by Lucy Inglis
He took a breath. ‘If you worked with me, we could steer it. Make it what we wanted. Welfare could be a priority, if you wanted it to be.’ His grey eyes were cast down, his strong hands on the carton.
‘Me, work with you?’
Ellis nodded, almost enthusiastic. ‘What would be so wrong with that? We’re both brilliant. The work, it would be incredible.’
‘But it’s based on exploiting your own—’
‘Let me finish!’ he barked, startling her into silence. When she was quiet, he went on. ‘So far blood products have impressive, if temporary, results. But they need refining. The effect on the user can be undesirable.’
‘You mean like the snake man out there.’
He nodded. ‘That’s exactly what I mean. The idiots. They’re all like gym freaks being given free access to steroids. We don’t even know what these combinations will do over time, but the Ministry is pushing so hard. And Mona Singh’s extract turns them all into borderline psychopaths. If we can just get past this week, I’ll stop all that.’
‘How?’
‘I made a deal. Produce the work to make FutureMed a success and I’ll get to head the project. Take over from Hellier.’
‘Who’s promised you that?’
‘Your mother . . . negotiated it with the Ministry.’
Lily eyed him. ‘Where is she?’
He studied her for a long time. Then he pointed towards the door. ‘I’ll take you to her, if you promise me you’ll join the project.’
‘With you leading it?’
‘With me leading it,’ he said definitely, putting his hand over hers on the table.
Lily’s eyes went to the talisman. The shimmering dust within it swirled placidly. She looked at it, surprised.
‘See?’ Ellis said. ‘It knows I don’t mean you any harm. That’s why it never reacts to me.’
She frowned.
‘And I can see he’s got you believing that garbage about a prophecy.’
Lily bit her lip.
‘Part of his egomania.’ He held up his hands. ‘The job has turned his brain, made him think he’s the only one who can stop all this. We’re identical twins. Perhaps it’s me who’s going to stop it, through my work.’
‘You don’t believe in it?’
He shrugged. ‘I believe that there are things out there, the Chaos, that will swamp us if we let them.’
‘So you do believe?’
‘In things I can see. Not in prophecies and fairy tales.’
‘How can you say that? When you’re part of it?’
‘You’ve inherited a rare blood condition. We’re genetic freaks, you and I, that’s all. Look, people invent stories to make sense of the world, when they should just look at the facts.’
‘But . . . your parents.’
‘They died because they couldn’t accept those facts.’
Lily stalled. ‘And you’re okay with that?’
He drew her after him, walking backwards. ‘No. But it happened. And I have a good life here, work that challenges me. And we will save lives – millions of them. Those seven thousand lives will mean everyone suffering from cancer can be saved. That’s way more than seven thousand, even in one year.’
‘But only people who can pay,’ Lily insisted. ‘It won’t be for everyone.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I know how governments work. It’s only taken this one a couple of years to start dismantling the health service. The end of free treatment is coming, and soon. Forget survival of the fittest, it’ll be survival of the richest.’
They were approaching another metal door. Ellis opened it again with the palm reader. The bolts whirred, the door swung open and Lily walked inside. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw in the vast laboratory beyond. On one side, in a small, reinforced glass box, lay an Indian girl, eyes closed. It was Mona, frost creeping over her sleeping body. A blood transfusion unit emerged from the side, whirring steadily as it dripped into a collection bag.
Lily looked up at Ellis. ‘The cold. Reptiles don’t function well in the cold, I saw that on a documentary once. You’re doing that to keep her docile?’
‘She’s dangerous. Killed two lab assistants and an agent on arrival. We had to do something.’ Ellis’s voice was matter-of-fact.
Further away down the lab was a water tank containing a mermaid, slightly smaller than Eleanor. She was completely submerged and shackled, only her hair floated free. Another transfusion unit was slowly pumping her green blood from her body. Her eyes were large, magnified by the water, and she stared out at Lily. Help. Help us please, her soft voice resonated through Lily’s mind, just as Eleanor’s voice had done before. Lily put her hand to the glass and the girl responded from the other side. Even though she was underwater, it was clear she had been crying.
Lily looked over her shoulder at Ellis. ‘This is so cruel. How can you stand it?’ Then her gaze snagged on the sight behind him. Against the back wall were large metal crates holding dozens of mothwings. ‘No!’ she shouted, stumbling forward, the drip stand clattering to the floor.
She collapsed to her knees in front of the ranks of cages. Dozens of the small creatures were confined within. Tubes and wires ran everywhere. One cage held a little mothwing whose head was patchily shaved, electrodes sitting over old scars, steel staples holding together the lips of new wounds. Another lay dead, veins standing out blue against its pallid skin, needles taped between its thin fingers.
Lily brought up what little she had eaten. Ellis swore and hauled her to her feet.
‘Don’t you touch me. How can you do this?’
‘It’s necessary! They’re expendable.’
Lily wiped her mouth with the back of a shaking hand. ‘You’re disgusting.’ She forced herself not to look away from the cages, though her stomach rebelled. She swallowed repeatedly to try to quell the nausea. Ellis dragged her to a sink unit, wetting a cloth and handing it to her. Lily cleaned her face and hands and rinsed her mouth.
Ellis shook his head. ‘It’s vital to our work. They’re wholly Eldritche and they respond fast to whatever we give them.’
‘You mean they die quickly if you give them something that isn’t meant to be in their system.’
He said nothing.
‘I need to get out of here,’ Lily said. ‘Take me out of here, please. I can’t look at this.’
But as they passed the cages of mothwings, Lily couldn’t help herself. She crouched down next to them. A little male stretched his hand through the bars. Lily put her fingers round his. She looked up at Ellis. ‘This is disgusting,’ she said.
‘You’ll see.’
She shook her head, disengaging her hand with a last stroke of the little creature’s fingers and pushing herself to her feet.
Ellis shut down the lab for the night and walked Lily back to the treatment room. She sat on the edge of the padded chair, elbows on her knees, and rubbed her face, suddenly exhausted despite the plasma. Ellis disconnected the cannula and the bag of saline.
‘You’re a menace with this thing,’ he said quietly. ‘You should rest.’
Lily looked at him, shaking her head. ‘If you’ve watched me so closely, the thing you must know about me by now is how good I am at taking orders.’
He grunted a laugh and pushed her flopping sleeve aside to look at the cannula. ‘How is it?’
‘Sore. They always are, in the elbow.’
‘I can take it out?’
She nodded.
He popped the tape and slid it out perfectly, leaving nothing but a tiny, rapidly healing purple dot. By a large computer screen on the side was a spray bottle. He picked it up and pumped it over her elbow and arm a few times. ‘Magic skin,’ he explained, putting his fingers over the film, the heat from his hand drying it even more rapidly. He kept it there.
Lily watched him doctor her. ‘Must be strange for you, not understanding what you’re putting these girls through, and them –’ she gestured with her
good hand back to the mothwings beyond the door – ‘with these tests.’
Ellis’s expression became set.
‘They are vermin. And they are not girls.’
Lily pulled her arm away, examining it. ‘How can you say that?’
‘Mona is an emotionless reptilian assassin. And Rachel has, in case you hadn’t noticed, a tail. And they’re the most human of what’s out there.’
‘Just because they aren’t human doesn’t mean they aren’t people, with feelings and lives. What about you? And your brother?’ Lily straightened up.
‘What about us?’
Lily frowned at him. ‘You’re half human.’
‘Our mother was human. We aren’t human at all.’
Their eyes met, and held.
‘That doesn’t mean you don’t have to care about things, or do the right thing.’
‘Lily, stop. Just stop.’ Ellis sighed. ‘There’s nothing more to say on the subject.’
She kicked out at him. He just stepped back, then shook his head. ‘Don’t make me lock you up. And don’t judge me. I’ve done what I think is right. If we find the answers we’re looking for, we’ll unlock the key to perfecting the human race.’ His voice had taken on the same passionate note as before.
‘You can’t perfect human beings, it’s not how it works!’ she shouted, getting up.
‘You! You’re perfect!’ he shouted back.
She sat down in shock, staring at him. The silence stretched out.
‘Oh,’ she said.
Ellis turned away, cursing under his breath.
Lily put her head in her hands, then pushed her curls back and hugged the back of her neck. ‘Right.’
‘It should have been me. Not him,’ he said quietly. ‘You should have met me first.’
‘That wouldn’t . . . it wouldn’t change anything,’ she said slowly.
‘You don’t know that. It would have been different. I mean, it’s obvious you find us okay to look at.’ His voice was half angry, half uncertain. ‘And I know you.’
‘Ellis, you’re a professional stalker. That’s not normal.’
He folded his arms, hunched, his back still to her. ‘Who wants normal? You don’t, that’s for sure.’ His tone was bitter.
She slipped around him and looked up into his grey-gold eyes. He looked away. She put her hand in his. ‘Look. Maybe things would have been different. I don’t know.’ Tired, she rested her forehead against his bicep. His fingers threaded through hers. ‘All this has been a lot to take in.’
‘It was supposed to be different. We were going to approach you. As soon as I was in charge. You could have come here and seen all the good we can do.’ He sounded defeated. ‘You would have seen it differently.’
Lily took a breath. ‘No. I couldn’t see what I’ve just seen any differently.’
‘Life is about sacrifice, Lily. This is for the greater good.’
She shook her head stubbornly, looking up at him. Carefully he lifted his free hand and touched one of her gold ringlets, winding it around the tip of his finger.
Holding his gaze, she didn’t move away. ‘I want to see my mother. Please?’
He didn’t respond, his thumb smoothing the strands over his knuckle.
‘Ellis?’
He sighed. ‘I’ll see if she’s awake.’
The second he was gone, Lily ducked beneath the desk and turned on the printer.
A few minutes later, she examined the piece of paper the black box had spat out. The handprint was only partial, but hopefully it was enough. Lily prayed that the advice in the article she’d once read held true. She licked the handprint, remembering what the article had said, and pressed it against the door scanner, her own hand behind it. The light slid over the paper and the door popped open.
Two minutes later, the door to Vicky’s cell opened just as obediently. Vicky was sleepy and confused. And terrified.
Lily took her arm, hustling her up. ‘Ellis is out of here for who knows how long, and we need to go. Now. And we need to try and get the others out too, okay?’
Vicky nodded. ‘But . . .’
‘No buts. Come on.’
‘How did you get in here?’ Vicky rubbed her forehead hard, as if trying to rub something out.
‘That wasn’t such a problem.’ Lily held up the piece of paper. ‘Magic skin. Turns out, it’s magic.’
Another minute and they were in the darkened lab. Lily walked straight over to Rachel’s tank. ‘We’ll get you out, I promise, but we’re going to have to come back for you. Okay?’
Rachel nodded, sad but understanding. Lily pointed at the mothwings and spoke to Vicky, who stood behind her looking frightened. ‘We need to get them out too, though. This entire system runs on electricity – the cages, the doors – it’s the one weakness. If we can kill the circuit, there’s only two options, either the whole thing will lock down, or all the doors will spring.’ Lily’s eyes ran over the cabling. It was hard to tell, beyond the sheeting, where the fuse box might be. She tried to think. ‘There’ll be individual boxes controlling the place. They won’t just have one central one. The controls must be close by. First, we get Mona and them –’ she pointed to the cages –‘and then I’ll try to find them.’
They headed towards the cold box containing Mona, using the paper to spring the door. Then Lily ran off towards the cages at the back of the room. The film of paper was getting tired, and it was harder to work on the smaller screens set into these panels, but soon the doors hung open. Lily did her best to free the little creatures who were restrained or had wires and probes beneath their skin, her experience with needles suddenly coming in handy. As she worked, the mothwings scrambled out, over her, climbing down her body to the floor. They scuttled instantly for the exit. As they all scattered, Lily ran for the door, licking the paper again and pressing it to the scanner, then pushing her way out into the vast, ruined brick hall beyond.
There, she followed the electric cables over the wall until they led her into a narrow corridor. Pipes and wires ran overhead. She turned again, into a room where the door stood open; beyond, everything was darkness. As her eyes adjusted, she could vaguely make out dozens of brand-new fuse boxes.
Oh well, here goes nothing. Lily began to kill each box, throwing the large switches. It took a minute to get through them all, then she ran back towards the lab. The light level was low and bluish. Some sort of emergency lighting? She quickened her pace; Ellis must be missing her by now.
Vicky was struggling to get Mona up from the bed. Lily helped, tugging Mona up by her arm, wrapping it around her own neck and trying to get her on her feet. The two of them half carried, half dragged Mona from the cell.
‘Which is the way out?’ Vicky asked, hoisting Mona up higher.
Lily shook her head. ‘We’re not leaving.’
‘What?!’
‘They’ll be expecting us to make a break for it. We can’t make it out of here undetected. With the power out, someone will be coming to check Mona’s cell, like right now.’
‘Well, I’m leaving,’ Vicky said.
‘That’s your choice. I won’t leave my mother here,’ Lily replied. ‘I passed a service cupboard on my way to the fuse boxes. It might just buy us enough time – this place is like a labyrinth.’
They headed out of the lab and across the huge brick hall. On the other side was the dusty, dark storeroom Lily had seen before. They laid Mona down on its debris-strewn floor. She was slightly more awake now, but not fully conscious. Lily went to leave.
‘Where are you going?’ Vicky hissed.
‘I need to find my mother!’ Lily hissed back.
Vicky stared at her, then shrugged. ‘Okay, go. But don’t leave me here.’
Lily nodded. ‘I promise.’
She crept quietly back towards the lab. Peeping through the door, she ducked back as Ellis and an agent appeared from the other side. The agent saw the empty cages and swore loudly.
‘They can’t have gone far.
Cover the exits,’ Ellis said, disappearing back the way he had come.
Lily and Vicky ducked away and headed back to the storeroom at a run. The corridor was lit only by a thin bluish light above the piping, making their skin pale and luminous. Lily put her hand on the storeroom door, pushing it open and slipping inside. She gasped and stifled a yelp as pain blossomed across her right side. Mona stood in front of her, one end of a thick shard of broken plastic in her hand. The other end was buried deep in Lily’s gut.
Vicky caught Lily as she fell. ‘What have you done?’ she hissed at Mona, trying to stop Lily from hitting the floor. ‘She was helping us escape, you idiot!’
‘I only did what I was trained to do.’
Vicky swore. ‘Come on. Help me get her inside.’
Mona and Vicky hustled into the small storeroom and shut the door. It was completely dark as they found the nearest wall and laid Lily down carefully against it.
Mona was unapologetic. ‘I was protecting myself, that was all.’ She spoke with a soft lisp, making her sound gentle and calm in the darkness.
Lily’s hand closed on the plastic shard. She hissed in pain as she pulled it from her stomach and dropped it on the floor. She could feel blood wetting her clothes. Her heartbeat crashed in her ears, thudding through her head.
‘We have to get you out,’ Vicky said quietly.
They fell silent as boots walked swiftly past the door, heading for the fuse-box room.
‘We have to wait,’ Lily managed finally.
‘You haven’t got time,’ Vicky argued.
‘I’ll be okay. I just . . .’ Lily stopped talking, unable to go on.
Regan waited by the wire fencing. He let his head drop back, breathing out slowly, and stared at the power station, dark and barren. The tiny smashed windows were like a hundred eyes, watching him. He listened hard, but nothing reached his ears. His hands clenched. He forced them to loosen.
On the north bank of the river, fairy lights were still strung between the lampposts, a relic of Christmas. The early-morning traffic moved steadily towards the City. Cars and taxis carrying bankers from Chelsea; vans carrying deliveries. Cement trucks heading to construction sites, labourers dozing for a few more precious minutes as the drivers listened to radio phone-ins. Just to the west, a train thumped out of Victoria heading south, the first of the day, lights picking up the steel tracks. It creaked and faded towards Clapham Junction. Out on the river, gulls settled on a barge, the water grey. Watching for Misrak and Delphine. Regan watched the gulls watching him. The sun began to rise in the east, flat and pale across the dirty sheet of the Thames.