by Bryan Davis
“So,” Alex continued, “not only will you be reaping newly emerged souls, you will also be searching the facility to find those who passed away before you arrived.”
Shanghai spoke up again. “What’s the demonstration this afternoon? Collecting ghosts? We’ve done that plenty of times.”
“Not collecting ghosts.” Alex’s smile widened, looking mysterious, almost sinister. “Let’s just say that you will be introduced to a technique that you have never seen before, so your attendance and careful observation are essential.”
Peter sidled close to Alex and whispered into her ear. She nodded, then turned to us. “Sandwiches and soup will be delivered to the dining area at noon, so you may pick up your lunch at that time and eat wherever you wish. Just be sure to meet me in the lobby at one.” Without another word, she and Peter strode to the door and hustled away across the field.
“Well,” Shanghai said as she scanned the spacious room. “This is interesting.”
“Interesting is right.” I stared at the open door. The breeze caressed my cheeks with tiny droplets—a blend of refreshment and a slight sting. “This smells like a setup.”
“You’re ahead of me on this one, Phoenix. What’s Alex planning?”
“She’s baiting us with Fiona. She expects us to stay here and talk to her.” I fished the room key from my pocket. “Let’s see what’s going on.”
We hurried out of the building and jogged across the field. Ahead, Alex and Peter opened the Hilton’s door and disappeared inside. When we neared the building, we slowed to a quick march, walked in, then hustled up the stairs. I stopped at the top and looked through the hallway door’s window. Alex and Peter walked toward my room, their backs to us.
“They’re checking us out.” After catching my breath, I opened the door and walked into the hall at a leisurely pace. I stopped and feigned surprise. “Alex? Peter?”
Alex spun toward us, a key in hand. “Phoenix!”
“I was just heading to my room.” I narrowed my eyes and continued toward them, Shanghai keeping pace. “What are you doing here?”
Alex showed me the key. “I came to change your lock situation. Peter convinced me that it doesn’t make sense to punish you for exploring when eventually you’re going to be hunting the compound for ghosts.”
“Just trying to help you out,” Peter said, flashing a disarming smile. “And, by the way, there was a little female ghost in the hall when we came. She ran into your room, so you might want to check on that for the sake of privacy. They’ve been known to tell others what they’ve seen, so… you know.”
“A little tattletale, huh?” I walked past them and pushed my key into the lock. Tori had had plenty of time to warn Sing. She was likely under Shanghai’s bed by now.
I opened the door, flipped the light switch, and walked in. My bed had been neatly made, the candles stood perfectly aligned on the dresser, and my other set of traveling clothes lay folded next to them. The aroma of soap wafted from the open bathroom door.
I held the door for Shanghai. After she entered and headed for her room, I nodded at the lock. “It’s all yours.”
“I don’t have the tools to change the lock right now.” She withdrew two more keys from her jacket pocket and pressed them into my palm. “One for your interior lock and one for Shanghai’s. I don’t have spares, so don’t lose them.”
I wrapped my fingers around the keys. “They’re safe with me.”
Alex fastened her stare on me. Her eyes once again took on a silvery gloss. “You can come and go as you please, Phoenix. Just stay in the compound.”
“No problem.”
“I’ll see you at the demonstration.” Alex took Peter by the arm. “Let’s go.”
As they left, Peter offered a saluting wave. “Nice talking to you, Phoenix.”
“Same to you.” When they walked out of sight, I closed the door from the inside and leaned against it. Sing and Shanghai walked in from the bathroom together, Tori trailing them.
Shanghai gestured with her head toward the hallway. “She wasn’t here to change our lock situation.”
“No. That was to save face.” I laid my interior key in Sing’s hand and gave Shanghai hers. “Lucky break, really. We prevented a search and picked up some freedom at the same time.”
“You can bet Alex will keep snooping,” Sing said.
“Probably not anytime soon.” I sat on my bed. When Sing and Shanghai joined me, I gave Sing a rundown of what we had seen in the assembly and prisoners’ residence rooms. Once again we chatted about home and families, though Sing added only tidbits of information about herself.
After a while, I withdrew my watch and read the face. Nearly noon. “Maybe we can pick up our lunches and eat with the prisoners.”
We rose from the bed and walked to the door. I opened it carefully and peeked out, then entered the hall with Shanghai and looked back at Sing. “I’ll bring some food soon.”
Holding the door from inside the room, Sing rubbed her stomach. “Thanks. I’m getting famished.”
“No problem.” I studied her eyes—anxious, nervous. “Is something wrong?”
She glanced at Shanghai. “It’s okay. I can deal with it. You two go ahead.”
“I detect a need for some privacy.” Shanghai pivoted on the carpet. “I’ll see you downstairs.”
When she disappeared through the stairwell door, I turned again to Sing. “What’s up?”
“Just a minute.” Still holding the door, Sing looked at Tori. “Would you please go to Shanghai’s bedroom for a minute? I’d like to talk to Phoenix alone.”
“Sure.” Tori half bounced and half floated away.
“Look at this.” Sing pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket. “I got another note while you were gone this morning.” She opened it, revealing the same hurried script.
I read it out loud. “Raven, no time for disguised words. Alex suspects that Phoenix is hiding someone in his room. Think about who could have told her. Trust no one.”
Sing pulled the note away. “Do you think the guard at the back door told her?”
“Probably. No one else knows.”
“Shanghai knows.”
“Shanghai?” I backed farther into the hallway. “Wait a minute. Don’t even go there. I trust her as much as I trust you. All three of us are in this together.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” She gazed at me with tear-filled eyes. “Phoenix, I can’t afford to mess this up. It’s too important. My mother’s somewhere in the Gateway system, and if she didn’t go to the afterlife, we have to help her.”
“Her and everyone else we Reapers have taken to the Gateway.”
She nodded. “So since someone reported me, Alex will keep looking. If she finds me, everything I’ve planned will be ruined.”
“So what are you saying?” I stepped close to the door again. “Do you want to leave the camp?”
“No. I have to stay and help.” Sing ran a finger along the door jamb. “I can find a better hiding place, somewhere other than this room.”
“Maybe Tori can recommend a place where the guards never go.”
“Or even better, I could pose as a prisoner. Alex probably doesn’t take a second glance at any prisoners besides the Fitzpatricks, so she won’t notice me.”
“Don’t be so sure. With those Owl eyes, she’s pretty sharp. You should have seen her analyze the ghosts in the sleeping quarters. Faster than I could have done it.”
“Then I’ll stay out of her sight. And I can alter my clothes to help me fit in.” Sing pushed the door until only a narrow gap allowed a view of her eyes. “While you’re having lunch, I’ll try to get a nap. Then if you’ll bring me something to eat, I’ll be ready to work on my disguise the rest of the afternoon.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” When the door latched, I hurried to the dining area. Shanghai met me just inside the door. A pair of brown paper bags, Styrofoam bowls with attached lids, and bottles of water sat on our usual tab
le.
Shanghai picked up a bag and whispered, “We’ll share one and give the other to Sing.”
“That’ll work.” I grabbed a bag, a bowl, and a bottle. “She’s catching a nap, so let’s go back and talk to Fiona. Since it’s lunchtime, Colm might be there, too.”
We hustled across the yard to the prisoners’ living quarters. Along the way, I told Shanghai about Sing’s plan to disguise herself. She listened intently, nodding but saying nothing.
Inside the quarters, the families sat on the picnic table benches, each person facing a small bowl that couldn’t hold enough to feed a house cat much less a hungry laborer. Some prisoners bent close and scooped spoonful after spoonful while others lifted their bowls and slurped down the contents.
I spotted Colm sitting with Fiona, Colleen, and the two girls at the table closest to the bathroom. As we passed by the other prisoners, it seemed that every head turned to follow our progress. When we arrived at Colm’s table, two men rose from the benches with bowls in hand and stalked away, grumbling.
“Please, sit.” Colm gestured toward the newly empty spaces. “And please excuse those gentlemen. With rumors flying about mass executions, Reapers aren’t exactly a welcome sight.”
“I can’t say I blame them.” I slid in across from Colm, to the left of the girls, and set Sing’s lunch at my side. Shanghai sat on the opposite bench between Fiona and Coleen and withdrew a sub sandwich from her bag. She used a dagger from her belt to slice it in half through its paper wrapping, then passed a section to me.
After introducing everyone to Shanghai, I leaned forward and whispered to Colm, “I’m afraid the rumors are true. I volunteered to join the reapings so I could get you and your family out of here.”
“We guessed that to be the case.” Colm nodded toward Fiona. “She saw you when you were here earlier.”
“I did indeed.” Fiona slid her half-empty bowl across to the girls. “Divide the rest fairly between yourselves.”
As the girls traded spoonfuls, I glanced at Shanghai. Her eyes glistened with tears. No doubt she was thinking the same thing I was.
I handed Anne my half of the sandwich while Shanghai placed hers and the soup bowl in front of Betsy. “We have another lunch,” I said, “so please share this. We’ll have plenty to eat this evening.”
Fiona reached across the table and stroked my hand. “Phoenix, you and Shanghai do a mother’s heart good. As long as you’re here, we have hope.”
“There’s always hope.” I gave her a nod, trying to smile, but my lips wouldn’t cooperate. “At least Molly’s safe. I delivered her to the Gateway without a problem. She spoke to me as she left my cloak.” My heart thumped. I couldn’t bear to tell this bereaved mother what her precious daughter said as she departed.
A tear trickled down Fiona’s cheek. “Bless you, Phoenix. In the midst of sadness, we see a glimmer of light.”
Tears slid down Colleen’s cheeks as well. “The Gateway ushered another star to the sky. ’Tis a shame that we so rarely see them.”
“Speaking of the Gateway…” I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder. “Can you tell me more about what you’re putting together in the assembly room? They look like the platforms we use for transferring souls at the Gateway.”
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Colm said, “but I can tell you that the disks project holographic images, sort of how photo sticks create such images, and the disks expand vertically into platforms, maybe a foot high. They also have connection points for hose-like tubes. I have seen the tubes, but they are fabricated in another location, so I don’t know much about them.”
“Does the tube have a T-connector on one end?” I asked.
“Most do not, but I have seen a couple that do.”
“How many disk platforms have they made?”
“The assembly line produces about four in a day, and the facility has been working on them for maybe eight weeks. Start-up was probably slow, so I guess the prisoners might have made a hundred and fifty or so by now.”
“A hundred and fifty.” I looked around the room. Many heads quickly turned away. A camera in an upper corner rotated slowly from right to left. Might it be unsafe to reveal our plans here?
The moment the camera angled away, I bent over and looked under the table. A microphone disk had been attached to the underside. Alex never gave up.
When I straightened, I gave Shanghai the same microphone-is-present gesture I had the night before, then leaned over the table and whispered so only Colm and Fiona could hear. “They’re listening in, so I’ll try to throw them off. Believe the opposite of what I say.”
Before the camera turned back toward us, I settled to my seat. “We tried smuggling a friend into the compound, even got her past the guards, but we’re pretty sure Alex heard about it, so we smuggled her out again. I don’t think we’ll have anyone to help you besides us.”
Colm nodded. “So if someone comes to us claiming to be your ally, we shouldn’t believe them. It will be a trap.”
“That’s right.” I gave him a brief head nod. He had caught on perfectly. “What measures do they take to keep you here, I mean, besides the fence and razor wire? Can you go inside my residence building?”
“We cannot. The guards lock us in this room after dinner, usually just after dark. The door you entered is the only way out.”
I scanned the room. Indeed the front entry proved to be the only door. Huge dirty windows ran along the walls at least fifteen feet above, far too high to reach. Some were open for ventilation, and cracks drew jagged lines across several others. A long pole stood in a corner, apparently the tool to open and close the swivel-mounted panes.
Sing could use the pole to vault to a window or else climb a spool line. Since it would be dark in the room at that hour, the camera wouldn’t see her. After dropping on the guards and subduing them, she could snatch the keys and let Colm and his family out. From there, getting them outside the prison through the Hilton would be easier. She could overpower Stanskey without a problem.
“Well,” I said with a fake sigh, “it looks impossible, but we’ll try to figure out something.”
Fiona glanced at her daughters. “I hope so. If what we hear is true…” Her face twisting, she clutched her spoon and turned away.
I leaned forward again. “Colm, I always thought this camp held criminals, you know, murderers, rapists, thieves, but what’s up with all the children?”
“There are no murderers here. No rapists. Thieves?” He shrugged. “Perhaps a few. Most parents were caught dealing in the medical black market, and the police brought the children along. It’s much more efficient than putting them in an orphanage.”
“True.” My heart thumped again. There was more to the children’s presence than efficiency. This was a test of loyalty to the Gatekeeper. If we were willing to participate in this reaping of innocents, we would do anything for him.
A bell rang from the ceiling. The prisoners stood and filed toward the door, heads down and feet dragging. A few stayed put in their seats, and their glowing eyes revealed the reason. Ghosts didn’t have to respond to the bell.
I checked my pocket watch—twelve thirty. We still had some time. “I guess you have to go.” I rose and shook Colm’s hand, then Fiona’s and Colleen’s. After bidding them all good-bye, I picked up Sing’s lunch and waited with Shanghai for the prisoners to leave. Now each man, woman, and child took on a new character. They weren’t criminals at all. Not a single one deserved to die. They needed to be rescued every bit as much as Colm and his family did.
I let my shoulders sag. It seemed that energy drained from my body. Three Reapers couldn’t sneak a couple of hundred people out of a camp surrounded by razor wire, searchlights, and tower-mounted guns. It was impossible.
When the cavernous room emptied, except for the ghosts, Shanghai and I walked abreast toward the door. “I think I got the message across.”
“You did,” Shanghai said. “Colm’s a smart guy.”
&n
bsp; We exited and walked across the prison yard toward the Hilton. As light drizzle continued, dampening the grass and giving it a slippery feel, I plugged my clasp into my valve. When the cloak energized, Crandyke immediately spoke up. “You’re getting wet. Don’t you know enough to get out of the rain?”
I forced a tone of levity. “Are you my mother now?”
“Don’t worry. If you catch a cold, I won’t be wiping your nose. You’re on your own.”
“Listen, I don’t have much time. How many guards patrol the inside of the camp after dark, especially around the prisoners’ living quarters?”
“I think ten are on duty, some in the watchtower, a couple on the outside of the fence, maybe four walking the grounds inside. I don’t know how many would be at the living quarters at any given time. Depends on the access points.”
“There’s one access, a single door.”
“That matches my memory.” Crandyke hummed for a moment. “My guess is two guards would watch that door, but it’s just a guess.”
I nodded. A surprise attack from above could take down two guards, but when a searchlight scanned the spot, other guards would run there in a hurry. Someone would have to shut the lights down somehow, at least long enough to get Colm’s family to the Hilton.
When Shanghai and I arrived in the second-floor hallway, we found Tori sitting between our two doors. Smiling, she jumped up and rushed into the wall in a blur. By the time we reached Shanghai’s room, the door opened revealing a bleary-eyed Sing.
“We don’t have much time to talk,” I said as I walked past her and set the lunch items on Shanghai’s bed. Tori sat on the sofa. Her eyes barely glowed now; she would be a full level three soon.
After Shanghai closed the door, she and Sing joined me on the bed. I told Sing about the conversation with Colm and that he would be watching for an ally. I added the details about the camera, windows, and pole, and we agreed that Sing would join the inmates tonight by sneaking into the living quarters just before the guards locked it up. With reapings starting tomorrow, the sooner Colm and family escaped, the better.