The Fall by Claire Merle Page A

Cole’s brow; the paleness of his skin. Even Blaize looked concerned. Rachel had bound the wound tightly with a roll of gauze.
    ‘Right boys,’ Seton said. ‘One of you lads know how to start a car without the ignition key?’
    Blaize grinned. ‘I knew there had to be a reason I came. Certainly wasn’t the exercise or the company.’ A police siren started up far away, then another, both approaching from different directions.
    Ed rechecked Cole’s interface. ‘Something’s going on right down the road from here. Three police cars and three Psych Watch vehicles are on their way. Not to mention the four Wardens already in the area.’
    ‘We should keep moving,’ Nate snapped. ‘There isn’t time to mess about.’
    Ana cast around for something she could use to pour the ethanol into the petrol tank. She’d seen her father’s chauffeur use the petrol pump dozens of times. If they just emptied the liquid from the portable stove into the hole it would spill over, and they couldn’t afford to lose any of it.
    ‘Let’s drop the Princess plan and get out of here,’ Nate said.
    ‘He can’t walk on this,’ Rachel said.
    ‘If I have to, I will.’
    ‘Yeah right.’
    Ana found a plastic water bottle and handed it to Blaize. ‘Can you cut the bottom off?’ she asked. He took out his flick knife and began working on it. Seton retrieved the aluminium cans from the camping rucksack on Ed’s back. He shook them.
    ‘We’re good,’ he said. ‘I’ll need Cole’s interface.’ Ed took off the chain carrying Cole’s matchbox-sized silver computer/projector, while Seton handed his own interface to Ana. ‘Keep Cole out of sight,’ he instructed Ed. ‘We’ll be back with a car as quick as we can.’
    Ana, Blaize and Seton ran to the end of the street and turned right onto the road that led back to the park.
    ‘This is the one,’ Seton said, stopping by the Mercedes. Using his knife, Blaize hacked down on the door lock, while Ana watched the street and Seton kept an eye on the infrared heat readouts in the area. Once the lock disintegrated, Blaize ducked into the vehicle and flicked a switch which popped the bonnet.
    ‘There’s a solar charger,’ he said. Ana didn’t know what he was talking about, but he sounded pleased. ‘Let’s see if they disconnected the battery.’ He came around the front of the vehicle and disappeared behind the raised hood. After a minute he stepped back. ‘This might work. The solar charge was left connected to the battery which means it’s been regularly charged.’
    ‘Could it run the engine?’ she asked.
    ‘Nah. It’s just designed to keep the battery alive. The small solar panel is part of the dashboard. But something like that can’t provide enough energy to run the car.’
    Ana leaned into the car and shone the light from Seton’s interface beneath the steering wheel. She pulled a small lever with the image of a petrol pump on it, then moved around to the side where the petrol cap had popped open.
    ‘Shall I?’ she asked Seton. He handed her an open stove can and she poured the fuel through the halved water bottle.
    ‘Down!’ he hissed suddenly. Ana ducked, arms still stretched up to the petrol cap as the ethanol trickled into the tank. Blaize jumped into the driver’s seat, pulled the door to, and hunched low. A couple of seconds later headlights arced onto the street from the far end. A hybrid crawled towards them. It had to be police or Wardens. No one else would be driving around these parts. With the can empty, Ana lowered her arms and covered the light from Seton’s interface.
    If the police were equipped with programs as advanced as Dombrant’s, it wouldn’t matter how well she, Seton and Blaize were hidden, the police would pick-up infrared body-heat readouts.
    The hybrid cruised past the slip road where Cole, Nate, Rachel and Ed were hidden. Headlights swept over the Regency three-storey building behind Ana. Like Ana, Seton was also ducked down,