Chapter Six
Deeta
I hear the bustle long before they reach the door. Ralph, who has been making a valiant attempt to cheer me, lapsed into despondent silence a few minutes ago. I struggle into sitting position hoping that the disturbance heralds the Guards arrival back at the compound. The wait seems endless, and Ralph reaches out to take my hand in a painful grip.
The door is wrenched open long before the sound reaches our floor. Tom stands on the threshold, an out of breath Nella close behind him. He doesn’t move from his position just inside the door. Nella pushes past him and falls to her knees beside me on the chair Ralph and I are sitting on.
“Deet, honey, are you okay?” She doesn’t wait for my answer, but traces a gentle finger down my bruised cheek. “What have they done to you?” Her soft voice holds a faint inflection of horror.
Her face is already wet with tears, and I realise that she must have cried the moment she was told. I’ve hardly cried at all since that night with uncle Jep. Now, with her arms around me, I feel tears beginning to gather.
“They’ve taken Dec, Nell… they just took him. And then you all didn’t come home and I thought… I thought...” My voice trails off, suppressed by sobs.
Nella’s arm around my waist squeezes me a little.
“We had a slight problem.” She turns to look uncertainly at Tom. He seems to awaken from his trance, and moves into the room. The whole tribe seems to file in after him.
“Why did you take so long?” asks Mr. Clark.
The question is directed at Jamie who has just entered, but his son doesn’t seem to hear him. He walks the length of the room and sinks down onto one of the chairs, his legs buckling underneath him. Before our astonished gaze his head sinks into his hands, and the room goes silent. Mr. Clark turns from his son to Tom.
‘We have much to talk about, but everyone must be here,” states Tom quietly.
He stands, hands clasped behind his back, in front of the fire. It strikes me that he is in complete control of the situation, he looks powerful and decisive. His calmness eases the tense atmosphere in the room, bringing some semblance of order to the panic. He calls Nella to him with a small gesture, and for a moment they converse quietly. When their discussion is over she leaves the room, sending a reassuring smile in my direction. The subdued murmuring in the room suddenly comes to an abrupt halt as Mr. Reynolds steps forwards.
“What is going on, Tomasz?”
Tom, his gaze again trained on me, makes a dismissive gesture.
“Not until everyone is here. In the meantime I’d like to know what happened here, sir.” He looks towards uncle Jep.
Professor Jepsjon lays the bare facts before him quickly and clearly.
“And then Ricky came to find me to tell me where the children were, and that Ralph had gone to find Deeta and Dec. It was half an hour before Ralph returned with Deeta unconscious in his arms, and the news that Dec had not been with her,” finishes uncle Jep.
“Ralph found her?’
The professor nods.
“Yes, he has been a great help to me in looking after her and the children.”
Tom asks a rapid question in Polish which the professor answers lengthily in the same language. I’m uneasily aware of the bitterness in Tom’s voice. I’d expected he would be angry, but I’d not imagined him as angry as this. Tom doesn’t lose his temper like most people; he doesn’t shout or bash things about. As horrible as it is when someone completely loses control, Tom’s anger is somehow worse. He doesn’t become abusive, and he certainly doesn’t become violent, but his voice gets very cold and very soft. Against your will you find yourself straining to hear his every word, even though listening to what he says is one of the most uncomfortable things you will ever go through.
Yet even his anger is nothing to the pain and distress that I see in his eyes. They burn with some nameless and powerful emotion that I can’t place. Watching his torment is painful and I slip from my seat, creeping into the girls’ room. There are books everywhere, attestations to the trouble Jan has been taking in trying to occupy their minds. I kneel on the floor, replacing the battered tomes on the bookshelf.
“Are you alright?”
I jump violently at the sound of Tom’s voice.
“Apparently not.”
He sits beside me on the floor, turning my face towards him so that he can inspect my cheek and sling. I already know that the bruising is spectacular; it spreads over one cheekbone in purple and blue glory. My arm is similarly colourful but no longer so stiff and sore.
Tom brushes his finger gently over my skin.
“Poor Deetina, what have they done to you?” His voice is soft and full of sympathy. I think it is his kindness that breaks me down, and I tip forwards into his arms. A feeling of immeasurable comfort floods from him to me as his embrace closes around me.
“I’m sorry, Tom, so sorry!” The words come out between choking sobs. “I couldn’t stop them… I tried but I couldn’t, they were determined to take him.” I break off, pulling back to look at him. “You understand don’t you, Tom? They wanted him, no one else but Dec.”
“It’s alright, Deeta, don’t cry.”
Tom’s fingers move gently among my curls.
“Why, Tom? Why would they want him… he’s just a little boy?”
“Deeta, I have something to tell you.” He pauses until I’ve wiped my tears away with my sleeve. “I know who took Dec… no don’t say anything just listen. It was the Andak.”
For several seconds I stare at him in disbelief.
“What could they possibly want with Dec? How could…”
“They want him because he belongs to them: Dec is Andak,” Tom breaks in softly, releasing my arms. “So am I.”
My heart misses a beat and then begins to thud uncomfortably, as though trying to make it up. Tom’s eyes search my face intently, trying to answer some strange enigma.
“My father’s name was Paul Andak. His father was an American business tycoon and his mother was from the Emirate states. He was brought up with every luxury. He went to the best schools and eventually went into the family business: hedge funds. He saw the banking crisis coming; finances were so tangled, it was so much money and it had all happened before. He said that all the while people thought they could make millions, however risky it was, they did it.
“But they went too far. Everything was interlinked so deeply that they couldn’t afford one bank to go down for fear it would take them all down. They kept bailing out the banks that were in trouble, even though they knew it was only a stalling tactic for the inevitable crash. He knew that when that crash came money would be worthless. The real assets would be those that sustained life: clean water, food, and electricity. He used to say that money was the ultimate confidence trick, and he was surprised it lasted as long as it did.
“He knew that the worst hit would be the cities. People would begin to starve, and without electricity they would have no clean water. Anyone who had those things would become a target for looters… if they didn’t protect themselves. And that was how his big idea began. He built a state of the art compound which was self sufficient and luxurious, then marketed it to the rich and famous as a bolt hole should anything happen. Nuclear war, dirty bomb, pandemic — anything, all provided of course, that you could pay.”
He breaks off looking down at his hands.
“My father was a bad man. He had no intention of helping people who couldn’t help him. The only people who didn’t have to pay for their place inside the compound, had to work for it instead. He realised that the tribe would expand, and the compound would need to grow with it. He had a cross section of experts from all walks of life brought in to work inside the compound. Scientists, builders, architects, electricians, even weavers. He brought them into the compound and explained the complex away to prying eyes as a research university. Then he made his own little army to defend the compound when the time came. It would be the perf
ect little empire — and he would be king.”
“What happened?”
“Everything he said would happen did, and I don’t have the slightest doubt that he helped it along,” answers Tom bitterly. “He made his way through six wives, produced sixteen sons and six daughters, and lived like a king. Yet even kings die. He became ill, and that’s when he started to get afraid. What would happen to his kingdom, his magnificent empire that he had spent so long securing for himself?
Seventeen sons between six different women. The best scenario that he could see was that they would split it between themselves, but who would settle for a slice when they could have the whole thing? Dax was eldest son, but there was no saying if the sons’ of his later wives would submit to Dax’s rule. He decided it would be more likely that his sons would tear the tribe apart with their greed.”
“So what did he do?” My voice, softly prompting, brings Tom back from his bitter revere.
“He set up a council to rule over the complex as a unit. Every brother would have a seat on the board that he could pass on to his eldest son. That way it was in everyone’s interest to be out for himself. They wouldn’t risk backing one brother against another and hoping for a powerful position when the dust settled, they had too much to lose. It at one and the same time he strengthened each son’s position and weakened it.” He looks up and into my eyes. “I said he wasn’t a very nice man, not that he wasn’t clever. It could have worked.”
“Why didn’t it?”
“Because one of my brothers thought he could have it all anyway. I was eight when my father died, my brother Rye was eleven. Our mother died when I was four and I don’t recall much about her. Rye and I had lived with my father and his sixth wife, Jesminda for as long as I could remember. When I was nine she remarried. My father’s eldest son, Dax, insisted that I lived with him, his wife, and their three girls. Rye was enrolled in the army by then and lived in the barracks.
Seven months after my father’s death, my brother Roland died in an ambush. A few months later my brother Ethan died. Dax had been suspicious enough about Roland’s death, but after Ethan he was sure that these so called ‘accidents’ were way too convenient. He thought that one of us was deliberately dispatching the rest until he had gained sole leadership of the tribe. It was a belief that he shared only with Mari and I.”
“Who is Mari?”
“Dax’s wife.”
“Why not tell everyone else?”
“Because he had no idea who the culprit was. The council had only been running for seven months, and we were still trying to forge relationships with brothers we barely knew. When our father re-married his sons continued to live with their mother. Full brothers like Rye and me live together, but apart from our half siblings. I first met Dax when I was six: before then I didn’t even know I had brothers other than Rye. We had no interaction with each other until the council was established and drew us together.”
“How come you’re here with us instead of with your own tribe?”
“Dax figured that, out of all the brothers, I would be the easiest to dispatch. I was just a kid so I was more vulnerable, so he sent me to be a sleeper in another tribe.”
“A sleeper?”
“I would be a member of the Andak tribe but would live as a member of another tribe. That way if the time came when the Andak needed the help of the other tribes in the City, their help would be easier attained by the fact that they already knew and trusted an Andak. I visit my own tribe roughly five times a year; I have to because I have a place on the council. When I’m not there Dax, and after him Rye, had the responsibility of casting my vote.
“On one of my visits home I found out that Mari, who had been with child, had delivered a little boy. Dax was out of his mind with worry for the child. He knew that if anything happened to him, Dec would inherit his father’s place on the board and with it a death sentence. So he decided that Dec would be safer with me and Uncle Jep, and sent Dec with me when I left to return here.
“We didn’t tell anyone what we were doing; we led them to believe that Dec had been kidnapped. I never told my brothers which tribe I had settled with, Dax wouldn’t even let me tell him where I was staying. He said that it was safer if I was the only one who knew.”
I try to take his words in, but feel too numb to comprehend everything he’s saying. It couldn’t be true. Tom couldn’t be Andak. Dec couldn’t share blood with that tribe of monsters. I start to shake. I feel like I’m drowning under the deluge of Tom’s revelations.
“So you’re telling me that you – you’re some kind of Andak Elder? And Dec is…” A thought hits me, and I look up into Tom’s dark blue eyes. They are exactly the same shade as Dec’s. “You really are Dec’s uncle!”
He nods.
“But… I don’t understand. What about Dec’s parents? Don’t they want to know their son? Don’t they care about him? How could they just send him away like that?”
“There was too much danger; can’t you see that they didn’t have a choice?”
Tom breaks off abruptly, and his eyes look right through me at a picture that I can’t see. When he finally does speak his words are so soft I hardly hear them.
“When I returned for my next visit Dax was dead.”
“Dead! They killed him?” My hand flies to Tom’s wrist. “And now they have Dec! Tom we have to get him back, you can get him back can’t you? I mean you’re their brother they have to…”
“Deeta, what sort of reaction do you think I’ll get when I walk into the council, and Dec shouts ‘Uncle Tom’? He isn’t supposed to have seen me since he was a newborn. What do you think will be running through my brothers’ heads? All these years I’ve kept him from them, not told him who he really is. Don’t you think they’ll be suspicious of me?” His eyes plead with me to understand, and I feel the sudden aching inability to swallow.
“What are you going to do, Tom, what are you trying to tell me?” My hand tightens on his until I see the knuckles stand out white.
“They’ll kill me, Deeta,” answers Tom. “They’ll believe that I killed Dax and Roland, all of them. They’ll think that I’m the one trying to kill them all to gain absolute power!”
“They couldn’t, Tom,” I gasp. “Why would they, you’re their brother! How could they even think that you could be…”
“Because one of us is! One of us is guilty. When they find that Dec has been here with me for all this time, they’ll shoot first and ask questions later!”
“And they have Dec.” I sob, tears beginning to course down my face.
“Don’t worry about Dec, he’ll be safe enough,” answers Tom. “At the moment he’s far too high profile for any harm to come to him. He won’t be in danger from the killer until the excitement has died down and everyone isn’t keeping such a keen eye on him.”
“That’s not what I mean, Tom.” I brush away my tears with the back of my hand. “I mean that — that they have Dec…” My disgusted voice trails off. I can’t seem to put my fears into words, probably because I’m not sure what my fears are.
The Andak are evil. Ever since I was a small child I have heard the whispers, the stifled gasps, and the repulsion with which the Andak are mentioned. It’s as though they are some kind of plague, so my horror is linked with the fact that Dec is now in their midst.
“They aren’t like that, Deeta.” Tom moves uncomfortably. “I know that you’ve been told that they’re debauched and depraved, but they aren’t. I won’t say that they’re without faults, they have enough of them, but they aren’t like the stories, nothing like. It’s just that people are scared of them, of their power and the fact that apart from the stories no one seems to know very much about them. No one likes to be in the dark like that, and I guess every time those old stories are told they’re embellished a little more. I doubt whether even the originators of those old stories would recognise them now.”
“But, Tom, they wiped out the Kelly tribe! They destroyed
them and their compound in a single night. How can you say that isn’t evil, how can you tell me that they’re no worse than anyone else?”
“I’m not, I wouldn’t try,” answers Tom with feeling. “And you’re right it was evil, but it also wasn’t the Andak.”
“No one in this City has the power to do anything like that, no one but the Andak.”
“No one in this City,” replies Tom with heavy emphasis. “We aren’t the only city left in the world, Deeta. Ever since the breakdown the Andak have protected this City, and the tribes within its boundaries, from the hostile advances of the Lewises. The Lewises are from the lands outside the boundary of the City.
“When the crash happened, the military base that was near the town took over. They don’t have tribes, Deeta, they have a tribe, singular. If you’re not keen on being part of that tribe then you get a bullet to the head.” Tom rakes a hand through his black hair. “The amount of times I’ve heard some foul action on the Lewis’s part blamed on the Andak, blamed on the very people, the only people, who can stop the Lewises!
“Why do you think that there is so much fighting in the City? Do you really think that the tribes have enough time and energy left over after a hard day, just trying to survive, to go out and pick a fight with one another?”
“But the skirmishes, you don’t mean…”
“For the most part they are between the Lewis army and the Andak guard.”
For a second I let his words sink in and one thought, rising doggedly from the surrounding jumble, surges to the fore front of my brain.
“Tara?”
I see a fleeting spasm of pain cross Tom’s features.
“We ran straight into a standoff between Andak guards and Lewis soldiers. Tara was caught in the cross fire.”
A soft rap on the closed door startles us both. Nella sticks her head into the room.
“Tom, they’re all here.”
“Thanks, Nell.” Tom gets to his feet, pulling me up after him. He keeps hold of my hand, staring down at our entwined fingers for a moment.
“Deeta, do me a favour? Sit next to Mrs. Green would you?”
A quick look at his face tells me that his confidences have come to an end. He is no longer Tom my friend, but has become Tom the soldier. I nod and Tom ushers me into the lounge.
The room is overcrowded, and with the heat from the fire, stifling and airless as well. Ralph is standing next to Jamie, as Tom enters he shakes his head. I think the gesture is in regard to Jamie, but I can’t be sure. Nella has gone to sit next to Uncle Jep at the left of the fire, I make my way to be with Mrs. Green as requested.
As Tom takes his stand in front of the fire the room is frozen in stillness. I find it strangely chilling and ominous, like a lull before a storm. It is Tom who breaks the silence, who seems to be the only one free from the strange spell that holds us all powerless in its grip.
“On returning home from our latest expedition I was confronted with the information that, in the Guards absence, our building had been breached and Dec Jepsjon had been forcibly abducted. In one way this news was something of a relief to me. As you are aware on our last expedition we carried a new member, Keya Green. What most of you have failed to notice, in view of recent events, is that whilst she accompanied us ‘out’ she has not accompanied us home.”
Tom pauses, his eyes settling on Mr and Mrs Green.
“Keya Green was discovered missing from her post after a skirmish with another tribe. After searching for five days, we gave up the hunt and returned home.”
Whatever I had expected to have happened, I never imagined this. Looking towards Jamie I feel a sudden tug of compassion, strange because I’ve never liked him much. For that matter I’ve never much liked Keya, but she must have had something to inspire such devotion in Jamie. And he is devoted to her; no one seeing him now could ever doubt that.
A sudden high pitched sound makes me jump. Mrs. Green, who I had thought turned to stone, has suddenly come painfully to life. I pass my arm around her shoulder, rocking her a little, as her tears soak my shoulder in sorrow.
I wish there was something that I could say, but I know there is nothing. At this point words, however sincere, are empty and somehow more painful than silence. I turn a little so that I can sit on the arm of her chair with her leaning against me. Her choking sobs, dry and pain filled, take me back to another time when I held Nella as she was wracked by similar grief.
Mr. Green stands, and I turn to look up at him from tear blinded eyes. He swallows convulsively before speaking.
“Is she dead, Tom?” His face is very pale, older than I’ve seen him look before, and his voice holds a pleading, entreating note.
“I don’t think so, Mr. Green. You remember I said that on hearing of Dec’s abduction I felt relieved in a way. I believe the two incidences are linked: the tribe who took your daughter, also took Dec.”
“Why, what would they want with Keya?” asks Mrs. Green through her tears.
“I would say that Keya was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” answers Tom.
Mr. Denby, who has been following the conversation with a thoughtful gleam in his eye, interrupts at this point.
“I don’t see how, or why, you think that the two incidents are connected. Even if Keya was captured in the way you have outlined, why would they storm our village to get Dec? What possible motive could they have?”
I don’t think it’s until this moment that I realise what Tom is doing. He’s setting forth the facts in such a way that he’s going to have to tell them just what he and Dec are.
“You’re approaching the matter from the wrong angle. You think that Keya is the central point which this entire situation revolves around, but she isn’t, it’s Dec. Keya Green was taken by an Andak soldier, at some point she told that soldier about Dec and they came for him.”
At the mention of the dreaded Andak the room is silenced.