There was an unwelcome knock on Jonah’s door.
‘Go away!’ he shouted.
He was lying on his bed, his arms wrapped around his pillows. His heartbeat was still racing after the scene in the dining room downstairs. The door opened. Jonah looked up, hoping despite himself that it might be Sam who had come to see him. It was Axel.
‘Pretty tough words,’ said Axel. ‘Can’t say that maybe I don’t deserve them.’
‘Maybe?’ replied Jonah.
‘OK, probably. And that’s the best you’ll get.’
Jonah didn’t say anything. He knew Axel wanted to get inside his head, and he wasn’t going to let him.
Axel turned a chair around and sat on it, resting his elbows on its back. Jonah didn’t move. ‘Listen, I just
came to check you were all right.’
‘No,’ said Jonah, ‘you didn’t. You came to talk me
into letting you search my brain. To find more places to blow up. More people to kill. Well, you’re wasting your time.’
‘Now listen here, son,’ said Axel.
‘I’m not your son,’ snapped Jonah. ‘I’m not anybody’s son! Not any more.’
‘I know you’re upset by what Delphine said, but I think—’
‘You almost had me believing... On the airship,
you said my dad was one of you, that he died for the Guardians. But he didn’t. My dad didn’t die for the Guardians. The Guardians killed him!’
‘No. No, Jonah, that’s not what happened.’
‘If the Guardians didn’t do it, then someone like GuerreVert did, someone like Delphine, and you... You’re happy to work with them, knowing what they are.’
‘Jonah, no one ever claimed responsibility for the airport bombings,’ said Axel. ‘You must know that. The media blamed the Guardians, but—’
‘Who else should they have blamed? The Millennials? Do you think they’d try to kill their own leader? The Millennials would have known Mr Granger was flying into London that day – that my dad was flying him into Heathrow.’
‘The Millennials killed your mother, Jonah. That much, we do know.’
As if Jonah had needed reminding. He pushed his face deeper into his pillows and willed himself not to cry. ‘It might not help you to hear this,’ said Axel, ‘but Delphine lost her parents too. She was six when Mauritius finally sank into the sea. There weren’t enough rescue boats. She was sent away with the other kids. Her mother promised her she would follow. That’s what drives Delphine, Jonah. She blames everyone who flies a plane or drills for oil or who manufactures plastic for the genocide of her people and the murder of her family.’
‘Sounds right up her street, then,’ said Jonah, ‘to bomb an airport.’
‘Maybe,’ conceded Axel, ‘but if GuerreVert had done something like that, I figure they’d be shouting it from the rooftops, don’t you?’
Once again, Jonah found he had nothing to say to that.
‘We need Delphine,’ said Axel. ‘Hell, I wish we didn’t. You know this wasn’t the plan. We were meant to take the airship to Iran, hop a plane to China from there. No can do, not any more. Our contact in Tehran won’t wait for us. Too much Millennial heat. Only Delphine can help us.’
‘How?’
‘She can get us on a plane as far as Moscow.’ Jonah raised his head, looked at Axel, who grinned. ‘Yeah, I know. She says as long as it’s in a righteous cause...’
Jonah sat up on the bed, drew his knees up to his chest. ‘What happens in Moscow?’
‘We have contacts there too,’ said Axel.
‘More killers?’
‘I know how you feel, believe me,’ said Axel, ‘but
Delphine is right about one thing. We are fighting a war here, for the future of our world – of both our worlds – and we cannot afford to lose it. If that means we make a few compromises, if it means some people get hurt... Well, I hope, in time, you will come to understand that, or at the very least, accept it.’
‘I don’t want to kill anybody,’ said Jonah firmly. ‘It’s not right.’
‘You sound like your dad.’
‘You knew him well, didn’t you?’ said Jonah.
‘We were best mates,’ said Axel, ‘back to RAF Flight
School. We always watched each other’s backs. We used to fly escort missions together, for the old oil tankers sailing from the Persian Gulf.’
‘I remember,’ said Jonah. ‘Dad used to say the tankers were easy targets for the pirates and rival governments and the...the eco-terrorists.’
‘Don’t tell Delphine,’ said Axel with a conspiratorial wink, ‘but Jason and me, between us, we must have sunk at least a dozen GuerreVert ships in our time.’
‘Why did Dad leave the Air Force?’ asked Jonah.
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ said Axel. ‘The Metasphere was starting to take off, back then. Jason and me, we spent our off-hours surfing. We believed in what Matthew Granger was building. Everyone did. In the real world, the tankers were sailing less and less often, and fewer of them were making it to the UK. There were food shortages and riots. We were fighting a losing battle. But, in the virtual world, Jason met a girl.’
‘My mum,’ said Jonah. That story, he had heard.
‘Jason wanted to get back to London,’ said Axel, ‘where Miriam was. He resigned his commission, went to work for a commercial airline out of Heathrow. He found me a job there, too. Those were good days, hanging out at the Icarus. That was the beauty of the Metasphere. You could have a layover in Singapore or Hong Kong, but still hook up with your mates for a virtual drink in the evening.’
‘And was this when...? I mean, how did you...?’ ‘How did we wind up with the Guardians?’
Jonah nodded. ‘Was it Dad who...?’
‘They approached me first,’ said Axel. ‘Jason wasn’t
around much at the time. A little matter of Miriam being pregnant.’
‘Oh,’ said Jonah.
‘The thing about your dad was, Jonah, he was always thinking about the future. Not like me. I don’t think long past where my next pint is coming from. You ask Sam about that. But Jason, he could see the way the world was turning. No need for pilots any more, when nobody can afford to fly.’
‘You were the last of your kind,’ said Jonah.
‘You remember him saying that too?’
‘I’m not sure. I’m not sure if that was my memory or...or his.’
‘He was right, too. Jason saw it coming. He cashed
out his pension, turned it into meta-dollars, bought the gift shop, did pretty well with it for a while too.’
‘You were saying,’ prompted Jonah, ‘about the Guardians.’
‘Jason was always talking,’ said Axel, ‘especially after
you were born. He could see how Granger was taking more and more. He used to say, by the time you grew up—’
‘—that the virtual world would be in as big a mess as the real one,’ said Jonah.
‘That’s right.’
‘I can feel it,’ said Jonah. ‘How frustrated Dad felt, how he wanted...’
‘I joined the Guardians on an impulse,’ said Axel. ‘It sounded like fun, and it was a way to keep on flying. That’s me. But Jason... He made me believe in the cause. So, when they needed someone... When the job as Granger’s pilot came up, and it looked like Jason was the only one of us with a snowball’s chance of actually landing it, they asked me to recruit him.’
‘He didn’t want to do it at first,’ said Jonah. ‘He knew it would be dangerous. He...he didn’t want me to have to grow up without him.’
Jonah felt like he was in two places at once. He could see Axel in the attic room, greying and tired looking, but he could also see him as a younger man, full of energy and enthusiasm.
‘You’re accessing his memories, aren’t you, son?’ said Axel.
That was it. Jonah was reliving moments of his father’s life. Flashes of memories: talking to Axel, a discussion, then an argument with his mum, and a job interview with Matthew Granger. It was disorienting and confusing, and Jonah couldn’t control it, but it was all in there. His father’s memories, stored in his own brain.
‘Maybe Sam was right. Maybe we don’t need the search program after all. If you can—’
‘No,’ said Jonah. ‘I can only remember bits and pieces. I...I want you to do it. The search.’
Axel raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re sure about this?’ ‘I’m sure,’ said Jonah.
The truth was, he wasn’t sure at all. He wasn’t
sure of anything. But Jonah had touched his father’s memories, and he had felt the depth of his father’s love for him. After everything he had been through, everything he had lost, it was a very special gift. And he had felt how determined Jason Delacroix had been to create a better world, a world for his son to live in, no matter the risk.
Jonah thought he knew, now, what his dad would have wanted him to do.
‘Let’s do the search,’ he repeated. ‘Before I change my mind.’
‘OK, son,’ said Axel. ‘Let’s get to it.’
Sam’s room in the guesthouse was a floor down from Jonah’s, and twice its size. It contained a dusty armchair and an inbuilt wardrobe. More importantly, it had a computer terminal. Jonah sat in the armchair, gripping its arms nervously.
He had plugged himself in, but hadn’t set a Point of Origin. As a result, he couldn’t complete his transition into the Metasphere. Nor did he feel fully grounded in the real world. The room had taken on a weird, dreamlike quality.
Bradbury had plugged his own datapad into the terminal, and was scowling over it. Axel was hovering by the door. He had asked Jonah four more times if he was sure he wanted to do this. Sam sat on the bed beside Jonah. Gently, she detached his right hand from the chair and held it. He appreciated her support.
‘There’s something wrong,’ muttered Bradbury.
Axel started towards Jonah. ‘Get him out of there, now!’
‘No, that’s not what I meant. The kid’s safe enough. It’s the program.’
‘What’s up?’ asked Sam.
Bradbury ground his teeth in frustration. ‘The program keeps freezing on me. I’ve generated an error report, but it makes no sense. It’s as if...’
Axel leaned over Bradbury’s shoulder. ‘The computer’s showing two avatars: Jason’s and... Is that you, kid? You had a humatar?’
Jonah giggled involuntarily, feeling light-headed and disconnected from what was happening around him.
‘That’s what Mr Collins said, on the bus, back home. Two avatars.’
‘I don’t know how this is possible,’ said Bradbury, ‘but it looks to me as if your friend’s avatar code sequence didn’t overwrite the kid’s. Somehow – I don’t know how, but – I think he’s holding them both in his brain at once.’
‘That’s impossible,’ said Sam. ‘No one can hold two avatars in their brain.’
‘Bradbury, you ever hear of that happening before?’ asked Axel.
Bradbury shook his head. ‘Nor has the computer. It can’t separate the kid’s memories from his dad’s. It won’t execute the search.’
‘There’s no way?’ asked Axel.
‘No way,’ said Bradbury. He yanked his pad out of the terminal by the lead. ‘May as well face it, Axel. We’re not gonna find the Four Corners this way – which means we’ve no hope of reaching them before Granger and the Millennials do.’
‘Which means we might lose this war,’ said Axel.