BMAC.
My feet want to run, but I don’t, forcing myself to keep a brisk pace. I don’t want to give BMAC a reason to investigate whatever crow lady’s telling them. My pulse pounds in my neck and I pull my hood a little lower. Did she recognise us? Our faces are everywhere, but there aren’t a lot of news screens in Hexall Hall, from what I’ve seen. I remember how crow lady stared, her open hanging mouth, her eyes hungry for Beauty. I glance back and the bird is sitting on Maggie’s head, beady eyes blinking rapidly. What does crow lady’s interest in Beauty have to do with BMAC? I should have scared the stupid thing off back at the apartment.
The crowd’s so tight it’s like a wall of people, swaying and bumping into each other as they holler at the fighters. I shoulder my way into the mass, pulling Maggie behind me, and Beauty takes to the air, circling above us. Everyone’s taller than I am so I can’t see the ring. But I have to get close to it, close to Rani. She’s waiting for us; that’s what Leonard said.
An elbow comes down on my ear as the crowd erupts with applause and cheers.
‘Ow! Pat!’ Maggie’s grip on my hand falls away, and when I look back she’s being tossed around by the bodies jumping all around her.
I lunge for her, but another sweaty body bumps me back. ‘Maggie!’
Gabby forces her way through the mess of torsos and spilling beer cups, and her hands reach out for Maggie’s shoulders, pulling her close and covering them both.
‘Go!’ yells Gabby. ‘We’ll follow!’
Back towards the centre ring I can just make out the tops of the forebrawlers’ heads, and as the crowd shifts and moves I get a glimpse of a tight path I can wedge myself through to the front. Gabby’s right. It’s faster if I go alone.
I squeeze myself through the lines of people. Someone slams me on my left, sending me flying into an angry skinny guy who nearly goes over. ‘Watch it!’ he growls as his drink – it smells like antiseptic – splashes onto my hoodie. He shoves me forward and I slam into another person’s back, a fat woman, her shirt wet and stinking with sweat. She turns to glare at me, her one yellow snaggle tooth snarling above rolls of neck flab.
‘Think you can worm yer way to the front of the forebrawl, do you?’
She’s right. I’m nearly at the front. I can see the fighters clearly just behind this mountain of a lady. A foot slams into the bald man’s face and he’s on the ground, covering his bleeding mouth. He’s lost. Rani leans back against the ropes, lips tight, eyes hard. She’s younger than my mom, but still a grown-up. In her twenties maybe?
‘Rani!’ I shout.
Snaggle Tooth shoves my shoulder. ‘Think yer gonna steal my spot, do you?’
‘What? No!’ I say. ‘I just—’ She shoves me again as her friend turns to see what the fuss is about. ‘I just need to get to the—’ I reach forward, pointing at Rani, when Snaggle Tooth’s friend, a bony man with sagging skin, smacks my hand back.
‘You think yer better than us, Shelf-Meat?’
‘No, no! I just need to talk to Rani!’ I try to push my way through, but they both shove me back. There’s something about them that turns my stomach – the way they move, almost in unison, the way they speak without having to look at each other, like they know what the other is thinking. I’ve never seen two people like them before, but I know what they are, know it in my gut the way I know when it’s going to rain. Maybe I know because I have one too. But looking at them, there’s just nothing else they could be.
A Mover and a Shadow. Here. In one time. Together. It’s so wrong. So not allowed.
‘Talk to Rani Nair?’ the woman cackles. ‘What’s Rani gotta say to a little turd like you?’
That’s when Rani’s head turns, lazily noticing our discussion as she waits for the match to start up again.
‘Rani!’ I shout. ‘Rani Nair!’
She looks me over slowly, then frowns. ‘No autographs.’
Any feelings of hope that I had immediately drop through my sneakers. She doesn’t know me. Doesn’t recognise me at all. Leonard said she’d be waiting, but she’s not expecting me at all, just waiting to fight in the next match.
Snaggle Tooth explodes with laughter. ‘Aw, poor widdle baby isn’t gonna get his precious autograph.’
‘Go on,’ growls Saggy Skin. ‘Get on outta here, boy.’
Mom wanted to go to Leonard. Rani can take us to Leonard. I can’t just turn back now.
‘No! Rani!’ I try to squeeze by, and as I do my shoulder knocks Snaggle Tooth’s beer. She screams like I’ve just made her drop a baby, and Saggy Skin gasps in horror.
‘Look what you done!’ She smacks my head, knocking off my hood and grabbing a fistful of my hair. It feels as if my scalp’s gonna rip off in her grip.
‘You’re gonna be dead sorry you ever done that, boy.’ Saggy Skin kisses his knuckles and winds back his arm as Rani watches placidly out of the corner of her eye.
‘No!’ I squirm against Snaggle Tooth. ‘Rani! I’m with Izzy! I’m here with Izzy!’
Saggy Skin drives his bony knuckles towards my face and I wince—
But the blow doesn’t come.
‘Hey!’ barks Snaggle Tooth, her grip on my hair loosening as the crowd starts chanting for Rani.
I open one eye and Rani is standing in front of me, twisting Saggy Skin’s arm behind his back so that he cries out. ‘Takes a brave man to fight a child,’ she growls into his ear. She shoots an angry glare back at Snaggle Tooth. ‘Let him go.’
Snaggle Tooth’s grip tightens a moment and I groan, until she finally releases me, shoving me into Rani, whose hand wraps roughly around the scruff of my neck. ‘Let’s go,’ she says through gritted teeth, and drags me around the side of the ring, where a metal barricade separates us from the sea of people.
‘Thanks,’ I say, rubbing my stinging scalp.
She takes a swig from a water bottle. ‘Don’t mention it.’
Up close she’s even more intimidating. It’s her eyes. They spark with something angry. Afraid to look directly at them, I stand on my toes and scan the crowd for Maggie and Gabby. They’re standing on the far side, just outside the crowd, closer to the pillars. They’re safe there. For now.
Shouts and heckles rise up as another bell sounds and a new fighter steps into the ring. Rani watches him with an appraising eye and cracks her knuckles. ‘You’re not supposed to be here,’ she says, her back to me.
‘No, I am,’ I explain. ‘I’m Pat Mermick. I’m Izzy’s son.’
‘I know who you are.’
Her tone is sharp, and I feel like I’m making her angry. ‘Uh, Leonard told us to—’
‘He changed his mind.’
My heart sinks. ‘What? What do you mean? Why? Why would he do that?’
Rani shrugs. ‘I don’t know why Leonard does what he does. I just got the message that I’m not supposed to take you to him.’
‘But he called this morning—’
‘He’s been trying to get in touch all day.’ She spits again as the man in the ring bares silver teeth, the crowd roaring with approval. ‘Maybe if Izzy would answer her droidlet once in a while she would have gotten his message.’
‘She can’t answer,’ I say, my cheeks flushing hot. ‘BMAC took her.’
Rani turns, her brown eyes flaring with that spark she has. ‘Took her? The girl too?’
I shake my head. ‘Maggie’s with me. We …’ My chest feels heavy, my head too, and my Shadow’s poking around in there while I swallow a lump forming in my throat. Changed his mind? How could he change his mind? Mom’s gone and Leonard’s name is all she left us. This one name, this one plan. If Leonard’s changed his mind then … ‘We don’t know where else to go.’
I look back into the crowd to where Maggie’s standing with Gabby, both of them craning their necks to see me. There’s nowhere else for us to go. No Leonard means no plan. How am I supposed to go back and tell them that we came all the way down here for nothing?
I can feel Rani’s eyes on me, and wh
en I look back she turns away, watching the man who’s taunting her from the ring. He points at her and drives his fist into his other palm and the crowd laughs and cheers. Rani twists her hands on the ropes. She doesn’t say anything more. And I stand there, not wanting to make my way back through the crowd, back to Maggie and Gabby, with bad news.
‘Why did Leonard change his mind about you?’ Rani says.
‘What?’ How does she expect me to know that? I’ve never met the guy.
She lets go of the ropes and turns to face me, resting a hand on an impatient hip. ‘Izzy’s the only friend Leonard has. He wouldn’t just give up on her and her children unless he had a good reason. What is it?’
I have no idea how to answer that. The first and most obvious reason is in my head immediately. He’s seen me on the news, knows BMAC is after me for what happened at school, and decided it’s too risky. But I don’t want to tell Rani that. She hasn’t mentioned it so she might not know. I don’t imagine she gets a lot of access to news down here. If I tell her, it might scare her off too.
‘I don’t know,’ I say quietly.
She raises a doubting eyebrow and I look down at my shoes.
‘Rani!’ roars the man with silver teeth. ‘Get in here so I can ring that pretty little neck of yours!’
There’s a mix of laughs and boos from the crowd, but Rani’s eyes don’t leave mine. She bites her lip again, then shakes her head. ‘If Izzy was with you …’ She trails off, her knee shaking as she stares into nothingness. ‘But leaving a pair of kids to fend for themselves doesn’t sit right …’
We’re a trio, not a pair. But I’m afraid to let her know about Gabby. I wait, trying to keep my hopes in check.
‘My Shadow’s got your number, Rani Nair!’ yells the man in the ring. ‘Is that why you’re scared to face me?!’
‘Get your sister,’ says Rani, hoisting herself up into the ring. ‘Wait here for me.’
‘You’ll help us?’
‘After the match,’ she says, her voice drowned out by the roar of the crowd. They start their chant again, their chant for her, and my chest swells with so much relief I start to chant along with them.
Until the voice.
‘People of Hexall Hall,’ it booms through the crackle of a loudspeaker, ‘this is a surprise inspection.’
BMAC.
FOURTEEN
The crowd explodes into screams as the BMAC officer’s amplified voice rises above the chaos. ‘We want to see FIILES! Anyone without proper documentation will be taken into the custody of the Bureau of Movement Activity Control.’
‘Breezes,’ spits Rani, hopping down from the ring. ‘Raid.’
Through the running bodies I see their uniforms – BMAC – head-to-toe in riot gear. There’s a steady drumming as the officers beat their shields with stun staffs. Stun staffs – long black wands that slam you with a strong current of electricity when they touch your body.
It is a raid.
For us? Or the forebrawl? Not that it matters.
‘Patrick,’ barks Rani, ‘where’s the girl?’
I don’t know. I can’t see them – Maggie or Gabby. And panic ignites my limbs. Did BMAC find them? I plunge into the fleeing crowd, shoving through to where I saw them last.
There’s a tingle at the base of my skull – my Shadow. He’s frantic, coiling himself around my brain to get a sense of what’s happening, but he can’t be here. He can’t be in the way. Not when I need to focus. I’m trying to shove him back, grunting from the effort, when a fleeing Hexall Haller knocks me off balance and I’m thrown to the floor.
My Shadow surges in my head as feet scramble all around me and I cover myself to keep from getting trampled. I need to force my Shadow out, need him to back off so I can think!
‘Pat!’ Maggie’s voice screams for me through the chaos.
I can’t see through all the legs, but a pair of hands yanks me to my feet.
Rani.
‘Is that her?’ Rani points over by the pillars, and I see Maggie, waving her arms beside Gabby.
‘Come on.’ Rani grabs me by the scruff of the neck and drags me to my sister, who leaps at me, gripping so tight around my middle that she knocks the air out of me.
‘Who are you?’ demands Rani, looking angrily at Gabby.
‘She’s with us,’ I say.
‘Not any more she isn’t.’
Gabby looks nervously to me.
‘What do you mean?’ I say. ‘She came here with us. She’s—’
‘You there!’ Two officers standing back by the ring, shields up, each one brandishing a nasty-looking stun staff crackling and spitting with electric current. The shorter one points at us. ‘Stay where you are.’
‘Right,’ says Rani. ‘Argue about it later then, shall we?’
She takes off at a sprint as the officers yell for her to stop. She doesn’t. Neither do we. I grab Maggie’s hand and charge after Rani, Gabby struggling to keep up.
‘Come on!’ I yell at her.
As we pound across the hard cement floor of Hexall Hall, I notice the crowd has thinned out – half nabbed by BMAC, being organised into single file by the doors, bound with current bindings, and the other half milling around the pillars because a line of officers is blocking the dark hallway that leads deeper into the Hall.
Rani huddles up against one of the pillars, and I bounce on my knees as the two officers that were chasing us close in.
‘Rani!’ I yelp. ‘We’re trapped.’
‘Wait for it …’ she says.
‘Wait for what?!’ and that’s when I notice she’s staring at a man on the far side of the hall, a large bird sitting on his hand.
I look back at the two BMAC officers approaching with current bindings ready in their hands. ‘Miss Vargas,’ says the older one, ‘Mr Mermick, I’m gonna have to ask you to come with us.’
My heart pounds and the sound of it is like a booming drum in my own ears. There’s no question now. BMAC’s here for us.
Rani doesn’t even acknowledge the officers. ‘We’ve got a system,’ she says, and points a finger to the ceiling. ‘See them crows? They may like Movers but—’ she points to the man with the bird, then at a woman crouched low by the pillar on our right. She’s got the same kind of bird on her hand too, a big one, with a cap covering its eyes – ‘they sure hate hawks.’
The man on the other end of the hall gives a nod, and the crouching woman tears the cap off the hawk’s eyes, releasing the bird into the air. Three more take flight from different spots around the massive chamber, soaring up into the rafters.
A gloved hand grabs me hard by the shoulder. ‘GOTCHA!’ shouts the officer.
And then the explosion.
The crows in the ceiling scream in unison, all of them spiralling into the air as the hawks chase after them.
‘What the …?!’ The BMAC officer lets go of my shoulder, shielding himself against the hundreds of black blurs flapping around our heads, screeching and shrieking in fright, the beats of their frantic wings tickling my cheeks and hair.
‘Follow me!’ hollers Rani, grabbing hold of Maggie’s wrist. Maggie takes my hand and I reach out for Gabby, though it’s hard to see her through the swarm. She finds me and grabs hold as Rani guides us deeper into the dark recesses of Hexall Hall.
She stops at a boarded-up archway.
‘Through here,’ she says, prising the bottom board open a tiny crack.
Maggie doesn’t need telling twice and she wriggles her way through the hole first. A crow flies low with a screech, and it’s only when it ducks in after Maggie that I realise it’s Beauty. And then two more, no, three – three crows dive after Maggie into the hole, just as eager to escape the frenzy as we are. Gabby and I scramble in behind them. And it’s black inside. I can’t see anything. I trip over myself, flying forward and down, down, down, Gabby crying out beneath me.
And we stop.
We’ve come to the bottom of what felt like a very long staircase, the two of us lyi
ng in a crumpled mess together, knees and elbows good and bruised. It’s quiet, the chaos back behind us muffled by the walls.
There’s a slam at the top of the stairs and a beam of light explodes from Rani’s torch.
‘Crows,’ she says. ‘Dumb pests hang around because they’re attracted to the Movers. But they do come in handy, now and again.’
Attracted to Movers?
My nose is in Gabby’s cowboy boots and she’s pulling me to my feet.
‘What do you mean they’re attracted to Movers?’
‘They sense it.’ The heels of Rani’s boots click as she makes her way down the stairs. ‘Same as dogs sensing earthquakes, I guess. They feel the pull through time that’s hanging around all of us like a bad stink. Especially those of us who’ve opened a door. They love that stink best. Strongest, I suppose. That’s why they flock to Hexall Hall. What with all the guilty Movers hiding out here, it’s like moths to flames.’
I look back at Beauty, perched on Maggie’s head. I’ve never heard this crow theory before. Still, with the way the birds were all hanging out in the rafters in the main hall – hundreds of them – I don’t have a hard time believing it.
Six shiny dots on a beam above my sister reflect the light from Rani’s torch. The three crows that followed us. They rattle and caw nervously together. What are they telling each other?
Rani points her torch in my eyes. ‘So I think it’s safe to say we know why Leonard doesn’t want to see you,’ she says. ‘What have you kids been up to that’s got BMAC on the warpath?’
‘Nothing,’ I say a little too quickly.
Rani frowns.
‘They’ve got it wrong,’ I insist.
Rani shakes her head. ‘Sure they have.’ She flicks the light away and now it’s Gabby’s turn in the spotlight. ‘I assume BMAC’s got you wrong too?’
Gabby opens and closes her mouth as she struggles to answer. When nothing comes Rani sighs. ‘Listen, guys, I’ve got my own issues with BMAC so I’m not judging. I’m just asking you to be straight with me. Does this have to do with that Move this morning?’
Movers Page 10
