The Whisper (11 page)

G
orman’s eyes met Ellie’s and his young heart stopped as if she’d clamped his aorta. In that half-light, after dying so horribly in the game, he wasn’t even sure she was real. For a split second her eyes flooded black and it was a look of such distilled power, he felt as if she could blink and vaporize him. Then it passed and she looked almost normal again.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. He looked beyond her for men with guns. But there were no men, no guns, just Ellie and that monkey. She didn’t move or reply. She held Puck firmly with one hand as a simulator dropped behind her.

The door opened, and Mika and Audrey climbed out. Now nuclear eyes met his, and he began to understand.

It had been
them
in the other Pod Fighter.

They’d chased him down and killed him in the game!

They walked toward him, slowly. This was their place, their
arcade, and he’d just made a complete idiot of himself. He began to shake with fear. He knew what he’d do in their position.

“Don’t kill me,” he begged, putting his hands up to protect his face. “Please don’t kill me.”

They surrounded him. He sank to his knees and clung to the arcade floor like a baby.

“Get up,” Mika said, nudging him with the toe of his white armored boot. “We’re not going to kill you.”

Gorman looked up. “You’re not?”

“No,” Mika said. “We’re not like you. We don’t believe killing solves problems.”

“So what are you going to do to me?”

“Take you away.”

“What?”

“We’re going to put you somewhere out of the way, and then we’re going to take your fortress. We don’t want to fight your war.”

“No …” Gorman muttered, frozen by shock. “You can’t…. I’m the Minister for Youth Development! And that fortress is government property!”

“Not for much longer,” Mika said. “As soon as you’re out of the way, it’s ours.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gorman spluttered. “Three children and a monkey can’t take over a fortress. Even ones like you …”

“Watch us. And anyway, there are more than three of us. There are twenty-seven thousand of us. The implanted army came back to the fortress because we asked them to. Not to fight your war.”

“But they’re obeying
my
order. They’re sleeping.”

“No,” Mika said. “They’re waiting. They’re waiting for us to
get rid of you. And I have a message from them. They say, ‘Thanks,’ for teaching them how to fly. They really appreciate it.

“Stand up.”

In a shocked stupor, Gorman rose and followed them to the door at the back of the game room. As they began to climb the stairs, he realized they were taking him to the roof and that they were going to fly him away. Then he began to panic. They were taking him away from his fortress! They were refusing to fight the war! What could he do? How could he stop this from happening? Raphael Mose’s mansion filled his mind. The house, the golf course, all those beautiful cars, the horses and terrace and pool … He
loved
those things. He already felt as if he owned them; he’d already picked out the curtains and the carpets and his favorite car. And to feel them slip through his fingers made him lose his mind for a moment. He stopped on the stairs and turned, determined to break free and run. But immediately, Mika’s eyes met his and he felt a sharp pain in his head. He gasped and fell back against the wall with his hands over his face. But it was just a warning. The pain lasted a moment, then it was gone.

“You can’t escape,” Mika told him. “Just accept that we’re stronger than you and keep walking.”

Gorman plodded up the stairs.

When they reached the roof, he blinked in the bright light, then saw the Stealth Carrier perched on the pod strip. His Stealth Carrier. The craft he’d spent billions of credits developing to fly these children over The Wall. And worse than that, Ralph,
his butler
, was standing by the door.

His light burned red with rage.

“You!” he yelled at the butler. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Helping, sir,” Ralph replied politely. “Mind your step as you climb aboard.”

Gorman took a seat in the Stealth Carrier, and his Chosen Ones filled those around him.

“You traitor,” Gorman snarled, picking on Ralph because he was the only one who couldn’t hurt him.

“It’s for your own good, sir,” Ralph replied. “I still serve your best interest.”

“Don’t get funny with me,” Gorman threatened. “You just wait —”

“Leave him alone,” Ellie said. “I won’t let you bully Ralph anymore.”

Gorman looked at Ellie and fell quiet.

The Stealth Carrier rose.

Leo and Iman were flying.

Gorman watched through the window as his fortress shrank. He was still determined to get out of this somehow. He was young and powerful. This couldn’t be happening to him.

“You can have mansions,” he told them tentatively. “Have you forgotten? If you fight the war, you can have first pick after mine.”

“We don’t want mansions,” Ellie replied. “While people starve and suffer. We want just enough, like it ought to be. Enough food, space, light, and nature around us. There’s enough for everyone.”

“Really?” he mocked. “I wonder if your parents will agree. They haven’t seen you for a year and a half. Do you plan to go home and tell them they were cheated out of their land but
they can’t have it back because you like trees and flowers? I don’t think they’ll like that.”

“We’re going to make them understand,” Ellie said.

“Good luck,” he sneered. “You’ll need it.”

Ellie looked away and blinked.

“Leave her alone,” Ralph said.

Ignore him
, Mika told his sister.
He’s just trying to upset you
.

I know
, she replied.
I’m OK
.

Gorman smiled nastily, knowing he’d scored a point, but his satisfaction didn’t last long. He suddenly realized that nobody knew where he was. That he’d gone out that morning having told his staff he’d be in the Golden Turrets until the next day. He’d taken Everlife-9, so only Ralph and these children recognized him. The Stealth Carrier had vanished, the children had vanished, and he had vanished with them.

Then it occurred to him that they’d stolen a craft that was designed to fly over The Wall.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked.

“To a safe place,” Mika replied.

“Over The Wall?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not safe over The Wall!” he cried. “Not for me! I’m not like you! I’ll be ripped to pieces by the animal borgs!”

“We’re going to protect you,” Mika said.

“No! Please! I don’t want to go over The Wall! Please don’t take me over The Wall!”

“I thought you couldn’t wait to go over The Wall,” Ellie said sharply.

“Not yet,” Gorman said. “Not now, you stupid children. I don’t understand. Why over The Wall?”

Mika leaned across the seat and picked up a packet of biscuits. Gorman recognized it immediately. It was the one he’d watched Mika remove from his mail pack.

“What’s a packet of biscuits got to do with anything?” he said impatiently. “I don’t want a biscuit. Just tell me why you’re taking me over The Wall.”

Mika opened the biscuits and pulled out a small piece of paper that had been slipped down the side. He gave it to Gorman, who squinted at it. There was a set of numbers scrawled across it in inky black handwriting, with a kiss at the end.

“What’s this?” he said. “I don’t understand.”

“Map coordinates,” Mika replied.

“What?” Gorman said. “Where have they come from? How did you get them?”

“They were sent to me by my friend Helen,” Mika said. “In the biscuits. First to our old apartment in Barford North, then to our new apartment in the Golden Turrets, then our parents put them in our mail pack. My friend Helen is on the other side of The Wall and we’re taking you there because we know you’ll never be found by your men.”

Gorman’s face turned white with rage.

“You’ll never get away with this,” he said, throwing the map coordinates onto the floor. “You children are mad.”

“I disagree, sir,” Ralph said, picking them up again. “I think there’s a general consensus that
you’re
the mad one.”

M
ika thought about Helen as they flew toward The Wall, and Helen thought about Mika. He was hoping she wouldn’t be too shocked when he turned up with six children, a monkey, a butler, and the Minister for Youth Development. She was hoping he was still alive. They’d both known there was something wrong with the game but that Mika had to play it to find Ellie, but Helen hadn’t spoken to him since he was taken. She’d known there was something special about him, though, long before anyone else had.

She waited for him in a woodman’s hut buried deep in the forest of Brittany. It stood in a clearing of wildflowers. A winding path led up to its door. Its walls were made of whole polished trunks, and a pretty coil of smoke rose from its stone chimney. All it needed were a few sweets stuck to the roof and it would have looked good enough to eat.

Inside were just three rooms: a large one downstairs with a kitchen, wooden table, fireplace, and armchairs; and two smaller rooms upstairs, a bedroom with a brass bed and a hygiene room containing an old-fashioned bath with claw feet. All technology — the cleaning borgs, air-conditioning, TVs, security systems — had been hidden so as not to spoil the hut’s rustic charm. It looked one thing, but it was quite another.

A woodman had lived in the hut many years ago, but it was Helen’s home now. Her yellow Wellington rain boots stood by the door, her strawberry sunglasses lay on the kitchen table, and she could be seen through one of the crooked windows, washing up her breakfast dishes and frowning at the birds. She had just removed her rubber gloves and was walking to the door with a handful of crusts to feed them when her companion said, “You have a message from Mika.”

Her heart leaped.

She hobbled to the table, dumped the crusts, wiped her hands on her dress, and read it.

Quickly, she sent one back:

After so long waiting, she was in a state. Mika,
with friends
. Probably more children, to a forest riddled with wolf borgs.

She dropped her companion and hobbled quickly to the kitchen. Her arthritis was better on this side of The Wall, where
she had access to new drugs. In the cupboard under the sink, she found a box of borg tags. She put this in a flowery shopping bag, then hobbled to the fireplace, where she pressed an icon hidden among the stones.

Several stones slid back to reveal a screen. On this she summoned a map of the forest and checked the location of the wolf borgs. There were two packs within running distance. Panic-stricken, she grabbed her sun hat and rammed her feet into her yellow wellies. Then she left the hut and walked as quickly as she could into the forest, with the bag of borg tags over her arm.

It was a beautiful morning. A winding path carried her through the forest to a bridge. The stream below tumbled over smooth rocks. The shallow banks were covered in moss. She usually stopped there to watch, but today there was no time.

On the other side of the bridge, she could see the meadow through the trees. It was a small meadow, once used to graze horses. But now the horses were gone and spring grass swooshed around her knees. As she dropped into the dip surrounding the meadow, she saw a flash in the sky. The Stealth Carrier appeared, hovering like an alien ornament. It descended slowly, causing a frenzy in the forest. Birds rose from the canopy, their wings cracking the morning air. Then several eagle hawk borgs appeared, their wings
whomping
over the trees.

“Oh dear,” Helen muttered. The borgs were twice the size of the Stealth Carrier; their talons could crush it like a bean can. They circled above the craft, metallically screeching. Now Helen was limping so fast, her hat kept falling off.

How she wished she had a remote control for moments like this.

Then she saw Mika climbing out of a door on the side of the Stealth Carrier.

“NO!” she yelled.

He stood on the ledge and pulled himself up onto the roof.

“Mika!” she bellowed. “Wait! I told you to stay inside! It’s dangerous!” She rushed on, waving her shopping bag in the air like a flag. Wolf borgs were slipping through the trees, snarling and running at the carrier. Then the first eagle dropped with its talons reaching down.

Helen couldn’t bear to look.

She closed her eyes.

But the bloodcurdling scream she expected didn’t come. She opened her eyes to see the eagles rising and the wolves quietly gathering around the carrier. Mika slid down the wing and landed softly in the grass. He put out his hand, and the wolves sniffed his fingers. Then he looked at Helen with a big grin.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” she said, with her hands on her hips.

He laughed. He was so pleased to see her and she looked as kooky as ever. Her gray hair had been cut short, but it still stuck out around her head as if she were a witch. She was wearing a flowery dress, mismatched earrings, and her old yellow rain boots from Barford North.

“Sorry,” Mika said. “I should have said in my message, I’ve been here twice before.”

“Really?” she said, astonished. “But why don’t the borgs attack you?”

“They think I’m an animal.” His words came breathlessly. “Because I’m a mutant.” He had so many things to tell her, about the game, the war, and himself. So much had happened
since they’d last met. Mika could see her own questions fluttering around her like butterflies. But the others were waiting.

“So who have you brought with you?” Helen asked. “Are you all mutants? I have some borg tags with me.” She opened her shopping bag and showed him.

“I’ve brought Ellie,” he told her.

“Ellie!”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Mika,” she gasped. “I hoped you would. Well done!”

“And my best friend, Audrey,” Mika told her enthusiastically. “You’ll like Audrey; she’s really cool. She’s got borg eyes. And I’ve brought the others who won the competition. There are seven of us, including Ellie, all mutants.”

“Lovely,” Helen said. “I’ll make you all a nice cup of tea.”

“And someone else …” Mika added nervously. “I’ve brought someone else. We need your help, Helen … to hide someone.”

“Who?” she asked, her eyes sharpening.

“The Minister for Youth Development.”

“The Minister for Youth Development? The Northern Government Minister for Youth Development?”

“Yes,” Mika replied. “Mal Gorman. The man who invented the game. We’ve sort of
removed
him. We let him take Everlife-9 and he’s made himself twelve. You’ll see. The government wants a war, Helen. The game was recruitment for an army. They want to use us to bomb the forests so they can live in the mansions, but we plan to take over, sort it out another way. So we’ve kidnapped him and we need to hide him somewhere. Actually, we need to lock him up, because we can’t trust him.”

He looked at her anxiously. This had all come out in a mad gush and he hoped she understood. She was
once the only person who understood him….

“OK,” she replied, reaching into her shopping bag. “So you
will
need one of my borg tags.”

“Two, actually,” Mika said. “We brought his butler as well.”

“Ah, of course you did,” Helen said, rummaging. “Are we locking them both up, then?”

“No, Ralph’s nice. He’s come to help.”

When Mika slipped back into the carrier, the wolf borgs smelled Mal Gorman and Ralph and exploded in a frenzy of bloodlust. Gorman could see them through the windows, leaping, twisting, barking, and snarling, their claws dragging down the hull, leaving deep scars in the shiny metal. While the children fitted his borg tag, he froze like a shop mannequin. Puck hooted nervously on Ellie’s shoulder. Outside, Helen clutched her hat and watched from a safe distance.

“Do it quickly,” Gorman said. “Make me safe!”

The borg tags were made of thick gray plastic. They fit onto Ralph’s and Gorman’s wrists with a neat
click
. Thirty seconds later, a band of green light blinked below the surface and immediately the wolves dropped back.

Gorman panted with relief and clutched his tag with one hand as if he was afraid it might fall off. Ralph pulled down his sleeve to cover his.

“OK,” Mika said. “Let’s go.”

The door opened. The wolves gathered, licking their metal lips.

“Make them go away,” Gorman said.

“They’ll leave soon,” Mika told him. “They’re just curious. Let them sniff you and try to stay calm.”

Mika jumped down into the meadow, and the wolves
parted as if he were a member of the pack. But the children had to push Mal Gorman out of the carrier, and the wolves weren’t so sure about him. They ran at him, heads down and snarling as if preparing to attack. The children surrounded him to keep them back. It felt like a precarious situation.

Helen looked at Gorman shrewdly from beneath the rim of her hat. “Mmmm,” she said, pursing her lips. “Follow me.”

By the time they’d reached the trees, Gorman had peed his pants with fright, and only Ralph and Puck had a chance to absorb their beautiful surroundings. Puck gazed up at the trees and chattered in amazed monkey dialogue and tried to leap from Ellie’s shoulder onto a branch, but she held him firmly.

“Yeah, I know,” she whispered. “You want to play in the trees. But let’s deal with Gorman first, before the wolf borgs try to eat him.”

Helen marched ahead. Her yellow boots flashed like beacons through the trees. She led them over the stream and past the hut into deeper forest.

It was dark and cool there, mysterious, quiet. Mal Gorman’s fear cranked up another level. The wolves slunk through the trees around him, their red eyes glowing in the deep forest light. They waded through bracken and brambles that slowed them down and snagged at their legs. Puck stopped trying to jump from Ellie’s shoulder, and Mika walked with Awen by his side. Leo, Iman, Colette, and Santos followed in a state of distracted shock. This was the first time they’d seen a forest.

“Not long now!” Helen shouted, with the plastic fruit bobbing on her hat.

Eventually, the path cleared.

“Look,” Audrey said. “A house.”

Helen marched on as if it were perfectly normal. The children, Ralph, and Gorman stopped at the edge of the lawn.

The path that led up to the front door was lined with overgrown columns of topiary. The house was hundreds of years old … and silent. The quiet of it throbbed as the forest loomed over it. Three rows of windows peeked through a tangle of vines. Ivy had grown right up the walls and over the roof to poke pale fronds at the sky. Its great front door stood ajar, among a litter of leaves from past autumns.

“Does this belong to Helen?” Ellie asked. The house was neglected and overgrown, but it was clearly worth billions of credits, and when they thought about all the land it was on, it became money they couldn’t imagine.

“I don’t know,” Mika replied uncomfortably. “I don’t even know what’s she’s doing on this side of The Wall. When I met her, she was living in a fold-down, like us. She was my counselor. Mum and Dad paid her to make me forget you, but she helped me remember instead. She could hardly walk, her arthritis was so bad. I don’t understand.”

Helen had vanished after their last conversation in Barford North. He’d gone to her apartment to find it full of Magpie Men picking through her things, knocking her precious books to the floor. But how had she ended up here, on the other side of The Wall, stomping through a forest as if it were all hers? If Helen belonged here, if she owned this mansion, she was one of the people who’d lied to their parents. That wasn’t a nice thought.

Gorman hadn’t expected this either. The topiary needed trimming and the ivy cutting back, but he quite fancied staying here. It wasn’t as alluring as Raphael Mose’s mansion, but it was a mansion. He was first to set off up the path,
and the children, wolf borgs, and butler followed.

Helen was waiting at the front of the house. Before Gorman reached her, she began walking again, around the side of it. Mika ran ahead and caught up with her.

“I see what you mean,” she muttered. “Gorman’s a sly one.”

“Yeah,” Mika replied. “He’s the Knife Sharpener.”

“Really?” Helen said with raised eyebrows. “That was a terrible nightmare. Is he as horrid in reality?”

“Yes,” Mika replied. “He was the one who took Ellie. I didn’t see him while I was awake until the prize-giving dinner.”

“I bet that killed your appetite,” she said. “Well, he won’t be able to scare anyone where I’m going to put him.”

“He doesn’t scare me anymore,” Mika said. “I know what he is now.”

“You do seem different,” Helen observed.

“I am.”

They were quiet for a moment. He was about to ask her how she came to be on this side of The Wall, when they reached a long concrete building. He decided to leave the questions until later. The building was right at the forest’s edge, surrounded by bushes and trees. It had a large, heavily fenced enclosure attached to it. Mika looked through the wire. He saw a landscaped area with smaller trees and a muddy hollow. Helen rooted around in her shopping bag for a key card, and Gorman and the others caught up with them.

“Why are we here?” Gorman asked, looking back down the path toward the mansion.

“Because this is where you’re staying,” Helen replied.

“You’re joking,” he said. “It’s a concrete shed.”

“It’s not a concrete shed,” she countered. “It’s an animal
enclosure with an electric fence. You won’t be able to escape. After The Wall was built, we used enclosures like these to breed wild boar to repopulate the forest. The babies look like mint humbugs, you know. With their brown and cream stripes.”

“I don’t care,” Gorman said furiously.

“It’s warm and dry,” she continued. “All you’ll need is a sleeping bag and a porta-potty. I’ve got them in the house.”