The Midnight Mercenary

by Cerberus Jones

  James ducked his head, swore, then looked back again at Len. ‘It’s all true, isn’t it?’ he moaned. ‘Every bit of it. It’s all true …’

  He drew in a deep breath, and Amelia braced herself. She wasn’t sure for what – maybe James would scream. Or shout. Or get angry and attack Len. What she didn’t expect was that he would sink back to the floor, roll himself into a ball and begin sobbing quietly.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Amelia hissed at him, kicking the sole of his shoe. ‘You finally wake up to reality and this is all you’ve got? You’re the worst, James.’

  ‘So what now?’ said Charlie. He was squatting in front of Len, looking at the alien with interest. ‘Do we just hang out here until Krskn comes to get us or what?’

  The mention of the name was electric. A ferocious look of surprise flashed over Derek’s face, and Len writhed in another explosive sneeze. A wave of mucus flew out of his mouth, smothering Charlie’s whole lower body.

  Charlie snorted at himself in amusement. ‘Oh, man! I’m saturated. Still,’ he nodded at Len respectfully, ‘cool defensive reaction. I wish I had one. Hey, Amelia – imagine Sophie T’s face if I could do this. Oh – hey!’ He slapped at his arms and legs. ‘This itches – it burns – ow! Hey, Len – ow! You’re hardcore!’

  Derek shook his head. ‘Get him out of here, Amelia. Take him somewhere he can towel it off his skin. Don’t try to wash it, it’ll only get worse.’

  ‘Got it,’ said Amelia.

  Despite his cocky attitude, Charlie was beginning to look scared. ‘It really hurts, Amelia,’ he whispered.

  She heard a sharp yelp outside the window. Was that Grawk? Derek looked startled, but only said, ‘Quickly, before he blisters.’

  Amelia couldn’t think about anything else. She rushed Charlie from the room.

  Bundling Charlie through the library and out to the lobby, Amelia ignored all the gasps of dismay, even Mary’s. Her only thought was to get Charlie upstairs as quickly as she could and cover him in towels.

  She’d forgotten to take a candle with her, but there was enough light from the candelabra on the reception desk for her to make out the twin staircases.

  ‘Come on, Charlie,’ she urged. ‘We’ll go up to the guest wing. It’s not far.’

  He only whimpered in reply, but let her drag him on.

  At the top of the stairs it was pitch-black, but the linen closet was at the end of the corridor, and it would be faster to do it blind than run back for a candle. Amelia ran her hand along the wall and counted the doorways, Charlie stumbling along behind her. Lightning flashed through the window at the far end, and Amelia sped up. Turning the bend after the last guestroom, she felt the cupboard’s handles and pulled.

  Mary had already taken armloads of towels and blankets down to the Scouts, and at first Amelia felt only bare shelves. But climbing up on the bottom shelf, she reached the very top and pulled down a slab of folded material. She had no idea what it was, and didn’t care. Roughly shaking it out, she wrapped Charlie from head to toe and started rubbing at him through the fabric.

  After a minute or two he started to relax a bit, and then was able to help Amelia and finish off his own legs. Finally, he emerged from under the cloth and Amelia heard it fall to the ground.

  ‘Are you OK?’ she whispered.

  ‘I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone,’ he said in a shaky voice. ‘I even wish I hadn’t joked about Sophie T …’

  They crept back along the corridor toward the lobby, Charlie carrying the cloth and occasionally rubbing at his skin and gasping. It seemed darker than ever now that Amelia didn’t have an emergency to focus on. Down in the library, with so many people and candles together, she’d started to feel a bit safer from Krskn. Up here, alone with Charlie in the back of the hotel, the full sense of danger flooded back to her. Dad was a prisoner, Grawk had run off, and who knew where Mum was. James was a wreck, and Tom was in his cottage, and might as well have been separated from them by an ocean.

  Amelia shivered and kept walking. They were about halfway along the corridor now, and the candles in the lobby below gave just enough light for Amelia to make out the railing around the gallery.

  A shadow stepped out from the wall – a black shape so nearly invisible against the gloom that Amelia wasn’t sure what she’d seen, only that it moved. Charlie sucked in a breath, and Amelia knew he’d seen it too.

  ‘It’s OK,’ said a low voice. ‘It’s me.’

  ‘Lady Naomi?’ said Charlie.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Really?’ said Amelia. ‘We can’t see you. And even if we could, so what? A holo-emitter changes your voice, too, doesn’t it?’

  ‘True,’ said the shadow. ‘But a holo-emitter wouldn’t know we watched together as the Brin-Hask destroyed your kitchen in a battle against cyborg rats.’

  ‘Good point,’ said Charlie.

  ‘A holo-emitter wouldn’t know that,’ Amelia admitted. ‘But Krskn could have easily tortured the information out of the real Lady Naomi.’

  ‘True again,’ said the shadow, ‘although I’d like to think I wouldn’t make it easy for Krskn, even under torture. Very well, Amelia – you choose a question for me. Something Krskn wouldn’t have thought to get out of me.’

  Amelia thought hard.

  ‘What’s your secret research about?’ Charlie said.

  The shadow laughed. ‘Nice try, Charlie.’

  ‘Where was my brother the first time he saw you?’ said Amelia.

  ‘On the steps at the front entrance to the hotel,’ said the shadow. ‘He was wearing a Robotics Club jumper from his old high school and humming to himself.’

  ‘Well …’ said Amelia. ‘I don’t know about the humming, but yes, that’s right.’ She felt awkward now. ‘Sorry. No offence.’

  ‘None taken,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘It was extremely wise to check. I have something for you, by the way.’

  Amelia stepped forward, straining her eyes in the dark. No matter how hard she tried, Lady Naomi was still just a vague shape, black on black. Amelia trailed her fingers along the wall to guide her and moved toward the gallery, Charlie beside her.

  ‘This will be a shock,’ said Lady Naomi, ‘but I need you to keep quiet as you absorb it. I heard all the noise down there before, and it sounded like the guests are getting close to panic. Another scare, and they could go over the edge.’

  That didn’t sound good to Amelia, but she swallowed hard and said, ‘OK.’

  ‘Here,’ said Lady Naomi, and she put a piece of string into Amelia’s hand.

  ‘What?’ Amelia was confused. The string stood up vertically from her hand, but the end dangled softly. A soft glow bobbed above her head. She heard a muffled rumble and gasped, ‘Grawk?’

  ‘What’s going on?’ said Charlie.

  Lady Naomi tsk-ed impatiently. ‘Not enough light … I forget …’ After a couple of seconds, a long flame wavered out of a lighter.

  Amelia blinked in what seemed like bright light – then blinked again as she saw that the string in her hand was connected to a floating sphere the size of a beach ball. It was as delicate and wobbly-looking as a soap bubble, but inside was Grawk.

  ‘What the heck –?’ Charlie started.

  Lady Naomi cut him off. ‘A containment field.’ She poked the bubble roughly. Instead of popping, or even floating away from her finger, the surface just flexed at the pressure and shimmered. ‘Totally impenetrable. Totally immovable.’ She pushed hard against the bubble with the palm of her hand. ‘It only moves by that guiding rein.’ She nodded toward the string in Amelia’s hand.

  ‘But why did you put Grawk in there?’ said Charlie.

  ‘I didn’t. I found him like that, just floating in midair over the lawn outside the library.’

  ‘Hang on,’ said Charlie. ‘Do you mean to say you can see in the dark?’

  ‘A little bit,’ said Lady Naomi.

  ‘Krskn,’ said Amelia, still staring at Grawk. ‘He did this, didn’t he?’
/>   Lady Naomi nodded. Who else would it have been? Amelia found it terrifying to learn that Krskn had two ways to trap people. First the binding tar, now these floating prisons. How many other weapons did he have to use against them? He might really be unstoppable.

  Perhaps Lady Naomi saw all this in Amelia’s face, because she said quickly, ‘It’s not over yet, Amelia. Whatever Krskn is up to, no-one’s been hurt yet, have they? In his own way, it looks like Krskn is taking good care of his targets. Whoever is behind this, they must be paying Krskn a premium to make sure all his captives are in perfect health.’

  Amelia couldn’t answer, but nodded. She hoped Lady Naomi was right.

  ‘On top of that,’ Lady Naomi said, ‘Tom told me the Lellum have got a Keeper on the way to protect them.’

  ‘Derek,’ said Charlie. ‘He’s already here.’

  ‘Really?’ Lady Naomi sounded startled. ‘Since when?’

  ‘He arrived with the other guests,’ said Amelia. ‘They all piled in at once. I think at first no-one could tell who was who, but it was obvious once Len got sick. Derek knew exactly what to do.’

  ‘Did he?’ Lady Naomi’s voice was stiff, wary. ‘And what did he do? Exactly.’

  ‘He got us to take Len into the annexe, and put water on him, and –’

  ‘The annexe?’ said Lady Naomi. ‘Oh no –’

  But then a scream of utter pain ripped through the hotel.

  Amelia gasped. ‘James!’

  Without a word, Lady Naomi gripped Amelia’s hand and ran for the stairs.

  ‘Hold on!’ Charlie called after them. Without Lady Naomi’s night vision to guide him, he was far slower, stumbling a couple of times on the stairs until the candlelight in the lobby gave him a chance to catch up.

  Lady Naomi paused with Amelia by the library door. ‘You have to leave him here,’ she said, reaching for the string that controlled Grawk’s containment field. Amelia hadn’t even noticed she was still holding it, but now she pulled it away from Lady Naomi.

  ‘No,’ she said fiercely. ‘I’m not losing him again. I’m not leaving behind any more of my family.’

  Charlie reached them, puffing slightly. His arms were swollen with welts from Len’s toxic mucus.

  ‘Here,’ he said, throwing the sheet he was carrying over the bubble. It should have been impossible for the frail-looking ball to support the weight, but it didn’t budge. Now, when Amelia shortened the string so that Grawk floated only a centimetre above her hand, it just looked like she was carrying a bundle of laundry. Sort of.

  ‘Fine,’ said Lady Naomi, and they pushed their way into the library.

  Inside, Mary was frantic. Scout kids were running about in sheer panic, and the leaders weren’t doing any better.

  ‘Please!’ Mary was shouting. ‘We all need to stay calm!’

  At that moment, from behind the annexe door, James let out another bloodcurdling scream of agony.

  The Scouts screamed back and scrambled over one another, looking for a way to escape. The aliens seemed to have forgotten that what was outside was far worse than whatever was happening inside.

  A sound of smashing glass came from inside the annexe, and the Scouts lost all control. Even the humans, who had no idea of the true danger, got caught up in the panic. Maddened by fear, they were desperate to run – it didn’t matter where. They swarmed around the library, shrieking and colliding with one another until someone threw open the French doors. With a great cry, they rushed into the hotel grounds.

  ‘They’ve lost their minds!’ said Mary. ‘What can we do?’

  ‘Nothing for them,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘We’ve got to help James.’

  ‘But if Krskn’s out there –’

  Lady Naomi shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’

  They crossed the now-empty room and slid open the annexe door. At first, Amelia thought it was empty, too. There was no Len, no Derek, and no glass in the big bay window. Then James howled again, and Amelia saw him hidden in the shadows, his whole body contorting with pain and … glistening.

  ‘Slime!’ Charlie yelled, ripping the sheet off Grawk’s bubble. ‘He’s been slimed, same as me!’ He threw the sheet over James and started rubbing. ‘It’s all over his face and hands, too,’ Charlie continued frantically, his own face full of fear and pity.

  Amelia dropped to her knees beside him and helped scrub the mucus off James.

  When James at last stopped groaning and was able to sit up, Lady Naomi was deep in thought, looking at the slimy patch where Len had lain. Mary had fetched a clean, dry towel and now gave it to James.

  ‘What happened?’ said Lady Naomi.

  James shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I was just sitting here –’

  Freaking out and crying, Amelia thought, but without any actual irritation now.

  ‘– and Derek was talking to Len …’

  ‘Talking about what?’ said Lady Naomi.

  ‘At first he was just telling Len he’d get better soon, and everything would be OK, but when he saw I was listening, he bent over and whispered into Len’s … whatever … and then Len exploded slime all over me.’

  James closed his eyes at the memory and shivered.

  ‘And then?’ Lady Naomi prompted.

  ‘I couldn’t see anything. The slime was all over my face, and then it started burning me, and I was screaming, but no-one helped me, and then –’ James opened his eyes and looked at Lady Naomi. ‘I heard glass smash, and lots of screaming, but I couldn’t do anything. That’s when you guys came. Thanks, by the way,’ he added to Charlie.

  ‘So you didn’t see what happened to Len or Derek?’ Lady Naomi pressed.

  ‘No. I was too busy thinking my eyeballs were on fire,’ said James.

  ‘Did Krskn take them both?’ Amelia asked.

  ‘Both?’ said Lady Naomi. ‘No, just Len.’

  ‘But what happened to Derek?’ said Charlie. ‘Did Krskn vaporise him? Or has he gone after Krskn to get Len back?’

  ‘Look –’ Lady Naomi pointed to the smashed window. ‘Where’s the glass? If Krskn smashed in from outside, there should be broken glass all over the floor right where Len was lying. But –’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Amelia. ‘Where did the glass go?’

  ‘It’s all over the veranda outside.’

  ‘You think Derek smashed through the window to escape Krskn?’ said Charlie. ‘Or are you saying he let Krskn in?’

  ‘I’m saying Derek is Krskn,’ said Lady Naomi.

  ‘But Derek is the Keeper!’ said Charlie.

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Because he said so!’ Charlie shot back, then realised how weak that argument was. ‘Oh.’

  ‘It was Derek who gave Len the salty cookie!’ said Amelia, suddenly realising. ‘He handed it to Len himself. He made him sick on purpose!’

  ‘Sounds like the perfect test to see who was Lellum and who was human.’ Lady Naomi’s expression darkened. ‘And the perfect excuse to separate Len from the group and get him into the annexe.’

  ‘… where he could smash out through the window and drag him away,’ Charlie finished.

  Lady Naomi nodded. ‘Yes, that’s exactly what Krskn wants us to believe. But that’s not what happened here. The smashed window was just a distraction – an attempt to put us off his real escape route.’

  ‘What escape route?’ said Charlie. ‘Through the library, you mean?’

  ‘No.’ Mary was certain. ‘That door didn’t open.’

  ‘Then where did he go?’ said Charlie.

  Amelia looked up at the ceiling. Just in case Len had crawled up there, or was floating in a bubble like Grawk’s. For all she knew, Krskn could fly. But nothing was there.

  Lady Naomi sighed. ‘He was very clever to bring Len here, but what I don’t understand is how he could have known about it. Unless …’

  She paused and then put her hand to her forehead. ‘The rats!’

  ‘What?’ said Charlie.

  ‘The cy
bernetically enhanced rats the Brin-Hask destroyed,’ she said.

  Amelia’s stomach swooped. ‘The rats were being used by someone else. They were spying on the whole hotel. Passing on our secrets –’

  ‘Yes,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘And now it looks as though they were passing them on to Krskn. Or at least, someone who was selling information to Krskn.’

  ‘What information?’ said Amelia. ‘Where do you think Krskn went?’

  ‘And when are we going to stop talking about it, and go and rescue Len?’ said Charlie.

  Lady Naomi looked grim, hesitated, and then crossed to the very place James was standing. Swollen and lumpy as he was with mucus burns, he still blushed as he moved out of her way. She reached up to a little framed picture of fish swimming through coral, and tilted it to sit at an angle.

  Without a sound, a trapdoor fell open in the opposite corner of the room, leaving an ominous black hole in the floor. Lady Naomi carried the candle over to it and, following her, Amelia saw two rough wooden steps inside the floor cavity. A dank stone staircase had been cut directly into the rock of the headland beneath them, the same headland that was riddled with natural caves and tunnels.

  ‘How did you know about that?’ Charlie blurted out.

  ‘I’ve been here a long time,’ said Lady Naomi quietly.

  After ten or fifteen more seconds, the trapdoor silently closed again, and turning to look behind her, Amelia saw the picture had straightened itself on the wall.

  What kind of place was this?

  ‘So what do we do?’ she said.

  ‘You do nothing,’ said Lady Naomi.

  ‘But what about Len?’ Charlie protested.

  ‘You do nothing,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘I will go and track Krskn down. If he’s already got away with kidnapping Len, then unfortunately there is nothing any of us can do. But I’m betting Krskn will be unwilling to leave with just one Lellum. I think he’s probably still on the hunt. Which is dangerous for all of us, but offers a slim chance for Len. It gives me a tiny window to try to rescue him.’

  ‘Well, if nowhere is safe,’ said Charlie, ‘I might as well come with you.’