The Battle for Perfect

by Helena Duggan

  “Joseph?” Iris stared straight at the scientist.

  “Iris?” he replied. “I hadn’t imagined…I didn’t know…oh, how good it is to see you again!”

  He dropped Anna’s hand, walked across the shop floor and embraced his old friend. Violet looked at Boy, who was blushing just a little.

  “Ahem…” William cleared his throat. “Mam, would you like to…”

  “Oh,” Iris said, pushing back from Bohr’s shoulder, “I must introduce you, Joe. This is my son, William…”

  “The troublemaker.” Joseph smiled, taking his hand. “I remember the last time I saw you, you were just a tot.”

  Iris introduced Dr Bohr to the crowd. Her dad turned into a stuttering mess and almost curtsied when it was his turn.

  “I love your work, sir…Mr…Dr Bohr. It’s just… It’s just an honour, a complete and total honour to meet you, sir, doctor.”

  “Excuse my husband,” Rose gushed, stepping forward to take the man’s hand, “he’s got quite a thing for celebrity scientists!”

  “Rose!” Eugene huffed, embarrassed, as his wife stepped away.

  “We need your help, Dr Bohr,” William said, gesturing to a pile of books on the table in front of him.

  “Ah, yes.” Joseph picked up one of the titles. “Magnetism. Boy filled me in on what you would like to do, but how do we do it is the question…”

  Violet watched as Iris slipped quietly away from the crowd. She seemed to be caught in her own thoughts and took up a spot on a small crate in the corner of the room as loud discussions began behind her. She was playing with one of Merrill’s new toy experiments, a wooden elephant’s head, jerking the lever up and down to move its hollow trunk. She looked as though she were somewhere else.

  “I’ll give you a penny,” Violet said, repeating something she’d often heard her father say when he was trying to make people feel better.

  “It’s a penny for your thoughts.” Iris smiled gently.

  “You don’t have to tell me your thoughts.” Violet sat on a carved wooden drum beside her.

  “You’re a good child. I’m just stuck in memories,” Iris sighed, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

  Violet fell quiet and watched the elephant’s trunk move up and down.

  “I think Merrill wants it to be able to squirt water.” The old woman filled in the silence. “It’ll be one of his bestsellers then, I imagine.”

  Violet smiled. She wanted to ask Iris questions but she didn’t know where to start.

  “I’ll give you a penny for yours.” The old woman’s eyes were kind.

  “My what?”

  “Your thoughts, Violet. Is there something bothering you?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, looking over at Boy, who was busy listening to Dr Bohr. “I’m worried about Boy and what Nurse Powick wants with him.”

  “That woman is crazy.” Iris shook her head.

  “Did you know her before all this?” Violet asked.

  “No,” Iris replied, sounding a little uncertain, “I think the first I heard of her was the letter she sent Macula about Boy and Tom. I’ve never doubted my memory till now, but since you told me about the letters you found from that woman to Arnold, I’ve started to question whether I did meet her before. I mean, I thought I knew all of Arnold’s friends back then. Maybe it’s old age!”

  Violet walked over to Boy and asked him for the photo they’d found in Iris’s house. He pulled it from his pocket and handed it over.

  Boy’s grandmother smiled, as though lost in memories again, when Violet passed her the picture.

  “Where did you find this? It’s the old gang from Hegel. Joe is in here somewhere.”

  Violet hesitated for a moment. “I hope you don’t mind, but we were in your room, dressing up as zombies and it was in an album in one of your drawers.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve not much to hide. I haven’t looked at that album in a long, long time.”

  Violet shifted forward and pointed to the square-shouldered lady at the back. “We think that’s Powick.”

  “Is it?” Iris gasped, drawing the image closer. “The eyes aren’t as good at my age.” She studied the picture before pulling it away from her nose.

  “You’re right, pet, it is Powick.” Her face paled. “How did I not piece that together? I don’t recall her much from back then. I think I only met her once – that day, in fact. They called her Prissy or something. I think she was Hugo’s assistant – that man beside her, the one leaning on her shoulder.”

  “Oh.” Violet nodded, moving closer. “Anna thought he looked familiar too.”

  “I doubt that, Violet.” Iris sighed. “He was Arnold’s best friend – Dr Hugo Spinners, a young man with quite an amazing mind. When Arnold started to go off the rails, they fell out. Hugo tried to persuade him away from his death studies, but Arnold wouldn’t listen – he believed Hugo was jealous. They became arch-enemies, each trying to prove the other wrong. It was very sad.”

  Dr Spinners, the name rang a bell. Powick had mentioned him in her letters to Arnold but Violet knew she’d heard it somewhere else too, she just couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  “What happened to him?” Violet asked, her stomach in a knot.

  “He died a few years after this photo was taken. It was very sudden, an accident. I’m not sure what happened, but I remember some talked about it being suspicious. Things were not good for me then. Arnold was at the height of his madness. It was shortly after Hugo died that he attacked William and I fled here with the boys.”

  Suddenly the conversation in the graveyard came back to her. An uneasy energy passed through her body.

  “One of the scientists, a woman called Teresa, asked Arnold if he killed Dr Spinners…”

  “Killed him…?” Iris’s face turned a slight shade of green. “What did he say?”

  “He said something about not letting the doctor get away with mocking him and that he would raise him from the dead first.”

  “Hugo, his best friend! Oh, Arnold! And after all this time…surely he hasn’t… Oh no, not like our dog, he hasn’t kept his bod—” Iris reached out her hand and leaned against Merrill’s toy elephant as if for balance.

  “Hugo! That’s Dr Spinners’ first name?” Violet interrupted. “Hugo the zombie! Do you think…? You don’t think…?”

  She remembered the nurse saying that Dr Spinners had been of great service to them. And Anna recognized Dr Spinners in the picture. Now that Violet looked at the photo, remembering the creature’s gruesome features, it did seem possible.

  “You don’t think Dr Spinners is Hugo, the Child Snatcher?” Her stomach churned as the words slipped out. Iris gasped.

  “Of course!” she whispered, locking eyes with Violet. “That would be just Arnold’s style. After they fell out, Hugo became Arnold’s biggest opponent. He tore apart his research into death. Of course he killed Spinners! And now he plans to bring him back to life, to prove his point using the corpse of his biggest opponent. The ultimate revenge. Oh, Arnold, your madness knows no boundaries!”

  Violet felt physically sick at the thought. If Arnold could kill his best friend and turn him into a zombie, what did he and Powick have planned for Boy? The others were still busy with Dr Bohr, trying to figure out a way to stop the zombies; nobody seemed that worried about Boy or the threat of his birthday. But she couldn’t shake a feeling that something really bad was about to happen to him.

  Iris was stuck in her thoughts, shaking her head as she muttered to herself, still in shock about Hugo.

  “Powick wants Boy for some reason,” Violet pressed the old woman, her tone urgent. “She said something about an Elixir of Life – have you heard of it? Did Arnold ever mention anything like that when he was working on his machine?”

  Iris stayed silent for a while as though racking her brains.

  “No, Violet. I can’t say I ever heard him mention an elixir. In his maddest moments he would rant about William, the Divided Soul and the curse
he brought on our family. But I don’t recall anything else.”

  “Did he have notes or books about the curse that you might have kept, or anything that could help?”

  Iris shook her head. “What is it, pet?”

  “I’m just afraid they’re planning something awful for Boy! The letter you talked about before – the one Powick sent to Macula after Perfect fell, telling her that she’d taken Tom – do you remember anything else it said?”

  “No.” Iris shook her head. “But I do remember Macula thought that Powick wanted to turn her against Boy. It was part of Edward’s plan to divide Town and win back Perfect.”

  Violet nodded. She knew all that, but the letter said something else too. Something she wished she could remember.

  “We’ll watch Boy,” Iris reassured her. “As long as he stays in our sights he’ll be fine. You’re a good friend, Violet. The best anyone could ask for. I won’t let Arnold or that woman hurt my grandson. I promise you that. And once we’ve stopped them, they’ll never hurt anyone again.” She grabbed Violet’s hand, squeezing it tight. “Boy will be okay.”

  Violet wanted to believe Iris but she couldn’t. Something was playing heavily on her mind – she just wished she could pin it down. She was standing up to join the planning discussion, when she noticed a large black bird perched on the windowsill outside.

  She walked to the window just as the bird launched itself up into the air. Violet opened the door and peered outside, up towards the Market Yard.

  “Tom,” she whispered. “Tom, are you here?”

  The place seemed quiet, quieter than it had been when she’d arrived. A chill danced down her spine. She closed the shop door and walked back to the others.

  Dr Joseph Bohr was busy drawing something on a large flat piece of wood. They seemed to have run out of paper, Violet noticed as she walked through the scrunched-up balls of it on the floor. Jack was by Bohr’s side as the doctor explained something about magnetism to him, while pointing to sections of his diagram.

  William and Eugene were both arguing over a theory while Boy and Anna scrutinized Arnold’s drawing of the DeathDefier that they’d taken from the science lab in school. Iris joined the children, peering over their shoulders.

  “That’s new,” she said aloud. “Arnold appears to be using a lot more power this time round. I wonder where he’ll get all of it?”

  “He is, isn’t he!” Dr Bohr smiled, looking over at her. “That much electricity could jolt a rock back to life!”

  “Electricity…” Jack said, looking up the doctor. “What about electromagnetism? Didn’t you say something about passing electricity through a metal to make a magnet?”

  “Jack, my boy, you’re a genius!” Joseph Bohr laughed, slapping him so hard on the back he almost fell forward.

  “We’ve been trying to overcomplicate it!” Jack grabbed the poster of the machine. “Arnold has already made us a magnet! See the human-shaped plate in the middle of the DeathDefier? It’s copper, a metal. And according to these plans, it’ll be pumped full of electricity when the machine powers up!”

  “My boy, I may give you an apprenticeship when we save this little town! Copper is not just any metal either, it’s an excellent conductor too! Why, we could have quite a powerful magnet on our hands. The glass will hold the magnetism in of course, but if we can break the glass then it’ll be released and those zombies will be sucked onto that plate faster than matter down a black hole.”

  Violet cringed as her dad laughed loudly at Dr Bohr’s science joke.

  “But Violet said there are loads of zombies,” Anna interrupted. “They won’t all fit on that piece of metal!”

  “Well spotted, Anna,” Dr Bohr continued, “but magnets have a kind of contagious quality, if you will. The zombies themselves, or their frames should I say, will also become magnets. So some will stick to the machine, then their frames will become magnetized – others will stick to them until we’ve layers of zombies all sticking to each other!”

  “I imagine we’d have to break the glass when the power is on in Arnold’s machine?” William asked.

  “Precisely, William, but that’s a minor detail, of course. Something we’ll get to in the fullness of time!”

  “Not so minor.” Rose was shaking her head. “Details are important. I’m a numbers person and I imagine even if we do manage to break the glass, we’d need to have quite a large number of people on the street at that precise moment ready to take advantage of the Archers’ weak position and fight the Watchers. If we lose the element of surprise, the electricity could be cut to the machine and the zombies released, am I right?”

  “Why yes, you are.” Dr Bohr nodded as Eugene smiled proudly at his wife.

  “But we’re all stuck in No-Man’s-Land,” Madeleine said, catching up with the conversation.

  “We can break out like before, Mam, and hide somewhere until it’s time,” Anna said enthusiastically.

  “We’d need quite a large number of people – the whole Town, in fact, just like when we fought for Perfect – if we want to successfully take on the Watchers,” Iris interrupted. “How can we hide that many people in plain sight?”

  “They’re building a stand…” Jack offered. “Maybe we could hide under it?”

  “It’s not large enough,” Boy said. “I think they’d spot us anyway!”

  “The castle?” Violet said suddenly, glad to be distracted from her worries about her friend.

  “What do you mean? We can’t go back to the castle, Violet,” Boy said dismissively.

  Everyone continued to argue about the best way to mount their attack.

  “You’re not listening!” Violet said, so loud this time all other voices came to a halt. “The castle, Boy! Remember, it was invisible. We couldn’t see it, even though it was right in the middle of an open field! Right in front of our eyes.”

  “What?” Eugene furrowed his brow. “I remember you said something about this, but it didn’t register with me, pet. You’re saying it was completely invisible?”

  “Oh yes, why didn’t I think of that!” Joseph Bohr butted in. “Arnold developed it years ago before he went mad – it’s a metamaterial, won numerous awards! He boasted to us one day when he visited our cell, explaining how he created a large metal wall around the whole castle and covered the outside of it in his material, making everything disappear. He was insufferable the way he bleated on about it, but I must give the man some credit, his product is ingenious!”

  Iris cleared her throat, her face suddenly stern. “Arnold claimed he invented that fabric, Joe, and I was silly and naïve enough to let him! But that piece of science was all mine! I needed to keep my mind ticking over after I had a family and gave up my research, so I developed this material at home for fun. I used to trick the kids with it. Don’t you remember, William? My disappearing hand! I had forgotten all about that until now.”

  “Oh yes…” Her son smiled as if being brought back to a moment.

  “You three thought it was magic!” She laughed. “Oh I loved to watch your faces. Your old mother is no fool! I developed a silk that can bend light around itself. I used split-ring resonators. The spacing between them was less than the wavelength of light and I was eventually able to manipulate both the magnetic and electric fields of light. It meant that you couldn’t see anything the silk encased but you could see everything in front and behind it. I have to say, I was pretty pleased with myself.”

  “Iris, that is impressive!” Joseph Bohr announced. “If only I’d known back then. The cheek of Arnold!”

  “He saw it and, without telling me, submitted my research for peer review under his own name. It was picked up straight away and Arnold was lauded. I was annoyed, of course, but also in love with him, and he argued that what was mine was his and vice versa. I told myself not to be silly or have an ego and that whatever benefit came from it would also benefit the family, so I stayed quiet. Wasn’t I a fool back then?”

  Joseph wrapped an arm over her
shoulder. “If only all scientists were as selfless, Iris,” he soothed.

  “Can you make more, Mam?” William asked.

  “I can do better than that. If memory serves me right, I think I may have a few sheets of it in the attic at home. I took everything I had with me and even used it when I was escaping from Arnold. It can be hard to find though – but nothing a little searching can’t sort, I imagine.”

  “I can go get them,” Boy said quickly. “Granny will never be able to get over the roof.”

  “Excuse me!” Iris raised her bushy eyebrows. “I’m not past my sell-by date yet!”

  “If I can do it, young man, so can your grandmother. In fact, I’ll go with you, Iris!” Joseph Bohr butted in. “I thoroughly enjoyed my climb this morning. We’ll take this young man too.” He clapped Jack’s back. “He can show us the route in case our memories fail us!”

  “Okay then.” William nodded. “This plan just might work. If we break into smaller groups, each could hide inside a moveable hoarding covered in one of the silks, a bit like the castle. Would you have enough material, Mam?”

  “I might have, William. I think I made quite a lot of it for Arnold as journals were requesting samples to inspect to prove it actually worked.”

  “Brilliant!” Her son smiled. “So the groups will sneak into Town undetected tomorrow, wait for Arnold to fire up the DeathDefier, break the glass, let the magnetism do its work and attack!”

  “We’ll rescue our Town back from those lunatics!” Madeleine said, hugging her daughter close.

  “Who’s going to break the glass, William?” Rose asked cautiously.

  “I know a few people that are good with slingshots.” Boy smiled. “I’ll round them up!”

  “No,” Iris said. “You’re to stay here out of the way. Powick needs you for tomorrow, but she will not have you. Not as long as I live!”

  Boy went quiet. Violet could see he was mad.

  “I can get the sling-shooters if you tell me who they are. It’s nearly your birthday,” she tried to joke, “you can put your feet up!”