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‘All right, so, here we are in the welcome centre,' said Dad, as we reached the back of the room. He put a hand on one of three big sets of double doors spaced along the back wall. ‘And through here,' he said, pushing the door open, ‘is our town hall.'

We peered through the doorway, into a huge, dark room that looked like a giant-sized version of the school hall. I couldn't remember it ever being used before.

‘What's it for?' asked Luke as Dad pulled the door shut again.

Dad shrugged. ‘For whenever we need to get the whole town together in the same place.'

Like when Shackleton announces he's just turned the whole outside world into mounds of guts,
I thought.

That was definitely going to make for an interesting town meeting.

‘C'mon,' said Dad, waving us over to the lifts, ‘I'll show you the rest.'

The doors slid open and we piled inside. We were the only ones in the lift, so Dad went over and pushed all the buttons. I watched the doors slide shut again, sealing us in.

‘So that's the ground floor,' said Dad as the lift jerked upwards. ‘Next stop: cafeteria.'

The doors opened and, sure enough, we found ourselves looking out on a big room lined with tables and chairs, with a long buffet table off to one side.

At the table nearest to us, a few of Dad's mates were getting stuck into big plates of something dark red and meaty that made my stomach turn in on itself. They called Dad over to join them, but he held up a hand and said, ‘Later.'

Apart from that table, the cafeteria was pretty empty. There were a couple of people waiting to use the lift, including Keith, the guy whose picnic I'd run through when we were chasing the phone. He glanced at the lift buttons, then snorted like he was sure I was the one who'd pressed them all.

The lift started moving again.

I leant back against the wall. Jordan seemed disappointed. So far, this was exactly what a trip to your dad's work
should
be: a waste of time.

‘Level two is meeting rooms,' said Dad, lowering his voice now that there were other people in here with us.

The lift slowed to a stop, opening onto a long, white hallway lined with glass doors.

‘See?' said Dad, as Keith and his mate squeezed out and headed down the hall. ‘Two dozen of them, all the same. I've had meetings in every one, and I can
assure
you, there's nothing in there except tables, chairs and – Ah, g'day boys!'

Two more men had walked out through a door to our right. Mr Ketterley and Dr Montag.

And whatever the meat in the cafeteria had done to my stomach, it was nothing compared to seeing these guys coming towards us.

They froze halfway into the lift. Dad clearly hadn't run his tour plans past these two.

‘Oh, hey kids,' said Ketterley, recovering first and sending a look in Dad's direction. ‘What brings you here?' He joined us inside, and the doc followed him.

Dad shrugged. ‘Pete and his mates have it in their heads that there's something weird going on in the building. Thought I'd bring them in and show them everything's above board.'

I think I might have had a small stroke right there and then.

Even if Dad
wasn't
out to get us, he'd get us killed anyway with comments like that.

‘No,' said Luke hurriedly, ‘Mr Weir, I think you've misunderstood what we –'

The lift doors slid open again. This time, we were looking at a sprawling open-plan office space. Dozens of suits swarming around desks and whiteboards and computer stations. Bunch of guys I knew. Couldn't see Shackleton doing anything dodgy here. Not with this many people around.

Montag and Ketterley got out.

‘Hey doc, we still on for Tuesday?' asked Dad, holding the door.

‘Assuming you're ready by then,' said Montag. He gave Dad a look, like he didn't think now was the time to talk about it.

‘Almost there,' said Dad. ‘Just costing a few of the parts and I'll be good to –'

‘Money is no object, Brian,' said the doc. ‘Just make sure it works.'

‘Oh, it'll work, doc,' Dad grinned, pulling his arm away from the door. ‘Don't you worry about that.'

Montag nodded, and he and Ketterley walked away into the offices. I had just enough time to see Ketterley reaching for something in his pocket before the doors closed again.

Dad smiled to himself.

I couldn't even look at him.

Before Phoenix, Dad used to be a mechanical engineer for this massive construction company. But he'd talked for ages about giving it all up to become a writer, and moving out here to work for the local paper was supposed to be his big career change. Trading in the high-pressure city job to pursue his real passion. That was story he'd fed Mum and me.

But apparently, it was all a load of crap. Apparently, Dad's real passion was actually designing Shackleton Co-operative death machines.

The lift started moving again and Dad kept talking as though there'd been no interruption to our tour. ‘We call
that
floor the Hive. It's where they handle all the day-to-day logistical stuff – water, electricity, maintenance, intranet …'

The lift pulled to a stop.

‘And
this,
' said Dad, stepping out through the opening doors, ‘is where all the cool kids hang out. Top floor. C'mon, I'll show you my office.'

We followed Dad out of the lift, into a waiting room place that was kind of like the front office at school. A woman raised an eyebrow at us from behind a desk.

‘Reeve's wife,' I murmured. ‘From the park, remember?'

Dad said hi to her, and then took us away down a long, wide corridor. There were doors along both sides, stencilled with people's names.

‘Nice paintings,' said Jordan, pointing to one of the frames that hung between the doorways. It was all weird abstract stuff, but most of the pictures looked like they were meant to be animals.

‘Yeah,' said Dad, ‘Mr Shackleton did them himself. He's a pretty big environmentalist.'

I bit my tongue. It was almost funny. Almost.

I turned to catch Jordan's reaction, and realised that she'd fallen behind. She was leaning against the wall, doubled over with her eyes closed, like someone had punched her in the stomach.

‘Whoa, Jordan,' I said, running back to help her.

‘You okay?' I tried to take her by the arm but she shook me off.

‘Yeah … fine …' she said, straightening up.

By now, Luke and Dad were both looking back as well.

‘What happened?' asked Luke.

‘Nothing,' said Jordan, ‘I just thought …' She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. ‘Never mind. I'm fine.'

Dad hesitated for a sec, shooting her a look that might have been concern or suspicion or just curiosity, then kept walking.

We continued down the hall until we came to a door marked
WEIR
. Dad pulled out his keys.

Luke tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the opposite wall, to another handle-less steel door, just like Pryor's.

‘Hey Dad, what's in there?' I asked, hopefully sounding offhand. ‘Is that Shackleton's office?'

‘No, Mr Shackleton's up there,' said Dad, indicating a door at the end of the corridor. ‘That's just a store cupboard.'

‘A store cupboard? What have you got in there, solid gold –?'

I stopped talking. The door at the end of the corridor had just swung open.

Mr Shackleton was striding towards us, eyes locked on my dad. Fancy suit, old man hair, face like a cadaver. He'd always creeped me out a bit, even before I knew what a psycho he was.

Officer Calvin was right behind him, limping along on his crutch, but still looking like he could break me in half one-handed. He had an expression of barely contained fury on his face.

An expression that said he might just kill us all here and now and be done with it.

Jordan's eyes flashed between the two men. I realised it was the first time she or Luke had seen Shackleton outside of that magazine article.

Mr Shackleton closed in. At the last second, his attention shifted to me.

‘Peter,' he said with a warm, grandfatherly smile, ‘how nice to see you again.'

‘Thanks,' I said, getting myself together enough to reach out and shake his hand. ‘You too.'

‘And you must be Jordan Burke,' said Shackleton, putting a hand on Jordan's shoulder. She flinched slightly at the touch, but smiled up at him. ‘Exciting news about your mother's pregnancy! How is she doing?'

My hands were twitching. I tried to keep them still, straining against the sudden, violent impulse to dive over there and rip his arm right out of its socket.

‘Fine,' said Jordan. ‘Good. She's good.'

‘Excellent,' Shackleton beamed, releasing his grip.

I shoved my hands into my pockets. If he did
anything
to her, I swore I was going to kill him.

‘And here's our newest arrival!' said Shackleton, extending a hand to Luke. ‘I trust that you and your mother have had no trouble settling in?'

‘No, sir,' said Luke. ‘Everything's going great.'

‘Glad to hear it,' said Shackleton, wiping his hand on the front of his suit. He turned to my dad. ‘Aaron tells me you've taken it upon yourself to show Peter and his friends around our building.'

How did he know?

But the answer was obvious. Ketterley must have phoned ahead.

‘Yes, sir,' said Dad. ‘I had a bit of time up my sleeve, so I thought I'd –'

‘You're aware that the upper levels of the Shackleton Building are not open to the public,' Mr Shackleton cut in. It wasn't a question. He started walking down the corridor, back the way we'd come, waving a hand to indicate that we should follow him.

‘Yes, Mr Shackleton,' said Dad. ‘I was only giving them a quick look around. And since they were sticking with me the whole time, I didn't think there'd be any harm –'

‘No,' Shackleton chuckled. ‘Of course you didn't.'

I could feel Calvin breathing down my neck as I walked, his crutch thumping along on the floor behind me. I sped up, trying to get away from him, but I was stuck behind Luke.

‘However, Brian,' Mr Shackleton continued, stopping as we reached the room with the lifts, ‘as harmless as your intentions may have been, the security restrictions within this building have been put into place for a reason, and are not to be taken lightly.'

‘Yes sir,' said Dad. ‘I apologise.'

Mr Shackleton chuckled again. Then he turned to Reeve's wife. ‘Katie, would you please see our visitors out? I'd like to have a quick word with Brian before he heads home.'

Katie nodded and got up from behind the counter.

‘But –' I said.

‘I won't keep him long,' said Shackleton lightly. He nodded at the three of us. ‘It's been a pleasure catching up with you all.'

He turned away and marched my dad back out of the room, Calvin clunking along right behind him. When Dad got home a few hours later, he looked more shaken up than I could ever remember seeing him. He limped upstairs to the bathroom, took a long shower, then went straight to bed without talking to anyone.

Chapter 11

M
ONDAY
, M
AY
25
80
DAYS

Dad had left for work by the time I got up the next morning.

The house was weirdly quiet. I wondered whether Mum had left early too. She'd usually have the CD player going in the morning, or at least be humming to herself. But when I got downstairs, she was getting her lunch together in total silence, moving slowly around the kitchen, like she'd forgotten how to do it.

I asked her about Dad, and I thought she was about to start crying.

‘He said he was fine,' she sighed, clearly not believing it. ‘Just wanted an early night.'

There was hurt in her voice, but more than anything, she sounded confused. I guess Mum thought that she and Dad told each other everything.

‘Did something happen at the office yesterday?' she asked.

I hesitated, wanting to tell her, but knowing things would only be worse if I did.

‘Dunno,' I said. ‘No, I don't think so.'

She came around the bench and gave me a hug.

‘I'm sure he's all right,' she said, sounding a little stronger. ‘You know how hard he's been working lately.'

‘Yeah,' I said.

I packed my schoolbag on autopilot and left the house without breakfast.

What had they done to him? And what were
we
supposed to do now?

There'd been no sign of anything useful in the Shackleton Building. And even if there had, there was no way they were letting us back in there again. I'd spent a bit of time tinkering with Pryor's phone last night, trying to take my mind off things, but so far I hadn't come up with anything. And if Crazy Bill was trying to provide us with any kind of useful information, his mutilated animal photos and key to freaking nowhere were funny ways of showing it.

I rode down the street to the town centre, taking the long way round the Shackleton Building, putting off going to school. I couldn't deal with Pryor today. Or Cat. Or all the stupid bloody liaison-officer crap. The only thing keeping me from ditching school altogether was knowing that Jordan was probably –

I skidded to a stop. Fifty metres up the street, Luke was walking away from the bakery, holding a paper bag and a couple of coffee cups.

Jordan was waiting for him.

He handed her one of the cups and they started wandering across the street, heading for school. I picked up my bike again and followed them, keeping my distance.

This had better not be what I think –

They were walking much slower than they needed to, much closer together, deep in conversation. Luke pulled some pastry thing out of his paper bag and handed it to Jordan.