‘Why?’
‘Even with this, they might still push for everyone to leave. I’m worried that if we do we might not get back in.’ He let go and waved the book in front of him. ‘This might be it, our ticket out of here.’
‘What about the rest of Kaylie’s team?’ Kaylie’s open eyes and pale face flashed in her memory. She touched Dom’s arm. ‘They’re burying their dead. Should we wait for them to return?’
Dom shrugged. ‘I don’t know them well enough. They were following Kaylie’s orders. Without her, they might be on their way back to their camp.’ He tapped the cover. ‘This was our reason for coming back here. It still is.’
‘I’ll get Thomas.’
For the first time, she had hope.
15
Carissa
Anya came rushing out of block C, looking for Thomas. The Inventor asked her why.
She whispered, ‘We found something,’ and showed him a book.
The Inventor smiled.
‘It looks promising,’ he said as he leafed through it.
His smile made Carissa’s heart sink.
‘We should compare the drawing with the sketches Thomas did.’
Carissa wished she had the same enthusiasm.
The Beyond was a place the humans wanted to find. What would happen to her when they did? Would the Inventor leave with his friends and abandon Carissa to this city that no longer felt like home?
‘But what are these numbers?’ he asked. ‘They look like ledger entries.’
Carissa pulled the book down so she could see it. She’d recognise that schedule anywhere. ‘They’re not ledger entries. That’s a list of the Copies’ movements.’ She pointed at one set of numbers that repeated on each page. ‘And here’s where the system carried out a health check, from 1-1.15am.’
Anya stared at her. ‘Which means the people could potentially go anywhere.’
‘But they didn’t. They always stayed in their accommodation.’
The Inventor, followed by Anya, rushed out of the accommodation block, calling out for Thomas. The brown-haired boy emerged from block D clutching the backpack with the maps in it. The others gathered around them while Dom stood at the back. Carissa muscled her way into the centre.
‘We need to see your drawings again,’ the Inventor said.
Thomas opened the backpack and pulled out the folded pages. He unfolded several and placed them down on the ground. Carissa checked her waistband for the two sketches—one of her and one of Rover—that the Inventor had drawn. It might be the last thing she had of him soon.
The soldiers crowded around Thomas.
Dom barked at everyone, ‘Stand back. Give him some room.’
Carissa wasn’t skilled at reading the humans’ expressions, but she’d come to recognise tension. Dom’s shoulders were lifted slightly towards his ears, his fists clenched by his side. His nostrils flared as he looked on. Success mattered to him. But being in this city clearly worried him. It worried Carissa too. Where had Quintus gone? Why had he stopped all communication with her?
Quintus knew how to get in touch. He’d said her neuromorphic chip was self-repairing, but he had not contacted her since the battle. She’d expected the usual twinge or pull from her chip to indicate she was on the network again. But so far her head remained quiet.
A breeze caught the edge of one piece of paper and whipped it up. Anya, Sheila, Imogen and Jerome lent the tips of their boots to keep the edges down. Without the barrier, the city was open to the elements. Carissa preferred the fresh air now. Before, the air had been stifling here. She hadn’t realised how much until she’d left the city. It had been normal. Until it wasn’t.
Anya knelt down next to Thomas and held the book out on an open page. The Inventor assessed the drawings from over Thomas’ shoulder. Charlie and Vanessa looked at each other, as though they were shocked by the find.
Carissa’s gaze went to the Inventor. Not once did he look at Carissa. Not once had he asked her what she thought about the Beyond.
‘What about this map?’ asked Anya, keeping the edge of the first page flat with one knee.
She handed the book to Thomas, who rotated the drawing in the book. He frowned at the pages, then set the book down over each one.
He looked up with a sigh. ‘It’s not any of these.’
Before him was a sketch of the places Carissa still had maps of in her head: the library, the Business District, the accommodation blocks they’d just searched. The medical facility had also been converted to pencil and paper. That one showed the tunnel connecting the Nurturing Centre on the lowest level to the Inventor’s workshop.
The Inventor turned and sought her out. Carissa was filled with new hope. Maybe he would ask her what she thought about the Beyond. Maybe he would tell her not to worry.
‘Miss,’ he said, resting his hands on his knees. He nodded at the drawings. ‘I need you to look at the sketch in the book and see if it looks familiar.’
Carissa’s hope plummeted. With a weak nod, she said, ‘Okay.’
Thomas stood and showed the open page to her. The sketch was something a child might have done. Pencilled in haste, it seemed. No care or attention given to the strokes.
She looked up at the Inventor. ‘It’s not very good.’
The old man waved his hand. ‘Not important, miss. Please concentrate on the image. You’ve seen the maps for other areas in this city. One of them might compare to the drawing.’
She ignored her hurt and concentrated on the sketch. Maybe she wouldn’t find the place it matched. Maybe she could pretend, long enough for them to give up and return to the camp. June was okay. Her baby would soon be old enough to know what was going on.
But an image flashed in her mind as she studied the poorly drawn sketch.
