The Adjusters Page 26

  Rather than revealing his annoyance at being unable to shake the man, Mallory reached over to tap the end of his cigar into the ashtray resting in the middle of the table. “Well, I’m not your average American.”

  “And I am not your average customer,” Aziz said, looking around the interior of the house. The lights were dimmed and soft music played in the background, piped in through hidden speakers. “That’s a nice piece of music. What is it?”

  “Bach.”

  “And infused with a hypnotic suggestion designed to make me more agreeable to purchasing your product, no doubt,” Aziz said, giving him a wide smile. “I’m trained to be above such crude methods. I’m not one of your teenagers, Mr. Mallory.”

  The head of Malcorp nodded and looked towards the kitchen, where Blake and Gabrielle were standing stiffly to attention, at the ready in case they were called upon. The girl was showing no signs of resistance to the adjustment now, but Mallory wanted to keep an eye on her all the same. There had been enough mistakes in the last twenty-four hours. “Cut the music, Blake,” he ordered and his grandson disappeared into the kitchen area. A second later, the music stopped.

  “I shouldn’t have underestimated you, General,” Mallory said.

  “I thought you might have worked that out when I didn’t run away like your other prospective buyers following the incident in the lab and the trouble overnight…”

  Mallory held up a hand. “That was a mere glitch, which is now fully under control. It was good of you to stay through all that…commotion.”

  “Please, Mr. Mallory. There’s no need to thank me. I know that every organization has its enemies – terrorist insurgents seeking to destabilize progress. Look at my own country. My uncle’s government is hanging on by a thread! A democratically elected leader!”

  Mallory smiled thinly. “Your uncle got ninety-eight per cent of the vote in the last election, didn’t he?”

  Aziz threw up his hands. “It was a landslide! But still they’re not happy. That’s why we need your technology.” He clenched his fist and slammed it into the palm of his other hand. “Stability is the key.”

  Mallory nodded. “That I can give you, General.”

  Aziz looked round at the kitchen. Blake had now joined Gabrielle and both were staring blankly ahead. “Very impressive indeed. Tell me. Do they really do everything you order, Mr. Mallory? Or rather, anything you order?”

  The head of Malcorp sat forward on the other side of the table and said, “I think you’ll find there’s very little…”

  The sound of music from outside the building stopped him short. The familiar, distorted strains of “The Star-Spangled Banner” began drifting across the complex from the emergency speaker system. There was a crackle as the volume on the complex-wide speaker system was cranked up to the loudest possible level.

  “What the hell?” Mallory said, standing up and looking at the window, which showed only the century pool. Beyond, the complex was cloaked in early-morning mist. “They’re playing that way too loud!”

  General Aziz chuckled and leaned back on his sofa. “Another demonstration, Mr. Mallory?”

  “Uh, yeah. I think…”

  The speakers crackled again and a voice began to speak over the slowed-down anthem. “This is Henry Ward,” the voice said, “and this is a message for kids of Malcorp High. You have been lied to. Your parents have been manipulated by John Mallory and Malcorp. They are trying to control you, but I’m here to tell you that you can take back the freedom that has been stolen from you…”

  “He’s messing with the theta wave,” Mallory said to himself. He snatched the communicator from his jacket, looking round at Gabrielle and Blake as he did so. They had not moved. If they were hearing Ward’s orders, they didn’t show it.

  “Alpha team to my house now!” Mallory snapped into the communicator. “Lock down the complex!”

  Aziz sat up, interested now as Henry continued to speak.

  “Malcorp is not your friend,” he said. “You owe it no loyalty. The Malcorp complex needs to be destroyed. Destroy all Malcorp property. Tear it down. If Malcorp security forces try to stop you…you have the training to fight back and defeat them. I also say to any Malcorp employees, do not attempt to stop me or any other free citizens from doing what we want within this complex or Newton. If you are holding members of our families, set them free immediately and you will not be hurt. The FBI has been notified and agents are en route to this location. The best thing you can do now is to give yourselves up. That is all.”

  Just as the message came to an end, the anthem began all over again. Henry’s words were on a loop, repeating every few minutes, to make sure no one could escape them. Blake raised a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes.

  “Malcorp,” he whispered.

  Mallory grabbed an Initiator from his jacket and held it at the ready.

  “What is going on here, Mr. Mallory?” Aziz asked, rising to his feet. “The FBI?”

  “A bluff!” Mallory exclaimed, taking a tentative step towards the kitchen, where Blake and Gabrielle were standing.

  “Are they going to attack us?” the general asked, moving to Mallory’s side.

  The head of Malcorp snapped his fingers at Blake. “Who do you serve?”

  “I am loyal to Malcorp and yourself, sir,” he replied snappily.

  Mallory laughed and shook his head. “Crazy kid thought he could subvert months of programming with one message.” But the message was still repeating all over the complex. He looked round at Aziz as the security detail he had ordered buzzed the front door. “Take a seat, General. I have a troublesome young man to deal with.”

  “What about these two?” the general said, eyeing Blake and Gabrielle a little nervously. “I need protection.”

  Mallory sighed and tossed him the Initiator. “Take my spare if it will make you feel better.”

  Aziz nodded and weighed the switch in his hand. “It does,” he said, walking back towards the sofa. “Now go and deal with your problem quickly, so we can get on with our business.”

  With a final glance at the two teenagers, Mallory hurried down through the house to the main entrance and the waiting guards.

  Rather than sitting down, Aziz walked over to where Blake and Gabrielle stood. With a quick check to see that Mallory had gone, he turned his attention to Blake.

  “Put out your hand,” he ordered.

  Blake raised his right hand, palm up. Aziz took a final puff on his cigar, before dropping it, lighted end first, into the boy’s palm. Blake didn’t even blink.

  “Get rid of that for me, huh? And fix coffee while you’re at it.”

  As Blake turned and walked through to the kitchen, General Aziz moved so he was standing directly in front of Gabrielle. He reached up and stroked a finger through her hair.

  “You know, I’m a very important person to Mr. Mallory,” he said quietly. “You could say that I’m part of the whole Malcorp family. So you can take orders from me, just like you would from him.”

  Gabrielle’s fixed expression shifted, coming to focus on the general. “You are part of Malcorp.”

  “That’s right,” Aziz said with a smile.

  “Just like Mr. Mallory.”

  Aziz nodded. “Just like Mr. Mallory. You should be nice to me.”

  Gabrielle reached up and closed her hand around General Aziz’s. There was a sickening crunch as she jerked her arm back, breaking every finger on the man’s hand just above the knuckle. Aziz let out a howl of agony and sunk to his knees before her, looking in disbelief at his mangled digits. The Initiator dropped from his other hand and skidded across the floor. Gabrielle seemed to look right through him.

  “Malcorp is the enemy,” she said, turning to Blake, who was watching her from the kitchen without expression. “It must be destroyed.”

  A momentary look of confusion passed across the boy’s face, but as Henry’s message echoed through the house, he nodded and reached for one of the kitchen drawers.
/>
  “Please,” General Aziz spluttered, gripping his right wrist tightly in his left hand. He started shuffling across the floor towards the fallen Initiator. “D-don’t.”

  Gabrielle didn’t move, but there was a clatter from the kitchen. General Aziz watched, wide-eyed, as Blake reappeared with a mallet-like meat tenderizer in his hand.

  “No!” Aziz exclaimed as the boy approached. “You can’t do this!

  Hesitating, Blake looked at Gabrielle with a question in his eyes.

  She said one word. “Malcorp.”

  General Aziz let out a final cry as Blake stepped forward with the meat tenderizer raised…

  Fox and Jennifer Ward had just about given up trying to find a way out of the holding room, when they heard the sound of running footsteps from the corridor outside.

  “Someone’s coming,” said Fox.

  “Get behind the door.” Jennifer pushed Fox towards the corner of the room. “When the door opens, you slip out while I keep him talking.”

  Fox nodded and pressed herself to the wall. They could hear fingers punching in a key code, followed by locks clicking. The door swung inward and a harassed-looking guy in a white coat stepped into the room.

  “We have to get you out of here right now,” he said urgently.

  “What about my son?” Jennifer demanded, trying to keep the man’s attention from the corner where Fox was hiding. “I want to know what happened to him.”

  The white-coat stepped forward to grab her arm. Henry’s message hadn’t penetrated the basement of the medical centre, but word had travelled fast across the complex, sending the staff into a blind panic. “No time! The FBI is coming and I need you to tell them I’m not one of—”

  Wham.

  The white-coat pitched forward and hit the ground as Fox brought a plant-pot down on his head. The remains of a rubber plant scattered the carpet around his now-unconscious body.

  Jennifer looked at Fox and smiled. “That worked.”

  “What was he saying about the FBI?”

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” Jennifer said, kneeling beside him and snatching the key card from his belt as Mary and Coach Tyler came to their side. She stripped the coat off the unconscious guy and slipped it on. “We’re all getting out of here, okay?”

  An alarm began to sound in the corridor outside. “Is that for us?” Mary asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Fox said. “Something must be happening.” She looked at Jennifer Ward, who nodded at her.

  “Henry,” they both said together. Suddenly Fox shared the woman’s certainty – Ward wasn’t dead. He had come back for them – wishful thinking maybe, but it made her smile.

  Fox helped her mom into the wheelchair and pushed her across the room. “Are you okay to walk?” Jennifer asked the coach as he shuffled to the door.

  “Just watch me,” he said, cradling his broken arm. “What’s the plan?”

  Jennifer looked around. “We get to ground level, find a car and smash the hell out of this complex. If anyone stops us, I’ll say I’m a doctor transporting you out.”

  “What about Henry?” Fox asked.

  “He’s here somewhere,” Jennifer said. “I’m going to get your mom and the coach to safety and then go looking for him.”

  “I’ll be coming with you.”

  Jennifer Ward opened her mouth to argue, but saw the determination in the girl’s eyes. “Okay. Let’s get moving.”

  She moved to the door, stuck her head out and, after a quick check, beckoned for the others to follow. They slipped out as a group, Jennifer marching at the front with the confident air of a doctor who had every right to be walking around inside the medical centre. They reached the end of one corridor and passed through a set of doors into another, with turnings branching off to left and right.

  “Do you know where you’re going?” Fox asked as Jennifer led the way forward without breaking her stride.

  “There’s got to be a lift here somewhere,” she replied as another set of doors to the left flew open and a female nurse came running towards them. For a second they all tensed, but the nurse went running on by.

  “What’s going on?” Jennifer called after her.

  “Whole place has gone nuts!” the nurse yelled over her shoulder. “Forget the patients! Save yourself!”

  With that, she was gone. Jennifer looked at her companions. “Whatever’s happening, it’s going to give us the cover we need to get out of here.”

  The doors flew open again as someone else pushed through…

  Trooper Dan.

  “Run!” Fox exclaimed, pushing her mom’s chair towards the opposite end of the corridor.

  Trooper Dan quickened his pace on seeing them. As they reached more doors and went through into another, almost identical corridor, he was hot on their tail.

  “Keep runnin’, girl!” he yelled after Fox. “I can keep this up all day!”

  Fox met Jennifer’s eyes as they raced down the corridor to the next set of double doors and realized they were thinking the same thing: for all they knew they could have been running ever deeper into the facility. As they made the next set of doors, Jennifer grabbed hold of Mary’s wheelchair while Fox held back, allowing the others to go through. Rather than following, she pulled the doors shut and slid the emergency lock into place. Jennifer and the coach appeared at the window on the other side.

  “Keep going!” she called through to them. “Get my mom out of here!”

  Ignoring their protests, she turned round…and faced Trooper Dan, who had stopped halfway up the corridor.

  “It’s me you want,” she said, meeting his insane eyes. “Not them.”

  Trooper Dan cocked his head on one side and studied her. “Well, you are just about as brave as a young girl can get, ain’t you?” He raised his left arm, showing off the hard metal of his new hand. “I’m gonna kill you slow.”

  Fox broke from her position, throwing herself at the nearest door as Trooper Dan ran at her. The door flew open and she staggered into the darkness of one of the labs…

  The Malcorp complex was already in chaos as Henry emerged from the substation. Several of the lodges were on fire, casting flames high into the night. A buggy screeched past with one of the security guards trying to hold the wheel as two kids Henry recognized from his French class clung onto the front. The buggy veered off the road and all three ended up sprawled on the grass. The security guard got to his feet first and started running along the road as the kids began to tear the upturned buggy apart with superhuman strength.

  “Oh, my god,” Hank mumbled, appearing at Henry’s side. Somewhere in the complex there was a muffled explosion. “What are they doing?”

  “What they’ve been ordered,” Henry replied. “They’re smashing up Malcorp.”

  “When are they gonna stop?”

  Henry gave him a look. “When there’s nothing left. Hey, Hank, maybe you should just get out of here. And lose all of those Malcorp badges, huh?”

  Hank stared down at the logos on his jacket and hurriedly removed it. “What are you going to do?”

  Henry looked towards Mallory’s house, which was all lit up in the distance. “I’m going to finish this,” he said, and started running.

  “Hey!” Hank called after him. “Do you think I’m gonna get in trouble when the FBI get here?”

  But Henry didn’t look round, running between the trees and past a group of lodges that had been set on fire. Men and women stood on the grass, gazing in shock as their children charged around the buildings with flaming torches in their hands. As Henry passed, someone grabbed his arm.

  “You!” said the man who had grabbed him. “You did this!”

  Henry yanked free and rounded on his assailant. It was Christian’s dad. He was standing in his dressing gown and his eyes were wide, terrified. Somewhere in the distance of the complex there came the sound of a vehicle crashing, followed by an explosion.

  “No,” Henry said. “You did this.” In the background,
his message was still repeating, muffled now by the chaos it had caused.

  “Like hell I did!” Christian’s dad yelled back. “This is just the kind of thing we’ve been worried about. Juvenile delinquency…looting… This is what we came here to escape! And you brought it with you from the city. If Christian wasn’t so goddamned weak…”

  “Weak?” Henry said with a shake of his head. “He’s one of the only people round here who was ready to stand up to Mallory.”

  “Mallory… We just wanted what was best…”

  “Adjusting your own children’s brains?” Henry snapped. “Mallory’s been putting implants inside their heads! Did you know that?”

  The man’s face fell, as if he was only just realizing the insanity of the situation himself. “Th-that can’t be right,” he stammered. “Mallory said it was just…a new educational process…minor hypnotic suggestion…”

  “And you believed that?” Henry said with a shake of his head.

  The man looked at him helplessly. Henry waved a hand around the complex. “Take a look around!” he said. “You think this is normal? Mallory’s turned your children into machines waiting to go crazy at the first wrong command.”

  Christian’s dad looked at the chaos going on all around and then down at his feet.

  Seeing there was nothing left to say, Henry turned to run, but the man grabbed at him again. “Please! Mallory’s got my son…” His voice broke. “We just wanted to do good!” He looked around the chaos of the complex. “Not this.”

  Henry looked at the man and it was impossible not to feel sorry for him. “I’ll find Christian,” he said, looking around the other adults. They looked shell-shocked, like the survivors of a war. He guessed seeing everything that Malcorp represented being destroyed was pretty traumatic for them. “Get these people to Newton. It’s not safe in the complex any more.”

  Christian’s dad nodded frantically, as if grateful that someone had given him an order. “Okay,” he said. Then he said again, in a pathetic tone, “We just wanted the best for our kids. You understand that, don’t you?”