For Colin
Acknowledgements
Book Two of the Sun Song Trilogy has been too long coming and some thanks are overdue. I am especially grateful to my regular early readers Frances Wright and Colin Baird. To Rachel Davidson and Clare Watts who scrutinised every word and to the rest of the Scoobies (SCBWI) and YA crit group who have encouraged and supported me throughout the writing of this book.
There is a smattering of Gaelic in the book and I am indebted to the lovely Maggie Rabatski for checking and correcting that smattering Huge thanks are due to everyone at Fledgling, in particular Clare Cain who took this project under her wing at a particularly difficult time.
Lastly I would like to thank my family for always being there, especially my sons, John and Gary and my sister Liz. And of course love and thanks to my husband Colin, he’s the foundation that keeps it all together.
Black Rock Island — 2089
Ishbel
Ishbel huddled on a narrow cliff ledge watching the prisoners escape. The crisp sea wind nipped her face and she breathed in the joy of it. All those years at the Military Base had robbed her of this. She was never leaving the sea again. She watched her brother Kenneth direct the loading of the wasted and mutated prisoners onto boats and submarines destined for the rebel army’s HQ. Freed at last from this island of death and experimentation.
She heard him roar, ‘This is all going very well.’ She smiled. And there was young Sorlie, her charge for so many years looking lost yet tall, older than his sixteen years. Maybe it was the infrared lens he wore over one eye, he seemed alien. He scanned the cliff top as if looking for her, but she knew that was rubbish, he would be expecting her to be on that Northern Archipelago, waiting for the submarines to arrive. How was he to know she had unfinished business on Black Rock? Before Ishbel could stop herself it was done. One short birdcall of the corncrake, her call, the one she knew he would recognise. He lifted his head, she saw his start, his stare, his joy. He had seen her. ‘No,’ she mouthed and held her finger up to her lips when she saw him move to the cliff. They mustn’t know she was there. Vanora would have her arrested and she was not ready to go back yet.
She shooed him away. ‘Go, Sorlie, I have work to do,’ she whispered. Then putting her thumb and index finger together she OK’d to him and climbed out of his sight, hoping he would get the message. She was a fool to show herself but the shine of joy on his face told her maybe her instincts weren’t so wrong.
When the last landing boat left shore Ishbel returned to the cliff. She used the cooling outlet pipe to enter the penitentiary. No one would be expecting that. The pipe was still warm from the escape and now free of algae after the descent of a thousand backside slides scoured it clean. Her coarse uniform and tough boots made easy work as she shucked up the pipe. The alarm that would have sounded during the main breakout had stopped but the main generator lights burned. This she found strange. Why would Davie bother? He would be in his library, she was sure. A prison warden, now without prisoners. She grasped the hilt of the gun in her pocket, rehearsing in her head what she would say just before she put him to death.
There was an eerie air around the reactor room, as if the building was holding its breath. The air smelled of fleeing men, their sweat, their fear. What looked like snail trails of blood painted a pathway on the floor. She drew her gun. On tiptoe, she followed the trail to the control room. She tasted cold and bitter fear in her mouth.
The door was slightly ajar. Again, bright lights shone through, as if someone was afraid of the dark. Sweat ran down her back even though her breath crackled in the chill corridor. She braced and pushed the door. There was a body on the floor. The face was blown off but she still recognised it as Davie, the tyrant of Black Rock and the father she had met only three times. The last time only yesterday. Someone had beaten her to it – her kill denied. She pushed her disappointment behind her as she stepped over the body, just to make sure. What a mess, the top of his skull blown, peppering the walls. That proud silver mane now matted in blood and brains. On the floor beside him lay his old battered gun. Ishbel couldn’t believe he’d taken his own life. She lifted the gun with thumb and index then wiped it on the bottom of her coat. This would be her souvenir, her birthright from the father who never suspected their blood tie. She would now never have the pleasure of telling him that after her mother, Vanora, had fled his fist, Ishbel was born and had lived in exile for many years. When mother and daughter returned to the ravaged State of Esperaneo thirteen years ago Vanora provided Ishbel with false papers and arranged her service as a domestic native on a Military Base. Her assigned Privileged family had welcomed her then left her in charge of their precious son Sorlie while they missioned for The State.
It was only later she discovered Sorlie’s mother was her own sister, Vanora and Davie’s other daughter, brought up Privileged. And Ishbel’s charge Sorlie was her nephew. It had seemed so simple then.
Ishbel stood over the brute’s body and spat into the gory mess. She hated him even more because he’d robbed her of the pleasure of killing him herself.
The monitors in the control room showed only blurred pictures. She realised she’d been crying, but natives were not permitted to cry. She wiped the tears with the heel of her hand and her nose on a sleeve. The infirmary monitor showed only dim lights. She squinted to make out the shapes. Saliva flooded her mouth; blood on the bed sheets, blood on the floor. Not all the prisoners had made it to the boats. Someone had massacred them, just as natives were being massacred everywhere. There was nothing she could do for them now. Another monitor showed what she guessed was Sorlie’s room, untidy as usual but empty. Another pointed to the two doors leading to Davie’s surveillance-free library. One was closed, the other open a crack and a ribbon of light shone from within. She couldn’t resist one last look. She would take a couple of the rarer books to sell to the Noiri, there was always demand on the black market for books. Maybe she’d keep one for herself.
Vanora’s thought-map escape plan of the penitentiary was etched in Ishbel’s brain, she knew the way. She crept along the corridor with her own gun in one hand and Davie’s in the other just in case the guards woke up.
Someone was near. She could almost hear their breathing in the pin-dropping silence. The floor covering was soft and yet each toe she put down seemed to crunch like broken glass.
At the side of the wooden door she flattened her back to the wall, melting into her surroundings in the way all natives could. She adjusted her grip on the guns then almost dropped them when a scratchy voice shouted, ‘You might as well come in.’
Ishbel stepped into the room and the sight of the small man sitting there almost knocked her back out.
‘Oh no, look at you.’ She couldn’t help herself.
He slouched in a leather chair, a book in one hand, a glass of illegal Mash in the other. The ill-fitting guard’s uniform made him look like a rag doll and his stubble, dirty blond hair and walnut eyes did not seem to fit his pasty skin colour. The relief in his eyes showed her he was expecting someone else, but his smile was shadowed in sorrow.
‘Ishbel, ah believe.’ His voice was slurred and she guessed he had consumed a fair whack of Mash.
‘Who are you?’ She pointed a gun not quite believing what she suspected.
‘Don’t you know, Ishbel? It’s me, Scud, Vanora’s inside man and Sorlie’s native after you left him here.’
‘No, I’ve seen your hologram.’ And yet there was something familiar about him. She wanted to move for a closer look but the sight of him repelled her. He wasn’t right.
He waved a hand down his person. ‘Look at me, ah’m Privileged now.’ His voice almost
sang the proclamation ‘The DNA dilution of the native gene. It worked.’
It was true, he had the pale hair and eye colour of a Privileged, but there was still something subservient about his sly look, his skewed gaze, his drunkenness. If this change was the result of a DNA dilution then some of Scud’s native Celtic genes remained.
‘What are you doing here? Why didn’t you go with the others?’ she asked him.
‘Ah’m going to enjoy being Privileged for a while.’ He moved forward in his seat and licked his lips. ‘Did my wee man Sorlie make it out?’
‘Yes, they’ve gone.’
Ishbel tiptoed round the room touching the brickwork of books lining the walls. She holstered her gun, stuffed Davie’s in her waist belt and touched one book, pushed back another and picked up the heavy tome that lay by Scud’s side. It smelled of ancient histories: masculine and rich.
‘Ah wrote this book.’ Scud’s hand wavered towards it, as if afraid a touch would turn it to dust. ‘The foremost authority in twentieth century history and yet ah was not permitted to touch my own book.’
‘The revolution will change that,’ Ishbel said.
Scud snorted in disgust, a drop of spittle ran from his lips. Ishbel forced down her revulsion at the sight of this mutant.
‘Ah’m surprised Davie kept it, he had such contempt for me,’ Scud said.
‘Maybe he had a use for it.’ She raked the shelves, selecting a few books. The collection was astonishing. ‘Come and help, we can’t leave them to be destroyed by the State. We’ll take some with us, I’m sure the Noiri would give us good credit for them.’
‘Ah’m not leaving.’
‘Yes you are.’
Scud shook his head and took a sip of Mash, then smacked his lips. ‘Davie had only the best. The State must have been very pleased with the way the experiments were going.’
Ishbel knelt down in front of him and tried to catch his sorrowful eye.
‘You are coming with me. Why do you think I’m here?’
‘Vanora sent you?’ but she could see his doubt.
‘No she didn’t. She wants you here, I can see it was her plan all along. You were to stay and kill Davie but it looks like he took care of that himself.’ She wiped her nose of the rancid smell of him. ‘You should have gone with the others.’
Scud put the glass down and sat forward. ‘Vanora’s plan was not so great. That old bastard nearly killed Sorlie. Was that in her plan? That plug-in he used to open the cells welded him tae the controls. Couldn’t move and watched Davie move closer tae murderin him. The wee man must have been terrified. Was that in her plan? What kind of a grandmother is that? Eh?’ he said shaking his head.
Ishbel had known the plug-in design was flawed. Even the designer had tried to stop Vanora issuing it but all that earned him was a bullet in the head. Vanora had to have her way.
‘Aye.’ Scud slurped more Mash. ‘But young Sorlie turned it around. Ah don’t know what he said tae him but whatever it was it tipped the old man over the edge. Although he didn’t have far tae go. Mad as a mozzie in a jam-jar he was.’
‘I’ve disobeyed orders to get here. I’ve grown up hearing stories of the great Scud. Your sacrifices for the cause, your intellect and humour in the face of adversity. Of how you fought to save your family from being enslaved during the first purge.’ Ishbel still couldn’t believe Vanora had left Scud here to perish. ‘When I was growing up you were a god with a capital G and I’m not leaving here without you.’ She could see she had his attention now. ‘When I heard you were to be left behind, I defected, stowed away. Stole onto the island. I came to get you. You’re right, Vanora has lost her touch. She designed the plug-in so that Sorlie could not move. It was supposed to protect him. But what if Davie had got to him?’
‘He nearly did. But you’re wrong, Vanora didn’t plan to leave me. Ah chose to stay.’
Ishbel shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure. She promoted Merj to first lieutenant over me and fell head over heels for his looks and charms, but he was traitorous, I believe a little piece of Vanora knew that. But she didn’t do anything to stop him.’ Ishbel kicked herself. What was she doing rambling on about Merj and his promotion? ‘No, Scud, if we are to fight this fight we need good honest brains. I need you and so does Sorlie.’
Scud continued to shake his head. ‘Very compelling, ah’m sure, but ah don’t owe you anything. Ah’m done with it. Ah want tae spend my last few days as a Privileged.’ He looked at his communicator as if it told him the time and date of his demise. ‘Ah might not be here long but at least ah can have fun. Ah’ve been a prisoner here for twenty years. There’s nothing else going on in my life.’ He reached to refill his glass but Ishbel caught his hand.
‘What if I gave you a reason to live?’
‘And what would that be?’
‘What if I tell you I know where your granddaughter is?’
Scud struck her across the face. ‘Stop it,’ he hissed. Despite his weakened state his blow had clout. ‘They’re all dead.’
‘Reinya isn’t and I know where she is.’ She held a hand to her hot face. She wanted to hit him back but he looked like he had been through enough. ‘And I know how to get her back, Scud.’
Sorlie
The groaning of the bulkhead was a whisper compared to the shrieks of the three hundred escaped prisoners crammed into the submarine hold. Shelves erected onto the heavy metal torpedo racks provided makeshift beds. When we first descended into this sub the men had remained subdued, still dulled with the chemical cocktail Scud had administered before the escape.
The orderly fashion in which guard Ridgeway and I had led the men from their cells into the cooling system pipe, to the beach, was staggering. And even though each prisoner had a deactivated brain function that meant swimming was as a sunken stone, all but a few had calmly ploitered into the water to be picked up by boats and carried to three waiting subs. What wasn’t obvious then was the agony they would suffer during submersion. The crew tried to contain the more frantic. Some men thankfully passed out, but that didn’t stop the screams.
‘Do something,’ I said to Arkle, the crewman who seemed to be in charge.
‘It won’t be for much longer,’ he calmly informed me. ‘The sub needs to descend deep enough to remain hidden under the tow vessel’s wake. Once we’re down we can release some pressure.’
He stood with his back to the hatch and his hand on his holstered gun. ‘Once the chemicals wear thin, the calm gives way to panic and claustrophobia.’
To look at the unruly rabble it was inconceivable that Vanora had a notion to form them into a revolutionary army, a secret one whose aim was to fight the terror of the Privileged regime, to put an end to native slavery and bring equality to the State of Esperaneo. I looked at this rag-tag mess of humanity, mottled and pigmented through years of DNA dilution experimentation. They couldn’t fight a cold, never mind the might of the Esperaneo Military State.
We were heading north to Freedom, Vanora’s stronghold, but as soon as the weight of the ocean washed over the decks and pressed us down, the flat palm of the oppression held us lower than prison incarceration had. Ridgeway, the Bas guard turned superhero, said it would take a day to reach Freedom. A day seemed too long. The stink was overpowering. My own clothes reeked of pisshap and the blood and grey matter of Davie’s death.
Scud, the only success of the experiment, the only one who truly became Privileged had chosen to stay behind with the twelve drugged guards and the decaying mess of the dead tyrant who caused all this misery. Ishbel would get him out. She had to; why else was she there? The drugged guards would have recovered from their nightcap. Satan’s truth, what made Scud want to stay? It wasn’t that great being Privileged.
Someone in the corner was spewing in a bucket held by a crewman. Look at them. Vanora had wanted the prisoners released but still they’re guarded. Arkle s
tood smaller than Ridgeway and even though he was Privileged he seemed to give the Bas his place. Ridgeway led the escape but would they see it that way? He was still a guard. Uncle Kenneth travelled on a trawler. All right for him, lording it up there, the compensation for living in a cave for twenty-odd years and not being subjected to the Universal Chipping Programme. Even though our chips were short range, if we were above ground, they would be lighting up command centres all over the State to the point of fuse blowing. We remained undetected underwater and the sub-mariners were busy systematically working their way down the torpedo deck, deactivating the prisoners’ chips. No longer prisoners, soon to be an army. Scud had even assigned leaders for the breakout. Where were they now? They had disappeared into this great big, anonymous, needy mass that was at last starting to quieten.
Hours passed in grumblings. Rations were handed out and squabbled over. Groups huddled in corners, cliques formed. Some sort of alchemy was at work as assortments of bodies gravitated, whispering. Some stayed alone, sitting on bunks, knees pulled to chests, staring with murderous distorted eyes towards Ridgeway. One man stepped forward, brazen faced but was dragged back by a gentling hand. Ridgeway walked the length of the torpedo hall.
‘Screw.’
‘What’s he doing here?
‘He won’t be here long.’
‘Bas traitor.’
‘Davie’s bitch.’
The insults bounced off his back. It was like listening to a giant centipede waking from a hundred year sleep, shaking out its long scaly body, rattling its legs out ready to stamp on whatever lay in its way. The crewmen who weren’t deactivating chips stood round the chamber, equally spaced, watching. Ridgeway stood straight and worked his face into calm.
Metal rungs, bolted to the bulkhead, supported the men’s bunks. I had an idea.
‘Give me your gun, Ridgeway,’ I said. ‘I need to sort this.’
Wants of the Silent Page 1
