Boy X

by Dan Smith

  The jumbled flash of images and sounds hurtled into his mind and exploded. Ash reeled with the force of their arrival, and put his hands up to his dirty face as if he could protect himself from his own buried memories. He muddled through the shapes and hazy pictures of the building and the needle and the man, without being able to fix on anything, but when he opened his eyes and looked up, he knew exactly who he was looking at.

  The man behind the voice. The monster in the dark.

  Damian Pierce.

  The man who had made him what he was.

  Now Ash was ready to understand everything.

  04 hrs and 40 mins until Shut-Down

  Kneeling in the wet dirt, Ash composed himself and looked around the camp. A burning hatred for Pierce reared inside him like a flaming dragon, but he had to control it. The scientist was not important now. All that mattered was the bag he was carrying.

  Three other soldiers – including Hulk – were standing close to the flames, but they weren’t watching Ash; they were turning in slow circles with their eyes fixed on the shapes that moved in the canopy. The fourth soldier was missing.

  ‘Get up.’ Cain crouched beside Ash and leant close. ‘On your feet.’ She grabbed the piece of material round his neck and hauled him up.

  In the trees, one of the monkeys grunted. ‘What are they doing?’ Hulk swept his weapon around in the direction the noise had come from. ‘You think they’re a threat? There must be more than twenty of them up there.’

  ‘They’re just monkeys.’ But Cain kept one eye on them as she nudged Ash towards the centre of the camp. ‘How did you get out of the BioSphere?’

  Ash kept quiet and tried not to look at Pierce. He continued to cast his eyes about the camp, looking for an escape. His whole body was shaking with fear and frustration, his mind still swimming with the flood of memories.

  ‘And what’s this?’ When they were close to the fire, Cain took hold of the makeshift spear that was embedded in the dirt and pulled it out with one quick tug.

  The tip of the spear was still sharp where Ash had whittled it with the knife, except instead of raw wood the tip was now covered with dirt and traces of white dust. Cain sniffed at it, then touched it and rubbed the dust between finger and thumb. ‘How did you make all that smoke?’

  ‘It was Thorn. He’s out there right now,’ Ash said, trying to sound as cold and mean as he could. ‘Probably just waiting for the right moment.’ It was difficult to hide the tremor in his voice.

  Cain raised her eyebrows and studied him for a moment before smiling. ‘Clever boy. Keeping us on our toes.’

  A light thump came from somewhere by the treeline.

  ‘Check it out, Winter.’ Cain signalled to Hulk.

  Despite his size, the big man was light on his feet as he ventured closer to the trees. ‘Can’t see anything.’ Another thump made him snap his head up and look at the waterproof shelter they had improvised. ‘Maybe something—’ An orange-green fruit hit the ground beside him, making him step back and scowl at the trees. ‘The monkeys are throwing fruit. Can you believe that?’

  Pierce clasped the messenger bag to his chest. ‘We need to get away from here.’

  ‘We can handle Thorn,’ Cain told him.

  ‘You almost couldn’t handle this child.’ A flash of anger in Pierce’s eyes. ‘Anyway, we’ve got more than just Thorn to worry about.’ He nodded towards the trees. ‘We need to get away from them.’

  ‘They’re just monkeys.’ Cain glanced at Pierce. ‘It’s just fruit.’

  ‘Nothing on this island is “just” anything,’ he replied. ‘Something even I forgot.’

  Another projectile hit the ground, followed by a pat-patpat as three more missiles came from the trees in rapid succession.

  ‘All right.’ Cain threw the spear to one side and gripped her carbine with both hands. She examined the shapes lurking in the canopy and addressed the other soldiers. ‘Where’s Petersen?’

  She had to be talking about the orange-haired soldier. He was the only one missing.

  ‘Still out there,’ replied Hulk. ‘You think Thorn is out there too?’

  Cain reflected for a moment, still scanning the camp, and Ash saw a shrewd intelligence behind her eyes.

  ‘Sounds like they’ve stopped,’ she said eventually. ‘Young, go and check on Petersen. Stay sharp. Winter, you watch the perimeter. And you’ – she looked at Ash – ‘can tell me where Thorn is hiding.’ Her eyes searched Ash’s face, and he knew she would detect his lies. She would not be easy to fool, and she was not afraid. When he read her, there was no scent of burnt plastic hanging around Cain – just a powerful smell of oil and what he guessed was gunpowder. Her heart had the strong and slow pulse of an athlete.

  ‘We need to go,’ Pierce said again. ‘Petersen can catch up.’ Pierce, on the other hand stank of burnt plastic. But there was a tang in the air too, like electricity. He wasn’t just afraid. The way his voice heightened and his pulse quickened, Ash knew he was excited. ‘Forget Thorn. Just bring the boy. That’s an order.’

  Cain shifted her eyes and looked at Pierce standing there in his scruffy suit. ‘What did you mean just now,’ she asked. ‘When you said “it worked”?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You looked at the boy and said, “It worked”.’

  ‘Did I? What the hell does it matter?’

  Ash knew why it mattered, though. He had dreamlike half-memories of Pierce injecting him, watching him, testing him. He was the worst kind of monster, because he looked like a harmless fool. A wolf in sheep’s clothing who had called Ash useless when the injections showed no sign of working. But now it was working and that’s why it mattered.

  ‘We’re leaving,’ Pierce said, coming forward, reaching out to take hold of Ash. ‘Right now. Bring the boy with us.’

  ‘Not yet.’ Cain moved between him and Ash.

  Pierce stopped and tried to stand even taller. He stared Cain right in the eye. ‘I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge here – who’s paying the bills.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten, but you don’t give the orders any more. I do. And I do not leave my people behind.’

  ‘You left Thorn.’

  ‘He was your man.’ Cain’s eyes narrowed, and she glared at Pierce. Her fingers tightened around her weapon. It was clear they didn’t like each other; maybe Ash could make use of that. So when Cain coughed, just a small and insignificant sound, it gave Ash an idea.

  ‘Kronos,’ he said. ‘It’s not just in Mum’s lab; it’s all over the BioSphere. Starts like flu, makes you cough. My friend Isabel has it, and now so do you.’

  ‘Impossible,’ Pierce said. ‘We’ve all been vaccinated against the virus. Anyway, if it escaped the lab and your friend has it, then why don’t—’ He glanced up at the monkeys and a vague smile passed across his lips as if he had just stumbled upon a secret.

  ‘You’ve got it,’ Ash said to Cain. ‘All of you. Pierce probably injected you with Kronos instead of the cure. It would be a good way to get it off the island: inside you. He probably—’

  ‘We’d be dead before we got to San Jose,’ Cain said. ‘No, we don’t have it. The real question is, why don’t you have it? You’re telling the truth about your friend, I can see it in your eyes, but why aren’t you sick?’ She turned to Pierce. ‘And why do you look so smug about it?’ She raised her weapon at Pierce, and the other soldiers followed suit. ‘Something’s going on here,’ she said, ‘and I want to know what it is. Are you and Thorn trying to pull some kind of trick?’

  Pierce backed away, lifting his hands and shaking his head. ‘There’s no trick. Really, this is getting out of hand.’

  ‘Thorn was your man.’ Cain looked down the sights at Pierce. ‘You insisted on bringing him along. How did he get out of the BioSphere? That place was supposed to be locked down. Did you have some kind of plan to take us out? Pick us off in the jungle and save yourself some money?’

  ‘Of course not. We’re in the jungle by accid
ent. We were supposed to be in the bloody helicopter, miles away from here by—’

  ‘Then tell me what’s going on.’ Cain’s tone was cold and unyielding. ‘Why isn’t the boy sick? Where is Thorn?’

  ‘I . . .’

  ‘Winter, cut his throat.’

  Hulk drew a large black-bladed knife and approached Pierce with purpose.

  ‘No! Wait!’ Pierce put his hands in front of him, palms out. ‘I really don’t know where Thorn is. Really. And the boy?’ He looked to the trees. ‘It’s because of them. The monkeys. It’s the same reason they don’t have it.’

  Cain signalled one-handed to Winter, and the huge man stopped in his tracks. He remained poised to act as soon as Cain gave another order.

  ‘Please.’ Pierce took a deep breath, his attention jumping from Winter to the knife in his hand. ‘I hardly know Thorn any better than you do. He’s The Broker’s man.’

  ‘What?’ Cain couldn’t hide her surprise.

  ‘And that boy’ – Pierce pointed at Ash – ‘is more valuable than any virus. I thought it didn’t work. I thought it was all wasted, but there he is. Can’t you tell he’s different?’

  Different. The word stood out to Ash. It repeated over and over in his head. He really was different.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Cain said.

  ‘Back there.’ Pierce moved his hand and waved it behind him. ‘When he came out of the forest, he was so quick. I didn’t think anything of it, but he just lifted me off the ground like I was no heavier than an overnight bag. Look at him, for God’s sake, he’s just a scrawny little kid. I’m eighty-five kilos, and he can’t be more than thirteen years old. How many other children do you think could do that?’

  Cain glanced down at the boy she had captured, re-appraising him as if she were seeing him for the first time. Ash stared back at her, feeling the strength in his muscles, preparing to accept and understand what he was.

  ‘And you see how the monkeys watch him? And Kronos . . .’ Pierce squinted at Ash, now unable to hide his excitement. ‘Kronos doesn’t affect him because it’s a part of him. It’s—’ Pierce waggled his fingers, searching for the right words. ‘It was Type Twenty-four. I knew that was the one – that’s why I tried it on myself – but I was so stupid. It had to be someone who was still developing. A child. It had to be a child.’ Eyes alive with pride and self-importance, he was like an excitable boy who had been keeping a marvellous secret he was finally allowed to reveal. ‘I was so angry when it didn’t work. Angry with you.’ He pointed right in Ash’s face.

  ‘Pierce, if you don’t start making sense in the next ten seconds, I’m going to let Winter cut your throat just for the hell of it.’

  ‘Yes. Yes. Of course.’ Pierce came closer to Ash. ‘But it’s complicated.’

  ‘Un-complicate it.’

  ‘Type Twenty-four is a performance enhancer. From them.’ Pierce gestured towards the night, not noticing the way the shapes shifted and the branches swayed. ‘Adaptable, strong, intelligent. They have genetic markers that shouldn’t be there; markers I would expect to find in other animals. Feline, serpentine, pteropine, even tardigrade – a virtually indestructible micro-animal.’

  Pierce took off his glasses and wiped them on the front of his shirt. ‘Someone did something on this island during the war; something way ahead of their time. The animals were genetically altered. A new kind of evolution began before BioMesa ever arrived, and it continued unchecked. Everything here became something more. Especially them.’ He waved his hand at the treetops again. ‘They are strong, intelligent, hyper-aware, with senses more usually seen in other species. Can you imagine a human being with those abilities? An evolved human. Can you even begin to imagine how this kind of science could be developed? Imagine’ – he waggled his fingers again – ‘having bones that could heal in days; an athlete with enhanced strength; a soldier who is unaffected by extreme temperatures, who can run for miles without ever tiring, whose eyes will never fail. I thought I had harnessed the essence of what makes them different, and I gave it to this boy many years ago, but it didn’t work. He was such a disappointment, but now he’s back here and something . . .’ He shook his head. ‘Something must have triggered it. Microbes. Something in the air, the water . . . I need to investigate further, but it explains why he slept for so long. He was changing. Becoming.’

  ‘You’re telling me you know this boy? You experimented on him?’ Cain was trying to make sense of what Pierce was telling her. ‘Did his mother know?’

  ‘Of course not. She’s too narrow-minded; she would never have agreed.’

  ‘But she found out.’ Ash allowed his hatred to rise to the surface and burn stronger. All his life he had been afraid of this man without even knowing it. His was the voice in the darkness. But Ash wasn’t afraid now. Pierce was just a potbellied scientist in a scruffy suit, while Ash was something else. Something enhanced. ‘She found out and she stopped you.’

  ‘Stopped me? She ruined me, and took you away. But look at you now. Stronger and faster.’ He turned to Cain. ‘Don’t you see how valuable this is? Kronos doesn’t matter any more. We don’t need this primitive beast.’ He kicked the side of the crate, making the monkey inside grunt. ‘Not when we have this boy. Kronos is child’s play in comparison. This boy is priceless – the most significant scientific breakthrough since . . . ever. I have to know how much stronger and faster he will become. I can reproduce Type Twenty-four and—’

  ‘Heads up.’ The words came from somewhere behind him. ‘It’s me, Petersen. Look what I found.’

  Cain whipped around. ‘Where’s Young?’

  ‘Checking for others.’

  Ash risked a look back and saw the orange-haired soldier called Petersen emerge from the jungle. But he was not alone. Walking in front of him, with her fingers laced together over her head, was Isabel.

  ‘Another one?’ Hulk said. ‘This some kind of school trip? How many more kids are out there?’

  ‘None,’ Petersen replied. ‘It’s clear.’ In his left hand he was carrying Thorn’s survival pack. ‘She had this.’ He hefted it to Cain, who caught it one-handed and held it up for inspection. When she had looked it over, she came so close to Pierce that their noses were almost touching. She fixed him with her icy-blue eyes. ‘We haven’t finished. I’m coming back to you.’ Then she turned to Ash and showed him the pack. ‘This belongs to Thorn. Why is he helping you?’

  But his mouth was dry and he couldn’t speak. Isabel had been their best chance of disabling the boat and calling for help, but now that chance was gone.

  ‘Thorn is not helping us,’ Isabel answered for him. ‘We took it from him.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Cain put the pack over her shoulder. ‘And what else did you take from him?’

  Petersen dug Isabel’s handset from his pocket. ‘She had this but it looks dead. I can’t figure out how to turn it on.’

  Cain took it from him. ‘Some kind of smartphone.’ She studied it for a moment, then looked at Isabel. ‘What is this?’

  ‘My phone.’

  Ash focused his thoughts, trying to think of a way to overcome Cain and the others. If only he could get the monkeys to—

  Isabel glanced sideways at him and looked up twice in quick succession as if she wanted him to see something.

  When Ash followed her line of sight, he saw that her fingers were no longer tightly laced together behind her head. She had separated her hands and was holding three fingers out straight.

  What is that? Three what? Three people?

  ‘I’ve never seen a phone like this,’ Cain said. ‘Is this some kind of messaging device? Have you been messaging someone?’

  Isabel didn’t show any fear. ‘No. There’s no signal.’

  ‘Are you in contact with Thorn?’ Cain demanded.

  ‘No.’ Isabel lowered her head as if she was looking at the ground, but she cast a sideways glance at Ash once more and widened her eyes in warning. She drew one of the fingers back into
her fist so now there were only two.

  What did it mean? Two what?

  ‘If I find out you’re lying to me . . .’ Cain warned.

  ‘I’m not.’

  Cain looked at the handset again, searching for a way to switch it on. She pressed the button on top, but the screen remained blank.

  ‘It’s dead.’ Isabel’s expression gave nothing away.

  ‘I’ve had enough of this.’ Cain was losing her icy calm. ‘Switch the damn thing on. Right now.’

  ‘It’s dead. I told you.’ Isabel drew another finger back into her fist.

  One left. It’s a countdown. One minute left until what?

  Cain snatched one of Isabel’s arms and, for a moment, Ash thought she must have seen the signal. But then she turned Isabel’s hand over and slapped the handset into it before drawing a knife from the sheath across her chest. ‘Switch it on.’

  Isabel stared Cain right in the eye as if she wasn’t afraid of her at all. She looked at her for a few long seconds, then the handset beeped twice.

  That wasn’t just monkeys throwing fruit, Ash thought. Isabel was throwing HEX13. She’s rigged the camp!

  In that instant, a loud KA-BOOM! echoed in the jungle, accompanied by a blinding white flash.

  04 hrs and 31 mins until Shut-Down

  Asurge of energy blasted through the camp, bringing a cloud of stinging debris. Ash reeled like a drunk, blinking hard in confusion, but the effect wasn’t as intense as it had been in the BioSphere. His body had already adapted to protect itself, and by the time the second explosion split the night, he had recovered enough to see what was happening.

  In the canopy, the howler monkeys had whipped into a frenzy of sound and movement. They growled and grunted, leaping from branch to branch. A shower of broken sticks and unripe fruit rained down like a storm and they bared their teeth, screaming at the men below.