The Face Stealer

by Robert Scott-Norton

  “Can you help me? They keep hurting me.”

  “Who is she? Why would she be in that box?”

  “I’ve no idea. She said her name was Irulal.”

  “And do you know her?”

  “No.”

  “Honestly?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you came down here. It looked like you were headed with a purpose. You were speaking to someone on your phone. Was it her?”

  Cindy shook her head. “No. I was looking for someone. I think it was my mum.” But she was confused. “I haven’t spoken to mum for days.”

  “Check your phone.”

  She patted her pockets and pulled her phone out. “You’re right. She’s my last call. But I don’t remember speaking to her.”

  “I guess we shouldn’t put any faith in your ability to remember anything right now.”

  Max wanted to say more. It sounded more and more like she was seriously ill. Was there an underlying mental health issue? It could be a breakdown. Had finding out about his affair finally sent her over the edge? She’d never been that far from the edge throughout their marriage, it wouldn’t have taken much.

  “Please help me. I know you’re there.” The voice came from the speaker again. Max looked at Cindy but she looked helpless. He realised she was going to be of little use to anyone. He rushed over to the panel. A screen came to life as he tapped it with his fingers.

  Containment level one. Holding.

  “Can you help her Max?” Cindy asked.

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “But you know computers. How hard can it be?”

  He tried to understand the options and work through the menus but he wasn’t getting far.

  “It’s after security codes. I can’t do anything.”

  “Try.”

  “I am trying.”

  “Max,” she paused, “where are we?”

  He turned to look at her, the console forgotten for now.

  She was heading to the door when the little girl spoke again.

  “Don’t leave me, please.”

  But Cindy was scared. She wanted to get away from the room. Max wasn’t going to argue with her desire to get away but there was still some things he needed to sort out. Not least of which was the girl in the coffin before them.

  “Wait Cindy. You’ll never find your way out. It’s a maze out there and there are probably more guards. It’s too dangerous.”

  She came into the room and picked the gun up.

  “I’ve got this.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know where you’re going. Wait, I can help.”

  “Well let’s go.”

  “The girl.”

  Cindy was torn. Max knew her well enough that self-preservation came top of her list—most of the time.

  “You said there were others. We could make them let her out.”

  It was an idea. But what if they made a mistake. The whole base could be down on them. They’d never stand a chance.

  Cindy’s phone rang. Max and Cindy both stared at each other, shocked by the interruption by something so mundane. Except, to Max it wasn’t mundane. Cindy reflexively reached for her phone.

  “Don’t answer it,” Max said. “You were on the phone earlier, and you can’t remember. If you answer it now, you might go that way again.”

  “It’s my mum,” she said, as if that explained everything.

  “It’s not your mum.”

  Cindy looked rigid. Her body language changed completely. The phone was still ringing.

  Max thought she was going to let it go to answer phone but a second later and she seemed to change her mind, pulling out the phone quickly and thumbing the answer button.

  “Hello.”

  Her expression went from one of annoyance to one of confusion.

  When she started walking towards Max he thought at first he was in danger from her, but it wasn’t him she was interested in. He sidestepped her and Cindy started working on the console, flying through the menu system like a pro. Max looked over her shoulder as she worked.

  “What are you doing?”

  But she ignored him.

  It looked like she was entering a whole series of codes. An input screen showed streams of figures and letters—almost like a programming language—but nothing that Max had ever seen before.

  The lights dimmed, but then Max realised it was nothing to do with the lights, it was the arcing electricity from the grid around the coffin, or rather it was the absence of the arcing electricity—it had stopped. Cindy had disabled it somehow. The grid had powered down. The sudden quiet unnerved Max.

  “What am I doing?” Cindy said beside Max.

  “I think we’re about to find out,” he replied, stepping over to the edge of the grid. He put his hands onto the barriers and tried to get control of his breathing. A knot had twisted in his stomach. The anticipation was clawing through him.

  “It’s moving.” Cindy was pointing at the white coffin that was slowly descending from the ceiling, cables extending to accommodate the descent. Lights started to flash across the ceiling, pulsing like a hidden heartbeat.

  Max stepped up to the edge and rested his hands on the railings, leaning up at the box for a closer look. Now that it was approaching, he could see that the outside of the box wasn’t smooth at all. Fibrous material had wrapped over and over itself forming a cocoon of sorts. Max was suddenly reminded of moths and the site of this object looming closely suddenly became more ominous. And then, just as the box neared the viewing platform, the railings that Max had been leaning on retracted into the floor almost causing Max to fall forward into the pit. He straightened in time and stepped quickly back from the edge.

  Cindy was hovering by the door. “This isn’t safe Max. Whatever’s in that—thing, was put in there for a reason.”

  “I know. But whatever’s inside has some kind of connection to you.”

  “Shoot it then.”

  Max turned his attention from the box and looked at Cindy. “You can’t be serious.”

  She hurried to pick up the forgotten gun. “Use it. It’s locked up for a reason.”

  “You wanted to help get her out.”

  “I made a mistake. It’s using me.”

  She pointed the gun at the coffin.

  “OK. If you have to have a gun, be careful with it.” Max reasoned that it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for the worst.

  Max looked to the control panel, and wondered why the girl in the coffin hadn’t said anything for a couple of minutes. Was Cindy right to be so wary? He didn’t know what to think.

  The box moved into the viewing platform and came to rest against the ledge. The railings sprang up again and the dull thrumming sound that had accompanied the moving box had gone.

  “What now?” Max wondered out loud.

  The control panel in the corner went dark. The lights in the ceiling stopped pulsing. With a series of clicks and hisses, the cables detached themselves from the box. Max took a few steps back until he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Cindy.

  A thin bead of golden light appeared at the top of the box. It quickly began to travel in opposite directions, heading for the edges of the box. In a matter of seconds, the line had circumnavigated the box. It got brighter. Black shadows started to grow outwards from the line and Max realised it was scorching.

  A second later. The front of the box fell forward revealing its contents.

  A girl.

  She wasn’t moving.

  Max instinctively bent down and grabbed at the figure in the box. She was young, ten or so, and when he touched her skin it was cold.

  “Can you hear me?” Max said, gently manoeuvring her out of the casket onto the floor. She was wearing a simple all in one outfit.. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her.

  “Is she breathing?” Cindy asked. She came close and got low to see for herself what had been kept in the cocoon. Max noticed she wa
s still holding onto the gun.

  Max lay the girl down flat. He could see the rise and fall of her chest. It seemed regular enough to him. He looked up at Cindy. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “We should get her out of here.”

  For once, Max agreed with her. He scooped the girl up into his arms.

  “Can you remember the way?” Cindy asked.

  “Remembering the way isn’t a problem. You think you can learn how to shoot that thing?”

  39

  The smell struck Linwood as she stepped into the room. A strong musty odour that threw her back to childhood and playing in her grandfather’s shed. The air conditioning had never worked very well in here and that was partly why they’d given this place its nickname. After what happened when the place flooded though and people died, it became an ever more poignant reminder of the past. Emma smiled a smile that never quite reached her eyes and then left the room, closing the doors behind her. Linwood and Thadeus were alone.

  He looked older. Meetings had been conducted more and more over video calls and it had been several weeks since she’d actually seen him in the flesh. But still, it disturbed her to see him looking the way he did, his rough appearance made him even more intimidating than normal.

  “Hello Thadeus.” Linwood glanced at the table and considered taking a seat, but thought better of it. Better to stand, let him know I’m not afraid of him, she thought.

  He grinned, but a glint appeared in his eye. Linwood fought the urge to turn and glance back at the door, her only exit.

  “What do you want?” he asked politely.

  “I’ll come clean with you Dominic. I’m concerned. You haven’t returned my calls, and you’ve ignored requests to bring the team back to headquarters. If I didn’t know any better, I might think you were running your own operations. But that can’t be right.”

  He nodded. “Yes, I can see that it might look unusual, but let me assure you that nothing untoward is happening here.”

  “OK. So, why haven’t you been returning my calls? Do you not want to speak to me?”

  He chuckled, but the laugh was followed quickly by a gentle cough. He snatched at the glass of water in front of his video display and took a sip.

  “We’ve been busy,” he said simply, turning round again to face her.

  “Busy? Doing what?”

  “Stuff.”

  “Stuff,” Linwood repeated absently. “Care to tell me what kind of stuff you’ve been working on? I haven’t seen any new reports filed from any of the team.”

  “I don’t think they’ve been filing. At least, I haven’t asked them to log any reports.”

  “Why not? And come to think of it, where are they all?”

  “Here and there. Research. Security. That kind of stuff.”

  Linwood’s tone changed abruptly. “Cut the crap Dominic. I’ve come here in good faith to see you. I’m still your boss so start showing me some god damn respect.”

  “I never did like your tone.”

  “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” Linwood said forcibly, but as soon as she spoke she knew the pretence was up. Thadeus was humouring her. For what reason, she could only guess, but he’d grown bored of the conversation, of playing along.

  “Enough. This isn’t a house call. I wasn’t born yesterday, and you’re a dreadful liar.”

  “I am?”

  “Yes, absolutely dreadful.” He laughed, then shook his head. “You know your problem Linwood.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “You’re a lousy boss. Who’d want to be led by someone with your track record? The last ten years it’s been a pretty unremarkable reign. You’ve taken this agency from a position of power and influence to an apology of an organisation. No one wants to even acknowledge we exist. No one.”

  “That’s the best you’ve got?”

  “Haven’t even started, so shut up,” said Thadeus, raising a finger to admonish her for interrupting his flow. “We could have been the elite. Sat with the spooks in Thames House, controlling the spooks even. But, you in your infinite wisdom disagreed, thinking we were more effective out of the way. ‘Off the radar’ you like to call it. And look where it’s taken us.” He lifted his arms up and danced a slow pirouette on the spot. “Masters of all we survey.”

  “They didn’t want us. They didn’t want what we represent. If we got too close to them, they’d have embraced us for a while, then tolerated us for a while longer, but eventually, they’d have turned on us. They were always afraid of us, of what we knew, of what we’d acquired. More afraid of us than of any alien that we might encounter. At least, they could always send the military after the aliens. What were they going to do with us? With our knowledge?”

  “So, it was better for us to hide. To stay low profile? You really think so?” Thadeus raised his voice. “We’re nothing to them. They don’t think we’re a threat, they couldn’t care less about us.”

  “Exactly. And that keeps us free.”

  “Free. Free you say. To do what?” He turned on her then, came up close until she thought he was going to head-butt her. “You were wrong,” he shouted, and then, maybe because he’d exerted himself a little too much, he coughed again; a deep throaty cough.

  “Tell me what’s going on?” Linwood asked. “I’m sure I can help you.”

  He laughed, and it quickly turned into an attack of coughing. When he recovered enough to speak, his tone was so forceful that Linwood feared he’d lost the plot completely. “You were never that interested in helping me were you though? After all that we went through together, I still ended up with the bum deal, looking after this mess of a base whilst you tried to claw your way to the top of our glorious organisation. Tell me, how’s that working out for you?”

  Linwood didn’t answer, shocked by the level of resentment that he was displaying.

  “What’s the matter? Got nothing to say?”

  “I know about Carey. I watched him die in the cells. What did you do to him?”

  Thadeus grinned. “He was proving himself to be a liability. He never did know when to keep his mouth shut.”

  “So, you shut it for him? Is that how it goes now? Anyone who doesn’t play by your rules gets removed?”

  “Carey was a mediocre agent. He’s no big loss.”

  “I’ll be sure to pass that on to his parents,” she said angrily. “How did you do it? What was that stuff that came out of his mouth?” Linwood had only seen a fairly low resolution recording from the CCTV and it had been impossible to determine what the material was from that.

  “Why have you brought police? Are you meaning to arrest me?”

  Linwood glanced to the monitors, suddenly worried about what might happen to Payne and the others. “They’re not going to arrest you. I wanted them to make sure nothing foolish happened tonight.”

  “Ah,” he said in a mocking tone. “I hear you and Inspector Payne have become rather close. Hope you’re not letting your personal feelings for him get in the way of your professional judgement.”

  “I haven’t come here to talk about Inspector Payne. I want to know what you’re hiding down here,” she said starkly. “And I want to know now.”

  Thadeus reached behind him and before she could react, a gun was pointed at her. For a moment she hesitated. If she wanted to know quite how far she could get away with pushing Thadeus, she was very close to finding out.

  “Take a seat,” he said, gesturing at the chairs tucked under the conference table. “And keep your hands on the table where I can see them.”

  She complied, counting her breaths in an attempt to stay calm and focused. “There’s no need for guns. I haven’t brought one.”

  “You were always a tad naive.”

  “Not naive, trusting.”

  “See what your trust has led you to.”

  “What have you done to the team? I’m guessing over half of them are working for you now. You’ve got Emma outside the door here, then there’s the man who
killed Charlie Harris—I’m guessing that was Sharman, thick as thieves with Carey, always has been. And then of course there’s Carey,” she said confidently, looking Thadeus squarely in the eye, “whom you murdered.”

  “I didn’t kill him. The silver did that.”

  “What on earth is the silver?”

  “You still haven’t twigged what this is about?”

  Linwood shook her head, despite the clawing feeling ripping her stomach from the inside.

  He continued. “Operation Snowflake,” he said simply.

  40

  The girl weighed light in his arms but sweat poured off Max’s forehead. Despite finding Cindy, he felt no closer to the answers he so desperately sought. Instead, at every turn, a new mystery surfaced.

  “I don’t remember this corridor,” Cindy hissed.

  “You don’t remember any of the corridors. The hatch is down this corridor, it’s not much farther,” Max said, hurrying onwards. The doors had stayed open on their way back through the maze of corridors so when the door at the next junction began to slide shut, Max knew something had gone wrong. Turning, he saw the door behind them shutting as well. Cindy had seen it as well, and unencumbered unlike Max, she ran back towards it, trying to get her arm in the quickly diminishing gap. At the last second, she pulled her arm free to prevent it being trapped. The door clanged shut.

  Max lowered the girl to the floor. “Give me the gun,” he commanded of Cindy. She looked unsure, but passed it over anyway. He ran to the door controls ahead of them and started tapping out the command codes he’d used earlier. This time, the control pad let him enter a few numbers then died on him.

  “We’re trapped,” he said, casting his eyes between the two doors like a spectator at a tennis match. He rubbed the back of his neck then looked down at the gun, checked it was ready to be fired, then stood back against the wall. There was no way of knowing which way they’d be coming.

  “We could always surrender,” Cindy said.

  “I think it’s gone past that.”

  “Believe me, you wouldn’t want to be their prisoner.”