The Three Most Wanted (9 page)

I tried to look sympathetic and said nothing.

“I’m off to the little forest room.” Bane got to his feet.

“Me too.” I stuck my elbow in Jon’s ribs as discreetly as possible.

“Huh?” Jon looked up.

“Off to the little forest room,” repeated Bane.

“Oh, yeah, and me.” Jon got to his feet and walked confidently up to Bane, who’d made sure there wasn’t anything between them before speaking. They went in one direction and I headed off in another.

When I got back they were both just returning. Juwan and Dominique had their heads together, talking rapidly in French. As we approached they bounced to their feet and walked slowly to meet Bane and Jon.

I headed that way as well. What was up?

Juwan raised his hands and shoved Jon, hard.

Jon went down in a heap as Bane lunged at Juwan to stop him, then grabbed at Jon to steady him—managed to do neither. I raced to them and helped Jon up, my heart pounding against my ribs.

“His ankle seems to be just fine,” said Juwan deliberately, “I’d say—what was the name again? Jonathan?—has a little trouble with his
eyesight.”

***+***

7

STRANGE AND WONDERFUL

“What
are
you wittering on about?” said Bane scathingly. “I’d think you’d know his name by now!”

“Are you okay, Josh?” I rounded on Juwan as well. “What did you do that for!”

“To prove he can’t see anything,” said Juwan.

“Took us a while to put our finger on it,” Dominique added, “but we eventually figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” Louis emerged from the forest with an armful of firewood.

“Louis, reintroductions are needed—meet Margaret, Bane and Jonathan,” said Dominique.

“Huh?” His eyes bulged.
“Who?”

“Margaret Verrall, Bane Marsden and Jonathan Revan,” said Juwan. “Ring any bells?”

“By the Chairman’s bits, do you three have any idea how much you’re worth?” choked Louis, the wood slipping from his arms.

Thoroughly wild-eyed by now, Bane slipped his hand inside his jacket. I caught his arm, staring warily at the three New Adults, so smug and excited. So... oblivious.

“I suggest you tell us just what you’re thinking of doing next,” I said.

“Well, we won’t
tell
on you,” snorted Dominique.

“We’ll help you!” said Juwan.

“Ooh, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea!” said Louis.

“Oh, don’t be such an ass,” snapped Dominique. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Who’s going to know? Anyway, think of Piers.”

Louis hung his head.

“What can we do?” asked Juwan.

“Forget you saw us!” Bane’s hand was still in his jacket.

I gave his arm a squeeze. “Let’s get our stuff and get out of here.”

“Oh, come on,” protested Juwan, “We want to help. At least let us get you a whole load of food tomorrow.”

“Then you can go off if you want and we’ll forget we ever met you,” said Dominique. “But you need the food, don’t you? You eat like you do.”

So much for not acting half-starved. I put my head close to Bane’s and Jon’s.

“We do need the food,” I said softly in English.

“But can we trust them?” snarled Bane.

“If they did get us a full bag of food we could go the best part of a week without risking being recognized again,” pointed out Jon. “Get us a quite a lot closer to Zurich, wouldn’t it?”

“
If
we can trust them,” growled Bane.

A rather circular conversation. I turned to the other three and went back to Esperanto. “Why do you want to help us so much? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”

“
I
know it’s dangerous,” said Louis glumly.

“So do we.” Dominique gave him a scornful look. “We’ll help all the same.”

“We
want
to help,” said Juwan.

“But
why
?”

Dominique glanced at Juwan, who looked away.

“We’d a friend—Juwan’s best mate, actually—he... rather unexpectedly failed his Sorting. Someone that close gets taken—you can’t pretend it’s okay anymore.” She looked grim, no trace of a laugh on Louis’s face now and Juwan’s face was pinched.

“A lie detector would come in handy right now, but I think they’re telling the truth,” I said to the other two in English.

“She sounds sincere,” said Jon.

Bane rubbed a hand through his ragged hair, pushing his now-useless cap off. “I’d say they meant it too, it’s just... what’s at stake...” He swung around to the others and switched language again.

“Do you three understand what will happen to us if we’re caught? Jon and I will just be chopped up while we’re asleep—we’ll die but it’ll be painless. But do you understand what they’ll do to Margo? They will kill her piece by piece by piece and she’ll feel
everything
. Just stop and think about that before you tell me you
understand!”

Louis looked sick and Dominique and Juwan remained silent for a moment. My guts had twisted themselves into an icy knot.

“We
do
understand,” said Dominique.

“We want to make sure that
doesn’t
happen,” said Juwan. “Since even we got ID’d in one of the last towns, I think you need our help.”

“Um... the dinner’s burning,” put in Louis.

“Let’s talk while we eat.” Dominique hurried to the stove.

Bane and I exchanged looks.

“Oh, come on! Have one more good meal,” said Juwan.

Our stomachs propelled us after him and the conversation was abandoned until our plates were clean.

“Really, we’re happy to stick with you.
Think about it
,” Juwan insisted, as Bane opened his mouth. “They’re not looking for a group of six and you wouldn’t even need to come into towns to resupply.”

“You realize it’s dangerous?” I said.

Dominique made a ‘zut’ noise. “Not for
us
. If you did get caught, we could act astonished as anything. Three poor gullible New Adults taken in by the wily fugitives.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate just how pissed off the EuroGov are right now.”

“I’m not. I read your book. But how could they possibly prove we knew who you were? We might get a black mark by our names but we’re prepared to risk
that
, aren’t we?”

“Definitely,” said Juwan.

“Yeah, I s’pose so,” said Louis. “Seeing that... well, Piers and all.”

Getting over the shock of our discovery... This might actually be a stroke of luck. Safe in our group of six we could use the hiking trails, making much better time and putting less strain on Jon, and keep well supplied with food—without having to go into towns that were fast becoming death-traps.

I glanced at Bane, who sat frowning.

“You can trust us, seriously,” said Dominique. “Look, I’ll... tell you a big secret...” She glanced at Juwan, who frowned, but after a long moment, jerked a nod. “Juwan and I, after uni... we
are
going to join the Resistance.”

Louis’s long-suffering mutter of “lunatics” was enough to show he’d no such plans himself. Juwan was still frowning—the need for trust ran both ways now.

“So y’see, you can stick with us,” said Dominique firmly.

Bane and I glanced at each other and at Jon.

“Really doesn’t sound like such a bad idea,” said Jon, in English. Considering those flat trails, his neutrality was impressive.

“Does sound good,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Bane slowly and looked at the other three again. “Well, probably-maybe, but we’re going to sleep on it.”

“Fair enough,” said Juwan.

“Fantastique,”
said Dominique.

Louis just shrugged.

Bane and I shared watches again, though we’d already agreed it would be the last time if the foray to Clermont went uneventfully and we stayed with the others. The next morning we were nodding over our coffee and croissants worse than Jon!

Helping Dominique wash dishes woke me up a bit. Louis and Juwan were stuffing their sleeping bags loosely into their three rucksacks to make them look full—backpackers didn’t generally leave their tents pitched in the forest.

“Let’s have your scentSeal bag,” Juwan called to Bane.

Bane chucked it across. Dominique eyed the limp plastiFabric.

“You
were
totally out, then.”

“Certainly were,” I told her.

“Poor little beggars!”

I flicked suds at her and we both giggled. Well, I voted for staying with them. We could be in Rome before we knew it. Three willing confederates, they must be heaven sent, even if their future career plans were a little... disagreeable.

“Are you
sure
?” I couldn’t help saying, when they stood ready to depart. “I am worried you’re underestimating how dangerous helping us could be for you.”

“We’re sure, Margo,” said Dominique.

“Of course,” said Juwan, his brow furrowed. “You three... you three make me feel so ashamed.”

“
Ashamed?
Of what?”

“Of myself. Especially... especially
you
, Bane. I mean, your friends are sent to the Facility and what do you do? You spring them.
All
of them! Me? My best friend’s sent to the Facility and what do
I
do? Carry right on planning my hiking trip. Pah.” He spat on the ground.

Bane went red. “Don’t put me on a pedestal, Juwan. I always knew Jon would fail Sorting but it was only when they took Margo that it actually occurred to me to get off my rear and do something about it. And I only took them all—only took
Jon
, even—because Margo insisted on it.”

“You should’ve left me behind,” said Jon.

“Oh, shut up,” said Bane and I in unison.

Juwan just shrugged. “Well, it’s a darn sight more than I did for Piers.”

“I suppose... it’s not too late to...?” I ventured.

Juwan’s face tightened even more. “It is. Just before we set off they... he... his parents received...
it.”

I swallowed. “I’m sorry.” What else was there to say?
“Requiescat in Pace.”

“Requiescat in Pace,”
murmured Jon.

“Yeah,” muttered Juwan. “Well, we’d better go.” As an afterthought, he pulled out his phone and handed it to Bane. “Here, catch up on the news while we’re away. See you in a bit.”

They set off briskly through the forest. We’d set up camp some way from the trail last night, due to the position of a stream in the valley bottom, and what’d seemed a nuisance then was convenient now. No need to move our camp. We could’ve all packed up our stuff, but the others clearly wanted to leave their tent behind as an indicator of good faith. Not just the tent... Bane whistled as he turned the phone in his hands before placing it very carefully in his pocket.

Jon offered to stay awake, so Bane and I collapsed back into our sleeping bags and slept for another two oh-so-welcome hours before being chased out of the tent by the heat. At the tent entrance, I paused and reached back to poke Bane, tilting my head towards the outside. He peered over my shoulder for a moment, then grinned.

Jon sat on a fallen bough, his head nodding... nod, nod, nod... jerk, up he sat, just before he would have fallen off entirely. A few seconds later, nod, nod, nod...

“Looks like we got the more comfortable nap.”

Jon sat up straight yet again as Bane climbed out of the tent. “I’m awake…” He grinned through a yawn, “…
enough
.”

“I certainly wouldn’t be any
more
awake this morning.” Bane stretched until his joints cracked.

“Well, I figured the very longest I could sleep in one go would be the time it took me to fall off this log onto the floor, which seemed safe enough.”

“Fine, with
your
ears,” Bane agreed. A professional hunter would have trouble sneaking up on Jon. Or a poacher, which is what many hunters had become when the EuroGov banned all hunting.

I shook out the stove and packed it up, then did the same with the other one. “Hey, there’s a leftover croissant. I think it’s got your name on it, Jon.”

“We can split it in three.” But he came over so quickly I shoved the whole thing into his hand.

“Just eat it. Nice fresh food on the way, remember. And they left the last of the old stuff here in case we were hungry.”

Jon shrugged and tucked in.

“I’m glad we met those three,” I said, as we lounged around like basking lizards. “I like them. Doms and Juwan especially.”

“I wasn’t starting to fancy our chances,” said Jon. “If I’m honest about it.”

“I like Juwan and Dominique,” said Bane. “I don’t care so much for Louis.”

“
Well, ”
I conceded. “He’s prepared to help us, though—for that I can put up with a lot of dumb jokes.”

“Yeah, true enough!” Bane took out Juwan’s phone. “News, anyone? This thing’s got TV.”

I sat close beside him so I could see the little screen and Jon came close enough to hear the audio.

There wasn’t much happening in the world, though, good or bad. Still, that was a nice change after the last... was it really almost two months? Nothing about us at all, until...

“Prosecutors in the Margaret Verrall escape case announced today…”

“Is that what they’re
calling
it?” I interrupted the newscaster. Bane sniggered. Jon was snoring softly: even the novelty hadn’t kept him awake for long.

“…that they expect to set a date for the trial of Major Lucas Everington, former Commandant of Greater Salperton EGD Facility, sometime in the next two weeks. The Major is charged with Category One Sedition for his apparent role in masterminding the Greater Salperton Facility escape.”