The Adjusters (16 page)

Henry turned from her to Mallory, who sipped his wine and gave him a concerned look.

“Are you okay, son?” Mallory asked.

Henry looked back at his mother. “What’s he doing here?”

Jennifer gave her son an exasperated look. “John…Mr. Mallory popped over to see how we were settling in…”

“What, does he want to be your boyfriend or something?” Henry asked, aware of the nastiness in his voice. “He’s like sixty years old!”

“Henry!” Jennifer snapped, anger in her voice.

Mallory pushed his chair out and half rose. “Perhaps I should be going…”

“Stay right there!” Jennifer said, before turning back to her son. “How dare you speak like that to a guest in our house…”

She stopped at a heavy banging on the front door. Henry looked round and his mom must have recognized his anxiety at once. She placed a hand on his arm. “What is it? What’s going
on?”

The banging came a second time. Mallory rose swiftly from his seat. “I’ll get that,” he said, sounding relieved for the chance to get out of the kitchen. He moved through to
the lounge before anyone could argue.

As he left, Henry turned back at his mom. “I have to tell you something,” he said urgently.

“And I have to tell you you’re bang out of line!” she hissed back. “How dare you act like a spoilt ten year old and embarrass me? And so what if I want to have a glass of
wine with my boss?”

“Mom, I’m sorry…”

“And he is
not
sixty, goddammit! Do you know how difficult it is to meet decent—”

“Mom! I’m sorry!” Henry said this with enough emphasis to make her stop. “I have to tell you something.
Please
.”

Jennifer took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Christian and I broke into the medical centre this evening—”

“You did WHAT?”

“Those are Malcorp security guards at the door. They’re chasing me because we got inside and saw some things we shouldn’t. They got Christian, but I managed to run
away…”

Jennifer put her hand against her temple and looked at Henry with wide eyes. “This is not happening. Tell me this is a joke, Henry.”

“It’s no joke, Mom,” Henry said, feeling suddenly ashamed that he’d kept everything from her. He looked through the gap in the kitchen door and saw Mallory talking to one
of the security guards. At any moment they’d be marching in to take him away. “Listen, Mom, you have to believe me. This is going to sound crazy, but—”

“You mean more crazy than my son breaking and entering my boss’s property?”

“Yeah. Malcorp is doing something to the kids around here. That special education programme the principal told you about is just a cover for some kind of experiment they’re
running…”

“Henry…”

“Just listen to me! I saw a kid inside the centre. He was strapped down to a table and they’d cut the top of his head off! They were gonna do something to his brain!”

Jennifer opened her mouth to say something, but stopped as the kitchen door swung open again. Henry backed away, expecting to see a guard there – but there was only John Mallory. He looked
at them with a neutral expression.

“John, I’m so sorry,” Jennifer said. “Henry started telling me some crazy story…”

Mallory held up a hand. “It’s okay. Really. I sent the guards away. I thought it better that we clear up this misunderstanding ourselves.” He turned his attention to Henry.
“What do you say?”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” Henry replied. “I’ve seen what goes on inside your hospital.”

Mallory actually smiled at him. “And what
is
going on exactly? What am I getting away with?”

Henry was momentarily at a loss for words. The head of the conspiracy that he and Fox and Christian had uncovered was standing in his kitchen, asking him to explain what he thought was going
on.

And he found he didn’t have the answer.

“Maybe we should take a look at the medical centre,” Mallory said, glancing at Jennifer. “And I think there’s someone your son should meet.”

With that, he held open the kitchen door and waved his hand through. “Come on then.”

Henry was about to protest, but his mom shot him a look that made it clear he was treading on very, very thin ice. Without a word, she walked past Mallory. Powerless to do anything else, Henry
followed her through the lounge and out to a waiting buggy. As the head of Malcorp emerged from the lodge and climbed behind the driver’s seat, Henry could have sworn he saw a glint of pure
satisfaction in the man’s eyes.

“I am so sorry, Mr. Mallory,” said the red-faced head of security as the Malcorp boss strode into the medical centre reception, closely followed by Henry and his
mom. “I don’t know how this could have happened.”

“Well it did happen,” Mallory said brusquely. “I’ll be conducting a full review of security here at the centre. Then I’ll decide whether or not you get to keep your
job. Now get out of my sight.”

The security head looked so downtrodden as he disappeared across the other side of reception, Henry actually found himself feeling sorry for the man. He’d clearly caused him some big
trouble…maybe even cost him his job. But Henry reminded himself what was going on in the medical centre. All in all, not a bad job to lose.

Mallory led the way to the door into the main part of the centre and swiped his key card. They passed through into the now-familiar corridors beyond.

“Tell me this was all that Christian kid’s idea,” Jennifer said, leaning in so she could whisper to her son. “Tell me you were easily led in this.”

“Mom,” Henry said, shaking his head. “It was my idea as much as his.”

“How did you get in then?”

“Christian’s dad’s key card…”

“Well then, it sounds like he had more of a hand in things than you did.”

“It was both of us, Mom,” Henry said firmly. Mallory looked over his shoulder and actually smiled at him.

“Sticking up for your friend,” Mallory said. “I like that.”

Henry gritted his teeth. Clearly Mallory wanted to keep on his mom’s good side – not wanting to jeopardize future date nights, no doubt.
Yuk.
Well, they’d see what she
thought of him when the truth came out about what was going on in the centre. The only thing Henry couldn’t work out was why Mallory was so eager to take them right to the scene of the
crime…

They passed through one set of double doors after another until they reached the corridor with the observation window. The operating theatre was fully illuminated, with the table in the centre.
The sheet still covered the patient on the table.

“That’s him!” Henry said to his mother, trying to keep his voice calm. “That’s the kid with his skull cut open!”

Jennifer looked at Mallory with an apologetic expression. “I can’t believe they poked around in here.” She turned back to Henry. “Do you have any idea how much damage you
could have caused walking around in an operating room? The infection risk you posed?”

Henry opened his mouth to argue, but Mallory started down the corridor again. “I think the easiest way to get to the bottom of things would be to take a look at this patient, don’t
you?” he called over his shoulder.

Jennifer gave Henry a murderous look as they followed him through the door at the end and into the operating theatre.

They stopped in the doorway and the bald surgeon who had cornered Henry in the theatre approached. Henry noticed that he had a bandage on his left hand from where he’d fallen on the
scalpel.

“How’s the patient?” Mallory asked.

“Doing just fine,” the surgeon said. “Considering the circumstances.”

“Can we take a quick look?”

The surgeon walked to the table and wheeled it round so they could see the patient beneath the sheet-covered frame. Henry’s eyes widened as he saw that the kid’s head was now resting
on a pillow, not clamped in a frame. There were thick white bandages covering his skull.

“His head was cut open – I could see his brain,” Henry protested, turning to his mother.

“This young man was in a motorcycle crash earlier this afternoon,” the surgeon said, directing his words to Jennifer. “Wasn’t wearing a helmet, so we had to practically
reconstruct his entire skull. I’m afraid your son walked in halfway through the procedure. It must have been a bit of an eye-opener…”

“No,” Henry protested. “That’s not right!”

Jennifer placed a hand on his shoulder. “Henry…”

He pulled free, looking round at Mallory and the surgeon. “They’re lying! That’s not what I saw!”

“Henry, I have had enough…”

He looked round at the glass where Christian’s head had bounced off – they’d cleaned away the blood smear. Then he thought of the lab he’d fled into… The vat of
brains that had shattered…

“We have to look in the lab!” he said, jogging across the theatre to the door on the other side. Behind him his mom and Mallory protested, but he ignored them. There was no way they
could have cleared that mess up so quickly….

He pushed through the door and ran down the corridors, closely followed by the others. When he came to the lab door, which was still off its hinges, he ran through.

Inside, the grey-haired surgeon was fussing over a tank of water as security guards mopped up the floor. Henry advanced further into the lab, pointing at the tank.

“Look!” he said to his mom, pointing to the tank. “They’re growing…brains!”

Jennifer and Mallory joined Henry as the grey-haired surgeon looked round in surprise. Mallory let out a low, guffawing laugh.

“Dr. Chricton,” he called across the lab, “would you be so good as to show us what you’ve got in that tank?”

The surgeon grumbled something before reaching into the tank and removing a dripping object that looked like a large, grey sponge. “My sea-cucumber experiment was almost ruined, Mr.
Mallory! I suggest you improve your security arrangements!”

“You can be sure of it, Dr. Chricton!” Mallory gently took both Henry and Jennifer’s arms and led them back to the doorway.

Feeling stupid as hell, Henry said, “I know what I saw…”

His mother gave him a withering look, but Mallory merely placed his hands on Henry’s shoulders and looked into his face. “Are you sure? I mean, are you
really
sure?
Couldn’t it have been that you saw that poor kid lying on that table with his brain hanging out and got a little spooked?”

Henry looked down at his feet.

“You got chased by the guards,” Mallory continued. “Things were moving fast and you made a mistake. Is that at least a possibility?”

Henry took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

Mallory patted his shoulder and looked at his mom with a wink. “Everyone’s allowed to get a little screwy from time to time.”

“What’s going to happen next?” she asked, voice full of concern.

“Well,” Mallory said, “the breach of security was a serious issue, but more for my men than for Henry or Christian. And no real harm was done, I guess. Although I would suggest
that a world-class grounding is in order…”

“Oh, you can bet on that,” Henry’s mom said emphatically.

“Then I guess we can call this matter closed,” Mallory said, turning his attention to Henry. “I’d just like to know one thing. We caught your accomplice in this little
scheme and he’s back with his parents right now. Was Christian the only other person in on this?”

Henry looked into the man’s penetrating eyes. “Yeah. Just him and me.”

“That’s the truth?”

“
Yes.
”

Mallory slapped him on the shoulder. “Then I guess you’d better see what you came looking for.”

He started down the corridor again, leaving a confused Henry to follow behind. They passed down a few more corridors into an area signposted
Patient Care
. Here the corridors were less
anonymous than before, with numbers on the doors and even plants in pots arranged here and there. A female nurse passed them and smiled warmly.

“Is she awake?” Mallory asked.

“Yes,” the nurse replied, “but it’s getting late.”

“We won’t be long.”

Mallory knocked twice on a door to his right. A female voice called through for him to enter. Mallory opened the door, but rather than entering himself, waved Henry through. The room contained
only a hospital bed and a couple of chairs. In the bed, a girl was sitting propped upright on pillows, watching a sitcom on the TV with a smile on her face.

Gabrielle Henson.

She turned towards Henry and her face lit up in recognition. She grabbed the TV remote and muted the sound.

“I know you,” Gabrielle said. “We’ve met before.”

For a moment, Henry didn’t know what to say. It was unmistakably the girl that he’d met just a week earlier, but she was a million miles away from the terrified figure he’d
encountered in the gas station toilet. Her hair was neatly combed and washed now, blonde locks cascading around her shoulders. Her expression was relaxed, happy even, and she regarded Henry with a
calm openness that he found surprising. As she continued to stare at him he found his face reddening a little.

“Is your name Henry?” she asked.

He nodded. “We met…uh…in a toilet.”

Gabrielle gave a little laugh and put her hands to her mouth. “Oh my goodness! What must you think of me!” She looked down at the bed sheets in embarrassment. “I was going
through a bit of a bad spell…” Henry guessed she was referring to the “drug problem” Mallory had told him about.