Star of Hope Page 5

  ‘Why Black Rock?’ I asked Pa. ‘How do you know you’ll be safe?’

  We were in the big top tent. Scud had his fat history book laid out in front of them. Apparently Scud had written it years ago, before the Purists purged the ethnos, before the Separation of the Classes into Privileged and native. Before Scud was locked up in Black Rock. I still couldn’t quite believe Scud chose to go back. Every now and then he looked up and grinned at me. I wondered at his mind’s stability. Should I be trusting Pa into his care?

  Pa sat back, he rubbed his thighs, he smiled but there was a grimace of pain, like a thread tugging one corner of his mouth and he couldn’t quite hide it.

  ‘There is an infirmary there.’

  ‘Yes, but no one there to heal you. Harkin can go with you. She’s looked after you well here.’

  ‘Harkin can’t leave here, and I’m not going to ask her to.’

  ‘Why don’t you go to that souterrain community, where they make the cloth? They helped Scud.’

  Pa shook his head. ‘We can have a healer sent from Freedom. The Blue Pearl have collected excellent healers. And as to safety, remember I told you I’d been there before.’ I nodded. ‘It used to be a Military base, before housing political prisoners.’

  I remembered. That night on the beach, the day after my birthday. Before everything changed. Was that only a year ago? Pa had pointed out Black Rock to me then.

  ‘Below the cell where you slept there’s another installation. A bunker installed by the generals of the Purist regime.’

  ‘Won’t they reclaim it when the Purists regain power?’

  ‘The Purists aren’t going to regain power. That’s what we’ll prevent. Anyway, those generals have been displaced. I doubt anyone in the current regime knows of its existence. And they didn’t find it after the prison escape, when the Military sent a small team out to clean and clear it.’

  ‘They didn’t clean my cell.’ I remember the obsolete computer Scud had tried to tutor me on still lay abandoned.

  ‘Who could blame them,’ Scud quipped. ‘A pure tip it was.’

  ‘Maybe they had a mind to turn it into a museum or reinstate it as a prison,’ Pa said.

  ‘It would make a good museum,’ Scud agreed.

  ‘Look, Sorlie, the point is everyone believes the Military is an all-powerful machine but the truth is it’s a shambles in Esperaneo Lesser. It’s been left to fend for itself by the State. Esperaneo Major can’t be bothered with us. So I doubt if they’ll use Black Rock again. And if they do come, we’ll have plenty warning.’

  ‘Why can’t you go to Freedom?’

  ‘That’s still Vanora’s kingdom. She hasn’t quite forgiven me for taking her army. She’ll come round but in the meantime I’ll stay out of her way.’

  ‘What about me, what about Reinya?’

  ‘You have your orders.’

  As if on cue Reinya walked into the tent. It was only a few weeks since Kooki’s stillbirth; physically, she seemed to have recovered, but her gnawed fingernails and forced cheerfulness told another story. She was dressed in loose work clothes, her hair tied up, her cheeks pink. She took the drink a special handed her and came to join us.

  ‘Uh’ve just been for mu usual run along the beach.’

  Scud beamed at her. He and his granddaughter seemed to have a love-hate relationship and this week it was good. Just before Kooki was born they had been hurling insults at each other.

  She looked at Pa. ‘So when do we fight?’

  ‘We don’t fight if we can help it, Reinya. I told you yesterday, we wait for word from Jacques’ Noiri operations. Dawdle should be back any day to escort you on your mission.’

  ‘At last,’ I said. ‘We’ve been kicking our heels for aeons.’

  ‘Yes. Well some things can’t be rushed. You better make the most of your time here.’

  Harkin had stayed elusive since Kooki’s birth. I found her in the infirmary tent reading a big tattered book that lay open in front of her.

  She hadn’t heard me come in so I watched for a while. It was so peaceful in here. Her hair had grown since the last time I saw her. It sprang from her head like she’d been caught up in a mad experiment gone wrong. She had tried to tame it with colourful bands but clumps escaped like stuffing from a mattress waiting for mending.

  She stopped reading and stared at the tent wall for a few nanos. She frowned, nodded then blinked.

  ‘You can come in if you like,’ she said to the wall before turning.

  ‘Thanks for looking after Pa.’

  She nodded again, ‘It’s what I do.’

  ‘You once told me the healer was visiting the northern reservation but he never came back.’

  ‘He was taken by a rogue community and decided to stay and help. I’m the only healer here.’

  ‘Is that why you can’t leave?’

  ‘You know why I can’t leave, why all the specials and second gen can’t leave.’

  ‘Because the radiation withdrawal will make you sick?’

  She nodded.

  ‘But you know that’s not true, that’s only in your head, Con said so. It isn’t physiological. Anyway you do leave. You followed us to the tower.’

  ‘That was only for a short while. No, I cannot leave.’

  ‘I need you to go with Pa.’

  She put her head down, chin to chest. ‘I can’t leave. Ever.’

  I moved to take her hand but she shrank from me and my hand was left hanging mid-air. ‘Please, I’m begging you. He needs you.’

  An expression passed across her face . She put her hand up and touched my lips with one finger. A heat whooshed through me.

  ‘I care for the specials. They need me. You and your Pa do not need me. There are plenty out there can do my job.’

  ‘What about me?’ Jupes, the shit whiney voice was back, where’d that come from? A burn in my thrapple blocked my next words.

  Her chin lifted and she held my gaze. ‘You will always be OK, you have kin who love you. I saw your address to the people. Everyone is talking about it – about you. No-one else has given them hope before.’

  ‘I doubt that. What about The Prince? When I arrived here everyone was whispering about him.’

  ‘But he was only a myth, you are real. Sorlie, you might not realise this but your Pa has passed this fight to you.’

  She took my hand then and traced my lifeline. The touch of her finger sparked a sensation in me so strong I had to sit down to hide.

  ‘Look,’ she said. ’Look how long your lifeline is. You are strong, brave. You will do as your father wishes and be a great warrior. Believe in yourself, Sorlie.’

  ‘I don’t want to be a warrior.’

  That seemed to be my new mantra, but even as the words left my mouth they fell lame. This is not what I told Ishbel when she had doubts and wanted to return to Freedom. Our fate had been chosen for us and I must fight this fight to the end.

  ‘I’ll be leaving with Reinya as soon as Dawdle arrives.’

  I wanted a reaction but all she said was, ‘We should say goodbye then.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I will be fine, this is my home.’ She smiled then. ‘And remember you can always come back to Steadie.’

  ‘I will always remember you.’

  ‘And I you, Sorlie.’

  I hugged her tight, I moved to kiss her lips but she turned from me.

  ‘Memories are the one thing the State cannot take from you.’

  ‘What?’ I grabbed her shoulders, she looked confused but I didn’t care. ‘That was my mother’s mantra, and her father’s before. Where did you hear it?’

  Her faced flushed. ‘You’re hurting me.’

  ‘I asked you, where?’

  ‘I picked it up somewhere.’ She paused and bit her lip.


  ‘Where?’

  She stared at me, then nodded as if making a pact with herself. ‘From you. When you were ill. I stayed with you. Many nights.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘Many...’ Her face darkened with embarrassment. ‘You repeated it over and over. It is a good mantra.’

  She stepped forward and kissed me full on the lips. She tasted of the mint she grew in her herb garden, cool and tingly. I placed my hand around her back and tried to hold her close.

  ‘Go now,’ she whispered. And with one hand placed on my chest she pushed me away. I could hear Con hailing me from outside.

  ‘Sorlie, come, we must leave before it gets light and your Pa wants to see you before we go.’

  Harkin turned and sat back to her reading.

  As I left the tent, I touched my hand to the lips she had kissed; from where I had held the small of her back came the faint smell of lavender. The smell of my mother, the smell of Vanora.

  Three women and two men were our transformation team. The women were Privileged and the men native but they worked as a unit, quite extraordinary. The senior woman, Eloise, was to rig Reinya and me with travel clothes. It would be a relief to shed the scratchy, strangling uniform. Since Reinya’s rescue from the prison ship she’d worn a mishmash of castoffs. Her latest garb was the drab red uniform of a field native. I laughed when I saw what Eloise produced. I was given the uniform of a military cadet and Reinya the green of a domestic native. When Reinya saw the combo she threw me a spectacular look.

  ‘I think our roles have been clearly laid out.’ I said with a laugh.

  ‘Uh don’t know what’s so funny. It makes sense.’

  Next in line to help us transform was a native man. He was one of the generation who never quite met your eye. The goggle-gen some called them. He squinted at us and pressed a device into our chip area.

  ‘Hey, what are you doing?’

  ‘Reprogramming,’ he said above my head. ‘New identity, see.’

  My communicator and Reinya’s command band were also to be reprogrammed. My communicator would be easy to do because the good people of Steadie had already wiped it clean first time I arrived here. All it held now was Pa’s plan. The native asked for Reinya’s command band.

  ‘Uh don’t ‘ave one.’ She flushed but stayed quiet.

  ‘She’s been on a prison ship,’ I explained.

  The native stepped back at my words. ‘No, she wasn’t an addict,’ I added.

  ‘They’re just for addicts,’ he said holding his ground.

  ‘Uh went wi mu mum.’ Reinya was retreating into the corner of the room. The native looked sceptical. ‘She died,’ Reinya mumbled then she took a deep breath. ‘Uh’m goin to blow that prison ship up one day.’

  The google-gen started back.

  ‘She’s only kidding,’ I joshed. ‘Can we please get on with this?’ I glowered at Reinya but she was back chewing her fingers.

  He handed a command band to Reinya. ‘These programmes are different,’ the goggle-gen told us. ‘You can override them. Reinya can use her command band as a comms and vice versa.’

  I’d reprogrammed as a newly qualified teen from Urban A.

  ‘I thought Urban A was a myth,’ I said. The native shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s not,’ I told Reinya trying to draw her out. ‘It’s reputed to have been set up in the eastern corner of Esperaneo Major for teaching gifted Privileged. Because of the nature of the Urban its output tended to be vague, cerebral and preoccupied. Apparently they had been studied and the Military found the students to be the most harmless citizens.’ Sakes, I sounded like a tutor.

  ‘They wouldn’t make you one if it’s u myth,’ she said.

  ‘You’re to be my native, Reinya. You’ll need to look after me.’ With her rust hair and green eyes she couldn’t look more native if she tried.

  When we were ready to go and I inspected our transformation a bubbling started in my stomach. Sure, I’d been through a lot in the past year but somehow, no matter how difficult the task had been there had always been an adult there, now we were just two kids out on our own. Dawdle would only escort us as far as the boundary to Beckham City.

  We ran through the pelters of rain to reach the pier, expecting to find a newly refurbished Peedle waiting for us. Instead we were greeted by Dawdle sitting in a rusty old van. My distrust of him returned the minute he grinned but I suppose he was the best of a bad bunch.

  ‘Where’s the sub?’ I asked.

  ‘We go overland, so the quicker yer in the quicker we’re away.’

  Once we were settled in our seats he turned and grinned again. ‘So, ma young pretenders, we’ll head south through the wetlands, then east and all goan well we’ll be in Beckham City by night fall. Ah’ll give ye a lift tae the native shanty reservation that serves BC. Then yer on yer own.’

  He turned to Reinya. ‘So how are you wee hen? Still moping about?’ he said with a wink. I could have kicked him. He must have heard about Kooki.

  ‘Shut it you. Uh nevur mope.’

  ‘Jump in the back if ye like, it’s safer and mair comfortable.’

  ‘We’re fine here,’ I said.

  Reinya snuggled into her seat next to me, pulled her jacket tight round and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

  ‘You OK?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah!’ came the bristly reply. After a couple of minutes she said. ‘If somethin ‘appens to me, tell Scud uh love ‘im.’

  A chill dragged my spine. ‘Nothing’s going to happen to you.’

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘You don’t know nuthin.’

  ‘Nothing’s going to happen to you, Reinya.’ Trying to convince myself as much as her. She stuck her thumb back in her mouth and for the first time I had a minute to wonder whether Pa had been wrong to ask her to come along. She was a child, sucking her thumb for snaf’s sake. And yet I knew how she felt. I’d never been to Beckham City before. I’d been cosseted in a Military base. When I was small sometimes Ishbel would take me to our local market. I remember it being busy with natives who always teased me. The only Privileged I’d encountered had been Military.

  ‘Act naive,’ Pa said at our briefing with no clue there would be no acting required. I’d memorised our first objective. Tucked into the thick folds of Reinya’s hair was a clip of glass baubles. Each ball contained the new ‘toy’ Kenneth had been working on. Pa told us it was top secret. It came direct from the Blue Pearl. We were not to mention it to Vanora, if we happened to cross her path.

  ‘Why would we?’ I asked.

  ‘Just don’t mention it to anyone,’ he said.

  Pa assured us it would revolutionise the way we fight from now on but he refused to tell us what it did because if we were caught we might give the game away. If we were searched it was unlikely they’d find such a small thing in that mass of red hair. This was phase one of our mission.

  Rain plashed on the roof of the cab. The roads were rough and rocked us from side to side. Gales had been fierce so far in the fourth quarter and there’d been a particularly bad spell of rain, worse than usual, and all the flood defences had been breached. Every now and again Dawdle would stop the van. It lifted on hydraulics and then the movement would shift from bump to float, thanks to some sort of amphibious device fitted to the van. Once across a stretch of water he switched back to road mode.

  After the first exchanges in the cab Dawdle stayed quiet. Every now and then I’d look at him and wonder what made him tick. It couldn’t all be about profit. But as he put his hand out to shift gear I noticed his communicator was studded with one precious stone. Subtle, but there on show for anyone with the energy to look. That stone probably had enough worth to feed a reservation for a week.

  Ishbel

  She must have lost consciousness. She lay on her back on the forest floor. Her big toes and hands felt like blocks of wood. She’d lost al
l feeling. Her head pounded and something soft and cold freckled her face, transporting her back to her home in the Northern Territories. Snow.

  Her feet were still bound by the rope but her hands were free so she propped herself up to sitting. Those grubby children were still there, hunkered in an orderly circle, staring at her. There weren’t as many as she’d first thought – six or seven maybe. The cooking smells lingered in the air. It was getting dark again. It was nearly always dark here. She shivered.

  Through the guddle of children she spied a settlement nestled in a clearing of trees. The homes were fabricated from wood and shingles like the houses on Freedom. But these houses were covered in camouflage nets. Hidden and therefore not an official reservation. Another hidden community. She hadn’t realised until recently how shielded she’d been at the Base Camp Dalriada. Ishbel had no idea how many secret communities were hidden throughout the land mass of Esperaneo but she reckoned there were quite a few. She must remember to ask Dawdle next time she saw him. He’d know. The Noiri knew everything.

  Ishbel tapped behind her ear to indicate the universal chipping spot and held up two fingers to form a cross. She wanted them to know she wasn’t a threat, she wasn’t the State. She pointed to them.

  ‘No chip?’ she said in Esperanto, hoping they had been trained in Esperaneo’s designated language. One of the kids, a boy aged about fourteen stood up from the crouching crowd.

  ‘We have no chips.’ His language was good with only a slight northern clip.

  ‘Good,’ she said hoping they would understand her position. ‘What is this place?’ Ishbel asked. ‘Where are your elders?’

  The boy moved towards Ishbel. She smiled, a universal language that the State had never managed to eradicate, despite the population’s deprivation and misery. At first she thought he was going to help her to stand but as she held out her hand he clamped hand cuffs on her. He grabbed the middle chain then hauled her to her feet with surprising ease.