The Skeleton Coast

by Mardi McConnochie

  ‘There are marines in the Ark,’ Pod said. ‘We need to find the others and get out of here.’

  Blossom’s eyes widened and she quickly began gathering up her things.

  Graham had been sleeping on a bunk rail but the sound of their voices woke him up. ‘Admiralty? Here?’

  ‘’Fraid so,’ Will said, digging about among Annalie’s stuff. He pulled out her shell. ‘Found it!’

  He was about to call Essie when Pod put out a warning hand.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Someone might hear.’

  ‘Good point,’ Will said. He sent a message instead: Where are you? The Admiralty are in the building, be careful!

  No reply came back.

  ‘I guess we’d better go look for them,’ he said.

  They gathered up their gear and ventured out to look for the others.

  A Sundian man came hurrying past wearing gardening clothes and gumboots. Rather alarmingly, he was carrying a pitchfork.

  ‘You kids, go back to your quarters,’ he warned. ‘We’ve been attacked, it’s not safe for you to be roaming around out here.’

  ‘What’s happening? Where are they now?’ asked Will.

  ‘I heard they’ve taken the control room,’ the man said. ‘Now go on, back to your quarters, and stay out of the way until you hear the all-clear.’

  The man hurried away in the direction of the control room.

  ‘We’re following him, right?’ Pod said.

  ‘Of course,’ Will said.

  ‘Spinner!’ Annalie cried, running to his side.

  Spinner was lying on the floor, blood already seeping from a wound in his side. His eyes were closed, and for a moment Annalie was afraid he might already be dead, but at the sound of her voice his eyes opened and he murmured, ‘You have to get out of here.’

  ‘We’re not going anywhere without you,’ Annalie said.

  ‘I’ll be okay,’ Spinner said gamely. ‘I don’t want you falling into his hands.’

  Sola shouted to the marines. ‘We need to get him to a doctor, now!’

  The same marine who’d told Beckett to stand down crouched beside them. ‘How bad is it?’ he asked.

  ‘Bad,’ Sola said fearfully. ‘There’s so much blood.’

  ‘You need to put pressure on the wound,’ the marine said. ‘Annalie, are you all right?’

  For a split second she wondered how he knew her name, and then their eyes met and she realised that this was not just any Admiralty marine. It was Lieutenant Cherry.

  ‘Sir,’ Cherry said, rising to his feet, ‘this man needs urgent medical attention.’

  ‘No one’s going anywhere until I get what I want,’ Beckett said.

  ‘What’s left?’ Sola cried bitterly. ‘You’ve got both of us. The research is gone. What more could you possibly want?’

  ‘There are always more copies,’ Beckett said.

  ‘No, there aren’t,’ Sola said.

  ‘She’s telling the truth,’ Annalie said desperately. ‘Remember why Sujana got in touch with you? She was afraid Spinner would destroy the research forever.’

  Beckett frowned. ‘He was bluffing.’

  ‘No, he wasn’t,’ Annalie said. ‘He wouldn’t bluff about something that important. He was ready to do anything to keep this research safe from you. Even if that meant destroying it.’

  Beckett looked from the defiant, frightened Annalie, to Sola, who was weeping now, angry and devastated. Finally, he grabbed Spinner by the shirt front and yanked him close. ‘Is that true? Is it gone?’

  Spinner looked at him wearily and said, ‘It’s finished, Avery.’

  Beckett stared at him for one long moment then let out a roar of anger. He let Spinner slump to the ground.

  ‘Arrest them all,’ he snarled. ‘Find the kids, too. And his stupid parrot.’

  ‘He needs medical attention,’ Cherry protested.

  ‘And he’ll get it,’ Beckett said, ‘when you’ve found the rest of the conspirators.’

  ‘No!’ Sola cried.

  ‘Sir, this is against the Admiralty code on the proper treatment of prisoners,’ Cherry said.

  ‘I don’t care what the code says,’ Beckett roared. ‘This is my operation and you will obey my commands or suffer the consequences.’

  ‘Sir, requesting permission to give first aid to the prisoner,’ Cherry said formally, ‘in order to carry out our mission and bring him back to face charges.’

  ‘Arrest him, too,’ Beckett snapped. He saw that some of the marines were hesitating. ‘Arrest him or you’re all on a charge of mutiny!’

  Then, quite unexpectedly, all the lights went out.

  Down below

  The control room door burst open and more bodies came crowding in, shouting in the darkness. It was pitch black, even with the door open—they’d killed the lights in the corridor too—so Annalie could hear and feel rather than see that the room was suddenly full of fighting bodies.

  She heard a voice somewhere near her ear, and a hand landed on her arm. ‘Annalie? Is that you?’

  ‘Yes! Cherry?’

  ‘I’m getting you out of those cuffs. You’ve got to get your father out of here.’

  Her cuffs fell to the ground. She was free.

  Lights were beginning to appear in the darkness: glinting, flashing torch beams illuminated marines fighting with Sundians. Essie scurried over to them. ‘Let’s go!’ she squeaked.

  Cherry hurried to undo her handcuffs, then Sola’s, and finally Spinner’s.

  ‘We need to get him to sick bay,’ Sola said.

  Essie grabbed a wheelie office chair and scooted it over to him. ‘Get him onto this.’

  They bundled the groaning Spinner onto the office chair.

  Annalie turned to Cherry. ‘Thank you for rescuing me,’ she said. ‘Again. Why did you stick your neck out like that?’

  ‘This is not the Admiralty I signed up to,’ Cherry said. ‘Go, quick, before the lights come back on.’

  Annalie gave him a quick hug, then she, Essie and Sola pushed the office chair around the edges of the room, avoiding the still-fighting marines and Sundians, and escaped into the darkness of the corridor.

  Essie switched on the torch on her shell and illuminated some familiar faces as Will, Pod, Blossom and Graham appeared out of the darkness. ‘We thought you might be in there,’ Will said. Then he noticed Spinner. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Beckett shot him.’

  ‘We need to get him to sick bay,’ Sola said.

  ‘We need to get out of here,’ Annalie said. ‘Beckett’s capable of anything. We can’t let Spinner fall into his hands again.’

  ‘We won’t let that happen,’ Sola said.

  ‘Your guys are pretty tough,’ Will said, ‘but the marines are tougher and they’ve got bigger guns. Annalie’s right. I think we should get out of here.’

  Sola opened her mouth to argue, but then changed her mind. ‘I’ll go to sick bay for some medical supplies,’ she said. ‘Meet me at the side door. I’ll try and find a way out of here.’

  Sola ran off in one direction. Will and Pod took charge of the office chair and hurried off the other way. Once they were some distance away from the control room, they entered a new section where the lights were still on.

  ‘How Spinner doing?’ Graham rasped. He was clinging to the back of the chair as the boys pushed, looking attentively at Spinner.

  ‘I’m all right,’ Spinner said, with a faint smile.

  ‘No, he’s not,’ Blossom said. ‘He’s leaving a trail.’

  Blossom was right. They were leaving a blood trail on the floor.

  ‘We have to do something to stop the bleeding,’ Essie said. ‘What’s in all these rooms? Are they offices? See if you can find something we can use as a bandage.’

  They searched quickly; Essie found a towel and Pod found a shirt. Blossom found a rather fascinating glass paperweight which she slipped into her pocket, but that had nothing to do with the first-aid effort. Essie wadded up th
e towel and they used the shirt to bind it in place, then they continued towards the exit.

  A crackling noise heralded an announcement. A Sundian voice came over the public address system. ‘Hey everybody, just to let you know we’ve taken back the control room and everything’s okay. So, um, yeah. Woohoo!’

  They could hear hoots of triumph in the background as the announcement ended.

  ‘Wow,’ Essie said. ‘They did it!’

  ‘Maybe,’ Will said. ‘I still reckon we should get out of here. Those guys of Beckett’s are pretty hardcore.’

  They kept going. A few minutes later, all the lights went out again.

  ‘Uh oh,’ Annalie said.

  Essie switched her shell torch back on. ‘What do you think’s happening?’

  ‘My guess is the marines are fighting back,’ Will said.

  ‘We definitely don’t want to get caught in the middle of it,’ Essie said.

  They hurried on towards the side door where they’d agreed to meet Sola. There was no sign of her; worse, an armed marine was standing guard, and she’d seen the flash of Essie’s torch. ‘Halt! Who goes there?’ she shouted.

  They spun the office chair around and bolted in the opposite direction.

  ‘Why isn’t she coming after us?’ Annalie panted, after they’d gone what seemed like a safe distance.

  ‘Probably ordered to guard the door and stop anyone from escaping,’ Pod said.

  ‘But she’s probably reported that she’s seen us,’ Will said. ‘They may be coming for us.’

  ‘We need to find another way out,’ Annalie said.

  ‘We should look for Sola,’ Essie said. ‘She knows all the ins and outs of this place.’

  ‘I know where we can hide,’ Blossom said. ‘Down below. They’ll never find us down there.’

  Will shrugged. ‘It’s better than wandering around up here. Let’s go.’

  They found a lift and went down once more into the depths of the Ark. The doors slid open onto darkness, but as they stepped out, there was a soft click, and the lights came on.

  They advanced, still pushing Spinner on the office chair, and began to walk down one of the aisles filled with old-fashioned wooden drawers. As they walked, the lights switched on ahead of them and switched off again behind them, so they moved in their own little pool of illumination in the subterranean gloom.

  ‘We should look for a place to hide,’ Will said. ‘Are any of those drawers big enough for us to climb into?’

  They were just looking around for some nice big cupboards when they heard a distant sound. Pod was the first to identify it. ‘The lifts are moving.’

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Essie squeaked. ‘They’ll see us!’

  ‘Don’t do anything,’ Blossom said. ‘Just stay absolutely still.’

  Will realised what she was saying. ‘If we stay still, they switch off. Don’t. Move.’

  They froze on the spot, listening in an agony of suspense to the sound of the lift descending. How long was the timer? The light blazed down upon them. Anyone who stepped out of the lift now would see them in an instant.

  The lift mechanism stopped. The door went ping.

  And just as they heard the clunk of the lift doors starting to open, the lights over their heads went out and they were plunged into darkness.

  The only light now came from the lift area. They heard stealthy footsteps as marines deployed from the lift and fanned out into the archive, each one moving in his own little pool of light. By chance, none of the marines had chosen the aisle they were standing in; they remained as still as they possibly could, hoping that the marines would simply miss them.

  They waited. Pod’s arm began to itch, the urge to scratch agonising. One pool of light drew closer and closer; they held their breath as the marine passed by so close they could hear him, just on the other side of the bank of cabinetry.

  The marine passed on by and it seemed that they were safe, but then they heard something rustle and fall.

  The lights above them snapped on in a sudden, blinding dazzle. Spinner had fainted and fallen off the chair.

  ‘There!’ shouted a voice.

  Feet started running towards them.

  Frantically, Pod and Will bundled Spinner back onto the office chair and they all began pushing him along the aisle as fast as they could. The office chair’s small wheels were not built for speed and the chair threatened to trip them up. The marines were pounding toward them down the long aisles.

  ‘Where can we go?’ Pod cried.

  ‘Back to the lifts?’ Essie suggested.

  ‘We’ll never make it,’ Annalie said.

  ‘This way!’ said Blossom.

  She ran full tilt down the aisle until she reached the far wall of the chamber, which was made of rough concrete. She glanced up and down it, then turned left and kept running, skidding to a halt beside a small metal hatch. ‘Here,’ she said.

  It was an emergency exit.

  ‘Where does it lead?’ Will asked.

  ‘It’s an exit,’ Annalie said. ‘It leads out.’ She yanked it open and they squeezed through the small door and into the tighter concrete corridor. Steps went up. They were going to have to do without the office chair.

  They closed the door, but it had no lock.

  ‘How are we going to stop the marines from following us?’ Essie asked.

  ‘Wedge the chair under the door handle,’ Pod suggested.

  ‘The handle’s too high,’ Will said.

  ‘Let’s try this,’ Pod said. ‘Lean against the door in case they try to come in.’

  The girls leaned against the door while Pod fought to extract a long strip of metal that held the chair’s back support to the seat.

  The handle turned. The girls pushed back. ‘We can’t hold it!’ Essie cried.

  Will threw his weight against the door while Pod struggled to free the piece of metal. The marines pushed from the other side.

  ‘Hurry!’ Will shouted.

  Pod got the metal loose and shoved it into the gap, slamming it in as hard as he could to wedge the door shut.

  ‘That’s the best I can do,’ he gasped. ‘Let’s go!’

  Pod, Will, Annalie and Essie each took a hold of Spinner and started to struggle up the concrete stairs with him, Blossom and Graham racing ahead. It was hard going and they could hear the marines slamming into the door down below. They were a long way underground; the ascent seemed endless, up flight after flight of stairs. Spinner was not a big man, but he was not easy to carry, especially in a confined space.

  At last they heard a distant crash from below as the door gave way and slammed open. ‘They’re through,’ Essie said.

  ‘Hurry,’ Will said, although none of them could really go any faster than they already were.

  And then all of a sudden, they ran into something. It was another door. Pod pushed it open and they burst out into the biting cold of the desert night, looking around to get their bearings.

  ‘We’ve got to keep going,’ Will said.

  ‘But where?’ asked Pod.

  They looked for a place to hide, but the desert was open and empty. The concrete curves of the Ark rose up several hundred metres away.

  ‘Back to the Ark?’ Annalie suggested.

  ‘They’ll catch us,’ Will said.

  ‘Sola was going to get help. We need to find her,’ Annalie said.

  Spinner spoke. He was conscious again. ‘You need to leave me here and save yourselves,’ he said. His breathing sounded laboured.

  Graham let out a shriek of protest.

  ‘You’re kidding, right?’ Will said. ‘We didn’t come all this way to leave you in the stupid desert at the last minute.’ He looked around, and his sharp eyes discovered some interesting shapes in the shadow of the Ark that had not been there earlier. ‘What are those things?’

  They helped Spinner up, his arms slung across Will’s and Pod’s shoulders, and staggered on across the sand.

  As they got closer t
o the clustered shapes, Will realised what they were. ‘They’re all-terrain vehicles,’ he said. ‘This must be how the marines got here—they landed these off the ship and drove here. You reckon they left the keys in them?’

  ‘No,’ Annalie said. ‘I don’t.’

  ‘It’s worth a look, right?’

  ‘Are you crazy?’

  ‘Have you got a better idea?’

  Will clambered into the driver’s seat. ‘Now, how do you suppose you start this thing?’

  ‘Let me,’ Spinner wheezed.

  Pod helped him into the front seat beside Will. Spinner reached under the console, fiddled about a bit, and suddenly the engine started with a smooth click.

  ‘Okay, everybody!’ Will said. ‘Get in!’

  ‘You don’t know how to drive!’ Annalie said.

  ‘How hard can it be?’ Will said.

  They all squeezed in, and as the last door slammed shut, Will set the vehicle in motion. It jerked, surged, roared, paused, then began to move.

  ‘Cool!’ Will hooted. ‘Let’s see what this thing can do!’

  He turned the vehicle around and started following the trail the marines had made on their way in, hiding their tyre tracks in the old ones.

  ‘Can you see anyone coming after us?’ he asked.

  ‘Not yet,’ Essie reported, watching out the back.

  Beyond the Ark, the dunes began to rise and fall. The little vehicle churned through the sand, going as fast as Will could make it go.

  ‘Do you think Sola’s going to be okay?’ Annalie asked. She felt bad about leaving her behind.

  ‘The Sundians’ll look after her,’ Will said. ‘She’s one of them.’

  ‘That was undoubtedly an illegal operation,’ Spinner said, with effort. ‘Beckett and his men would have been hoping to get in, grab us all and get out before the Sundians realised they were there. Now the alarm’s been raised, they won’t want to stick around. If I know Sola, she’s lying low until they’re gone.’

  Annalie hoped he was right.

  ‘Spinner stop talking,’ Graham rasped. ‘Spinner rest.’

  ‘How are you feeling, Spinner?’ Essie asked.