The Whisper (7 page)

They heard the fence before they saw it, buzzing like a swarm of bees.

“We’re there,” Ellie said.

“OK,” the voice replied. “Lift yourselves over it and wait. Mal Gorman wants to see everything from this point. I’ll let you know when he’s online.”

They walked toward the fence and closed their eyes, focusing on their own inner light. Then they lifted themselves up and over it. Mika had never done this before. He was surprised how easy it was, but landed clumsily on the other side in the middle of a prickly bush. He stood up holding his shoulder, which still ached from the encounter with the bear.

“You need to work on those landings, Mika,” the voice said. “Don’t let yourself drop like that: Someone might hear you.”

Mika stood up and joined Ellie at the edge of a shrub border. Here was nature shaped by humans: the bushes pruned,
the trees spaced, tilled earth and bark chips beneath their feet.

“OK,” the voice said. “Mal Gorman is online now. Use your invisibility shields and walk toward the house.”

They activated their shields and moved quietly forward onto mown grass. It was cushion soft and damp. Beyond that they saw nothing but an expanse of darkness. The map told them to head southwest. As they walked, they heard Mal Gorman complaining because he couldn’t see anything. Occasionally a tree loomed out of the darkness or a rabbit scarpered in front of them, but all they could really glean about the place was its vastness. The mown grass seemed to go on forever.

“Does Raphael Mose own all of this?” Mika whispered.

“Yes,” the voice replied.

They saw a red and white pole sticking out of the ground, with a flag on the top of it. They walked forward and found themselves on a circle of closely cropped grass. It was flat and hard.

“What’s this?” Mika asked.

“A golf hole,” the voice replied. “Walk on.”

The ground sloped suddenly and they found themselves in a copse of trees. Through the trunks they saw the faint glow of artificial light.

“You should see the house soon,” the voice told them.

Just on the other side of the trees, they did. They stopped to look at it. The mansion was nestled in the bottom of the valley with its front bathed in light. It was immense, a colonial-style mansion with scores of shuttered windows and a grand pillared entrance. At the base were plinths, on which sat a pair of lions. It had a wide driveway lined with neatly spaced trees, a cluster of outbuildings, a pool and tennis courts and another garden
to the rear, with lawns and flower beds that backed onto the forest. It was quite astonishing to imagine that one man owned all this.

It was quiet in their headsets.

Mal Gorman was absorbing it all. “I like it,” he said.

The twins began to walk forward, but stopped abruptly. The giant lions on the plinths had begun to move, as if the stone were enchanted.

“They must be borgs,” the voice said. “Just stay where you are and see what they do.”

The lions dropped heavily from their plinths onto the drive. They were so huge, their heads reached the tops of the pillars. They had the sickle markings of mountain lions inlaid in their silver hides. They began to lope slowly up the lawn toward Ellie and Mika. The children felt the great weight of the metallic beasts rocking through the ground.

“Just stay there,” the voice said.

The lions reached them and paced powerfully around them with their nostrils flaring, snorting hard. Patent flex metal muscles and titanium bones worked beneath silver skin. In the dense quiet, the children could hear all these mechanisms moving in complex coordination. The lions were the best that money could buy. They were a status symbol more potent than the mansion and its grounds.

The borgs took a while to decide what the children were. Low growls began to thunder in their throats.

“Stay calm,” the voice said. “Don’t move until they accept you. They’re just confused because they can’t see you.”

At last the lions settled, but their immense size remained a threat. Mika moved just before one stood on his foot and it was
a while before they left. They lay down on the grassy slope and gazed toward the house with their tails twitching. Long minutes passed, but eventually they rose and sauntered toward their plinths, their paws leaving a trail of deep dents in the lawn. The children followed at a safe distance and watched them settle.

“OK, that’s them dealt with,” the voice said. “It looks as if they’re the only borgs inside the fence … not that they’d need any more. Walk past them toward the left side of the mansion. Mal Gorman wants to look at the outbuildings and the gardens. He’ll guide you through this area.”

The cluster of outbuildings was about the size of a small village. As they entered the area, they walked past a row of dark cottages.

“That must be the servant accommodation,” Gorman said. “How many are there?”

“Eight,” Mika whispered.

“What’s that building ahead of you?” Gorman said. “It looks like a stable block.”

The children entered a dark yard surrounded on three sides by long, thin buildings. For the first time in their lives, they saw the golden glow of horses through the half doors on the stables. The horses stirred, sensing them approach, and a couple stamped their straw.

“Show me them all,” Gorman said. “I want to see what kind of stock he’s got.”

The children moved slowly around the yard, stopping by each door and stroking the long faces of the horses. Horse light was volatile. It warmed and softened as the children touched them, but as soon as they took their hands away, the horses jerked their heads back, their light jagged, fractious, as if they
would run for miles if their stables were opened. The children showed Gorman every horse and he admired them as if he knew what he was talking about.

They heard human footsteps. A pair of solid boots on the gritty path. Then a woman appeared in the entrance to the yard, dressed in a black uniform with a gun on her belt.

“She’s one of Raphael Mose’s bodyguards,” the voice said. “Don’t move until she leaves.”

She walked a few paces into the yard, then turned slowly and left. When they could no longer hear her, Mal Gorman made them walk on and show him the kitchen garden, full of fruit and vegetables. Then they looked at the pool, Plush Turf tennis courts, the terrace overlooking the rear garden, and a garage block. As well as several new pods, this contained some vintage gas-engine cars: a Rolls-Royce, a Porsche, and a Corvette Stingray. Gorman was quiet again while they walked around these, but they knew what he was thinking. His mind had already leapfrogged the war and he was imagining owning all this.

He’s so stupid,
Mika thought.
This mansion will be a heap of cinders after the war. And so will he
.

Next, Gorman told them to break into the mansion.

They saw another bodyguard as they left the garage, and had to wait several minutes before it was safe to approach the kitchen door. It was on the left side of the house, near the row of staff cottages. Ellie looked at the lock until it clicked, and they walked quietly into the kitchen. Then Mika looked at the alarm panel until a soft, green light appeared.

Now the hunt for Everlife-9 would begin, while Raphael Mose and his family slept on the floor above them.

M
ika and Ellie walked quietly across Raphael Mose’s kitchen.

They could smell a pie that had been left to cool on the kitchen table. It was a real cheese and vegetable pie, made with milk from cows and vegetables grown in soil. Food was the last thing on their minds, but they were drawn to it anyway. Food like this didn’t exist on the other side of The Wall. The crust was glazed with butter and egg. They touched it curiously.

Next to the pie was another miracle: a jam jar full of wildflowers that glowed gold in their water. The tiny petals were closed, sleeping, but their colors were lovely, even in the darkness. Ellie touched these too, very gently.

Around the jam jar was a scatter of brightly colored pencils made from wood, and next to these, a child’s drawing on real paper. Such ordinary things on this side of The Wall, but fascinating to children from the North. Ellie picked up the
drawing. It was a bird in a tree, and the child had tried hard to capture the details under a warm, plump sun. It was a happy drawing.

Now they felt guilty. They hadn’t realized there was a child in the house.

Gorman was bored. He couldn’t smell the pie or care about flowers or drawings. He was more interested in looking at the size of the rooms and finding the Everlife-9.

“What are you doing?” he said. “Put that down and get on with it.”

Ellie returned the drawing to the table.

They walked around the kitchen so Gorman could admire the massive cooking range and fridge. Then they explored the rest of the ground-floor rooms, showing Gorman the furniture and searching for Everlife-9. The rooms at the front of the house were large and the furnishings were a mixture of antique and modern. They smelled of polish and perfume. The children touched wood, stone, and silk and gazed into everything, even the walls, hunting for Everlife-9. They saw the smallest things normal eyes would never see, like the tiny gold lights of insects moving in the floorboards. But they did not find the drug.

In a study at the back of the house, they did find something that interested them. Behind a horse painting above the fireplace was a brushed-metal control panel with three red buttons.

What’s this?
Mika thought.

“I wish you would stop fiddling,” Gorman said impatiently. “Get a move on.”

He made them open the drawers in Raphael Mose’s desk,
then look at the holopics on the mantelpiece. He spent a long time looking at these, and the children wondered why.

Do you think Gorman knows Raphael Mose?
Ellie thought.

Maybe,
Mika replied.
Or perhaps he’s just imagining himself doing those things
.

The holopics showed Raphael Mose’s family and friends living the high life. They lounged around on yachts, feasted in ski lodges, and gathered at weddings, wearing diamonds and silk. The man in the holopics appeared to be Raphael Mose. He looked young, strong, and healthy. He had a full head of dark hair and a muscular body, but he was not attractive. There was a hard edge to his smile and no emotion in his eyes. They decided it must be Raphael Mose. He looked exactly like the kind of man who could ruin billions of lives without feeling any remorse.

“OK,” Gorman said. “I’ve seen enough. Go upstairs now.”

They found the staircase in the great hall. It had a grand, shallow sweep and a carpeted tread.

“Nice,” Gorman said. “I like it.”

They climbed the staircase and took the last few steps cautiously. Now they were mere steps away from Raphael Mose, and after seeing pictures of him, they did not want to meet him.

They found themselves facing a wide landing and a long line of doors. They turned right and looked through each one without opening it. These were guest bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. The children looked at the beds and furniture in lines of blue light but moved quickly on from one to the next because there were no small objects in these rooms, no boxes or bottles that might contain Everlife-9.

At the end of the landing, they found themselves facing an
ornate oak door. It was significantly larger than the others, and the frame was carved with a beautiful pattern of wildflowers and butterflies. On the main panel was a goat kid, standing in a meadow of grass. It was beautiful. Mika touched the warm wood, admiring the carving, and Awen sniffed along the gap at the bottom of the door.

They got a shock when they looked through it. Sitting up in bed was a child, alert, scared, and listening.

Frag,
Mika thought.
She’s a mutant. She can see us through the door
.

They backed away.

“What are you doing?” Gorman said. “What’s in there?”

“Nothing,” Ellie whispered.

Their hearts pounded. They knew there was a child in the house, but they hadn’t expected a mutant child, especially one so young and powerful. She was surrounded by plush toys and dolls. She couldn’t have been more than seven years old and yet she’d seen them, easily. And if she decided to wake up her parents, they’d be in serious trouble. But they couldn’t tell Mal Gorman. They remembered what happened when they encountered the bear; they were pretty sure he’d tell them to kill the girl just because she’d seen them.

We have to get out of here as quickly as possible,
Mika thought.

Awen remained by the oak door, wagging his tail. As Mika and Ellie walked quickly away from it, his tail dropped and he followed.

At the other end of the landing, they found themselves facing another oak door. This one had a mulberry tree carved on the main panel. Through it they saw Raphael Mose and his
wife sleeping in a four-poster bed. There were many objects around them, including a collection of bottles.

Gorman was talking at them impatiently, but they ignored him. They didn’t have time to listen. The door swung open quietly and they crept into the bedroom and began to search frantically, with Raphael Mose and his wife sleeping right next to them. Although the children couldn’t be seen, they knew they could be heard and that the slightest sound would wake Mose and his wife. It was a very tense search and every vessel they looked at contained beauty products, nothing more.

“Where is it?” Gorman said with urgency. “It must be there. You’re not trying hard enough. Find it! Find it!”

They opened doors and drawers with their eyes. They searched every corner of the room. Awen began to circle nervously, sensing impending doom. Now there was only one place to look — the en suite bathroom. They gazed through the door and saw an old-fashioned bathtub and a pair of sinks, a mirror, and
a cabinet
.

Immediately their eyes fixed on the cabinet. Inside they could see three rows of small bottles filled with clear fluid.

That’s it,
Ellie thought.

They entered quietly and closed the door. The cabinet looked sharp and modern compared to the other fixtures. Mika opened it and a bright white light blinked on inside. The bottles were made of clear glass. Each had a silver cap and a white label on which was printed: E
VERLIFE-9
and an expiration date.

“How much should we take?” Mika whispered.

“Take three bottles from each row,” Gorman replied greedily, then thought better of it. “No, actually, take two. They’ll miss three.”

The children removed the bottles as quickly as possible and put them in the pockets on their belts. Then they spread out those remaining to hide the gaps. All they could think about was getting out of there.

But just as they turned, the bathroom door opened and they found themselves facing the child.

They both jumped with shock, not just because she’d crept up on them so quietly but because they’d never seen such a startling mutant before.

She was dressed in a hand-embroidered nightgown. She had the look of those raised on real food and sunlight. She was cute, with wide dark eyes and coils of curly brown hair. In her arms she held a big brown teddy bear. But it was not these things that startled them. It was her legs. She had the hind legs of a goat, reverse jointed, with little hooves covered in coils of fine brown hair. She was a satyr from Greek myth. The most striking mutant child they’d ever seen. She tightened the grip on her teddy bear and a hoof clicked on the hard floor.

In a paroxysm of panic, Ellie lunged for her arm and dragged her in and shut the door.

“Kill her,” Gorman yelled. “Kill her now!”

The child pulled against Ellie’s grip with a frightened sob. She was powerful enough to hear through their minds what Mal Gorman had said. Mika and Ellie deactivated their invisibility shields, yanked off their headsets to get rid of him, and crouched down.

“Don’t kill me!” she sobbed.

“We’re not going to kill you,” Ellie whispered desperately. “We’re not here to hurt you. Please don’t tell your parents we’re
here. Please be really quiet and let us explain who we are and why we’ve come.”

But it had all happened too quickly. The teddy bear the child held was a borg as sophisticated as the lions guarding the house. As soon at it sensed her fear, it began to cry out in a teddy bear voice, “Help! Help! Grace is scared! Someone help her!”

“Frag!” Mika hissed. “Frag!”

He jumped up and locked the bathroom door, but within seconds, Raphael Mose and his wife were on the other side, banging and shouting.

The child didn’t seem to hear them. Now she gazed at Ellie and Mika with intense curiosity. She could sense they were like her. For the first time in her life, she was with her own kind.

Can you hear us?
Mika thought.

The child nodded.

Do you believe we’re not going to hurt you?

The child considered this and nodded again.

I hear in your mind,
she thought.

And we hear in yours. We’re not going to hurt you. Look at our light. Just take a deep breath and look at us
.

She gazed between them, deep into them, as her parents continued to bang on the door.

We were sent to your house by a bad man,
Ellie thought.
The man who told us to kill you. He took us away from our parents because we’re mutants and he’s trying to use us to hurt people. But we don’t like the man. We don’t want him to use us to hurt people. We’ve taken Everlife-9 from the bathroom cabinet and we’re going to use it to get rid of the bad man. Do you understand? We want
to get rid of him. We don’t want to hurt anyone
.

The child listened and calmed down. When Ellie had finished, Grace felt the rush of The Whisper pour through her mind. Somewhere out there were more children … like her!

You come from the other side of The Wall?
she thought.

Yes
.

But it’s dust on the other side of The Wall
.

We were told the same thing,
Mika thought.
And look, here we are, talking to you. You can hear The Whisper, can’t you? There are thousands of us on the other side of The Wall, and you’re one of us. Help us
.

The child took a deep breath. Mika and Ellie watched her, admiring her. “Grace?” her mother yelled through the door. “What are you doing? Let us in!”

Mika and Ellie activated their shields and vanished. The child opened the door and faced her angry parents.

The twins stood behind Grace, praying their shields didn’t fail them.

“Oh, Grace!” the woman gushed. “What were you doing in here?”

“I had a bad dream,” Grace replied.

“Then why did Teddy start to shout?” Mose asked, concerned.

“I woke up in here,” she replied. “And I was frightened, so Teddy got frightened.”

“She must have been sleepwalking,” her mother said wearily. She took Grace’s hand. “Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

Grace and her mother left, but Raphael Mose stayed and looked sharply around the bathroom. As he walked forward,
the twins were forced back until they were squashed against the edge of the tub. He opened the cabinet and looked at his bottles of Everlife-9. As he did so, the twins saw cold aggression in his eyes. Here was a man more broken than Mal Gorman. And they would have to deal with him soon. If they were to stop this war, Raphael Mose was a man they would need to fix.

He closed the cabinet door, admired his young reflection, and left.

When they were sure he was back in bed, Ellie and Mika walked quietly past him and out of the bedroom. On the landing, they paused and watched his wife close Grace’s door. Then they walked quickly down the stairs and through the house toward the kitchen. Mika primed the house alarm and they left, locking the kitchen door behind them.

Awen ran ahead up the sloping lawn, and the twins followed quickly. When they reached the copse of trees, they looked back and saw a gold light in Grace’s window. She was watching them leave.

I feel sorry for her,
Ellie thought.
Her father’s Raphael Mose. She’s going to get mixed up in this
.

We’ll look after her,
Mika replied.
If she needs looking after. I get the feeling she can look after herself
.