The Roar (19 page)

23

YOU ARE NOT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID

T
he next morning, Mika awoke to the sound of his mother singing. He got up and padded barefoot on the warm wooden floor to find her flitting around the kitchen, her hair tied loosely so it swung as she moved with her light trails dancing behind her. Just the kitchen in the hut was bigger than their whole fold-down apartment at home and there were so many cupboards, Asha said she was breathless by the time she’d looked in them all. On the worktop was another basket of food and he could smell fresh bread and coffee.

‘I wanted to make sure you ate breakfast before you left,’ she said. ‘There are bananas in the basket, why don’t you try one?’

Mika had never eaten a banana before. He pulled one off the bunch and bit into the top of it.

‘Yuck,’ he said. It was bitter and rubbery.

‘You’re supposed to peel it first, silly!’ laughed Asha. ‘Here. Let me do it. Eat half and I’ll put the rest in a pancake. No, on second thoughts, you may as well eat the whole thing, there are loads! I keep forgetting we’re not at home! All this real food! We’ll have to take some back with us for the neighbours. Go and sit at the table outside and I’ll cook your pancakes.’

Audrey was already there with her mother and aunt. She seemed happier than the day before and she crunched an apple with her toes buried in the sand and gazed at the sea.

‘Isn’t it beautiful, Mika?’ she said, lifting her pointy chin into the breeze. ‘Look at it.’

‘Yeah,’ Mika nodded, watching the morning sunshine glitter on the gentle, lapping waves.

‘Just think,’ she went on. ‘How
lucky
people used to be. They had all this beauty for free and it was
real
.’

Before they’d finished eating, a man arrived to take them away. They all looked the same, the men: bald and grumpy, with their stomachs hanging over the waistbands of their dark blue YDF uniforms – they could have swapped lives for a weekend and their wives wouldn’t have noticed. This man looked uncomfortably hot in his shirt and tie and he was sinking as he struggled across the sand towards them in his smart black shoes. Audrey stifled a giggle.

‘They could have let the poor things wear shorts and flipflops,’ Una said, watching him nearly fall over as she munched on a bread roll.

Mika and Audrey found their shoes and said goodbye, then followed the man away from the beach, through the razor wire gates and into the low white building. Seeing the place again, they shuddered, remembering the black chair and the needle.

Inside, they were split up and taken to different rooms, and this time Mika found himself in a small, white room containing a table, two chairs and a man in a white coat.

‘Hello, Mika,’ the man said. He looked intelligent, Mika thought, his hair burned off by intense brain activity and his eyes
bright and penetrating. ‘Please sit down.’

Mika sat.

On the table in front of the man was a marble. Mika wondered what it was for.

‘Have you been taking the capsules we gave you?’ the man asked.

‘Yes,’ Mika replied. The man wrote something on his tablet. Mika tried to see what, but he was too far away.

‘Have you noticed anything different about your vision since you’ve been taking them?’

‘Yes,’ Mika said. ‘I see light trails on things when they move. Gold trails on people and blue trails on objects.’

‘Good,’ the man said, making another note.

Mika felt himself bubble up like a volcano of questions. He was aware he ought to be careful what he said, but his hunger for knowledge overwhelmed him.

‘Don’t other people see them?’ he asked.

‘Not many,’ the man replied.

‘Why not?’ Mika asked.

‘They just can’t,’ the man said. ‘But we’re here to talk about you, not other people.’

‘Sorry,’ Mika said. ‘What is the light?’

‘Energy,’ the doctor replied. ‘It was always there, you just couldn’t see it before.’

‘I thought so,’ Mika said.

The man picked up the marble and waved it in front of Mika’s face.

‘What do you see?’ he asked.

‘I see a gold trail on your hand and a blue trail on the marble,’ Mika replied.

‘Good.’ The man wrote on the tablet again. ‘OK. Now I want you to try something else.’ He put the marble on the table between them. ‘Now look at it closely and tell me what you see.’

Mika stared at the marble until his eyes were blurred and he could no longer focus properly. After a minute the man asked
him if he saw anything.

‘No,’ Mika replied, feeling disappointed. ‘My eyes blurred and I couldn’t look at it properly.’

‘OK,’ the man said, patiently. ‘Try again. This time relax. Look at the marble but don’t stare at it. You’re straining your eyes. Take a deep breath and relax. OK?’

Mika nodded and looked at the marble again, trying not to care what happened so he didn’t mess up, and this time he saw a faint blue light in the centre of the marble. It was the first time he’d seen the light while he was awake when something wasn’t moving.

‘I can see it!’ he said.

‘What can you see?’

‘I see a blue light in the centre of the marble.’

‘Brilliant, Mika, that’s what we want.’ The man wrote vigorously on the tablet and Mika watched him, feeling excited.

‘Now I want you to try something else,’ the man said with his eyes intent. ‘I want you to look at the marble until you see the light, then I want you to try to move it with your eyes as if you are pushing it across the table with your finger. Do you understand?’

‘You want me to move the marble with my eyes?’ Mika repeated, incredulously.

‘Yes.’

‘But that’s impossible.’

‘It’s not impossible, Mika,’ the man said. ‘But it is very difficult. The drugs we’ve given you in the capsules will help, but even so, only very few people can do it. I believe that you may be one of them. I want you to stay relaxed, but focus. Try not to worry about failing or think about anything else, OK?’

‘OK.’

‘Give it a go then.’

Mika looked at the marble. For the first few seconds his head was spinning with all the questions he wanted to ask and he had to force them all out so he could concentrate. After thirty long seconds he saw the light in the marble again. He was so pleased
he lost his concentration and it faded.

‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘I lost the light.’

‘Try again.’

The man sat back in his chair so he was further away from Mika and this helped. Mika tried to pretend he wasn’t there – that this wasn’t a test and he was on his own. The light appeared and he gently tried to drag it to the left. He felt a pain at the back of his eyes as he did this and he nearly lost it again, the light began to fade, but he focused and built it up until it was glowing. For over a minute he tried until suddenly he felt a tug between his eyes and the marble as if they were connected and it slowly rolled a couple of centimetres to the left. Mika jolted and gasped, shocked by what he had done. He looked up at the man and the spell was broken.

‘Well done!’ the man said, beaming at him. Mika watched him scrawl a big tick on the tablet.

‘How do you feel about the competition, Mika?’ he asked, serious again.

Mika thought for a moment, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

‘It scares me,’ he replied.

‘Why does it scare you?’ the man asked. ‘Are you scared of what you have just done?’

‘No,’ Mika said. ‘I’m scared I won’t win.’

‘What do you want to win more?’ the man asked. ‘The home in the Golden Turrets or the chance to fly a real Pod Fighter?’

‘I want both,’ Mika said. ‘The home for my family and to fly a Pod Fighter for me.’

‘Good,’ the man said, writing on the tablet again. ‘Now listen carefully, Mika. You are not to talk about what you did in this room with your parents or anyone else. Do you understand?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you tell anyone about the light trails before you came here?’

‘No. Well, yes, but only a YDF woman when I fainted.’

‘OK,’ he said, nodding. ‘That’s fine. But you mustn’t tell anyone else. When you go back to your parents I want you to say you’ve been doing puzzles again. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ Mika said.

‘Good,’ the man said. ‘Because this test is a very important part of the competition, so if you want to win the prizes, you have to keep it a secret. Sign here.’

He pushed the tablet towards Mika.

‘What’s this?’ Mika asked, seeing a document and a space at the bottom for his signature.

‘The Official Secrets Act,’ the man replied. ‘Just so we’re clear about our agreement.’

Mika signed, feeling as if he was writing his name in blood. The man took the tablet back and looked at his signature.

‘Excellent,’ he said, scribbling without looking up. ‘Right, that’s the hard bit over. For the rest of the week you’ll be learning how to play a new game in the sea, and on Saturday there’ll be a contest. Relax and enjoy yourself; it’s going to be fun. And well done, Mika, very well done.’

Mika stumbled back to the beach, hardly looking where he was going, dumped his clothes on the sand in front of the hut and ran into the sea, feeling as if he would explode if he stayed above the surface a second longer.

What had just happened in that room? Had he really moved something just by looking at it? It seemed too incredible to be true, it was a miracle, and yet he remembered how hard it had been to do it, how it hurt his eyes and tugged at his mind. He felt astounded and terrified in equal measures. As if another person was waking up inside him and although they shared the same body, they were strangers.

When he resurfaced for the tenth time, he found Audrey treading water beside him. They swam further out. Her eyes were dark and scared.

‘I’ve just moved something with my eyes,’ she whispered. ‘Did you?’

He nodded. They were quiet for a few moments and looked anxiously towards the beach.

‘I don’t like it,’ she said. ‘I did while I was doing it, but now I’m scared. What do you think they want from us?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mika replied, feeling his chest tighten.

‘They’re watching us,’ she whispered. ‘There are cameras in the trees.’

‘I know,’ he replied. He looked around, wondering if they could be heard, even so far from shore. ‘Come on, let’s go back,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we should talk about it. It’s not safe.’

24

TARGET PRACTICE

T
he next two days were like a real holiday. In the morning, Mika and Audrey ate their breakfast in front of the huts and afterwards they joined the other competitors in the big welcome hut, where they were split into teams and taken out on boats. They learned to play water polo and had swimming races and dived for shells. The sea was only six metres deep, so it was light from the surface down, and the first time Mika dived off the boat and found himself swimming over a coral reef, he was staggered by its beauty. It teemed with borg fish, all sizes, shapes and colours. Everywhere he looked there was movement. To a boy who had grown up thinking water was naturally brown and slimy, it was beauty beyond imagination, and he had to keep reminding himself that it was fake, the fish had switches on their bellies, the coral was plastic and hollow inside and the seawater was actually blue if you put it in a glass and they’d been strongly advised not to drink
it. There were cameras on the boats and in the water and he’d even spotted one in the lid of a food basket that contained their lunchtime sandwiches. But just like in the arcade, he pretended to see nothing.

Five boats went out in the morning, each carrying twenty competitors. They were white fishing boats, with wide decks, awnings and comfortable places to sit. They cruised around the island at a relaxed pace, passing the beach where the parents were eating their breakfast. Then, with the beach out of sight, they dropped anchor near a crop of rocks and a man stood amongst them on the deck and gave instructions. Mika and Audrey’s team was led by Justin – a serious man, but not unpleasant like Mr Blyte. He smiled sometimes and listened attentively to their questions.

On the third morning, as the boat prepared to leave, several long black boxes were loaded on deck. After they had dropped anchor, Justin opened one and took something out.

‘This is a harpoon gun,’ he said, holding it up so they could all see. ‘The barrel holds thirty titanium-tipped bolts and has a firing range underwater of fifty metres.’

The harpoon gun looked dangerous but really interesting, and the competitors whispered with excitement.

‘Needless to say,’ Justin continued, ‘anyone caught disobeying instructions or messing around while you learn to use them will be sent back to their parents on the beach. I think we’re all bored of diving for shells, don’t you agree?’

They all nodded and looked hungrily at the gun.

‘Good,’ Justin said. ‘Over the next two days you will also learn how to scuba dive, so on Saturday, you can use your new skills to compete against each other.’

They were split into smaller teams of four, and first they were taught how to use the scuba diving gear. They stood on the deck while the men moved from one competitor to the next, showing them how to put on their stab jackets, tanks and masks. Then they spent a few hours learning what each piece of equipment
did and how to breathe through it and speak to each other underwater. The masks covered their faces, and Mika felt happy when he put his on and saw the display was similar to that in a Pod Fighter headset, with targeting and mapping systems and eye-sensitive icons around the sides.

‘Feel the weight of it,’ one of the instructors said, handing Mika a harpoon gun. It was very light. ‘Now feel the weight of this,’ he said, taking the gun back and giving Mika one of the titanium-tipped bolts. It felt as if he was holding nothing. He rolled it on his palm and touched the tip of it with his finger.

‘Now watch this,’ the man said. He took the bolt from Mika’s hand and slid it into the barrel until it clicked. He pressed a couple of icons on the control panel on the side of the gun, then aimed at the crop of rocks near the boat and fired. The bolt shot off with a whisper and penetrated the rock like a hot knife into butter.

‘Pretty good, eh?’

Mika nodded.

‘Now I want you to take the gun,’ the instructor continued, ‘and feel it over with your eyes closed. In the water with the mask on, your vision is limited so you need to get to know the gun with your hands. Practise loading and unloading the bolts, and feel your way on the control panel. Use the map in your visor to aim and let your hands do the rest.’

He watched Mika feel over the gun.

‘And be careful. Make sure your gun is locked all the time until you’ve been shown how to use the controls. You’ll be taken down for target practice on the seabed, and only then, under strict supervision, are you permitted to fire.’

‘OK,’ Mika said.

The men dived down to the seabed to set up targets. When they returned to the surface, they told the competitors to swim down and stand on the red markers, which had been set out in a line at five-metre intervals. Twenty metres away were targets like those used for archery with a red bull’s-eye in the middle.

The instructors stood behind them and talked to them through their masks. When everyone was ready, they were given the order to release the safety catch on their guns and to fire. They had to shoot thirty bolts, and the first competitor to hit the bull’s-eye would win a special prize. Mika had just fired his first shot and missed the target by a metre, when a man said, ‘Well done, Audrey, you’ve just won your family two hundred credits!’

* * *

‘Two hundred credits!’ Una exclaimed, when they’d walked back to the huts and Audrey had given her the prize money. ‘What did you have to do to win that?’

‘Shoot at targets under water,’ Audrey said, enthusiastically. ‘I was the first to hit the bull’s-eye.’

‘What with?’ Una asked.

‘Harpoon guns,’ Audrey said. ‘With titanium-tipped bolts.’

‘You are kidding,’ Tasha said, horrified. ‘You’ve been using a harpoon gun? I thought you said you were diving for shells!’

‘That was a couple of days ago,’ Audrey replied. ‘But don’t worry, they’ve borrowed instructors from the army.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ Una said, incredulously. ‘They’ve got a hundred twelve-year-old kids under water with harpoon guns shooting titanium-tipped bolts?’

‘Don’t be like that, Mum,’ Audrey said. ‘It’s fun. And they’ve told us if we muck about they’ll send us back to the beach. It’s safe, I promise.’