Rosie opened her eyes to pain. She was lying on her stomach on the floor of the cage, the metal pressing crosses into her cheek. Hot lances of agony from her ankle throbbed up her calf. She gritted her teeth and rolled over, then dragged herself to the back of the cage. She sat with her back against the cool metal. They seemed to have stopped in the middle of the chute because she couldn’t see anything through the mesh of the door other than a blank metal wall. Dim light was falling from above, enough to make out Pip lying on his back next to her, a streak of dried blood on his forehead.
“Pip,” she whispered. He didn’t move. She reached out and shook his shoulder. “Pip?”
He made a soft noise and, encouraged, she shook harder. “Pip, wake up.”
“What?” he said, his voice echoing in the chute.
“Sh! Keep it down.”
He opened his eyes but didn’t attempt to get up.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“Like I’ve been electrocuted. How’s your foot?”
“I don’t think it’s broken.” She tried to wiggle her toes and almost bit her tongue as pain stabbed her ankle.
Pip rolled over with a grunt and sat up next to her, the cage swaying slightly with his movements. He looked at her foot. “We should strap it.”
“With what exactly?” The pain was making her angry.
“I don’t know but you’re not going to be able to move fast like that.”
“Really? Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that fact.”
“Don’t get pissed at me; you told me to shut the door.”
“I know.” Rosie closed her eyes for a moment. “Wish I had some of Riley’s painkillers right now.”
“You and me both.”
She opened her eyes. “Any idea where we are or why the cage stopped?”
“Yeah. I think I stopped it. Just after the bastard bot zapped us I kicked the controls again before I passed out. I think I must have hit something. Maybe I broke it.”
“So we’re stuck here?”
“What, you’d rather be caught by the grunts?”
Rosie tried to breathe through the pain. “I’d rather be just about anywhere than here.”
“You should have listened to me. I told you not to look but you had to do it.”
“Yeah, well … okay, you were right. But I saved your life when I pushed you away from the medibot.”
He raised an eyebrow. “It was your fault they came out.”
“So …” she faltered, frustrated.
“So I guess that’s two to me, one to you.”
“It’s not a game, Pip.”
His eyes were full of weariness. “It’s not? You sure? It feels like it and you keep changing the rules.”
Rosie kept her temper with difficulty. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“What do I mean?” He looked at her as if she were dense. “Well, you don’t like me, you do like me, you want to hold my hand, you want me to leave you alone. You won’t trust me, but you want me to help you. I can’t figure you out.”
Rosie wanted to slap him. “It’s hard to trust someone who lies all the time.”
“Not all the time.” His look was steady and there was a something in there she didn’t want to deal with right now.
“Did you really not know you were immune to the MalX?” she said, changing the subject.
He stared at her for a moment then looked up at the cage roof. “You still won’t believe me.”
“What do you expect? You betrayed us. My dad and aunt are dying because of you lying to me.” She paused. “You know Riley told me they tortured him.”
“Yeah, well, he wouldn’t have been the first.” Pip avoided her gaze and picked at the hem of his jeans.
“And that makes it okay?”
“I didn’t say that, but–” Rosie saw that his fingers were shaking slightly as he pulled at a loose thread. “You have no idea what they can do.”
The retort that had been on her lips faded. There was no bravado in his voice. Instead, there was a note that spoke of the experience of things she didn’t want to know about. Pain. For the first time she noticed a pale bruise on the side of his head.
“So what are you going to do?” she said. “Kill Yuang?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
His tone chilled her. It wasn’t an empty statement. “Killing him won’t bring your parents back.”
“I’m not an idiot.” His eyes glinted. “But maybe this universe is better off without him.”
“Pip …”
“Don’t,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
She leaned towards him. “Pip,” she said. “I’m sorry you had to grow up here and I’m sorry they killed your parents, but they killed my mum too, you know, and I don’t want my dad and aunt to die as well. I want to trust you – I just don’t know if I can.”
His face was impassive. “You said your mum died from the MalX.”
“She did. But it’s not just some disease that developed on Earth. It was Helios, Pip; they made it up here in a lab. That’s what Riley is really after. It’s not just about exposing Helios for doing the tests they did on you and your parents; he’s after proof that Helios made the MalX and released it on Earth.”
He frowned like he didn’t believe her.
“Don’t you see?” she said. “They sent the disease to Earth by mistake but never tried to fix it. They knew all along and are pretending that they’re helping to cure it, while all the time it was their fault.”
“Well,” he said finally. “I can’t say that surprises me.”
“Is that all you can say?” she said.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know – something! That you’ll help me. That stopping Helios is important, that you won’t just run off on some revenge trip to get Yuang and leave me to–” She stopped, suddenly more upset than angry. How could he just sit there? There were tears in her eyes and she blinked them away, annoyed at her weakness.
Pip watched her but she couldn’t read what was behind his blue gaze.
“What?” she said angrily.
“I wasn’t going to leave you,” he said. “Why would I have untied you in the lab if I was going to do that?”
“I don’t know … To get the codes?”
“But I haven’t even asked you for them.”
No, he hadn’t. Rosie looked down at her hands and took a long breath, feeling her emotions subside. Why were they arguing?
“My ankle hurts,” she said.
A small smile curved Pip’s mouth. “Yeah, so does my head.”
They sat silently for a while. All this was getting them nowhere.
“Do you have any idea where that information on the MalX might be?” she said.
He shifted, bending a knee and resting one arm on it. “I’d say most of the really important stuff, including the code key, would be in Yuang’s rooms.”
“How do we get in?”
“I know his security pass.”
“How’d you get that?”
He shrugged. “I’m observant. But we’re going to have to strap that.” He pointed at her ankle.
“I think we’re going to have to get out of the cage first.”
“Yeah, well,” Pip nodded at the panel, “it’s busted.”
“Let me look.” Rosie got to her knees and tried to shuffle to the controls but a sharp pain stabbed at her ankle. “Ow!” She sat down heavily beneath the panel and closed her eyes for a second. Her ankle felt as if someone was hammering on it.
“Let me see it.” Pip reached for her leg and rolled her jeans up.
“No! Don’t touch it.” She flinched as he lifted her leg up to rest it across his knees.
“Shut up,” he said mildly, and inspected the swelling. Through half-closed eyes, Rosie saw her ankle bone had disappeared in a mass of swollen flesh. Please don’t let it be broken, she thought.
“Right.” Pip pulled his T-shirt off.
“What are you doing?” She tried not to stare. He was slim, but not without muscle, and his pale brown skin stretched smoothly over his well-toned torso.
“It’s all we’ve got to strap it with – unless you want to use yours.”
Smart-arse, Rosie thought, and didn’t bother replying. Trying not to wince or cry out, she let him tie his shirt tightly around her ankle. The pain was hard to bear and she almost bit her tongue, but after it was strapped, it did feel better. Or at least she felt like she might be able to stand on it without passing out.
“Thanks,” she said faintly when he’d finished.
“No worries.” He flashed a quick smile and she felt butterflies stir in her stomach.
She looked away and levered herself up to kneel in front of the panel. “I think I can fix the cage,” she said, staring intently at it.
He peered over her shoulder. “How?”
“Give me some room, and I’ll show you.”
“Okay, okay.” He backed off to sit back against the wall but she heard the amusement in his voice.
Trying to ignore him, she checked out the simple command buttons. Open and shut for the door, and below it a voice activation slit which looked dead. “Give me that knife you had,” she said.
He placed it in her hand. Rosie inserted the blade carefully in the narrow groove and levered the panel off. Surely this couldn’t be too complicated.
Luckily, it wasn’t. Some parts of the wiring and chips were a mystery, but the voice and movement sectors were easy to spot. And luckily again, Pip’s kick had only knocked the connection loose. Rosie easily reconnected it. Now she just hoped their luck would hold out to get the cage moving and themselves out of it.
“Fixed.” She turned to Pip, who barely raised an eyebrow. “So now what do we tell it? How many floors up do we go?”
“I think there are four floors to ground level. We were at the bottom but the medibots would have passed our location on to Yuang. As soon as the cage stops, he’ll have guards waiting for us on whichever floor we get out at.”
“So what’s our option? We have to stop the cage to get out.”
“Yeah and when we do, we’re caught – unless.”
Rosie got a bad feeling in her gut. “Unless what?”
He smiled. “What if we get out while it’s still moving?”
“Um, translation?”
“We set it for ground level but instead of closing the door, we leave it open and when we pass the first level we jump out.”
Rosie stared at him. “Did you not notice how fast this thing goes up?”
“Yeah, but can’t you fix that? If you can fix the activator, can’t you make it go slower? Slow enough for us to get the outer door of the shaft open and jump out.”
Rosie looked at the controls. It was feasible but could she jump with her sore ankle? “I don’t know if I can move fast enough to get out.”
“That’s easy.” Pip grinned. “I’ll push you.”
He looked worryingly pleased by the idea, but really what other option did they have? “Fine.” She began to fiddle with the wiring.
It took her less time than she’d thought and in ten minutes it was done. Fingers crossed it would be slow enough. She got Pip to manually push the inner door open, then spoke into the voice slot.
“Ground level,” she said quietly, and the cage began to rise. But it was faster than she would have liked. The metal of the chute seemed to fly by. Pip appeared just as apprehensive.
Rosie held onto his waist, trying not to notice the pain that throbbed through her ankle, or that she was leaning against his naked chest. His skin was warm and the muscles hard beneath it as he shifted.
“Ready?”
“No.” Rosie tensed as he put an arm around her. He grinned.
“Too late now.” He reached up for the latch of the mesh door to the next level as the cage rose rapidly towards it and, with a grunt, thrust it open.
“Hold on!” The cage was already level and getting higher as he rolled them both out. Rosie’s foot hit the bottom of the cage and she cried out as pain shot up through her ankle. Pip took the brunt of the fall and Rosie landed half on top of him, her head smacking against his bare chest.
He groaned and they lay there for a second, stunned, then he was rolling her off him and getting up. “Come on.” He pulled her upright. Rosie kept hold of his arm as she tentatively put her weight on her right foot. It wasn’t too bad; she seemed to be able to stand.
Level one was a giant storehouse. Along the walls on either side, rows of rectangular metallic containers were stacked to the ceiling. They reminded Rosie of coffins, except at the end of each glowed a small green light. There were hundreds of them. They were stacked three rows deep on each side, leaving a walkway between them. Ahead, a robotic lifting machine sat dormant.
It was chilly and a strange smell hung in the air, like the spray her dad used to keep insects out.
“Is this the food storage?” Rosie asked.
Pip shook his head. He stared up at the containers. “That’s above ground.”
“There must be an exit at the end.” She began to limp forward, moving close to the containers in case anyone came in. At least they could hide among the rows.
Pip followed. “Want a hand?”
“No.” It hurt like hell every time she put any weight on her right foot, but she didn’t want to hang off him like some useless limpet – especially with the naked factor. She moved as quickly as she could, half walking, half hopping, and studied the containers. Next to each light was an electronic panel with letters in it. It took her a while to realise the letters were names. People’s names. She stopped at the closest container.
M Creshaw. Male DOD 06-11-2515. Study 5468.
Pip turned back. “What’re you doing?”
“They’re people,” she whispered, “in the containers. It says DOD – date of death.”
“What?” Pip came closer and peered at the small screen. In the reflected light, Rosie saw him go pale. “Bastards,” he whispered faintly, then suddenly turned and took off, running away from her through the rows coffins, reading the screens.
Rosie was about to call out to stop him when she realised what he was doing. He was looking for his parents.