Текст книги "And All the Stars "

Автор книги: Andrea Höst

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"If there are other computers in the building, there is every chance one of them has a webcam," Nash suggested. "We can feed it to a monitor in the lounge, and roster some kind of watch."

"Good thought. Maybe we better set that up straight away, and then talk what next."

"And have food," Emily said plaintively, sparking immediate agreement. Blues.

Nash left with Fisher and Min to scout the other apartments for an unobtrusive spot to set a camera, while Pan decided to join the cooking crew.

"Is there really a Wonder Woman bedroom?" he asked.

"And a Supergirl one."

"That's mine," Emily said.

"There's six bedrooms." Noi eyed the pantry stuffed with bulk supplies from the restaurants, then passed it over in favour of the freezer. "Two guest rooms – each with twin beds, luckily – the parents' room and three for the kids, and I think I would really like the people who live here and I have no idea if they're alive or dead, or standing in a street somewhere staring at the Spire."

Her voice, just for a moment, had wavered, then she reached into the freezer and pulled out a Tupperware container. Keeping on. Noi, Madeleine knew, wouldn't break down till no-one could see her.

ooOoo

"So," Noi said, after the first edge of hunger had been dulled, "places to run to. Family homes. Houses belonging to really trusted friends who live outside the city. Where's everyone from?"

"Hong Kong," Min said, with a slight smile. "And I suspect we can rule out Nash's home as well."

"I live in Edgecliff," Fisher said, naming a suburb just east of Rushcutters Bay.

"Marrickville." Noi lifted one shoulder. "I had some rellies up in Brisbane, which is no help."

"Leumeah," Madeleine said. "Out near Campbelltown, still in the dust zone. But my grandmother lives just outside Armidale. My parents – I told my parents to try to get there today. It's on the edge of farmland, kind of open, but it wouldn't be totally obvious if we were there."

"Kogarah," Emily said quietly, and did not mention parents. That was a suburb not much further out than Marrickville.

"Oberon," Pan put in. "In the tablelands, just before Bathurst. Relatives all around the area. A couple of spare rooms."

"Shouldn't you be called Puck, not Pan, if you're from Oberon?" Min asked, eyes lit with sudden delight.

"I've played him as well. But merry trickster junk aside, he spends his time being ordered around. Pirate-taunting's way more my style."

"What I'd give for a straightforward pirate right now," Noi said. "Okay, so either west or up north. Oberon's closer, but might be harder to get to since there's fewer access roads into the mountains. How likely is it that a bunch of us could stay at either place for any measurable amount of time without the entire town knowing?"

Neither Pan nor Madeleine were very hopeful of that happening, and they debated splitting into smaller groups, or whether it was necessarily that bad a thing to be known to be Blue, once you were out of the city.

"Can't we stay and fight?" Emily asked. "We're letting them get away with killing our families, and taking our friends, and our homes! It's not hopeless! Madeleine hurt one of them, and they couldn't take her over. We can punch and shield. Can't we at least try?"

"At this stage, we can only learn more before acting," Fisher said. He hesitated, then added softly: "I won't pretend I don't want to hurt them. I want – very badly – to bring that Spire down. I'm trying to think of a way. That Madeleine was able to shield..." He gave Madeleine a measured glance, then an apologetic smile as she reacted with not unnatural discomfort. "It gives me hope, but it's hardly an upper hand. We will watch for opportunities to go on the offensive, but we need to prioritise staying...ourselves."

"If nothing else, we can practice shielding and punching," Nash said. "The car park below this North Building will give us a relatively private space, though we won't be able to use anything like full strength. But fine control, learning to shield quickly, it cannot be a bad thing."

"We brought some phones back from the other apartments," Min told them. "Use them and turn your own off. And stay off the ground line. I'll set up a monitor and alarm in the lounge for the webcams – there's a program I can use to make them motion sensitive. It'd also be best to go silent on any web identities, and mask our IP for any family contact."

"You're starting to depress me," Noi said. "But more smart thinking. And I'm sure everyone can resist the temptation to give out details. If you have to tell them something, tell 'em we're out near the zoo."

Without a clear decision on what to do next, they finished up dinner, attention shifting to the television as it showed scenes from earlier in the day – Blues being chased, Blues shooting at balls of light which didn't seem to care about bullets, Blues force-punching and hurting each other far more than their pursuers, and no other instances than Madeleine's of anyone even momentarily saving themselves with a shield.

The gatherings of Blues near the Spires seemed to be breaking up, and there were signs of movement among the Greens, some of whom had at least walked out of range of cameras observing them. Others were still standing, waiting, whiles Greens more than two hundred kilometres from Spires didn't seem impacted at all by the Spire song, even if it was played for them.

Fisher and Nash stacked the dishwasher while everyone else shifted bags and tried to rearrange the pantry so it looked a little less obviously stocked for a siege – difficult given the industrial-sized sacks of sugar and flour. With the boys taking all the downstairs rooms, the parents' room was left for Madeleine. It was decorated in dark wood and another beautiful lamp, but she felt uncomfortable, an intruder.

Folding her clothes into piles in the wardrobe, Madeleine hesitated over her backpack. She'd bestowed most of the packets of condoms on Noi, but had kept a few, vacillating between thinking this very bloodless and unspontaneous, and acknowledging that she was not only keenly attracted to Fisher, but also in a situation where she was more than ordinarily inclined to act on that attraction.

Or not. Shaking her head at the thought of successfully advancing anything with Fisher, she tipped the contents of the backpack into a bedside drawer and went to find Noi.

Pan had done so just before her. "You meant it about the Wonder Woman bedroom!" he was saying, standing in the doorway.

"It's the floor-to-ceiling gaming consoles which put the cherry on the cake," Noi said, nodding at the only wall not papered in an enormous wrap-around mural of Amazon princess against a silhouetted landscape of temples and stars. "This is one little girl who wants to kick ass."

"You or her? But you're pretty much Wonder Woman already," Pan said, stepping forward to examine the array of games available, and missing Noi's sudden, painful flush. Noi had backed off from Pan after learning that he was indeed only fifteen, and even the news that it was his birthday soon hadn't changed her mind. Since Pan didn't seem to have realised Noi had been pursuing him, her decision hadn't made a great deal of difference to their interaction, but moments of vulnerability broke through.

"Did you see the lightsabers?" Madeleine asked, to give Noi longer to recover.

"Wai! Guys! Get down here!"

Min's summons sent them clattering down the stair. On the big television was an Asian woman wearing a strappy top which showed arms with only the occasional patch of non-blue flesh. Her tone was sedately calm, her posture relaxed, and the effect was one of casual conversation. Madeleine guessed the language to be Japanese.

"Why are we excited?" Noi asked.

"It's one of the possessed. They said she–"

The image flickered and jumped back to a point where the woman was just sitting down. She turned to the camera, and a man began translating in voiceover as she spoke.

"Listen now. I am the Core of the Five of what you may call the Clan Taiee. The Taiee are First in this cycle of primacy among the En-Mott. We come to this world to settle primacy for the next cycle, and to conduct business of our own."

The woman smiled warmly. "Meaningless things to you. Deliver up to us all who are Blue, unharmed. Do not interfere with those who are Green. Neither hinder nor disturb us. Those who do not comply will be reprimanded." The idea of reprimand appeared to delight her. "Should insufficient Blues be delivered to us, the Conversion – the dust – will be released until a sufficient measure achieved."

"Fuck." Pan, beyond Shakespeare, sat down heavily.

"Our business will take a matter of two of your years. When it is complete, we will depart."

The translation ended, and the screen switched to a non-stained woman. "Further transmissions have been made from four other Spire cities. São Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, and New York."

They crossed to the New York transmission, where a skinny black teenager with a shaved head told them that he was the Core of the Five of Clan Na-uhl, who were Fourth in this cycle of primacy.

"We are so completely screwed," Pan said.

"No leaving the city." Noi exchanged a glance with Fisher and Nash, who both nodded.

"People wouldn't..." Emily began, then shook her head. "I guess they would. I guess...I guess people might even expect us to turn ourselves over."

"They can live in hope." Min waved a tablet computer. "These cities aren't quite an exact run-down of the most populated cities in the world, but it's pretty close. And they're the locations of the tallest Spires. This primacy they're talking about – they took over our planet to decide on a new pecking order." He was incredulous, losing the mildly-entertained calm he'd displayed till then.

"And business of their own." Nash ran a hand over his eyes. "How very unspecific."

"Two years." Noi tapped the lid of the box the Take Him Away Lady had given her, then absently began to pull loose the bow.

"If they leave in two years, what happens to the people they've taken over?" Madeleine asked. "Do they keep them? Or unpossess? Dispossess?"

"Not a gamble I'm willing to take." Noi lifted the lid off the box, revealing a colourful array of cupcakes, exquisitely decorated. She held one up, studying piping work so delicate it was like lace. "Well, she knew just the thing to give to a Blue. And it's a nice illustration of our primary problem – we all eat like horses. We've enough food for a few months, particularly if we collect everything in the other North Building apartments, but two years is going to mean a lot of scouting forays."

They debated longer-term options. Staying at Finger Wharf. Finding another location in the city or outer suburbs. Trying to hide in a countryside fearing a second release of dust. Getting out further, to an island, or Spire-free Tasmania. But for now, not knowing the abilities of the things calling themselves En-Mott, or the position the uninfected would take, they could only stay and watch.

Pan reached suddenly and turned the sound up on the television and they all turned to see freckles, strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes.

"...the Clan Ul-naa," a familiar voice said. "The Ul-naa are Hundred and Fifth in this cycle of primacy among the En-Mott. We come to this world to settle primacy for..."

Pan muted the sound again, and then threw the remote at the television. It bounced, and the batteries flew free, but no-one made any move to rescue it. Noi's shoulders had hunched, Emily was trembling with anger, Fisher withdrawn, and Min uncertain. Nash–

"Are you okay?"

A grey tinge marred the warmth of Nash's finely cut features, and his usual grace had leached away. Pan turned sharply, and sucked in his breath: "Damn, it was Gav's day, wasn't it? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Testing limits." Nash lifted one hand, failing to hold back a tremor. "It is a pitiful thing, to be so dependent. I would not last a day alone."

"Here."

Pan held out his hand, but Nash moved his own away. "We've already established that two days together is an excellent way to knock you to pieces."

He turned his head toward Fisher, but stopped when Madeleine held out her hand.

"I've nothing if not energy to spare," she said. "Do I need to do anything in particular?"

Nash hesitated, then said: "Not at all. Thank you."

"Shall we go clear more space in the hidden room?" Fisher asked, and led the others away, leaving Madeleine with an uncomfortable impression she was about to do something intimate.

She studied Nash's hand, admiring the clean lines, then suppressed a murmur of surprise at the warm sensation which swept through her.

For some reason she'd expected it to hurt, and on one level it did, but the way running too fast down a hill hurt: a plummeting exhilaration. She was suddenly lit up all over, intensely aware of the roil of power inside her, and a complex passage of strength from her to Nash. And even more aware of him, as if she was in two places at once. She watched his stars growing bright, and trembled.

He fetched her cupcakes and super-sweetened hot chocolate, and carefully ignored her pink-cheeked confusion, and by the time her mug was empty she'd recovered and was able to be amused at how he was energetically striding about, tidying things up.

"You'd probably best take first watch," she said. "You'll never sleep after that."

Nash agreed, and then made sure she was able to get up the spiral staircase without falling over. It wasn't quite yet sunset, but Madeleine was more than done for the day. After a quick shower in her room's en suite, and several futile attempts to reach Tyler, she removed her phone's battery, and dreamt of running.

Chapter Ten

Someone – Noi, most likely – had come into Madeleine's room overnight and arranged a tray of snacks and drinks on the bedside cabinet, so when piercing hunger woke her in the pre-dawn grey she needed only to sit up. Once the first urgency was met she noticed the cold, and escaped to another warm shower and an attempt to manage her hair.

Descending to the main floor, she found the lounge dark except for the glow of the muted television, and the clear, pale note provided by a vast, water-lapped sky. Pan was sitting in the open doorway to the patio, legs curled against his chest, chin resting on his knees, staring out at the water. He looked cold, small and defeated, all his mercurial energy drained.

Quietly putting together two steaming cups of over-sugared tea, Madeleine handed him one, then sat to share the dawn. A seagull was hovering in the distance, the first she'd seen since the dust.

"Gav was captain of the soccer team," Pan said, when tea or company had warmed him a little. "And he could act the socks off half the school. Fantastic at the comedic roles – did a great Bertie Wooster. Really generous on the stage, too, not fiddling about drawing attention to himself during someone else's good lines." Pan tipped the last of his tea into his mouth, and swallowed heavily. "Just before, they were showing...Madrid, I think it was. Spain somewhere. You know how we were wondering if the Moths could body-hop? Go from person to person? They can. They'd caught two Blues and – I guess some of them must shop around for Blues with the most stain? They came out, and moved into the new Blues. The people they'd been in just dropped. Some Greens carried the bodies off."

There was nothing Madeleine could say. She sat turning her empty mug and listening to the sounds the ocean made in a quiet bay. Soft, secret noises, large yet gentle.

"Gav's dead." Pan was barely audible. "He might still be in his head right now – or not. He might walk around being the Core of the whatever the hell clan for the next two years. But he doesn't get to come back."

He sat a little straighter, putting his mug down carefully. "I agree with Emily. Fuck the running and hiding. Let's find a way to fight these things."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Would you do it?" Pan shot Madeleine a quick glance. "Any plan we come up with is going to involve us hiding behind you and your metal-crushing awesomeness."

"It's not metal I'm worried about crushing," Madeleine said. "Fighting the – are we calling them Moths now? – fighting these things means attacking the people they're inside. Hurting people who've done nothing wrong. I don't know if I could try to hunt down and kill possessed Blues. I think I could maybe fight back if we were attacked, if it meant stopping...to stop the people here from being taken."

"Oh, God, yeah. It's hard enough with Gav. I would have gone spare if they'd gotten Nash."

"Are–" Madeleine hesitated. "Are you two a couple?"

Pan gave her a Look, and she started to stutter an apology, but then he grinned, mischief revived.

"Hah, that's okay. You're just the first person who's ever asked me that outright. Nash is – I met Nash my second year at Rushies, Year Eight. I'm a scholarship student there, and while most of the guys are fine about that, there's always a few, you know? My parents run a petrol station, and you'd think that it was some kind of personal affront the way a couple of twits reacted.

"Year Seven was pretty hellish. I wanted to prove myself. You know, be the underdog who comes in and grabs the lead role. Didn't manage it that year, but I snagged speaking parts in a couple of productions. And kept ending up with black eyes. I was a little squit back then, and it was always an elbow to the face, sorry didn't see you there Rickard, ha ha. Then they'd trip me up on stage, put rubbish in the props I was supposed to use. They'd drive me into a fury, then ask me Can't you take a joke? I swear, I have to hold myself back from anyone who says that these days. Can't you take a joke? Only complete fuckwits say that.

"Year Eight, they were putting on Peter Pan and I knew I'd get the lead if I could get through auditions in one piece. And I also desperately wanted to be on the soccer team. Managed to scrape in as a reserve, and the day before my first chance to play some bright spark had disappeared my shoes. Team members are responsible for their own kit, and if I couldn't get replacement shoes I'd be sitting out the match, and somehow no-one had any my size they could possibly spare. Only got a lecture when I rang home for money.

"Nash was one of six in my dorm room, new that year and kind of a big deal because of his family. His life's been all boarding schools and film sets, and he's met a hell of a lot of industry people. Everyone was trying to cultivate him, and he was being incredibly polite and distant. On the day of the match, he gets a package from his sister – stuff for cricket, a fencing mask. And one pair of soccer shoes which were way too small for him. I didn't figure out for months that he'd simply ordered everything himself that morning, and had it couriered over.

"Then, on my way to the auditions for Peter Pan I was shoved into a cupboard and locked in. Just a joke, Rickard. Can't you take a joke?" For a moment Pan became the essence of smug mockery, self-satisfied and unassailable. "Nash let me out. I was foaming with rage, wanted to go get myself beaten up trying to black a few eyes. The best revenge was getting the part, of course, but I doubt I would have remembered that without Nash."

"I'm beginning to see why he calls you temper-boy."

"Yeah." Pan grimaced. "I'm not that bad, really. Well, I went to counselling, and I'm not that bad any more. Nash talked me into that. Nash has pretty much saved my life the last couple of years, and no-one could be a better friend. We got gay-boy taunts, of course. Well, I did. Rushies has very strict policies about annoying extra-prestigious international students. Nash is gay. He's been working out what that means for him, but it doesn't seem to be me. And I could fill a book about the time April-next-door wore this really loose tank top and from the side you could see this curve. I was eleven, and I still react when I see a girl in a yellow top."

He leaned forward, sighing gustily. "I've been sitting here thinking about all the guys in my class who died from the stain, and not being able to get Gav back, and searching for a way to protect Nash. We're all trying to think of ways to protect each other, but not even Fish has come up with anything. It's just too big."

"We're still gathering information, remember."

"More information really isn't helping." He reached back and grabbed a tablet computer, tapped through screens and handed it to her. "Watch that. I'm going to get started on breakfast."

He'd brought up a YouTube clip.

"Mom, stop."

An American accent, and a wildly jiggling image which steadied on a tearful boy of ten tugging at the arm of a woman packing a suitcase into a car. Beside them a girl of five sat on the driveway, wailing.

"Why are you going?" shouted a different girl – the one holding the camera. "How can you leave us?"

"It's my duty to serve, honey," the woman said, her voice soothing, unperturbed by the distress all around her. "La-Saal needs me."

She came back toward the camera to collect another suitcase, and Madeleine saw that she was a Green, though the kids didn't seem to be stained.

"We need you more!" the boy said. "They're monsters, Mom. You gotta stay away from them!"

The woman ignored this, packing the second suitcase into the back seat of the car and slamming the door shut.

"I won't let you!" The boy darted forward, snatching something from the front seat before the woman could move, stepping away hands held to his chest. "You're staying here, Mom. You're supposed to be with us, not them!"

The woman backhanded him across the face. He spun to the ground as the camera-girl shrieked, then the image bounced dizzyingly as she ran forward, and the camera fell. There wasn't clear vision after that, just sobs and shouts, and the sound of a car starting, and driving away.

"There's a lot more like that," Pan said, cracking eggs in the kitchen. "The Greens are...they're still people, but any of them who were within range of the Spires' song have packed up and headed in to where the possessed Blues are. They just ignore or avoid the uninfected, unless someone tries to stop them."

Madeleine had belatedly processed the morning's silence. "The song's stopped, but they're still–?"

"Yeah, it doesn't conveniently wear off, and it doesn't make any difference if you take them out of range. They respond to some questions, but not very usefully."

"They're not all standing about the Spires are they?"

"I wish. Worst news first: road blocks. They did the main roads, then moved on to all the little streets, driving cars across them. A couple of cities even have footage of Greens talking together, marking off street maps. I don't know if they'll manage to get every street, but we can't hope to simply drive away. Equally bad news: they're searching the cities. Collecting bodies mainly, but also flushing out Blues. We did a lot of brainstorming about what to do if they come here – check the fridge."

A list had been added to the collection of flower and superhero drawings.

Everyone – own rooms and en suites.

Pan – TV, walkway monitor.

Min – patio & patio door.

Nash – phones, random belongings.

Emily – kitchen.

Maddie – main bathroom.

Fisher – fresh rubbish.

Noi – this list!

"It's no good us hiding in that study if the sinks are wet, fresh food is sitting on the table, and there's a handy monitor shrieking 'intruder!'. So orders are to keep rooms we're not in spotless, and don't leave your belongings about. The second the monitor alarm sounds, clear your main room task, check your own room, then straight to the study. Strictly speaking Noi wanted us to not cook for the next few days, because, well, the cheery scent of pancakes is a bit of a giveaway as well." He lifted a sizzling frying pan. "But she also wants to use up the eggs before they go off, so I figure this is early enough in the day to be safe, and we clean up straight away. Wanna help?"

They made enormous stacks of pancakes and were washing up when the others began to drift out of their rooms. Min and Noi paused to talk by the dining table, then went out on the patio together. Min set a small statue of Buddha up against the planters, and they both lit some incense and prayed. Fisher collected pots of jam and honey and laid the table while Emily ran through the available channels on the television, but didn't turn on the sound. They decided to let Nash continue to sleep while they worked through the pancakes, and no-one seemed to want to talk much, even after Pan told them about the body-hopping.

"I didn't realise you were Buddhist, Noi," Madeleine said, after they'd drifted out to sit on the patio. The planter hedges thankfully shielded them from most angles, so they'd decided it was safe to venture.

"Technically, Buddhisty-Catholicy." Noi shrugged. "Usually I'm a bit laid-back about it all, but I'm having a ping-pong of faith at the moment." She gazed in through the patio door at the boys cleaning up plates and putting them away. "It helps me when thinking about the people who are gone, but it's not so comforting when considering the ones still around. Especially Gavin."

"Do you think we have any chance?"

"Every time I look at the TV the odds seem to go down. From what we know now, yes, there's a chance, but the body-hopping is a bad thing. If they're specifically looking for the strongest Blues, well, you and I are some of the strongest Blues in the city. That hidden room is a big bonus, but we don't have much time to get to it after the alarm goes off, and food-hunting is going to be a huge risk. One of the biggest dangers is boredom."

"Boredom?" Madeleine stared. Here in this luxurious home, filled with games and books, half a dozen computers, and multiple televisions screening an alien invasion?

"Yeah, boredom. The longer this goes on, the more we'll struggle – both keeping ourselves ready to hide on short notice, and not taking more risks. Pan particularly – he's the energetic type that finds it hard to just stay put. I'm that way myself. Don't you want to get out, do something?"

"I want to paint you and Emily."

"Really? Not Science Boy?"

"Fisher..." Madeleine glanced quickly at the door, but no-one was close. "I need to know him better, understand what it is I'd want to paint. If I had unlimited materials, sure, but I've two canvases and I want to use them well. You and Emily, I could really make something."

A warm tinge deepened Noi's skin, but she frowned. "Anyone coming into the apartment would smell fresh paint."

"If I set the easel by the patio door, and move the canvas to the safe room when I'm not working on it, it shouldn't be an issue. And I'd work on sketches the first couple of days. They're likely to search Finger Wharf early on, aren't they?"

"Given who Sydney's new alien overlord is, yeah."

Without warning she hunched down, motioning Madeleine to do the same. Madeleine slid out of her chair to kneel on the patio deck, then turned to see why they were hiding.

A grey navy ship was easing backward out of the narrow eastern part of the bay. Even though she couldn't see anyone on the deck, Madeleine shifted underneath the edge of the patio table, and Noi joined her, making a shooing motion at Min, who was staring out at them.

"Blues escaping?" Madeleine whispered, though there was no way they could be overheard.

"Green navy waiting at the headlands for anyone sneaking out of the harbour?"

It was the more likely explanation. Madeleine and Noi waited until the ship had gained reasonable distance, then slipped back into the apartment, joining the others in watching through the glass.

"Chances are good they'll have something similar to stop people going up-river," Noi said.

"Not an insurmountable obstacle, however." Nash hadn't slept very late for someone who'd had most of the night watch. "A small, unlit boat in the dark would have a good chance of–"

He broke off as Pan gripped his arm, and they all stared, speechless, at a ribbon of light following the ship.

Snake-like and perhaps the length of three buses, it was widest along the front third, where what seemed to be a dozen layers of diaphanous wings marked a lazy, complicated beat. The wings were shaped like sails, triangles of light which thinned to insubstantiality, just like the long trailing tail of the thing. It swooped, lifted, glided: a dandelion seed of a monster decorating the sky.

"Is there someone riding that?"

The distance made it difficult to be sure, but there did seem to be two points of solidity near the very front, before the wings.

They watched until their view was blocked by the eastern headland, then Min said: "So, no going out on the patio except at night?"

"And I was worried they'd have possessed some survivors who knew how to fly helicopters." Noi reluctantly slid the patio door shut. "Until we have some better idea of how often those things will fly over, and whether they happen to have night vision, no going out at all."