by Lucy Inglis
She followed billboards advertising the blood drive to a quiet, cordoned-off street where two large mobile medical units stood. Lily walked up to the first one and climbed the stairs. The interior was brightly lit. There was a large man sitting in a padded seat, hooked up to blood-giving apparatus, and a young nurse sitting at a desk filling out forms. There was a spare donation chair.
‘Hello,’ the nurse said cheerfully. ‘Are you here to donate?’
Lily nodded.
‘Excellent.’ The nurse picked up a clipboard with some forms on it. She handed them over to Lily and gestured to the spare padded chair. Lily sat down and looked at the forms. ‘If you can just fill those out, we’ll get everything sorted.’
Lily studied the first form and began to fill it in with fake details. Any doubts she had had about this being the Agency’s work evaporated; there was no way this could be a real drive. She was too young and too small to give blood voluntarily.
The nurse opened a sterile packet with a cannula. ‘You look like you’ve been in the wars,’ she said cheerfully.
Yet another reason for you not to take my blood. Lily said nothing, but handed over the forms and stripped out of her jacket. She tugged up her right sleeve. ‘This is the best vein.’
The nurse smiled. ‘You’ve done this before?’
‘A few times.’ Lily settled back in the chair and ignored the scratch. The nurse arranged the bag on the stand and picked up the clipboard. ‘It’ll take a minute to get going.’
‘I know. Low blood volume.’ Lily gave her a tight smile. The nurse went back over to the desk.
The man sitting in the other chair, his donation almost finished, leant over to her. ‘Excuse me. I know it’s really not my business, but if you’ve got low blood volume, it’s not advisable to donate without medical advice.’
‘I know. It’s okay. My doctor knows I give blood.’ Not a lie.
He relaxed. ‘That’s fine, then.’
‘Yes, fine,’ Lily said quietly, watching the red thread slip through the tube and start to drip into the bag.
The nurse unhooked the man and gave him a cup of tea and a biscuit. He smiled at Lily. ‘I have a daughter about your age. Bit of a tomboy too, always getting herself into scrapes.’
The nurse came to check on Lily’s progress. She looked at the bag. At the base were two white sensor markers, both of which were turning a vivid purple as the blood touched them. The nurse’s expression changed. Her eyes flicked to Lily.
‘If you’ll excuse me for a second,’ she said, her voice high and false. She took a mobile from the desk and walked out. It was only seconds before she returned and sat back down at the desk, her eyes shifting to Lily every few seconds.
Lily’s head was spinning. She shook it, trying to clear it. Ten minutes later, there came a familiar noise: the sound of a large and powerful motorbike. It thrummed to a halt outside, and the rider jumped off and threw himself up the few stairs in one bound, erupting into the small unit. His face was invisible inside the helmet, but he looked at her for a long time.
Lily stared back at him, determined not to show any fear.
Ellis lifted the helmet off. He shook his head, eyes narrowed. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
The man put his mug down. ‘Are you her boyfriend? I have to say, I was a little worried about this young lady.’
Ellis barely spared him a glance. ‘Back. Off.’
The man frowned. ‘I was only concerned—’
‘And I told you to back off. Don’t you have somewhere to be?’
The man got up. ‘Well, actually—’
‘Then go there. Now.’
The man picked up his overcoat and edged round Ellis’s intimidating figure. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked Lily when he was almost at the door, looking between her and the nurse.
Lily nodded and smiled a little. ‘I’m fine.’
The man looked relieved. ‘If you’re sure . . .’
‘Get OUT,’ Ellis bellowed.
The man scurried down the steps as fast as his frame would allow him, and disappeared.
‘You too, get out,’ Ellis said to the nurse. ‘Go.’
She left, closing the door behind her.
Ellis looked at Lily and swore at her, starting to detach the bag from the cannula. ‘You fool. You’ll kill yourself if you carry on like this.’
‘What do you care?’ Lily snapped.
He taped the cannula down on to her arm, leaving it in place. ‘What’s the reason for this exercise anyway? If you wanted to see me again, you’ve got my number.’
‘On what possible planet would I want to see you again?’
His eyes met hers for the briefest second, then slid away.
‘You asked if I wanted to see my mother again. And I do. Is she alive?’
‘You already know she is,’ he said, irritated. ‘You saw her at the Cripplegate facility.’
Lily swallowed. ‘Is she in trouble for that?’
He shrugged, unhooking the half-filled blood bag from the stand and putting it inside his jacket. ‘We knew we had to watch her. She’s compromised by being your mother. It’s understandable.’ He held out his hand. ‘Phone.’
‘I haven’t got it. Your brother took it. That’s why I did this. I want to see her again, and this was the only way I knew I could reach you.’ Lily got to her feet. ‘If you promise, I’ll go with you.’
‘You’re coming with me anyway.’ He spun her around and pushed her in front of him, out of the unit and down the short flight of steps. The nurse stood nearby, breath steaming in the cold. Ellis nodded to her and she went back inside. Reaching his bike, he passed Lily a helmet. She pulled it on and slid on to the bike behind him.
‘Hold on. Tight.’
The bike streaked through the city, heading west. Speed cameras popped and flashed behind them. Lily held on to Ellis just as he had ordered, fingers frozen against the hard black leather of his jacket. The power station loomed into sight, dark and forbidding on the opposite bank, its white cooling towers pale against the night sky.
Ellis pulled up at the lights, one booted foot striking the ground. Lily flexed her fingers, feeling them creak with cold. The next moment he had taken them both in his warm grip and pushed them into the unzipped pockets of his jacket. They began to thaw instantly. The lights changed and he made a sharp left turn over Battersea Bridge. On the south bank, he wound his way through a couple of back streets before arriving at the beginning of the waste ground on which the derelict power station sat.
He slowed. The bike splashed through puddles and bumped over the rough ground round to the river side of the vast building. Ellis brought it to a halt, and Lily slid off and removed her helmet. He looked at her for a long time. His grey eyes were familiar, so similar to Regan’s. But Lily knew she didn’t know him at all.
He straightened up and dismounted the bike. ‘Come on, then,’ he said, holding out his hand.
It was a curious gesture, inviting trust. Lily put her fingers in his, unsure. He led her inside the building.
They walked through the derelict turbine hall, boots crunching on broken glass and brick fragments, crossing the vast space until they came to the other side, and a bank of doors. Ellis pressed his hand against a black glass plate to the right of one of the doors and it opened immediately, revealing a laboratory beyond. As Lily and Ellis entered the lab, another agent with snake eyes slid down from a wooden stool. Other male agents in black combat clothing stood across from each other at a bench, arranging weapon components on the worktop. All of them appeared to be under the influence of some form of Eldritche blood or another, with strange coloured skin or eyes. Some had the snakeskin effect on their neck and hands, but one man’s hand appeared to be developing orange and blue scales. An assistant in a white lab coat worked at another station, entering data into a computer. The place felt compact, but busy. The new snake-eyed agent – presumably a replacement for the man Regan had killed at Hori’s – blocked Lily’s view.
‘Well, well, look what we have here.’
She looked up at him, determined not to show fear.
His third eyelids blinked briefly. ‘Brave little thing, aren’t you?’
‘Not particularly.’
The eyes flicked to Ellis. ‘This the girl you got the call about?’
‘Yes. She went to give blood. Decided she wanted in on the project.’
Lily raised an eyebrow, pulling her hands into her sleeves. ‘I said I wanted to see my mother. I don’t want anything to do with –’ she looked the agent up and down –‘this.’
The agent’s unpredictable temper flared and he grabbed her arm. There was a crack, as the talisman, hidden inside Lily’s cuff, reacted. Ellis separated them instantly, just as the agent was already jumping back.
‘You stupid idiot!’ he raged, tugging up Lily’s sleeve. ‘Now you’ve told him exactly where she is.’ Ellis pulled her away, pushing her roughly into an adjoining corridor. ‘Bet you think that was very clever, don’t you.’
Lily said nothing, just walked ahead of him, into another room. In it was a series of glass boxes – cells – all of them empty except one, in which a girl with short dark hair sat on the bed, looking exhausted. Her bare arms were covered in bruises and flecked with bloody scabs.
Lily halted. ‘Vicky?’
The girl stared at her, then got up from the bed, coming to the window and pressing her hands against the glass, her face stricken.
‘Help me! Please help!’ she shouted, her voice deadened by the thick glass.
Ellis immediately dragged Lily into a long corridor lit with strip lighting and with pipes running over every surface, closing the door behind them.
She turned to him and shoved him hard in the chest. He didn’t move. ‘You are a grade-one shit, you know that, don’t you? She trusted you.’
Ellis folded his arms, staring her down. She shook her head at him, refusing to be cowed.
‘You want to see your mother? Then zip it.’ He sidestepped her and walked away down the corridor. Lily ran to catch up. He put his palm to a glass plate by an industrial door. A light slid over it and there was a bang as internal bolts slid back.
They walked into a small medical facility. There was a sink, a medical refrigerator, and a counter with a computer and printer beneath it. Pharmaceuticals were in racks on shelves, all stuck with little white labels covered in neat printed handwriting. The only sign that it wasn’t an ordinary treatment room was a padded chair fitted with Velcro restraints. Ellis buzzed an intercom.
‘Take a seat,’ he said.
‘I’ll stand, thanks.’
A man of about Lily’s father’s age came into the lab. He had immaculate brown hair in a side parting and severe spectacles with tortoiseshell frames. He wore a lab coat and had a stethoscope around his neck.
‘Ah, Miss Hilyard. We have the pleasure of your company at last.’ He held up the stethoscope. ‘May I? It’s just a check over, to assess your condition.’
Lily glanced at Ellis. He nodded, indicating that her compliance was part of the deal. She sat, thumping into the chair with bad grace.
The man listened to Lily’s heart. She glared at Ellis, who stared back, impassive. The doctor looked in her eyes and inside her mouth, and checked her pulse.
‘She’s fine. She’s just tired and her blood pressure is low, for the obvious reasons.’
‘She’s sitting right here,’ Lily snapped.
The man looked at her, then at Ellis. He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’ll rig her up with some IV fluids. And she should eat something.’ Ellis nodded. ‘And it might be an idea to give her some of the refined plasma, just to get rid of that bruising. If we have to take her to the Ministry in the morning, we need her in better condition than this.’
‘I’m not an animal!’ Lily protested.
They both ignored her. The man disappeared the way he had come, and Ellis pulled up a stool and tore Lily’s black jacket and T-shirt up from the wrist.
‘I could have just taken them off,’ she said sarcastically.
‘You won’t be needing them again. We have clothes here for you.’
‘I am so not wearing anything provided by you.’
‘Your mother chose it all.’
Lily was silent for a few moments.‘She . . . she’s very sick, isn’t she?’
‘Yes. She’s very sick,’ he said finally.
‘And you can’t fix her?’
‘No. But we keep trying.’
‘But she’s getting sicker.’
‘Yes.’
‘Who was that man?’
‘Professor Hellier. He’s the chief medical advisor on the project.’
The doctor returned. He examined the exposed cannula on Lily’s arm, then tutted. ‘These people. No finesse.’ He smiled at her.
Lily said nothing, just looked away as he pushed a small syringe of something into the port and depressed the plunger. The instant rush through her arm and into her neck and chest made Lily sit up.
‘That’s it. Good girl.’
She shook her head to clear it.
The doctor examined her face, watching the bruises fade from her white skin. ‘I never tire of watching this work,’ he said to no one in particular.
‘I want to see my mother.’
He began to attach the bag of fluids to the stand. ‘Your mother needs to get as much rest as she can.’
‘Why can’t you fix her?’
‘The original transfusion did colossal damage to her system. Irreparable. We do everything we can to keep her as healthy as possible.’
Lily bit her lips together.
‘How are you feeling?’ Lily refused to look at him. She just nodded. He got up and looked over at Ellis. ‘I’ll be back in an hour to check on her.’
The doctor left. Ellis took hold of the metal stand, pushing it on its casters and manoeuvring it around the chair. ‘Come on.’ He led her through a maze of smooth sheet-metal corridors, then pushed open a door into a large communal kitchen. Pulling the stand over to a table, he pointed. ‘Sit.’
Lily sat on the shiny white bench. Ellis went to a fridge emblazoned with a large biohazard sticker and opened the door. The bright light from inside threw his features into sharp relief, reminding Lily almost unbearably of his brother. She looked down.
‘I’m not eating anything from in there,’ she said, her voice not quite as steady as she’d hoped.
She heard him laugh. ‘Oh, that?’ He pointed to the sticker. ‘It just means it’s my fridge.’
‘Huh. You must be high up the food chain here.’
He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Pretty close to the top.’ He reached inside and pulled out a plain white carton. Next to the fridge was a microwave. He put the carton inside and set the timer. Turning back to Lily, he crossed his arms over his chest, hands on his biceps. ‘I’m too young to be the face of the project, as far as the Ministry are concerned, but without me it’s sunk.’
‘What about Doctor Hellier?’
He shrugged. ‘He’s a good doctor. Brilliant, even. But he’s not me.’
The microwave chimed. He turned and pulled out the carton, removing the lid in a puff of steam. Taking a pair of chopsticks from a drawer, he walked over and put the carton in front of her, sitting down opposite. Lily peered into it.
‘Wait, these are the noodles from—’
‘Yes. You like them, don’t you?’ For a second he looked unsure. ‘You go there with your father.’
Lily looked down. ‘Yes. I like them.’
‘You should eat.’
She picked up the carton and sipped the hot broth.
‘You don’t eat enough.’
‘Don’t you start,’ Lily retorted, then shut up abruptly, annoyed with herself at the sudden sense of familiarity between them.
Ellis traced an invisible pattern on the table with his thumb. Lily took another sip. Grasping the chopsticks, she tried to gather up some noodles, but her hands were shaking too
much. Her show of bravery wasn’t quite as convincing as she’d hoped.
He frowned. ‘You’re not frightened of me, are you?’
She set her jaw. ‘Of course not. I’m frightened of this place and everything in it. But I’m not frightened of you.’
‘Good,’ he said, sounding strangely satisfied. ‘And you’ll get used to it. You’re pretty important around here. We’ll look after you.’
‘I don’t want to be looked after,’ she snapped.
Ellis got to his feet and fetched a fork. Taking the carton from her, he wound the noodles around the fork and offered them to her.
She looked mutinous. ‘I can feed myself.’
He dropped the fork in the carton and sat back.
‘Don’t try to be nice to me. It doesn’t suit you.’
‘I can be nice. Maybe you’ll find that out, if you want to.’
She looked at him for a moment, then gestured to the building around them. ‘This whole place – it’s built on the idea that my blood can be used to mix us up, create new creatures.’
The passion returned to his face. ‘No new creatures. Your blood plasma allows us to transmit Eldritche qualities to humans. We need to learn more about how to pick and choose the desirable qualities and leave the others behind. When we perfect it, it’ll eradicate disease and frailty overnight. It’s what this whole project is about. Imagine – the cure for cancer, HIV, you name it – here, instantly, easily deliverable. Don’t you want that? It’ll change the world.’
‘Don’t make me laugh,’ Lily retorted. ‘This is the government we’re talking about. It’ll be like everything else, sold to the highest bidder at FutureMed. Like the traffickers and the drugs companies and the arms dealers. Just with an official stamp.’
‘It won’t be like that. We’ll be working in partnership with some of the most talented and well-funded people in the world.’
She watched him, shaking her head slowly. ‘And you call your brother an idealist. They will sell it to the pharmaceuticals, who will rinse people desperate for cures. It’s all about money. Not to mention the farming of seven thousand of your own people. Seven. Thousand.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m not sure which is more disgusting.