‘You look like someone who needs a drink, Agatta.’
‘Leoben …’ I start, unsure of what to say. He knows I was supposed to die in the decryption. Dax told him so he could hold back Cole if it came to that, which it did. A patch of Leoben’s white-blond hair is wet with blood, and the front of his shirt is torn open.
‘Yeah, whatever,’ he says, giving me a meaningful look. ‘Not supposed to mix alcohol with healing tech, I know. I think we can let that slide for tonight. It’s time to celebrate. We can pick our way through the code tomorrow.’
I look down at the glass of champagne in my hand. He’s telling me to forget about it, to enjoy the fact that we’ve done what we came here for.
The vaccine is out. It works. It’s over.
But how can I celebrate when I’m standing here like this, unscathed and whole in a body that should have shattered like glass?
‘To the great Lachlan Agatta!’ Leoben shouts, holding the bottle aloft. ‘May he continue to confound us!’
The crowd around us echoes the toast, confused but enthusiastic. I stare hard at my glass, then drain the champagne in one gulp.
‘Attagirl!’ Leoben yells, slapping my shoulder.
Cole laughs, snatching the bottle from him, tipping it up to take a gulp. Someone opens the doors to the football field, where the bonfire is already raging. Music pulses through the air. The crowd begins to drift outside to celebrate around the fire.
Leoben grabs the bottle and ducks down to see his reflection in the vat’s curved side, pouring the champagne over his head to wash the blood from his hair. ‘I’m gonna get you for that, brother.’
‘You can try,’ Cole says. He squeezes me to his side, trying to snag the bottle back. Leoben shakes it, capping the mouth with his thumb, then sprays both of us with foam. I can’t help but laugh, shrinking into Cole. His grip on me tightens, and he gives me a smile I thought I’d never see again.
It suddenly hits me that this is real. I’m standing next to Cole in a world that’s ablaze with hope. The vaccine is out, and I’m going to be alive to watch the world rebuild. The thought makes my head swim.
It’s hard to believe I have a future again.
‘You think they’re going to open the bunkers now?’ Leoben asks, looking around for somewhere to put the empty champagne bottle. He drops it into the blue liquid of the vat.
‘I guess so,’ Cole says. ‘They might wait a few weeks, but I think a lot of people are ready to go back outside.’
The Cartaxus anthem chimes, and the screens on the wall blink, showing video feeds from around the world. There are fireworks over survivor camps and people praying in circles. Crowds in the bunkers are swarming into the common areas, holding their children. Two years of nightmare. Two years of plague.
I keep telling myself that it’s finally over, but it still isn’t sinking in.
Outside, a crack tears through the air. I flinch instinctively, staring out at the football field, expecting to see the plume of a blower detonating. Instead of a rising cloud of mist, I see the glow of a firework, casting a brilliant white light over the crowd’s upturned faces.
‘Come on, let’s go find Dax,’ Leoben says, waving us out into the night, swiping a bottle from a girl beside him. Another two fireworks whistle into the air and erupt, blue and scarlet. I know what they are this time, but the sound still makes me flinch.
The crowd is singing, the music pounding. The bonfire is ablaze. The screens on the wall are flashing with a million happy faces, and suddenly I can’t breathe. I blink and see three mountains draped in pure white snow. I see my father’s piercing grey eyes locked on mine.
Cole steps forward, but I stay frozen.
‘You OK, Cat?’ he asks.
It’s too much for me to take in. Too much joy, too much confusion. We’ve done what we were trying to do – we’ve released the vaccine – but I still feel like I’m teetering, standing on shifting sands.
‘Cole,’ I whisper, ‘can we go somewhere quiet?’
‘Are you OK? Do you want a nurse?’
‘No, I’m OK, I’m just … overwhelmed.’ I clutch the bathrobe around me. ‘I could do with a shower, and some clothes.’
Cole’s eyes glaze briefly. ‘They put some clothes in a room for you. There’s a bathroom you can clean off in, and a bed, too.’
‘Now now, soldier.’
He grins. ‘That’s not what I meant, but I like the way you think.’
I send an elbow into his ribs. He laughs, grabbing my arm, hooking it round his waist.
‘I’m taking Cat to shower and get changed,’ he shouts to Leoben.
‘Too much information!’ Leoben yells back. He tilts the bottle of champagne upright over his mouth, then tosses it deftly, sending it in a perfect arc behind him and into the vat.
Cole slides his arm round my shoulders, guiding me back through the thinning crowd. Hands reach out for mine, high-fiving, faces lit up by the bonfire’s flickering light. A dozen people try to stop us, wanting to talk about the decryption, but Cole weaves me past them expertly, ducking into the hall.
The doors swing closed behind us, dulling the sound of the fireworks, of the raucous crowd out on the field around the fire.
‘Is that better?’ Cole asks, guiding me down a dimly lit hallway.
I sigh, leaning in to him. ‘You have no idea.’
He leads me through the school, past rows of empty classrooms, finally stopping to push open an unmarked door. Inside is a tiny room that must have been the sick bay, with a few cots arranged along the grey cinderblock walls. An outfit of fresh Cartaxus clothes is folded neatly on a table by the door, beside a pair of boots, a hairbrush and a packet of wipes. The light in the room is already on, and Dax is waiting inside with an unreadable expression on his face.
Cole’s eyes narrow. His arm grows tight round my shoulders. ‘What are you doing here, Crick? I thought you and Novak were busy making one of her broadcasts.’
‘We’re done. We pre-recorded most of it earlier. I need to talk to Catarina in private, and you should probably go and check on Leoben. He just commed me – he’s already drunk. The fireworks are running out, and he asked where the jeep was. He mentioned something about a rocket launcher.’
‘Ah, that’s not good,’ Cole mutters. ‘I should probably …’ He turns to me.
‘It’s OK,’ I say. ‘Go. I need to talk to Dax anyway.’
‘Are you sure?’
My stomach tightens. I need to talk to Dax about the decryption, but I’m not so sure I’m ready for whatever he’s come to say.
‘Go,’ I say, pushing Cole’s chest. ‘I’m fine, honestly. Go stop Leoben before he blows something up.’
Cole squeezes my hand and jogs back down the hallway. Dax stays silent, watching me impassively. Once Cole’s footsteps fade, I step into the room. My body sighs with relief as I sit down on one of the steel-framed cots.
Dax’s emerald eyes never once leave mine. He looks like he’s trying to read something written on my face, something he can’t understand.