Mutation (2 page)

‘What is it?' Luke looked up at me. ‘Can you see anything?'

I bit my lip, knowing right away what he was thinking.

Could this have something to do with his dad? Had he somehow escaped being hunted down by Shackleton's people? Had he convinced the outside world to come looking for us?

Were we being rescued?

Don't,
I told myself, clamping down on my own wishful thinking.
Not now. Believe it when it happens.

‘Jordan?' Luke pressed.

‘No,' I said. ‘Nothing. Just fire.'

I jumped back down to the ground and started pushing through the half-darkness for a closer look, past upturned chairs and forgotten handbags and wild speculation about terrorists and meteorites and plane crashes. Somewhere in all the confusion, little Lachlan was screaming his head off.

I sidestepped between another couple of people and suddenly I was right in front of Reeve's casket. I reeled back, startled by the sight of the still, dark form in the middle of all of this chaos, like for a minute I'd forgotten why we were here in the first place.

The guilt reared up again.

If we hadn't asked him to help us …

A figure appeared from behind the casket, and I jumped back. It was Shackleton, getting to his feet, looking as surprised as the rest of us, but also kind of excited.

‘And there I was, worrying that my eulogy didn't have quite a punchy enough ending,' he coughed, resting an arm on Reeve's casket. ‘Lovely to see you in three dimensions again, Ms Burke. Not that I haven't been keeping an eye, of course,' he tapped the side of his head, like I couldn't figure out what an eye was. ‘But that blinking dot on my computer monitor really does not do you justice.'

I glared at him, and Shackleton's eyes glinted. He was insane, but not Crazy Bill insane. Shackleton knew exactly what he was doing. He paused for a moment to brush the dirt off his suit, then started calling out orders to the guards.

‘Alonzo – get in there and find out what we're dealing with. Parker – would you be so kind as to track down Officer Calvin for me? I daresay he'll want to take a look at this. The rest of you – get these people back into town.' Shackleton caught my eye and smiled again. ‘We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now, would we?'

He drummed his fingers on the lid of the casket, clearly enjoying himself.

I was one breath away from taking a swing at him, but a glimpse of an approaching guard held me back. I'd seen this guy around town before. Officer Barnett, I think. He had an orange goatee and a face that said he'd have no problem getting violent if it came to that.

‘All right, Ms Burke,' he said. ‘Let's get you home.'

Barnett brought a hand down onto my shoulder. I might not have known him too well, but Calvin had made certain that his security team knew
exactly
who we were.

‘Oi!' said Peter, as he and Luke burst out of the crowd. ‘Hands off!'

The guard smirked, tightening his grip on me. Peter glared, and I felt a surge of frustration. He always picked the dumbest moments to try to be a gentleman.

‘Let's go,' said Barnett, pushing me forward.

He marched us out of the clearing and back down the road into town, roping one of his friends in to help keep an eye on us.

I noticed none of the other funeral-goers were getting such special treatment.

‘Don't think you can handle us all by yourself?' I muttered, wrenching free of him.

Officer Barnett just snarled.

By the time we got out of the bush, half the town had come out into the street to see what was going on. A woman with curly hair and a little girl in her arms came running up as we stepped out of the bush.

‘Is everything all right?' she asked. Her eyes fell on Luke, Peter and me, and I bit my tongue, knowing what was coming. ‘Officer, what's going on out there? Did
those three
do something?'

Barnett shook his head. ‘Lightning strike.'

‘
Lightning
strike?'

‘Back to your home please, ma'am,' the guard said firmly. ‘We've got skid units coming through, and they're going to need –'

‘YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,' another officer's voice boomed through a megaphone. ‘PLEASE CLEAR THE STREET IMMEDIATELY TO MAKE WAY FOR EMERGENCY FIRE CREWS.'

The instructions got a few people moving, but others were still arriving. The explosion must have been heard all over town, and now there was a pillar of black smoke towering into the sky above the bush.

‘Barnett! Cook!' shouted the officer with the megaphone. ‘We could use a hand over here if you're not too busy chatting!'

‘Yeah, hang on!' Barnett called back, looking like he'd love to take that megaphone and smack the guy over the head with it. He barked at us, ‘Straight home. All of you.'

The curly-haired woman shot one last dirty look at me and the boys, and then headed back across the street.

I turned, bristling, and led Luke and Peter off in the direction of my house, glancing back over my shoulder to keep an eye on Barnett. He watched until he was satisfied that we were actually leaving, then he and Cook ran off to help with the crowd.

‘Freaking
moron,
' spat Peter.

‘Which one?' asked Luke.

‘All of them!' said Peter, not noticing that I was veering off the path. ‘This whole bloody town! If they had any idea of the crap we've been through trying to save their – Whoa! Jordan, no. Seriously.
No.
'

It was really getting dark now, and a flickering orange glow was shining out through the bushland to our left. The bushland I was heading straight back into.

‘Come on,' I said, ‘you don't want to know what's going on out –?'

‘
Down!
' yelled Luke out of nowhere, grabbing Peter and me by the arms and dragging us into the dirt.

There was a flash of light and a roar of sound and at first I had no idea what was going on. After almost two months in Phoenix, there were some things my brain was just not used to dealing with anymore.

Headlights.

Engines.

A second later, three identical vehicles came tearing down the narrow bike path towards us, gleaming black buggies with red Shackleton Co-operative logos emblazoned on the sides. Each one had a single driver and a couple of other officers at the back, hanging off a little caged section packed with hoses and water tanks and other fire-fighting gear. The little buggies looked like they'd been custom-designed with Phoenix in mind.

The first one flashed past our hiding place and I heard Peter swear.

Officer Calvin was crouched at the back, staring out at the fire like he was going to destroy it with his bare hands. No crutch. No bandages. No sign at all that he'd been smashed half to death only a few weeks ago.

I knew he'd been recovering quickly, but seriously –
no-one
heals that fast.

The buggies swerved through the crowd and raced up the dirt track towards the cemetery.

‘See?' said Peter, getting up off the ground. ‘Another
excellent
reason not to go back out there.'

He was probably right.

But clearly we couldn't just
not
investigate.

I got up and started bashing my way into the bush, knowing they wouldn't let me go out there alone.

‘Jordan, no!' Peter hissed at me. ‘Wait! Let's just –'

He broke off into a sigh and a second later I heard footsteps crashing through the undergrowth.

‘I swear, Jordan,' Peter grumbled as the two of them caught up, ‘you get me killed tonight and I am going to haunt you
so freaking much.
'

I stumbled forward, almost tripping over a rock buried in the grass. The bush at the north end of town was a mess of dense trees and tall grass, and stomping through this way would be a lot slower than taking the cemetery path. But it would also give us more to hide behind as we got within eyeshot of security.

‘What about the suppressors?' said Luke urgently. ‘Shackleton's going to know exactly where we –'

‘Shackleton's too busy dealing with this to worry about what we're doing,' I said, trying to ignore the dull throb at the base of my spine, the sudden rush of images of Dr Montag holding me down over the table, digging that needle into me, Shackleton grinning down from the sidelines –

Stop it. You've got work to do.

The fire was maybe fifty metres away now, and I could feel the heat pressing against us. The flames lit up the bush, casting everything in hyperactive, flickering shadows.

‘You guys didn't see anything before the explosion, did you?' asked Luke. ‘Like a plane, or –?'

‘We would've
heard
a plane,' said Peter. ‘What, you reckon this is someone's idea of a rescue plan? Bomb the trees and fly away again?'

I heard shouts up ahead, and engine noises. Calvin and his men had reached the explosion site. Pushing closer, I could make out the fire crews unreeling their hoses and aiming them into the flames. Loud hissing noises broke out over the crackling and snapping of the fire as the hoses began spewing water into the air.

I slowed down as we closed in on the explosion site. I held up a hand to stop the others, and we crouched down in the grass, searching for the best way forward.

The air around us was a haze of smoke and steam, glowing orange in the firelight. Calvin was standing in the middle of it all, shouting orders. He turned in our direction and I dropped further down into the grass.

‘He's seen us!' Luke hissed.

‘No he hasn't,' I said, watching his face, hoping I was right. ‘Quiet!'

Calvin turned around again. He got the attention of a couple of officers and pointed out across the grass to where we were hiding. I saw Luke's hands flash to the ground, ready to push off and run.

‘No,
wait,
' I said. ‘It's not us. He's telling them to concentrate on this end of the fire. Keep it away from the town.' I started edging my way around to the right. ‘We're okay. We just need to get around to the other side before –'

Crack!

Luke shoved me to the ground, knocking me clear of the flaming branch that had just snapped off a tree above our heads. The branch crashed into the grass, sending a cloud of sparks shooting up into the air.

‘Thanks,' I breathed, scrambling back up again.

Peter rolled his eyes.

But now the grass around the branch was starting to curl and spark. Any second now, this whole area would be up in smoke.

‘Here!' called one of the guards. ‘Quick!'

A burst of cold mist rained down across my face. Calvin's men were right on top of us.

I twisted around and started clawing away through the grass, forgetting all about being quiet, hoping the fire and the hoses and the shouting of the guards would be enough to disguise our escape.

I definitely hadn't dressed for the occasion. My shoes were slipping and my knees kept catching on the hem of my skirt. I stumbled again, almost crashing face-first into another rock, throwing down my hands just in time.

Hang on …

Squinting in the firelight, I saw that it wasn't a rock at all. It was a hunk of concrete, flat on one side and jagged on all the others, like it had broken off something much bigger.

Or exploded off.

‘Hurry!' hissed Peter behind me, nudging my leg.

I pushed the concrete aside and kept moving.

This was ridiculous. We couldn't just crawl around in the grass all night. I glanced back over my shoulder to check on the guards, then ducked behind the nearest tree.

Luke and Peter got up after me, both looking like they'd much rather stay cowering in the grass. I waited until they were behind me again, then started circling around to the far side of the fire, keeping as low as I could, using the shadows to cover me.

The fire crews were slowly getting the blaze under control, extinguishing what was left of our light. I dashed along from tree to tree, eyes peeled for some sign of Shackleton. I finally spotted him, twenty metres away, at the top of a little rise, crouching in the dirt with his back to us. He had his head down, examining something.

I saw Calvin coming up to talk to him, jogging around in a wide arc like there was something on the ground out there that he was avoiding. Shackleton stood up as Calvin approached, and the two of them began talking.

‘Need to get closer,' I said, straining to hear.

‘Too dangerous,' said Luke. ‘We should go. Come back later when they've all cleared –'

‘Wait here,' I whispered.

‘Jordan!'

But I was already out from behind my tree and creeping through what was left of the undergrowth. Up ahead, only a few metres behind Calvin and Shackleton, was the enormous blackened shell of another fallen tree, still smouldering at the edges. I dropped behind it.

‘… report no unusual activity on the perimeter,' Calvin was saying. ‘No air traffic, either.'

‘Come now, Bruce,' said Shackleton lightly. ‘Do you really think that whatever did this came from the
air
?'

Calvin was silent for a moment. ‘Sir, that's – The ground was supposed to be stable!'

‘Indeed,' said Shackleton.

I held my breath, waiting for him to continue. But apparently that was all I was going to get.

I crouched there in the ash, listening to the crackle of the fire and the spraying of hoses.

It didn't take long for my patience to run out. I stretched up a couple of inches, risking a look over the top of the fallen tree.

Whoa.

A giant crater stretched out in front of Shackleton's feet, big enough to fit my whole house inside. Security officers skirted around the outside, fighting back the flames.

In what was left of the light, I thought I could make out more hunks of concrete lodged into the sides of the massive hole. And there was something else too – a flickering light, different to the fire. Like something electrical, sparking.