‘It’s a long story. I also saw your rucksack with your passport along with the others.’ I sat up. ‘I guess it’s OK if I get up now?’
She nodded, with a little grunt.
But a noise behind her had her spinning around, the knife in her hand moving in a blur as she leapt back into the undergrowth.
‘It’s alright, Georgia,’ I said, ‘these are my friends. You’re safe with them.’
Zak and Dr Freeman cautiously pushed leaves out of the way as they approached.
‘What happened?’ Zak asked. He turned as Georgia Montgomery suddenly appeared out of the tangle of vines near the dry creek bed.
There was a pause as Georgia sheathed her knife, finally raising her eyes to mine. The hardness had gone out of them. But I couldn’t quiet the nagging thought that maybe she’d been deliberately left behind to track us down. Could Damien be that devious?
‘Why aren’t you with the other members of the Zenith team?’ I asked, suspicious.
‘The short answer is that I couldn’t go through with it. I just know that what we’re supposed to be doing isn’t right. I don’t even know really what it is exactly, but every instinct is telling me it’s all wrong. At first I couldn’t see that.’
From deep inside the volcano, another earth tremor shook the ground under our feet. The four of us looked at each other. ‘Georgia, we’ve got a place that’s safe. That’s where we were heading when we “met”. Do you want to come with us?’
‘If your safe place is your hidden cave, it’s not safe anymore. I saw Dean and one of his cronies going through your stuff this morning,’ Georgia said.
‘Oh, no!’ Zak was crestfallen. ‘And we still had those diagrams on the floor,’ he sighed.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘we’re leaving today anyway. D’Merrick will be here tonight and we won’t need the hide-out anymore,’ I said. ‘Let’s go to the tunnel instead and find the girls.’
We made our way slowly through the jungle towards the cemetery. It was a huge risk coming so close to the resort now, but we had no alternative. Luckily, Dr Freeman was able to keep up with us and Georgia amazed me with her awareness as she constantly watched for danger, her brown eyes alert for anything out of the ordinary. She was like a human radar, taking everything in, instantly processing it. I hoped and prayed I could trust her. But I wasn’t sure yet.
I was very keen to get back into the tunnels. Maybe by now Sophie and Ariel had liberated the prisoners and we could find them down here before they went back to the cave. I hoped we weren’t too late.
Even with the threat of capture, I couldn’t stop thinking that now we had a top Zenith team member as part of our group, we might find out more about the Mordred key. Georgia Montgomery could be a huge source of information. I hoped she could tell me about the Biosurge implants and the modbots and the reason for the rucksacks—the reason for the eye holograms.
By the time we got back to the secret tunnel, I could see Dr Freeman was exhausted. Whatever adrenaline he’d been running on had worn off. I made him as comfortable as I could on the floor and left him the lamp. He looked up at me gratefully. ‘One day,’ he said, ‘maybe I’ll be able to repay you.’
‘That’s not necessary,’ I said. ‘You should never have been locked up out there.’
He sighed and smiled at me as he closed his eyes. ‘You rest now,’ I said. ‘We’re going to look for our friends. We won’t be long.’
Underground Tunnels
2:37 pm
I set off with Georgia and Zak, hoping to be able to find the girls. It took a few false turns and double backs before we found ourselves near the lab again. I could hear the humming from the automated machines in the lab and a few moments later we’d turned into the low clearing where the rover machine stood, still pressed closely against the rock wall where I had abandoned it last time.
‘Not far to go now,’ I said as we approached the lab. As I looked in through the window in the door, the automatic lights switched on inside.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘The modbots have gone! And the rucksacks too!’ I had a hunch that the holographic eyes would also no longer be in the light cupboard.
But as we made our way past the lab and into the darkness of the tunnel, something Boges had said played on my mind. Modbots could organise themselves. Had the modbots been added to the Zenith team rucksacks? What could they possibly need them for?
With the light from my torch, I shepherded the others along until we came to another tunnel. We made our way towards where I could hear voices—Sophie and Ariel! Thank goodness!
Sophie hurried towards us, her face concerned. ‘Cal! What are you doing down here? And how come she’s here?’ she said, looking around me to Georgia, who glowered in the darkness.
‘The cave has been discovered so we need to hide down in the tunnel. We got the prisoner from Delta 11 and Georgia is a runaway now too,’ I explained. ‘But what’s happening?’ I asked. ‘Did you get everyone out? Did the key work?’
‘Cal, I don’t know how to tell you this,’ Sophie’s voice quavered in the gloom. Ariel looked wretched. ‘The key—it broke off in the lock,’ Sophie continued. ‘Now there’s no way we can open that door. We could hear them thumping on the door this time!’
I could feel my body slump. We’d done so much, gotten so near to rescuing everyone. With a full-scale evacuation going on and a volcano that was getting more and more restless, getting the prisoners out had become even more critical. But the key had broken and I couldn’t think of how to get through that door.
‘I’ve gotta get out of here to think,’ I said. ‘I need some fresh air.’
Shadow Island Jungle
3:10 pm
I scuttled across the cemetery until I found some cover among the jungle undergrowth. I glanced up to see a fiery glow coming from the top of the volcano. I could smell the scent of sulphur and burning vegetation. I had to get those people out of their underground prison. Maybe I could find some tools in the stores area that would help break the lock.
I ventured closer to the fence surrounding the resort compound. It looked almost deserted. Elmore was still there, packing up files and boxes. I saw one of the counsellors in the distance checking the locked doors and windows of one of the dormitory blocks. I could hear people calling to each other from the beach area so I scampered to a higher position to see what was going on.
I found a rocky ledge that jutted over the beach area, some distance up the mountain. There on the beach, the last few batches of kids, their belongings piled up beside them, waited to be ferried out to a large motor launch that was returning, presumably from off-loading an earlier group onto the mainland. It was still some distance away from the surf. Soon, the evacuation would be complete. I could see Hamish with his whistle gesturing to different kids and I spotted Damien striding about, obviously giving orders.
The earth shuddered under my feet and the biggest earth tremor so far caused birds to fly out of the trees screeching and tropical fruit to fall to the ground. I grabbed onto some branches to steady myself, getting tangled up in a wait-a-while palm and wasting valuable time freeing myself from the tedious hooks. I cursed the frustrating plants on the island and couldn’t wait to be free of them for good.
Above me, the volcano was rumbling, spewing fiery smoke into the air. Instead of easing, this earth tremor got worse—it was an earthquake. I thought of the terrified prisoners locked up in the mountain beneath me. I couldn’t wait any longer. There had to be a way to get them out. The iron door was sealing them in to certain death unless I could think of a way. We had no way to cut through the door…
For some strange reason the image of the huge circular cutting drum on the front of the robotic mining machine flashed into my mind. If only I could somehow use the blades on that! My mind jumped to the next thought. What an idiot I’d been! Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier? We had a huge tunnelling machine at our service! The massive mining robot that I’d accidentally activated near th
e laboratory was exactly what I needed!
Energised, pushing my concerns about Ryan out of my mind for the moment, I scrambled back to Simeon Fincher’s tomb, pushed the slab aside and dropped into the hole underneath. This time, I didn’t bother trying to manhandle the slab of stone back into position. Thinking of the mining rover had further awoken another memory—the moving pixels I’d seen on the radar screen. Of course, now I understood what they were!
Underground Tunnels
3:28 pm
I hurried back through the dark tunnel to join the others. Dr Freeman was still dozing and I hoped he was OK and not having some kind of relapse. ‘Sophie, Ariel? Georgia? I know how we can get the prisoners out! We don’t need a key!’
They looked at me as if I was crazy. ‘I noticed the mining machine’s radar screen had moving pixels on it and that didn’t make sense because rock can’t move. But people can move! The radar screen was detecting the movement behind the rock wall. That’s where the prisoners are! Come on! Let’s find that rock wall again and try some mining!’
Within a few minutes we were back at the wider part of the tunnel which housed the laboratory. This was where I’d seen the pixelated movements. The underground prison had to be a large area, because the iron door was some distance away.
Sophie held up the powerful light from the storeroom to reveal the giant mining rover. I needed to drive it purposefully now, not like last time where I’d just banged something and activated the engine.
I stepped up onto the platform in front of the dashboard. It didn’t need a driver but I needed to switch on the engine that powered the massive shearing blade at the front. I turned what looked like the ignition. Nothing happened. I flicked another switch and the massive machine roared into life, startling me. But it wasn’t just running its engine. The first switch must have caused the mining robot to rear up so that it could turn. In that moment, a huge earth tremor shook everything. I fell against the dashboard before tumbling out of the cab and onto the ground, wrenching my ankle painfully.
Another grinding noise joined the sound of the engine. The robot had completely turned itself around in the narrow space, pivoting as if on a turntable. As I scrambled to get up and out of its way, I saw that the powerful cutting roller at the front was spinning so fast as to be almost invisible, like a powered propeller.
With horror, I saw that it was racing straight at me!
The blazing lights picked me out in the dark tunnel like a rabbit trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. I scrambled to my feet, scrabbling to run, swearing at the pain in my ankle, desperate to find someplace I could get out of the way of this fast moving, rumbling monster!
The noise was deafening and its lights were blinding. I tripped and lost valuable seconds getting to my feet again. When I risked a backward glance, I was horrified to see the piercing blades coming closer and closer. If I couldn’t get clear, I was going to be minced!
Stuck behind the machine in the narrow tunnel, I could barely hear the girls’ screams as they yelled at me to get out of the way. Fuelled by terror, my legs pumped as my eyes cast about the tunnel, desperate to find some little recess or niche that I could squeeze into so that the monster could lumber straight past me. The floor of the tunnel was uneven and stony and I almost fell a couple of times. But there were no alcoves on either side of the tunnel. Blindly, I tripped again and this time it was too late. The dreadful blades were almost upon me. I froze in terror. This was it.
Then, to my disbelief, the massive machine suddenly stopped, just centimetres away from my shivering body. A miracle had happened. The silence was enormous, broken only by a few stones rattling to the ground. I got to my feet.
Thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness, my mind chanted.
Dazed, I shielded my eyes against the blazing light to see Georgia Montgomery standing on the platform of the mining machine, grinning from ear to ear. It was the first time I’d seen a smile on her pointed face. Somehow, Georgia Montgomery had saved me from the monster. Any distrust I might have been feeling about her evaporated.
‘Georgia! How the hell did you do that?’
She shrugged. ‘Emergency shutdown,’ she said. ‘I used to help Dad on the harvester.’ She jumped down, still smiling. ‘I didn’t earn my nickname Spidergirl for nothing,’ she joked. ‘I can run up walls, you know. Are you OK?’
‘I’m alive, thanks to you. But seriously, how did you do it?’
‘I ran fast enough to bounce off the tunnel wall and jump onto the machine platform. Luckily for you, this robot machine has an E-stop just like the one on the harvester.’
I got to my feet and together, we climbed back onto the robotic mining machine. ‘An E-stop?’
‘Emergency stop. See?’ she said, indicating two red knobs, one on each side of the machine’s dashboard. ‘Give either one of these knobs a whack and the whole thing simply stops.’
I shook her hand. ‘Georgia Montgomery, I owe you.’
‘You sure do,’ she said seriously. ‘I won’t forget it.’
‘Neither will I.’
‘OK,’ she said, ‘so, how do we make this thing go properly?’
4:41 pm
It took us a little while to work out which switches to use for the ignition and to make the machine do its turnaround. But finally, we had it under control and rode on the jolting machine back to the area near the lab where we’d first started.
I explained what I planned to do and they kept right back as I studied the dashboard again trying to find out how to activate the giant mining blades. Last time I’d done it accidentally by falling against the dashboard. I found a black switch labelled: Shear Rotation. I flicked it on. The huge rotating blades came on with a roar, gaining speed. The radar screen blinked into life and in its eerie light, I again saw dancing pixels, despite the radar being directed at a wall of motionless rock.
Slowly, the machine edged itself closer to the rock wall until finally, with a blistering noise, there was contact as steel bit into rock, and dust and gravel went flying. That’s when I realised I should have been wearing protective clothing but there was no chance of that now. I pulled my hoodie over my head trying to protect myself from the flying dust and debris churned up by the massive blades.
The machine shuddered as it pressed its cutting blades further into the rock. Another deafening noise made me look up to see that rocks were falling from the ceiling and that the whole tunnel was vibrating and shuddering. Ariel and Sophie grabbed each other as the earthquake strengthened and Zak looked worried. Dr Freeman was looking around in a dazed manner as if he didn’t know where he was or what was happening.
But I concentrated on what I was doing. I wondered what the people on the other side of the rock face must be thinking. They must be scared, I thought, and they’d have no idea that part of the noise they were hearing was actually the sound of their rescue. The machine kept pressing forward, deeper and deeper. The earthquake stopped and now the only sound was of the shearing blades as they drilled through the solid rock in a perfect circle.
A sudden jolt and I was thrown forward. The machine was through! It had finally penetrated the thick rock wall and cut through to the other side. Through the thick dust that filled the air, the perfectly round hole it had carved out of the rock wall was visible. Beyond, a dim light glowed. I activated the reverse movement and the mining machine backed away from the rock face.
I cut the power and there was an unearthly silence broken only by a small shower of stones. Cautiously, I stepped down off the machine as the others came closer to the opening.
The worst of the choking dust settled, although the area remained hazy with small particles. I could hear people coughing on the other side of the rock wall.
‘Hello?’ I called through the opening. ‘Are you OK in there?’
Sophie, Ariel, Zak and Georgia followed me as I crawled through the large hole. I stepped into a long gloomy area. At first I couldn’t see anybody and then slowly, what I thou
ght was a dusty pile of rocks in the farthest corner of the room started moving. Gingerly, three figures stood up—a boy and two girls—dressed in grubby clothing, coughing in the dust that filled their long, narrow prison. Beyond them I could see the other side of the iron door, locked forever with its broken key.
‘Who are you?’ asked a thin girl with lank long hair as she tightly gripped the hand of the other girl, a shorter, stocky kid with dusty red hair.
‘I’m Cal Ormond,’ I said, ‘and these are my friends, Sophie, Ariel, Zak and Georgia,’ pointing to them as they climbed through after me and stood nearby. ‘We’re going to get you out of this place.’
The tall boy wearing a ragged T-shirt and jacket with dark hair pushed back into a ponytail spoke, ‘I don’t know how long we’ve been locked up but it’s been weeks and weeks—maybe even months. I’m Quan.’
‘… and I’m Sabina and this is Artemiz,’ said the thin girl, indicating her redheaded friend. Then she promptly burst into tears. ‘I’m just so pleased that someone’s come to get us. We’ve been terrified by the earthquakes.’
‘We thought we were going to die down here. That we’d never get out,’ Artemiz whispered.
‘We still not in the clear,’ I said, ‘but at least we’ve got a chance now.’ I quickly looked around their prison. Just like on Delta 11, there was only a rickety table in one corner and a few stools. Opposite that, another curtained off area through which I could see a toilet and a sink. A tap stuck out of the rock lower down with a bucket underneath it. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like, stuck down here, for weeks on end.
‘Come on,’ said Sophie. ‘Let’s find somewhere safe to hide until our friend D’Merrick comes. While we’re waiting, maybe you could tell us about everything that happened to you and why Damien locked you up.’
The three ex-prisoners didn’t have anything much to collect—a comb and a couple of jackets. In a moment, they had all climbed through the gaping hole in the rock.
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