Kora didn’t know how long she lay there in the dark, rocking back and forth. She didn’t care anyway. She focused on the song her mother had taught her when she had trouble sleeping as a little girl.

  The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah.

  The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah.

  The ants go marching one by one,

  The little one stops to suck his thumb.

  And they all go marching down to the ground,

  To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Continuing to sing the song in her head and hum the tune, Kora nodded off, wondering if ants even had thumbs to suck.

  She woke with start. Blinding light shone in the room and a figure stood over her. “You okay, kid? You were screaming.”

  Clutching the blankets around her like a protective shield, Kora blinked until her eyes focused. “No. Not okay. Not okay.” She began rocking again, and flinched when the figure reached out to comfort her.

  “Kora, it’s me. Rose. It’s okay.”

  “No. Not okay. Danger everywhere.”

  “Well, that’s an understatement. We’re all in some kind of danger. But for now, we’re okay. Don’t worry. Agnes and I have plenty of early warning systems that will alert us if anything breaches the perimeter. And besides, they won’t come down here. The Thule think it beneath them to go crawling around in the dark.”

  “They’ll send someone, though. Echoes always do.”

  “True that, kid. True that. Gotta keep your chin up. Keep calm and carry on, as my nana liked to say. Hungry?”

  “No.”

  “Why don’t you get up anyway and come talk with us. I’d love to hear about Lincoln.”

  Agnes had made some sort of stew. It had the appearance of dirty dishwater but smelled great. Kora smiled at the scent of onions and meat. Without speaking, Agnes poured some into a chipped bowl with strange pictures painted in blue covering the sides and placed it in front of Kora. “Get that in ya.”

  Together, the trio ate in silence. After they had finished, Rose produced a bottle of green alcohol and a pack of playing cards.

  “Drink?”

  “I’ve never really drunk alcohol before,” Kora said.

  “Never? I heard all you Gnats were drunks. There you go, eh? Can’t believe everything you’re told.” Rose sploshed some of the green liquid into a small glass and slid it across the table. “We, on the other hand, like a good strong liquor. Puts hairs on your chest.”

  “Ew. I don’t want it, then.”

  Rose flashed a quick look to Agnes. Grinning at each other, the pair burst out in laughter. Rose continued to chuckle while she gulped down a glass of the alcohol, quickly followed by two more. “You’re a laugh, kid. It’s a figure of speech.”

  “Oh, crap. Whatever.”

  “Whatever?”

  “Like, yeah. I always had trouble with those.”

  Kora gripped the glass in a sweaty hand. Looking at the liquid, she tried to remember the last time she’d had anything stronger than coffee. Giving up on dragging a memory to the surface, she chugged back the shot. The booze burnt the back of her throat and felt like fire as she swallowed. It was a strange feeling. Like it was painful but, at the same time, pleasurable.

  In seconds, Kora’s head began to buzz. A tingly sensation buzzed up her limbs and into her brain, and she broke out into a smile. “I like it.”

  “There you go.”

  “Another?”

  Rose poured out another serving for each of them. “Time to play truth or dare. Heard of that game, kid?”

  “Yeah. I’ll play, but I’m not doing any dares.”

  “Fair enough,” Agnes said. It was her first word since Kora had come into the small room that served as both kitchen and dining room. “Rose tends to make everything hyper-sexualised anyway.”

  Kora didn’t know what hyper-whatever meant. She nodded her head to hide her ignorance.

  “I’ll go first,” Rose said. “Truth for Kora. Do you guys eat rats in Lincoln?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes.”

  Rose screwed up her face in disgust. “But they carry diseases and bugs.”

  “I don’t know about stuff like that. All I know is that the rat farmer breeds fat ones. They’re cheap, so us Lowers eat them mostly. Guinea pigs too, and all sorts of grubs and insects.”

  Rose still had her face screwed up. She shivered and shook her head. “Why not fish and vegetables? Poultry.”

  Kora gulped down her glass of booze, enjoying the brief sensation of flying before answering. “We do. Not many can afford those things. Uppers eat all that. You see, the system is rigged.” Kora licked the remnants of the sticky liquid from the glass.

  Rose took the glass off her and poured more. “Keep talking.”

  “Isn’t it my turn?”

  “She’s right,” Agnes said.

  “Okay. What truth do you want to know, kid?”

  Kora downed her drink and floated high on the sensation of the strong booze dulling her overactive mind. A calm came over her that she’d never had before. Why hadn’t Bill and Maureen let her drink? It was fantastic. All her scattered thoughts were gone. She was lucid, for a change. An idea popped into her head.

  “Agnes. Is the wasting disease real?”

  The resistance fighter raised her eyebrows and shook out her shoulder-length brown hair. Kora noticed a small tattoo below her right ear, though she couldn’t make out what it was. It was the first time she had ever seen an Echo with one. Normally, those who were lab-grown tended to like everything pure and unblemished.

  “It’s real, kid. Some of the world has gone to shit because of it.” She shook her head and looked away into the distance, as if remembering a better time. “Helstrop tell you, did he?”

  “Dickhead showed me his wife. She was in this clear coffin, all gross and shit. Breathing. But her skin was clear.”

  “That’s what it does. The skin disintegrates or something. All the tissue kinda liquifies.”

  “Gross.”

  “Gross, and a horrible way to go. But the Chinese are close to finding a cure. America too. Finland and the Germans are working on something. I don’t think it will be much of a concern in the future.”

  “Helstrop seemed to think it will or whatever.”

  “I suspect he just wants the glory. The patents would make him extremely wealthy and give him a seat on the Thule high council.”

  “The what?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Politics.”

  The trio sat in silence for several minutes. Kora was feeling bouncy and full of confidence, thanks to whatever the alcohol was. As she glanced around the room, the colours that had seemed tired and dull earlier now appeared vibrant. They were still browns and greys, but somehow appeared brighter.

  She slapped her small glass on the table. “Another.”

  “Last one for a while, kid. Absinthe is potent stuff. Makes you forget,” Rose said.

  “Perfect. Another.”

  Pouring another glassful, Rose said, “Tell me how the system is rigged in Lincoln.”

  “Dumbass. We’re slaves.”

  “I know that. Humour me.”

  “Huh?”

  “She’s asking for your opinion,” Agnes said.

  “Fine. Whatever. One percent of wealth owns most of everything. The criminals own the rest and intimidate everyone else. But that’s not the worst thing. The Echoes gave us Census.”

  “Census? When everyone is counted?”

  “Yup.” Kora’s head drooped a little. She rolled her tongue around in her mouth and took a deep breath. “Get this. If you’re lucky on Census night, your name doesn’t appear on the reassignment list. Lucky for you. Those Echo kints took my whole family away from me, one by one, until it was just me. Imagine doing that to a ten-year-old child. Leaving her to fend for herself.”

  Emboldened by the liquor warming her blood, she wanted Rose and Agnes to hear what she had to say. Even though they were Succour, they were still genetically modified humans and didn’t know what it felt like for a Gnat. “And I was lucky. Because you know why? I got taken in by an elderly couple. If it wasn’t for them, I’d still be in the orphanage. And what did I do to repay their kindness? I shitted all over them by volunteering to come to the surface like some sucker. Believed him, I did.”

  Kora slammed her palms onto her head and rocked back and forth in her seat. She hated it. The knowledge that she’d been duped, it was like she was lost in a never-ending maze of regret. She was trying to find her way free, but in every direction she turned, there was another bolted door with a sign that read Fool.

  “Who, Kora? Who did you believe?”

  “The man in the mask. Simon. He told me that I was special. Taught me how to remain calm and cope with stuff. Told me he needed me up here. But it was all lies. He sold me to Helstrop to be his DNA genetic sack thingy.”

  Rose pushed back her chair with a scrape and came over to Kora. She crouched down next to her and rested a hand on Kora’s arm. “I’m sorry, kid. Don’t feel like it’s your fault, though. You can’t be responsible for the actions of others. Only how you react to them. And I think you are one of the bravest people I have met. You, Kora, managed to convince a service AI to override their programming and help you escape.”

  “Not only that,” Agnes said. “You survived out there until we found you.”

  Rose smiled in agreement. Standing, she moved to the tiny kitchen and opened a cupboard. Inside was a thin tablet. Rose activated the screen and opened an app, then placed the device in front of Kora. “Our home.”

  The image on the screen looked like something from one of the old-world movies that played in the theatres in Lincoln. Green. So much green filled the screen. She recognised them as trees, and marvelled at how many there were. Thousands, stretching out for kilometres. In the background were rounded peaks with snow on them. A lake was spread out in a crooked line to the right.

  “Is this near here?”

  “No. Long way away. Across the country. Adirondack, we call it.”

  “It’s beautiful.” Kora scrolled through a dozen more images, each one more stunning than the last. Lakes with crystal clear water. Meadows of orange and yellow flowers. Moose and strange long-legged birds standing in mud. The next photo was a stark contrast. It showed the same scene as the first one she had seen, but this time, most of the trees were nothing more than dried-out husks. There was no snow on the mountains, and the lake water was the colour of a coffee with too much cream.

  “What happened? It’s horrible.”

  “It will end up like California in a few years. Too hot. No rain,” Rose said. “Let me explain something to you, Kora. You may feel like you have nothing. That your life in Lincoln was terrible. And I’m not denying it wasn’t. Up here in America and most countries in the world isn’t much better. I’d take a bet that its worse. You see, the Thule have all the power. They run all the industries. Control food production. Utilities. Finance. They got everything they wanted.” Rose thumped her fist on her sternum. “I’m modified. My parents used their eggs and sperm to produce me, but the Thule told them what I was to be. The department controlled everything. Instead of nourishing and nurturing me, teaching, passing on wisdom and knowledge, I was shipped off to schools to fend for myself. We don’t get to choose our vocation. It’s assigned to us by the Thule before we’re even grown in the lab.”

  “I’m meant to be a geologist.” Agnes scoffed. “Yawn. Boring.”

  “I was supposed to be a professional gymnast,” Rose said. “Suffice to say, we didn’t become what we were meant to be.”

  Kora couldn’t help but grin at the two resistance fighters. They grinned back.

  “Guess we’re not so different after all,” Kora said.

  “Nope. I took those photos over a few years while employed by the UCA Geology Department. Always looking for the next deposit of mineral wealth, even though most attention had shifted to the sea floor. They’re even mining on Mars and the Moon now,” Agnes said.

  “You joined Succour because of the dead trees?” Kora asked.

  “Mostly, kid. Mostly. That, and after I saw first-hand how others were treated. Something had to be done.”

  “Amen to that, sister.” Rose clinked her glass with Agnes, then downed her drink. She took the tablet and activated another app. The screen showed a view of a port bustling with activity. Dozens of ships were anchored, with containers being loaded under massive bright white floodlights. Rose toggled the camera angle and zoomed in on a long ship with strange-looking silos. It was emblazoned with the name ‘Vera Lynne’.

  “Suit up, kid. Our ride is here.”

  “I’m a little drunk, I think.” Kora tried standing to test her balance and had to put out a hand to stop from falling over.

  “You really are a laugh,” Rose said, smiling. “Here. This will sober you up. Little present from the Russians.” Rose jabbed a stim into Kora’s arm.

  Instantly, Kora felt invigorated. The warm buzz in her gut remained, but the haze began to evaporate from her mind. Opening another cupboard, Rose passed Kora her EV suit and rebreather. Kora noticed that the resistance fighter didn’t give her the helmet. It lay in pieces on an internal shelf.

  “Put this on over your EV,” Agnes said. She handed Kora a pair of bright red overalls with three black stripes running down the legs. Once Kora had both items on, she wriggled the ear bud in and strapped on her breathing mask.

  Rose checked everything was in place, then clamped a chunky watch to Kora’s wrist. “ID,” she explained.

  “Stay close to us and do everything we tell you, okay?”

  “Understood.”

  “Good. You are now Rita Barret from Boise, Idaho. Driver. Don’t forget. Repeat it back to me.”

  “Rita Barret. Boise, Idaho. Driver. Birth date?”

  “We don’t celebrate birthdays. It’s not significant.”

  “Fun lot you Echoes are, eh?”

  “Rita Barret.” Rose handed her a commpad.

  As they left the hideout, Kora felt the familiar tug for home. She missed Lincoln and her friends. Walking down the tunnel between Rose and Agnes, she knew she was doing the right thing.

  “You there, Doug?”

  “I’m here, Kora.”

  “I missed you, bud.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Lincoln City.

  Pacific Sea Floor Mining Complex.

  The first storm broke through the wall so suddenly, Eli barely registered what was happening before the second followed through moments later. Instead of wasting precious ammunition, the defenders had unfurled every fire hose on hand and had them ready. The first worm opened its huge maw, filled with flat slabs of teeth the size of dinner plates. Eli hit it with a blast of water. Immediately, the storm emitted a shriek and writhed, trying to escape the liquid. It shrieked again and threw its elongated body towards the blast doors. They didn’t budge. Keeping the torrent of water trained on the modified beast, Eli swept the flow along the length of the worm until it was coiled up in a tight ball. The second worm fared no better, with Pelle and Colter using their hoses to make it knot up into a ball too.

  “Hostiles!” Ley warned as three mercs dropped out of the tunnels the storms had created. Bullets tore into the makeshift barrier, sending chips of wood and steel flying into the air.

  Ley grabbed Eli’s combat vest and yanked him out of the line of fire. She popped up and fired a burst at the mercs, mainly to distract them. While the group had waited for the attack, they had discussed their strategy. Firing bullets had been ruled out for being pointless. Not with the Thule tech.

  Pelle and Colter turned their hoses onto the mercs and increased the pressure. The torrent that now flowed from the hoses was impressive. It knocked the mercs onto their asses, and prevented them from gaining purchase. Problem now was the water had nowhere to go. The area in front of the blast doors was soon flooded.

  Seeing the pools gave Eli another idea. “Keep hosing them.”

  “Hell yeah,” Colter said, and briefly redirected the nozzle from the mercs to the worms.

  “More incoming,” Ley warned. “Second hole.”

  Her rifle rattled, spitting out bullets, as two more mercs dropped out of the tunnel. Unclipping his taser pistol, Eli jammed the trigger on and threw it into the water. The electricity wouldn’t do anything to the mercs with their Thule tech, but that wasn’t his plan. The coiled stone worms jolted, then their bodies went straight and rigid, springing open from their knotty balls like a cut spring. They slammed the five mercs against the wall as they did so. The two who had just entered lay unmoving. Their suits protected them from a lot, but anything would struggle to survive being hit by half a tonne of flesh and bone. The mercs were no exception.

  Ley sprinted forwards and, swinging her hips like an old-world baseball player, cracked a desk leg over the head of the closest one. The merc’s head snapped back, and he collapsed. As she was turning to swing at the other two, shots rang out. Ley dropped her club and stumbled.

  Blind rage descended over Eli. He lost all sense of calm and reason. His only thought was to kill whoever had shot Ley. His eyes locked on the two rising mercs. One had their short-barrelled rifle up, pivoting to meet Eli as he charged. Instead of dropping his shoulder, Eli leapt and lashed out with a side kick, knocking the merc back onto his butt A split-second later, Nox clamped his teeth down on the rifle and tugged. Colter, Jade and Pelle attacked the other merc.

  Eli took the opportunity to grab Ley under her arms and drag her behind a barricade. She gasped and unstrapped her combat vest. “I’m okay. Vest took the shots. Hurts like a bitch, though.”

  She pulled the high-grade kevlar off the internal armour and showed Eli. A tight, three-round burst was centred over her heart, and was already showing signs of a nasty bruise. Ley strapped it back down, grimacing. She charged her rifle and nodded to Eli. They stood and laid down covering fire for Colter, Jade and Pelle. Eli gave the signal to fall back to the final blockade, and sprinted after them.