And All the Stars

"Hiding mightn't be a plan after all," Pan saidrestively. "They don't seem to haveany problem finding Blues."

"The one at the school passed right by us and didn'tstop," Emily said.

"None of these places have been hidden," Fisherpointed out. "Most are Safe Zonesites whose locations have been broadcast. And we could hardly have been more noisy about the testing sessions."

"Aliens who surf the internet." Pan shook his head. "Great."

Noi's fragmentary conversationreminded Madeleine to hunt out her own phone, and she was not surprised to seea half-dozen missed calls from home. Thespectacle of Madeleine Cost being thrown to the sands of Bondi Beach had alreadyflashed up twice among the stream of TV images.

Moving to sit on the spiral stair, she tried her home number

"Hi Mum."

"Oh, thank God!" A pause. "It – it is you,isn't it?"

A tiny snort of laughter escaped Madeleine, and then her eyesstung and she felt ill and exhausted. "I don't think the 'phone home' stuff applies to all aliens,"she said unevenly.

"Are you safe? Are you hurt?"

"Just a little shaken up. I'm with friends. We'll try to leave the city as soon as wefigure out a safe way to do it. Mum, Ithink you and Dad should go now. Go toGran's."

"Maddie, we're not leavingwithout you."

"Please Mum." Her voice had gone tight and high and she struggled to bring it backunder control.

There came the sound of the receiver being passed, then:"Maddie."

"Dad, make her go. It'll be... Please. If I know you're out of reach of this, it'llhelp."

"Where are you?"

"Well hidden. Plenty of food. We haven'tdecided yet what to do long-term, but for the moment we're set to wait andlisten."

Silence, then: "We were so proud of you today, Maddie. When youstopped to help that boy, I could see how afraid you were, and I–" He broke off, and Madeleine had to standabruptly and go upstairs. Theirconversation after that was fractured and full, and she broke down when it wasdone, and wept for the first time since she'd woken lying in dust.

After some time, Noi came up and handed Madeleine a steamingmug.

"There's a few thousand spoonfulsof sugar in this," she said. "We're all pretty shocky."

"Thanks," Madeleine mumbled, and sipped until herthroat had opened, watching Noi as she wandered around the room.

The triple-wide landing at the top of the staircase had beenfitted out as a spacious library, with floor to ceiling shelving on all walls,and even above the window seat which looked out over the navy base side of thebay. Most of the shelves were a riotousjumble of spines of all colours and sizes, but one bookcase held nothing buttwo-tone Penguin classics, and on another serried ranks of leather gleamed. The only furniture beside the window seat wasa heavy coffee table, a curve-footed floor globe, and two vivid stained glasslamps. It was perhaps the nicest roomMadeleine had ever been in, and she wished she was in a state to appreciate it.

"Who called?" she asked eventually.

"Faliha. They went straight south, didn't come backhere for anything. And then, well, herMum...stopped. Is just sitting in thecar, turned toward the Spire. Faliha wanted to ask if we had any information – and tocheck if we were okay."

"What if the Greens staylike that? Just standing, staring, untilthey starve and die? Shaun and Nick andMrs Jabbour and..."

"The possessed Blues are gathering near theSpires," Noi went on, deliberately shutting down speculation. "That webcam trained on the Sydney Spireis still working, but only a couple of people have shown up so far." She paused, eyeing Madeleine critically, thenwent to the top of the stair and called down: "Come up here and I'll showyou why this place in particular."

The rest of the escapees came clattering up, exclaiming atthe room.

"Because we won't run out of reading matter if the powergoes?" Fisher asked, with a faint smile and lifted brows.

"Not even because of the Wonder Woman bedroom," Noisaid. "Which I've bagged already,thanks. No, check this out."

She crossed to the leather-bound books and pulled threetoward her, producing a muted click. Andthe entire bookcase moved, swinging out to reveal a pocket-sized office with asafe, a desk and computer in front of a slatted window, and high shelves fullof files.

"You can tell it's there if you start looking at roomproportions," Noi said. "But Iwould never have guessed if it wasn't standing open when we showed up."

"Your taste in hideouts is impeccable," Minsaid. "But that would becomfortable for two or three."

"We'll clean out what we can and deal with it," Noisaid, shrugging. "If anyone comesto this building, we're straight up here and the door shut. No waffling, no delay. And we need to do what we can to minimise the'bunch of people hiding out' ambience we've already achieved. I wanted to hook up some kind of motionsensor alarm for that walkway, but didn't get a chance, so we'll just have tobe quiet and keep an ear out."

"If there are other computers in the building, there isevery chance one of them has a webcam," Nash suggested. "We can feed it to a monitor in thelounge, and roster some kind of watch."

"Good thought. Maybe we better set that up straight away, and then talk whatnext."

"And have food," Emily said plaintively, sparkingimmediate agreement. Blues.

Nash left with Fisher and Min to scout the other apartmentsfor an unobtrusive spot to set a camera, while Pan decided to join the cookingcrew.

"Is there really a Wonder Woman bedroom?" he asked.

"And a Supergirl one."

"That's mine," Emily said.

"There's six bedrooms." Noi eyed the pantry stuffed with bulksupplies from the restaurants, then passed it over in favour of thefreezer. "Two guest rooms – eachwith twin beds, luckily – the parents' room and three for the kids, and I thinkI would really like the people who live here and I have no idea if they'realive or dead, or standing in a street somewhere staring at the Spire."

Her voice, just for a moment, had wavered, then she reachedinto the freezer and pulled out a Tupperware container. Keeping on. Noi, Madeleine knew, wouldn't break down till no-one could see her.

ooOoo

"So," Noi said, after the first edge of hunger hadbeen dulled, "places to run to. Family homes. Houses belonging toreally trusted friends who live outside the city. Where's everyone from?"

"Hong Kong," Min said, with a slight smile. "And I suspect we can rule out Nash'shome as well."

"I live in Edgecliff," Fisher said, naming a suburbjust east of Rushcutters Bay.

"Marrickville." Noi lifted one shoulder. "Ihad some rellies up in Brisbane, which is no help."

"Leumeah," Madeleine said. "Out near Campbelltown, still in thedust zone. But my grandmother lives justoutside Armidale. My parents – I told myparents to try to get there today. It'son the edge of farmland, kind of open, but it wouldn't be totally obvious if wewere there."

"Kogarah," Emily said quietly, and did not mentionparents. That was a suburb not muchfurther out than Marrickville.

"Oberon," Pan put in. "In the tablelands, just beforeBathurst. Relatives all around thearea. A couple of spare rooms."