‘You know what, though? I was wrong. I’m so glad you all joined us here tonight. A perfect set of healthy young test subjects. Couldn’t have planned it better myself! And in the meantime, we’ll ensure our Chameleon is airworthy.’
I fought down a wave of nausea.
The siblings smiled at each other. Dippy unlocked Steel’s handcuffs, while Pickles aimed her torpefier at the boy’s head.
‘Don’t try anything, cadet,’ Pickles said, as they chaperoned the stumbling boy down the aisle towards the cockpit. ‘You should be proud, you know. Your death will be remembered in history – the first test subject of the Red Sky Virus.’
‘Yes, indeed!’ Dippy said. ‘Haven’t you ever wanted to be famous?’
Tears ran down Steel’s cheeks now, and he scrunched his face in terror. He was trying to shout something from behind his gag, but the siblings ignored him. Dippy forced Steel into the cockpit, kicking the backs of his knees until he tripped forward to sprawl across the cockpit floor.
Dippy leaned down and pulled Steel’s gag from his lips. ‘There you are,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid to cry out if it hurts. We need to collect all relevant data about the effects of the virus on the human body.’
He locked Steel’s handcuff to a metal support pole in the cockpit. Then he stepped back out into the aisle and pressed a button. A glass door slid across the cockpit entrance, creating an airtight seal.
Steel stared at the rest of us through the door, his eyes wild with panic, and he began to bang his fist on the glass.
‘Wait!’ he shouted. ‘Wait, you can’t do this!’
Dippy looked amused. ‘Of course we can.’
‘You don’t want to test it on me!’ Steel said, stumbling over his words. ‘You need to make sure it’s strong enough to work on all sorcerers, even people with special abilities …’
My mind froze. In an instant, I knew what Steel was about to say next – yet even so, I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe it.
‘Use her instead!’ Steel said, almost sobbing, as he pointed directly at me. ‘She’s a Witness! If you test it on her, you’ll know whether or not it can trigger a Catalytic Event! If it works on her, you can demand a higher price.’
Around me, my friends exploded with fury. They strained and shouted, their cries muffled by their bonds as they strained at their handcuffs. I sat in silence, staring at Steel, too stunned to process what was happening.
Steel looked away, unable to meet my gaze. He looked broken. A terrified child, thrown into a danger far out of his depth. And in that moment, I realised, he would have done anything to buy himself a few more minutes of life.
Before I knew what was happening, Dippy’s hand was on my chin. He wrenched my head up and stared into my eyes, an odd hunger in his expression.
‘Is it true, girl?’ he breathed. ‘You’re a Witness?’
I didn’t respond.
Dippy let out a sharp laugh of delight. ‘Well, aren’t we lucky? I’m sure our benefactor will pay extra for a virus that’s been proven to work on Witnesses. Just another way for her to win back favour from the Inductors.’
With a surge of nausea, I remembered Zephyr’s lecture in our Sorcery briefing. The quintessence of a Witness could be strange, or unusual. It could be tainted by unpredictable quirks, and odd fluctuations …
There was no way to calculate how my body would react to the Red Sky Virus. The virus might trigger a Catalytic Event, somehow saving my life. It could alter my quintessence, permanently twisting or corrupting its magic.
Or most likely of all, it would simply kill me.
‘We need to test it on a normal subject too,’ Pickles warned. ‘Put both of them in there, I say: the boy and the girl together.’
Steel pressed his fingers to the cockpit door, leaving sweaty fingerprints on the glass. ‘What? No! You don’t need me – if it works on a Witness, it’ll work on a normal sorcerer too …’
‘What on earth gives you that idea?’ Dippy said.
‘It just makes sense, doesn’t it?’ Steel’s breath was ragged now, and he was struggling for words. ‘I mean, if it’s strong enough to work on her …’
‘That is not how the scientific process works, boy,’ Pickles snapped. ‘We rely on test data, not random hunches.’
Dippy had already unfastened my handcuffs, and Pickles had levelled her torpefier at my head. I glared at her, refusing to budge.
‘Brave one, are you?’ Pickles said, and swung her torpefier to aim at Phoenix. ‘Very well, cadet. You have five seconds to get into the cockpit, or I’ll shoot your friend instead.’
I hurried down the aisle, staggering towards the cockpit door. Dippy pressed the button and the glass slid open, allowing me to dart inside.
Steel shrank backwards as I approached, stuffing himself beneath the blinking control desks, like a frightened rodent retreating into its burrow. I stood as still as I could manage, trying to hide the shake in my limbs, as Dippy cuffed me to the metal pole. He removed my gag and gave me a smile.
‘Do let me know how you’re feeling, cadet,’ he said. ‘I’d like to collect some detailed test subject symptoms as the virus progresses, and you look as if you might be able to keep a level head.’
For a moment, I was tempted to tell him my mother was the Spider. If he killed me, he would not be winning her favour, but earning a dangerous enemy. But if I told him that, he would only replace me with one of my friends.
I held my tongue.
Dippy leaned closer, and whispered: ‘Tell you what. If you give me a detailed report of your symptoms, that might be enough data to sell the virus to my benefactor. If so, I’ll allow your friends to live. Deal?’
It was a lie, of course. He still had to test the contagion factor between people, and between the living and the dead. Even so, it was the only hope I had. I gave him a shaky nod, and wet my lips. ‘Deal.’
He retreated into the aisle, and pressed the button.
The glass door slid shut.
My knees shook, but I kept my feet. I stared through the glass at the aisle, running between the passenger seats. It looked so normal. Just the aisle of a Chameleon jet, the same jet I’d flown in to come to New Zealand. Just days ago, I’d been sitting here, feeling a rush of adrenaline as we soared from the HQ rooftop and above the Melbourne skyline.
I’d never imagined I would die here.
An alert beeped on the cockpit wall. A tiny flap opened and a thin metal tube poked through from the outside aisle. A single drip of red liquid fell from the tube, splattering on the floor. Instantly, the tube retracted and the flap sealed itself shut.
On the floor, the liquid sizzled.
It was only a droplet. A single droplet, splattered like red blood. It flickered and sizzled, evaporating into the air, until it was nothing but vapour. For a wild moment I considered holding my breath, but what was the point? I would suffocate in minutes, and for all I knew, the vapour might be absorbed through my skin. I could try to create a shield, but my quintessence was too weak.
I breathed. My skin tingled.
And the Red Sky Virus seeped into my body.
My skin burned.
Was I imagining it? Surely the virus couldn’t work so quickly. This wasn’t an enemy I could fight. It wasn’t an enemy I could trick, or outwit, or even outrun. It was an enemy inside my own body, destroying me from the inside out …
Steel whimpered, curling into a ball beneath the control desk. In the aisle, my friends were struggling against their bonds. I shouted at them to stop – that it was too late, they should save their strength. Yet still they fought, yanking their cuffs and cursing through their gags.
Dippy turned to his sister. ‘Start fixing the engine. The sooner this is over with, the sooner we can get out of here and claim our money.’
Pickles gave me one last look, as if slightly disappointed that she wouldn’t get to watch the experiment play out to its conclusion. But then she sighed and nodded. ‘Give me an update when thing
s … progress.’
When we’re dead, I realised. She wanted an update when we died. The thought almost made me double over, struck by a fresh wave of fear and nausea. Pickles turned slowly, then retreated down the trapdoor ladder to the lower level of the plane.
When she was gone, Dippy sat in a chair. He pulled a small notepad and pen from his pocket, flicked to a fresh page and began to jot down notes.
‘How are you feeling, cadet?’ he asked. ‘Lightheaded? Nauseous?’
I grabbed the pole, fighting to keep my feet, and threw him the most spiteful glare I could muster. ‘Screw you.’
Dippy laughed. ‘I’ll put that down as “defiant”, shall I?’
He observed my struggle to stay upright and gave another nod. ‘Oh, you’re stumbling already. That’s good. Very fast moving, isn’t it?’ He smiled. ‘The virus, I mean. Not you, of course …’
He bent his head to take another note.
On the floor behind him, Nephrite was stirring. My vision was beginning to blur; I blinked, but a painful heat was building in my head now, and even blinking sent a shockwave through my skull.
Every sound was amplified, and my skin felt clammy with sweat. Hair clung to my forehead in frizzy tangles. I could almost imagine that I could hear my own heartbeat, thudding its final, shaky rhythm in my chest.
I was kneeling on the floor. When had I fallen? I didn’t remember falling. But somehow I was on my knees, bent over with dizziness and exhaustion. The floor itself was spinning before my eyes. I blinked again, and there was nothing but pain.
Breathe, I told myself. Breathe, Natalie.
‘You look weaker, cadet,’ Dippy said. ‘I assume your quintessence has not altered its state? No sudden rush of strength, or new abilities?’
I didn’t respond. The final dregs of my quintessence were swirling around me. The sorcery tingled slightly, but it showed no signs of transformation. No sudden surge of magic, no rush of sorcerous strength. I knew now, in the cold pit of my stomach, there would be no Catalytic Event. This was no fairytale, where miraculous magic would rush in and save me.
I was going to die.
Dippy was standing now. He had moved to stand in the aisle, where he had a better view of the cockpit floor. He wanted a good view for this, didn’t he? Like a scientist observing the slow deaths of his lab rats in a glass tank, collecting data to write up his report.
Just breathe …
When had breathing become so hard? I reached up to wipe the sweat from my eyes, but my fingers were shaking so badly that I scratched my eyelid. I pulled my fingernails away, shaking even harder, as a droplet of blood ran into my eye.
‘Interesting,’ Dippy said. ‘How’s your vision, cadet?’
His voice came from far away. As if he stood on the far side of an underground canyon, and there was nothing but the rush of water, and the roar of the echo, and the spinning gleam of glow-worms. I stared through the glass, willing my fuzzy vision to focus.
I realised, after a moment, that Dippy’s face was at an odd angle. I wasn’t kneeling anymore, but lying on the floor. When had I lain down? I couldn’t remember. Somehow, my head had pressed itself to the cockpit floor, and I was staring up at the aisle through a hazy sideways tilt. Blurred faces, tangled voices, a wall of glass …
Had I closed my eyes? I must have done. When I forced them open again, the darkness faded back into blurry light. There was liquid in my eyes. There was agony in my lungs. Every breath felt serrated, as sharp as a steel blade …
Steel.
He was beside me. When had that happened? He had dragged himself across the floor towards me, and he clutched a shard of metal in his hand. A piece of the cockpit machinery, perhaps …
Out in the aisle, Dippy was shouting. There were other voices, too; there was so much noise, so much commotion. I couldn’t focus. But Steel was there, sobbing and gasping for air, babbling wild apologies as he reached towards me with the chunk of metal.
‘I have to!’ he gasped. ‘It’s the only way … to survive …’
He drew a circuit in the air, smearing his magic into the shape of a diamond. A transference circuit. The circuit that Inductors used to harvest energy from the suffering of their victims.
With dread, I recalled what Dragon had told us about the Red Sky Virus. It only killed sorcerers whose quintessences were pure, primarily composed of their own energy. To survive it, you had to seriously harm or kill another person, adding their quintessence to your own. Steel must have overheard his captors discussing it; he knew that stealing my magic would save him.
But my quintessence was almost completely drained. I had no energy to spare. Once Steel stole even a few droplets of my magic, my body would cease functioning. My heart, my lungs, my brain … all gone.
‘Don’t,’ I whispered.
Steel’s hand was shaking. He held the metal shard above me, ready to plunge it into my flesh. Tears poured down his face, dripping onto my shirt as he leaned over me. ‘I have to …’
I sucked down a convulsive gasp, and forced myself to meet his gaze. ‘Steel, you’re not an Inductor. You’re not one of them.’
‘I’m gutless,’ he choked. ‘I’m a failure, and a traitor. What’s one more act of cowardice to add to the list?’
‘You’re a HELIX cadet,’ I whispered. ‘You’re not a killer.’
Steel’s fingers tightened on the shard. ‘But it’s a lie. It’s all a lie. My family. The Inductors. That day on the cliff …’
I stared at him.
‘I didn’t escape the Inductors,’ he whispered, each word causing him pain. ‘I wasn’t even there. My family was having a picnic on the clifftop. I had a fight with my sister, so I went off to sulk. I remember playing some stupid game on my phone …’
His breath hitched. Each inhalation was a rasp. ‘I got hungry, so I headed back. But by the time I got there … It was too late. They were gone.’
Outside, I could hear banging and scuffling, shouts of alarm as my friends and Dippy watched the scene play out through a wall of glass. I ignored them. Their voices faded, until there was only me, and Steel, and the quaver of the air between us.
‘I called the HELIX emergency number.’ Steel’s voice was shaky, his face wet with tears and mucus. ‘The agents came and found me on the clifftop. I was the only survivor. They told me I was brave, and … and a hero, and they gave me cocoa and blankets, and said I was so strong, and brave, for escaping. And I …’
Steel closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I liked it. I liked the attention. I liked being special. Afterwards, it was all I had to hang onto.’ His hands shook. ‘I had to keep the story going. I started telling myself it was true. I just …’
He shook harder. His breath was raw and hot in my face. ‘I only wanted to prove myself, you know. To prove to myself it was true. If I … If I just had a real chance, a real mission … when people called me a hero, it would finally mean something.’ He choked. ‘My life wouldn’t be a lie anymore.’
His hands hovered above my throat. The metal in his fingers glinted.
Steel cast aside the shard.
It clattered across the floor, skittering away beneath the desk. Steel rolled back onto the floor beside me, rasping tight little moans of despair. For a long moment, there was only the sound of our breathing.
‘Can you … forgive … me?’ Steel’s voice cracked. ‘Please …’
My muscles tightened. After all we had been through, and all Steel had done, perhaps there was still a shred of humanity inside him after all. If I had to die here, at least I wouldn’t be dying with an enemy by my side. Steel had done some terrible things, and made some terrible choices. But in his final moments, he had made the right decision.
‘Yes,’ I whispered.
Steel gave a quiet exhalation. I heard his breathing grow slower as his lungs began to fail. Or perhaps those were my own breaths. I couldn’t tell anymore.
Outside the cockpit, Dippy was still spluttering. I slowly tilted my gaze back to
wards the glass, staring out into the aisle. My friends were cursing and clamouring, tugging uselessly against their handcuffs. In that moment, they seemed very far away. A chain of voices, far beyond a sea of bitter glass …
The world was fading.
‘How dare you?’ Dippy spat, his eyes still fixed on Steel. ‘This is a scientific experiment, boy! You have no right to interfere with the integrity of –’
In his moment of distraction, Nephrite lunged.
She had stretched herself across the floor, so that Dippy was just within reach of her foot. With a vicious swipe, she kicked outwards. Her boot connected with Dippy’s shin – and with a cry of alarm, he stumbled backwards.
And with that, my friends were upon him.
A burst of fog erupted, followed by a tangle of crashes and alarmed cries. Orbit must have deployed his gadget – the button with a lethargy circuit and fog simulator – by pressing it to Dippy’s skin. As Dippy sank into unconsciousness, I saw my friends scrambling for the handcuff keys that were in his pocket, obscured by mist and the pain in my pupils.
It was all a blur. Had my vision always been this weak? I fought to focus on my breathing, and the rhythm of my heartbeat. Steel whimpered.
Or was that sound me? Was I the one crying? Too hard to know. Too hard to think. My breath was fire. There was salt on my face, sweat and tears, and I didn’t know which was which anymore …
‘Nomad!’
I wrenched my face up to see Riff at the cockpit door. He was about to press the button that would slide the glass open.
‘No!’ My voice was hoarse, but I poured so much panic into that single word that it reverberated louder than the commotion in the aisle. ‘Riff, stop!’
His hand hovered over the button, his expression torn by anguish. A moment later, Phoenix and Orbit joined him at the door.
‘A cure!’ Riff cried, wrenching his hand away. ‘There’s gotta be a cure … Orbit, think of something!’
Behind them, I could just make out the fuzzy outline of two figures, grappling and cursing in the aisle. Pickles must have heard the commotion and rushed back upstairs. Nephrite had thrown herself at the gadgeteer, clawing wildly as sparks of quintessence erupted in the air between them.
Deadly Magic Page 23
