‘It’s not him!’ Nathan shouted again.
He wouldn’t trick me this time. Eye on the sight. Finger on the trigger. The world shimmered as I blinked through the helmet’s visor. The hollow-eyed boy staring through me had an ashen face with a cinnamon dusting of freckles beneath rust-coloured hair. He wore shorts and a singlet and clutched a one-armed blue teddy bear.
Not Evan. Not even close. I quickly lifted my visor. Fresh air flooded in.
‘See?’ Nathan said.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ I said.
Panic swept Nathan’s face. Like he thought I’d cracked.
‘What?’
‘He’s a Jack.’
‘He could be a Special,’ Nathan said. ‘Then it’s murder.’
Murder: the word belonged to a world that wasn’t mad and at war. My eyes flicked from the boy to Nathan. His rifle was shouldered and his hands were up in surrender.
‘Danby, you don’t want that on your conscience. Let’s just go. Keep riding. Please.’
The way the kid stared. Little bastard communing with his hivemind and showing them where we were. Shoot him and at least he wouldn’t be able to tell them which way we’d gone. We might be able to take the quads off road. Get lost in the forest. ‘We can’t let him see where we go,’ I said. ‘You know I’m right.’
The boy’s shorts had darkened. He was standing in a puddle of piss. Jack trying to buy a few more minutes so he could get his choppers in the air.
‘Please,’ Nathan said. ‘Let me check him. Please.’
I faltered.
‘Thirty seconds,’ I said, not taking my rifle sight off the kid’s chest. ‘Hurry.’
Nathan whipped off his helmet, pulled the stethoscope from his backpack and put it around his neck.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked as he approached the boy.
Kid’s bladder might’ve betrayed fear but his face remained blank.
‘We’re not going to hurt you,’ Nathan said, kneeling by him on the road. ‘I’m a doctor. I just need to listen to your heart, okay?’
The kid didn’t react as Nathan slid the metal disc inside his singlet. I blinked sweat from my eyes. Steeled myself for what I’d have to do in a few seconds. Like the woman I’d shot in Samsara. A mercy killing. The right thing.
Shoulders hunched, Nathan slid the stethoscope across the kid’s chest. He scooched around, listened to his back. Finally, he lifted his eyes to mine, face turning grey as his mouth moved silently.
‘Move away from him,’ I said. ‘There’s no choice.’
‘There is a choice,’ Nathan said, standing up behind the boy. ‘Think about it. Listen to me. We can just go. Ride off.’ His words came out in a rush, louder and louder, like if he didn’t leave me any opportunity to speak I wouldn’t be able to do what was needed. ‘Us on the quads. As soon as we’re around the bend he won’t be able to see us. Right? We can get away. We can—’
‘Nathan,’ I shouted. ‘Step away.’
‘Danby, no, we can just leave him.’
‘Move! Now!’
Everything happened at once.
The kid darted away. I tried to follow him with my rifle. A blur of blue flashed from the bush and crashed Nathan onto the road with a horrible crack. My head thudded inside my helmet and I fell backwards as a shot rang out. Hitting the road I realised it’d been me who’d pulled the trigger. I’d blasted a hole in the clouds and now blackness was rushing in to blot out my world.