The Whisper by Clayton Emma

building was flooded. A flight of moldy stairs rose out of the water. They began to climb.
    For ten flights, Kobi saw nothing but empty doorways leading into deserted offices. But when they reached the eleventh floor, the steps and walls looked almost dry and they found themselves facing a metal door and a security camera. Thetop twenty floors of this building had become home to several hundred people.
    Kobi felt people watching them through the camera, then the metal door clicked and opened. John waved them in with a kind smile and Kobi felt grateful. But it was a wary gratitude. There was an intensity to the strangers around him that made him feel uneasy. Only a few days before, The Shadows’ people had rioted because their children were taken. But they would not get their children back, or the sky or clean air or any of the things they wanted. They had plenty of reasons to be angry, and this did not make for a relaxing, homey environment. As John followed them through the door with the gun, Kobi wished he’d put it away.
    On the other side of the door was a large room: a buffer zone between the water outside and the homes within. It contained hundreds of damp boots and coats.
    A group of people had gathered to welcome them. His father was helped with his coat, but it was Kobi they were most interested in. Kobi was the only child born in The Shadows to avoid capture. He symbolized rebellion against a corrupt government. But Kobi was trying to get away from trouble, not closer to it, and he found the sudden attention difficult. Between the adults’ legs were scores of curious young children, who watched him with owl eyes.
    They took his coat, his long, black coat. He asked to keep it on, but they insisted he take it off because it was wet and would make him cold, so he handed it over and stood before them in a ragged white T-shirt and a black sweater with a big hole in the front. He felt practically naked without his coat, and was glad his face was covered by so much hair. But theywere being kind to him, so he tried to be gracious about it.
    Next he and Abe were shown their new home.
    The eleventh floor, beyond the buffer zone, was fitted with communal living areas, meeting rooms, and kitchens. The other nineteen habitable floors of the office building had been divided into family sleeping units. Their walls were thinner than those of a fold-down apartment and they were only just big enough for beds and storage. But Kobi and his father were pleased when they were given a room with a desk between two beds. Abe dropped his bag onto it. They both had more tools than clothes with them.
    Then the people departed, closing the door quietly, leaving father and son alone.

6 A Swarm of Shiny Flies
     
    T he next morning in Cape Wrath was gray and still. Waves lapped against the cliffs, and the blanket of cloud threatened only drizzle.
    Mal Gorman had had a late night, but he was at his desk at dawn, flicking through the fortress cameras. The implanted army was still sleeping peacefully, and the nurses were treating its wounds. Some of the children had hypothermia and had been taken to the hospital unit, but most would be fighting fit again in a few days. It was mostly surface damage, cuts, bruises, and Creeper Net wounds, nothing worth worrying about.
    Seven children had fallen from the cliffs and been lost to the sea, but Gorman wasn’t worried about those, either. He decided their deaths were a weeding-out process. If those children weren’t able to survive the cliffs like the others, it was likely they’d make similar mistakes in war.
    Most of the bodies had been found. Gorman would tell the parents later. Like Ellie and Mika’s parents, they would never know what had really happened to their children.
    When Gorman bored of looking at the curved backs of nurses, he ordered breakfast. Ralph appeared with a heavy tray.
    “Where would you like it, sir?” the butler asked.
    “In front of me,” Gorman said. “Where do you