Agency’s got enough on their hands. They’re not gunna come looking.
He’d brought yesterday’s newspaper too. Makecamp was still burning on the front page, under a headline quote from Sumud’s Chief Security Officer. Nazari’s message to Gulf people smugglers: ‘Your trading model is over.’
Adam came back when they were finishing breakfast. He bypassed Li and gave the phone to Safia, who checked it over while they all watched. Then she entered a number into the keypad and handed the phone to Li. It was fully charged.
One call, she said. There’s credit.
Li walked away to the far end of the factory before she pressed call. It only rang twice.
Who is this?
My name’s Li. I need to ask you something.
Li, the boy said. Are you my contact now? I have dollars.
No. I’m unsheltered, same as you.
How’d you get this number?
Safia from makecamp gave it to me, from the ready shop. She said there were three of you and you might be able to help me.
Silence. If she pushed too hard he might hang up, so she waited. Her hands hurt. In the midmorning light the factory looked like a ruined church with its concrete pillars and remnant fires and bird shit. All the glass had been salvaged from the windows. And Matti had spent another night alone.
Are you there?
He breathed out, a hard whoosh against her ear. It’s just me now. I can’t waste the battery.
Don’t hang up. What’s your name?
A tiny pause. Arsalan.
I’m trying to find my daughter, Arsalan.
You think she’s here?
Maybe. I hope so.
How old?
Seven. Eight. She turned eight. She was at the Kids’ Tent when XB Force came in.
The Kids’ Tent caught on fire, he said.
I heard they got out, got taken where you are. He didn’t answer. Are there other kids in there without parents? Young kids?
Why don’t you come and see?
The little fuck. You know why, she said. If she’s not in there and they hold me, I can’t look for her. Silence again, but he hadn’t hung up. She could hear some kind of repetitive banging in the background.
He said, over the noise, There are no little kids here now.
You sure about that? Her name is Matti. A different, sharper silence. Li’s heart rate spiked. You know her? You know Matti from makecamp?
She had a horse she carried around.
Yes. Yes, that’s her.
She’s not here anymore. Agency took all the little kids yesterday.
For a second she couldn’t get air in. But she was there? You saw her?
I saw her get off a bus. And then I saw her at processing.
And she was okay, she wasn’t hurt?
They put those ones in a different container. Like, hospital container. Or they died and they took them away. Matti looked okay.
Li felt her legs going. Got her back against the nearest pillar and lowered herself down.
Where did they take them?
People said north. I think there was a problem about keeping kids here, a legal problem. They’re going to take all the under-fifteens but they started with the little kids.
Are you sure it was north?
Lady, I don’t know. They wouldn’t send them south, would they? I just know they had a bus and they took the little kids first. Must be a long way north cos they haven’t come back for the others yet.
How many did they take?
She almost heard him shrug. How many you can fit on a bus?
Fifty kids? she thought. More if you packed them in. That meant Agency paperwork, something on Matti’s record. She needed to get to the Source Centre.
The banging in the background got louder and there was yelling now, too. The boy talked over it. I tried to get on the bus because people say Agency treat little kids better, so I thought it might be a better place, but they ran my status.
When did you turn fifteen, Arsalan?
Two months ago. People say I look younger.
So he was out of time, she thought. The day he turned fifteen his status number would have gone into the ballot, and now he was waiting to find out if he was going to be shipped to the Front. Maybe this month, this year, maybe ten years from now when he was starting to feel lucky. And this was Matti’s future, too.
Recruiters came yesterday, he said. I got a choice. I can join up, voluntary, or Agency sends me back. He sounded different now, engaged. She needed to finish this, but it was hard to resist the idea that she was making a trade here. Stay on the phone a bit longer, keep listening to this kid and maybe someone would do the same for Matti.
Do you have anyone to go back to?
They don’t send you all the way back, they just leave you on the highway somewhere. You don’t know much.
No family then. No one in holding and no one outside waiting for him. She forced herself to say it. You’ll get paid if you join up.
He laughed, a disgusted sound. Army came round makecamp every week saying that. Get paid, get fed, place to stay, better than this place. Take charge of your future. Like I’m supposed to put my hand up to go to Wars? At least with the ballot I get a chance.
So, what are you going to do?
I’m going to keep trying till I get inside, he said. I still have some dollars for the trucks. I had a contact before but he’s not calling me back now.
What will you do inside? She wondered if he thought it would be some kind of happy ending. Everyone knew there was no quota for queue-jumpers.
I’ll find my brother. He got in two years ago. The banging got so loud that Li lost his voice for a moment. Then he said, I want to go to school again and eat challow and play footy. Mostly I hope I find my brother.
Arsalan, she said. I have to go.
Matti always wanted to play this game where you’re trying to get to the place you’d live if you
