by Tom Becker
He dragged Adam over to the corner of the attic, and what appeared to be a pile of junk: a battered wooden crate and some metal cylinders covered in a jumble of ropes and white sheets.
“Those are the sheets from the infirmary!” Adam exclaimed. “It was you who was stealing them last year!”
Luca nodded.
“But why?”
“Can’t you see?” Luca said gleefully. “I’m making a balloon!”
Adam stared dumbly at the patchwork of roughly sewn sheets. “You’re going to try to fly in that?”
“I know she doesn’t look much now, but when she’s inflated she’ll be a beauty, I’m telling you!” Luca gestured at the plans adorning his walls. “I’ve thought it all through,” he said proudly. “I stitched the sheets together to make the balloon, used a crate as a basket, and filched some gas canisters and a burner from the Docking Port so I can power the thing. The wind usually blows north across the Dial. So if I inflate the balloon out on the balcony there, with any luck it’ll carry me straight to the Commandant’s Tower!”
“What about the guards?” asked Adam. “They’ll shoot you down if they see you.”
“They’ll be too busy at the granary store.”
“Why?”
Luca grinned. “Because I’m going to blow it up. You read the recipe for Volcano Chilli, didn’t you? I’ve spent a year making up enough explosive to bring down a building. And while Mr Cooper and his men are putting out the fires, I’m going to fly to the Commandant’s Tower, turn on the warphole machine and go home. Piece of cake.”
Adam had listened with mounting incredulity. For all Luca’s certainty, his plan made Major X’s plots seem the height of common sense.
“So what do you think?” he asked archly. “Impressed?”
“Honestly?” Adam scratched his head. “I think you’re nuts.”
“It’s not that far-fetched,” Luca muttered, crestfallen.
“I’m not trying to be rude,” Adam said hastily. “It’s just – it sounds really dangerous.”
“Like I say,” he replied, “I can’t worry about everything.”
Luca’s energy was infectious. They talked through the night, going over the plan until the candles burned low and the sky reddened with the onset of dawn. As Adam slipped back through the hatch into the infectious diseases ward, he had almost been convinced that it could work.
Almost, but not quite. Slipping back into the comfort of his bed, Adam fell asleep instantly – and in his dreams, he saw a burning craft plummeting towards the ground, exploding over the Dial like a firework.
The next morning, Adam awoke with a start to find the matron looming over his bedside. When she gleefully announced that he was to be immediately discharged, he couldn’t hide a twinge of disappointment.
“No use pulling faces,” Matron snapped. “You’ve been lazing around far too long as it is. There are children here who are genuinely ill, you know. I won’t waste any more time on a malingerer.”
Behind the burly woman’s back, Nurse Waters rolled her eyes. Adam grinned.
“Think that’s funny, do you?” Matron barked, looming threateningly over Adam.
“No, Matron,” he replied hastily.
“You ask me, Mr Pitt had the right idea about you,” she said hoarsely. “Sometimes a firm hand is the only thing that some children understand. If your smart mouth gets you back in here, don’t expect me to look after you.”
Matron straightened up and stomped away, her thick tights bunching around her stocky legs. Adam glanced over at Nurse Waters.
“She really doesn’t like me, does she?”
“I think it’s more that she really likes Mr Pitt,” the nurse whispered back. “They make a lovely couple, don’t they?”
Adam laughed. “What are you doing here?” he asked, before he could stop himself. “I mean, you’re different to all the other guards. You’re not mean like they are.”
Nurse Waters sighed, and then sat down at the edge of his bed. “There was a boy,” she said hesitantly, looking down at her hands. “A boy I loved very much. He said he loved me too, but all the time he was telling lots of other girls the same thing. Everyone knew but me. When I eventually found out I was very hurt and very angry, and although I tried to move on the pain wouldn’t go away.” She grimaced. “I wrote to a problem page in a magazine about how betrayed I felt, and a week later a strange letter came through my door. It was from the Commandant, offering me a job here. Before I knew it, I had signed a contract to work on the Dial for a hundred years. Too late, I realized it was a terrible mistake.”
That sounded very familiar to Adam. “I’m really sorry,” he said sympathetically. “How long have you got left to go?”
“Ninety-eight years,” the young woman replied. For a second Adam thought Nurse Waters was going to cry, but instead she suddenly stood up, and when she spoke again her tone was light. “But it’s not all bad news. We’ll all get to leave one day – you and me. In the meantime, let’s get you out of here before the dragon returns.”
Adam climbed reluctantly out of bed and pulled his coarse blue uniform over his underclothes. With a final smile and a wave to Nurse Walters, he walked downstairs and out into the sunshine, where he took in deep lungfuls of fresh air. Nice as it had been lazing around the infirmary, it felt good to stretch his legs. As Adam crossed over the walkway back to the prisoners’ quarters, he became aware that the Dial was curiously empty – no Bucketball rumbles disturbed the exercise yard, and the theatre was silent. Save the guards manning the perimeter walls, he was completely alone.
As he stepped down on to Wing II, Adam saw Mouthwash leaning by the entrance to the dormitories with his hands thrust in his pockets, his jaws working lazily on the ever-present chewing gum.
“All right, Adam,” he said casually. “Didn’t realize you were getting out today.”
“Matron kicked me out.” Adam looked around the prison, frowning. “Where is everyone?”
Mouthwash shrugged. “Probably preparing for the show. You coming back to our room?”
Adam nodded, and followed his friend into the building. As his eyes adjusted to the change in the light, he suddenly realized that they weren’t alone. The hallway and the staircase were jammed with inmates lined up next to one another. At the sight of Adam, the crowd burst into a riotous cheer and began clapping and whooping so loudly it felt like the whole building was trembling.
“Here he is!” Mouthwash called out. “Three cheers for Adam! Hip hip!”
“HOORAY!” the crowd shouted back.
“Hip hip!”
“HOORAY!”
“Hip hip!”
“HOORAY!”
Adam was too dumbfounded to react. Everyone was here: his friends from the dormitory at the front of the crowd, leading the cheers; Jessica, smiling with secret pride halfway up the staircase; even Scarecrow and Jonkers were whistling appreciatively as they leaned over the first-floor bannister.
As the ovation continued, members of the crowd surged forward to shake Adam’s hand and clap him on the back.
“Well done, mate. . .”
“We love you, Adam!”
“You legend! That’ll teach Pitty!”
Adam was sinking beneath a tidal wave of good wishes, the press of the crowd threatening to knock him off his feet. A protective arm wrapped around his shoulders, propping him up.
“Give him a bit of room!” Doughnut called out. “He’s only just out of the sick room, for Chrissakes!”
Grumbling, the crowd obeyed, shuffling backwards. Adam gave his friend a bewildered look.
“This is unbelievable! Did you organize this?”
Doughnut shook his head. “Wasn’t our idea. It was his.”
Adam was amazed to see Major X step forward from the crowd, his cap wedged under his arm.
“Only right we paid our respects,” the sandy-haired boy said. “I know we’ve not always seen eye to eye, but everyone owes you a debt for putting Pitt under lock and key. I hope this means that we can bury the hatchet.”
The boy extended his hand. Adam stared at it for a second, and then shook it with a broad grin. The crowd cheered again.
“Not sure I deserve all this,” Adam said. “All I did was get punched.”
“You took those punches for all of us,” the Major said seriously. “I won’t forget it.”
With a crisp salute, he organized the Tally-Hoers into a bodyguard around Adam, shielding him from the press of the crowd as he walked up the stairs with his friends and back to their dormitory, where Doughnut firmly closed the door behind them.
“Welcome back, mate,” he said, with a twinkling smile.
If Adam thought that his hero’s welcome would be the end of the matter, he was in for a shock. In the space of a week, he had become the most famous person on the Dial. Inmates queued up to sit next to him at mealtimes, eagerly offering him extra portions of their food. Pretty girls circled around him like vultures, drenched in perfume, staring balefully at one another as they vied for his attention. The first time Adam tried to play Bucketball, his opponents refused to tackle him, forcing him to leave the field out of sheer embarrassment.
Having spent the previous months of his sentence as an anonymous sidekick of Doughnut’s, he was utterly unprepared for this newfound popularity. Perhaps he should have basked in the attention; instead he found it suffocating. Like an escapee trapped in a guard’s spotlight, Adam fled, making for the quieter parts of the prison where he could talk with his friends in peace.
One afternoon he was enjoying a cup of cocoa in the library with Bookworm when the door crashed open and a large figure strode through the gloom. It was Corbett, a black look etched across his face. Adam instinctively shrank back in his seat, but Corbett stopped several paces away, muttering something under his breath.
Adam leaned forward in his chair. “Sorry?”
“I said,” Corbett replied, in a louder voice, “that the Major is overseeing the dress rehearsal for the show tomorrow, and he wants to know whether you’d meet him there.”
“Um, yeah. Of course.”
“Right. Don’t keep him waiting, then.”
Corbett walked away without another word. As the Tally-Hoer slammed the library door behind him, Bookworm chuckled. “It appears that there’s still one person in this prison who doesn’t think you’re the bee’s knees.”
“You know what the weird thing is?” Adam said thoughtfully, cradling his mug of cocoa. “I kind of like him for it.”
He finished off the dregs with a slurp and hurried over to the theatre. He found the stage swamped in competing musical acts, elbowing one another out of the way as they fought for rehearsal space. As Adam looked on, a chorus line of dancing girls crashed into a pair of scene-shifters, sending all of them toppling to the floorboards beneath a giant cardboard cut-out of a tree.
Corbett was leaning over the grand piano by the side of the stage, talking to Jessica as she slowly picked out notes with her index finger. Adam recognized the melody at once: it was the song she’d been playing when he’d tried to kiss her. When she shook her head in response to a question, Corbett slammed his fist down on the piano and stormed away past Adam.
“You can have her,” the Tally-Hoer snarled. “I’m sick of the bloody tease.”
Startled, Adam hurried over to Jessica.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She smiled at the sight of him and nodded quickly. “I think Corbett’s got the message – finally. It’s nice that I’ve got the Dial’s new hero looking out for me, though.”
Adam laughed ruefully. “Don’t believe the hype. I don’t. You seen Major X?”
“He’s backstage, looking even more self-important than usual,” Jessica replied, playing a mocking trill on the piano.
“Thanks – I’ll see you later.”
If anything, the chaos was even worse behind the scenes. Inmates hared backwards and forwards, clutching sequinned costumes and props; music sheets and spangly batons; juggling pins and magic cabinets. Major X stood in the shadow of the wings, his arms clasped behind his back. He shook Adam’s hand warmly.
“Glad you could make it.”
“No problem,” Adam replied. “What’s going on?”
“There was something I thought you might want to see. Follow me.”
With a furtive glance left and right, the Major led Adam out of sight from the assorted acts to the edge of the wings, where two Tally-Hoers were leaning idly against the stage. At the sight of Major X, they snapped to attention and stepped to one side, allowing the small boy to drop down to the floor and prise off the wooden panel behind them. He gestured at Adam to join him; as Adam crouched down and peered into the dusty darkness beneath the stage, he saw that someone had knocked a gaping hole through the brickwork where the stage ran up against the right-hand wall of the theatre. A pulley system of ropes ran through the hole and into the pitch-black space beyond. In the distance, he could hear the faint sound of trowels digging into the earth.
“There’s a blocked-up chimney that runs down the right-hand wall,” the Major explained softly. “From here our men can climb all the way down to the bottom and start tunnelling out there.”
Adam let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a big job.”
Major X nodded. “The rest of the Tally-Ho thought I was crazy at first – it doesn’t make sense, trying to start a tunnel up near the roof. It’s taken us five summer shows to dig it, and we’ve nearly been sprung a few times. But now we’re only inches from breaking through to the outside. Tomorrow night – after the interval, while all the guards are watching the show – we’re making a break for it.”
Adam got back to his feet, brushing the dust from his knees. “Good luck with that, Major. Do you want me to keep watch for you or something?”
“Keep watch?” Major X laughed. “I want you to come with us.”
Adam gazed blankly at the Major. “What did you say?”
“I asked you whether you wanted to come with us. To escape.”
“But I’m not a member of the Tally-Ho!”
Major X clicked his tongue with impatience. “I’m well aware of that, Adam. But if anyone’s earned a ticket out of here, it’s you.”
The strains of “Climb Every Mountain” were floating back from the stage. Adam tossed a feather boa off the back of a chair and sat down, his brow knitted in deliberation. Although he had witnessed other inmates attempting to escape the Dial, the thought of doing it himself had never occurred to him. Yet the idea of breaking out through the prison walls, of taking his first free steps for nearly a year, was undeniably strong.
“Hang on a minute,” he said, looking up at the Major. “Say we make it outside. What then? What happens if there’s nothing out there?”
“Then we stick it out for as long as we can.” The sandy-haired boy knelt down beside Adam. “Don’t you see? The warphole is a distraction. Getting home is a distraction. The only thing that matters is getting out of this prison. Every time someone tries to jump the wall – whether they make it or not – the guards become a little less powerful, lose a little bit more of their authority. That’s why, as long as there’s a Dial, there’ll be the Tally-Ho.”
“What about my friends?” pressed Adam. “I don’t want to leave them behind. Can they come with us?”
Major X shook his head. “It’s going to be a difficult enough journey as it is, Adam, and timing’s going to be tight. No disrespect, but I don’t think Doughnut can even fit into our tunnel.”
A freckled face popped out from the wings. “Goon on the prowl!”
“Listen, Adam,” the Major said urgently, “whether you come with us or not, we’re going tomorrow. Sleep
on it and send me word, OK?”
Adam nodded. The boys shook hands, and Adam threaded his way back through the stage, where five different performances were simultaneously reaching a crescendo. Seeing his pensive expression, Jessica stood up from behind the piano and looked as though she was going to call out to him, before changing her mind.
His mind in turmoil, Adam sought the peace and quiet of Doughnut’s hiding place on the roof of the prisoners’ quarters. As he lay on the warm slates, his thoughts drifted back to Danny. Adam wondered what his friend was up to at that moment – whether he’d found a new school to go to, whether he’d made up with Carey and they were back together. Then, with a pang, Adam remembered that back on Earth not a second had elapsed since his capture. Danny was probably still sitting at the skate park, moodily staring out into space. The thought didn’t reassure Adam in the slightest.
He waited until it was dark before he came down from the roof and returned to his dormitory. Doughnut and Mouthwash were sprawled out on their bunks, working their way through a pile of chocolate bars that had been left for Adam by a shrill blonde girl called Shelley, who was proving to be the loudest and most determined of his new admirers.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Mouthwash said, tossing a wrapper to one side. “We got peckish, and it’s not like you’re going to run out any time soon.”
“Haven’t seen you about today,” Doughnut added casually. “Word was that Major X was looking for you. What did he want?”
“Nothing,” murmured Adam, hurriedly climbing into his bunk. He was still feeling guilty about the Major’s offer, and the last thing he wanted to do was tell his friends about it. He turned and faced the wall, but he was still awake long after the lights had gone out and the rest of the dormitory was asleep.
The day of the summer show dawned brightly, with a tangible air of excitement amongst the performers and the audience alike. The inmates were rowdy and restless during roll call, while breakfast was on the verge of descending into a full-on food fight until the guards stepped in. Only Adam stayed quiet, the bags under his eyes visible as he played with his porridge. He knew that he had to give the Major an answer. If he said yes, this could be his last morning on the Dial, the last morning with his friends.
