Flare, p.23
Flare, page 23
part #3 of Peril Series
‘We’ve all seen what you did to Lee.’
‘You mean when I fought for my life?’ Her voice came out raspy, like she’d spent hours screaming, but she thought that had only been in her head.
‘You didn’t have to kill him.’
Meri’s stomach lurked and she almost threw up the water she had drunk. ‘He’s dead?’ She’d only been able to sleep because Ade had told her Lee was hanging on in there.
Adam appeared pleased by the reaction he’d got. He gestured for the procession to make its way down the hall, Meri in the middle like some wild creature that had to be restrained. ‘I misspoke. Almost killed him.’
Meri wanted to kick him just for that. ‘He was my friend too, you know.’
‘You can’t be friends with Ebola. It won’t end well.’
‘Oh just shut up. You have no idea.’ Reaching her goal, she banged the door of the bathroom in his face.
Clean clothes had been left for her, this time including a bra. Someone had noticed the oversight, probably the hatchet-faced guard. Meri decided to take her time over washing. Seeing the door had a flimsy lock on the inside, she slid it across. They wouldn’t put cameras in here, would they? That would be just too much of an invasion of privacy. Deciding not – it was used by female members of staff too from the evidence of the hand towels in the bin – she made quick use of the shower, protecting her hair and the microchip in a towel turban. The water ran a little pink to begin with, showing that she hadn’t cleared off all evidence of the nosebleed as she had believed. She must’ve looked pretty frightening to her cattle prod guards.
Not that what they thought mattered. Far more important was the matter of whether she damaged herself? It had certainly felt like something had ruptured last night. Holding her hands out, she waited for the peril light to emerge. It took much longer than usual but thankfully it came.
Relief filled her. OK, she hadn’t, but it did feel like a very good idea to rest to recharge.
‘I’ll have to tell Kel I don’t come with much battery life,’ she told her reflection. The pale girl with big grey-blue eyes looked back at her, not smiling at her joke.
Someone banged on the door. ‘Haven’t you finished in there yet?’
Adam clearly didn’t have a girlfriend if he had to ask – no surprise with his people skills.
‘No, I haven’t. Girls take longer than boys in bathrooms – that’s general knowledge.’
‘If you’re up to anything in there, I’m breaking the door down.’
Meri would like to zap him, just enough to make him jump, but she had to restrain herself. ‘You really don’t want to do that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Use your imagination. I’m doing girl stuff and I really don’t like being disturbed.’
Meri left it vague, leaving him to imagine all sorts of embarrassing female preoccupations. She spent a leisurely ten minutes combing her hair and brushing her teeth.
There were no more bangs on the door.
Ade had told Kel all about his visit to Meri, including the fact that it didn’t look like she was getting proper medical attention.
‘They didn’t check her? But Lee almost killed her!’ Kel fumed for the tenth time as he paced the cell.
‘They take the view she almost killed him. To be frank, I think everyone’s too freaked out to approach her. If they check her over it would be under sedation.’
Kel thrust his fingers through his dishevelled hair. ‘Better they leave her alone then.’
‘Yeah, I thought so. I think she was OK, apart from that freaky eye thing.’
‘I’ve seen that before. It’s just a side-effect.’
Ade bounced a tennis ball he’d filched from a desk on the way back to the cell. ‘I’ve been thinking about all this. Our power is based on UV, right?’
‘So they say.’ Kel caught the ball on the next rebound and threw it back.
‘Everywhere I look in the press it says UV is a cause of cancer and we should avoid it.’
‘True. But I think the “we” in this case are people who didn’t emerge from Atlantis. Ordinary humans. Cancer would’ve got us all long before now if we couldn’t handle it.’
‘So we are a kind of side-shoot? I wonder what our DNA looks like?’
‘Yeah, that is so my first concern at the moment.’
Ade sighed and threw the ball to Kel. ‘Here, take it out on that, not on me.’
The ball smashed against the door with a sharp rap then ricocheted off several walls before falling neatly in Kel’s hand.
‘Better?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I did have a point I was trying to make. The cancer thing proves we’re closer than we think – Teans and Perilous. So I was wondering: if Teans have the power to push UV out at such intensity it can burn people to death, then maybe we have the same ability, just lesser?’
Kel sat on the floor like a puppet with strings suddenly cut. ‘You’re right. Meri picked up my patterns, but fainter than mine. They didn’t stay.’
‘We push power somehow to our skin markings.’
‘That’s instinct.’
‘True, but it shows we can do it. Meri pushed power to us when we touched. What about the other way round? Did you push your power to her, making the markings come?’
Kel dropped his head to his knees. What happened when he and Meri shared their power? Didn’t his help channel hers? To do so it must go into her a little to keep things on track.
‘Kel?’
‘I’m just thinking. The time when we did this…’ he pointed to his chest, ‘…that was before we learned about sharing our power safely. It was my fault as much as hers as I didn’t help control the exchange. After that, we got better. I help focus her innate strength. So, yes, I think I shared my patterns with her.’
‘But our ability to do that is also a defence, isn’t it? You protect yourself against her hurting you by mistake. Maybe we aren’t so vulnerable in the face of Tean attacks as we think?’
‘Are you saying that we don’t need to fear her, because you’re wrong: her strength is a million times more than mine.’
‘I’m not downplaying your girl’s strength. I just think your power – our power – shows itself differently and has its own merits. But you’re missing my main point here. If we Perilous think we have a way of defending ourselves against full bloods like Meri, then why are we freaking out trying to kill her? Our playing field will be level and we can negotiate a truce.’
Kel rubbed his markings. ‘I like the idea, Ade. Don’t get me wrong. But it would take more than one Perilous to stop her if she wants to harm us. Her power is just way more than I can handle unless she works with me. Meri’s no threat as we both know, but what if there was someone else without her good nature?’ He still hadn’t shared, only hinted to Ade, that there was another, and that – newsflash – her father was alive. That was something he could only do if she gave him permission.
Ade was on a roll, believing he was really on to something. ‘Then what about us working together? If we shared our power for defence, you know, like ants lifting a branch together? We did it once, didn’t we, when you channelled Meri’s strength to me? I could feel you had your own power too.’
Kel gave Ade a half smile. ‘Oh no: I know what you’re going to suggest.’
‘You do?’
‘You’re going to say we have to hold hands and practice. The guards are going to get a very odd idea about us.’
‘And you care what the guards think?’
‘Hell, no.’
‘I didn’t think so.’
Their experimenting didn’t produce immediate results. They could only get the power flowing when they got each other fired up to fight, which had its own problems in the close confines of the cell. It helped that both were already angry about finding themselves in this situation, both scared for their lives and those of their friends. Finally, after several hours of trying, they called it a day.
‘I’ve got a headache,’ admitted Ade.
‘But there’s something in this, isn’t there?’ said Kel, chugging back some water.
‘Yes. Not sure how to access it though.’
‘I’m not kissing you.’
Ade snorted. ‘Glad to hear it. It couldn’t be obvious or our people would’ve discovered it decades, centuries ago.’
Kel thought back to the mosaic Rio Cruz had tried to hide. ‘Maybe our people did from time to time rediscover this, but I bet those in power have always wanted to keep it quiet. I mean, what point is there to keeping ourselves a separate people without a war to fight?’
‘That’s twisted – centuries of bloodshed for no reason.’
‘That’s what happens when you run up against vested interests. That’s what chased Meri out of the palace in Jerez. Are you really ready to make peace with Meri and her people, Ade?’
‘If I get the chance. I’m tired of fighting and I don’t want to lose my best friend when I can’t even see the point of this struggle anymore. It’s making both sides ugly.’
Kel rested his head against the wall, allowing himself a small smile of satisfaction. ‘I’m glad.’
‘I can seek out all the new angles I like for a negotiation but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not the heir any longer.’
‘As Meri discovered, sometimes you have to take what isn’t being given to you by those who block your path. Many of her people hate her and her ideas, tried to kill her for them, but she’s stuck to her principles. I think she’s making headway.’
‘Or was until we kidnapped her.’
‘There is that. If the Teans come to get her, I’m not expecting them to be in a merciful mood towards us Perilous.’
‘You mean it’s all right for them to make her life a misery but not us?’
‘Exactly.’
On the third day on the base, Adam informed Ade and Kel that their trial would take place at noon and handed them a set of clean formal clothes. They didn’t thank him for the intelligence.
‘I guess that means my uncle has got here.’ Ade held up the navy trousers to check they’d fit. ‘I can’t imagine him letting the American branch of his empire try me without him present.’
‘Why not?’ Kel chose a pair of black chinos from the selection they’d been given.
‘Hands them too much power and he has to be wary of Commander Nile and his ambitions.’
Trained in the intricate politics of being a Perilous leader since he was little, Ade was quicker to spot the undercurrents in this situation than Kel. Ade was right to be suspicious, Kel thought. Now he’d seen them in action, it was surprising really that the Americans hadn’t made a bid before this to overthrow the old ruling family. They could fairly claim to be the richest and most numerous branch of the Perilous. It must gall them that most decisions were taken by a Nigerian king sitting in his homes in Africa and Europe. Perhaps this situation had the makings of its own Boston Tea Party, a bid for independence from Osun if he didn’t handle it right? It was his chosen heir who had defected; that had to undermine confidence in his judgement.
‘So what do we do?’ asked Kel.
‘No idea, because I don’t know what the tactical situation will be. Will my uncle decide on clemency for us on the grounds of diminished responsibility?’ Ade shook out a clean shirt. ‘Even if he does, and the Americans let him, that still leaves us with the problem of Meri. We can’t bolt and abandon her here. Nile sounds fixed on executing her. Many Perilous would applaud and not be interested in the truth behind the incident with Lee.’
Kel had already reached that conclusion. ‘And your uncle?’
‘I’m sorry, Kel, but if he listens only to Nile’s version of events, he might go that far, endorsing the decision to execute. That’s why we need to get to him first.’
‘And if he doesn’t listen? What if he thinks self-defence is no defence?’
‘Then we’ll have to rescue Meri and fight our way out. I don’t need to ask if you’re up for that?’
‘No, you don’t.’ Kel didn’t put on the shirt left out for him but stuck to a black T-shirt, his bodyguard uniform. He was going to be protecting the people he cared about most today by the sounds of things.
Ade paused, hands arrested over the final button. ‘Kel, what if your father’s here?’
‘Then I have to hope he won’t fight me.’
‘I wasn’t thinking of you. If anyone is going to kill Meri without waiting for due process, then I’m guessing it would be him. He must’ve worked up a pretty big hatred of her by now.’
‘Undeserved – unearned.’
‘Yeah, but a father’s love isn’t rational. He’s functioning on instinct. She, as far as he’s concerned, is what took you away. With her gone, problem solved.’
‘If he thinks that then he’s an idiot.’
‘Idiot hearts tend to overrule good heads.’ Ade smiled bleakly. ‘Look at me. It’s my heart that told me to come after you both and see how that turned out?’
One of the problems, Kel discovered, of being a prisoner was that no one thought to explain what was going to happen next. They knew to expect a trial. Kel imagined a courtroom somewhere in the barracks, a line of scowling faces and a swift verdict; what he had not expected was to be escorted to the parade ground and made to stand in the reception committee for the approaching royal entourage.
Adam checked his tablet. He was tracking the cars from the nearby local airport to the base. ‘The king is on his final approach, sir.’
Nile nodded and made his last inspection of the top brass and others lined up to greet the king.
‘Why are we here?’ Kel whispered to Ade.
‘So my uncle can see from the start that we're unharmed and that we’re under the commander’s control. It’s all about flexing muscles. But let’s not complain. My uncle will have to greet me, at least acknowledge I’m here. That’ll give me a chance to speak to him first.’ Ade glanced a the stern expression on Nile’s face. ‘At least, I hope.’
The first of the cars was now visible at the top of the rise, headlamps catching the sunlight. The road leading to the base cut right through the forest, running down a steady incline. Lined by trees, it looked a little like the approach to Windsor Castle or an English stately home through the park, fitting for a royal visitor.
Kel scanned the crowd gathered. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it but his instincts were priming him for a sudden turn of events. He had to be ready.
‘I suppose it was too much to hope they’d let Meri join us?’ Kel was desperate to see her. Ade had been able to wheedle out of Adam the basic facts about her status. According to him, she was fine, seemingly unharmed after the attack, taking food and drink, using her bathroom and exercise breaks, well enough to insult him.
Ade didn’t reply to Kel’s remark because no answer was necessary. Treating Meri as a normal person only went so far. The Perilous felt much happier when she was locked up.
Kel counted the approaching vehicles: six. Osun had brought a large party with him, aside from the two cars Nile sent to escort the king from the airport on his secret visit. That made it even more likely his father might be among them, demoted though he was to ranks. Perhaps even Ade’s little sister, the new heir, would be there for such an important mission. If so, she might have Kel’s sister Jenny with her – a not-so-welcome addition to the family reunion, as she would side with Rill against Kel over Meri. She’d already made her feelings plain about that at Christmas when they’d argued bitterly about it.
‘So the gang’s all here,’ said Ade under his breath.
Kel smiled and folded his arms. It was good to feel back in sync with his oldest friend. ‘Looks like it.’
‘Uh-oh, what’s this?’
Ade was not the only one to be surprised. Just as the cars approached the final fifty metres to the gate, the trees to one side of the road began to bend and buckle. Kel had an inappropriate recollection of the elephants’ approach in the childhood classic, The Jungle Book. But it wasn’t elephants.
Two tanks bumped and growled their way onto the road. One swivelled to point its gun turret at the cars, the other targeted the barracks. Armoured cars followed, then soldiers on foot. The Teans had brought an army. Overhead, Kel could hear the whop-whop of approaching helicopters, and he didn’t think on this occasion that they were piloted by Perilous.
The cars stopped. A third tank rumbling out of the woods blocked retreat.
‘How…? What…?’ asked Ade.
‘I think we pissed off Papa bear – or maybe Mama. Yeah, this must be Veronica’s doing.’
‘Veronica?’
‘Meri’s scary stepmother.’
‘But you said Papa Bear first.’ His friend was damnably acute.
‘Yes, I did. See, there’s something I didn’t mention…’
Too late now. The Teans were opening negotiations via loudspeaker.
‘Perilous base, you will return Meredith Marlowe, Kel Douglas and Adetokunbo Waters to us unharmed or we’ll open fire.’
Nile had recovered from his shock that the secret visit was not so secret after all and realized that he was offering the Teans targets in plain sight. He quickly scrambled his troops to take up defensive positions. Kel and Ade stayed where they were not feeling obliged to obey his orders to get back to their cell.
‘This is weird: Teans storming in to save me,’ said Ade.
‘Hate to break it to you, mate, but they probably wouldn’t mention you if it weren’t for me and Meri.’
Ade grinned. ‘Just Meri, Kel. They’d not park tanks on our lawn for anyone else. This is some woman called Veronica’s doing? I think I love her already.’
There were some scuffles further down the convoy of cars. Soldiers had forced Osun and his people out of their cars at gunpoint. While they were doing that, a helicopter landed on the barren patch of earth before the gates. Veronica and Blake emerged, Blake in a sleek black all-terrain wheelchair that looked like it was probably armed.
‘That’s so James Bond,’ sighed Ade in appreciation. ‘Who’s the dude in the chair?’
