Delete: Volume 3 (Shifter Series)

by Kim Curran

  She turned, ever so slowly, and finally looked at me.

  “I guess.”

  “I’m your brother.”

  “Like I could ever forget it,” she said, her nose scrunching up like I stank. “Why can’t you be more like your brother? Your brother never gave us this trouble. Not a day goes past when someone doesn’t compare me to you. So, yeah, I know you’re my brother.” She rolled her shoulder to shake off my hand.

  There was so much bitterness in her voice I could hardly stand it. Katie was being forced to live up to my standard? When I’d become so used to living in her shadow? Everything in this reality was turned on its head.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not sure what else to say.

  She laughed through her nose. “You’re sorry? Sure.”

  “Look, Katie, I’m guessing I deserve this, like maybe I haven’t been around much. But I’m here now and I’m trying to help you. So, if you could stop being such a bitch for a minute, that would be great.”

  Katie and I had always had what could be called an antagonistic relationship. But really, it was usual brother-and-sister stuff. I’d push her, she’d push back. I’d tease her, she’d come up with a devastating putdown that crushed me. But whatever was happening here was something else. I guessed the other Scott didn’t know her the way I did.

  Her eyes widened in shock and she opened and closed her mouth, trying to think of something to say. “Help me? How?”

  I had been thinking the whole way over here about what I was going to do. How I could actually help her. If I pulled her out of training – if that was even something I had the power to do – it might look suspicious. But there was a way that Katie could get out without causing any concern.

  “You need to fail,” I said.

  “I what?”

  “I know that probably goes against every bone in your body to not come out on top. But it’s really important that you don’t graduate.”

  She tilted her head and looked at me. “And why should I listen to you?”

  I didn’t have an answer for that. “Um… because I love you and I want the best for you?”

  This seemed to shock her. “You don’t even know me.”

  “I do,” I pleaded with her. “And I’m going to take care of you, I promise. You have to believe me.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip, considering my words. “When I was really little, you were fun. You’d come home from training at the weekends and holidays and we’d play together. We’d build pirate forts and you’d make me walk the plank; do you remember that?”

  I smiled. “How could I forget? You broke your leg and then didn’t tell Mum on me.”

  “And I remember how you stayed with me in the hospital and refused to let go of my hand.”

  That memory was faint for me. I could mostly only remember the guilt and the fear that I’d killed my little sister.

  “You used to look after me. You used to be fun. And then the war started and you turned into…”

  “Into what?”

  “Into you!” Katie’s eyes tightened and a sardonic smile twisted her mouth. She was pleased about something. “Mr ‘By-the-rules’.” She shook her head. “Mr ‘My-duty-comes-first’.”

  “I’m sorry, Katie. I thought I was protecting you. And I’m going to go on protecting you.”

  Which was true. Whatever I had done in this reality, I believed I had done it to keep Katie and my family and everyone I ever cared about safe. But it had meant that in protecting them, I’d stopped caring about them.

  “By making sure I don’t enlist? Well, you shouldn’t have bothered. There is no way I want to become an officer and spend another second being compared to you.”

  “So, you’re not planning joining S3?”

  “Why do you think I’ve been working so hard to make sure nobody sees how good I am?”

  I shook my head, trying to understand what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve been flunking every class, every test. And it’s really hard! I could beat every kid in this place without so much as raising a sweat. And trying to hold back my power when they make you do stupid things like climb poles… it’s exhausting. But I want to get out of here.”

  “And I want that, too!”

  “But you’re literally the poster boy for this crap!” She pointed at the image of me tacked to the wall.

  “I’m not anymore. I can’t explain why. But I don’t want this for you. I never wanted my life for you, Katie. All I want is for you to be safe and happy and for us to be a family again.”

  She snorted. “You’ve been doing a pretty shit job of that lately.”

  I didn’t have an excuse for that. How could I explain to her that I wasn’t the brother she knew? The brother she knew was an institutionalised dick, more concerned with doing his duty to his country than to his family. Whereas I… I was just a regular dick who didn’t want to see his little sister hurt.

  “I know. And I’m sorry. And when this is all over, I will explain. But right now, I need you to keep it up. If you don’t make the grade, then they let you go, right?”

  “But there are tests.”

  “Then fail them.”

  “There are rumours here that these are not the kind of tests you fail.” She looked up at me. “What are they like?”

  The memory of Frankie thrashing in the machine blended with older memories. Memories that belonged to him.

  All I could recall was pain. “They hurt.”

  Katie took a ragged breath and stepped away.

  “But it’s only pain, Katie. You can handle it. They push you to try to find your limits, so give in. Let them think you’re weak.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip so hard, I was worried she might draw blood. “But what if…”

  “What?”

  “A man came here a while ago. He was asking questions about Fixers.”

  That must have been one of Vine’s men looking for a replacement for the Igloo. “And are you one? A Fixer, I mean?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes, I think, maybe. Like sometimes, I get so bored of all the changes and I want things to stay still and silent. And when I focus on that…”

  “People around you can’t Shift?”

  She shrugged, her small shoulders hunching over.

  “Look, I guess you don’t really know me, but I know you. And you’re the smartest, toughest person I know.” I bent down so our faces were level, and took her hand in mine. “But you can’t let them know you’re a Fixer. You have to find a way to cheat the tests.” I closed my eyes and saw Katie lying in the coffin, her eyes staring blankly. “You have to.”

  “You’re scaring me, Scott,” she said. The first time she’d used my name.

  I opened my eyes and looked at her. “Everything will be OK. I promise. Hang in for a little longer and then I’ll come and get you and make sure you’re safe.”

  “Safe?” Katie said. “Who’s ever safe with the war going on?”

  “I’ll make sure you get sent home, to Mum and Dad.”

  “Mum and Dad?” she said. “Don’t you mean Mum or Dad? They live in different countries now, Scott. Or don’t you remember that, either?”

  So, they’d finally had the balls to split up. Well, maybe that was a good thing. “Wherever you want to go, Katie, I’ll get you there.”

  She tightened her grip in my hand. “You left me here,” she said, tears glittering in the corner of her eyes. “You said you’d come and you never did. Three years, Scott and you never came.”

  I couldn’t bear to see Katie cry. It cut straight through me. I would give anything, do anything to make her tears stop. But now, there was nothing I could do.

  I pulled her into a hug. She resisted at first, and then gave in, wrapping her arms around me.

  “I’m sorry, Katie,” I whispered into her ear. “But I’ll find a way to make it all OK. I promise. I’ll get us all out of here.”

  “I’m so scared, Scott,” she answered.
/>   “Me, too.”

  There was no one else in the world I could admit that to. Not even Aubrey. Only my brave, brilliant little sister. Her arms tightened around my neck. We stayed like that for a few moments, neither of us willing to let the other go.

  There was a small knock on the door. Reluctantly, I broke from Katie’s hug.

  “Commandant?” CP stood at the door, looking anxious.

  “What is it?” I said, my voice croaking.

  “A call has come in from the Hub. You’re needed back there now.”

  I looked at Katie, hoping she could read in my eyes everything I wanted to say to her. That I loved her. That I’d return for her and if I couldn’t find a way to undo everything I’d caused, we’d carve out some kind of life together here.

  CP coughed. “It sounded pretty urgent, sir.”

  “I’ll come back,” I whispered in Katie’s ear.

  “You’d better.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Cain and the whole of Thirteen squad were in the command room, along with Hedges. He was looking better than earlier, his cuts cleaned up and back in S3 uniform. There was a steely glint in his eyes now, too. Revenge, I wondered? Voices were raised and it seemed that Cain and Hedges were disagreeing about something.

  Aubrey looked up as I came in. Her jaw was tight, her skin pale. She was worried about something. And it wasn’t me.

  Zac stood next to Williamson, both too engrossed in the data on the screen to notice me. Turner stood in the corner, her eyes puffy and red; she’d been crying again. Ladoux leaned on the edge of the table, her red beret pulled low over one eye.

  “Take your time, Tyler. Don’t worry about us,” Cain said as I approached.

  “Bring me up to speed,” I said, ignoring Cain’s sarcasm. I wasn’t in the mood for his crap.

  “I know what X73 is,” Hedges said.

  “George was wrong,” Aubrey said. “It’s not a computer virus.”

  “It’s a biological virus.”

  I closed my eyes at hearing Frankie’s voice behind me. It appeared there was no escape from her in this place.

  “Thank you for joining us, Doctor Goodwin,” Cain said as Frankie came to stand at the table next to him.

  “I thought you were avoiding me, Sergeant Cain,” Frankie said. “Or is there another reason you’ve missed your last two psych evals?”

  The two stared at each other, and I got a twinge of pleasure at the idea that Cain didn’t trust her either. But then he looked away, his expression becoming that of a chastised child. Why would Cain feel guilty about avoiding a psych eval? And then I remembered. How adult Shifters had a tendency to go crazy. I forced myself to look at his scar, remembering what it really meant. He didn’t seem to be on the verge of megalomania, like a lot of the men from Project Ganymede I’d tracked down had been. But there was always time. Was that bomb still planted in his cortex, I wondered? Did he know about it or what the true cost of keeping his powers was? In my reality, when Cain had found out the truth about Project Ganymede, it had destroyed him.

  I turned my gaze to Frankie’s forehead. Smooth and undamaged. I had to accept the facts: she wasn’t a Shifter now. She didn’t have the power to control me. But that didn’t mean she could be trusted. She could still be Slate. Just because the Minister of Defence trusted her didn’t mean I had to. After all, plenty of powerful men had fallen under Frankie’s spell before. I wasn’t willing to believe that in undoing a single choice, a person could change this much.

  And yet… I remembered what it felt like when the me from this place took hold. How easy it was to make the hard choices. How completely sure I felt that they were the right things to do. Maybe the Frankie I confronted at the Pyramid had felt the same? Maybe she had been doing what she believed to be her duty, too? She’d said that once she’d started down the path, she knew there was no way back. When I Forced her to unravel her life right back to her decision to volunteer for Project Ganymede, had I stopped her in taking the first step?

  Cain coughed, pulling my attention back to the room. “What can you tell us about this virus?”

  Frankie smiled at Cain and eased him out of the way so she could get to the table. She pushed some buttons on the screen, and a 3D image of a DNA strand appeared. The double helix of molecules spun on its axis. We all leant in to see.

  “I present to you the X731608 virus. A highly virulent hybrid of nanotechnology and the Ebola virus.”

  She pulled up some images marked “Test Subjects”. There was a collective grunt of disgust and I had to turn away from the pictures of children with blood pouring from their eyes and noses.

  “Make them go away,” CP said. She too was unable to look at the pictures.

  “So, it attacks people’s brains? Nice,” Zac said, closing each of the images with a push of his finger.

  “Within a matter of seconds, yes,” Frankie said. “It was engineered to target the orbitofrontal cortex and will eat through the frontal lobe within ten seconds of infection. And spreads faster and wider than any virus I’ve ever seen, up to thirty miles in an hour.”

  The group shared a worried look.

  “And what do the Red Hand want with it?” Cain said.

  Frankie took a deep breath before speaking again. “It was designed to target a specific chromosome. A particular region of chromosome fifteen, to be exact, which has been identified for being associated with disorders such as epilepsy and autism. And” – she paused and looked straight at me – “Shifting.”

  The realisation of what that meant passed over me like an icy breeze.

  “You’re saying this virus targets Shifters?” CP said. She looked as horrified as I felt.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  A ripple of understanding moved through the group. If X73 got into the wrong hands, it could kill half of the people in this room. Not to mention the rest of the Shifters in the country.

  Cain swallowed so loudly, I heard it on the other side of the table. Of course, I thought, he’s as much at risk as the rest of us. “Where did it come from?”

  “As far as I understand,” Frankie said, “it was created at the start of the war by Doctor Lawrence and his team. They were tasked with understanding the source of Shifting.”

  Lawrence; I knew that name. He was the man who had originally set up Project Ganymede.

  “In identifying the gene responsible for the power, they were also able to engineer a virus to target it: X73.”

  “And the Red Hand know about it?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Hedges said. “Sarah and I heard them talking about it.”

  I caught the slightest flicker of emotion from Ladoux at the mention of the dead woman’s name. Was it guilt that she’d been unable to save her from the Red Hand?

  “Is there an antidote?” Zac said.

  “Not that I know of,” Frankie said.

  Worried mutters passed through the group. Unwin and Williamson whispered to each other. Aubrey rested her hand on CP’s shoulder, reassuring the young girl. The tendons on Hedges’ jaw jutted sharply, as if he was biting down hard, fighting to keep his emotions in check. Ladoux just stared at the DNA strand as it spun in neat circles. She was holding her lighter again, rubbing her thumb over the surface. I could see now that it had a faded engraving on the brass case.

  “The question is, do they want X73 to use it, or,” Zac looked to Cain “to stop us from using it?”

  “Yes,” Aubrey said. “If George was telling the truth, their leader is a Shifter. Maybe she’s as keen to see this out of the way as we are?”

  “She could be an ex-Shifter.” I tried not to look at Frankie.

  “In which case, the virus would still be effective,” Frankie said. “Entropy doesn’t affect our genes, you know? Only our power.”

  And our personality, I wanted to say.

  “First thing,” Cain said, cutting through the murmurs in the group, “we need to work out if they do have it. Where was the virus stored?�
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  Frankie called up the info on the files. “A medical facility in Sussex, according to this.”

  “Sussex,” Hedges said as if he was surprised, leaning on the desk with his closed fists. “The Red Hand thought it was stored here.”

  Details on the facility appeared next to the image of the virus, including a picture of a large silver dome sticking out of the ground. Frankie zoomed in on the building, and we could clearly see a sign in front of the structure.

  Do not enter. Government Medical Research Facility.

  “Gee, a big sign. That’s bound to keep the Red Hand away.” Williamson rolled his eyes.

  “Actually, it’s got top-level security,” Zac said, scanning through the rest of the data. “Eye scans. DNA-encrypted access. Will we even be able to get in there?”

  “Unrestricted-access individuals only,” Aubrey said, tapping at a line in the file. “That means you, Commandant.”

  Our eyes met and I felt that rush of connection. Maybe now was the time to tell her what was really going on. I could walk out of this room with her, and neither of us would ever need to walk back in. With a thought, I could end it all. Then I remembered the image of the dying children. No, getting out of here could wait till I’d finished this mission. Just one last job.

  “When do I leave?”

  “Ladoux, is the copter ready?” Cain said. She was still watching the helix spin and spin. “Ladoux!”

  She snapped out of it. “This thing is evil,” she said. “It shouldn’t even exist.”

  “Which is exactly why we’re going to get to it before the Red Hand do,” Cain said.

  “If it’s not already too late,” Zac replied.

  Something didn’t feel right. If the Red Hand knew about this virus, we could be walking into a trap.

  I know.

  I sensed him there, the other me, in the shadows of my mind. He was amused by everything, mocking my failure to keep up. What was I missing? I scanned the files again, looking for something.

  You won’t find it there, I sensed him.

  I pushed him away. The more I let him in, the more I lost of myself. If he had worked it out, I could, too.