The Whisper of Stars (16 page)

What’s so important? What do they want so badly?

Thomas stood watching him. Nathan decided he would wait, but knew that when the opportunity arose, he would open that bag and find out for himself.

* * *

Jen wasn’t in a usual holding cell. This place was cold steel and reinforced glass. Military. In every corner she could feel cameras on her, focusing, watching, recording. She sat on a metal bench that was bolted to the floor, her ankle swollen slightly, sprained but not broken. Not that it mattered. She had been captured.

Going back to her apartment had been a risk, she had known that, but without supplies, identity or weapons she wouldn’t have lasted an hour. It had been a calculated risk, but one she’d made before knowing how far the deceit went. Mac and Zitagi were just the tip; the iceberg went deep.

She thought of David Shaw and how, in a moment of madness, she’d given up the Histeridae, been forced to trust him. Her father had stolen it with the sole purpose of keeping it from them, and she’d let him down. She wondered if he was captured, held in a cell like her, the Histeridae lost forever.

Hours passed, giving her time to think, which wasn’t a good thing. The lights were low, the room specifically designed to give no stimulus. She felt like she was underground but it was impossible to tell. They could keep her here for as long as they wanted to and then they would kill her, she knew that, but somehow losing the Histeridae was worse. She had become convinced that it was her job to expose the truth, whatever that was.

The door lock activated and Jim McArthur entered the cell, followed by two armed guards.

He stood and waited until eventually Jen faced him. He was pale, his eyes drawn, but she knew it wasn’t because of her. They hadn’t found Shaw, he didn’t have the Histeridae and he was in deep trouble.

‘You need to tell us where it is.’ His voice was rough but clear.

On hearing his voice, Jen felt as if cold steel had filled her throat and she fought back tears. He was now her enemy. It didn’t matter how much she wished it wasn’t so.

‘Fuck you, Mac,’ she said quietly, her eyes burning into him. ‘I trusted you.’

‘Where is it?’ he said angrily. ‘Where have you hidden it?’

She looked down at her hands, which were cuffed to the bench, and tugged, the metal clinking loudly.

‘Tell me something,’ she asked, void of emotion. ‘Where’s Peter Callaghan?’

McArthur walked to the corner of the room and faced away from her. ‘He’s dead.’

‘Oh, Mac.’ Jen released a painful sigh, her heart calling out to him in spite of her fear and anger. ‘What have you done?’

She couldn’t help the tears now. They came and she let them.

‘You bastard.’ She spat the words like venom. ‘You’ll pay for this. All of you.’ She looked round the room, eyeballing the various lenses.

McArthur approached her. ‘If you don’t tell us where it is, then we will
make
you.’ He paused, then whispered, ‘You
know
what I mean.’

She knew exactly. She’d had the last few hours to think about just that. Mind extraction. She’d heard the stories but bit back on her fear. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

‘You’re her little puppy now.’ She smiled as best she could. ‘Run along, Mac. Do as you’re told.’

McArthur raised his head and drew a long breath. ‘I tried,’ he said finally.

‘You did more than that,’ she shot back at him.

‘This isn’t how I wanted it to be, Jen.’ He twisted his neck against his collar. ‘I warned you and you still ran.’

As Jen watched him walk away, it felt like another one of her dreams. Like Mac was somehow playing a character, bound by a destiny that didn’t belong to him, one she was powerless to change.

Mac instructed the surly guards to prepare her for transfer and left without looking back.

Jen felt hope pour out of her like oil from a punctured drum. Soon they would extract the information they needed and her life would be over. And then, with her gone, they would find David Shaw and kill him too.

She thought of the Histeridae again. Would he use it? Would he even try?

Chapter 30

Two hours was a long time for her mind to stew. When the guard entered the cell, cuffed her and ordered her to stand, Jen was strangely relieved. In silence they walked the sterile corridor, passing identical doors, twenty or so before she stopped counting. She wondered who might be held behind those nondescript walls. David Shaw, the mystery man, perhaps? Maybe even Thomas by now?

After various security checks, the guard pushed open two large steel doors and they were outside, the sun bursting over them. Jen barely had time for her eyes to adjust before being pushed into the back of an armoured vehicle. Blinking against the harsh light, she saw a runway and tall fencing in the distance. It didn’t help; she still had no idea where she was. The thick doors sealed her in darkness. No windows. Just the rhythmic dings of rain starting on the metal roof. The rain had turned into a downpour by the time the doors opened again. Jen was surprised when Jim McArthur entered the car and sat opposite her, shaking the rain from his jacket.

She scowled at him. ‘Come to babysit me?’

He didn’t make eye contact. The guard banged the side of the vehicle and it pulled away. She studied Jim McArthur in the artificial interior light. He looked uneasy.

‘Peter Callaghan.’ She winced at his name, the thought of him gone. Murdered. ‘My God, Mac.’

Her thoughts turned to the Duality Division. A group of dedicated officers she had worked alongside for years. The unit had been specifically created to support and uphold new laws, legislation that she believed was going save mankind. What did that mean now?

‘Ravenscroft. Richards.’ She was trying to figure out where everyone fit into this secret world of his. ‘Are they all in on it?’

‘Everything you thought you knew.’ His voice cracked like thick ice. He leant towards her. ‘It’s all lies.’

‘Your family? That was a lie too?’

The pause was enough. They were part of the façade.

Jen thought back to summer days, barbecues on his patio. His wife bringing a plate of salad, tender, loving exchanges between them. It was like a dream in which you could sense a bomb was about to go off but you couldn’t warn anyone.

They traveled in silence for a while until the road sounded different and the armoured vehicle sped up.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.

McArthur looked noticeably uncomfortable. He tapped at a small console on the side panel of the truck. It looked like a map.

‘What’s going on?’ Jen asked. ‘You need to tell me.’

McArthur reached inside his jacket and pulled a gun. Jen felt the pit of her stomach sink. He was going to kill her. Shoot her, right here in the back of the van. Dump her body somewhere. She felt like glass, heavy and immovable. It would take all of her effort to launch herself at him. She wanted to go down fighting at least and was busy planning her first move when he spoke.

‘I’m going to alert the driver,’ he said quickly, his face chalky white. ‘We’re getting you out of here.’

McArthur pressed the intercom and explained that the prisoner was having a seizure. The truck came to a swift stop and they heard the driver exit, walk around the truck and open the side door. McArthur fired, shooting the driver square in the chest, knocking him backwards. This time when Mac spoke, he sounded like the man she’d known all those years. Her friend.

‘You’ve got about fifteen minutes before they start looking for you.’ He handed her a small pouch. ‘Retinal blockers,’ he explained. ‘At least you can walk the street. If you’re scanned it will flag you as unknown, so you need to be careful. Two alerts and they will close in.’

Jen was struggling to process all the information. Jim McArthur had been with her from the start, throughout her career. He’d always been there. His betrayal had shattered the foundations of that world, yet here, now, he was somehow trying to put it right. She looked at him and he smiled with a heavy sigh that bought his whole chest down. She reached over and placed her hand on his.

‘What about you, Mac?’ she said softly. ‘Can you come with me?’

‘I messed up, Jen,’ he said, his expression flat and cold. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Why? Why did you do it? What do they want it for?’

He looked round nervously. ‘We don’t have time for this.’

‘I have to know, Mac.’ Her look was enough.

Jim McArthur’s resolve deflated. In a matter of minutes half the British Government would be on her, but that didn’t matter. She wanted to know, and he had to tell her.

‘After your father stole the device, I was assigned to you, a sleeper mission. It was never supposed to go on so long. Jen, I never –’

‘But what made him steal it?’

‘The research your father conducted changed everything, and when Baden got hold of it… let’s just say he didn’t agree with their direction.’

‘Baden?’ Jen was missing the connection.

‘Government bought them lock stock. Not common knowledge, but they did, and some people made a lot of money. Your father could see it going wrong. That’s when he stole it, to stop them.’

‘From doing what? What did Baden want to do?’

As the question left her mouth she knew the answer. Baden technology permeated society, their name a part of the accepted fabric of modern life, but Jen was drawn back to one place specifically. A place where that logo had been etched on almost every piece of equipment.

‘The Hibernation chip,’ Jen whispered. The answers were banging at the base of her skull like small grenades, sending shivers through her. It didn’t yet make sense, but there was finally some truth to what Mac was telling her. A tuning fork was humming at last.

Mac was nodding. ‘Your father’s research into the Histeridae – it unlocked the human brain in a way no one could have imagined.’

His words lingered in the air between them.

‘Can you forgive me?’ he asked her eventually.

Jen didn’t hesitate. She hugged him tightly and the tears came again.

‘Fucking hell, Mac,’ she sobbed, squeezing him hard before he gently guided her away.

‘You need to go,’ he said firmly. ‘I did as you asked, now go.’

‘But what’s going on? Callaghan believed they’re searching us, searching our minds – did you know about that?’

A radio crackled into life and a voice drifted up from the guard lying on the ground in front of them. It was asking for an update on the alert they had just received.

Jim McArthur held her shoulders and spoke firmly. ‘Jen, they don’t tell me everything. All I know is that it involved your father but starts and ends with the Government and Baden.’

The screen next to him began flashing red and the vehicle alarm started shrieking. Jen jumped out of the truck. They had stopped on a gravel lay-by just off a main road. It was outer London somewhere, she wasn’t sure where exactly. In the distance, layers of circular roads towered above the city. Jen grabbed the guard and dragged him out of the view of the traffic streaming past, each commuter a potential witness, their minds imprinted with the scene and ripe for scanning. McArthur was out of the truck and leaning against the side.

‘Come on, Mac,’ she pleaded, grabbing a fob from the guard’s belt and clicking open her handcuffs. ‘You can come with me, we can figure this out!’

‘There’s no point running.’ He was smiling, but his eyes were glazed. ‘No point. I’ve been doing that my whole life. Calm on the exterior, running like crazy underneath. Well, not anymore.’ He sighed heavily. ‘I’m done. You’re stronger than me. You always have been.’

‘I’m sorry.’ It was all she could think to say, and in that moment she both loved and hated him. He was right. If she stayed any longer they would catch her again and all of this would have been for nothing. Jen kissed his cheek. Jim McArthur was always right.

She inserted the retinal blockers, turned and ran.

Jim McArthur watched her, as he always did, until she disappeared from view. His body felt weak and he had a pain in his right shoulder. Stress, probably, or perhaps – he hoped – death would be kind enough to gift him a heart attack. He imagined Zitagi’s face when she heard the news of Jen’s escape. That flawless face would be rigid, teeth clenched tightly, eyes trying to contain fury. Zitagi hadn’t authorised the transfer; she knew nothing of his intentions to help Jennifer Logan escape. He smiled again. He’d managed to keep it from her, to help Jen, to give her another chance. Of course, it didn’t make it right – he knew that – but at least he had tried to make amends.

An incoming call appeared, Zido’s name blinking in the corner of his vision.
Right on cue,
he thought and ignored it. That woman. She’d had enough of his time.

Finally managed to stand up to her.

He looked down at the gun sitting heavy in his hand and wished he could have done more. He wanted to tell Jen everything, the whole plan, but they had run out of time. Always seems to be the way, he thought. We have our whole lives to tell people how we feel, and yet still we run out of time. He thought of his family, another part of the lie. He was very fond of them, as he was many of his colleagues. What a mess it had all become. He raised the gun to his head and decided his last thought would be Jen. She had been like a daughter to him. He hoped more than anything that she would forgive him. Her face filled his mind, moments they had shared.

Tears welled up in his eyes. She was a good girl.

Chapter 31

It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Thomas heard the knock again. He approached the door, nerves biting. His initial relief left quickly as Jen pushed past him, entering the apartment. The smell of sour sweat and fear accompanied her. She hunched over, hands pressing heavily on her knees.

‘What’s going on?’ Thomas asked.

‘I’m sorry.’ She was clearly exhausted. ‘Is he here?’

Thomas sighed and nodded. His fear was overtaken briefly by a pang of sadness. He only had a couple of clients like her, women he genuinely enjoyed spending time with. He supposed the sadness was a form of acceptance. She was in trouble and that meant their arrangement was over. It was a shame.