Nightrise

THE BLOCK

The heat.

Jamie had never felt anything like it. Even the theatre in Reno had never been as bad as this. He hadn’t heard the air-conditioning unit in his cell switch off, but he had felt the result only moments later. The cool air had evaporated instantly. The heat had hit him from every side. He would have said it was like being in an oven except there was no “like” about it. He was in an oven. Baking, slowly, to death.

He had waited for what felt like an eternity, then gone over to the door and pressed the call button to summon help. The temperature was a hundred degrees and rising. The sunlight was pounding the outer walls and the roof, and sweat was pouring out of him. His clothes were sodden. He didn’t dare breathe too deeply for fear of scorching his lungs. Nobody came. He hit the call button again and then again but he soon realized that it had either been disconnected or he was being deliberately ignored. Was this part of the punishment for what had happened the night before? He doubted it. Although he couldn’t be sure, he suspected that this new treatment might signal something much worse.

He went over to the metal sink – it was already too hot to touch – and turned on the tap. A dribble of cold water came out. So far he had only been given bottled water to drink at Silent Creek. Indeed, he had been warned that the tap water was unfiltered. But there was no helping it. If he didn’t drink, he would die. He cupped his hand and scooped some of the water into his mouth. It tasted stale and metallic. He took off his T-shirt and held it under the tickle, then pressed it against himself. Rivulets of water ran under his armpits and down his chest, cooling him for just a few seconds. He squeezed the shirt against the back of his neck. He would have to do this constantly until someone came or until the air-conditioning was turned back on. But somehow Jamie knew that neither of those things were going to happen soon.

Time crept past mercilessly. The window was a narrow slit with glass the colour of milk. He couldn’t see out so there was no way of knowing what time of day it was, except that – as midday approached – the glare became even stronger, the heat ever more unbearable. He had nothing to read, nothing to do. He wanted to scream and pound his fists against the door but he knew that nobody would hear him and it would do no good. Besides, he wasn’t even sure he had the strength. He was finding it more and more difficult to breathe. As each hour passed, he drifted between consciousness and a sleep that he feared might be his death. He had to force himself to get up every few minutes and return to the tap. The trickle of water was the only thing keeping him alive.

He knew now that he had failed. He should have guessed from the way Joe Feather had looked at him at the end of the meal only the day before. The Intake Officer had somehow recognized him and he must have passed on his knowledge to the supervisor, Max Koring. This was the result. They would leave him here until he died and then tell the authorities that it had been an accident. Apart from his bloody nose, there would be no signs of violence on his body. They would bury him in the desert and that would be the end of it.

Had they done the same thing to Scott? That was what he didn’t understand. Why go to all the trouble of the kidnap, the dart guns, the double murder of Don and Marcie – just to bring him here to die? Nightrise was supposed to be looking for kids with paranormal powers. Scott, Jamie himself, Daniel McGuire and many others. But he still had no idea why they wanted them.

And then the door opened.

Jamie felt a cool breeze that danced on his skin. He was lying on his back, naked down to the waist, his trousers soaked and the crumpled ball of his T-shirt pressed against his head. His chest was rising and falling as his lungs fought desperately for air. Somehow he managed to turn his head and he saw a man standing there, silhouetted in the doorway. Jamie couldn’t make out who it was but then the man stepped inside and his heart sank as he recognized Joe Feather.

Feather stood where he was. He swore quietly to himself, then muttered, “What are they doing?”

He backed out again and Jamie was afraid that he was going to abandon him – but instead Feather found a switch and turned the air-conditioning back on. Almost at once the temperature in the cell began to fall. And then Jamie must have blacked out for a brief moment because suddenly Feather was there, kneeling down beside the bunk. He had a bottle of cold water.

“Drink this,” he said. “Not too much. It’ll make you sick…”

He held the bottle against Jamie’s lips and Jamie swallowed gratefully. He had never felt anything quite as wonderful as the sensation of cold water trickling down his throat.

For a while, neither of them spoke. As Jamie recovered his strength, he once again examined the man who had introduced him to Silent Creek. Joe Feather was perhaps older than he had first thought. It was difficult to be sure, as his face was so sunburned, so lived in. His eyes were very dark. He was looking at Jamie with a mixture of dismay and… something else. For the first time, Jamie wondered if this man might not be his enemy after all. They were both Native Americans. Didn’t that put them on the same side?

“Can you get up?” Feather asked. He glanced nervously at the door, making sure there was nobody outside. “We don’t have much time.”

“Why?” Jamie asked.

“You have to get out of here. They want to hurt you. But I have friends. I’ve called them. Very soon, they will come. They will help you escape.”

“Escape…?” This was all happening too fast. Jamie struggled to sit up. He took the bottle and drank some more water, then poured the rest of it over his head. It felt ice cold, trickling down his neck and over his shoulders, and revived him instantly. “What are you talking about?” Jamie demanded. “Why do you want to help me?”

“Later,” Feather replied. “We can’t talk now.”

“No.” Jamie shook his head. “I don’t know you. I don’t know what you want. Why should I trust you?”

The older man sighed in frustration. “I know you,” he said. “I know who you are.”

“Who am I?”

“You are one of the Five.”

It wasn’t the answer that Jamie had been expecting. It made no sense to him at all. He tried another approach. “When I came here, you asked me if I had a brother,” he said. “Have you seen him?”

“You said you had no brother but I knew you were lying to me. And last night, Mr Koring told me your real name. You have a twin.”

Jamie ran a hand through his hair, squeezing out more of the water. “That’s right,” he admitted. “My name is Jamie Tyler.”

Joe Feather nodded. “There was a Scott Tyler here. He was sent to the Block… on the other side of the wall. But I wasn’t here when he arrived. I didn’t see him.”

“You’re lying! You knew about the tattoo. He’s got the same tattoo in the same place. You must have seen it!”

“It was because of the tattoo that I knew who you were. There is much that I have to explain to you. But not now. Not here. I have friends who are already on their way here to help you. Tonight, when it is dark, you will leave-”

“I’m not leaving without Scott!”

Jamie had raised his voice and the Intake Officer turned anxiously towards the door, afraid that he might have been overheard. “Your brother was brought here a week ago,” he whispered, the words tumbling over each other. “I don’t go into the Block. I’m not allowed there. But sometimes I hear them talking and I know the names. He was here but he has gone again. They took him away.”

“When?”

“Just before you arrived.”

“Where? Where did they take him?”

Joe Feather cast his eyes down. “I don’t know. They wouldn’t tell me. All I can tell you is – he has gone.”

It was almost the worst news that Jamie could have heard. To have come so close! Scott had been here! If Jamie had arrived earlier, everything might have been different. But his brother had already gone. Nightrise could have taken him anywhere in the world. His search was about to begin all over again.

“If you want to find your brother, you must get out of this place,” Feather urged him. “You must do what I say. If you stay here, there is no hope.”

“Wait a minute…” Jamie tried to collect his thoughts. Everything was still happening too quickly. “Tell me about the Block,” he said. “That’s what you call the units on the other side of the wall, but what’s it for? How many kids are there locked up? What goes on over there?”

“Please.” Feather looked pained. But he could see that Jamie was determined. “Listen to me,” he whispered. “I’ve worked here only a few months. I don’t know what goes on. There are the boys in the main prison and there are the specials. There is something they call the Psi project. I don’t know what that means. And I don’t work in the Block. Sometimes I see things. I see names on lists. And I hear the other supervisors talking. But it was just a job for me until I saw you. Then I knew I had to act…”

“Why?”

“Because of the tattoo!” Feather couldn’t bear it any more. He went over to the door and looked out. But there was no one in the corridor. The other isolation cells were empty. The two of them were on their own. “I will tell you everything,” he promised. “But only when we are far from here.”

“All right.” Jamie could see there was no point arguing. And he had no desire to spend a minute more at Silent Creek, not if Scott had already gone. “But there is one thing,” he went on. “There’s a boy called Daniel McGuire.”

“McGuire…” Feather nodded. “Yes. I have seen that name.”

“He’s in the Block?”

“Yes.”

“He’s coming with me.” Feather opened his mouth to argue but Jamie didn’t give him time. “I’m only here because his mother helped me. I promised her. I can’t leave him behind.”

“But there is no way into the Block. There are cameras and guards…”

“You can help. You have to help me!”

The supervisor gritted his teeth, then nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. There is no more time to talk now. Mr Koring will arrive very soon. I will come for you when it gets dark. Then we will see.”

“I’m not going anywhere without Daniel.”

“I will do what I can.”

And then he was gone, leaving Jamie’s head spinning. He heard a faint click and realized that Feather had turned off the air-conditioning again. That made sense. If Max Koring looked in, he would have to see that Jamie was still suffering. The heat returned, an unwelcome blanket that completely smothered him. But he had a whole bottle of water inside him and the worst of the day was over. Jamie wished he had asked Feather the time, but he could only lie there, gazing at the rectangle of white glass, watching as the light softened and faded away. Eventually the evening came and then the night. The single light bulb, in a steel cage over the sink, flickered on automatically. Nobody had brought Jamie any food. Perhaps that was part of the punishment too… or a way of weakening him up for whatever was to come. He was beginning to get nervous. Had Joe Feather been discovered? Had he had second thoughts? He’d said he would come back when it was dark, and surely more than an hour had passed since the sun had set.

But it was much later when the door finally opened and the Intake Officer hurried in. He had Jamie’s trainers and a new T-shirt with him. He was also carrying another bottle of water. Jamie drank greedily while Joe talked. He wished the supervisor had thought to bring some food too.

“We must hurry,” he said. “Mr Koring has gone…”

“Where?”

“There’s a landing strip. A small plane. He’s picking up Mr Banes.”

Banes. It was the last name Jamie wanted to hear. He was instantly on his feet, pulling on the T-shirt, ready to go.

“My friends are close,” Feather went on. He glanced at his watch. “It is ten o’clock. At half past ten they will come. We must be ready by then.”

“What about Daniel?”

Feather took a small plastic bottle out of his pocket and unscrewed the cap. Jamie saw that it was filled with some sort of red syrup. “This contains chokecherry juice,” he explained. “It won’t harm you.” Before Jamie could stop him, he had squeezed it all over the side of Jamie’s face. Jamie put his hand to his skin and then examined his fingers. The juice looked exactly like blood. “I will take you to the medicine wing,” Feather said. “You must pretend you are hurt.” Jamie remembered what Baltimore had told him while they were having lunch. The medicine wing stood right up against the wall and served both sides of the prison. Now he understood what Feather was doing.

“The security cameras will see you,” Feather continued. “But the guards will see the blood and they won’t ask questions. There is nobody inside the medicine wing. In an emergency, they would expect me to call the nurses – but of course I won’t. We will be alone.”

“How do we get through to the Block?”

“Come now. I will tell you.”

The two of them left together. The juice had streaked all the way down the side of Jamie’s face and anyone watching him would assume that either he had been in a vicious fight or he had tried to kill himself. Joe Feather held onto him and, as they went down the empty corridor, Jamie staggered as if he could barely stand up. They came to a door which led out to the football pitch. Jamie already knew that none of the guards carried a key to this one. It could only be opened electronically from central control. He felt a camera high above, swivelling round to examine him. Would it work? Silence. Then a loud buzz and the lock clicked open. Joe helped him through. They were out!

It felt strange, crossing the football field in the artificial light of the arc lamps. The desert was pitch black. Tonight there was no moon. But the entire prison was a strange electric white, the razor-wire fence glittering all the way around the perimeter. Jamie could see the windows of the four units and thought of the boys he had met – Baltimore, Green Eyes, DV and the rest of them – and felt sorry that he was leaving them behind. They had made mistakes. They had done stupid things. But he had known them and he had thought none of them were really so bad.

The medicine wing rose up in front of them with the solid cinder-block wall stretching out behind. Joe Feather had a key to the door and he let Jamie in. They passed into a reception area with a desk and two small clinics leading off a narrow corridor behind. There was an eye chart on one wall, a couple of anti-drugs posters on the other. Jamie noticed another camera watching him from the corner. How could the two of them do anything when they were being followed all the time?

Joe Feather knelt down and pretended to examine his wound.

“The camera can see us but it can’t hear,” he whispered. “They will expect me to use the phone, to call the nurse. I will pretend to do that. You must take this…” Jamie felt something metallic being pressed into his hand. “This is the master key,” Feather continued. “It opens the cells in all four units: North, South, East and West. It should also open the cells in the Block, but I can’t be sure of that. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing more we can do.”

“How do I get to the Block?”

“There is a door at the end of the corridor.”

Jamie glanced round, at the same letting out a groan of pain for the sake of the camera. It was true. There was a single door just past the two clinics. And – of course – he should have been able to tell from the layout of the building that the corridor was a sort of tunnel, running directly through the outer wall.

Meanwhile, Joe Feather had gone over to the telephone and tapped out a number. Somewhere inside the prison complex, other supervisors would be watching his every move. The first rule of prison life was that there should be no surprises. Every minute of the day had to be exactly the same as the day before. The fact that a boy had been hurt and needed medical aid was a break from routine and the other guards would be on full alert. Feather was pretending to talk to the nurse at the end of the line but in fact he hadn’t been connected. He was actually talking to Jamie.

“I’ve fixed the generator,” Joe continued. “The electric generator in the yard. It has an override system. Sometimes we have to shut it down for repair. It will cut out very soon now and it will take them time to bring the emergency generator on-line. That will give us at least a minute with no cameras, no lights and all the prison doors automatically set to manual. That is when you will deal with your friend. He’s in cell fourteen.”

“Won’t there be guards?”

“There’s only one supervisor on duty during the graveyard shift. Leave him to me.”

“Why are you doing all this?” Jamie asked.

Joe looked up from the telephone and allowed himself a brief smile. “I already told you. You’re one of the Five.”

“Yes. But one of the five what? What does it mean?”

Without any warning, the lights blinked out.

“Move!” Joe commanded.

He had a torch and flicked it on. Jamie followed him down the corridor and waited as he unlocked the door at the end with a key of his own. Everything was pitch black but the beam of the torch picked up a few details as Joe swung it from side to side: a unit almost identical to his own; a corridor lined with cell doors; a table bolted into the floor; a bank of monitors; a supervisor already rising to his feet, reaching for the canister of CS gas attached to his belt.

“What-?” the man began.

Joe hit him with his torch. The light beam threw crazy shadows across the far wall. Jamie heard the supervisor grunt. He folded forward and collapsed.

“Go!” Joe was already dragging the unconscious man back into his seat. There was a paperback book on the desk in front of him and Joe was arranging him so that when the lights came back on, it would look as if he was leaning forward, reading a page. Jamie looked around him, trying to find his way. Joe threw him the torch. He caught it and ran forward.

The cell numbers were clearly printed beside each door. He had to move quickly. As soon as the emergency generator kicked in, he would be seen and – worse – the doors would be sealed electronically. He could hear shouting. It was coming from behind the locked doors. Some of the kids must have been awake and now found themselves in total darkness… a new experience for them. They were pounding their fists against the doors. He wondered if the same thing was happening in the units on the other side of the wall.

He reached number fourteen and, using the torchlight, eased the key into the lock and turned it. With a sense of relief, he felt the lock open. He slid the door aside and stepped inside.

There was an eleven-year-old black boy lying on a bunk, wearing a T-shirt and shorts. He was small for his age but strong and wiry. He had short, curly hair and round, white eyes. There was a plaster on his wrist, just over the vein, and he was very thin. But otherwise he seemed unhurt. He was already awake and staring at the figure who had burst into his room. Jamie slid the door shut again – but not quite the whole way. He turned the torch on himself.

“Don’t be scared,” he said. “I’m a friend.”

“Scott?” The boy on the bunk thought he’d recognized him and for a moment Jamie was thrown. But, of course, he wasn’t wearing the glasses. And in the half-light it would have been easy to mistake him for his brother, even with his short hair.

“I’m not Scott. I’m his brother.”

“Jamie!”

“Yes.” Jamie felt a whirl of emotions. Scott had been here. This boy had met him. Perhaps he might know where he had gone. “You’re Daniel… is that right?” he asked.

“I’m Danny.”

“I met your mother. She’s been looking for you. She sent me to find you.”

“You saw my mum?”

The lights came back on. Danny gasped, seeing the red stains all over Jamie’s face. “You’re hurt!” he said.

“No. Don’t worry. It’s fake…”

Jamie wasn’t sure what was meant to happen next. He was inside the cell with Daniel McGuire, inside the Block. The other prisoners were still hammering at their doors, shouting for attention. The lights were back on. The security cameras were in operation. The entire prison was in a state of maximum alert. What exactly had they achieved?

Colton Banes had seen the lights come on too.

He was in a jeep, being driven from the airstrip where he had landed in the four-seater Cessna that had carried him from Las Vegas. Max Koring was behind the wheel. He had known at once that something was wrong. Silent Creek could usually be seen for miles around, and darkness in this part of the desert was simply impossible – it was like some sort of enormous magic trick. As the two of them drove along the track, the lights flickered on and the prison reappeared.

Koring turned to him. “A power failure,” he muttered. “It happens. Sometimes the generator cuts out.”

“An accident?” Banes shook his head slowly. “Not tonight, I think…” He reached under his jacket and took out a gun. “Put your foot down,” he snapped. “We need to raise the alarm.”

But he was too late. The jeep was still a hundred metres from the main gates when the first shots were fired.