Grace sat contemplating their situation. The second day of their incarceration had rolled around and they still had no idea what would happen to them. Apart from glimpses through a window on escorted trips to the bathroom, they hadn’t even seen any natural light.
Grace shuddered when she thought of those bathroom visits. Most of the guards had waited outside; Jake and Roberto insisted the door was left open, which meant no one went to the restroom when they were on duty.
Their prison could’ve been worse, she supposed. She looked around the storeroom, inhaling the rich, earthy smell of the potatoes and other vegetables. At least they had some fresh food, and sacks for improvised bedding.
Food for the prisoners turned out to be packaged meals the guards found in one of the Hope’s landers, the same meals the colonists had salvaged from the Hope for emergency use. They tasted no better now than they had fifteen years ago.
The children, brought up on fresh organic food from birth, couldn’t have been less impressed. But for the motivation of hunger they wouldn’t have eaten any of it. They’d brought a little food them, but once that had gone they had no choice but to eat the old packaged meals or go hungry.
Grace found a few carrots and apples, a luxury the men didn’t have, to leaven the taste of the packaged food.
Not long after their evening meal, the guard changed again, and Grace saw with a sinking heart that Jake Cooper and Roberto Sevos would guard them tonight. She made sure Joyce kept out of sight as far as possible. She didn’t trust either of them in the slightest.
Soon after they arrived, Jake and Roberto closed and locked the door to the men’s room, no doubt to halve the number of positions they needed to cover. It didn’t escape Grace’s attention, though, that they seemed to prefer looking into their room rather than the men’s.
She tried to stay awake and be vigilant, but as the night dragged on it became harder and harder to keep her eyes open. She fell into a disturbed sleep, curled up with Joyce, Amber, and Emma on a bed made of rough sacks.
Unhappy thoughts haunted Simon Greene. The shame Jake and Roberto had brought on them all weighed on his mind. They shouldn’t still be wandering around free. Most of all, he wasn’t happy with Edward Harper and Carla Lewis.
If asked to describe himself, Simon would say “uncomplicated”. He just wanted a simple, honest life. He could tell who were the good, decent people in Haven, and he didn’t think they included Edward and Carla. Well, maybe Edward in his own, self-interested way, but Carla he wouldn’t trust as far as he could throw her.
More than anything, he wanted to throw in his lot with David and the others. But he owed his allegiance to Edward.
Back on Earth, suspended in a stasis chamber below the ground in Greenland, lay his sister and her two children, held in safekeeping until his return. Their future, plus a tidy sum of money, would be his reward for his service. No one had ever said it, but he understood their future formed part of his bond to Edward’s will. He dared not earn Edward’s displeasure, which meant he dare not cross Carla, either.
So he followed his orders and tried to prevent the worst from happening.
Jake and Roberto couldn’t relax. They’d both popped stims to help them stay awake during the night shift, and were on edge. Jake paced back and forth like a caged tiger. Roberto couldn’t keep still either. He twitched with nervous energy.
Both kept snatching glances through the open door to the room where the women and children lay sleeping.
Roberto caught Jake’s eye and they exchanged a look of two conspirators confirming a shared secret.
“Shit, man,” Roberto said, “I’ve gotta get me some. It’s been weeks.”
Jake nodded and turned his head to cast a predatory look through the open doorway.
“You still want that girl, right?” Roberto asked, rubbing his hands down his trouser legs and licking his lips. “Right?”
“Sure.”
“Well, she’s right there, man.”
Jake stole another look and sighed. “Edward would have our asses for that.”
Roberto made a dismissive noise. “We got away with the last one, didn’t we? Carla will take care of Edward. She doesn’t care, you know that.”
Jake considered for a moment, hovering on the brink. “And who d’you want?”
Roberto blinked and his neck twitched. “I’m not into little girls, I’m not a sick fuck like you, man.”
“Fuck you, Roberto.”
Roberto ignored him and licked his lips again. “I could go for her mother, though, y’know? She’s pretty hot for a mother.”
Jake sneered. “Yeah, well, that fits your profile, Roberto. You are a little motherfucker.”
Roberto’s eyes glittered and his teeth clenched together. His stare would’ve incinerated Jake on the spot if hate could be willed into energy.
“You think you’re clever, asshole? Well, you won’t be seeing anything of your little girlfriend without my help now, will you?”
Time stood still as the two men glared at each other, then Jake looked away, his base desires overriding the urge to punch Roberto’s ugly little face in.
“OK,” he said. “Let’s make this quick.”
Only the slow breathing of the sleepers arrayed on their mattresses of old sacks broke the quiet. The light from the main warehouse threw shadows across the floor, shadows that had been static.
Until now.
Two men picked their way between the sleeping bodies, searching for two specific people: one woman and one girl.
Roberto found them, over in the corner where Grace had tried to hide Joyce from their attention. He signaled Jake, who made his way over to join him. Bigger and stronger than their quarries, it took but a moment to scoop Grace and Joyce off the floor and clamp hands over their mouths.
Joyce woke with start. Confused at first then paralyzed by fear, Jake had no difficulty carrying her off. Grace, older and wiser, bucked and struggled. Roberto stepped back and cursed as he tripped over one of the nearby sleepers.
Elizabeth.
She woke, confused, in the dark, earthy smelling room, the formless sounds of struggle knocking at her consciousness. Understanding came as the fog cleared from her mind and her dark-adjusted eyes took in the scene. “No!” she screamed, scrambling to her feet. “Let her go!” She didn’t stop to think as she reacted, her lips pulling back to bare her teeth. Grabbing hold of Grace, she began a desperate tug of war with Roberto. Around them, the others stirred.
Jake carried Joyce to the door. “Roberto, you fuck-up, what’re you doing? You’ll wake them all!”
Roberto snarled at Elizabeth and snatched at his sidearm. “Back off!”
Elizabeth pulled again at Grace, her neck cording, her mind beyond reason. “Let her go! Let her go!”
Grace, one arm freed by Roberto going for his gun, pushed with one hand as Elizabeth pulled, and Roberto lost his balance and tripped backward over a pile of sacks.
His arm swung up and his trigger finger jerked. The gun discharged like a sudden clap of thunder on a calm, still evening. The muzzle flare caught the horrified expressions of Grace and Elizabeth in a strobe of light.
Grace cried out and slumped to the floor, hands clutched to her chest, eyes wide and mouth open, blood seeping between her fingers.
“Roberto! Roberto! Get your fucking ass out here, now!”
Roberto struggled to his feet, staring at Grace on the ground, the hand holding the gun limp at his side.
“NOW!”
Roberto turned and bolted, following Jake, who still had a firm hold on a terrified Joyce.
“Oh God oh God oh God!” Elizabeth said, her mind scrabbling for control. “Grace! She’s hurt!”
Veronika pushed her out of the way. “Vasily! Konstantin! Heidi! Help me move her outside, I can’t see in here!”
Together they dragged her onto a sack and lifted her out. A loud bang came from the storeroom holding the men, and a section of the door fell out, followed by Jo
hn, David, and the others.
David ran to Grace’s side and took one hand in his. Her eyes grew wide, full of pain and panic, and her breath came in short, labored gasps.
“You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine,” he said, squeezing her hand.
Veronika worked on her chest, her motions sure and quick. He let her alone to do what she could and looked up at Elizabeth instead. “What happened?”
Elizabeth’s eyes brimmed with tears and her hands clenched into fists. “I tried to stop him, I didn’t mean this to happen!”
David’s eyes softened just for a second. “Tell me what happened, Elizabeth. I need to know.”
John slipped his arm around his daughter and she pushed her tears away with the heels of her hands. “Those two men came into the storeroom. We were all asleep. They came in and grabbed Grace and Joyce. I tried to stop them, b-b-but they shot Grace and took Joyce.”
David looked up at John and glanced toward the end of the warehouse. “You know what to do.”
John nodded, handed Elizabeth to Nathalie and set off at a run.
Days before, when trouble seemed to be brewing, David had sent John and Grace off on a specific mission, down to their Broken Hill manufacturing center. He sent them to do something he’d never imagined would be necessary.
Veronika by now had a medical kit one of the children had fetched, but Grace was fading fast, her eyes glazed.
David cradled her head with one arm and held her hand with the other.
He knew.
He’d seen it before.
“I love you. I’m going for Joyce now.”
Grace drew one more breath and fell limp in his arms. He looked up to see defeat in Veronika’s eyes. The light in his own eyes died then, draining away to leave something cold and dark in its place.
John returned with a large carryall which he dumped on the ground with a thump that broke the fragile silence. He ripped the zipper open, revealing a stack of assault rifles and other assorted weapons.
David stood, and the people around him took an involuntary step back. “This is what we’ll do,” he said, his eyes cold. “They will have taken Joyce to the wild lands – there’s nowhere else to go. I will retrieve her.”
“I’m going with you,” John said, pulling an automatic pistol from the carryall.
“No. I need to you to deal with Harper. It’s time to take our colony back.”
John hesitated.
“Do it.”
John nodded, pressing his lips together.
“Wait!” Veronika said, surprising everyone. She stood, her brow furrowed and voice demanding attention. She faced John and gripped him by the shoulders. “The stasis chamber – does it work?”
John stared at her, eyes wide.
“Does it work?” Veronika repeated, shaking his shoulders.
“Yes,” John replied, understanding. “But it’ll take at least half an hour to charge the accumulators for the initiation pulse.”
Veronika’s hands went limp and she lowered her head. Then she looked up, the fire rekindled in her eyes.
“Kids!” she said. “Get me ice, as much as you can carry. Hurry!”
The older children scattered, understanding that somehow, Veronika meant to work a miracle and bring Grace back to them.
Veronika swung back to David. “John must go to the stasis chamber, now!”
David allowed himself to hope, just a little, then stamped that hope back into the dark recesses of his mind.
“Veronika …”
“Let him go,” Kevin said. “I’ll deal with Harper.”
David looked at Kevin and hesitated. He knew men like Kevin van Zyl, hard and uncompromising, but honest and trustworthy. Before Kevin had arrived, Josh or Nigel would have been his first choice to lead. He trusted both of them, but they lacked that certainty of command someone like Kevin could bring.
“Take Josh and Nigel.”
Kevin nodded and turned toward the carryall.
“Kevin.”
He stopped and turned back to David.
“This colony is ours. No negotiation.” David saw the awareness in Kevin’s eyes, the acknowledgment of what that could mean.
“Understood,” he said, turning back to inspect the carryall.
David turned to John. “Go.”
John ran for his life, for Grace’s life.
Next he looked at Heidi. “I’ll need light in the wild lands.”
Heidi nodded, understanding.
“Turn on the water, too. Some confusion won’t do any harm.”
Heidi quickly left to do his bidding.
While Kevin passed assault rifles and ammunition to Josh and Nigel, David stripped to his shorts. He reached into the carryall, withdrew only a bayonet and scabbard, and sprinted for the door.
As Elizabeth, Thomas, and Konstantin labored up the path from the lake, laden with buckets of ice from the pavilion kitchen, they passed David, his arms and legs pumping, a scabbarded bayonet clamped between his teeth. He swerved off the path toward the lake, not pausing as he transitioned from a flat run to a dive that took him into the water with barely a ripple.
Elizabeth shivered. He hadn’t surfaced by the time she carried on, chided by the others to hurry.
The other children collected bowls of ice from the refrigerators in their houses, delivering them to Veronika as quickly as they could.
“I don’t know if we have enough,” she said, “but we have to try.”
Unnoticed during the commotion, Vasily had reached into the carryall and withdrawn an assault rifle and an ammunition cartridge. He slipped away, cradling the weapon against his chest. With his twin sister in danger, he wasn’t about to sit back and do nothing to help.
The weight of the rifle surprised him – it was much heavier than a paintball gun. The metal was hard and cool in his hands. He’d never held a rifle before, let alone fired one, but he knew all about them, having studied them on his data pad. He’d wanted to make one of his own, leading Heidi to suggest the paintball guns with which they’d had such excitement and fun in the wild lands.
His heart raced like it did when they played paintball, but his fear for Joyce ate at his guts like acid, overwhelming any thrill from the chase.
Focus, Vasily, focus! He let himself fall into the easy, loping stride he so often used to run from home to the wild lands. He needed to get there quickly, but not via the bridge, as it would surely be watched. Instead he headed for the only other river crossing, which he’d discovered years ago when exploring – behind the waterfall. He’d shared this secret only with Joyce, Nicole, and Konstantin.
The river entered Haven through the waterfall, cascading in a torrent from a low point on the sloping wall of the cavern, just above the surface of the water. It looked as if it sprung from the wall itself with no way around, but Vasily had discovered otherwise.
Despite their parents telling them time and again to stay away from the waterfall, it drew the children like moths to a flame. They never grew tired of watching the raw power of the thundering water.
It hadn’t taken Vasily long to wonder what might be behind the waterfall and it had taken him even less time to investigate. First, he’d poked a finger in, then a hand. He’d discovered something – near the wall, down low, the flow of the water weakened. So he’d pushed his arm in and discovered something else – beyond the first few inches he couldn’t feel any water at all.
It had taken him a while to work up courage to put his head in. When he did, he found a cavity behind the waterfall – just large enough for a boy to wriggle into, provided he stayed on his stomach.
He’d kept the cavity a secret for a long time before telling Joyce, and later Nicole and Konstantin. As far as he was aware, no one else knew his secret. The newcomers couldn’t possibly know.
So that’s where he went now. It would have been quicker to swim the river, but he didn’t want to get the gun wet. He didn’t know if it would still work if he did. He ran a long loop through the
crop fields, as far from Solar Park and the new houses as he could. With every step the thunder of the waterfall became louder, and the light grew dimmer. Just before he arrived, the overhead lights came on and it began to rain.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They took longer than he’d hoped to get over to the wild lands, what with the girl struggling, and Roberto’s constant worrying.
“Jake, I think I might’ve killed her! She caught it right in the chest!”
“Shut up, d’you want everyone out here?”
Roberto closed his mouth, but not for long. “Jeez, they’re sure to come after us for this.”
“Maybe you – you did it. I ain’t done nothin’ yet.”
“You don’t think snatching the girl counts? She’s their leader’s daughter. He’ll be coming for you, mark my words.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why we got a hostage. To negotiate with.”
“Negotiate! They won’t be negotiating with anyone! What’re we going to bargain for, anyway? There’s nowhere to go! Nowhere!”
Jake looked at Roberto. Even in the twilight he could see his flushed face and wide eyes. He’s losing it, he realized.
“Get a grip, Roberto. It’ll work out, you’ll see. Carla’s got our back. We’ve got the guns, remember?”
They reached the bridge. The metal deck plates rattled under their feet as they pounded their way forward.
“Yeah. Guns. That’s right. We got the guns,” Roberto said, his face relaxing. “They can’t get us if we’ve got the guns, right?”
“Right.”
They were halfway across the bridge when the lights came on and the overhead sprinklers rained water down on them. Joyce bucked and twisted in Jake’s arms again, desperate to get away.
“Shit, that’s all we need! Roberto, give me a hand with her, will ya?”
The Seasoning Page 17
