Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island (12 page)

Miss Cake deftly manoeuvred the aircraft over the gently rising and falling deck, easing off on the throttle and allowing the wheels to touch down with hardly a jolt. She turned off the engine. As the rotors spun down, she punched the clasp on her chest, releasing the safety harness. Climbing out of the seat, she reached up and pulled a stun rifle from the rack on the wall behind her pilot's seat. She ducked through the small door at the back of the cockpit and entered the cargo area. On both sides of the helicopter, small square cages lined the bulkheads, making the dark, utilitarian space reminiscent of a dog kennel or an animal experimentation lab. These cages were meant for the children aboard Captain Ironbuttocks's ship. Miss Cake walked briskly down the hallway formed by the lines of cages and joined Mr. Cookie, who nodded and checked his stun rifle. Satisfied, he reached out with one gloved hand and tapped a green button. The door to the helicopter slid open.

Miss Cake and Mr. Cookie leapt down and took up combat stances, scanning the empty deck for any possible threat. A ragged flag fluttered from the broken mast atop the superstructure. Otherwise, nothing stirred. The deck was strewn with the wreckage of the hatch cover.

“Let's check the bridge, Mr. Cookie,” Miss Cake said crisply.

They moved across the deck, one behind the other, Miss Cake holding her rifle ready for any threat from the front while Mr. Cookie walked backwards, keeping his rifle trained on the rear.

“There's been a battle here,” Miss Cake said, kicking debris out of her way.

“Indeed,” Mr. Cookie confirmed. “Whatever became of the Captain and his crew might be our fate too if we are not vigilant.”

They made their way through a maze of overturned crates to the steps that led to the bridge. Climbing up the steps, they found the hatch to the bridge lying next to the gaping door. After a quick scan of the deck to make sure they were still alone, the two Grey Agents leapt through the open hatch.

Inside the bridge they found chaos. All the instruments were destroyed. The radio was smashed, the navigation system pulverized. The radar screens were dark and silent. Moving to the radio, Miss Cake picked up the handset only to find that its cord to the radio was torn out. Mr. Cookie joined his comrade where she stood perusing the damage in confusion. Looking around at the destruction, he shook his head. Water sloshed around their grey-booted feet.

“Strange,” Miss Cake said, indicating the water. “Why is there water on the floor?”

“It's bizarre,” said Mr. Cookie. “What happened here?” he asked Miss Cake.

“Captain Ironbuttocks said there was a natural disaster and our help was required immediately.”

“What natural disaster?” Mr. Cookie asked.

“That would be me.”

They whirled around to find Hamish X leaning in the doorway, looking completely at ease. He smiled sweetly at them and gave a friendly wave. “I'm Hamish X.”

The Grey Agents levelled their rifles at the boy. “We know who you are,” Miss Cake said. “Don't move or we will be forced to shoot you.”

“That's not very friendly of you.” Hamish X frowned. “All I want is to borrow your helicopter.”

“What?” Miss Cake's face was a picture of confusion. “Put up your hands and surrender at once or we will be forced to shoot you.”

“Ah.” Hamish X laughed softly. “How fast do you think you can pull those triggers?”

“Very fast,” Mr. Cookie said honestly.

“Faster than it takes electricity to travel through water?” Hamish X raised his other hand to reveal a black power cable spitting sparks.

The Grey Agents barely had time to open their mouths in surprise before Hamish X dropped the cable into the water on the floor of the bridge. Instantly, thousands of volts of electrical current coursed through the water. Grey Agents are different from us in many ways, but in one respect they are the same: they make excellent conductors. Before they could react, they were dancing a jig to the tune of an invisible, silent band.

Hamish X, standing on the deck outside the bridge, waited a full ten seconds before kicking the cable out of the water and allowing the Grey Agents to fall to the floor with a splash, lifeless as marionettes whose strings have been cut. They lay still, their weapons half-submerged in the water that the children had laboriously hauled in buckets to set their trap.

Maggie and Thomas rushed up from their hiding place in the hold where the other children waited. Looking into the bridge, they laughed and gave each other a high-five.

“Awesome!” Thomas crowed. “We did it.”

“Oh yeah!” Maggie laughed and slapped Hamish X on the back. “Nothing can stop us now.”

Hamish X let them enjoy their victory for a full four seconds before barking out orders. “Okay. Load the children into the helicopter. We have to be long gone before
the ODA sends anyone to find out what happened here. With any luck, we'll be sleeping on the beach under African stars tonight.”

“You're sure you know how to fly that thing?” Thomas asked as they set off down the steps.

Hamish X winked. “I think I can manage.”

Chapter 12

PARVEEN

Parveen's sleeping arrangements were far less comfortable than Mimi's or Hamish X's. An African beach or an Atlantean bedchamber would have seemed like heaven to him. He woke from his fitful slumber and looked up at the aluminum sheeting gleaming dully overhead. The shadow of the giant exhaust fan swung across the ceiling of his little bolt-hole in the junction of a ventilation shaft deep in the bowels of the fortress that was ODA Headquarters. He had discovered the ventilation system quite by accident yesterday after reeling away from the horrible sight he had witnessed in the room where Noor had been taken. He had wanted only to hide himself away from the world. Staggering back along the corridors, he had happened on a loose vent cover and pulled it aside, crawling in as far as he could go.

After he had recovered from his shock, he realized what a boon the vents were. The shafts were warm and allowed him access to almost every corner of the facility. From his central location he explored the complex, looking for a way to help his sister and the others.

Parveen had very nearly been caught by Mr. Sweet while trailing the two Grey Agents along the catwalk. When Mr. Sweet had stopped and turned towards him, the agent's goggled eyes had been staring straight at where
Parveen pressed himself against the catwalk wall. Fortunately, the sneaky suit had concealed him, but he resolved that in future he would be more careful to avoid coming so close to any Grey Agent.

At first, food was a problem. He'd had a few protein bars in his knapsack, but they were hardly enough. The Grey Agents didn't seem to need food in the traditional sense: there was no central food storage to pilfer. In the end, Parveen found a source of nourishment that was slightly gruesome but efficient. He would go to the room the Grey Agents called the Hall of Batteries. When no one was looking, he went to the nearest child, pulled the tube that provided the comatose sleeper with nutrients, and sucked on the tube until he had his fill. The nutrient syrup was bland and tasteless, but it provided all the essentials he needed to survive.

Parveen was hungry, but he continued to lie on his back wrapped in the thermal blanket from his knapsack. He knew he should eat to keep up his strength, but he still postponed the effort. Going to the Hall of Batteries was a depressing affair. Looking up at all the captured children, their energy sapped to power the infernal machines of the ODA, was very sad and also frustrating. Here he was, at large in the enemy's home base, and he couldn't find a way to free all these children from their horrible fate, just like Aidan, Noor, and all the other children from the Hollow Mountain. He felt helpless.

He had always enjoyed spending time on his own without anyone to bother him. He had resigned himself to never having a family and friends. Then came Mimi and Hamish X and now Noor, his only surviving sister. He felt terribly alone and would gladly give up all the solitude he was enjoying now to see Hamish X or Mimi again.

His mind returned to the horrible sight yesterday that had sent him scrabbling into the ventilation shafts, his sanity fraying. A whisper of panic swept through his mind. He trembled and forced himself to think.

In the glass chamber beyond the Hall of Batteries, the Grey Agents performed their most fiendish work. The chamber was a surgical laboratory where the ODA perpetrated the most horrible corruption imaginable on the children they felt were eligible.

Parveen had almost shrieked out loud when he saw at least a hundred steel operating tables surrounded by clusters of Grey Agents in surgical gowns and masks and glistening medical instruments poised to invade the bodies of the unconscious children. He watched, powerless, as Noor was taken to a table. Her inert body was laid under a bright white light. Hanging above the table, a clutch of robotic instruments, a curl of metal claws like a sleeping spider, twitched to life. A red dot of light crawled across Noor's calm face, tracing the future path of horrible, cold steel instruments.

Parveen's heart hammered. He had to do something! He had to stop them. His sister. He reached into the pouch at his hip, his fingers grasping the furry lump of a hamster bomb, readying himself to attack the Grey Agents as they gathered like scavengers around the helpless children.

Parveen was distracted by Grey Agent activity at a nearby table. He stepped closer to investigate, letting Noor out of his sight for the moment.

What were they doing?
Parveen's horrified mind shrieked. As if in answer to his silent question, the Grey Agents stepped back from the table, pulling rubber gloves from their pallid hands. On the table lay Aidan, his skin now a sickly grey, his eyes closed. His head was shaved, making
him appear even more vulnerable with his bald skull pressed against the cold metal of the table. At the top of his head, where his blond hair had been, a nest of multi-coloured cables sprouted, snaking up into a thicker cable that ran into the ceiling out of sight. The wires pulsed with a nauseating bluish glow.

“He is ready for the download,” one Grey Agent said, the flat voice muffled by a surgical mask fitted over the lower part of her face.

“Open the micro gate,” another agent commanded.

“Opening,” the first agent intoned, turning a dial on a sleek black box. There was a flash of sickening lightning that sped down the cable into Aidan's skull. The boy writhed in agony, but his limbs were secured to the table with straps. Aidan's eyes flew open, staring wide in terror. As Parveen watched, the irises flickered and changed from pale brown to a weird metallic golden hue. Parveen almost cried out. He'd seen that colour before. Hamish X had eyes like that.

The female agent turned the dial down and the light diminished. The other Grey Agents moved closer to the table. They deftly removed the restraints, and Aidan sat up and gazed curiously around him.

Aidan raised a hand to his face. The colour of his eyes wasn't the only physical change he exhibited. His fingers were longer and thinner: he'd grown another knuckle.

“Interesting sensation,” Aidan said, but his voice no longer had any life; rather, he sounded as flat and emotionless as all the Grey Agents. He held out a pale hand and turned it over, looking at the appendage as if he'd never seen anything like it before. “These bodies are quite loathsome. Moist and stinking.”

“Indeed. Very inefficient, too. It is a trial,” the female agent agreed. “One gets used to it.”

The other agent handed Aidan a grey bundle of clothing with a grey fedora placed neatly on top. “It's only temporary. When the great portal opens, things will be much more amenable to us in this world. You shall be called Mr. Crisp.”

“Mr. Crisp,” Aidan repeated. All trace of the Aidan that Parveen knew was gone. An alien intelligence inhabited his friend's body now.

Parveen bit back a choking sob. He tried to understand what he had just witnessed.
This is what happens to the older ones,
Parveen thought.
They make them into Grey Agents! What had the agent called the device? A micro gate! A gate to where?
Parveen's thoughts flew back to the weird device he had seen hanging in the huge chamber with the banks of machines. Was that a larger version of the machine he'd just seen in operation? It must be. He vowed to take a closer look at the horrid device as soon as possible.

Noor!
Frantically, he searched the room for his sister. Parveen moved as quickly as he could without being detected, weaving in and out of Grey Agents, robots, and banks of equipment, checking every table.

At last he found her. She lay cold and inert under a stark blue light. An agent held an electric razor poised above her skull. Another gazed at a small screen.

He wasn't too late! Parveen clenched his fists. He had never felt such rage before. He had never understood Mimi and her blazing temper, her fits of fury, and her lack of control. Finally, he knew what it felt like to want to tear something apart.

He was about to throw himself at the unsuspecting Grey Agents and sell his life dearly when the agent tapped the screen and said, “No. This one's cerebellum is not developed enough to accept a host yet.”

“Oh.” The agent lowered the shears. “What shall we do with her then? Destroy her, I suppose.”

Parveen tensed, ready to spring to his sister's aid.

“Wasteful.” The second agent shook its head. “Send her to the Hall of Batteries.”

“Fine.”

The relief that flooded through Parveen was enough to bathe his body with sweat. Noor had been spared the horrible psychic invasion that Aidan had experienced. At least in the Hall of Batteries, Parveen could keep an eye on her while he made his plans. He felt an urge just to grab her now and try to make a run for it, but Parveen was intelligent. He always weighed the positive and negative results of his actions. Even though attacking the Grey Agents now and attempting to free his sister would feel good, he knew that, ultimately, it was a foolish thing to do. He couldn't hope to overpower so many enemies and get away with Noor. For one thing, he didn't know how to get out of the complex.