by Magus Tor
“Kidnapping a child and taking him out of the City? Yes, I think we are doing the right thing,” she said.
Nicholas chuckled. “I told you it's not kidnapping. I just think it's better that we get him now. If we wait until 01 is taken, then the Gods know what kind of chaos there might be here. We might not find him again.”
The building was a typical training school, looking like a spiral residential building but with less windows and more space outside. They stopped a few metres before the entrance.
“Any suggestions?” asked Aurelia, wondering yet again just how much thought Nicholas had put into this.
“Not yet,” he said. “But let's have a look around first.”
He turned off on a small side street and then turned again, until they were behind the building. There was a high wall in front of them, and Nicholas agilely jumped, gripping the top with his good hand and pulling himself up until he could see over it. He could hold himself only for a moment. When he dropped back to the ground, his face was white.
“What?” asked Aurelia, alarmed.
“See for yourself,” he said.
He boosted her up until she could see over the wall, and it took her a second to realise what was going on. Behind the building was some sort of exercise yard. Not unusual. What was unusual was that the boys in the yard—and they were all boys—were in uniform. Not the regular chem Trainee uniforms but the unmistakeable scarlet of the Elite Army. Aware that Nicholas couldn't take her weight for long, Aurelia looked around quickly, spotting boys as young as nine or ten. Gods.
“They're only children,” she whispered, jumping down. “Kids.”
“Soldiers now,” Nicholas said grimly. “It looks like the Elite are getting their fighters wherever they can.”
“But...” Aurelia started.
“But what?” hissed Nicholas. “We can't kidnap an entire school, and even if we do, there will be more of them. Do you think this is the only training building that's been converted to a junior boot camp?”
She knew he was right.
“We've got to get in there and get Mattias out, and then we'll let Jonathon know about this,” Nicholas said, more calmly. “But there's nothing that we can do.”
Aurelia nodded.
“Now all we need is a plan to get in, and to find out which kid he is,” Nicholas said.
Aurelia thought for a second. She looked down at her uniform, then across at Nicholas's. “I think we can just walk in,” she said.
“What?!”
“No, hear me out. I'm a med Worker. You're Military. I think we can just walk in and take the kid we want. You've got his number, right?”
Nicholas nodded. “But why would they let us take him?”
“We don't need to justify ourselves,” Aurelia said. “You're thinking too much like a member of the Resistance. Try thinking like a Worker for a second. A high-ranking Lunar doctor and a Military Clone walk in there, and we can demand whatever we want. We're just following orders. Maybe the kid's got a genetic flaw. Maybe he's a Clone that's been illegally grown. There are people desperate enough for kids to do that, you know.”
He bit his lip, thinking. Then he smiled. “You could be right.”
“I know I am,” responded Aurelia. “Just wait and see.”
“All right, then,” he said, still grinning. “Let's go kidnap a kid.”
Aurelia rolled her eyes. Today was shaping up to be full of surprises.
Chapter Nine
Aurelia took a moment to brush the dirt off her uniform as well as she could and to run her fingers through her hair.
“You look fine,” said Nicholas.
“Just play along,” she said grimly.
She rolled her shoulders, then marched up the steps to the training academy. She pushed open the doors, not holding them for Nicholas, who followed a few steps behind. Inside, she was assaulted by the smells of a school. They were so familiar that for a moment it was difficult not to become an obedient student again, but she took a deep breath and strode over to the reception desk.
“I need student...” She paused for a moment, then barked: “Number!”
Nicholas quickly recited the number he'd memorised.
“Let me just find out where he is for you,” said the young woman at the desk.
She tapped icons on a screen whilst Aurelia tapped her foot, impatiently.
“Hurry it up. I don't want to be here all day,” Aurelia said as sternly as she could.
The woman eyed her uniform, her face stiffening when she saw the flashes that marked Aurelia as a Lunar City doctor.
“Of course, ma'am.” She fumbled with her screen. “Okay, he's in classroom 48C. You'll find that on the fourth floor, to your right when you exit the elevator.”
Aurelia glared at her. “Don't be ridiculous. Have him brought here immediately.”
Partly she was playing her role, but she also didn't want to disappear into the depths of the school. Here, she was standing close to an exit, one that could be used to escape if necessary. Thankfully, the woman nodded and went back to her screen.
Aurelia huffed a sigh of mock irritation and looked at her time reader. She then pulled out her own screen, as though engaged in something terribly important. Nicholas stood at attention, not moving. After a couple of long minutes, two young cadets appeared from the large double doors behind the reception desk. Aurelia immediately recognised which was the one they wanted: Mattias had the same glowing blonde hair as his sister. But she pretended ignorance.
“Which is the boy?” she said curtly.
“That's me,” the young boy answered. “What do you need?”
Aurelia nodded in satisfaction. “Take him,” she said to Nicholas.
Before Nicholas could move, the receptionist stood up. “I'm afraid I can't let you take a student from the school grounds,” she stammered.
Aurelia whirled around to face her. “Do you have any idea who we are?” she said.
The receptionist bit her lip, then slowly resumed her seat.
“Take him. That's an order,” Aurelia repeated to Nicholas.
Nicholas grasped the young boy, twisting his arm behind his back and marching him out of the main doors.
“Your help is appreciated,” Aurelia said to the receptionist, then followed them.
It really had been that easy. She walked a few steps ahead as Nicholas marched the boy to the end of the block. They didn't relax until they turned a corner.
Nicholas quickly released the child, then caught him up in a hug. “It's okay. You're safe now,” he said. “We've got you.”
But the child fought him. He gave a sharp yell and kicked at Nicholas's shin. Shocked, the Clone pushed his hand over the boy's mouth to silence him, using his other arm to hold his arms to his sides and pick him up.
“We've gotta get out of here,” he said. “We don't have time to explain things here.”
Aurelia looked around. They couldn't carry a struggling boy through the streets; they'd be spotted immediately. She cursed herself. If she'd thought of this, she could have brought an injection to calm him. Crap.
“Keep him still for a second,” she said.
Nicholas did his best to hold on to the boy, and Aurelia reached out towards his neck. She hated doing this but knew it was the easiest way to keep the boy quiet. Positioning her finger and thumb on the small throat, she exerted a gentle pressure, and slowly the boy stopped kicking and flailing.
“What was that?” Nicholas asked.
“A sleeper hold done by a professional rather than a fighter,” said Aurelia with a grin. “You've just got to know where to find the right artery. He won't be out long, though. We've got to get going.”
She had to repeat the procedure four more times before they got back to the safe house. She hoped she wasn't doing any lasting damage, but she knew that the three of them being caught by suspicious sec Workers would do a lot more harm in the long run.
“Gods, he's heavier than I thought,” Nicho
las said, gently rolling the boy onto the couch of the safe house. “Do you think we need to restrain him?”
Aurelia thought for a second. “He's only a kid,” she said.
“One who's apparently been trained to fight,” Nicholas pointed out.
In the end, they compromised. Nicholas removed the boy's shoes to stop him from kicking or running away, and set his stunner to the softest charge, just in case.
“What the f...?” the boy said, blinking his eyes open.
“Language!” said Nicholas.
Aurelia pushed back the coffee table and sat on it so that she was eye to eye with the boy. “Mattias, you need to listen to us. Please? We've got some explaining to do, but could you hold off with the fighting until you've heard us out?”
The boy looked about ready to spit in her face.
Nicholas pulled his stunner half out of its holster. “Or we could do this the hard way,” he said.
Aurelia hid a smile. She knew that Nicholas had no intention of hurting the child and that the stunner was an empty threat. The boy, however, widened his eyes slightly when he saw the device.
“Fine,” he said sulkily. “Talk.”
Where to start? Aurelia thought for a moment, then began. She patiently explained who she and Nicholas were, flashing pictures on her screen to prove their identities when the boy looked doubtful. She told him that he had a sister, one who could take care of him, that he was safe now. And during all of this, his face didn't waver from its sulky expression. The only word that provoked any reaction was “Resistance,” and that just made it look like he was ready to spit again.
“So, you're probably a little confused. Do you want to ask us some questions?” Aurelia finished, thinking that this whole parenting thing was probably a lot more difficult than she'd thought.
“One question,” the boy said. “When can I go back?”
Aurelia looked at Nicholas, who shook his head.
“You want to go back to the academy?” she asked.
He nodded truculently.
“Why?”
“I don't want to be mixed up in your dirty Resistance tricks. I'm a fighter, a soldier, and I'm loyal to the Empire,” he said, sitting up straighter and sounding like he was parroting something he'd heard someone else say.
“You're a child who shouldn't have to fight something that he doesn't understand,” Nicholas broke in.
“I understand. I understand everything,” the boy said. “I understand that the Empire looks after us all, houses us, feeds us, keeps us safe, and that for some reason the Resistance Army wants to take all that away. You want to destroy the world that we've created. Why? So you can plunge us back into War? So you can take our resources for yourselves?”
He stood up, forcing Aurelia to do the same to stay on his level. He was a tall boy for his age, though his cheeks still had soft baby down on them.
“If you won't let me go, I'll have to make you.”
She saw the movement just in time and ducked so that his fist glanced off the side of her head rather than hitting her full force. In a split second Nicholas was behind the boy, pulling his arms back and up so he couldn't hurt her.
“Hold him,” Aurelia said.
She rushed to the kitchen pod, where she knew there'd be a medical kit. Opening it, she found what she was looking for and ran back to the living room, uncapping the needle as she went. Quickly she plunged the sed injection into the boy's arm, Nicholas supporting him as his muscles relaxed and then laying him on the couch.
Once he was good and out, they both heaved sighs of relief.
“This isn't quite the way I planned things,” Nicholas said.
“Really?” said Aurelia, who was getting a little annoyed at how few eventualities Nicholas had planned for in this escapade. “You weren't planning on capturing a determined Elite Army soldier? Because that looks like what we've got here.”
Nicholas sank onto a chair. “I know,” he said. “Gods, it's awful. They've been brainwashed.”
Aurelia sat too. “Yes,” she said sadly. “But we do need to figure out exactly what we should do here.”
“I have no idea,” Nicholas said. “I just don't know how to persuade him that we're right. I mean, think about it. He's been brought up as a Worker—he's never seen what happens in Lunar, has no clue what we're fighting for. But he has been told that we're the enemy and that he's a loyal soldier. Plus, he's been taken away from the only place he knows by two complete strangers who say that they're taking him to a sister he's never heard of, or at least can't remember.”
Aurelia nodded. “It's tough on him. But on the other hand, we've now got to keep him safe, and I'm pretty sure that escaping from here is not going to keep him safe.”
Nicholas sighed. “How long will he be out for?”
Aurelia looked at the syringe that was lying on the table, gauging the amount of sedative she'd given him. “At a guess, for the next three to four hours. I'm not sure how much he weighs, and that will affect the duration of the drug.”
“Then the best thing to do is to get moving and leave the City,” said Nicholas. “Once we're out of his familiar territory, he'll be less likely to want to run, since he won't know how to get back.”
Stretching her tired legs and rubbing the small lump that was forming on her head, Aurelia nodded. She'd give anything for a good night's sleep, but it wasn't to be. “Let's get packed up, then,” she said.
Thirty minutes later, laden with packs and a large, wrapped bundle, the two left the safe house and made their way back to the grate that had given them access to the City.
“Are you sure this is the only way?” Aurelia asked.
“I can't think of a safer way,” responded Nicholas. “Especially when we're carrying something that looks a lot like a body.”
He was right. But still, she didn't fancy the idea of carrying a sleeping Mattias through the long Subway tunnel.
Once they reached the grate, Nicholas laid Mattias on the ground and opened the hatch. He then threw the boy over his shoulder and deftly climbed down the ladder, leaving Aurelia to follow and close up the entrance. There was no light, and she jolted her leg on the concrete ground at the bottom of the ladder, expecting to find another step.
“The light source is at the top of my pack,” Nicholas said.
She found the light and switched it on.
“Let me carry him; it's easier. You just shine the light ahead, okay?”
That sounded fine to her. The kid was heavy. So they walked, Aurelia keeping the light as steady as possible. It took far longer this way, since Nicholas had to stop every fifteen minutes or so to rub life back into his arms and shoulders. Mattias slept soundly, and shining the light into his face, Aurelia saw the way his long eyelashes brushed the curve of his cheek. He was a handsome boy.
Nothing in the tunnel looked familiar to Aurelia, and she wondered how they would know when they reached the exit they'd used to get in. She trusted Nicholas's navigating instincts, but she was beginning to think that they'd gone too far when her ears caught a sound.
“Stop,” Nicholas hissed.
He put Mattias down, his hand going to his belt for his stunner. The noise came again—the unmistakeable sound of feet sliding on the rocks of the tunnel floor.
“Turn off the light,” Nicholas whispered.
She did as she was told, but it was too late.
“I know you're there,” a voice said, echoing in the huge space. “You might as well turn the light on and see my face.”
That’s a fair point, Aurelia thought, switching the light back on. Anyway, how would Nicholas know where to shoot in the dark? The footsteps came closer, and she shone the light as far ahead as she could. She spotted a dark shape coming towards them. Whoever it was, there was only one of him.
“I'm armed,” Nicholas shouted to warn the man.
“So am I,” the voice laughed back.
When the stranger came close enough, they saw that he was younger than they'd
expected, thin and of medium height. His eyes burned deep green in the light source.
“Resistance?” he said.
“Yes,” Aurelia answered, not giving Nicholas a chance to talk. She knew he didn't trust the Outliers as much as she did. “And we've met Jak.”
The man smiled. “Best take you to see him, then. He'll know what to do with you.” He looked at their uniforms and nodded. “You're always welcome here.”
He turned to walk away, presumably to lead them to the exit, but Nicholas asked him to wait. The Clone stooped to pick up Mattias, and the man looked at him curiously.
“What's that?” he asked.
Before Nicholas could answer, the man stepped forward and pulled the blanket away from Mattias's sleeping face.
“Oh dear,” the man said. “That changes things, doesn't it? We'll have to see what Jak says about this.”
He walked off, muttering under his breath about people foolish enough to bring children out of the City.
Aurelia glanced at Nicholas. “I feel like we've broken some kind of rule here,” she said. “I'm just not sure what it is.”
“Then I suppose we'd better go and find out,” Nicholas said.
They were taken deep into the ruined city. The man leading them bounded around like an animal, surefooted and leaving them trailing behind. Eventually they found themselves in a building that looked to have been partially repaired. There was light inside, and holes in the walls had been shored up with mismatching stone and metal.
Inside, it was warm, and there was the smell of food cooking from somewhere. Walking down a corridor, Aurelia could hear the voices of others behind closed doors. The man stopped in front of a door, knocked, and entered, leaving them to follow.
“Back so soon?” Jak said, standing up from the desk he was sitting at.
“We've got a problem,” said the man who’d brought them in.
He reached out and pulled the blanket away from Mattias. Jak raised his eyebrows.
“Leave them with me,” he told the man. “Now,” he said, once the man had left and Nicholas had deposited the sleeping boy on the floor. “You'd better explain yourselves.”
They did the best they could, and Jak was reasonable. But when they were done, he shook his head.
