by Ben Onslow
“Thanks.” She smiles at me as she hops out.
Jacob’s sitting in a wheelchair in his room, pyjamas, dressing gown, slippers, looking more old and tired than usual. He reaches for his glasses on the side table and puts them on. Once the glasses are in place he stays pretty still.
Ela sits on the bed real near him. “Jack’s been looking after me like you wanted.” Jacob watches her as she fiddles with the bit of paua shell on the chain she’s wearing. She tells him about going back to his house and finding it trashed.
“Trashed?” asks Jacob. Ela nods and bites her lip, looking concerned.
Then she tells him about going back to the pub with me. Meeting me in the bar the next morning. Should have warned her not to mention that.
Jacob looks at me over the top of his glasses.
Didn’t know this job came with performance appraisal.
But Jacob isn’t worried about his house or the bar too much. It’s the document box he focuses on.
“Did you get the box I told you to get?” he asks Ela. She nods again.
“Have you read the documents and shown them to Jack yet?”
“We are both almost through them.” She’s exaggerating a bit. We’ve both sort of read one document.
“I don’t see how the history of biofuel is going to help us,” I say.
Ela nods, looking at me, agreeing.
Mistake.
“So neither of you has got very far,” Jacob barks at us. “I want you to read all the documents so you can understand how important this is. Stop mucking around. Where are they now?”
“In Jack’s Land Rover,” says Ela quietly.
Jacob swings his head around to look at me. Probably should have told her not to mention that either. Jacob’s pretty fired up about those documents, and he knows how secure my Land Rover isn’t.
“You’ve left the documents in a vehicle, in a public car park?” snaps Jacob right on cue.
“Yep.” I make a point of never giving him the satisfaction of hearing me making excuses.
“Great,” says Jacob, real sarcastic.
Now Ela looks upset. She starts to tell him about going to Curley’s.
Jacob stops her. Looks around the walls for ears. “Let’s go for a walk.” He starts driving the wheelchair towards the door. Me and Ela follow. Jacob doesn’t say anything until we are outside in some garden/courtyard thing.
Then he turns on me.
“You pick up the papers?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Before we came here.”
“Where are they now?”
“Locked up at home.”
“Good.”
Finally done something right.
“Have you gone through them?” he asks.
“No, not yet.”
“Get it done as soon as you get home,” snaps Jacob. “And tell Ela what you’re doing it for. Her mother will have taught her to keep her mouth shut.”
Then I tell him about seeing the Willis’s talking to the two guys in the pub.
“Did you get names?”
“Only the older guy. Mum said he said he was Carlos Vincent.”
“I haven’t heard of him. I’ll run a check on him. Did you get a good look at them?”
“Yeah. They were real big. Like they work out. Sort of menacing.”
“What were they doing?”
“Looking at NavMaps, Mum said. It looked like the old guy was laying down the law to Henry and Charlie. Looked like they’d been working for him but hadn’t got it right.”
Jacob nods and scratches his chin.
“Might be Vector agents. Keep an eye out. If you see them again, let me know.”
“And Vector got Lucinda,” I say.
Jacob sighs and nods, like he already knew that. Then he eases his head around as if he’s hurting, and turns on Ela again. She’s sitting close to him on a bench, threading the edge of her cloak through her fingers.
“Listen to Jack. Do what he says,” he says to her. “Be careful. Read those documents, and take Jack to the clearing.”
Never heard of ‘the clearing’, but Ela nods. Might ask her about that later.
Ela sort of flutters her hand over Jacob’s like she wants to touch him but isn’t sure whether she should.
Then he turns on me again. “Have you got the spray going like I told you to yesterday. I saw aphid damage in the tomato house. And prick out those seedlings in the other glasshouse.”
I feel like telling him to pull his head in. We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and it’s still early, and I’ve already been to his place and Curley’s. Instead I say real agreeable, “Okay, I’ll do the seedlings when I get back, and make some spray up this afternoon.”
But it doesn’t help. Jacob’s still looking cantankerous, and he’s being an arse to both of us.
“Get it done.” I’ve seen Mum like this when things are getting on top of her, so I guess he’s worried. But he doesn’t need to take it out on us. I decide if he’s going to be snappy and throw his weight around, it’s time to go. I leave the wall to hold itself up.
“We’ll do the work, and go through Curley’s papers. Tomorrow I’ll take Ela to the drill sites if you still want that.”
Jacob nods.
“Yes, go to the site tomorrow. Read the documents. Deal with Curley’s stuff first though.”
I nod too. Real agreeable again.
Jacob rests his head against the back of the wheelchair, and closes his eyes.
“I’ll get the transport,” I say to Ela. “Pick you up at the entrance.”
I just get a few steps away from the courtyard, and Jacob calls me back.
He fishes in his pocket. Pulls out a bit of paper and hands it to me. “Take this.”
“What is it?” I unfold the paper and read, ‘CatchingFire’.
“If you run into any trouble,” Jacob says real quiet, “Just connect with Fitzgerald and say that. It will tell him you need help.”
He trails off as a couple of burly nurses, in the blue cotton shirts and the pants the nurses here wear, walk past the courtyard.
“Bill and Ben.” Jacob watches them move on. It makes me wonder if they’re nurses or jailers. Or maybe Jacob’s just paranoid.
“Fitzgerald will help you. He’s running the cell at the moment,” says Jacob when we’re alone again. “Just connect with his Com and say ‘CatchingFire’ if there’s trouble.”
That sounds familiar. Like I’ve heard that phrase a couple of times already.
“What’s ‘CatchingFire’?” I ask.
“It’s the name of a book.”
“Yeah, I’ve read it.” I’m a bit sarcastic. “What will it mean to Fitzgerald?”
“It’s the emergency code. Remember to use it only if you need Fitzgerald’s help.”
“Okay.” Jacob must be finally starting to trust me if he’s given me the code word they use.
We leave Jacob sitting there.
“Did that go the way you planned?” asks Ela, as we walk to the car.
“Could have been better.”
“He gets cross doesn’t he?” she says quietly.
“Yep.”
“I didn’t know he could be like that.”
“Just stick around me and you’ll see a lot more of it,” I say, as we go across the grass. Ela pulls a face like she doesn’t think that’s funny.
Then I start thinking about the whole ‘Catching Fire’ thing. Wonder why it sounded familiar. A few more steps and I remember where I’ve heard it before. Nick and then Curley’s dad and then Scott all talked about something catching fire and it seemed strange each time. When they saw I didn’t know what they were talking about they all backed off. I think about it bit more, and we’re nearly at the carpark before I realise what they were doing. They were sending out feelers to see if I was part of the resistance too. Or whatever it is Jacob and Fitzgerald call what they’ve got going. Jacob called it a cell.
And
suddenly I’m irritated.
Jacob didn’t even bother to tell me straight up about it until he had to. He kept me in the dark. Let everyone else know what’s going on but not me. Just used me as a messenger boy, and now he’s even got me babysitting.
I decide to have him on about it.
“Wait for me in the Land Rover.” I hand over the keys to Ela. “There’s something I want to ask that granddad of yours.”
“Okay.” She’s all innocent grey eyes, trusting, wanders off in the direction of the carpark.
I go back to the granddad, and he’s still sitting in the courtyard.
“You forget something?” he asks when he sees me.
“Yeah. Are the Willises going to be telling me about something catching fire in the next few days?” I ask.
Jacob considers that for a moment, like he’s deciding if I deserve to know. “No, they aren’t part of the cell,” he says finally. “And they won’t be. You know we think they’re informers for DoE. Why?”
I consider a few replies. “Thanks Jacob,” I say after a while. “You’ve known me and Dad for years and you didn’t trust me enough to make me part of this.”
“You knew as much as you needed to know,” says Jacob, like this is nothing.
Now I’m real angry. They didn’t tell the Willises because they don’t trust them, and they’ve been treating me the same way as they’ve been treating those arseholes.
“And it’s good to know you rate me about the same as you rate the Willises,” I say.
“Get over it,” he says.
Get over it?
“That right?”
“Yes.” Jacob studies the wall. After a while, he looks back at me. “While you were getting into trouble all the time, you were no good to us.”
“So you decide to shut me out?”
“We decided to keep you close, and wait for you to grow up.”
Grow up? The arsehole.
Jacob moves his good leg and knocks the seat of the picnic table with his foot, like he does when he wants to have a chat.
“Sit,” he says. “You look like you’re going to explode.”
It takes a while for me to sit. What Jacob says had better be good. He’s got a bit of ground to make up.
Jacob eases the foot back onto the foot rest. Maybe moving his leg hurt him. I’m not too sorry about that.
He gives the side of his mouth a bit of a scratch, like he’s playing for time, deciding what to say. Then he sits forward in the wheelchair, leaning towards me. When he does start talking, it’s real quiet and conciliatory.
“If we’d let you go to the City when you finished school, you’d have ended up in a Vector interrogation cell. They don’t like Locals who make trouble.” He leans back again, giving me time to consider that, then raises an eyebrow, expecting me to say something.
But what he’s just said is infuriating too. All right, so I wasn’t exactly a model citizen a few months ago. But he’s got to know all that has changed. Especially after the Stevens’ thing.
I don’t say anything. Let him squirm.
He considers the rock wall for a while again. Then looks back at me. “You just had to learn to take orders and follow instructions. Be a bit more responsible.”
“You and Fitzgerald think Nick is more responsible than I am?” I ask. And Curley and Scott, for that matter.
“Ah, so that’s where you heard it.” Jacob lifts his bad leg with his hands, still trying to get comfortable. “I’ll have a word with Fitzgerald about some sort of identification code. CatchingFire’s not meant to be used that way. It’s supposed to be kept for emergencies. And it isn’t that we think Nick is more responsible. He needed a code word to get help if he was in trouble. Every time he passes on information he hears at work he’s putting himself in danger. If he gets caught and interrogated we’re all in trouble.”
“But it didn’t matter if I got caught?” That comes out real snappy.
“Not a lot,” says Jacob, less conciliatory, like we’re discussing something trivial again. “Until now all you knew is that you work for an eccentric old coot who likes to grow his own seeds and then hands them out to a few other people. You couldn’t do much damage.”
I’ve heard enough.
“Thanks Jacob.” I stand up ready to go. “That’s real caring. Your way, I die under interrogation, without even knowing why.”
“Yeah, probably should have told you a bit earlier.” Jacob. And pushes on a wheel, turns the chair a bit so he can look out at the hospital grounds.
He thinks for a while. Then turns back to me.
“Look,” he says. “If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be looking after Ela. Ela is important, and not just because she’s my grandkid. She’s the answer to all this.”
“What answer?”
“She’s a Natural.” Like that answers my question.
“Yeah, right,” I say. Apart from everything else, no one looks as good as she does when the genes are left to select themselves.
Jacob just shrugs at me in a take it or leave it sort of way.
“She can’t be a Natural,” I point out. “She’s Elite and there hasn’t been a Natural born to the Elite in twenty years. That’s why we have the Quarantine.”
Jacob eases his back again. Leans forward in the chair. “She is, and because she is, she’s the proof the effects of Genus 6 can be reversed. She’s what Eugenics Corp doesn’t want anyone to find out. That the rest of the world could have kids if they got rid of Genus 6 and the Trojan Gene.”
Jacob waits to see how I take that.
If it’s true, it’s huge.
I don’t believe a word of it.
“Prove it,” I say.
“Don’t keep Ela’s DNA records in my pocket.” Another smartarse. I’m surrounded by them.
I see Bill and Ben come out of the doors. They start heading towards us.
Jacob sees them too. We have about thirty seconds to finish this.
“Who would want to hide something so important?” I ask. I watch Bill and Ben coming closer.
“Eugenics Corp, Humicrib, Trans-seed, Transgene.” Jacob’s talking fast and low. “If it comes out Genus 6 is suppressing the fertility of the world’s population, and the effect can be reversed, they’ll be out of business.”
“Does Ela know?” Bill and Ben have got to the path.
Jacob nods, still watching as his jailers get closer.
“I think she’s just found out. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it. But her dad left her a message. The message explains it all better than I can now. Ask her.”
I’ll definitely be checking with her.
“And no one can know Ela’s a Natural?”
Jacob nods. “No one knows. And the Administration will kill her if they find out. It’s your job to keep her safe. It always was.”
I consider that. If any of this is true, it’s a responsibility.
“Okay,” I say in the end. I’m playing along until I have time to check the facts.
I think that’s it, but Jacob keeps talking. Not much more than a whisper now. Bill and Ben are real close to the courtyard. “We don’t recruit a lot of young kids like you and your mates. We don’t have to. Everyone comes back from the City a bit older and wiser. But we’ve got plans for you and Nick and Curley. If things go the way we think they will we’re going to need you. Just wait a while and keep things going for me, just until I get out of here.”
“Okay.” I still don’t like what Jacob and Fitzgerald did, keeping me in the dark. And I have my doubts about the Ela story. It doesn’t sound likely.
“Jack,” says Jacob seriously. “Look after Ela for me.”
“Yeah.”
Bill and Ben arrive in the courtyard.
I swing into the Land Rover.
“You’re a Natural?” I ask Ela as I shut the door.
“Dad says I am. Is that what you wanted to talk to Jacob about?”
“No, it just came up.”
/> “I just found out too.” Ela lifts the silver chain from around her neck and shows me the paua charm and it’s actually a ThumbDrive. “Dad left me a message. It’s on the MemoryStick. It was in the box with the documents.”
“Do you believe it?”
“I don’t know. But I look a lot like Dad did and Jacob too.”
I study her a moment. “Maybe.” I grin at her. “A bit hard to see, Jacob’s no beauty.”
Ela giggles. “On the Vid, Dad talks about your dad too.”
“Can I watch it?”
“Don’t know. I’ll think about it.” She wraps her fingers around the paua shell cover. “Where are we going now?”
“Back to Jacob’s, do that work he wants done. Tomorrow we’ll check the drill sites.” I turn the key. The motor starts. I look behind, then pull out of the parking space.
10.
Jacob’s House
Tuesday 14th Feb 2051
1:10 p.m.
I can see Ela’s not too keen on going inside Jacob’s house. She just sits there in the passenger seat. I guess the last time she went in she walked in on a nightmare.
I get out of the car, go around to her side, and open the door.
“Come on. Let’s see if we can find something to eat. You’ll feel better after food.”
She slides out, all cloak, grey eyes, long legs and short skirt.
“You sound like my mother,” she says.
“I was quoting Patsy.”
Ela smiles a bit. I shut the car door behind her, and we walk up the steps onto the veranda.
She finds the key and unlocks the door.
I go inside first.
She follows.
Everything in the house looks the way we left it except for the fingerprinting dust. I don’t think anyone has been inside since the police.
She wipes the dining table down with the dish cloth. I fish in the cupboards and fridge looking for something to eat for lunch.
“Sandwiches and fruit will have to do.” I pull things out of the fridge and put them on the bench. “Jacob makes a mean loaf of bread.” Ela sort of half smiles again. “Do you want tea or hot chocolate?” I’m filling the kettle with water.
