by Ben Onslow
“Ela, go to the farm and talk to Jacob. He knows what happened.
“But be careful. Commissioner Leblanc is in league with Eugenics Corp. I think he may be one of the owners. TransSeed and Humicrib are subsidiaries of the Eugenics Corp Empire. Eugenics Corp is rich and powerful and ruthless. Its wealth is tied to Genus 6 and you are the proof there is a solution to the problems caused by Genus 6.
“You are the answer.”
Suddenly there is a loud noise, a crashing, and her dad looks behind him, then back at her.
“There’s no more time. I have to go. Remember how much I love you and your mother. I wish things were different. Take care.”
Her dad reaches forward. He turns the ImageMaker off, fades back and disappears until all that is left is a small square icon on the screen of the Tablet.
“Nothing has changed from the last time I watched it.” Ela. touches the screen and slowly the icon grows and becomes her father again. We watch the message three times before she shuts it off, takes the memory stick out, puts the cover back on, finds the silver chain lying beside the Tablet and slides the thumb drive onto it.
I guess it hasn’t made her dad come back; he’s still stuck there in the message. She hangs the chain around her neck.
I’m a bit disappointed too. “Not a lot about my dad, but it sounds like what Jacob said is true: they were working together, doing something to fight against the Administration.” I lie on my back, link my fingers under my head, cross my socks, look up at the ceiling, think about something her dad said. “That’s what this is all about,” I say.
“What’s what all about?”
“All this stuff about Genus 6, and you being the proof and the answer.”
“I don’t get it.” She leans on her elbow supporting her chin with her hand.
I brush the hair back off her face.
“Do you know how babies are made?”
“By Humicrib,” says Ela.
Is she serious?
I give her a bit of an eye roll. “And your mother’s a doctor. Did your mum have ‘the talk’ with you?” I ask, sort of edging towards something.
“What talk?” She’s still puzzled.
I get to the point. “Do you have sex education at your school?”
“Yes, it’s like a history lesson. ‘This is how people used to make babies, isn’t it disgusting?’” Ela imitates the sound of a voice over on a Vid.
That’s funny – and we all thought the Elite kids must hump like bunnies, with the way the girls dress, and because no one can get pregnant.
Maybe they don’t have sex all the time. Ela hadn’t.
“Don’t laugh,” Ela says. “That’s what they teach us. ‘Humicrib babies are better, genes shouldn’t be allowed to select themselves’, blah blah blah. Elite don’t even hug or kiss. Remember it’s been nearly thirty years since an Elite had a baby.”
“Except your mum, she did,” I say.
“Did what?”
“You’re a Natural. She had a baby.”
Talk about having to state the obvious.
“Okay,” says Ela slowly.
Then I talk real slow too. Sort of thinking it through as I’m talking.
“Your mum and dad were living with Jacob when your mum got pregnant. Everything Jacob eats he grows himself. So maybe it is all about the food. The effects of Genus 6 can be reversed if you don’t eat the food with the progesterone in.”
Ela thinks about that. “It could be true,” she says after a while. “All the food in the city is imported. It’s sort of logical. Do you think your mum knows? Do you think that’s why she was so angry the other night?”
“It doesn’t take much to upset my mum.” Then my Com connects.
“Fraser,” I say.
“It’s Nick,” says the Com. “Where are you?”
“At home. Where are you?”
“Outside. I’m coming up.”
“Okay.” I roll off the bed, put the Com back in my jeans pocket.
And me and Ela go to the kitchen, wait for Nick,
Nick appears a few minutes later.
“Is your mum here?” he asks.
“Nah, just me and Ela. Mum’s still working.” I fill the kettle with water, put it on its base, flick it on. “What are you doing here?”
“Curley’s found out where they’re keeping Lucinda.” Nick runs his fingers through his hair, looks real anxious.
“Where?”
“At the Outpost like we thought. There’s a lock-up at the back of the infirmary.”
I know what’s coming next; Nick and Joe are going to want to go and get her. They’re going to want my help. I’m not too sure how I feel about it. I feel real sorry for Lucinda and Joe, the way it has worked out, but I don’t think I want to risk getting shot.
“What did Fitzgerald say?” I ask. Maybe Fitzgerald is coordinating this.
One look at Nick’s face and I know that was wishful thinking. Fitzgerald isn’t part of this. I open the fridge and get out a jug of milk.
Nick pulls out a chair and sits down at the table. His hair gets another combing.
“Nah, we’re not telling him. Joe thinks Fitzgerald won’t do anything. What’s one more girl to Fitzgerald? He’d just say leave it to the people who know what they’re doing.”
“Doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me,” I’m real cautious, since the Egan debacle, and Scott’s house, I’m trying to be careful. I get three mugs out of the cupboard. “Vector shoots stray Locals if they find them at the Outpost.”
Nick picks up a pen Mum left lying on the table and draws a few squiggles on the shopping list. “Well Joe says he’s going to get her out himself no matter what anyone else decides. So I’m going with him. Are you in?”
I put the mugs on the bench in a straight line and think about this rescue idea. There’s plenty against it.
Ela’s watching Nick and me and is looking pretty keen to be part of his plan. But we can’t take her with us again – nearly got caught last time. Some babysitter I am, and she’s not going to take too well to being left behind. And Jacob and Fitzgerald have just decided I’m responsible and here we are thinking about doing something that’s going to fire up Vector like you wouldn’t believe.
“Who else have you got?” I ask, giving myself time to think. The jug is jiggling and steaming, then it clicks as it turns itself off. Ela goes to the pantry, gets the tin of chocolate off the shelf and gives it to me.
“Scott and Curley.” Nick’s watching me put the chocolate into the three mugs.
“So five of us, some more use than others.” Nick and Joe are a known quantity. We’ve hunted together since we were kids. They can both handle themselves in the bush, use a gun, but how much use will that be at the Outpost? I haven’t been there, but I think it will be more like the Vault than the bush. There won’t be too many trees to hide behind. Curley on the other hand probably hasn’t been closer to a tree than his mum’s garden since he was a kid, and he’s a bit on the chubby unfit side. But at the Outpost he knows the territory as well as Nick does. I can’t even imagine what use Scott will be – he’s all talk and noise – and unless a vehicle breaks down I can’t see him being an asset.
“Not much of an army.” I stick the lid back on the chocolate.
“Yeah.” Nick gives a bit of a sigh. He must realise our chances aren’t good.
Ela pours the boiling water into the three mugs, then adds the milk. She still hasn’t said anything, but I can nearly see her ears flapping with listening.
“Do you have a plan?” I ask Nick.
“Get there about midnight tonight, have a look round then figure it out,” he says.
And Jacob and Fitzgerald think this guy is more responsible than me.
“Great plan.” I stir the chocolate and hand a mug to Nick.
He holds it with both hands, elbows on the table, blows on the steam. “You got a better one?”
“I’m thinking.” I hand Ela her mug, then pick up my ow
n. I lean back against the bench. “Where are Joe and the others now?”
“Downstairs.”
“You were sent to sound me out?”
“Yeah.”
I put my mug down on the bench again, move enough to get my Com out of my pocket, make a Connect.
“Are we on?” asks Scott right after the Connect flash.
“Come up. We need to talk first if we’re going to do this.”
I put my Com on the bench, still not too happy about the whole idea.
Ela grins, all anticipation. I really might have to tie her up and stick her in a cupboard this time. She gets three more mugs out of the cupboard and refills the kettle.
We’re all sitting around the dining room table. Curley’s Tablet is in the middle, his face all chubby and enthusiastic. He’s brought up the image of the Outpost on eSerch. We all cluster closer so we can see. It looks big, lots of buildings surrounded by some sort of fence, then a huge clear area, then bush.
Curley adjusts the view, zooms in a bit closer, so we’re focused on the gate.
“Right,” I say. “How do we get through that?”
Joe angles a bit at the table so he can get a better look. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since Vector got Lucinda and he looks older. He’s still big and blonde like Nick but usually he’s got this confident, relaxed grin on his face; now he looks fierce. He looks the way everyone looks when they come back from University. Vector just got at him early.
“This is the entrance.” Nick shifts the image so we can see the barrier with the guard house beside it. We all lean closer and concentrate on the image, like our lives depend on knowing this stuff, which if you think this through, they do. A fence twice the height of a small building stretches out from the right and the left. “Me and Curley can get in if we have an authorisation.”
“How do you get authorisation?” asks Joe.
Curley touches the screen of the Tablet. He brings up a list of names.
“I’ll create a fake emergency call-out for me and Nick. I can hack into the computer from here.”
“What emergency do rogue plants cause that needs a midnight call-out?” I ask.
“It doesn’t matter: I’ll delete the call-out record as soon as we’re back here.”
He touches the screen so it’s back to the eSerch image of the Outpost.
“Can you get us through too?”
“No,” says Nick. “That’s the part we can’t figure. The guard’s not going let us in if we have a bunch of passengers.”
“Can we get through the fence further around?” Joe slides the image so the perimeter fence moves across the screen.
“No. It’s all protected by a continuous circuit. If it’s touched anywhere there’s an alarm in the guardhouse. The guards go into lockdown and they send a squad to check the breach. We don’t want that to happen. The whole Outpost stays on alert for hours afterwards, Vector everywhere.”
“Can we hide in your vehicles?” asks Ela.
“You can’t come,” I say. “You’re staying here.”
“I’m not. I want to help.”
“No, Jacob would kill me.” Haven’t seen him for a while, been sending Ela on her own. That thing, that she’s his granddaughter and I’m supposed to be looking after her is problematic again, so when I do go and see him, I don’t need to have done anything he can find fault with.
“I’m going. You need more people,” says Ela.
“Nope.” I lay down the law.
“I am so,” says Ela.
“Nope.”
Nick gives a bit of an eye roll and interrupts. “There’s nowhere to hide. Me and Curley have utes and they check the cabs and the trays and underneath when we go through the barrier.”
I study the map again. Ela goes over to the bench, picks up my Com and slides her thumb across the screen.
She shimmers in a haze then disappears. “Do you think this will work?” she asks.
It doesn’t take long to get the App onto everyone’s Com.
25.
Outpost
Monday 20th Feb 2051
12:50 a.m.
We drive to the Outpost. It’s a cold night. The moon is behind cloud, and wind cuts through the dark. Ela’s with us. In the end I couldn’t leave her on her own due to lurking Willises. And I didn’t want to leave her with Mum because then I’d have to explain what we were doing, and I don’t think this qualifies as being careful.
Me, Ela and Curley are in Curley’s ute. Scott, Joe and Nick are following behind us in Nick’s vehicle. We see the lights of the Outpost ahead. It’s huge and lit up like a beacon. Floodlights everywhere and this high mesh perimeter fence like Nick said.
We’re about a hundred metres away from the entrance; the road’s dead straight.
We’re real stupid doing this.
But I seem to be the only one thinking that. Bloody Curley’s on a high.
“Time for you to disappear,” says Curley, like he’s in some sort of spy Vid.
Ela nods and slides her finger across the screen. She fades out and there’s just a bit of a shimmer where she’s sitting. The HazeApp doesn’t make you completely invisible – there’s always that residual shimmer in the air, like something’s disturbing it – but you’re invisible if no one looks too hard. I do the same and see my hand fade and then the shimmer spread over the rest of me. The ute looks empty except for Curley, just a couple of black holes beside him.
We get to the barrier, a huge gate in front of us, heavy mesh, massive steel frame. The guard checks inside the cab when Curley pulls up.
The guard’s old and pretty relaxed, his black VTroop uniform straining at the seams, helmet and visor sitting on the desk in the sentry box. Another guard is relaxing in there too. Gives a bit of a yawn, Vector don’t use their crack troops for midnight guard duty, I guess.
“We don’t usually see you this time of night,” he says to Curley.
“There’s some panic,” says Curley.
“Isn’t there always?” The guard checks the tray then waves the Detect under the ute. Finds nothing, nods at the other guy in the sentry box. The gate slides out of the way. Curley gets waved through.
I look back and Nick gets through as easily; a bit of a chat, a cursory wave of the Detect, and the guard steps back.
Curley drives along the roadway. It’s all parklike, open on both sides.
We get to the parking area. Curley stops beside a couple of new ESDs.
“Stay where you are,” he says to us as he gets out. “I’ll come round and open your door, you give me my jacket and I’ll put it on while you’re getting out, then shut the door.” It’s like he’s been in the spy business for a while and knows all about how things are done, thinks he’s bloody James Bond.
“You okay?” I ask Ela and feel her nod. I slide out, see the seat of the Curley’s ute slowly depress then puff back up as Ela follows me out of the ute.
We carefully work our way across the open area of paving, all white and sleek and shiny. Curley’s acting nonchalant, got a real swagger on. Everything around us looks like the inside of the Vault. One truckload for here, one for the Vault is the way it went, I guess.
We get to the main building, keeping noise to the minimum, then stop in the shadows and look around. The building’s massive and white, like some sort of monument. Can’t see any movement for a while, then we see Nick’s ute pull into the carpark beside Curley’s.
“I’ll take Ela in, you wait for Nick.” Curley fishes in his pockets while he’s talking, then stands there like he thinks he might have left something in the ute. It all looks pretty dodgy to me, but no one stops him.
“Okay,” I reach out to where I think Ela is and touch her arm. “Be careful, if anything goes wrong hide under Curley’s desk. I’ll come and get you.”
I think she nods, I’m not sure. And not sure she’d even consider hiding and waiting for me to rescue her if something went wrong, after seeing her in action at Egan’s.
&n
bsp; Curley moves away and I hear a second set of footsteps following lightly behind him, there’s a sort of disturbance in the air. They go up the steps of the main building then through these massive entrance doors.
Nick comes over.
“You there Jack?” he asks as he walks past me.
“Yeah,” I say. “Are you there Scott and Joe?”
I hear a couple of ‘yeahs’ and drop in behind them.
We go through the entrance of the building. Nick keeps walking real casual, we follow him through really wide, brightly lit and tiled corridors until we get to his base room.
We still don’t see anyone, the place is deserted. I guess Elite sleep at night.
We’ve already planned how this will work. Ela and Curley have gone to the control centre where Curley has his workspace. Ela’s going to stay in haze mode while she’s there. It’s her job to keep in contact with us by Com so Curley can just look like he’s doing his normal stuff.
The rest of us are going to get Lucinda, all hazed. We’ll tell Ela what’s happening – if we need a door unlocked, where we are, and so on – and she’ll relay the information to Curley. Curley’s fixed it so all the Locates on the Coms show us at home in bed. It’s Curley’s job to unlock all the doors to the infirmary just before we get there. We’ve got Joe’s mum’s Com with us too, so when we find Lucinda she can haze and come back with us, do the whole thing in reverse on the way back, doors unlocked then locked behind us by Curley. It should work. Nick figures the whole mission will take us about twenty minutes max. But there’s a dodgy bit. At the pub we couldn’t decide whether it was better for Nick to stay on lookout or come with us since he knows the way. Me, Joe and Scott would have to work from the NavApp Curley put on our Coms if Nick stays here.
“I’ll come,” says Nick at the last moment. “It will be quicker, and there’s no one in this part of the building. You don’t need a lookout.” He undoes the knife on his belt and I do the same. We decided the hunting knives were the only weapons we could carry. The haze wouldn’t cover a rifle, and it’s not like we’re allowed to own pistols. Scott and Joe have knives too. They’re probably just for comfort. What would we do with the dead bodies if we used them anyway?
