by James Phelan
‘How do you know that?’ Sam asked, holding his torch so that Xavier could keep unpacking the crate.
‘That’s how it was listed on that inventory list.’
Xavier carefully put the contents of the well-stacked crate aside until finally he pulled out a flat wooden box, the size of a CD cover. Xavier stood back, popped the clasp, and despite the darkness Sam could make out the gleam of the bright brass Gear. They’d found the next piece of the Bakhu.
We’re another step closer.
32
EVA
Eva had drained three of her four water bottles and eaten all but one of the energy bars she’d packed. She sat on her backpack on a wide ledge at the base of a sheer cliff. Above her there was maybe another hour’s climb. Her legs burned, her face was numb and she was short of breath.
The sun now beamed back at her, perched on the other side of the Academy, blinding her as she trekked through the bright-white snow. Her ski-goggles were tinted, but gave a weird distortion of the world underfoot and blocked her peripheral vision as she climbed onwards.
What was worse, with maybe only three hours of decent sunlight left until it disappeared behind the other side of the Academy’s taller mountain. It would be sunset a couple of hours after that, she was running out of time.
She contemplated calling the Academy—had Gabriella passed on her note? She looked down at the phone in her shaking hands and saw that it was struggling to find any reception. One lowly bar flickered on and off on the screen. She smiled wryly. Maybe I should have asked Jedi for a phone upgrade too?
Eva was sure Lora and the Professor would understand her being out here, if it meant finding out about her dream. What was it Lora had once said to her about Sam going it alone to follow his dreams? ‘It’s not a perfect situation … but a necessary one.’
She willed herself to get moving again. To the side, it looked as though she’d shave off half the time if she was strong enough to make a near vertical ascent as a shortcut. From up there, where she’d seen the fire, maybe she’d be able to see a clear way back, a quicker way not visible from the pass. She banged her crampons free of ice and frozen snow, strapped them tightly back onto her boots and stood to set off.
Eva checked her watch again—another hour had slipped by. She was closer to her goal now after summoning the strength to make the more challenging vertical climb.
Maybe I’m not as unfit as I thought I was. Trying out for the track team has finally paid off. If only Mr Lawson at school could see me now, ha!
She pulled off her backpack and dug around for a water bottle. She ran her tongue over her cracked lips and realised how sunburnt she had become. ‘Where is that bottle?’ she mused to herself as she rummaged in the bag.
She paused for a moment as she heard a noise. It sounded like a wave at the beach. She stood still, listening.
Is that a plane?
‘Where is that coming from—?’
She looked up, too late.
An avalanche.
There wasn’t even enough time to panic as a wall of blinding whiteness threw itself on Eva, picking her up like a rag doll and throwing her carelessly, endlessly down the mountain. Her body catapulted over and over in the raging torrent of snow, her eyes closed, her mouth silently screaming as she flailed within the fury of the avalanche.
Then suddenly Eva felt like she was floating in the clouds. She was moving, slightly swaying, as if she were gliding on her back in the sea, looking up at the dark and cloudy sky. She gulped for air whenever she felt herself surface from the great white waves. She tried to call out over the deafening roar. The whiteness turned to blackness and engulfed her.
She dreamed that she was lying in the snow, looking up at the sky … she was talking to Tobias … she was trying to explain to him about the camp fire, her urgent quest, but her words were unclear and all in the wrong order. Her panic rose and then her dream pulled her back into darkness. I’m so tired … it must be time to rest …
Lora tapped at Eva’s cheeks, ‘Eva.’
‘Hey …’ Eva said, slowly.
Lora wasn’t in my dream.
Eva was on her back once more, but this time she could see she was just inside the open front doors of the Academy. It was dark outside but she could make out the snowmobile pulled up almost inside the doors. ‘Eva, can you hear me?’
‘Yes,’ Eva said, struggling to sit up as Lora held her gently. The Professor was there too, and the nurse she’d met on her first day at the Academy.
‘Eva, what do you remember?’ the Professor asked her.
‘Remember?’ Eva asked, in a daze. She looked out at the snowmobile again, and then down at her snow suit, still smothered in wet snow.
What happened? Where’s the cave and the camp fire?
The avalanche!
Eva slowly started to recall what had happened. How she’d nearly made it to the camp fire on the mountain when the avalanche struck. She was swimming in snow, searching for air. Every time she thought she was safe, it pulled her back under.
‘Do you remember how you got back here?’ the Professor asked her.
‘I … did someone bring me back?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Lora said. ‘You were found unconscious outside just a moment ago, someone left you and the snowmobile there.’
‘No … I didn’t see anyone. I was alone the whole time,’ Eva said.
‘There were track marks leading away, but it’s snowing too heavily now to follow them,’ the Professor said.
Eva looked at them all, confused.
‘Seems you have a guardian angel out there,’ the nurse said, giving Eva a drink of water. ‘You’ve been very fortunate.’
‘Yeah …’ Eva said, not knowing what to make of it. She thought she recalled talking to someone, the sensation of being carried … but by who? By whoever it was out there with that camp fire, that’s who.
‘We had a search party out there looking for you, we had no idea where you were,’ Lora said. ‘You wouldn’t want to be trapped out on the mountains at night, you’d freeze to death.’
‘I—I’m sorry if you were worried,’ Eva said. ‘I left a note with Gabriella.’
‘She fell back asleep and when she woke up the note was hidden under her bed and she’d forgotten about it,’ Lora explained. ‘We only found it later when we got worried about you being missing.’
That’d be right. Thanks for nothing, Gabriella.
‘And then Jedi thought to review your dream recording so we realised what you were trying to do,’ Lora said.
Eva sighed deeply. ‘I just had to see, to get out there, to feel like I was actually doing something … I can’t explain it. I dreamed I had to go.’
33
SAM
‘How do you think it ended up here?’ Xavier asked, tucking the Gear into his backpack as they ran back through the tunnel towards the control room. ‘Being hidden in the war like that?’
‘Maybe one of the scientists who worked here saw it and wanted to study it,’ Sam said.
‘Or they wanted to steal it from some place,’ Xavier said. He led the way into the control room.
‘Yeah, who knows …’ Sam swallowed hard as he stood and looked out across the factory. The dust cloud still blocked the view below, and down the end from where they’d come, the glow of the German team’s torches were looking about the aircraft frames and machines, carrying out a thorough search for them.
‘They’ve passed under us,’ Sam said. That was the good news.
The bad news was there was now another set of torches. These lights were different. They were brighter, throwing out a whiter light, piercing the darkness like lasers. The other difference was that they were coming from the other end of the massive underground factory.
A second group is down here.
‘What’s that?’ Xavier asked.
‘Not what, but who,’ Sam said. ‘And I’ll bet you that it’s the Enterprise.’
‘They weren’t in my
dream,’ Xavier said, his nose to the glass.
‘I didn’t see them either,’ Sam agreed.
‘What’s the good of seeing the future if it’s not what happens?’ Xavier said, his voice starting to falter.
‘As we change things from how we dreamed them, so the reality changes,’ Sam explained.
‘Well, that’s great, about my dad. I mean—he might be OK now.’
‘Yep.’
‘But now what do we do?’
Sam looked around. They had maybe two minutes before either side would be at their position. Not long enough to do much of anything. There were no other exits that he could see.
‘We need a diversion,’ Sam said, moving over the control panels that ran along the length of the gantry. Before them were a few dozen dials.
‘Think these still work?’ Xavier said.
‘Let’s check it out,’ Sam said, and together, they started flicking switches.
The darkness whirred into life.
Immediately, both the Germans and Enterprise opened fire, each quickly realising in the fog of the dust that they were not alone and becoming engaged in a firefight with each other that sent bullets sparking off aircraft fuselage pieces and immense heavy-steel pieces of old machinery. Several of the office windows cracked but did not break.
With the last switch, Sam could hear the deep cough of big diesel generators starting up—and then the ear-splitting sound as one of them exploded. Even more dust erupted around them, the sight backlit by a fire sparked from the diesel fuel. The belch of flame caused an ancient sprinkler system to creak into life and water rained down into the factory. The two sets of lights at either end of the factory now moved fast and frantically, zigzagging across the vast room as shots continued to ring out.
‘That’s definitely a diversion!’ Sam muttered as they ducked for cover. ‘Keep trying stuff!’ he said as they crouched underneath the control desk. Xavier pummelled the remaining switches and buttons above him.
Finally—movement.
The entire control room began to move slowly once more, the rails in the ceiling shaking with the effort.
Out on the factory floor, amongst the mayhem of the firefight playing out, other machines had groaned into life, including a conveyor belt carrying a wingless aircraft fuselage right past the office and towards the Enterprise team.
‘Wow!’ Xavier said, his nose pressed up to the glass, looking at the aircraft passing by. They resembled UFOs more than traditional-looking aircraft. ‘They’re complete but for the wings.’
‘And that helps us because …’ Sam asked.
‘They’re Horten Ho 229s—amazing,’ Xavier marvelled. ‘My dad would have loved to see these!’
By the flashing red light that cast the scene in an eerie glow, Sam wondered if his friend was going nuts in the heat of the battle raging below.
‘Focus, Xav!’ Sam said. ‘We’re headed for those Enterprise guys, who’re going to search in here as soon as the control room gets close enough.’
‘We can ride out in a cockpit!’ Xavier said.
‘A cockpit?’
‘In one of the planes!’
‘We don’t know where that conveyor is going,’ Sam said.
‘It’s gotta be better than where this control room is going,’ Xavier said, pointing to flashes of machine-gun fire.
‘OK, good point,’ Sam said. ‘How do we do this?’
34
ALEX
After expertly weaselling his way to the front of the queue at the gate, Alex despaired at the size of the Berlin Zoo. How will I ever find them in here? What if I’ve already missed Stella’s secret meeting?
He’d almost not believed his luck when he’d spied some Agents in the crowd near the monkey enclosure. Sticking to them like glue, Alex had watched in awe as Stella and her team had converged next to an ordinary-looking garden bed and then blasted through it, not even caring who was watching. Without turning a hair, they’d casually roped down through the hole in the garden. As Alex came up close for a look, he saw there had been a concrete slab structure underneath a metre or so of topsoil.
Smiling to the curious tourists who were beginning to look over, he crept to the hole and looked in. He couldn’t see anything but darkness, and he held onto a rope to peer down into—a factory? By the dull torch illumination somewhere deep below, he could make out a conveyor belt, stacked high with what looked like plane parts that ran the length of the factory floor.
What has Sam gotten himself into now?
It took only a moment for Alex to make his decision. He pulled out the descenders he’d stowed in his backpack, clipped them onto the nearest rope and flipped over the edge into the darkness below.
He began cranking the descenders, hand over hand, but plummeted to the floor as he lost control of one and fell fast—saving himself the bump to earth with a final pull on the rope. Man, that was close!
Alex found himself in the midst of large crates, the floor covered in the dirt and discarded rubbish from years before. He threw himself behind a mound of boxes to take a moment to orientate himself.
Right, time to find out what’s really going on.
He pulled out a torch but stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a voice. Not just any voice, but the voice of someone, something that dripped with malice and such anger that Alex involuntarily shrank from the sound of it.
Forcing himself to inch forward, Alex took his courage in both hands and slowly peered round the corner of the boxes. There, in the darkness was an even darker shadow in the shape of a masked man. From everything he’d ever heard about him, he had no doubt. This was Solaris.
Why did I come down here? Stupid, stupid! I’m going to get myself killed.
His fear swam before his eyes as he tried to listen to the voice as it spoke into a radio receiver.
‘You know the penalty for failure,’ Solaris spat out. ‘Find the boy, find the Gear. Take all necessary measures. I expect success from you, Stella.’
Alex gasped and his hands flew to his mouth to hold in the noise.
Stella? I knew it! She’s a dirty, double-crossing …
Solaris swung around in the darkness, pacing back and forth. Alex held his breath and willed his pounding heart to be quiet. After a moment that stretched forever, Solaris turned away and just like that, he was gone into the shadows.
Alex sank to his knees, relief and panic flooding through him in equal measure.
Stella … working for Solaris. That’s who she met with in my dream. I have to tell Jack and Mum.
Alex ran back to the ropes, grabbing the high-powered hydraulic ascenders he’d also liberated from the Enterprise stores. He snapped them onto the line and pushed the button, instantly pulled up towards the light above. He was nearly there when clicking noises rang out around him and lights flickered on throughout the factory. A loud grinding directly below him made him look down. The conveyor belt was now moving!
He flung himself up over the lip of the hole. As he was still trying to make sense of everything that was happening, he heard the unmistakable crack-patter of gunfire, along with long muzzle flashes of weapons.
Alex pulled himself back and moved away from the hole, whipping out his phone. There were three missed calls from Phoebe.
He pressed her number, impatient for the call to be answered. ‘Come on, come on … pick up …’
‘Alex?’
‘Mum, listen, I’m—’
‘Stella and her Agents are at the zoo,’ Phoebe began.
‘I’m at the Berlin Zoo,’ Alex said at the same time.
‘And they—’
‘I know, Mum, listen, please. Sam must be here too, down in an underground factory or something. And they’ve started shooting!’
‘What?’ Phoebe said.
‘Stella and her thugs are down in this big basement thing, shooting!’ Alex’s voice rose to a shout.
‘Alex, Agents don’t shoot—’ Phoebe said.
‘Listen!’ Alex hel
d his phone over the hole in the ground so that his mother would get the full effect of the firefight playing out below. ‘Now, does that not sound like a war zone to you?!’
‘I don’t understand …’ Phoebe said, her voice trailing off.
‘And there’s more, I saw Solaris!’ Alex replied.
‘What? Alex, please, I want you to stay out of danger!’
‘Solaris is down there!’ Alex yelled. ‘And Stella’s working for him!’
‘What did you say?’ Phoebe said quietly. ‘It sounded like you said—’
‘I did.’
35
SAM
Xavier seemed to be having the time of his life in the middle of this gunfight, while Sam kept his lips shut tight and grabbed onto the plane with white knuckles.
No sooner had they jumped from the steel staircase landing of the control room, they were crammed inside the cockpit of a half-finished aircraft, Xavier seated in front of Sam. Xavier tried furiously to find the lever to slide the canopy into its closed position, only to discover it was not working.
‘I think it only closes with the power of the engines,’ Xavier said, tugging at the canopy. ‘Or it’s stuck from age.’
‘Keep your head down!’ Sam whispered to Xavier as the aircraft approached the Enterprise Agents, the cockpit passing their enemies at head height.
Sam peered over the edge of the grimy front section of the canopy and could see he was right—they were Agents, at least ten or more, and Stella was yet again leading them. She was in a covered position behind a stack of aircraft landing gear, while an Agent lay next to her, wounded. She gestured to small groups of Agents at either side who silently fanned out, while she remained with the middle group.
‘What do we do?’ Sam asked, thankful for the deafening noise of the rusty machinery. Ahead, the conveyor shuddered on, although it couldn’t last indefinitely. There was something else though … a glow?
