The Phoenix

‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ said Agnes, registering her passenger’s surprise. ‘The training program can be pretty intense, so Mr Redmayne believes it is important that members should have a pleasant environment to return to at the end of the day. Not luxurious, but relaxing.’

Ella listened. She wondered whether the man who had visited her was in fact ‘Mr Redmayne’ and, if so, when he would appear in person.

‘Accommodations are divided up by gender,’ Agnes went on. ‘You’ll be staying in the female quarters, obviously. Whoah, hold up!’

She slammed on the brakes. A group of disheveled and exhausted-looking women had staggered into the road in front of them. They were wearing army fatigues and most were filthy, their hair matted and their faces splattered with mud. They were also all strikingly thin. As Agnes screeched to a halt, one of them turned and looked right at Ella before sinking to her knees, and vomiting violently. That fairly comprehensively ruined the San Ysidro vibe.

‘Oh my God!’ Ella reached for the handle of her door.

Agnes’s arm shot out to stop her. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m going to help her, of course,’ said Ella. ‘Didn’t you just see that?’

‘She’s training,’ Agnes said, as if that explained everything. ‘And she’s with her unit.’

‘Training for what? Armageddon?’ Ella asked, watching the other women stagger on while their teammate fell back against the tarmac, apparently unconscious. ‘And her “unit” just left her there.’

With a growing sense of foreboding, she waited for them to arrive at check-in, or registration, or wherever it was they were going. But instead, after only a few hundred more yards, Agnes pulled over outside one of the bungalows, gesturing for Ella to get out.

‘These are your quarters,’ she told her, jumping out herself and retrieving Ella’s backpack from the back of the truck.

‘OK …’ Ella said hesitantly.

‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, it’s just … don’t I need to sign in? Let somebody know I’m here?’

Agnes laughed loudly ‘Oh, Ella! Everybody knows you’re here, my dear. Where else would you be? We’ve all been waiting for you.’

Ella tried not to think about Bob’s ‘Jonestown’ warnings. Whatever she had let herself in for, it was too late now.

You’re here by choice, she coached herself. Not for them. For you. To get what YOU need. To take back YOUR life.

Then you get out.

‘Community dinner’s in an hour,’ Agnes chirped. Ella reflected that the poor women she’d just seen didn’t look as if they’d eaten dinner in weeks, community or otherwise, but she kept the thought to herself.

‘If you need anything before then, your roommate should be able to help.’ Handing Ella her backpack, Agnes hopped back into the driver’s seat. ‘Welcome to Camp Hope!’ she said cheerfully, driving away.

Tentatively, Ella opened the bungalow door. ‘Hello?’

She was met by a squeal, a strong waft of perfume, and the slightly disconcerting sight of a buxom blonde in a skin-tight pink T-shirt bounding up to her like a puppy. This girl certainly hadn’t been starved. If anything she looked as if she might have eaten the other women’s food, every ounce of which had made its way to her enormous boobs.

‘Oh my God. You’re here! You’re finally here. I do not believe it, oh my God oh my God oh my God!’

The blonde looked to be about Ella’s own age, although there was something distinctly teenagerish in her manner, from the gushing welcome to the look-at-me clothes. The room was split into two halves, each with a single bed and a washbasin. While Ella’s side was bare, the girl had kitted hers out in a sea of pink, complete with fluffy rainbow pillows and ‘Hello Kitty’ bedding. Décor-wise at least, it was less ‘spy’ and more ‘pre-pubescent Japanese schoolgirl’.

‘You must be Ella.’

‘That’s right.’

‘I’m Christine. Christine Marshall. Sooooooo happy to meet you.’ Drawing her into a hug, Christine squeezed tightly and let out another, only slightly more muted, squeal.

Extricating herself from Christine’s enthusiastic embrace, Ella put her stuff warily down on the bed.

‘You’re probably exhausted,’ Christine said kindly, taking a step back. Everywhere she went, an aura of perfume followed her like a miasma. ‘I know I was when I first arrived. But if you have any questions, any questions at all, just fire away.’

Ella had a lot of questions, but they were for the man to answer, not this human Barbie doll.