The Adjusters (38 page)

Fox took a glance round. Suddenly she couldn’t hear Trooper Dan’s movements any more. She looked back at the machine, which was still charging.
Come on!

There was a footstep to her right. Trooper Dan leaped out from behind the vat of brains.

“Gotcha!”

Fox staggered back as he approached, slashing the claw at her. She backed up against the wall. There was nowhere left to go. Desperately, she reached round for something to use as a
weapon… Her hand brushed a shelf of jars and she picked one up blindly, throwing it at the cop as he ran at her…

Trooper Dan screamed as the jar smashed, clear liquid splashing the right side of his face and instantly starting to burn through his skin. Shocked, Fox looked up at the shelf – the jars
were labelled
hydrochloric acid
. The cop went down on one knee, pawing at his face with his good hand. He screamed.

Not wasting her chance, Fox ran for the defibrillator. He reached out and grabbed her leg as she passed. Fox went down hard on the floor and then Trooper Dan was on top of her. The side of his
face where the acid had hit was red raw and giving off a chemical smoke as the liquid ate through his skin. He took Fox by the shoulders and slammed her against the tiled floor. She gasped as the
blow knocked the air from her lungs, and pain exploded up her spine. Then the cop lifted her like she weighed nothing and threw her down on the top of a gurney near the brains’ vat.

“Don’t you move,” Trooper Dan spat. His voice was slurred now, as if some of the acid had eaten into his mouth and tongue. Fox lay helpless on the gurney, too stunned at that
moment to do anything. She looked round at her attacker and recoiled in shock and disgust – it was like the right side of his face was made of wax that had been melted with a blowtorch.

“Please,” she said. “You need a doctor.”

Trooper Dan actually smiled, revealing his molars through a hole in his cheek. “Yuh thunk am gunna need sum plustic surgry, huh?” He looked around, eyes falling upon a tray of
surgical equipment. He grabbed it and threw it down on the trolley beside Fox. She tried to sit up, but he forced her down with his claw hand, the metal talons digging into her flesh so that she
cried out.

“Stuy stull,” he ordered, running his good hand over the scalpels in the tray. “Thus ain’t gunna hurt a bit…”

“Don’t do this,” Fox begged, trying to squirm away. “We know what Mallory did to you. He adjusted you like all the others. Made you crazy…”

Trooper Dan smiled as he picked up a cranial saw from the tray. “Crazy,” he repeated as he flicked the button on the side. The metal blade began to spin. He moved it towards her
skull…

“No!” Fox cried, grabbing his wrist and pushing him back with all her might.

“Iz okay,” Trooper Dan said, pressing down. “Juz wunna see whut yuh brain luks like…”

Fox tried to push him away, but he was just too strong. The spinning blade came closer and closer to her skull…

Desperately, she reached down with her free hand and found the metal claw they’d placed on his wounded arm. She closed her fingers around the metal and wrenched it free with all her might.
Trooper Dan howled as the prosthesis was ripped away from his hand. He staggered back. The cranial saw dropped, still spinning, from his fingers and started grinding against the tiles. As he
reached for her again, Fox slashed at him with the metal claw. It made contact with his neck, and stuck there. The cop fell back, clutching at his throat.

Rolling off the trolley, Fox staggered towards the defibrillator, aware that the big man was rising behind her. Nothing kept him down for long. Snatching up a paddle in each hand, she spun round
in time to see him flying at her…arms flailing…the claw still sticking out from his bloody neck…

Fox threw out her hands instinctively. As Trooper Dan’s chest connected with the paddles she pressed the trigger on each. There was a whine as the electricity was released…

The cop flew back as if he’d been hit with a wrecking ball… He hit the floor of the lab and lay there on his back…gave a final violent twitch…. And then lay still.

For a second Fox stood motionless as the defibrillator recharge hummed. She dropped the paddles and fell to her knees, every part of her body shaking. She gazed in horror and relief at Trooper
Dan’s body, and noticed that smoke was rising from it.

With great effort, she moved to stand in front of the fallen cop. Somehow, lying out on the floor, he looked even bigger than when he was standing up. His previously blue eyes were wide open,
but they’d been fried white by the electricity that had coursed through his brain and blasted his implant.

There was a strangely peaceful look on his face.

She reached down and retrieved the lab keys from his pocket, then headed out to find the others.

Henry drove the Hummer up the medical centre driveway at full speed, not stopping for a buggy that had jackknifed in the entrance. He simply ran over it, obliterating it
completely.

The last of the doctors were making a run for it. Henry ignored them as he brought the beast of a vehicle to a screeching halt on the gravel and jumped from the cab – they’d be
rounded up eventually, he hoped. He was only interested in his friends and his mom. Having seen most of them on the monitor in the substation, he guessed they were probably still inside. Christian
was surely being held in the complex somewhere too, most likely well away from the effects of Henry’s message, adjusted and completely at Malcorp’s mercy. Henry had to shut down his
SPIDIR, just like he had with Gabrielle and Blake.

“Henry!” a familiar voice called from the side of the building.

He looked round to see Coach Tyler and Mary Layton hiding in the shadows. He ran over to join them.

“The whole place has gone nuts!” the coach said. “Mallory’s got a bunch of killers dressed as security guards taking out all the doctors. We decided to hide it
out.”

“Where’s my mom?” Henry asked.

“Mallory took her hostage,” Mary answered. “And my daughter is still in the building. That cop is after her.”

Henry weighed up his options and came to a difficult decision. “Get her to the Hummer,” he ordered the coach, who looked like he was barely able to walk himself. “I’m
going after Fox.”

“Be careful, kid,” the coach said as he started manoeuvring the wheelchair to the vehicle.

Henry ran to the main doors and into the familiar foyer…except now the place was filled with the stench of burning. And the floor was littered with the dead bodies of doctors. He took in
the shocking scene and ran for the security door. As he got there it opened and he tensed, ready to face one of Mallory’s killers…

It was Fox. She looked as if she could barely stand, staggering towards him… Henry caught her in his arms.

“It’s okay,” he said as she clung to him, a sob racking her body. “I’ve got you.”

She mumbled, “Trooper Dan…”

Henry looked past her towards the security door. “Is he…?”

“I think I’ve killed him,” she said flatly, pulling away and looking him in the eyes.

Henry placed his hands on her shoulders. She was clearly in shock. “You did what you had to do,” he said. “Now we have to get out of here. Okay?”

Fox looked at him blankly for a second, but then her eyes focused. “My mom…”

“Is waiting for us,” Henry said, taking her hand and leading her across the foyer.

They hurried out of the building and Henry put Fox in the passenger side of the Hummer, before running round to take the driver’s seat. “I’ll come back for Christian once
I’m certain you’re all safe. And what about my mom – where did Mallory take her?” Henry asked as he fired up the engine.

“We overheard his men saying something about a helicopter,” Mary said from the back.

“There’s a helipad on the east side of the complex.” The coach pointed to the left through the window. “That way.”

“Strap yourselves in,” Henry said as he put the car in drive. “This could get bumpy.”

The Hummer tore away with a screech of gravel, just as a guard with a machine gun exploded from the foyer of the medical centre.

“Everyone down!” Henry cried as bullets strafed the windshield. Rather than trying to avoid their attacker, he swerved the Hummer towards the man, clipping him with the boxy front of
the vehicle. The guard flew back and smashed against the wall of the centre. Henry drove on.

It seemed every building in the Malcorp complex was on fire. Henry had ordered the adjusted kids to destroy everything. And they had certainly done that. Now the kids and their families were
standing around in the open spaces between the buildings, looking dazed or huddling together for protection. They were like refugees from some war.
So much for
Mallory’s vision,
Henry thought grimly as he steered the Hummer around them, the heel of his palm on the horn.

“Over there,” the coach said, pointing towards a raised area set away from the buildings up ahead. The early-morning mist had cleared now, and the helicopter sat on the helipad for
all to see, its rotor blades turning slowly as if gearing up for flight. Henry put his foot on the gas, heading straight for it. He wondered what would happen if he drove the Hummer right into the
tail of the machine…

“Take it easy, kid,” the coach warned. “Mallory’s got your mom, remember.”

Henry eased off as they came close, hitting the brake to bring the giant vehicle to a skidding halt at the edge of the helipad.

“I don’t see any guards,” Henry said, peering through the windshield, hoping to glimpse his mom.

“It’s Christian!” Fox exclaimed, pointing to the front of the chopper. Sure enough, Henry saw his friend sitting in the cockpit, one hand on the joystick, staring ahead
blankly. Fox reached for the door handle, but Henry stopped her.

“It looks like he’s still under Mallory’s control,” he said. Two figures appeared round the back of the helicopter: Mallory and Jennifer Ward. The man turned and Henry
saw the gun he had pressed into his mom’s back. Mallory made a beckoning gesture with his free hand.

“What’s he want?” Fox asked.

Henry took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “He wants me to go out there.”

Fox shook her head. “Don’t be crazy. He’ll kill you!”

“Maybe,” Henry said, half opening his door. “But this has to end somehow.”

As he started to get out, Fox reached over and grabbed his arm. “Be careful, Ward!”

He gave her what he hoped looked like a confident grin. “Get behind the wheel. If he starts shooting, get out of here.”

Fox nodded and slid into the driver’s seat as Henry stepped out of the Hummer.

It was a cold, still morning now. The part of the compound in which the helipad was situated was quiet apart from the thrum of the chopper blades speeding up. On leaden legs, Henry walked
towards the helicopter. As he approached, Mallory grabbed Jennifer and moved from under the blades.

“I could have left five minutes ago,” Mallory shouted above the noise. Jennifer struggled against him, but he jabbed her in the side with the automatic.

“Why didn’t you?” Henry asked, knowing this was what Mallory wanted. He met his mom’s eyes for a moment, and she managed a twitch of a smile to show she was okay.

“I wanted to see you one more time, Henry,” Mallory said, “to have words with the kid who wouldn’t play ball.”

“It’s over, Mr. Mallory,” he said. “The complex is destroyed. The authorities are on their way. Everyone’s going to know what you’ve been doing
here.”

Mallory let out a roaring laugh. “You think this is the end? You haven’t destroyed anything, just put me back a little. In a month I’ll have a new face and a new set-up twice
as good as this place! There are plenty of countries begging me to give them my technology.”

“Plenty of dictatorships, you mean,” Jennifer said, trying to pull away from him.

Mallory shook his head and held her tighter. “Don’t be so naïve. There isn’t a country in the western world that wouldn’t kill for the control I can offer.
Adjustment is going to work and it’s going to make the world a much happier, simpler place.”

“Just as long as you’re one of the people pulling the strings,” Henry said.

Mallory sneered at him. “There are two types of people in this world, kid: the controllers and the controlled. Look at you. You’ve caused all this destruction and what have you
really achieved? But me? I’ve got your mom. With a little adjustment, I think she’s going to be very happy as the new Mrs. Mallory…”

Jennifer jerked her head round at him. “In your dreams.”

Mallory laughed. “Oh, you will learn to love me.” He looked back at Henry. “And I’ve got my new son, Christian. A son who’ll never let me down. Not like the
others.”

Henry slowly began to move towards Mallory, hoping he was too caught up in his monologue to notice.
If he could just get the gun…

Mallory continued, “We’re going to be one big happy family, Henry. But I’m afraid there’s no place for you at the table. You just don’t fit in…” He
whipped the gun round so it was pointing at Henry’s head. “That’s close enough!”

Henry froze and raised his hands to chest height.