‘Stop it,’ Mika whispered, impatiently. ‘Get off.’ But Awen wouldn’t let go and Mika had to push him aside to get out of the lift. ‘Stay,’ he whispered, feeling completely mad because he was giving commands to an invisible dog. But Awen ignored him and Mika could hear the tap of the dog’s claws on the floor as he walked towards Helen’s apartment.
He was surprised to find the door open and a figure standing inside. Hearing male voices he leaned against the wall just out of sight and listened. Where was Helen, and why were there men in her apartment? He heard a flump as something hit the floor and realized it was one of her books being knocked from the shelves. He felt a wave of protective anger. Helen’s books were her friends, ‘the kind you invite for dinner in the middle of winter,’ she’d told him, ‘and spend all night talking and never go to bed’. He heard another book hit the floor and edged closer to the door so he could see in. The apartment was messy; an odd-looking jumble of clothes hung out of the drawers, and there was an assortment of wild-looking sun hats and sunglasses on the table and a litter of bags on the floor. Helen had obviously packed and left in a hurry.
The men were wearing black suits and white shirts and had a skinny, flint-eyed look about them, and as they searched through Helen’s things they reminded Mika of magpies. Then Mika noticed a gun on the kitchen work surface next to the teapot; a big black gun. He ducked out of sight and held his breath. Awen tugged desperately at his leg, urging him to leave, and this time he obeyed the dog and turned and ran as quickly as he could towards the staircase, not wanting to risk the lift because the door would make a noise. Then, no longer able to control his panic, he ran down the stairs.
Where had she gone? Had she left because she wanted to or because she was in danger? In his heart he knew the truth and he ran down the stairs consumed by guilt, sure that Helen’s departure and the horrible Magpie Men with their guns had something to do with him.
12
FIT CAMP IS FUN!
Mika tried not to think about what the Fit Mix was doing to him, but after a few weeks of drinking it he could no longer deny that his body was changing. He was growing so fast his feet had split the sides of his new sneakers, his T-shirts looked as though they’d shrunk in the wash and his jeans were displaying an unfashionable strip of hairy ankle.
‘Come here a moment,’ Asha said, as Mika rushed past her from the shower.
‘Why?’ Mika asked suspiciously, clutching his towel to his chest. He didn’t want his parents to notice he was growing and start asking awkward questions, but it had become impossible to hide.
‘Stand against the wall,’ she said. ‘I want to measure you.’
‘Can’t we do it later?’ Mika said. ‘I’ll be late for school.’
‘It’ll only take a second,’ his mother insisted. ‘I swear you’ve grown another two centimetres since last week. You banged your head again as you came out of the shower.’
‘OK,’ Mika said reluctantly. He stood against the wall at the side of the television and she was quiet and chewed her bottom lip while she made the mark over his head.
‘You have as well!’ Asha exclaimed. ‘That can’t be normal.’
Mika turned and looked at the new mark she’d made on the wall. Beneath it were many more marks made since Ellie and he had learned to walk eleven years before, each one with a date beside it. Ellie’s marks finished a long way below his, and he felt a pang as he looked at the last; he’d grown loads since she’d disappeared.
While he was getting dressed, Asha read the mailing she’d been sent by the school about the Fit Mix. Rapid growth wasn’t listed under the heading Abnormal side effects. Instead it was under the heading Health benefits.
‘Mmm,’ she mused, standing in the bedroom door way, watching Mika ram his feet into his sneakers. ‘You do look healthier, I suppose, and you don’t have those black rings under your eyes any more, and your skin’s not so pale.’
She didn’t sound entirely convinced.
Mika muttered something and left for school. He was feeling more uncomfortable by the day about going along with the Fit For Life programme. Now Helen had disappeared he had nobody to talk to about it or reassure him that he was doing the right thing. Weeks had passed since he’d started drinking the Fit Mix. He’d kept his mouth shut and done what he was told, but he still knew nothing about where Ellie was and why he’d seen a Telly Head in his classroom, and the pressure to keep going along with it all without saying anything was almost too much to bear. Every day he arrived in his classroom to see smiling children drinking Fit Mix on the screen of his workstation, with the message You are the future! Drink up your Fit Mix! written underneath, and every day it got harder to drink it; it was as if his body was staging its own rebellion.
‘You look a bit green, Mika,’ Mrs Fowler said. ‘Are you feeling all right?’
‘Yes thanks,’ Mika replied, trying to stop gagging all over the desk.
But drinking the Fit Mix and almost vomiting every morning was entertainment compared to Fit Camp. Two weeks after Fit Mix started, Mika arrived in school to see Fit Camp is Fun! written across his screen. They all got free sandwiches again that day, and a packet of sweets to take home with them, and everyone assumed it would be like normal sports lessons, just longer. They figured they’d run around for half an hour or so every afternoon, climb a couple of ropes, then go home. How wrong they were. How very wrong.
When Mrs Fowler told them to change into their new YDF sports kit, everyone moaned that it wasn’t cool and asked if they could wear their own stuff, and Mrs Fowler said, ‘Shut up and get dressed,’ so they did, grumbling and giggling. Kobi looked the most ridiculous in the new kit because he was so long and bony. His skin looked almost blue from a childhood of light deprivation in The Shadows.
The first surprise they got was when they were told they would not be transported to the leisure centre as they were expecting (it was several kilometres away), they would have to run along the walkways, and since the only running any of them had done recently was up the red walkway in the arcade to get to an empty Pod Fighter simulator, they were half dead by the time they got there, lungs splitting, dripping with sweat and feet covered in blisters. But that was only the start of it.
Their instructor, Mr Blyte, was short and bald with big feet. When he stood next to Kobi, who was taller than the rest of them, the new instructor looked like a hairless gnome. Mika thought this was funny until the man opened his mouth to speak – then everyone shut up and started quivering, even Ruben. Mr Blyte rasped menacingly, as if he had liquid nitrogen for innards.
‘Right,’ said Mr Blyte, frogmarching back and forth in front of them, swinging his stopwatch, his feet flapping and his eyes ripping them apart. ‘Let’s see what you’re made of.’
He made them run up and down the basketball court until Roland, the Spelling Bee champion, was crawling on his hands and knees. Then they lifted weights in the gymnasium until their arms felt so weak they hung like boneless jelly at their sides. Then they were put on a line of bikes and cycled up a virtual Mount Everest, blinking away tears of pain.
‘Faster,’ Mr Blyte snarled, the veins on his bald head throbbing like worms. ‘Faster!’
At the end of the session, which lasted three hours, they had to run back to school. Most of Mika’s classmates crawled, dribbling on the concrete.
‘This is outrageous!’ Asha gasped, when Mika hobbled through the door and she watched him try to undress for a shower. He was so stiff, he couldn’t bend down to take off his sneakers and she had to do it for him. He sat on the sofa wincing while she peeled his socks off. They were soaked with sweat and blood and his feet looked as if he’d contracted bubble disease.
‘Chrise,’ said Asha. ‘Your feet are bleeding! Look at all these blisters! I don’t think you should go to the arcade tonight, you need to rest.’
Mika looked up at her, his eyes burning.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’ll be fine in a minute.’
&nb
sp; ‘No, you won’t!’ Asha insisted. ‘You need to rest!’
‘But I’ve been looking forward to playing Pod Fighter all day,’ Mika snapped. ‘It’s what got me home.’
Asha turned to David for support, ‘What do you think?’ she asked.
David shrugged and grinned, mixing Fab mash for their tea in a bowl. He was pleased to see Mika taking an interest in something normal like all the other kids. ‘Let him go,’ he said. ‘If he can get there.’
‘Thanks, Dad,’ Mika replied.
It was going to take a lot more than bleeding feet to keep Mika away from the arcade.
13
TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY
Mika couldn’t understand why nobody else seemed to notice that the arcade felt cold and the staff never smiled. It was as if the YDF put something in the drinks that got rid of common sense. No one seemed to see the mirrors above the shops and the restaurants and on the dark walls of the game room, but Mika saw them. He sensed people behind them, lots of people, watching. What did a bunch of twelve-year-olds have to offer these hidden strangers? The thought of them scared him, but he pretended to see nothing like everyone else.
Just play the game, keep your eyes down and your mouth shut.
He went to the arcade every night, and as the weeks passed it was busier than ever, as if addiction to the place had spread like a virus. The Fabshake makers ran dry, the burger flippers ran out of buns, and most of the crowd wore Pod Fighter T-shirts in a variety of colours and styles.
Everyone knew who Mika was after his first night in the arcade. Everybody wanted to know the black-eyed boy who’d walked in after a week and beaten them all, and for the first few days, he pushed through the crowd beneath the screen displaying the scores and left, not wanting to face them. But he soon discovered that apart from Ruben, who hated his guts more than ever, they were being friendly, they were curious, even respectful. There was no hidden, sadistic agenda, though maybe a tinge of jealousy, which was understandable, but Mika countered this by sharing his knowledge with them. After all, his objective for playing the game was different to theirs, so it was easy to be generous with his help. He didn’t care about being the best; he just wanted to find his sister.
Six weeks after the arcade opened, he walked in with Kobi one Monday night, to find several hundred children standing silently in the middle of the mall, staring up at the screen over the game room doors.
‘Weird,’ Kobi said, burying his hands in the pockets of his long black coat. ‘Look at them all.’
They seemed hypnotized, unblinking, the darkness of space and twinkling stars on the screen reflected in their eyes.
‘Have you ever wanted to do this . . .’ a low cinema voice rumbled, and an image of a Pod Fighter suddenly appeared, skimming over the sea, ‘. . . for real?’ The Pod Fighter shot up into the sky and belted towards a pale full moon. ‘The Youth Development Foundation would like to announce the launch of a competition with prizes beyond your wildest dreams! Win a new generation phone companion! Win a holiday for your family! Win a top-of-the-range hover car and a home in the fabulous Golden Turrets of London! And best of all, get to fly a real Pod Fighter! All this can be yours if you’ve got what it takes to win. You’ve played the game for fun, now play it for prizes. The competition is open to all twelve- and thirteen-year-olds. Entries must be submitted by the end of February. Terms and conditions apply . . .’
Mika watched images of exotic holiday destinations and Pod Fighters flash across the screen and felt his heart fill with hope and fear. Helen had told him to trust his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that this was what he’d been waiting for; that this was the path to Ellie. He glanced up at the row of mirrors above the shops and restaurants and sensed the strangers watching as the crowd erupted around him, and while everyone started to push and talk loudly, he felt a cold chill. He noticed Kobi’s eyes follow his up to the mirrors and Mika looked away.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Kobi said, as someone shoved into him. ‘Everyone’s going to be even more bonkers than ever now.’
They entered the game room and joined a group of friends standing around the feet of the simulators in the darkness. A girl called Maddie approached them. Mika had flown with her a few times – she was a good gunner.
‘Isn’t it amazing!’ she cried, grabbing Mika by the arm. ‘Imagine if we won and got to fly a real Pod Fighter! Who are you flying with? I’ve read the terms and conditions and we have to compete in pairs.’
‘I don’t know,’ Mika said, looking around. He knew he would-n’t team up with Kobi because they both preferred to fly, and he was aware he must choose carefully.
Maddie’s face fell. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re thinking about someone else,’ she said.
There was an awkward pause. Even though she was a good gunner, Mika didn’t want to fly with her.
‘I’m not sure, Maddie,’ he said, feeling mean. ‘I haven’t had a chance to think about it. I’ll let you know.’
In the next few minutes several other people asked him and each time he said ‘No’. Kobi teamed up with a boy called Tom. They looked an odd pair, Tom as if his mother scrubbed him in Ultra Supa White and Kobi as if he slept in a skip, but they flew brilliantly together.
‘You’d better choose someone soon,’ Kobi said. ‘Or all the good gunners will be taken. Why don’t you fly with Maddie? She is good.’
‘I might,’ Mika said, but he didn’t want to. He felt as if he was waiting for someone, and when a girl walked up the red walkway talking into her phone companion, all sounds around him faded and he knew instantly that she was the one. She looked like a fairy; a punk fairy; her body slight and delicate, her jeans ripped at the knees. She had pretty hands and ears, and spiky red hair that framed her elfin face perfectly. She had Irish and Russian blood that gave her eyes shaped like almonds and cheekbones that looked carved from flawless stone. She was beautiful, Mika thought; he had never seen anyone like her. She glanced towards him and her eyes glowed in the darkness as if they were irradiated. He half raised his hand to wave, to beckon her over, then stopped, realizing how dumb that would seem – he didn’t even know her. Kobi offered him a sip of his drink and he poured it down his front.
‘Dammit,’ cursed Mika, rubbing the wet patch on his T-shirt and watching the girl slide her phone companion into her back pocket. He stepped forward, hardly aware he was doing it, and so did one of the girls.
‘Hey, Audrey!’ she shouted, and the strange girl looked towards them and then walked over. ‘Meet Audrey, everyone, she’s just moved here. This is her first night.’
She was spooky as her glowing green eyes cast over them, contrasting so vividly with her punky red hair. Her appearance shocked everyone into silence, and soon the sharp pale form of Ruben was drawn out of the darkness to appraise her.
‘Your eyes are weird,’ he said.
‘They’re borg eyes,’ she replied. ‘I was born with empty sockets.’
‘Oh,’ Ruben said, taking a step closer.
Get away, Mika thought, bristling with anger. Ruben began to circle the new girl like a predator around its prey and Mika burned with jealousy.
‘Like wolf eyes,’ Ruben continued, staring at her. ‘Reflective on your retinas.’
‘Yes,’ she replied. Her voice was husky, with the trace of a Russian accent. She didn’t seem to mind being stared at. Everyone was staring and Mika supposed she was used to it. She was worth staring at.
‘Wolves could see in the dark,’ Ruben said. ‘Can you?’
‘Better than you,’ she replied. ‘It’s my payback for being blind for six years.’
‘Cool,’ he said, and Mika felt the urge to stick his fingers down his throat. Ruben’s sickly flattery was worse than his snide insults and it annoyed Mika that he wasn’t teasing the new girl for being a mutant just because she was pretty.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked him, her smile illuminating the space around her.
‘Ruben,’ he
replied.
‘Hi, Ruben.’
She looked around at the rest of them. At Kobi in his ragged clothes and scruffy hair, then at Mika, her glowing eyes boring into his as if she could see inside his head. It was intense, and he enjoyed it for a moment, but after a few seconds, he felt overwhelmed and had to look away.
‘Hi,’ he muttered.
The next few minutes were agony. Now other people were talking to Audrey and she was laughing with them.
She’s going to think I don’t like her, he thought. You fool. I’m going to lose her if I don’t do something, and Ruben will get her.
He watched helplessly as Ruben continued to talk to her.
‘What do you do?’ Ruben asked, as if he was in charge.
‘I’m a gunner,’ she said.
‘You any good?’ he continued, his sharp eyes darting all over her face. ‘I haven’t got a partner yet.’
‘I’m OK,’ she replied. ‘We should fly together and see.’
No. She can’t fly with him! Mika thought. He had to do something fast. He stepped forward.
‘I’m looking for a gunner too,’ he blurted out, ‘why don’t you fly with me?’
Ruben shot Mika a look like a flurry of poison darts. Audrey smiled at Mika and he thought he detected a hint of relief in her eyes.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Why not.’
They grinned at each other and Mika felt his face redden.
‘What?’ Ruben sneered. ‘Mika Smith is a perp! You don’t want to fly with him! You want to fly with someone who knows what they’re doing!’
Audrey’s eyes flashed.
‘Don’t listen to him,’ Mika said coldly, staring Ruben down.
Ruben’s pale hands made fists and Mika glared at him.