I got to work early again the next morning after spending a restless night worrying that Nanako wouldn’t bring me lunch today. I stood beside our truck with Michal, Shorty and David as we waited for King and his Custodian squad to arrive.
A horrible feeling of unease worked through me, beginning in my mind and spreading into my stomach, where it remained. It would evaporate instantly if I could but hear Nanako’s footsteps in the street outside, but regardless of how attentively I listened, she did not come.
The Recycling-Works glass doors swung open and a barrel-chested man strode purposely towards us. His head was shaven and he wore a forager's get-up.
“Who's he when he's at home?” Shorty asked suspiciously.
The man, who topped me by at least ten years, stopped when he reached us. “Okay guys, gather around.”
“Who are you?” I demanded. With the Custodians joining our foraging trips, Leigh’s arrest, and the shock announcement that I was about to get married, I was not in the mood for any more surprises.
“I'm your new team leader. The name’s Cooper, but you can call me Boss,” he announced in a no-nonsense voice.
So much for no more surprises.
“Excuse me?” Shorty snapped angrily.
Cooper stared down at Shorty and answered him curtly. “Concern has been raised over the reckless behaviour of your previous team leader, and due to my extensive experience in said role, I have been assigned to replace him.”
“I'm standing right here!” I shot at him, wondering who on earth had decided to lumber us with him, when I recalled Sergeant King accusing me of those very same words. So this was his doing. Perhaps he was afraid he was about to lose his future brother-in-law and his sister’s ticket into North End.
“Good for you,” he snapped.
“Forget it, Cooper,” Shorty said, deliberately drawing out his name. “We’ve got a team leader and he’s done alright by us. You can go back to whoever gave you your marching orders, and tell ‘em to stick ‘em up…”
Michal might have been tall, but he was fast too. His hand clamped over Shorty’s mouth before he could finish. “Shorty’s got a point, Cooper,” he said in a more polite tone, “what we need is another worker to replace Leigh, not a new leader. Who gave you your orders?”
“Sergeant King,” he replied.
My suspicions were correct. This insult felt like the last straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. All of our freedoms while foraging were gone now. Not only were Custodians following us everywhere, ensuring we no longer got up to extracurricular activities, now this stooge was gonna be with us every moment of every work day too.
The thought also occurred to me that as King had appointed him, Cooper might be a Custodian informant.
“So, we’re all good now?” Cooper asked condescendingly.
“Super,” David replied as he glanced at me, hoping I could do something to get rid of this clown.
“Right then, here’s the way I do things,” he began. “Rule number one, and this is hard and fast – we are a foraging team, not a Custodian squad – we do not engage Skel in combat for any reason. If you see a Skel, sound the alarm and retreat. Rule number two, my word is law. If I say something, you do it straight away, and without fussing. Rule number three, we are out there to collect metals, and nothing else. If I so much as catch one of you guys even peeking at anything else, I’ll bust your chops.”
The Custodian Bushmaster chose that moment to arrive, backing carefully into the yard until it was next to our truck. As Cooper rushed off to speak to King, I motioned for the guys to come closer. “As long as this Cooper guy is with us, don’t ask me to do tongue-clicks to find things, okay?”
“Why?” David asked.
“If the Custodians hear about it, they may suspect Ethan is something other than what he is,” Michal explained.
“But blind people can do it,” David pointed out.
“I know,” I replied, “but I'm not blind, so just don’t mention it, okay?”
“So what the blazes are we gonna do to spot Skel booby traps?” Shorty demanded.
“We’ll just have to be careful, like usual.” I didn’t tell him that before the Custodians joined us, I bounced ultrasonic shouts off our surroundings to check for traps. Now we were really gonna be in the dark.
King approached us with Cooper in tow. "I hear you boys have met your new team leader."
We shifted about in agitation, but no one said anything. I made eye contact with my future brother-in-law and wanted to protest, to scream blue murder, but I knew it wouldn’t achieve anything so I kept my mouth shut.
"Right then, let's get this show on the road," King said once it was clear that we were going to take the leadership change lying down.
"I'll drive. Who's got the keys?" Cooper asked. Michal handed them over.
I could have said something, but was too focused on what I was hoping to hear – Nanako's footsteps. What if she came while we were driving off? I did not want it to look like I was snubbing her efforts a second time.
"Jones, get your butt in gear!" Cooper bellowed.
I glanced at my watch and my hopes floundered on the rocks of despair when I saw it was five past nine. She wasn't coming. I must have hurt her feelings yesterday and extinguished her interest in me. I knew nothing could have come of it, but I wanted to talk to her, even if only briefly. Deflated, I walked to the truck and sat beside Cooper. Thanks so much, Michal for sitting in the back and forcing me to sit next to the doofus. I stared daggers at Michal in the rear view mirror, and he rewarded me with the barest hint of a smile.
Cooper drove to a street in Carlton with a crumbling, weed-overgrown footpath and an asphalt road that was cracked and pitted. The houses in this street were quite old and of brick construction, so were still structurally intact. Though much of the woodwork had rotted away long ago, and all the windows were smashed or blown in.
"Right boys," Cooper said after we climbed out of the truck. "The Recycling-Works says we're running low on lead, so kit up and we'll strip these houses bare."
I glanced at King, who was standing outside the Bushmaster, which was parked beside the truck. He was watching me keenly, wondering how I would react to my demotion. "We've already done this street, Cooper." I said.
"Is that right, Jones? In that case, follow me and I'll show you all the spots you missed." His tone was patronising.
"We didn't miss anything," I assured him flatly.
He patted me on the shoulder. "Ah, the arrogance of youth. Now follow me. After I've shown you the places to find lead, we'll split up and tackle the houses in two teams."
Cooper unhooked a ladder from the truck, placed it against the nearest house, and addressed us as though we were fresh out of school. "You'll find lead sheeting used as flashing around the sides of the chimneys and electrical wire connections." He clambered to the top of the ladder, and then stopped, surprised. "Oh, those spots have been stripped."
After that, he led us throughout the house, looking for lead sheeting in the cornices, around the bases of down pipes, in the conductor heads and window frames, and so on, until he had exhausted every possible source of lead – and didn’t find a single scrap.
"Told you we didn't miss anything," I said.
Cooper glared at me. "You know Jones; foraging teams have worked these suburbs for a hundred years, so how do I know that you're the ones who stripped this house?"
My teammates, who had been gloating at our victory, glanced unsurely at one another. How were we going to prove we'd done it?
I so wanted to smash my fist into Cooper’s cocky, know-it-all expression, but I somehow – barely – managed to resist the urge. "Take a look inside the roof above the laundry manhole," I replied. "You'll find some things we found but left behind, you know, since Newhome citizens aren’t allowed to touch them."
Cooper grabbed the stepladder and stomped back into the house. He returned a moment later with three rifles wrapped in plastic. "You're supposed to return all firearms to the Recycling-Works so they can be given to the Custodians, something I’m sure you are aware of."
"Proves we're the ones who stripped the house, doesn't it?" I ignored his comment completely.
Cooper stuck his face an inch from mine. "I don't like you, Jones." With that, he stomped off to present the rifles to the Custodians.
My teammates and I gave each other inconspicuous high-fives.
"Score one for our team, Jones," laughed Shorty.
After that, we drove around our assigned sector of Melbourne striking out time and again. After eating our lunches in the truck – apparently, you don’t need an actual lunch break if you don’t do any physical work – Cooper found an old restaurant with thin lead sheets used to waterproof the floor.
My teammates would not speak to Cooper as we worked, except to answer direct questions, and they always called him ‘Cooper,’ not ‘Boss,’ which annoyed him to no end. To rub salt in the wound, they called me 'Boss' instead. My friends were the best. For myself, I was so deep in the doldrums because Nanako didn’t show up this morning that I barely spoke a word.
When I got home that evening, I had a quick shower and dressed in my neatest casuals. I had to be at my parent’s flat soon to finalise the details of my pending marriage.
The thought of marrying a girl like Sienna King gave me the shudders. To be honest, I knew that few marriages in Newhome involved loving relationships, but all the same, I had always hoped to respect and get on with my wife. I couldn't see that ever happening with her.
A knock on my door snapped me out of my reverie. Thinking the guys had dropped over for a visit, I pulled the door open and my heart stopped.
Standing in front of me was Nanako, wearing long pink and black striped socks that reached to her thighs and an oversized men’s blue and black flannelette shirt, which she wore as a dress. And she was holding two plastic bags full of fresh food.