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‘Fortunately,' said Shackleton, watching the screen with interest, ‘we had a few vials of Tabitha's older, less
discerning
predecessors stored away for just such an occasion.'

‘No,' I yelled, rattling the chair in front of me. ‘No, no, no, Mr Shackleton, please, you don't have to – we won't say anything! We'll keep it to ourselves!'

Officer Reeve's eyes went wide.

Dr Galton turned around, and I saw the enormous syringe in her right hand.

‘Mr Shackleton,
please!
' cried Jordan. She stumbled towards him, but Dr Montag dashed across the room and grabbed her from behind. She pushed and kicked and threw her head back, trying to smash him in the face, but the doctor held on tight.

Calvin raised his gun at Luke and me, just waiting for an excuse to use it.

‘He has a family!' Jordan screamed. ‘He has a
kid!
'

And then it was happening. My mind recorded the whole thing in agonising slow motion. The sudden thrust of Dr Galton's arm, plunging the syringe deep into Reeve's thigh. The desperate shout, echoing through the tinny speaker of Shackleton's phone. The confused pause as, for a moment, nothing happened.

And then the shaking.

Reeve started writhing around on the floor.

Legs no longer supporting him.

Arm still strung above his head by the handcuffs.

Shouting like he was on fire.

And then his skin began to tear. Tiny red lines raced their way across Reeve's arms, legs and face, oozing minute droplets of blood.

But he didn't split apart like Craig and Laura.

He didn't disappear.

He just hung there, screaming his head off and shaking and shaking and shaking, until the strength finally left his body and he collapsed to the ground.

Chapter 30

T
HURSDAY
, J
UNE
4
70
DAYS

I stood there, slumped against the table, unable to pull my eyes away from the screen. Luke collapsed over the back of his chair.

‘There,' smiled Shackleton, snapping the phone shut and pocketing it again. ‘I believe the point is made.'

Jordan exploded.

With one last jerk, she wrenched herself free from the doctor and stumbled towards Shackleton.

But Dr Montag dived after her. He grabbed her around the waist and brought her to the ground right at Shackleton's feet.

Shackleton bent down to look her in the eye. Even now, even after everything he'd done to us, he refused to drop the warm, grandfatherly act.

‘Jordan, please calm yourself,' he said soothingly. ‘I can see that you're angry, but if you keep behaving like that, someone else is bound to get hurt. Haven't we all been through enough tonight?'

Montag held Jordan there until she stopped struggling, then let her up and brought her over to me and Luke.

‘There's a good girl,' Shackleton said, straightening up and smoothing out his suit. He looked up at the screen and sighed. ‘It's a shame, you know. He really was a tremendous asset to the security team.'

‘How could you?' said Luke, lifting his head. ‘He was just –'

‘Here are the terms of our agreement,' said Shackleton. ‘You forget everything you know about the true purpose of Phoenix. You spend the next seventy days quietly attending to your schoolwork. You do not put one foot out of line. You do not breathe a word of what you know to anybody. Because if you do –' The security camera feed abruptly dropped out from behind Shackleton. ‘– I'm afraid that, next time, it will be someone you
truly
care about.'

Calvin grunted from across the room, clearly still wishing he could just put a bullet in us.

‘My goodness,' said Shackleton, examining a silver watch on his sleeve. ‘What a night. I suppose we'd better get you children home to bed. Doctor Montag, would you be so kind as to escort them out? Officer Calvin and I have a phone call to trace.'

Luke let out a strangled sob. I gave his shoulder a tug, and he slowly lifted his head.

Dr Montag nodded at Shackleton and took us away, back down to what everybody else thought was the top floor of the Shackleton Building.

We followed Montag down the hallway, past the rows of Shackleton's nature paintings. Nobody spoke. We were alive, but it didn't feel like it. I felt so tired, and cold, and sick. My back ached. My body was running on remote control.

Jordan staggered in the middle of the hallway. She doubled over and started throwing up. In some dark, back corner of my mind, I noticed that she was standing in the exact spot as she had been the day Dad brought us all up here, when she'd had that dizzy spell or whatever it was.

She leant forward, coughing violently, bracing herself against the wall with both hands. I stood beside her, patting her on the back. Dr Montag waited patiently until she was finished.

We took the main lifts down to the ground, and the doc led us out through the front doors. The rain was still coming down outside, splashing noisily into the fountain. The sky was black and empty, not a single star anywhere.

Montag stopped at the bottom of the steps. He paused, as though waiting for us to –

What? Thank him?

Not happening.

He might've saved us from getting shot, but only because he didn't want a pesky murder putting the brakes on his progress with Luke's mum. He'd still stood by and let Reeve get killed. He'd still raced to protect Shackleton when Jordan had gone for him. He'd still put those
things
into us.

‘Straight home, children,' said the doc, finally. He turned away and headed across to the medical centre.

‘We killed him,' whispered Jordan, when Montag was gone.

‘Huh?' I said.

‘It's our fault,' said Jordan. ‘It's our fault Reeve is dead.'

‘No,' said Luke. ‘
They
killed him.'

‘He didn't even want to help us,' said Jordan, shaking her head. ‘He only did it because –'

‘He helped us because he found out what was really going on and he wanted to do something about it,' said Luke, obviously struggling to keep his voice steady. ‘And it wasn't for nothing, either. We got the message out. Some of it anyway. My dad –'

‘Mate,' I said, my brain too fried to consider whether saying this out loud was actually a good idea. ‘They're tracing the call. If they find your dad …'

‘Peter,'
Jordan snapped, giving me a dark look.

‘They won't,' said Luke, starting to sound slightly crazy. ‘They're not going to find him. He'll get away. My dad won't …'

He broke off as a scream rang out in the street.

A dark shape was moving up the street towards us. At first I thought it was Crazy Bill, but then it lumbered closer and I realised it was –

‘Dad!' said Jordan. ‘Mum! What's –'

Jordan's mum let out a groan. Jordan's dad hurried her forward, supporting her with one arm and carrying a sobbing Georgia in the other.

‘Jordan!' he hissed. ‘What on
earth
are you doing out here?'

Mrs Burke cried out again.

I heard footsteps behind us. Dr Montag had heard the screaming and was running over.

‘Doc!' called Jordan's dad, not stopping to wonder why
he
was out here in the middle of the night. ‘Thank goodness!'

Montag didn't say a word. He was back in doctor mode, crouching down to examine Mrs Burke.

‘It's –' Jordan's mum began, but then another spasm wracked her body.

Georgia buried her face in her dad's shoulder.

‘It's the baby,' said Jordan's dad, grabbing Montag by the arm. ‘There's something wrong with the baby!'

www.thephoenixfiles.info

The countdown continues
in August 2010...

mutation

Jordan's world is falling apart. She's a prisoner in her own skin, trapped by an enemy who can paralyse her at the touch of a button.

And the questions in Phoenix keep piling higher.

Why is Jordan starting to see things before they happen? What's wrong with her mother's pregnancy? And why do Peter's old friends want to talk to him again?

The clock is still ticking.

There are seventy days until the end of the world.