The Adjusters Page 15

  “Chancellor.”

  “They took me downstairs…”

  “Downstairs in this building?”

  “Yes, I think so. Down in some kind of an elevator. A big elevator…”

  “Go on,” Henry encouraged. If there were floors under the medical centre, then that was probably where Malcorp undertook its real business. And it was there that its biggest secrets lay.

  “I can’t,” Gabrielle said, rubbing her forehead. “It’s too hard and it hurts.”

  “Open your eyes!” Henry said. “They’ve done something to you! They’ve done something to all the kids in this place!” He tapped the picture of Blake. “They changed your boyfriend and you ran away before they could change you too. Now they’ve got Christian and I’m next on the list.”

  Gabrielle reached round the side of the bed and pressed the call button for the nurse three times in quick succession.

  “What are you doing?” Henry asked.

  “I want you to leave, right now,” she said, picking up the photo and thrusting it at him.

  “Gabrielle…”

  “Now! Before I have you thrown out!”

  Henry left the photo on the bed and got up to leave. As he walked to the door, he paused and looked back. Gabrielle was staring at the wall to avoid eye contact with him.

  “You said you wanted to be normal,” he said. “Well, I think it’s normal to be afraid and to make mistakes and to not be the best at everything.”

  Gabrielle didn’t look at him. The door opened and a nurse appeared.

  “It’s alright,” Henry said, brushing past her. “I’m leaving.”

  Trooper Dan had parked his cruiser at Romero’s Point, a scenic lookout to the south of town that gave a fantastic view of Newton, as well as the sprawling Malcorp complex that grew like a circuit board out of the unspoilt woodland. He kneeled by the danger sign attached to the safety railing. It had been put in a few years before after a couple of drunken kids had almost fallen into the valley one evening. In his arms he held a scoped rifle that he used during duck-hunting season.

  Although today he wasn’t hunting ducks.

  Leaning forward so that the railing supported the barrel of the rifle, he looked through the telescopic lens at the picnic site two hundred metres below. There were two tables with benches and an ancient gas barbecue that looked as if it hadn’t been used in years. A trash can by the car park spilled over with rubbish; it hadn’t been emptied in months.

  A movement caught Trooper Dan’s attention and he angled the rifle round, picking up Fox as she cycled across the car park, right on time for her meeting. He kept the scope crosshairs on her as she leaned the bike against one of the tables and looked around, like she was expecting the reporter to emerge from the trees. After about a minute, she took a seat on a bench and removed a cell phone from her pocket, checking for a message from the reporter. The cop knew she’d be out of luck there.

  Feeling his trigger arm getting a little stiff, Trooper Dan shifted his grip on the rifle and then re-aimed at the girl’s skull. From this distance she wouldn’t even hear the gunshot when he pulled the trigger. To anyone standing nearby it would seem like her head had just decided to explode for no apparent reason. The girl stood up and began to pace around impatiently, looking left and right, no doubt suspicious that the picnic spot was a lonely, deserted place to meet. Trooper Dan smiled as he tracked her, keeping the crosshairs in position, enjoying the feeling of having complete power over her life and death…

  Except… What was it Dr. Chancellor had said?

  Keeping one eye on the girl, Trooper Dan removed his cell from his pocket and called Mallory’s private line. The elevated position on the hill was one of the few places in the area where uninterrupted coverage was guaranteed.

  “Mallory,” the man answered on the second ring.

  “I have the girl in my sights,” said Trooper Dan, wondering if Mallory realized how literally he was speaking. “She contacted a reporter and is waiting to meet him. Should I take her out now?”

  There was silence on the other end of the line.

  “Mr. Mallory?”

  “Not yet. I want to see what she and Henry Ward do next. If she was stupid enough to contact a reporter, I want to find out who else they’ve told.”

  Trooper Dan gritted his teeth, looking down the scope at the girl once more. All he had to do was pull the trigger and…

  “Are you listening to me?” Mallory demanded. “Take no action against the girl at present. She and Ward are going to learn how to behave themselves.”

  “And if they won’t?” Trooper Dan asked. He watched as Fox picked up her bike and started back across the car park. She had evidently got sick of waiting. He kept his sights on her as she cycled back towards the road. Any second now she would be out of view… Out of his control…

  “Then you can do what you like with them,” Mallory continued. “But not until then.”

  The girl disappeared into the distance. Trooper Dan relaxed and lowered the weapon.

  “What about the reporter?”

  “The usual. Cut him loose.”

  The line clicked dead and Trooper Dan placed the cell back in his pocket. Standing up, he walked back to the cruiser and laid the rifle across the hood. Then he walked round the vehicle and opened the back door.

  “Get out,” he said.

  The reporter, who was lying on the back seat with his hands tied, struggled from the car. He flinched away as Trooper Dan removed the knife from behind his back once more. The cop grabbed the reporter roughly, turned him around and cut through the rope that bound his wrists.

  For a moment the reporter stood dumbly, not even bothering to remove the tape from his mouth. Trooper Dan replaced the knife in its sheath and looked at him without expression. He stepped forward and flung out his hands…

  “Boo!”

  The reporter turned and ran, following the railing towards a narrow pathway that led down the hillside. As he ran, he ripped the tape away and began yelling at the top of his lungs, a sound that was halfway between a sob and a scream.

  Trooper Dan walked slowly back towards the front of the cruiser. The headache from that morning had begun to come back, throbbing faintly at his temples, so he removed the bottle of pills from his pocket and popped two in his mouth. He was only supposed to take one at a time, but that just didn’t seem to work any more.

  He closed his eyes and stood there for a while, enjoying the feel of the cool breeze against his skin. Up this high there was always a chill in the air, no matter how hot it got down in the valley…

  Trooper Dan opened his eyes slowly, remembering that he had to do something. Something had to be wrapped up…

  Picking up the rifle from the hood he walked back to the railing and looked over. The reporter had made it almost halfway down the hillside, still screaming, not that there was anyone to hear him. Shaking his head at the sight of a grown man crying like a little boy, Trooper Dan took aim, lining up the crosshairs with his head, and pulled the trigger smoothly…

  The reporter’s head burst like a water balloon and his body fell off the path into the surrounding bushes. For a moment it was possible to see his corpse falling through the undergrowth, but then there was nothing. It probably wouldn’t be found until the following spring, when the walkers came back to the area.

  Trooper Dan walked back to his car.

  A few seconds later, the cruiser roared away from the lookout at high speed.

  Fox pedalled hard back towards town, keeping her eyes on the treacherous turns in the road in case any speeding idiots came round a blind corner too fast. Drivers never seemed to look out for cyclists…

  But more than that, she still felt spooked from the picnic site.

  The fact that Richardson, the reporter, hadn’t turned up was one thing. She kept on telling herself that he was just delayed, or that he’d simply decided he couldn’t be bothered to turn up. Some other story had come up. However, it didn’t feel righ
t. And when she’d been sitting on the bench at the picnic site, she hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that someone had been watching her.

  She was so preoccupied with these thoughts that she didn’t hear the police cruiser until it was almost on top of her…

  Cycling to the side at the last moment, she looked left in time to see the sandy-coloured vehicle steam past at full speed, just centimetres away. It didn’t slow for a second, taking the corner up ahead with such pace that the wheels on one side seemed to lift. Then it was gone.

  As it had passed she’d caught sight of Trooper Dan staring right at her through the window…

  Fox stopped on the side of the road, taking several deep breaths to compose herself. One thing was certain in her mind: whatever had happened to the reporter, he wouldn’t ever show up. Trooper Dan had got to him first. The realization chilled her to the bone.

  She’d brought someone into the events in Newton and he’d suffered because of it. Maybe died even. She thought of Henry and Christian and the very real danger they’d put themselves in. Perhaps the sensible thing was to turn away… Pretend nothing was going on…

  Fox shook her head. She wasn’t going to let them frighten her off. Because that’s what men like Mallory and Trooper Dan relied on: others being too scared to fight back.

  Someone had to take a stand. And who else was there? The thought of what lay ahead terrified her, but somehow it made her start pedalling towards Newton at double the speed.

  Henry arrived back at the lodge an hour before school normally finished, fully expecting to find his mother waiting for him there. The nurse from the medical centre would have told Mallory that he’d visited Gabrielle when he should have been in school. And Mallory, in turn, would have told his mom. As he opened the front door, he braced himself for another lecture…

  But the house was silent. The kind of silence that belongs to an empty place.

  “Mom?” Henry called as he walked through to the kitchen, though he’d sensed already that she wasn’t there. He was off the hook for a while, he guessed, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

  Then he saw the note on the kitchen counter, written in his mother’s recognizable, blocky handwriting.

  Business trip came up – will be away for a couple of nights. Don’t think this lets you off the hook – Mr. Mallory will be keeping an eye on you. Don’t give him a hard time. Will call later. Love, Mom.

  Henry’s relief that his absence from school would probably go unnoticed was quickly replaced with concern for his mother. A business trip? Why now? And where had she gone?

  He picked up the phone by the fridge and dialled her cell. It rang five times and then went to the messaging service. Henry frowned. Her cell phone was always by her side and if she saw it was him ringing, she always picked up.

  “Hi, Mom,” he said after the beep. “Is everything okay? Give me a call back.”

  He hung up and was about to walk away when the phone started ringing. He snatched it up. “Mom?”

  “It’s John Mallory,” the voice on the other end answered.

  “Oh.”

  “Did you get your mother’s note? She’s gone to Chicago for a couple of nights. They’re having a few issues at our lab there that I think she can help with. She felt real bad that she didn’t see you before she left.”

  “Right,” Henry said, still finding it hard to believe that she’d gone without speaking to him.

  “She tried to find you in class,” Mallory said. “But you weren’t there.”

  Henry closed his eyes. Of course he wasn’t.

  “I was feeling sick, so I left early.”

  “Sure you did,” Mallory said and Henry felt he could detect just the slightest hint of amusement in the man’s tone, as if the whole thing were a massive joke. Or some kind of game. A game where Mallory was in complete control. “I’d like you to come to dinner with me this evening. I’ll send a car to pick you up at seven.”

  “I can get my own dinner, thanks.”

  “I’m sure you can. But I’d like to get to know you a little better and I promised your mom. What do you say?”

  Henry was silent for a moment. He looked around the empty house, wondering what would happen if he walked out right at that moment…went to Newton and stayed with Fox. Would the guards on the gate try to stop him from leaving? He couldn’t escape the feeling that this was his one and only opportunity to get out. But Mallory had the answers to what was going on at Malcorp… And this was perhaps the best chance he’d ever have to get them.

  “Fine,” Henry said. “That would be good. I’ll look forward to it.”

  He sensed that Mallory was smiling on the other end of the phone as he said, “Not half as much as I will.”

  Mallory’s residence was on the northern edge of the Malcorp complex, a single-storey building made of glass and concrete in a harsh, modernist style. As the man had promised, a buggy had arrived at Henry’s lodge at 7 p.m. sharp. It was driven by a guy in a black suit who introduced himself as Wilson, Mallory’s butler. Henry took a seat in the back of the buggy and sat in silence as Wilson drove them across the complex. The butler wasn’t a chatty type, but Henry guessed he wasn’t supposed to be.

  They arrived at Mallory’s house less than five minutes later, driving into an underground garage that appeared to be at least as large as the building above. As Wilson steered the buggy down the entry ramp, lights came on automatically, revealing rows of vintage sports cars – convertibles with gleaming, pristine paint jobs. On the other side of the garage was a line of brand-new vehicles, Lamborghinis, Porsches, the biggest Hummer he’d ever seen and several motorbikes that looked as if they belonged on a racetrack. Every vehicle was spotlessly clean, like they’d been taken out of the showroom and never used.

  “Wow,” Henry said as he climbed out of the buggy.

  “You like cars, son?”

  It wasn’t Wilson who had spoken, but Mallory himself. Henry turned to see the man descending a flight of stairs on the far side of the garage. He was dressed as casual as he got – in a pair of jeans and a sports jacket.

  “I guess,” Henry said.

  Mallory grinned and stuck one of his unlighted cigars in his mouth. “Well, maybe I’ll let you take one of these for a spin when you’re a little older. Come on up!”

  Henry followed his host up the stairs into a brightly lit room that appeared to run the entire length of the building. Along one wall, floor-to-ceiling glass windows looked out across a terraced garden and an infinity pool. From the elevated position of the residence, it would be possible to stand in the pool and look out across most of the Malcorp complex. Henry wondered if that was what Mallory did when he was alone in the house – gaze over his empire like a king.

  “Dinner is ready when you are, Mr. Mallory,” Wilson announced, appearing at another doorway.

  “What do you say, Henry? You hungry?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, trying to sound casual. Actually he was starving, having missed his lunch.

  “Over here,” Mallory said, giving Wilson a nod as he led Henry towards the other end of the room.

  The interior of the main living space was subtly divided into different zones, Henry noted, as they approached a dining table set for a meal. Just beyond was a group of leather sofas, arranged around a giant television that appeared simply to be hanging in the air. Beyond that there were bookshelves filled with leather-bound books that seemed slightly out of place against the hard lines of the rest of the interior. It was cool and beautiful, but there was something unforgiving about the place.

  Mallory ushered him into a seat at the table, which Henry noticed was laid for three.

  “Blake will be joining us in a minute,” Mallory said as he took a seat to Henry’s left. “You don’t mind?”

  “Why would I?” Henry replied, remembering his last meeting with Blake. If the kid tried anything again, he’d be ready for him this time. He looked down at the expensive silverware and then at Mallory, who
was studying him with an interested expression. Henry hated to admit it, but the man reminded him of his mother in that respect – they were both scientists and from time to time both had the habit of looking at you like you were a participant in some kind of live experiment.

  “I’ve got to apologize for taking your mom from you, Henry,” Mallory said as Wilson appeared and filled their glasses with water from a jug. “We had a little emergency at the Chicago lab. Contamination incident. I needed someone to deal with the problem fast. It took a lot of persuading to get her to fly out without speaking to you.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “If you’d been contactable, I would have suggested you went along with her. We had my private helicopter pick her up from right outside your lodge.”

  Henry nodded, coming to a realization: for some reason Mallory was trying to impress him. The house, the garage downstairs, stories about helicopter trips to the city. It was like he was trying to sell him on something. But what? That Malcorp was a great place to be? That he should be his new dad?

  “Oh, well, next time maybe,” Mallory went on, unfolding his napkin and laying it across his knees. “And don’t worry about playing hooky from school. It can be our little secret. We’ll just tell your mom you were taken sick and sent to the medical room, alright?”

  Henry nodded as Mallory gave him a conspiratorial wink. Still trying to get me on side, he thought. Make me an accomplice in a lie. Have to play along…see if he’ll let something slip about Christian…

  Blake appeared and stood beside the table as if waiting for some order. He didn’t look at Henry or Mallory, keeping his eyes fixed ahead as Wilson set out their entrées on the table.

  “Looks great, Wilson,” Mallory said, looking down at his plate as if he hadn’t even noticed Blake’s presence. “What the hell is it?”

  “Escargot de Bourgogne,” the butler answered.

  Mallory raised his eyebrows at Henry. “How’s your French, kid? Wilson would rather cut out his tongue than read a menu in plain English.”