Deborah Hockney (23 page)

Her eyes widened. She turned to stare at her right hand, which was now holding a large knife; she looked down, and there was Ed, at the other side of the lectern, and behind Ed… no, surely not?

Jocasta looked, and saw, unmistakably, herself. Her own body, strangely vacant, her stance slumped, her head down, Murf with a secure hold on her forearms…

The knife slipped from her fingers without a second thought, and her hands, her hands that were too big and too manly, came up to hold her face, that was now covered with bristles, as a terrible pain shot through her head. She took a step backwards, the foot heavy and ungainly. There was a commotion at one of the entrances. She could hear Delilah’s voice ringing out, could hear cautious gunfire, could hear orders being snapped out, could hear crying, noises of pain… Her eyes closed, her arms dropped, her knees buckled…

Jocasta’s skin tingled all over as she fell back into herself, and was only dimly aware of a different pair of strong hands catching her as she fell backwards, and then watched her vision turn to blackness.

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘Alright Jenny!’

Jocasta heard the two words as if from far away, taking a long time to travel from her ears to her brain, where she tried to make sense of them;
Alright Jenny!
All she could think was that she didn’t know anybody called Jenny. Her head gave an unpleasant throb, a warning that she was in no condition to be thinking. She became dimly aware of
how impossibly heavy her limbs were. She tried to shift her arm from where it was laying at her side; her index finger twitched once and was still. Her eyes were glued shut and sore. The pain in her back was excruciating, it was how she imagined torture victims must have felt after they’d been stretched on racks. Her legs might’ve been sunk down into the floor of the chamber for all the movement she thought they were capable of doing.

She didn’t want to move. She wanted to fall back into sleep. But there was that nagging feeling; who was Jenny?

Her head gave another painful throb as she forced open her eyes; light flooding into her pupils. With an almighty effort, she brought her hands flat at her sides and pushed, curling her back and forcing her head up off the floor. It was going well, but then her elbows and wrists gave way and she fell backwards in a heap, even more exhausted than before.

She couldn’t get up; that was impossible. But she managed to shuffle backwards until she could just about rest adequately with her back against one of the curtained walls. She blinked hurriedly, forcing the tiredness from her eyes. All around her, there were people crumpled in heaps on the floor. Nabilats strewn like discarded rubbish across their own Council Chamber; she saw the girl with the black feline nose perched on a chair, cradling a shattered wrist. Delilah was unhurt, or at least not badly; her handsome face pale and strained, a smear of blood across her cheekbone. She was standing, waiting with most of the other Nabilats, and staring haughtily towards Lieutenant Wing Commander Wren. Jocasta followed her line of vision, feeling the bones in her neck groan with the effort of turning her head, and realised who Jenny must be.

Next to Commander Wren was standing another officer that she had never seen before. He was tall and well-built, with sandy coloured hair and, though his uniform was clearly that of the Elite, it wasn’t the normal grey that she’d grown accustomed to, but an attractive brown. She could just make out traces of red sand in the creases of his trousers and coat, and for some reason she noticed that his scruffy boots were in such a state that she was certain her they would probably have offended her mother no end. He also had a pair of… what were they? goggles? perched on the top of his head. Jocasta couldn’t imagine that Alpha, the first city, had usable swimming facilities.

The officer slapped Lieutenant Wing Commander Wren fondly on the back; Jocasta was surprised that Wren didn’t go flying.

‘My name,’ said Wren, tucking an inconsequential scrap of hair neatly behind her ear, ‘isn’t Jenny. And I’ll remind you, Captain,’ she smiled, ‘I am a
Lieutenant Wing Commander
.’

‘And I will remind you, LTWC
Wren
,’ he retorted good-naturedly, ‘it’s Lieutenant
Colonel
now, not Captain.’

‘Whatever,’ Commander Wren waved away the correction. ‘You’ll always be Captain Jack Sparks to me.’

Oh
, Jocasta thought, remarking at how slow her brain was functioning.
Jenny Wren! How funny!

‘Um…’ Jocasta said.

Jack Sparks flashed a brilliant smile and gave a flourish with his fingertips from his brow towards her, in a sign of commendable achievement as he stepped forward.

‘If I’d known you had that kind of power, Miss Jackson,’ he said, surprising her that he knew her name, ‘I needn’t have bothered coming.’

It took Jocasta several seconds to process what he’d said, and more to figure what he meant when he’d said ‘power.’

‘Well done, Jocasta,’ Commander Wren said, side stepping the Captain, or Lieutenant Colonel, or whatever he was. She knelt beside Jocasta and went through the usual checks; no broken bones, no cracked vertebrae? ‘We didn’t want to move you earlier, but I think you’ll be alright. And the other cadets are fine, although…’

Jocasta felt her mouth go dry. ‘We’ll–’ she stopped, feeling the dryness crack her throat. ‘Be kicked out? Won’t we?’

‘I can’t say,’ Commander Wren replied, not unkindly, helping Jocasta to stand. ‘But what you did today was commendable, at least.’

Looking round for a familiar face; David, Will, or Ed and Bella, Jocasta was distracted by a loud shout.

‘JJ!’

Commander Wren scowled and turned with an accusatory look at Captain, or is that Lieutenant Colonel? Jack Sparks. ‘I
said
she wasn’t allowed to come!’ she hissed.

‘What makes you think it was me who let her?’ Captain Jack cried in mock indignancy.

Tara came running across the room, jumping neatly over bits of makeshift weapons and side stepping an armed Elite officer. ‘JJ!’ she cried again. She threw her arms around Jocasta and hugged her tight.

‘Tara…’ she whispered, feeling her vertebrae give a warning crack.

‘Honesty, JJ!’ Tara scowled reprovingly, stepping back. ‘Lab Rats and Nabilats, secret cities and people with… metal teeth…’ Her eyes followed Murf as he growled and snapped at the people trying to restrain him. Bits of blue ribbon were stuck up from Tara’s braids and her kohl had smudged over her face but her eyes were bright and she was twitching with ill-contained excitement. ‘I demand to know why I didn’t receive an invitation!’

‘Sorry,’ Jocasta grinned weakly. ‘I–’

‘I have been up
all
night worrying about you lot!’ Tara continued; letting her friend put a weak arm over her shoulder. ‘Sneaking off into secret Sin Cities, fraternising with metal-toothed–’

‘David!’ Jocasta cried, catching sight of her friend. He hurried up to her, followed by a smiling if weary looking Bella.

‘Wow, I love your eyes!’ Tara exclaimed.

‘I love your hair, little Egyptling!’ Bella cooed, as she placed a cool hand on Jocasta’s forehead. She felt Bella reaching out and restoring a sense of calm to Jocasta’s frantic and panicking thoughts.

She was expelled, she knew it, she was expelled, just like David, and Ed… Her Elite career was in tatters, what would her parents say? What would happen to her now?

‘You saved Ed’s life, you know,’ Bella said quietly, breaking into her panic. ‘Just be content for that, if nothing else.’

Jocasta smiled, letting some of her worry dispel under Bella’s reassuring words.

And at least, she thought, as Will and Ed joined them, and they collapsed by a pillar, at least we’re all alive. Surely that had to count for something. She closed her eyes briefly, while Tara began giving them all a lecture on the consequences on not telling people that you’re going to a secret, apparently abandoned city on Mars. Then she heard Jack Sparks and Lieutenant Wing Commander Wren talking, and heard Ed shift his position and get up.

‘Ed!’ she hissed. ‘What are you doing?’ He had disappeared. ‘What’s he doing?’ she asked Bella.

‘Hiding from his father,’ she replied. Bella’s violet eyes were on the stonework of the floor.

Captain Jack’s voice rang out, oddly lightening the sombre mood which had settled over the Nabilats’ wrecked Gathering Room. ‘So, young master Will, know anything about repairing heavy duty terrain explorers?’

‘I’m afraid not–’ Will began, wrinkling his brow.

‘Ah, no matter!’ Captain Jack replied, giving him a clap on the shoulder. ‘Sure you’ll pick it up. C’mon, I’ve got to get this up to scratch before it’s used to carry these fine young cadets back to Mackenzie.’

‘Yes, sir!’ replied Will, who’d never taken orders from anyone in his life before.

‘And you better take care of yourself, Miss Jackson,’ said the Captain, pulling his goggles over his eyes. ‘’Cause one day I just might find a use for you, in an adventure or five.’

Captain Jack turned towards the explorer, his coat swirling out behind him, Will already examining the vehicle with fascination.

‘Don’t worry, Captain!’ Tara called. ‘I’ll take care of her! Argh!’ Her eyes widened as she focused on another figure who had just entered the Gathering Room. ‘Watch out, JJ,’ she whispered in Jocasta’s ear. ‘Here comes Doc Crow. Don’t let him take your leg.’

‘Doc Crow?’

‘He’s the Elite’s doctor–’

‘Their only one?’

‘At night he goes through the bodies at the morgue and steals the eyes to feed to–’

‘Thanks Tara, I get it.’

‘He turns into a bat as well.’

‘Oh? Not a crow?’

‘Please, JJ, that would be far too obvious.’

‘Right.’

A scruffy young man in a black overcoat approached them, a medical bag in hand.

‘Jackson?’ he asked.

‘Mm.’

‘Hold still please, this ought to relieve some of the pain.’ She let him apply a painkiller at the side of her neck, then he moved on.

‘
That
was the infamous Doc Crow?’ Jocasta asked her friend, eyebrows raised.

‘Aw, I
love
him.’

‘You what?’

‘Nothing. And it’s not like you needed stitches. He’s got a real needle and thread!’

‘I can tell he must be popular with his patients,’ Jocasta replied dryly.

‘Leave the poor girl to recover, Tara!’ Nikita’s voice rang out across the room. ‘She can’t possibly want you babbling on and on at her, like some over protective hen. She just needs rest and…’ she continued, rushing over and elbowing Tara out of the way, ‘a friendly, calm face to sooth her.’

‘Well that won’t be you, then!’ retorted Tara. ‘You’re just as likely to start grinning at her like a Cheshire cat or, something worse,’ she said, putting her fingers into the corners of her mouth and pulling it back into a peculiar grimace.

‘Girls, girls, that’s quite enough. Neither of you should really be here. Captain Sparks has really been quite irresponsible in allowing you to hike a lift in his Camel.’ Commander Wren was trying, without much effect, to sound as though she was annoyed with the said Captain Sparks.

‘Camel?’ Jocasta queried. Wondering how on earth a camel would survive on Mars. Then looking anxiously at Nikki, in case it set her off.

‘No, it’s okay,’ answered Nikki. ‘Camel is his nickname for his all-terrain vehicle. Apparently it brings back fond memories of his trek across the Sahara Desert on a real camel. Oh ah… just a sec…’ She closed her eyes in concentration to block the image.

‘Enough talking. We must get the cadets back to Mackenzie city. Girls please help Jocasta reach the transport before…’ She looked surreptitiously over her shoulder, ‘Major Weisz finds her and starts his interrogation.’

This time they needed no further instructions as the thought of facing Major Weisz at any time, let alone on an unauthorised night ride filled all of them with dread. Jocasta found herself being propelled along the ground towards an ill equipped buggy.

‘Surely this isn’t going to get us back to–?’

‘No,’ Nikki replied, ‘this is just to transport us to the entrance. Quick head down!’ She paused, pushing Jocasta’s face onto her knees, which resulted in a squeal of protest. ‘Looks like he’s heading this way.’

‘Well better not hang around then.’ Tara jumped in the driver’s seat and depressing the ignition accelerated away with a flurry of red dust shrouding them.

They could just make out the curt tones of Major Weisz demanding to know who had given them permission to depart.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It wasn’t until several days later that Jocasta was able to fit together and fully understand what had happened during that eventful time. And a further few weeks before she found out what had happened to
the Nabilats.

They’d arrived back at Mackenzie City to a solemn welcome and Jocasta was escorted by security personnel to the medical building where she had to undergo a series of intrusive health checks. The female Elite medic did her best to appear friendly but couldn’t quite conceal her irritation at being required to carry out certain routine procedures at such a late hour.