Control (Shift)

by Kim Curran

  Rosalie took in an angry lungful of air. Then let it out with a long sigh. “OK, you can come. But…” She silenced Jake and CP’s victory cheer with a raised finger. “But if there’s a sniff of trouble, CP, I’m trusting you to Shift and get the three of us out of there, understood? I can’t one hundred percent rely on my power any more. And I certainly can’t rely on Jake to make the right decision.”

  “Hey!” Jake said in protest.

  I shook my head at him. “Rosalie is right. What we’re about to do is dangerous, maybe really dangerous, and I wouldn’t even consider it if I didn’t know that she was looking out for you. So, this is the decision, right here and now, you all focus on. Really think about it, so that if the time comes you won’t have a problem undoing it.” I looked around at the group, glad to see they were taking my words seriously. Their heads were bowed and some had their eyes closed. Morgan looked up at the ceiling, whistling. Only Aubrey stared straight at me.

  “And you won’t stop us?” Rosalie said.

  “I’ll be honest, Rose, I can’t stop you.”

  “And neither can I,” Morgan said.

  “What do you mean? You can’t Fix?” Rosalie asked him.

  Morgan shook his head.

  “Then what good are you to me? Because you suck as a doorman.”

  “I guess I’ll have to hand in my jacket.” Morgan stroked the arm of his black bomber jacket, as if it was a pet.

  “You’ll do no such thing. As soon as this mess is sorted, you’ll get your arse behind the bar and serve drinks,” Rosalie said.

  “Not in a clown outfit?” he said, his eyebrows knitting together.

  “Dressed as a monkey, if I say so. Now, I have a dress to pick out and a bar to shut up. So if you don’t mind…” She strode off through the door to their flat.

  “So, where’s this party going to be?” Jake asked, excited.

  “The Pyramid,” I said. “And there will be security all over that place. We’ll need help getting in.”

  “I can try and hack their systems, but there’s only so much I can do with the crappy computer I have here,” Jake said, gesturing upstairs. “I asked Rosalie to get me a better system, but she says I have to pay for it myself.”

  “So, we ask Carl,” Aubrey said.

  “Yeah, only one problem with that,” I said and they turned to look at me. “I’m not a part of ARES anymore.”

  “True,” said Aubrey reaching into the large bag she’d brought with her. She pulled out a crumpled jacket and shrugged her arms into it. She pulled her Bluecoat straight and dusted off the shoulders. “But I still am.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  I had expected some comments from the Regulators, as Aubrey and I stepped out onto their floor. Some snide jeering or a “look what the cat dragged in” at the very least. But it was just business as usual: all shouting TV screens, bleeping machinery and angry, serious-looking older teens who just ignored me as I walked past. Great to know what an impact I’d had on this place.

  We were going to meet the others at the bottom of Tower Bridge in an hour. Which didn’t give us much time to get the information we needed.

  The loud rock music pouring from Carl’s office grew louder as Aubrey pushed the door open. Carl was standing with one foot up on his chair, knee bent, cradling an invisible guitar. He thrashed his head back and forth in time to the wailing chords, the little that was left of his hair flailing about.

  “Excuse me!” I said, trying to be heard above the screeching guitar.

  Carl continued to rock out, playing air drums now, flecks of sweat splattering over his many computer screens. I turned my head away and tried not to laugh.

  Aubrey placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled louder than I’ve ever heard anyone whistle in my life. The shrill note cut over even the energetic drum solo.

  Carl stopped and spun around. The pink flush in his cheeks from his stadium performance turned to a scarlet red from embarrassment. He fumbled around, trying to stop the music, only managing to turn the volume up even more before finally silencing it. My ears rang in the sudden quiet.

  “Aubrey, I…” Carl started.

  Aubrey waved away his shame. “Hey, Zeppelin rock, right?” she said smiling.

  Carl sunk back into his chair, a stupidly huge grin on his face. “So, what can I do you for? I mean, what can I do for you?” He stroked his forehead.

  “We need information about a target. Francesca Anderson, nee Kingly, now Francesca Goodwin. Also known as Frank and Frankie. She’s the head of Pandora Worldwide.”

  Carl started typing before Aubrey had finished speaking and within seconds Frankie’s face was filling the largest screen.

  “You carried out an eval on her a couple of days ago, right?” Carl said, fingers dancing across his ergonomic keyboard.

  Aubrey gave me her Look, and I felt my heart leap a little inside. I’d missed that look so much – the way her eyebrows disappeared beneath her long fringe and her chin tilted forward. I knew it was supposed to make me feel small and stupid. But right now, it made me feel great. Almost felt like things were getting back to normal.

  “Well, numptie here did the eval and missed a few things,” Aubrey said, gesturing at me with her thumb. My swelling heart shrunk right back into place. “That’s why we need to work out where she is.”

  “Oh, you,” Carl said, noticing me for the first time. “I thought you’d quit? I was just about to remove your name from the system and block your access.”

  “Sir Richard and I had a little misunderstanding, is all. Don’t worry about it. Just focus on Frankie.”

  Carl tied back his lank, thinning hair, and returned to the screens. “Well, she’s high profile. UN advisor and spokesperson. The Angel of England, the press like to call her. Runs an orphanage for messed up Shifters.”

  “Anything we don’t already know, Carl? Anything unusual?” I said.

  He punched a few other buttons and we watched as higher security files were crosschecked. “She was a Project Ganymede volunteer?” Carl, said looking at us. “Isn’t that the mess you guys got into over summer?”

  “Anything else?” Aubrey said.

  “No, that’s it. She’s clean. In fact, she’s cleaner than clean. She’s got clearance on the highest level, which I’ve never actually seen before. Higher than anyone at ARES. Straight from the Prime Minister. She must have done something pretty impressive to get that.”

  “She helped him get into power,” I said.

  “That would do it. What do you want with her anyway?”

  “We want to arrest her for murder,” I said.

  “Well, not exactly. It’s not like we have anything to actually charge her with,” Aubrey chipped in.

  “You still don’t believe me?”

  “No, it’s just that almost everyone who you say she killed is alive now. So, she’s not really responsible for their deaths, is she?” Aubrey said, combing her fringe out of her eyes.

  “Not in this reality,” I said.

  “Or in any reality, Scott. There is only one reality, remember?”

  “Not for me.”

  “Whatever!” Aubrey threw her hands up, her voice getting higher pitched as she became increasingly irritated. “What exactly are we going to charge her with? Killing people in an alternative reality? What court is going to listen to that?”

  “Then why are you even here?” I said, exasperated. I thought we’d been through all of this last night at Zac’s place.

  “To get you back!” Aubrey snapped. And then looked down at her shoes. “I mean, to get you back to normal. To make her undo what she did to you.”

  Carl’s head had been moving back and forth between Aubrey and me as if he was watching a tennis match.

  “Oh, right,” I said, my shoes also suddenly becoming really interesting.

  Carl coughed. “Er, hello! I am still here, you know?”

  “Yes, sorry. Right, where were we?” I said.

  “Well, I was
falling in love,” Carl said, gazing up at a headshot of Frankie looking into the middle distance.

  “She’s not all that,” said Aubrey, her nose crinkling. “She has weird lips. They’re too big.”

  “Hmm,” Carl said, flicking through more photos of Frankie with a dumb smile on his face. “Why don’t you just go back to her place in Sussex and speak to her there?” Carl said, scanning our evaluation visit order. “And if you do, can I come?”

  “She’s leaving for America tonight. So we’re going to a party at the Pyramid to stop her. Which is why we need you.”

  “The G28 thing?” Carl said, still gazing at Frankie’s pictures.

  “Er, I don’t know. It just says Party at the Pyramid,” I said.

  “Sure, it’s the launch of this big conference about alternative energy and saving the future. You know the kind of thing. Lots of talk, not much action. Anyone who’s anyone’s going to be at that. Including your Ms Goodwin, by the looks of it. You know I have an idea for an alternative fuel engine. Maybe she would be interested. It runs on–”

  “Yes, that’s the thing,” I said, cutting Carl off.

  “Ha!” Carl laughed. He looked from my serious face to Aubrey’s then laughed again, only it came out as more of a wheeze. “You’re not serious, are you? You’re going to walk into the Pyramid, past the mass of security protecting heads of state, not to mention the celebs there to boost their PR, and take down this woman?” He pointed at the screen. “Who from what I can tell here is Mother Teresa and Angelina Jolie rolled into one.”

  “Yes,” Aubrey and I said in tandem.

  “Well, good luck to you. I’ll send you a card in prison.”

  “Can you bring up the plans of the Pyramid?” I asked.

  “No,” Carl said folding his arms. “I’m not going to help you. Not again. You know I very nearly lost my job after helping you last time?”

  “Come on, Carl,” I said. “It’s not like we’re asking you to hack into anything.”

  He shook his head.

  “Carl, can you do this tiny little thing. Just for me?” Aubrey said, hitting him with her pouting lips and tilted head. I knew I was powerless against that look. And it seemed that Carl was too.

  “OK, I’ll pull up the plans, but that’s it. I’m not going to help you past the security or anything.”

  “Oh, of course not. I mean that would be too hard for you anyway,” Aubrey said.

  “It wouldn’t be that hard, not really,” Carl said, melting gently.

  “Seriously, you can do that? Wow, you’re so impressive Carl. But let’s start with the plans.”

  Carl’s eyes looked a little dazed as he pulled up details of the Pyramid, including all security exits and entrances. “You know this wasn’t the original plan?” he said. “They were going to build this huge tower, the biggest in Europe, but the government vetoed it.”

  I remembered what Miller had said about his involvement in the planning of the building. How the Pyramid gave out the right message. “Yeah, I remember hearing something about that.”

  “And of course, our Pyramid was really about sticking up two fingers to the French. Five times higher than their Pyramide du Louvre and all that.”

  “This is all very fascinating,” Aubrey said. “But what can you tell us about the security?”

  “Pretty high-spec stuff. You’ll need someone on the ground to override it. It can’t be done remotely. What? What!” Carl said, noticing us both staring at him. “Oh, no. No way. Look around you.” He indicated his office with a wave of his hand. He’d certainly made this place his home: it was packed with toys of comic book heroes and posters. “This is my lair.”

  “Your lair?” I said, with a snort.

  “Yes,” he snapped. “My lair. My base. My sanctuary. I don’t leave it.”

  “Not even to go home?” Aubrey asked.

  “Well, yes to go home.”

  “And to go to the loo?” I added.

  “Yes, OK. I do sometimes leave it. But this is where I’m strongest. Where I’m in control. That’s why it’s my lair.”

  “Aren’t lairs normally secret? And have sharks and stuff?”

  Carl pushed away from the desk and sent his chair wheeling over to the other side of the room. He plucked a toy shark off one of the shelves. “Shark!” he said, as if that were all the explanation that was needed.

  “I would be so grateful,” Aubrey purred.

  “Nope. Don’t try it,” he said waving the rubber shark around. It squeaked. “You said let you look at the plans and I let you look at the plans. So, if you would please leave?”

  “Could you talk someone else through it?” I asked. “Without having to leave your lair?”

  “What? I, yes, I suppose I could. If they know their way around a computer. But I’m not going to. I’m not going to get into any more trouble and nothing you can do will make me.”

  Aubrey bent over and whispered into Carl’s ear. I saw it go pink and his mouth dropped open.

  She straightened up and winked.

  “Um, so, yes. If you take this and these earpieces with you, I can talk you through it from here.” He handed me a black, plastic device, which was about the size of a matchbox, and a bunch of wires.

  “Thank you, Carl. You won’t regret this. I promise,” she said, managing to turn the word “promise” into the suggestion of a kiss.

  I saw Carl’s Adam’s apple bounce up and down in his throat like a yo-yo. I looked from him to Aubrey and finally persuaded my legs to work.

  As I got to the door, I turned around. “Carl, does ‘coltan’ mean anything to you?”

  “Sure, it’s a mineral used to make tantalum capacitors. They’re in computers, mobile phones, you name it.”

  “And where would you get it from?”

  He chewed on his cheek. “Most of it is mined in the Congo as far as I know. The Chinese have set up a huge mining operation out there. Why?”

  The Congo? And Frankie had said she had the coltan situation under control. I suddenly had a feeling that I knew what had caused the change in Prestige.

  “Nothing.” I shut the door behind me. “OK,” I said, catching up with Aubrey. “What did you say to him?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Aubrey said, spinning around and then walking away.

  “Yes,” I shouted after her. “Yes, I really would.”

  She waved her hand at me over her shoulder and put an extra sway in her walk.

  I wondered how she and I had ever been together. With powers of manipulation like this she could have had any guy she wanted. Just like Frankie.

  I shook off the disturbing comparison as I caught up with her at the lift.

  “OK, Carl done. Now what?” she said.

  “Now,” I said, knowing that I was about to wipe the smile off her face. “We need a Fixer.”

  “But with you and Morgan out of action, there’s no one left.”

  “There’s another Fixer. A really powerful one too.”

  “Oh, god, you’re not thinking who I think you’re thinking.”

  “That depends. Are you thinking Benjo Greene?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The strip lights buzzed and flickered as we stepped out into the basement. I heard a soft sobbing from up ahead and looked at Aubrey.

  “I really hope we don’t end up down here,” I said.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, looking around. “It has a certain charm.”

  “Yes, can I help you?” I looked up to see a spotty-faced Regulator sitting behind a metal desk. He was huddled over a computer and judging by the frantic movements his hands made on the keyboard he was busy playing a computer game. Quite the difference to the stern-faced NSOs who used to be on guard down here.

  “We need to speak to Benjo Greene,” Aubrey said.

  “No can do. He’s designated off limits.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. “I was the one who designated him that.”

  The boy sighed heav
ily and finally looked up from the screen. “Well, bully for you. And?”

  “And… now I need to talk to him. Please.” I added as an afterthought.

  The boy, whose name I could now see on his badge was “Matthew”, tutted and punched a few keys on his computer. “OK. Cell 7.”

  “We might need to take him off site,” I said. “We need his assistance in another case.”

  “Take him off site?” Matthew said. “You mean out of his cell?”

  “Yes, that’s what off site means,” Aubrey said, leaning on his desk with both of her fists.

  “I don’t know about that. I’ll have to check.” He reached for the phone on the desk. Aubrey placed a finger on top of the handset before he could pick it up.

  “What does this mean?” she said, pointing at the stripes on her arm with her other hand.

  “It means you’re Third class.”

  “And what does that mean?” Aubrey said, pointing at his arm. He followed her finger and gazed at his jacket sleeve where there was a single, silver stripe. “It means you’re a Regulator working down here. And you know what that says to me? That says to me that you’ve made some pretty bad decisions in your time, Matthew. Don’t make this be another one.”

  Matthew looked up at her, his face fixed in an expression of defiance. The battle of wills only lasted about ten seconds, before he looked away. Aubrey straightened up and smiled at me.

  “OK. Cell 7. Here’s the key to let him out.” He handed over a white card with a black strip down the side. “But I want it stated that I was following orders of a higher ranked officer, OK?”

  “We’ll be sure to include it in our report,” I said, knowing full well there would never be a report and we were most likely going to get Matthew demoted even more with this little trick.

  “Well done. You made the right choice. Keep going and you’ll be back with the rest of the Regulators,” Aubrey said.

  Matthew stood up as we walked away. “Could you put a word in with Sir Richard?”

  Aubrey spun on her heels and continued to walk backwards. “I’m sure Sir Richard will be hearing all about you soon enough.”