I looked at Matt. He was already searching the machine.
‘Here!’ he said, pointing to a panel bolted to the wall with a slot for a key and a switch set into it.
‘I think we’ve found it,’ I said. I glanced at Matt. He gave a small nod so I leaned in and pressed the switch. Nothing happened.
‘What are you doing?’ Ben asked.
‘It didn’t work,’ I said. I pressed it another time, then another.
‘Try it again.’
‘I have!’ I said. Then I saw something. ‘Wait! There’s some kind of keyhole above the switch.’
Ben swore. ‘You’re going to have to cut the cables.’
‘With what?’
‘There must be something there,’ he said, but I was already dragging open the lockers. Two contained uniforms, but in the third there was a toolbox. I leaned and dragged it out, sending tools spilling all over the floor. Matt pushed in, scratching through them.
‘These,’ he said, picking up a set of bolt cutters. I reached out for them but he snatched them away.
‘No, Callie. You can’t. It’s too dangerous.’
‘Matt, no!’ I said, but he was already backing away.
‘What’s going on?’ said Ben.
‘Matt’s going to cut the cable himself.’
‘Which one is it?’ Matt asked. ‘The one with the switch on it?’
There was a moment’s silence. ‘That should do it,’ Ben said, his voice careful.
Matt stepped up to the cable and placed the jaws of the cutters over it.
‘Please, Matt,’ I said. ‘Don’t do it.’
He smiled. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, closing the cutters. ‘I’ll be fine.’
30
There was an explosion of sparks and Matt flew backwards, and fell to the ground. I dove toward him. Outside I heard a click and a soft whirr.
‘Matt,’ I said, grabbing him. He was limp, unbreathing, and there were scorch marks on his arms. ‘Matt!’
‘Callie! Are you there?’ Ben shouted in my earpiece. ‘You did it! The power is down.’
I didn’t reply.
‘Matt,’ I said, shaking him. ‘Matt!’ Frantically I pressed my fingers into his neck, searching for a pulse. Did the Changed even have hearts, I wondered, pulses? But then I felt it, fast and low. Suddenly I no longer cared whether he was the Matt I had known or a copy. He was Matt. ‘Oh, thank God!’ I said, burying my face in his chest. He started convulsively and opened his eyes with a gasp.
I sat up and stared at him.
‘You’re alive!’
He smiled weakly. ‘So it seems. Did it work?’
I nodded. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We did it. You did it.’
He grinned. ‘Good.’
But then my earpiece crackled.
‘Ben!’ I shouted. ‘Matt’s alive.’
There was a long silence.
‘Ben?’ I said. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘It didn’t work,’ he said, his voice flat.
‘What?’
‘There must have been some kind of failsafe. The systems have restarted. The countdown’s still happening.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘That can’t be right.’
‘It is.’
‘But what about the other missions. One of them must have worked.’
‘I don’t know,’ Ben said. ‘All I know is it’s still counting down.’
‘There must be something we can do.’
Ben was silent for a few seconds. ‘I don’t think there is. The missiles are going to launch in a few seconds. We’re out of time.’
I sat back and stared at the machine. The cable Matt had cut hung loose and the screen was dead.
‘Callie, I’m sorry. I wish this had ended a different way. I wish . . .’ His voice trailed off.
I looked around dazedly. It hadn’t occurred to me that we might really fail. It was impossible. But we had and now it was all over. On the ground Matt had gone deathly pale.
Outside there was a hiss and then a deafening roar. A stink of fumes filled the room as the roar faded away.
‘The missiles,’ Matt said.
I nodded mutely, unable to speak. In the distance there was a thump, then another, and another.
I felt a sort of shiver pass through me, almost like an exhalation, then a wrench of fear.
‘The Change,’ Matt said. ‘It can feel it.’
Outside the wind was rising, and in the distance there was a sound like rushing water, or wind.
‘That must be it,’ I said. ‘It’s coming.’
Matt stared at me.
‘What do we do?’ he said.
I shook my head. ‘There’s nothing we can do. This is it. Oh, Matt . . . Gracie, she . . . I . . .’
He got to his knees, and reaching out, took my arm and drew me close. I fell into him.
‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘I wanted us to have more time.’
He pressed his face into my neck. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I did too.’
The sound was louder now, a roar, and through the door a red glow was visible, as if a bushfire was approaching.
‘What will dying feel like?’ I asked. He’d done it already, after all.
Matt looked at me and laughed, tears in his eyes. ‘I don’t know. It was so quick, and then I was somewhere else.’ Then he hesitated. ‘Wait, Callie,’ he said. ‘That’s it. You’re connected to the Change, you can use that, give yourself over to it. If anything of it survives, it will remake you.’
I stared at him. ‘No, I don’t know how. And even if I do, won’t it be like Changing, won’t I be absorbed?’
‘Your father wasn’t. You might not be either.’
‘But what if I am?’
‘Then you haven’t lost anything. Please, Callie, you have to try.’
It was hot now, the sound of the approaching wave thunderous. ‘But what about you?’
‘I don’t know. But we found each other again once, we can do it again.’
I stared at him. The air was red, wild. He grabbed my neck and pressed his forehead against mine. ‘Close your eyes,’ he said. ‘Concentrate on me.’
I did as he said, trying to shut out the heat, the thunder. And as I did I felt it there, as it always had been, a gravity drawing me down. For a moment I held on, terrified of what came next, but then I felt Matt beside me, and I let go and fell, out of my body and into the Change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people assisted in the writing of this book, in ways both big and small. I’m particularly indebted to Margaret Morgan, who helped with a few scientific details; Jane Rawson, who read an early draft and made a number of very helpful suggestions; and my brother Patrick Bradley, for advice on guns and restraints. My thanks also to everybody at Pan Macmillan, especially my publisher, Claire Craig, and my editors, Danielle Walker and Julia Stiles. And as always my deepest gratitude to my partner, Mardi McConnochie, and my daughters, Annabelle and Lila.
About James Bradley
James Bradley is an award-winning writer and critic. His books include four novels: Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist and Clade; a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus; and he was the editor of The Penguin Book of the Ocean. James lives in Sydney with his partner, the novelist Mardi McConnochie, and their two daughters. The Buried Ark is his second book in The Change trilogy for young adult readers. To find out more, visit his blog at cityoftongues.com.
Also by James Bradley
The Silent Invasion
BEGIN THE HEART-STOPPING JOURNEY WITH BOOK ONE OF THE CHANGE TRILOGY
The Silent Invasion
THE EARTH IS DYING
Plants, animals and humans are being infected by spores from space and becoming part of a vast alien intelligence.
When 16-year-o
ld Callie discovers her little sister Gracie is Changing, she flees with Gracie to the Zone to escape termination by the ruthless officers of Quarantine.
What Callie finds in the Zone will alter her forever and send her on a journey to the stars, and beyond.
‘Fascinating, frightening and utterly compelling!’
GARTH NIX
‘A seriously addictive page-turner. The kind of book I would have devoured as a teenager, in fact, scrap that – I devoured it as an adult!’
MISSY HIGGINS
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organisations
mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s
imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe
actual conduct.
First published 2018 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © James Bradley 2018
The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders
for material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been
overlooked should contact the publisher.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781760555627
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
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