That explained why the group at this table had cleared off. “What’s a Spotter?”
“We spot Shifters. Sense their power and then hand their arse over to the Regulators for processing.”
I put my drink down and looked at her as she gazed out across the room, her face now expressionless. Beneath the makeup and without her wry smile she did look young. Too young to be making what sounded like life and death decisions. “So why didn’t you hand me over?”
I notice that her pale cheeks flushed a little pink. She stared into her drink and refused to meet my eyes.
“I guess I felt sorry for you. You clearly didn’t have a clue what was going on. Although I’m not sure the Regulators would believe that. I’ve never heard of an unregistered Shifter as old as you. Someone your age, Shifting without a licence, they’ll probably think you’re a rogue.”
“Rogue?”
“Unregistered Shifters. Those who manage to stay one step ahead of ARES. But they’re normally really powerful and really clever.” She peered at me over the rim of her glass. Her expression made it clear she thought I was neither.
I swallowed. “And what do ARES do to rogues?”
“Depends. Sometimes they let them go with a warning. Other times they lock them up until entropy sets in.”
Just when I thought I was getting a grip on it all, I’d lost the thread again. “What now?”
“The ability to Shift fades when you’re about nineteen, twenty maybe. We call it entropy.”
“Hang on.” I choked on a mouthful of my drink. “You’re telling me only kids can have this Shifty power?”
She nodded. “Sure. It’s something to do with the shape of our brains.” She tapped her temple. “The teenage brain is different to adults’. Besides, have you ever met an adult who could change their mind on anything?”
I had to agree with her on that one. I scanned the room, noticing properly for the first time that there were no adults in here apart from the grumpy barman. The oldest person had to be twenty, tops.
“Is everyone here a Shifter?” I asked.
“Most. This is a place where we can come and just relax. Play games without getting in trouble. It’s officially unofficial, and if any member of ARES got caught here, we’d be in trouble. But mostly the agency turns a blind eye as it allows kids to learn skills they’re not allowed to teach them.”
“Like what?”
“Cheating mostly. It comes in handy, believe me. And it’s not easy, what with the random luck element. So ARES charge Shipley a small licence fee, and pay him a surprise visit every now and then to make sure everything is within set limits and that he’s not creaming the public too much.”
“How does he do that?”
“The games are rigged. Not in here – there’s no point in rigging games with Shifters – but on the other side it’s all controlled. Some of the croupiers are Shifters. And see those kids with the headsets?”
I glanced over to where the three boys were watching the TV screens. “Yeah.”
“They’re telling the plants what to play. Only if the cards don’t go their way, they Shift and tell them to play a different hand.”
“But isn’t that unfair?”
She laughed. “Why do you look so surprised? Do you think any casino in the world is fair? No way. The House always wins. Here, Shipley just brings in some extra skills to make sure of it.”
“So Shipley is a Shifter? But I thought you said only kids could do it.”
“He was a Shifter. One of ARES’ best. But after entropy, he left and set this place up. It’s kind of sad. I think he misses having the power.”
“Hey, I’m not surprised. I mean, having total control over your life. It’s so cool.”
“It really isn’t,” Aubrey said, unconvincingly. “And it’s not total control. For a start, if you come up against someone stronger, and you try and make a Shift that they don’t like, you’re stuck in their version of reality.”
I rubbed my face, trying to take this all in. Aubrey was bombarding me with this stuff like she was explaining why two plus two equals four to a toddler. I’d never felt so stupid in my life. “So you don’t always have control over your reality?” I said, trying to keep up.
“Not always. See those two?” She nodded to a guy and girl sat alone at a card table. Other kids stood around them, watching the game.
“What about them?”
“Watch.”
I did. They didn’t do anything. They just stared at each other like they were playing that not-blinking game Katie and I used to play. “They’re not doing anything.”
“They’re trying to force their Shift. They’re pretty equally matched. But the more powerful of them will see their version become reality.”
I stared longer and I don’t know if it was the drink kicking in, or if I really needed to get my eyes tested, but I thought I saw ripples coming out from each of them, as if someone had dropped a stone in a pond. Where the ripples met, they repelled each other, bouncing back and creating more ripples. I sensed rather than saw the cards fall and it was over. The boy jumped up and punched the air in triumph.
“You might think you’re all master-of-your-owndestiny and whatever,” Aubrey said. “But really, you’re caught up in a huge game of Top Trumps. The stronger Shifter, the person with more focus, more willpower, will always win. As long as your choices don’t affect another Shifter’s plans, then you’ll be fine. But if you go up against them and try and create a reality that’s out of step with theirs. Well…” Aubrey shrugged and didn’t bother finishing.
“So, let me get this straight,” I said. “There’s this weird quantum power that only some people have. Only some kids to be exact. Although some are more powerful at it than others. And there’s a secret government unit that controls it all and if I’m not careful I’ll be banged up quicker than I can say Scrotum’s cat.”
“Schrödinger’s cat. But yes, that about sums it up.”
I reached for the drink and downed it.
Two more drinks arrived out of nowhere. Aubrey ignored hers and scanned the room. I guess she was giving me time to let it all sink in. And I needed it. Within five minutes, I’d been told I had the power to change reality and, whether I believed it or not, it was probably going to get me thrown in jail. Normally, in comic books and films and what have you, when people are told they’re special they always say they somehow knew – that they had a sense they were destined for something big. Well not me. I’d always believed I was perfectly normal, destined for nothing more exciting than your bog standard A-Levels, mid-league university, followed by dull desk job. And it wasn’t that I minded being normal. It was comforting. Safe. I sipped at my drink feeling depressed.
“Damn,” Aubrey said, her eyes widening. She clenched the side of the table so hard her knuckles went white.
“What?”
“They’re here.”
I looked around trying to see who “they” were and why they were upsetting her so much. My heart pounded. Had the mysterious ARES tracked me down?
A group of young men wound their way through the tables, pausing to check out the games. I caught the buzz of excitement their presence was causing.
“Are they with ARES too?” I asked, starting to wonder if everyone at ARES was impossibly cool. These guys looked as if they’d just stepped off the pages of one of those fashion magazines that are so trendy they don’t even bother with a name; all expensive leather jackets and artfully torn jeans.
“No way. They hate ARES. They call themselves the SLF.”
“Are they a band or something?”
“More like a gang. Although they like to think of themselves as a resistance group. SLF stands for Shifter Liberation Front. The prats. They spout all this antiARES propaganda, about how Shifters should be free, to do what they want to do, yadda yadda yadda.” Aubrey hadn’t taken her eyes off the leading member. He had draped a leather-covered arm over the shoulder of a girl with bright pink hair. She giggled and stumbled after him. He led the girl and rest of his gang over to a huddle of sofas on the other side of the room.
“Who’s he?”
“Zac. Their self-appointed leader.” Aubrey watched them stride past with an expression that I really hoped was hatred given how good-looking they all were. Especially Zac. He made Seb Cartwright look like a trainspotter.
“And they’re all Shifters?”
“Only Zac and the ape-looking guy with him, I think. The other three are wannabes. You get them a lot.”
“Wannabes?”
“Kids who find out about Shifting from siblings or hunt down rumours on the net. They seem to think if they hang around with us they’ll be given the power too. Like vampires or something. Idiots. Once they find out you have to keep them sweet so they don’t tell. Although, who would believe them if they did?” Aubrey didn’t take her eyes of Zac as she spoke. I gave up trying to think of something to say to distract her and finished my second drink. I’d stopped being able to taste it, which probably wasn’t a good sign.
The girl with the pink hair started nibbling at Zac’s throat. He stopped her, leant over and started whispering in her ear. Aubrey flexed in her seat, as if trying to stop herself from moving.
While still whispering in the girl’s ear, Zac reached out a hand and one of the other boys passed over a thing like a skeletal hand made from plastic. Wires trailed from each of the fingers into a small black cube. Zac placed it on the seat between him and the girl. He brushed her fringe away and fitted the thing over her head so the three points touched the centre of her forehead and either temple.
I wasn’t sure if it was Aubrey’s reaction, or something in the girl’s nervous expression, but I felt very uncomfortable. “Is he supposed to be doing that?”
“No.”
“Shouldn’t you call ARES?” I asked.
Aubrey didn’t answer.
Zac reached inside his jacket and pulled out a syringe. The girl rolled up her sleeve and presented him with her pale arm. I couldn’t believe this was going on in full view of everyone. I tried to get the barman’s attention, wondering when someone was going to stop them.
Aubrey jumped out of her seat so fast she knocked her drink over, spilling it all over my lap. It was freezing.
“Come on,” she said.
I brushed the cubes of ice away and stood up. The room span and my knees felt as if they were made of jelly. I couldn’t get my legs to work. “I can’t feel my lips,” I said.
Aubrey rolled her eyes and yanked me out from behind the table. She shoved me in the direction of the sofas and somehow my feet agreed to move.
“So we’re stopping them then?” I asked, slurring slightly.
“Yes.”
“But there are five of them.”
Aubrey ignored me and headed for the SLF. The gorilla guy stood up to block her path. He laid a hand on Aubrey’s shoulder and the world flipped.
They moved in a series of half-finished movements, as if different images had been layered on top of each other. It was like watching two films playing on the same screen at once and it made me feel a little sick. In one layer, Aubrey grabbed the ape’s hand and twisted his arm around his back. In the other he dodged her grab and wrapped his hand around her neck. A new layer appeared as Aubrey’s leg flew up and her boot connected with his face. He spat blood.
Then everything righted itself and the ape’s hand was hovering over Aubrey’s shoulder. He hadn’t even touched her.
That was the first time I saw Shifters fighting. And it’s not something I will ever forget. Both versions of what had just happened struggled to find a place in my muddled brain. Neither seemed to make any sense.
The big guy stepped aside and Aubrey approached Zac. The girl with the pink hair had a strange smile on her face and her eyes were rolling in her head.
“Unplug her,” Aubrey said.
“Aubrey, it’s good to see you,” Zac said and he sounded genuine. His sharp features went soft and he leant forward as if trying to distance himself from the girl drooling next to him.
“Unplug her.”
“You’re looking especially fine, Brey. Although blue never was your colour.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re still with them. I always thought you’d be the first to go.”
“Did you hear what I said?”
Zac glanced at the girl. “She’s in deep. Unplug her now and I won’t be responsible for the fallout.”
“ARES will be here in five minutes.”
Zac twitched and then gathered himself. “The stims aren’t against the rules. But as far as I remember a Bluecoat being seen in a place like this was.”
“You let me worry about that. You’ll be busy worrying about spending the next seven years in prison. By the time they let you out, entropy will have set in.”
“Entropy? Come off it, Aubrey. You of all people know what I think about entropy,” he said and smiled, his perfect white teeth flashing. There was something about that smile. Something knowing.
Aubrey tilted her head, considering him. Then snapped back to centre. “You’ve got five minutes,” she said, holding up five fingers.
“Come on, Aubrey,” Zac said. “You should give it a go. Are you telling me there’s no choice you were too frightened to make? Nothing you wished you’d tried, but didn’t want to get caught? No guy you wished you’d…?” He raised a suggestive eyebrow.
Aubrey’s eyes tightened. If that had been me under her stare I’d have wanted to crawl away. But Zac met her head on. “It’s not real,” she said. Which wasn’t exactly the same thing as saying no.
“It’s as real as it gets.”
“So is that some kind of virtual reality thing then?” I said, pointing at the wires entwining with the girl’s hair.
“Nothing virtual about it, my friend,” Zac said, not taking his eyes off Aubrey. “It’s reality I’m offering here. Pure and simple. Consequence-free.”
“What you’re offering is a lie,” Aubrey said. “You might think the stimulators work in a closed environment, but there are always consequences. You just don’t know them yet.”
“Looks like your friend would like to give it a go. Looks like he’s so excited he’s pissed himself.”
I peered down at the wet stain on my crotch from where Aubrey had knocked her drink onto my lap. The group laughed and Zac looked slightly ashamed of himself, as if it had been a low shot.
“Four minutes,” Aubrey said, folding her thumb away.