The Hunting (23 page)

‘If we cared about the planet, we probably wouldn’t be eating here at all,’ Rian said, raising his eyebrows.

‘She said something about the cameras watching me,’ Genie remembered.

Marshall nodded. ‘She’s not crazy. The Fortress is probably hooking into every CCTV camera in the city, probably all over Canada. They can use face-recognition software to track you down. Should’ve had you wearing my hat and your hood earlier. My fault. They can most likely access the cameras inside there too. The new software can process one thousand faces a minute. They already know you’re in Whistler; they just want to know where. The truth is, you probably pass a camera every thirty metres in a normal city. The best you can do is keep moving, don’t let them predict your destination and travel at night; the software doesn’t work well in the dark.’ He snatched a look at her. ‘It was lucky for you it was dark last night, huh?’

Rian swore. ‘It’s like …’

Marshall shook his head and backed out of his space to the road.

‘It’s not like, it
is
. We’re moving rapidly towards a police state. Why the hell do you think I live in the country?’

‘But it’s for our safety, isn’t it?’ Renée asked.

‘When it’s for our safety, we’re all for it. But what if it isn’t? What if really bad people control it? We lived ten thousand years and never needed to know where everyone is all the time. Seems now we do. Are we any safer? Strap in and keep your heads down. We’re heading to the enemy. Anyone wants to quit, say so now, because there’s no going back.’

No one spoke. The road was quiet. The sky red. ‘Red sky in the morning – shepherd’s warning,’ Genie remembered. Typical.

‘What did the crazy lady want?’ Renée asked suddenly.

‘Money,’ Rian answered quickly. He didn’t want any discussion about it. It was too weird.

Genie was still shaken that some random homeless person had known who she was and even that she had a message for her, from her grandma no less. It was just simply impossible, but it had happened. Rian was her witness.

Marshall drove them to the hotel, entered the underground car park and kept on driving, snaking further and further down, six levels in the end. He parked in a far corner beside a caged-off section where all kinds of equipment and extractor ducts could be seen behind some dusty canvas screens.

‘Rian, can you see any cameras?’ Marshall asked.

‘I’m looking.’

They were all searching. It wasn’t well lit at this level and there weren’t so many vehicles parked. Some SUVs and three old Chryslers that were so dusty they looked they had been left there for years, their tyres deflated.

‘None. None visible.’

‘One pointed at the elevator,’ Renée declared, spotting it on a far wall.

Marshall nodded. ‘Good. Well, we shan’t be using that elevator. All out. Don’t leave anything personal behind. Genie, grab my driver’s licence out of the cubby-hole. Let’s not leave anything that can ID us. Rian, take my tool bag, won’t you.’

‘What about the licence plates?’ Rian pointed out as he picked up the heavy canvas sack.

‘You see any?’

Rian went around the back – it had gone. He looked at Marshall and smiled. The old guy was smarter than he thought. He noticed the truck had been cleaned up too and resprayed.

‘This the same truck?’

‘Ferry got carried away. Gave my son a bill for six hundred and fifty dollars. But she runs a lot sweeter. I reckon I can get at least another fifty thousand miles out of it yet.’

Moucher was out, made sure he cocked his leg on all three Chryslers and they assembled by the truck. Marshall went to investigate the wire cage they had parked by.

‘Run the checklist,’ Genie told Renée.

‘Water. Six litres. Two days’ supply of cookies. Dog biscuits. Some beef jerky for Marshall, which looks disgusting, and chocolate.’

Rian looked at her and shook his head. ‘If we ever have a threat of nuclear war, I won’t be sending you out to get the supplies.’

‘I put the chips back,’ she protested.

Genie grinned. Renée was impossible.

‘Over here – and be quick,’ Marshall called.

They hauled their stuff to an opening in the cage. At first Genie thought Marshall had cut his way in, but when he closed the wire fence again after her she saw that it was just a snug fit and made to look permanent.

He pulled a grubby tarp off a large three-metre-high section and revealed a door with an electronic lock. Marshall winked at her.

‘Security back then wasn’t so sophisticated. I came here in ninety-five. Not much has changed so far.’ He keyed in a number written on the back of his hand and somewhere inside they heard a click and something roll back. He looked relieved.

‘In and be quick. You too, Mouch.’

They entered. The door automatically closed behind them. Their noses immediately picked up on the cold air as they climbed down ten steps to an underground lobby. Lights flickered on around them and they stood there in a florescent glow, Renée amazed at the weird orange rubber flooring. Genie and Rian were checking out the elevator, mindful they had to go to Level Fourteen.

‘Don’t even try to use the elevator. It hasn’t been serviced in over thirteen, fourteen, years. We walk down. All the way.’

Genie quickly realized what this meant for Marshall. ‘Your leg?’

‘Going down is the easy part. I’ll test the elevator later, but I am not about to risk our lives on it now.’

‘What stairs?’ Renée asked.

Marshall grinned. ‘The great thing about Radspan. They used the same design for every station. Behind you, Renée. Push the big R.’

She spun around and now she could see it. A big orange R on the wall. The letters
a d s p a n
were fading beside it. She moved towards what looked like solid wall and pushed. The wall resisted a moment then slid to one side, as if it had been waiting all this time.

‘Are there cameras?’ Renée asked.

Marshall shook his head as he followed her in and made sure the door closed behind them. ‘No cameras. Privacy was something people still prized back in the nineties and, besides, who’d be watching? Only ghosts in this machine.’

He chuckled as he took up the rear and they climbed down the ever-winding stairs, Moucher’s claws echoing back as he went ahead, automatically turning on the lights as he came to each floor.

‘I can’t believe the power has been left on all this time,’ Rian commented as they passed the ninth floor. ‘I mean, why didn’t they turn it all off?’

‘It was never shut down permanently. Radspan was mothballed. Maybe some people thought we might need it again. It’s just been forgotten, that’s all. People running it were all let go and it just sits here, ticking over,’ Marshall said, halting at the tenth, his leg giving him grief.

Rian put the canvas sack down a moment, needing to swap over hands. Marshall noted the deep grooves in his skin.

‘Sorry, heavy. I know. Lot of stuff in there.’

Rian just smiled. At least he wasn’t carrying the water.

‘How many levels?’ Renée asked.

The lights suddenly went out. It felt like someone had wrapped a blanket over them it was so dark.

‘Wave your hands in the air,’ Marshall instructed.

They did and the lights flickered back on.

‘God, that was scary,’ Genie remarked, moving off down the stairs again.

‘Sixteen levels per station. I seem to recall this station tapped into the thermals. There’s superheated steam under here and that gives a steady stream of free energy. Of course, when they powered up they sucked all the energy from the grid around here as well. If we get it up and running, they’ll notice up top.’

‘That mean they’ll come looking?’

Marshall grinned. ‘Nope. They won’t have a clue. But I wouldn’t want to be in an elevator up there when it happens.’

They finally reached the fourteenth floor and dropped their loads on to the orange floor. Moucher was sniffing the door and there were signs on the wall about no one could enter unless wearing protective thermal suits.

Genie pointed to the sign. Marshall smiled.

He limped over to a plastic panel on the far wall and with a momentary struggle prised it open. There were two thermal suits hanging there.

‘Two of us are going to be cold,’ he said, annoyed.

Moucher barked.

‘Three of us, sorry, Mouch. Least you got fur. I’ve got my jacket and a hat. You three work something out, OK?’

‘How cold will it be?’ Renée asked.

‘Very,’ Marshall told her. He pulled out several pairs of gloves from the recess. ‘Enough for all of us. That’s a start, at least. Remember you lose heat from the top of your head, so keeping your head covered is the first priority. Genie should wear one of the suits. I’ll need her conscious.’

Renée looked at Rian. She took a deep breath and figured it out.

‘Give me your sweater and your jeans. I’m going to double up and I can stick this under my T-shirt.’ She found an old yellowing newspaper in the recess at the bottom.
The Vancouver Sun
, third November 1996. Someone had cut out the headline.

‘Smart girl. You’ll probably be the warmest.’

Marshall buttoned up his jacket, flipped up the collar and went to push buttons on the keypad.

‘When the door opens we have to move in quickly. So get suited up and someone grab Mouch. He might get scared.’

Genie was the first to be suited and so she grabbed the dog and held the water in the other hand.

Marshall frowned a moment. ‘Leave some of the water out here. I don’t want it to freeze.’

‘I don’t get why it has to be so cold in there?’ Renée asked.

‘We’re almost one hundred metres underground right beside superheated water. Think hot springs, lava, the hot inner core of the planet. That explain it a little? Floor Fifteen is a buffer and below that we have the power generators tapping high-pressure steam. They’ll still be working powering the hotel above as well as all this.’

Renée nodded. Joy – she had a choice: freeze to death or boil. Nothing was ever simple. Why couldn’t they have built this system on a tropical island, or someplace more civilized?

Genie looked at them all. It was like they were going into space or something. She smiled to herself and then suddenly had a thought.

‘What’s today?’

‘The sixth,’ Marshall replied.

Genie looked back at Rian, now suited and looking at stupid as she felt. ‘It’s my birthday.’

‘Really?’ Rian asked. ‘Oh my God, so it is. Genie!’

Marshall keyed in the numbers.

‘You can celebrate later. If we survive this.’

Genie waited with mixed emotions. She’d made it to sixteen. Never thought she would, but she had. Renée mouthed ‘Happy Birthday’ to her and Rian tapped her gloves. Genie didn’t mind. She thought back to her last birthday. She’d just met Rian, she’d been floating on air and even though she never had a chance to celebrate, he’d lit a candle on a muffin in the coffee shop for her and made a fuss. This wasn’t going to be a happy muffin day.

A speaker suddenly crackled into life.

‘Speak password now.’

Marshall frowned. He hadn’t expected that.

He looked back at Genie.

‘I’m sorry. I have no idea what that might be,’ he told her.

Genie knew though. The word just popped into her head. She’d heard Denis’s voice loud and clear.

‘Ingrid,’ she announced.

The door was released and it sounded like the opening of a tomb as cold gas escaped. All of them shuddered a little. Would they ever get out of here and see daylight again?

‘Welcome, Dr Milan.’

Marshall looked impressed. ‘You can tell me later how you knew that,’ he told her. ‘Ingrid was Dr Milan’s long-suffering wife.’

They entered the underground chamber, Moucher sticking real close to Marshall’s feet. It was freezing cold. Bright overhead lights came on, dazzling them. Genie recognized this as a place she’d been to before, but the others walked in to a huge surprise. This was no simple underground floor. The roof was a huge dome covered in frost, the lighting suspended from the ceiling. On the wall was a huge Radspan map with all the stations actual and under construction illuminated by blue lights. The door began to close and all of them looked back, wondering if they’d be able to open it again.

They could feel the air changing and the atmosphere was constricting; all sensed it was harder to breathe down here.

‘God! This is where you were, Genie? No wonder you were so cold.’ Renée was already shivering.

A female computer voice declared, ‘Air purity at ninety-eight per cent.’

Marshall took his bag from Rian and went over to the control system. He took out a dry rag and began to wipe the screens.

‘I might be able to raise the temperature. It shouldn’t be this cold,’ Marshall mumbled as he booted up and tried to make sense of things.

Renée stood shivering. ‘God, look at all this stuff. They must have spent millions on electronics.’

‘Looks like
Nostromo
, the spaceship in
Alien
,’ Rian whispered.

‘Don’t even say it,’ Renée told him. ‘I’m scared enough without any monsters leaping out at me.’

‘No monsters here,’ Marshall muttered. ‘Go find the kitchen. At this temperature the coffee will probably be preserved. Dr Milan used to drink a lot of coffee.’

‘Yay, latté,’ Renée shouted.

‘I think the milk might be off by now,’ Genie remarked drily.

‘Funny,’ Renée said, pulling a face.

Genie went to reassure Moucher that they weren’t really going to live in a fridge – when she saw them. Cary, Denis and Julia were sitting on a bench at the far end of the chamber. Cary was wearing a yellow padded lifesaver, but the other two their normal one-piece undergarments.

‘Er – Ri?’

Rian looked to where Genie was staring. He saw them too but there was something odd about them, aside from the fact that they weren’t moving.

Marshall saw them too, but made no comment and left it to Genie.

‘I found coffee and powdered milk,’ Renée called out from the kitchen area. ‘What do you do with powdered milk, exactly?’

‘Read the instructions,’ Genie told her.

Genie walked towards Cary and the others.