Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island

by Sean Cullen

  “Sticks!” Cara cried, whipping the staff around and smashing one of the bugs as it leapt at her face. The Guards lunged forward, forming a wedge around the elevator doors with Mimi and Cara at the apex.

  Mimi took stock of her surroundings while smashing the attacking bugs aside. They were at one end of a long metal walkway. To her right was a high metal wall. About a hundred metres along was a steel doorway. The door was shut. To her back was the elevator. As soon as they had stepped through its doors, they had closed behind them and refused to reopen. Mimi drove the end of her fighting stick downwards, spearing a bug. She looked to her left.

  There was a vast open space. She saw the gate hanging in its wreath of cables, pulsing its sickly glow. She staggered at the sight of it. A bug took advantage of the distraction to climb her leg. It buried its steel mandibles into her thigh.

  The pain was intense. Mimi cried out.

  A stick smashed across the back of the bug, dislodging it from her flesh. Mimi looked up to see Cara flick another bug aside.

  “Thanks,” Mimi grunted.

  Cara winked and went back to defending herself. The bugs were seemingly inexhaustible. Though the Guards smashed and shattered their metal bodies, more bugs surged in to attack. Mimi glanced at the other Guards and saw they were tiring. Inch by inch, they were being pushed back. It became difficult to wield their fighting sticks without hitting one another.

  Suddenly, there was a clatter behind Mimi.

  “Ow,” she heard Xnasha cry.

  “Cover my back!” she shouted to Cara, who sidestepped and closed the gap in the line as Mimi whirled to face the new threat.

  She found no new enemy, but a vent cover lay on the steel deck. Xnasha, completely out of bolts, had been crouched at the wall, waiting to smash any bug that got through using her crossbow as a club. At the moment, she was rubbing her scalp where the vent grating had struck her as it fell from above.

  “Y’all right?” Mimi asked.

  “Fine. Just a bump.”

  She looked up and saw a hole in the wall. She thought she saw something moving in the hole, but she couldn’t seem to focus on it.

  “I know yer there! Come out and I’ll beat ya stupid.”

  A patch of darkness detached from the mouth of the ventilation shaft and dropped to the deck. The patch of darkness shifted in colour, becoming grey as the surrounding walls. A piece of the greyness seemed to peel away to reveal the face of Parveen, blinking behind his glasses. “Please, don’t beat me stupid, Mimi.”

  Mimi was so surprised she nearly dropped her stick. “Parv!” she cried. She wrapped a free arm around him and crushed the little boy to her. Xnasha stood by, her eyes wide with astonishment at the sudden appearance of this apparition out of thin air.

  “Mimi, please! I have managed to stay alive this long. Refrain from strangling me now. And it’s Parveen, as you well know.”

  Mimi reluctantly let go of her friend and stepped back to look at him. “Sneaky suit?”

  “It was very effective, I must say.”

  “Parv, this is Xnasha. She’s from Atlantis.”

  Parveen blinked. “Of course she is.” He looked at the seething mass of bugs held at bay by the desperate line of defenders. “You seem to have an infestation on your hands.” He reached into his pack and pulled out a tangle of wires and circuit boards.

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Step aside, please.”

  Mimi did as she was told, saying, “Watch this, Xnasha.”

  Parveen ran forward a few steps and hurled the object out over the heads of the Guards. It went in a shallow arc and landed in the middle of the massed bugs. There was a dull thud.

  The effect was instantaneous. The bugs closest to the impact immediately squealed and lay still. In an ever-widening arc, more and more bugs went dead as their circuits were fried by the pulse bomb. In a matter of seconds, the attacking swarm was turned into a glittering carpet of immobile scrap metal. The Guards leaned on their sticks, panting in relief.

  “I shore am glad to see you, Parv.”

  Parveen removed his glasses and polished them with the corner of a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “Parveen, please! The feeling is mutual. Where is Hamish X?”

  “Well, that there’s a long story. The short version is, he ain’t with us.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Parveen said. “I was hoping he would find a way to utterly defeat the ODA and rescue all the children held captive here. I guess one can’t have everything.”

  Cara interrupted. “I’m glad you’re all right, Parveen. How did you end up here in the first place?”

  “I stowed away in Noor’s compartment when the Grey Agents harvested the children after the fall of the Hollow Mountain. I’ve been hiding in the air vents. In the meantime, I have tried to learn as much about the facility as possible.”

  “I have to know where my brother is,” said Cara.

  “It pains me to say that I know he is here.”

  “Where?”

  “The good news is, he’s alive … sort of.”

  “Sort of?”

  “And therein lies the bad news …,” Parveen began. He didn’t get a chance to explain.

  “Drop your weapons!”

  The voice sounded so familiar, but Mimi couldn’t place it. She turned to see a line of Grey Agents approaching in full battle dress. In their hands they held heavy rifles. Leading them was a smaller agent dressed in the standard grey trench coat and fedora. The agents advanced across the floor, boots crunching on the lifeless bugs. At a distance of ten metres, they stopped. The lead agent took three more steps and stopped.

  “You can’t possibly hope to escape,” the Grey Agent said. “Lay down your weapons and you will not be harmed.”

  “Aidan?” Cara’s voice was a whisper of horror. “Aidan? Is that you?”

  Parveen leaned closer to Mimi. “That’s the bad news. What happens to older children when the ODA takes them? They become agents, hosts to creatures from another world.”

  “Oh, no,” Mimi breathed. “That’s horrible.”

  Cara dropped her staff, letting it fall from her numbed fingers. “Oh, Aidan! What have they done to you?” She took a step towards her brother. “What have they done?”

  The agent cocked his head to one side, his black goggles impassive. “Aidan? I am not Aidan. I am Mr. Crisp.”

  “No,” Cara said angrily. “Stop saying that. You’re my brother, Aidan.” She began to walk towards him. “You are my brother and I’m here to take you home.”

  The agent shook his head. “You … you are mistaken!” He lowered his weapon. “I am Mr. Crisp. Surrender your weapons.”

  “Don’t make me angry, Aidan. Don’t make me have to do this.” She pulled her stun pistol from her belt. “You’re my brother and you’re leaving here with me. Even if I have to knock you out and drag you away.”

  “Cara, NO!” Mimi cried.

  Too late. Cara raised her pistol. Mr. Crisp raised his weapon, then he hesitated.

  “Cara?” he said softly. “I … know that name.” He paused for a moment and then reasserted himself. “I … I am Mr. Crisp.”

  “No, you are not. You’re my brother, Aidan. Put down your gun right now!”

  Something deep inside Mr. Crisp stirred. Perhaps his processing had been hasty. Perhaps his will was unusually strong, but he hesitated. He knew that voice. In spite of the ODA programming and the conditioning he had undergone in the surgery, something instinctively prompted him to do as this strange girl told him. He had to.

  He tossed the gun onto the floor with a clatter.

  The Grey Agents behind Mr. Crisp fired at him. He shuddered and fell with a crash, shattering his goggles on the hard ground.

  “No!” Cara cried. She leapt forward and fell under a barrage of stun bolts, sliding unconscious to a halt against her brother.

  The remaining Guards leapt to defend their former lieutenant and his sister. They were quickly brought
down, strewn like lifeless dolls across the floor amid the wreckage of the bugs. Parveen held Mimi back.

  “It would be foolish to throw yourself away, Mimi,” Parveen said. “I have only just found you. I don’t want to lose you again.”

  The Grey Agents trained their weapons on the three remaining invaders. Mimi and Parveen stood alone, side by side. Xnasha stepped up and joined them, tossing her useless crossbow to the floor.

  “It would seem that this is the end of the line,” the Atlantean said.

  Mimi felt a hot band of anger settle across her chest. They were cornered. Everything was lost. They had come halfway across the world to stop the ODA and free their friends armed with some sticks. She wanted to smash the agents, tear them to bits, but she could do nothing.

  Mimi looked at Xnasha, her white hair twined with shells and bits of metal. She looked at Parveen in his sneaky suit. She turned and looked at the Grey Agents ranged against her. She did the only thing left she could do.

  Mimi laughed. In the darkest place in the world, she laughed. The Grey Agents raised their weapons, fearing a trick, but it was no trick. Mimi just found the whole situation funny.

  “Is something funny?” Parveen asked.

  “Nope,” Mimi said and laughed even louder. “It’s just … It’s … well. Look at us! We’re here, ain’t we? Who woulda thought we’d ever leave Windcity, but here we are. We travelled in a airship …”

  “An airship,” Parveen corrected.

  “An airship, Mr. Smartypants. We found the King o’ Switzerland. You found yer sister. I went to Atlantis! The things I saw. It’s amazin’, ain’t it? Who woulda thought a girl from Cross Plains, Texas, and a boy from … where is it you’re from again?”

  “India!” Parveen said, rolling his eyes.

  “Yeah! Who woulda thought we’d fight pirates and travel the world and end up here tryin’ our best to beat all the odds. We lost. But that ain’t the point.” Mimi laughed out loud. “We did all that. It’s … I just find it funny, is all.” Mimi started laughing again.

  Parveen and Xnasha looked at each other, then shrugged.

  “She’s a very crazy person,” Parveen said.

  “And she talks funny, too,” Xnasha said.

  Then they, too, began to laugh. The Grey Agents looked at one another in disbelief. In all the long years that the Headquarters of the Orphan Disposal Agency had stood on Angell Street in Providence, Rhode Island, never had the sound of human laughter been heard within their walls. The agents did not know what to do.

  Fortunately for them, the door to the transport hall slid open to reveal Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet. Between them, head high and smiling, stood Hamish X.

  Chapter 30

  Hamish X had sat with his head hanging down as the Space Plane descended. He’d weighed his options as the gravity slowly returned, pulling on his limbs and making him feel heavy and real again.

  When he had come to himself, rising out of the dream that the King had constructed for him and finding that the handcuffs held no power over him, he thought about what he was going to do.

  In free fall, high above the Earth, away from the pull of its gravity, he could view what he had learned from the Professor and the King with detachment.

  “Hamish X! Hamish X!” He ignored the urgent whispers of Maggie and Thomas, shutting them out as he pondered his choices. Finally, the brother and sister fell silent, assuming he was unconscious again.

  He thought about what he had learned about the ODA, their origins and their motives. All of his world would fall under their sway. Every place he had been and grown to love would be destroyed, warped beyond human understanding as the creatures from the plane beyond the gate sucked it dry.

  His world. He realized that it was his world. Even though he had been built by the ODA, he was still a part of this world and he wanted to save it. Now, as he thought about his choice, he realized that to save it, he would have to submit to the will of Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet. He had to believe the King and the Professor. He had to believe that he was more than a tool in the hands of the Grey Agents to be used and then thrown away.

  He made his decision.

  As the plane approached the surface of the Earth, kilometres out over the Atlantic Ocean, Hamish X opened his eyes and looked up at Maggie and Thomas.

  “You’re awake, Hamish X,” Maggie said excitedly.

  “About time,” Thomas snorted.

  “Yes.” Hamish X smiled. “I’m awake at last. I need you two to do something for me.”

  “What?” Maggie asked, her eyes alight. “Do we jump ’em? Take control of the plane? What’s the plan?”

  “You do nothing,” Hamish X said.

  Thomas and Maggie stared in disbelief. “Nothing?” Maggie said, incredulous. “Why?”

  “Because that’s what I need you to do. I need you to keep your heads down, stick together, and when the time comes run as fast as you can.”

  “But we aren’t chicken!” Thomas growled. “We’re not afraid of a fight.”

  Hamish X smiled. “I know. You are brave. You are true friends. You came along to help me when I had no one else, and for that I’ll always be grateful.” He grew serious. “But this is something no one can help me with. This is the most important thing I will ever do, and I alone must do it. You have to promise me you won’t try to stop me and you won’t interfere.”

  Thomas and Maggie stared at Hamish X, defiance in their eyes.

  “Please,” he said softly. “Promise me.”

  Thomas and Maggie looked at each other and finally nodded in unison.

  “PROXIMITY ALARM,” a mechanical voice announced and the Space Plane plunged into the sea. The ship had been fitted to travel short distances under water. The transport bay was located at the end of a long tunnel burrowed out of the rock below Providence. The plane cruised along through the dark waters, guided by sensors on the tunnel walls, finally rising and docking at a pier in the cargo bay.

  When the plane was secure, Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet emerged from the cockpit. Hamish X had resumed his show of being completely inert, hanging slackly against his restraint straps like a rag doll.

  Mr. Candy pressed a button beside the passenger hatch and the wall of the Space Plane hissed, sliding up to reveal a complement of Grey Agents waiting on the pier. Mr. Sweet snapped his overlong fingers and pointed at Maggie and Thomas. “Take them to the Hall of Batteries for processing. Hamish X will come with us.”

  The suddenness of Hamish X’s lunge took Mr. Sweet by surprise. Hamish X shattered the cuffs on his wrists and clamped his right hand around Mr. Sweet’s throat, driving the Grey Agent to his knees. Whirling gracefully like a dancer, he pinned Mr. Candy to the wall with one large boot, crushing him so completely that the gasping agent could not inflate his lungs.

  The Grey Agents on the pier raised their weapons, but they had no chance of shooting Hamish X without hitting one of their commanders. Choking, gagging, the two Grey Agents, Hamish X’s nemeses for so many adventures, were powerless.

  “I just wanted you to know,” Hamish X said evenly, “you have no power over me. What I do now, I choose to do. I do it out of love. I know you cannot understand what I’m saying, but it doesn’t matter. I do what I choose to do and that is what makes all the difference.”

  Squeezing for one more instant, he let the Grey Agents go. They dropped to the deck, gasping. When they finally recovered enough to stand, they rose to their feet, straightened their clothing, and stood looking at Hamish X with heads cocked to one side.

  “Most interesting behaviour, Mr. Sweet.”

  “Indeed, Mr. Candy. Perhaps a flaw in the programming? Of little consequence, however. Shall we then, Hamish X?” Mr. Sweet extended a hand towards the pier. Hamish X walked past them to face his fate.

  MIMI STOPPED LAUGHING when she saw the messy-haired boy in the black boots standing in the doorway. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “It’s good to hear you laugh, Mimi,” Hamish X said.


  “Hamish X!” Mimi ran to embrace him, but the Grey Agents grabbed her, pinioning her arms behind her back. She kicked and fought but couldn’t get free. “Let me go, ya filthy critters!”

  Hamish X laughed out loud. “Oh, Mimi. I missed you.” He walked towards her, Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet flanking him. She stopped fighting and watched him come. He looked different somehow, but she couldn’t place what it was that had changed. It was in his face, his eyes.

  “Is it necessary to restrain them?” Hamish X asked Mr. Candy.

  “We do as we see fit. They’ve caused a lot of damage,” the Grey Agent said.

  “Are y’all right?” Mimi asked Hamish X.

  “Yes, Mimi. I’m fine.”

  Parveen and Xnasha, similarly restrained, were brought forward.

  “Parveen. You’re here, too? I’m glad. It’s only right.” Hamish X took in Xnasha. “And who is this?”

  “I am Xnasha. I come from Atlantis. You are the famous Hamish X? Oh, my brother would be so jealous. He heard about you on our radio in the Hall of Objects.”

  Hamish X smiled and touched her shoulder. “I wish we could meet under other circumstances.”

  “Atlantis?” Mr. Candy hissed. Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet stalked forward until they stood centimetres away from the white-haired woman. They both hissed at her. It was the most blatant show of emotion any of the children had ever seen from a Grey Agent. They were usually aloof and cold. Now they were obviously furious at the Atlantean woman.

  Mr. Candy struck Xnasha across the face, a stinging blow that rang loudly in the vast chamber. “Filth! You and your kind banished us from this world those many millennia ago.”

  “How dare you come here? We will kill you now!”

  “No! Leave her alone.” Hamish X stepped between the Grey Agents and the woman. “You will not touch her if you want me to cooperate.”

  With obvious effort, Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet restrained themselves. Glaring hatred at Xnasha, they pulled back, clenching their fists, visibly taking control of themselves.