Shift

by Kim Curran

  “That’s what it said on the nurse’s board. She was scheduled to be operated on today.”

  We shared a look that said a lot about near-misses and evil nurses. “Did you see the other room?” I asked.

  Aubrey nodded. “It was awful. All those kids. What’s happened to them?”

  “Seems Zac was right. ARES have found a way of stopping entropy.”

  A scream of rage echoed through the corridors, followed by what, if I wasn’t very much mistaken, was a security guard being thrown against a wall.

  “What the hell?”

  “That will be Cain having his revenge.”

  “Cain? Sergeant Cain! What is he doing here?”

  “He was one of the candidates for Project Ganymede.”

  “And that is?” Aubrey said impatiently. I don’t think she liked not being the one to know everything.

  “This is,” I said indicating the hospital. “This whole thing is.”

  I filled her in on what I found in the files in Morgan’s office and what Cain told me. Her face went even paler than usual.

  “So that’s what they’re up to! Zac knew something was going on here, but never this. Cutting out kids’ brains and sticking them in adults. And Cain was one of them?”

  “Yeah, but this is all new to him too. And I don’t think he’s too happy about the fact.”

  Another crash and a wet scream came from outside the room. We winced.

  “Doesn’t sound like it,” Aubrey said.

  Alarms started wailing and the lights in the room turned red giving everything a weird, hellfire glow.

  Aubrey and I looked at each other. “I guess they know we’re here.”

  So much for the swift “in and out” Cain and I discussed. We were going to have to fight our way out now. The guards didn’t seem to be too much problem. Even the freshers had been able to outwit them. It was the other members of Project Ganymede I didn’t want to have to come up against. From what Cain had said, there would be at least four of them stationed here.

  “We have to get CP out of here. I’ll carry her–”

  “I can walk,” said a muffled voice close to my ear.

  “You’re awake,” I said looking at her. I brushed her fringe out of her face.

  “And you wear too much aftershave,” she said, wrinkling up her nose.

  “Remind me to introduce you to my sister, CP,” I said. “You two would get on.”

  I put CP down. She was unsteady on her feet but able to stand. She blinked in the red light and looked around. “What’s going on? The last thing I remember was being told my Ma had come to see me. And then some weird woman gave me a drink and then I woke up here. And what the hell is this?” She said looking at the teddy bear in her hand. She threw it to the floor.

  “I’ll explain later,” I said. “If there is a later,” I added under my breath.

  Aubrey moved to the door and looked out. She pulled her head back in a second later and shook it. No way out.

  “The window,” she said.

  I tugged at the sash window. It was locked.

  “Out of the way.” Aubrey picked up a gas tank by the side of one of the beds and hurled it through the glass. The tank hit the ground below with a thud. We poked our heads out of the shattered remains of the window and looked down. It was thirty feet to the grass. An electricity pole stood in front of the window and a large tree behind that. Perhaps, with a running jump someone might be able to make it to the nearest branch. Or they might just crash onto the concrete below. There had to be another way.

  I looked at the beds with white sheets and neat hospital corners. “I’ve seen it work in movies,” I said. “But I don’t know if it works for real.”

  Aubrey followed my gaze. “Let’s find out.”

  The kids didn’t even make a sound as we pulled the sheets out from under them. They just allowed themselves to be turned over. Rage bubbled up in me as I looked at their blank faces. They’d had their lives stolen and for what? So adults could steal their power and stay in control. Somehow, I was going to make them pay.

  I tested the rope of sheets. It seemed strong enough. I threw it through the broken window. The wind had picked up and was blowing hard, tossing the rope about. Along with the sirens blaring it was hard to hear myself speak. “The rest of the freshers are out there somewhere causing chaos,” I shouted, helping CP get onto the windowsill. “Find them and then get the hell out of here. Oh, and they might be surprised to see you. They thought you were in Australia.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Just get going.”

  “You’re coming too, right?” CP asked.

  “Not just yet. I have to find some other people and help them out,” I said looking at Aubrey.

  “You think Zac and Rosalie are still here?” she said.

  “I hope so, or it’s going to be a really long night.”

  “It certainly is,” said a very welcome voice from the doorway.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Mr Abbott!” I said, so happy to see him. “I’ve been trying to get hold of you all day. You would not believe what’s going on here.” I helped CP down off the window ledge. Now that Abbott was here there would be no need for dramatic exits. He’d sort everything out.

  “Really,” he said walking into the room and looking around. Two guards followed him in. They wore black uniforms, different to the guards outside, and both had scars on their foreheads. A silver S shone in their collars. Shifters. They raised their guns and pointed them at us.

  “And what is going on? Exactly?” said Abbott.

  He smiled and I shuddered. Gone was the warm, caring expression and in its place was a smile like a shark. The wailing alarms stopped and the lights switched back to normal. The alert was over. They’d found their intruders.

  “You know,” I said. “You knew all along.”

  Abbott gestured to the guards. “Wait outside please. I have them covered.” He pulled a small handgun out from inside his jacket and pointed it at us. With a look of hesitation, the two men lowered their weapons and left the room. Abbott turned his attention back to us. “Of course I do, Scott. Nothing goes on in ARES without me knowing. Unlike that imbecile Morgan. I found him spinning around in his chair, with his tie wrapped around his head. That was your doing, I suppose? That man never fails to disappoint me. You know all that stuff about him being a powerful Fixer when we took the SLF down? Nonsense. Complete and utter tripe. You were the most powerful Shifter there, Scott. You.” He smiled at me. “That was why it was so important we sent you running off there without thinking. How else could we have captured them all so neatly?”

  “You bastard,” shouted Aubrey. “How could you?”

  Abbott gave her the briefest of glances. “Ms Jones, still causing trouble I see. I should have volunteered you for the project years ago. But as they say, better late than never.”

  I heard a roar and a few heavy thuds and Cain appeared in the doorway. Blood poured down his face and he was grinning so wide I thought it would split his scars. He made a move for Abbott.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t do that, Jon,” Abbott said, pointing the gun at Cain. With his spare hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone.

  “What you gonna do? Call your mother?” Cain spat.

  “This, I have been told by the boys in IT, is an app.” He punched a button on the phone’s screen with his thumb and an image of Cain appeared. “An app which remotely controls the cortex bomb we placed in your brain twenty years ago.” Abbott’s thumb hovered above the red button on the screen. “All I need to do is push this button.”

  “That’s what you did to Warner,” I said. “You killed him and then blew up the carriage to hide the evidence.”

  “So you had been on the train? Yes, you are as powerful as I suspected. Such a shame we didn’t find you earlier. Unfortunately you are too old now. The operation is a little tricky, so we prefer to use younger, more adaptable subjects. Such as Ms Jones and Ms F
inn there. I see you’re out of bed, CP. Tut tut. We shall have to get you tucked back in quickly.”

  “You’re not touching her,” I said, pulling CP behind me.

  “Let the kids go, Abbott.” Cain took a step forward.

  “Make me,”’ Abbott said, holding the phone out as if it was the bomb.

  “I’m dead already,” Cain said from between clenched teeth. “CP. The poles.”

  CP turned to the window and got that look I’d seen on her face before. Utter concentration. She started running for the window, her thin arms pumping, just as Cain dived at Abbott.

  Abbott’s gun blazed and I saw the bullet aiming straight for Cain’s chest. Cain Shifted and the bullet missed, slicing instead through the top of his shoulder. He didn’t even flinch. He reached Abbott just as CP dived out of the window, her arms outstretched as if she was diving into a pool. She made it to the electricity pole and pulled herself up. I was watching her steady herself on the top of the pole, just like she had in class, so I didn’t see the struggle. But I heard a sickening flat popping sound. I’d heard it before. I looked around to see Cain staggering away. Blood running from his nose and ears. The scar on his forehead had peeled open like a fig. His knees buckled as if finally receiving the message from his head and he toppled forward into a growing pool of blood. I glanced back to see CP leap safely into the tree. I was just glad she hadn’t been here to see this.

  Abbott took a steadying breath and slipped his phone back into his pocket. He turned and pointed the gun back at us.

  “Please, let’s not have any more fuss.”

  My mind was racing through the decisions I’d made tonight, coming here, finding CP and Aubrey, looking for something to undo. I should have persuaded Cain to stay out of it and come on my own. I grabbed Aubrey’s hand and closed my eyes tight, willing on that flipping feeling, focusing on telling Cain he couldn’t come. But nothing. I couldn’t Shift.

  I heard him before I saw him. The slap slap of flesh on flesh. Benjo walked into the room, followed by two new Shifter guards, and I understood why we couldn’t get out of there.

  He looked from the crumpled bodies outside the door, to Abbott and then finally settled his piggy eyes on us. “But I killed you,” he said, pointing a stubby finger at Aubrey and me.

  Abbott looked momentarily confused. “You’ve seen these children before?”

  “We tracked him down after he murdered Heritage,” Aubrey shouted. “After you told him to.”

  “Murder?” Abbott said, innocently. “But your report clearly states suicide, does it not?”

  “Someone changed that,” I said. “When we first got there, Heritage had been killed and his brains eaten by that fat freak! And you told him to do it!”

  Abbott looked at Benjo like a master looking at a naughty dog. “Oh, dear, oh dear, Benjo. What did I tell you about getting carried away?”

  “But I got hungry. And I fixed it all up afterwards.”

  “Never mind. We can discuss this later.” He turned back to us. “Heritage proved a problem. Not only was he starting to show signs of psychosis, he was helping the SLF get a little too close to uncovering the truth about Ganymede and I couldn’t have that. So, I had Benjo deal with him. I knew Morgan would delegate the responsibility of checking on Heritage to you – if there’s one thing that boy can do, it’s delegate. Combined with the photos I had taken of Heritage meeting with Zac, I knew it would start you on the trail that would take you to the SLF. Which in turn would allow me to capture them. I might not be a Shifter any more, Scott, but in my time as a Mapper, I became exceptionally good at understanding the nature of consequences.”’

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The man I had so much respect for, coolly discussing how he’d arranged for a man’s murder. “And Warner? You killed him because he was going to tell the SLF?”

  “No, I had to dispose of him because he was going to tell Sir Richard.”

  “And the Director of ARES doesn’t know about your sick experiments?” Aubrey said.

  “Sir Richard chooses to remain ignorant of the precise details of the project. He leaves the running of things up to me and stays out of it – as long as he sees results.”

  “If he did know–” I started.

  “If he did know,” interrupted Abbott, anger rising in his voice for the first time, “I doubt he’d be able to show his face in his fancy clubs. From the start Project Ganymede was designated black ops – totally deniable – because men like Sir Richard Morgan do not care to get their hands dirty. They leave that to men like me. Which brings me back to you two. Sergeant,” Abbott said to one of the guards. “Take Ms Jones here away and get her prepped for surgery. And do it properly this time.”

  I punched the first man who stepped close in the stomach and tried to take the other one out with a roundhouse. But before I connected, the guard Shifted and smacked me in the face with the butt of his rifle. I fell to my knees, dazed. Lights spun before my eyes and blood poured from my nose.

  Aubrey put up a good fight, elbows and knees flying. But they were too much for her alone and in seconds she was handcuffed. Not that they needed it with Benjo in the room. Whatever freak experiments they’d done on him, he was more powerful than any of us, and his version of reality held sway. What made it worse was it was clear the bastard was able to stop us from Shifting, while letting the guards do whatever they wanted.

  They started to drag Aubrey away and I pulled myself to my feet, trying to stop them. Another smack to the face and I hit the floor again, my head reeling.

  “Cuff Mr Tyler here and take him to the basement. He is going to help us in our research,” I heard Abbott say before I blacked out.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Icame round to find myself strapped to a cold metal table. I yanked at the bindings on my wrists and ankles. They were buckled tight. Overhead was a large round bulb, which burned an afterglow image into my retina when I looked away. Benjo was standing in the corner of the room, next to a table covered in green cloth. He clapped his hands, as if delighted a show was about to start. Abbott stood beside me, his head tilted and a look of concern on his face. For a minute, I thought he might be here to help me. And then I remembered. It was him who put me here in the first place.

  I thrashed around, trying to get free so I could strangle him.

  “Shush,” he said, stroking my shoulder. I tried to bite his hand but he pulled it away too fast.

  “There is so much we don’t fully understand about Shifting,” he said, walking around the table. “Why do only certain children get it? What triggers it? And of course, why does the ability fade after adolescence?” He stopped pacing. “We tried what is known as the Greene process – after our friend here.” Benjo smiled and nodded. “We fed the brains of Shifters to our first subjects. But it never worked. It seems that only Benjo is able to process the ability that way thanks to his unique genetic code. Anyway, as you have learned today, we found our own way. We mastered the process of transplanting the area of the brain that controls Shifting into an adult host. A crucial breakthrough, as Shifting is simply too powerful to leave in the hands of children.”

  He stroked my forehead, like he was soothing me back to sleep after a nightmare. “I decided to forego having the treatment myself, so that I can remain impartial in these investigations. And, as you have seen, there are some unfortunate side effects. Paranoia, delusions of grandeur, even psychopathic tendencies. But we have learned how to take care of those as well, although the idea of placing the cortex bomb only came to Dr Lawrence in phase two of the project. So there are some of our Shifters that we had to take care of… personally. Such as Mr Heritage. Such a shame, he was a good analyst but it was in his nature to ask questions.” Abbott looked so pleased with himself. “So you see, we are so close to mastering the power completely. And once we do, we will go public and the whole world will finally know who is truly in control.”

  “You’re mad, you know that? You think this is going
to make you famous or something? It will bring the world down on top of Shifters. You said yourself that the world wasn’t ready to know about us. It never will be.”

  He ignored me and checked the straps holding me were tight. “However there is one element that we have yet to fully understand. And that has been the primary focus of my investigation.” He walked behind me and I heard the rattling of metal. I twisted my head around to try and see what he was doing. “Have you heard of the hypnic jerk?” he asked.

  “The only jerk I know of is you!”

  He chuckled and continued. “The hypnic jerk is the twitch you get sometimes just as you’re falling asleep. It’s the brain’s response when it perceives the body to be dying. The twitch is a reflex used to keep the body functioning. To make sure you’re not dead. Shifters have their own version of this feedback system. If the brain senses it is dying, it sends a desperate signal to Shift. A survival mechanism. It is so powerful that our clever cuffs can’t override it. Not even a more powerful Shifter can stop it.”

  “Are you saying you can’t kill me?” I said, hopefully.

  “It’s not easy, but there are ways. Instant explosion of the brain is particularly effective. Removing the frontal lobe while the subject is still alive works also. But I want to try another, more artful approach.” He walked back into view pulling a machine behind him.

  I didn’t like the sound of this. I looked up and saw Benjo pull off the green cloth to reveal a row of surgical tools lined up on a tray – the same ones I’d seen in his cabinet. He stroked them with his fat hands, as if they were a collection of dolls. He picked up a scalpel and licked the edge of the blade. It left a red mark on his tongue.

  “I want it to be the Shifter’s choice to die,” Abbott said, from behind me.

  I laughed and dropped my head back down onto the table. “You want me to choose to die? No way.”

  The machine Abbott was fiddling with had wires curling out of it. He untangled three of the wires and held them up to me. They each ended in a white disk. Like a stripped back skullcap. “Have you used a stimulator yet, Scott? ‘Live out your fantasies, consequence free,’ isn’t that what they say? Well, I’ve made a few modifications.” He started placing the receptors onto my head, the way I’d seen Zac do to that girl in the club what seemed like a lifetime ago. “With my machine, you won’t live out your best realities. You will experience your worst possible realities. And it will send you quite mad. I give you five minutes before you’re begging to die.”