"We need a solid plan on where to go, and how to get there unseen," Fisher said. He had been very quiet, uncertain, but now seemed to have rediscovered his drive. "The problem is finding a place where we can wait safely and gather information."
"That’s taken care of," Noi said. "We had a Plan B."
After the swiftest of trips they hurried up to Tyler’s apartment, squashing into one elevator, tensely searching for any sign of other people, straining for an individual voice over the song of the Spire.
"Someone pack the edibles while we grab our stuff," Noi said, scooping up a line of keys.
The TV went on while Madeleine was in Tyler’s wardrobe, and when she emerged the screen showed a couple of hundred people, all staring in the same direction.
"All of the world," Nash said. "A simultaneous attack."
Madeleine turned to stick a large note on the fridge: "T – Don’t stay here. They know it. – M" She printed her mobile number at the bottom, in case he’d lost it, then did a quick tour of the room, collecting stray brushes and the bag of pads and pencils she’d put together while hunting nappies and baby formula. Most of her supplies were already in the bolthole, a piece of forethought she owed to Emily.
"Right." Noi emerged, two bags hooked over her shoulders. "We don’t have far to go, but it’s critical we go quick, quiet and unseen. Let’s head down to the central hall."
They accomplished this without much difficulty, the cloak-and-dagger peering about not even comical when they were all so sick and nervous.
"Good," Noi said, as they emerged from the elevator. "Now–"
"Girls! Wait there!"
Madeleine was not the only one who gasped at the sudden voice from above. The elevator’s doors closed behind them and, exchanging glances, they watched it go up.
"Wait," Noi murmured. "If it’s an attack, run out to the visitor parking – through the big entryway on the driveway side. I’ve a key to one of those cars."
"But who is it?" Pan asked, eyeing the descending figure.
"Not a clue," Noi said, as a beautifully-dressed woman – all silk and pearls, her platinum hair perfectly coiffed – stepped out.
She was holding a gift-wrapped box, complete with extravagant, curling bow. "Girls," she said, her voice cultured and assured, "I wanted to give you a small thank you before I left." Smiling, she held out the box, which Noi accepted blankly. "Take care of yourselves."
Without another word she turned and walked back into the elevator, her heels clicking.
"Hello Twilight Zone," Pan said, as it descended.
"Have you seen her before?" Noi asked, and Madeleine shook her head.
"Something you can discuss later–" Fisher began, and stopped as Noi suddenly gaped.
"Take Him Away Lady! It has to be! Holy flipping hell."
"You think so?" Madeleine stared at the elevator, but the woman was already out of sight. Could that hoarse, frantic whisper really have come from a person who looked like that?
"Has to be," Noi repeated. "And, yeah, now is not the time." She spun on her heel, craning to look in every direction. "Total fail on quick, quiet and unseen, but we’re going to have to risk it. Come on."
They were already near the north end of the long central hall, so it was a short trip to the aerial bridge joining the main building to the smaller block at the very end of the wharf.
"This is called the North Building," Noi said, after they had crossed, and the outside world was safely closed away once again. "When we were doing our check-the-neighbours shtick we didn’t find anyone alive in here. Almost all the apartments on the east side didn’t have anyone in them at all." She paused as Madeleine unlocked the door of their chosen bolthole. "One advantage of this one is that with the help of a ladder we prepared earlier you can jump the patio fences and dash for either the cars, or the boat moorings. There’s comparatively limited entry points, we can move through the whole sub-building without risk of being seen, and there’s a good hiding spot if anyone actually comes this far."
"You don’t think it too close to where you were before?" Nash asked.
"I think that right now there’s very few places where we can get in and out without having an encounter like we just had with the Take Him Away Lady, where there’s no-one on the other side of a wall to hear us, where there’s no easy line of sight through the windows. We might want to move again, sure, but I’m not driving madly through the city till I have a better idea of what’s going on."
"Makes sense," Fisher said.
"Why do you call her the Take Him Away Lady?" Pan asked, and Noi explained as they dumped their bags just past the entry hall.
The apartment was enormous, taking up the eastern half of the ground floor of the North Building, with a spiral staircase leading up to another quarter floor on the level above. Sliding doors led to an expansive patio bordered by potted hedges and a glass safety fence which looked directly out into the harbour. The sprawling lounge, dining and kitchen area which backed on to this was full of sunlight, and the room was dotted with touches which showed that this was a family home: children’s drawings stuck to the fridge, clusters of photos, and a stuffed unicorn arranged in one of the chairs. The warm comfort of the place seemed to make the day’s losses all the crueller, and they collapsed onto the wide lounges, suddenly depleted.
"Damn it," Pan muttered again.
Nash dropped a hand to his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. The taller boy looked worried, but turned his attention to the room. "This is Min," he said belatedly, while Fisher sorted through a collection of remotes.
"Pleased to escape with you," the younger boy said.
"Welcome, welcome." Noi gestured vaguely around the room, then paused and pulled out her phone, answering it as Fisher managed to turn on the wall-mounted television.
Images of silently-standing Greens were interspersed with scenes of unfurling stars, of fleeing Blues embraced to become abruptly composed and purposeful. The stars had found large groups of Blues everywhere, whether gathered to test their powers, or in the survival communities which had begun to form: swooping into dormitories, share-homes, repurposed hospital wards. One group of stars had even travelled far out beyond the fringes of their city, to a quarantine facility outside the dust zone.
"Hiding mightn’t be a plan after all," Pan said restively. "They don’t seem to have any problem finding Blues."
"The one at the school passed right by us and didn’t stop," Emily said.
"None of these places have been hidden," Fisher pointed out. "Most are Safe Zone sites whose locations have been broadcast. And we could hardly have been more noisy about the testing sessions."
"Aliens who surf the internet." Pan shook his head. "Great."
Noi’s fragmentary conversation reminded Madeleine to hunt out her own phone, and she was not surprised to see a half-dozen missed calls from home. The spectacle of Madeleine Cost being thrown to the sands of Bondi Beach had already flashed up twice among the stream of TV images.
Moving to sit on the spiral stair, she tried her home number
"Hi Mum."
"Oh, thank God!" A pause. "It – it is you, isn’t it?"
A tiny snort of laughter escaped Madeleine, and then her eyes stung and she felt ill and exhausted. "I don’t think the phone home stuff applies to all aliens," she said unevenly.
"Are you safe? Are you hurt?"
"Just a little shaken up. I’m with friends. We’ll try to leave the city as soon as we figure out a safe way to do it. Mum, I think you and Dad should go now. Go to Gran’s."
"Maddie, we’re not leaving without you."
"Please Mum." Her voice had gone tight and high and she struggled to bring it back under control.