Trojan Gene: The Awakening

by Ben Onslow

  Jacob looks from me to her like he knows he isn’t being told the whole story. “Did you arrange for Ela to meet you at the house, then weren’t there when she turned up?” He looks away to Ela and back at me again. Waiting for clarification.

  “Yes,” I say.

  Ela jumps in again. “Jack made a Connect with me and told me he’d be late and not to go to the house. I decided to ignore that.”

  “Stay out of this, Ela,” Jacob orders. “This is between Jack and me.”

  He turns to me again. “So you disobeyed a direct order?”

  “Yes,” I say again.

  “Explain.” And Jacob just sits there, waiting.

  So I tell why I was held up, tell him about Lucinda being sick and needing to get a doctor and leaving Ela on her own. I figure that’s what he wants to hear: me admitting I got it wrong. I’m pretty sure Fitzgerald would already have told him.

  “You were told to protect her,” says Jacob.

  Ela butts in again. “You’re being unfair, Jacob. It was my decision, not Jack’s, and he had to help Lucinda.”

  “Stay out of this,” he says to her again.

  He turns back to me.

  “Why was Lucinda in the Vault?”

  I tell him about rescuing Lucinda. It goes down about as well as I expected it would.

  Ela butts in. “Someone had to rescue her. They couldn’t just leave her there. You and Fitzgerald weren’t doing anything.” If she keeps this up, Jacob will have a go at her not me.

  “Stay out of this,” he warns her again. Maybe that’s what she wants, she’s trying to deflect him, protect me like she said she would. He focuses back on me. Explains all his objections to the way we rescued Lucinda. Turns out he already knows Nick, Scott and Curley were there, and will be having a word with them soon.

  Doesn’t appear to know Ela was there. That’s one thing in my favour.

  “It wasn’t Jack’s fault,” Ela butts in again. “Joe and Nick were going to do it anyway.”

  “Jack should have talked them out of it.”

  “They were going anyway,” repeats Ela. She’s starting to get angry. “It was their idea. Jack couldn’t have talked them out of it so he had to help them.”

  At that Jacob turns and looks at her. “And where were you while this was happening?” he asks. “Why do you know so much about it?”

  Ela glances at me. I shake my head, the tiniest movement. It’s all over before Jacob turns my way again.

  So Ela doesn’t enlighten him. Says she was in bed at the pub.

  She’s doing her best to protect me, but it isn’t working.

  He asks questions. I answer them. If Ela interrupts he tells her to stay out of it.

  If it looks like I’m sliding over any details, trying make things look better, he barks a question at me, along the lines of ‘who’s idea was that?’ and ‘you did that how?’

  I don’t mention the HazeApp. Just say we hid in the utes.

  When I’m finally finished talking, I hear a lot about not being able to follow instructions. In fact, he points out at length everything we did wrong including using the Vault instead of a safe house.

  “You went directly against orders you were given,” says Jacob. “You could have been captured and interrogated. You have endangered everyone. Joe and Lucinda are fugitives now. And Vector will take some sort of punitive action because of what you did.” Like me, he’s pretty puzzled why that hasn’t started already. He’s especially not too happy we did it all without checking with him or Fitzgerald first.

  I sit there and take it. Ela’s given up arguing with him. But her hand snakes out of the cloak to hold mine.

  We don’t tell him we didn’t consult him and Fitzgerald because we didn’t think they’d go for the idea. That might set him off again.

  Actually, he could have saved his breath. After the way I felt when I knew the Willises had Ela, I’m planning on listening if I’m given an order by Jacob or Fitzgerald from now on.

  “We’re just starting to trust you and you do this. You’re no use to us if you’re a loose cannon,” says Jacob.

  I’m starting to think this is going to go on forever.

  Then Jacob finally winds down. “If you can’t follow orders, if you do things that aren’t authorised, you’re a liability,” he snarls as a final shot. He goes quiet, leans back in the chair, and shuts his eyes. I’ll need to get out of his line of sight for a while. He’s capable of revving up again.

  Then Ela gets a Connect. She pulls the Com out of her cloak pocket. “Hi Mum,” she says. A long silence as the person on the other end talks. “Already?” she asks. “But you’re early.”

  More talking from the Com. “Here?” asks Ela. “Why?”

  Still more talking from the other end, as Ela listens.

  “Okay. I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” says Ela reluctantly.

  She breaks the Connect and sits there focusing on the Com. Then she eases herself away from me. She slides to the other end of the couch and puts the Com back in her pocket.

  “That was Mum.” Ela stands up, and wanders across to the window, looks out of it. “Mum got in from Paris this morning,” she says to the window, “and she’s getting a ride with someone. She wants to stay the night here, then drive home with me. Mum wants to thank Patsy for looking after me.”

  I can’t figure out what just happened. One minute she’s snuggling up and trying to defend me. Then her mum rings and she goes all distant.

  She nods at Jacob. “And see how you are.”

  Really distant.

  Remote even.

  “That’s nice of your mum.” Jacob’s watching Ela like he can’t figure out what’s going on with her either. Why is she suddenly acting all Elite just because her Mum is coming in a few hours?

  I need to find out what just happened.

  I need to get away from Jacob, but keep Ela with me.

  I stand up. “I’ll feed the dogs,” I say. “Do you want to help?” I ask Ela.

  Ela nods. Jacob watches us leave the room. He doesn’t comment.

  We go to the garage to find the dog food, like we’ve done almost every morning and evening since she arrived.

  “So your Mum’s coming to pick you up early?” I ask as I open the fridge.

  “Yes,” says Ela quietly.

  “And you haven’t told her or Jacob about us.”

  Ela shakes her head. “You didn’t want your mum or Jacob to know.” She’s still really quiet and reserved for her.

  “That’s different. Mum warned me off, and you can see how Jacob is with me,” I say as I take out the dog roll. “Nothing I do is right.” I dump the roll on the board ready to cut it into pieces. “So what really just happened?”

  “I don’t know.” Ela doesn’t look at me.

  “Have you gone off me?”

  “No.” She touches my arm tentatively. “I care about you. I just haven’t said anything to Mum and Jacob.”

  “Are you still leaving?” I shake off her hand.

  Ela nods, then picks up the knife and cuts three pieces off the dog sausage. “You know I have to go,” she says, putting the knife back on the board.

  I don’t say anything. I take the end of the roll and put it into the fridge. Slam the fridge door shut and grab the lumps of dog food. Go out of the garage and over to the dogs.

  Ela watches me go. I let the dogs off. Watch them run around the paddock for a while.

  Her mum’s arriving a day early.

  I can’t believe it. I take a real serve from Jacob and then that Connect happens. She’s going home tomorrow, and I thought we’d still have another two whole days together. Now it could be months before I see her again. And she’s acting like she doesn’t want to be around me anymore. Despite what she says.

  I can’t figure her out.

  I stand there and think about what’s just happened.

  She was a bit quiet this morning. I put that down to a reaction to the Willises abducting her.r />
  Then she was really fierce with Jacob, trying convince him none of what happened was my fault.

  Then she started acting real strange from the moment she knew her mother was coming to get her.

  It was the Connect from her mother that changed things.

  But why?

  None of it adds up.

  Then when I try to find out what’s going on, I snarl at her instead.

  I can’t figure me out either.

  I give my head a scratch. Watch the dogs and try to think it through.

  The dogs have done at least ten laps of the paddock before I start to work out what’s going on.

  It was the Connect that confused things for Ela. In her Elite world it’s all ‘talk but no do’. The Local way is the opposite. Keep the talking down to a minimum, but show the other person how you feel. That has its advantages. Seems every time I open my mouth at the moment I have a go at her. All her life she’s been taught sex is wrong. When she’s with me, she knows what she’s been told is flawed, that the Elite way isn’t always right.

  Then her mum made that Connect, and it’s like a little bit of the Elite world touched her. She’s anxious about us already, and I do my thing and upset her more.

  I know she has to go home, and I just made it harder for her.

  I need to fix things.

  32.

  The Farm

  Wednesday 22nd Feb 2051

  10:30 a.m.

  It takes a while to work out a plan. The dogs do at least another ten laps of the paddock before I figure out a way to make this right.

  Well, at least a bit better.

  I need to talk to Ela, and it needs to be when we’re not surrounded by hostile grandfathers or Elite mothers.

  I look back at the house, and there’s Ela standing on the back porch watching me. When she sees me look over at her she catches her lip between her teeth and gives a hesitant little half smile.

  I walk over. Lean against post that’s holding the clothes line up, casual like, hands in my pockets.

  “Do you want to talk?” I ask.

  She nods, so I leave the post to support itself; go over to her.

  Sometimes I hope she’ll run up and throw her arms around me. But the throwing of arms has never happened. She always just smiles and waits for me to go to her. Never runs over or hugs me or kisses me first. Elite just don’t do that stuff. They dress real sexy, but it’s all look but don’t touch.

  This time she even steps back a bit when I get close.

  So I’m standing near Jacob’s back porch trying to work out what to say to make things right again.

  I look around, hands in my pockets.

  I don’t put my arms around her; don’t want to push my luck, might stick with talking for a while.

  But the silence is getting bad.

  “Nice day,” I say.

  Ela giggles.

  “What are you doing?” She’s smiling, sort of thawing.

  I try again. “Do you want to come check the Vault with me?”

  Ela bites the side of her lip. “I’d like that,” she whispers and starts to go back inside the house. “I’ll go and tell Jacob what we’re doing.”

  I really don’t think that’s a good idea. If I let her go back inside, he might not let her out.

  “No. Just come. Let him suffer.” The way he was looking at us when we were curled up together on the couch, I might never get to see her again.

  She giggles at that. “The way he made you suffer?”

  “Something like that.”

  She looks down at what she’s wearing. “I’m not dressed for the bike.”

  She’s right. She’s all Elite, from when we picked up Jacob.

  “Just grab your farm boots and Swanndri.” I know they’re in the laundry. She doesn’t have to go past Jacob to get them.

  “Okay,” she says. “And I’ll yell at him from the door then run. He won’t be able catch me on those crutches.”

  She goes and gets the gear and sure enough yells that we’re going to check the Vault, shuts the door before she gets an answer. So she doesn’t think Jacob approves either.

  She comes over to me. I take the boots and Swanndri, she wraps her cloak tighter around her. The air is cool, but it isn’t really cold. We walk to the shed, where the bikes are.

  “You know I have to leave.” She looks up at me, a bit of hair falls over her face. I reach out and tuck the curl back behind her ear. So much for sticking with talking, she smiles at the touch.

  I put my spare arm around her. “Yeah, but I don’t have to like it.” I walk her to the shed. Once we are inside, out of sight of the house, I put the boots and coat down on the old trailer, and pull her around enough to hold her so she’s leaning against me, her head tucked under my chin. I hold her real close and she seems happy to stay there.

  “I don’t want to go.” Her voice is all muffled into my shirt.

  I don’t want her to go either. I want us to stay like this forever. Bodies close, my arms around her, the touch and smell of her filling me.

  I lean back against the trailer. Sit on the side of it, pull her still closer so she’s standing between my legs and our faces are at the same height.

  There’s silence.

  As usual she can’t stand it. “Why were you so cross before?”

  “Your mum rang, and all of a sudden you were leaving tomorrow. I’d prepared myself for it happening in a couple of days, and suddenly it’s tomorrow.”

  She pulls back a bit, looks at me. A shadowy light filters through the cracks in the old shed, giving just enough light to see a small frown hover,

  “What’s changed now?” she asks, like I’m just a puzzle to her. “I still leave tomorrow.”

  I touch her face. Run my fingers along the bruise on her cheek. She tips her head a bit towards my palm and closes her eyes. I gently brush the hair back from her face. Then touch her lips. Her eyes open again and she smiles at me. I can just see her face in the gloom of the shed. Her hair falls softly on the shoulders of her cloak. Her eyes flash silver in the gloom.

  She reaches out and touches my face too. Then she slides her hands to my neck and kisses me. Her body pressed into mine.

  I won’t see her again for ages.

  I kiss her back. Knowing by this time tomorrow she’ll be gone.

  Cloak and Swanndri and sleeves are in the way but I can feel the warmth and shape of her against me.

  I slide my hands inside her cloak, around her waist and pull her even closer.

  And tonight, she’ll be here and I’ll be at home.

  We stay like that. Her standing, me half sitting, my hands on her hips, hers on my shoulders.

  Sadness leaks into me. I press my forehead against hers.

  It’s almost unbearable. But I’ve worked out a way I can make it nearly acceptable.

  After a while I pull away. “I’ve got a plan,” I say.

  “Really?” She looks at me sideways. “I hope this plan doesn’t involve the Willises or maps.”

  I give her a bit of an eye-roll. “I’m trying to be serious here.”

  “Sorry, what’s the plan?”

  “I apply for University. Go to the City.” They say follow your dreams. It’s just lucky the dream happens to be in the same place as Ela is going to be.

  “What do you think of that?” I watch her, to see what she’s thinking. I can’t tell.

  “Think of what?” asks Ela.

  “Me coming to the City.”

  “Why?” She pulls away from me a little.

  “I want to be an engineer. I can train.”

  “Just so you can be an engineer?”

  “Now you’re being difficult.” I know what she wants me to say but it just won’t come out.

  “I’m not the only one being difficult,” says Ela. “So you’re going to help repopulate the world after all?”

  “It won’t be for long. Jacob says things are about to change.”

  Ela tips her head to on
e side. Looks at me. Then she reaches out and touches my cheek again.

  “Why do you really want to come to the City?” she asks softly.

  I guess she’s figured it out, but wants me to tell her.

  See – all talk, no do, those Elite. And there’s a fair bit of her granddad in her. He likes to over-talk stuff too.

  “Because I like you,” I say finally. “And you can make do with that for a while, and we’ll see how it goes.”

  “That’s big of you.” She really pulls away from me this time.

  “You like me.” She takes off the cloak, puts it on the trailer and picks up the Swanndri. She pulls the Swanndri over her head. Emerges out the top. “And I can make do with that for a while and we’ll see how it goes.” Eyes laughing at me. At least she’s not cross.

  She sits down on the trailer beside me and puts the farm boots on. Then she stands, goes over to the bike, and climbs on.

  I get out my Com, hold it up.

  “Look over here,” I say. She looks over at me, hair flying, half of it over her face, and smiles. I take a picture.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Lonely nights at the University,” I say, and she giggles.

  We go and check the Vault. Note the temperatures of the different rooms; fill in the log books. Clean up the mess left after Lucinda and Joe. We go back out, leave the tiles and the glass doors that whisper closed. Outside the waterfall tumbles into the pool beside us.

  “What now?” Ela’s hand creeps into mine as the rock swings shut.

  This is the last time we’ll be alone together before she leaves. I guess her mum will have arrived at Jacob’s by the time we get back to the house. Ela won’t be coming home with me tonight.

  “I have to stay at Jacob’s tonight,” she says.

  “I know.” I turn around enough to kiss her.

  She lets my fingers go. “And you can’t stay with me.” Her hands slide up around my neck.

  “Like I’d want to, what, with a hostile grandfather and an Elite mother in the next bedrooms.”

  Ela giggles, and kisses me again. “I can understand that,” she murmurs, then pulls away. She crosses her arms, grabs the sides of her Swanndri, pulls it over her head, drops it on the rock beside us. Then she takes the sides of my Swanndri and goes to lift it over my head. I raise my arms. Bend and wiggle a bit to help her. My t-shirt comes off at the same time.