Underground (22 page)

8.30 p.m. Wednesday 8 July.

‘Well,' said Mr Weir, coming around to look. ‘I'd say that probably qualifies as “something big”.'

Whatever Shackleton was planning, it looked like we wouldn't have to wait long to find out what it was.

Chapter 28

M
ONDAY
, J
ULY
6
38
DAYS

‘Back in a sec,' I said, reaching past Jordan to pick up her bowl from the table. I stood up, yawning, and carried the remains of our dinner across the hall to the kitchen.

Once the meeting had wrapped up, Jordan and I had stayed in the surveillance room for the rest of the day, scouring the town for anything else that might help us. But despite what Mr Weir had said about the changing mood up there, life seemed to be going along pretty much the same as usual.

Unless you counted Mum's office. That had been abandoned all day.

I crept past Dad, asleep on his bunk, and found Mr Weir on his way out of the kitchen, carrying a bowl of two-minute noodles and a mug of cloudy water. ‘Just going down to give Pete his dinner,' whispered Mr Weir. ‘Anything you want me to tell him?'

I shook my head and he disappeared down the hall. We still hadn't been back to see him since his outburst on Saturday night.

I took our bowls to the sink and rinsed them clean. We were eating better than when we were hiding out next door to Mum, but not by much. Kara and Soren's pantry was stocked up with enough food to last
them
for months. But with the sudden population explosion down here, it wouldn't be long until supplies ran low.

I stuck the bowls on the drying rack and rested against the kitchen bench for a moment, staring out at the bedroom. Dad had crashed in there a couple of hours ago – but only after making several loud comments about giving Jordan and me some privacy.

I headed back out into the hall and almost ran straight into Kara, who'd come charging out of one of the bedrooms. Something scratched against my arm as she brushed past. She stuffed it into her pocket, but not before I had a chance to see what it was.

A battered old envelope, sealed with black wax.

Which answered our question about whether or not Kara was still communicating with Mike, Cat and Tank.

‘Hey!' I said, grabbing her.

Kara wheeled around. She was crying. ‘Don't,' she said fiercely. ‘This doesn't concern you.'

Are you kidding me?

‘Hey, Jordan!' I called. She didn't answer. ‘Jordan, I think you're going to want to –'

A huge, choking gasp from next door drowned out the rest of my sentence. Kara wrenched herself free and ran off down the hall.

I bolted into the surveillance room, just in time to see Jordan go crashing to the ground on all fours. She retched violently, rolling onto her side. I knelt next to her and shoved a hand under her head to keep her from smashing into the concrete.

‘Jordan! Jordan, no, come on. Come on, just –' I held onto her arm with my other hand, doubting if she could even hear me. ‘Just –
breathe
, okay? Don't –'

I gasped, toppling forward, hand slipping from Jordan's arm. Slipping
through
Jordan's arm. Her head crashed through my other hand, smacking to the floor.

‘Hey – No, come on, don't do this to me.'

But she was already gone. The shaking stopped, and she rolled away from me, groaning.

Jordan sat up, eyes flying around the room. And instinctively I followed her gaze, like I expected to see what she was looking at.

Whatever she was seeing, it wasn't pretty. Jordan got to her feet, still trying to take in the whole room at once. She rushed to the door, unsteady, like Mr Weir when he first got his legs back, dodging invisible obstacles on the ground.

She stuck her head out into the empty hallway. But clearly it wasn't empty for her, because she recoiled straight away, stumbling back in my direction.

‘All right, Jordan,' I said. ‘You can come back now.' But my hands just closed on air again.

Jordan stopped at the doorway across the room, peering in at the lab. I walked up behind her. ‘Jordan, seriously, time to –
No! No, what are you –?'

Jordan was …

I could
see through her.

She was fading. Like a ghost. Like her body was slipping away to wherever her mind was.

I clawed out in front of me, hands falling through her. ‘Jordan!'

She turned around, eyes wide.

‘Jordan?' I said, reaching out again. ‘Hey! Hey, listen –' Jordan's dad came bursting through the door at the far end of the lab, just in time to see my arms pass straight through Jordan's waist again. His mouth dropped open.

‘What's going on?' Mr Burke demanded. ‘What did you –?'

‘JORDAN!' I yelled.

She stumbled back, looking at me. Her mouth opened, shouting a reply, but no sound came out.
Luke!

‘Jordan!'

She reached for me, and I grabbed at her arms, still not able to touch her. Jordan's dad pushed forward, but he couldn't feel her any more than I could. And she was getting fainter.

‘Jordan!' I looked straight through her eyes, the lab getting clearer and clearer on the other side. ‘Focus. You can hear me, right? Just keep listening to me.'

She stared back, terrified, still mouthing words soundlessly.
Luke, I'm not –

She broke off, spinning to look over her shoulder.

‘Come on, Jordan, please, you have to –' My hands passed through her again.

I can't!

‘Jordan, no –
No!
You are not disappearing on me!'

Luke, I can't –

‘– reach!'

And suddenly her fingernails were clawing into me, digging into my forearms. She was coming back, getting solid again.

Mr Burke reached in to grab her. His arms passed straight through and almost smacked me in the head.

I held tight to Jordan's arms. ‘That's it, just – just look at me, okay? Just keep –'

Jordan jerked forward, head crashing into mine. I stumbled, but caught her before she fell. She clamped down even tighter on my arms and started shaking again.

‘Jordan!'
Mr Burke shouted.

‘No, it's okay!' I said, bringing her to the ground, hoping I was telling him the truth. ‘She's okay now. She's going to be –'

Jordan let out a series of loud, gagging coughs, tears rolling down her face. She gave one last shudder, and then sat up, wiping her mouth. ‘Thank you,' she said, still breathless, dragging me down into a hug. ‘Thanks. I thought …'

Mr Burke knelt down next to us, waiting until she finally released me. ‘What was that?' he asked, still completely spooked. ‘Do either of you know what just happened?'

Jordan looked at her dad, then back at me. ‘I don't –'

There was a shout from back up the other end of the surveillance room, and Mr Weir came running in. He hesitated, seeing us all down on the floor. ‘You guys all right?'

‘Hard to say.' I got to my feet, pulling Jordan up after me. ‘What's going on?'

Mr Weir turned to look at her. ‘Peter wants to talk to you.'

‘Yeah,' said Jordan wearily. He'd been asking for her every time someone brought him a meal. ‘I know. I
will
go and see him. I just need to find the right time.'

‘All right, sure, but –' Mr Weir's expression shifted. ‘I reckon that time might be now.'

‘Why?' asked Jordan. ‘What did he say?'

‘He thinks he can – Okay, look, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but if he can actually do what he's saying, then –'

‘
Then
what?'
I said.

‘Then we're going to want to let him out as soon as we can.'

‘Let him out?' said Jordan's dad. ‘Why would we –?'

‘Because,' said Mr Weir, ‘he says he's found a way to shut down the security cameras.'

Chapter 29

M
ONDAY
, J
ULY
6
38
DAYS

‘Jordan, wait!' called Mr Burke, chasing us down the corridor. ‘I don't want you rushing in there without –'

‘I'll be careful,' said Jordan. ‘Trust me.'

We came to Peter's door. His parents had been down yesterday to help put his room back together and, apart from a few scattered book pages and the chipped furniture, everything was looking normal again.

‘Can you two wait back here?' I whispered to Mr Burke and Mr Weir. ‘Probably better if we don't all rush in at once.'

Neither of them looked too happy with this suggestion, but they hung back a few steps behind us.

Jordan peered through the gap in the door. I crept up and looked over her shoulder.

Peter was sitting cross-legged on the bed, attention fixed on the laptop we'd given him, back when he first moved in. Completely calm. No trace of the furniture-throwing psychopath from a couple of nights ago.

He glanced at the door and his eyes lit up. ‘Jordan!'

Jordan stood back, bumping into me. She muttered a quick apology and started lifting the bars away from the door.

‘Stop!' barked a voice from further down the corridor. ‘Move away from there!'

Kara, coming back from her mail run. Peter's dad moved to head her off.

‘Don't be absurd,' said Kara, trying to get past him. ‘You can't possibly –'

Mr Burke silenced her with a look.

As soon as Jordan pulled back the last barricade, Peter shoved the door open, almost wiping her out. ‘Jordan!' he groaned, arms snaking around her. ‘Jordan, I am
so sorry.

' ‘Don't worry about it.' She patted him on the back a couple of times, then pulled herself out. ‘Your dad told us –'

‘Right!' said Peter, grabbing Jordan's hand and pulling her into his room, like the rest of us weren't even there. ‘Come on, I'll show you!'

He sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her down next to him and dragging the computer to his lap. I walked in after them, but didn't sit down.

‘Okay, so, last weekend,' said Peter, minimising whatever he'd been working on, ‘when you guys were heading up to meet my mum and dad, I was watching my house to see if –'

‘He's lying,' said Kara from the doorway. ‘That computer doesn't have access to the feeds. Soren disabled all network privileges before we … even …'

She trailed off as Peter brought up a surveillance image of his house.

‘So anyway,' he continued, taking one hand off the keyboard to give Kara the finger, ‘when the cameras got shut down, at first I figured someone must've gone into the security centre and physically screwed around with the system, right? Like Reeve did, back when –'

He faltered for just a second.

Officer Reeve's death wasn't the first or the last we'd seen since all of this started, but it was still the one that messed with us the most. The one that felt the most like our fault.

‘But, yeah, I did some digging,' Peter went on, ‘and that's actually not what happened. Montag launched the attack remotely. And I guess he was in too much of a hurry to cover his tracks, because I got a pretty good look at how he did it. And I've been working on it, and – Jordan, I reckon I can make it happen again.'

Jordan stood up. ‘You're serious? You actually think you can do this?'

‘Yes,'
said Peter, like his life was hanging on it. ‘I mean, maybe not for as long. They'll be more ready for it this time, obviously. But, you know, it's not like you guys have given me much else to do down here but work on this.'

Jordan sighed. ‘Peter …'

‘How long?' asked Mr Burke, pushing into the room. ‘How long can you turn them off for?'

‘If you let me out to the surveillance room,' said Peter, attention still on Jordan as though she was the one who'd asked the question, ‘and if the workarounds I've come up with actually do what they're supposed to do …' He bit his lip. ‘A minute. Maybe two.'