They returned to the third floor an hour later to find Vanessa waiting for them outside the special entrance. ‘The child is almost ready.’
He remembered the strange children he and Anya had seen while in Arcis. They hadn’t cried or interacted. They’d just sat there and coloured, or played alone.
‘When we’re ready to move her, we’ll meet up with Jacob at the workshop,’ he said.
Vanessa pointed to a door that was in the same area. ‘Through here leads to the viewing corridor. Beyond it is a tunnel that will take us to the workshop.’ Dom vaguely remembered this space from the time of their escape.
She looked at the new additions from the second floor. ‘Is this everyone you found?’
Dom nodded. ‘But I expected to find at least one Copy in this place.’
11
Carissa
Walking along the empty streets filled Carissa with fear. She darted her gaze around, watching for any signs of movement. She’d never seen the city so quiet before—not even at night.
Noise comforted her. Silence made her nervous.
The Inventor was walking too slowly—again. But he’d insisted all three of them travel above ground so he could check on the wolves. Carissa saw the pair in the distance near the trucks. Both of them were sitting down. She took their passive state to be a good thing. But still, the walk unnerved her. Thomas walked as slow as the Inventor. She tried to hurry the pair up by running on ahead. But each time she ended up backtracking.
‘I won’t get there any faster, miss. I don’t move as fast as I used to.’
The Inventor had never moved fast. But a knot of worry injected nervous energy into her step.
Her mind flitted between racing ahead or staying with the Inventor and risking them being ambushed. Thomas carried the Atomiser and an Electro Gun. Three soldiers shadowed them. Their presence put her mind at ease a little.
As they neared heart of the city a shiver caught her by surprise. The bright, white exterior of the Learning Centre looked idle. That place had been her sanctuary once.
No more.
She kept her back to the building. If she couldn’t see it, in her mind it didn’t exist.
Carissa eyed the long structure opposite it instead. Broken bricks from its outer wall littered the courtyard in between. They’d seen the damage during the orb’s brief journey home. A digger had ripped through the retractable roof. The steel girders and part of the wall lay in pieces, but the door leading to the stairwell was still intact.
She rushed to the door and opened it a crack.
One of the soldiers barked at her, ‘Wait for me!’
Carissa froze her hand on the handle. The soldier pushed her back and nudged the door open with his gun.
‘Clear,’ he said.
She trotted down the stairs, her anxiety lessening as she returned to the one place the Copies didn’t like to venture.
The workshop looked the same as she remembered it: a counter against one wall with a sink. Spare bellies, legs and tails that used to hang from rafters close to the retractable roof now lay on the floor. A ragged hole in the roof opened out to the sky. The two diggers that were being repaired were missing. This was where she and the Inventor used to hang out. The Inventor had built Rover here.
The old man entered the space, hands on hips. ‘Except for the mess, it looks okay.’ He stepped over broken rafters and spare parts and headed to the counter, where the diagnostic machine had been left. ‘All the equipment is still here. Looks like they only wanted the diggers.’
‘That’s good, right?’ Carissa asked.
Change wasn’t always a positive thing, as she had learned.
He grunted his answer and flicked a switch on the side of the machine. It hummed into life. The Inventor released a breath.
Sweeping debris off a chair, he pulled it out into a clear space and patted it. ‘Here, please, miss.’
Carissa walked over to it and sat down. She was familiar with this routine having been through it several times before. A smiling Thomas joined them, clearly fascinated by the workshop set up. The soldiers waited by the entrance. Rover’s nose and that of his mate was visible through the sky opening.
She concentrated on the machine with the small, black screen that would reveal the data in her memory banks. ‘I may not have the maps anymore.’
She’d downloaded what she could while out on the battlefield and connected to Quintus. But she had no way to check if the downloads had been successful.
‘The machine will verify that, but I’m confident you have them.’ He turned the machine around so he could see the screen better. He lowered a metal arm with two wings over her head. ‘All documents are stored in your biogel, like an imprint.’
‘But what if the Collective has changed things?’
‘Then you might not have the latest version, that’s all. But we have our own maps.’
Thomas stepped forward and opened the bag Vanessa had brought to the city. He pulled out the rolls of maps and placed them on the counter.
The Inventor positioned the wings over her head. He connected the flexible ends with magnetic tips to Carissa’s two discs.
She felt a buzz inside her head, followed by a ticking sound. The connection tickled her skin; she scratched it.
The Inventor eased her hand away. ‘Careful, miss. I don’t want you to get a shock.’
She placed her hands on her lap and concentrated on the screen while she felt the connection search through her memory banks.
The Inventor frowned at the screen showing her brain’s information. Over one shoulder, Thomas lingered. She saw a list of folders populate the screen, listing all her knowledge. But it didn’t include everything. Some things she’d learned on her own, without
