The sensible part of Mika knew it was madness to bait Ruben this way, but he had gone beyond the point where he could stop himself. The crackle of a fire in his head had become a roar and he watched the sinews in Ruben’s face and arms turn rigid and felt glad. Ruben lifted his foot to stamp on Mika’s chest but Mika rolled to the side, and the next few seconds were a blur of floor as Ruben threw himself on top of Mika and tried to hit him in the face. Mika saw red, literally, it was as if his eyes filled with blood as his anger and hatred haemorrhaged into them. He hit Ruben hard on the mouth and his lip split and blood dripped on to Mika’s face. Then Ruben put his hands round Mika’s throat and started to squeeze. Mika pulled his knee up and gave him a sharp jab in the stomach, thinking that would get him off, but it didn’t work, Ruben was still squeezing and his grip felt so strong it was as if his hands had turned to stone. Mika couldn’t breathe and his head felt hot and he began to feel dizzy. He pushed on the side of Ruben’s head, yanked at his uniform, tried to roll to the side to get him off, feeling increasingly panic stricken. Then a hellish fear gripped Mika. He could hear his mother crying, Ellie calling for him, and what he felt was beyond terror. He fought against Ruben with animal ferocity, the roar filling his head, then suddenly their eyes locked and he felt something powerful surge out of his. Ruben immediately screamed as if Mika had stabbed him in the eyes and he fell sideways on to the floor. Feet pounded down the hallway. Mika clutched his throat and sucked in air. A man held out his hand and pulled him up.
‘You OK?’ he asked, pulling Mika to his feet.
‘You psycho!’ Mika panted, glaring at Ruben, who was still lying on the floor. ‘You’ve got a serious problem!’
‘And you haven’t?’ Ruben sneered, without looking up. ‘Don’t pretend you’re so fragging perfect after what you just did.’
Mika saw a hygiene room across the hallway.
‘I want to wash,’ he told the man. He had Ruben’s blood on his face and he wanted to get it off.
‘OK. But don’t be long.’
Mika staggered into the hygiene room with the roar still filling his head. He washed his hands and splashed his face and tried to calm down. He turned to see Awen cowering in the far corner with his ears back and the tip of his tail wagging nervously against the wall.
‘Come here,’ Mika called softly, crouching down and putting out his hand. But the dog backed further away with his tail between his legs and the fearful whites of his eyes showing. ‘Come, Awen,’ Mika pleaded. ‘Please.’ But Awen turned and disappeared into the wall and Mika leaned against it and cried with shame.
The smoke cleared, a new ball was found, and half an hour later Mika had to sit opposite Ruben again and pretend nothing had happened. It wasn’t easy; in the middle of the table was a hole where the first ball had melted through it and Ruben was looking at him as if he still wanted to strangle him.
For Ellie, Mika thought, breathing deeply. You’re doing this for Ellie.
39
A FIRE CATCHING
The last time Puck had been away from the Queen of the North, he was shot down in a Pod Fighter, almost drowned at the bottom of the river and locked in a coffin for several hours before finding himself back on the spaceship with only his plastic tree for company. From his point of view the whole experience had been utterly pointless torture, so it was understandable that when his carrier was loaded on to the space freighter, he spent the whole journey screeching his head off with fear. He was in the cargo hold so he couldn’t even see or smell Ellie – he was all alone and utterly distraught.
Ellie went to see him as soon as they arrived at Cape Wrath with her breakfast in her pocket and the man with the gun behind her. But to her dismay, she found Puck already had a visitor and not one he wanted; Gorman was there waving a banana at the monkey through the glass wall at the front of his new enclosure and Puck was sitting in the far corner, ignoring him.
‘That creature is spoilt,’ Gorman sneered, handing Ellie the banana.
‘He probably doesn’t feel very hungry,’ Ellie snapped. ‘How would you like it if you’d been taken away from home without any explanation and left on your own in a strange place?’
‘He’s got a bigger room,’ Gorman said. ‘What’s wrong with him? A lot of refugee families would be happy to have that much space.’
‘If he was with his family,’ Ellie said, ‘he would be happy.’
‘Don’t start that again,’ Gorman said impatiently. ‘I came to see how you’re settling in, and I’m very busy, so be polite.’
‘Lucky me,’ muttered Ellie, opening Puck’s door. He leaped into her arms and clung to her. ‘Hello,’ she whispered, fussing his head. ‘Do you want to play a game?’
She looked around his new space. The glass wall let in plenty of light and the room was much larger than his old one, much better for games, Ellie realized, because she wouldn’t have to crawl under the plastic tree to play with him. The new tree had its trunk in the right-hand corner of the room and its white branches spread across the roof and over the walls, so the middle area was unobstructed. She gave Puck her breakfast muffin, which had nuts on the top, then she took a bag of letter tiles out of her pocket. Gorman sat down and watched them through the glass wall and the man with the gun stood next to him.
‘Just ignore them,’ Ellie whispered to Puck.
She had a question she wanted to ask and it felt like a stone in her stomach. Mika was in Cape Wrath, she could feel him and she wanted to know why, but she was scared to hear the answer. Puck realized something was wrong and he put the muffin on her lap after only one half-hearted bite and this made her feel even more wretched. She had to ask about Mika, if not for herself, then for Puck.
‘My brother’s here,’ she said quietly.
‘Yes,’ Gorman replied, after a surprised pause.
‘Can I see him?’ she asked, her eyes welling up with tears.
‘No,’ replied Gorman. ‘He’s busy.’
‘What is he doing?’ she asked. ‘Why is he here?’
‘Damn you!’ he said, impatiently. ‘Why do you ask so many annoying questions? Haven’t you learned anything? You should know by now it doesn’t pay to irritate me. Now shut up!’
She got up and walked towards him until they were facing each other through the glass.
‘I want to know what’s happening to my brother,’ she persisted, glaring at him with bold dark eyes. ‘Tell me.’
‘No,’ he replied, trying not to flinch. ‘Don’t push me, Ellie, or you’ll regret it.’
For a few seconds she felt like she wanted to kill him. She wanted to melt every bone in his dried-up body and the roar filled her head quickly, like a fire catching in a field during a drought. It was the second time she had faced Mal Gorman feeling this way, but this time she knew what she could do and how easy it would be. But the man with the gun stood next to Gorman with his fingers tense on the trigger. He would shoot her without hesitation, or even worse, Puck. Besides, she didn’t want to kill, never, not even this evil man. Ellie turned away from him and closed her eyes and breathed deeply until the roar subsided. Then, feeling calmer, she sat on the floor.
‘Come on, let’s play,’ she said to Puck. He sat up on his haunches and looked expectantly at the bag of letter tiles she held in her hand. This was his favourite game. She shook them out in a heap on the floor and spread them around with her hand so he could see the letters on each one. The tiles were white and the letters were black. She took a deep breath and Puck watched her face, his fuzzy eyebrows twitching impatiently. She concentrated and thought of the letter T and a few seconds later Puck picked it up with a small black hand, moved a short distance away and put it on the floor. Then he scampered back and waited to see if he was right.
‘Good,’ Ellie said. ‘Well done.’
She was quiet again and the game was repeated. Puck searched with his eyes over the letters and picked up an H. Gorman watched, feeling frustrated and intrigued. After more than a year of experiments
, his scientists still couldn’t explain how Ellie communicated with the monkey. The words formed a sentence in a spiral around her as Puck ran backwards and forwards, making happy noises as he worked. Ellie sat quietly, her legs crossed and her eyes burning with concentration.
When they had finished, Gorman stood up and read what they had written.
‘The bark of the elder makes whistles for the children
To call to the deer as they rove over the snow.
‘I was born in the dark,’ says the Green Man,
‘I was born in the dark,’ says he.
‘Where did that come from?’ Gorman asked uneasily.
‘It’s a verse from a poem,’ Ellie replied. ‘From the book you gave me.’
‘I gave you?’ he repeated.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘When you took the bandages off my eyes.’
He thought for a moment and remembered. ‘Oh yes,’ he muttered. ‘So I did.’ He turned and Ellie watched him walk away, knowing her brother’s fate was in the hands of a volatile and unpredictable man.
40
A PARCHED MAN IN THE DESERT
After an entire day of moving stuff with their eyes while people stared at them and scribbled on tablets, the twelve finalists of the competition were given a special treat. It was a rare clear night, so they were taken to a room at the top of Cape Wrath to watch the aurora borealis, the northern lights. The room was large and empty with a glass wall overlooking the North Sea. There was food on a table behind them but everyone except Ruben picked at it with little appetite, feeling anxious and wary. They had all sensed something when Ellie and Puck arrived, as if the empty fortress was filling up with pain.
The light of the aurora borealis looked like coloured silks wafting in the darkening sky and Mika thought of his mother on the beach with the breeze licking the folds of her holiday sari. He watched, wondering if he was imagining the silken lights and the moon-tipped waves. The barrier in his mind between dreams and reality had been dissolving for weeks, but since his fight with Ruben earlier that day, he felt as if it was about to disappear altogether. Ellie was so close and he felt like a parched man in a desert.
When he managed to sleep, he dreamed the black water of Barford North was rising, and as each floor was flushed out by the tide, tatty old sofas floated out the windows and he could hear people crying.
He didn’t feel better when he awoke. He opened his eyes, instantly fearful. It wasn’t yet morning, and in the darkness he saw two discs of silvery light: wolf eyes. At first, he thought he was still dreaming, then someone whispered, ‘Are you awake?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied.
‘Mika, I want to go home!’
It was Audrey. He reached out and touched her hand to be sure and it felt warm and solid. Yes, it was real, daytime Audrey, sitting on the end of his bed in the darkness, and the reflective retinas of her borg eyes were all he could see of her.
‘What are you doing?’ he whispered, glancing anxiously at the camera on the wall. ‘You might get in trouble.’
‘I had a nightmare,’ she whispered. ‘I was scared.’
‘Come here,’ he said, and she shuffled along the bed so he could hug her in the darkness. Awen appeared and put his head on her lap, and although only Mika could see him, the three friends comforted each other.
‘Thanks,’ Audrey whispered, pulling away when she felt better.
‘That’s OK. Go get some sleep.’
The chink of light in the door expanded and contracted as she went through.
‘Night, night,’ she whispered.
‘Sweet dreams.’
41
IF THEY SMELL FEAR
On Sunday morning, Cape Wrath was blasted by gale force winds and the sea and the sky touched. Centuries ago such menacing conditions would have sunk a score of ships and plucked planes clean out of the sky, but Cape Wrath had survived millions of years of such treachery and the howling wind and monstrous waves were hardly noticed by those inside. All night, freighters stacked up and dropped down to lay their cargo like eggs in the fortress and its empty chambers had been filling up with people and equipment. The curving corridors now clattered with footsteps and one by one, the lights flicked on as if many eyes were opening. Cape Wrath was waking up.
As Mika washed with the other boys, he tried not to look at himself in the mirror. He had a ring of bruises around his neck where Ruben had tried to strangle him, and on the way out of the hygiene room Ruben blocked Mika’s path.
‘Watch it,’ Ruben snarled, as Mika bumped into his shoulder.
‘Get out of my way,’ Mika said, pushing past him.
Mika ventured from his room for breakfast and joined Audrey and Leo at one of the curvy white tables. They ate quietly from ration trays. A girl stood in front of the television, brushing her hair. A boy sprawled on one of the sofas, reading something on his companion. In their new uniforms they looked as if they belonged in the place. Mika struggled to eat, his throat hurt.
‘You look as if you had fun yesterday,’ Leo commented, looking at Mika’s bruises.
‘Yeah, Ruben is a laugh a minute,’ Mika replied, sarcastically.
‘I don’t trust him,’ Leo said, quietly. ‘There’s something wrong with him.’
After breakfast, they were told they had only one more test to do before the competition winners were chosen. Sick with nerves one by one they were taken below ground to the lowest level of the fortress, where they walked through low corridors of barely lit, unpainted concrete. When it was Mika’s turn he realized the moment he got out of the lift that he was moving towards Ellie. Their guide walked quickly ahead and Mika followed, feeling the urge to open every door they passed to look for her. Then they entered a maximum security area and Mika paused, feeling as though Ellie was so close to him he could reach through the floor or ceiling and touch her. Awen appeared briefly and wagged his tail and snuffled at the wall to the left, then he walked through it and was gone.
There! Mika felt a surge of happiness, as if a thousand flowers had bloomed in his heart, and he put his hands on the wall.
On the other side, Ellie was sitting in Puck’s new enclosure with the monkey on her knee. She had stroked him until his eyelids drooped and he swayed, almost falling asleep where he sat in her lap. She had her head leaned against the wall and she was wondering how she could feel so bored and frightened at the same time, the two emotions didn’t seem compatible, like lemon juice and milk, but that’s how she felt waiting to find out what Gorman was doing to her brother. Then she sensed him.
Mika!
She held her breath and her heart began to beat in sore punches. He was close! Very close! Puck’s eyes flashed open as if someone had prodded him with a stick. He stood on his back legs with his curled tail twitching and looked towards the wall at the back of the room. They both saw the dog, but only for a split second, a skinny creamy dog which walked through the wall with its tail wagging as if it was pleased to see them. Puck scampered towards it, but it vanished before they met and he jumped up and across one of the branches of the white plastic tree instead. Mika was there on the other side of the wall! Puck ran to and fro along the branch and Ellie jumped up and put her hands on it, her heart swelling with love and pain.
Mika.
She pressed her body against it, trying to get as close to him as possible.
Ellie.
He was smiling, she could feel it.
‘What are you doing?’ asked a cold voice.
Ellie turned to see the man with the gun watching her suspiciously through the glass.
‘Nothing,’ she said. She took her hands away from the wall and turned her back to it.
‘Why were you leaning on the wall?’ he asked.
‘I was just playing with Puck,’ she replied.
‘Let’s go,’ the man said.
‘No!’ said Ellie. ‘Please let me stay a bit longer.’
He shook his head. He didn’t like the way Ellie and the monkey behave
d sometimes, he didn’t understand it and it frightened him. ‘Come on. Now.’
* * *
The twins were led away in opposite directions and felt fresh pain where they tore. Mika walked blindly through the concrete labyrinth and suddenly found himself standing on the edge of a pit in a large, poorly lit room. He felt shocked, as if he’d woken up whilst sleepwalking. He’d completely forgotten about the competition, all his thoughts and feelings were still in that stretch of corridor with his sister and he realized he needed to drag himself into the present or he was in trouble.
The pit was five metres square, lined with battered metal plates and looked as if it had been built to restrain a velociraptor, maybe several very angry velociraptors – the grids over the lights were warped and bent and the floor was cracked in several places. There was a large steel door leading into the pit, maybe three metres tall, and it was so badly dented, it looked as if a bomb had exploded on the other side. Two men appeared wearing black body armour and helmets and the man who had come with Mika left quickly, as if he wanted to get away from the pit as quickly as possible. Mika looked up to see four cameras pointed into the pit, and to his right, there was a man-size cage on a chain. There was a long gash in the ceiling above it, so the cage could be moved and dropped down into the pit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was about to happen to him.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Mika asked, trying to control the terror that was melting his brain.
‘Stay calm,’ one of the men advised. ‘That’s the most important thing. If they smell fear, it will make them worse.’
‘If what smell fear?’ Mika asked, looking down into the pit. He heard something heavy throw itself against the door and he gulped as another big dent appeared in the thick metal. Whatever was behind that door was desperate to get out. The man took a blindfold out of his pocket and Mika cursed under his breath as it was tied around his head.