Fighting Pax. Robin Jarvis

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СКАЧАТЬ front of my big mirror here, behind which, I am damn sure, is a camera. That’s so lame-ass dumb it deserves its own reality show.”

      “Will you help us?”

      “Help get you killed? You doesn’t need no help from me. You is on to a sure thing there.”

      “Lee,” Gerald insisted. “It’s weapons we need, not attitude.” His eyes flicked either side, to the guards, and he said pointedly, “Those weapons.”

      “What you sayin’?”

      “I want you to go to Mooncaster and take your friends here with you.”

      Lee shook his head. “My posse ain’t goin’ no place,” he said flatly. “Bad enough they have to stalk me here. I ain’t invitin’ them to no twisted Disneyland for an outing. When I go there, it’s gonna be a single one-way ticket.”

      “You can’t be that selfish.”

      “Watch me.”

      “Don’t you care what happens to Maggie and Spencer?”

      The boy returned his reproachful stare. “I already gave,” he said quietly. “You’re all deadsauce anyways, you know that – why you draggin’ it out? You’re good as ghosts already, hauntin’ this sad dump day an’ night. This ain’t no life and you got nuthin’ better in front. Get some smarts and give it up. Show’s over for you, been over since we got here.”

      “You’re not that bitter,” Gerald replied, refusing to believe him. “I’ve heard and seen how much you adored that shining girl. A heart so full can’t become that callous.”

      “Don’t presume to know me.”

      “I don’t, but I know what love is like and, from what I hear about Charm, she wouldn’t want you to be this way.”

      “End of conversation, old man. My services are not for hire. I ain’t no black cab. Now go get yourselves all killed and leave me be. I got a gut ache. When’s lunch comin’?”

      Gerald eyed the rifles one last time and his hopes of escape plummeted. It was no use. The boy couldn’t be persuaded. Was Martin right about him after all?

      In the dark, narrow space behind the great mirror, Eun-mi had been watching everything. She checked the video camera was still recording and picked up the old-fashioned base telephone to call her father. A look of gloating satisfaction soured her young features.

      At that moment the lights in Lee’s room sputtered and the boy doubled over. He cried out, clutching his heart. His guards began to yell as the chains yanked at them when Lee rolled wildly from side to side. Gerald sprang forward and was shocked to see sweat pouring down the lad’s face.

      He dashed into the corridor, but there was no guard on duty at the corner of the prohibited area.

      “We need the doctor!” he shouted, trespassing into the forbidden area. “Quickly! I think Lee is having a heart attack!”

      Down the passage he saw a discarded mop and bucket and, further along, two soldiers stationed outside the lab. The old man shouted again, but they aimed their Kalashnikovs at him and yammered excitably. Gerald swore at them and hurried back to Lee’s room.

      The boy was shivering and writhing in pain. His four guards were shouting and shaking him roughly.

      “Get off him!” Gerald snapped, pulling them clear. “Lee, can you hear me? Lee?”

      He took hold of the boy’s hand. It was freezing. Above them sparks began to spit from the cables connecting the strip lights and the room skipped in and out of darkness. Lee swung his head round and his eyes bored into Gerald.

      “Let go o’ me!” he hissed through clenched teeth as he pushed him away. “You’s gonna get your gats after all. Someone real close by is readin’ the book an’ goin’ to that place for the first time. It’s draggin’ me with it. Don’t you touch me or you’ll be comin’ too. Damn! It never hurt like this before! It’s ripping me apart!”

      Gerald jumped back. The boy clawed the air as his stomach kicked inside him. The breath was slammed from his lungs and his eardrums screamed as if they were going to shatter. He gave one last agonised shout, then his arms dropped and he became as still as death. At the same time, his guards uttered wails of dismay and fear. Then they too crumpled, falling where they stood, either to the floor or across the bed.

      Gerald could hardly believe it. Their minds or souls, or whatever it was, had gone into the world of Dancing Jax.

      Behind the mirror, Eun-mi was urging her father to come at once. Then the line went dead. She looked into the room beyond and saw the old man approach the collapsed figures. Reaching down, he took the rifles from the unconscious guards then hastened to the door. Pausing, he said a grateful farewell to Lee.

      “Good luck. I hope you find what you’re looking for in that place. Just don’t disappoint that dazzling girl. Don’t do what Austerly Fellows wants. Be the person she fell in love with. You’re far from scum, Lee Charles. Goodbye and thank you.”

      Eun-mi watched him leave. She tried the phone again, but the earpiece was full of wails and crackles. She threw it down in anger and took her pistol from its holster.

      The secret observation area was a thin, L-shaped space that hugged two sides of the medical room. The entrance was in the prohibited area and she groped her way through the narrow darkness to find it. When she emerged, she looked for the guards, but those outside the lab were nowhere to be seen. Pistol in hand, she ran round the corner – ready to shoot at anything that moved.

      The corridor was deserted.

      She looked fleetingly into Lee’s room and regarded the unconscious men with disgust. They were weak and would be punished for allowing their rifles to be taken.

      Silently, Eun-mi proceeded, checking the dorms as she passed them. They were empty. The refugees were probably all gathered in the refectory, waiting to be fed. So much the better.

      “You must be mental!” the girl called Esther scoffed when Gerald had hastily explained his escape plan and the reason for it. “They wouldn’t operate on us and cut us up. They’re not Jaxers here, they’re normal.”

      There wasn’t time for Gerald to go into just how wrong she was.

      “I’m not going to argue with you,” he said impatiently. “If you come now, there’s a chance, but if you stay you’ll end up in more jars than a range of jams in Sainsbury’s. The rest of you will need to wear as much clothing as possible, everything you’ve got basically. It’s going to be bitter out there in the fog and we’ll be sleeping rough for a while. Also we can’t carry anything: you need both hands to climb down the mountain.”

      “Stupid old git,” Esther butted in. “You’ve got no idea where to go out there and we’ll be frozen solid by morning, if we don’t get blown up by landmines. I’m not listening to some senile geriatric who used to prance about in frocks.”

      “Oi!” Maggie shouted her down. “Shut it. No one’s listening to you. You did this last time, in the camp. Dithering until the last minute and almost getting Lee killed. Just button it or I’ll smack you one. Gerald knows what he’s talking СКАЧАТЬ