MiNRS (13 page)

There was no pattern. My dad believed I’d find the numbers eventually, so there had to be a way to decode them on my own. My dad liked to call me a genius, but I knew I wasn’t, not really.

I took off the blanket. Fatima was fast asleep. I lay on the cold floor and put the blanket over both of us. Then I shifted my helmet over my eyes to block out the light.

The numbers swam in my head, moving around in different orders and sequences. I watched them, seeing if they would combine to form coordinates, or possibly a series of numbered tunnels, like I’d used with Alek. Why had my parents made the code so obtuse?

Tomorrow
, I thought,
I’ll ask the others if they have any ideas
.

Before long, I was fast asleep as well.

Chapter Nineteen

Mapped

“Reveille! Rise and shine, lover boy.”

I slid off my helmet and peered, the light making me blink. I wiped the dried spit from my cheek and waited for my eyes to adjust.

Elena was standing over me, tapping my ribs with the toe of her boot. “Get up. Time to give some marching orders, Fearless Leader.”

I looked over to my left. Fatima was still sleeping. I’d only meant to take a short nap, but I must have slept for hours. Of course, it was hard to tell down here.

“Is it my turn on watch?” I asked.

Elena snorted. “Maybe three hours ago. No, you missed your shift. I took a double. You owe me.”

I took a closer look at Elena’s face. She was trying to sound light, jokey, but she looked tired, drained. Her eyes were red.

“You don’t look like you slept much,” I said.

“Christopher Nichols, you sweet talker. Did you try that line on her?” She jerked her head toward Fatima.

“What does that mean?” I said.

But Elena walked away, waving her hands to dismiss my question.

“I called a breakfast meeting, sir. We all need to talk.”

I got up as quietly as I could. My head was swimming and groggy as I made my way to the storage room. Pavel, Jimmi, Maria, and Mandeep were already there. I could feel the hostility radiating from the group as I walked in. The fact that everyone was eating cold beans and canned corn didn’t help their moods.

I wished Finn were there; I needed a cheering section. But he was probably keeping an eye on the grinders or Darcy or Alek.

I sat down, and Elena passed me a can of tuna and a fork.

“Hey, everyone. I am sorry I was so abrupt yesterday. I need all of you to feel you can voice your opinions openly. I was too dismissive.”

Jimmi and Pavel glared. Maria let out a long sigh.

“But I do still say the grinders need our help. They can help us as well.”

Silence, except for the sound of chewing.

Elena looked around the room and stood up. “The grinders are with us now. We can use them. What we need to do is to go on one more raid, but a big one with more diggers. Then we can assess what we can or cannot do as a group. And we’ll get enough food to feed all of us.”

Elena went on. “Nichols is right. The grinders can be useful for navigating the tunnels. Who knows them better? Right, sir?”

I hadn’t said that exactly, but I just nodded and then stood by quietly as Elena continued.

“So, once they are healthy, they will accompany us on our raids. One driver and one grinder per digger. The driver will approach the storage, and then the grinder will go in and grab the food. They can climb up the holes we’ve already dug and can do it quickly. If they get caught,
we
can escape.”

Maria stared at her half-empty can of corn. “More of this? Just great.” She let her fork drop to the floor.

Jimmi slammed down his fork. “This is stupid. If we take that much food, the Landers will discover it’s missing right away. They’d have to. Then they’ll come for us.”

I glanced at Elena. This was her plan. Was she going to answer? No, apparently not. She just stood there, staring into space.

My mind raced. “That might be true. But . . . but . . . if we are able to seize enough food, then we can store some, and then change our strategy for our next raids.”

Maria raised her hand. “Meaning?”

Now Elena jumped in. “Meaning that we can then turn our attention to actual attacks. We can’t avoid it any longer. This is a war.”

I stared at her, incredulous. She’d manipulated the meeting to support her original plan to attack the Landers directly.

I tried to steer things back my way. “And by attack, we mean slow them down.”

Elena nodded. “Tactical incursions against their primary operational capabilities.” Everyone blinked.

I wasn’t 100 percent sure what she meant either, but I added, “We can’t let them leave before the Blackout ends. If we do”—I paused for effect—“then they’ll blow everything up and leave us to die.”

That sent a current throughout the room. It was the first time I’d said the possibility out loud.

Pavel practically jumped. “But what happens after the Blackout ends, if they’re still here? They could still
just kill us and make it look like an accident.”

Elena shook her head. “They’d be risking getting caught by Earth’s radar or satellites. Earth will be watching once the Blackout ends.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “And there’s something else they don’t know about.”

Elena jerked her head toward me.

I pulled out the copy of
Oliver Twist
. “There’s a beacon.”

“Useless beacon, you mean,” Elena whispered beside me.

“It was left here to signal Earth if there was trouble on Perses. My father told me about it before he died. He gave me a map, but I thought I’d lost it. I hadn’t. I would never have discovered the truth if it hadn’t been for Fatima.”

I held up the book. “This is the map.”

Elena still whispered, but with more of an angry edge than before. “Why didn’t you tell me you found it?”

“Later,” I whispered back.

“So, what are we supposed to do with this beacon, exactly?” Maria asked.

“We need to wait until the Blackout is over. Then we signal Earth that we need help.”

“Why wait?” Pavel asked. “If those grinders can help us find it, then let’s fire it now.”

I shook my head. “We don’t know what kind of signal the beacon sends. It might only send one burst, which will be totally wasted if we fire it now. It might be a coded secret channel, but it might not. So the other concern is that if we set it off now, the Landers will hear it. If they find it, I’m sure they’ll destroy it.”

“Aren’t there other ways to signal Earth?” Jimmi asked.

“The Landers control all the communications up above. They’ll blow that up, if they haven’t already. Then we’ll have no way to tell Earth we need help.”

“What kind of help can Earth send us?” Maria asked.

“Better food, I hope,” Pavel joked.

“Best-case scenario, we’ve delayed the Landers so long that they stay past the Blackout. Earth comes and attacks them. We get saved. Worst case, the Landers blow up everything, and Earth at least knows about it and they get caught.”

“But we’ll be dead, right?” Maria looked panicked.

I let out a long slow breath. A thought had occurred to me as we’d talked, a good thought. “Not necessarily.” I started running some numbers in my head as I went on. “Actually, if we can slow them down, even if they do leave and blow everything up, we can survive without water and the other terra-forming equipment
for a few days, possibly weeks. Probably weeks.”

I was no dummy. I knew this wasn’t exactly going to go over like announcing free birthday cake, but I’d hoped it would cheer everyone up a bit.

Adding, “Then we can wait until a rescue party comes from Earth,” didn’t help much either.

Elena delivered the knockout blow to my enthusiasm. “That’s only assuming the Landers don’t know we’re here, or that they let us stay alive after they leave.”

“Yes. True,” I admitted.

“So where is this beacon, exactly?” Maria asked.

I hesitated a second. “Well, I’m not sure.”

“I though you said that was a map!”

“It is. But it’s not like a normal map. It’s more of a code. Of some kind.”

I read out the list of numbers, and explained the bits about the circles, Xs, and squares.

“What the heck does that even mean?” Pavel said, throwing up his hands in frustration.

“I . . . I don’t know.”

“Useless, like I told you,” Elena said quietly. “It’s a map you can’t read to a beacon we still can’t set off for another month and a half.” Then she added in a louder voice, to everyone else, “So, let’s leave that aside for a bit, as exciting as it is, and get back to more urgent plans.”

I waited for her to go on again, but she didn’t. “Your turn, Fearless.”

“Elena’s idea to hold one giant food raid seems like a very good one. We have enough to last about three weeks or so, but”—I paused and made a quick calculation in my head based on what I’d seen in the silo, and how much each digger could carry—“but another raid with more diggers will guarantee we won’t need to risk more raids for at least three weeks after that.”

“Which is when the Blackout ends,” Maria said.

“Yes. But Elena is right. This is just a raid. The next operation will have to be some kind of attack on the Landers themselves. So, we need to be careful. We need to cover our tracks so we have some element of surprise for when we launch an attack on their—”

“Primary operational capabilities,” Elena said. “So get your diggers ready. We need to set out soon.”

“I’ll go tell Finn,” Maria said. “I think he’ll want to come.”

“Good idea,” I said. “The more diggers, the more food we can grab. Thank you. I’ll go ask the grinders to volunteer as well. Once they are healthy, we’ll set out. Meeting adjourned.”

As everyone walked into the tunnel to prep their diggers, Elena punched me in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“You said you needed my help. So the next time you have a map, or
had
a map, let me know.”

“I’m sorry. I thought I’d lost the map, remember?”

“You still should have told me.”

“I didn’t want you to think I was an idiot.”

“You failed.”

“I said I was sorry!” I rubbed my arm. “By the way, thanks for backing me up about the grinders.”

She looked surprised. “What else would I do? You’re in charge. Now I need to go get my digger ready.” She walked out of the room.

Elena said I was in charge, but she had gotten what she wanted. I wondered: Who was the real leader?

Chapter Twenty

Community

It took two days to
get an answer from Fatima.

After the meeting, I’d laid out the whole plan to her, and explained the chance for grinders and minrs to work together on a raid.

Fatima had nodded and told me to go away.

Elena and Pavel then badgered me to force her to answer, or we’d go on the raid without them. I stalled, until, finally, Fatima summoned me to hear her decision.

Now I was standing in front of her, and she was clearly enjoying watching me squirm.

“I have met with my grinders and we have decided . . .” Fatima stood up, her legs wobbling. She rolled her shoulders, waved her arms, and shook her
legs, wincing as each stiff muscle woke up.

I stood, staring at her, waiting for her to finish. She just kept stretching her muscles.

“You decided what?”

“Patience,” she said.

She swung her left arm onto her right shoulder and began pulling it forward, grimacing.

“You explained we are equal partners in this raid, right?” I said.

“Patience.” She grabbed her foot behind her back and pulled it up, sighing more than grimacing.

“Let me guess. You’ve decided to start a yoga group?”

She frowned at me, began shaking her arms and legs, then twisted her neck before giving out a long satisfied sigh.

Finally she put her arms on her hips and stared straight into my eyes. “We have decided that . . . we will go with you on this raid.”

I smiled.

Fatima poked my chest with her finger. “But if even one miner leaves a grinder behind, no matter the reason, we will not just leave your camp, we will destroy it. Then we’ll see who can survive the longest.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but then shut it and held out my hand. “Deal.”

“And I’m going in your digger,” she said.

I nodded.

•   •   •

We didn’t leave right away. Fatima said the grinders, especially Therese, needed a few more days to fully recover.

“Patience, rich boy,” she kept repeating until we finally set out.

Elena ended up with Julio.

Mandeep offered to take Therese. Mandeep seemed skeptical that Therese was actually well enough to travel, and wanted to keep an eye on her.

The final grinder, Nazeem, went with Pavel. I shuddered a bit as I imagined how silent that ride was going to be.

Finn was going to stay back in the mines, alone in his digger, as a kind of backup in case anyone else’s broke down or got caught in a cave-in. He seemed disappointed, but I promised him I’d find him more excitement later.

Maria said she still wasn’t ready to fight, and offered to stay behind to watch Alek and Darcy.

“So, I’m out of this raid then?” Jimmi asked. He looked a little relieved.

Elena walked up and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ve got a better job for you. You can be our lookout.”

“Lookout?” He gulped. “Is that dangerous?”

“Not unless you screw up,” Pavel said.

Elena growled at him, then turned back to Jimmi. “It’s easy. You need to dig just under the surface. Listen for any sign of a vehicle heading for the silo. We don’t need to get caught red-handed in the middle of an operation. If it’s all clear, tap three times. But if anyone starts heading toward the food, open your microphone and tap five times.”

“Sounds good,” Jimmi said, nodding and clearly relieved. He got in his digger and began cutting his way toward the surface.

It took us about twenty minutes to arrive. It had taken Elena and me more than thirty the last time, but Fatima had mapped out a more direct route that didn’t involve turning off the disrupters for tunnels.

Jimmi tapped three times, and we approached the silo. Elena led Pavel and Mandeep toward the hole she’d made. Fatima and I approached from the bottom.

I was relieved to find that the crates Elena and I had moved were still blocking our holes.

We were able to move quickly.

The grinders expertly snuck through the holes and sent box after box of food and supplies down to the
waiting drivers below. In only ten minutes we had filled all five diggers. Fatima and I slid the crates back over the holes, and we were off.

The raid was also successful as a team-building exercise, which was what I’d been hoping for.

Once we got back to camp, each cockpit opened, and a new conversation was added to the growing din.

Pavel and Nazeem were talking loudly about sports.

Finn was leading Mandeep and Therese in a stirring rendition of “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Pop on the Wall.”

Elena and Julio were less animated, but were chatting about which can of food they were going to open first. Everyone began unloading and stacking the food in the storeroom, chatting, laughing, and enjoying their shared success. Maria and Darcy even came over to help out.

The only one who missed out on the camaraderie was Jimmi, who’d been all alone acting as lookout.

“Where is Jimmi?” I asked, looking around.

“Dunno,” Pavel said. “He should have been back by now.”

“Maybe he was waiting for some signal that it was time to head home?” Fatima asked.

“Argh!” I actually slapped my forehead with my palm. That was a detail I hadn’t really worked out. Poor Jimmi was probably still up there, listening for Landers.

“I’ll go get him,” I said, walking back to my digger.

“Wait, stop moving,” Fatima said. She walked over to the wall of the tunnel and cocked an ear. “There’s a digger coming. Slowly.”

“I don’t hear anything?” Maria said.

“No kidding,” Fatima said. She put her ear right up against the rock. “He’s not moving very fast.”

“I’m hungry,” Darcy said.

“Me too!” Finn said.

“Fine,” I said. “Okay, everyone go get ready for a feast. And rationing is officially canceled for the evening. I’ll wait here for Jimmi.”

Nobody argued.

I sat on the floor and pulled out my book, but I was too pumped to concentrate, so I put it in my backpack and waited.

Jimmi’s digger arrived a few minutes later, driving slowly down the tunnel floor. He pulled up outside the garage, and I ran over.

Jimmi’s face stopped me cold. He looked bleary-eyed, like he’d just woken up from a deep sleep. He parked his digger and flipped open the cockpit.

“Hey,” I said.

He didn’t say anything, but he glared at me with a scowl.

I tried to sound cheerful. “The raid was a success. Everyone’s having a big party down in the storeroom.”

Jimmi took a look down the tunnel, but his expression didn’t change.

“Yeah, whatever,” Jimmi said. “You know what? I’m not feeling very well. I’m gonna sleep.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Everyone is having a good—”

Jimmi slapped my hand away. “Just leave me alone!”

I took a step back. “Look, I’m sorry. I should have told you we were heading back. That’s on me.”

“Whatever.” Jimmi walked past me without another word and trudged to the darkness of the sleeping quarters.

I felt like a total jerk.

•   •   •

I was still a little flustered as I made my way to the banquet, but the sounds of the party cheered me up. Everyone was sitting on the floor and on boxes, stuffing their faces with tuna fish, rolled grape leaves, and even sardines.

“And we’ve even got dessert!” Fatima yelled, holding up a crate filled with chips, chocolate bars, and pickles.

Darcy and Finn seemed to particularly like combining them together and then making faces at Alek, who almost smiled.

I took in the scene and gave a sigh of contentment.

Maria walked up to me. “Jimmi come back?”

“Yeah. But he’s pissed at me big time.”

“I’ll go talk to him.”

“No. I think he wants to get some sleep. You stay and have fun. I’ll talk to him in the morning.”

I saw Maria steal a look at Darcy, who was helping Finn make an ad hoc fondue using a flare and a can filled with chocolate bars.

Maria’s lips trembled. “Actually, I think I’m going to call it a night too.” She walked out.

I sighed. Two steps forward, three steps back, as my mom used to say.

“Nice party,” Fatima said, walking up and offering me some kind of canned hot dog in tomato sauce. I popped it into my mouth but had to choke it down. It was cold. “Next raid, we steal an oven,” I said, gagging a bit.

She shrugged, tipped the tin, and poured the rest of the sausages into her mouth, chewing them as she smiled.

“So, maybe we aren’t a family, but we’re getting close,” I said. “Sometimes you just have to dig a mile in another person’s shoes and all that.”

“When times are good, it is easy to stay close,” she said.

I frowned.

She poked me in the arm. “But I do think this raid has made some progress. Good work.”

I poked her back. “You too.”

I looked up. Elena was staring at us from across the room. She wasn’t laughing. She turned and said something to Therese and then left the room.

I was going to follow her when Darcy came up to me and tapped my leg. “Christopher. Do you like seafood?”

“Um. Yes. Why?’

She stuck out her tongue, which was covered with bits of half-chewed pickle and chocolate. “See. Food,” she said, giggling.

Fatima laughed so hard, a bit of hot dog flew out of her mouth and skidded across the floor. Finn and Nazeem erupted with laughter. I looked over at them. Finn was doubled over and pointing at Alek.

Alek tried to appear innocent, but the more they laughed, the more his face broke out in a mischievous grin.

But Darcy wasn’t done yet.

“Fatima is very nice,” she said.

“Thank you,” Fatima said.

“Is she your girlfriend?”

Now it was my turn to almost choke.

“Um, Fatima is . . . ,” I stumbled.

“Do you want her to be your girlfriend?”

“Um, well . . .”

“Don’t you think she’s pretty?”

“Yes, I mean, of course, but . . .”

Fatima just cocked her head and smiled. She seemed to be enjoying my puzzled stutter.

Our eyes locked for a second . . . for more than a second.

Her eyes were brown and deep.

I quickly looked away.

Elena walked back in the room, staring straight at me. I felt a pang of guilt but wasn’t sure why.

“Look, Darcy. I’m friends with everyone here. Everyone except maybe
you
right now, that is.”

She looked hurt.

“Humph,” she said, turning and walking back to Finn.

“Nice work, rich boy,” Fatima said.