Fighting Pax. Robin Jarvis

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СКАЧАТЬ out, smashing on the floor. The doctor jumped back in alarm. Another cupboard was flung wide and Petri dishes came spinning into the lab like Frisbees.

      “Vaccinate that!” Spencer taunted as the contents of a third were violently ejected.

      The woman clasped the scalpel more tightly and went crunching over the powdered fragments, staring inside each cupboard. They were all empty, but the final one was still closed. Moving nearer and nearer, she reached out to yank the door wide and was primed to lunge the sharp blade at whatever was revealed within.

      Holding her breath, she snatched the door open and stabbed wildly. The thin blade lacerated the melamine shelving then snapped. There was nothing in here but boxes of surgical gloves, masks and disposable aprons.

      Her tense, squatting frame relaxed. But it was not over yet.

      There was a clattering din. One of the metal trays came shooting off the counter above her head. It struck her temple with force and the instruments it contained showered down as she fell backwards. Sterile blades sliced her cheek and skewered her lab coat. Her skull smacked the tiled floor and she cried out. Her head thumped and for several moments she lay there in a shocked daze. Razor-sharp knives had kissed through her skin and rivulets of blood had begun to flow. Yet none of that mattered. As she blundered back, she’d caught a glimpse of something up on the counter, where the tray had been. It was the Marshal’s green book.

      The doctor raised her head to look again. It was no longer there. Then she saw it. The book was now lying on the floor, by her feet. As she watched, the book raised itself upright.

      “Not possible!” Doctor Choe exclaimed, shaking her pounding head. When she looked again, it had clambered on to her legs. Tilting diagonally, it balanced on one corner and swung the other forward, waggling itself along her body.

      The doctor tried to hurl it away, but her arms were unnaturally heavy and she couldn’t move them. Her legs were the same. She was as helpless as Spencer on the examination table. Throwing back her head, she yelled for help then sobbed as she recalled the lab was soundproof.

      Dancing Jax continued its relentless, shuffling progress until it came to a stop on her chest. With slow menace, its pages opened and her eyes were compelled to gaze.

      Strapped to the table, unable to see what was happening, Spencer could only listen and try to guess.

      “Doctor?” he ventured. “Doctor Choe?”

      There was no reply. Spencer breathed a sigh of relief. He had saved himself, invoking the power of the book to ensnare her. But the real peril was only just beginning. The force he had unleashed was unstoppable and would sweep away everyone in the base. There was no escape now.

      Minutes edged by, in which the only sounds were the woman’s soft, trance-like murmurs. Then, abruptly, she rose from the floor, appearing behind the Marshal’s body. A far-off look was in her glassy eyes and Dancing Jax was clasped to her bosom.

      “I am the Four of Clubs,” she announced ecstatically. “I am Dulcie, the innkeeper’s daughter. All the boys and menfolk do like to kiss me, for I have ale on my ripe cherry lips, the tints of a warm summer evening in my golden hair and my pretty duckies do fill my bodice most bounteous. Blessed be.”

       6

      EVEN AS THE guards dragged Spencer into the lab, Martin and Gerald descended the steps from the terrace.

      “You!” a severe voice shouted.

      The two friends halted and looked down the corridor. Three soldiers were striding purposefully towards them from the main tunnel where a jeep was waiting.

      “You, quick!” one of them ordered. “You needed.”

      Neither Gerald nor Martin recognised them. They were dressed in the usual olive uniform of the People’s Army, but they had not seen their faces in the base before. Perhaps their duties kept them in the prohibited areas; those units never had cause to come here.

      “You, come!” the same man called again. From the four stars on his uniform they could see he was a daewi, or captain.

      “What is this?” Martin asked uncertainly. “What do you want?”

      “Chief want see!” the Captain shouted fiercely. “You not keep wait!”

      Martin’s and Gerald’s faces fell. Their desperate, reckless scheme was collapsing before it had begun. What was going on? Martin had never been summoned so brusquely before.

      “Quick! Quick!” the Captain insisted.

      “I have to go,” Martin whispered. “There’s no knowing when I’ll get back – or even if I will.”

      “Don’t say that!” Gerald hissed.

      “Whatever happens, the fog won’t last so you’re going to have to do this on your own. Get Lee to do his thing and you take those kids out of this place. I’ll try and keep them as busy as I can in here.”

      The old man’s eyes glistened and he gave the slightest of nods. They both knew they probably wouldn’t see each other again.

      “And you… look after yourself, you wonderful, dotty old gentleman. Good luck – it’s been an honour and a privilege.”

      “Quick!” the Captain snorted for the last time. He grabbed hold of Martin’s arm and pulled him towards the jeep.

      Gerald Benning watched them get into the vehicle. He couldn’t bring himself to shout goodbye. Instead he raised a hand in farewell and, under his breath, sang, “Hearts do not break! They sting and ache.”

      The jeep roared off into the tunnels. Gerald turned his back and ran to Lee’s room. There wasn’t a moment to lose.

      Lee was still sitting on the bed, staring at the steel cuffs. He didn’t look up when the old man entered, but recognised Gerald by his brown brogues.

      “This is not a place you wanna be,” he grunted. “I ain’t got nuthin’ to say. ’Cept Baxter is a ass, I feel like crap, an’ if you think I’m gonna join in with your Christmas glee club, you is missing more than a tinselly tree – but I knows where you can shove one.”

      “Never mind about that now,” Gerald said urgently as he cast a wary glance at the four guards chained to the lad’s wrists and prayed they didn’t understand English. “I’m taking the kids out of here, but I need your help.”

      Lee raised his eyes.

      “You what?”

      “Things have changed – drastically,” the old man told him. “That doctor is planning to experiment on us.”

      “She already does that, man. She’s got enough out of me to build a spare.”

      “I mean she’s going to dissect us.”

      “Get outta here.”

      “I was never more deadly serious. I’m taking the kids and I’m taking them now, but I can’t do it without СКАЧАТЬ