The Rainbow Maker's Tale (41 page)

* * *

The door to my room slammed
open – I’m not sure when I’d begun thinking of it as
my
room, but that seemed to fit – and three men entered. All of them
wore the same black day-suits as the ones from the apartment. In
fact, as my eyes focused on the man in the centre of the group, I
recognised him as the leader who’d injected me with the
sedative.

“Hey,” I said, with a half-wave
of my hand. With no real idea of what was going on, or what might
actually happen to me, I had few words to share. I didn’t even
bother standing up from the corner where I’d settled.

The group paused a few paces
away. I thought the two unfamiliar men looked a little nervous. Not
the one in the middle: he looked…odd. A strange mixture of anger
and excitement coloured his features. I was so accustomed to adults
with impassive, near-emotionless faces, that seeing someone
agitated in this way was unusual. I won’t lie: it unnerved me.

“Where I am? What am I doing
here?” I asked, directing my question at the man who was obviously
in charge. With some effort I was able to keep the fear I felt from
leaking into my voice.

“It’s not a time for questions,
Balik – not yours anyway – we’ll be taking you elsewhere for
an…
interview
…shortly.”

My heart sank at his words. The
way he said it did not make an
interview
sound like a good
thing.

“Where am I – why am I
here?”

No one answered me and in those
few, short seconds, I felt a shift in the atmosphere. I didn’t want
to sit any more: it felt wrong to be looking up at the men from a
position of weakness. Tipping myself forwards I intended to get to
my feet, but that never happened.

The man who’d been speaking
leapt at me, grabbing me roughly by the shoulders. I have no idea
how it was possible, but he managed to clamp my arms to my sides
immobilising me, at the same time as dragging me to my feet. His
strength was abnormal. It was terrifying.

Caught off guard by the sudden
attack, I didn’t even try to fight back. They had me where they
wanted me – wherever that might be – I just hadn’t expected more
violence. It wasn’t necessary.

“What’s the matter, boy – no
fancy kicks and punches now?”

His face was inches from mine,
words sneering and filled with contempt. I struggled hard, hoping
to break his grip on me, but it was useless.

“I’ve not lost anyone in
years!” He growled, pulling me closer, squeezing me even tighter.
“And then you come along – a little genetic freak throw-back – and
with a lucky blow take out one of us.”

I opened my mouth to speak and
then closed it. I had nothing to say.

His voice became a whispered
hiss. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to me…and then
you’ll tell us where your friend is hiding.”

For the first time since the
men entered, I’d found out something useful. Cassie must still be
out there: if they hadn’t found her, that could only be a good
thing, couldn’t it?

He let go of me so suddenly
that I fell backwards onto the floor, hitting my head, hard,
against the wall behind me. The commander – that’s how I thought of
him now – straightened up, a small smile twitching at his lips, and
headed out of the room.

“Make sure he does as he’s
told,” he ordered the two guards he left behind. His words were
spoken aloud for my benefit, not theirs – he was threatening
me.

* * *

It was obviously time for my
interview.

The door slid open, two men
entered and the door closed behind them. Now, I stood as soon as
they appeared, knowing that I couldn’t afford to put myself in a
position of weakness again. With my back pressed into the wall I
waited, and watched them.

The two men hovered by the
door. Both looked small and weak, but I knew that meant nothing.
They were inhumanly strong, these creatures. I’d learned quickly,
but not fast enough to protect myself back at the apartment. Now it
was different: I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by
fighting back. And, even better, knowing that everyone has a
weakness, I was sure that I had guessed theirs.

Waiting for them to come back,
I’d had time to think about the commander: what he’d said and how
he acted. His unconcealed violence, in front of his men, told me
that I was not safe here. I hadn’t been able to fully work out what
being
a genetic throw-back
meant, although I suspected it
had to do with my aggressive behaviour.

What I realised was that he
sounded most angry when he talked about
losing someone
. I
could only assume that I’d killed, or severely injured, the man
that had gone down in the apartment when I hit him across the
throat.

A lucky blow
, the
commander had called it. Ironic that he would use that word given
our society’s preference for logic and reason over luck…but I
believed he was right, it was lucky – for me – in more ways than he
might have guessed.

I had already decided to fight.
They were still looking for Cassie and perhaps distracting them by
causing trouble here was the best assistance I could give her. It
scared me that I might not be concealing my thoughts any longer and
didn’t want them inside my head.

What better way to stop them
wanting to talk to me, than making them want to hit me?

When I put it in words, it
sounded like a terrible idea, but it was the best I had and anyway,
I suspected that being thrown around by the commander had been just
the beginning…attacking might be my best defence.

My attention flicked back to
the two men. They remained close to the door, although one had
moved forward a little way into the room. He was closer to me. Just
as before, I detected fear. It was in the way they stood,
baton-like weapons clutched tightly into shaking hands. It was in
the way their eyes followed my casual, minute movements as if I
might explode at any second. I wondered again about being a genetic
throw-back: perhaps they hadn’t seen anyone like me in a long time,
perhaps they weren’t prepared for me.

“How are we gentleman?” I
offered a cordial smile with my words, which neither man returned.
“I believe it must be time for my interview.”

Ignoring my last remark, the
man closest to me took another step forward, his colleague by the
door copying him a moment later.

“You are to come with us. There
is another room for you to be interviewed in.” The man at the back
spoke with stilted words.

“That sounds jolly.” I pushed
myself away from the wall.

“Don’t move any further!” The
man closest blurted out, his stick rising.

“You don’t have to be nervous,”
I told him, fixing my eyes onto his, “I’d just like to talk to you
before we go.”

“We are just here–“

He didn’t get chance to finish
what he was saying because that was when I leapt. Instead of moving
forward to help him, his partner panicked and moved back towards
the door, shaking his baton a little higher, but nothing more than
that.

Circling the first man, who was
now in the middle of the room, a sense of power filled my chest.
“Don’t you want to talk to me?” I goaded him. “I thought you wanted
to talk to me… to ask me questions.” I felt like a predator,
playing with a helpless animal. But I had to remember, he wasn’t
weak…scared, yes…but not weak. I would have to be fast to take him
down, like I intended.

He watched with wary eyes, his
weapon pointed straight out towards my chest – his hands still
shaking. The room was quiet for a short moment – fear and
indecision hanging in the air as if it had frozen there. That’s
when I attacked.

Everything moved at once. His
arms and weapon flurried ineffectually in the air as I dived
towards him. Two gentle popping sounds accompanied a breeze-like
sensation passing by my arm and head, and I guessed that his weapon
must have fired some sort of shot. Thankfully it missed.

Spinning to the side I avoided
my target’s arm as he brought the weapon around to hit me, and
ducking behind him, I escaped the series of shots that his
colleague fired from the doorway. Each of the blasts – four, I
think – smashed into the guard’s body instead, making him stumble
backwards onto me. He showed no other effect than that from being
hit, though I was sure it would not have been the case if the shots
had hit me.

Keeping the man’s body between
me and his partner, I landed swift punches to the soft area in his
back over his kidneys. But there was no soft area – just as I
suspected – and I realised there was only one way to end this, as I
wanted.

My chance came as the
struggling man tried to throw me off his back, where I’d fixed
myself, holding on tight to the material of his suit. He swung his
arm too wide and high to do anything productive, but I was able to
slide my arm under his and lock it around the back of his neck.

Still trying to dislodge me and
provide his colleague a clear target, he stepped from side-to-side.
I pulled back with all my weight, using the only real weapon I had
against his strength. It slowed his movements enough that I
remained behind him, blocked from view. With a final surge of
effort, I grunted a deep breath of air as I pulled myself higher on
his back, and drew back my free hand.

“Shoot him now!” He screamed.
It was too late for him and he knew it.

Maybe he thought speaking aloud
might stop me?

It wouldn’t, but he might have
thought it. No. My target was clear – the man’s throat was exposed
– and with a final glance at his companion, I pounded my fist into
the soft hollow of his neck.

The effect was immediate and
conclusive. As my knuckles made contact with the only yielding part
of the man, his body crumpled to the floor. I landed heavily on top
of him, jarring myself but struggling immediately to untangle my
arm from beneath the deflated figure. A second or so later I was on
my feet, ready for the next attack. But it didn’t come: the man by
the door was frozen in place.

Shock.

I realised this at the same
time I grasped that I had been right: the weak spot in the neck was
key. I might not know why, but I knew it was. And, the reaction of
the other guard told me that this did not happen normally.

Even though the man at the door
had not moved, it slid open silently. With a gut-wrenching screech
of rage, the commander burst into the room, diving straight for me.
Spurred by anger and with speed and strength I couldn’t match he
grappled me to the ground and landed a volley of punches to my head
and stomach. The best I could do was lift my arms to shield my
head; there was no way for me to fight back.

“How did you do it, you
freak?!” His blows rained down on me, punctuating his words. “This
– isn’t – right!”

Finally, he let me go. I rolled
onto my side, thinking to stand up, but I was too disoriented. My
arms remained over my face and I felt warm wet trickling across my
fingers; it could only have been blood. Breath wheezed from my
chest and I wondered whether he might have just broken my ribs. It
seemed likely.

The room remained quiet, but I
knew both men were still there: shuffling feet, then a thump as
something hit a wall. Beneath my arm I opened my eye to see. One
was already swelling shut with bruising, so I couldn’t see well,
but I saw that I was alone with the commander now. Perhaps the
noise I’d heard had been him throwing the other man out.

“How did you do it?” He asked,
barely concealing the fury in his voice.

I closed my eyes again. I
didn’t want to talk to this
creature
. I had no idea what was
wrong with them, but I couldn’t believe that we were both the same.
It was impossible to believe that we were both human.

“YOU WILL ANSWER ME!”

The weight of his body was on
top of me in an instant, ripping my arms away from my face and
forcing me to look at him.

“How are you doing this? How
are you blocking us out? It isn’t possible!”

I shook my head, not daring to
speak. Not daring to hope that somehow, however impossible it might
seem, he couldn’t read my thoughts.

“Answer me!”

His hand slapped into my cheek,
stinging but not stirring me to respond.

“There is something wrong with
you. You are not like the others – how can that be?”

Leaning away from me, he
scrutinised my face as he sneered his question through clenched
teeth. Again I stayed silent; it felt like he was talking more to
himself than me.

“None are violent now. No one
questions our setting or rules – so why do you?”

“I like working things out.” I
replied, tasting blood in my mouth.

“And my men,” he asked, his
voice growing soft, “how did you
work that out
?”

I couldn’t help myself – I had
to gloat, he’d told me it himself. “I don’t know, a
lucky
throw
, I guess.”

Realisation registered on his
face as my words sank in, his features twisting into a mask of
fury. Without a word the commander yanked me forwards, rolling me
towards him so that I could see his face as he pulled his fist back
and swung. This time the pain blossomed bright and red inside my
head, the blow finding its mark. When the red faded to black, I
slipped gratefully into the darkness.

* * *

I looked from one face to
another – the
men
were bland duplicates of one another and I
found them completely lacking, now that I had decided they were not
human. One of them nodded encouragingly, offering me a half-smile,
like he fully expected me to turn Cassie in.
They
knew
nothing at all.

Their commander was completely
different. There was something more deadly – more human? – about
him. Even though I hated to admit it to myself, his volatility and
emotions made him seem different to the others I had seen.