“After the war,” he continued, “the experiments were shut down. But then the Cold War started up. Shifter spies is what they were after this time. And at the end of the Eighties they cracked it. They worked out how to re-ignite the ability to Shift in a full grown adult.”
“How?”
Cain looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t ask that many questions. I was twenty-one and had only been without my power for a couple of years and I missed it, bad. So when I was told I could get it back, I jumped at the chance. We all did.
“All I know is I had an operation and when I woke up, I could Shift. Not as powerful as before, but it was there. And so I was put to work. First in Russia and later in the Middle East and Yugoslavia. Shifting saved my life more times than I can tell you. But I got too cocky. And pushed it too far.” He pointed at his milky eye. “I got this from a land mine in Sarajevo. So I was sent here. To teach. I was made to sign some papers saying I’d never Shift in public.”
“So why do you think they, whoever they are, are killing the men on the project?”
Cain looked over my shoulder and I knew he wasn’t really with me for a moment. He was back there, with his memories. “I saw one guy in Afghanistan who lost it, bad. He started talking about being a god. How the petty humans should bow to him. He killed seven civilians before we could bring him down.”
“Sounds like what happened to the guy on the Tube.”
Cain blinked and looked back at me. “I thought it was just a one-off. The stress of what he’d seen. What we’d been forced to do. But maybe…” He didn’t finish.
“What do you think they want with Aubrey? Do you think they want to make her into a spy?”
Cain shook his head. “She’s too young. We were told only those post-entropy could go through the process. And as far as I know all of us were taken from the military. You said her name was on a list of volunteers? I can’t believe that they would…” He stared back into the distance, lost again in whatever images were haunting him.
“Cain?” I said trying to snap him out of it. “Cain, what are they going to do to her?”
“We may not have much time,” he said suddenly. “And we’re going to need as much help as we can get.” He strode back over to the freshers who’d been sparring the whole time.
“Right class. We’re going on a field trip.”
They all cheered.
Greyfield’s hospital was a red-brick Victorian building. More mental hospital than your modern NHS complex. Cain, the freshers and I had scaled the walls surrounding it, and were now hiding in the bushes, peering through the leaves. Something scrabbled behind us and we all jumped. It was just Jake back from his recce.
“There are two guards on five-minute rotation,” he whispered to the group. They all nodded like they knew what this meant. Which was good because I didn’t have a clue. I hadn’t been keen on Jake or any of the kids coming. But Jake had moaned and said he’d only follow me. Plus, Cain assured me none of them would be in any danger. That job came down to me and him.
“Good job, Jake,” Cain said. “What about cameras?”
“One there and one there,’ Jake said, pointing them out. “And a light sensor about three metres from the front door.”
“OK. Listen up. This is a lesson in evasion. You’re to try to set off that light sensor and then get out of there. You get caught, you Shift. And it’s the next person’s turn. You know the drill. Focus on your decisions. Don’t react…”
“Anticipate,” the group said as one.
“Good, now get out there.”
The first boy, Max, stood up, flexed his fingers and ran.
“They’ll keep the guards busy,” Cain said.
“But if the guards are Shifters?” I said.
“No, they’re just regulars. No problem for these kids.” He smiled and his eyes were huge in the dull light. I was worried he was enjoying this a little too much. I just hoped he didn’t freak out on me and blow up. But he was my only way in. And he wanted to find out what was going on in there as much as I did. After all, his life depended on it.
He crept away and I followed him, trying to keep my body low to the floor. Cain moved like a panther, fluid and strong. He was pure instinct and this was just another of the thousands of missions he’d been on. I was less cat-like, and after five minutes my back was starting to ache.
He stopped suddenly and pressed himself flat up against a wall. I copied him, pushing my cheek into the rough brickwork and instantly regretted going in face first. I coughed as I breathed in a mouthful of dust. I heard footsteps coming towards us and my heart started to pound in my chest. The footsteps came closer and I started to wonder if I could really go through with all of this. I’d had a few months of training and now I was expected to break into some military facility, get past Shifting adults and rescue my friend. The thought of Aubrey washed away all doubt.
I stepped out from the wall and had a second to enjoy the surprised look on the guard’s face. Then a chop to the throat, a side kick to the knee and an elbow to the back of the neck and he was lying face down on the pavement. Out cold.
Cain raised an eyebrow and nodded, looking impressed. High praise indeed. “Hide him in the bushes,” he said then pressed on.
I struggled with the deadweight of the guard, pulling off one of his boots in my attempts to get him out of sight. Eventually I dragged him into the shrubbery and threw a handful of leaves over him.
Cain was peering out from behind a small bush when I caught up with him. Just ahead of us was a door leading into the hospital. An orange glow spilt out of the hatched window creating a pool of light. Cain crept out and headed for the door, clinging to the shadows. He tugged at the door. “Locked,” he mouthed and joined me back behind the bush.
We huddled together, peering through the leaves. “What shall we do?” I said.
“If we force it, we’ll set off the alarms.”
The door clicked and a woman dressed in a white nurse’s uniform walked out carrying a blue bin bag. I dropped to the floor, wishing myself invisible. It seemed impossible that she wouldn’t see us. The nurse opened a dustbin, threw in the bag and walked back through the door, ignoring us completely. I popped my head up to see the soles of her white shoes disappearing through the doorframe. This was my chance. I dived forward and threw out my hand. The metal door closed on my fingers and I had to stop myself from shouting out in pain.
Cain crept up behind me and patted me on the back. When he opened the door I yanked my throbbing fingers away and held them under my armpit. Muttering to myself, I stepped inside the hospital.
It was quiet apart from the soft clicking of heels echoing through the tiled corridors and a gentle bleeping from one of the rooms ahead. Like every hospital it stank of bleach and desperation, as if the decades of pain and death had seeped into the very bricks.
“God, I hate these places,” I said.
In response, Cain pointed to the room ahead and darted forward. I followed him through the door. The room was dark and smelt of mothballs and even more bleach. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a row of large armchairs all facing a wall with a small picture of a boat on it. Three men sat in the chairs, dressed in tatty dressing gowns. They stared at the picture, their eyes hardly focused. I crept up and waved my hand in front of their faces. No reaction.
Cain ignored the comatose men and looked out the doorway. He darted back in as we heard the sounds of footsteps coming closer.
“They’re getting her prepped up on the third floor. She’s dosed up now so shouldn’t be much hassle,” a male voice said.
“I hope not. The little cow bit me you know?” a female voice said. Their chatter faded away down the corridor.
“That sounds like Aubrey,” I said to Cain.
He nodded, took a quick glance out of the door and moved out. I looked back at the dribbling men and moved to the doors. Cain was already at the exit to the stairwell. He waved me forward. A quick check to see no one was around and I ran. The stairs seemed never-ending, spiralling up and up. There were large floor-to-ceiling windows in the stairwell, looking down on the ground below. The trees and bushes grew smaller with each level. I saw a tiny figure below, being chased by a guard. I saw the ripple of a Shift and then the kid was running alone. Nice work, I thought.
Finally we reached the third floor. I listened for sounds and couldn’t hear anything. I pushed the fire door open and entered an identical corridor to the one below. The lights were dimmer here and nothing stirred in the gloom. I stepped into the corridor. My trainers squeaked loudly on the lino floor and I hushed at them to be quiet. Cain too put his fingers to his lips, hushing me. I raised my hands, asking him what I could do. It wasn’t my fault this place was so clean.
I crept on, walking on the tips of my toes, trying to stop the noise. I felt like a burglar from a bad cartoon. All I needed was a stripy shirt and a bag that said
“Swag” on it.
Two blue doors faced each other across the hall. I stopped, focused on my decision and chose the left door. The room held a neat row of four metal-framed beds. In each lay a child, ranging in age from eight to about sixteen. Two of the kids had angry red scars running across their temples and were wide awake, staring at the ceiling. They didn’t react as I walked into the room. Their eyes rolled in their heads and most of them were drooling just like the men we’d seen downstairs.
In the last bed lay a small dark-haired girl. She had a tube coming out of her nose and seemed to be fast asleep. No scar disturbed her pretty features, but even so it took me a moment to recognise her.
“CP?” I said. I stared at the sleeping girl not quite able to believe what I was seeing. She was supposed to be dead. But here she was, tucked up and snoring away. She even had a small teddy bear tucked under her chin. “Mr Cain, it’s CP.” I looked at him, expecting him to run over and share in my astonishment. He was standing at the foot of one of the beds, frozen, watching the child with the dead eyes. Slowly, inch by inch, he raised his hand up to his head and gently stroked his own scar. A mirror of the scar the kid had. The truth behind Project Ganymede was clear.
“I have a daughter, you know?” he said, with a dead voice. “She is so beautiful. So smart, smarter than me. And she has this way of laughing that sounds like bells ringing. Her mother won’t let me see her any more. She says it confuses her now that she has a new Daddy. She’ll be seven next month.” A single tear rolled in a zigzag following the jagged path of his scars.
I watched him wondering if I should say anything. But what can you say to a man who’s just realised the only reason he’d been able to escape war zones and dodge bullets was because someone cut up a kid’s brain and gave a bit to him? I left him to his agony and turned back to CP. I tried shaking her, but she just flopped about and made no response. The tube in her nose was attached to a metal tank standing on the floor. I tugged at it, slowly pulling it out of her nose and waited. A few minutes later she started to stir. Her eyes blinked open and she looked at me, her eyes red and unfocused.
“CP,” I said softly. “It’s me, Scott. I’m going to get you out of here.”
I helped her sit up but she was too weak to stand. So I scooped her up along with her teddy bear and carried her in my arms. She curled herself around me like I was her daddy carrying her to bed.
Cain still hadn’t moved. “Sergeant!” I hissed. He jolted and looked at me. It was the face of a man so utterly broken he was hardly a man any more.
“We have to find Aubrey and the others and get out. There’s nothing we can do for these kids now.”
“Yes, there is.” His voice was cracked.
“What?”
“Revenge.” He looked up and smiled and a shudder went through me.
“Cain, don’t,” I said. But he was beyond hearing me. He was beyond everything now. He turned slowly and headed out of the room. Cain had his job to do, and I had mine.
I readjusted CP’s weight in my arms and walked into the corridor. The door opposite was open a few inches and I pushed it with my foot. The same sight greeted me; a row of lobotomised kids. The last bed was empty, although the ruffled sheets told me that someone had been in it recently. I walked up to the pillow. A bleach-blonde strand of hair lay across the crisp white of the pillowcase. With my spare hand I picked up the pillow and brought it to my face. It smelt of vanilla mixed with smoke.
I was too late. They’d already taken Aubrey in for her operation and she’d end up like these kids. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear this place down around me. I threw the pillow away and squeezed my arms around CP, hoping that if I held on to her it would stop me from crumbling away.
Then I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Aubrey.
I stared at her through foggy eyes. She wore a pale blue nightdress with small white dots on it and had a plastic strip around her wrist, like the ones you get at gigs, although I don’t think this was a tag Aubrey would be keen on wearing for months to come. Her feet were bare and the blue nail varnish had been cleaned off her big toe. Her hair was a mess and the makeup smeared around her eyes made her look like a panda. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Rescuing you,” I said, finding my voice again.
Aubrey laughed. “You idiot. I can look after myself.”
My mouth bobbed open and closed while I tried to think of something to say. I failed. This was not going as I had imagined it. I had planned on being the big hero, storming the castle to save the damsel. I had hoped Aubrey would throw herself into my arms and be forever in my debt. She was right. I was an idiot.
“Who’s that?” Aubrey said, pointing at the girl curled up around my neck.
“This is CP Finn. The fresher girl we thought was dead. I wonder how many other kids have been sent ‘down under’.”
“Cleopatra Finn?” Aubrey asked.
“Cleopatra?” I said. “Her name is Cleopatra?” I looked at the girl in my arms, and couldn’t wait till I could tell the others I’d found out her secret.
“That’s what it said on the nurse’s board. She was scheduled to be operated on today.”