They froze halfway into the lift. Dad clearly hadn’t run his tour plans past these two.
‘Oh, hey kids,’ said Ketterley, recovering first and sending a look in Dad’s direction. ‘What brings you here?’ He joined us inside, and the doc followed him.
Dad shrugged. ‘Pete and his mates have it in their heads that there’s something weird going on in the building. Thought I’d bring them in and show them everything’s above board.’
I think I might have had a small stroke right there and then.
Even if Dad wasn’t out to get us, he’d get us killed anyway with comments like that.
‘No,’ said Luke hurriedly, ‘Mr Weir, I think you’ve misunderstood what we –’
The lift doors slid open again. This time, we were looking at a sprawling open-plan office space. Dozens of suits swarming around desks and whiteboards and computer stations. Bunch of guys I knew. Couldn’t see Shackleton doing anything dodgy here. Not with this many people around.
Montag and Ketterley got out.
‘Hey doc, we still on for Tuesday?’ asked Dad, holding the door.
‘Assuming you’re ready by then,’ said Montag. He gave Dad a look, like he didn’t think now was the time to talk about it.
‘Almost there,’ said Dad. ‘Just costing a few of the parts and I’ll be good to –’
‘Money is no object, Brian,’ said the doc. ‘Just make sure it works.’
‘Oh, it’ll work, doc,’ Dad grinned, pulling his arm away from the door. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’
Montag nodded, and he and Ketterley walked away into the offices. I had just enough time to see Ketterley reaching for something in his pocket before the doors closed again.
Dad smiled to himself.
I couldn’t even look at him.
Before Phoenix, Dad used to be a mechanical engineer for this massive construction company. But he’d talked for ages about giving it all up to become a writer, and moving out here to work for the local paper was supposed to be his big career change. Trading in the high-pressure city job to pursue his real passion. That was story he’d fed Mum and me.
But apparently, it was all a load of crap. Apparently, Dad’s real passion was actually designing Shackleton Co-operative death machines.
The lift started moving again and Dad kept talking as though there’d been no interruption to our tour. ‘We call that floor the Hive. It’s where they handle all the day-to-day logistical stuff – water, electricity, maintenance, intranet …’
The lift pulled to a stop.
‘And this,’ said Dad, stepping out through the opening doors, ‘is where all the cool kids hang out. Top floor. C’mon, I’ll show you my office.’
We followed Dad out of the lift, into a waiting room place that was kind of like the front office at school. A woman raised an eyebrow at us from behind a desk.
‘Reeve’s wife,’ I murmured. ‘From the park, remember?’
Dad said hi to her, and then took us away down a long, wide corridor. There were doors along both sides, stencilled with people’s names.
‘Nice paintings,’ said Jordan, pointing to one of the frames that hung between the doorways. It was all weird abstract stuff, but most of the pictures looked like they were meant to be animals.
‘Yeah,’ said Dad, ‘Mr Shackleton did them himself. He’s a pretty big environmentalist.’
I bit my tongue. It was almost funny. Almost.
I turned to catch Jordan’s reaction, and realised that she’d fallen behind. She was leaning against the wall, doubled over with her eyes closed, like someone had punched her in the stomach.
‘Whoa, Jordan,’ I said, running back to help her.
‘You okay?’ I tried to take her by the arm but she shook me off.
‘Yeah … fine …’ she said, straightening up.
By now, Luke and Dad were both looking back as well.
‘What happened?’ asked Luke.
‘Nothing,’ said Jordan, ‘I just thought …’ She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. ‘Never mind. I’m fine.’
Dad hesitated for a sec, shooting her a look that might have been concern or suspicion or just curiosity, then kept walking.
We continued down the hall until we came to a door marked WEIR. Dad pulled out his keys.
Luke tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the opposite wall, to another handle-less steel door, just like Pryor’s.
‘Hey Dad, what’s in there?’ I asked, hopefully sounding offhand. ‘Is that Shackleton’s office?’
‘No, Mr Shackleton’s up there,’ said Dad, indicating a door at the end of the corridor. ‘That’s just a store cupboard.’
‘A store cupboard? What have you got in there, solid gold –?’
I stopped talking. The door at the end of the corridor had just swung open.
Mr Shackleton was striding towards us, eyes locked on my dad. Fancy suit, old man hair, face like a cadaver. He’d always creeped me out a bit, even before I knew what a psycho he was.
Officer Calvin was right behind him, limping along on his crutch, but still looking like he could break me in half one-handed. He had an expression of barely contained fury on his face.
An expression that said he might just kill us all here and now and be done with it.
Jordan’s eyes flashed between the two men. I realised it was the first time she or Luke had seen Shackleton outside of that magazine article.
Mr Shackleton closed in. At the last second, his attention shifted to me.
‘Peter,’ he said with a warm, grandfatherly smile, ‘how nice to see you again.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, getting myself together enough to reach out and shake his hand. ‘You too.’
‘And you must be Jordan Burke,’ said Shackleton, putting a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. She flinched slightly at the touch, but smiled up at him. ‘Exciting news about your mother’s pregnancy! How is she doing?’
My hands were twitching. I tried to keep them still, straining against the sudden, violent impulse to dive over there and rip his arm right out of its socket.
‘Fine,’ said Jordan. ‘Good. She’s good.’
‘Excellent,’ Shackleton beamed, releasing his grip.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. If he did anything to her, I swore I was going to kill him.
‘And here’s our newest arrival!’ said Shackleton, extending a hand to Luke. ‘I trust that you and your mother have had no trouble settling in?’
‘No, sir,’ said Luke. ‘Everything’s going great.’
‘Glad to hear it,’ said Shackleton, wiping his hand on the front of his suit. He turned to my dad. ‘Aaron tells me you’ve taken it upon yourself to show Peter and his friends around our building.’
How did he know?
But the answer was obvious. Ketterley must have phoned ahead.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Dad. ‘I had a bit of time up my sleeve, so I thought I’d –’
‘You’re aware that the upper levels of the Shackleton Building are not open to the public,’ Mr Shackleton cut in. It wasn’t a question. He started walking down the corridor, back the way we’d come, waving a hand to indicate that we should follow him.
‘Yes, Mr Shackleton,’ said Dad. ‘I was only giving them a quick look around. And since they were sticking with me the whole time, I didn’t think there’d be any harm –’
‘No,’ Shackleton chuckled. ‘Of course you didn’t.’
I could feel Calvin breathing down my neck as I walked, his crutch thumping along on the floor behind me. I sped up, trying to get away from him, but I was stuck behind Luke.
‘However, Brian,’ Mr Shackleton continued, stopping as we reached the room with the lifts, ‘as harmless as your intentions may have been, the security restrictions within this building have been put into place for a reason, and are not to be taken lightly.’
‘Yes sir,’ said Dad. ‘I apologise.’
Mr Shackleton chuckled again. Then he turned to Reeve’s wife
. ‘Katie, would you please see our visitors out? I’d like to have a quick word with Brian before he heads home.’
Katie nodded and got up from behind the counter.
‘But –’ I said.
‘I won’t keep him long,’ said Shackleton lightly. He nodded at the three of us. ‘It’s been a pleasure catching up with you all.’
He turned away and marched my dad back out of the room, Calvin clunking along right behind him. When Dad got home a few hours later, he looked more shaken up than I could ever remember seeing him. He limped upstairs to the bathroom, took a long shower, then went straight to bed without talking to anyone.
Chapter 11
MONDAY, MAY 25
80 DAYS
Dad had left for work by the time I got up the next morning.
The house was weirdly quiet. I wondered whether Mum had left early too. She’d usually have the CD player going in the morning, or at least be humming to herself. But when I got downstairs, she was getting her lunch together in total silence, moving slowly around the kitchen, like she’d forgotten how to do it.
I asked her about Dad, and I thought she was about to start crying.
‘He said he was fine,’ she sighed, clearly not believing it. ‘Just wanted an early night.’
There was hurt in her voice, but more than anything, she sounded confused. I guess Mum thought that she and Dad told each other everything.
‘Did something happen at the office yesterday?’ she asked.
I hesitated, wanting to tell her, but knowing things would only be worse if I did.
‘Dunno,’ I said. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
She came around the bench and gave me a hug.
‘I’m sure he’s all right,’ she said, sounding a little stronger. ‘You know how hard he’s been working lately.’
‘Yeah,’ I said.
I packed my schoolbag on autopilot and left the house without breakfast.
What had they done to him? And what were we supposed to do now?
There’d been no sign of anything useful in the Shackleton Building. And even if there had, there was no way they were letting us back in there again. I’d spent a bit of time tinkering with Pryor’s phone last night, trying to take my mind off things, but so far I hadn’t come up with anything. And if Crazy Bill was trying to provide us with any kind of useful information, his mutilated animal photos and key to freaking nowhere were funny ways of showing it.
I rode down the street to the town centre, taking the long way round the Shackleton Building, putting off going to school. I couldn’t deal with Pryor today. Or Cat. Or all the stupid bloody liaison-officer crap. The only thing keeping me from ditching school altogether was knowing that Jordan was probably –
I skidded to a stop. Fifty metres up the street, Luke was walking away from the bakery, holding a paper bag and a couple of coffee cups.
Jordan was waiting for him.
He handed her one of the cups and they started wandering across the street, heading for school. I picked up my bike again and followed them, keeping my distance.
This had better not be what I think –
They were walking much slower than they needed to, much closer together, deep in conversation. Luke pulled some pastry thing out of his paper bag and handed it to Jordan.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
They stopped outside the school. I ducked down behind another garden bed.
Jordan turned to face Luke. They stood there talking like that for a couple of hours – or three minutes, I don’t know – too quietly and too far away for me to hear what they were saying.
And then Jordan leant in and kissed him on the cheek.
Which just goes to show that there is no day so bad that someone can’t come charging in and obliterate it completely.
‘Luke, you know how you and me are mates?’ I said.
‘Yeah …’ said Luke slowly.
We were out behind the gym, dodging the few kids who still hadn’t had enough of us after the surveys last week. It was recess, the first chance I’d had to talk to Luke away from Jordan.
‘And you know how mates usually don’t stab each other in the back by deliberately trampling over the one off-limits thing in their whole friendship?’
Luke took a swig from his water bottle. ‘I assume you’re going somewhere with this.’
‘Yeah, I am,’ I said. ‘What’s up with you and Jordan?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ I said. ‘I saw you two this morning.’
‘Oh,’ said Luke. ‘No – Peter, that was nothing. She asked me to meet her.’
‘Right, of course,’ I said. ‘So obviously that meant you had to buy her freakin’ pastries.’
Luke closed his eyes. ‘That wasn’t – I only did that because I owed her from last time.’
I don’t know how he thought that was going to help his case.
‘Are you serious?’ I said. ‘How long –?’
But I knew. Week before last. When Luke had been beat up by Crazy Bill. Jordan was there to see it.
‘Peter relax,’ said Luke. ‘Seriously. You’ve got nothing to worry about. We were only – she just wanted to talk to me about something.’
‘About what?’ I demanded.
But then Jordan burst out from around the corner. ‘There you are,’ she said, looking frantic.
‘What?’ said Luke. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing,’ said Jordan. ‘I just got an email from Mum. She’s got a doctor’s appointment first thing tomorrow morning.’
‘Okay,’ I said, not really sure what I was supposed to do with that information.
‘I’m going with her,’ said Jordan, rummaging through her bag.
‘What for?’ I asked. ‘I mean, is this just, like, a mother-daughter thing, or –?’
‘No,’ said Jordan. ‘It’s an end-of-the-world thing.’ She pulled out her Time magazine, flipped to the photo inside the medical centre, and pointed to the metal door at the edge of the frame.
‘Tomorrow morning, I’m going to find out what’s in there.’
Chapter 12
TUESDAY, MAY 26
79 DAYS
‘She’s insane,’ I said under my breath, pretending to write something historical as Mr Ranga walked past.
‘Yeah,’ Luke whispered back. ‘I think you might have mentioned that already.’
In the last twenty-four hours, he and I had been keeping an uneasy truce about the whole Jordan thing. Actually, Luke was still saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, so the truce was basically me deciding not to punch him.
I’d actually started to think that we had a decent shot at being mates. I mean, yeah, he was a bit of a dumb-arse sometimes, but this end-of-the-world stuff had kind of forced us together and, hey, I’m open-minded. But there were some lines you didn’t cross.
Neither of us had seen Jordan before school this morning. She’d given us strict orders to stay right away from the medical centre. Didn’t want to do anything to attract suspicion. But there’d been no sign of her at school either. And Tuesday mornings were double history for Luke and me, so the next time either of us could track Jordan down would be recess.
Assuming she’d even made it out of the medical centre in one piece.
‘Shouldn’t have let her go,’ I said.
‘Let her?’ said Luke. ‘As if you could’ve stopped her.’
‘I could’ve negotiated.’
Luke snorted. ‘This is Jordan we’re talking about.’
‘Listen mate, I can be very persuasive when I –’
‘Peter,’ snapped Mr Ranga from across the room, finally realising that neither of us had done any work all lesson. ‘What’s the answer to question seven?’
‘Um … Nazis?’ I tried.
‘Nazis. That’s your answer to the question: What were some of the staple food sources of allied forces serving in World War II? ’
‘Just trying to think outside the box
, sir,’ I said.
A few people laughed, but unfortunately Mr Hanger is not what you’d call a think-outside-the-box kind of guy.
‘Would you like me to leave the room, sir?’ I asked hopefully.
‘Actually,’ he sneered, ‘I think a detention would be more appropriate. How does this afternoon work for you?’
Recess was almost over. Still no sign of Jordan.
‘This is not good,’ said Luke, checking the time again.
‘You reckon?’ I said, seriously re-evaluating my No Punching policy.
We were waiting down near the bike racks outside the maths block. She was meant to meet us here as soon as we all got out of class.
‘Maybe she went straight home with her mum,’ said Luke.
‘She would have emailed,’ I said distractedly, scanning the playground again. ‘Uh-oh.’
‘What?’
‘Pryor.’ She was marching across the playground towards us, looking disturbingly happy. Never a good sign.
‘Run for it?’ asked Luke.
‘No.’
‘But if Jordan’s already –’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Let’s see what she wants.’
We walked out to meet her.
‘Morning, miss!’ I said. ‘Have you got our next assignment for us?’
‘Come with me,’ she said, veering back around toward her office.
We followed her back over the grass to the quad, kids stopping to gawk at us the whole way. Freckles and a few of her midget posse saw us coming and started charging over, probably armed with yet another page of suggestions for us. I glared at them and shook my head. They stopped, disappointed.
‘What’s this about, miss?’ I asked as we headed into the admin building.
No answer.
Pryor stopped in the doorway to Staples’ office.
‘Mrs Stapleton,’ she snapped. ‘I will tolerate no interruptions this morning. Is that clear?’
Without waiting for an answer, she swept off down the hall again, swiped her card, and let us into her office.
Luke glanced back over his shoulder. I could see exactly what he was thinking.
Last chance to bolt.
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