Extinction Game (35 page)

I stepped up close to Selwyn. ‘What did Wallace say, exactly?’

Selwyn looked at me with a troubled expression. ‘I already told you, nothing that made any sense to me—’

‘Just tell me, dammit!’

‘Take it easy,’ said Chloe, putting her hand on my arm.

‘I don’t know,’ said Selwyn. ‘He was babbling about Casey and people dying.’ He peered at me. ‘Why? You know something I don’t?’

‘We saw Patriots searching through houses all across town on our way here,’ Chloe said to me, her voice full of alarm. ‘I can’t think of any reason why, unless Wallace
told them about the secret transfer stage.’

Or they’re looking for Casey
. But wherever Casey was, I felt sure, his transfer stage would be also. And if the Patriots found either him or the stage before we did, then any hope
we had of obtaining it for our own use would be gone forever.

I glanced surreptitiously towards the knot of Patriot agents still standing nearby and wondered if any of Greenbrooke’s men had the skill to hunt down a Pathfinder with years of experience
in traversing multiple hostile environments. Assuming, that is, Casey hadn’t already fled to some other alternate, using whatever transfer coordinates he had filched from Bramnik’s
stolen briefcase. And if Rozalia was right about the Patriots wanting to take control of the island, we had to move fast.

To be back on some world so close to my own I could hardly tell the difference . . . it was so near that I could almost taste it.

But as soon as the thought passed through my head, I felt a spasm of guilt. Wallace had told my predecessor that Casey was planning some act of genocide against the Authority. It was a threat, I
now knew, that he might well be capable of carrying out. Could I really flee to some other world, and leave the billions who presumably lived on the Authority’s alternate to die at
Casey’s hands?

I pressed the heel of one hand against my forehead, feeling the blood throb through my skull. Telling any of this to the Patriots would be tantamount to suicide, that much was clear –
assuming they even listened to us. And that left only myself, and my fellow Pathfinders, to do what had to be done and find Casey first.

Both Winifred and Selwyn were regarding us with suspicion. ‘What’s been going on with you three, exactly?’ Winifred demanded. ‘What’s all this about a secret
transfer stage?’

‘It’s a long story,’ Rozalia replied. ‘And we’re going to tell you and everyone else about it first real chance we get.’

I took a deep, steadying breath. ‘Selwyn, do you think there’s any way we’d be able to get back inside the base hospital to talk to Wallace ourselves? Are the Patriots likely
to have him under guard or anything like that?’

Selwyn rubbed at his jaw. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Greenbrooke’s got pretty much every last one of his agents running all over town. If there is anyone guarding
him, I’m guessing that it’ll more than likely be just the one guy. But I’d better warn you, I’m not exaggerating when I say how bad Wallace is. I’m not placing any
bets on him surviving the morning.’

I nodded and put my hand on Selwyn’s shoulder. ‘How many Pathfinders are on the island just now?’ I asked him. ‘How many of us are away on missions?’

He thought for a moment. ‘I checked the schedule the other day, and as far as I know we’re all on the island.’ He frowned. ‘Except I also went looking for Haden and Casey
after the fire, and I still haven’t been able to find either of them. If you happen to see them . . .’

‘I’ll be keeping an eye out for both of them,’ I promised, although I had no idea what might have happened to Haden. ‘I want you to get together everyone you can find and
get them to meet us later this morning at the Hotel du Mauna Loa. It’s about eight right now, so let’s say midday at the latest. Will you do that? We have something to tell you all, but
I’d rather not do it with
them
around,’ I added, casting a significant glance in the direction of the Patriots.

Selwyn flicked his eyes towards the agents, then back at me. ‘Sure,’ he said carefully, looking as if he had a million questions. ‘I’ll do that.’

Selwyn walked back over to join the others. Winifred made to follow him, then paused, fixing me with a steady eye. ‘Whatever’s going on,’ she said, ‘I hope for your sakes
you know what you’re doing.’

So do I
, I thought, as she turned and walked away.

The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that Casey had tried not only to kill Wallace, but also to make Wallace’s death appear to be an accident. No one would have been
surprised by someone like Wallace accidentally setting themselves on fire, especially given the depth of his alcoholism.

It struck me that none of this would ever have happened if I hadn’t stumbled across that coin in Wallace’s drawer. Casey, of course, had understood the significance of that broken
piece of metal just as well as I now did, given all that I had learned about him from my predecessor’s carefully concealed evidence. Everything since then had been like a line of dominoes
toppling over. A series of unavoidable events, ultimately forcing Casey to make what struck me as a sudden, desperate gambit – before we had a chance to confront Wallace and wrest the truth
from him.

‘I hate to say it,’ said Rozalia, a brittle edge to her voice, ‘even though I’m going to choke the life out of the murderous son of a bitch the moment I find him,
there’s a part of me wonders if what Casey’s planning for the Authority is such a bad idea.’

At first I thought I had misheard her. ‘What are you talking about?’

She turned to face me. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know. Wallace told your predecessor that Casey’s going to try and find some way to destroy the Authority. I hate to be the
one to say it, but if he can do that, it’d solve a hell of a lot of problems for the rest of us.’

I stared at her in disbelief. ‘You want to just stand by and let Casey commit
genocide
?’

‘No, I’m not saying that,’ she said, her voice taking on a defensive edge. ‘I’m just saying that
if
it came to that, we’d still be safe here on the
island, with full access to the transfer stages. And I’m willing to bet that, if push came to shove, Major Howes and his soldiers would side with us against any Patriots still here on this
alternate with us. We’d be able to take our time finding somewhere safe to go, without worrying about the Authority trying to stop us.’

A part of me that I didn’t like saw the appeal in what she was saying, and yet the flaws were immediately evident. ‘Do you seriously think either Howes or his men would be grateful
to us for standing by while Casey murdered their entire world and everyone they had ever known?’

Rozalia clenched her jaw. ‘I didn’t say we’d stand by and let him do it.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘But maybe you’d prefer not to try
too
hard?’

Rozalia’s nostrils flared in anger, and she looked away. I didn’t have to be a genius to work out she was still hurting badly over Nadia, and to see how much it was affecting her
thinking.

‘Look,’ I said, ‘we don’t know if Casey can pull something like this off – even assuming he’s really planning to do any such thing. We can’t be sure
Wallace wasn’t lying to my predecessor.’

‘And if he
can
pull it off?’ asked Chloe, looking between us.

‘Well, then we’d better find him first.’

Chloe’s eyes grew suddenly wide. ‘The stage,’ she hissed excitedly at the both of us. ‘I think I know where it might be!’

‘You do?’

She grabbed hold of both Rozalia and me, pulling us close. ‘Don’t you remember when we passed the beached trawler on the coast road, on the way back into town this
morning?’

‘Sure.’ I nodded. I remembered the rusting trawler, stranded on the beach and tipped over on its side.

‘I thought I saw something,’ she said. ‘I was so tired I thought I was just imagining it. But I swear I saw something moving down there, inside the hull.’

‘Inside it? Can you even get inside there?’ I asked.

‘You can walk right in,’ she said. ‘The hull broke in half when it was beached. You could easily hide a small portable stage in there if you wanted.’

‘You know,’ Rozalia said slowly, ‘it’s not as if there are a lot of places to hide something like that on an island this size, and that trawler’s about as far away
from town as you can get, while still being within reach.’

‘Look,’ I said, nodding towards the Patriot agents.

Rozalia and Chloe turned in time to see the three men get back in their jeep and drive away. The soldiers, meanwhile, continued to search the burned ruins. I wondered if Howes was still in
charge of them, or if they were now entirely under Greenbrooke’s command.

‘We need to talk to Wallace,’ I said, ‘and find out what we can from him, if he’s lucid enough.’
Assuming he’s even still alive – and assuming we
can get past any guards.

‘In that case,’ said Rozalia, ‘I think you should speak to him, Jerry. I’ll go check out the trawler.’

I shook my head. ‘Not on your own,’ I said. ‘It’s too much of a risk. I’ll come with you.’

She put her hand on my wrist. ‘I appreciate that, but this is personal, Jerry. And . . . don’t take it the wrong way, but you haven’t been at this job long enough. You’re
good, but you’re still new, and I can track him a lot better if I go on my own.’

‘She’s right,’ said Chloe. ‘You and me can go and talk to Wallace, if it’s at all possible. Rozalia can handle things on her own just fine.’

I looked back at Rozalia. ‘If Casey’s there . . .’

‘Well, even if he is, he won’t know
I’m
there.’ Rozalia’s mouth spread wide in a rictus-like grin that sent shivers through me. ‘Not until he feels
my knife against his throat, anyway.’ She nodded towards our jeep. ‘Mind if I take that? It’s a lot farther to the trawler than it is to the hospital.’

‘Sure,’ I said, and Rozalia moved towards the jeep. Chloe reached out a hand and stopped her.

‘I need more of those pills,’ she said. ‘I can’t afford to feel tired. Not while all this is happening.’

Rozalia hesitated a moment, then took the plastic tin out of the pocket where she’d stashed it and dropped it in Chloe’s hand. ‘Don’t overdo it,’ she warned.

I watched her drive off, and felt Chloe’s hand slip into mine.

‘C’mon,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and see Wallace.’

The stink of ashes followed us all the way across town. Not far from the Hotel du Mauna Loa stood Government House – a grand name for a small, nondescript office building
that had been the island’s former seat of government. Bramnik and Mayer used it as a base, and it was also the location of the commissary, where the Pathfinders got their regular rations of
basic household supplies. As at the base compound, a line of jeeps were kept outside, fuelled and ready for the taking.

Every now and then, as we walked, another jeep packed with Patriots would go racing past us, and at one point we observed a couple of agents using a handheld battering ram to smash down the
front door of a house. I wondered if they’d do the same to my place, and felt queasy at the thought of them picking through my stuff.

When we got to Government House, I was less than surprised to discover that everything on four wheels had already been appropriated. I was beginning to think we were going to have to walk the
whole way to the medical facility.

‘Over there,’ said Chloe, pointing towards a pair of ramshackle bicycles with half-rusted chains leaning against a wall. I laughed at the sight of them, remembering when I had
pedalled through the night with Rozalia not so very long ago.

‘Better than nothing,’ I said, starting forward.

We cycled the rest of the way to the base compound, the bicycles rattling and squeaking so loudly I fully expected one or both of them to crumble beneath us. My satchel, weighed down by the
oilskin-wrapped package within, banged against my knees the whole way.

I had been half-afraid we might find Major Howes’ troops gone once we reached the compound, replaced by whey-faced Patriot agents in dark suits. I was relieved to see instead a single
ordinary trooper standing guard at the compound entrance, and he waved us through without question. We left our bikes leaning against the wall of the barracks before making for the hospital
building.

Inside, we found two nurses and a single doctor I vaguely recognized from my brief incarceration there. Once we explained we wanted to visit Wallace, they looked less than
delighted. The doctor, in particular, looked as if he wanted to spit.

‘I don’t know what your friend did to piss off those agents so badly,’ said a nurse, her voice full of outrage, ‘but that’s no way to treat a man in that state,
whatever they think he’s done.’

I looked at Chloe, then back at the nurse. ‘What did they do to him?’

The doctor replied instead, his mouth set in a thin, angry line. ‘All you need to know is, right after they went in to talk to him, he started screaming. What do you want with him,
exactly?’

They were being far more voluble than Authority civilian staff usually were in the presence of Pathfinders. Whatever Greenbrooke’s men had done to Wallace must have been pretty bad, to
make them open up like this.

‘We just want to talk to him,’ said Chloe quickly. ‘That’s all, I swear. He’s our . . . friend.’

‘You could try,’ said the doctor. ‘But he’s under guard now. I doubt they’d let you.’

‘Let us at least try,’ I said.

The doctor shrugged to say he had no objection. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure how lucid he’ll be,’ he warned us, as we headed for the stairwell leading up to the wards on
the upper floor. ‘He’s been slipping in and out of consciousness.’

There was just a single guard outside the hospital’s second-floor ward. I pulled my head back around the corner before he saw me and leaned towards Chloe. ‘Any
ideas?’ I whispered.

She looked around. So did I. Between the stairwell doors and the corridor leading to the ward was a small nook containing a desk, a chair and an ageing computer. There were also a set of steel
lockers beside the desk, their doors unlocked and open.