‘So then what?’ I asked. ‘What have you been doing for the last twenty years? You didn’t try to find your family?’
‘I didn’t have a family. My parents hadn’t even met yet. And, anyway,’ Bill sniffed loudly, tears coming back again, ‘the only thing I cared about – the only thing – was getting back to Jordan. That’s why I killed Luke. To get rid of him. All I had to do was find a way back to Jordan and there’d be nothing to stop us from being together.’ He screwed up his face, disgusted with himself. ‘I know. I know. It was insane. Monstrous. But that was where my head was at.’
I hugged myself, suddenly overcome with shivers. Luke leant in and put his arms around me.
Bill looked down at us, expecting some kind of response. But what was there to say?
‘So, yeah,’ he went on, ‘when I woke up in the hospital a few weeks later, the doctors said it was a miracle I was alive. I’d lost so much blood, and I had burns pretty much everywhere, and – I mean, look at me.’ He held out his scarred, mangled hands. ‘Not surprising you guys never realised who I was. Anyway, as soon as I could, I broke out of the hospital.’
‘Where were you?’ asked Luke. ‘What hospital?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Bill, looking up again. ‘Somewhere in Sydney, but I didn’t care where I was. All I cared about was getting back to Phoenix. Which was stupid. Phoenix hadn’t even been built yet. But I wasn’t thinking like that. I mean, my brain was totally screwed. It was all…’ He closed his eyes again, clenching his fists in front of his face. ‘Mate, you have to understand, this is the first time I’ve actually thought about any of this. When I went through Jordan just then – I don’t know what happened, but it was like waking up. Like I’ve just got my brain back for the first time in twenty years.’
He broke down again, shaking with tears. Part of me wanted to get up and leave. I needed to check on Mum. Make sure our Peter wasn’t doing anything stupid. But I couldn’t just walk out. Not yet.
Bill took a couple of spluttering breaths. ‘I had nothing,’ he said. ‘No money. I didn’t even exist. Plus, I had no idea where Phoenix even was. All I knew was that I had to get back here.’ He waved a hand at the room around us. ‘Back here, to this moment. I remembered coming in here and seeing Bill disappear. I needed to make that happen again. I needed to get the two of you back together in the same place and open another portal and get back to my own time.
‘So I waited. For nearly twenty years, that was all I did. I was totally obsessed. All I had to do was wait it out, and then I could be with her again. When the time got closer, I tracked down Shackleton’s old office in Sydney. I stole a computer and hacked into the Co-operative’s candidates register. I had to make sure you were both on the list, that you were both coming.’ Bill turned to Luke. ‘You weren’t there. You or your mum. I deleted two of the other names and added you guys in their place.’
‘That’s why we’re here,’ Luke breathed. ‘Even though we’re not candidates. It was you.’
‘But why?’ I said, finally finding my voice again. ‘Why did you have to make all of this happen again? Why go out of your way to bring Luke to Phoenix if he was your whole problem in the first place? And why put me through all of this? All the clues and messages and dragging us out to the airport – if you were that obsessed with me, why not just break into my house?’
‘Because I wasn’t looking for you,’ said Bill. ‘I was looking for her. My Jordan. The one I’d left behind when I went through to the past.’
‘We’re the same person!’
‘I know!’ Bill choked. ‘I know that! I mean, now I do. But that wasn’t – I told you, my mind was – I had a plan. Get Luke out of the way, and get back through the portal to my own time. Get back to the Jordan I’d left behind. Right from the beginning, I knew that was what I had to do. And even after I got stuck, I couldn’t look past my perfect freaking plan. Nothing else mattered. When I got back here and saw you – You might as well have been a completely different person. I mean, I knew who you were, but by that point you weren’t even people to me. You were just tools I could use to get what I wanted.’
Bill’s eyes dropped to the concrete. He laced his hands around behind his neck. ‘I sneaked into Phoenix in a cargo plane, and started gathering information, waiting for you to get here. As soon as Luke landed, I put those memory sticks into your rooms and used the threat of Tabitha to bring you together.’
‘But, hang on,’ said Luke, ‘when you got us to come and meet you that first time, why did you choose the airport? Why not just bring us straight here if that’s where you wanted us to be?’
‘I didn’t know where here was,’ said Bill. ‘I was unconscious when Mike and the others brought me down here. And the only other time I’d been up to the surface since then, you guys had stuck me with a sedative. But I knew we’d all get down here eventually because I’d seen it happen the first time.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘The airport was a mistake. I’d already seen Calvin and his guys show up and drag Bill away last time. I thought maybe I could change it. Speed things up. But I couldn’t. I can’t. All of it was fixed, because it had already happened before. That whole night turned out exactly the same way as it had the first time around. But I’d left myself a backup plan. I’d left clues for Peter – the other Peter – to find.’
‘The map out to the wall,’ said Luke. ‘And those pictures. And the Tabitha DVD.’
‘Why didn’t you just tell us who you were?’ I asked. ‘Or why didn’t you warn Peter what was going to happen?’
‘I don’t know!’ Bill shouted, getting to his feet. ‘I couldn’t – I wasn’t thinking like that. He was just like you. Just a tool. A piece of the puzzle. I didn’t even think of…of…’
He cried out, tearing at his gown, and I backed off. He might be thinking straighter, but for all I knew he could still throw me across the room if he wanted to.
‘It’s happening again! Just like before. Just like –’ Bill’s hands shot to his head. ‘I have to stop it. I – I have to stop it.’
He turned in a circle and bolted from the room.
Chapter 36
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
1 DAY
We ran, grazing against the walls, sprinting to keep up with the light that danced from Bill’s helmet as he raced through the passageway ahead of us. He didn’t look back, didn’t seem to care whether we were following him or not.
I felt like I was going to burst into tears any second. It was all too big, too weird, too overwhelming. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around it all. But I could run. I surged forward, pushing through the darkness, blocking out everything else and concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.
We tore past the scene of Luke’s death and kept running, through the minefield of wreckage and back into the entryway to Peter’s room. A figure staggered through the door and I dug my heels in, ready to fight him off with my bare hands if I had to.
But it wasn’t Peter. It was Cathryn. Bleeding from deep scratch marks in her arms and face. Terrified beyond anything I’d ever seen in her before.
‘He almost k-killed me,’ she shuddered, hands shaking over her blood-smeared cheeks. ‘Pete – he almost… He almost…’
‘Where did he go?’ I demanded. ‘Which way?’
Cathryn’s eyes flickered towards the living area. ‘Out there. But I don’t know what he was –’
I took off again, Luke right behind me.
‘Wait!’ Cathryn begged, stumbling after us.
Bill hadn’t stopped. He was way ahead now, already out of sight.
In a minute, we were bursting into the undestroyed corridor that led up to the entrance. The laboratory door was open. I veered inside and found Mum sitting up in her bed, holding a tiny, wrinkled baby wrapped up in a towel. Georgia was curled up next to her, still half-asleep, gently stroking the baby’s cheek.
Luke’s mum was resting against a bench, looking completely shattered. She jumped up as we arrived,
brushing Luke’s arm on the way past and then rushing over to help Cathryn.
‘You’re back already?’ asked Mum sleepily. ‘What happened? Where are the others?’
‘Where’s Bill?’ said Luke. ‘Did he come through here?’
Ms Hunter looked up. ‘No. We heard footsteps, but –’
‘What about Peter? Have you seen –?’
‘No, we haven’t seen anyone since you left. Luke, what’s –?’
Luke ignored her, racing through to the surveillance room.
I crossed to Mum’s bed and gazed down at the baby and for one tiny moment, everything else faded into the background. Despite everything – the weirdness of the pregnancy, the less-than-ideal birth – the baby looked completely healthy. Completely normal.
I clutched onto the head of the bed, forcing myself not to cry, knowing I probably wouldn’t be able to stop.
‘She’s amazing,’ I murmured.
‘He,’ said Mum. ‘It’s a boy. Abraham. We always said that if we ever had a son, we’d name it after –’
Georgia looked up, brow furrowed. ‘That’s not his name.’
Mum smiled. ‘That’s what we’ve picked, sweetheart. He’s going to have the same name as Daddy.’
‘No,’ said Georgia firmly, shaking her head. ‘That’s wrong. He already told me his name. He’s called Tobias.’
Chapter 37
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
1 DAY
I let go of the bed frame. ‘Georgia, no – You might have heard us talking about that name, but –’
‘No, that’s not why,’ said Georgia. ‘He knew his name already, even when he was in Mummy’s tummy. He told me.’
Mum stared at me, the colour draining out of her face. ‘Is that – is that possible?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said, reeling away from the bed. ‘Georgia, are you sure? Are you sure it was the baby who told you that?’
‘Yes,’ said Georgia emphatically. ‘I’m not lying. He said it in my head just before he got born.’
‘What about that drawing you did?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice even. ‘That picture of the security man holding the baby.’
‘That’s Mr Calvin,’ said Georgia. ‘Luke said, “Draw a picture for the baby.” That’s what the baby wanted a picture of.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why are you angry?’
‘We’re not angry, sweetheart,’ said Mum faintly. ‘We’re just trying to understand.’
‘Jordan!’ said Luke, rushing into the lab again. ‘He’s upstairs. He just ran out into the… What? What happened?’
‘It’s the baby,’ I said. ‘Tobias. Georgia just – She can communicate with him, or read his mind or something.’
‘He told me,’ said Georgia. ‘That was always his name, ever since he got into Mum’s tummy.’
Luke walked across to the bed. ‘Did he tell you anything else?’
‘No,’ Georgia shrugged. ‘That’s all. He only started talking today.’
I glanced at Luke, then out into the corridor. If we were going to catch up with Bill, we had to do it now. I turned back to Mum. ‘Wait here. But get ready to – Do you think you can walk?’
‘I think so,’ she said. ‘But, Jordan, I don’t think –’
‘Okay. Stay here. But get ready to run if you have to.’
‘Run where?’ asked Luke’s mum.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Just get ready.’
We shot back into the hall. Up the stairs. I hammered the trapdoor button and we leapt out onto the surface, pacing in a circle, searching the darkness.
No Bill. No Peter.
‘Where would he go?’ Luke panted. ‘Where would either of them –? Surely they haven’t gone back into town?’
But who knew what was going through Peter’s head right now? He could be anywhere.
Luke rested an arm around my waist. My head pounded. I could smell the vomit from before, and I thought I might throw up all over again. I closed my eyes for a minute, focusing on my breathing, leaning my head against Luke’s shoulder.
‘I believe her,’ I said. ‘Georgia. She’s telling the truth about the baby. About Tobias.’
Luke blew out a lungful of air. ‘Yeah.’
All our searching, and he’d been right here with us all along. But what now? What hope did that tiny little baby have against a Co-operative super-weapon?
‘Hang on,’ said Luke. ‘What about all the rumours in town? If he’s Tobias, then –?’ He stepped away from me as something flashed in the sky behind us. ‘Whoa. Was that lightning?’
There was a loud crackle, and a sound like one of the rocket things that had launched at Kara and Mr Hunter’s helicopter. A line of sparks lanced through the air, far above our heads, shooting towards town from somewhere out in the bush.
‘Not lightning,’ I said.
There were more of them. Dozens. Tearing through the night in every direction, all converging on the town centre.
‘Missiles?’ said Luke, voice brightening. ‘Maybe Dad got the army or something. Maybe –’
‘I don’t think so.’ I started jogging through the bush, gazing upwards. A dark line cut across the sky overhead, marking out a path behind one of the projectiles. Some kind of big, thick cord.
There was a rapid series of thunks as the cords converged above the town centre.
‘That antenna thing on top of the Shackleton Building,’ I said. ‘I bet that’s where they’ve –’
An explosive crackle of electricity filled up the sky, impossibly loud, like lighting smashing into the ground right next to me. Sparks rained down on us, and for a moment the bush was bright orange as all the cords above our heads lit up at once.
Luke gaped up between the trees. I could see his lips moving, but couldn’t hear a thing over the noise. The cords had laced themselves together into a massive, electrified grid. A dome, stretching out as far as I could see in every direction.
All the way out to the wall, I thought, mind dredging up an ancient memory from the night we scaled the giant barrier surrounding the town. Peter had spotted this deep metal groove in the top of the wall, running the length of it. None of us had ever been able to work out what it was for. It looked like we might have our answer.
‘Final lockdown procedures,’ Luke murmured, as the light and the sound faded away again. The grid still crackled and spat, but not so ferociously now. I guessed maybe that had just been while it was powering up.
Whatever the case, it looked like our trip out to the release station had just ratcheted up from ‘dangerous’ to ‘impossible’.
Luke hit the backlight on his watch and I glanced down. The time had just ticked over to midnight.
‘Doomsday,’ he said.
Seventeen hours until the end.
I could still hear the distant echoes of gunfire from the centre of town. How much of Phoenix was even going to be left by the time this was all over?
And then another sound. Heavy breathing and pounding feet, and then the dark shape of a person exploded from the bushes in front of me. The figure pitched forward, face illuminated for a fraction of a second as the grid sparked above us.
Soren, bruised and bleeding. He collapsed at our feet.
‘Soren? You’re alive!’ I said. ‘How did you –?’
Soren shook his head wildly, scrambling to get up. His legs gave out and he stumbled to the ground again.
‘Help!’ he shrieked. ‘Help me! We have to get away from here!’
‘Why? Soren, what’s –?’
‘Calvin!’ Soren gasped. ‘He’s back! They know where we are! They’re coming!’
Born in Sydney in 1985, Chris Morphew
spent his childhood writing stories about
dinosaurs and time machines. More recently he
has written for the best-selling Zac Power series.
The Phoenix Files is his first series for young adults.
Other books in The Phoenix Files series:
Arrival
Conta
ct
Mutation
Underground
Doomsday (2013)
The Phoenix Files: Fallout
published in 2012 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN: 9781742737829
Text copyright © 2012 Chris Morphew
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Design copyright © 2012 Hardie Grant Egmont
Design by Sandra Nobes
Typesetting by Ektavo
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