by Meg Buchanan
“I used to come here with friends,” says Ela.
Who didn’t? It’s the biggest party place in town.
“We’d go through the tunnel and swim in the swimming hole whenever I was staying with Jacob.”
We walk further along, pushing our way through the bush.
“How far are we going?” she asks.
“Only a couple of hundred metres. We’ll come across a creek soon and then follow it up until we find the best spot to dig.”
We walk until we come to the small creek. The water bounces and sparkles over the rocks, swirling around the muddy banks. We cross it and then start to make our way through the bush. Sometimes we are on the bank and sometimes have to wade. Every now and then the water drops over a ledge creating a small waterfall. At first there’s nothing that looks like a clearing we can use, but after the third fall we come across a small opening and flat area.
“This is it,” I say.
Ela looks around. “It’s not as nice as the original.” She walks to the creek and looks down at the drop. “It’s a pathetic waterfall.”
“I think it’ll work.” I take off the pack and put it down beside the tools.
We walk around the small clearing and choose a spot near the rock face. There’s a slight curve that could be described as a cave if you used your imagination.
Once the hollow has been cleared of branches, I attack it with the pick. The cliff is decayed so it’s easy to break up – not the solid rock it could have been. I break the stone and Ela shovels until we have created a hollow about half a metre deep and a metre wide.
“What do you think?” I ask.
“It’s way smaller than the cave in front of the vault.” Ela is leaning on the shovel recovering.
“We can get away with it. We’re only trying to convince them they’ve found the entrance. They don’t know how big the cave is anyway,” I say. “We’ll build a cairn and that should give us a bit of camouflage.”
Ela helps me make a stack of rocks in front of the cave. “It’s like one of those punishments they used to use.” Ela throws a few rocks on top. “Dig a hole. Fill it up.” She stands back and looks at what we’ve done.
“I don’t know.” She wipes the side of her mouth and leaves a streak of dirt.
I’m down on my hands and knees trying to make the area look like it hasn’t been disturbed. “It’s good.”
“Maybe you should bring them here at night or pray for rain. It all looks too new to me,” Ela says.
“It’ll settle.” I try to convince myself.
Ela adds another few stones. It isn’t perfect but then the Willises don’t know what to expect. I think it’ll pass. It’s not like they’re rocket scientists.
Chapter 26
ELA AND I are curled up on the couch together. We’ve got a Vid going on the screen. Bloody Humicrib babies march across the sea again. But we’re not watching, we’re a bit tired. We didn’t get much sleep last night with the whole rescuing Lucinda thing. The fake map and fake site took all morning. We did a bit of work at the farm in the afternoon. Checked on Joe and Lucinda and took them some food. Lucinda was still asleep, and Joe was acting protective. Somehow seeing them again just waiting there made it all seem worse.
Now it’s after dinner and all I can think about is, what if what happened to Joe and Lucinda happened to me and Ela? If Jacob’s right about Ela, it could. I can’t imagine being in Joe’s place. Ela taken away, having that done to her by Vector, then finding her bleeding and weak in the infirmary.
Every now and then one of us says something about Joe or Lucinda, like Ela can’t think of anything else either. And I’m keeping an ear out for Mum. It’s still not a great idea for her to find us curled up together like this.
“Have you heard from your mum?” I ask Ela.
“Why?”
“Two weeks will be over soon. When’s she due back?”
“Three days,” Ela says. “Saturday. I won’t be here for your birthday.” Then Ela gets a text. Moves away a bit. Hauls the Com out of her pocket and starts to read the message.
I guess the text is from that Amon again. He’s been texting her the whole time she’s been here, and now she’s started answering them instead of just deleting them. I take her Com off her and read the text out to her.
See you soon.
“Don’t read my texts.” Ela tries to take the Com back. I hold it high, so she can’t. When she gives up, I scroll through backwards – read a few of the past texts.
Nearly all I’m sorry or Where are you? type texts.
Then I come to a different one. At the Tri. Dad forgot the synicarbs. Wish I had my support crew.
I read it out to Ela. “What’s that mean?” I ask, holding the Com high and away from her again so she can’t get to it.
“He does triathlons. It was his final chance to get into the national squad.”
I read the next text out. You’re fit. Eat bananas, she’d texted.
Amon had texted back, You know I don’t like bananas. Wish me luck.
Good luck, Ela had texted. Now Ela’s kneeling on the couch, leaning across me trying to get the thing.
“Not very romantic.” I hold the Com, so Ela can’t reach it.
“Don’t read my texts,” says Ela again, cross this time, still trying to get the Com off me. “Anyway, it wasn’t like that. I was his training partner. But because I’m a girl I could only be the support crew at the competitions. Just hold his HoverBike, pass him the drink bottle, cheer him on.”
“I thought it was all Sweet and Elite for you lot?” Who would be that single-minded, sending texts all the time for two whole weeks if he just thought she was his training partner? That’s not what he thinks.
“Amon doesn’t mind that I can run. He doesn’t mind if I’m as fast as he is,” she says.
I bet. And the text he’s just sent says, See you soon.
“Persistent bugger, isn’t he?” I slide my thumb across the screen and bring up the keyboard. “I’ll answer it for you.”
“No, you won’t.” Ela manages to snatch the Com back. She starts tapping away at the screen. I check the time on my Com. Mum will be a bit longer. I still haven’t been to see Jacob. Ela called in on him earlier, said he seemed all right. She said she didn’t tell him about rescuing Lucinda. She’s got some sense. Ela looks up from her texting and sees me look at the time. “You’d better move now,” she says.
“Why?”
“Your mum’s due, and you’ll pretend you’re still just the baby sitter.”
I take her at her word and move away from her to the end of the couch. “What do you expect me to do?” I ask.
“You could behave normally. You could visit Jacob with me. You could act as though you like me when you are around your mother, and not like you think you’re doing something wrong.” Ela carries on answering the text.
I sit there with my elbows on my knees, Com in my hands and consider her. Decide to explain a few facts of life to her. “Mum’s not the only one who’s going to think it’s wrong. Most people will, and even you aren’t too sure.”
“That’s not true,” says Ela.
“Of course, it is. You’re Elite. I’m just breeding stock.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“That’s the way it looks. And you keep answering those texts.”
“I’m just being polite.”
I nod at the Com. “You sure you’re not just keeping your options open?”
“Are you jealous?”
I ignore that. “When are you going home?”
“Saturday.”
“And you go back to your own life.” I look at my Com again. Only a few minutes until Mum arrives. I’ve been in a foul mood all day. I figure it’s Joe and Lucinda.
“You know I can’t stay.” Ela’s still tapping away.
“So, you’re going back?” I look at my Com again. Mum arriving in the middle of us arguing about this isn’t a good idea either.
> Ela shakes her head, like I’m just being annoying now. “I don’t have any choice. But from now on I can visit Jacob a lot,” she says.
Like that’s some compensation. “And text. Maybe some emails?” I say sarcastically. “Or we both could get an ImageMaker, send some holograms.”
“I don’t have any choice. I have to go home. Mum had to get a special dispensation for me to come here in the first place.” Nobody ever stays. “I’m just a kid,” says Ela.
“You had me fooled.” I look up at the VidScreen. Fields of Genus 6 scroll by. There are several things in my world that are irritating at the moment. Those bloody Humicrib babies bumbling across the screen again for one. Next, I’ll get the speech about staying friends and keeping in contact.
“You’re being unreasonable.” Ela stands up. “I’m going to bed.”
I ignore her. I can’t believe she is planning on leaving me and going back to that texter, Amon.
She stops by the door. “We could stay at Jacob’s tomorrow night,” she says, sort of tentative.
“How?” I ask, not particularly nicely.
“You could tell your mum that Jacob is coming home tomorrow, and we have to look after him.” Ela is standing there by the door, hesitant.
“You want me to lie to my mother?” I ask still grumpy.
“You’ve done it before.”
“When?”
She laughs as she goes out the door, gives me the slow fade. “He doesn’t want to lie to his mother.” She walks slowly up the passageway. “And I think I remember him doing it a couple of times,” she says. “I’m sure I heard him say he wouldn’t drink a few nights ago. Then we have to wait until he sobers up. And then there was ‘I’m just looking after her like Jacob wanted me to’, and he knows Jacob wouldn’t agree with the way he is looking after me now.” She goes into her bedroom and shuts the door.
Smart arse.
*
I lie in bed and think it through. Ela’s plan to spend the night at Jacob’s is going to blow up in our faces. For some reason, adults think there’s a big difference between staying out late and staying out all night. And Mum’s not stupid. She has to know things have changed between Ela and me. But I don’t see any reason to rub her nose in it.
Ela’s mother and Jacob are another story. They leave Ela in my care for two weeks, and I seduce her. Well, who seduced who isn’t a question they’re likely to ask.
As for Ela’s cover story, it has as many holes in it as chicken netting.
I can imagine what is going to happen. Ela’s mum rings my mum.
“Hello Mrs Fraser. Thanks for looking after Ela. Can I speak to her?”
Mum says, “Ela is at the farm. Jacob was released from hospital early.”
Ela’s mum, “I don’t remember hearing about an early release.”
Result: the shit hits the fan.
Another scenario and believe me, I can come up with at least fifty.
Mum rings Jacob.
She says, “Hi, Jacob how did Jack and Ela cope without the nurse?”
Jacob says, “No idea. I was still in hospital.”
Same result: I’m unemployed, and on my way to University to help repopulate the world. And we’re both in trouble.
If medical science doesn’t work out for her, Ela shouldn’t rely on being Vincent’s next sidekick. I don’t think the undercover game is going to suit her.
I turn over and haul the duvet up around my ears. I know Ela is about a metre away from me on the other side of the wall. And we only have two days left before Jacob gets out of hospital. Then the mother turns up, and Ela goes home. I think about Joe and Lucinda again and how all that could happen to us.
To hell with it, I think, and get out of bed. Mum will get over it. I go into Ela’s room.
“What’s wrong?” she whispers.
“Nothing,” I say. “Move over.”
“What about your mum?” she whispers, moving across the bed and lifting up the duvet like she did a few nights ago.
“She’ll cope.” I curl up around her and pull the duvet back over us. Next morning, we both come out of the room together and Mum copes fine. She never says a word.
*
So, it’s morning, and I’m in a foul mood again but pretending everything’s sweet. Ela’s still leaving on Saturday. Today she’s going to visit Jacob then meet me at his house.
In the meantime, I’m going to the farm to do a bit of work, and then I’ll drop some food off to Joe and Lucinda and check they’re all right. Curley thinks he has things set up, so we can move them on Sunday. There still hasn’t been any reaction from Vector to Lucinda going missing. Can’t figure what that’s all about.
Anyway, by the time I’ve finished work, dinner will be cooked, and we’ll have our romantic night together.
It’s a plan.
After breakfast, Ela and I walk down stairs. She looks cute: short white dress, those little black slippers she likes, and her cloak. She’s looking like an Elite, all dressed up to see Jacob again.
I decide to leave her to it because, after last night, talking to Jacob has got even more problematic. We stand on the street outside the pub and chat for a while. Then she goes back inside to pack up her gear for tonight.
I see the Willis brothers across the road outside the dairy again, just like every other morning. They’re eating their breakfast pies watching Ela and me.
I can’t avoid them forever and, the way they’re staring, I can see they’ll be ready the next time we meet.
I watch them for a while, in their black jeans, tight vintage t-shirts stretched to breaking point across their stomachs, holding their pies.
They stand there looking across the road, watching me back.
I figure they aren’t going to attack me in the middle of the street, so I wander off to get the Land Rover and go to work.
*
I start working. Do all the normal stuff. Check the glasshouses. Feed the dogs. Top up the fertiliser in the irrigators. Move some stock and so on. While I’m working, I think about the Willises, them standing outside the pub like that. On the way out, I passed Vincent going into the Private Bar. Maybe he was going to meet up with them.
Then I think about this plan of Ela’s. Mum coped just fine this morning, so there’s no need to spend any night at Jacob’s now. And if the Willises come to Jacob’s house looking for me after their meeting with Vincent, it would be better if Ela wasn’t there.
I’m at the back of the farm and still have to check on Joe and Lucinda at the vault. Once I get near the waterfall, there’ll be no service to my Com for the next hour or so. If Ela turns up before I get back to the house, she’ll be there on her own with no chance of us connecting, and Henry and Charlie still roaming free.
By mid-afternoon, I decide to put an end to Ela’s plan.
I get out my Com. Ela is probably on her way to the farmhouse right now. I need to stop her before she gets there.
I call, and she answers straight away.
“Hey.” I’m not too sure how to tell her about changing my mind.
“Hey,” she says. “What’s up?”
“Don’t go to the house when you’ve seen Jacob. Go back to the pub. I’ll meet you there.”
“Why?”
“Change of plan.”
“Why?” she asks. “Is something wrong?”
“Jacob doesn’t want you in the house on your own, and I could be a while.”
“Okay.” Maybe she was having second thoughts too. “How long will you be?’
“Another hour, maybe a bit longer.”
“Okay, I’ll see you at the pub.”
I’m pretty happy about that decision. Ela’s plan was just going to make trouble all round, and at the moment it’s better to keep a low profile. I’m pretty sure the shit is going to hit the fan soon with this Lucinda thing.
I can’t figure out why it hasn’t already.
I call Curley.
“Are you almost ready to move th
em?” I ask.
“Yeah, all set,” he says. “Tell Joe it’s all on for tomorrow.”
Maybe we’ll get away with it. Maybe Vector’s recordkeeping is so poor they don’t notice one missing prisoner.
Yeah, right. I put my Com in the pannier. It’s going to be no use to me for a while.
Chapter 27
I RIDE TO THE BACK OF THE FARM. When I get there, I check no one’s around then stash the bike just inside the bush line. I signal the dogs to stay with it. I figure if I’ve got this far without anyone seeing me there’s no point in advertising my whereabouts to lurking Willises. Monsanto eyes me, not liking being left behind, then he flops down flat with a sigh, head on paws, obeying the ‘stay’.
I get the backpack with the food out of the pannier, mainly fruit and sandwich ingredients. Neither Joe nor Lucinda looked in any shape to cook up a storm yesterday. Lucinda was still pretty weak, and Joe just looked shell-shocked.
I shrug into the pack then follow the track to the waterfall. The bush whispers around me. Light filters through the canopy, plenty of birdsong, everything is normal.
But I’m tense, got that ‘something is wrong’ feeling.
Dismiss it. Ela’s back at the pub, Joe and Lucinda are safe in the vault. Curley will get them away tomorrow.
Maybe I’m just worrying about the fallout. We’ll deal with that when we have to. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing to link us to the rescue. Curley said he’d deleted all the surveillance stuff.
I get to the clearing and stay on the edge, check I’m still alone.
No footsteps behind me, birds are still singing, nothing in the clearing.
It’s all the way it should be. No one else is around. Just the waterfall, the rocks, the trees and the pool.
But there’s still that nagging feeling of the sky about to fall in.
I climb up on the rocks. Pull the lever to release the fulcrum. The slab tilts back and I leap down into the entrance area. A shaft of light comes through the opening and hits the heavy metal door.
I punch my birthday into the key pad beside the door. The entrance stone slides back into place, and that first door whispers open.
I go into the vault. It stretches out in front of me, white tiles, glass doors, row upon row of shelves with bins.
