The Skeleton Coast

by Mardi McConnochie

  ‘Why there?’ Spinner asked curiously.

  ‘It has castles and palaces and cakes. It’s the best place in the whole world.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Pod asked.

  ‘The destination book. On the ship every cabin had one. It told you about every place we stopped so the passengers would know whether they wanted to get off the boat and visit.’

  ‘Could you read the destination book?’ Pod asked, surprised.

  ‘No. It had pictures.’

  ‘Violeta’s a beautiful city,’ Spinner said.

  ‘Good biscuits,’ Graham added, nodding.

  ‘But it’s expensive. And it’s a very…bureaucratic sort of place.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Pod asked.

  ‘If you don’t have papers, it’d be very difficult to find work or a place to live,’ Spinner explained. ‘They certainly wouldn’t let you go to school there.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ Blossom said, meaning school.

  ‘Is it like Norlind?’ Pod asked fearfully. ‘They’re very sticky about papers there.’

  ‘Most of the Northlands are pretty sticky about papers,’ Spinner said.

  Blossom could tell which way the wind was blowing. ‘You promised we could go to Violeta,’ she said accusingly to Pod.

  ‘I know, but…’

  ‘We can go to Violeta,’ Spinner said. ‘Eventually. But you can’t live there. I’m sorry.’

  Blossom scowled.

  Sola came to join them. ‘Our exit strategy’s all organised,’ she said. ‘At dawn tomorrow, a camel train will take you back across the desert to Kinle Bay. I put in a report to the mistress of the temple about the feral dogs. The religious people can be a bit slow to get going, but hopefully they will have sent someone out there to chase them off. We’re all Kinlemotukinle’s creatures, but still, you can’t have them terrorising people in the temple grounds.’

  ‘What about the shadow whale?’ asked Will.

  ‘One of my cousins will meet us at the Bay. He knows how to handle the whale.’

  ‘He won’t hurt it will he?’ asked Annalie.

  ‘Of course not,’ Sola said, looking scandalised. ‘Then another one of my cousins will escort you out of Sundian waters. He knows a guy who knows a guy who can help you avoid the naval patrols and get you past the barrier without tripping it.’

  ‘Are there that many naval patrols really?’ Will asked. ‘We didn’t see a single Sundian ship when we were sailing down the coast.’

  ‘You got lucky, then,’ Sola said. ‘They’re out there. And if they catch you, they’ll throw you in jail forever.’

  ‘We’d better not let them catch us, then,’ Spinner said. He looked around at the kids. ‘Better get your gear together. We’ve got an early start in the morning.’

  It didn’t take them long to pack. When they were finished, it still felt too early to go to bed. Essie and Annalie drifted up to the rooftop observation deck to look at the stars. The desert night was freezing, but this time they’d brought blankets.

  Spinner and Sola were already there. ‘I’m going to miss this place,’ he said, reaching out to Annalie and tucking her under his arm. ‘You fell on your feet here, Sola.’

  ‘It’s very special,’ Sola agreed. ‘It’s hard to believe it still exists. But that’s what it was built for.’

  ‘Are you coming with us when we go?’ Annalie asked.

  Sola shook her head with a smile. ‘There’s nothing calling me back to Dux. I love my job and the work we’re doing here. And even though I wasn’t born here, I feel connected to Sundia. I can’t imagine living anywhere else now. My mother always said—’

  But they never had a chance to find out what Sola’s mother always said, because a harsh voice suddenly cut through the night. ‘Hands up! You’re under arrest by order of the Admiralty!’

  Marines came pouring out the door, rifles trained on the four of them; still more came swarming up the outside of the Ark on ropes. They were surrounded.

  ‘Hands up or I’ll shoot!’ barked the voice.

  Spinner, Sola, Annalie and Essie put their hands up.

  A man sauntered through the door and onto the observation deck, tall and barrel-chested, dressed in a leather jacket.

  ‘I’ve been waiting a long time for this,’ said Beckett.

  Putting the band back together

  ‘Hello, Beckett,’ said Spinner.

  ‘Spinner. It’s been a long time.’

  ‘Not long enough,’ said Spinner.

  ‘You’ve got very enterprising kids,’ Beckett said, turning to look at Annalie. ‘Where’s your brother?’

  ‘The kids have nothing to do with this,’ Spinner said. ‘Your business is with me.’

  ‘That’s not strictly true though, is it?’ Beckett said. ‘She’s got the research.’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ Annalie said.

  ‘Enough of the silly games,’ Beckett said impatiently. Quick as lightning, he grabbed Annalie; suddenly, there was a gun to her head. ‘One of you has it, and you’re going to give it to me. Or the clever one dies.’

  ‘Don’t give it to him!’ Annalie cried.

  Beckett’s grip on her tightened. ‘Be quiet,’ he said. ‘The grown-ups are talking now.’

  ‘Let her go,’ Spinner said.

  ‘I will,’ Beckett said. ‘As soon as you tell me where you’ve hidden the research.’

  For a long moment, the two of them glared at each other, old friends who were now the bitterest of enemies. Then Spinner let out a broken sigh. ‘All right,’ he said.

  ‘No!’ Annalie howled despairingly.

  Sola put her face in her hands.

  Beckett smiled triumphantly. ‘Cuff them all. Then my old friend Spinner can show us where he’s hidden my research.’

  Will and Pod had snuck back into the canteen to look for a mid-evening snack. The canteen was now closed, but they hoped there might be something they could liberate from the fridge.

  Just as Will opened the fridge door, an alarm started to blast.

  ‘Whoa!’ Will said, slamming it shut again. ‘Those Sundians really care about their food!’

  ‘It’s not just the canteen, it’s everywhere,’ Pod said. ‘Something’s wrong.’

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ Will said.

  They scampered out of the kitchen and crossed the darkened dining room, heading for the door. Will heard movement outside; he grabbed Pod and the two of them ducked under a table.

  Someone looked into the room, did a quick sweep, rifle at the ready, then, seeing nothing, moved on.

  ‘Was that an Admiralty marine?’ Will whispered.

  ‘Sure looked like it,’ Pod said.

  They looked at each other aghast.

  As abruptly as it had started, the alarm switched off again.

  ‘We’ve got to find the others,’ Will said.

  Sola led the way to the control room, the operational heart of the Ark. The door was huge and heavy, like something on a submarine. ‘Open it,’ Beckett ordered.

  ‘It’s locked,’ Sola said. ‘When the alarm was triggered, the control centre locked down automatically.’

  ‘Are you trying to tell me the chief engineer doesn’t know how to override the lock?’ Beckett said.

  Sola looked at Spinner. ‘It’s all right,’ he said.

  Sola gave him a grave look, then entered the sequence that would override the security and unlock the door. It swung open.

  There were three Sundians on duty inside. ‘Sola, thank goodness!’ one of them said as Sola stepped into the room. ‘We got a report of intruders but—’

  The Sundian broke off as he saw the marines pushing in behind her.

  ‘You. Out. Now,’ Beckett said.

  With guns pointed at their heads, the Sundians had little choice but to do as he said.

  ‘Lock that door,’ Beckett said, when they were gone. ‘I don’t want any surprises. Now. What have you brought me here to see?’

  ‘Show him,’ S
pinner said.

  In the centre of the control room was a large empty space. Sola went to a control panel at one edge of the space and tapped and swiped some commands. A huge three-dimensional display appeared. It showed a complex network represented by jewels of light strung on a vast system of glowing lines, different sections in different colours, as complex as a brain or a galaxy.

  ‘What are we looking at?’ Beckett asked.

  ‘This is the Ark,’ Sola said. ‘Every system, every function, all the data.’

  Beckett studied it. ‘And why,’ he said, ‘should I care about that?’

  ‘The research is there inside it,’ Spinner said.

  ‘Yours and Sola’s?’

  ‘Vesh’s too.’

  Beckett smiled. ‘You know I’ve already got Sujana and Dan’s research, don’t you? Sujana’s seen the error of her ways. After all this is done I’m going to set her up with a new job back in Pallas. Important work, good money. She’ll be able to take proper care of her mother.’

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ Sola said. ‘Why would she agree to go back?’

  ‘She’s had plenty of time to think about it,’ Beckett said. ‘And she always did believe the work was important.’

  ‘You threatened her mother,’ Spinner said.

  ‘I didn’t have to,’ Beckett said. ‘Once I’d explained it all to her properly, she was happy to come back.’

  ‘So, what,’ Sola said sarcastically, ‘you’re putting the band back together?’

  ‘I am,’ Beckett said. ‘You want to join? I could use you.’

  ‘Not in a million years,’ Sola said.

  ‘What about me?’ Spinner asked. ‘Am I invited back?’

  ‘No,’ Beckett said icily. ‘I don’t need you.’ He turned to Sola. ‘Show me the research.’

  ‘If you can find it, you’re welcome to it,’ Sola said.

  Beckett smiled. ‘I thought we were past this.’ He turned to one of his marines. ‘Shoot the girl.’

  The marine hesitated.

  ‘Okay then, I will,’ Beckett said, and pointed a gun directly at the centre of Annalie’s forehead, cocking it ready to fire.

  ‘Stop it!’ Sola said, turning pale. She swiped and flicked, keyed in passwords, swiped and flicked again. The system moved and flashed, changed colour, zoomed, and reconfigured itself until the network showed three webs of glowing colour, distributed right through the huge whole.

  Beckett put his gun away and walked right into the display, his face brilliantly lit by the glowing colours.

  ‘Aha,’ Beckett said. ‘I want to see what’s in those files.’

  ‘The files are encrypted,’ Spinner said. ‘They’re all encrypted. You couldn’t get Dan or Sujana’s files to open, could you?’

  Beckett’s face flushed with anger, but then he smiled. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I couldn’t. But now I’ve got the master key, haven’t I? That’s what your piece is. The key that unlocks all the doors.’

  ‘That’s exactly what it is,’ Spinner said. ‘The key that unlocks the door to destruction. Forty years ago, the Collodius Device caused catastrophic changes to our world. We agreed back then that no one should have that kind of power ever again. Then, fifteen years ago, you started trying to rediscover those secrets.’

  ‘And you went along with it,’ Beckett said.

  ‘We made a mistake,’ Sola said. ‘We thought some good could come out of understanding the process.’

  ‘But that’s not why you wanted it,’ Spinner said. ‘You wanted a weapon. What were you thinking? Did you actually plan to use it? Or was it just there to threaten anyone who wouldn’t fall into line? Be good or we’ll send another Flood.’

  Beckett was shaking his head and chortling. ‘Still so paranoid. Why can’t you accept that our motives were pure?’

  ‘There’s nothing pure about you, or your motives,’ Spinner said. ‘You and your cronies in the Admiralty would do anything to keep the world dependent on you. Keep us all believing the world’s such a dangerous place we need a huge standing navy to keep us all safe. Safe from what? Pirates? Refugees?’

  ‘Pirates are a genuine threat,’ Beckett said.

  ‘Come on,’ Spinner said. ‘You know that’s not true. The truth is, the Admiralty likes keeping everybody in a state of terror to justify their stranglehold on global politics.’

  Beckett gave a wolfish smile. ‘Now that is an exceptionally paranoid thing to say,’ he said. ‘But what do you think the governments of the world are likely to do if they ever find out that top-secret research into the Collodius Project was stolen from the Admiralty? What will they think, I wonder, when it’s revealed that Dan Gari ended up as a leader of the Kang Brotherhood? And Vesh went to Brundisi, the country that started all this in the first place? Sola came to Sundia, which is an enemy of the new global alliance. And let’s not forget your close ties to the Kang Brotherhood, Spinner.’ Beckett smiled. ‘It sounds bad, doesn’t it? Like all the enemies of peace and prosperity are ganging up to make something terrible happen.’

  ‘It sounds like a delusional fantasy,’ Spinner said.

  ‘It won’t, though,’ Beckett said. ‘Not when I’m finished telling the story. Once everybody learns that the Sundians, the Brundisans and the pirates are conspiring to rebuild the Collodius Device, they’ll be begging us to protect them.’

  Spinner shook his head in dismay. ‘It seems hard to believe we were ever friends,’ he said.

  ‘The thing I find hard to understand is how you could live through the Flood,’ Beckett said, ‘and all the horrors that came after it, and not want to be sure you’ve got the strength to do something about it.’

  ‘Bring the Collodius Device back,’ Spinner said urgently, ‘and we could all be there again. And this time, there may not be anything left.’

  Beckett’s eyes went dead. ‘I’m sick of talking about this,’ he said. ‘Time to see what all this fuss was about.’

  He reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and produced another memory chip, of more recent vintage than the one Annalie had brought with her. ‘Sujana and Dan Gari’s work,’ he said, handing it to Sola. ‘Not the only copy, in case you were wondering. Plug it in.’

  Sola activated the chip, and with a great swirl, two new galaxies of light joined those of Spinner, Sola and Vesh.

  ‘Now we’re putting the band back together,’ Beckett said. ‘Let’s open it.’

  ‘Don’t do this,’ Spinner warned. ‘You’ll regret it. I mean it.’

  ‘Open it,’ Beckett said.

  Sola looked gravely at Spinner; he nodded. Sola took a deep breath and entered the command: decrypt.

  Annalie watched in horror as connections began to spark between the lights, making new connections, reordering and reshaping, moving faster and faster; the secrets that had been kept safe for fifteen years were about to be revealed.

  ‘It’s working,’ Beckett said excitedly.

  The five webs kept firing and connecting until they’d aligned themselves into a perfect, five-coloured, glittering globe.

  ‘Hmm,’ Beckett said, enjoying himself. ‘What shall I open first?’

  He reached out to the interface and touched a light at random. For the briefest of moments, the display zoomed into the single light and revealed a directory, a branching list of file names. But then the first file name turned black and began to melt.

  ‘What did you do?’ Beckett yelled.

  ‘I warned you not to open it,’ Spinner said.

  As they watched, the effect began to spread. Something was happening to the glittering five-coloured globe: a change was spreading across it, breaking the connections; some lights were changing colour, flaming out, turning black, disappearing; others grew huge and distorted and exploded in shimmers of sparks.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Beckett said.

  ‘A virus,’ Spinner said. ‘We built it into the encryption. If anyone else tried to bring the research together, it would immediately destroy itself. Permanent
ly.’

  ‘They were the only copies of our research,’ Sola said. ‘In case you were wondering.’

  ‘How do you stop it?’ Beckett demanded.

  ‘It’s too late,’ Spinner said. ‘Once it starts, it can’t be stopped.’

  Beckett let out a roar of pure rage and lunged across the control room—not at Spinner, but at Annalie. In moments, he had her up against the wall with a gun at her head once more.

  ‘Stop it!’ he shouted ‘Or I’ll kill her!’

  ‘It can’t be stopped!’ Spinner shouted.

  ‘It’s already gone!’ Sola said. ‘Look!’

  The last points of light were going out, leaving only a diseased-looking, crumpled skeleton of broken connections. Beckett looked at it and saw that it was true. ‘Then I’ll kill her anyway,’ he snarled.

  Annalie heard the hammer pull back. She felt certain that these were her very last moments. She closed her eyes and squinched away from the cold metal of the gun.

  ‘Stand down, sir.’

  Annalie opened her eyes in surprise. A marine was there, his rifle pointed at Beckett’s head.

  ‘You stay out of this,’ Beckett snarled.

  ‘Sir, stand down sir,’ the marine said again.

  Annalie felt Beckett’s muscles tighten—she felt a dreadful certainty that he was about to pull the trigger—and then Beckett released her. She staggered away from him.

  ‘You think you’ve beaten me,’ Beckett snarled, his gun swinging wildly. ‘But no one gets the better of me.’

  The gun roared, deafening in the enclosed space. Annalie screamed. But then she realised Beckett had not fired at her. He had fired at Spinner.

  And Spinner had collapsed to the floor.

  An unexpected ally

  Will and Pod crept towards their bunkroom. They had not seen any more marines since the first one, but they knew there must be more.

  ‘How are we ever going to find the others?’ Pod said. ‘This place is huge and we don’t know where to look.’

  ‘Essie’ll have her shell,’ Will said. ‘I bet Annalie’s left hers in the bunkroom. We can call her.’

  They walked into the bunkroom and saw Blossom, sitting cross-legged on her bunk, hide something under her pillow quick as a flash, then look at them with a smile of angelic innocence. Pod knew she must have been stealing things again but there was no time to take her up on it.