hunting knives were the only weapons we could carry. The haze wouldn’t cover a rifle, and it’s not like we’re allowed to own pistols. Scott and Joe have knives too. They’re probably just for comfort. What would we do with the dead bodies if we used them anyway?

  I look out through the window and see a stream of VTroops leave the main building through a side door and make their way to the guardhouse at the barrier.

  “What are they doing?” asks Joe.

  “The next shift. That’s normal.” Nick pulls his Com out of his pocket and hazes.

  “Ready,” he asks.

  We all nod.

  We go out into the corridor. Still white tiles everywhere, just like the vault. We move in single file. We can’t see each other, but me, Nick and Joe have hunted together enough to know what each other will do. We should have left Scott with Curley though, but the small sounds of movement he’s making help us keep him in line. We stay hazed. From what I saw of the men taking the next shift, there are at least fifty VTroopers right outside to contend with if anyone figures out we’re here.

  We can’t afford to get caught.

  We need to be careful.

  Chapter 24

  THE CORRIDORS ALL look the same to me – no signs, just lights and tiles. Every now and then Nick whispers, left or right and we follow. It’s strange, moving like this, in the light but invisible, following a whisper.

  It takes forever, twisting and turning through the white corridors. I’m pretty sure if we lost Nick no one would be able to find their way back.

  “Open,” Nick murmurs, at each set of double doors. Back in the control room Ela must hear him. They open on cue.

  We get to a single door in a wall half way along a corridor.

  “Here,” says Nick.

  I stop moving. The others’ steps stop too.

  So, this is where they’re keeping Lucinda. I look around. No guards, just a small window high up. They’re obviously not expecting a rescue attempt. It makes me feel a bit better. Curley’s done the first part of his job. He’s got us to Lucinda. It’s going like clockwork.

  I see the flash from Nick’s Com.

  “Now,” he says to Ela. We wait and then hear the soft click of the door lock releasing.

  We wait again. Curley said it would take him a few seconds to disarm the alarm.

  “Unlocked. Alarm off.” Ela’s voice comes softly from the Com. Slowly the door swings open.

  There’s a bed a few metres from the door. Lucinda is curled up under the blankets. She stays very still. She looks frightened, blonde hair all over the place, face pale, nightdress drooping off her shoulder. She doesn’t say anything, just stares at the door opening on its own.

  “It’s me, Cin.” Joe’s boots whisper as he goes over to her.

  “Joe?” she asks.

  He comes out of the haze, against everything Curley and Nick warned him about. “Are you all right?” He sits on the bed in the curve of her.

  “They took the baby.” She sounds like she’s broken. “They said they would give it to someone old enough to love it.” Joe and Lucinda are kids, not much older than Ela. How do they deal with that?

  Joe just sits there. He is about as adequate at finding the right words as I am. Then he gets her hand and holds it. Lucinda curls up more and puts her head on his thigh. He curls his body over hers, cradling her head, his Com in his hand. They stay like that crumpled together and don’t move.

  “Joe,” I say real quiet. “We’ve got to go.”

  Joe nods.

  Lucinda doesn’t seem to hear.

  “Have you got clothes here?” Joe asks her softly.

  She doesn’t answer, just curls up into him more.

  I don’t know how long we’ve got, but I’m pretty sure comforting Lucinda needs to wait for a better time. “We’ve got to get going.”

  Joe looks up at the empty space near the doorway where my voice comes from, like he can’t figure what to do next.

  Then Nick’s Com flashes, just a disembodied flash in the air, Nick’s still in the corridor.

  “Incoming.” Ela’s voice is quiet.

  “The corridor.” Scott lets the rest of us know where he is.

  “Me too,” says Nick.

  “The room.” I push the door shut carefully, no noise.

  Joe and Lucinda still don’t move, as if this has got nothing to do with them.

  “Lock the door,” says Nick into his Com, and I hear the lock click again. Joe and me are locked inside the room with Lucinda.

  Joe and Lucinda still don’t move.

  I go over to them, touch Joe on the shoulder. “Haze now, Joe.” I sound desperate.

  He doesn’t do anything.

  “Joe, haze. You have to haze now.” I order with as much force as I can get into a whisper. He still doesn’t
move.

  I take his Com off him and start the App, put the Com back in his hand. He hazes.

  “Lucinda, someone’s coming. You have to pretend you’re asleep,” I say to her, real forceful. Her head is hovering over the covers. I shove a pillow in front of her and move back. It’s the best I can do. Eyes appear at the window, watch Lucinda for a while then look around the room.

  I don’t breathe. There’s a depression on the bed where Joe is sitting and a bit of air disturbance. Lucinda’s head is hovering just above the pillow not on it. It looks all wrong.

  But it can’t look too wrong to the guard. He moves on. I breathe again.

  It’s got to be ten minutes before I hear a quiet, “Clear,” from Nick.

  That guard moves bloody slowly. Vector don’t use the crack troops inside at midnight either. There’s the click of the door unlocking then Ela’s voice again.

  “Unlocked. Alarm off.”

  “We’ve got to go, Joe,” I say.

  Joe appears again and nods. He whispers to Lucinda then gently moves her head off his lap and stands up. Lucinda sits, Joe takes a spare wrist shield out of his pocket and clips it onto Lucinda’s wrist. She slides out of the bed and sits on the side. Her feet are bare, and the nightdress hardly covers her knees. There’s blood everywhere. She sways when she tries to stand.

  I can’t see how we’re going to get her out. She was meant to walk out with us, and it doesn’t look like she can. If we get chased, she’s definitely not going to be able to run.

  “I’ll carry her.” Joe pulls the bedcover off the bed and wraps it around Lucinda. He’s finally starting to think again. He picks her up. She wraps her arms around his neck and curls into him again. She’s small, but I don’t think he’ll be able to carry her for long. I guess it isn’t far to the ute. We can take turns carrying her if we have to. I start the App on Joe’s mum’s Com and give it to Lucinda.

  She hazes.

  “Turn mine on,” says Joe. Good, he is thinking again. He holds his Com out from under the hole in space that is Lucinda. I touch the screen and Joe hazes too. There’s a bit of blanket showing so I flick it up into Lucinda’s haze.