The Bully Chip

by Glenn Wood

  “Of course not,” said Callum, giving Sophie his most reassuring smile. “That’d be against the law. But if she collapses outside the school gates, it would be only right to take her somewhere comfortable to recover.” Callum looked around the oily, cold garage, with its concrete floor and exposed wooden beams. “And what could be cosier than this?”

  Nine

  Mixing the knockout gas took Sophie no time at all. During Lester’s reign of terror, he had subdued his victims with a gas that caused instant unconsciousness but had no side effects. After his lab had been destroyed, Sophie had picked through the rubble (completely unauthorised) and discovered the formula. She was surprised to find most of the compounds were readily available. In fact her mum had some in her bathroom cabinet. (Unsurprisingly, Sophie’s mother suffered from a nervous disposition.)

  Duplicating the gas was simple (if you’re a genius) and Sophie decided the best way to deploy it was to use a perfume spray bottle. One quick squirt and bingo, the person would be rendered unconscious – and they’d smell great!

  Sophie tipped out a bottle of Britney Spears “Curious”, which her mother had bought her in a doomed attempt to make her more girly, and filled it with the gas. The tricky part was when and where to apply it. After much discussion, they had a plan and Callum and Sophie agreed to execute it at lunchtime the following day.

  That evening Callum visited his gran. She was awake and sitting up in bed when he arrived. Her colour still hadn’t returned and she looked frail. He rolled up to her bedside and took her hand.

  “How are you feeling, Gran?”

  Rose gave him a weak smile. “Like a pincushion. Those doctors have been poking and prodding me for days now.”

  Callum could see the bruises on her arms and knew she wasn’t exaggerating. “Any news?”

  “Oh, you know what doctors are like,” she huffed, “they never tell you anything. I’ve got to rest to get over this silly virus.” Her voice began to rise. “As if I could do anything else.”

  Callum patted his grandmother’s hand to calm her down. She took a deep breath and continued. “On Wednesday I have to wear a heart monitor all day. Ridiculous, they should just let me go home.”

  They both knew she was in no state to leave the hospital, but Callum realised his grandmother needed to have a good moan. He stayed with her for another hour before returning to Sophie’s house.

  Jinx was there when he arrived. The red-headed boy was a vital part of the plan and needed to be briefed. They met in the workshop and before long he was up to speed. Operation Wet Ear was on.

  Most of the next morning was uneventful. Callum put up with the usual amount of suspicious glances and arson-related whispering, Sophie continued to exceed her teachers’ expectations, and Jinx noticed a distinct cooling in his popularity.

  Part one of the plan began as the school broke for lunch.

  Sophie left class early, stashed a small sports bag in the girls’ toilets and then waited outside Lucy’s classroom.

  Lucy was one of the last to leave, slouching out with her usual defiant swagger. As soon as she emerged, Sophie stepped in front of her, bringing Lucy up short.

  “How’s your phone?” asked Sophie in a voice loud enough to draw attention. She waited long enough to see the shocked look on Lucy’s face transition to anger. Like most bullies, she wasn’t used to being confronted. Sophie turned and headed for the girls’ toilets.

  She’d barely had time to make sure no one else was around before Lucy barged in. The younger girl was furious. She grabbed Sophie by the collar and pushed her against the wall.

  “You’ll pay for that,” she snarled.

  Sophie reached calmly into her pocket and pulled out the perfume bottle. She looked away and sprayed it directly into Lucy’s face. “I doubt it,” she murmured.

  The girl gasped in surprise, released Sophie and stepped away, rubbing her eyes. If she was angry before, she was furious now. She lunged at the smaller girl but was already slowing from the effects of the fast-acting gas. Sophie dodged out of her way, knowing she just had to avoid the bully until the gas took hold. She didn’t have to wait long. Lucy’s eyes rolled upwards and the girl collapsed.

  Sophie was close enough to catch Lucy, making sure the girl didn’t hurt herself. She propped the unconscious girl against the wall then opened a cubicle, pulling out one of Callum’s old wheelchairs and her sports bag. She wrestled Lucy’s slumped form into the wheelchair and unzipped the bag. Inside was a woman’s coat, a wig she’d borrowed from her mum and a blanket. Acting quickly, she dressed Lucy in the coat and the wig and placed the blanket on her lap. Before long, the young girl looked like an old woman.

  Sophie checked her work in the bathroom mirror. It seemed as if she was pushing her granny in the wheelchair, as long as people didn’t look too closely. Which is where Jinx came in. He was the distraction.

  Cain and the popular kids lazed around in their usual spot on the grass by the classrooms. The toilets were on the other side of them and Sophie would have to pass the group to get to the gate. Jinx sauntered up and plonked himself in their midst.

  “Hey, gang,” he said cheerfully.

  Everyone shuffled nervously, with several kids actually moving away from him.

  “What’s wrong?” said Jinx, an innocent expression on his face.

  Trent spoke up. “This is a bit awkward, but we’re worried that your bad luck has come back. Britney got hysterical yesterday. She was almost caught in the splash from the ruptured pipes your tornado caused and she’d only just straightened her hair. If it’d got wet, well, it probably would have frizzed.”

  Britney gave a strangled sob and two other girls sitting beside her patted her arm in a show of support.

  “Oh, that’s terrible,” Jinx said, struggling to keep a straight face. “But you don’t need to worry. I’ve got my luck completely under control. Watch.”

  Jinx stood up, cocked his finger and thumb into the shape of a gun, and pointed at Cain. All eyes were upon him as he pretended to make his hand dance. “Ohh, look out, my thumb’s shaking; something bad is going to happen.”

  The crowd watched Jinx closely, riveted by his convulsing hand.

  This was the signal for Sophie to act. She walked quickly from the toilets, pushing the disguised Lucy before her, and headed past the popular kids straight for the gates. No one took any notice; their attention was squarely on Jinx.

  When Sophie was in the clear, Jinx stopped shaking his hand. “Just kidding,” he said with a cheeky grin. “I was doing that on purpose. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  As soon as he spoke, his thumb began to spasm for real. Jinx looked around, unsure of what was coming.

  The blue skies suddenly darkened over the group and the heavens opened up. A freak rainstorm bucketed down, completely soaking the gathering. Britney let out a horrified shriek. She was drenched and her hair was already starting to curl. Everyone but Jinx ran for cover.

  Before long the shower stopped and Jinx stood alone on the grass, water dripping from his nose. He called to where his ex-friends had taken shelter under the eaves of a nearby classroom.

  “Hey, we’re still cool, aren’t we?”

  He received no reply and even if he had, he wouldn’t have heard it over Britney’s sobs.

  Lucy regained consciousness more quickly than Sophie expected. She and Callum had only just finished tying her to an office chair in the workshop when she woke up.

  Callum’s head was close to Lucy’s and she lunged at him, trying to catch him with a vicious headbutt. Fortunately, the chair was secured to a beam on the wall and the attack fell short.

  Callum jerked back and watched the girl carefully. He noticed a purple haze around the edge of her irises.

  Lucy scanned the room, obviously assessing her situation. She pressed against her bonds. They held firm.

  “Easy,” said Callum. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

  “We just want to talk,” added Sophie. />
  “I’m not telling you anything,” spat Lucy. “You’d better let me go or I’ll call the police.”

  Callum shook his head. “Oh, I doubt you’ll do that,” he bluffed. “We know what you and Cain are up to.”

  Lucy scowled at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We also know,” continued Callum, “that someone else is calling the shots.”

  Lucy said nothing.

  Callum wheeled away from her for a couple of minutes, content to let her silence hang. Then he spun around dramatically.

  “Tin Man, the Princess and Red Riding Hood,” he said, shooting the words at the girl.

  Lucy’s eyes widened. “How could you …?” She clamped her mouth shut and looked away. But it was too late; Callum had got the reaction he was hoping for.

  “It’s okay, Lucy. If you’re being forced to do things against your will, we can help you. If we all go to see the principal tomorrow, we can sort this out. You won’t get into trouble. I promise.”

  Lucy laughed in his face. “If you think I’ve done anything wrong, prove it. If not, you’d better let me go.”

  “I was hoping we could sort this out the easy way,” said Callum with a sigh. “But if that’s how you want to play it.” He nodded to Sophie.

  She bent down and pulled a fully loaded super-soaker water pistol from under the bench. Sophie primed the pistol and stood directly in front of Lucy.

  “Something happened to you by the tornado, when you got water in your ear. What was that about?”

  Lucy looked genuinely confused. “I … I can’t remember.”

  “Perhaps this’ll jog your memory.”

  Sophie moved with speed. She placed the nozzle of the water pistol a few centimetres below Lucy’s left ear and pulled the trigger. A steady stream of water poured into the bound girl’s aural cavity.

  Lucy gave a startled screech and her body moved violently. The purple haze around her eyes flashed then faded. She suddenly looked less aggressive and more vulnerable.

  “Help me,” she gasped.

  Another spasm shook Lucy’s frame and the nicer girl vanished as quickly as she had appeared.

  “You’ll pay for this, both of you,” snarled evil Lucy.

  Callum couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Hit her again,” he yelled.

  Sophie sent another stream of water into Lucy’s ear. The girl shuddered as if she was being electrocuted. Her eyes rolled and spittle shot from her mouth. A third of the water pistol had emptied into Lucy’s lobe. Sophie shot Callum a questioning look.

  He shook his head. “Keep going,” he shouted.

  A noise like bacon hitting a hot pan exploded from Lucy’s ear, followed by a small puff of smoke. The girl stopped shaking and her head dropped. Sophie took her finger off the trigger and the stream ceased. She stepped back.

  For several seconds the only sound in the workshop was Lucy’s ragged breathing and water dripping from her hair onto the concrete floor. Then the soaked girl raised her head. The purple haze was gone from her eyes. She looked confused.

  “Where am I?” she said quietly.

  Callum reassured her. “You’re in Thanxton at my friend’s house. We’re trying to help you.”

  “What happened to me?”

  “We don’t know, but we’re going to find out.” He spoke to Sophie, “Cut her loose.”

  She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  Callum examined Lucy closely. The bully was gone. All he could see was a puzzled thirteen-year-old girl.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  Sophie took a Stanley knife from her workbench and cut through Lucy’s bonds. Callum addressed the girl once more. “Do you know who we are?”

  Lucy gave him a perplexed look. “Not really. I feel like I know you, but everything’s a bit … hazy.”

  Sophie touched her shoulder. “Would you mind if I checked you out, just to make sure you’re okay?”

  The girl agreed.

  Sophie picked up a small mirror on a thin curved pole. It was similar to those used by dentists. She gently moved Lucy’s hair aside and examined her left ear.

  “Can’t see much,” muttered Sophie. She tipped the mirror on an angle.

  “Any ideas?” asked Callum.

  Sophie removed the mirror and tapped it on her thigh, thinking. “I guess someone put something into her brain to control her. A microchip perhaps.”

  “Are you saying someone’s been messing with my mind?” said Lucy, an edge in her voice.

  Sophie nodded. “We think so. But don’t worry. It’s stopped working now.”

  “Why would anyone do something like that?” There was a touch of anger in Lucy’s voice. Even without the chip, Callum guessed that Lucy wouldn’t be a girl to tangle with.

  Sophie shrugged. “We’re not sure. We don’t think it was personal. They are out to get us.”

  “Feels pretty personal,” growled Lucy.

  “Do you have any idea who might have done this?” asked Callum.

  The girl frowned. “Everything’s really muddled. The last thing I remember was arriving at school …”

  “Thanxton?”

  “No, another school. It had a strange name, started with S. Anyway I was in some kind of examination room and it filled with gas and, that’s all …” she trailed off.

  “Was Cain there with you?”

  Lucy shut her eyes, thinking hard. “I was with him a lot, so I guess he must have been. But I can’t be sure.”

  “Do you know where the school is?”

  “In the country somewhere.” Lucy suddenly punched the wall with the side of her fist. “Dammit,” she hissed with frustration. “My brain feels like mush.”

  Callum tried to calm her down. “That’s okay, you’re doing really well. Anything you can tell us is fine.”

  “It’s weird but the main thing I remember isn’t actually a memory, it’s more of a feeling.” She looked straight at Callum. “Every time I saw you or Sophie, I’d get an overpowering feeling of rage, almost hatred. I really wanted to hurt you both.” She shook her head as she remembered more. “And those horrible messages I sent. I’m not like that, really I’m not. If I’ve got something to say, I’ll say it to your face.”

  Callum laughed. “I bet you would. Don’t worry, none of this was your fault. What do you want to do now?”

  Lucy sighed. “I’d better go home I guess. I’ll call my parents and make up a story. They’d never believe the truth. They’ll think I’m just causing trouble. ” She pointed to the skull on her hairclip. “I wonder how long it’ll take them to figure out that this isn’t a phase and is actually what I’m like.”

  “It is a bit intimidating,” ventured Sophie.

  Lucy shrugged. “Isn’t supposed to be. I’m just not into frills or dresses.”

  “Neither am I,” cried Sophie. “We might have more in common than I thought.”

  Lucy kicked one of her boots against the other. “When I don’t have a chip in my head, making me go mental, I’m not so bad. Hey, can you guys drop me at the bus station?”

  Sophie and Callum exchanged hesitant looks. “Are you sure you want to travel alone?” said Callum.

  “Don’t worry. I can look after myself,” replied Lucy. “Besides I don’t live far from Thanxton and my parents will pick me up at the other end.”

  Sophie took a piece of paper and a pen from her workbench. She wrote down her mobile phone number and handed it to Lucy. “Have you got another phone yet?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No, Mum and Dad will get me one.”

  “When you get it send me a text, let us know you’re okay. Also let me know if you remember anything else.”

  Lucy smiled. “I will, and I promise it’ll be a nice text this time.”

  “It better be,” said Sophie with a laugh. She pointed to a door at the end of the garage. “There’s a bathroom over there, if you want to clean up.”

  Lucy nodded and walked out of the room.
r />   When she had left, Callum spoke quietly to Sophie. “We have to find the school she was talking about.”

  “How are we going to do that? Lucy doesn’t know its name.”

  Callum thought for a minute. “Cain will have a microchip too. We could short his chip and hope he remembers more than Lucy. We could spray him after school?”

  Sophie hesitated. “Do you think we should tell the cops what we’ve found out?”

  “Not till we know more. You know what they were like when we tried to talk to them about the brain-sucking machine last year. And they’re investigating me for arson at school; they’ll think I’m trying to deflect the blame. No. We leave the authorities out of this until we have solid evidence.”

  “Okay,” said Sophie. “Let’s call Jinx and put Operation Wet Ear Mark Two in action.”

  Ten

  Cain shook and spluttered as the water entered his ear.

  “Don’t fight it,” yelled Sophie as the boy struggled against the ropes. “There’s a microchip in your ear and once we’ve shorted it, you’ll be back to normal.”

  Cain gave one final big shudder, closed his eyes and dropped his head. When he looked up again, his gaze was clear.

  Sophie shut off the water pistol. She checked at the water gauge; it’d taken more water to burn out Cain’s chip and there’d been no fizzing sound when it finally went. It must have been buried very deep, she thought.

  Jinx stood behind her with an astonished look on his face.

  “How do you feel?” Callum asked Cain.

  “A bit freaked out,” replied Cain. “What happened to me?”

  Callum told him what he could. It wasn’t much. Lucy had made them promise not to tell anyone about her involvement. Instead they concocted a story about finding an email on Cain’s phone that described the placement of the chip.

  Cain frowned. “I can’t remember any of this.”

  “That’s to be expected,” said Callum. “Think hard – anything you can tell us would be helpful.”

  Cain shook his head. “Sorry, everything’s confused.”

  “So, you have no memory of the fire or the bullying?”