Underground (11 page)

Dad's eyes shifted to Kara, then down to Soren's collapsed form, then back over to Jordan and me, with a look on his face like his brain was pretty close to overload.

‘So,' he said, ‘this is what you've been doing for the last two months.'

‘Pretty much,' I sighed, rubbing my wrist where Soren had grabbed me. ‘And you haven't even met the
real
bad guys yet.'

Chapter 14

T
UESDAY
, J
UNE
30
44
DAYS

‘How did you find us, anyway?' I asked Kara, my voice low as we crept through the bush toward the Vattel Complex. ‘I mean, if the Co-operative didn't know where we were, how did you guys figure it out?'

Kara just kept walking, eyes forward. She hadn't spoken since we left the lake.

Jordan made a frustrated noise behind her. ‘What, the mighty overseer can't answer a simple question?'

No response.

We kept moving, torches off. Dad was next to me, carrying a still-unconscious Soren. He grunted, shifting him across to his other shoulder.

A few more steps and we came to the bike path. Somehow, I'd ended up out in front. I looked both ways, and dashed across to the other side, where a line of black Shackleton Co-operative security tape still marked out a wide stretch of bushland around the crater.

‘What's this?' Dad asked.

‘Long story,' I said. ‘C'mon.'

We stepped over. Not far to go now.

But there's still time for security to find us,
I thought.

‘It's sick,' said Jordan. ‘You know that, right?' I looked back and realised she was talking to Kara again. ‘Twisting people's minds around. Wanting to be worshipped. That's, like, an actual illness.'

No response.

‘How long did it take you?' Jordan asked, voice rising. ‘Stroking their egos, telling them they were
special.
How long did it take you to break them down like that?'

‘Don't even bother,' I said. ‘She's not –' ‘They believed in you!' Jordan raged. ‘They risked their lives because you made them think they were part of something!'

‘They
were
part of something!' Kara shot back, finally cracking.

‘They could have been killed!'

‘Yes,' said Kara. ‘Three lives weighed against the whole of humanity.'

‘You're not helping humanity!' Jordan seethed. ‘And they weren't your lives, were they? You were safe and sound, down in your little –'

‘
Shh!'
I said, turning back. ‘Just – Look, just wait till we get down there, okay? We can't do this out here.'

Jordan dropped back again. ‘Yeah. Sorry.'

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

I thought about Mike, Cathryn and Tank, kneeling in the dirt at the edge of the lake. They'd kidnapped Peter, tied us up at knifepoint, slashed Jordan, beaten me up, and almost got us both gunned down by Calvin and his men, all because they'd been dumb enough to buy into a bunch of crap from Kara and Soren about it being their
destiny.

So how come I was suddenly feeling sorry for them?

We marched Kara down through the long, reedy grass and into the dense bushes toward the Vattel Complex. Still no sound except for our crunching footsteps and a few night animals.

I slowed down, straining to make out a low, dark shape running though the dirt in front of me. The decaying remains of a concrete wall. Part of whatever this place used to be, back before Phoenix.

I crossed to the tunnel entrance. Dad sent me a puzzled look.

‘Well?' I said, looking to Kara.

She didn't move.

‘You really want to still be out here when the sun comes up?' said Jordan.

Kara's lip curled. She pushed her lab coat aside and pulled something from her back pocket. I flicked Dad's torch on, flashing it down on her hand. She was holding what looked like a straightened-out paperclip with a lump of plasticine or something on the end.

Kara bent down at another ruined wall and pushed the grass aside to reveal two little holes, side by side in the concrete. I thought back to Pryor's office and realised those holes had probably once had a power outlet in front of them. Kara stuck the end of the paperclip into one of the holes and dug it around inside for a second. There was a sharp hiss, and the tunnel entrance started sinking down into the ground.

‘Huh,' said Dad in surprise.

Kara pocketed the paperclip again, looking extremely unimpressed at being forced to give away this secret. She moved to head inside.

Jordan grabbed her by the back of her coat. ‘Why don't you let me go first?'

She brushed past, down into the tunnel. Kara followed after her.

‘Make sure you keep to the left,' I told Dad, stepping in. ‘It spirals down, and there's no railing on the – Oh, no.'

Torches flickering through the trees. Not close enough to reach us, but they would be soon.

Dad and I dropped into the tunnel.

‘Security!' I called down into the darkness. ‘Quick, how do we close it up?'

‘There's a button on the wall,' Kara called back. ‘Level with the third step.'

I scratched at the mouldy concrete. ‘I can't –'

‘Got it,' said Dad, and the concrete-and-dirt slab started sliding back into place.

I bounded down the steps, heart smashing against my chest, not even breathing until the last glint of moonlight had disappeared.

I reached the bottom of the tunnel, glancing back to check that Dad was still there. We headed through the door and joined Jordan and Kara in the dirty hallway, already mid-argument.

‘You're not taking him,' said Kara.

Jordan ignored her, heading through to the room with all the surveillance computers.

I pushed open the door to Soren's bedroom. Dad dropped Soren off, and we hurried to catch up with the others.

‘You
can't
,' said Kara, striding in behind Jordan. ‘You have no idea what he's –'

Jordan turned to face her. ‘You want proof that we've got nothing to do with this? Fine. We can give it to you. But we need Peter to get it.'

We do?

An explosion of jangling metal rang out from the next room. Peter was straining against his bed again.

‘Jordan!' he called. ‘Jordan – In here!'

Jordan crossed the room, into the laboratory place. Kara shot after her.

I scanned the surveillance computers on my way past, checking for security guards up at the entrance. A guard shot straight across the path of the camera and kept running.

Good.

‘Through here,' I said, glancing at Dad again.

But Dad was fixated on the wall behind me, eyes drifting over the creepy serial-killer pin boards that showed just how long Kara and Soren had been trying to track us down. He stretched out a hand, brushing the face of one of my old primary school photos.

Why us?
I wondered again. Where were they getting their information from?

‘What
is
this place?' Dad asked.

‘Yeah, good question,' I sighed. ‘Come on. Better make sure Kara doesn't try anything.'

As we walked through to the next room, I noticed a printer in the corner near the door, with a few sheets of paper lying on top. My own face stared back at me from the first page. A blurry black-and-white image, probably scanned from a newspaper article. I picked up the papers and took them with me into the lab.

We came through the door and found Kara standing with her back to Peter's bed, trying to keep Jordan from getting to him. Peter was still thrashing against his restraints, looking determined to destroy Kara even if he had to bite her to death.

‘Peter!' Jordan shouted. ‘
Calm down.
We're going to get you out.'

Peter stopped struggling, but there was no change in the rage on his face.

I ran around to the other side of the bed. Kara's eyes darted back and forth between Jordan and me.

‘Get away from him,' I said.

Dad dropped the knife into one of the sinks along the wall and came across to join us, taking Kara by the arms and pulling her away from Peter.

‘Please,' she said, looking up at Dad, desperation slipping into her voice now. ‘Please believe me. This is a mistake.'

Jordan was already pulling back the belt from across Peter's still-bandaged head. I left the papers and the torch on the end of the bed, and reached over to start on his ankles.

‘Sure you don't have somewhere else to run off to, mate?' he asked, and I felt the shame well up again.

‘Peter, listen, I'm
really
sorry about –'

‘You left me!' he shouted, stretching up as another strap came away.

I backed away, just in case. ‘Sorry! I'm sorry, okay? It was an accident.'

‘Yeah,' said Peter. ‘I hate it when I accidentally run up a bunch of stairs.'

‘Listen,' hissed Jordan, ‘we almost died that night! We almost got shot trying to find you. So just drop the attitude, all right? We're getting you out.'

Peter's face flashed with regret. ‘No, I didn't mean …' He slumped back down to the bed.

Jordan moved around to free his wrist, and Peter shot a covert little snarl at me behind her back, like it was
my
fault she'd defended me. He wasn't making it easy to keep feeling sorry for him.

Peter looked over at Dad, like he'd just noticed him. ‘Crazy Bill has a brother?'

‘That's my dad.' I stepped forward cautiously, loosening the strap from his leg.

‘No, seriously. Who is it?'

‘It's true,' said Jordan. ‘He got here last night.'

Peter pulled a face like he still didn't know whether to believe it. ‘Where have you guys been, anyway?'

‘Hiding out in town,' said Jordan, getting his other leg undone. ‘Trying to find a safe way to get you out of here. Good thing these guys got rid of our suppressors, otherwise we never would've –'

‘No they didn't,' said Peter, sitting up.

Jordan looked up. ‘Sorry?'

‘How do you reckon they knew where to send Mike to get you?'

‘But we've been up there almost a week, and Calvin never even –' I broke off, suddenly getting it. I turned to Kara. ‘You didn't take them
out
of us. You just – what? Reprogrammed them or something?'

‘Clever boy,' said Kara dryly.

They'd been tracking us the whole time. Just waiting for a chance to send Mike and the others out to pick us up.

‘Probably reconfigured the tracking signals to attack Shackleton's computer and erase our positions,' said Peter. ‘That's what I would've done, anyway. Shackleton must've been distracted when it happened though, or else –'

Jordan whipped around, face to face with Kara again. ‘
Take them out.

' ‘No,' said Kara.

‘I don't really think you're in any position to refuse,' said Dad, still holding tight to both of her arms.

I shook my head, amazed at his ability to just pick up all of Phoenix's weirdness and run with it. Like all of this was just another one of his business consultations.

‘Really?' said Kara. ‘Do any of
you
know how to perform the surgery?'

Jordan pulled back the last of Peter's restraints – really the last one this time – and he swivelled around, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

‘Thanks,' he said.

And before any of us realised what was happening, he tore across the room, smashing straight into Kara's chest and knocking her to the ground, out of Dad's hands.

‘Peter, no!' Jordan shouted.

But the first punch had already landed on Kara's jaw.

Chapter 15

T
UESDAY
, J
UNE
30
44
DAYS

It was Mr Hanger all over again. Dad reached down to pull Peter off, but Peter grabbed Kara's hair, dragging her up with him. She screamed and Dad let go. Peter crashed down again, landing on top of Kara and driving her head into the lino.