“Anyone here?” he called out and I felt my heart freeze. Then I suddenly wondered what the hell I was doing. Hiding from one overweight security guard when I was planning on going head to head with a Shifter and her team of teen assassins.
I started to straighten up when I heard his boots spin around and walk away from us, back to the lift. “Of course not,” the guard muttered to himself. “Just me down here on my own while everyone else has fun. Just like always.” He sighed loud enough to be heard from our hiding place. Punched the lift button and was swallowed up by the doors once more.
“OK. No more hiding,” I said, stepping out from behind the fridge. “We go up there, find Frankie, expose her in front of everyone, and go home. I’m sick of creeping around.”
“We don’t creep around, we get chucked out. Let’s just stick to the plan.” Aubrey laid a hand on my chest and I felt my pounding heart soothe instantly.
“The lift’s free now. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to go home some time tonight,” Carl said.
“I thought you never went home, Carl. I thought you never left your lair,” I said.
“Yes, well. Even a mastermind has to do his laundry sometimes,” Carl said. “Jake, you’ll have to plug me into the pass lock so I can override it. Clip it onto the black wire.”
“Sure thing,” Jake said, pulling a tab out of his bag. He slotted in the device Carl had given us and plugged that into the cables. Then he unscrewed the panel on the front of the lift control unit, exposing a tangle of black wires. “Um, Carl. They’re all black wires.”
“Oh, right. Well clip it to the one running from the far left of the circuit board.”
Jake did as he was told. There was a fizzing noise and sparks.
“OK, not that one then. Try the far right.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Jake said, shaking his hand in pain.
“Of course I do. Clip it onto the right wire.”
More hesitantly this time, Jake clipped the device onto the right wire and pulled his hand away instantly. There were no fizzes or bangs and the tab started glowing blue. Numbers whizzed across the screen.
“You’re in,” Carl said, the sound of him rubbing his hands together loud enough to be heard over the microphones.
Jake pushed the lift call button. “Which floor?” he said as we entered, giving us a mock doorman salute.
“All the way to the top, please.”
Jake punched the black button reading sixty-five and we were on our way.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The weird whooshing in my stomach as the lift hurtled upwards reminded me of the feeling when I Shifted: that unsettling sense of being in two places at once. And it made me hungry to have the power back.
“All clear,” Carl said, as the lift juddered to a halt.
The corridor was empty as we stepped out. Soft beige carpets lined the floor and gold mirrors lined each wall. We were in the corridor that led to the penthouse flat, in the very tip of the Pyramid, occupied by the owner himself. Although he would be busy at the party on the floor below us.
The door to his flat was painted gold with a large number one. None of the apartments had regular keys, just keypads for extra security. Shame whoever designed it had never heard of Shifters.
“Jake, if you would do the honours?”
Jake pulled back the sleeves of his jumpsuit and started punching buttons. His fingers were a blur of motion as he kept Shifting the numbers he tried. There was a sudden clunk and the door swung open. “Ta da!” he said, pushing the door open.
The apartment inside was like nothing I’d ever seen. I’d thought Zac’s place was showy, but it was nothing compared to this. Everything in here appeared to be made of gold. Gold sofa, gold rug on the floor.
“All this gold could probably pay off the third world debt and they wouldn’t even need this stupid G-whatever thing,” Aubrey said, the venom in her tone reflecting my own disgust at the display of wealth.
“I think it’s all rather tasteful.”
“You would,” Aubrey said, glaring at Benjo who was picking something out from between his back teeth with his fingernail.
I looked at my watch. 8.50pm. The arranged distractions were going to begin in ten minutes. We didn’t have long.
“Jake, you keep watch outside and tell us if anyone comes.”
“No way!” moaned Jake. “I’m coming with you.”
“I promised your sister that you wouldn’t be put in harm’s way.”
“What? You weren’t lying? Oh, come on guys. I want to help!”
“And you will help. By staying here,” Aubrey said, laying a hand on his shoulder. She lowered her voice. “Besides, someone has to make sure he doesn’t run off.” She gestured to Benjo with a nod of her head. “Take this.” She pressed a yellow taser gun into Jake’s hand.
“Those don’t work on me,” Benjo said.
“Maybe not. But the shock will set off the bomb in your stomach,” Aubrey said, returning Benjo’s grin.
Benjo laughed and shrugged. Aubrey had won this round.
Jake took the taser and he sucked back in his sulky lip. “OK. But I hear even a tiny scream, I’m so coming after you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” She turned back to me and nodded.
I gave Jake a playful punch on the shoulder and headed for the glass doors that led to the balcony. As soon as I opened them I could hear the noise from the party below. High-pitched laughter mixed with donkey-like braying.
After the balmy temperature of the apartment it felt bracingly cold on the balcony. Even here every last detail had been thought of. The floor was covered in golden tiles and the guardrails were gold. There was even a plant in a gold pot. I plucked one of the leaves. It too was gold and warm to the touch. Could it be real gold? I threw away the leaf before I got too angry.
I looked out at the city around us. The Gherkin shimmered in the darkness and I could see the steeple of St Paul’s Cathedral lit up by the lights below.
“Nearly time,” Carl said.
Aubrey and I checked the equipment we’d stolen from the Regulators. One remaining Taser, which I took, although I didn’t really know how to use it. We also had two pairs of mute cuffs. Plan A was to slap a pair on Frankie and just bring her in. Straightforward operation. Minimum fuss.
I didn’t believe for a second that it was going to happen like that.
At the bottom of the bag was an item I didn’t recognise. “What’s that?”
Aubrey pulled out an old-fashioned pistol. “I liberated this from Sir Richard’s desk,” she said, holding the gun up.
“Fair enough, just don’t point it at me.”
We walked towards the edge of the balcony and Aubrey and I lay down on our stomachs. Benjo plonked himself down next to us and it took him three attempts to lie down, huffing and groaning the whole time.
“Do you have to be so loud?” Aubrey asked.
“Ask your boyfriend,” Benjo snapped. “He’s the one who broke me.”
I shuffled forward a bit more and craned my head over the edge.
There was a second balcony below us. The road below was just a series of glowing lights as ant-sized cars moved up and down. My head swam with the dizzying distance to the safety of the ground.
A small voice in my head said: jump. Jump
.
Compelling me to throw myself into the void.
Only it wasn’t a small voice in my head. It was Benjo whispering in my ear. His hot breath making the hairs on my neck itch.
“Get off me,” I said, wiping my ear clean.
He chuckled and spat over the edge of the building. I watched the phlegm wobble as it fell down and down and didn’t envy the person who would have to clean the windows where it landed on the side of the pyramid.
“Thirty seconds.” Carl’s voice snapped me out of it.
I pulled out a flexible snake scope camera, plugged in into the tablet, and angled the camera so we could see what was going on without being seen ourselves.
I saw hundreds of people dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos milling around, drinking golden liquid from gold-stemmed glasses and eating nibbles from golden cocktail sticks. It was like watching the party on a TV screen. I zoomed the picture in on a woman standing in the middle of the room. She seemed to be telling a very dramatic story, while everyone around her hung on her every word. Frankie Goodwin. Frank Anderson. Whatever her name was. Soon enough they’d see her for who she really was. And her kids too. They were all here, as I had expected. I zoomed the camera in even more on Ella. Her face looked red and blotchy, like she’d been crying.
Aubrey made a small cough, and I pulled the picture back out to see the whole party.
Zac and Rosalie drifted into view. They were ready to do their thing.
“You… you…!” Rosalie’s voice drifted up from the floor below. She threw her glass of champagne into Zac’s face.
“What’s that for?” he shouted back, wiping his face clean.
“You know what for,” Rosalie screeched. “You made me believe your lies. I would have done anything for you.” I wondered how much of this was for show, and how much was true.
An explosion stopped their argument in its tracks. I looked down onto the streets below to see a car in flames.
“CP’s bang on time,” I said.
Seconds later I heard a crash from beneath us. I looked back to the screen to see Rosalie hurl a glass toward Zac’s head, hitting the wall behind him.
“You bastard,” she bellowed. “You cheating bastard.”
“Can you blame me? You stuck-up bitch,” Zac roared in return.
All of the party guests had stopped to look at them. In the background, I could just about see men I assumed were security guards moving around the edges and heading for the lifts.
“And so the games begin.”
I put down the tablet and pulled a rope out of my rucksack. I went to wrap it around my waist.
“I’ll go first,” Aubrey said, taking the rope off me. “Then you can lower me down. Him, I don’t trust.”
Benjo had picked up the tablet and was angling the camera so it focused on the buffet table. “Good idea,” I said.
I wrapped the rope around her waist, taking the chance to breathe in her vanilla smell. There was nothing more I wanted than to bury my head in her hair. Before I had a chance, she clambered onto the rails of the balcony and leaped off the edge. A second later, the rope went taut and she hung just a few feet off the floor of the balcony below. I guided the rope through my hands and lowered her the rest of the way.
I leaned over to see her untie the rope and squat down by the doorway.
“Are you sure you can Fix her from up here?” I asked Benjo, pulling the rope back up and wrapping it around myself. “You don’t need to have eye contact?”
“I just need to be able to see her. So, keep her on this side of the room.”
“And you’re sure you won’t Fix us all. Only Frankie and her kids?”
“Scott, the difference between us is that I’ve had years to hone my skills. I am like a surgeon.”
That brought back unwanted images of Benjo cutting into brains. I shuddered. “And remember, I still have the phone. One button and that bomb will tear a hole in your stomach.”
“What, this bomb?” he said, holding out his palm. On it sat the silver cortex bomb.
“But… You swallowed it.”
“Oh, Scott,” he sighed. “You really are a stupid boy who believes far too easily.”
I stood there, unsure of what to do. This whole time, I thought I had Benjo on a leash, that he was following after us because I could kill him on command. But now, it turned out he’d been free the whole time. He could have done anything he wanted. So why hadn’t he?
“Don’t look so worried, Scott. I will still hold up my end of the bargain. And it’s not like you’d have ever been able to push that button anyway. You’re not a killer. I know.” He leant forward so his nose was only inches away from mine. “It takes one to know one.”
Only problem was, I needed him. I handed him the rope. “OK.”
He looked at it in his hands, considering it for a moment. Then his sagging fists clenched around it and he pulled it tight. “You know I would love to wrap this around your neck and snap!”
“You could. And then what? You escape and spend your last days hiding in damp buildings eating rats?”
“After spending a day in one of ARES’ cells, I’m not sure that would be such a bad fate after all.”
“You help me get out of this alive, and I’ll make sure you get buried like I promised. Not chopped up into little pieces and experimented on. Because I promise you, if you cross me, that is what will happen to you. I’ll make sure of it. Carl?”
“I’m here,” Carl’s voice said in my ear.
“You picking up the tracker OK?”
“Yep, it’s beeping away quite nicely.”
“What tracker?” Benjo asked.
“The one I hid in a marshmallow. I’m not that stupid, Benjo. So, if you do anything but be helpful tonight, Carl’s going to send every member of ARES after you with the precise instructions of handing you over to the docs to use you as a lab rat. They won’t even bother waiting till you’re dead before they start drilling into your skull. Do we understand each other?”
The rope in his hands went loose. “Come on then. I’m hungry.”
I slowly lowered myself over the edge of the balcony until I was hanging in the air, reliant on Benjo seeing me safely down. When my feet landed on the slippery surface of the balcony below I looked up and saw Benjo’s drooping face gazing down at me. I gave him one last warning look and then joined Aubrey over by a large potted plant.
“Rosalie is really going for it,” she said.
Inside, Rosalie was throwing golden cocktail sticks at Zac’s head, while waiting staff tried to calm her down. One of them pulled her arm aside and she spun around and gave him a slap so loud the whole room of people gasped.
“Someone get security,” a woman yelled.
Just then there was a second explosion from below, louder this time and all the guests flinched as they heard it.