Part 25

Cloe, Trudy, Falcon and Jackson were now on their way to the deserted Gaian camp with Zac, Paul and Ellie. They had reached the farm mid morning and had only stopped for a brief meal before starting off once more. Every one of them, except Cloe, carried a heavy pack containing all sorts of supplies. They had no idea what the camp would look like when they got there as the Gaians had left almost twenty years ago. As far as they knew, the old huts might not even be standing.

An hour or so after midday the stopped for a meal in the shade of the forest. During their rest time, Cloe got up and excused herself, saying she wanted some time alone. Trudy watched her go, noted where she went and, after some ten minutes had passed, followed her. She found Cloe sitting with her back to an old, knarled oak, clutching her bump with one hand and a tattered picture with the other. Her long dark hair covered her face, but Trudy could tell that she was crying. Walking over and dropping to her knees beside her, she clutched her old friend close to her and stroked her hair gently, telling her all the while that "it's gonna be alright". Trudy glanced at the picture in Cloe's hand. She had thought as much.

"KC," she said, not even bothering to ask if he was, as she was sure he must be, the father of Cloe's baby.

"I should never have married Marc," Cloe sobbed, "Once Ved disappeared and I found out I was pregnant, I panicked. Marc was nice. He understood. He offered. I accepted. Then KC found his way back to us. If I'd only waited. If I'd only waited."

Trudy shushed her gently, still stroking her hair in the motherly fashion she used whenever Falcon succumbed to yet another crush. Cloe was still, very much, the scared little girl Amber and Dal had found on the city streets so many years ago.

--

Jack stood in the centre of the control room with Java by his side. Leo was ensconced in his room, with more toys than he would know what to do with and an ageing female Techno keeping him company, and out of his father's way. Around Jack and Java there was a circle of six entombed persons. One, the one they were facing, was instantly recognisable as Ram, the original leader of the Technos.

On one side of Ram there were two men, approaching middle age, who were definitely brothers. If he hadn't put them there, however, that would have been all Jack could have told you: their dark brown hair, still with peroxide blond tips, had grown to cover much of their torsos, as had the beards and moustaches that had appeared and grown over the years. On Ram's other side there were another two male faces: the first, still in his Techno uniform, looked in his late thirties with long black hair, beard and moustache and rectangular, tinted glasses; the second was much younger, only about twenty, with long, straight, black hair and pale skin that reminded Jack instantly of the young man's mother, but the beard and moustache took Trudy's image out of his mind a little. The sixth casket encased a woman: she was very similar to Java in looks and her hair, although now unbraided had been combed and cut and kept in general good condition, in the same way that Ram's prostrate personage had also been looked after.

"It must be hard seeing both your husband and only surviving sister this way," Jack said to Java.

"If Ram wasn't this way," she replied, "he would be dead and his genius gone. This way, he has one of his wives with him and four servants. he can be a king in his own paradise."

"Why keep him and Siva looking respectable and not the others?"

"Why should I? Jay refused me. Mega used me. They and Ved all betrayed Ram. As for the boy, I don't even know him."

"His name's Merlin. He's Trudy and Hawk's first son."

"Was," Java corrected, "And don't go getting sentimental on me: you put him here. In place of someone else, remember."

"Well, much as I would have preferred to see that dishcloth Bray in here, I had no idea he would fight back so much. But no matter: the boy was an easy and convenient replacement."

--

Lex had spent the morning recruiting from within his ranks and was in Amber's office, eating lunch, when Marc burst into the room.

"He's gone!" the thirty-five year old accountant cried, stopping to catch his breath before elaborating, "He doesn't always come down early, but when he wasn't down to the office by midday, I went to check on him and the penthouse is empty, not a soul there! All the trappings are there, but their clothes and some other stuff are gone."

Marc stopped, his breath exhausted, and dropped into the chair Lex had led him to. Ellie's true father's blonde hair seemed to have gone pure white. As he rested, the door to Amber's office opened once more and Brady rushed in. She flicked her long black hair over her shoulder, fixing Amber with the ice blue eyes she had inherited totally from her father.

"Leo didn't turn up for school today. This is the first chance I've had to get away, we wondered if you'd heard anything?"

Amber motioned to Marc in the chair Brady had strode past.

"Marc's just been telling us that the penthouse is deserted," Amber said as Lex moved round to place his hand on her shoulder.

"It seems the first Mall Rat has deserted his sinking ship," quipped Lex.

Brady raised an eyebrow, noted where Lex's hand rested and smiled. There would be good news to tell her mother when she returned as well as bad.

"So, what now?" she asked.

"Call a meeting," said Amber, "Get everyone up to the farm tonight, ASAP. Even if Jack's gone, we can't afford to assume there aren't still people loyal to him in the city. Plus, we don't know where he's gone, exactly what he's taken or if he'll be back."

"Apart from clothes," Marc piped up, his breathing having returned to normal, "I did notice that there was a chest missing from Jack's room, and a lot of computer gear. I know the penthouse quite well."

--

Alice was in the kitchen, baking bread. She thought of the plan she and her old companions had put into practice that morning and smiled. Soon she would have her revenge on the man who had taken her little sister away from her and corrupted her son. Soon. She thought of Jack and pounded the bread dough fiercely.