Contact

by Chris Morphew

‘Well?’ she said as I reached her.

  I didn’t stop until I was through the door and out of Pryor’s sight. I collapsed against the wall, silent for just long enough to make her think I’d failed, and then I winked at her.

  ‘Yeah,’ I breathed. ‘I got it.’

  And the look on her face was totally worth the five years that all that stress had taken off my life.

  We headed upstairs, surrounded by a mob of Year 8s still going nuts over the bin. Seriously, you’d think these guys had never seen a fire before.

  Luke was waiting for us at the top of the steps. ‘Did you get it?’ he whispered.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, walking past him and heading down the corridor.

  Luke grabbed me from behind. ‘Give it to me.’

  ‘After English,’ I said, shrugging him off.

  ‘Forget English,’ said Luke. ‘Larson’s not going to notice if we’re a few minutes –’

  ‘Like I’d care if he did,’ I said. ‘We’re not doing anything until we’re out of here.’

  Luke turned to Jordan for support, but she just shook her head at him. ‘Your dad will still be there at three o’clock.’

  She was agreeing with me. Again. This was pretty much the best day ever.

  Luke looked almost ready to push us both down and take the phone by force. But then he just huffed at us and slumped off to our English room.

  I shrugged at Jordan and we followed him.

  Not that I didn’t feel for the guy, but getting emotional about this wouldn’t help anyone. I hadn’t put my arse on the line for that phone just to get caught using it five minutes later.

  We walked into English, and I saw Cat up the back, scratching her shoulder. Her usually immaculate make-up was looking kind of thrown on today, like her mind had been on other things.

  Cat glanced up when I came in. For a second I thought she was actually about to say something to me. But then she spotted Jordan walking in behind me and her eyes shot straight back down to her work. I ignored her and followed Luke to some empty seats at the other end of the room.

  Larson usually gives us something pretty bludgy to do on a Friday afternoon. Today, we were meant to be looking at a bunch of book extracts on our laptops and deciding which ones were dystopias. It might actually have been an okay lesson if I didn’t have the bloody telltale phone beating a hole in my leg.

  The longer I sat there, the heavier it felt.

  This was actually happening. In less than an hour, we were going to make the call.

  We were going to let the outside world know what was really going on in this place. And then, finally, all of it would be someone else’s problem.

  I barely got anything done all lesson, but that wasn’t exactly suspicious behaviour for me. And it was nothing compared to Luke. Mr Larson asked him three times if he was feeling okay. Each time, Luke nodded mutely and went on squirming in his seat.

  Jordan was the total opposite. She tore through the work, like that would somehow help us get out of here faster. How she could focus on anything at a time like this was beyond me.

  But when Larson finally told us to start packing up, not even Jordan could contain herself. She leapt up from her chair and shoved her stuff into her bag almost before he’d finished talking.

  ‘Somewhere to be, Jordan?’ Larson smiled.

  ‘Uh, no sir,’ said Jordan, putting her chair up. ‘Just excited it’s the weekend.’

  As soon as Larson let us out, we sprinted across to the maths block to get our bikes.

  Luke’s fingers could hardly work his bike chain. ‘Where should we –?’

  ‘Jordan’s place,’ I said. ‘It’s closest.’

  ‘Sure,’ shrugged Jordan.

  Despite everything, Luke still found time to stop and roll his eyes at me.

  We pushed through the crowd to the back gate and raced up to the end of the street, to Jordan’s.

  ‘Should be no-one home,’ said Jordan, unlocking the front door. ‘Mum was going to pick Georgia up from school and go do the shopping.’

  Luke latched onto my arm again. ‘Where is it?’

  I checked over my shoulder to make sure the street was still clear, then reached down and pulled out the phone.

  Luke had his Dad’s number punched in before we’d even walked inside.

  ‘Put it on speaker,’ I said, as Jordan shut the door behind us.

  ‘Shh!’ said Luke, turning away with the phone to his ear. His hands were shaking. He looked sick.

  I shut up and waited.

  And waited.

  Luke pulled the phone away from his ear. Checked the screen. Put the phone up to his ear again.

  ‘What’s happening?’ I began. ‘Is it –?’

  ‘Shh!’ said Jordan, giving me a whack. ‘Just let him do it.’

  Luke stood listening to the phone for what felt like forever.

  Then a tiny beep sounded from the speaker. Luke pulled the phone away to read the screen again. He closed his eyes, whispered, ‘No, you piece of –’ and hammered the number into the phone again.

  Not a good sign.

  Luke leant against the wall, shaking worse than ever, barely keeping the phone to his ear. Waiting.

  Jordan took a step towards him.

  The phone beeped again. Luke stared at it.

  Then he slumped down against the wall. The phone dropped from his hand.

  Crap.

  Jordan sat down next to him and rested a hand on his knee.

  Why did she always have to touch him?

  ‘Luke …’ she tried, but Luke didn’t even seem to notice she was there.

  I bent down and picked up the phone. The error message was still lighting up the screen.

  Unauthorised number.

  I showed the message to Jordan.

  ‘Should’ve guessed,’ she said softly. She looked almost as gutted as Luke.

  Now what?

  ‘You can fix it,’ said Luke, staring up at me, eyes suddenly snapping back into focus.

  ‘What?’

  Luke pointed at the phone, desperation across his face. ‘You can fix it, right? You know about this stuff. You can take it home and make it work.’

  I turned the phone over in my hands. ‘Mate, I don’t –’ I started to say, but then Jordan was looking up at me too. ‘Sure. Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.’

  I dropped the phone into my pocket. I think we all knew it was a long shot, but – ‘Peter!’ said Jordan. ‘The contacts!’

  ‘Huh?’ said Luke.

  ‘Oh, crap, yeah,’ I said, amazed it had taken us so long to get there. I ripped the phone back out of my pocket and started clicking through menus. Pryor was obviously using this thing to call someone. Her contact list would give us a pretty good idea of who the authorised numbers were.

  ‘Got it,’ I said, starting down the list. ‘Bruce Calvin … Um, okay, let’s not try calling him … Victoria Galton …’

  ‘Who?’ said Jordan.

  ‘She works at Dad’s office,’ I said. ‘She’s like the boss of the whole Shackleton Building. Apart from Shackleton, I mean. Anyway … Louisa –’

  I stopped. No way. How was that even possible?

  I’d been over to their place about a thousand times. Surely I would have noticed something.

  ‘Louisa who?’ asked Luke, head snapping up. ‘I think that’s my mum’s boss’s –’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Louisa Hawking. She’s head of the office complex.’

  ‘Wait – Hawking?’ said Jordan. ‘Cathryn’s mum?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ I said, moving on before either of them had a chance to react. ‘Aaron Ketterley … Robert Montag …’

  This was insane. Aaron? The doc? These guys were my neighbours. They were good people. They couldn’t be a part of all this. It didn’t make any sense.

  Jordan gasped at Montag’s name. She looked like she’d just been slapped.

  ‘Mum’s doctor,’ she said. ‘He’s taking care of all the baby stuff. What if –?’


  ‘He won’t do anything to the baby,’ I said, not knowing if it was true, but trying to be encouraging. ‘They want everyone inside Phoenix alive, right?’

  ‘We’ve got no idea what they want!’ said Jordan. ‘They could just as easily decide –’

  ‘Jordan, stop,’ said Luke. ‘We’ll look after your mum – and the baby. We won’t let anything happen to them.’

  Jordan gave him a weak smile.

  Why? Why believe it from him and not me?

  I kept going down the list.

  ‘Benjamin More … Noah Shackleton. Well, obviously. Arthur van Pelt … He’s in charge of Phoenix Mall –’

  Then I realised exactly what we were looking at.

  The principal, the security chief, the office manager, the residential liaison, the head doctor, the mall manager, the top guys from Dad’s office …

  Everyone in a position of power in Phoenix.

  I counted them off in my head. Shackleton plus seven others. Eight if you counted Pryor. The article in Jordan’s Time magazine said that Noah Shackleton had formed the Co-operative with eight other wealthy business associates.

  Those associates were all here in Phoenix. Of course they were. Where else would they go when the outside world was about to be obliterated?

  This wasn’t just a list of phone contacts. It was a list of the people responsible for everything we’d been through since we got here.

  The people responsible for Tabitha.

  ‘Guys,’ I said, almost dropping the phone, ‘there’s …’

  ‘What?’ Jordan demanded. ‘What’s wrong?’

  My thumb had just grazed one of the buttons. There was another name on the list.

  Brian Weir.

  Dad.

  Chapter 8

  FRIDAY, MAY 22

  83 DAYS

  No.

  He wouldn’t. Not my dad. It was impossible. No way was he a part of this. No way. There was another explanation. Of course there was. I just had to figure out –

  I hit the wall behind me and realised I’d been backing away from the others.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Jordan, standing up. ‘Is there another name?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s nothing.’

  Jordan stretched out her hand. ‘Peter, c’mon, let’s see it.’

  ‘I said it’s nothing.’

  ‘All right,’ said Jordan, stepping closer. ‘So give me the phone.’

  I held the phone behind my back. ‘No, wait, just let me explain, okay?’

  ‘Explain what?’ said Jordan. And she dived at me.

  ‘Jordan –’ said Luke, getting up too.

  I twisted away. Too late.

  Jordan pinned me up against the wall and pried the phone out of my hand.

  ‘Okay,’ I said as she let go. ‘Okay, look at it. Just don’t –’

  ‘Your dad,’ said Jordan coldly.

  ‘No,’ I said, straightening up. ‘No, that isn’t –’

  ‘Look,’ she said, voice rising, thrusting the phone into Luke’s face. ‘Look at it. His dad is –’

  ‘He’s not! Don’t even – so what if his name’s on some stupid list? That doesn’t prove anything!’

  ‘It proves he’s got one of these,’ said Jordan, waving the phone in front of me.

  ‘So they gave him a phone!’ I said. ‘He works for them, okay? So do both of your parents!’

  ‘My parents aren’t getting secret phone calls from Mr Shackleton,’ said Jordan. ‘And I thought you said your dad just worked for the local paper. How is that important enough to deserve a phone?’

  I opened my mouth to keep arguing.

  And then I closed it again. I forced myself to shut up for a second, breathing, trying to pull myself together.

  Calm down. Think. Don’t yell at her.

  ‘All right,’ I said after a bit, trying to keep my voice level. ‘Okay, maybe that’s not all my dad does at work. But, Jordan, I swear –’

  ‘So you admit it now?’ snapped Jordan, and I felt the anger flare up again. ‘You admit you’ve been keeping stuff about your dad from us?’

  Don’t yell at her.

  ‘Jordan, no, I never meant to keep anything from you guys. That was before I knew –’

  ‘Don’t give me that crap again!’ Jordan spat. ‘We went out to that wall a week ago! You’ve had plenty of time to fill us in on –’

  Don’t –

  ‘I don’t know, okay?’ I screamed, loudly enough to shut even Jordan up. ‘I don’t know what he does! What did you want me to say? “Guess what, guys! My dad’s plotting genocide! Better go kill him!” I didn’t ask for this, okay? I didn’t ask for any of this!’

  ‘And we did?’ said Jordan.

  Luke held up his hands. ‘Peter, listen –’

  And Luke’s calm bloody peacemaker voice was all it took to set me off completely.

  ‘No, you listen! I’ve done everything you guys wanted! I decoded your files! I took you out to meet Crazy Bill! I went out on your suicidal bike ride into the heart of bloody darkness! And who was the one who got that phone for you in the first place? Yeah, that’s right. You know what? My life was fine until you guys got here! I was happy. And now you want to string me up for not wanting to think my dad is freaking Hitler? Well, screw you!’

  Dead silence.

  I ripped the phone out of Jordan’s hand and walked out of the house.

  I rode home along the backstreets, blood pounding in my head.

  Furious at Luke and Jordan. Furious at myself for blowing up at her.

  And the worst part was that the longer I turned it all over in my head, the harder it was to convince myself that there was any kind of innocent reason for Dad to be on that list.

  But there had to be. There had to be something.

  I rolled my bike up to the house. Dad’s bike was already parked in the rack at the end of our veranda. He must have been working from home this afternoon.

  I got to the door and hesitated.

  An idea dropped into my head. It was crazy and dangerous and would probably land me in even more crap with Jordan and Luke. But right then I didn’t care about any of that.

  I eased the door open, careful not to make a sound, and crept into the house.

  Dad was in the lounge room. I could hear his fingers clattering on the keys of his laptop.

  I crept along the hall to the lounge doorway, sliding Pryor’s phone out of my pocket as I went.

  I glanced around the corner.

  Dad was lying back on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, back to the door.

  Would he really be that relaxed if he had so much to hide?

  I ducked back into the hall and brought up the contact list again.

  Brian Weir.

  I dialled the number, put the speaker to my ear just long enough to hear that it was ringing, then slipped the phone back into my pocket, thumb hovering over the end call button.

  The clattering in the next room stopped.

  I stepped out into the doorway. Dad was shifting on the couch, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a phone identical to Pryor’s.

  ‘Melinda,’ he said casually, sliding the phone open. ‘What can I do for you?’ He stood up, putting his laptop down on the coffee table, and rolled his shoulders back in a silent yawn. ‘You there, Mel?’

  He turned his head, saw me standing in the doorway, and freaked out. ‘Whoa, Pete –?’

  Dad shoved the phone down into his pocket in the most miserable attempt at a cover-up I’d ever seen.

  My brain lost power for a second, and all I could do was stare right back at him.

  ‘How was school?’ asked Dad, finally breaking the silence.

  I ignored the question. ‘Who were you just talking to?’ I asked, hopefully sounding more innocent than him, at least. I arranged my face in an expression of shock – not exactly hard to do right now – and said, ‘Wait … are the phones back on?’

  Dad flinched. ‘No, mate, I was just �
�’ His eyes darted back and forth like they always do when he’s thinking on his feet. ‘I thought I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. You know how you sometimes think it’s buzzing, but really –?’

  ‘Then why did you say “Melinda”?’ I asked.

  He narrowed his eyes at me.

  And in that moment, the reality of what I was doing hit me like a bowling ball in the face.

  Pryor’s phone goes missing in the middle of my meeting with her, and then my dad gets a call from the stolen phone and I just happen to be there to bust him?

  Was I trying to get caught?

  Dad’s hand drifted down to his pocket. He pulled his phone back out, face fixed with a stony, serious look that he hardly ever gets.

  ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Here. See? This is my work phone. Mr Shackleton gave it to me in case anyone needs to contact me with a story for the paper.’

  How is that important enough to deserve a phone? I heard Jordan shouting in my head. I shoved the thought away.

  ‘But the phones are down,’ I said. ‘How are you getting reception?’

  Dad tapped the weird bulge at the back of his phone. ‘Louisa Hawking – you know, your friend Cathryn’s mum – she’s set up a makeshift network. It’s pretty temperamental, though, and it still can’t connect to anywhere outside Phoenix. That’s why they’ve asked me to keep it quiet. They don’t want people to suddenly hear a phone ringing and get the wrong idea.’

  He shot me a significant look.

  ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘That phone in the park. That was you? ’

  Dad nodded. ‘No point hiding it from you now, I guess. I was cutting across the park on the way to a meeting and the bloody thing went off in the bottom of my bag. No idea how it got turned off vibrate. I got out of there and shut it up quick as I could. But I guess it wasn’t quick enough, was it? Officer Miller said he saw you and your mates coming after me.’

  Why was he admitting this? Surely that proved he wasn’t one of them.

  No, it doesn’t. You already caught him with the phone. He hasn’t said anything you don’t already know.

  But that wasn’t true either. He’d given something else away, even if he hadn’t meant to.

  If that phone had been his, then so had that list of building stuff. That was his big project. He was helping them build something. He was helping them.