LITMIR.BIZ

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shot the monster a look of mild annoyance, then pulled his portable console from the pouch on his belt. He placed it on the desk, coded in and ran the search, as Jamie and Frankenstein watched over his shoulder.

       Beep.

      The three men looked at the words that had appeared on the console’s screen.

       NO RESULTS FOUND

      “There you go,” said Morris. “No one’s accessed the frequency database in the last forty-eight hours. Can I go back to bed now?”

      Frankenstein stared at the screen, then looked at Morris. “Yes,” he said, his voice low. “Sorry to have disturbed you.”

      “It’s all right,” sad Morris, a weary smile on his face. “Good night, gentlemen.”

      “Goodnight, Tom,” said Jamie.

      Morris closed the office door behind him, leaving Jamie and Frankenstein alone again.

      “So,” said Jamie, in a tired voice. “I think you’re going to struggle to blame my dad for this, don’t you?”

      “Jamie—” Frankenstein began, but the teenager cut him off.

      “Not now. I can’t even think about who gave Alexandru the frequency now. We have to find him, and we have to do it before he hurts anyone else. I’m going to get some sleep and then I’m going down to the cellblock, and we’re going to do whatever she says we should do.”

      He walked towards the door, and was about to turn the handle when the monster called to him.

      “Do you really think you can trust her?”

      He turned, and looked at Frankenstein with sadness in his eyes.

      “As much as I can anyone else around here,” he replied.

      Jamie had lied to the monster.

      He was tired, that was certainly true, but he wasn’t going straight to the dormitory. Instead he pushed open the door to the infirmary, walked quickly across the white floor and into the room marked THEATRE.

      “I don’t know what to do,” he said, flopping gracelessly into the chair beside Matt’s bed. The teenage boy was still as pale as a ghost, and the rhythmic beeping of the machines still filled the room.

      “I don’t know what to believe, or who to believe, or anything. I feel like I’m completely lost.”

      Jamie looked at the peaceful expression on Matt’s face, and found himself envying it. He didn’t know what he was doing in the infirmary, but he had been filled with a powerful compulsion to see the injured teenager. He wondered if it was because this boy was the one person in the Loop who would not tell him something new, who didn’t know who he was or what his father had done, and who he could talk to without worrying how he sounded.

      “Frankenstein was my dad’s closest friend, and even he thinks he betrayed the Department. And if he thinks it’s true, then it probably is. But then who gave Alexandru the operational frequency so he could call me on it? It’s been changed a thousand times since Dad died. Larissa knows more than she’s telling me, and the chemist definitely did, and I’m pretty sure Frankenstein does as well. Why doesn’t anyone want me to know the truth about anything? It’s like no one cares if I find Mum or not.”

      His hand went involuntarily to his neck, and he felt the wad of bandages that had been stuck to his skin.

      “I got hurt today. Not as badly as you, I know, but I got burnt. And it made me realise something, you know? It made me realise that this isn’t a game, or a film, where the good guys win in the end and the bad guys get what’s coming to them. It’s real life, and it’s messy, and it’s complicated, and I’m scared, and I just don’t know what to—”

      Jamie lowered his head into his hands and wept. The machines beeped steadily, and Matt’s eyes remained closed.

      Jamie didn’t think he would be able to sleep when he lay down on his dormitory bed fifteen minutes later, but he was out as soon as his head touched the pillow. His sleep was long and dreamless, and when he awoke, his body feeling rested but his mind racing with the enormity of the task before him, he saw that it was past three in the afternoon.

      He showered, dressed quickly, made his way back down to the detention level, and walked quickly down the long block. When he reached her cell, he looked into the square room, and found Larissa standing in her underwear, pulling on her jeans. She was facing away from him, and he hurried back along the corridor, flushing a fiery red.

      “I can hear you,” she said conversationally, and he closed his eyes and groaned. “You might as well come out.”

      He stepped back in front of her cell, and looked at her. She was now fully dressed, standing easily in the middle of her cell, looking at him with her head tilted slightly to the left.

      “Your heart’s pounding,” she said. “I can hear it. Is that embarrassment or excitement?”

      “Embarrassment,” said Jamie. “Definitely embarrassment.”

      “Pity,” she said, and flashed him a wicked smile. He blushed again, his face now feeling as though it must erupt, it was so hot, and then a thought occurred to him.

       If she can hear my heartbeat, she must be able to hear my footsteps like an elephant’s. Why didn’t she hurry up and get dressed when she heard me coming down the block?

      “Because it’s fun to tease you,” she said, and Jamie took a shocked step backwards.

      “How did you know—”

      “You’re a smart boy,” she said, smiling again.

      She floated across the cell and spun elegantly on to her bed. She laced her hands behind her head, and looked at him.

      “Did you talk to the monster?” she asked.

      “I did.”

      “And?”

      “I wish I hadn’t. But I’m glad I did. Does that make sense?”

      She smiled at him, and Jamie’s heart leapt in his chest.

      “I know exactly what you mean,” she said.

      Jamie composed himself. “I want to take you up on your offer,” he said. “I don’t have permission to take you off the base, but I’ll do it if you to take me to the person you think can help me.”

      Larissa untangled her fingers and pushed herself up on her elbows.

      “Are you serious?” she asked. “This isn’t you getting back at me?”

      “I’m serious.”

      “What brought on the change of heart?”

      “I’ve got no choice,” he said. “I don’t know what else to do. I get why Alexandru wants to hurt me now. I know about what my father did. You were right; it all started with him.”

      She looked at him with kindness on her face. “I bet that hurt to say,” she said.

      “A little bit, yeah.”

      Larissa flipped up off the bed, soared slowly through the air, and landed silently in front of him, a look of excitement on her face.

      “Let’s do it,” she said, eagerly.

      “You’ll need to wear an explosive belt.”

      “Fine.”

      “You can’t leave my sight.”

      She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

      “Why would I want to?” she purred.

      “I’m serious.”

      “So am I.”

      “You

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