Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon

Author:Lucy Saxon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

As soon as they found the alcove, Fox knelt by the security-locked door, flipping the panel and pulling a pair of pliers from his coat pocket.

Cat kept watch as Fox worked; she was expecting guards to pass by on their rounds at any moment. Finally, she heard a loud click, and the door swung inwards, revealing a long, empty corridor. Slipping inside, Fox closed the door behind them. There were three branches to the corridor where they stood: left, right and forward.

‘Which way?’ Cat whispered.

Fox shrugged, pointing left.

‘Why?’

‘No reason, just feels like left is a good way to go,’ he replied with a wry smile.

‘Left it is, then.’

Cat had never been so pleased to see the pretentious architecture and decoration; the deep, shaded alcoves set every few feet down the hallway were invaluable for hiding from the occasional person going from room to room. Obviously not everyone had been allowed to leave for worship. The walls were painted a deep purple above the wooden panels which covered the bottom half, and wrought silver lamps lit the way, the thin flames causing flickering shadows to dance across the walls and floor. As they walked further and further, sticking to the shadows and staying near silent, Fox was both impressed and disgusted at Cat’s continued ability to identify the majority of people who passed them while they were safely concealed in alcoves.

‘How on Tellus do you know these people? Surely your father didn’t meet all of them?’ he queried in a hushed tone. Cat shrugged.

‘He was a very busy man,’ she replied. ‘And some of them live in our square,’ she added.

Fox shuddered at the thought of living in the same area as such pompous bastards, and asked her how she stood it.

‘I didn’t exactly have much of a choice,’ she pointed out drily, before pressing a finger to her lips as they passed a door. He looked at her quizzically as she crept closer, crouching low to press her ear to the gap beneath the door. They heard strains of conversation, mostly complaints about long working hours.

‘Boss said we need more for one last push, but I don’t see where we’ll get them from. I know we’re running out of test subjects, but the Collections have taken just about every thirteen-year-old to be found,’ one man muttered in irritation. She quickly reached inside her coat, flicking the switch on the audio recorder in her waistcoat. ‘We can’t start taking first-borns, or there’ll be hell to pay.’

‘What boss says, boss gets, though,’ another man replied grumpily. ‘Maybe we’ll have to start taking them younger. If they carry on with all that war effort tripe people will practically give their kids away to fight for their country.’

Cat’s eyes widened, meeting Fox’s. Test subjects?

‘Not like he has anything to worry about now, is it? Nor me, for that matter, I never had any brats of my own.’

The man’s companion guffawed loudly.

‘That’s ’cause you can’t get a woman!’ he jeered, earning a growl from the first man.

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