by Judith Huang
She was ignored, left to her own devices for simple meals that were delivered through the slot in the door twice a day. She had tried to communicate with the guard who sent these through, but he had been impassive. She attempted to contact any other prisoners who might be in the next cells, hoping that perhaps one of them would be her mother, but either she was in an emptier part of the prison, or the walls were sufficiently soundproof—she had no way of knowing.
This was probably their intention—to make her feel forgotten, neglected, that she was going to be here indefinitely, that they had locked her up and thrown away the key. They planned to break her with solitary confinement.
Her mother was here, somewhere in the building, but there was no way of knowing where she was in relation to Sofia’s own cell. Actually, knowing Clara was in the prison as well was perhaps one of the worst parts about being there. She knew her mother would be worried sick about her, especially since she knew what the Inquisitor was capable of doing to Sofia.
Sofia tried to sleep as much as possible. In sleep, she escaped the grim reality of her situation. She escaped the fact that her father had been here for seven years and had no prospect of release until she had rescued him, that he had been given no chance to contact the outside world that entire time he had been here. She couldn’t believe how lonely it must have been for him.
Something woke Sofia in the cool depths of the night. It was the door—the sound of a beep as the door was unlocked. What did they have in store for her at this hour of night?
A man wearing a police uniform entered her cell. Sofia sat up on the plank bed, cringing into the wall. Then his face dissolved before her eyes and turned into that of Julian’s. The first face had been some kind of holo projection, a method of disguise that Sofia had never seen before. Trust Julian to have the latest tech, she thought.
“Quick, let’s get out of here. Do you know which cell your mother’s in?”
“E7,” said Sofia. “But I don’t know where that is.”
“That’s okay, I have a map,” said Julian.
“The Utopia Machine… It’s with the Inquisitor…”
“I have everything they confiscated from you here in my pack.”
Julian reached for her hand and Sofia, still groggy from sleep, followed him out of the cell and into the corridor. His pass opened Clara’s door as well.
“Ma!” Sofia hugged her mother, who looked gaunt, with dark shadows ringing her eyes. But she was far more alert than either of them, turning sharply when she heard Ganju, the Gurkha guard, rounding the corner.
Startled by the presence of the open cell door and the two unexpected figures, he looked as though he would raise the alarm, his finger hovering over a device attached to his belt.
“Please, let us go,” said Clara. “This is my daughter, Sofia, the one I told you about. She’s being held here. You wouldn’t want your own daughters in such a place, would you?” she whispered.
Ganju’s face softened when he saw Sofia. Clara seized upon his hesitation.
“Please, just give us a few minutes to get away. Please…”
“Fifteen minutes,” he said finally. “Fifteen minutes and I’m raising the alarm. It’s my job.”
Clara touched his forearm in a gesture of gratitude. Julian led the three of them straight down the corridor and easily swiped the panel that opened the blue gate. No one even challenged him as he nodded authoritatively to the men standing guard on the inside of the gate. Later Julian would explain he had researched his disguise well—it was the face of the head of the ISD that he was wearing. Outside the blue gate, a shiny red escapod was waiting, its curves glinting in the light of the street lamps.
“Bright red…really, Julian?” asked Sofia.
“It’s mine,” shrugged the boy. “Might as well use it.”
They got in, and the escapod flew off into the night.
“Is there a pebble among the things you took back?” asked Sofia once they had put a little distance between themselves and the prison.
“You mean this?” asked Julian, tossing her the small grey object.
“Yeah, thanks,” said Sofia, and immediately traced a message on it to her father, Uncle Kirk and Father Lang.
“So who is this?” asked Clara, pointing her chin at Julian.
“Um, this is Julian, Ma,” said Sofia. “He’s…a friend of mine.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Nice to meet you,” said Julian, breaking the silence. Sofia didn’t really want to introduce him as her boyfriend, since she was pretty sure her mother would disapprove of any kind of boyfriend she might have.
“Are we…going to the Canopies?” asked Sofia.
“I’m not going to be able to go back to my family after this,” said Julian. “Even though my father tolerates a lot of my…differing opinions, I’m still supposed to be this good boy, this leader in training,” he said. “I’m not sure breaking prisoners out of the top-secret jail with my dad’s all-access card is going to be seen as the kind of thing a ‘future leader’ is supposed to do.”
“I’m sorry,” said Sofia. She could tell that Julian was fighting some complicated emotions as he directed the escapod through the night sky.
“It’s okay. That world you created is far more important than just leading Singapore into the twenty-second century and whatever crap the Social Studies syllabus wants us to think about…” said Julian. “We’re talking about a whole other reality. That stuff’s important. I want to join you, whatever you end up doing with it.”
Sofia looked at him, then reached out to squeeze his hand, then looked quickly at her mother in case she had seen. She hadn’t. He smiled in response.
“Then we’ll have to meet up with the Mari Kita. They can give us all shelter. I messaged my dad and everyone else. Where should we get them to meet us?”
“Where are these Mari Kita?”
“Ubin,” said Sofia.
“Mari Kita?” asked Clara, looking at her daughter wonderingly. She had never expected her own teenage daughter to conduct herself with such self-assurance.
“Yeah, your old colleagues, Leslie Sharma and Yang Zhe, and the other Biopolis people. They didn’t leave the country; they’ve been in Pulau Ubin the whole time,” said Sofia, the words spilling out of her. There was so much to update her mother about, she didn’t quite know how to tell the whole story.
“And you’ve been in league with them,” said Clara.
“Yeah. And Pa is with us!” said Sofia.
“Your father?”
“Yes.” Sofia looked at her mother curiously. She didn’t seem pleased. But she didn’t seem displeased either. She noticed her mother had called him “your father”, not “Pa” or “Peter”.
“He was in there, in Whitley Detention Centre,” said Sofia. “I broke him out.” She paused. “I didn’t know you were in there too, or even that the Machine would take me to a prison. So we had to come back for you a second time.”
“You broke him out?” Clara looked at her daughter again. “With what?”
“The Utopia Machine.”
“You took it out of my lab?” said Clara. “That thing doesn’t work.”
“Yes it does. I’ll show you,” said Sofia. She ransacked Julian’s pack for the golden cube. Then it occurred to her that the escapod was far too small a space to open the doorway in. “I can’t do it now, but it works,” said Sofia finally.
“Well, let’s meet up with your dad at Changi Beach, if you can let them know,” said Julian. “Then we can find the Mari Kita together.”
*
At Changi Beach, Sofia introduced Julian to everyone. He cut quite a figure in his intimidating police uniform and arriving in the chilli red escapod. The sky blue sampan was hovering just at the edge of the water and looked very dinky in comparison. Sofia grinned to herself when she thought of what Rowan would say about this. He was very proud of his flying sampan, barnacles and all.
“We’ll all fit in the boat,”
said Father Lang. “It’s better we don’t take a registered vehicle under the mirror-shield.”
Sofia noticed that her father and mother were eyeing each other awkwardly. They didn’t know what to say to each other after those years of forced separation. Clara was noting how her husband seemed thinner around the edges, somehow more insubstantial than the last time she had seen him. They said nothing to each other, but eventually Peter nodded to her and Clara returned a small, tight smile. There would be time later, if everything went well, to talk. For now, they were still on the run and had to cross the strait quickly.
Scrambling into the sampan, Sofia felt the sharp pain of her left ankle as it hit the lip of the boat. It had still not completely healed from when she had broken into Whitley and dropped onto its roof. She turned around, wincing, and helped Julian into the boat.
The smell of the sea, raw and salty, was that of freedom. Sofia’s hair whipped about as she felt the wind in her face again and a rush of happiness flooded her. Her family was complete—although her parents would need some time to get reacquainted, they were all out of prison and they were together. Julian was by her side, and Uncle Kirk and Father Lang were with her as well. Compared with just a few hours ago, when she had thought she would moulder in prison indefinitely, this was pretty great.
The flying sampan was quicker than the kayaks had been, and though a light drizzle reduced visibility somewhat, the pinpricks of water were refreshing and reminded Sofia she was out in the open, a feeling that had never seemed more precious. And Pulau Ubin, with its emerald forest, was drawing within sight.
The flying sampan approached the island from the southwest, so they were nearing the mirror-shield under which the Mari Kita had their HQ much more rapidly than if they had trekked in on land.
Just as Sofia was revelling in the feeling of the wind and the rain, four or five escapods appeared as pinpricks through the mist of the light rain, and approached the flying sampan.
“No!” cried Sofia, spotting them in the distance. “How can they see us?” After all, the portable mirror-shield was covering the sampan, making it invisible to anyone outside it.
“Your mum’s netbox!” cried Julian. “They’re tracking it via GPS. Nobody extracted it from her when we left the prison, and no one’s disabled it either…”
Clara looked stricken.
“Quick, the kit you put together,” said Uncle Kirk to Peter.
Peter leaned towards Clara after rummaging in the bottom of the sampan and producing a shoebox. He opened it. There was a first-aid kit and a device that looked like some kind of rice bowl, made from ceramic but with circuitry baked into it.
“It’s too risky to try digging the chip out while flying,” said Peter, almost apologetically. “But if we can dull the signal. First we need to locate where the chip is. Do you know?”
He fumbled with Clara’s sleeve where she indicated her upper right arm. “Somewhere here.”
“This will have to do,” said Peter, cupping the bowl over the spot she indicated and then wrapping duct tape around her arm and the bowl.
“They’re still following us,” said Father Lang. Indeed, the three or four dots in the distance loomed significantly larger.
“They can’t know exactly where we are, just the general area,” said Peter. The escapods grew larger and larger, and they could see that they were marked with police markings.
“Oh no,” said Clara, her face pale. She was clutching the bowl-like device to her arm, even though the duct tape made this unnecessary.
“I’m really, really sorry,” said Sofia. “In our hurry to get away and to meet you guys, we totally forgot about the netbox.”
“No, it was my fault. I should have tried harder to get rid of it when I was in jail. I had so much time in there…” said Clara.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is at this point,” said Father Lang gently.
Just then, there was a flash of bright light and a bang. One of the escapods had shot at the sampan!
Perhaps frustrated that Clara’s netbox signal had disappeared from their maps, the escapods had simply opened fire in the hope of hitting them. A barrage of shots was fired in their general direction, and one bullet penetrated the side of the boat, sending tiny splinters into the air. The boat jerked and the engine made a worrying noise.
Father Lang stood up to examine the damage.
“Don’t!” yelled Sofia, but it was too late. A bullet flew through the air and hit Father Lang square in the chest. The priest fell backwards into the sampan with a crash, and blood, dark, red and runny, seeped through his thin cotton shirt.
“Shit shit shit,” said Clara. Kirk crouched next to Father Lang, taking his hand in his own. He gave a howl of rage and toted his rifle, raising it and taking aim at the escapod in the lead.
“Don’t!” yelled Peter. “If you shoot, they’ll know we’re here for sure.”
Peter emptied the contents of the first-aid kit onto the floor of the sampan, desperately looking for bandages to staunch the bleeding. He used a combination of duct tape and bandages, wrapping them round and round Father Lang’s chest. But Father Lang was having trouble breathing. The bullet had punctured a lung and a disturbing gurgling noise rose from his throat.
Sofia doubled her efforts to steer the sampan, hoping and praying that they would reach the edge of the mirror-shield sooner rather than later. Skimming over the forest of the island, she saw a glimmer in the trees just up ahead—it was the mirrored reflection of their side of the forest—and they were homing in on it.
She looked down at the controls of the flying sampan and sent Rowan a message. She expected he must be watching their progress on his map, but she wanted the timing to be just right.
Entering mirror-shield. Please let us in, she typed. Location may be compromised.
Chapter 34: Valley of the Gods
When the sampan finally landed at Mari Kita’s HQ, they found everyone in a state of panic.
Rowan ran out to meet them, worry written all over his face.
“You say they’re on their way?” asked Rowan.
“They were right behind us,” said Sofia.
“The mirror-shield should hold them off for a bit,” said Yang Zhe, coming up beside her son. “But they know we’re under here, now… Sofia, I need to ask you something.”
“Yes?”
“Can you bring people into the world inside the Utopia Machine?” asked Yang Zhe.
“I only brought one person once before,” said Sofia.
“My dad.”
“The thing is, the entire Mari Kita exists in a pocket reality under the mirror-shield,” said Yang Zhe. “So, if we can somehow fold it into the world of the Utopia Machine, we could escape into that reality. It’s the only thing Leslie and I could come up with as a proper escape plan. The mirror-shield won’t hold forever, and we need to evacuate all our people. And you guys, too. We’ve intervened, and the government won’t allow us to exist on Ubin any more, especially now they know our exact location.”
“It should work,” said Sofia. “I don’t know how. But it should. The Utopia Machine was designed to be able to take at least all the members of the Prism Club into the new reality. I don’t know how many people that is, but I guess maybe a few hundred. People were meant to be able to settle into the new world.”
“You’ll try to figure it out?”
“I’ll do it now,” said Sofia.
She took the golden cube, its familiar weight resting on her palm, and guided the prism into the hole on the side of it. The doorway appeared, and she motioned to Yang Zhe to enter with her. They stood in the antechamber, the towering cathedral-like arches above them.
Sofia sang the song that unravelled the glyph. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Milton was with her, and her feet were on the solid ground of the new world.
“You’re back!” he said joyfully, nuzzling her face with his own furry one.
“Milton, I need to know if I ca
n bring a whole village into this world. They’re my friends,” said Sofia. “It’s an emergency. The ISD is on our heels and if we don’t disappear into here we’ll all end up arrested, or worse, dead. I don’t know what they’re planning to do, but they have enough weapons to wipe out the colony if they want to.”
“Get on my back. Let me show you something.” Milton’s voice resounded in Sofia’s head. Obediently, she mounted his back once more, and everything became a blur of speed and power as the great cat ran.
“You see all this space?”
“Yeah?” asked Sofia.
“It was all made by you. For you. There is a hidden place in this world which is known in the legends of the people to come to be the land of the gods,” said Milton. “Perhaps this is what is meant by the legend. Perhaps you were meant to lead your friends here, to this place.”
With that, the tiger leapt and crossed a sea. They landed deftly on the other side, on an island that was more beautiful than anywhere Sofia had seen, even on this beautiful planet. High ferns stood, framing the entrance to a verdant valley, and Sofia saw a little clearing in the forest nestling between two mountains. A river ran through it, sparkling under the pink sky.
“Here,” said Milton.
It was perfect.
“What must I do to bring them here?” asked Sofia.
“What you have always done as goddess of this world, my Sofia. You must speak it.”
“Just say it?”
“Your word and your touch formed these things, did it not?”
“Yes.”
“So your word and your touch will bring these things to pass also.”
“Okay.”
Sofia took a deep breath.
“Let the Mari Kita be transported to this place,” she said. “Let it be so,” she added for good measure.