by Eliza Green
But they lacked one thing: an early detection system.
The power fluctuated throughout the day, but Jason had been unable to determine if the short breaks were linked to rotation. His idea to source the frequency code for the force field had been put on hold. With no clue as to where the codes might be, Dom, Sheila and June were on their own, for now.
Jason stuffed a bread roll smothered in meat in his mouth. Eating was the only thing left to do. He paused mid-chew when he caught the slight stiffening in Preston’s shoulders. Preston hissed for everyone to shut up. Max quietened the room with a wave of his hand.
Charlie stood, frozen, behind Preston.
‘It’s Pavesi’s signature,’ said Preston.
Jason heard a succession of flat-sounding beeps. Preston typed in a response and waited. But there was no reply.
Jason’s appetite vanished as his adrenaline kicked in. This was it. They were going in.
His new energy took a nosedive when Preston shook his head at Max. ‘There are two messages. One was delayed. The second message says they’ve just announced rotation.’
Max cursed. ‘What was the delayed message about?’
‘Pavesi says that a succession of vibrations is occurring on each of the upper floors. One a day. He suggests we work this into the pattern.’ Preston paused and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘He also said they were rotating shortly. But that was part of the delayed message. Sorry.’
Charlie and Max seemed to accept it, but Jason could not. His sister’s safety was all that mattered to him.
He stood up fast, knocking his glass of water to the floor. ‘So, now we’re getting delayed messages? How long do we have to sit here and wait?’
‘At least until the next rotation happens,’ said Max. ‘Sit down, Jason. Finish your food.’
Jason stayed on his feet. ‘Come on, this is bullshit. It’s only just happened. We can still go.’
Preston cursed, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. ‘The power held steady during this rotation. There’s no way we could have used it to get back in.’
Jason sat down hard in the chair. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘It means that whatever they need power for, they’re no longer doing it straight after rotation,’ said Max. He took the screen from Preston and handed it to Charlie.
‘These supposed vibrations correspond with unexplained dips in the power here, here and here,’ said Max, jabbing at the screen. ‘The dips last for about a minute and they’re not very low, but they could be enough to let us blast the force field surrounding Arcis.’
Charlie nodded, then handed the screen back to Preston. ‘Ask Dominic to inform us as soon as the next vibration happens.’
Jason pushed his food away. ‘So Arcis knows we’re here and now they’re keeping rotation activities to a minimum.’ It was the only thing that made sense. The power dips during rotation were too great.
‘Possibly,’ said Max, pacing. ‘But they won’t come out here to check. Humans are too unclean for them. The organic elements in the Copies are prone to disease, like we are. By now, one of the machines will have found Noah’s body.’
The boy soldier Jason had tried to help. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen.
‘They’ll think we tried and failed to get inside. We all have chips now and Charlie has kept our location up to date. They won’t know we’ve been monitoring the power all along.’
Preston straightened in his chair. ‘Up until last week, the grid consistently powered down after rotation. Whatever they need to do, they’ll have to do it again. It’s only a matter of time.’
Charlie nodded. ‘We’ll only have one shot to get inside Arcis. So let’s make it our best one. Unless Jason and Preston can come up with a better solution, the power fluctuations are our only way in. Reinforcements will be here soon.’
Preston typed a message on the screen and it translated into a series of beeps that Jason assumed only Dom Pavesi could decipher.
Jason watched Preston work with little interest.
He might as well get comfortable at Charlie’s. They weren’t going anywhere for the time being.
47
Nine had made it to the next phase: Anya’s group and Jerome’s group, plus Yasmin, Sheila and Warren. According to the scoreboard, the last group of four had finished on fewer points.
Anya couldn’t hide her smile at seeing Warren hobble to the walkway. Sheila and Yasmin walked with their packs a short distance behind him, their icy glares watching his back. He deserved everything he got. He had almost cost Sheila her chance to progress.
The supervisor usually swapped out the old elevator-access cards for new ones. But this time, Supervisor One climbed into the elevator with them. He touched a finger to his ear, as if listening. Then he pressed his palm flat against the panel.
Without cards, there was no way for them to access the elevators. Anya hugged herself at the realisation this was now a one-way trip.
The doors opened and the supervisor exited.
Anya stared at the panel in the elevator with the number seven on it. They had skipped the sixth. Why? She followed him out and looked around at the changing room, identical to the ones on the other floors.
Three people she didn’t recognise—two boys and a girl—were waiting. They looked up in surprise.
Supervisor One seemed distracted by the voice in his ear. He entered the elevator and the doors closed.
‘Where did you come from?’ said one of the new boys. ‘You weren’t on the sixth floor.’
‘We were on the fifth,’ said Anya.
The new group wore Essention uniforms: brown tunic over black trousers. Their faces weren’t familiar to Anya.
‘What’s on the sixth?’ said Anya, still hugging herself. This floor felt colder than the last. She considered taking a hot shower to warm up.
‘Remember the wolves on the ground floor?’ said the other boy. She nodded and shivered. ‘We were sent to look after them, to get them what they wanted.’
She couldn’t imagine what demands the wolves might make. ‘What was that like?’
‘Humiliating. You make it so far up the Arcis ladder, then you work for the wolves for a day and the work sends you right back down to the ground floor.’
‘Those wolves are disgusting,’ said the new girl, scrunching up her nose.
‘They have organic parts beneath their exoskeleton,’ the first boy explained. ‘They eat and drink and crap like you and me, except their waste stinks worse than rotten eggs.’
Anya tried to imagine what their skin looked and felt like beneath the hardened exterior.
‘Okay, so what now?’ said Sheila. ‘There are no new clothes.’
Anya had noticed that, too. Had they arrived too early for this floor? She hoped Jason was okay, wherever he was.
They sat down on the benches underneath where the clothes usually hung.
The far door opened and Supervisor Two rushed in. She ignored them, more interested in the voice in her ear than the people in the room.
‘I know that, but they’re already here,’ she said, glancing at the group. ‘What do you want them to do first?’
Anya tried to listen in.
‘I don’t know, I...’ The supervisor turned away. ‘Yes. I understand, Quintus.’
Anya caught Quintus’ voice; it sounded strange, flat and tinny. ‘This is not protocol, 69-C. The tests must continue. We need the complete data.’
‘As you wish.’
The supervisor turned around, her expression wiped clean of emotion. She cast a critical eye over their appearance. Most of the group was still dressed in combat gear. The smell of fresh sweat lingered in the air. She was impeccably dressed in her black tunic with a gold band around the neck. Not a hair was out of place on her well-groomed head.
‘Follow me, please.’
Anya and the others followed her across the walkway to the other side. The outer walls of the room in Tower B were covered in bright wh
ite panels, similar to the walls of the fifth-floor maze. Twelve white leather reclining chairs with extendable arms and screens lined one wall facing another twelve on the opposite wall, around thirty metres apart. They reminded Anya of dentist chairs.
‘Girls’ and boys’ dorms are together, bathroom, dining hall,’ said Supervisor Two. They followed her inside the dining hall with its rows of white tables and benches and the familiar food counter on the back wall. Sweet and bitter notes hit Anya as she entered. Apart from minor variations in the food choices, the dining halls all looked the same.
‘Wait here.’ The supervisor gestured to the benches and tables. ‘We’re not ready for you yet. I’ll come and get you in a while.’
They sat down. As soon as the supervisor left, Dom got up and started pacing. Anya watched as Sheila led him away to a corner of the room to talk privately.
It had reverted to how it should be: Dom and Sheila planning their escape without her.
So why did that decision hurt her so much?
She looked around at the others in the room. Jerome was asking the new boys about the robotic wolves on floor six, while the new girl was caught in the middle of their conversation with no way out. Warren sat close to Jerome, listening in. Jerome clearly had no clue about what had happened between Anya and Warren, or how Warren had deceived them all about Tahlia. Seeing Warren act as if everything were normal made Anya want to run and hide.
The idle chatter aggravated a dull pain in Anya’s head. She couldn’t bear to be in this room any longer.
She had to talk to Dom.
He had his back to her as he and Sheila continued their intense conversation.
Anya stood up fast enough for June to notice and shoot her a worried look. Since Warren, she had become her protector.
‘I’m just going to take a look around,’ said Anya, smiling. She picked up her bag. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
Dom turned around. She felt his gaze on her as she left.
Anya claimed the first bed in the dorms by placing her backpack beside the locker. She sat on the bed with her back to the wall, legs stretched out. She could do this. She would do this, for Dom.
The quiet and calm soothed her enough that she closed her eyes. But when she felt a slight tremor rumble through the wall she opened them, hoping Dom had passed the message to the outside.
The sound of approaching footsteps startled her into a rigid position. The door creaked open and June’s face appeared in the crack.
‘Is it safe to enter?’
Anya didn’t feel like company. But June had been so good to her, so she nodded.
June sat on the edge of her bed, regarding her quietly.
‘I’m fine,’ said Anya, even though June hadn’t asked her anything.
‘I just wanted to check on you.’
Anya relaxed her shoulders and sighed. ‘I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy twenty-four hours.’ She studied June’s soft, delicate face, framed by a beautiful veil of pale-blonde hair that was almost white. There was depth to her light-blue eyes that Anya hadn’t noticed before. But something else lived there: strain, worry, sadness.
June shook her head and looked down at her lap. To Anya’s surprise, June was close to tears.
Anya hesitated before touching her hand. She didn’t know June very well.
June wiped away a tear. ‘I’m fine. I just...’ She took a deep breath, and then looked at her. ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better.’
‘What’s going on, June?’
June looked away again. ‘I thought I could be strong in here, but seeing how easy it was for Warren to use you like that... It really upset me.’ Anya squeezed her hand, but June held her gaze. ‘No, I don’t mean what Warren did... Well, I do. It was awful. But... It’s something else. It’s this place. Arcis. Look how easily they’ve pitted us against each other. We used to be friends. All of us.’
Anya wasn’t sure if that was true. She had only really been close with Warren on the ground floor. And there was Dom.
‘We’ll get through this. It will be fine.’
‘I came here of my own free will,’ said June, her voice rising a little. ‘I do what I do because I believe it to be right.’
Anya guessed she referred to the rebellion, but she didn’t dare say it aloud in case someone was listening.
‘What happens next? What if we don’t find what we’re looking for? What if this is all for nothing?’
Anya squeezed her hand. It felt good not to be the focus for once. ‘We’ll get there. Dom can find his mother, I can see Jason again, you... Who did you come for?’
June sat up straight and wiped away her tears. ‘My younger sister.’
‘Where? When?’
‘Five months ago. A couple of months before I came to Arcis. I need to find her, Anya. She’s all alone. She’s all I have left of my family.’
‘What was her name?’
‘Carissa.’
Anya liked that name. ‘What happened? I mean, on the outside?’
June sighed and leaned back on her hands. ‘My uncle told us about this place that Praesidium had built. That they’d been targeting different groups of people according to age. I didn’t believe him until they came for my sister. My uncle tried to convince them she was matched, but they said she couldn’t be because she was only thirteen. So they took her and brought her here.’
Anya stiffened at the word ‘matched’. What had Grace known? What had her father known? She swallowed, her throat suddenly tight and uncomfortable.
‘Why would he lie about her being matched?’
June looked at her, surprised. ‘Matching was a tradition invented the towns. I thought you knew that. It’s what they all said to keep Praesidium away. When the city began encroaching on their lives, giving them medicine they couldn’t live without, improving farming methods... It was never as impressive as what Praesidium had, of course. Then there were the school trips to Praesidium’s library. Some adults became nervous about the city’s true motives. So the townspeople agreed to invent the tradition of matching, to keep Praesidium from taking their children. ’
‘It wasn’t a real thing?’ said Anya, looking around nervously. She wondered who was watching and listening now.
June followed her gaze and shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter if Praesidium hears us. They knew the towns were lying about matching. The radiation attack that was supposed to disable the machines worked out well for them. It gave them an excuse to force us from our homes.’ She dropped her eyes to her lap. ‘Matching was a way to keep us safe. There’s a Collective that runs the city, and a leader called Quintus who needs us for something. I don’t know what. The girls appear to hold more value to them than the boys. It’s why my sister was taken.’
Anya thought back to that fateful evening, when her parents had been killed, when she’d hidden in a space behind the wall.
‘Why not just take us? Why kill our—’
‘My uncle said they would never reveal their true purpose. The radiation was our attack on the machines, but Praesidium twisted the situation to get what they wanted without lifting a finger. There are too many people in Essention who still believe Praesidium cares about us.’
The antidote. ‘We know why that is.’
June nodded. ‘But even while on Compliance, we still have our own minds. We enter here believing what we did while we were in the towns. It just makes us less capable of arguing, less able to stand up for ourselves. That’s all.’
Anya still worried about who might be listening. Quintus, maybe?
But June was right. It didn’t matter anymore. They were too far gone. They had to complete the programme, or whatever this was.
Anya felt shame at how she had dismissed her mother. But a new purpose drove her, a new reason to live, and to survive. She would do it for her parents. Because they had tried to protect her from something that targeted her because of her age and gender.
Anya had lost her father. She would never truly know her mot
her. But June would not lose her sister.
‘We’ll find her,’ Anya said. ‘We’ll find all of them.’
Anya snapped her attention to the door when a second set of footsteps approached outside. Sheila entered the dorm without knocking and closed the door behind her.
She looked so tall, tanned and beautiful. Anya tugged the band out of her own hair and smoothed it.
Sheila smiled warmly at June, like they were old friends.
June nodded. ‘Hey.’
Sheila shifted her gaze to Anya and folded her arms. ‘Dom wants to talk to you. He’s driving me crazy out there. He thinks you’re avoiding him.’
‘I was.’
‘Well, I’ve had enough of him.’ Sheila scrunched up her face, her voice mocking. ‘“What’s Anya doing, Sheila? Is she okay, Sheila? Why did she leave? Is she happy, sad, sleepy?” Ugh. Un-avoid him, so I can have some peace.’
Anya grinned. Sheila turned on her heel and left just as June got to her feet.
‘Thanks, Anya,’ said June. ‘I’m sorry for being a mess, with everything.’
Anya wanted to tell her she didn’t have to be strong for everyone else. It was okay to fall apart.
‘Anytime,’ she said.
June slipped out the door, leaving Anya alone on her bed. The hummingbirds pecked at the hole in her already damaged heart. She knew she needed to talk to Dom, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what he had to say. She tucked her hair behind her ears.
After what felt like too long, Dom opened the door.
‘Can I come in?’
She pushed herself back on the bed and wrapped her arms around her legs. ‘Okay.’
He stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him. He shoved his hands into his pockets.