MetaWars: Fight For The Future

Chapter 31

‘We will trust you,’ said Kala, speaking authoritatively. ‘For now.’

The rest of the crowd followed her lead, and the crowd dispersed with only a few more grumbles of discontent. Kala and a few others stayed back, and took Jonah and Sam to see more of their land yachts, which were in the process of having odd, metal contraptions fitted to their backs. Jonah couldn’t tell what they were, at first. It took him a moment to work out what they were.

‘Sam, are those...catapults?’

‘You didn’t think we’d be going in through the front door, did you?’ Jonah realised he didn’t know what the plan was.

Jonah had been glad to get inside, out of the desert sun. Outside, he and Sam had seen boarded-up stores, squash courts, a police station. They had been taken by one of Kala’s people past these and shown into a white, clapboard house. The house was unfurnished, but sheets and pillows had been left in each of its four rooms. One room each for Jonah and Sam. Two more for Axel and Bradbury.

‘What is this place?’ asked Jonah.

‘It’s called Woomera,’ said Sam. ‘They used to test

rockets here, far away from any city. They built a village for the base’s workers. But it’s been abandoned for decades.’

‘So, now Kala’s people live here?’ said Jonah.

‘Some of them,’ said Sam, distracted. ‘Can you see a computer terminal?’ She had been hunting around the downstairs room of the house as they talked.

‘I have to get online. My dad—’

‘I don’t think there’s any power,’ said Jonah. ‘I tried turning on the air-conditioning in my room, but nothing happened. There’s no water either.’

‘I should have realised,’ Sam muttered. ‘Woomera would have been disconnected from the grid when they closed it down. They wouldn’t even have fitted terminals here, so long ago.’

‘Then how did Axel meet them online?’ asked Jonah. ‘They must have access, somewhere.’

She pushed past him, and ran out of the house.

Jonah followed her. The sun was going down, the shadows of the clapboard buildings growing longer. It took Jonah a moment to realise where Sam was heading – back to the land yachts. They were far, far newer than the village, and Jonah guessed, as Sam did, that they would have satellite uplinks.

Two mechanics were still working on the yachts, fixing the last of the catapults to them. When Sam explained what she wanted, they were happy to oblige her. But the first terminal she tried wouldn’t boot up; apparently, its battery was charged by the rotation of the land yacht’s wheels and had run flat.

Soon, however, Sam was seated inside a second cockpit, and plugged in.

Jonah watched over her slumped body as she meta- tranced, unsure of his surroundings and not knowing what else to do with himself. He hoped that no one would start asking him questions. He should have talked to Sam more in the plane, he thought, and found out some of the answers.

Sam was gone for almost an hour. Jonah didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one. It was dark now, and he was still waiting when Kala came running out of the night. She looked irritated, although Jonah had come to see this as her default state.

‘Everyone is waiting for you,’ said Kala. Jonah looked at her blankly. ‘The briefing,’ she said, impatiently. It was the first he had heard of any such thing. ‘Where is your girlfriend, the one who knows what she’s doing?!’ Kala demanded.