Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains

by Oldfield, Donna Marie

  “And break all the human rights conventions he likes too. If he doesn’t have to get on with anyone else, he can pretty much do what he wants without being punished or sanctioned.” Scarlett said. She could see that Goulden’s real motive was power, money and the chance to shape the UK in his own warped image without fear of the repercussions.

  “What about the people who live outside of the bubble?” a man near the front asked.

  “The people within The Shield will work for the top businesses and be key contributors to society; the people outside it will be working in the workhouses, so they will be offered some protection too. Not as much as those in The Shield, but obviously we have to draw the line somewhere; we don’t have infinite resources.”

  “I thought he said we have all the resources we need.” Scarlett shook her head.

  “In other words, we have all the resources the rich need.” Dylan said. “He can always find more people to staff the workhouses if his slaves die.”

  “And what will become of the people who don’t work in The Shield or the workhouses?” a woman in her forties asked.

  “Well, under my regime, everyone should be in work in a business under The Shield, being assisted in the workhouse or fighting for their country. There won’t be anyone else unless they are criminals living on the edges of the society and frankly I don’t care about them. We saw what the underworld are capable of when they killed our soldiers this morning. If they don’t want to contribute to society, then they don’t deserve our help.”

  The audience nodded in agreement, then another man shot his hand in the air to ask a question. “How does this shield thing withstand nuclear attacks? That sounds impossible!”

  “We’ve added the same radiation-protection technology that the United States uses for the President’s nuclear-proof Doomsday plane. While I can’t divulge the exact specifics for security reasons, you can be assured that it has been well developed and rigorously tested.”

  The audience gasped and even Scarlett and Dylan were impressed by that one.

  “What area will it cover?” a younger woman asked.

  “All of Spinningfields, down to Castlefield, across to Kerridges and a bit of the neighbouring area, including this convention centre.”

  “And when will this be rolled out to other cities?”

  “If this is a success, which I believe it will be, we’ll be building a large Shield in London as soon as possible. Again, I can’t reveal all the plans, but we are aiming to build as many as 100 new skyscrapers to accommodate office, retail and residential space that allows everyone to live, work and play within zone 1. It’s an ambitious idea, but one I am excited about.”

  “Who’s building all these skyscrapers?” a woman near the back asked.

  Scarlett and Dylan shrank down in their chairs as Goulden glanced in their direction.

  “Along with the architects I mentioned, the government also has strong relations with Cooper & Co, Taylor & Sons, Amphion & Daedalus and Titus Ltd, who are all working hard to develop the best facilities as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thousands of people from the workhouse scheme will be helping with the projects to ensure they are completed in a timely manner. I’ve agreed retail contracts with some of the country’s best brands too.”

  Scarlett wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the ‘best brands and businesses’ backing Goulden’s plans were the same ones that were making money out of the workhouses. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” seemed to be the PM’s motto.

  “Do you have intelligence that Mendia are planning an attack? It sounds like this scheme is being rushed out,” a man in the third row said.

  “We don’t have any exact information at this moment, no.” He glanced shiftily from side to side as he delivered that last answer. “If you don’t mind, ladies and gentlemen, we’ll have to wrap it up here.”

  “He’s lying,” Dylan said. “He knows more than he’s letting on about an imminent attack and I’ll bet he knows it’ll be in Manchester.”

  “Then why not say that?”

  “I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t want to create a panic or maybe he doesn’t care about the people who won’t be living under The Shield. The attack must be at least a few days off yet, so that dome monstrosity will be up by then...” Goulden started to walk towards the back of the room, so Dylan cut his rant short. “Come on, we’d better get out of here before he comes.”

  Scarlett followed Dylan out of the room, her mind whirring with all the information she had just heard. There was so much more to take in and think about than she had expected. Not only was Goulden going to war with Mendia, but it sounded like he planned to take on the whole world and force the UK’s youngsters to fight as part of national service.

  Most mind boggling of all were his grand plans for segregated cities, with the rich living in a bubble enjoying delicious food, fresh air and the good life while the poor rotted in the hell outside. Of course, the rich would also be safe from attack as Goulden advanced his wars and took on more countries, which she had no doubt he would do. Why else was he making the country self-sufficient?

  Goulden might be crowing about his plans as some kind of perfect utopian existence, but it sounded like the opposite to her. It sounded like very bad news indeed.

  “What now?” she whispered to Dylan.

  “We follow him, I want to see where he goes next. We learned a lot here about his short and long-term plans, but I’d still like to know more about this war. Let’s see if his actions give us some clues.”

  Chapter 18

  Dylan and Scarlett kept a safe distance from Goulden as they followed him out of Manchester Central. He climbed into a waiting black Jaguar car with two of his men and was driven away through the city streets.

  “How do we keep up with him now?” Scarlett asked.

  “We fly.”

  Dylan pulled her round the corner, then when no one was looking, soared up into the sky and kept his eye on the car and the roads below. “You OK to fly by yourself now?” he said as he let go of her hand. She nodded and glided along beside him. As she looked down, she noticed thousands of men working away below her, almost forming a circle around the south-west corner of the city. She realised they were constructing The Shield, but she couldn’t see any sign of the glass dome yet. She diverted her attention back to Goulden’s Jaguar, the last thing she wanted to do was lose him because she was distracted.

  They kept up with the car as it zipped through the city centre before coming to a halt outside the Arndale Workhouse a few minutes later. The pair watched from above as Goulden and his men went inside, then they both descended to the ground in a side alley and worked their way around the perimeter of the workhouse. Once again, they were searching for any way in that they could find. The building was sealed off by a boarded fence, but Scarlett was hoping there’d be a doorway built into it somewhere like the one she’d come across the day they got here.

  “There!” Scarlett said as she noticed a Guardian walk out of an exit and call someone on his mobile phone. He’d left the door behind him slightly ajar. “Come on.”

  She led the way as the two of them crept behind the man, who was engaged in a debate with whoever he was talking to, and slipped through the small crack where he’d left the door open. The hinges let out a groaning creak as Dylan opened it another inch to fit through and Scarlett’s heart pounded as she waited to see if anyone had heard them, but they got away with it. They ran across a few feet of concrete and through an entrance to the building itself, which she unlocked with ease thanks to her telekinesis.

  Once inside, Scarlett and Dylan were met with a bland cream corridor, which led them to a set of red double doors. They paused, wondering what might be awaiting them on the other side, then pushed their way through to find a large workhouse that was split across two levels, with the top floor looking down over the one they were standing on.

  The ground floor maintained the same layout of the old shopping
mall. People were working away in the empty shops and Guardians patrolled the wide walkway that ran down the middle of the two rows of stores. This path was also rammed with large trolleys, which were full of machines and weapons. Scarlett watched as a girl of around 15 carried a large grey metal device out of a store and lugged it onto one of the trolleys. It was almost as big as the girl herself and she struggled as she heaved it onto a shelf, but none of the Guardians made a move to help her. They just carried on with their daily business and ignored her plight.

  “Trolley E94 is full,” a Guardian said into a walkie talkie. “Send a porter to collect it.”

  “We’re exposed standing here,” Scarlett whispered to Dylan.

  She pulled him into an old mobile phone shop on their right. The walls were still covered in shiny white décor with blindingly bright lights above them. It was almost the same as she remembered it, but the shops had been gutted of furniture and the old frontages removed to create an open workhouse; probably to allow the Guardians to keep an eye on the slaves at all times.

  “Who are you?” a boy asked.

  Scarlett held a finger to her lips and gave him a pleading look. “Please don’t alert them to us.” She and Dylan rushed to the back of the room and hid behind a small production line of ten workers who were assembling some kind of guns.

  “You here to hurt us or them?” another boy said.

  He kept staring ahead instead of turning around to look at Scarlett and Dylan and she silently thanked him for not drawing attention to them.

  “Them.”

  “That’s good. Don’t worry, we won’t let them know you’re here, we’ll keep working as usual.”

  “We’ll be punished if we don’t,” a third boy added.

  “Thanks,” Dylan said.

  Scarlett noticed a familiar marking on the boy’s neck: a green star tattoo like the one she’d seen on Rachel and the workers at the Irwell Tower.

  “That’s an interesting tattoo,” she said.

  The boy flung his hand over it. He looked repulsed to be reminded of the inking. “Don’t you know the Workhouse Mark? We all have these. It’s like a badge of shame to tell the world we work as slaves in return for our so-called benefits.”

  “I’m sorry,” Scarlett whispered. “I had no idea.”

  “It’s OK, miss. I didn’t mean to snap, I just get angry about being marked this way. It’s like a stamp to say we’re a lower class of citizen, you know what I mean? The posh people don’t half look down their noses when they see it.”

  “I don’t look at you that way.” Scarlett gave him a warm smile.

  “Thanks. You’d better stay quiet now unless you want to wind up working here too.”

  Scarlett gave him a nod of thanks as she and Dylan crouched down on their hands and knees. She was looking around the room, trying to decide what their next move should be when she spotted a group of people walking past the entrance to the shop. All she could see at this level was several pairs of smart black shoes clomping by, so she peered over the top of the worktables to get a better look.

  “It’s Goulden,” she said. “Two of his men and a bunch of people I’ve never seen before.”

  “Time for us to leave. Thanks for covering for us,” Dylan said as they both exited the store and followed Goulden’s entourage.

  They stayed 30 feet or so behind as they tailed them to a set of escalators that led to the upper floors. As Goulden’s men came to a halt, the two of them dived behind the other side of the escalator so they could listen in. Scarlett could hear Dylan’s heart beating as loudly as hers as she silently prayed that no one would spot them here. She shot him a reassuring smile and he gave her hand a squeeze in return. It helped to have him by her side on missions like this.

  She turned her attention back to Goulden’s group, where a senior Guardian was giving a speech as he gestured to the floor above. “Up there is where we’re making the special weapons, sir. I’m sure you’ll be delighted with the progress.”

  “Very good,” Goulden said. “And when will they be ready?”

  “Oh I’m not sure, sir… in around two months.”

  “That long? I need them today.”

  “Sir, you can’t hurry developments like this. I’d prefer to wait two months.”

  “The Prime Minister just told you he needs them today,” Charlie Walker said.

  The Guardian went quiet for a second. “OK, OK. We do have some prototype machines ready. They’re not perfect, but…”

  “We’ll take them,” Goulden said. “And the bombs?”

  “They’re ready for you now, sir. You can pick them up from the facility down the road whenever you like.”

  “OK, I guess that will do for now. And what about the three teenagers I’m looking for, are you certain they’re working here?”

  “Yes sir, they were brought in the other day: two boys and a girl in their late teens.”

  Scarlett gasped. They must be referring to Aaron, Jay and Isabella.

  “Bring them to me, I’m taking them. I assume you’re OK with that?” The tone of Goulden’s voice suggested that the Guardian didn’t have any choice in the matter.

  “Of course, sir. To be honest, they’ve been a real handful, so I’ll be glad to see the back of them.”

  “Chris, can you bring the three teenagers to the escalators please? The Prime Minister wants them.”

  Dylan looked at Scarlett. “The others,” he mouthed to her. She nodded to show she’d figured it out too. “What do we do?” she silently said back, but Dylan didn’t have any immediate answers.

  She stared around the old shopping centre and focussed her attention on the floor above. The upper ceilings were still decorated with contemporary light fittings the size of a dining table; she could inflict some serious damage if she made those come down. She heard voices descending the escalator next to them, so she lowered her gaze to see Aaron, Jay and Isabella being escorted down the moving stairs. Isabella gasped in shock when she peered over the edge and spotted the two of them.

  “What’s wrong with you?” a Guardian snapped.

  “Nothing,” Isabella said. “I’m afraid about where we’re going, that’s all.”

  “And so you should be,” Goulden said as he caught the end of her sentence. “Isabella, my little time freezer, it’s so good to have you back. I was sorely disappointed when you ran out on me after I went to all that effort to give you superpowers.”

  Isabella didn’t respond and as Scarlett poked her head around the escalator, she saw that all three of their friends were wearing handcuffs and had their ankles chained together.

  “What do you want with us?” Jay said.

  “The same as always, Jason. I want you to fight for me. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I lost four good soldiers this morning, so I was delighted when I heard some superpowered teenagers had tried to escape this workhouse on the very same day. What a delightful coincidence. I had no idea you were even in Manchester and here you are just as I’m in town. Of course, I’m disappointed that Miss Shortt, Mr Nicolson and Miss Watts aren’t with you; they’ve always been the most powerful in my opinion, but I guess you’ll do.”

  “We don’t have any powers anymore,” Jay said. “Your men took them away with some kind of injection.”

  “Don’t worry, that was only temporary. Now come along, I have a car waiting to take you away.”

  As she heard them walk towards the exit, Scarlett knew she had to do something. She looked back up at the extravagant lights and willed them to tremble loose from their fittings, causing two of them to smash to the ground. Several people screamed as the sound of glass smashing echoed throughout the mall.

  “I told those idiots in maintenance that those things needed checking,” one of the Guardians muttered.

  “Oh, I don’t think that was accidental,” Goulden said.

  Scarlett and Dylan listened as he strode up and down the corridor like an animal stalking its prey.

  “Miss Shortt
?” he called, his voice booming off the walls.

  “Scarlett’s not with us,” Jay said. “She’s not even in Manchester. The other five were separated from us days ago.”

  She was thankful and impressed by her friend’s quick thinking.

  “You would say that.”

  Goulden didn’t sound convinced. He stood still on the spot and peered around the shopping centre suspiciously.

  “It’s the truth.”

  “We did have another light crash down last week,” the Guardian said. “I’m sure it’s a fault with the building.”

  Goulden eyed the man suspiciously, then seemed to accept his explanation.

  “OK, very well. Let’s leave before the walls start crumbling down around our ears. I sincerely hope that your work is of a higher standard than your building, Guardian.”

  “It is, sir, you can trust me.”

  “Hmmm. We shall see. Right, men, take these three to the car.”

  He stomped towards the doors, giving a small beckoning wave to indicate that everyone else should follow him. Scarlett and Dylan listened as the group made their way through the doors that led out to Shudehill, then raced after them, keen to save their friends before they were driven away.

  “Any ideas?” Scarlett said as they sprinted through another set of double doors and to an exit.

  “Only one. You boost my powers, I create an ice wall that stops the car getting away, then we both try our best to free them. It would have been stupid to attack Goulden while we were trapped in the workhouse, but hopefully we can escape into the backstreets outside.”

  Scarlett gave Dylan’s plan a nod of approval. He was right, waiting until they were outside was the best idea and she cursed herself for not seeing that before. She’d almost got them caught by smashing the light, but she couldn’t worry about that now; she had to focus on their next move.

  She telekinetically flung the final door open and they both ran outside to see Goulden’s Jaguar preparing to drive off. She took Dylan’s hand, allowing him to create a giant ice wall in front of the car, which caused it to crash to a halt.