Acid (16 page)

Max nods. ‘We can go today if you want,’ he says, keeping his voice low too. ‘I’m OK now, really. You don’t need to worry about me.’

I shake my head. ‘Tomorrow’s fine,’ I insist. ‘You only just started feeling like yourself yesterday afternoon. And I need to get our c-cards back.’

‘Where are we going to go?’

‘I don’t know. Another big city, maybe. Not Newcastle, though – ACID might still be expecting us to turn up there.’

‘
Do
we need our c-cards back? We can’t use them.’

I chew my lower lip, considering. ‘I don’t like the idea of Jacob hanging onto them. What if he tries to use them for something?’

Max frowns. ‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. But I don’t trust him.’

‘Me neither,’ Max says.

‘You don’t?’

He shakes his head. ‘Dunno. The others seem OK – Elyn’s nice, isn’t she? But Jacob – there’s something . . . not right about him.’

‘I know what you mean,’ I say. For the last three days, while Max has been recovering from his illness, I’ve been observing Jacob, trying to figure him out. Except for reading and exercising, there’s not much else to do. The others seem to have some sort of rota drawn up for watch duty, cleaning, preparing food and so on, but they haven’t asked me to join in, and I haven’t volunteered to.

‘It’s the way he looks at you when he talks to you,’ Max says. ‘Like he’s trying to hypnotize you or something. And he’s so
intense
. I feel like I have to watch what I say around him all the time, otherwise I’ll end up telling him too much.’

‘Yeah, that’s exactly it,’ I say. Jacob usually only appears at meal times, but he seems to know just which questions to ask, which compliments to drop into the conversation, to make whoever he’s talking to feel like they’re the absolute focus of his attention. I remember people – inmates
and
guards – like that in Mileway; they were always the ones you had to watch, because they were the ones with darkness bubbling underneath their easy smiles and jovial laughter like lava, ready to erupt at any minute.

I glance at Max and, just like when we first got here, feel a little burst of gratitude that he’s here with me.

‘So how will we get out of Clearford if we can’t use our cards?’ he asks.

‘We’ll have to walk, I guess,’ I say. ‘If we leave tomorrow night, we should be out of town before there’s anyone about.’

‘We need to get the gun back too. Just in case.’

I nod.

‘D’you think he’ll let us have it?’

‘I don’t know.’ I’m not sure I even
want
it, but Max is right – we need the gun. It’ll give us some protection against ACID. ‘I’ll go up there in a bit. You can come with me, if you want.’ I gather up the mugs. ‘I’ll take these back.’

I duck out of the den and pad silently across the floor. There’s still no sign of life in the other dens. My internal clock is telling me it’s about oh-six-thirty, which means no one else will be up for another hour or so. I go back to the storeroom, where all the supplies are kept in a big locker behind a pile of junk, to hide it from ACID when they raid the place, and rinse the mugs out in a bucket with the last of the water I boiled on the stove. Thinking about how I’m going to get our c-cards and the gun back has made me feel too antsy to sleep, though, so instead of going back to the den, I do a few stretches to warm up my muscles, then drop to the carpet and start doing press-ups. The repetitive movement calms me, focuses my mind.

‘Impressive,’ a voice murmurs above me, just as I hit the two hundred mark.

I jump and look up to see Jacob standing there. Hurriedly, I get to my feet, brushing dust off my hands and blowing my fringe out of my eyes.

‘Look at you,’ he says. ‘You’re hardly even out of breath.’

‘Yeah, well,’ I say, shrugging. ‘I like to keep in shape.’

‘I can tell.’ Jacob gives my biceps an appraising look that sets my teeth on edge. I fold my arms across my chest, wishing I was wearing longer sleeves.

Behind us, the door squeaks open and Elyn, who’s been on watch duty, comes in, rubbing her eyes.

‘Good morning,’ Jacob says, smiling broadly at her. ‘Any problems?’

‘Nothing. Everything’s quiet,’ Elyn says. ‘Sarah! How’s Declan?’

‘He’s OK,’ I say.

‘Oh,
good
. I’ve been really worried about him, you know.’

‘Well, you’ve done a great job of helping him to get better, haven’t you?’ Jacob says smoothly. And I can only nod in agreement, because she has – she’s been super-attentive, making sure he has medpatches and water and that our den’s comfortable and warm enough. Every time I turn round, she’s there.

‘Who’s on duty next?’ Jacob asks her.

‘Lukas,’ Elyn says. ‘I’ll go and wake him up.’ She crosses to his den and hisses his name through the sheet hanging over the entrance.

Jacob turns back to me. ‘Sarah, once everyone’s had
breakfast
, would you be kind enough to take over from Lukas?’

‘Um, I guess,’ I say, narrowing my eyes.

‘We’re having a meeting – just a regular thing we do, to check there aren’t any issues or problems. If you could take over Lukas’s watch, just for half an hour or so, then he can be there.’

‘No worries,’ I say. I duck into my den, eager to get away from Jacob. Even standing next to him makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

‘Want me to come up there with you?’ Max says. He’s still awake.

‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘That’d be good.’

About forty minutes later, everyone starts getting up. I wait until I hear Elyn call, ‘Come and get it, guys!’ and Max and I join the others. We sit close together, our legs crossed and our knees touching, trying to look as much like a couple as Rory and Elyn, or Neela and Shaan. I can feel my skin tingling where his knee is resting against mine, like there’s an electric charge between us. It’s the same when we’re in the den at night; I’m still not used to being in such a small space with him. Every time I accidentally brush against him, or he turns over in his sleep and flings a hand out and it bumps against me, I go hot and cold all over.

Then, without warning, Max puts his arm around me. It’s the first time either of us have ever taken our charade that far – up to now we’ve limited it to hand-holding and sitting close to each other – and I’m not expecting it at
all
. I get a jolt, a rush of heat going through my body, and stiffen for a moment.
For God’s sake
, I scold myself.
Why can’t you just act cool?

I close my eyes briefly.
You are not going to fall for him, Jenna
, I tell myself.
Our situation is complicated enough as it is. And remember how things turned out with Dylan. You decided you’d never fall for anyone again, remember?

But Max isn’t Dylan. The feelings I have for him are nothing like that . . . obsession. Instead, I have a sense of rightness, of something fitting into place without anything having to be given up to make room for it.

When breakfast is over and it’s time for everyone to go up to the second floor, and he takes his arm away and gets to his feet, I feel a fleeting sense of loss.

‘This is where you keep watch,’ Elyn says once we’re upstairs, leading us along a corridor to a couple of dusty chairs beneath one of the windows. She points out the knotholes in the boards nailed across it. ‘Keep looking through them, and if you see anything, come and knock,’ she says, before following the others into what looks like an old meeting room nearby. ‘Thanks!’ she calls over her shoulder, and, with a smile, she pulls the door to after her; it doesn’t actually shut because the frame is warped with damp.

When she’s gone, Max turns to me and says, ‘Was that OK earlier – me putting my arm around you, I mean?’

‘Oh, yeah, fine,’ I say, a little too quickly. ‘Why?’

‘I didn’t know if it was going too far.’

I shake my head.

‘Only I heard Jack and Amy talking outside our den last night and they were saying we didn’t seem very couple-y,’ he says. ‘So I thought . . .’

‘It’s fine,’ I say. ‘Great idea.’ I’m both relieved and disappointed – relieved because it means my tangled feelings about him, all the guilt about his dad and me lying to him, don’t have to get any more complicated. And disappointed because, well . . .

I decide not to go there.

He kneels in one of the chairs and peers through a knothole. ‘Nothing out there,’ he says. I look too, and see a view of the empty street below. Was it really only three days ago that we were running down it, pursued by ACID? It feels like much longer.

On a run-down-looking building opposite, I see a news screen. My stomach lurches, then settles again as I realize it’s broken, flickering uselessly. Then I see yet another NAR lightffiti tag, shining on the wall beside it. Who on earth
is
that? I’m starting to feel as if they’re following me.

I turn round and drop into the chair. We sit for a while in companionable silence. It’s something I’m really starting to appreciate about Max: not having to talk constantly just to keep from feeling awkward.

‘What d’you reckon they’re doing?’ Max says eventually, glancing at the room the others have disappeared into.

‘Dunno,’ I say. ‘Wanna find out?’

‘What if they catch you?’ he says, looking apprehensive
as
I get to my feet again and creep down the corridor to the meeting-room door. I flap a hand at him –
They won’t
– and press my eye to the gap between the door and the frame.

I frown.

What the hell
are
they doing?

CHAPTER 23

I GLANCE ROUND
. Max is looking through one of the knotholes. ‘
Max
,’ I hiss, frantically beckoning him over.

He gets up and hurries along the corridor to where I’m standing.
Look
, I mouth, indicating the gap.

He looks. When he steps back, I’m pretty sure the expression he’s wearing is identical to mine.
What are they up to?
he mouths. I shake my head.

Jacob’s standing in the middle of the room, which is lit, as always, by glolamps. There’s a table beside him with a box, a bit like the one he put the gun and our c-cards in, but bigger, and painted green, on it. The others are sitting around him on chairs which have been arranged in a rough semicircle, looking at something he’s taken out of the box – a metal disc with a slightly domed top, about half the size of my palm. ‘This isn’t live,’ he’s saying. ‘But the ones you’ll have with you on the day will be. You need to be very,
very
careful not to drop them or jog them, otherwise –
boom!
’ He throws his arms out.

Elyn, Rory, Jack, Paul, Amy, Lukas, Neela and Shaan all nod. Their faces are sober masks of concentration, especially Elyn’s.

‘You need to locate your target, attach them and pull
this
pin out to activate them,’ Jacob says, pointing at something on the side of the disc. ‘Then you’ll have thirty minutes to get clear.’

The others all nod again.

‘This is a plan of the square.’ Jacob puts the disc back in the box and lifts out something else – a square of paper, which he unfolds into a large sheet and smoothes out on the table beside the box. ‘I’ve marked the targets with a red cross, and next to each one are the initials of the person whose target it is. Is it clear enough?’

The others get up and gather around him to look at it. I squint, trying to make out what’s on it, but it’s too far away, and the light in there is too dim.

‘It’s estimated that there will be about two thousand ACID agents attending this rally,’ Jacob continues. ‘There are going to be a lot of people watching too. And our esteemed President, of course. It’ll be carnage.’ He grins. So do the others, and Elyn’s eyes shine as she gazes at Jacob with that unsettling look of rapture I’ve seen her and the others wear around him so often.

I stare at them through the narrow gap, Jacob’s words replaying in my head.
Be very careful. Otherwise – boom! Targets . . . two thousand ACID agents . . . rally . . . carnage
 . . .

Everything clicks into place like the pieces of a puzzle.

I realize what he’s talking about.

I realize what that metal disc is, and what these people are going to do.

‘What’s wrong?’ Max says when we’re back over by the window. ‘You look pale.’

I motion frantically for him to keep his voice down, glancing at the door. ‘What is it?’ he mutters.

I beckon for him to lean close to me and, in whispers, I tell him what I saw. The colour slowly drains from his face too.

‘What do they mean, a rally?’ he says.

‘I’m not sure,’ I say. Without access to a komm or a news screen, I have no way of finding out. ‘It sounds like an ACID thing. I don’t know if it’s in this town or somewhere else.’

‘We have to leave tonight,’ he whispers.

I nod. ‘I’ll go and ask for the gun and our c-cards as soon as Lukas comes back.’

‘But what if he won’t let you have them?’

‘I’ll get them,’ I say. ‘It’ll be all right.’ But I don’t feel nearly as confident as I’m trying to sound.

‘God, Mia,’ Max whispers. ‘They’re terr—’

‘
Shhh
.’ I can hear voices; the door to the meeting room’s opening. ‘Act normal. They mustn’t suspect we know anything.’

Max turns and kneels and looks through one of the knotholes. I sit, my hands resting lightly on the chair-arms, and somehow manage to return the pleasant smile Elyn gives me as she walks up to us. ‘Thanks
so
much, guys,’ she says, tucking a lock of her feathery blonde hair behind her ear. She’s wearing another home-made patchwork dress over a pair of jeans, and there’s a purple
crystal
on a leather thong round her neck. I try to imagine her planting one of those devices, pulling out the pin, walking away to safety and calmly waiting for it to detonate. I remember the way she was looking at Jacob, as if she’d let him have her soul if he asked for it.

A chill goes right through me.

‘No worries,’ I say.

‘Lukas can take over again now,’ she says, turning to glance at him over her shoulder.

Max and I get up.