The Stolen Child (38 page)

“I'll stay,”
s
he said.

Ilona simply nodded as she raised her sending stone.  The call was brief.  Not long after, Micah appeared in the mouth of alleyway.  He had Justin's limp form slung across his shoulders, the weight barely seeming to bother him.

“Fates, girl, you scared the life out of us,”
h
e said as his eyes met hers.

“Sorry,”
s
he shrugged, looking away.  He turned to look at Ilona and the fallen man.

“You're OK?”
h
e said.  Ilona just raised an eyebrow.  “Yeah, kinda figured,”
h
e replied.  “Asshole deserved it too.  Come on, we should get going.  We need to meet up with the others, fast.”

Ilona nodded as Micah walked away.  The woman turned to Rachael.

“Coming?”

Rachael nodded as she fell
in behind them
.  Micah lead them on a winding route that seemed to stick to the back streets and side alleys, finally emerging on some far flung part of the
plateau
.  Ahead they could see a platform that protruded from the side of the cliff, iron struts holding up something that she guessed must have been designed as a landing pad.  Resting on the platform was a small white boat, just like the ones she had seen flying over London.  The memory made her a little uncomfortable.

Up on the deck she could see Abasi at the helm, the Professor standing at his side examining something at the controls.  Milima was standing by the front landing strut, with Arsha close at her side.  When the girl saw them approach she didn't waste a second in running to meet them.

“Rachael, I...”

Arsha seemed about to launch into a full blown explanation when she remembered that Micah and Ilona were standing e
ither side of her
.  She paused, and swallowed.

“I'm sorry.  I didn't tell them.  It was just... When Dad came to find us, you weren't there and I had to explain and...”

“No, it's cool,” Rachael said.  “If... If Ilona hadn't found me...”

She decided that she didn't want to think about that.

“Is he OK?” Arsha said, looking at Justin.

“He shouldn't be, given what hit him, but yeah.  I guess he's survived worse,” Micah said.  “Never thought I'd see someone still breathing after an arc-mine to the face.”

“Hey, move it people,” Milima's cry was a sharp whip-crack in the air as she gestured for them to get aboard.  Micah went first, handing the unconscious Justin up to the men on the deck and then scrambling up the ladder.  
At the top he turned to pull the rest of them up
.  Milima was the last aboard, as the propellers began to spin up.  They nestled down on long bench seats that lined the inside walls of the boat.  
As Rachael sat,
Arsha immediately squeezed in beside her.  Justin was laid out along the
floor
, his coat folded under his head.

“I don't understand.  What are we doing?”
s
he said to Arsha.

“Leaving,”
t
he girl said, with a confused shrug.

“Is this... Because of what we did?”

“Actually, it's because of what I did,”
s
he heard the professor say.  She looked up to see the man standing over them.  As the boat lifted off from the pad he seemed to scarcely think about keeping his balance, calmly shifting his stance
with the swaying of the hull
.  The motion reminded her of people standing on the tube trains.

“What do you mean?  How did we even get this boat?  Are we stealing this or something?”
s
he said, having to raise her voice over the roar of the propellers.

“Stealing?  No,”
h
e replied, with a smile that seemed to have no humour in it.  “Why, Manindra Bhandari himself filed a flight plan and released this vessel on our behalf.  Or, at least, that
's
  what the
ir
records show.”

“You faked them?”
s
he said, already realising that it wasn't really a question.

“Yes.  Luckily for you and your friend here, we were never really planning on staying for long.”

“When he says 'we'...” Micah interjected, with an aggravated look.

“Yes, some warning might have been nice,” Milima added with a scowl.  The professor just nodded calmly.

“I'm sorry.  It was necessary.  Having you all know what I was up to might have given me away.  I wasn't even sure for myself exactly how all of this might go down.”

“So, what, you just came to talk to this guy and then run off?  What for?  What
did you find out
?” Rachael said.

The professor's eyes met each of theirs in turn as everyone watched him, waiting for his answer.  His whole manner suddenly
seemed
very cold.  There was something about him that reminded her of the way Rakesh had acted.

“From Manindra?  Very little.  The man is more
deranged
than ever.  But I learned a great deal from the files I stole from him.  Whatever hope any of you
held
that we might
have
reason
ed
with this man, abandon it.  Manindra is entirely beyond reason.”

There was a long pause, as everyone digested this.

“So... What happens now?” Micah said.

“We keep running.  For now, it's all we can do.  I'm sorry.  I really don't have a
better
answer.”

He turned away, walking to the prow of the boat where
could look
out ahead.  Peering over the
edge of the hull
, Rachael could see the lights of the town and the estate receding below them.  Far off, Firecrest was an ember in the darkness.

Rachael felt a curious sense of deja-vu as she sat
watching Justin sleep.  Then she realised that it wasn't this she remembered, exactly.  Rather, that this must have been how it seemed to Arsha, watching over her
on
that first day
aboard
the Triskelion.  Without realising it, she had sat herself in the same chair with the same lantern resting on the table between them.

She glanced down at the sketchbook on her lap, the pencil in her hand poised to add the last few details to a portrait of Justin's sleeping face.  She
felt a nervous twinge in her stomach
, knowing that she would have to hide the picture from him.  He seemed so calm, so at ease.  So vulnerable.  It was nothing like the way he'd seemed when she first met him.

There was a slight rap on the door, and it eased open as Arsha peered in.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Rachael replied.  “So your dad let you out?”

“He... He didn't really say anything about it.  It seemed like he should have been angry, but it was all just so confused.”

Rachael gave the girl a cautious look.

“And you're sure he's not just... You know, waiting to drop the hammer later, or something.”

“He's not like that,” Arsha said, shaking her head, with a sad smile.  “Besides, I asked him.”

“Oh.”
“He... He just kind of looked at me, and then he said 'You have to make your own choices now.'  Like, there wasn't anything else he could say.”

“Well that's good,” Rachael said.

“Yeah,” Arsha replied, clearly not feeling it.

Gently, the girl closed the door behind herself as she slipped into the room.  With nowhere else to sit, she settled down against the wall
and
tuck
ed
her knees up.

“It's all... Different.  I keep wondering who he is,”
Arsha said.
 

Rachael looked meaningfully at the sleeping boy in the bed, before Arsha shook her head.

“I meant my dad.”

“Oh.”

“
I just don't understand how he could get tangled up in all this.  
I'm not saying he's perfect or anything, but he's my dad,
you know?
 
H
e's nice and funny and kind, and he makes me
feel better
when I'm upset, and he listens even when I want to talk about
dumb
stuff that no one else cares about, and he helps me with all my stupid hobbies and things, and...”  She drew a breath.  “And now I have to believe there's this whole other person, who I never knew about, all this time?”

Feeling uncomfortable, Rachael
looked back down at her sketchbook
.

“I'm probably not the best person to ask about
that
,"
she said.
  "
Feels to me like everyone's just faking it, you know?
 
L
ike,
if we
somehow lie to ourselves enough about what we are inside, it might stick.  
Everyone's just covering up the ugliness
.”

She glanced across at Justin, seeing him, for a moment, with blood dripping from those soft lips.

“
That guy,
Rakesh,
he
called
Justin
a monster.  But the things h
im and his brother
did,
it was all just as bad.  Worse, even.  W
ith Justin,
at least
you see the ugly.  He wears it on the outside.”

“And you're OK with that?”  

Arsha hugged her knees to her chest, shivering slightly.

“We're all ugly.  Manindra was right about that part.  We're all selfish and mean.”

“And what about you.  If everyone else is so horrible...” Arsha said,
sharply
.

“Your dad said it.  Manindra said it.  There's a whole city dying because of me.  
I guess you don't get much more ugly than that.
”

Whatever Arsha might have said, it was forgotten when Justin stirred in his sleep.  Eyes flicked open and then he sat
up sharply, looking about with a wary expression
.

“Hey... Hey, Justin, it's me,” Rachael said, grabbing him by the shoulder.  His eyes met hers, and she saw him draw a calming breath.

“Rachael... What happened?”

“It's... Look, we're safe, OK?”

He looked around, taking in the cabin and then Arsha.  She gave him an embarrassed wave.

“Safe, where?”

“You're on the Triskelion,” Arsha offered.

“The what?”

“It's the ship they took me on.  Arsha's dad, and the others.”

His eyes narrowed.

“What happened?”

“After that guy came after us... He knocked you out with one of those lightning things.  But Ilona found us.”  

“And now we're here?  With the people who kidnapped you?”

“It's not as simple as that.”

“Really?  Because it seemed pretty simple when they shot at me and hauled you off,” Justin snarled, sitting up on the edge of the bed, the sheet falling down to ruck around his waist.

“Look, I'm not saying I didn't think the same thing,"
she said, her voice catching in her throat.
  "I
t weren't
easy or nothing.  But... I think they really mean it.  I think they want to help us.”

“And how long did it take you to decide this?  Because you seemed fine with my plan last night.”

“I know, but... After what happened.  After that man came after us again.  Justin, we'd barely made it ten
feet
and we were in trouble.  I don't know what I'm supposed to do here, but it seems like these are the only people who are really trying to help us.  I mean, Ilona is a total bitch and she still came for us.”

He leaned forward, taking her gently by the arms, looking into her eyes with that same fierce intensity that she had found so startling at first.

“Rachael, this is insane.  We had a plan.  We know where we need to go and these people are not going to help us get there, no matter what they say.”

“You don't know that.  And what good's it us running off, with your plan and all, if we never get there?"

“What makes you
so sure of this now
?”
h
e shot back at her.

She had no answer, but he must have seen the way she glanced over at Arsha.

“Oh.  Right.  I guess it's all the same as long as you have someone to cling onto,”
h
e said.

She pushed him away, shoving the chair back hard against the wall as she got to her feet.  Arsha had to scramble aside just so that
Rachael
could pull the door open and force her way out into the corridor.

She found her way to the loft over the cargo hold.  
A
s she reached the top of the
steps
she was struck by
just how easily this little space had become a refuge.  
Sitting back on the old couch, she found herself untensing
just
a little.  
Glimpsed t
hrough the porthole, wisps of cloud drifted past.
 

She heard his footsteps on the cargo hold floor, then the creak of the ladder.  At last he stepped into sight, his eyes drawn to the portholes ahead.  It took him a moment to
see
her, lying back on the couch.  She looked up at him with defiance in her eyes, but she didn't say a word.  She was more than happy to let him make the first move.  For a moment he stood there, awkwardly, his eyes soon turning towards the view through the windows once more.
 

“I'm sorry,”
h
e said.  

She nodded.  
A
n acknowledgement, nothing more.

“
I shouldn't have said that.”
 

“
You're right.  You shouldn't have.”
 

He sat down heavily in the chair opposite her.

“So... What do you want me to do?”
h
e said.
 

“Does it matter?”
s
he growled.  He simply gave her a look, patient, expectant.

She closed her eyes, for a moment, trying to find some sense of what she was doing.

“I think you should meet him.  The professor.  See what you think.”

“I can't promise I'll like him,” Justin said.

“I
don't know if I like him at all
.  But I think he really means to help us.”