I know we’re at the ground level now, cos there are two doors here. One on the right that leads back into the Movers’ Prison, and one on the left with a glowing red sign above it: EXIT.
Roth slams me against the wall beside the exit door.
‘Stay there,’ he says, and I’m not about to go anywhere. I can barely get a handle on my own breathing. More agents could come running down the stairs at any second, others flooding in through the doors. I have no idea where to go, what to do.
Roth’s brain seems to be working better than mine, cos he’s planted himself square against the exit door and is fiddling with the Punch in his hand. He’s flipped it open somehow, revealing a mess of little lights, all blue, blinking and pulsing.
My Shadow carefully seeps his way into my brain, flooding it with this warmth that makes my breath come back to me. And there’s a red ball, tied to a sort of paddle thing – a game. I close my eyes to better hold the image, and the memories with it – happy, safe. I love that game.
My eyes shoot open, suddenly confused and frightened. The memory isn’t mine. It’s his. My Shadow’s. He’s never put an image in my head before. Never could.
Roth slams the Punch shut and I see his middle finger twitch. He opens the exit door just enough to fit his hand through, and I can hear the sirens and the voices outside. BMAC is waiting.
There’s a blast from the Punch, and it’s bigger than any before it. I feel the rumble in the ground and Roth has to steady his arm with the other hand, gritting his teeth against the kick of it. There are screams and booms just outside, and the wall vibrates against my back from whatever Roth has done.
I don’t have to wait long to find out, cos he pulls me to my feet by my collar and holds me in front of him just before he kicks open the door. The parking lot is a mess of overturned BMAC vehicles and scrambling officers. There must be fifty out here waiting for us, but with one blast Roth has managed to devastate half of them; the other half are pointing their weapons right at us. Roth locks one arm around my neck and uses the other to blast the remaining officers. The Punch erupts with another bolt, and the kickback nearly takes Roth down, me with him. But he manages to stay on his feet and I watch the lightning connect with one of the BMAC vehicles, blowing it back so that it rolls over several more cars, officers running and ducking for cover.
‘Go!’ shouts Roth, shoving me out the door. We run together, his massive hand squeezing my neck, for the nearest BMAC vehicle that he hasn’t completely destroyed.
A few brave officers manage to recover themselves enough to try and stop us. They’re firing their guns, and all the muscles in my back and stomach have clenched up, curling in as if my body is trying to shrink too small to be hit. Roth lets loose another blast, but still the officers fire, and all my limbs feel electric, waiting for the bite of one of those bullets to catch me somewhere.
Finally the car is close enough that I can touch it if I reach out, and I throw myself to the ground, hiding behind the front wheel as Roth fires another bolt.
He opens the front door and practically lifts me inside, shoving me into the passenger seat as I try to keep below the windows. Roth starts up the nav computer, then presses the severed finger against a button near the steering wheel. There’s a tremendous roar from somewhere in the machine’s mighty chest and I can feel it humming through the seat.
‘Destination?’ the calm electronic voice purrs through the chaos.
‘Override,’ growls Roth, gripping the steering wheel. ‘User drive.’
The computer barely finishes saying, ‘User drive engaged,’ before the tyres screech as Roth speeds us out of the Movers’ Prison parking lot.
I let myself peek over my shoulder at the destruction we’ve left behind us, black smoke rising into the sky, and my stomach feels like it’s on fire, everything in me buzzing with fear and adrenaline. And then it’s there again, that wonderful red ball and paddle, and I take a slow breath through my nose as if I can smell the rubber and tin they’re made of, and the buzzing takes over my body again.
No. I shove the image back at my Shadow. How are you doing that? You can’t do that. I’m Phase 1. We’re Phase 1!
My Shadow retreats from me, taking the image with him as Roth speeds through the downtown core. Between the streets walled by skyscrapers I can see it directly ahead of us, piercing the clouds like the blue syringe that put Rani to sleep.
The Avin Turbine.
TWENTY-NINE
The Avin Turbine has stood on the waterfront, rising above the cityscape, my entire life. It’s been there, visible from the roof yard of my school, for as long as I can remember. I’ve probably looked at it a million times in my life, but never really thought about it.
From the looks of it, no one else thinks much about the Avin Turbine either. The only people here are the two teens manning the ticket booth and an old guy who works the elevator. All three of them run as soon as they see us, and Roth figures out how to work the elevator himself.
We’re side by side, watching the city shrink below us in the floor-to-ceiling window as the elevator climbs to the observation deck. Every ten feet the shaking in my legs gets worse, and I’m not sure how much longer I can stand. If Gabby doesn’t come for me – no, when Gabby doesn’t come for me – Roth is going to lose his mind. And I’ll be in his crosshairs. I glance sideways, watching his broad chest rise and fall as he stares grimly out the window. He’ll kill me, but what has me most afraid is all the ways he could do it. I close my eyes, not wanting to imagine myself falling from this height if he decides to chuck me out of a window.
A robotic voice chimes as the elevator comes to a stop: ‘Observation deck.’
The doors slide open and there’s a family wearing Avin Turbine T-shirts staring at us blankly. Their little boy raises his droidlet and snaps our picture.
‘Get outta here,’ grumbles Roth.
The family just stands there, the parents exchanging nervous glances.
‘Now!’ shouts Roth, blasting the wall with a shot from his Punch, and they practically knock each other over in their scramble for the elevator.
And then we’re alone.
The windows on the observation deck run all the way around, allowing for a 360-degree view of the city. The inside wall shows the different stages of the city being built through time. I watch as the little neighbourhoods morph into apartment buildings, and the apartment buildings give way to skyscrapers, bigger and bigger as the years roll by.
Roth doesn’t care. He’s watching a television monitor mounted by the elevator. Avin News. The TVs flash with the image of the chaos outside BMAC. Hartman rushes by a crowd of reporters, refusing to comment. Her face is furious.
‘I’m not going to hurt you, so you can calm down,’ Roth says, still facing the monitor. ‘I wouldn’t hurt one of my own. We’re the same.’
‘No, we’re not.’
His focus is on the news and I can feel my pulse throbbing in my neck.
‘You killed people,’ I say. He went to Gabby’s house. Her home. He had no right to go there. He’s got no right to be here! When Roth Moved, it was supposed to be up to Gabby.
He glances at me briefly before turning back to the monitor. ‘She’s better off with me than with them.’
With him. I hate the sound of it. I hate the idea of it. I hate that he thinks she belongs to him, and even more that he thinks he belongs to her somehow. She was stuck with him. She never wanted to be with him. Why can’t he just accept that? Why can’t he just let her be free?
‘Hello?!’ I scream. ‘She cures herself to get rid of you! She doesn’t want to be around you. You terrify her!’
There’s a crease between his eyebrows and I can’t tell if I’ve just pissed him off or confused him.
‘I’ll make it up to her.’
‘You can’t,’ I tell him. ‘And you won’t, because all you care about is your war in the future.’
‘When I take her back with me,’ he says, ‘she’ll see why I�
��ve done what I’ve done. When she sees what they’ve done to us.’
‘You can’t take her back. She doesn’t belong in the future; she belongs here.’
‘She’s left me no choice,’ he says simply. ‘I can’t risk her cutting herself off from me again.’
‘What are you so mad about, huh?’ I shout. ‘What’s so terrible about Nowbies that you can’t stand to be one of them?’
The crease between his brows smoothes out and his face is back to that unreadable, emotionless expression. ‘They turned us out of the cities,’ he says. He walks over to the window, looking out over Avin. ‘The Norms left us to live in the filth and garbage and decay on the outside.’ He watches the world below us, his arms folded across his chest. ‘They Shelved my mother, because she gave birth to three Shadow children. They Shelved my father, because he spoke out against it.’
I look down at my feet, wishing he hadn’t told me that. Hating myself for feeling the briefest moment of sympathy for him.
‘This time is so much brighter,’ he says, ‘with all the lights. Like little stars climbing out of the earth. Land stars.’ He nods to himself, liking the sound of it. ‘The fighting hasn’t started yet here. Once it does, it will turn out all the lights.’
The picture he’s painting of the time he came from is taking shape in my head. I look out at the lights below us, imagining them all flicking off.
‘What about you?’ he says, looking back over his shoulder. ‘You lost your father to BMAC, didn’t you?’
I swallow as goosebumps race up my neck. ‘How do you know that?’
He taps his head. ‘Because she knew. She’s had a special interest in you, Pat. Ever since the first day of school, when you let her take the empty seat beside you.’
It was so long ago, but the faintest memory of Gabby, younger than my sister, standing shyly outside the circle of kids. ‘No one’s sitting here,’ I told her.
She surprised me in my apartment, when she knew about Dad. Special interest. Did she read up on my dad because she liked me?
‘She’s watched you, even when you didn’t care to look at her,’ he says. ‘And because of that, so have I.’
I can’t help wondering what else her mind showed him about me.
‘I know you know better than most the cruelty of the Norms,’ he says. ‘When Gabby and I go back, they won’t be able to hurt us again. When we go back, I will end the war for good.’
‘But you’re here now,’ I snap. ‘How do you think you’re going to get the two of you back there?’
He smiles to himself, then looks at me. ‘That’s where you come in.’
‘What?’
‘What do you know about your Shadow, Patrick?’
‘Shut up,’ I say. No one’s ever talked about my Shadow. He doesn’t know about my Shadow. I don’t want him to know about my Shadow. My Shadow is mine.
‘You have your sister’s eyes, don’t you?’ he says. ‘The same wavy brown hair. Well—’ he motions to my shaved head – ‘you used to. It’s a beautiful thing, how alike two siblings can be.’
‘I said SHUT UP!’ Because I don’t know what he’s getting at. I don’t understand him. But he’s scaring me.
‘Once I was connected to your sister and learned she had a brother,’ he says, ‘I knew his pungits would be similar to hers. I read any BMAC record I could find of you, and found out my suspicions were correct. Your Shadow resides around 2340, much like Oscar Joji – your sister’s – did. My time, Pat. You Shadow is a man in the slums. No allegiance to anyone but himself, the coward. But still, he’ll do the job.’
I lunge for my Shadow. I grab him and hold him to me as if Roth is about to steal him.
‘Your pungits will be very useful to me, Patrick.’ Roth points at the Punch in his palm. ‘Just have to change the direction.’
My mind holds so tight to my Shadow I can feel him squirming from the force of it. But I need to know he’s there. I need to know he’s mine. Don’t let him steal you, don’t let him.
My Shadow envelopes my mind, trying to soothe me. I won’t.
‘You can’t steal my pungits,’ I say, trembling.
He smiles to himself. ‘Well, you’re certainly not as smart as she gives you credit for.’
I hear a bang.
Somewhere on the observation deck, a door has slammed shut.
THIRTY
‘Roth!’ shouts a deep voice. A voice I know.
My blood drains into my feet. Don’t be here, Gabby. Don’t be here.
Roth turns round, smiling now; everything he came for is on its way down the observation deck towards us.
Don’t be here, don’t be here.
Leonard rounds the corner, a giant gun held at the ready. His face is withered and hollow, like he hasn’t slept. He knows exactly what he lost to BMAC. Rani. All that’s left is rage, and it’s laser-focused on Roth.
Following behind Leonard is Gabby. She came. How could she be so stupid? Why would she come here?
My stomach drops into my feet. Because holding Gabby’s hand is my little sister, Beauty riding on her shoulder.
Maggie. How could they bring Maggie?
‘What are you doing here?!’ I blurt out, horrified and ecstatic to see them both.
Gabby takes a step towards me, and at once I know Roth was right. This was her idea. She came here for me. Leonard puts out his arm to stop her.
‘Leonard,’ says Roth. ‘What a pleasant reunion.’
‘You just shut your mouth, you hear me?’ says Leonard, his voice low and dangerous. ‘You back up against that wall. We’re taking the boy and we’re leaving. You’re not gonna destroy the lives of these kids like you destroyed mine.’
‘He’s yours,’ Roth says with a shrug. ‘Just leave me the girl.’
It’s a trick. I know it is. He needs my pungits. He won’t let either of us get away from this so easily. ‘No!’ I shout. ‘He’s lying!’
‘Pat,’ says Leonard, ‘get over here, beside me, now.’
Roth holds out his palm towards me, the Punch buzzing.
‘Pat!’ screams Maggie, and Gabby hides my little sister behind her as Beauty lets out a screech.
‘Don’t move, Pat,’ says Roth. He holds out his other hand to Gabby. ‘Come to me, and he lives.’
‘Don’t be stupid, girly,’ says Leonard, his grip on the gun tightening.
Gabby looks to me and I shake my head. There’s sadness all over her face and I shake my head again, but her expression doesn’t change. She takes a step towards Roth.
‘Gabby, don’t!’ I shout.
She takes another step.
‘Vargas,’ snaps Leonard, ‘you do this and he’ll get exactly what he wants, then kill the rest of us anyway.’
There’s a rattle from Roth’s throat and I shiver when I realise it’s his laugh. ‘I should have started with you instead of the woman, Leonard,’ he says. ‘If I’d known you’d turn out to be this big of a headache to me, I would have killed you first.’
‘Save it, Commander,’ says Leonard. ‘The only reason you didn’t kill me is because an angel saved my life before you could.’
Gabby stands frozen between Leonard and Roth. Not for me. She can’t do this cos of me.
‘Ah, yes, your Mover,’ says Roth, and I can see the veins in Leonard’s temple as he scowls. ‘She’s Shelf-Meat now, isn’t she?’
Leonard’s scowl falters for just a moment. His eyes go big and round, soaked with tears for the woman who saved his life. And as quickly as the scowl broke, it’s back, sharper and harder than before and … BAM!
He pulls the trigger, knocking Roth back to the floor. It’s so fast, he’s down so quick.
And then there’s a groan.
Roth’s alive.
He reaches up from his spot on the floor, the Punch aimed forward.
‘Run!’ I shriek, and lunge for Gabby’s hand as Roth fires the punch at Leonard, who dives to the side as windows shatter behind him.
My hand clamp
ed on Gabby’s, I make a break for my little sister. ‘Maggie!’ – and she runs into my arms as another gunshot explodes.
The three of us run, hand in hand, Beauty screeching overhead. Everything in my body feels like it’s going to explode from too much fear, too much adrenaline, too much blood, but each blast from Roth’s and Leonard’s weapons makes me beg myself to hold together, to hide Maggie, to hide Gabby, to keep them safe.
I notice two grand steel doors on the right and I shove one open. ‘In here!’ I tell them.
Beauty’s the first in, circling the room like she can’t decide if it’s safe enough to land.
There are tables with pink linens and carnations and wine glasses on them. We’re in the restaurant.
‘Pat,’ Gabby whispers, squeezing my hand, ‘I don’t hear anything.’
She’s right. The blasts of the shoot-out have stopped. There’s only quiet.
‘Hide,’ I say.
Maggie doesn’t need to be told twice, and she makes a sprint for the table furthest from the door, Beauty swooping after her. Gabby and I follow, all three of us huddling together beneath the tablecloth.
‘What the hell are you doing here?!’ I hiss at Gabby. ‘Why would you come? Why would you bring Maggie?!’
‘I wanted to save you!’ says Maggie, but both of us ignore her.
‘What did you want me to do?’ says Gabby. ‘Roth told her he’d hurt you! Roth told her how to find you. Were we supposed to just ignore it? Leave you on your own?’
‘It’s better than Roth getting hold of her.’
‘He doesn’t want her,’ says Gabby, the venom in her voice shutting me up. Roth doesn’t want Maggie. He wants Gabby. She knew that when she came here.
For me.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ is all I manage to say, but Gabby’s not listening to me at all. She’s holding her breath, listening to the world beyond the tablecloth, her hand still tightly clasped to mine.
There’s a squeal as the big steel door pulls open.
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