The words stuck in Zeke’s throat. He wasn’t sure he wanted the teachers knowing his business. Still, Knimble was on his side. Most of the time.
“Yes, Sir. Deep space.”
“But Hailey, there’s no way you can get to him. Not unless—”
Knimble whistled. “You’ve got a Mariner? Who?”
Zeke bit his lip. Edward Dayo was not so much bending the rules as throwing them out the airlock. Unauthorised space flights were definitely not allowed. That’s why they had to keep it hush-hush. Of course, Knimble could read Zeke’s mind as easily as an electrobook. But reading someone’s thoughts without their consent was considered a breach of human rights.
“Oh, the clock’s ticking,” Zeke said in a very unconvincing tone. “Time for elevenses.” He scrambled away.
The canyon loomed over Zeke the way a house looms over an ant. He was standing at the foot of the cliff, waiting for the hover lift. He looked up, shielding his eyes from the midday sun.
The wire basket plummeted from the heavens. A few feet from the ground the anti-gravity cells kicked in. The basket landed with a puff of dust. The liftomac unhinged the gate to let out the sole passenger. Trixie Cutter. Zeke blushed. Should he say hello? Trixie was the meanest bully in school with fingers in all kinds of dodgy pies. Weapons smuggling, the black market, extortion. There again, she once saved his life. Well, after he saved hers. For the briefest of moments he’d seen the glimmer of a better person.
“Best news all term,” she said with a lipsticked sneer.
Zeke stared at her blankly.
“Your departure, klutz!”
Did the whole school know?
“Ouch!” he cried, as his ear twisted by itself. Cutter was using her formidable psychokinesis. “Tr-Trixie,” he protested, as his ear yanked upwards.
She laughed like a witch. “You know, I’m going to miss beating you up.”
With that she ambled off. Zeke took her place in the basket, his ear throbbing.
“Keep your hands inside the vehicle,” chimed the primitive ’mac, a simple sphere on caterpillar treads. “And off we go.”
The hover lift rocketed upwards, scaling three kilometres in under a minute. It stopped alongside the ledge, bobbing on thin air. Zeke jumped from the basket to the ledge. The trick was not to look down, of course. He’d learned that back in Freshers week. Juanita Almera, a Spanish student, did look down and slipped. The look of horror on her face as she fell! Thanks to the weak Martian gravity it takes a while to fall three kilometres. And the cliff was studded with sensors. These alerted the Mariner on duty who caught her with his psychokinesis before she hit the ground.
Zeke carefully paced around the narrow footpath. Two second-years were leaving, and he pressed himself against the rock face so they could pass. From this height he could see clear across Ophir Chasma. Thanks to the crystal daylight, the far canyon was visible over ninety kilometres away. It looked like a tiny red reef, rising out from an ocean of sand. Awesome.
“Ow!” Zeke cried, as he walked headfirst into the door.
The auto-door sensors were on the blink again. Probably dust. It got everywhere on Mars. Zeke stamped his foot. The glass arch swished open, releasing a smell of strawberry sodas.
For a couple of a billion years the Cranny was a simple fracture in the rock. Then along came the school architects. First, the yawning crack was glassed off, creating one long window with a stupendous view. Next, they converted the interior into a cafeteria, American Diner style.
Today it was full. Students packed the tables, guzzling fizzy drinks and wolfing down cheese toasties. The Jukebox was playing and a hologram of a Country and Martian band were performing. They were singing the hit All Washed Up In The Lonesome Crater. The twangy guitar chords added to the hubbub of voices.
Scuff and Pin-mei were sitting in a nook. Pin-mei was buried in an electrobook with a look of concentration on her face. Zeke’s heart sank. There was one person who didn’t yet know about his departure. His best friend.
Zeke joined them and ordered a can of craterade from a drinksomac. Scuff threw him a look. Zeke raised his eyebrows.
“What?” Pin-mei asked, looking up from her text, The Young Physicist’s Guide to Quantum Decoherence.
“Oh, nothing,” Zeke replied. He cursed his cowardice.
“Where did you go to?” she went on.
“Long story,” Zeke said. He erupted into words, eager to share his encounter with the villainous Doctor Enki. He told them everything, except his resignation.
Scuff whistled. Pin-mei tried to whistle but it came out as more of a squeak.
“I spoke too soon, last night,” Scuff said.
“Oh, Zeke,” Pin-mei said, placing her hand on his arm. “Are you ever going to escape the Hesperians?”
Again, Zeke and Scuff traded looks.
Zeke gulped. “Well, actually, I am.”
A frown formed on Pin-mei’s smooth forehead. She glanced at Scuff, then back to Zeke. “What’s going on? Tell me.”
Zeke felt as though he were slapping Pin-mei in the face. The same girl sent to Mars four years early due to her high ESP scores, so much smaller and vulnerable than the others. The same girl he adopted as his honorary little sister. The same girl he promised to protect.
“I’ve found out where my father is. I’m leaving to get him. Edward Dayo is taking me in his far-ship.”
Pin-mei’s mouth dropped. She really did look as if someone had slapped her.
Zeke’s mind raced for something to say. Something to make it better. Nothing came to mind.
The bell rang. Elevenses was over.
Chapter Five
Zeke’s Room
A pair of socks levitated up from the open drawer, danced though the air and landed in a suitcase on the table. Then another pair and another.
“Psychokinetic packing is fun,” Zeke remarked, standing at the table.
Scuff and Pin-mei were sitting on his bed. They both looked glum and Pin-mei had red eyes.
Zeke’s underwear followed the socks.
“So, you never said what happened to that Enki character?” Scuff remarked.
“Just rushed off with his tail between his legs,” Zeke replied.
“Wish I’d been a fly on the wall.”
“Did feel pretty good, telling Lutzie where to stuff it,” Zeke said.
He glanced at Pin and didn’t feel good at all. His boxer shorts, which were fluttering across the room, fell to the floor. He sat down and put his arm around her.
“I’ve got to do this, Pin. You do see that?”
She sniffed. “Absolutely. I’m right behind you.”
Her tone suggested otherwise.
Zeke drew a deep breath.
“After all, this was always the game plan. Discover Dad’s whereabouts and rescue him.”
“Assuming he needs rescuing,” Scuff suggested.
“Whatever,” Zeke continued. “I’ll find him and probably we’ll be back in a few months. I can come back to the Chasm. It’s a win-win situation.”
Scuff frowned. “Aren’t you overlooking something?”
Albie lit up.
“Incoming Hologram,” the bike said.
A shape materialised in the glow of the bike’s headlamps. An African with thick dreadlocks and a dazzling smile. It was faint and flickering, but unmistakably the broad-shouldered figure of Mariner Edward Dayo.
“Sorry, Earthworms, I’m on the Jovian moon of Europa. Jupiter is at its apex and there’s a massive radiation storm blowing in. Wrecking the signal.”
“Oh, at the protoplasm farms?” Zeke asked.
Dayo nodded. “Yup, now I’ve completed my apprenticeship I’m ready for allocation.”
“Allocation?” Pin-mei asked.
Scuff explained, “Once a Mariner is fully trained to go
outside the solar system, he gets his own far-ship. It has to be customised to the individual’s brainwaves.”
Dayo grinned. “There is a lot more to it than that, earthworm, but you are getting the drift.”
Zeke raised a hand. “Like what?”
Dayo laughed his disarming chuckle. “Your teachers will tell you all about protoplasmic amplification when you are ready. The butterfly cannot spread his wings until the cocoon is broken.”
“Bro, what the heck are you talking about?” Scuff snapped.
Zeke shushed him. “Mr Dayo, Sir. What’s the plan?”
“Allocation takes a week. Then I’ll rendezvous with you at Mars. We will translocate to Cepheus, get your father and return. Don’t forget I have a scheduled flight in ten days. Two hundred colonists bound for Arcturus. I cannot miss the mission. If you are later than a couple of days, I must cancel our trip.”
The image blurred.
“Edward!” Zeke shouted.
Dayo re-appeared. “Fear not, earthworm,” he smiled. “I am not letting you down. Perhaps it is my destiny to help your quest. But the storm is intensifying and—”
The hologram flickered out like a candle.
Scuff whistled. “When you call in a favour, bro, you call in a favour.”
Zeke gave a nervous grin. “I’m really lucky Edward’s helping me.”
“You’re ignoring the obvious,” Scuff said.
Zeke shuffled from foot to foot. “The fact nobody ever comes back from a deep space trip?” he ventured.
Scuff nodded. Pin-mei started biting her nails.
Zeke scowled at them. “I don’t have time for conspiracy theories.”
“Theories?” Pin-mei asked.
“The Government are quite clear. Space colonists are too busy to revisit Earth. It would use up precious resources.”
Pin-mei jumped up. “Zeke, you might never come back!”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“I may never see you again.” She choked up.
Zeke looked at the ground. “Pin, I’m sorry, but my father comes first.”
Scuff gave Zeke a hard stare. “Supposing he’s dead?”
“He’s not dead,” Zeke barked, and stamped the floor.
Silence filled the room. Nobody knew what to say next.
The door buzzed.
“Saved by the bell,” Scuff muttered.
“Open,” Zeke said.
Trixie Cutter, hair tousled, face caked in dirt, staggered through the doorway.
“The orb. Help me.” Her eyes fluttered and she collapsed into Zeke’s arms…
“Feeling better?” Pin-mei asked, and squeezed Trixie’s hand. They were sitting on the bed while the boys stood nearby.
“Here,” Zeke said, and handed Trixie a cup of water. She took a long sip.
“It was terrible,” she said.
Zeke drew up a chair. “What’s happened? You said something about an orb.”
Trixie took a deep breath. “The one that gave you those spooky speaking-in-tongues powers.”
“What about it?” Zeke asked, wide-eyed.
“I was returning to the School with it.”
“What?”
“Oh, I bought it back from Ptolemy Cusp. Got a buyer on the black market. Willing to spend millions.”
Zeke frowned. “You should leave those things alone. You know they’re dangerous.”
Trixie adopted a suitably crestfallen look. “You are so right, Zeke.”
There was a ghost of a smile on her cherry lips. “Anyway I was translocating back and arrived a few hundred metres short. And suddenly it began glowing.”
“Glowing?” Zeke, Scuff and Pin-mei all said at once.
“Exactly,” Trixie went on. “I dropped it and the next thing I knew it was calling your name.”
Zeke gasped. “My name?”
“Aha,” Trixie said, avoiding eye contact.
“Where is it now?” Scuff asked.
“Still there, outside the school wall.”
Zeke clenched his fists. “We need to check this out.”
“You’re so brave, Zeke,” Trixie cooed. “I thought you’d know what to do.”
Zeke and Scuff exchanged looks. Normally, Trixie hated his guts.
“Do you feel well enough to take us there?” Zeke asked.
“Yup, let’s translocate. That’s quickest.”
“You’ll have to take us,” Zeke said.
She shrugged and stood up. “Fine.”
“Zeke and Fatty, take my hands. Pin, you hold onto Zeke’s.”
They followed her instructions. Trixie, Zeke and Pin-mei linked up. Scuff held onto Trixie’s free hand. He reached out to Pin to complete the circle. Trixie shook her head. “No, not that way.”
Scuff lowered his arm.
Trixie suddenly giggled. “Here we go!” She dropped Scuff’s hand.
“What the—” he cried.
Trixie’s eyes flared. Darkness swallowed the room.
Chapter Six
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
It was like wading through a vat of treacle. Then atoms coalesced. Shapes came into definition. Boulders, men, a gun. Pin-mei squealed.
They were outside, at the mouth of a gully. The Chasm’s towers could be seen in the background.
“Good afternoon, Mister Hailey,” Enki said.
He was standing next to a huge hulking man with no hair and covered in red ink tattoos. The man was holding a ferromagnetic rifle.
“Now!” Enki cried.
The gun’s coils and cylinders buzzed.
“Duck!” Zeke shouted at Pin-mei but too late.
The gun blasted them with an invisible stream of particles. They felt nothing. The rifle didn’t injure, it simply soaked them in magnetic ions. Magnetism, of course, was the one thing that cancelled out psychic abilities. For the next few hours they would be no more psychic than any ordinary human.
Zeke twisted round to face Trixie Cutter. “I should have known better than—”
“I’m a businesswoman, Zeke. These diamonds don’t pay for themselves,” she said, flashing a shining signet ring at him.
“Move!” Enki barked. He pointed behind them.
A huge torpedo-shaped vessel on caterpillar tracks lay a few metres away. A bronto!
Zeke slipped his hand in Pin-mei’s.
“We’re going back to the school now,” he said.
He nudged Pin-mei. She gave him a wobbly smile. They took a step backwards and then another.
Enki laughed loud, like a hyena.
“Mister Ricasso, if you please.”
The brute dropped the ferromagnetic gun and slipped another rifle from his shoulder.
Trixie’s smug grin evaporated. “Hey, you promised you wouldn’t hurt them!” she protested.
Ricasso aimed at her. Trixie shimmered like a heat haze and vanished.
“Run!” Zeke cried.
Still holding hands they broke into a sprint. Then came a hissing noise. Zeke’s head exploded with a trillion fibres of pain.
The circle of steel slid open and Pin-mei stumbled into the tiny galley. She was rubbing her forehead. The door clanged shut behind her.
“Here,” Zeke said, sitting at the table, and pointing to a glass of water and pills.
She slumped down beside him and swallowed the medication. For a few minutes they sat without a word, listening to the rumble of engines.
“What did they do to us?” she asked hoarsely.
“A neural disruptor. It flips the on-off switch in the brain. You black out for an hour or two, but once the headache wears off, there’s no ill effects.”
Pin-mei glanced around the oblong room and all the shiny surfaces, the cooker, the re
frigerator and the storage units. Everything reeked of disinfectant.
“So, what does bronto stand for, again?”
“Biometric Rapid Overland Theatre of Operations. Built for the Mars militia.”
“So biometric means it can only work for its owner?”
Zeke nodded.
“In this case Enki. His voice, his DNA, his retinal scans.”
“The same as Lieutenant Doughty’s?”
“The very same, in fact.”
Zeke drew his finger along the table. Four words were scratched into the surface. Scuff Barnum was here.
Pin-mei laughed. Zeke relaxed a little.
“Let’s hope Scuff is raising the alarm even as we speak,” Pin-mei said.
“And not on his bum playing Blood Guzzler Four.”
This time they both laughed. Then Pin-mei’s face clouded over.
“What are we going to do?”
Zeke shrugged and pushed out his bottom lip. He was out of ideas.
“Sooner or later our powers will come back, Zeke. You’ll show them then.”
“Look at your right leg,” he replied with a sigh.
Pin-mei tugged up the leg of her uniform. “Oh!”
A metallic bracelet was tightly attached above her ankle. She tried to pull it off. “There’s no seal. No clasp.”
“No,” Zeke said sadly. “As if it were welded on.”
“It must be bio-metal,” Pin-mei ventured. “Bonds to itself.”
“Yup, no way we can get it off without the right tool.”
Pin-mei sat up again. “Don’t tell me. The metal is magnetised.”
“A thousand percent. Even when the gun’s blast wears off we’ll still be useless.”
Pin-mei burst into tears. She threw her arms around Zeke and cried, “I want to go home.”
Zeke hugged her, but said nothing. He was thinking about Professor Magma and Fitch Crawley. And now the new creep on the block, Doctor Apollodoris Enki.
Enki, you’ll pay for this, he swore under his breath.
The circular door rolled open. Enki clambered in, drew himself to his full height and smoothed back his greasy tufts of hair.
“You’re awake.” He slid a magnopad across the table to Zeke.
The Particle Beast Page 3
