by Meg Buchanan
“Come in,” said Dr Hennessey, he stepped past her and she shut the door firmly behind him. “Did Jacob send you?”
Jack nodded.
“Is Ela in danger?”
“Yes.”
Dr Hennessey sighed. “Jacob said if there was any threat to Ela, he’d send you.” She picked up her Com and made the Connect.
The Connect went through immediately. No shields on her Com, he noticed.
He could see Ela’s face on her mother’s Com. “Mum, why are you calling?” she asked. And for the first time since he’d come out of The Room, he realised whatever they’d done to him had worked. He felt nothing. None of the joy or longing he usually felt when he saw her. None of the wanting he’d felt at the Rave, just nothing.
“Darling,” said her mother. “I need you to come home now.”
“Why?” asked Ela. Behind her he could see kids walking past and tall buildings with the silver glass. She could be anywhere in the City.
“Things are about to CatchFire,” her mother said urgently.
“Oh.” He saw Ela catch the side of her lip between her teeth. “Do you need me to come now?”
Her mother shifted the Com enough that Ela would be able to see Jack too. “Yes, come home now.”
This time Ela nodded. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. See you then.” The Connect dropped away, and Ela disappeared from the Screen.
Ela’s mother turned back to Jack. “Now tell me what’s happening.”
“Don’t know much, but Jacob says the Administration is about to round up all suspected Naturals.”
“And you think Ela is a Natural?”
Jack nodded. “I saw the message her father left her before he was killed.”
He saw Ela’s mother’s eye’s mist up a little before she turned back to her Tablet.
“Are you to go with her?” She opened the Tablet to some page on the Administrations website. He could see the official logo and headings.
Jack shook his head. “Jacob just said to get the message to her.”
Ela’s mother nodded. Her fingers swiped through forms, changed a word here and a name and date there. “So, I won’t need to create travel documents for you too?’
“If you want to you can. I wouldn’t mind getting out of this uniform.”
Dr Hennessey smiled. “I think you might be more use staying right where you are.” She swiped through a few more pages then pressed the send icon and straightened up. “The documents are on her Com now. That should get her away without any questions. After that, it will be Jacob’s job to keep her safe.”
Ela came through the door. She saw Jack standing by her mother.
“Jack.” She went to go to him, and he stepped back.
Ela looked at him puzzled. He’d never done that before. Maybe it was because her mother was there. That made sense.
Her mother handed her a backpack. “Ela, Jack’s message came from Jacob. You need to go now.”
“Where am I going?”
“To Jacobs. You need to stay hidden there until we know what’s happening.”
She looked at Jack. “What is happening?”
“The Administration have a list of suspected Naturals, and you’re on it. Jacob thinks it’s safer if you are somewhere else.
Ela nodded. There was always a risk that her secret would be found out. And with what she’d seen happening at the University and the speed Vector reacted to threats it wasn’t a surprise this was happening now.
But she’d just found Jack, and they’d hardly had any time to talk at the Rave, and now she had to leave.
“Are you coming with me?” The last time her mother thought she was in danger Jack had been assigned to look after her. Maybe Jack was looking after her again. They could both go to Jacobs. They could both be safe until this was over.
Jack shook his head. “Your mother and your granddad think I should stay here.”
“Pity,” said Ela. Now they were going to be apart again. It wasn’t fair. “Have you been at the University?” she asked. She had to know if he’d been part of what she’d seen on the DroneCam feed Curly had picked up, and if he’d been there this morning, he’d know if any more kids had been killed.
Jack shook his head again. “I’ve been at the Barracks, why?”
“Do you know what’s happening there?”
“No idea.”
“Vector has been shooting kids to force someone to tell them what’s going on.”
“That’s dreadful Ela,” her mother exclaimed. “How do you know that?”
She picked up the backpack. “I saw the Vid.” She looked over at Jack. He was so distant. She’d get a reaction from him. “Are you sure you weren’t there shooting kids.”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t me.”
“This time,” she said. She was being unfair. He was just doing what Jacob told him to do. They were on the same side, but she hated seeing him in that uniform.
“I’d better get back to the Base,” said Jack in the same distant way he’d been talking to her since she arrived.
“Be careful.” She touched his arm the way she used to when they were together, and he flinched.
“You too,” he said, then went to the door.
After Jack had gone, Ela pushed her Tablet into the backpack her mother had given her.
Her mother hugged her. “You’ve got travel documents; I’ve sent them to your Com so if you get stopped, you’ll be all right while you’re in the City but don’t go out through the Barrier. Use the tunnel Nick uses. Do you know how to get to it?”
Ela nodded. She’d gone to the Hinterland with Nick once just for the hell of it, so she knew how to get to the tunnel and where it came out.
“Jacob will meet you on his side.”
She nodded again. Even if she ran it would take a couple of hours to get to Jacob.
Ela pulled back a little from her mother and stared at her. Her mother must be working with Jacob too to know about the tunnel. She could have trusted her all along.
Her mother smiled. “We’re on the same side Ela. Everything I do is to keep you safe.” She hugged her again. “Now go and be careful.”
Jack arrived back at the Base just before his twenty-four hours were up. He had no idea if Ela had got away safely. But on the other hand, as he travelled back to the Base it still didn’t look like there was any unusual activity. Maybe Jacob had got it wrong. There wasn’t going to be a crackdown on suspected Naturals.
But better safe than sorry, and better for Ela to be with Jacob than Nick. She said whatever she and Nick had been doing was over, but you couldn’t tell with those two. Not that she’d ever lied to him in the past, but she didn’t believe in playing it safe either.
He walked across to the Barracks. He’d just got to his room and was taking off his coat when Jeron came in.
“You need to move, Jack. We’re all due in the Briefing Room in five minutes. Full combat gear.” He started stripping out of the BDUs.
Jack checked his Com. He wasn’t sure if he was back on duty yet or not. As he looked a message from Leach appeared on the screen.
‘Briefing room. 17:00. Full combat gear’.
Well, Leach thought he was back on duty, and he had exactly five minutes to get his head around that and get into his gear.
Jeron was already changing into the compression suit, boots and coat.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Jack asked him. He started stripping off his dress uniform and changing too.
“No, idea,” said Jeron. He shoved the antiballistic mask into his helmet and held the helmet by its strap while he waited for Jack to get ready. “I guess we’ll know when we get to the Briefing Room.”
Leach stood up the front and waited for the squad to settle. On the way in Jack had seen VTroopers heading for the HoverPads at the double. Hundreds of them. It looked like half the Base had been mobilised. Whatever was going on was big. There was always troop movement at the Base. Troo
pers going on and off duty, or heading to some training thing, but nothing like this.
He took his seat. Maybe it was about rounding up the suspected Naturals. Maybe he’d just got Ela out in time.
Leach waved his hand at the VidScreen, and a series of pictures flicked across it. Jack watched as one familiar location after another flicked past.
The pictures were from outside the City. All around his hometown.
Fuck. What was going on?
He watched as Leach halted the screen and showed a clear shot of the OutPost, not far from where Fitzgerald and his mother lived.
Jack leaned forward a little. He’d been there one night about a year ago. He’d studied the blueprints of the place with Nick and Curly. It had been that raid on the OutPost that had caused all the problems.
Completely tense, he waited to find out what was happening. If Vector was planning a raid near his home, would he be able to get warnings out early enough?
Leach tapped the screen with his hand, and a map came up. Jack recognised every landmark, every place name. He didn’t want to go on a Mission there. It was his worst nightmare coming true. He’d be fighting people he knew. That was even more likely there than here in the City.
“The OutPost will be our base for the next week. As you probably noticed half of Vector will be there too. We have Intel about a Terrorist Cell operating in that area, and they’re planning a major offensive. It’s our job to shut down the Cell and stop the terrorists before they can do any damage.”
“What sort of offensive, sir?” asked Gregor.
“Total destruction of the City,” replied Leach. “It’s our job to make sure it doesn’t happen. We leave in ten minutes. Go to your rooms, pack and be back here in eight.”
Jack stood with the rest. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Destruction of the City? That wasn’t what Jacob planned. He just wanted to tell the world about Genus6. He felt like going to Leach and telling him they had it all wrong. The City wasn’t in any danger.
That could get him killed. And how would he know anyway? He’d finish up betraying everyone. And where they were going was where he’d just sent Ela. Jacob’s farm was right in the middle of the area Leach had shown them. He’d just sent her into a warzone.
He needed some way to stop this happening.
Chapter 18
IT TOOK THREE HOURS for Ela to get to Jacob’s place. Jacob had been waiting for her at the end of the tunnel, and then he’d driven her to his house. She really liked Jacob’s house, the way it smelled of baking bread and biscuits, and the warmth from the coal range. The light through the stained-glass windows made patches of red and blue on the walls.
“Jack said something about the Administration making a register of Elite who are Naturals?” she said to Jacob.
Jacob nodded and shut the front door. “Curly picked up the memo.”
They went into the kitchen, and Ela sat at the dining table. “Are there other Naturals born to Elite then?” She’d spent her first few years here when she was little, and her father was alive, and she’d come to see him a lot when she was growing up, but lately it had been difficult. Both because she was busy with her studies and because Jacob and her mother thought she’d be safer in the City where she could blend in with the other Elite kids.
“I think so.” Jacob lifted the kettle and put it under tap. “Do you want a hot chocolate?”
“Yes, please.” Ela pulled out a chair and sat at the dining table. The last time she’d come to Jacobs to stay, Jack had been here too. He’d been hostile because Jacob had asked him to look after her during the visit. That changed after a few days.
Jacob scratched his chin. “Nick didn’t say how many names there were on this register, but there must have been a few. I wish I knew a way to contact them and get them out.”
“Then you could use them as evidence too.” It was nice to think there were others like her and she wasn’t the only freak.
Jacob shrugged. “A bit of that. But mainly to make sure they’re safe.” He made the hot chocolate, put one mug in front of her and sat at the table too. “Now catch me up with what’s going on. Nick has kept any communication to the essentials so the Administration wouldn’t pick up any Chatter and try to stop us.”
Ela stirred her drink then looked up at Jacob. “Did Nick tell you what is going on at the University?”
Jacob shook his head.
Ela felt her eyes fill with tears. “Vector is trying to find out about the Cell. They line the kids up morning and night and ask them. If they don’t say anything, a kid gets shot. They say they’re going to shoot six kids each morning and night until someone talks.”
Jacob stood up abruptly. “Nick and Curly have to get out of there. And anyone else at the Station. Someone will talk in the end to save their own neck.”
Ela nodded. “I think they’re working on getting all the kids out and away. When I left no one had talked.”
Jacob went over to the window and stared out at the farmland and then the mountain. “I need to stop this. I need to do the broadcast tomorrow.” He turned back to look at Ela. “Can everything be ready by tomorrow morning?”
Ela nodded. “Everything is ready. They’re just waiting for you to give the word. They can block all the Administrations channels and you will be broadcasting to the whole world. You’ll be on everything, every media broadcast, all social media, even Status.”
After seeing how ruthless Vector was at the University and now hearing about the plan to round up the naturals in the City, the Administration would retaliate. “Can I help with the broadcast?” she asked.
Jacob studied her and then came to a decision. “No. You’ll go to the Vault and stay there until I need you. I need to know you’re safe.”
Ela nodded. Like that was going to happen. If Jacob was planning on saving the world, she was going to be part of it.
“What happens first,” she asked.
“I contact Nick, and then we wait until five o’clock tomorrow morning, so we know most of the rest of the world are awake, and we tell them they’ve been conned.”
Nick stood up from the console. “It’s all go. First thing tomorrow morning.”
Curly nodded. “I thought Jacob would decide to bring the time forward.” The Station was packed with kids now. Any kid who knew about them had managed to escape and make their way here. If it ever did come down to a fight, they had an army now.
They also had a lot of extras with no skills. All the kids that knew about the Station had transferred the HazeApp onto the Coms of their siblings and friends and brought them too.
Nick had been trying to come up with a way to get the rest of the kids at the University to safety too, then it didn’t matter. For some reason the shootings had stopped. Vector never carried through with the threat. That was a relief but worrying too. There had to be a reason they weren’t bothering to find the Cell, a reason that it didn’t interest them anymore.
If Jacob was going through with his plan first thing tomorrow morning, he had work to do now. He wasn’t leaving any kids unprotected at the University. They needed to be got out and hidden here before the broadcast.
Because whether Jacob was right or wrong about the Administration’s reaction, he wasn’t taking any chances. Nothing about the way the Administration, Vector and Humicrib acted suggested that they were going to give up control of a lucrative business world wide without a fight.
And the first thing they’d do was take hostages to keep the Locals in line.
Jack slowly unpacked his kitbag into the locker beside the bed he’d been assigned. At the Outpost they didn’t have the luxury of a two-man room the way they did at the Base. Here it was bunks and the whole unit in a single long narrow room. It still had the tiles and shine of the City, but space seemed to be at a premium.
Not surprising because when he arrived it looked like half the StealthHovers and half the VTroopers from the Base had b
een moved here. A full-scale evacuation or an invasion.
Everyone he knew and cared about lived in a radius of twenty kilometres maximum from the OutPost. Even Ela was here. He needed to find out what was planned and get warnings out. All the Locals needed to get to safety.
While he went through the motions, unpacking, and talking to the rest of his squad his mind raced. Did Jacob know what was going on? If Vector just wanted to scare the Locals, they would have filled the sky with the Hovers, a canopy of black from horizon to horizon. But from what he saw the Hovers had travelled in stealth mode. This was covert. Unless someone had been watching the sky and saw the air disturbance there was no way to know of the menace just a few kilometres from the town.
But where would be safe? This sort of firepower could destroy everything. If these StealthHovers and VTroopers were let loose nothing would survive.
“Is this where you come from, Fraser?” asked Gregor.
“Yeah, I was just down the road a few days ago.”
“Did you know about a Terrorist Cell?” asked Levi.
“No sign of that when I was here.” Jack sat down on the edge of his bunk and studied his Com. It would be hours before Jacob would monitor for anything from him. Anyway, with this sort of readiness Vector probably had shields up that would stop any Intel getting out.
He could try a message to Ela through Status but how could he word it so she’d understand?
Somehow, he had to get away from here and go to Jacob. But there was no way he could walk up to the Barrier, say he wanted to visit a friend and leave. He was stuck here. Anyway, it was a good twenty k to Jacobs place. That would take him a couple of hours to run, and by then he might be too late.
Better to bide his time and see if any better opportunity presented itself.
“What are we meant to be doing now?” asked Dante.
Levi stretched out on his bunk. “Grab some shuteye because from what I saw outside, once whoever is in charge gets their shit together, this could turn out to be a long night.”
