Cloud Field

by A M Russell

  ‘It’s alright.’ said Jared half turning to me, ‘it’s quite alright. I now know what the tag does.’

  ‘What does it do?’ I really felt keenly the sense of being the one who had joined in the school year in the middle when others had already got to know each other.

  ‘Let me explain…’ said Jared. At this the two others came and sat near me.

  ‘Tellos, Maki; don’t listen on the secrets of their tribe.’ Andre said from beyond Jared.

  ‘No… No. I want everyone to listen.’ Jared beckoned them over. ‘Come close. So I don’t have to shout.’

  I was hooked with the most painful of things: rabid curiosity. We all squeezed together in a tight little knot. I hadn’t felt this kind of excitement since I was six and hid in my friend’s den at the bottom his garden.

  ‘It’s like this,’ Jared began, ‘when we left the Main Base we were all given a tag. And the same day that we got the tag was the day we left and started our journey right?’

  ‘Got it so far.’ I said. Oliver raised an eyebrow. But Jared continued.

  ‘The tags don’t just identify our location, they also record our movements. But they record everything. Every time period. The blank one is the same except it isn’t following one person; it’s following lots of different people. Anyone who has ever had the tag in their possession.’

  ‘But we can’t read It.’ said Oliver.

  ‘Not at the moment. It’s not what it records; it is what it can do that is important.’

  ‘I am confused.’ I admitted.

  ‘Milly,’ Oliver sighed, ‘you’re always confused. That’s what makes you so valuable.’

  Jared was patient. ‘There are always things that no one can know but ourselves. Some secrets that you never tell. And the reason is simple. Because it doesn’t seem like a secret to you.’

  ‘Ok. I give up.’ I said.

  ‘Let me demonstrate.’ said Marcia. She glanced at Jared who nodded slowly. Marcia stood up from a cross-legged position with that peculiar movement of balletic grace I had seen many times. She turned away from us with the chain of the blank tag dangling from her hands. The chain jiggled about a little as Marcia appeared to rotate the tag in her hands. The she stood perfectly still waiting.

  ‘Jared?’ she said softly, ‘I think I did it.’

  She turned to us holding the metal tag tightly in her hand. She came and sat down slowly between us again. Her fingers uncurled from the half open tag. A light was glowing. As I watched it went out. Then flashed on every few seconds. The light was a blue-violet.

  ‘Now what?’ asked Oliver.

  ‘This will pull in the wolves.’ said Jared.

  ‘What have you done?’ I was still gnawing away at the given facts with unsatisfied curiosity.

  ‘This calls everything on every channel at once. If you can’t hide, then make a hell of a lot of noise!’

  ‘But that puts us in danger!’ I said.

  ‘Not quite.’ said Jared. He stood up suddenly. ‘Right. Marcia. Davey. You two swap tags.’

  ‘What?!’ I felt indignant.

  ‘Look… we could have dumped the lot if we thought there was any point. But they are George’s precious inventions remember. Whatever they see; he sees. Get it!’

  ‘No.’ I said but obeyed.

  Marcia was now wearing my tag, and I hers. It felt strange. Even though they were outwardly exactly the same.

  ‘What about this and that other err.... duplicate one?’ Marcia grimaced at the necessary statement about her mysterious other tag.

  ‘Are there any rocks around here?’ Jared asked.

  ‘Plenty.’ Said Andre, ‘One big, and one little?’ he clearly caught on faster than I did.

  Jared nodded and three of them except Chee disappeared for a moment or two they came back with a small boulder between two of them. Andre carried a heavy black rock in both hands. He gave it to Jared.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I said

  ‘I would have thought that was obvious.’ Jared regarded me with a level of annoyance. I could see the light was going and we didn’t have time for stupid questions.

  Marcia took the other “Ellis” Tag from round Jared’s neck.

  ‘Ok. Let’s do it.’ She said. She placed the thing half open on the rock.

  With one furious smash Jared whacked it. The thing split in two and sizzled as the electric innards were revealed. Jared hit it again. Strangely it started to glow. Spinning filaments of light. A strange reddish-violet then blue-white then….. Jared hit it again with all his might. There was a shimmer of light that dissipated a moment later. We all stared at the rock. There was no tag there at all. The chain was empty.

  We all stepped forward cautiously. The chain was there but it looked duller and less silvery. Jared reached out to pick it up. But before he could touch it suddenly crumbled into dust.

  ‘Well would you look at that.’ Oliver was the first to speak.

  ‘Yes. Yes… well done George.’ Jared turned to get his pack. ‘We go after Janey and Jules.’

  ‘What about Hanson?’ I said

  ‘Oliver and I will deal with that as soon as we find them. You and Marcia bring those two and meet back here. I’m afraid we don’t have much of a plan but to get back here. We’ll have to work the rest out later. But whatever happens don’t mention the blank tag to anyone you meet. I have an idea this is a good bargaining chip when the time is right. And a bit of confusion about who is wearing what tag will help to cover up what we are doing.

  I realised that this was it. Everyone else seemed matter of fact and quite cool. Andre eyed me with a question in his eyes.

  ‘Thanks Andre.’ I said

  ‘This is not a good thing. You might get hurt.’ He looked troubled.

  ‘Well you’ll have to teach me that way of disappearing. That thing you do.’ I said.

  ‘I cannot teach you.’ said Andre, ‘we all know this… when we are little… I don’t know how to say what is felt inside.’

  ‘I guess not.’ I said slowly then: ‘I think I understand.’ He nodded at me and sat back in the shadow.

  ‘We’ll be here.’ Andre called softly to Jared.

  ‘Time to fly.’ Jared looped the blank tag around his own neck and dropped it down his collar.

  We filed out of the hidden dell. I looked back as we stepped back up onto the narrow space between the trees. The little dell was empty.

  *****

  Nineteen

  We trod lightly and not too rhythmically as we had been trained to do. We walked single file in and out of the last light and barely contrasted shade. The sun had gone down over the rim of the world and the moon was not yet rising. We relied on that last vestige of diurnal glow from the sky to find our way, as we dare not risk powerful torchlight. I felt that is this was a foolhardy mission; I would at least like to get to see Janey before I met a fate worse than death… or even death itself. We were still a day and a half from being able to use the power of the tattoos. This strange science would be roughly used at best. We only had a few basic instructions from our Summerland friends; the rest we would have to work out for ourselves. Clearly the Art of anything could not be taught in five minutes. Getting “a feel for it” would take time we didn’t have. I thought of my sister then for some reason. Annoying woman! But also the only person who had ever learned to ride a bicycle instantly. My mother talked about this for years. Even in my time at Art College I was stiff, formal, exacting. I always wanted to loosen up, and never quite succeeded.

  Jared, who was leading stopped. We all became motionless, and then without one whisper of sound slowly crouched down. We were all listening, and peering into the darkness. There was a tiny contrast of shape and colour just ahead. I felt at strange sensation as if I was a big cat stalking its prey. I felt that every sense had been heightened. Every change in the night breezes brought new scents that I could read. The smallest sound my mind sifted and tagged. And that tiny set of sable tinted patches was resolving its
elf into something, that even through the gently moving stalks I could identify. We slid forward again: slowly, in a crouched position. The portion of the forest before a clearing ahead ended with some spiky bushes. We circled round to our left. Jared pointed at the object in the clearing, and then at Oliver. Marcia and I sank into a prone position, while Jared and Oliver slipped like ghosts to where several vehicles were parked. I considered the good fortune that I supposed this brought us. There appeared to be no one about. But that might just be because they hadn’t seen us yet. The minutes ticked past. I was sinking deep into the rhythm of this night. I lay still listening. I tensed and relaxed my muscles so that I didn’t stiffen up. Marcia never moved or reacted; except for the fact that I knew she was right next to me I could have been completely alone.

  I checked the time discreetly. Ten minutes and no sign of Jared and Oliver. I saw Marcia’s eyes glinting at me in the darkness. It didn’t seem quite as dark come to think of it. There was the first soft glow of the moon rise. This whole place would be lit up with the stark luminescence as soon as the lunar disk glimmered above the treeline. I saw Jared and Oliver hiding a few feet from our position behind the tailgate of the nearby vehicle. He made the slightest hand gesture, and we softly crept up behind him. Oliver pointed round to the left, and started to move. We all followed, this time with Jared at the back. Beyond a second vehicle and a dark hollow space in the night indicated a possible entrance. We moved back into the edge of the forest behind some boulders.

  ‘There is one person on duty. And they are not armed.’ said Jared, ‘I think we may be in luck. This just might be the back door.’

  ‘I’ll go first and neutralise him.’ said Oliver.

  ‘You do mean that?’ I asked.

  Oliver grinned in the darkness, which made him look like the Cheshire cat. ‘I promise I won’t kill anyone.’ He said. He slipped around the boulder and Jared followed him.

  There was a soft thud a moment or two later.

  Marcia and I stepped out from our hiding place. Oliver stood over the limp form of a guard as Jared was checking the man’s pockets.

  ‘Oh my God!’ I said quite loudly.

  ‘Shut up!’ Oliver stared at me as the moon rose over the tree tops.

  ‘Ok.’ Jared nodded. Oliver dragged him back round to where we had been hiding.

  ‘There are emergency lights at intervals along the corridor. We need to count them as we go. And mark intersections. You do that Marcia.’

  Oliver came back smiling, ‘Just one Hell of a hangover.’ Oliver squeezed my shoulder with a crushing grip, ‘Don’t you be forgetting what I said Milly. I only do what’s necessary.’

  I gasped but didn’t reply. Oliver’s Welsh drawl was as menacing as his reminder of pounds per square inch.

  We moved into the lion’s den. As the corridor closed around us, I had the suffocated feeling of being underground. I had felt the oppression before, back at the buggy, just over two days ago. In that entrance channel; and in the place that got colder as it steadily sloped down and wreaked the calibration of our instruments. The air here felt duller and thicker. The sounds muffled by what appeared to be some rubbery substance that covered the tunnel wall. I counted lights silently. They were placed high up on one side spaced about every twenty feet.

  ‘Something is very wrong with this….’ Jared reached out and touched the wall of the tunnel. He stopped; and turned round slowly.

  I felt it too. A breath of air; the slightest, hardly perceptible sound. We all froze.

  ‘Jared?!’ Marcia hissed, ‘Over there!’

  I followed Marcia’s gaze, as did the others.

  A faint hiss. A creak and then…..

  The tunnel seemed to be full of Men. Two grabbed Jared and forced him to the floor so fast he didn’t have time to react. I tried to turn back the way we’d come to find the way blocked by six big guys. Oliver did the sensible thing and put up both hands very slowly. Marcia on the other hand moved like lightning and had her hunting knife out and pressed against the neck of one of the Men who’d pinned Jared in less time than it took me to turn my head back towards her and him. I quite honestly didn’t see how she could possibly have done it. But give the woman a reason…. Jared was everything to Marcia in that moment. It was reflexive, instinctive. She appeared to be wildly incensed with rage. I really thought she would do it.

  The man slowly released Jared. Marcia pulled him back away from others; with her knife near his throat. ‘Ok boys. Stand back!’ her tone was low and vicious. Her eyes were gleaming with a strange energy.

  ‘I really think we all should be introduced first,’ said a new voice in an almost conversational way. A big, energetic man in dusty desert kit pushed between the men grouped behind us. He just looked at the second man who still gripped Jared by one arm. Jared was released and stood up immediately. The second man carefully backed away from him.

  ‘I will introduce myself,’ he looked slightly put out, and indicated in Marcia’s direction, ‘if you first call off your wildcat.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ said Marcia.

  ‘First you should say who you are.’ said Jared thickly.

  The big man seemed unfazed and stepped further forward, ‘You wander in here, after removing the guard; and you tell me to say who I am?’

  ‘Ellis!’ Jared said firmly, ‘Let go.’

  She seemed like she was going to disobey, but then shoved the First man away from her. She kept hold of the knife.

  ‘Now it’s your turn.’ said Jared.

  ‘You are fortunate.’ He said, ‘I am not the one who is going to put you and your pretty pet in the cells.’

  ‘Well, from the look of you, I would say you’d just been in one yourself.’ Jared hit back.

  ‘Well said…. You may have heard of me. I have a reputation you know! But I want to assure you it is entirely undeserved.’ He glanced at Marcia, ‘well perhaps almost entirely undeserved. I am Elland. But not “Elland the jailer”, or “Elland the murderer” or anything else that might have travelled this great and glorious grapevine in these wild lands beyond the outer rim.’

  ‘I am Jared. The rest can tell you themselves when they’re ready.’

  ‘Then your sweet pet will have to be given a name, because she isn’t going to give me hers I think.’

  ‘She’s not my….; what did you say about the “wild lands”? I’ve not heard that before.’

  The Man seemed dismayed then, ‘Has so much time passed on the outside?’ he looked hard at Jared. The others also seemed disturbed by the question.

  ‘If you come with us.... I will help you to retrieve your companions.’

  ‘You know about this because…?’ Jared seemed cautious.

  ‘If you feel you can’t trust me, let your wild cat here point her claws at me instead. But please not any of my Men. She’s…. making them nervous.’

  ‘We’ll come with you…’ Jared paused, ‘but if you’re lying, then my “Wild Cat” will be given the freedom to act as she sees fit.’

  ‘For the moment…. I will honour the deal.’ Elland amused, bowed to Marcia.

  We carefully kept step with Elland and his men through a tight little gap in the side of the tunnel. When we were all inside, Elland pulled a chunky metal lever. A panel slid back into place with a sibilant scrape. The mechanism seemed simple enough, as it was only accessible from the inside. We were all standing very close to each other. Marcia, right next to me, still held her knife angled upwards in a rather dangerous position. Something my Mum would not have recommended, like running with scissors.

  ‘Please put it away!’ I hissed at Marcia. She had certainly freaked me out. She gave me a dirty look but complied.

  This tunnel was narrow and earth filled. It had been kept open by being repeatedly shored up with sturdy branches. We walked for perhaps ten minutes. It got narrower and more dusty, and was only lit intermittently with very small lamps that gave off a bluish glow. In some places we had to turn sideways to pass. Ma
rcia dropped back to walk with me.

  ‘Davey!’

  ‘What?’ I wasn’t in the mood for her anger now.

  ‘Talk to me. Distract me. Please.’

  ‘Sure. I guess.’ I wasn’t used to this kind of attention from any woman, least of all one who had the potential to become a homicidal maniac at a moment’s notice. I tried to think about our little team and the experiences earlier this same day; but it all seemed quite unreal in this moment.

  ‘Tell me about your home. What do you like to do?’ there was a note of desperation in her voice. I looked more closely and saw that she was shaking.

  ‘What do you want to know?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh… this and that… anything really….’ She looked down breathing hard.

  ‘Ah!’ I said getting it for a change. That pleading tone was one I recognised. I remember begging my sister to get me down out of that tree. So I told Marcia about my mother’s house and the vegetable plot; the sweet peas she planted in the summer last year that flowered their little socks off. I told her about “Merlin” the cat, and how it like to pretend to ignore me until my mother wasn’t looking, and then be all charming and affectionate; a sort of secret affair, but without the moral implications. I realised I might be steering a bit too near to understandably sensitive territory so I changed to what I did at work: about the funny clients; my mate Alex who I worked alongside; and some of the other daft occurrences. It was much better in the telling. Perhaps my life wasn’t the pit I believed it to be. The tunnel opened out a little then. Marcia said a quick “thank you” and went forward to keep both eyes on Elland and Jared.

  Sometime later we were sitting cups in hand, enjoying hot coffee. It took the dust out of one’s throat. Even Marcia bent over her mug was crumpled into a relaxed position. To all evidence it appeared she was regretting her aggressive behaviour. I liked to think I had got to know her fairly well. And I had already felt thankful in the past that she was on my side. I supposed that everyone would be thanking her if it had turned out that this Elland and his gang were not a benign bunch of adventurers. I blew on the scalding liquid. Black oil for the engine. I felt a little better. I gripped the cup suddenly as a noisy bit of horseplay burst out from the general chat. Oliver sat with us, as well as two of the quieter ones in Elland's group. Jared and Elland were bent over a camping table examining a large map folded right out. I realised quite suddenly that I had seen Elland before. He had his over suit unfastened at the neck. I saw the familiar chain and tag. He was one of another expedition. Then I saw him in profile as he bent further over and partially obscured the light that was on the table. A sliver of memory came back then, something so slight. Where had I seen him? I concentrated on his face, just trying to let it float into my memory. Annoying! The background setting just wouldn't materialise in my mind's eye. I tried as I often did: strung together a slide show of places I'd been in, and slid them behind that person's face. I saw it again... Profile. A strong light source... Early or late? Late, I decided. Warm colours; Sun through glass; Reflections; confused shapes. A flash of a moment that had lodged in the holding tank of memory... But why? Think! I must have been doing something significant at the time. Did he pass me in the street? No. I had seen his face backlit, along with those reflections in glass and other silhouetted shapes. Other people, lots of other people, some reflected, some real, against the light. I recalled a half and half moment of his face in a three quarter profile with reflections behind. Where? Where, where?! It had to be really important or it wouldn't nag me so much. I drank some more coffee and tried to relax and let it just come in.