The Flooded Earth

by Mardi McConnochie

  Essie put her arm around Annalie and made soothing noises, rather frightened by it all. She was used to Annalie being strong and in control; her certainty had helped carry them all this far, to what seemed like a simple and undoubted conclusion. Now, suddenly, everything was confusion. She had no idea what they were supposed to do next.

  “It’s okay,” Will said, trying to sound commanding. “We’ll stay here for a while and get the boat fixed, and if he doesn’t come, well, we can just go on and keep looking for him.”

  “Where?” Annalie sobbed. “We don’t know where to start.”

  “What about the list, the people from the desert? One of those addresses was here in the Islands.”

  Annalie shook her head hopelessly. “I’m sick of wild goose chases. I’m sick of danger. We can’t just keep on sailing.”

  “Fine. Go back to your school, and I’ll keep looking for Spinner. Pod’s with me, aren’t you, Pod?”

  Annalie glared at Will. Pod looked uncomfortably from Will to Annalie.

  “Let’s not make any decisions now,” Essie said soothingly. “We’re all tired. Will’s got a gammy leg. Let’s wait until he’s better and the Sunfish is fixed. No one’s going anywhere until that happens, right?”

  * * *

  Later that afternoon, Art’s children came rampaging home from school, and Art went off to town to make enquiries about getting the Sunfish repaired.

  Art had five children: Jake, who was two years older than Annalie, Daisy, who was Annalie’s age, then two more boys who looked like twins but weren’t, and Alice, who was the youngest. Evidently Art had told the kids something about what Will, Annalie, and their friends were doing there, but it was nowhere near enough to satisfy their curiosity. They carried Annalie off to the garden to bombard her with questions, while Essie showed Pod what a trampoline was for.

  “Is Spinner in trouble?” asked one of the younger boys.

  “No,” Annalie said, “it’s just a mistake.”

  “Then why did he run away?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are you all going to stay with us?”

  “I guess so. Just for a little while.”

  “You can stay in my room,” said Daisy, who was already slightly jealous of Essie.

  “Thanks,” Annalie said. She’d always liked Daisy the best out of all her adopted cousins.

  “What did Spinner do to get in trouble?” asked Jake.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Was it something really bad?”

  “Is he a smuggler?”

  “Is he a pirate?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Do you think he’s been arrested?”

  “Maybe they’re going to take him to Rogue Island!”

  “No!” Annalie protested.

  “I don’t want to go to Rogue Island,” wailed the youngest girl, who was afraid of everything. Rogue Island was an Admiralty prison with a terrifying reputation.

  “That’s where all the worst people go,” Jake said.

  “I heard they keep people in dungeons there.”

  “And they keep them in the dark forever and ever.”

  “And once you go there, you never get out.”

  “He hasn’t been arrested and he’s not going to Rogue Island!” Annalie cried. “He hasn’t done anything wrong!”

  Rene looked out the back window and yelled, “Kids, leave your cousin alone!”

  The kids backed off, although not before one of the younger boys said, “He must have done something.”

  The doctor arrived to see Will. She cleaned, stitched and redressed the wound and prescribed strong antibiotics and plenty of rest; she expected him to make a full recovery. Art returned and reported that the Sunfish was booked in for repairs. Annalie felt a little anxious about handing the boat over to someone else, but she knew she was being silly. They were in a safe place now. The boat would be fine.

  The night closed in. Art and Rene made dinner.

  Dinner in this house was always a scrum, because all the children had huge appetites and there never seemed to be quite enough food to go round. Jake had once stabbed Annalie’s hand with a fork as they reached for the same potato—he’d claimed it was an accident but Annalie had known it wasn’t, quite. That day, Annalie tried to eat the food Rene had served her, but worry had dissolved her appetite and soon her cousins were eyeing her leftovers.

  “Are you going to eat that?” one of the younger boys asked, and when she said she wasn’t, her plate was cleared in moments.

  When dinner was over, Aunty Rene took the other kids away for some post-dinner clean-up, books, and bed. Art stayed at the table with Will, Annalie, Essie and Pod.

  “I think it’s time we talked about your father,” he said.

  The Collodius Process

  Art inclined his head toward Pod and Essie. “Is this something you’d rather do in private?”

  “We don’t have any secrets from them,” Annalie said. “They came all this way, they might as well hear it too.

  Art paused, then began. “How much do you know about Spinner’s past?”

  “Not much,” Annalie said.

  “That Beckett guy said Spinner used to work for the Admiralty, in the Science Department,” Will said. “But Spinner’s not a scientist.”

  “Admiralty Science was where they put all the smartest people,” Art said. “Not just scientists, but engineers, mathematicians, all kinds of people. They put them into teams and gave them problems to solve. Food problems, water problems, energy, transport, communications...Lots of problems, all serious, all needing solutions. Your dad was on one of those teams, and so was your mom. That’s how they met.”

  “So Beckett was telling the truth about that too,” Annalie said.

  “Their team was pretty good—one of the best. So the Admiralty decided to give them the biggest project of all.” He paused. “Have you heard of the Collodius Process?”

  Pod shook his head, while Will looked vague.

  “It was something to do with the Flood,” Essie suggested.

  “It caused the Flood,” Annalie said. “It’s one of the great scientific disaster stories.”

  Art nodded. “That’s right. Fifty years ago, we were suffering from rapidly rising temperatures and catastrophic climate change. We were transitioning to low-carbon energy, trying to adapt to the changing climate, but one thing was a real problem: we were running out of fresh water. Did they teach you about the droughts, the water riots?”

  Annalie and Essie nodded. “There was one year where the crops failed and whole countries were starving.”

  “Even people in rich countries were hungry,” Essie said.

  “The North Dux Dustbowl,” Annalie said.

  “That’s right,” Art said. “It was terrible, truly terrible, and something urgently needed to be done. A lot of scientists were looking at large-scale geo-engineering solutions to try and fix some of the problems. There were plenty of wild ideas around, but no one wanted to put them into practice—for one thing, they were expensive, and there was no real agreement that they’d even work. They might even make things worse.

  “A group of scientists had been working on a radical new technology that they believed could work on the biosphere to release more fresh water back into the system. It was called the Collodius Process, and in lab tests and computer models it seemed to work. After the famine of ’92, the government of Brundisi was desperate enough to give it a try. I guess you know what happened next.”

  “It went haywire and caused the Flood,” Will said.

  Art nodded. “The process started a chain reaction, which caused massive worldwide flooding and a permanent change in sea level.”

  “But what has any of that got to do with Spinner?” Will asked, a little impatiently.

  “Under
the global accords that were drawn up a few years later, all research into the Collodius Process was halted permanently. The device was destroyed, and everyone thought that all the research was destroyed too. But it wasn’t.” Art paused. “About fifteen years ago, the Admiralty heard a whisper that an outlaw group had uncovered some of the original research and were working on it.”

  “Why?” Annalie asked, astonished.

  Art shrugged. “Maybe they were hoping to use it. Maybe they just wanted to hold the world to ransom. I don’t know. But once the Admiralty thought someone else was working on the Collodius Process, they couldn’t risk letting anyone get ahead of them. So they put together their own top-secret group of scientists to start working on it too.”

  “Spinner?”

  “And your mother,” Art said. “The Admiralty set up a secret research base out in the desert and sent them off to study the data, look at what went wrong, and find out what they could do to stop the process—or even reverse it.”

  “What, you mean put the sea back where it was?” Essie asked incredulously.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Art said. “But yes.”

  “Wait a minute,” Will said. “If this was all so top secret, how come you know about it?”

  “Spinner told me later. None of the classified stuff. Just the broad outlines.”

  “But why would they do something like that?” Annalie asked. “Why build it again? What if they made things even worse?”

  Everything she’d ever learned about the Collodius Process made it clear that it was one of the worst ideas ever to be unleashed on the world. The Flood had drowned cities, changed coastlines, killed millions of people, and destroyed ecosystems. It had been one of the worst ecological disasters to hit the planet since the extinction of the dinosaurs. And the Admiralty—the Admiralty!—were considering unleashing it again?

  “At first, Spinner thought they were trying to find ways to stop it. But gradually he realized the Admiralty actually wanted their own device. And that’s when he started to get worried. The original device had been destroyed; did we really want to create another one? The scientists questioned the direction of the research and recommended the program be shut down.”

  “The Admiralty said no, right?” Will said dryly.

  “You got it. Then the scientists heard a rumor the top brass were going to shut them down and replace them with a new team. That’s what made Spinner decide to do it.”

  “Do what?” Annalie asked.

  “What they said he did: steal the research.”

  Annalie’s mouth fell open.

  “Spinner believed the research they were doing was making the world a more dangerous place. He didn’t trust the Admiralty to use that research responsibly. So he and his colleagues took the key elements of it and disappeared.”

  He paused. “I didn’t know about any of this Collodius stuff at the time. All I knew was my mate Spinner worked at the Ministry of Science. Then one day I woke up and found out he’d gone away to work on a research project that was so secret he couldn’t even tell me his address, and all his communications were censored. I didn’t see him for a year. Then suddenly he popped up again. He was on the run and he needed my help to go off-grid. So I helped. It was only later that he told me about what had actually been going on.”

  The children sat there for a while, stunned.

  “So he really is a thief,” Annalie murmured.

  “No he isn’t,” Will protested. “Not really.”

  “To use an old-fashioned term,” Art said, “he’s a conscientious objector. He did something that he believed was right, for the greater good of humanity. Only problem is, the Admiralty doesn’t see it in quite the same light.”

  The children all fell silent, considering this.

  “So Spinner really is in terrible trouble, isn’t he?” Annalie said.

  “Yes, he is,” Art said gravely.

  “Is there any way out of this?”

  “For you, or for him?”

  “Both.”

  Art sighed. “I wish I knew. All I can think is, maybe, just maybe, if Spinner gave up that research, they might be satisfied. After all, it’s the research they really want.”

  “You reckon?” Will said skeptically. “You haven’t met the guy who’s after us. It seems pretty personal with him. I reckon he wants to hang Spinner out to dry for making them look like idiots.”

  “And why would Spinner change his mind and give them back the research, after all this time?” Annalie asked. “If it was a bad idea to let them have it then, surely it’s still a bad idea now?”

  Art shrugged. “Look, I don’t know what’s in Spinner’s mind. Maybe it is a bad idea and it’s better if the research stays hidden. But I’ll tell you what I see. Your old life, that’s gone. Your home’s wrecked, Spinner’s business is wrecked. He’s been separated from the two of you. Annalie, you’ve run away from school, after everything he did to get you into that place. And you all could have been killed or kidnapped twenty times over just getting here.”

  “Or eaten,” murmured Pod.

  “And for what?” Art continued. “Some piece of research, which may not even mean anything without the rest of it. Is that research really worth all this trouble? Is it worth risking the lives of his kids for?”

  Annalie was silent, troubled. She didn’t like the light that this shone on her father.

  Neither did Will. “He didn’t ask us to come,” he protested, in defense of Spinner. “It was our choice. And we didn’t die, and we didn’t get kidnapped. We made it here safe and sound.”

  “You were lucky,” Art said flatly. He paused. “When you do see Spinner again, I reckon you should ask him. Is all this really worth it?”

  Destinations

  That night, the children gathered in the spare room, which had been set up for Pod and Will. (Annalie and Essie were to sleep in Daisy’s room, and Daisy had been moved in with Alice.)

  “I never really thought it might be true,” Annalie said.

  “It’s not true, because he’s not a thief. He’s a hero,” Will said.

  “That does sort of depend on your point of view, though, doesn’t it?” Essie said cautiously. “Whatever his reasons were, it was a top-secret project. And he did know what he was getting into.”

  “What should he have done then?” Will said fiercely. “Let them go on with research that could have destroyed the world for the second time?”

  “For all we know, they found a different bunch of scientists and finished the research,” Annalie sighed. “The real question now is what do we do?”

  “We go on,” Will said unhesitatingly. “We’ve got those addresses. And now we know what they are.”

  “What are they?” Essie asked.

  “They’re where the other scientists live, obviously,” Will said. “Maybe one of them will know where Spinner is.”

  “No, wait,” Annalie said. “We can’t just keep sailing on around the world indefinitely. What about Pod and Essie?”

  Will looked at her and frowned, then turned to look at Essie and Pod. “What about them?”

  “We’ve dragged them far enough,” Annalie said. “Uncle Art’s right about one thing. We were lucky to get this far without anything too terrible happening. We can’t keep pushing our luck.”

  “I got no home,” Pod said, his face closing down into ferocity.

  “You don’t know that for sure. If we asked Flood Relief to start looking, they might be able to find your family again.” Annalie turned to Essie. “And what about you? If you could go home now, would you?”

  Essie didn’t answer, but her silence had a conflicted look about it that made Annalie think she possibly did want to go home.

  “You signed up to come this far,” Annalie said to her, “and we made it. But maybe it’s time to go back n
ow.”

  “Would you come with me?” Essie asked.

  All eyes were on Annalie now.

  “I’d have to think about that,” she said.

  * * *

  It was strange to spend a night sleeping on beds that didn’t move with the swell. In the morning, Rene put everything they owned into the wash, while Annalie and Art sailed the Sunfish around to the marine repairer in the town.

  “How soon do you think you can have her fixed?” she asked, when the man had finished looking at the damage.

  “Day after tomorrow,” he said. “Three days at the latest.”

  “Are you in a hurry?” Art said, not quite joking.

  “Course not,” Annalie said lightly.

  They left the marine repair shop and walked back toward the slip where Art’s dinghy was berthed. “Suppose Essie wanted to go back to school,” Annalie said casually. “How would she go about it?”

  Art raised his eyebrows at this, but all he said was, “There’s a passenger service that leaves for Dux every Wednesday,” he said. “It’s not glamorous, and it’s a bit slow, but it’s usually safe. I think it stops in both Southaven and Port Fine, and she could take a train the rest of the way. You both could.” He stopped walking, turning toward the town. “We could go and ask about tickets if you want.”

  “No,” Annalie said. “I was just wondering. Thanks.”

  * * *

  Back at the house, Will watched Pod sitting up a tree, talking grumpily to Graham and refusing to come down. He was clearly ill at ease in the house, and eventually Will decided he’d better find out why.

  He limped out and stood at the foot of the tree. “Are you planning to come down any time soon?” he called.

  Pod peered down at him through the leaves. “Why?”

  “You’ve been lurking up there for ages,” Will said.

  “I’m not lurking,” Pod said, scowling.

  “Then come down here.”

  Will waited while Pod swung down from the tree, and said, “Is something the matter?”