The Fearless (31 page)

Colonel Brett frowns. ‘You’d better come in. Not you, Brightman,’ he adds as Sol starts to follow me up the steps. ‘Don’t you have drill?’

A dull flush creeps up Sol’s neck, but he salutes again. ‘Sir! Yes, sir!’

‘Well, get going, then.’

I follow Colonel Brett into the cabin.

‘Sit down.’ He indicates a chair in front of a little desk piled with papers. ‘You’re one of the group from Sheffield, aren’t you?’

‘Yes, sir,’ I say.

‘You had a lucky escape there.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Where are these Fearless you mentioned? My men tell me they caught everyone who was at that place in the city.’

‘This is a different group, sir,’ I say. Then his words sink in.
They caught all the Fearless.
Does that mean Myo’s somewhere here too?

Haltingly, I tell him about Myo coming to Hope Island, about the Fearless kidnapping Jori, and the abridged version I gave Sol and the others of what happened after that.

‘They don’t sound like ordinary Fearless to me,’ Colonel Brett says, pressing his fingers together. ‘Otherwise the boy would have tried to kill you or taken you to that place in Sheffield straight away.’

‘I don’t think they are either, sir,’ I say. ‘I think they’re some sort of . . . hybrids.’

‘Hmm. Interesting.’ The Colonel regards me coolly.

‘How many Fearless do you have here, sir?’ I ask.

‘Here, over two hundred cured, plus thirty or so still waiting for the reversal procedure. There are others in holding camps elsewhere in the country. The Magpies’ operations in the UK are really gathering speed now, especially since we’ve been able to start recruiting from various refugee communities, like that island of yours. I hear from the medics that you’ve made a good recovery from your ordeal. Do you think you’ll be fit enough to start training in a day or two?’

‘I think so, sir.’

‘Good.’ He stands up, and I take that as my cue to do the same. ‘Thank you for the information about the bunker. Most useful.’ He shows me to the door.

I spend the rest of the day working with Nadine, helping her tend to the patients in the hospital tents, and taking stock of the camp’s medical supplies. While we’re rolling bandages, I ask her about the reversal procedure.

‘How do you know about that?’ she says, frowning.

‘I, um, heard some of the other recruits talking about it.’

‘Well, you know how the serum affects the emotional centres in the brain?’

I nod.

‘The reversal procedure physically severs the connections between the frontal lobes in the brain and reverses the effect of the serum.’

‘You mean they—’

‘Yep, hammer the spike into their brain and give it a stir around. It’s not very exact, but most of the time, it does the job. Unfortunately, cutting their skulls open to operate isn’t an option in a place like this.’

A chill runs down my spine. ‘Have you had to do it?’

‘A few times, in the beginning. Not any more, though. I can’t stomach it.’

I don’t think I’d be able to either. I concentrate on rolling bandages, trying not to think about what I saw the Magpies doing to Cy. One corner of Nadine’s mouth lifts in a smile. ‘So, what’s going on between you and Sol Brightman, then?’

I look round at her, frowning. ‘Huh?’

‘The first thing he did when he got here was go round asking everyone if they’d picked up a girl called Cass Hollencroft. He said you’d been kidnapped by a Fearless. He was really worried about you, you know.’

I shake my head, heat stealing into my cheeks. ‘Sol and I are just mates. And I wasn’t kidnapped. My brother was. This boy – Myo – said he’d help me get him back. And he did, kind of, but . . .’ I think about telling Colonel Brett about the bunker. About Myo being brought back here to have those spikes driven through his eye sockets. ‘He . . . lied to me,’ I say. ‘He wasn’t who he said he was.’

I turn and begin arranging the rolled-up bandages on a tray so Nadine won’t see the way I’m pressing my lips together as I try to get my emotions under control.

She doesn’t ask me any more questions.

Cass began her training two days after she had her talk with Brett. They put her with the newest recruits at first, but now she’s been moved up to my group. ‘How’d she get here so fast?’ I hear the boy I punched say at dinner one night. I turn and stare at him until he looks away.

I wish I knew why Cass was so preoccupied. She’ll hardly talk to us, and when I ask what’s bothering her, she brushes me off, tells me she’s fine. What’s
wrong
? She should be happy. She got Jori back, didn’t she?

Maybe she misses that Fearless freak
, a little voice keeps whispering in my ear. I try to ignore it, but it won’t shut up.

What
really
happened when she went with him? What did they do?

A few days later, when we get to the training field after breakfast, Colonel Brett is waiting for us. As usual, it’s raining, and my boots, which I spent yesterday evening cleaning, are caked with mud again.

Goddammit
.

‘Congratulations, troops,’ Brett says. ‘Your basic training is almost over. I’m going to divide you into units, and throughout today, you will come in those units to my office to be briefed about the missions you’re being sent on.’

I want to whoop and punch the air.
Finally
. Brett waits for the muttering to stop, then starts calling out names. I’m with Andrej, Marissa and Cass, plus another recruit, Halim, who’s French, I think.

Andrej frowns. ‘Why is our unit so small?’

As I listen to the Colonel call out the other names, I realize he’s right. The other units have fifteen or twenty people in them. We have five.

I shrug. ‘I guess we’ll find out later.’

Then Brett leaves and it’s back to scaling the climbing walls and wriggling through the mud in the endless drizzle. God, I can’t wait for this to be over.

Our unit is summoned to Brett’s office that afternoon. He’s studying some maps. Next to him is a guy with a beard I’ve seen him working with a few times, I don’t know his name, though.

‘At ease,’ Brett says, still looking at the maps.

The others relax, letting their shoulders drop. I stay standing tall and straight.

Brett looks up. ‘You’re probably wondering why your unit is smaller than the others.’

‘Yes, sir,’ I say. ‘We were.’

‘I’ve been looking at the information Hollencroft gave us when she first came here, about a bunker inhabited by people she suspects are part-Fearless, and I think I have located it.’

Cass, standing beside me, gives a start.

Brett jams a finger down onto one of the maps. I see a sprawl of empty land, tight contour lines and rocky outcrops, with
STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS
printed across them. In the middle of it is an X drawn in red ink.

‘The bunker is known to a few of my troops. It was originally built by the military to house government officials if the Fearless invaded, but it was never used. You’ll be under the command of Corporal Jonasson here, and will also be assigned a medic. Your mission will be to go to the bunker and round up these part-Fearless. We hope that by studying them, we’ll be able to find out more about the effects of the Fearless serum on the brains of people who are close to Altering, but haven’t quite undergone the change. After that, they’ll be given the reversal procedure.’

I glance at Cass. She’s gone pale.
Whisper, whisper
goes that voice inside my head. I try to concentrate on what Brett’s saying.

‘You will leave at O-five-hundred hours tomorrow morning. It is expected that the journey to the bunker will take you until nightfall. Once there, you’ll set up camp, and carry out your mission the following day. The reason your unit is so small is because you’ll need to get into the bunker and take these . . .
people
by surprise. Corporal Jonasson will spend the rest of the afternoon discussing tactics with you. Does anyone have any other questions?’

‘Sir,’ Cass says, looking at Brett again and swallowing. My heart squeezes painfully inside my chest. She’s going to ask him about that boy. I just
know
it.

‘What will happen to my brother while I’m gone?’ she says, and I feel my shoulders sag with relief.

Brett gives her a small smile. ‘Don’t worry about him. He’ll be well cared for,’ he says. ‘You’re only going to be away for a few days. Anyone else? No? In that case, you’re dismissed.’

Corporal Jonasson gathers up the maps. ‘We’ll use one of the offices,’ he says as we go outside. ‘We have a lot to go through before we leave.’

We spend the afternoon poring over the maps and a plan of the bunker, Cass showing us where the main entrance is – a door set into the hillside, she says – and the rooms the freaks inhabit. There’s one more entrance, under a rock face at the other end of the bunker. ‘We need to figure out a way to get in and take the occupants by surprise,
ja
?’ Corporal Jonasson says.

‘A lot of the bunker is derelict,’ Cass says. ‘I’m not sure what the tunnels are like near the other entrance. But that main door is pretty secure.’ She’s biting her lip.

‘Can’t we blast the locks somehow?’ I ask.

‘But then they will know we are there,’ Halim says. ‘There is no surprise. And Cass says they have guns, no?’

I shake my head in frustration. ‘Think about it. If we blast the locks, they’ll send some of them up to see what’s going on.
Those
will be the ones with guns. So we lie in wait for them outside and capture them. After that, we go down into the bunker and get everyone else.’

I look round at the little group, eyebrows raised. How can anyone argue with that? It’s the perfect strategy.

‘We do have a small supply of plastic explosive,’ Corporal Jonasson says eventually. ‘It might work.’

I allow myself a small, triumphant smile.

The rest of the afternoon is spent planning our route to the bunker and working out an exit strategy in case things go wrong. At dinner, everyone is talking at once, as excited as I am to finally be getting out of the camp and away from the dreaded training field.

Everyone except Cass. She pushes her food around her plate, not joining in the conversation at all. Halfway through the meal, she excuses herself and leaves the tent.

After a few moments, I follow her.

It’s still light outside – just – and for once, it’s not raining. I find Cass in the training field, leaning against the climbing wall. ‘Are you OK?’ I ask her.

‘Yeah,’ she mutters.

‘You don’t look it.’

‘I’m fine, honestly.’ She gives me an unconvincing smile.

‘You really don’t need to worry about Jori, you know. Like Brett said, it’s only a couple of days.’

‘I know. I wasn’t thinking about Jori.’

My stomach twists. ‘So what are you doing out here by yourself?’

‘I just wanted to be on my own for a bit. Is that a crime?’

I curl my toes inside my boots. ‘You should be happy.’

‘Why?’

‘Because we’re going to get that boy. He’s going to get what he deserves.’

When she doesn’t respond, I move a little closer to her, until our shoulders are almost touching. ‘And we’re going together. At least you’re not on your own with people you don’t know.’

Say it!
I scream at her inside my head. S
ay you’re pleased to be going with me!

‘I know,’ she says, but her smile is still thin and unhappy.

I narrow my eyes. ‘Is it that boy?’

Her head whips round and she stares at me. ‘What d’you mean?’

Aha
.

‘You’re worried about him, aren’t you?’

‘No!’ She says it a little too quickly. ‘Of course not!’

‘So what’s wrong?’

I don’t want to say it. I want
her
to say it. To deny my suspicions, or confirm them.

Anything
’s better than not knowing.

But she doesn’t answer me.
Goddammit, she’s so beautiful
, I think. I should have watched her, followed her, stopped her from ever going near that boy. I wish I could make her realize how good we’d be together. What if something happens while we’re up in Staffordshire? This could be my only chance.

My heart thudding, I take a deep breath. ‘Cass?’

She looks round at me. ‘
What?
’

‘I – I love you,’ I tell her, almost overwhelmed by the emotions that rush through me as I finally say the words out loud. I lean towards her to kiss her.

‘No!’ She pushes me away before our lips can meet. ‘Sol,
don’t
!’

Humiliation burns through me. ‘Why not?’

‘I don’t like you like that.’

I stare at her. ‘I thought, maybe, after everything—’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘But I
love
you, Cass.’ This time the words sound weak, a mocking echo. ‘You must know that by now. We’re perfect for each other!’

‘No, we’re not! You’re my friend, Sol, but that’s all.’

I feel sick. Stupid. Small. ‘Are you
sure
there wasn’t anything going on between you and that Fearless boy?’

‘Of course not! I went with him to get Jori back. That’s all.’

‘Really,’ I say flatly. For a second – just a
second
– I think about slamming a fist into her face.

Instead, I punch the climbing wall near her head, making her jump and gasp. Then, my knuckles throbbing, I turn and walk away.

‘Sol, wait!’ she calls after me, but I ignore her. When I find that boy, I’m going to kill him.

There has to be some way to make it look like an accident.

There
has
to be.

When five a.m. rolls around, I don’t need the alarm call that sounds across the camp to wake me up. I haven’t slept at all. I’ve just stared up at the ceiling of the tent, reliving the moment Sol tried to kiss me.

The way he slammed his fist into the climbing wall inches from my head.

I’m so tired I feel as if I’m encased in thick glass. I eat my breakfast without tasting it, not even realizing people are talking to me until after they’ve finished speaking. Sol’s face is stony, his shoulders squared. I want to say something that will make it OK between us again, but I don’t have the words.