Part 6 (1/2)

*I'm a techie too!' cries Mossie.

Petra winks at her. *Bet you're good,' she mouths. Mossie actually blushes.

*Right,' says Lida, and we all turn to listen because she's got this authority thing about her. *So we've all got something to do with aircraft, fine. That doesn't explain why Aura's picked us in particular to be here.'

Zoya says, *Everybody should just wait till we're told why.'

I'm too conscious of the weed-that-sprouts-up-gets-yanked-out danger to say what's leaping out at me, because we've definitely got at least one thing in common. We're all young.

*It's obvious what's going on,' grunts Yeldon, cracking his knuckles. *We're actually some super-skilled squad, headhunted for ultra-special duties.'

That makes us all laugh, it sounds so disconnected.

Petra pa.s.ses mugs around. Lida leaps out of her chair and shouts at me when my mug drops to the floor, spilling hot liquid all over her arm on the way.

*Hey a” watch what you're doing, Cadet girl!'

*Sorry, I . . . I'm a bit clumsy.'

*Great. That blows my theory of a super-skilled squad,' says Yeldon sarcastically.

Zoya looks at me. She knows I'm not usually clumsy. She'll probably put the spill down to nerves. In fact, I dropped the mug from shock. I looked down at the drink for a moment and inside the circle of the tea I saw a round vision of black birds flying across a red night sky, then thick, slick black rain falling like funeral tears.

Just an illusion. A trick of the light.

I tense. There are voices outside, mingling with the sound of the cold wind. The hut doors bang open. A man and a woman are blown inside. We automatically jump and stand in ranks, as we've been taught right from day one of infant school.

The man tries to brush snow from the woman's uniform. She swats him away. Snowflakes are melting on her medals.

I am just about die and bury myself. I know this woman! I recognise that face! Who hasn't seen her streamed on every screen in the Nation? Who's not heard about the glory she's reaped for Rodina? At my side Zoya is practically hyperventilating. Dee is the only one who manages to get words out.

*That,' she informs us starkly, *is none other than Marina Furey, the greatest pilot in the Nation. Ever.'

Marina Furey stamps her boots, shakes her hair and rips her gloves off. Finally she notices us all, united in awe.

Her face goes grey.

*You have got to be kidding me. This is our next, best hope against the Crux?' She scans our faces and stops at mine. *Is this some kind of joke? Aren't you that refugee Lim girl who works in the canteen? Please a” someone tell me I haven't got a cook to train up!'

The man with Marina Furey checks his keyboard then squints at me. He's dressed in brown engineer overalls with a natty scarf knotted round his neck.

*It's not the cook,' he says. *Looks a lot like her, but Haze, the Lim girl, is bigger. This one's Rain Aranoza, a school student from Sea-Ways. Who knows, in another couple of years she might even grow tall enough to reach the plane controls.'

A couple of people sn.i.g.g.e.r, I'm guessing Ang and Yeldon. If there was a tree-eaten rift handy I would gladly leap into it right at this moment. Fortunately, Marina Furey's already forgotten I exist. She's connecting, and she's clearly one of those people who talks back to her messages even though no one else can hear what's being streamed into her head.

*How many? By when? Impossible!' She disconnects and speaks to the engineer. *Test results are back from normalisation crews. Mora.s.s effects are spreading more quickly than previously estimated. Aura's scheduled our first mission for twenty days from now.'

The man snorts. *It'll be fine, as long as we schedule time for funerals straight afterwards.'

*If it's yours, no problem.'

*I was thinking of these kids.'

Furey closes her eyes briefly, then she straightens her shoulders and tries to adopt a more official look. In the flesh, she somehow seems too much like a whirlwind to fit neatly in a uniform. Her tie is wonky, one b.u.t.ton is loose on its threads, her boot straps are flapping undone and she's got an unsmoked choke tucked behind one ear, and yet . . . when she speaks her voice has a quiet and undeniable authority.

*Welcome, everyone. My name is Marina Furey. This is Marton Fenlon, allegedly one of the best engineers in Rodina. I'll get straight to the point. We've all heard the Victory reports and we all know our Nation will eventually defeat the Crux menace. Unfortunately, we're encountering some . . .'

*. . . Catastrophic complications . . .' mutters Fenlon.

*. . . some unexpected abnormalities. Problems with technical function and bioweave structures.'

*Things are falling apart.'

*Thank you, Fenlon. Yes, to some extent, they are, quite literally, falling apart whenever they enter a certain sphere of influence. Whenever they approach the area known as the Mora.s.s.'

Lida raises her hand, somehow managing to seem insolent and patriotic at the same time.

*The Crux have attacked several towns near the Mora.s.s, like Hardhills and Noonsun. Is this going to affect our efforts to push the enemy back where they belong?'

Marina Furey rubs her eyes. She doesn't look like a Hero of Rodina Nation, she looks tired. *The Crux are not retreating in the direction we'd like, or as quickly as Aura predicted.'

*You mean, they're advancing?'

I see Henke and Rill look at each other. I can't imagine what it must be like for them, having their home and family in Hardhills destroyed and knowing the enemy are still out there, undefeated.

*Let's move on,' says Furey. *Aura's scientists are taking innovative new steps to combat the problems, using a chemical compound called Slick. That should eventually control and contain the Mora.s.s effects. In the meanwhile, we need to have some way of containing Crux forces infesting lands near the Mora.s.s. All of you here have been specially selected to help. I can't emphasise strongly enough how dangerous this project is. If you cannot commit then quit. Now. I mean it. Go.'

Not one of us moves.

*Good. What you're about to see and hear is also highly secret. I can't even tell myself what work we're doing here.' She laughs humourlessly. *Come into the hangar. Watch where you're treading . . .'

We follow her through double doors from the hut to the hangar, which is bitterly cold. There are fragments of wrecked plane across half the vast floor. Not broken bioweave, but wood.

*I know this plane,' I whisper to Zoya. *Remember, back at the lake? This is the remains of the Crux fighter that shot us down.'

More than that, I know the boy standing in the centre of the debris, watching a large corvil batter its wings against the hangar ceiling. My heart stops. How can he be here? He's absolutely immaculate in his white uniform. Absolutely beautiful. He sees me, he must see me a” why doesn't his expression change?

Zoya tugs my sleeve. *Look, Pip, it's that Scrutiner from the forest.'

*Ss.h.!.+' says Ang. *You're not in school now. Pay attention!'

*You know the Scru?' whispers Lida, impressed despite herself.

*This is Reef Starzak,' Furey explains. *Our official squadron Scrutiner. He's been responsible for recovering the wreckage of an unusual lo-tech Crux fighter plane, called a Catapult. Primitive technology appears to function fairly normally near the Mora.s.s. From the pieces of the Catapult our engineers have been able to design a similar prototype plane.'

*Not similar, superior,' corrects Fenlon.

When I glance over, Reef's eyes are on me. Is there a hint of h.e.l.lo on his lips? Above us the corvil keeps flying against the hangar roof, looking for a way out.

Fenlon tramps over to a lumpy shape at the far side of the hangar. He hauls away a ma.s.sive tarpaulin to reveal an extraordinary contraption a” a thing of rods, flaps and nails. He plods round it, as if even acknowledging its existence is a deep low-point in his life.