“I wish she would stop and think sometimes.”
“She will… one day.”
“When she is seventy-five – if she’s lucky!”
There was a lot of grumbling when Jack and Jalli called everyone to the kitchen. Wasn’t this supposed to be a holiday? But Jack told them that they had a surprise for them after they had finished their breakfast.
“What surprise?” said Kakko languidly.
“Just wait and see,” said her mother.
“Wait! Wait! It’s always wait. ‘Kakko wait.’ ‘Kakko take it slowly.’ ‘Steady down Kakko!’”
“Well, if it’s always ‘wait’ then it might be that I have a point.”
“But everyone’s just so slow,” she grumbled.
“Who’s slow?” asked Shaun. “I’m not. Dad said the surprise comes after breakfast and who’s eating his breakfast instead of complaining?”
As usual, Bandi said nothing.
“Does this include us?” asked Matilda putting her head round the door. “Momori is not feeling so good.”
“I think you do need to come,” said Jalli.
“Right you are. Tell us when you are ready.”
Kakko slurped the last of her cereal and declared, “Finished!”
“Wait until your brothers have finished theirs,” said her mother. “Go and call Nan and Grandma.”
“Wait. Wwaa-ii-tt! It’s always ‘wait’… Oh, come on you two.” She went and called her grandparents who followed her back into the dining room.
Bandi sat up ready. Shaun took up his glass of juice very deliberately and slowly to annoy his sister. But Jalli ignored this and began.
“OK. This morning I have noticed a new white gate in the garden.”
“So …?” began Kakko. And then the penny dropped. “A white gate! Like the ones you had when you were having your adventures?”
“Precisely.”
“Cool. Will we all be able to see it?”
“That is the thing,” replied Jack. “There are only clothes for two. We were always given the things we needed for our visits. It is therefore likely that only two are invited.”
“So you’re going on an adventure!” blurted Kakko.
“I’m not,” stated Jack. “The gate is not there for me. For your mother, but not for me.”
“So who is the other person?” quizzed Kakko.
“That is what we are now going to find out,” said Jalli. “Follow me.”
Kakko didn’t wait to follow but rushed out of the front door and headed for the main gate. Jalli took no notice of her and led the others behind the tree.
“Where?” asked Matilda.
Jalli stepped forward towards the gate and turned round. There was a look of puzzlement on the faces of everyone. Kakko had, by this time, realised she had headed in the wrong direction and came bounding over and, sure enough, there it was, the white gate. A new, shiny white gate was in a part of the hedge that had never had a gate. Beyond the hedge was an open field which sometimes had animals in it but now the hedge seemed much thicker and there was no sign of the field beyond it. The odd thing was that the world seemed to kind of fold in on itself above the gate. It was so strange. Kakko stood stunned for several seconds.
One by one everyone turned to look at Kakko – her silence was so unusual that it drew attention to her. All she could say was, “Cool!”
“So it’s you, Kakko,” said her father. “It seems, then, that you are the one chosen to look after your mother.”
“Wherever this leads,” said Jalli, “it appears that the Creator has a job for Kakko.”
The larger set of overalls fitted Kakko perfectly. They put them on, together with the tight fitting caps. They looked so out of place that even Bandi couldn’t stop giggling. Jalli took hold of the gate to unlatch it, but it refused to move.
“It’s stuck,” announced Jalli.
“Let me, Mum!” said Kakko exasperated, pushing her mother roughly to one side.
“Kakko!” hissed Jalli. Jalli was becoming alarmed at taking this headstrong girl with her into what was going to be a strange and different world. “When you go between planets you need to do it sensitively. Think about the people on the other side!”
But she need not have worried just then. The gate remained tightly shut. Jack was listening carefully, analysing the situation.
“You have a white gate and you have the appropriate clothes. Have you put them all on? Have you missed anything?” he asked.
“There are only two items each,” said Jalli as she checked the grass for anything smaller they’d missed. “I can’t see anything else.”
“Overalls and caps. Could be a factory. Let me feel them.” Jack ran his hands over Jalli. “Ah. I think I know. This cap is meant to contain all your hair. There could be machinery or something.”
“Of course,” said Kakko. “I should have thought of that. We do that in the college workshop.”
“Right,” said Jalli. “Kakko, if you know about these things, stop and think please.”
“OK. OK,” Kakko sighed.
They took off the caps and Momori and Matilda helped them gather their hair and enclose it inside them.
“Now you look the part!” declared Matilda.
Jalli tried the gate. The latch was free and the gate opened. She turned and reached for Jack.
“I’ll miss you.”
“You’ll be too busy to worry about me. Now you had better go. Kakko come here!”
Jack gathered Kakko in his arms and cuddled her to him. “You look after your mum. Look after her like I would!”
“Yeah, Dad. I’ll try…”
They all gave the departing couple appropriate cuddles. Momori lingered over Jalli. She looked tired.
“I wish you weren’t going,” she said, and added, “but then I never did want you to go anywhere for myself, so don’t mind an old fool like me. You have your adventure girl. Have fun!”
“Yay, fun!” laughed Kakko.
“Come on, let’s go,” breathed Jalli. “Before I change my mind.”
***
Jalli and Kakko found themselves inside a large storeroom of some kind. It had a high corrugated iron roof with a skylight. It was piled up with wooden crates on pallets. There was a forklift truck parked in one corner. It looked like a loading bay because all down one side were roller shutters right to the ground and, on the other, some large, plastic swing doors. Inside the room it was quiet but there was a steady hum from another area somewhere beyond, and the sound of traffic outside. There was not, however, any sign of people.
Kakko examined the crates. She tried to lift one of them but, although it measured no more than sixty centimetres in width and length, and thirty centimetres deep, it was far too heavy for her. Jalli studied the crates which bore what looked like a danger symbol and a picture of the contents. She had seen something similar before. Where? Then it flooded back to her. She recalled Mr. Somaf showing her a land mine in Tolfanland. That one had been disarmed but he had shown her it to warn her what lay all around his house. It had been one such devise that had killed four soldiers while she and Jack had been there. (Although she had not seen the dead bodies herself, Jack had given her a graphic description.) Whatever you thought of the necessity of war, these weapons were unethical, Jalli had declared. But Jalli had long since concluded that war did not solve anything in the long term anyway, there were far more effective ways of tackling arguments and misunderstandings. The histories of both her planet and that of Earth One were testimony to that.
“Be careful,” said Jalli in horror. “I know what these are. They are land mines. This room is full of high explosive weapons, enough to blow up a small town I should guess.”
“What are we supposed to do?” asked Kakko.
“Proceed with caution. Let’s go through those doors. It’ll become clear what our task is when we find someone.”
The two women pushed carefully though the plastic doors. Immediately outside was a little
glass cubicle with a man in blue overalls, like theirs, seated on a swivel chair, reading a newspaper.
“What? Have you just come through from the loading bay?”
“Er… yes,” croaked Jalli.
“How did you get in there?”
“Er… it’s our first day in this department. We were looking for the er… ladies.”
“The toilets? In there?”
“Yes – but it’s the wrong door.”
“You don’t say! Can’t you read? It says quite clearly, ‘No unauthorised entry’. Are you authorised?”
“No.”
“No, you’re not. How you got by me, I don’t know. The toilets, ladies, are over the far side… by the canteen.”
“Thanks,” muttered Jalli.
“Sorry,” said Kakko. She was used to saying sorry.
The man shrugged and they walked across a large workshop with benches upon benches with men and women (mostly women) assembling what looked like bombs and armoured shells.
“A munitions factory for sure,” observed Jalli.
They made their way towards a sign which said, ‘Canteen’ in case the man was watching them, but he had long since reverted to his newspaper. A woman in front them pushed a door into the ladies’ toilets. Jalli looked at Kakko and followed her. “Listen,” whispered Jalli, “and learn.” They each took a cubicle and listened to the conversation between the women at the wash basins.
“That sod of a section boss has got really stroppy since last week. He’s really down on anyone who supported the union.”
“I didn’t go along with anything. Not any of the protests myself, but he’s just so cocky now. Reckons he’s a special friend of Big Plo.”
“All we asked for was proper safety procedures.”
“Yeah, but that evacuation drill occupied most of the morning. It’s rumoured that Big Plo has ordered that we all work an extra shift to make up for lost production.”
“And whatever he says, goes. The company has us all trapped. Me and my hubby, we tried to find somewhere of our own but with what they pay us we will have to live in a company flat for ever… Going to eat?” she asked as they stood at the drier.
“Yes. Company food. Can’t afford anything else.”
“Modern day slavery, that’s what I call it!”
“It is, Yknan, they own us!”
Kakko and Jalli washed their own hands and decided to follow the women into the canteen.
They stepped inside the door and Kakko saw them making their way to the hot foods section.
“They are the women we’ve just overheard,” said Kakko.
“How can you be sure? You didn’t see them; you were inside a cubicle.”
“Oh. I did see them. I popped my head over the top.”
“Kakko!”
“Oh. It’s safe. People don’t look up. Anyway, they had their backs to the cubicles.”
“Looking into the mirrors! And how ever did you manage to see over the door?”
“I stood with my feet on the edge of the pan.”
“You should be careful you don’t fall in!”
“Never have – I’m safe.”
“Never have! How often do you stand on the rim of a toilet pan to look over the door?”
“We used to do that all the time at school. You stand on the pan and drop bits of wet loo paper on the heads of the people in the next one. That was always good for a laugh.”
Her mother just stood and gaped. “You didn’t learn that from me!”
“Oh, Mum. Don’t be so stuffy!”
They caught up with the women at the hot food counter. Jalli had no idea what the convention was here but she guessed she did not need to pay for this. She copied what the women did and she and Kakko both took a tray. When it was their turn to order, Jalli simply said, “Same please.”
“And me,” said Kakko, “and can I have some of that too?”
The woman behind the counter just tipped a reddish looking splodge beside the yellow one she already had.
“I hope you’re going to eat all that,” said her mother.
“Mum!”
“Oh. OK. I’ll stop nagging.”
“Promise…”
“That depends… oh, alright but just behave yourself.”
They traced their way across the canteen. The women in front of them had chosen a free table at the far end beside a large window. Jalli followed.
“Excuse me,” she said, “do you mind if we join you? This is our first day here and we’re a bit lost.”
“Sure. Sit down,” said a buxom woman with a toothy smile. “Your first day. Where have you been?”
“Er… we don’t live close. I… we… this is my daughter, Kakko…”
“Pleased to meet ya… Estap. Name’s Estap. And this here is my friend Yknan.”
Jalli held out her hand. To her surprise Estap took it with her left, and so did Yknan. Kakko extended a left hand. Good, thought her mother, she’s watching.
3
Estap and Yknan led Kakko and Jalli to a large bench in the centre of the workshop. In the centre of the bench was a wide gap along which ran large, upturned, round-ended buckets. Several women were loading them with various components.
“You begin with your shell-casing,” explained Estap, showing them a low trolley stacked with the round-bottomed bucket things. It takes two of you to lift it on the rails… watch.” She and Yknan stood either side of a shell-casing and lifted it up so the top slid into two parallel rails that ran along the inside edges of the gap in the bench. Then she dragged it to the first station ready for the first operation.
“Again this takes two,” said Estap. They lifted a sealed box shaped to fit into the bottom of the shell-casing by two ribbons attached to it and dropped it carefully into the rounded end of the shell.
“This is the nose section. You have to be real careful of course because all the components are delicate – they contain explosives. They should be safe, but you don’t want to go dropping them!
“The most dangerous thing is Charlie over there. (Him with the supercilious grin.) He’s the section supervisor,” Yknan nodded slightly towards a man standing upright with his arms crossed, surveying the scene. “He’s a tyrant for sure. If you step out of line, he’ll have you for breakfast…”
“OK. When your nose assembly is in place, you take a plate and clip it in like this… then you begin with the MEMs – Medium Effect Munitions. Those are the ones that go off within ten metres from the site impact. You put in twenty of these… no, not that one. These little bomblet things with the red tip. Then pour in ball bearings from this pipe until you’ve covered all the MEMs.” They slid the shell further along the rails opposite another group of boxes containing small balls with wings. “Next you put in forty of these real small bomblets. They’re called ‘squids’. They get blown over five hundred metres and go off over several hours depending on their timing. They have four colours… you put in ten of each.”
“What are they for?” asked Jalli, horrified at what she was hearing.
“The squids? The idea is that they stop anyone getting near the target afterwards because you never know when they are going to go off. Last thing: fill it up with more bearings… pack it all tight with this foam… clip on this plate making sure there is no space underneath, and then it goes on to the next machine that seals it all up. But we don’t handle that. We say good-bye to it at this point.”
“How many of these have you assembled since you started?” asked Jalli.
“Me? Oh hundreds and hundreds. I’ve been at this bench for over a year.”
“Do you ever think what happens to them when they’ve left the factory?” asked Kakko.
“No idea. But Big Plo has a good sale for them. We can never make enough of them. His design team are coming up with even more clever things all the time.”
“Do you ever think of the people that they’re dropped on?” persisted Kakko.
Estap stopped and looked her in
the eye. “Do you and your mum want to live? Do you want to have food in your belly and a roof over your heads? If you had little kids you wouldn’t think like that. You can’t afford to.”
“Now your turn,” said Yknan. “Grab hold of a shell-casing… that’s right. Slide it on the rails. Now begin with the nose assembly.”
“I’m not doing this!” hissed Kakko.
“Kakko. Just wait. Let’s go with the flow for a bit and see what the Creator wants of us.”
“No! No way! I am NOT going to make a bomb with bits that kill loads of people for hours. I’m going home!” and she strode towards the plastic doors of the loading bay.
“Kakko!” called Jalli and she rushed after her, catching up with her just after she had passed the man with the newspaper. Kakko ignored his shouts and pushed open the plastic doors. Jalli followed.
Kakko looked to where the white gate had been but it was now behind a huge tower of crates.
“Damn!” she swore.
The man rushed in behind them. “What the hell do you think–” he began as he looked in the same direction as the women. “What in hell’s name has been going on in here? Who’s been moving this stuff around?”
Then Jalli noticed the wires. There were two red wires and two black ones emanating from underneath the pallet and leading towards the wall in which the white gate had stood.
“What are they?” demanded Jalli.
The man lay down on his stomach and looked under the pallet. “Bloody hell! They’re wired to a detonator. Get the hell out of here! I’ve got to sound the alarm!”
They all three rushed back onto the shop floor. The man picked up a small phone-like contraption and yelled, “Sound the alarm. Get everyone out of here. There’s a bloody bomb… I know the place is full of bombs – but not wired up to ruddy detonators! There’s a detonator in Loading Bay One… How do I know? I’ve seen it! Just sound the bloody alarm! Let’s get out of here!” he shouted to Jalli and Kakko who ran behind him to the exit he was clearly headed for. As they went they all screamed, “Get out! Get out! Now!”
“This is for real!” he yelled as he made for the door, but people were reluctant to move. They had been so intimidated after the last drill. Kakko turned and ran back to the women on the PSW bench. “This is NOT a drill. There’s a detonator wired up in there,” she said pointing to the loading bay.
Ultimate Justice Page 2
