The Repossession (28 page)

standing next to you in Safeway and you wouldn’t know she was judge, jury and executioner. Probably fried your kid the night before.

‘Hurry up,’ the executioner called out, the impatience clear in her voice.

Genie peed then flushed. ‘What’s the hurry? Nothing’s going to happen yet.’

She caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked awful. Why did they have to shave her head? She had pointy ears. Where had they come from? What did Ri ever see in her? At least he’d never see her look like this. What he was doing right now? Was he looking for her? Or had his mother locked him in? She briefly thought about him coming to rescue her, but how utterly impossible that was. How would he get in past the guards and then find her a hundred metres underground, let alone get her out? Impossible. Poor Ri. Poor perfect Ri.

She’d never see him again.

She entered the ion shower and it clicked on. You couldn’t tell if anything was happening as it made no noise and you couldn’t see anything, but you could feel it inside your body as it bombarded you with ions. It wasn’t so bad though. Felt like a tornado passing through her body.

Memo to self: when in heaven or hell find out what the heck an ion is
. Weird.

The door opened and the shower shut down.

‘We got to prep you now. System will be back up in forty-five minutes.’

Genie stared at the impression of the woman’s silver Celtic cross hiding under her T-shirt. Ulrich, Helen was another of Reverend Schneider’s flock, another believer doing the devil’s work for him.

‘You going to paint me again?’

‘Don’t worry. This will be all over soon.’

Genie nodded. Yes, exactly, she realized. It would be all over very soon.

Rian had to slow, bringing the truck to a stop by the barrier. He was at least five hundred metres from the Fortress and yet they had the road blocked with big concrete slabs either side of a gated barrier, so you couldn’t go around. Worse, there was a tunnel ahead.

Marshall hadn’t been kidding: this place was buried under a mountain.

The barrier was unmanned, but there were CCTV

cameras mounted on the gates so they would know he was there.

He didn’t know what to do. He knew Genie was in there, but this was no bedroom with a few bars to keep her in. This was the Fortress and further in they

had watchtowers and armed security. They meant to keep people out.

Rian sighed and reluctantly turned the truck around.

He’d have to go back to the junction and find the narrow track to Marshall’s farm, the way the Fortress people had come when they came to burn it.

He felt sick and alone, stupidly hungry and was finding it hard to stay awake. The windows were down; he pushed the fan to maximum. There was no air con.

He flipped on the radio. Razorlight were singing, ‘
I can’t stop this feeling I’ve got
.’ Perfect timing. This was the night of his shame, the night he didn’t save Genie Magee.

Rian suddenly jammed on the brakes, skidding to a halt on a bend by a stream. He was being a wuss. Genie was in the Fortress. She would be waiting for him to get her out. That was
his
job. Any moment they would be trying to teleport her and he was just driving away. He had to try to save her. Had to.

He pulled the truck over on to the verge and switched off the engine. He left the keys under the visor. Marshall would want his truck back and this was, he knew, a one-way journey if things went wrong.

He leaped out of the cabin and ran down the slope to the stream. The water flowed from the upper slopes and

passed alongside the Fortress. He could follow the stream. It was dark; he hoped the cameras wouldn’t be able to see him and the cold waters of the stream gave him direct access.

The first barrier was the razor-wire strung across the water at the roadblock. Fortunately the water was deeper here and he managed to submerge enough to crawl under it. The water was icy and tasted odd, but that didn’t matter.

He had to keep moving. Every moment was precious.

The stream veered left and for a while he thought he was making a big mistake as it took him away from everything. Maybe he had to go back, get into the tunnel and hope he could get through before they could get to him. He walked on despondent, aware that Genie could be dead already; time for action was precious.

Two armed uniformed security men popped up from under a drain cover. They approached the truck cautiously from either side, guns at the ready. As one gave a signal they both swarmed the cab. The window was left open, nothing to smash. It was empty.

One of them got on to his cell and called it in, suspicious there was no licence plate. No ID in the cubbyhole either. The other was looking all around him with night vision goggles. He saw nothing. He signalled

to the other guard to fall back as he ducked underneath the truck a moment, withdrawing two small devices from his pocket.

This could be innocent, a breakdown, but highly unlikely. One thing was sure, there was nowhere for the driver to go. Either the driver had been collected by someone or he was still around – and if he was still around they wanted to know exactly where.

They vanished back down the hole in the road and pulled the drain cover back over their heads.

Reverend Schneider was exhausted. He was waiting in the transmission observation room. It was two a.m. He was drifting in and out of sleep, irritated beyond belief. The system was still down and perhaps this illustrated exactly why they weren’t making progress. All they made were promises and yet glitch after glitch. He’d done his bit.

God only knew he’d done his bit in providing the ‘volunteers’. The least they could do was get the science right. No one ever seemed to realize just how big this project could be. The commercial potential of eternal life and instant transportation was absolutely extraordinary.

Billions would be made, billions upon billions, and in that scheme of things, what was the sacrifice of a few miserable kids? Nothing. Absolutely zilch.

They wanted this meddlesome girl gone. She had been nothing but trouble from the beginning. At least it wasn’t a waste. At least she would be contributing something to the advancement of science. There was still the matter of the boy. Security said they had it in hand.

There was a suspect vehicle outside the Fortress barrier.

They were seeking the driver. It was all so predictable.

He’d followed just as he’d surmized. What on earth the boy saw in this girl, he had no idea. But Reverend Schneider had fulfilled his side of the bargain. Reverend Schneider always delivered.

Rian began to climb up a small waterfall, the water forcefully splashing down over him, his feet and hands struggling to grip on the moss-covered rocks. He reached for a tree growing out from one side of it and swung up to a ledge and from there pushed up. It being dark didn’t help and he was scared to death to look down. At any moment he could slip and crash to the rocks below.

He heaved himself over the ledge at the top and finally stood, amazed he got up there at all. He found himself looking at a lagoon.

He swam forward through the water, noticing it was distinctly warmer now. Gradually the stream grew more shallow again and he had to walk towards bright lights

ahead. The other side of the tunnel was suddenly right there in front of him, the Fortress surrounded by parked cars and trucks. He realized that the Fortress had been built in between two rock formations. A perfect hiding place. He knew from Marshall that only the admin block was on top, the real business was underground. He could see guards leaning up against a wall, smoking and talking.

Could they see him standing in the stream? He had to take that risk. There was a tower bristling with cameras. At any moment he could be seen. That was the chance he had to take as he searched for a way in.

All the trees were dead around him. He’d hoped for cover, but he was exposed and had to crawl on his belly in the water towards the building. As he got closer he could see where a large pipe was emptying steaming fluid into the stream. It stank like acid. He had no idea what it was doing to him or his skin but he tried to make sure he didn’t swallow or get it in his eyes.

He lay in the stream, watching a moment. There had to be a way in. A siren suddenly sounded and the security guys moved inside. Something was about to happen. Was he too late? Had Genie been transmitted already?

A hand shook Reverend Schneider awake. It was 3.05 a.m.

‘Ten minutes, Reverend. They’ve started the countdown.

Can I get you a drink? Tea? Coffee?’

Reverend Schneider wiped sleep from his eyes.

‘We’re ready?’

‘Yes sir. They’re bringing both systems up to speed right now. The test subject is ideal. She’s prepped and ready.’

‘She sign the release form?’

‘Signed. Most willing volunteer we ever had, I think.’

‘She’s deceptive. Devious actually. Sometimes I’m frightened people will judge us too harshly for what we do in the name of science, then someone comes along like this girl and I realize we are doing a service. She makes a contribution to knowledge; society is saved from another troubled soul. God’s work is harsh and difficult, but eventually humanity gains.’

Reverend Schneider stood up and stretched, suddenly realizing that he was alone. He stared at the transmission platform the other side of the glass. It was just as it should be. He’d be the only one to witness the death of Genie Magee and, since her mother wasn’t ever going to have another child, end of the Munby line. He was alert and ready. From behind the one-way glass he could see Genie standing on the transmission platform. A countdown going on behind him. He found he was smiling and quickly assumed a more serious pose in case anyone

was looking. In ten minutes she would be gone. Just ten little minutes.

A door opened nearby, about three metres above the waterline. A woman in a protective suit was taking a smoke break. Rian quietly made his way to the opening.

The women had her back to him, busy talking to someone on her cell.

Rian jumped up and ran for it. Even though the opening was high above him, he found some pipes to grip on to and hauled himself up, wishing his hands weren’t so slippery. Clinging on, he listened to her conversation.

‘No, I’m taking Tyler to a basketball match in Pitt Meadows and I’ve got to have my truck serviced.’

The woman still had her back to him, flicking her ash outside behind her.

‘T minus eight,’ came a voice over a tannoy.

‘Damn. Better get out of here. See you when the shift ends, Bob.’

The woman reached for the door handle to bring it in.

Rian grabbed her hand and tugged hard. She let out a shriek and fell hard into the stream below.

He was in. He closed the door behind him. He’d have two minutes at the most before she raised the alarm. Rian had no idea where to go or what to do, but

at least he was doing something.

‘T minus seven minutes.’

Rian tried a door. Locked. Found three more, all opened by a security keycard. All he had succeeded in doing was getting into a corridor. Useless.

He was trapped. Any minute now the woman would be back with security.

He felt something crunch underfoot. He looked down.

It was the woman’s keycard. She’d dropped it when he’d pulled her out.

‘T minus six minutes.’

He picked it up, swiped the first door and entered.

The lights came on automatically.

He was in an enormous storeroom. Backpacks, shoes, assorted objects, a teddy bear. Each pack shrink-wrapped and identified. Fifth one across:
Denis Malone, age thirteen, Spurlake
. Second shelf:
Kayla Williams, age fifteen, Cedarville
.

He couldn’t believe they kept all this stuff. Why?

Why keep it? Looking along the line he realized that there were way more bags and shoes here than the thirty-four missing kids he knew about.

This was worse than useless; he was in a dead-end.

This wasn’t helping him, wasn’t helping Genie. He was wasting time.

‘T minus four minutes.’

Rian went back to the door and opened it, carefully, hoping there wasn’t anyone outside in the corridor. Empty.

He stepped out. There were two other doors. One had to lead into the Fortress proper. He swiped number two. As soon as he opened it he knew he’d made a mistake. The air pressure was intense and all the air was being sucked out of the corridor. He’d opened the access door to the air-conditioning shaft. There were thousands of servers in this building that needed cooling. He tried to shut the door, but instead it flipped open completely with a loud bang and Rian was sucked in.

He began falling down the shaft; the air was super-hot, he thought he was on fire. He was headed straight down to the bottom of the Fortress – his only thought was that he’d be dead before Genie.

‘T minus two minutes.’

Rian suddenly discovered he was suspended in mid-air. He’d stopped falling. An uprush of incredibly thick superheated air was forcing him back up the shaft. It was impossible to breathe. Rian was rising fast now. He vaguely remembered something Marshall said about birds getting cooked as they flew over the Fortress. He hit a wall as the air changed direction and the last of the oxygen was knocked out of his lungs. He was gasping,

sucking in poisonous, acrid, boiling hot air and felt he was going to explode.

Suddenly he was sailing unsupported through the night air and dropped like a stone into a cooling pool just above the Fortress building. He plunged down into a thick noxious liquid and instinctively he kept his eyes and mouth shut tight. He quickly found his way to the surface again and, gasping, struck out for the edge.

He realized with utter despair that he’d completely failed to save Genie.

Eight seconds
.

Genie stood barefoot on the platform. It was warm underfoot, whereas it had been cold before and she wondered if pouring that juice down the vent had been a good idea, or not. The countdown was relentless, although it seemed to go in slow motion, like crashing. The technicians were all wearing protective suits and sat behind reinforced glass in a large booth overlooking her.