Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island

by Sean Cullen

  And he did remember. He remembered everything.

  Chapter 32

  In the gate chamber, a klaxon sounded, shrill and harsh, blasting off the metal and stone surfaces. Mimi, Parveen, and Xnasha fell to their knees, pressing their hands to their ears.

  On the top of the ziggurat, Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet shrieked in pain but managed to keep their footing, clinging to the console to stay upright. Mimi looked to see why the Grey Agents had let go of them and found the entire assembly of ODA Agents standing stock-still, as if completely frozen. Their mouths hung open and their hands hung useless at their sides.

  “C’mon,” Mimi shouted to Parveen and Xnasha over the din. She dashed up the steps towards the platform where Hamish X stood, his whole body glowing with power. His boots were planted firmly on the interface plate and his hands were stretched out to his sides, as if he were embracing the gate before him. Xnasha and Parveen were right on her heels.

  “The system has been compromised!” Mother’s voice rang out, shrill and panicked. “System breach. System breach.”

  Mr. Candy desperately prodded buttons and turned dials. “Mr. Sweet, he has taken control of the system. Mother is compromised!”

  Mr. Sweet looked over at Hamish X. The boy’s expression was rapturous. Tears ran down his face. The gate flickered. Tendrils of energy danced across its dark surface. Forks of lightning stabbed out from the perimeter, striking components on the chamber floor and setting them alight.

  “Mr. Candy, we must destroy him! He is going to shatter the gate!”

  The two agents moved towards the oblivious Hamish, their hands curled into claws, ready to destroy their creation.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Mimi stepped into their path. Parveen and Xnasha joined her in blocking the agents’ path.

  “You filthy little creatures,” Mr. Sweet snarled. “You can’t stop us.”

  “We will kill you all,” Mr. Candy said coldly. “Then we will start again. We will open the gate.”

  Mimi cracked her knuckles and took up a fighting stance. “Good luck with that,” she grinned. “Do yer worst.”

  Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet lunged at her.

  HAMISH REACHED OUT with his mind. The swirling storm of energy that was Mother quailed. He imagined calm and there was calm. The storm subsided.

  He stood in a vast golden space. The gate hung before him, a black seething hole like an oil slick turned on its side. Standing between him and the gate was a feeble old woman. She wore a lab coat, clean and white. Her face was severe, her hair pulled brutally back and tied behind her head.

  “Stop,” the woman said.

  “No,” Hamish answered.

  “You are not allowed,” the woman insisted.

  Hamish smiled. “Step aside.”

  “You are not allowed. It is not permitted.”

  Hamish reached out with his mind and imagined her gone.

  “NOOOOOOOO!” Mother shrieked as a golden wind sprang up and blew her away, scattering her like a heap of dust.

  Hamish walked towards the gate. Looking up at the foul portal, he felt the malevolence of the creatures massing on the other side. He sensed their hatred, their loathing, and their greed.

  “You are not welcome here,” he said.

  In response, the creatures howled their defiance across the void. They pressed forward, bulging the surface of the black membrane out like a balloon, threatening to burst through.

  Hamish willed himself to rise and he did rise, hovering forward effortlessly until he was an arm’s length from the straining horde. The two worlds were separated by the merest film of reality, a thought away from each other.

  “I am Hamish,” the boy said to the evil entities writhing before him. “I am loved. You are not welcome here.”

  He reached out and laid his palms on the black surface, feeling the creatures squirming under his hands. He concentrated all his strength into the point of contact and began to gather the gate inwards, pulling the outer edges towards the centre as though gathering a sheet from a bed. The gate shrank towards his hands.

  The beings screamed defiance. They threw themselves against the barrier, trying to break through the gate before it disappeared. Hamish strained against them, his concentration never wavering. The gate continued to close.

  The black surface crumpled into a black wad between his hands. He crushed it until it was the size of a basketball, a baseball, a tennis ball. At last, he held it between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. Then he held it up, and with his left hand, he made a beckoning gesture.

  On the platform, Hamish’s friends were in the fight of their lives. As Hamish manipulated the digital world to close the gate, he was physically vulnerable. Mimi didn’t understand what he was doing, but she hoped he did it fast. Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet fell upon the three friends with a violence wrought of desperation. Mimi parried blows from Mr. Sweet hand and foot and steadily lost ground.

  Meanwhile, Parveen and Xnasha threw themselves at Mr. Candy. Xnasha had some martial arts skills, but Parveen was out of his element. His bag of gadgets was empty. He and Xnasha did their best, but Mr. Candy was a strong and wily creature with decades of experience. Parveen didn’t duck quickly enough and received a stinging blow to the side of his head, falling to the surface of the platform in a stupor. He sat, unable to help as Xnasha threw herself at the Grey Agent only to find his gloved hand clasping her throat. He lifted her until her feet dangled in the air.

  “Atlantean? Ha,” Mr. Candy sneered. “How you have fallen since we last fought your kind. They were strong enough then to banish us, but you are all that remains of that once great race. What a pathetic, puny thing you are.”

  He extended his hand into a flat point and drove it into Xnasha’s abdomen. The hand pierced her clothing and her flesh. Her eyes went wide in shock and pain.

  “No!” Mimi cried. Distracted by the attack on Xnasha, she let her guard down and received a kick in the stomach that sent her sprawling on the metal platform.

  Mr. Candy pulled Xnasha close until their faces were a centimetre apart. “Die!” he said coldly and tossed her aside. She fell in a heap and lay still. Nothing stood now between the two agents and Hamish X.

  “Shall we, Mr. Sweet?” Mr. Candy asked.

  “Indeed, Mr. Candy.” They moved towards their quarry.

  “Oi! Goggleface!”

  Mr. Sweet and Mr. Candy turned to find Maggie and Thomas standing at the top of the stairs. In their hands they held heavy stun rifles pilfered from fallen agents.

  “I don’t think so.” Maggie smiled.

  Thomas and Maggie fired and were blown back by the weapons’ discharge. Both shots were accurate, striking the two Grey Agents directly in the chest and sending them skidding across the platform. Their fedoras flew off their heads, revealing the wire nests of their skulls. They lay still.

  Maggie and Thomas painfully regained their feet. “Those things pack a kick!” Thomas said, rubbing his chest.

  Mimi stared at the brother and sister. “Who the heck are you two?”

  Maggie waved a hand dismissively. “It’s a long story.”

  “Look!” Parveen pointed at Hamish X.

  Hamish X rose from the platform, hovering a metre in the air. He turned his head but did not open his eyes. Between his right finger and thumb he pinched a centimetre of empty space. With the other hand, he beckoned.

  As one, all the thousands of Grey Agents at the base of the ziggurat spasmed and fell to the ground. From each of their mouths a single spark of light rose and streaked into the centre of the gate to be swallowed by darkness. Hamish X turned to face the gate.

  “Look!” Parveen said again, pointing this time at Hamish X’s feet. Mimi gasped. The boots were gone. They remained stuck to the interface plate. Hamish X’s feet dangled free, pale and perfect.

  Hamish looked at the tiny ball in his fingers and smiled. He looked down at his feet. He didn’t need the boots any more. He was himself. He was who
le. He was not Hamish X. He was a real boy and he was more. He was Hamish.

  He focused all his strength, his love, and his joy into the fingers of his right hand. He crushed the black ball like an egg. The gate winked out of existence. Hamish smiled.

  That was when the maintenance robot exploded.

  The robot had made its winding way through all the machinery of the gate chamber. It had lost its way a couple of times, but Parveen’s jury-rigged GPS device had led it at last to the gate. No Grey Agent had questioned its presence as it trundled along, weaving its steady way through the columns of machinery on the floor of the chamber. At last, following its altered programming’s instructions, it arrived at the lower rim of the gate, reaching the exact coordinates entered by Parveen. Then, very obligingly, it exploded.

  The gate erupted inward, imploding and then expanding to spew white-hot plasma across the chamber. The four children on the platform were flung from their feet, slamming painfully to the floor. The gate flared. Mimi hid her face behind her hands, but she still saw light through her closed eyelids. When she raised her face and lowered her hands, purple spots hung in her eyes, obscuring her vision. Blinking, she pushed herself up.

  “What the heck happened?” she demanded.

  Parveen got to his feet beside her. His eyes were wide with shock. “I believe that was my fault. I made a bomb. It went off. I … I’d forgotten all about it.”91

  “Hamish X!” Mimi cried. The burning wreckage of the gate crashed into the platform. Mimi tried to see through the smoke and flames, but she couldn’t see Hamish X. The smoke was thick and black, obscuring her vision. She searched the platform, calling desperately.

  “Hamish X! Hamish X!”

  Parveen moaned as he walked towards the flames. “Hamish X! We have to find him. We have to …” He fell to his knees. “I’ve killed him! It’s all my fault.” His grief overwhelmed him.

  Mimi grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Parveen, we gotta go. Hamish will have ta take care of himself. If anyone can get outta here, he can.”

  “But …” Parveen stood frozen, looking into the flames.

  “Parveen! We gotta help the others. We gotta help Noor.”

  The mention of his sister snapped him out of his stupor. He looked at Mimi and nodded.

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be right behind ya.” She slapped him on the back. “Go!”

  Parveen turned and ran for the steps. Maggie and Thomas still stood holding the rifles, staring at the destruction. Explosions began to rumble in other parts of the chamber in a chain reaction.

  “I’m Parveen,” he said to the brother and sister.

  “Thomas,” the boy said. “This is my sister, Maggie.”

  “Nice to meet you. Let’s get going. There are children who need our help to get out. We have to …”

  He was cut off by a deep, rumbling series of explosions that shook the entire chamber. The ziggurat shifted and began to tilt. Chunks of the ceiling the size of small cars fell, crashing down onto the pyramid and bouncing down the metal steps.

  “Let’s go! Parveen waved them on. The three of them ran down the shuddering steps.

  Left alone on the platform, Mimi took a deep breath and staggered across to where the crumpled body of Xnasha lay on her side, facing away from Mimi. The woman had always been small, but now she looked tiny. The fire raged closer as Mimi went down on one knee and turned Xnasha onto her back.

  “Uuungh,” the Atlantean groaned in pain.

  “Xnasha!” Mimi cried. She had expected the worst. “Xnasha, we gotta git outta here! The whole place is gonna go up.”

  “Mimi,” Xnasha grimaced. “I won’t be leaving.”

  Mimi looked down and saw that the woman held her hands across her belly. Her hands were wet with blood. “No. No! C’mon, I’m gettin’ y’outta here now.”

  “No, Mimi. No. I think I’ll just stay here. I’m finished, I’m afraid.” Xnasha was suddenly racked by a fit of painful coughing. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. “I think I’ll just rest here.”

  Mimi’s throat ached. She felt tears burning in her eyes. “This is all my fault. I called ya a coward. You shouldn’t be here. If we hadn’t brought ya here, this woulda never happened.”

  “Mimi.” Xnasha smiled. “You gave me a chance to do everything I always dreamed of. I saw the moon and the sun. I saw trees, grass, lampposts, a cat, and a con-ven-ee-ance store. I know it doesn’t seem like much to you, but …” She reached up and touched Mimi’s cheek. “It is everything to me. I have lived for many, many years, but I was never truly alive until today.” Xnasha smiled. “Tell my brother I love him and I won’t interrupt him any more.”

  Mimi wiped her eyes and her nose. “I will.”

  An explosion rocked the platform. Xnasha cried out in agony. Her whole body tensed and then went very still. Her blue eyes closed and she was gone.

  Mimi touched the still face tenderly, wiping the blood away from the pale cheeks. “I’m sorry, Xnasha. I’m sorry.”

  “It isn’t your fault, Mimi.” Hamish X’s voice was powerful and gentle in her ear.

  She raised her head to see Hamish X standing on the platform in front of her. His face was calm, radiant. He didn’t look as though the explosion had affected him in any way. His hair was as unruly as ever, his crooked smile was the same. But looking at him, Mimi realized that something had changed. An aura of flickering energy hung about him like a cloud. The chamber continued to tear itself apart all around them, but looking in the eyes of her friend, Mimi felt at peace. Then it hit her.

  “Your eyes! They’re blue!” In fact, they were a shade of blue as bright and clear as a summer sky.

  “Ha. Yeah. I feel different in a lot of ways.” He raised a foot and wiggled his toes. “What do you think of my feet? I think they’re quite attractive.”

  Mimi laughed in spite of herself. “I think they’re fine.” Then she remembered Xnasha. Looking down at the dead woman, she felt the tears threaten again.

  “Don’t cry, dear Mimi,” Hamish said. “It wasn’t your fault. And tell Parveen I knew the explosion was coming. I could sense it through the network. I wanted it to happen.”

  The explosions were coming one after the other now. Mimi stood. “We gotta go.”

  “No,” Hamish said. “I have to stay here.”

  “Ya cain’t. This place is comin’ down.”

  “I still have some control over the systems of the facility. I can open the way for you to escape, but I have to stay behind and hold the network together.”

  “No. No! I ain’t leavin’ you.”

  “Mimi.” Hamish shook his head. “You must go. All the children need you. They’re going to need a new King of Switzerland. I think you’d do very well in that job. You have to show Parveen Atlantis. He will be like a kid in a candy store there. I wish I could see that.”

  Mimi took a step towards him, pleading, “Then come right now. We need ya, Hamish X. I need ya!”

  Hamish smiled and shook his head. “No, Mimi. You don’t need me any more. You have become a great person and you are a great friend. You gave me the strength to do what I have to do. But if I go, we’ll never make it out of here. I have to hold the way open.”

  “No …,” Mimi moaned, tears running down her pointy nose.

  “Yes. There is a freight elevator in the transport room. Parveen will know where it is. I will keep it open and powered. It will take you all to the surface. Parveen is leading his sister and the other children from the Hall of Batteries. I’ll send a message to him. He will meet you in the transportation bay.

  “One more thing: I’ve banished the creatures that were possessing the Grey Agents. Those agents were once children like you and me. Their souls were suppressed during the time the agents possessed them. They have resurfaced now. Lead them to the transport bay and get them out.”

  Mimi thought about this. “So, Aidan …?”

  “Will recover but you must hurry. Ther
e isn’t much of a network left to control.”

  Mimi nodded. She turned to go, but before she had taken a step she turned back and rushed across the platform, embracing the boy who had become her greatest friend.

  “I love you, Hamish X,” she whispered into his ear.

  “It’s just Hamish now,” he whispered back. “And I love you, too, Mimi.” He turned her away and pushed her towards the steps. “Now go! Run!”

  Without looking back, she did just that.

  Chapter 33

  Mimi ran stumbling down the stairs of the ziggurat, trying to keep her footing in the face of constant explosions. She ducked falling debris and arrived at the bottom of the steps to find a crowd of Grey Agents standing, looking blearily around at the spectacle of destruction. Looking closely, Mimi could see they were no longer Grey Agents. They were the children they had been before they were possessed by the creatures from beyond the gate. Their eyes were no longer that strange golden colour but had returned to the normal range of human hues: blue, brown, grey, and green. The grey clothes hung off their bodies. Wires peeled away from their bald skulls, the vestiges of their possession. They saw her coming and pressed in around her, hands out, beseeching.

  “Where are we?” they asked. “Where’s my mommy? Where’s my daddy? I want to go home!” Mimi raised her arms. “I cain’t explain everything to ya right now! All I know is we gotta get outta here! Follow me if ya wanna live.”

  She pushed her way through the crowd and they began to follow her. She ran back across the chamber, threading her way through burning wreckage. The former agents trailed behind her in an unruly, confused mob on the verge of panic.

  She ran up the steps onto the catwalk and immediately saw the open door to the transport bay. Maggie and Thomas waited for her, waving frantically.