The Rainbow Maker's Tale (36 page)

“They left?” Cassie sounded
uncertain.

I nodded. “Yes. But, they
returned a little while ago.”

“What time is it?”

I glanced at the miniature
viewing screen on my wrist, which sat just next to the other
wristband. It was quite a useful little device I’d built a few
months ago: there were not as many functions as a normal screen,
but it was good for detecting scanner positions, chemical analysis
and, right now, telling the time. “Coming up to six o’clock.” I
stared into the darkness beyond the bedroom window. It would not
last much longer. “The mirrors will be turning soon for
morning.”

“Fantastic!” Cassie rolled her
eyes at me. “Now that my parents are back, how am I supposed to
sneak you out of here?”

“Don’t worry.” I’d already
figured this out while I was on the floor. “You can listen for them
and let me know when it’s safe to go. Then I’ll come back to walk
you to The Clinic.”

Cassie went quiet for a few
moments. “I can’t hear anything,” she decided. “They’re not moving
around, I think they must be in bed.”

I shook my head, realising that
she hadn’t understood. “I meant that you should listen for what
your parents are
thinking
and see if it’s safe for me to
leave…I can hear for myself that they’re not moving around.”

She looked doubtful. “I don’t
know if I can do that. I’ve only ever heard people when I’ve been
looking directly at them before.”

“But, you’ve heard voices in
your sleep,” I reminded her. “That means you must be able to do it
from a distance – you’ve just not done it consciously, until now.”
She still looked unsure. “It might just take a bit of practice,” I
encouraged. “Maybe if you try to focus on your parents particularly
and listen for their voices, that might work?”

“OK,” Cassie agreed, not
sounding confident.

I sat silently as she closed
her eyes. Her head inclined slightly, one way and then the other –
as if she was trying to hear someone whispering.

“There’s too many, I can’t pick
out anything.”

“Just take your time.” I took
hold of Cassie’s hands as they rested on her knees and gave them a
gentle squeeze. Her eyes remained shut and she did seem to relax a
little more.

Within seconds she was gone. I
couldn’t quite explain how I knew, but when I squeezed her hands,
stroked her face, she didn’t respond. It was as if she’d fallen
into a deep sleep. I waited, it felt like forever, but maybe it was
just a few minutes. Eventually, her eyes opened.

“What happened? Where did you
go?”

“Nowhere,” she replied, seeming
surprised.

“That was so strange. It was as
though you were somewhere else or asleep and I couldn’t wake
you…”

“When I closed my eyes all the
voices became visible, like threads that I could pick out from one
another and follow.”

“No!”

Cassie nodded. “When I went
along the strand I could see what people were thinking and even
what they were looking at. By the way – I found my parents and you
should leave now – they’re in the kitchen and lounge from what I
could tell.”

“If you’re right, that’s an
impressive leap forward in what you can do.” I couldn’t believe her
ability was improving so quickly. “But…” I hesitated.

“But, what…?”

“Well…I was thinking. Just in
case you’re not completely right, maybe you should go out
first…”

“I can’t believe you’re
questioning me!” Cassie exclaimed with mock-indignation. “And it’s
not a very chivalrous request, either.”

I chuckled as she stood, and
offered me her hand, pulling me up from the floor.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll
detour via the bathroom on the way to cover any noise.”

We padded silently across the
room, Cassie’s skin was warm against mine, where she still held my
hand. At the entrance Cassie ran her palm across the pad and it
beeped twice before opening.

My eyes flew to the control
panel, and then my wrist, checking that the band was still in
place. The door normally beeped once for each person passing
through, but I’d definitely heard two. Cassie tilted my arm towards
her, obviously checking the same thing as me. But, my mark was
covered. The door had scanned her, and beeped twice.

With a sinking feeling, I
guessed what must have happened. I didn’t look at Cassie’s mark to
check, because I didn’t want to scare her. But, I was confident
that once I got home, removed my band and presented my own red mark
to a scanner, it would now beep twice. It was a trigger.

Cassie stood still, confused by
this new development. I leaned in close to her ear. “I’ll explain
what that means later.”

She nodded to confirm she
understood. Leaning cautiously through the doorframe, I watched as
she peeked in both directions. Satisfying herself that there was no
danger, she led the way out.

The hallway was much darker
than her bedroom as there were no windows. But, we didn’t need
light to find our way, the layout was familiar to both of us. We
coasted towards the dark outline of the apartment door, Cassie
pushing me in front of her as we drew closer. In a split-second,
she had swiped her palm to activate the panel and shoved me
outside.

The apartment was still empty
when I got home. Ignoring my empty bedroom, which I’d cleaned
before going to Cassie’s apartment, I headed straight to the
shower.

I ran the water cold, to wake
me up a little. Despite having not slept all night, I didn’t feel
too bad.

As the water pounded my head, I
ran through everything I’d learned in the last few hours, trying to
put it into order. The biggest surprise, in some ways, was how
quickly Cassie’s abilities were developing: from hearing random
thoughts, to being able to focus and find one person in particular,
was a big leap forwards. Without her input, from this unusual
ability, I doubted I would have realised what was going on…

The process – if not the
purpose for it – was at least becoming clear to me now. The various
systems, including the transmitter inside me, tracked the changes
The Council (or perhaps The Collective) was interested in.
Everything I had found suggested that they were most concerned with
our hormone levels and emotional state, leading to the point that
these elements came together and caused a change in our marks.
Black to red…it seemed like a warning.

I had wondered whether the
change singled a maturing of something dangerous in us: that would
explain why the removal of people was hidden as
elopements
.
But if that was the case, surely with all the technology they used
to track us, they could find a solution to whatever the problem
was?

And I had seen Patrick, just a
few hours before Cassie had seen him being dragged from his bed and
removed from the Family Quarter. He hadn’t seemed dangerous at
all…or like he was planning to run away that night.

I sighed. I knew what was
happening, I just didn’t know why.

Shutting off the water, I
stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. Not bothering to dry
off properly before leaving the bathroom, I dripped my way across
the hallway to my bedroom. As I walked through the door, the sensor
beeped twice. I looked down at my wrist, knowing what I would see
before I actually did. My mark was bright red now.

I waved it back across the
sensor and it beeped twice again. That was the signal, I realised,
remembering what had happened in Cassie’s room. I had wondered at
the time, but now I knew. Cassie’s mark must have changed during
the night: her natural hormone levels, maybe even an emotional
change, triggering the mutation.

Whatever the reason for the
change, what was most important was what happened next: I
remembered Cassie’s nightmare and knew that they would come for us.
Both our marks had changed, and both had now registered in the
system. Time had run out.

I dressed without noticing what
I was doing and then went rummaging through Father’s office. It
didn’t take long for me to put together a collection of essential
tools, and I placed the bag into a dark corner once I had finished.
I guessed we had today and they would come for us tonight, so we
had to behave as normal a possible.

Walking out of the apartment, I
forced my racing heart to slow, not wanting to give The Council any
reason to come for me more quickly. I was going to ask Cassie to
leave with me today, but I wasn’t planning on eloping…

* * *

Cassie bounced through her
apartment door a moment after I activated the panel.

“Hello stranger!” I laughed, as
she virtually fell on me. “You certainly seem happier to see me
than you did first thing this morning.”

“I was expecting you this time,
rather than being scared out of my wits. Maybe if you had told me
you would be hiding under my bed, I wouldn’t have hurt you!”

“Maybe next time I won’t be
hiding
under
your bed,” I teased back.

“Yeah, well – I might have told
you that was the first time I’ve had a boy anywhere near my bed…if
I didn’t mind sounding like a loser.” Cassie’s cheeks flamed, as
her attempt at a joke stumbled into the truth.

“That just makes me like you
even more,” I said, leaning in close and letting my lips brush her
neck.

“Let’s get going,” she said.
Cassie took hold of my arm and steered me away from the apartment,
trying not to sound flustered.

“Are you OK?”

She nodded, dismissing my
question. Glancing at the apartment door, I guessed we were still
too close to her parents for her to say anything more. I let her
lead me away.

“So…?” I asked, once we reached
the end of the avenue and turned onto the main Green Zone road that
led towards the station’s central hub areas.

“So…My parents think the change
is close,
very
close. They’re completely focused on it
now.”

“Focused?” I frowned, that
didn’t sound good. “Focused how?”

“It’s hard to tell. There were
a lot of thoughts jumbling around and I didn’t get the impression
they were actually talking about it between them, it was more a
mixture of individual ideas than a conversation. There was
definitely excitement though, underpinning everything they thought
about. And there was the indication that they would let others
know, but that
the system
would have already tracked the
change…I remember that clearly. Other than that, it’s hard to pull
anything coherent together.”

I grunted unhappily. Normally,
I loved being right, but confirmation that the change in our marks
would be tracked immediately was not what I wanted to hear. It
would make it even more difficult to get out, as I imagined they
would be monitoring us more closely than ever now.

Cassie seemed to have no idea
that her mark had
actually
changed, so I thought it would be
best to keep her distracted. I kept up a stream of conversation as
we walked, and again as we ate breakfast together near The
Clinic.

Several times we joked about
skipping placement altogether – imagined ourselves escaping to some
park or another using our bands so we couldn’t be tracked. But, it
was too soon, and would raise suspicions. The only comfort I got
from this, was that Cassie was desperate for a way out, just as I
was. I felt sure that she would agree to come with me today. I had
already decided that I would leave immediately after placement. It
was the longest period of time we ever had alone, and would give us
a head start.

We arrived late, dawdling too
long over breakfast. Several times I thought of running now, but it
wasn’t the right time: we would be noticed faster if neither of us
came to The Clinic today. We needed all the time we could get.

I timed our entry to the
building with a group of Medics, hoping that Cassie wouldn’t notice
the double-beeps our marks elicited from the scanners. It seemed to
work.

Splitting up we headed for our
respective changing rooms. I dressed quickly, trying not to notice
the crimson patch glowing dangerously on my arm. Joel was already
there, just fastening his clinic whites, and we ended up leaving
together.

Joel remained silent as we
waited in the reception area. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with
my own thoughts, I might have noticed the difference in him.

“No sign of Karl and Rachel
yet?” I observed, trying to make small talk.

Joel shook his head. “Medic
Karlina said they eloped last night.”

“Rachel and Karl?” I was
shocked.

“I know – I always thought Karl
had a thing for Olivia – guess my judgement isn’t great when it
comes to romance.”

I couldn’t help but feel that
there was some message, hidden in Joel’s words, but I didn’t have
time to really consider what it might be. Cassie appeared by my
shoulder, followed by Olivia a moment later.

Medic Karlina gave us no
opportunity to talk between ourselves as she briskly briefed us on
our assignments for the day: the four of us would be working alone,
and not in pairs today. I immediately sensed Cassie’s apprehension
at this unexpected change to the routine.

We were dismissed from the
orientation reception and made our way out to the main hall. I took
the lead, wondering how I was going to tell Cassie what I had
planned – we would be apart all day.

Each of us had a Medic
dedicated to us today – another change – and they walked ahead of
us in a small group, leading the way to our individual work
locations. Cassie sneaked up to me as we walked.

“You were right about what the
change they’ve been talking about is,” she whispered. “I heard it
in Medic Karlina’s thoughts just now.”

“You mean the mark?” I slowed
my steps to keep pace with Cassie, but didn’t turn my head. Out of
the corner of my eye, I scanned her face and saw how scared she
was. She had not looked like that before she went into the changing
room, and I guessed that while she was in there, she had seen that
her mark had changed. “Yours too?”