Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

He didn’t know how Ela’s mum could be part of Humicrib. She knew why most of the world was infertile. She knew the infertility could be reversed. She knew that was why she was able to have Ela and yet she still ran the Cloning programme for Humicrib. She still raised thousands of babies from cloned foetuses until they were viable and could be adopted out.

  He could never figure that out. It was Vector who killed Ela’s father.

  Still, she’d kept Ela safe. Maybe that was how she justified it. It was safer for Ela if her mum just did what Vector expected her to do.

  He swiped to Ela’s Status page and read her posts. There was a new one just an hour ago about a Rave tomorrow night. Not a normal post for Ela, she didn’t seem to be into that stuff.

  He flicked back and found Txts clawing at the shields on his Com. He couldn’t read them, couldn’t tell who they were from, but he started to think maybe Ela was trying to get around Jacob’s shields as desperately as he was.

  Then he remembered who he saw her with.

  Maybe she was another notch on Nick’s bedpost already.

  Or maybe Amon’s.

  He lay back, head on his pillow. But he didn’t think that was true. If Ela knew he was alive she’d be waiting for him to come back from whatever Jacob had told her he was doing. He was almost certain that post was a message for him. Too big a coincidence she’d posted it there tonight after she saw him. Anyway, who planned to go to a Rave right after they’d just escaped being shot, or arrested?

  He looked at the post again. Then right at the end he saw it. Ela had posted the Rave should CatchFire. The Resistance warning of danger. Ela would know he’d recognise that. So, she was finally trying to find him.

  He turned the Com off, put it down on the locker then got up and started to get into his BDUs. Acting normal was even more important now. If anyone reviewed the DroneCam footage and noticed his signal to Nick, they might look more closely and see a heat signature or something. He had to act normal, get dressed, and head for the Mess like the others would have.

  At the Mess, Levi asked, “What are you doing tonight, Jack?” He’d been sucking up since Jack took the strike for him.

  “Nothing.” He cut into his steak and added a bit of spud. He had to figure a way to get into the City and head for Ela’s place.

  “What about tomorrow night?” Sharpe asked.

  “Hadn’t thought about it. What are you doing?” Jack emptied his fork and cut into the steak again. Then he realised Ela would be at a Rave tomorrow night.

  Maybe he should go to the Rave. Not bother going to see her at her mother’s place just turn up at the Rave. “What about a Rave?” Maybe he’d be able to talk to her for long enough to arrange somewhere to meet.

  Jeron looked at him like he’d just grown two heads. He didn’t tend to show any interest in that stuff. “A Rave. With kids?”

  “Yeah,” said Jack. The image of Ela and Nick looking out from behind the pillars in the carpark came back to him. Everything about that scenario had become a series of flashbacks, replaying in his mind like a horrific VidLoop.

  “Have you heard about one?” asked Sharpe looking interested. It was his thing. He was always bobbing around to something on his Com.

  “Yeah, tomorrow night. Saw it on Status.”

  If all ten of them went. In full dress uniform, there’d be no way of missing them. Even if there were thousands of kids there they’d be noticed.

  There were no rules about them staying away from Civilians. They just had to be sober and respectful. The civilians didn’t tend to want them around anyway.

  They were the masters and the protectors. They were trained thugs.

  But they got noticed.

  When a group of them walked down the street in uniform, striding out, ramrod straight, coats swirling, Guardians of the World’s Cradle, judges of the streets, jury and executioners, the world stopped and watched for a moment and then scuttled away and hid.

  “Where? At the Viaduct?”

  “No, at the old University Compound on the Shore.”

  “Would we get in?” asked Hood.

  Jeron released his breath. “Of course, we’d get in. We get to go wherever we want. No one’s going to stop us.”

  Jack folded up a bit of bread and wiped it across his plate. Yeah no one would stop them. They could march through that Rave like a knife through butter, and all the kids they were meant to protect would move out of their way.

  He should spot Ela if she was there and she wanted him to find her. That would be the best way to go.

  “Are you in?” he asked.

  The other’s around the table nodded.

  Chapter 14

  THE TRAIN PULLED UP inside the dome and passengers emptied out onto the platform like a black tide. Jack and the others stood back and waited to get on.

  “Plenty of grunts planning a night out too,” said Gregor. “Do you think they’re headed for the Rage?”

  “Doubt it,” Jack said. The Troopers they’d been waiting with got onto the MonoRail, and it took off again across the harbour. Then the big curve over the City, over Humicrib where he saw Ela and Nick. And the Administration offices where he hadn’t shot that mother and her kid.

  Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. When he was with Ela pretty much everything he did went wrong. They were a dangerous combination as neither of them ever followed instructions or obeyed the rules.

  This time he’d handle it right. But first, he had to find her and make sure she stopped whatever she thought she was doing before she got caught or killed.

  The train turned up and they got on. They choose an almost empty carriage, and the few kids who’d been sitting there decided they needed to be somewhere else. That had happened so often since they arrived in the City, he barely noticed it now.

  For a moment, Jack felt homesick. He’d got used to the shine of everything in the City, but at home things grew old, and trees were allowed to grow big. Sometimes you even had to walk through mud. He didn’t realise how much he missed all that until he went home for the weekend. And he didn’t realise how much he missed belonging.

  Now he had two strikes on him, and even though there were no rules against it, he knew they weren’t meant to fraternise with Elite kids or the Locals. Vector kept themselves separate. That’s why the Barracks were in Devonport, and the rest of the population lived the other side of the harbour.

  He shifted in his seat a bit. No, he had to warn Ela. If the squad didn’t cause any problems at the Rave no one would know. Besides, it was Elite trespassing on Vector territory tonight.

  When they got off the train, they marched through the streets like a flock of crows.

  “How much further?” asked Sharpe. He hadn’t been in the country for long. His dad got transferred here about when Leach was recruiting the squad. He’d lived around the world in Barracks all his life like Rocco. He said it didn’t matter which country you lived in all Vector Barracks were the same.

  Sharpe was as black as it was possible to be. He said his dad was posted at the bottom of South Africa when they got him. Guess Rocco’s folks got the local flavour too.

  Jack waved his arm in the general direction of the University. “Across the road and then a couple of blocks down,” he said. When he met Rocco’s parents and it didn’t look like Rocco had any of their genes.

  But he had his suspicions about Jeron. He was pretty sure Jeron was a Natural like Ela. He’d met Jeron’s parents too. And Jeron was just a younger male version of his mother.

  He was starting to feel nervous. Maybe the post in Status wasn’t for him. Perhaps Ela really was just going to a Rave.

  No, she’d left him a message. And even if she had moved on, she would want to see him. Even if it was just to say they were over.

  Standing in front of the old derelict university with its fake arches and columns like they owned the place, they’d be hard to miss no matter how big this Rave was.

  He watched the crowd, the Elite kids were bouncing
in the half-light, hundreds of them Blissed out, the girls all dressed the way Ela used to, those short flirty skirts and coloured boots. Music pounded, lights flickered, search and trace.

  He waited and watched. Jeron and the others moved to the Vendor for Bliss.

  And Jack waited and watched some more, then sensed someone touch his arm.

  He turned, and Ela was standing close watching him, all midnight hair, grey eyes, and long legs.

  He took a step towards her, but she bit her lip and stepped back as if all the things he’d had to do to keep Vector’s trust were written on his face.

  They stood there only a breath apart. He watched her eyes move from the buttoned-down collar of the Vector uniform to the zip that held the coat closed, they swept down the coat to the hem, and her eyes filled with tears.

  He stepped towards her again, closed the gap and reached for her hand before she could pull back.

  He leaned in. “It’s just me,” he said so quietly only she could hear.

  She stood watching his face now, then her eyes went back to the uniform, like she was torn, half drawn, half repelled.

  “What are you doing in Vector?” she murmured.

  “Jacob’s orders,” he answered softly. Why didn’t she know? It was her grandfather who organised it. Surely, he would have told her.

  Still, she didn’t move, just stood frozen there.

  And all he could think was.

  Fuck Jacob and his rules.

  And the Elite and theirs.

  And the Administration.

  And Vector.

  And his mum.

  And Ela’s Mum.

  And anyone else who wanted to keep them apart.

  Suddenly words that had been so hard to find that last time he saw her a year ago seemed obvious. Jack leaned in again, so close he could hear her heartbeat.

  “I love you,” he said quietly.

  She nodded, hesitated, then came closer, touched his arm with her other hand.

  And even though he knew he’d pay for it, after the slightest hesitation, he kissed her.

  She let his hand go, and both hers slid up to his shoulders then around his neck, and she kissed him back.

  He pulled her even closer, held her body against his and took the kiss deeper. He could feel the uneasy quiver around them, the shocked silence as the Elite kids saw what was happening.

  Like nobody had seen a kiss before.

  Probably hadn’t.

  He and Ela were ignoring thirty years of indoctrination.

  Flouting a thousand edicts.

  Breaking a million laws.

  But she was his, and he was hers, and nothing was going to change that certainty. Not Vector, not Jacob, not history, not propaganda, not the future, the past, the world, or that she was the proof of the truth about Genus6, nothing. She was his answer, his light, the thing that made him whole, the one thing he could believe in. He held onto that. It was all that mattered.

  The only truth there was.

  And he’d fight for it.

  Abruptly Ela pulled away from the kiss. “Jacob said you’d gone to Australia,” she breathed. So that’s why she hadn’t come to find him.

  There was still that awed hush around them. Silence and stillness even though the disco lights flickered, and the music pounded, nobody around them had moved. How could a mere kiss cause this reaction?

  He bent to kiss her again, but Ela gently placed her hand over his mouth.

  “No,” she said. “We need to talk.” She took his hand. “There are a thousand Coms in here taking pictures.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. She always was more sensible than he was about some things. Sex, touching, kissing. She was more Elite than she sometimes pretended to be.

  But she was right, they needed to talk. But with her breath against his cheek and her body pulled close to his he wanted to make love to her the way they had before they said goodbye the last time he saw her.

  He looked around. “Where?” This building was just one huge room with nowhere they could go.

  He heard Jeron say, “Jack, what the hell are you doing?” Yeah, Jeron wouldn’t be pleased. If anyone found out about that kiss, the whole squad could be in the shit.

  “Back soon, cover for me,” he muttered to Jeron. They all looked out for each other. That was part of the code.

  Jeron looked around the press of kids and then back at Jack. “Make it snappy,” he said. “I guess that’s Nobody and she’s the reason we’re here.” Jeron sounded pissed, but he’d cover for him.

  Jack let Ela pull him towards the back of the hall, weaving through the press of kids. The further they went into the dancers the less interesting they became.

  Ela led him through a doorway he hadn’t seen, and suddenly they were outside, in the silvery light, away from the noise of the Rave and the crowd.

  Through the shut door he could only hear the pounding of the music. It looked like she’d bought him to some sort of service lane. Bins and boxes surrounded them, and a ramp ran down to the basement.

  He sat on the lid of a bin that looked strong and pulled Ela close to him, so she was standing between his legs. It felt familiar. That was the way they’d talked that last day when he had been so full of plans to go to University so he could be near her. He’d thought she could train to be a doctor while he studied engineering. That had been the plan.

  “Why did you think I was in Australia?” he asked.

  “Jacob told me you were with your dad. And when I tried to Connect with you, there were shields all around your Com. I just couldn’t get through.”

  “Me too.” She had tried to make contact. “You should see the shields on your Com.” Bloody Jacob had left them both in the dark. Surely there could have been a more humane way to deal with them.

  Ela smiled back at him and touched his face. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  He nodded and nuzzled her hand. “And Nick’s alive?”

  Ela nodded again. “Didn’t you think he was?”

  Jack shook his head. “I saw a Vid of him and Curly dying under Interrogation.”

  She looked horrified. “That’s terrible. Where did you see it?”

  “That granddad of yours showed it to me. Is Curly alive too?”

  Ela nodded. “Why would Jacob do that?”

  He shrugged. “Part of his big plan.” She never did believe how ruthless Jacob really was. Now there were more things to discuss with Jacob.

  “And you joining Vector was part of that plan too?” she guessed. He nodded. “And you’re a VTrooper?” She looked puzzled. Not surprisingly. She knew he hated Vector and the Administration and everything it stood for. He’d told her she’d never catch him joining Vector and here he was. Full dress uniform. Marched into the Rave with the squad like they owned the place. Cut through the dancing kids causing the sort of fear they always did.

  “No, I’m in a special squad. Not a VTrooper.”

  She traced the black leather on his chest where the silver V would have been if he was.

  “What sort of squad?”

  He paused before answering her. Almost ashamed of what he’d become even though he knew why Jacob wanted him to do it.

  “I’m a sniper.” He waved at the hall where the rest of the squad were. “We’re all snipers. If we see people where they’re not meant to be, we’re meant to shoot them. Ela, yesterday when I saw you and Nick, and I was meant to shoot you.”

  “But you didn’t.” She pulled back a little again and studied him. “Did you shoot Tom?” she eventually asked.

  “Tom?” Then he remembered Jacob saying that was the name of one of the kids who died at MonoRail Admin block.

  He shook his head. “Not me, but it could have been me. I was there.”

  “And Humicrib. Why were you there?”

  “Leach said Intel figured it out someone was about to attack Humicrib.”

  Ela frowned. “How?”

  Jack shrugged. “The same pattern as at the MonoRail b
efore it was hit.”

  He watched her bite her lip then nod. “Why you were searching the parking building yesterday and not staying outside the perimeter?”

  “That’s what we’re trained to do.”

  “No, when Tom and Jake died your squad stayed back.”

  “How do you know that?” She was right, but that was only because they got there late.

  “Curly hacked into the DroneCam footage.”

  “He always was good at getting into other people’s systems.”

  Ela nodded again. “How long have you been in Vector?”

  “A year. Like I said, it was Jacob’s idea.”

  She thought about that and nodded. “I guess it makes sense. He had Nick in DoE, and Curly in TECH. They reported back to him before they were caught and had to disappear. Is that what you do, report back to Jacob?”

  She caught on quick. He nodded, then pulled her closer so he could kiss her again.

  But she pulled back. “Isn’t this dangerous for you? You’ll get in trouble.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll be fine,” he said, not sure if it was true but not wanting this to end either. If Leach ever found out he’d get in trouble. But inside when he kissed her, with thousands of kids and the lights and the music around them he should be all right. And out here in the loading bay they’d be able to hear and see any DroneCam that turned up well before it got Vid footage of them.

  Anyway, if they did get footage, and anyone questioned why he’d gone outside, he’d just say he’d come out for a piss. “Tell me about Nick and Curly. What happened?” He’d seen the Vid. He’d seen them die. Now they were alive.

  Reassured, her arms slid up to his shoulders again and she touched her forehead against his. If they saw Ela was here too, he was pretty sure she’d be all right, there’d be no identification number under her image. She was Elite, and he’d never seen an identification number on any Vid of an Elite.

  “I knew they’d been interrogated,” she said. “That’s why Nick has that scar on his cheek.” Ela touched her own cheek. “It was something about trying to find out who helped Lucinda escape. But somehow Jacob made that all right.”

  Yeah, he thought. That was when everything turned to shit. When they’d sprung Nick’s brother’s girlfriend out of the OutPost. None of them would be in the mess they were in now if they hadn’t done that. He guessed some good had come of it. Joe and Lucinda might have lost their baby, but they had managed to escape to Australia and were alive. Well, he guessed they were. It wasn’t the sort of stuff Jacob told him.