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.And to be honest, right now I was more interested in rescuing our families than I was in helping the guy who’d almost got Jordan killed.‘All right, look,’ I said, ‘even if that’s all true, it doesn’t really change much, does it?’ I turned to Kara.‘Not unless you actually have some way to help Peter.’Kara shook her head.Mr Weir said something obscene under his breath.‘Then why are we even having this conversation?’‘You didn’t ask me for a solution,’ said Kara irritably, rolling her chair away from him.‘You asked me to guess at the cause of Peter’s condition, which I have done.Now, are we going to discuss the matter we came here to talk about, or are we going to degenerate into a brawl over a problem I have no power to solve?’Mr Weir didn’t answer right away.He seemed to be seriously weighing up the brawling option.‘Please, Mr Weir,’ said Jordan, indicating the empty chair next to Peter’s mum.Mr Weir rubbed his eyes.He circled back around the table, finally taking a seat.‘Okay,’ he said heavily, ‘let’s get started.Like I said, Shackleton hasn’t had much to say to me since he put me in that wheelchair, so all I really know is what they give me to write up for the paper.But it doesn’t take insider information to see how much strain the security guys are under right now.’‘Not for long, though,’ said Jordan.‘Right,’ said Mr Weir.‘Calvin’s recruiting.But, for the moment, that’s also giving him a whole pack of new hassles to deal with, like how does he train them all? And how does he make sure they stay loyal when he starts asking them to do things they don’t want to do?’I nodded.In hindsight, probably the only reason we’d gotten out of Jordan’s house alive was that half of Calvin’s team had been new guys.‘Anyway, the upshot of all that is that Shackleton hasn’t had a whole lot of manpower to spare, scouring the bush for you guys,’ Mr Weir said.‘But that’s not going to –’‘But how is it that the Shackleton Co-operative doesn’t already know about this place?’ Jordan’s dad cut in.‘It must stretch halfway under the town.’‘Of course they know about it,’ grumbled Soren.‘Who do you think Shackleton got this land from in the first place?’‘Then why haven’t they –?’‘Because,’ said Kara, ‘as far as Noah Shackleton knows, this whole complex was completely filled in with concrete when my mother and her people left.’‘Huh,’ said Mr Weir.‘I guess that’d be why Ketterley was always complaining about obstructions when the town was being built.’‘What about the giant crater in the middle of the bush?’ asked Jordan.‘That didn’t raise a few eyebrows?’‘Yes, well, that tunnel’s been sealed off now,’ said Kara.She glanced disapprovingly at Soren, who glowered back at her.I stared down at the surveillance image in front of me.Kids from school, stuffing around on their skateboards.A couple of them looked up uneasily as a guard strolled past.‘Okay,’ said Dad, ‘so, where does that get us?’‘Not far,’ sighed Jordan.‘Our main problem is still the cameras.We’ve got no chance of even getting close to the medical centre unless we can find a way to knock that network offline again.’‘Is there anyone back in town who might be able to help us?’ Dad asked.‘How about that security officer? The one who let you into the Weirs’ house.’‘The guards wouldn’t have a clue about how to disable the new network,’ said Mr Weir, shaking his head.‘No-one does, except Shackleton’s top brass.’‘What about Dr Montag, then?’ asked Mrs Weir.‘He’s pretty high-ranking, isn’t he? And he tried to help us before.’‘He tried to help himself before,’ I corrected bitterly.‘Who do you think’s been making all these people “disappear” in the first place?’It felt so weird, doing this stuff by committee.So far from me, Jordan and Peter making snap decisions in the back of an English class.‘Look, the cameras are going to be a problem,’ said Mr Weir.He stood up and started pacing the room again.‘But they’re not going to be our biggest problem.Not for long.That’s what I was trying to say before.This new recruitment program – it’s the biggest media push the Co-operative has ever done in Phoenix.’‘They’re planning something big,’ Jordan agreed.‘There were rumours flying around the office, last time I was in there,’ said Mr Weir.‘A major announcement that was meant to be coming up.I never found out what it was, but …’‘But what?’ said Mr Burke.Mr Weir shrugged.‘The mood in town is changing.You’ve seen it, right? Those blood screenings rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.Throw in this run of disappearances, and – and yeah, the Herald is always right there with a neat little explanation, but –’‘But there’s no neat little explanation for the Cooperative abducting a six-year-old,’ said Mr Burke.‘Things are getting out of hand up there,’ said Mr Weir.‘I think people are starting to ask questions.’‘About time,’ Jordan muttered.‘Maybe,’ I said.‘But that’s not what Shackleton will be thinking.’I looked back down at the computer screen – people chatting in line at the bakery.Were they still talking about work and sport and whatever? Or were they actually noticing what was going on around them for a change?I glanced over and saw Kara watching me.She was sitting completely still, with a look on her face like she was seriously disturbed by something but trying not to show it.‘We’d better get on with it, then,’ said Jordan.‘The longer we wait –’‘Whoa, guys.’ I jumped up.‘How long has that been up there?’The camera angle on the laptop had just shifted again, pointing straight at the front doors of the Shackleton Building.A big white banner was stretched over the entrance.The Co-operative’s red phoenix logo, and two lines of huge letters:COMPULSORY TOWN MEETING8.30 p.m.Wednesday 8 July.‘Well,’ said Mr Weir, coming around to look.‘I’d say that probably qualifies as “something big”.’Whatever Shackleton was planning, it looked like we wouldn’t have to wait long to find out what it was.Chapter 28MONDAY, JULY 638 DAYS‘Back in a sec,’ I said, reaching past Jordan to pick up her bowl from the table.I stood up, yawning, and carried the remains of our dinner across the hall to the kitchen.Once the meeting had wrapped up, Jordan and I had stayed in the surveillance room for the rest of the day, scouring the town for anything else that might help us.But despite what Mr Weir had said about the changing mood up there, life seemed to be going along pretty much the same as usual.Unless you counted Mum’s office.That had been abandoned all day.I crept past Dad, asleep on his bunk, and found Mr Weir on his way out of the kitchen, carrying a bowl of two-minute noodles and a mug of cloudy water.‘Just going down to give Pete his dinner,’ whispered Mr Weir.‘Anything you want me to tell him?’I shook my head and he disappeared down the hall.We still hadn’t been back to see him since his outburst on Saturday night.I took our bowls to the sink and rinsed them clean.We were eating better than when we were hiding out next door to Mum, but not by much.Kara and Soren’s pantry was stocked up with enough food to last them for months.But with the sudden population explosion down here, it wouldn’t be long until supplies ran low.I stuck the bowls on the drying rack and rested against the kitchen bench for a moment, staring out at the bedroom.Dad had crashed in there a couple of hours ago – but only after making several loud comments about giving Jordan and me some privacy.I headed back out into the hall and almost ran straight into Kara, who’d come charging out of one of the bedrooms.Something scratched against my arm as she brushed past [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]