‘What is it?’ I asked.
Shackleton smiled. ‘Just a bit of extra protection. It would be a terrible shame if all our efforts came to nothing at this late stage.’
‘Yeah, wouldn’t that be a hassle?’ I said, shoving him forward again. Whatever that antenna thing was for, I knew we’d find out about it soon enough.
We continued up the street, between the rows of abandoned houses, keeping to the shadows. My mind was racing, trying to work out what to do next. Taking Shackleton back to the Complex would be a mistake.
‘In here,’ I said, opening the front gate of one of the houses.
We ran up the verandah steps. Soren smashed his rifle through the frosted glass of the front door. He reached through to the other side, unlocked the door and let us in.
I’d never set foot in this house before. I had no idea who it had even belonged to. But it could just as easily have been mine, or Luke’s, or Peter’s, or any other house in Phoenix, and all of those memories rushed at me as I stepped through the door. My parents sitting me down and telling me Mum was pregnant, Peter tackling a guard down the stairs, Luke sleeping up on the landing, Mum and Georgia getting dragged away at gunpoint… It was like the whole of the last hundred days was converging into this single moment.
I brought Shackleton through to the lounge room and threw him down on a couch. Soren stood over him, rifle trained on his chest, while Amy zoomed across to the window to keep watch. Luke closed the front door behind us, then came in and sat on the other couch. ‘What now?’
I folded my arms, staring down at Shackleton, the ultimate cause of all the suffering we’d been through, tied up at gunpoint on the couch in front of me. ‘Now we get some answers.’
Chapter 31
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
1 DAY
‘You’re the one behind the attack on my security centre,’ said Shackleton, fixing Soren with a penetrating stare. ‘Aren’t you?’
Soren’s eyes shifted from me to Luke, like one of us must have told him.
‘I must say, that whole business was quite a mystery to me. I knew none of your fellow insurgents had such violence in them.’ The smile returned to Shackleton’s lips. ‘But you…’
I pushed between them, grabbing Shackleton by the front of his jacket. ‘Enough!’ I snapped. ‘What’s Tobias and how do we get it to the release station?’
‘Now, that’s interesting,’ said Shackleton, still infuriatingly calm. ‘What has led you to believe that you need to take something out to the release station?’
I threw him back down against the couch. ‘Answer the question! What’s Tobias?’
Shackleton furrowed his brow, a look of genuine curiosity on his face. Then his eyes lit up and he burst out laughing.
‘Answer her!’ Soren demanded, pushing past and poking the end of his rifle into Shackleton’s chest. ‘Answer her or I will kill you!’
‘He will,’ said Luke, looking uneasy.
‘I am sorry.’ Shackleton shook his head, regaining his composure but clearly still amused by something. ‘I don’t know how you came by the name Tobias, but this is all terribly ironic.’
‘What is?’ I demanded. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Shh!’ said Luke, glancing to Amy at the window. ‘Jordan, someone’s going to hear you.’
‘If this “Tobias” of yours really did hold the key to unravelling the work we are doing in this town,’ said Shackleton, serious again, ‘do you honestly think I would share that information with you, even in exchange for my own life?’
‘Why don’t we find out?’ said Soren, jabbing his rifle into Shackleton again.
‘No, wait,’ I said, pushing the weapon aside. ‘Just –’ I crouched, eye to eye with Shackleton, a last, desperate hope springing up in my chest. ‘What if it was her out there? Your daughter. What if she was one of the people on the outside, about to get massacred?’
Another tiny glimmer of surprise registered on Shackleton’s face. He wiped it away again. ‘I have no daughter.’
‘Dr Galton,’ I pressed. ‘Victoria. What if –?’
‘Do not think you can sway me with sentimentalism, Jordan.’ Shackleton looked more engaged than he had all night. ‘I am well beyond the point of entertaining such trivialities. The new humanity being created in this town is of far greater importance than any feelings one might have about those who are to be jettisoned in the transition.’
He smiled coldly over at Luke. According to the Co-operative, Luke and his mum were here by accident. A glitch in the system. Which meant they weren’t immune to Tabitha like the rest of us apparently were.
‘Jettisoned,’ repeated Luke.
Shackleton shrugged. ‘Or killed, if you prefer. The semantics are quite beside the point.’
Soren barged forward again, smacking Shackleton across the face with his rifle. ‘If you have a point, get to it!’
Shackleton writhed on the couch, twisting his bound arms around to push himself back into a sitting position. His tongue ran over his teeth, smearing them with blood. When he spoke again, there was an edge of impatience to his voice. ‘The point, children, is that humanity is rapidly plummeting towards a depth of depravity and self-destruction so severe that we will soon be powerless to extract ourselves again.’
‘I think we might already be there,’ said Amy softly, speaking up for the first time since we stopped here.
‘The human race is critically ill,’ Shackleton continued. ‘A cancerous wreck, sacrificing at the altar of its own vapid self-interest. For all our talk of progress and enlightenment, we are no less barbaric than when we were tossing spears and dressing in animal skins.’
‘Look around you, Shackleton!’ I shouted. ‘You’re not exactly helping the situation!’
‘But that’s exactly what we are doing,’ Shackleton said. ‘There comes a point at which the only viable means of saving something is by wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. You may question the cost involved, but Phoenix represents humanity’s best hope of –’
‘You don’t get to decide that!’ I shouted, shaking him. ‘What right do you have to choose who lives and who dies?’
A little trickle of blood spilled from the corner of Shackleton’s mouth. ‘Everyone dies, Jordan.’
‘You’re disgusting,’ I said.
‘Come now, Jordan.’ Shackleton leant forward. ‘We have spoken about this before. Your great weakness is your insistence on viewing “good” and “evil” in such inflexible terms. Such ideas are merely human constructs. We invented those definitions, and we are free to adjust them as we see fit.’
‘That’s crap!’ I spat. ‘You can’t just change right and wrong to suit yourself.’
‘Give it a year,’ said Shackleton. ‘Two, maybe. Give the people of Phoenix time to experience the new world that I will lead them into. Then ask them if they still think my actions were unjustified.’
‘It doesn’t matter! None of that –’ I balled up my fists, resisting the urge to throttle him. ‘It’s still evil! Even if every person on Earth turned around and said you were right all along, you’d still be the same filthy monster you are now!’
Shackleton smiled again, teeth pink with blood. ‘Who says?’
‘Enough!’ barked Soren, pushing forward again. ‘I did not come here to argue philosophy!’ He kicked Shackleton in the ribs, knocking him over onto his side, and jammed the gun under his chin. ‘You will tell us what we want to know, or –’ Soren faltered, staring down at him. ‘What is that?’
Something was blinking behind Shackleton. A tiny blue light, flashing against the back of the couch. I pulled Shackleton over onto his stomach. ‘It’s his watch.’
‘Yes,’ said Shackleton, dragging his mouth away from the couch cushion. ‘I’m afraid you’re out of time.’
There was a gasp from the window, and a half-second later, Amy was across the room, squeezing my arm with both hands. ‘They’re coming!’
Chapter 32
&n
bsp; WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
1 DAY
Luke leapt out of his seat. ‘How many of them?’
‘I think three,’ said Amy, the words spewing out at triple speed. ‘Officer Barnett and two more behind him. I couldn’t really see. I don’t know. I don’t know. We have to get out!’
‘It’s a tracking device,’ I said, tearing off Shackleton’s watch and throwing it on the ground. ‘Like the suppressors you put in us.’
‘Something like that,’ said Shackleton.
I dragged him up from the couch and started hauling him from the room.
‘What are you doing?’ said Soren.
‘Back door,’ I said. ‘We’ll jump the fence and –’
‘He is not coming.’ Soren pointed at the carpet with his rifle. ‘Put him on the ground.’
‘Come on!’ said Amy, already in the hall. ‘Hurry!’
I pulled Shackleton towards the door, but Soren grabbed the front of his suit.
‘Just leave him!’ said Luke. ‘Jordan, we don’t have…’
He trailed off as a tinny burst of music suddenly filled the room, something classical I vaguely recognised. My pocket started buzzing.
Ketterley’s phone. I’d completely forgotten about it. I pulled it out and checked the caller ID.
Andrew Barnett.
‘Don’t answer it,’ said Soren, but I was already sliding the phone open. Something told me it wasn’t Ketterley he was calling for.
‘What?’ I snapped, holding it to my ear.
‘Jordan,’ said the cold voice on the other end. ‘Why don’t you have a look out the front window?’
‘We have Noah Shackleton!’ said Soren, listening in. ‘Leave, or I will blast his face apart!’
‘Charming,’ said Shackleton.
‘That would be a mistake,’ said Barnett. ‘Come to the window, Jordan.’
I got down low and edged my way to the front of the room, trying to keep out of sight. There was every chance he was just calling me out so he could get a clear shot.
‘Jordan, come on,’ said Luke, ‘let’s just go.’
I peered up over the windowsill and almost dropped the phone. Officer Barnett was standing out in the middle of the street, lit up by one of the streetlamps. Officer Cook was next to him, holding a gun to the head of a sobbing 12-year-old girl.
It was Lauren. Hamilton’s daughter. The Year 7 kid who’d helped us out with food and clothes while we were on the run from the Co-operative in town.
‘You sick bastard,’ I breathed.
Barnett chuckled on the other end. ‘Let me speak to Shackleton.’
I backed off from the window and lowered the mobile from my ear, hand shaking. I hit the speakerphone button. ‘He can hear you.’
‘Andrew,’ Shackleton leant towards the phone, ‘how nice of you to come for me.’
‘You okay, sir?’
‘Oh yes, we’re having a fine time,’ said Shackleton. ‘Although I do think I should head back to attend to our little disturbance in town.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Barnett. ‘You still there, Jordan?’
‘Let her go,’ I demanded.
‘That’s not how this works, Jordan. Either you release Shackleton to us or the girl takes a bullet. And let me tell you, we have plenty more where she came from.’
‘Do it then,’ said Soren.
‘No!’ said Luke and I together.
‘Listen to me.’ Soren ripped the phone out of my hand. ‘I have already killed two of your superiors tonight. I will not hesitate to kill a third. If the girl dies, Shackleton dies with her.’
‘Stop!’ said Luke, face white. ‘Everyone, just – just stop for a second.’
The room fell silent. I could hear Lauren whimpering on the other end of the phone.
‘Yes?’ said Barnett.
‘We’ll swap you,’ said Luke. ‘Lauren for Shackleton.’
Shackleton stretched towards the phone again. ‘Do it, Andrew. We’ve lost enough candidates already tonight.’
I took the phone back from Soren. ‘You hear that, Barnett?’
‘All right,’ said Barnett, clearly not happy with the situation. ‘Get out here.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘You guys need to back off first. Into the yard across the street.’
‘Fine.’
‘There are four of them in here,’ said Shackleton quickly. ‘Burke, Hunter, Amy Park, and our trigger-happy friend to whom I’ve not yet been –’
Soren punched him in the face and he stopped talking.
I shut the phone. ‘All right. Let’s do this.’ I turned to Amy. ‘Do you think you can carry her?’
‘What? Oh.’ She zipped to the window and back again. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I think so.’
‘Good,’ I said, heading into the hall. ‘As soon as they give us Lauren, you pick her up and run her out of here, okay? Soren, I want your rifle trained on Shackleton the whole –’
‘I am not a fool, Jordan,’ Soren snarled.
There were so many ways I could have responded to that statement, but this really wasn’t the time.
Luke crawled up to the hole Soren had smashed through the glass on our way in. ‘Okay, they’re back against the other house.’
He opened the door and I jostled Shackleton out onto the verandah. Soren rushed out after me, sweeping his gun around while I got Shackleton down the steps.
‘Looks like it’s just the three of them,’ said Luke, surveying the street. He pulled the pistol out of his jeans again.
The air outside was hazy with smoke. I could still hear the distant crackle of the fire and the shouts of the guards. Lauren let out a terrified moan as we approached, and I felt another surge of rage at Barnett for dragging her into this.
We marched Shackleton through the gate, stopping when we reached the footpath. We were maybe twenty metres apart from them.
‘All right,’ said Barnett. ‘Let him go.’
‘On three,’ I called back. ‘One – two –’
I released Shackleton, raising my hands above my head to prove that he was really free. Officer Cook shoved Lauren away and she ran towards us, tears streaming down her face. She screamed as Amy raced out to grab her, hoisting her awkwardly off the ground and running her up the street towards the bush.
The air splintered as Soren fired his rifle.
Barnett cried out, shuddering violently as the bullets tore through him. He dropped to the ground.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
I dived behind the garden fence as Officer Cook returned fire.
‘C’mon!’ said Luke, heading towards the house.
I scrambled after him, sticking low to the ground. Amy and Lauren were already disappearing into the darkness at the top of the hill. I couldn’t see Shackleton anywhere. He’d just –
BLAM! BLAM!
Soren shrieked and collapsed to the ground. Cook crossed the street, holstering his pistol and reaching for his rifle instead.
‘Jordan, run!’ Luke yanked me backwards.
Soren let out another horrible, agonised screech, clutching his arm. Impossible to tell in the darkness how bad it was, but he wasn’t getting up. I hesitated. But what were we supposed to do?
Cook raised his rifle, aiming at us this time. Luke jerked at my hand again, and we sprinted away down the side of the house.
Chapter 33
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
1 DAY
We stumbled through the bush, returning to the Vattel Complex on autopilot, not even stopping to think whether going back there was a good idea.
I dropped to my knees at the entrance, overwhelmed by the sudden urge to vomit. Luke knelt beside me, breathing hard, probably thinking I was about to start slipping away again. But this wasn’t a vision. It was just my guts finally registering the insane horror of everything we’d been through tonight.
Soren’s cries had followed us for only a few seconds before abruptly cutting out. He was gone. I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about that.
&nbs
p; I braced myself against the low, crumbling ruin that ran past the entrance, and heaved my dinner into the dirt. Luke stayed with me, rubbing my back and trying to keep my hair out of my face.
‘We should get inside,’ he said, when I was finished.
‘Yeah,’ I coughed, wiping my mouth.
Luke pulled a paperclip from his pocket and started feeling along the ruin for the broken power socket that would pop open the trapdoor. I stared around at the bush, still dizzy from the vomiting. Amy and Lauren were nowhere in sight. Soren was dead or getting there. Reeve and Tank might not be any better off. And for all of that, we were still no closer to finding Tobias.
This isn’t how it was meant to happen! I raged inside my head. Where is it? Where’s Tobias? If it’s not even up there, then what’s the point? What’s the point of any of it? Why drag me into this and fill my head with visions and put me through all this misery if we were just going to fail at the finish line anyway?
There was a whoosh of compressed air as Luke got the trapdoor open. Screams echoed up from the bottom of the stairs.
Mum. The baby was still coming.
I hurried down the steps, Luke right behind me. Mum’s violent panting and groaning rang out into the empty corridor. I could hear Ms Hunter too, yelling at her to keep pushing. It sounded like she was crying.
I ducked into the girls’ bedroom on the way past. Georgia was crashed out in her bed, somehow sleeping through it all. Paper and crayons littered the floor around her. No sign of Cathryn.
Then I spotted the picture Georgia had drawn before she fell asleep. I breathed in sharply, suddenly cold, bending to pick it up.
Almost the whole page was taken up by a huge man, dressed in black. A security officer. Somehow, I was sure it was Officer Calvin. The man stood in the middle of some scribbly trees with an enormous red smile on his face. He was holding the baby.
‘That’s not – it’s just a drawing, right?’ said Luke over my shoulder. ‘I mean, she can hear thoughts or whatever, but she can’t see the future.’
I tore my eyes away from the picture, almost ready to wake Georgia up and ask her about it. But then Mum cried out again from the lab and I decided it could wait. Georgia didn’t need to hear that.
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