The Adjusters Read online

“No one…”

  She pressed the blade into his cheek so hard he could feel the steel almost breaking his skin. “Who have you told?”

  “Leave him alone!” Fox cried, rocking her chair from side to side. “He hasn’t told anyone!”

  Gabrielle removed the knife from his face and crossed to Fox. Grabbing her hair roughly, she twisted her head back and pointed the tip of the knife at her throat.

  “Don’t do this!” Fox said, breathing quickly but keeping herself under control. “We’re friends, Gabrielle! You have to remember!”

  Gabrielle released her hair and lowered the knife. Fox gave a relieved breath and met Henry’s eyes. He nodded at her encouragingly. There had to be something left of the original Gabrielle in there beyond Mallory’s programming.

  “Don’t you remember me?” Fox said. “We’ve been friends since kindergarten. On the first day of school you were crying so I let you have my doll to play with…”

  Gabrielle took a step back, rubbing her forehead with her hand. The hand holding the knife fell to her side.

  “Remember? And how we used to have sleepovers right here in this house? You always used to love my mom’s cookies and you never wanted to go home at the end…”

  Gabrielle let out a scream of frustration. “Shut up!” She moved behind Henry, placing the knife against his neck and looking at Fox with wide eyes. “I remember you!”

  Fox nodded. “Yes…”

  “You were always jealous of me… Always wanted what I had…”

  “That’s not true,” Fox said, shaking her head. “We were friends…”

  Gabrielle placed the knife closer against Henry’s neck. He leaned back in the chair as far as he could go to avoid it. “You were jealous of my boyfriends. My looks. You wanted to be me, but you never could, could you?”

  “Please, Gabrielle, you’re not thinking straight…”

  “Say it!”

  Fox looked at her. “Okay, okay. You’re right. You’ve always been better than me.”

  Gabrielle lowered the knife from Henry’s throat. “You’ve always been jealous.”

  “I’ve always been jealous.”

  “Now, tell me everything you know about Malcorp and everyone you’ve told or I’ll slit his throat in front of you.”

  Fox looked at Henry, who could do nothing other than stare at her desperately. She shook her head slowly. “Gabrielle…I’m really sorry.”

  There was a clunk.

  Gabrielle toppled forward suddenly. As she hit the floor, the knife fell from her hand and embedded itself in the floorboards near Henry’s feet. He looked round and saw Mary Layton standing unsteadily behind him with a baseball bat in her hands. She staggered forward and half fell over him, using the bat to keep herself upright.

  “Way to go, mom!” Fox cried out.

  “Guess they didn’t think the cripple lady needed tying up properly,” she said as she sat on the floor and grabbed the knife. She slid round to slice through the tape holding Henry in place. In a few seconds he was free and out of the chair. Taking the knife, he crossed to Fox and cut through her bonds as well.

  “Steve will be back any minute,” Fox said as she massaged circulation back into her wrists. “And he’s armed, remember.”

  “Like I could forget,” said Henry, looking around the lounge and taking stock of the situation. They had to move fast. He went to where Gabrielle was lying on the floor, grabbed her arms and started dragging her to the bedroom. Fox got the door and they hauled the unconscious girl onto the bed. Using the bat to walk, Mary appeared in the bedroom doorway. Fox helped her back into her wheelchair.

  “Tie Gabrielle up,” Henry said, taking the roll of packing tape from the bedside table and tossing it to Mary. The sound of the front door opening and closing came from downstairs. Henry snatched up the baseball bat and moved back to the lounge, followed by Fox.

  “What do we do?” she whispered.

  “Sit down in the chair like you’re still bound,” Henry said, closing the bedroom door. “It won’t fool Steve for more than a second, but it should give me enough time to get in a decent swing.” He took position to the left of the stairs door, both hands clutching the bat. Fox sat back on the kitchen chair and put her hands behind her back, as if they were still secured…

  The stairs creaked…

  The door swung open to reveal Steve standing with an automatic pistol in one hand and a can of gas in the other…

  “Where is Henry?” he asked without stepping into the room. Beside the door, Henry stood poised with the bat, ready to swing – but Steve had to be inside the lounge.

  Fox said, “Gabrielle untied him…uh…he needed the toilet…”

  Steve frowned. “She should not have done that.” He stepped into the lounge…

  Henry swung the bat across Steve’s back and he staggered into the room, landing on his hands and knees. The automatic flew from his hand and tumbled across the floor, while the gas can clunked heavily on the carpet. Not wasting a second, Fox grabbed the chair and raised it high, ready to bring down on Steve’s head. The tall kid was too fast, however, dodging to one side as she brought the chair down. He swung his left hand at her, which was still holding the gas can, and knocked her backwards. Henry cracked the baseball bat across Steve’s skull…

  The blow would have been enough to put anyone out cold. But Steve merely turned his head towards Henry and looked at him with a quizzical expression.

  “Why don’t you just give up?” he said.

  Henry swung the bat again, but this time Steve caught it by the shaft and wrenched it from his hands. Steve grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the kitchen with a strength that was beyond even a jock like him. Henry landed on the worktop and then fell forward onto the tiles, stunned. He looked up to see Fox throw herself on Steve’s back. He picked her off like she weighed nothing and threw her across the room to land beside Henry.

  “Jesus,” Fox moaned, rolling over into a crouch. “How strong is he?”

  “He’s superhuman,” Henry replied.

  Steve picked up the automatic from the floor and tucked it in the back of his trousers. Then he unscrewed the cap on the gas can and began to shake the contents over the sofas and floor of the lounge.

  Henry looked around the kitchen for a weapon. They couldn’t fight Steve physically. He was too powerful for that. Whatever Mallory had programmed into his brain, it had enhanced his physical ability beyond measure. “What are you doing, Steve?” Henry asked him, trying to buy time.

  “Preparing for a fire,” Steve replied emotionlessly.

  “You’ll never get away with it,” Fox said, nudging Henry. He looked where she was looking and saw the carving knife Gabrielle had dropped, lying on the carpet less than a metre away from them. He nodded and began to edge towards it.

  Steve gave a humourless laugh. “Mr. Mallory can get away with whatever he wants. This has proved the perfect opportunity to catch all you troublemakers together. Such a shame you didn’t know that Gabrielle would turn on you with a single command.”

  “There’ll be an investigation,” Fox continued. “Everyone will know it was arson.”

  “People will believe whatever Mr. Mallory tells them.”

  Fox fell silent and looked at Henry, who shrugged. He hated to admit it, but Steve was right. In Newton, Malcorp was the law.

  “Mallory doesn’t want me dead,” Henry said, clutching at anything that would buy them some time. “He wants me adjusted.”

  “He wanted you adjusted,” Steve corrected. “But his last order to me was that if we can’t stop you from causing trouble, you’re to be killed. Are you ever going to stop causing trouble, Henry? I mean, really? It’s just much easier this way – for everybody.”

  “What about the coach, huh?” Henry asked. “What have you done with him?”

  “Coach is out cold in his Chevy,” Steve said. “He’s going to have a car accident right after I’m finished here. Driving under the influence of alcohol. Gu
ess I won’t be the star of the swim team any more. Not his one, anyway.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” Henry said, laying his hand on the knife and pulling it behind his back. He didn’t know if he could use a knife against another human being, but if it came down to him and his friends’ survival, he was going to give it a damn good try. And he didn’t really know if Steve could be classed as a human any more…

  “Mr. Mallory asked me to take care of you personally,” Steve said, with a hint of pride in his voice. “He made me a soldier and tonight I’m going to show him how loyal I can be….”

  With a cry, Henry flew from the floor at Steve, bringing the knife round as he did so. Once again, Steve was just too fast, however. He caught Henry by the wrist and twisted. Henry dropped his weapon with a cry of pain.

  “He told me it would be better if you were found without bullets in you,” Steve said. “But I guess a few won’t hurt.”

  He threw Henry across the lounge, where he collided with a standard lamp and fell to the ground. Steve withdrew the automatic from his jeans…

  “Leave him alone!” Fox yelled, bringing a kitchen drawer filled with cutlery down on Steve’s skull. He didn’t even flinch, turning round and aiming the gun directly at her head…

  “Goodbye,” he said.

  In desperation, Henry grabbed the nearest weapon available: the standard lamp. He swung it round, hefting it like a spear, the shade falling off as he jabbed it towards the back of Steve’s neck…

  The exposed light bulb shattered against Steve’s bare skin… There was a crackle of electricity… And for a moment all the lights in the building dimmed…

  Steve crashed to the floor, making no effort to break his fall. There was a horrible crunch as he landed. He twitched a little, face down.

  “Get the tape!” Henry said, leaping on him and snatching the automatic from his grasp. Then he remembered the Initiator Steve had used to control Gabrielle – if Henry could find it, he could use it to shut their implants down. He started to search Steve’s pockets…and cursed as he pulled out a broken mechanism. It had shattered into pieces when Steve fell.

  Fox ran through to the bedroom and appeared a second later with the roll of packing tape. While Fox wound the tape about Steve’s ankles and wrists, Henry held the gun on him, fearing he would come round. Once he was taped up like a parcel, Fox tore off a smaller strip and was about to place it over his mouth when Steve’s eyes flickered open.

  “Hey!” he said, sounding completely different from before. There was fear in his voice for the first time. “Don’t!”

  Henry held a hand out to Fox. She looked at him questioningly.

  “I think the electric shock fried the SPIDIR implant in his brain,” he explained. “That’s why he went down so easy.”

  On the floor, Steve looked around wildly. “Where the hell am I? Who are you?”

  “He’s acting,” Fox said coldly. “I don’t trust him.”

  “Please!” Steve said, craning his head to look at her. “I know you! You’re that weird kid from school…”

  Henry slapped a hand across Steve’s face to get his attention. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “Huh?”

  “Before this. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Steve frowned in concentration. “I was…in hospital…” His eyes widened in shock and he began screaming in absolute panic. “Jesus Christ! They’re gonna cut open my skull! HELP! HELP!”

  Fox jammed the tape over his mouth to stop him from alerting the entire town.

  “What does it mean?” she asked, looking up at Henry.

  “It means we can short-circuit the SPIDIRs,” he replied. “Shut down the implants Mallory’s using to control these kids.”

  “With an electric shock? What are we gonna do? Hit everyone in town with lamps?”

  Henry held up the shattered components of the Initiator. “Mallory had one of these and so did Steve. They can be used to control the implants and shut them down. There have to be more around in the Malcorp complex. If I can get my hands on one, we could use it to free Gabrielle and Christian and the rest.”

  Fox shook her head. “Not much chance of getting back in the complex without being captured. We need a game plan.”

  Henry considered for a second, before remembering something. Game plan. “Coach!” he exclaimed.

  Henry found the man in the trunk of the Chevy, which was parked in the deserted street round the back of the coffee shop. His arms and legs had been bound and his face was a bloody mess, as if he’d been beaten with something hard.

  “Take it easy, coach,” Henry said as the man struggled into a sitting position in the open trunk. Using the carving knife, Henry cut through the tape.

  “That kid Steve went psycho!” he exclaimed. “He pistol-whipped me! Where the hell did he get a gun?”

  “From Mallory, I think.”

  “Jesus.”

  Henry took Coach Tyler’s arm and he cried out in pain. “I think it’s broken,” he said, almost apologetically.

  “Can you make it inside the building?”

  The coach nodded and, leaning on Henry for support, allowed himself to be led up a fire escape at the back of the building.

  Back inside the apartment, Henry sat him in one of the armchairs and went through to check the bedroom. Mary was watching Gabrielle and Steve, who were now lying side by side on the bed. She had the gun in her hand. Steve was thrashing wildly against his bonds, but no one was in a mood to trust him, even if his SPIDIR really had been shut down. Fox took one look at the coach and went through to the bathroom to fetch her first-aid kit. She set to work patching up his face.

  Henry leaned in the doorway to the bedroom, feeling suddenly exhausted. His nose was still throbbing and after their battle with Steve he felt as if he’d just run a marathon. And he guessed the night was far from over. Mallory had set Steve on them with express instructions to catch them or kill them; he was sure to be waiting for his soldier to return to confirm he’d done the deed. Which meant they didn’t have long…

  “We have to get out of here,” Fox said as she finished with the coach. “All of us.”

  Henry nodded his agreement, stepping back into the lounge. He checked his cell phone – zero reception. All they had to do was get far enough outside Newton to be able to contact the authorities… His eyes fell on the telephone on the kitchen counter. He ran over and snatched it up, wondering if he’d get through to somewhere outside Newton if he dialled 911…

  “Hello?” a woman’s voice said on the other end of the line.

  Taken aback, Henry replied, “Hello? Who is this?”

  For a moment there was silence. “This is the operator. Who would you like to call?”

  “Uh…” Henry looked at Fox and placed his hand over the receiver. “Some woman says she’s the operator.”

  Fox rolled her eyes at him. “Hang up. It’s them.”

  “Emergency services are on the way to your location,” the woman on the phone said. “Please stay where you are—”

  Henry tossed the phone back on the counter. “I guess they know Steve and Gabrielle weren’t successful.”

  Mary Layton wheeled herself to the bedroom door. “You two have to get out of here now. They’ll be coming any minute.”

  Fox shook her head. “We’re all going together…”

  Mary pushed her chair forward and took her daughter’s hand. “There’s no time for that. And someone has to stay here and watch those two.” She nodded in the direction of the bedroom. “I’d just slow you down. Get the hell out of Newton and tell everyone what’s going on here. And when you come back, be sure to tell me what the hell is going on here too, okay?”

  Fox laughed, although there were tears forming in her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  Her mom reached up and stroked her face. “I’m sorry, hon. We should have got out of this town a long time ago. I guess after your dad walked out I was
just scared of losing what we had left…”

  A car passed in the street outside, screeching to a halt abruptly.

  Henry took Fox’s arm. “We need to move now.”

  “Look after my girl,” Mary said as he pulled Fox towards the fire escape.

  Henry nodded and looked at Coach Tyler. “Come on.”

  “I’m in no condition, kid,” he replied woozily. “Think I’ll sit this one out. I’m betting the keys are still in the Chevy…”

  His voice faded as the glass shattered in the cafe below. Henry pulled Fox through the window out onto the fire escape and they flew down the steps as quickly and as silently as possible. Reaching the bottom, Fox looked back at the apartment above.

  “We’ll come back for them,” Henry whispered, looking round at the Chevy, which was parked a few metres away.

  “I’ll drive,” Fox said, regaining her composure. She ran round the front and jumped into the driver’s seat. Henry barely had time to get in the passenger’s side before the engine started and the Chevy pulled away along the street.

  “How long have you been driving?” Henry asked, steadying himself against the dash.

  “Ever since mom has been in the chair,” she replied. “Special dispensation.”

  “Well, you might want to take it a little slower.”

  “Too late for that!” Fox replied as the Chevy hit the end of the alley and roared onto Main Street, heading south out of town. She looked pretty comfortable behind the wheel and was getting some speed out of the ancient vehicle. As they flew past the last of the shops and by the houses on the outskirts of town, Henry looked out through the back window.

  “I think we got away clean,” he said. Hopefully whoever had broken into the cafe had been too preoccupied to hear them leaving.

  Then lights appeared in the darkness behind them: the red and white flashing lights of a police cruiser.

  Trooper Dan was in pursuit.

  “What do we do?” Fox asked, a note of panic rising in her voice. She was keeping the Chevy on a tight line as the road wound through the forest surrounding Newton, but the lights of the cop car were getting closer in the rear-view mirror. The ancient car was never going to outrun a tuned-up patrol vehicle.