Ultimate Justice (3 page)

BOOK: Ultimate Justice
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“It
is
, Yknan, they
own
us!”

Kakko and Jalli washed their own hands and decided to follow the women into the canteen.

They stepped inside the door and Kakko saw them making their way to the hot foods section.

“They are the women we've just overheard,” said Kakko.

“How can you be sure? You didn't see them; you were inside a cubicle.”

“Oh. I did see them. I popped my head over the top.”

“Kakko!”

“Oh. It's safe. People don't look up. Anyway, they had their backs to the cubicles.”

“Looking into the mirrors! And how ever did you manage to see over the door?”

“I stood with my feet on the edge of the pan.”

“You should be careful you don't fall in!”

“Never have – I'm safe.”


Never
have! How often do you stand on the rim of a toilet pan to look over the door?”

“We used to do that all the time at school. You stand on the pan and drop bits of wet loo paper on the heads of the people in the next one. That was always good for a laugh.”

Her mother just stood and gaped. “You didn't learn that from me!”

“Oh, Mum. Don't be so stuffy!”

They caught up with the women at the hot food counter. Jalli had no idea what the convention was here but she guessed she did not need to pay for this. She copied what the women did and she and Kakko both took a tray. When it was their turn to order, Jalli simply said, “Same please.”

“And me,” said Kakko, “and can I have some of that too?”

The woman behind the counter just tipped a reddish looking splodge beside the yellow one she already had.

“I hope you're going to eat all that,” said her mother.

“Mum!”

“Oh. OK. I'll stop nagging.”

“Promise…”

“That depends… oh, alright but just behave yourself.”

They traced their way across the canteen. The women in front of them had chosen a free table at the far end beside a large window. Jalli followed.

“Excuse me,” she said, “do you mind if we join you? This is our first day here and we're a bit lost.”

“Sure. Sit down,” said a buxom woman with a toothy smile. “Your first day. Where have you been?”

“Er… we don't live close. I… we… this is my daughter, Kakko…”

“Pleased to meet ya… Estap. Name's Estap. And this here is my friend Yknan.”

Jalli held out her hand. To her surprise Estap took it with her left, and so did Yknan. Kakko extended a left hand.
Good
, thought her mother,
she's watching
.

3

Estap and Yknan led Kakko and Jalli to a large bench in the centre of the workshop. In the centre of the bench was a wide gap along which ran large, upturned, round-ended buckets. Several women were loading them with various components.

“You begin with your shell-casing,” explained Estap, showing them a low trolley stacked with the round-bottomed bucket things. It takes two of you to lift it on the rails… watch.” She and Yknan stood either side of a shell-casing and lifted it up so the top slid into two parallel rails that ran along the inside edges of the gap in the bench. Then she dragged it to the first station ready for the first operation.

“Again this takes two,” said Estap. They lifted a sealed box shaped to fit into the bottom of the shell-casing by two ribbons attached to it and dropped it carefully into the rounded end of the shell.

“This is the nose section. You have to be real careful of course because all the components are delicate – they contain explosives. They should be safe, but you don't want to go dropping them!

“The most dangerous thing is Charlie over there. (Him with the supercilious grin.) He's the section supervisor,” Yknan nodded slightly towards a man standing upright with his arms crossed, surveying the scene. “He's a tyrant for sure. If you step out of line, he'll have you for breakfast…”

“OK. When your nose assembly is in place, you take a plate and clip it in like this… then you begin with the MEMs – Medium Effect Munitions. Those are the ones that go off within ten metres from the site impact. You put in twenty of these… no, not that one.
These
little bomblet things with the red tip. Then pour in ball bearings from this pipe until you've covered all the MEMs.” They slid the shell further along the rails opposite another group of boxes containing small balls with wings. “Next you put in forty of these real small bomblets. They're called ‘squids'. They get blown over five hundred metres and go off over several hours depending on their timing. They have four colours… you put in ten of each.”

“What are they for?” asked Jalli, horrified at what she was hearing.

“The squids? The idea is that they stop anyone getting near the target afterwards because you never know when they are going to go off. Last thing: fill it up with more bearings… pack it all tight with this foam… clip on this plate making sure there is no space underneath, and then it goes on to the next machine that seals it all up. But we don't handle that. We say good-bye to it at this point.”

“How many of these have you assembled since you started?” asked Jalli.

“Me? Oh hundreds and hundreds. I've been at this bench for over a year.”

“Do you ever think what happens to them when they've left the factory?” asked Kakko.

“No idea. But Big Plo has a good sale for them. We can never make enough of them. His design team are coming up with even more clever things all the time.”

“Do you ever think of the people that they're dropped on?” persisted Kakko.

Estap stopped and looked her in the eye. “Do you and your mum want to live? Do you want to have food in your belly and a roof over your heads? If you had little kids you wouldn't think like that. You can't afford to.”

“Now your turn,” said Yknan. “Grab hold of a shell-casing… that's right. Slide it on the rails. Now begin with the nose assembly.”

“I'm not doing this!” hissed Kakko.

“Kakko. Just wait. Let's go with the flow for a bit and see what the Creator wants of us.”

“No! No way! I am NOT going to make a bomb with bits that kill loads of people for hours. I'm going home!” and she strode towards the plastic doors of the loading bay.

“Kakko!” called Jalli and she rushed after her, catching up with her just after she had passed the man with the newspaper. Kakko ignored his shouts and pushed open the plastic doors. Jalli followed.

Kakko looked to where the white gate had been but it was now behind a huge tower of crates.

“Damn!” she swore.

The man rushed in behind them. “What the hell do you think–” he began as he looked in the same direction as the women. “What in hell's name has been going on in here? Who's been moving this stuff around?”

Then Jalli noticed the wires. There were two red wires and two black ones emanating from underneath the pallet and leading towards the wall in which the white gate had stood.

“What are they?” demanded Jalli.

The man lay down on his stomach and looked under the pallet. “Bloody hell! They're wired to a detonator. Get the hell out of here! I've got to sound the alarm!”

They all three rushed back onto the shop floor. The man picked up a small phone-like contraption and yelled, “Sound the alarm. Get everyone out of here. There's a bloody bomb… I
know the place is full of bombs –
but not wired up to ruddy detonators! There's a detonator in Loading Bay One… How do I know? I've seen it! Just sound the bloody alarm! Let's get out of here!” he shouted to Jalli and Kakko who ran behind him to the exit he was clearly headed for. As they went they all screamed, “Get out! Get out! Now!”

“This is for real!” he yelled as he made for the door, but people were reluctant to move. They had been so intimidated after the last drill. Kakko turned and ran back to the women on the PSW bench. “This is NOT a drill. There's a detonator wired up in there,” she said pointing to the loading bay.

“Come on, Yknan,” shouted Estap, “let's go!” They dropped the bomblets they were counting out back in the box and ran. Then people began to react.

“Follow the drill!” yelled a man who turned out to be a union steward. “Follow the drill! You know what to do! Do NOT panic!” It worked. People began exiting the building through the allocated doors and channels.

Bang!
A door burst open behind Jalli. It was Big Plo and the senior management come down from the offices above.

“A detonator,” shouted Jalli, “in Loading Bay Number One.”

“Rubbish,” replied Big Plo. “Get back to work.”

“I strongly suggest,” said Jalli, “that you follow the evacuation procedures. This is NOT a drill.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“The question is, ‘Who do you think
you
are, being so stupid?' Now get out!” barked Jalli. “Now!”

Kakko turned to see Big Plo doing as he was told. He had not come across such a confident order from a diminutive woman before – certainly not on his own factory floor.

***

Ten minutes later everyone was outside the building in their muster stations and the allocated people were checking off their names.

“OK. Now you've had your fun!” said Big Plo, seeing Jalli with Yknan and Estap. “I want to know who you are and what you think you are playing at.” He called to one of his henchmen. “See that this woman doesn't go anywhere but my office… now how about everyone getting…” but Plokr Spraken III never got to finish his sentence.

Suddenly there was a huge explosion at the back of the building as Loading Bay One went up. Bits of shrapnel, building materials, dust and crate shot into the air amid the painful flash that transfixed the retinas of those who were unfortunate enough to be looking in that direction. Clouds of black and white smoke and a wide variety of debris billowed high above them and then began to fall on the rest of the building, the car park and the people. A piece of roofing smacked into the branches of a tree behind Kakko and Jalli.

“Open the gates!” shouted the union steward. The guards on the gates activated the electric pulley and the gates slid back. Everyone moved to push through. Jalli deliberately held onto her daughter, who, for some uncanny reason waited and didn't join the crush. Kakko was quick to move but she was also quick to sense danger. The fence around the gate and gatehouse began to bulge and then gave way. People left by whatever passage opened up and Jalli and Kakko were then borne up on a tide of people and deposited across the road outside the plant. They made for an area of wasteland with everyone else, just as another huge explosion ripped through the building – only this was five times the size of the first.

***

Back on Planet Joh, Matilda and Momori were helping each other hang out the washing. They had decided that now was a good time to muck out Kakko's room and had all her bedding washed. Matilda found it easier to lift the sheets with Momori's help. The day was beautiful, the soft breeze blew the sound of the birdsong from the woodland out the back of their cottage onto the peaceful garden. The men were all out about their business and Jalli and Kakko on another planet somewhere.

“I wonder what they are up to?” wondered Momori.

“Women's work for sure. No need for the men it seems.” Then Matilda stood still. “Momori. I… I can see a white gate!” she said with some alarm.

“Where?”

“In the same place where Jalli and Kakko left. Can
you
see it?”

“I can't say I can. Are you sure you're not imagining it?”

Matilda strode across the lawn, touched the gate and called. “There is no doubt about it.”

Momori joined her. “Not for me,” she stated.

“Do you think they need rescuing?”

“No point speculating. You'd better go.”

***

Matilda stepped through the gate just as the second explosion ripped through the factory. She was at least a kilometre away from it but she felt the blast hit her with a wall of air. People were running towards her. Matilda gasped and held on to her gate. People were rushing by her now. They were clearly anxious to get away. They suspected, rightly, that more explosions were on their way.

Then Matilda spotted Jalli and Kakko running hand-in-hand together over to her right.

“Jalli!” she called. Then, summoning up all her strength, surprised herself at the volume she managed, “Kaa-kkoo!”

Kakko thought she heard her name and looked across the waste-ground to her left. She saw the gate first and then her nan.

“Nan!” she yelled, pulling her mum round.

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Jalli and they both made a bee-line for Matilda and the gate. Jalli reached her mother-in-law. “I've never been so pleased to see you!”

“Come on! Get through!” But just as she said it, a third huge blast rocked the ground. They were out of reach of anything but hot air now though. The people around them continued to rush past. Kakko saw Yknan with Estap wobbling along behind her.

Jalli turned. “Yknan, Estap. Are you alright?”

“Never been better,” breathed Estap heavily. “We're safe here.”

“You've worked there years. What are you going to do?” asked Jalli.

“Now? Don't know. But we're free! I don't care what bloody Big Plo thinks. He don't own us no more. Something will turn up.”

“We should stop calling him Big Plo,” put in Yknan. “He's not big any more!”

They laughed like children. “What a smashing great, big bang!”

Then Estap stopped, “But we have to thank YOU! If you hadn't have come and got us to leave we'd have still been in there. You saved the whole ruddy lot of us.”

“How did you know it was going to blow? You're activists I bet!”

“No. Not us,” said Kakko. “We might have
wanted
to blow it all up but not with anyone in it! I just ran into the store room and… we saw the wires.”

“You were definitely in the right place at the right time. If you had waited another five minutes it would have been too late,” said Estap.

“Say that again!” said Kakko. “If I had
waited
…”

“…it would have been too late,” concluded Estap.

“Thanks,” said Kakko. “You mean we've saved hundreds of people!”

“Thousands!” exclaimed Yknan.

“Thank you,” said Jalli quickly. “Thank you for making us so welcome. We do pray that you will soon find something else to do though, some alternative employment.”

“I've already decided,” said Estap. “Me and my husband, we'll go down south. After this there'll be nothing here.”

“What about
you
and your blind husband?” asked Yknan.

“Oh, we'll manage back home. This is my mother-in-law who has come over to fetch us. She's got something lined up for us.”

“Great! Better be off. I want to get to a phone to call my family before they worry.”

“Good idea. Good luck! Bye.”

“Bye! And thanks again!” They walked on together through the drifting smoke.

“Let's get home!” said Jalli.

“And put the kettle on!” laughed Kakko.

***

Kakko was insufferable for a week. Apparently her impetuous defiance had saved millions (the number grew day by day). Jalli had to acknowledge that had she been more patient and heeded her mother they, and many others, would probably have died. But Momori quietly pointed out that if it had been Kakko's brusqueness that had saved the day, it had been Creator who had called her to be there. Without the white gate nothing would have happened to mitigate the situation. Credit should be given where credit was due. Kakko would have more friends if she had just a little humility. Bandi just listened to all this, and quietly learnt.

In the privacy of their own room Jack said they should be proud of their daughter. She might not be perfect but her heart was definitely in the right place. You had to admire her for taking a stand and not going along with something she didn't hold with. That takes a lot of guts. She put her principles before her personal safety and not many people would do that. And she was no fool either. The rest would follow, he felt, with a bit of maturity; she'd get over the inflated sense of herself. That might, he suggested, come from a degree of teenage insecurity. When she grew in confidence, her apparent lack of humility would decline.

“You mean the outward arrogance is a sign of self-doubt?” echoed Jalli.

BOOK: Ultimate Justice
8.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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