Heart of Danger (15 page)

‘What happens now?’

‘We wait,’ he said grimly. ‘Wait and hope.’

Hope was the name Sina would have given Jovan if he’d be born on Taris.

James left to go to work. I tidied myself and the kitchen, then ran through a misty rain all the way down to the Centre. Shallym and the boys were still at the breakfast table and chatting to Fergus when I arrived.

‘What’s wrong?’ Shallym asked.

‘Vima, of course,’ I said, swiping a piece of toast. I was hungry now. ‘She took off early. Didn’t tell James. Took Wilfred with her. Then Sina rang up and said she’d be with Jov because the two of them had arranged to meet.’

‘Well, it’s what Sina and James wanted,’ Jidda said. ‘They can’t start complaining now.’

Shallym turned her back on him. ‘Let’s do something today. It’ll be better than sitting around worrying.’

‘I found Margaretta Anders,’ Biddo said. ‘She updated her social page three days ago.’

‘Let’s talk to her,’ Jidda said. ‘That’ll keep your mind from constructing crash and burn endings to the Jov and Vima story.’

Brutal, crass and true. However, I didn’t want to talk to Hera’s genetic mother without asking Mother and Dad first.

‘Have you told them about Abraham?’ Shallym asked.

I shook my head, ashamed that I hadn’t even thought of telling them. Shallym, Biddo and Jidda went off to get ready for the day while I talked to my family. Dad had gone to work but Mother, Hera and the grandparents were all there.

‘Abraham Lucas,’ Bazin said. ‘We didn’t know him. He’d have been well gone by the time we arrived on Taris.’

‘But there must have been stuff in the media about him and the others who didn’t want Bradwell Zagan to be the leader?’ I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t remember. ‘Biddo said the reports reckoned it was a huge scandal.’

Leebar said, ‘There was so much going on at that time, Juno. So many disasters – flood, drought and fire, earthquakes and plagues. We probably heard his name but it got lost among all the other stuff.’

‘I’m longing to meet him,’ Mother said. ‘I’ll check with Zanin, but I’m happy for you to contact Margaretta. I’ll ask Dad when he comes home for lunch.’

We signed off and I went looking for Fergus. ‘Any suggestions about what we can do for the rest of the morning?’

The others came in the door in time to hear my question and Shallym said, ‘Not town again. Somewhere different and without techno stuff would be good, or we’ll lose the boys.’

Fergus thought for a moment then said, ‘How about the Botanic Gardens? They’re run down and wild now, but still a good place to explore. Lots of hills to climb, and when you’re wet through and frozen you can warm up in the tropical house.’

The boys weren’t thrilled with Fergus’s suggestion, but they indulged us. When we got there, however, I found that these gardens with their wet and tangled paths took me back to my journey to rescue Hera. The reminder was unexpected and unwelcome.

The boys set a fast pace, keeping us on the move, jogging up the hills and racing down them. It was tricky running on paths choked with weeds, but it kept my mind occupied and soon the sharpness of the memories faded.

After a couple of hours of scrambling, Biddo called a halt when water sluiced down his neck from a
spade-shaped
leaf. ‘Okay, that’s it. We’re going to the tropics.’

The rest of us were happy to agree. We were wet through and chilled by a niggly southerly breeze.

The way to the tropical house led us past an old rose garden which the boys probably didn’t even notice. Shallym and I stopped to wander among the plants, taking care to dodge the wickedly spiky thorns. ‘They must have been gorgeous back in the day,’ she said.

I picked a half-opened bloom of deepest red. I would give it to Vima, if I ever saw her again.

We hurried to join the boys, who were already deep in discussion with an older guy who seemed keen to tell them everything they could possibly want to know about the technology used to keep the place heated. Shallym and I got bored from admiring the few orchids that remained of the hothouse plants, and in the end just told the boys we’d see them later. They might have heard us, but whether it sank in was questionable.

Back at the Centre, Fergus took me down to the basement to get some dry clothes. ‘Choose a complete outfit, Juno,’ he said. ‘You’ve earned it.’

Yay! I’d be able to stop wearing the cape Thomas and his mother had given me. It was nice enough – warm too – but it reminded me of them, and of Hilto. I’d have to confront them soon enough thanks to my dumb promise to Vima. And just look where that had ended up – if I’d kept my big mouth shut, she wouldn’t have gone off with Jov and wrecked James’s and Sina’s lives.

I chose a jacket as different in colour from the cape as I could, which is how I ended up with an electric blue one that just about glowed in the dark. I loved it.

The boys weren’t back when Shallym and I logged in to talk to my family. Dad spoke first. ‘We’d like you to contact Margaretta. And Juno – we’re proud of you. Very proud.’

Then I heard Hera say, ‘I want to talk.’ Her face popped onto the screen as somebody lifted her up. ‘Juno, I don’t want another mother. I want my own mother. Don’t you talk to that other mother.’

I tried not to laugh. ‘Hera, it’s okay. She’s a very old lady now. She won’t want to be your mother. She’ll be a sort of great-grandmother.’

The family all spoke at once, urging her not to worry. I said goodbye and left them to it. I would try and talk to Margaretta. Hera would want to know about her when she was older.

T
he boys were back from the gardens just in time to listen while I tried contacting Margaretta Anders via mini-comp. She didn’t reply. She didn’t answer her phone either.

‘Write her a message,’ Biddo said, bringing up her social network page on his mini-comp.

I keyed in,
Please contact me. I want to tell you about your daughter.
Then I deleted it. ‘I can’t write that. It’s too – I dunno – blunt or something.’

Shallym took the mini-comp from me. ‘How about this?
Please contact Juno of Taris about a personal matter.’

‘Okay. Send it.’ It wasn’t perfect, but I could think of nothing that would be.

‘Right,’ Jidda said. ‘This is the programme for the afternoon: we visit Magda at the café in Newtown. Then we go to Cuba Street to the techno shop.’

‘The bookshop!’ I clapped my hands. ‘Brilliant.’

‘Clothes shops for me,’ Shallym said.

The boys dried off, then we walked to Newtown, needing to take shelter from only one rain shower.

Magda’s café was the busiest I’d seen it, and she had two other people working with her. When she saw us, she let out a shriek that made everyone stop talking and stare at us. ‘Taris invasion! Juno and friends, you are welcome, so welcome. Sit down. Come on folks, make room!’

None of the other customers seemed to mind much as Magda bullied them into squeezing up so we had somewhere to sit.

Biddo tried to buy the four of us drinks. ‘I’m working now,’ he said. ‘I have money.’

She wouldn’t hear of it. ‘This country owes you people a huge debt of gratitude for what you’ve done. Drinks and food on me.’

‘Hear, hear!’ people called.

Shallym smiled and waved, so I copied her. The boys shuffled their feet and looked at the floor.

Magda laughed. ‘Sit down. Food and drink coming up.’

Man, those people could talk! They fired question after question at us. Lucky for me, it wasn’t all about what had happened at Mokau. A table full of men near the window wanted the complete history of the technology on Taris. A blushing young woman asked about the birth control methods we’d used. ‘Personally speaking, none,’ Shallym said, but she explained the system to the woman.

‘We knew everything like that from when we were really little,’ I said. ‘That was the easy stuff. Science and medical matters were discussed in the community meetings. It was other things they kept secret.’

Magda brought a tray loaded with hot chocolate, pies and cake. She sat down with us. ‘Tell Vima I’d love to see her and her wee lad again.’

‘I will,’ I promised. ‘I’m staying there, so I’ll tell her tonight.’ If she comes back.

Somebody called from across the room, ‘How’s that other baby doing? The one whose mum was pregnant when you got here.’

‘Jovan,’ Shallym said. ‘He’s adorable. Both babies are.’

‘Well, who’s the father of that dark baby, that’s what I want to know.’ An older woman sitting a little apart from the others, and hunched over a teapot, muttered the question. I wasn’t sure whether she’d intended us to hear her or not.

Shallym turned and smiled at her. ‘It’s a mystery that teases us all. But Vima won’t tell. Maybe she’ll tell Wilfred when he’s older, but I wouldn’t bet on it.’

‘You are such a brilliant liar,’ I said later when we were out on the street.

‘Yeah, well, you could just tell she was a gossipy old cow.’ Shallym wriggled her shoulders as if to shake the woman away.

‘I bet she was right into the hate campaign against us,’ Jidda said.

Biddo laughed. ‘But did you see what Magda did? Swept the teapot off the table and just about shoved the old girl down the stairs!’

I said goodbye to the boys in Cuba Street, figuring they wouldn’t appear before I went back to Vima and James’s. When I tried to thank them for coming to the trial, they brushed it away.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Jidda said. ‘No problem.’ He shot off to the techno shop.

‘Don’t forget to let us know if Margaretta contacts you,’ Biddo yelled back over his shoulder.

Shallym laughed. ‘Hopeless! Useful, but hopeless. Come on, I’ll come with you to the bookshop. Then you can do the clothes thing with me.’

The bookshop guy came out from behind his counter and stretched out a long arm to shake my hand. ‘Juno of Taris and …?’

‘Shallym of Taris,’ she said. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘The name’s Gus.’ He shook her hand too, then dived back behind the counter, bent down and pulled out a fat and shabby-looking volume. ‘The middle’s missing, but I thought you might like it anyway.’

I almost snatched it.
‘History of New Zealand!
Oh, wow! Thank you so much.’

Shallym dug me in the ribs. ‘Read it later, Book Girl. Now is the time for being sociable.’

I blushed, but Gus laughed. ‘It’s okay, I understand the book attraction.’

Shallym asked, ‘Can you give us the tour, Gus? I’ve never seen books before. Not like this.’ She spread her arms to take in the shelves that lined the walls.

We were looking at
Animals of Africa
when Biddo and Jidda skidded in the door. Biddo held out his mini-comp. ‘Margaretta’s online. She says can you talk now.’

I took the mini-comp, but Shallym turned to Gus. ‘Is there somewhere she can take this call privately?’

‘Sure.’ He pointed to a door at the back of the shop. ‘Make yourself at home.’

Biddo, Jidda, Shallym and I went through to the room he’d indicated. My heart was beating just as hard as when I’d talked to Abraham Lucas. Why didn’t this get easier?

‘Enough of the dithering!’ Biddo said. He called her up, then handed the mini-comp to me. ‘Start talking.’

I launched straight into it. ‘This is the thing. My sister Hera’s genetic mother is Margaretta Anders.’

‘Whoa there! Back up the truck!’ She sounded stunned. ‘Deep breath at your end please, Juno. Start again. At the beginning.’

This didn’t sound promising.

‘Were you one of the donors of genetic material to the Taris project?’ I asked, rushing my words. She must have been. The names were the same.

She didn’t say anything – which gave me the chance to look at her properly. The image on the screen was small, but I could tell she wasn’t as old as Fisa had been, as Camnoon was. I was about to apologise when she said, ‘That must have been my mother. I seem to remember her saying something about it. But Juno, I’m sorry – she died several years ago.’

‘You’re her
daughter
?’ That sounded rude, so I hurried to explain. ‘She said in her Hope Statement that she wasn’t going to have children.’ I recited her words.
‘I wish I could have a baby myself, but I won’t bring a child into a world that seems bent on self-destruction.
That’s what she wrote.’

The woman laughed. ‘Well, she certainly changed her mind. I’m the youngest of three.’ Her voice sharpened as she asked, ‘What was this Margaretta Anders’s job? Did she write about that too?’

‘She was a researcher. Her job was to look for ways to control viruses. She wrote that they were killing people by the million.’ I remembered the words so well.

‘Well, that certainly sounds like my mother.’ She laughed again. ‘I can’t wait to tell the rest of the family. She was always full of surprises, our mum.’

Shallym whispered, ‘Ask her if you can meet her.’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said when I asked. ‘But I’m in Invercargill, so it’s going to be a little tricky to arrange.’ She was quiet for a moment. ‘But listen – you live in New Plymouth, don’t you?’

I nodded. Thanks to those wretched trials the whole country seemed to know everything about us.

‘My oldest brother’s in New Plymouth,’ Margaretta said. ‘He’ll be thrilled to talk to you. Loves all that family stuff. Give me your contact details and I’ll arrange it.’ She was still laughing when she said goodbye.

‘So, no nice tidy ending,’ Biddo said when I returned him the mini-comp. ‘But maybe this brother of hers will be interesting. See ya.’

He and Jidda went back to technoland. Shallym and I went back into the bookshop where we chatted to Gus for a bit before Shallym dragged me off to look at clothes shops. Not that I minded. ‘So many gorgeous things!’ I said. ‘Imagine if we’d turned up on Taris wearing that.’ I pointed at a long black dress embroidered all over with crystals.

Shallym giggled. ‘Or this? Can you imagine Lenna’s face?’

We stared at the skimpiest bikini, then said at the same time, ‘I’d buy it. If I had the money.’

There were so many other clothes we fancied – if only we’d had the money. My all-time favourite was a sunshine-yellow dress so short it would just cover your underwear. The toes on the matching boots curved upward.

The afternoon flew by and all too soon it was time to farewell Shallym, but she said, ‘I’ll be at the station in the morning.’

‘Why get up so …’ I stared at her, a question in my eyes.

‘Yep,’ she said. ‘I’ll be on the train too. Only way to get home.’

‘Perfect.’ I hugged her. ‘See you in the morning. Don’t be late!’

She went back to the Centre, while I walked up the Brooklyn hill to James and Vima’s house. I tried to think about the fun of the day so as not to give into the dread of what I might find there.

They were both home. And they both looked tense. Wilfred was crying, which didn’t help things.

Vima yelled at me the second she saw me. ‘You’d bloody better talk to Thomas as soon as you get home! You got me into this, so don’t you bloody go back on your bargain.’

That was so unfair. ‘What makes you think I would? And while we’re at it, why don’t you tell James what you’re doing? You’re such a cow – running off and not even telling him if you’re bloody coming back.’

Wilfred howled harder. James took him from Vima and stood rocking him, but he watched his wife.

She yelled at him next. ‘Of course I’m not going to run away. Surely you know that!’

‘No, Vima. I don’t know.’ He was keeping his voice even so as not to upset Wilfred. ‘I didn’t know anything until Sina rang and said Jov had gone to meet you.’

She flopped into a chair and covered her face with her hands. ‘I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know.’

James put Wilfred in her lap. ‘Feed your baby, Vima. It’s one day at a time right now. That’s all you can do.’

She didn’t move for long seconds, then she straightened up and put her hand briefly over James’s where it rested on her shoulder. ‘Yes. Thank you.’

I crept out and went to my room. I hoped they’d realise I hadn’t eaten. I was starving.

In fact, I was about to give up on the idea of food and go to bed when Vima came in at last. ‘Come and eat. Sorry, Juno. About everything.’

I threw my arms around her. She looked exhausted, worse than she’d looked during the height of the pandemic when she’d worked herself nearly to death. ‘Don’t get up to see me off in the morning. Have a good sleep-in.’

She just smiled and led the way to the table.

‘Eat, Juno,’ said James, as he put my dinner in front of me. ‘And don’t worry about us. We’ll resolve this, one way or the other.’

We talked of other things for the rest of the meal. I told them about the search for Hera’s and my genetic parents, and I gave Vima Magda’s message. ‘She’d love to see Wilfred again.’ I didn’t tell her about the gossipy old woman.

Vima did get up early to come with me to the station. She and James seemed easier together as we walked down the hill. We met Shallym at the entrance to one of the platforms, there was a flurry of farewells, then Shallym and I boarded the train.

We waved until we couldn’t see James, Vima and Wilfred any longer. Shallym and I talked all the way to Whanganui, where she had to get off.

Aotearoa, the land of goodbyes.