“Are you sure? It’s dangerous and they aren’t your problem...” Kai withered to quiet under the gaze of the young man who seemed to have no problem babysitting a bunch of messed-up OS dwellers. “Will the men from your village come back?”
“They will do many rituals first to break the Imilingo. Not back for many days.”
“We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Boety pointed to the bag. “What’s in there?”
Kai patted the bag and fumbled over what to say. “Necklaces, like Zulu’s. From the well in your village. I have a feeling they are yours.”
Boety reached for the bag, tucked it on his lap and folded the sides down to better see inside. He shut his eyes, reached in, and dug around below the surface. In a moment, Kai saw his face change. A blissful glow crept into his features and Kai had the strongest feeling that he’d found his amulet.
He pulled his hand out the bag, clasped around an amulet. He breathed deeply in through his nose and out through his mouth. “My gratitude burns hotter than the sun.” He slipped the cord over his head.
He called his group close around him and they whispered in a tight huddle. They passed the bag around, each reaching in and coming out with an amulet. Once they’d each found theirs, they sat grinning at each other.
Boety passed the bag of leftovers to Kai for safe-keeping.
They all whispered quietly to each other, until Boety clapped his hands once and the group dispersed, running in different directions.
Boety stood, and he seemed taller and broader than he’d been before. The whites of his eyes glowed, not grey like Ruaan, but pure white.
One word burned in Kai as he looked at the young man: dreamer. “Do you dream much, Boety?”
Boety grinned, his teeth flashing against the darkness of his skin. “I walk in my dreams. I see things. What I see happens. Bad things can be changed.”
“You’re a dreamwalker.”
“That is what they call me. But when they took me to train as a priest, the dreams stopped. I had to let go. But now,” his fist bumped his chest, “now I feel them all come back. Thank you.” His hand slipped around his amulet, and his face shone.
Exhaustion rolled over Kai, but now was not the time. Words failed him, so he patted Boety’s shoulder and ran downstairs to find the others.
~*~
Evazee had a foot in the van, but her heart was still torn. It was all very well to leave Boety and his friends to watch over the OS, but leaving Peta, Runt, and the others felt like leaving a newborn on a doorstep in the middle of a tsunami. Besides, if there had been one bottle of healing stream water that had made such a difference to Zulu’s boys, there might be more. Maybe between her amulet and a bottle of healing stream water, she could get her imprint back. This would buy her some time to go hunting. “I’m sorry, guys. I can’t leave. Just go without me.” She backed away, feeling the haunting sting of indecision glow red hot in her belly.
Kai pulled her to one side. “Are you sure about this?”
“Runt, Peta...even Zulu. They need someone. If I went with you and something happened...I don’t think I could live with myself. You know?”
Kai’s mouth drew into a single, sharp line. “I understand.” He turned back before shutting the van door. “Don’t get caught.”
Evazee swatted his words away. “Same to you.”
Kai laughed, but he dipped his chin enough for her to know that he’d heard. He gave a quick salute and climbed into the vehicle.
Evazee watched the dust billow up from the van’s tyres and rubbed her arms against the cold dread that crept over her. She shook it off and ran upstairs, telling herself that staying behind was the right thing to do. Now she just had to find the healing stream water. Maybe even get her imprint back.
She made it to Torn’s office without anyone stopping her. She knew something was wrong the moment she stepped through the door. A cold shiver passed through her, followed closely by a delicate, probing thought that sliced through her brain.
I’ve missed you.
~*~
Twilight took on a darker shade as they pulled up outside St. Gregory’s school.
Zap glanced behind the car. “Do you think someone followed us?”
“Doubt it, why?” Kai’s cheeks were flushed like he was running a temperature.
Bree put a hand on his forehead. “Are you OK? You don’t look so good.”
“Being back here is weird, that’s all.” He looked away before she could examine him too closely.
Kai directed Ruaan around the back to a separate entrance where Phil lived. The ancient caretaker had less hair than Kai remembered, and what he had was even whiter than Kai thought possible. He hugged Kai. Through his threadbare jersey, Phil’s bones felt fragile beneath Kai’s fingers.
“Come in, come in. Are you still fixing things?” He waved the friends into his stuffy apartment. The windows were all closed up and the curtains drawn. One look at the man’s hands, and Kai could see why. Thick, ropey bands of green laced through and around the tendons. Arthritis had taken a deep hold in his old joints and robbed the strength from his fingers. Window catches were no longer manageable. It made Kai sad to see it, but some things were beyond fixing.
“I try.” Kai felt the heat in his face.
“You always had a talent for that. Remarkable.” Phil’s hands might have been broken, but his mind was as sharp as ever. He studied Kai with sharp eyes, and his gaze slid over the bunch of them. Then he nodded once as if satisfied with what he saw. “I’m glad to see you full of light. I knew they wouldn’t succeed with you.”
“You know what’s happening here?”
“I’ve watched for many years. I’ve seen many things. Now I’m sure you didn’t pop in for tea with an old geyser like me. How can I help you?”
Kai drew Phil over to the kitchen corner of the small space. How much would Phil understand? “You know every inch of this school, right?”
“More than any living soul.”
“Would you know what I’m referring to if I say Brio Talee?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I know of a door that has been sealed up from before I got here. How come? What is it you seek?”
Kai sat quiet, weighing up how much he could tell Phil. The old man had covered for him so many times in the past. Apart from Zap, Phil was the only other person Kai had ever felt safe with. “We want to bring down the system. The recruiting, the serum. It’s all wrong.”
Phil stared at Kai for so long without moving that Kai started thinking he’d made a mistake confiding in the old guy. But then he nodded gravely. “Follow me. I think this might help.”
Phil shuffled over to a hook on a wall and took down a ring of keys that clanked and jingled. He fumbled, trying to hook them on his belt loop, clucked his tongue, and stuffed them in his pocket. His hands were giving him so much trouble. He popped a headlight on his head, straightened the light, and waved them out of the back door. He led them around the back of his house, down a garden path between overgrown flowerbeds that spoke of hands too stiff to weed.
As they stepped onto the dark sports field, a thin breeze picked up, and Kai shivered.
Zap scooted up close. “I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being followed. It’s so much worse out here in the open. Look at me. Dude, even my forehead is sweating. I’m going to look like I showered by the time we get across this field.”
Phil shuffled ahead of them towards the hall. They found a door labelled stage entrance. Phil led them offstage down the wooden stairs on the right. His knees creaked at the effort of bending and straightening, but he kept going.
Zap grabbed Bree and pulled her close. “Does it feel like somebody is following us? I really feel like somebody is following us.”
Bree pointed down the steps that angled downwards into inky shadow and held up a flat palm millimetres from Zap’s nose. “Stop being creepy.”
Phil fumbled with the ring of keys and Kai stepped in to help. Together the
y unhooked the chains that fell to the side in a shower of rust. Phil passed the headlight on to Kai. “You’ll need this more than me. Don’t think too much. In you go. May the secret things show themselves to you as you need them.”
Kai hugged the old guy.
Phil shuffled off into the darkness and soon disappeared from view behind the overgrown bushes.
Kai adjusted his headlight and stepped down into the shadowy gloom of the stairwell. “Come on, you lot. I’m not going down here by myself.” He plunged into the inky blackness that the headlight did little to break.
“I’m coming. Wait! Don’t leave me behind.” Zap came down the stairs two at a time to catch up. This place seemed to be working on his imagination.
Judging by the state of the door, Kai expected the room to be dusty and dingy, crammed full of old stage props and costumes. He took the stairs with blood rushing over his eardrums, stepped off the last one and let out a low whistle. This was not the dank storage space he was expecting.
~*~
They stood in a vast circular room with smooth walls dotted with doors. In the centre of the room stood a lone, square desk, manned by a woman whose hair was pulled back into a bun and kept there by an overstretched elastic band. She was working through a pile of papers and marking things off on her tablet. As she worked, she rubbed her nose as if it were permanently itchy. She showed no sign of having seen them yet.
Kai squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he could flick a switch to turn off his altered Affinity. This was not Brio Talee, just an underground system of tunnels that he’d lived on top of for all his young life without suspecting a thing. He’d been expecting back alleys and country trails. This was like a five-lane highway. With his serum-Affinity sight, everywhere he looked, bits glowed green. It made him uneasy.
As Kai stepped forward to talk to the woman, a loud alarm bell went off and all the doors swung open at the same time. From every side, people streamed into the central space. Some walked in groups speaking softly, others came through the doorways alone. They flowed around the friends as water around a clump of rocks. The lady at the desk stood up with a resigned look on her face as the crowd all converged around her desk, making three wonky queues at each side. She worked her way from left to right, receiving papers, glancing through, scanning and depositing them on a pile in the middle of her desk before issuing new ones.
The questions were the same every time. Where from? How long? Where are you going now? Stamp. Next.
Kai and the others moved closer, blending in with the crowd. He strained his ears to hear where people were going. There were a bunch of names he didn’t recognize, but one that he did. He waved his friends close. “Guys, they seem to handle this in batches. Maybe we can hitch a ride to Crux.”
They hung back until they heard someone going the right way. Kai pushed forward. “We’re going with him.”
The lady behind the desk tapped a fingernail. The guy they were attaching themselves to was large with a mass of curly hair as black as Kai’s. He swung around slowly with a deep frown. “I don’t...” He studied them like bugs until he got to Bree. She smiled at him. He swung back to the lady and thumbed over his shoulder. “My squad.”
Her finger tapped faster, but a quick glance at the waiting queues swung it for her. “Fine. Crux through door eight. There’s a shuttle waiting, it’s nearly full enough to leave. Go.”
There was no time for chatting as they filed through the doorway. It was dark on the other side, but the track under the shuttle glowed slivery white. The seats came in rows of two and their black-haired ticket made sure Bree sat next to him.
The shuttle made Kai think of roller coaster car, but slicker in design. Once the car was full, a plexi-glass cover slid from behind and locked in place. Before Kai had time to panic, they took off at such a speed, the walls blurred to nothing. Even the nothing blurred.
Kai reminded himself to breathe. Each dip and turn was smooth and quick and within minutes, the shuttle slowed down and drew to a stop. Kai’s legs felt like jelly, and the eight of them shuffled through the doorway out into a lit overhang in the desert. There were desert buggies lined up but no buildings visible through the thick, heavy darkness.
“Where are you guys headed?” The big guy had a voice to match his size. He smiled at Bree shyly.
Kai forced nonchalant confidence into his voice. “The labs. We have an appointment with a scientist there.”
“Oh, I see.” The smile faded from his face. “I’m sorry about that. I’m off to packaging. We’ll have to take separate buggies.”
Kai hadn’t factored in the size of this place. “Hey, I’ve never come out at this stop. Could you tell us which way to go? I feel like a right nit for having to ask.” He chuckled and felt heat creep up his neck.
“Sure, give me your Naviband.”
Kai fished around and handed over his band from Kirsten in Marketing with his heart in his throat. This could get ugly.
“This isn’t your Naviband. What’s going on?”
Kai rolled his eyes, “IT guys. They didn’t have any new ones, so I got a recycled one. Can you believe that?”
“You need to get your profile updated. This is out of sync. It has you as some chick in marketing.” He nodded sagely. “It’s them fools up in the IT block. They think they’re above us all. Bunch of incompetents. Anyway, I’ve loaded the co-ords for the entrance that you’ll need to access.” He stared at Bree, “It was good to meet you guys. All the best with the tests.” He shuddered a little, before climbing into a desert buggy and taking off at such speed, dust clouds flew up and made them all cough.
~*~
Evazee turned slowly in the middle of Torn’s office, looking for a stash of Healing Stream water. What Torn would be doing with bottles of Healing Stream water was another story, but right now all that mattered was finding it.
A scent lingered in the air. She sniffed deeply, trying to place it. The long wooden bookshelf got the once-over. None of the books were her type, and there didn’t seem to be any secret hidey holes for bottles of water.
Desk drawers were a good place to look next. Paperclips and pens top left. Scrap paper bottom left. Wads of forms tied together with elastic bands filled the top right drawer. She slid the last drawer open, feeling hopeful. Instead of Healing Stream water, the last drawer held empty syringes and vacuum-packed needles. Evazee’s belly flipped, and she shut the drawer fast.
The desk rattled as the drawer slid shut. She tried it again. Open, shut. There was something loose. She pulled the drawer right out and fiddled with the bottom. A section gave way and slid back. Nestling in a rectangular space were two small bottles filled with clear liquid that gave off the slightest blue glow.
Tears pricked Evazee’s eyes. This could be the start of getting her life back. She reached for in and took them both. She slipped one into her pocket and was about to uncap the other when the door creaked. Instinctively, Evazee dropped down and crawled in under the desk. If this was Peta or Runt coming to look for her, they would never let her hear the end of it. She bent right down to see who’d come in.
One pair of feet, in black boots.
~*~
Ruaan drove the way a granny would in fear of tipping a Sunday casserole; painfully slow and cautious.
Zap rode up in the front next to him and kept feeding him ginger biscuits. Ruaan took one each time Zap shoved one towards him without question, but by the fifth one, he was nibbling at the edges.
Kai sat behind them, and watched the biscuit exchange. “Why do you keep forcing those on him? It doesn’t take much to see he’s had enough.”
Zap twisted around. “Are you forgetting what happens when this guy gets hungry? The whole Jekyll and Hyde thing. It’s ugly, man.”
“Yeah, but if you keep force-feeding him, he’s going to be sick. That’s not particularly attractive either.”
“You’re just grumpy because you’re worried about Evazee. You’re wishing you didn’t leave her back at the
OS, but you also didn’t want to bring her with because it’s also dangerous.” Zap grinned, a broad smile that lit up his face. He turned back to Ruaan. “Also, I think he fancies Bree.”
Ruaan shook his head. “I thought you said you couldn’t read his mind anymore.”
“Dude, I don’t need to read his mind to know this stuff. He wears it all over his face.” Zap chuckled.
Kai clucked his tongue. Nothing he said would convince Zap otherwise, mostly because Zap was right. It was a prickly thought that he shoved down deep. He stared out the window, attempting not to think anything that Zap could pick up on and throw in his face. Now he’d have to poker-face too. Exhausting. The buggy’s lights hardly lifted the shadows above the endless sand that slid past as they went. But every now and then he’d see shapes that flew past too quickly to be identified. In a flash, they flickered between physical reality and serum-induced visions of the spiritual realm. At times, the two images settled awkwardly into each other in a split-second that left Kai’s belly swimming.
They’d been following the Naviband’s instructions for nearly an hour when their desert buggy choked and died.
Ruaan slapped the steering wheel. “We’re out of gas. No, man!”
Kai squinted ahead, something gleamed ahead just over the rise, rippling in the dirty light. “That looks like the entrance gate. I think we’re close enough to walk. Come on. We’ll fry if we stay here in this heat.”
Zap grunted. “I thought deserts were supposed to be cold at night? Why is it so hot? I swear I’m melting.”
“I don’t think this is a natural desert, not with all the weird things going down here.” Kai swung his legs out of the buggy, and the moment his feet hit the sand, a shock of pain washed through him and his view flipped. He shook his head and when he looked again, the sky had reddened and the gates in front of him were burning. Instantly the wailing started. This was straight back to just after his run-in with the bus.
The flames licked up the metal, blackening it further and making it sizzle.
He stood frozen as adrenalin pumped through his veins. A jagged shard of memory shook loose. The squeal of the bus brakes a breath before pain shut down his mind.
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