Underground (10 page)

‘Yes,' Dad said darkly. ‘He did. Thankfully, I wasn't home when you called. I was in Melbourne on business. They came to the hotel. But there was a conference on, and by then the morning crowd was up.' He breathed a long sigh. ‘I got away.'

‘Here,' I said, finally finding the bandages. I handed Dad one of the little white rolls and flashed the torch onto Jordan's arm. There was blood everywhere.

I went back to Dad's bag for a water bottle. Jordan flinched as I poured the water out over her arm, washing away the blood.

‘It doesn't look too bad,' said Dad, examining the gash. ‘It could do with a few stitches.' He glanced up, catching my eye. ‘But that's not an option, is it?'

I shook my head. ‘We're not very popular with the doctor right now.'

Dad stretched out the end of the bandage and started wrapping it around Jordan's arm.

‘So you got away from Shackleton's guys …' Jordan prompted.

‘Yeah,' said Dad. ‘I tried going to the police, but all I had was a couple of unidentified stalkers and a rumour of trouble in a town that – as far as the rest of the world is concerned – doesn't even exist. I guess I can't really blame them for being unconvinced.'

I was settling down enough by now to start taking in the details of what he was saying, but it still took me a second to see what it meant.

‘So … they're not coming,' I said. ‘The police or the army or whoever. This isn't – We're not getting rescued?'

‘No.' Dad gave me the same sad, defeated look he used to get whenever Mum would end an argument by storming out of the house. ‘No, it's just me.'

That should have disappointed me more than it did. But right now, ‘just him' felt like plenty.

‘Anyway,' Dad went on, ‘I left the police station. Took a cab straight to Melbourne Airport. It was a public place and – Well, your mum could never even get a
nail file
into the terminal, so I thought I'd be at least a bit safer there. I called Dorothy from a courtesy phone. Our neighbour,' he added, for Jordan's benefit. ‘And she told me a couple of “repairmen” had arrived at the flat that morning. I put two and two together and figured it wasn't safe to go back home.'

‘It's still out there,' Jordan marvelled, as Dad fastened the bandage. ‘The world. It's still …'

‘Yeah. For now.' I slipped off my own backpack, which had somehow managed to stay with me this whole time, and took out another jumper. ‘Here, you want one that doesn't have blood all over it?'

‘Thanks,' said Jordan, pulling it over her head. She looked at my dad. ‘You don't have the time, do you?'

He glanced at his watch. ‘Almost nine-thirty.'

‘Good,' she said, in the voice that always meant whatever was coming next
wasn't
good. ‘Plenty of time.'

‘Plenty of time for what?'

Jordan stood up. ‘We're going to go and get Peter back.'

‘Seriously?
Now?
But you were the one who –'

‘That was before they gave us the advantage.'

I didn't even bother responding to that one.

‘Look,' said Jordan, ‘they're still dangerous. I know they are. But there are three of us now. And we need a place to stay, right? You really think we're going to get another chance to catch them above ground?' She started moving off, not even looking back to see if I was coming. ‘The overseers want us at the lake by ten? We'll be there. And we'll be ready for them.'

Chapter 13

T
UESDAY
, J
UNE
30
44
DAYS

‘This is a bad idea,' I whispered.

‘No worse than usual,' said Jordan. ‘Shh!'

It was just past 10 p.m. We were lying in the grass at the edge of the lake, opposite the creepy, candle-filled cave we'd discovered a couple of weeks back. Waiting for Kara and Soren to arrive. Hoping security didn't beat them to it.

I tried to tell myself that Jordan was right. I mean, I still didn't think this was a
good
plan, but it made at least as much sense as freezing to death out in the bush.

Dad was crouched in some bushes a couple of metres away. I kept turning my head, making sure he was there, still not quite believing it.

‘
Luke
,' whispered Jordan. ‘Stay
still
.'

‘Sorry,' I murmured, staring back up at the stars, arms behind my back so Kara and Soren would think they were tied.

In the last half-hour, we'd filled Dad in on the various people in Phoenix who were trying to kill us, and he'd given us the rest of the story of how he'd got here.

Dad had used work connections to track down some old financial documents linking Shackleton to Remi Vattel, and then used that to figure out where we were. He'd chartered a flight as close as he could get to Phoenix – the Co-operative had somehow got the 20km around the town marked out as a no-fly zone – and then made the rest of the trip on foot.

But the craziest part was how he'd got inside. On Monday night, he'd reached the giant wall that surrounded this place (which I guess explained that troop of security commandos we'd seen stomping off into the bush). He'd circuited the wall and pretty much given up hope of finding a way inside, when he spotted a rope dangling down the over the edge.

The rope
we' d
thrown over the wall six weeks ago, on the night we'd first discovered it.

Which was almost impossible enough to make me think Jordan was right about there being some kind of purpose to all of this.

Dad had spent the last forty-eight hours sneaking through the bush, avoiding security, trying to find us.

I hadn't told him about Mum and Montag. Not yet.

I glanced over at the bushes again.

‘
Stop –'
Jordan began.

Then something white moved across my peripheral vision and I dropped my head back down into the dirt. They were here.

A torch flashed on and I closed my eyes, listening to their footsteps crunching through the undergrowth. The torch beam fell on my face and I had to force myself not to squint away from it.

A foot came down next to me. Close enough to kick dirt into the back of my hand.

‘They are both unconscious,' said Soren in his weirdly stilted voice, crouching as he spoke.

‘Mm,' said Kara, unconvinced, from Jordan's other side. ‘Sedate them anyway.'

I cringed, seconds away from –

A rustle in the bushes.

Shifting feet, and a gasp from Kara.

‘
Stop
,' said Dad, flicking his own torch on.

I opened my eyes. Soren was hovering over me, autoinjector pen in hand. Back in his white lab coat.

He twitched, realising I was awake. I grabbed his wrist and he dropped the pen. His other hand came around to –

Whumph!

Jordan dived forward, tackling him, shouting at the impact to her injured arm.

Kara was standing with her back to me, eyes on Dad, who was holding Mike's knife out in front of him. Not that he would ever use it, but between the bloodied weapon and the raggedy beard, he was pretty convincing as a crazy psycho.

Jordan had Soren pinned to the ground by now, her good hand splayed across his chest. Soren gazed at her for a second, mesmerised. He reached for her hand, but Jordan thumped him hard on the chest.

Soren yelped. I felt around in the darkness, grabbed the autoinjector pen, then got up to help Jordan haul him to his feet. He flinched at the touch, made one last attempt to wrench free, then gave up and turned his attention to Dad. His face twisted as he got a better look at him. ‘It's the father!'

‘I
know
who it is,' said Kara impatiently.

‘But – He isn't –'

Splash!

I whirled around, searching for whatever had just hit the water behind us.

‘
Moron!'
hissed a voice from the shadows.

Kara shone her torch down to the edge of the lake. ‘Out,' she demanded. ‘Where I can see you.
Now.

' More rustling bushes, and Mike appeared. He looked petrified. Even worse than when Calvin had caught him down in the crater. Cathryn and Tank followed him out. Tank's right leg was dripping wet.

‘Kneel,' Kara ordered.

Mike dropped to his knees, eyes down. Tank glanced uncertainly at Kara for another second, then followed suit. Cathryn stood behind them, scared but unmoving.

‘Are you kidding?' said Jordan. ‘Get up!'

‘
Kneel!'
Kara boomed.

Cathryn dropped down to join the others.

I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sick. I could understand fear. I could understand following orders.

But this was something completely different.

‘No,
stop
,' said Jordan, exasperated. ‘Look at them! Look at what's in front of you! They're just
people
.'

‘How dare you disobey a decree of the overseers?' shouted Kara, drowning her out again, still managing to sound commanding, even with Dad's knife trained on her.

‘We tried!' said Tank shakily. ‘But then that guy came and attacked us!'

I looked over at Dad, but he didn't respond. He was watching the scene unfold, waiting before he did anything. The same steady, patient way of dealing with conflict that always used to drive Mum nuts.

‘You have failed us,' spat Soren, pulling against Jordan and me again. His constant twitchiness made him much worse at the whole evil overlord act than his mum, but Mike still swallowed every word.

‘Please!' he said, head down in the dirt. ‘We did everything we could!'

‘You have beheld the face of the overseers,' said Kara darkly.

‘No!' said Tank. ‘No – we weren't –!'

‘Perhaps you thought you could deceive us,' said Kara. ‘Perhaps you thought yourselves
above
the position you had been entrusted with?'

Mike dropped even lower. ‘No … no …'

It was insane. We had them. Soren caught and Kara looking down the wrong end of a knife. But it was like Mike and the others couldn't see any of that. Like whatever was going on in their heads was more important than the reality in front of them.

They weren't just
devoted
to their overseers. They'd been completely brainwashed.

‘Enough!' shouted Jordan, staring down at Mike. ‘Get up!'

‘Don't,' Kara warned.

‘Cathryn,' Jordan pushed on, ‘you said you were
finished
with this!'

Cathryn shook her head. ‘I couldn't … I couldn't just leave him …'

‘Quiet!' said Kara. ‘One more word and you will never see Peter again.'

‘You really think they're going to give him to you?' said Jordan.

‘They're the overseers, you moron!' said Mike, like that was an answer.

‘Overseers of
what?
' I said. ‘What does that even mean?'

‘It means they do what we tell them,' sneered Soren.

‘Why?' said Jordan, still looking down at Mike. ‘Because they stuck a bunch of candles in a cave and said you had a destiny? Mike, they can't even figure out who they're meant to be fighting against!'

‘That will do!' said Kara, eyes flashing.

‘Yeah,' said Jordan, letting go of Soren. ‘It will.'

She yanked the auto-injector pen out of my hand and jammed it into the side of Soren's arm. He yelled out, pulling against me, almost dragging us both over as he jerked the needle back out.

Cathryn looked up.

‘Eyes on the ground!' Kara ordered.

Cathryn ignored her. She grabbed hold of a low-hanging branch, pulling herself shakily to her feet.

Soren was still shouting and flailing, the same startled-animal movements. I let go of him and he staggered over to his mum, arm hanging limp by his side.

‘There!' said Jordan, thrusting a hand at him. ‘Behold your invincible overseer! Pretty impressive, huh?'

Soren crumpled at Kara's feet as the sedative took over. By now the others were watching too. Dawning comprehension on Tank's face. Cold fury on Mike's.

Kara shot a piercing look at Jordan, but didn't open her mouth again. Soren let out one last muffled groan and stopped moving.

‘You killed him!' said Tank, awed.

Jordan rolled her eyes. ‘He'll wake up in a few hours.'

Mike got to his feet, pulling the sling back over his shoulder. He looked ready to rip Jordan apart.

‘You really want to try it, Mike?' said Jordan. ‘You couldn't take me when you had
both
hands. How do you think –?'

He charged at her.

Dad stepped forward, moving between them before Mike could touch her.

‘I think you children had better go,' said Dad. ‘
All
the way home this time.'

Mike looked at the knife in Dad's hand, swore at him, and turned away. And for the second time that night, the three of them slipped off into the shadows.