The Last Resort(64)

‘Wait,’ Lucy says. ‘What? How did you happen to click to that?’

Amelia shrugs. ‘My mind just works that way. Puzzles, word games.’

Lucy frowns, unsure where she’s going with this. ‘O . . . K . . .’

‘Kirrin was the island the Famous Five went to.’

‘Oh, of course,’ says Lucy. ‘Where they met George.’

Amelia looks away. ‘Yes. It’s where they met George.’





Amelia

Amelia needs to get away. Things are moving too close to the truth, but she doesn’t want to reveal what she knows. Not yet. She steps outside and raises a palm upwards. ‘I think the rain has finally stopped.’ She walks further into the fresh air, takes a deep breath. ‘It’s called petrichor, that scent. Did you know that?’ She turns to face James, who has followed her out. He shakes his head. ‘The smell of the air after the rain – following a dry spell. You could tell it hadn’t rained here for a while. The ground was so hard-packed.’

James just nods.

Lucy and Scott come out behind him.

‘How come there were only four portions of food?’ Lucy asks. ‘If Brenda hadn’t taken out her tracker—’

‘They’re manipulating us,’ Scott says. ‘They probably whispered something in her ear. Or maybe they just knew she wasn’t going to last much longer, even if she hadn’t tried to brain herself pulling out the tracker. They’re watching us, remember?’

‘Well, the four of us are OK now, aren’t we?’ Amelia says, forcing a smile. ‘Even Scott’s ankle seems to be holding up.’

‘It’s fine,’ he mutters. ‘Stopped hurting long ago.’

‘Thanks to your little bag of tricks, eh?’ James nods towards his pocket, where he’s stashed his diminishing bag of mixed drugs.

Scott shrugs. ‘I’m kinda thinking I might not take these anymore. I mean, I need to stay on them today, make sure I keep the pain in my ankle at bay until we get back home. But after that, I’m done. I’m gonna get help. Watching your memory feed made me feel sick. I thought . . . I guess I thought I could shift responsibility onto the user. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for long enough. But seeing it like that? I took advantage. I’m responsible for that.’

James nods. ‘Yeah. You are. But we’re all taking responsibility now, aren’t we? I mean, we didn’t see much of Brenda’s, and I don’t even want to think what might’ve been going on there – I mean, it looked like she was giving her child away . . . And you didn’t hear about Lucy’s.’

‘But what about Amelia?’ Lucy butts in. ‘She doesn’t have this tracker. We saw what happened with Brenda – as soon as she pulled it off, the feed stopped. We’re not going to see what Amelia’s got to hide, are we?’

‘It could still be projected out of my wrist-tracker,’ Amelia says, hoping she’s wrong.

Lucy taps the side of her head, just above her earpiece. ‘Not attached to your neurons, is it?’

‘Do we have to know?’ James turns to Amelia. ‘I think we get the picture.’ He shrugs. ‘We all did terrible things. We’ve all been brought here to be held accountable. I’m sure Amelia doesn’t have to have hers projected for her to know she needs to deal with it?’

‘Well, that’s hardly fair,’ Lucy snaps. ‘Maybe Amelia should just tell us anyway.’

‘Right,’ Scott joins in. ‘Come on, Amelia. It’s not like you don’t know what you did – give the rest of us a peek at your rotten core.’

‘What about you, Scott?’ James says. ‘I don’t recall seeing your memory yet.’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Scott says, with a small laugh. ‘I’m pretty sure they’re saving the best for last.’

Amelia tightens her headlamp and switches it on. ‘Guys, come on,’ she says, trying to take control. ‘I think we need to get going. It’s not far now. Let’s just get to the house and see what happens next.’

‘Oh,’ Lucy says, ‘so that’s a no then, Amelia? Not going to be sharing your little secret?’

‘Let’s just get to the house,’ she repeats tightly, barely able to get the words past her constricting throat.

Lucy makes a disgusted sound, but drops it – at least for now.

‘Maybe the cops’ll be there.’ Scott pulls on his waterproof jacket. It’s too cold now to go outside with just shorts and a T-shirt; his sweater is long gone. ‘They’ll be there to check things out, after Harvey called an ambulance for Giles and Brenda, right?’

Lucy shakes her head. ‘I doubt that. We’re just guinea pigs, aren’t we? They’re going to give us a slap-up meal, say thanks for our time, then pay us off and tell us to keep our traps shut.’ She flicks her headlamp on. ‘That’s what I think, anyway. I bet the others are all being pampered as we speak.’

‘Even Brenda?’ Amelia zips up her jacket.

‘Especially Brenda. OK, so they left it a bit longer than they should’ve, but of course they were coming for her. Of course they have the medication she needs to get better. Right? I mean, what’s the alternative? We’ve all said this: Giles called it right from the start. It’s a game. They kicked it off with a fake plane crash, but none of us reacted. So they stepped it up—’