Underground (15 page)

Jordan sighed. She pulled me in, wrapping her arms around my back, forehead resting on my shoulder. ‘Sorry,' she said. ‘This is all just so …'

‘I know it is,' I said stupidly, hugging her back, suddenly very aware of Dad and Kara. ‘We'll figure it out in the morning.'

‘There's another room across the hall,' said Dad, letting the Montag comment slide for the moment. ‘A living area. There's a beanbag and a couple of couches.' He stood up from the bench and looked to Kara. ‘Do you have any spare blankets?'

Kara pursed her lips, reminding me uncomfortably of Mum. ‘I'll see what I can find.'

‘What about Peter?' Jordan asked, stepping away from me.

‘He'll need to be strapped down again,' said Kara. ‘For his own safety as much as anyone's,' she added, at the look on Jordan's face. ‘I'll find a more long-term solution tomorrow.'

Jordan and I looked at each other. I shrugged and nodded. I didn't like it, but after tonight, it didn't seem like an argument we could win.

Kara walked out of the room, and Dad followed.

Jordan and I went over to Peter's bed. Jordan straightened out his legs and we started fastening his straps again.

I spotted a box of tissues on the bench next to me. I ran one under some water and wiped the blood away from Peter's face, trying not to think about how much worse things were probably going to get when he woke up.

Chapter 19

W
EDNESDAY
, J
ULY
1
43
DAYS

‘But she heard it herself!' said Jordan angrily. ‘She
heard
Shackleton planning it all. What more proof does she need that we're not the ones they should be fighting?'

I watched her scrape the last few dregs of porridge from the bottom of her bowl. We'd only been up for an hour or so, but I'd already lost count of how many times we'd circled around to that question.

‘Maybe she thinks we're working
with
Shackleton,' I said.

‘Right,' said Jordan. ‘That would be why he keeps trying to kill us.'

We were sitting on one of the springy old couches in the living area where we'd spent the night. We hadn't seen Kara or Soren yet that morning, but there was a little kitchen at the other end of the room, and we'd helped ourselves to some breakfast.

Dad was over on the beanbag, making up for lost sleep. We'd decided to take turns keeping watch through the night, just in case. Dad had volunteered for the first shift, and I'd woken up ten hours later to find him still sitting there, watching the door.

‘I think maybe proof isn't the problem,' I said. ‘Because, yeah, it's not like we haven't given her enough of that to go on. But I think maybe it's not about that. I think this is about whatever made her decide to go after us in the first place. She still trusts that more than she trusts us.'

‘She's a moron,' said Jordan, dropping her bowl onto the carpet.

I was pretty sure it wasn't that simple. But considering last night's vision of her family getting dragged off by security, it wasn't surprising that Jordan seemed a bit less calm and rational than usual.

The door opened and Kara walked in, shooting a disapproving look at the bowls on the floor. ‘Come with me.'

‘Come with you where?' asked Jordan, getting up.

Kara turned back toward the door. ‘There's something I need to show you.'

I looked down at Dad and wondered if we should wake him.

‘Let him sleep,' said Kara. ‘We're not going to do anything to him.'

‘Where's Soren?' I asked.

‘He's working,' said Kara.

She took us down the grimy corridor that led into the mess of half-destroyed rooms where they'd first held us prisoner. There were lights on now, and it was easier to see what it all might have looked like, back when it was up and running.

‘What was this all for?' I asked, glancing through a gap in the wall at what looked like a huge microscope, half-drowned in the concrete. ‘What were you guys doing down here?'

‘Research,' said Kara, in a tone that said that was all the answer I was going to get.

Again, I was forcibly reminded of Mum. The more I talked to Kara, the more I thought the two of them could have been best friends in another life.

‘You worked for Remi Vattel, right?' said Jordan. ‘She was the one who –'

‘I didn't
work
for Remi Vattel,' said Kara irritably. ‘She was my mother.'

The corridor opened up in front of us and I spotted a familiar leather couch to our right. We were back at the room where they'd tied me up.

Kara stopped at the door. They'd riveted a metal plate across the little window, shrinking the gap so it was barely big enough to fit a hand through. Underneath, three thick steel bars stretched out across the door on metal brackets, barricading it shut.

‘This is where we'll be holding Peter,' said Kara.

Jordan clenched her teeth. ‘What?'

I could already tell this was going to be a short conversation. I had maybe thirty seconds until it degenerated into a brawl.

‘We'll keep him sedated as much as possible, of course,' said Kara, ‘however –' ‘No we
won't,
' said Jordan. ‘You think you get to make that decision?'

Kara's eyes glinted behind her glasses. ‘Would you like to present an alternative?'

‘He's not an animal!' Jordan shouted. ‘You can't just lock him up and –'

‘Jordan …' I braced myself, knowing this would probably get me ripped to bits.

She took a step away from me. ‘No. Luke, you can't be okay with this!'

‘I'm not,' I said, in what I hoped was a calming voice. I turned to Kara. ‘You're not sedating him. He stays awake. And Jordan and I get to come in and see him whenever we want.'

‘Luke –' Jordan tried again.

‘You get him a bed,' I went on, wanting to get this all out before the argument had a chance to escalate. ‘And food, and clothes. And books to read, and – whatever he wants. And we figure out a way for him to wash and go to the toilet in an actual bathroom.'

Kara wouldn't like it. But with Dad here and us back on our feet again, the situation had changed, and she knew it. That's why she'd ‘let us stay' without any real fight. And why she was showing us Peter's cell instead of trying to put us back in our own.

‘All right,' she said. ‘Yes. Fine. I'll organise it.'

My eyes drifted back to the barricaded door. A week ago, it had been me beaten up and lying on the ground in there. And now …

‘So that's it, huh?' said Jordan. ‘He's just a prisoner?'

‘What else are we supposed to do?' I asked. ‘You saw what he did to those guards! Something's
happening
to him. This is the only way to –' ‘What about me?' Jordan asked. ‘Am I getting locked up too?'

Kara shot her a piercing look.

‘Jordan, no,' I said, ‘that's not what's –'

‘Mum!' echoed a voice from further down the corridor. Soren barrelled into the room with a safety helmet on his head and a pickaxe over his shoulder.

He barged straight past Jordan and me. ‘It's open. Come and look.'

Kara nodded. Then, to me: ‘We're finished here. Why don't you head back and see if your father's up yet?'

Soren twitched, as though he'd just realised that we were there too.

‘No,' said Jordan. ‘No, I think we'll come with you.'

Kara narrowed her eyes but didn't argue. The three of us followed Soren deeper into the ruined building. The further we went, the more the concrete pressed in around us. I watched the pickaxe swaying on Soren's shoulder – it wasn't the first time we'd seen one of them lugging it around – and it finally dawned on me what they were doing with it.

‘You've been, like, excavating this place, haven't you?' I said. ‘Digging it all up out of the concrete.'

No answer.

We reached a particularly narrow section of the pathway, and I had to turn sideways just to fit through. I squeezed out the other side and sped up to reach Jordan. ‘I'm sorry,' I whispered. And then, when she didn't respond, ‘You think I don't hate this just as much as you do? But we can't just let him …'

‘Run wild?' said Jordan.

‘That's not – What else can we do? He isn't safe.'

Jordan shook her head. ‘Soren's walking around with a pickaxe. You think that's safe?'

‘Jordan –'

But Soren and Kara had just stopped up ahead. To our left was an even narrower tunnel that had been dug out of the concrete wall. We crawled through on our hands and knees.

‘I assume this is all stable,' Kara said.

‘Yes,' said Soren. ‘I've checked everything. Almost half the room is still intact.'

By the end of the tunnel it was so dark we were making our way completely by touch. There was a thudding of feet up ahead – Soren dropping down from the other end – and a torch blinked on.

The rest of us piled out after him. Soren's tunnel mustn't have been completely straight, because it was about a metre drop down into the room on the other side.

The air was mouldy and stale. It was like breaking into an old crypt or something.

Soren grabbed Jordan's hand to help her up. She shook him off.

Kara took the torch from Soren and shone it around. ‘Yes,' she said, in a tone I couldn't figure out. ‘This is it.'

But as far as I could tell, the room was completely empty. One and a half still-intact walls, and more of the same ragged concrete.

‘What happens now?' asked Soren.

Kara didn't answer. Didn't seem to
have
an answer.

The torch beam fell to the floor and Jordan gasped. I followed her eyes and shuddered, realising what she'd seen.

Blood. Old and dried up, but definitely a blood stain. And
big.
Whoever this blood belonged to, they definitely hadn't left here alive.

‘What is this place?' I breathed. ‘What happened here?'

Soren let out a harsh, breathy laugh. A sound like an animal. It echoed off the walls.

‘Believe me,' said Kara. ‘You don't want to know.'

Chapter 20

W
EDNESDAY
, J
ULY
1
43
DAYS

I leant forward on the couch, arms on my knees, staring across at the barricaded door. Waiting for Peter to wake up. Jordan was next to me, but neither of us had spoken since we sat down.

We'd spent the rest of the morning setting up Peter's room, and moved him in there about an hour ago. The whole time, Jordan didn't say a word more than she had to.

I couldn't deal with it. I knew Peter would be mad at me, that was nothing new, but if I screwed things up with Jordan …

What hope did we have against the Co-operative if
we
couldn't even stay on the same side?

All morning, I'd been looking for a way to fix things with Jordan. Looking for something I could say to put things back to normal. But what was there?

I knew part of it wasn't even about Peter. It was about her family being in danger. Until we could get them out,
everything
was going to be partly about that.

I closed my eyes.

Peter. Jordan's family. Kara and Soren. Mum. Mike, Cat and Tank. Jeremy's disappearance. Jordan's visions. The security cameras.

Tabitha.

It was already impossible. Already way beyond anything we could handle. If Jordan gave up on me – I felt the couch shift, and suddenly her hand was resting on my knee. My eyes snapped open.

‘Luke … I shouldn't –'

She sighed. I turned to face her properly, panic signals blaring inside my head.

Jordan bit her lip and tried again. ‘You did the right thing,' she said. ‘I hate it, but it was right.'

‘Jordan –'

‘No, just let me apologise, will you? You're right. He's not safe. I
know
he's not. But if this is what's happening to
him
–'