Underground (20 page)

We pulled the bed away from the wall. ‘Hey …' I murmured. ‘What's that?'

There was something poking out from behind the stack of beds. An architectural drawing in a black frame. I dropped the bed and dragged out the frame, setting it down on the mattress.

Jordan picked up a crusty rag off the floor and wiped away some of the dust.

It was a floor plan of the whole Vattel Complex, from back when it was all still intact. Four buildings, spaced apart in a diagonal line, connected by long passageways. ‘This is where we are,' said Jordan, pointing to a room in the second building, labelled FEMALE SLEEPING QUARTERS. ‘Module B.'

‘So Peter is somewhere in here, right?' I said, sliding my finger across to Module C, the biggest of the four buildings. Definitely a research facility, but there was nothing to indicate what the research actually
was.
‘And then there's this whole other building we haven't even been to yet.'

‘And another one back … Hang on,' said Jordan, finger hovering over the words MODULE A – PRIMARY POWER GENERATOR. ‘If this is …'

She stared up at the ceiling, visualising something. ‘The crater,' she whispered. ‘I knew
something
must have happened down here to create that thing –'

‘Taking an inventory of my things now, are we?' said Kara, walking in behind us.

‘Yep.' Jordan turned around, not missing a beat. ‘That's not a problem, is it?'

Kara looked over her glasses at her. ‘Jordan, you are about to be facedown on my operating table. This is not the moment to test my patience.'

Jordan looked like she had another comeback ready to fire, but a burst of laughter from the hallway shut the conversation down.

Peter's dad came leaping in to join us, almost crashing into the doorway on his way through. I almost didn't recognise him without the wheelchair. He did a wild, stumbling lap of the room, bracing against the walls a couple of times to keep from falling over, shouting and punching the air like tearing around the room was the most awesome thing in the whole world.

‘Where's Jess?' he asked, grinning like a crazy person despite the pain it must have caused to his battered face. ‘Where is my beautiful wife?'

Kara sighed, almost smiling, like she couldn't believe she'd let this riff-raff into her home. She waved a hand in the direction of Peter's room, and Mr Weir headed for the door again, practically skipping.

‘Jess!' he bellowed, flying away down the hall. ‘Pete! Come on! Look at this!'

And despite all the other crap that should have been weighing on me, I couldn't help laughing at the sound of him rampaging away down the corridor. Even Jordan managed a smile.

Kara flicked something off the front of her coat. ‘Well then,' she said. ‘Who's next?'

Finally, the day was over. I lay on my side with my eyes shut, painfully exhausted but nowhere near sleep. Thinking about everything without actually thinking about anything.

I traced a finger over the fresh row of stitches at the base of my spine. I'd expected to feel some kind of relief at finally being rid of Shackleton's tracking device, but mostly I just felt numb.

I guess I had bigger things to worry about.

Across the room, Jordan's dad was snoring. I had no idea what time it was, but I'd been lying here for what felt like forever.

Kara and Soren were the only ones still up; I'd heard them whispering to each other in the hall a few minutes ago. But then, they were also the only ones who hadn't almost died today.

I opened my eyes again. I could just make out Jordan's face resting on her pillow, a metre away. Impossibly peaceful. I watched her body rise and fall with her breathing, and found myself thinking again about what had happened between us yesterday.

Trying to figure out
what
I thought about it. Trying not to think about how Peter would react if he knew.

In the end, we hadn't made it in to see him today. By the time Kara had got our suppressors out, it was late afternoon, which had given us just enough time for a pre-dinner screening of the Tabitha DVD for Mr Burke and the Weirs. Neither of us had felt like we had the energy for another argument with Peter after that.

Tomorrow,
I told myself. Put it on the to-do list. Somewhere between ‘wash underpants' and ‘save humanity'.

Jordan rolled over in her sleep, and I closed my eyes.

Before we did anything else tomorrow, we should sit everyone down and compare notes. See if Peter's parents or Jordan's dad knew anything that might –

A distant, echoing crash rang out from somewhere way off across the complex, shattering my last hope of falling asleep.

I was already halfway out of bed when I heard Soren's petrified scream.

Chapter 26

S
ATURDAY
, J
ULY
4
40
DAYS

‘Jordan!'
I hissed, jolting her shoulder. ‘Jordan, get up!'

Her eyes snapped open. ‘What's happening?'

‘I don't know,' I said, turning to shake Dad awake. ‘Something down the hall. I heard –'

Another heavy smash echoed up the corridor.

‘That,' I finished.

I ran to the door. The lights were still on at the end of the hall, but whatever was happening, it was coming from deeper inside the complex.

Soren screamed again, and there was a sound like breaking concrete.

The Co-operative? Had Shackleton finally figured out where we were?

‘Come on!' I said, heart thudding, as the others dragged themselves out of bed. I raced out the door, just as a new sound cut through all the smashing.

Peter, bellowing like he was being tortured.

I sprinted down the hallway, still no idea whether he was the cause or the victim of whatever was going on down there – or which would be worse.

The light at the end of the corridor cast a jumble of shadows over the shrapnel jutting out from the walls. If I wasn't careful, I was going to slice myself open before we even got there.

I could hear Dad behind me, barrelling to catch up. ‘What's going on?' he asked.

‘I –
Whoa!'
I grunted, dodging just in time to avoid impaling myself on a spike of wood. ‘I dunno.'

A dark shape appeared up ahead, silhouetted in the light at the end of the hallway. I pulled up, half-expecting to be torn apart by gunfire. But it wasn't security.

Soren came flying up the corridor toward us, a murderous look on his face. He was carrying one of the steel bars from across Peter's door.

‘Hey!' I shouted.

But he just shoved past and kept running.

Soren glanced back over his shoulder, face catching the light for a second, and I gasped. He had red gashes across both cheeks, like he'd been clawed by an animal.

Kara backed into view further down the hallway, at the place where it widened out in front of Peter's room. She was clutching another one of the steel bars, swinging it up over her shoulder.

‘Tell me where she is!'
yelled Peter, just out of sight.

Okay,
I thought, closing in on them,
not a Cooperative
problem.

Kara ducked to the ground as a steel chair –
my
steel chair – came flying at her head. The chair smashed against the wall behind her and rebounded, skittering up the corridor toward me. I jumped it, almost tripping, and stumbled out into a warzone.

The floor was covered in battered books and little foam beanbag balls and whatever else Peter had been able to lay his hands on. His desk was on its side in the middle of the floor, its legs bent out of shape. And, somehow, the old leather couch was lying upside-down across the room, blocking the hallway at the other end.

Kara was back at Peter's doorway. She took a couple of heavy breaths, trying to get back some shred of her usual composure. ‘If you think this kind of behaviour is going to –
Peter!
No, do not –'

Peter let out a furious roar, and suddenly he was bursting through the doorway, driving his bookcase out in front of him like a battering ram. He smashed into Kara, knocking her to the concrete, and then hurled what was left of the bookcase across the floor.

Dad came up from behind me, moving to grab Peter, but I held out a hand to stop him.

‘No,' I murmured, ‘let me.' I edged into the middle of the room, arms outstretched. ‘Hey … Peter …'

‘Where is she?'
he shouted, clawing the hair back out of his eyes, fingernails dark with blood.
‘Where's
Jordan?'

‘She's –' I broke off, glancing back up the corridor. Where
was
Jordan?

‘I do not respond well to tantrums, Peter,' said Kara, pushing unsteadily to her feet. ‘If you wish to see Jordan again, go back into your room and we'll discuss the situation.'

‘WE'RE ALREADY BLOODY DISCUSSING IT!'

Peter grabbed the upturned desk by one leg and heaved it up at Kara. She yelped as the desk slammed into her, staggered over the smashed bookcase and crumpled to the ground again.

‘Peter, c'mon,' I said, keeping what I hoped was a safe distance. ‘You don't need to –'

But Peter was already standing over Kara, holding the metal bar she'd dropped when the bookcase hit her. He raised it into the air above his head.

Kara twisted away from him. ‘Listen to me,' she pleaded. ‘Peter, if you do this –'

‘Stop!' called a voice from way back up the corridor. ‘Put it down!'

It was Jordan. Peter's head snapped up. He abandoned Kara instantly, turning toward the voice. The rod slipped out of his hand, thunking down an inch from Kara's face.

A figure blurred past me, out of the hallway. Now I realised who Jordan had
really
been yelling at.

Soren charged past, straight up to Peter, chest heaving, blood still trickling down his cheeks. He had a gun. The automatic rifle Jordan's dad had brought down from the surface.

Peter leapt back. ‘Hey – Hey, no. Mate, that's not –'

‘Get down!' Soren ordered, voice cracking, twitching his weapon at the floor.

Peter dropped, facedown.

Soren's eyes flickered. ‘No, I meant – I meant kneel. Get on your knees!'

‘Stop!'
cried Jordan, running in. ‘Soren! Put it
down!'

‘I'll shoot him!' Soren shrieked, as Peter pushed himself shakily to his knees. ‘Any of you – Any of you try anything, and I'll –'

‘I thought you weren't a murderer!' I said desperately, jumping back up again. ‘Isn't that what you told me, back when –?'

Soren burst out laughing, sounding as unhinged as Peter. ‘Hunter, if you – You should be begging me to do this! If you knew what this – what this
friend
of yours was really capable of …'

‘Put the gun down, Soren,' croaked a voice from the floor. ‘This is not a solution.'

Soren glanced down at Kara, who was slowly sitting up. ‘Mum! We can end this right now!'

‘End
what?'
said Jordan. ‘How is this going to help anything?'

‘Yeah,' said Peter, nodding frantically. ‘Exactly.'

‘Quiet!' snapped Soren, shaking the rifle some more.

‘Do you think killing him has never occurred to me?' said Kara, like this was just any normal mother-and-son argument. ‘If it were truly that simple, don't you think I would have done it already? We both know it doesn't work like that.'

‘No we
don't.
' Soren stomped his foot. ‘You
think
you know how it works, but you're just –'

‘You cannot undo what's already been done,' said Kara, freeing herself from the splintered bookcase and clambering back to her feet. ‘And if we're to have even a
hope
of figuring all of this out –'

She stopped short at the sound of heavy feet pounding up the hallway. Mr Burke pulled up behind my dad, a silver auto-injector pen glinting in his hand.

Soren turned to look for a fraction of a second –

Which was all the time Peter needed to throw out his hands and grab the barrel of the rifle.

‘HEY!' yelled Soren, fumbling with his end.

Peter jabbed the rifle like a spear, driving the butt of it back into Soren's chest. Soren grunted, fingers slipping, and Peter wrenched the weapon away from him. He flipped it around, wrapping his hands around the grips.

I took a panicked step back as Soren dropped to the floor. Peter raised the rifle.

‘No!'
shouted Jordan, running forward.

SMASH!

Peter smacked the gun down hard across his face. Soren collapsed, groaning.

Peter straightened up for another swing, but Jordan dived in and grabbed his arm. ‘That's enough!'

Peter wheeled around, red-faced. And suddenly, Jordan was rocketing across the ground, tumbling over herself, slamming into the overturned desk and bringing it sliding along the floor with her, crashing to a stop against the uneven wall.