Mika Read online

  After a time, he says, ‘What brought this on?’

  Mika swallows hard. ‘You know I have to go. I would have left weeks ago, if Lisa and Lionel hadn’t seen a pattern in my moko and thought they could help. And when I do go, I can’t take Bree with me. You see, once I’ve found the professors’ old boss, and made the deal, I’ll need to get home to Aotearoa as quickly as I can. It’s an uncertain journey...’ Just asking them is hard. Mika’s heart is aching. She hates the thought of leaving Bree. Their relationship may be new, but still the idea of leaving the girl is excruciating. ‘So, will you do it? Will you and Irina look after Bree? Give her a family here?’

  She rubs at her eyes, hoping to fool the couple into thinking that a particle of dust is the reason for her tears.

  ‘I ... I don’t know,’ Stan says.

  ‘But Bree likes you. She’s happy here,’ Mika insists.

  Irina tugs at his hand, her eyes brimmed with tears. ‘Stan, please, we could do this.’

  Stan shakes her off.

  ‘But I thought you liked Bree,’ Mika says.

  ‘I do. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bree. She’s a great kid.’

  ‘Then why not?’

  Stan doesn’t say anything, but his cybernetic eye jerks crazily.

  Irina speaks now, her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Stan, we could do this. We could. I know we could. You can’t give save them all, Stan, not singlehandedly, you can’t even raise enough stealing from the Brotherhood to get all the prosthetic limbs we need. But we could help Bree: you and I could give this one little girl a chance.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Is it because of Belle? We wouldn’t be replacing her. We could never do that—’

  Stan pushes his wife away and storms ahead.

  Mika goes to follow him, but Irina puts a hand on forearm. ‘I’m sorry. I’d help you if I could. I’d love to have Bree. But Stan ... since we lost Belle, he hurts so much. I don’t think he can bear to risk loving another child, not while there’s a chance they could get ill, too. It’s why he drives himself, leaving the reservation to find the money, so other families don’t have to face what we did, at least not so soon.’ She sighs sadly. ‘It’s got so I haven’t just lost my daughter, I’ve lost my husband, too.’

  She turns and heads back up the slope to the bus.

  Mika catches up with Stan, who’s kicking up stones. They’re on the edge of the village now, facing an endless landscape of rock, where fierce plants grip the dry soil in a battle for survival. Scooping up a stone herself, Mika hefts it from hand to hand, then hurls it into the wilderness.

  ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to push. Irina explained. It was insensitive of me to insist.’

  Stan nods. He juggles a stone in his hand.

  ‘If not you, what about the professors?’ Mika says, stopping in front of Torua. ‘They’re older, but they’re kind. Do you think they’d look after her?’

  Stan looks up. ‘You’re trying to pawn the child off to the next person in line now? Surely Bree deserves more than that!’

  ‘Well, what am I supposed to do?’ Mika raises her voice, miffed now. ‘You say you won’t take her, and I have to get to Las Vegas and find the man who worked with my father. I can’t take Bree with me. I can’t take the risk.’

  But Stan is tilting his head towards the gorge, where Bree, still in her wet clothes and wrapped in a towel, skips between the two professors. Paddy, equally bedraggled, yaps at their heels. He doesn’t want Bree to know that they’re arguing about her.

  ‘How was your swim, sweetie?’ Mika asks Bree when the two groups come together. Rubbing the dust from her hands, she picks up the puppy, scratching vigorously behind his ears.

  ‘It was cool. Can I go again tomorrow?’ Bree says, taking the puppy from Mika, and giggling as it licks her face. Mika hesitates. Will Bree still be here tomorrow? After all she’s been through, Mika can’t leave her with just anyone. Stan’s right: Bree deserves more.

  ‘Let’s talk about it later, shall we? Right now you should go and get changed – and mind you don’t turn poor Torua into a swimming pool!’ Mika can’t resist giving the girl a tight hug before helping her and the puppy inside.

  ‘Mika, have you got a moment to come back with us?’ Lisa asks. ‘Lionel thinks we’ve made a mistake somewhere.’ Mika notes Lionel’s scowl, as if he doesn’t approve of the implication.

  ‘Can I ask you something first?’ Mika says, ignoring the low growl from Stan.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Lisa isn’t referring to Mika’s question. Her brows crinkle as she stares into the distance. Following her gaze, Mika spots the irregularity on the horizon. Stan has seen it too.

  ‘Ah shit, the Brotherhood,’ he curses, his face pale.

  ‘Oh no, Stan, you didn’t!’ Lisa gasps, cupping her hand to her mouth.

  ‘I was careful,’ Stan whispers, but his fists are clenched.

  Lionel turns on him, suddenly thunderous. ‘You can’t steal from them, Stan! How could you be so stupid?’ he yells. ‘You’ve put us all at risk, you fool! So you’ve stolen enough money to buy us a few spare parts – the Brotherhood will make us pay with our lives. You’re going get us all killed.’ He grabs for his wife, yanking her away.

  ‘No, no, it’s fine,’ Stan insists, taking a step towards the professors, his palms outstretched. ‘I’ll leave.’ He flicks a glance towards Torua. ‘If I’m not here to find when the Brotherhood come, they’ll keep on looking.’

  ‘Great idea,’ Lionel retorts. ‘You should go. We’re none of us safe while you’re here,’ he says coldly, still pulling on Lisa’s arm.

  ‘But Stan won’t be allowed to return,’ Lisa protests. ‘The elders are happy enough for Stan to deal drugs to bring cash into the community, but if there’s any trouble with the Brotherhood, they’ll ask him to stay away.’

  ‘Then the elders would be right,’ says Lionel calmly, as if talking to a child. ‘Darling, we have to let him go. The important thing is to keep the community safe, and to avoid any unnecessary attention from B-Cell.’

  ‘Mika,’ Stan says, turning to her. ‘The Brotherhood will know you were with me when I stole their money and their drugs. It’s not safe for you here either.’

  Lisa twists out of her husband’s grip. ‘I’m coming too,’ she says, her voice firm. ‘If you’ll let me.’

  ‘No!’ Lionel’s face is full of anguish.

  Lisa lays her hand on her husband’s forearm. ‘Yes, Lionel. It’s time for us to face up to our mistakes. We’ve been hiding out here too long.’

  ‘That’s not true! All these years, we’ve been searching for a solution!’

  ‘We’ve been hiding, Lionel, and you know it. Well, I’m not going to stand by and watch this disease decimate our friends any longer. If I know anything at all about Atticus Tāura, then he kept on working until he found the answer, and that answer is here for us now, written on Mika’s skin. All we have to do is decipher it.’

  ‘Please, Lisa! If the Brotherhood catch you—’

  Lisa interrupts. ‘Come with me, Lionel,’ she pleads. ‘The two of us have been asleep here all this time. But now Mika has come along – like a miracle all the way from Aotearoa, from Atticus – wearing the clues to his research. Come with us. Help us unlock Atticus’ secret. Please.’

  But Lionel just stares at her. A second later, he turns on his heel and dashes back towards the village.

  Lisa sobs. She watches, her expression sad, until he disappears inside the house, then, bowing her head, she climbs the exterior of Torua after Bree.

  Mika turns to Stan. ‘What about Bree? We can’t take her with us. It’s too dangerous. We’ve already seen what those guys are prepared to do.’

  ‘Right now, we don’t have time to interview anyone for the position,’ Stan says, grim. He nods towards the horizon. During their exchange, the growing silhouettes of the Brotherhood have become more distinct. There are several of them, coming at speed.

  Stan’s right. I
f they’re going to leave, they have to go now. Bree will just have to come with them.

  Mika spins, and climbs into Torua. The hatch slams behind her and she dives into the driver’s seat. Hastily, she enters the embarking protocols. No time for finesse, she engages the engines, striking for the middle distance between the village and the oncoming visitors.

  Stan joins her in the co-pilot seat. ‘Right, let’s show these guys some dust.’

  Chapter Seven

  THEY HAVEN’T GONE FIFTY yards when Lisa squeals.

  ‘Stop, please! It’s Lionel.’

  Mika checks her mirror. His shirt flapping, Lionel is running after Torua, waving them down. Mika brakes hard, jerking the passengers forward against their seatbelts. Then, leaving the waka idling, she and Stan push up the hatch, just as Lionel reaches them.

  The fifty-yard sprint has exhausted him. Bending over, he rests a hand on his knees and breathes deeply.

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ he huffs, getting his breath back. ‘But I need to find Craig first.’

  ‘We haven’t got time for you to say your goodbyes, Lionel. I haven’t even got time to tell Irina,’ Stan says, his good eye squinting towards the horizon. ‘If you want to come, you need to get in the transport now.’

  ‘No, no, you don’t understand. It’s my smoking ambition coal.’ He holds up a piece of red rock half-wrapped in a grubby cloth. ‘If we can get the fire-pit to the right temperature, chemicals in the smoke should pacify the Brotherhood long enough for us to get away. They might even forget why they came if they inhale enough.’

  ‘Chemical warfare?’ Stan says.

  Lionel grins. ‘If you like.’

  ‘Absolutely not!’ says Mika, butting in. ‘What about the people? The children? I thought you cared about this community!’ She can’t believe Lionel would be so heartless.

  But Lisa calls up from below. ‘Any memory loss is only temporary. It’s perfectly safe, Mika.’

  ‘I’ve been working on it for years,’ Lionel goes on, unable to hear Lisa from where he’s standing. I thought if we’d had something that would curb people’s drive to achieve their goals, then maybe B-Cell might not have become so powerful. We might’ve stood a chance.’

  ‘I don’t like it,’ Mika says, shaking her head.

  ‘It’s safe. I promise. You’ve been exposed to it yourself. Lisa and I have been sprinkling it in the fire pit every night for the past week. We wanted to delay your departure and give us more time to study the tattoos.’

  Mika’s stunned. So, that’s why she’d found it so hard to leave! Anger creeps up from deep within her. She clenches her fingers into fists.

  But Stan is throwing out a hand to Lionel. ‘Right. Get in. I know where Craig is. ‘We’ll take you there. He turns his head and calls to Mika, who’s already sliding into her seat. ‘He’ll be at his mechno-workshop...’

  Mika frowns, trying to think where that might be. ‘...near my caravan,’ Stan finishes.

  Lionel is barely in his seat, hasn’t even put on his seatbelt, when Torua roars to life, circling the villages in just minutes and sliding to a stop outside Craig’s workshop. Stan, Mika and Lionel jump down before the billow of dust has had time to settle. Stan’s friend rolls himself to the front of his shop.

  ‘What’s up, man?’ he says, pulling off his gloves.

  ‘Brotherhood,’ Stan says. ‘Sold some drugs for them in New York and I might have forgotten to give them the money. Might have held some of drugs back, too.’

  ‘Shit!’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve gotta go. Lionel and Lisa, too. The profs think they can find a way to beat the diabetes.’

  Lionel steps forward, his rock in hand. ‘Please, we need your help to create a diversion,’ he says.

  ‘What sort of a diversion?’ Craig points to his prosthesis. ‘Because, you know, leaping tall buildings in a single bound isn’t my forté.’

  ‘An Indian smoke screen.’

  Lionel pulls a piece of paper – clearly torn from an exercise book – out of his shirt pocket, then he passes both the rock and the paper to Craig. ‘Instructions,’ he says.

  Craig scans the scrap of paper. Leaning over, Lionel taps it with his index finger, giving Craig his final advice.

  ‘Don’t add too much of the chemical at once, keep to the dosage, and the timing, or the smoke will do more than stupefy, it’ll asphyxiate.’

  Craig nods. ‘Not too much. Got it!’

  ‘We need to hurry,’ says Mika, jerking her chin at the horizon. ‘That cloud can’t be more than ten minutes away.’

  ‘Ten minutes?!’ exclaims Craig, who’s too low to the ground to see the Brotherhood coming for himself. ‘Shit. Look, I’ll try, but I wouldn’t count on your smoke screen if I were you.’

  ‘But the wood’s there, the pit’s ready to go,’ says Stan.

  ‘Yes, but how long do you think it’ll take for the fire to get to—’ He reads from Lionel’s instructions. ‘...2200°F and a clear orange-coloured flame? This is a big dose of chemical Lionel wants heated up here.’

  Mika’s heart sinks. Lionel’s smoke screen isn’t going to work. They’ll be caught, her presence here condemning not just Bree and Huia, but perhaps the entire village. Resigned, she places her hand on Torua, seeking comfort in the aroha her whānau stored there for her.

  Torua!

  It’s then that Mika remembers the aroha stored in the waka. Quickly, she runs to the front of the vehicle and pops the bonnet. Then, ignoring the heat and the grease, she reaches in yanks out a hunk of metal shaped like a heart.

  ‘Mika, what are you doing? We need to go,’ roars Stan.

  ‘Coming!’ Slamming the bonnet down with one hand, Mika thrusts it at Craig, who tosses the warm metal from one hand to the other.

  ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

  ‘I’m not sure how it works, my people designed it, but I do know that once it’s torn from Torua, it’ll self-destruct.’

  ‘What?! When?’

  ‘It’s an ancient power source, from the heart of my people. Hurry, you have the number of beats a human heart makes in a minute.’

  ‘Shit!’ Craig rolls for the fire pit.

  Mika has almost reached Lionel and Stan when she hears the boom – the timbers bursting into flames, crackling and spitting like the fire goddess herself.

  ‘How did you do that? Is that Atticus’ invention?’ Lionel asks, looking past Mika, his eyes wide like a toddler’s.

  ‘Can we possibly talk about the science later, Lionel?’ says Stan pushing the older man towards Torua.

  Mika sneaks a look over her shoulder. Already the fire is burning well, the flames beginning to turn from red to orange, and the first curl of grey smoke rising. But the Brotherhood is almost upon them. Wiping the grease on her pants, she scrambles up Torua after Lionel.

  She isn’t quite through the hatch when Stan calls back to Craig. ‘The weed! The recreational stuff. Safest if you burn that, too.’

  ‘Ah, not the weed,’ Craig groans, as he pulls on his gloves.

  Chapter Eight

  ‘IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS?’

  Once the euphoria of eluding the Brotherhood waned, the trip to Las Vegas had taken longer than Mika expected. After relinquishing the piloting to Lisa, and the navigation to Lionel, the hours were full of their raised voices, the professors arguing at length over which roads to take, their decisions more often leading to dead ends than safe passage. Mika could sense their fear as they fought for safety in logic, their tortured experience still raw even years on. Yes, she’s angry at them for manipulating her. But watching them struggle to do what’s right after so many years of hiding makes her soften. It takes a brave person to do what scares you, even when it’s the right thing to do.

  ‘The lights? Yeah. It’s always best to arrive at night,’ Stan says, joining Mika to peer out the front window over the professors’ shoulders. ‘All the flaws are hidden by the pretty, pretty lights.’

  Mika has to agree it’s p
retty. Las Vegas is putting on a show to impress: spotlights roaming the skies like giants’ torches and the buildings flashing in blue and gold.

  ‘I don’t like it here, Mika. Can we go home?’

  Home? But Bree doesn’t have a home. Does she mean the reservation? Mika should have left the little girl there, where she felt safe. The closer they’ve come to the city, the more withdrawn Bree’s become, sinking backwards into shadow.

  ‘Don’t worry, sweetie. I just need to see a man and then we’ll go. I need his help.’

  A sob – her own – catches Mika by surprise.

  ‘Mika?’

  Picking Bree up, Mika notes how much she’s filled out in the past week. She sits down, the child nestled on her lap.

  ‘It’s my sister. Huia. I love her so much, but you see, she’s sick – she has diabetes – and she’s going to have a baby.’ Stan looks up sharply, staring at Mika over Bree’s head, his own face full of pain. Mika buries her face in Bree’s hair.

  ‘If I can’t get help for Huia, she could die, and her baby too.’

  ‘I can help you,’ Bree whispers.

  Suddenly, it dawns on Mika exactly what the girl is offering.

  ‘Oh no. No!’ Mika grips her harder. ‘No, Bree. You’re safe. Whatever happens, you’ll never be used that way. I promise.’

  ‘Is the man going to give your sister an organ?’ Bree asks.

  Mika shakes her head. ‘No, sweetie. I’m going to give him my father’s work and he’s going to make some medicine to help my sister. To help a lot of people.’

  ‘After that, can we can go home?’

  ‘Yes, then we’ll go home.’ Mika cups Bree’s face in her hand, letting the little girl see the tears in her eyes as she kisses her on both cheeks.

  ‘Okay,’ Mika says. ‘Let’s get this over with, shall we? Where is B-Cell?’

  With a flourish, Lionel turns Torua towards the towering edifice of B-Cell Technologies, glowing like an emerald at the end of the promenade.

  ‘They’re the brightest show in town.’