‘Yeah, he’d been lecturing me about the importance of it earlier. The implant is supposed to take the place of months of training. He said it would improve my performance out of sight. It’s supposed to deliver measured doses of a new, completely safe, performance-enhancing mix of vitamins and other natural ingredients. At least, that’s what he told me. But if it’s just a dose of vitamins and natural supplements, why all the bother with implants?’
‘I don’t like the sound of this at all,’ I said. ‘The implant must be what makes those wounds we’ve seen on the Zenith kids.’
‘I can handle myself, Cal,’ Ryan said.
‘I know you can. But what are you going to do when it comes time to get the implant?’ I replied.
‘I’ll think of something,’ said Ryan. ‘Stop stressing.’ He paused and looked straight into my eyes. ‘You don’t think I can do it, do you?’ he said. ‘You don’t think I’ll make it to the top Zenith level.’
‘Hey, that’s not true. Of course you can do it. You’re fully fit now that your ankle’s healed. And it was awesome how you got that master key from Elmore. I know you’re strong and smart.’
‘That’s right. Just because you’re a few minutes older than I am doesn’t mean I need a big brother around all the time, looking over my shoulder, looking after me.’
‘Hey, Ryan,’ I said. ‘It’s not like that. I’m really stoked that you and I found each other through the whole Ormond Singularity thing. I know you did some amazing things to help me when you barely knew me, leading the authorities away from me when I was totally exhausted and couldn’t run any more. It’s only natural…’ I stopped. I could see he wasn’t listening to me anymore.
‘I’m going to start close quarters combat training. I’ll think of a way to get out of the implant,’ Ryan repeated.
I was going to say more but sometimes it was best just to let things go. ‘Can I borrow your phone?’ I asked Ryan.
He handed it over and said, ‘See? You need me, Cal.’
‘Of course I need you,’ I said. ‘You’re my brother,’ I said.
I rang Boges but it went straight to voicemail. I left a message, hoping that Boges would get back to me soon with some brilliant ideas about the information I’d hacked and sent to him and BB. Whatever it was, we needed to know what the Mordred key file contained. And I wanted to tell him about the strange list of Zenith numbers and names I’d found in the folder locked away in the secret laboratory.
As I handed the phone back to Ryan, I heard someone coming around the back of the building! I dived into the undergrowth and hid, peering out from some thick, leafy cover. It was Hamish. I watched him walk to the window through which I had just been talking to Ryan. He stood there, looking around. Had he heard our voices? I saw him look down and I cursed under my breath. My sneakers had left impressions in the soft rainforest soil beneath the window. Hamish frowned, looked around and then vanished back around the corner.
Shadow Island Jungle
7:37 am
I kept thinking about my brother as I climbed back up through the rainforest to Zak and Ariel’s cave. Sometimes Ryan drove me crazy—like the way he’d just dropped out and joined the Paradise People. I worried that if he refused the implant, he might end up like the other reluctant kids, locked up somewhere. I sure didn’t want that to happen.
I thought of Hamish, checking out the footprints in the mud beneath the window of his office. There was no way he could know whose footprints they were. All he could know was that someone—any one of the kids at the resort—had been outside the window.
After a hot and steamy climb, I found the familiar jungle clearing and the clump of tangled undergrowth that told me I was in the right place. Moments later, I was lifting the thick overhang away.
Katz Cave
8:05 am
Three scared, shocked faces swung my way as I crawled into the wide, dry cave. Zak jumped up at my stealthy entrance. ‘Cal! Where have you been? We were so worried!’
‘What happened?’ Sophie asked as Ariel gave me a bear hug.
I told them how I’d nearly been sprung in Damien’s office as he hauled Ryan in to explain why he was out in the jungle.
‘So where’s Ryan?’ Sophie asked. ‘Is he OK?’ Her concern for my brother was obvious in her face.
I hesitated a moment before answering. ‘He’s OK,’ I said. ‘I managed to sneak a visit to him just then. He’s convinced Hamish to give him a second chance. A third chance, really. He’s aiming to make the final Zenith team level.’
‘But the initiation!’ cried Sophie. ‘He’s not going to do that, is he?’
‘Hamish told him it’s just an implant. But Ryan says he’ll think of a way to get out of it,’ I said.
‘But how? We all got into real trouble when we refused to have it,’ Sophie said.
Zak and Ariel nodded in agreement.
I had no answer to that, so instead I told them about stealing into Damien’s office thanks to the master key. I noticed the look of admiration on Sophie’s face as I explained to the others how Ryan had lifted the key from Elmore’s collection and put it under his mattress for me to find.
‘That was cool,’ Sophie smiled and Ariel grinned, nudging her.
As I hungrily ate some fruit, I explained about discovering the Mordred key file on Damien’s laptop, and using the Stealth Hacker to get the file and send it off to SI-6 and Boges. I told them about the painfully slow download and how I’d nearly gone nuts with nerves, especially when I’d seen Ryan being brought in by Damien and his cronies.
‘I knew once they saw the two of us together,’ I said, ‘it’d be the end of our double act.’ I told them about accidentally activating the emergency system, and how I just managed to get through the secret hatch with literally seconds to spare as Damien burst into the room with Ryan. I described my journey all the way down to the basement level and my discovery of the tunnels that crisscrossed under the mountain. I described all the stores I’d found and the ‘Live Ordnance’ crate.
‘That means live ammunition,’ said Zak.
‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘What would they want that for?’ This was getting much worse.
8:20 am
I told them about crashing into the rover vehicle which somehow activated it. They were fascinated by what I’d seen in the laboratory—the strange blinking blocks, the sea creatures in the glass containers, the map with its marked routes, the rucksacks filled with rations and a passport, the writing next to Johannesburg—Z3.
‘Now I’m thinking it could be something to do with the Zenith team,’ I suggested as I came to the end of my description of the lab. ‘Hey, Ariel?’ I said. ‘Do you still have your map of the island?’
She nodded and fished the crumpled paper out of a nearby crate.
‘I’ll mark up some of those extra tunnels while I can remember them,’ I said.
We sat in silence for a while, each of us trying to understand what was going on. ‘I should also mention,’ I said, ‘that there’s a light box in one of the cupboards and it contains five eyes.’
‘What?!’ they all chorused at once.
‘They were holograms,’ I said. ‘I got a real shock, too, when I saw them.’
‘Could it be something to do with robotics?’ Zak asked. ‘Special eye cameras or something like that?’
I shrugged. ‘I wondered that, too. But you don’t need an eye for a camera. The lens provides that. They must have another purpose.’
‘Maybe it’s research work on robotic eyes?’ Ariel suggested. ‘For people who have bad eyesight? I read about some sort of equipment that helps blind people see to some degree.’
‘I’m not prepared to think it’s just a coincidence,’ I said slowly, ‘that there are five hologram eyes and five rucksacks and five passports.’
‘And the five red pins on the five cities, with the Zed numbers?’ Zak added.
That reminded me of the list of names and numbers in the file. I asked the others if anyone kn
ew what they meant. Nobody did. ‘One list mentioned Zenith,’ I said. ‘Zenith plus a number up to five.’
‘But why have they all got work overalls, tools and military-style rations?’ Sophie asked after a pause. ‘Are members of the Zenith team going on some sort of field exercise, like the army?’
‘That’s what I was thinking,’ I replied. ‘I’ve just discovered that the final level of training involves close quarters combat.’
‘Maybe they’re going to practise some kind of survival tactics?’ Zak asked.
‘Maybe.’ I would mention all this to Boges too next time we talked. He might have some more ideas.
‘Who owned the passports?’ Sophie asked.
‘One of them belonged to someone called Georgia Montgomery,’ I said.
‘Georgia Montgomery?’ Sophie’s eyes widened. ‘She used to help train my group, I mean before I was kicked out. She was way more advanced than most of us. The others used to call her Spidergirl.’
An image flashed in my mind, something I’d seen when I was hiding above the training arena hidden deep within the mountain—the memory of a girl I’d seen practically running up the walls that arched over the huge arena. ‘I think I’ve seen her! She was climbing the wall in the training area.’
‘She was amazing,’ said Sophie. ‘She sure deserved her nickname.’ She frowned. ‘What other names did you see?’
‘I didn’t have time to look at any of the others. Georgia Montgomery’s was the only one I saw.’
Sophie frowned, ‘So what’s with the little pellets in the blister packs in the locked cupboard?’
There was a silence.
‘I wonder…’ Ariel began to say.
‘Go on,’ urged Zak.
‘Well, I’ve seen movies where people get injected with tracking devices, what if it’s something like that?’
‘I can speak from personal experience and tell you that’s entirely possible,’ I grimaced, thinking of the bug Oriana had once put in my shoulder.
‘Or maybe it’s even some kind of medicine. Perhaps the Biosurge stuff could be the implant that the Zenith team get. But rather than inject it, for some reason it has to be surgically implanted,’ Sophie said.
‘Ryan and I wondered if the wound on their arms was caused by the implant,’ I said. ‘Biosurge could be the special performance-enhancing mixture.’
‘But then why all the secrecy and the pressure? We were told it was just a ritual, sounds like they’re telling all kinds of lies about it. And look at the trouble we got into for rejecting it. I don’t think we can believe anything Hamish or Damien says about it. It’s all so creepy,’ Zak said.
Zak was spot on. It was creepy. As creepy as holographic eyes.
8:36 am
I had even more frightening news to share. Taking a deep breath, I described how I’d had to hide when I heard Damien and Hamish coming along through the tunnels. ‘And then I realised,’ I continued, ‘that Damien and Hamish were taking food supplies to people down there.’
‘The missing kids?’ Sophie asked.
‘That’s my guess. I was following them, but I had to make a break for it when I had the chance.’
‘We must get them out of there,’ said Ariel, shuddering. ‘I can’t imagine how horrible it must be, being locked up in some dungeon underneath the island.’
‘You bet we’ll get them out,’ said Zak. ‘Cal, we have to go back down there and find out exactly where they’re being held.’
‘Why do you think he’s locked them up?’ I asked. ‘It seems like such a drastic thing for him to do.’
‘I think it’s pretty clear,’ said Zak. ‘The reason Ariel and I ran away from the resort was because we didn’t want the implant. I think the others that he’s locked up are in the same boat as we were—they’ve refused to have the implants. And for some reason, they’re not allowed to just go home like everyone else. Maybe they know too much or something?’
‘I wonder what that “something” is,’ I said slowly. ‘Or…’
‘Or—what?’ Sophie asked, her blue eyes clouded with concern.
I shrugged. ‘Wish I knew.’
‘What about the prisoner on Delta 11?’ asked Sophie. ‘We can’t forget him.’
‘I wonder who he is?’ Ariel said. ‘Who could Damien hate, or fear, so much that he’d put them in solitary confinement on a rock?’ She sighed.
‘That’s been bothering me too,’ I replied.
‘Perhaps it’s one of the counsellors?’ Zak offered. ‘Someone who found out what he’d done to some of the kids, or didn’t like whatever it is he’s doing?’
‘Well, whoever he is, we’ll get him too,’ I promised. I sounded confident, but I sure wasn’t feeling it. ‘And I overheard Damien say that he’d only have to bring food for whoever is locked up down there for another sixty days,’ I continued. ‘And that’s not all he said. He said the first five were ready and the others would be soon.’
‘He must have been talking about the kids he’s got locked up,’ said Ariel. ‘He’s obviously got a deadline in mind, but why? What’s he doing with these kids?’
I shook my head in frustration. I didn’t like the sound of it at all.
8:58 am
I took the solar charger from my backpack and went outside into a clearing where the sun shone to charge my two phones. As I stretched in the warm sun for a moment and looked around at the lush jungle, I struggled to match up the idea of this tropical paradise with the reality of the increasingly sinister goings-on. But it was the reality that we had to face now.
‘OK, Cal,’ Zak said, as I crawled back inside. ‘What’s our next move?’
‘I want to go back down into the tunnels and try the master key on other doors down there,’ I said. ‘Those prisoners are somewhere in that maze. I think I got pretty close to where they are being held before I had to get out.’ I paused. ‘There’s something else you all need to know, that’s going to make our lives a whole lot more dangerous.’ I told them about Damien’s plan to lie about an infection so that everyone in the resort would be after us.
‘No-one’s ever found this cave so far,’ said Zak, but I could see that he was worried.
‘Ideally, we need another place,’ I said.
‘There’s always the bolthole near the cave,’ suggested Ariel. ‘Although it’s pretty small.’
‘Maybe. But I’m thinking we need somewhere they’d never think to search. Plus we don’t know how many people we’re going to end up with. The bolthole won’t hold us all.’ I had no idea if the master key would work, but if it did, where were we going to hide these kids and how were we going to get them and the Delta 11 prisoner off the island safely?
One thing at a time, I remembered Dad saying. Don’t get overwhelmed by a big job. Just do the next sensible thing. I forced myself to slow down and think clearly. The next sensible thing was to get back inside the mountain and find the prisoners down there. We could start on that straightaway.
In the short silence that followed, Sophie stood, walked to the back of the cave, bending her head under the low ceiling near the wall, then turned and came back, planting herself in front of us. ‘We’ve got to tell my father about this. This is getting way out of control. Damien is a criminal. Who knows what else he’s up to? We don’t know what he’s doing with the Zenith team, or the kids who’ve gone missing.’
‘Sophie’s right,’ I said. ‘We’ve gotta tell BB.’
‘But tell him what?’ asked Zak. ‘What if they launch a full-scale invasion of the island? Anything could happen. When we were in trouble for refusing the implant, Damien lost his temper with us and said that he’d go to any lengths if somebody got in his way. We can’t take any risks, not until we’ve found the prisoners. He might hurt them.’
‘You’re right,’ Ariel agreed. ‘We can’t risk endangering anyone.’
I thought about what they were saying. ‘I understand what you mean but BB’s not stupid. Surely he’d be able to work out something th
at wouldn’t alert Damien and his people. I’m going to make contact tonight.’
‘Good,’ said Sophie. ‘I need to talk to him, too. I want to put things right between us. I feel like I can’t wait any longer to make it up with him…’
Her voice petered out.
‘Hey,’ I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. ‘It’ll be OK, alright? He’ll be so happy to hear from you, I’m sure everything else will be forgotten.’
Sophie’s blue eyes looked hard into mine. ‘I hope you’re right, Cal,’ she said finally.
Shadow Island Jungle
11:49 am
I stepped outside to bring the solar charger and the phones back inside. The tropical rainforest was teeming with life as birds flitted wildly overhead. I was about to turn back to the cave when a movement in the jungle undergrowth made me freeze. Coming towards me, its head rearing up from the rest of its body, was a spython, its beady eyes staring straight at me as I tried to shrink back into the foliage. If I dealt with it in some direct way and someone was watching the monitor screens back at the compound, I would be identified straightaway. Or at least, Ryan would. Which would be just as bad. I called out to Zak behind me in the cave. ‘Zak! How good a shot are you?’
Within seconds, both of the Katzes were beside me, hidden in the leaves, their arrows drawn right back against their taut bows.
‘He’s pretty good,’ said Ariel. ‘You want us to take out that spython?’
I didn’t even have time to answer. Zak fired first. The twang and rush of his arrow whooshed past me, hitting the head of the spython. The head jerked back, twisting. It looked as if Zak’s shot had gone straight through its right ‘eye’. Ariel fired second, her arrow pinning the head section to the ground. The spython’s body contorted uselessly, thrashing in the undergrowth, the segments of its body no longer moving together. With its cameras disabled and its head wedged tight to the ground by Ariel’s arrow, this spy wouldn’t be sending any more information back to headquarters. It certainly wouldn’t be reassembling, like the last one we’d encountered in the jungle. ‘Hey! Great shots, both of you!’
Hunted Page 3