The Repossession (14 page)

Genie saw Moucher run after them, but stop dead at

the gate. She wished he could have come too.

‘Hold on tight,’ Marshall told her. ‘Some of the pot-holes around here are brutal on your ass.’

They drove down several rough and ready forest roads, Genie hanging on to the strap real tight. He hadn’t been kidding about the state of the roads. Genie lost track of how far it was but Marshall seemed to know the route pretty good. They stopped by the General Store at the crossroads and emptied his mailbox. Junk mail mostly.

‘Going to be a dramatic sunset,’ Marshall remarked as they started off again.

The sky was already glowing pink and they had a great view from the ridge. They bounced down another track – a huge modern building dominating the skyline ahead.

Eventually Marshall parked his truck behind a boulder about one hundred metres from the glass tower, so they couldn’t be seen easily. Below them they could see the fresh breach in the riverbank and where a bulldozer had pushed rocks and earth to fill it in again. The river had reverted back to its old course now and seemed almost placid.

‘This is Synchro. I’m guessing you guys came in through that breach and the fast current took you all

south-east. There’s acres of farmland underwater still. You were lucky the power went down, could have been electrocuted anytime.’

‘I can’t believe I walked so far. We’ve been driving for ages.’

‘That’s because the lower road got washed out. We had to take the long way. It’s not as far as you think to my farm. The Synchro building is identical to the Fortress, except, like I said, the Fortress is underground thirty-five kilometres south of here.’

Synchro looked totally out of place in the fields, like someone stole a skyscraper from Vancouver when no one was looking. Marshall took out his field glasses and began scanning the building.

‘The flood did a lot of damage,’ Marshall was saying as he surveyed the scene below. ‘Made one hell of a mess.

You say you were in there?’

Genie squinted her eyes, looking down at the glass building. It had been pitch black when she had entered.

‘It’s bigger than I remembered,’ she muttered. In truth she was no longer sure of anything.

‘How did you get in?’

‘I don’t remember that.’

Marshall looked at her and frowned again.

‘You
were
in there?’

Genie snatched a look at him and shrugged. ‘I don’t remember much now. Sorry. I just know I saw Denis in there.’

Marshall sighed.

‘Can you remember how you got out? The security is real tight. I know there must have been confusion in the flooding.’

Genie’s eyes fluttered as she tried to concentrate.

Suddenly she was no longer so sure she had been in there, but she
knew
she had. She closed her eyes, her breathing slowed and she crossed her feet. ‘There’s two stairways.

There’s rows and rows of computer servers and there’s . . .’

she could see it more clearly now, ‘a diagram. A huge diagram on a wall by the main stairs. Like a human body, a man, naked, with a triangle across him, like something out of history books.’

Marshall was watching her closely, the sweat on her brow and just above her lips – she was almost in a trance and he was fascinated. Her hands were suspended in mid-air. He wasn’t sure what was happening to her, but he knew some part of her had somehow left the truck.

‘I know that drawing. Da Vinci sketch,’ he told her gently. ‘You’re on the mezzanine above the lobby. Turn to your left, Genie, there’s some glass doors.’

Genie turned. She could see the doors and the glowing

red keypad beside it. ‘It’s locked.’

‘Try twenty-seven-six-nine,’ Marshall told her. ‘Push the buttons on the pad. Twenty-seven-six-nine.’

Genie moved forward to the keypad and entered the numbers. The doors opened. She moved in. She was vaguely aware that she was now in the building and somehow simultaneously still in the truck. She didn’t feel afraid. She felt like a ghost exploring a castle it once owned. It was almost exhilarating. ‘I can see people working. There’s men working on big computers, got hundreds of cables all over the floor.’

‘They’re servicing the mainframes. They get overheated.’

Marshall kept his voice totally steady – guiding her, fascinated by her trance. ‘What else can you see?’

‘There’s a glass corridor leading to . . .’

‘The teleportation chamber. You’re quite safe. No one can see you. Walk naturally.’

Genie walked, aware that she felt light and very, very warm. There were warning signs everywhere.

Authorized personnel only
.

Suddenly Denis was there. He opened the doors ahead of her and smiled. ‘I told you you could make it.’

‘Denis!’ She felt a surge of optimism. ‘You’re all right.’

‘Come with me.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘I’m going to take you to the Fortress. This is Synchro.

It’s the twin of the Fortress. Everything’s identical.’

‘I’m scared, Denis.’

‘We’re waiting for you.’

‘I don’t want to go there, Denis. I don’t want to go.’

‘You won’t get hurt. We need you, Genie.’

‘Why?’

‘You can help us. You can help all of us.’

‘How? I can’t help anyone.’

She found herself in the teleportation chamber. It was a huge sterile space, completely white, with a concave raised platform. Sixteen round glass shapes with thousands of microscopic holes, like giant showerheads, protruded from the top and another sixteen were built into the smooth polished steel base.

‘Here,’ Denis was showing her. ‘This is where they try to send people from the Fortress. You can see what happened to the last ones. They haven’t cleaned it off yet.’

Genie was looking at shadows on the wall. You could just make out the human outlines. ‘What happened?’

‘Carbon blowback. Happens all the time. Either that or . . .’

Genie felt a rising fear. Denis wanted her to use this thing to get to the Fortress.

‘No,’ Genie shouted. ‘I’m not going with you, Denis. I don’t want to be . . .’

‘Like me? You will be. Reverend Schneider is looking for you. He’s collecting souls.’

‘What? Collecting souls? Then you really are dead?’

‘I’m not dead,’ he insisted. ‘I’m not. None of us are.’

He stood on the platform looking upset and disappointed with her. ‘You’d better go home then. Renée says Rian is sick.’

Genie felt a pang of jealousy. ‘Why does she hang around Ri? I don’t like it. Why does she just sit there and watch him?’

Denis looked puzzled. ‘Don’t you know? Renée’s his sister.’

Genie was angry now. ‘He doesn’t have a sister.’

Denis smiled. ‘He does now.’

Genie felt short of breath.

‘I don’t understand anything. How did I get here? What do you want from me?’

‘Too late,’ Denis told her suddenly, his expression changing to fear. ‘He’s here.’

He vanished. The lights flooded on in the room and she could hear voices approaching. There was absolutely nowhere to hide. She turned and there entering the chamber was her nemesis, Reverend Schneider. He stared

at her in total surprise – he could see her! He dropped whatever he was carrying and swore.

Panic took hold of her. She slipped past him and sprinted back along the corridor, heart in mouth, frantically trying to remember the security code. Behind her he shouted, ‘Stop her!’ She reached the glass doors, but couldn’t see the keypad to enter the code. Heavy footsteps behind her and then suddenly fat calloused hands around her neck.

‘Got you,’ said Reverend Schneider.

She suddenly heard screaming.

She woke – the screaming still in her ears. Marshall was holding her hands. She was bathed in sweat. Only slowly did Genie realize that they were still in the truck and it was
her
screaming. She sucked in air, desperate to breathe. It was dark. She had missed the sunset.

‘It’s all right, it’s OK, you’re safe now. You’re safe.’

Genie shook. She could still see Reverend Schneider, feel his sweaty hands on her neck – and he had definitely seen her. She felt sick. She opened the door and spewed out on to the dirt. She heaved again, sweat pouring off her face as she clung on to the door and groaned.

Behind her Marshall had started the engine. ‘Got to go,’ he was saying.

Genie closed the door again, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve. She sat in silence, her legs curled up under her.

Marshall turned them around. Didn’t switch his lights on till they were back on the road some two hundred metres away.

‘I’ve seen some spooky stuff in my time, Genie, but you win the big prize.’

Genie snatched a glance at his face, lit by the light of the dashboard.

‘I wasn’t ever in there, was I?’

Marshall kept his eyes on the road.

‘Not in a normal sense, no. But . . .’

‘I’m a freak.’

‘Gifted.’

‘Freak.’

‘Gifted, Genie. You were there. Got past the doors, went into the teleportation chamber. Heard your side of the conversation. Something really spooked you, something real bad. Hell, you can scream, girl.’

Genie allowed a little smile on her face. Yeah, scream.

That’s what she should have done the first time she ever saw Reverend Schneider. Scream and run.

‘He saw me. He put his hands around my neck. He wanted to kill me.’

‘Who?’

‘Reverend Schneider.’

‘Who?’

‘The man who locked me up, Marshall. The one who told my mother I was possessed. He was there. He walked into the chamber and he could damn well see me. He’s

part of this. Somehow he’s part of this.’

Marshall frowned. He didn’t know how any reverend could be part of it, but he had no doubt she had entered the building. Whatever magic she possessed it was amazing. She had sent herself right into that building and walked the floors. What a gift to have. He’d heard that some First Nation shamans had it, but always considered it was a myth; and this girl just slipped right into it with no help or stimulants. Extraordinary.

‘Why do you think Denis is always waiting for me?’

‘Perhaps he thinks you can help him.’

‘But why? And Renée, he says she’s Ri’s sister. He doesn’t have a sister. Never had a sister. I don’t get it. I don’t get any of this. What the hell is carbon blowback?’

‘Carbon what?’

‘Carbon blowback. That’s what Denis said it was.

There’s shadows on the wall in the teleport area. Human outlines. He said they hadn’t cleaned them off yet.’

Marshall whistled, clearly astonished. ‘Jeez, then that’s exactly what they are, kid. They’re closer to making this thing work than I thought. It’s proof. Carbon blowback is what’s left of the kids they’re experimenting on. Shadows on the wall.’

Genie looked at him with a slow realization of the true horror of the place.

Marshall drove on in silence. Those guys in the Fortress had made a lot of progress. And it was as bad as he suspected. It was also criminal, insane.

He suddenly remembered Genie.

‘There’s a can of Coke in the cooler behind you. It won’t be cold, but it might make your mouth taste better.’

Genie sat up and leaned over the seat to grab it. She desperately needed that Coke. Her stomach was twisted with pain and she still felt light-headed. She remembered suddenly that Marshall had given her numbers when she was in her dreamstate.

‘How did you know the door code?’

‘Twentieth July, ’69. Date of the first moon landing. I wanted a date I could remember as emergency release when I was working there. By coincidence it was the twentieth of July in ’08 that we had our first successful transmission. Transmitted a clock, before you ask, and it was the day I lost my leg, Genie. Something I’ll never forget. It’s an override number. One they can’t change. I wrote the code, in case.’ He offered her an awkward smile. God, if only he could go back in time and be standing some place else when it exploded. Go back and fix everything. No use living your life in regret they say, but regrets, he had a few . . .

‘I think we might find a good use for your gift, girl.

God gives you a gift for a reason, in my book.’

Genie was thinking that God most likely gives someone a gift to spite them, but she kept that to herself. Ri was going to get a shock. He had a sister. Who was the guilty party? His mother, or his dad? Of course Denis could be lying, but why would he lie? She sighed. All her days she had just wished for a normal life, just like other people, but it always had to be impossible.

What if Ri liked his sister more than her? Family was always stronger than love ties, or so her mother said. But then again, her mother was crazy.

‘Reverend Schneider,’ Genie declared, rubbing her neck. ‘He’s the one behind all this. It’s him you have to worry about. He’s collecting souls.’

‘Souls?’

‘That’s what Denis told me.’

Marshall had no idea what she was talking about.

He drove on, mindful of the road, keeping one eye out for animals, the other in the mirror in case anyone was following.

Reverend Schneider stared at his hands for a moment.

One second he had Genie Magee in his clutches, the next nothing. Granted he was tired, but he’d seen her, touched her. How was this possible? He turned

to the technician who’d come with him to the teleport chamber.

‘Did you see her?’

‘Who?’

‘The girl. She was running for the exit and screaming.

You must have heard her, at least.’

The technician looked at him with raised eyebrows.

‘Er, no. There’s just you and me here, Reverend. You’re tired – you said yourself you’re exhausted.’

Reverend Schneider didn’t want to argue the point and make himself out to be stupid, but he’d felt that girl’s hot neck, heard her scream. He knew he’d seen her. How on earth had she got in? What did she know?

‘You’re right, must have been exhaustion. Not slept much since the flood.’

The technician nodded. ‘You’re not the first. Got a security guard here who complains about being taunted by some kid all the time. He’s the only one who sees him.