The Curiosity Machine

by Richard Newsome

  ‘Extortion?’ Mantle said, as if the word left a taint in his mouth. He shook his head. ‘That’s your game, Mason. Not mine. Think of this as a humane cull. It is the best way to preserve our species, and all the others as well. History has shown it works, and if we don’t learn from our past what future can we expect?’

  Gerald brushed past the gunman and advanced on Mantle. ‘What if this test does work?’ he said. ‘What then? Where are you going to release the plague around the world? India? One in three dead there is four hundred million people. Or in North America? That’s another hundred million. Do you stop then? Is that enough? Murder on that scale—what do you even call it?’

  ‘I would call it a good start,’ Mantle said. Gruff voice grabbed Gerald around the chest and pulled him back.

  Mantle held up the vial in his fingers. ‘Let us begin. Professor, prepare the apparatus.’

  McElderry moved to the sixth pen and opened the panel in the glass wall, into which he fitted a handgun device similar to the one Gerald had fired at the millipede. The professor took the vial from Mantle and slid it into the breech. ‘It’s ready,’ he said.

  Gerald struggled to free himself from the gunman’s grip, but the man held firm.

  Felicity stared horrified at her parents on the other side of the glass, then whipped around to face Mantle. ‘But you haven’t tested that sample on any other animals yet,’ she said. ‘It’s the new improved formula. You can’t just spray it willy-nilly on humans without knowing what it could do to any other creature.’

  Mantle paused, his hand hovering above the grip of the handgun device. Gerald could see that he was going through options and consequences in his head.

  ‘Felicity’s right,’ Ruby said. ‘You need to test it on all the other animals first, just to make sure it’s safe for them.’

  Gerald glanced at Ruby, and caught on to what she and Felicity were doing. Delay. Distract and delay. If Mantle could be convinced he had to test this new plague formula on every other creature in his zoo, Gerald’s parents and all the others would be safe, at least for a while.

  ‘What if there’s a leak?’ Ruby continued. ‘What if you kill one of the tigers? How would you feel then?’

  Mantle’s hand quivered above the pistol grip, then it dropped to his side. ‘Miss Upham is right,’ he said. He turned to the professor. ‘Set up the test for the chimpanzees. We’ll see how it works on them.’

  The tension drained from Gerald as if a tap had been opened. They had won some time. He looked through the glass at his mum and dad, Mrs Rutherford and Mr Fry. He had to think of something to get them out.

  ‘We’ll test the chimps first,’ Mantle said to the professor as he readied the equipment. ‘If there’s no impact on them I think we can move to the human trials without delay.’

  ‘What!’ Gerald cried. ‘No!’

  The guards herded Gerald, Sam, Ruby and Felicity together, jostling them at gunpoint.

  ‘Do we need the masks, Knox?’ Mantle asked the professor. ‘This is our most powerful strain, after all. Miss Valentine makes a good point about possible leaks.’

  McElderry nodded and reached under the bench to drag a large storage container across the concrete floor. He clicked his fingers at the closest gunman. ‘Make sure everybody gets one,’ McElderry said. ‘No exceptions.’

  Sir Mason Green caught a gasmask on his chest and held it up. ‘What are these for?’ he asked.

  Professor McElderry fussed with some dials and buttons. ‘The animal enclosures are airtight but you can’t be too careful. If you smell anything unusual, pull the face straps tighter and breathe deeply. At the first whiff. D’you understand?’

  Gerald looked at Ruby; her face was stricken. ‘We have to do something,’ she said.

  ‘Masks on!’ McElderry called. ‘Pull them tight as they will go.’

  Gasmasks slid over faces around the room, hands tugged at the rubber straps.

  ‘Masks on!’ McElderry shouted again. ‘Now!’

  Gerald fitted the mask to his head. If only he could somehow wrestle a gun away from a guard. Somehow start a diversion.

  He tugged the straps and the mask sealed tight about his nose and mouth.

  ‘Is everybody ready?’ McElderry called. There were thumbs up around the room and the professor pulled on his own mask. Mantle took the gun device in his hand. He gripped the trigger, and pulled. The vial emptied, and a fine blue mist sprayed into the pen that housed the chimpanzees.

  Then Gerald smelt it: a sweet solvent tang, worrying at his nostrils. He reached up and pulled on the straps. He saw other people were doing the same.

  Something had gone wrong.

  Ruby tugged at her straps, Sam and Felicity as well. Gruff voice lowered his gun to attend to his mask, and then his firearm clattered to the floor. Ella stumbled forward a step and her sword slipped from her grasp. Then she fell face first to the concrete. Gruff voice collapsed a second later. Gerald blinked to clear his eyes but the fog that had descended on his vision would not shift. He pulled again on the straps. The rubber seal dug tight into the skin around his nose and mouth. He reached out a hand to Sam but his friend’s knees gave out and he fell to the floor. Ruby collapsed next to him. Felicity crumpled like a butterfly in a killing jar. All around him, bodies folded. Sir Mason Green was down. Guards fell as if shot.

  Jasper Mantle had his hands to his mask, frantically pulling it tighter, his head tossing about. He stumbled against the wall, his fingers splayed wide on the glass, then he slid to the concrete.

  The sweet tang still bit at Gerald’s tongue. He went to tighten the straps but all feeling had drained from his fingers. Then his legs failed, and he was on the floor next to Ruby. He could see her eyes were closed. Breathing was becoming more difficult. He tried to stretch out an arm, struggled to take Ruby’s hand in his own.

  One last touch…

  A rough shove on Gerald’s shoulder rolled him to his back. He looked up to see the face of Knox McElderry hovering above him. Then the professor reached down and tore the mask from Gerald’s face, exposing him fully to the toxic air.

  Chapter 31

  Gerald struck out with his fists, flailing blindly at the professor, desperate to grab back the gasmask, desperate to save himself. McElderry brushed off the wayward punches, and sent Gerald’s mask skittering across the floor. Then he reached up and pulled the mask from his own face.

  ‘Settle down, you great prune,’ McElderry said. ‘You’ll do yourself an injury.’ The professor pulled Gerald upright and handed him a water bottle. ‘Here, take a drink of this and I’ll see to your friends. Save your boxing for the gym at that fancy-pants school of yours.’

  Gerald blinked, then took the bottle and sipped the cool water. He wiped a hand across his face and the cloud began to clear from his eyes.

  Professor McElderry tore the gasmasks from Ruby and then Felicity. He paused over Sam. ‘I’m tempted to leave this one on,’ he said. ‘Tell me, is he still the stupidest boy in the world?’ The professor didn’t wait for Gerald’s response, tugging the mask from Sam’s head and smacking a hand across both the boy’s cheeks.

  Gerald rolled to his knees and helped Ruby to sit up.

  ‘Chloroform,’ McElderry said, anticipating Gerald’s question. ‘Every mask was laced with a fair dose of chloroform.’ He surveyed the unconscious bodies that littered the floor, and gave a satisfied nod. ‘Everyone’s sleeping soundly.’

  Gerald gave Ruby the water bottle, then moved to help Felicity. Felicity blinked back into consciousness and sipped some water. Ruby crawled over to Sam and pulled his head up onto her lap.

  ‘So you’re not working with Jasper Mantle?’ Gerald said to the professor.

  McElderry opened a drawer in the workbench and pulled out a bundle of cable ties. ‘That blighted butterfly tickler? Is there something wrong with your head, sunshine? The great psychopath wanted to kill a third of the people on earth—how much of a pillock do you take me for?’

  A s
udden gust of relief blew through Gerald’s head like a summer shower. He looked at McElderry and smiled. ‘So you’re you again?’

  The professor rolled the closest gunman over onto his chest and bound the man’s wrists with a cable tie. ‘In all my grumpy, short-tempered glory. Now make your hide worth saving and give me a hand to tie up these pointless plonkers before they wake up.’

  Gerald helped the professor roll Irene onto her belly. As the cable tie zipped tight about her wrists, Gerald suddenly remembered: the chimpanzees. He spun around to the glass enclosure. Nothing had changed. The chimps were still lazing in the trees. One threw a banana skin at another, hitting it square in the face. Again, McElderry answered before he was asked. ‘That blue liquid in the vial was water with a drop of food colouring and party glitter,’ he said. ‘There was no way I was going to use a real batch of Jasper Mantle’s Magical Mass-Murdering Elixir.’ He reached into a pocket of his white lab coat and pulled out another glass ampoule. ‘This is the one that you knuckleheads made with your golden key. I have no idea if it works and I don’t intend to find out.’ The professor slipped it back into his pocket. ‘But by putting on a big show I could make sure all the guards were in here, keeping an eye on you and your friends. If I’d only knocked out Mantle and a few of his bruisers with those chloroform masks, the others would soon come to their aid, and their guns are a bit too shooty for my liking. I had to be in a position to convince them all to be here to witness the test. You and your friends provided the perfect excuse.’

  Ruby, Sam and Felicity joined them and began tying up the rest of the guards. Felicity took particular delight in sitting on Ursus’s head while Ruby secured his ankles and wrists.

  ‘But when we saw you in Scotland and in New York,’ Ruby said to the professor, ‘it was like you were possessed, or drugged.’

  McElderry grunted at the memory. ‘Some of the recipes we deciphered from that manuscript are powerful, there’s no denying it,’ McElderry said. ‘Your ancient alchemists were no mugs. I can tell you, Mason Green took great delight in treating me like a puppy on a leash. It took a lot of concentration to keep my wits about me.’

  ‘But I could have saved you from that waterfall in the Billionaire’s Club,’ Gerald said, ‘and you still kicked me out of the way to go with Mason Green.’

  The professor kneeled over the prone form of Jasper Mantle and paused. ‘I knew this butterfly net-wielding windbag was up to something. I had to come back to this island with Green to stay close to him. I have no idea where this place is; they had a sack over my head whenever we left here. What could I have told the police? Jasper Mantle is not a nice chap but I had no idea where he was? No, I had to come back. Thanks for trying though—the thought is appreciated.’ The professor got to his feet and brushed his hands. ‘That’s the last one,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave Mason Green to you, Gerald. I expect you’ll enjoy that.’

  Gerald grinned. He grabbed some cable ties and wandered over to where the billionaire businessman lay stretched out on the concrete. Sir Mason Green looked particularly harmless, his chest rising and falling in regular rhythm. Gerald slipped the mask from the man’s face. Green’s eyelids twitched and his breathing seemed to deepen. Gerald took one of Green’s hands and just as he looped a cable tie around it, Green’s eyes opened.

  ‘Gerald,’ Sir Mason said, his voice still woozy. ‘I think this is where I mount my daring escape.’

  Gerald couldn’t hold back a grin—he had to give the man points for style. Even with a lungful of chloroform and the prospect of life in jail ahead of him, Sir Mason Green was as unflappable as a concrete flag. But the grin froze to Gerald’s lips when Green’s other hand rose from his side, clutching a gun.

  ‘I am quite serious about escaping,’ Sir Mason said, sending Gerald scuttling backwards with a wave of the pistol. ‘I have no intention of wasting the rest of my days behind bars. I’m far too vital for that.’

  Gerald stared down the barrel that was aimed square between his eyes. ‘Too vital to who?’ he asked.

  Green considered the question for a second. ‘Well, to me, naturally.’ He shuffled to his feet and placed a hand on a wooden bench to steady himself.

  ‘We could have been so successful, Gerald,’ Green said with a shake of his head. ‘You could have become a trillionaire, you know.’

  Gerald flashed a glance behind him. The professor, Ruby and Felicity stood as still as statues above the trussed-up bodies on the floor, some of whom were now waking and struggling against their bonds. ‘You don’t seriously think any government would pay a trillion dollars to stop the plague, do you?’ Gerald said.

  Green’s expression reflected his revulsion at the idea. ‘Oh my dear boy, don’t be so vulgar,’ he said. ‘As if I would resort to grubby extortion. That would mean dealing with politicians. Even I wouldn’t stoop that low. No, people of our means have far more sophisticated options available to us.’

  Gerald’s eyes scanned the space between him and Green, desperate to find a weapon or somewhere to shelter if bullets started flying. But there was nothing. He had to keep Green talking. Divert and distract.

  ‘What type of options?’ Gerald asked.

  ‘Let me put it this way: the share market is a gambler’s dream come true, a place that caters to every level of greed. From the granny with a few dollars to invest, to people like you and me who can roll the dice on fortunes that would have made King Midas weep. Can you imagine what would happen to the world stock market if the black plague were to rear its head in the middle of Beijing or New York? Even the mere threat of it would cause panic on a global scale. Insurance companies would collapse, the gold price would soar. The money to be made in gasmasks alone doesn’t bear thinking about. Now, someone with sufficient savvy, who had borrowed eye-watering amounts of money and made the right investment choices ahead of that time would stand to make a profit of truly astronomical proportions. A trillion dollars might actually be understating it.’

  Gerald’s brow wrinkled. ‘But you don’t have any money. The police have frozen all your accounts, and it’s not like you can wander into a bank and just borrow some.’

  A smug smile flittered across Mason Green’s lips. ‘You are quite right, Gerald. I am, as they say, financially embarrassed at the moment. Which is why I need to remake my fortune. Through money lies power. Now while I may be persona non grata with the banks, there are those whom they would happily lavish ludicrous sums of money upon. A certain Archer Corporation springs to mind.’

  ‘Why would Archer Corporation go into massive debt to gamble on the stock market?’ Gerald said. ‘As if that would happen.’

  Green’s gaze shot across to the glass-walled enclosure and landed on the figure of Mr Bourse, who was still wandering befuddled inside. ‘But Gerald, it has happened. You see, a rather clever investment banker operating on my instructions has ingratiated himself with the senior officers of Archer Corporation, and convinced them to borrow a sphincter-tightening sum of money. That money has been invested on their behalf to take maximum advantage of a plague-induced share market crash. His share of the profits—my share of the profits—will return me to multi-billionaire status. And, happily for you, you will be the world’s first trillionaire. To use a casino metaphor, Mr Bourse has placed everything on Black. Black death, that is.’

  Gerald’s brain spun like a roulette wheel. So that was what Mr Bourse had been doing on the Archer. All those meetings with Mr Prisk and his parents. It had all been about Green trying to remake his massive fortune.

  Ruby moved to Gerald’s side. ‘Is that true?’ she asked him. ‘You stand to become the richest person in history on the back of millions of innocent people dying?’

  Gerald spun around to face her. ‘It’s not like I had anything to do with it,’ he protested.

  ‘But it’s your fortune that’s bankrolling the deal,’ Ruby said, her voice rising. ‘All that rotten money of yours.’

  Mason Green emitted a condescending laugh. ‘Miss Valent
ine, you really ought to read some history,’ he said. ‘Most of the great fortunes of Europe were built on great piles of bodies.’

  Ruby shot the man a deathly look. ‘But the black plague isn’t coming back,’ she said. ‘We’ve stopped it, so you lose. Your gamble with Gerald’s money hasn’t paid off.’

  Green smirked again. ‘And yet I am the one holding a gun, and the one with unlimited access to the world’s only plague machine. And frankly, threats aren’t enough. I think I will spread the plague in a few major cities just to show the world I’m back in business.’

  Gerald knew what he was about to do was insane, but he did it anyway.

  He dashed to McElderry and thrust his hand into the pocket of the professor’s lab coat. ‘Put the gun down,’ Gerald said to Green, pulling his hand out and holding it high above his head. ‘Or I break this.’ Gerald opened his grip to reveal a glass ampoule between his forefinger and thumb. ‘This is the black plague, made to Rudolph’s personal recipe. Unless you put your gun down and kick it over here, you will be bleeding from the eyes within seconds.’

  Chapter 32

  Sir Mason Green did not move. His gun hand did not waver. ‘You’re willing to take a hit for humanity, are you Gerald?’ Green said with a wry smile. ‘Condemn yourself to a horrible death, just to stop me?’

  ‘To stop you from killing millions of people,’ Gerald said.

  Green’s smirk spread wider. ‘You know, I believe you probably would sacrifice yourself for the greater good.’ His eyes flickered towards Ruby. ‘But I bet you wouldn’t sacrifice her. I bet you wouldn’t sacrifice them.’ Green aimed the gun at the end section of the glass-fronted enclosure and fired three quick shots. The sound of shattering glass filled the hangar as the wall disintegrated in a cascade of broken shards that flowed across the floor like a river of diamonds. The people on the other side stared out in shock at the scene before them. Green’s voice rose above their gasps and cries. ‘You break that vial and the plague bacteria will find every human on this island within hours. There is no place to hide. You will kill everyone here. Everyone.’