The Adjusters

by Taylor, Andrew

  “Sea cucumber research!” Fox said. “How dumb do they think we are?”

  Henry shook his head. “Mallory had me convinced I was imagining things. I guess I wanted to believe him – to believe that everything is okay. Now I don’t really know what to believe...”

  “What about Gab—”

  Henry held up a hand to stop her. “Mallory took me to see her.”

  Fox’s mouth fell open. “You saw Gabrielle?”

  “She’s in the medical centre, apparently recovering from her latest ‘drug binge’.”

  “Gabrielle does not take drugs!” Fox said, anger rising in her voice.

  Henry sighed. “I believe you, but she doesn’t. If you ask her, she’ll tell you all about how Trooper Dan and everyone at Malcorp stopped her from running off the rails.”

  “Then they’ve done something to her…”

  “She seemed completely happy – in fact she asked me to come visit her again this afternoon. No evidence of scars on her head, nothing. I just don’t get it.”

  Fox stood up and began to pace, agitated. “They’re controlling her somehow. They’ve got her locked up in there and she’s afraid. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you and Christian to get the job done.”

  “Hey, Christian got smacked in the face pretty bad,” Henry protested, remembering the blood on the operating theatre window. “For all I know he was seriously hurt. Back at the school Blake let something slip… I think they’re holding him somewhere – maybe in the medical centre. He said they’d fixed him and I was next.”

  Fox shook her head. “I should have gone myself.”

  “Well, you seemed pretty happy for us to walk into danger while you stood around painting pictures…”

  “Watch it!” Fox interrupted. “Or you’re gonna get hit in the mouth for the second time in one day!”

  Henry threw up his hands. “I don’t need this,” he said. “Christian’s in trouble and I’m going to find out where he is. If you’re just going to give me a hard time, I’ll go by myself.” He walked out of the door and down the stairs.

  A second later, Fox ran after him. “Ward, wait!”

  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked round. Fox almost tripped into him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “That was out of line.”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  “So what are you going to do?” she asked. “Run over to the medical centre and demand to see Christian? Is that the plan?”

  Henry shrugged. He didn’t know what his plan was, but he felt responsible for his friend. While he’d spent the last two days feeling sorry for himself, god knows what they’d been doing to Christian. Fixing him.

  “Well, what do you suggest?” he asked finally.

  Before Fox could respond, a hammering on the front door of the cafe made them both look round. Henry looked past the door at the bottom of the stairs, half expecting to see his mom standing outside, demanding to know why he wasn’t in class.

  But it wasn’t his mom.

  It was Trooper Dan.

  “I’m afraid we’re closed, officer,” Fox said as she opened the coffee shop door a crack.

  Trooper Dan pushed his way through and stepped into the cafe, looking around the darkened interior without bothering to remove his shades. “I’m not here to drink coffee.”

  “Okay,” Fox replied, closing the door after him. She cast a glance towards the counter and the half-open door to the stairs, where Henry was standing out of sight, peering through the gap between the door and frame.

  “Something wrong?”

  She looked round at the cop, who was studying her closely. “Why would there be something wrong?”

  “You seem kinda tense,” he said, hooking his thumbs into his belt. “There was an incident at the Malcorp complex Saturday night. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  Fox gave him a hard look. “Why would I?”

  The cop opted not to answer that question, walking across the cafe as if he owned the place. Henry moved a little further into the shadows behind the door, convinced for a second that the man was staring right at him. But then Trooper Dan’s gaze moved on as he stopped at the counter. He dragged a gloved finger along the top of the coffee machine, picking up dust that he wiped away with disgust. “Business a bit slow, huh?”

  “Is this some kind of inspection?” Fox asked coldly. “Because I think you’re outside your jurisdiction.”

  The cop looked round at her and his lips curled into a mocking smile. “Jurisdiction? My, what a big word for a little girl.” He moved along the counter, past a tray of stacked coffee cups, and stared at one of the photographs. “Shouldn’t you be in school today?”

  “I dropped out.”

  “Well, that figures. Must be difficult managing this place. What with your momma being a cripple and all.”

  Through the gap in the door frame, Henry saw Fox’s rage. Just keep it together, he prayed. He could see the cop was trying to wind her up. Get a reaction.

  “My mother is not a cripple,” Fox said, her voice low and controlled.

  The trooper gave a snorting laugh. He leaned back against the counter and nudged the edge of the tray that rested on the top, sending the pile of stacked cups crashing to the floor on the other side.

  “Hey!” Fox exclaimed, moving towards the counter. As she passed, Trooper Dan caught her arm and pulled her back. Fox gave a cry of surprise and tried to struggle free, but the cop held her firm.

  “I know you were involved with the break-in Saturday night.”

  “Prove it!”

  “I don’t have to. The whole town knows you’re a troublemaker. It’s about time you and your white-trash mother accepted Mr. Mallory’s offer and sold up.”

  Fox stuck her chin out at him defiantly. “Or what? You’ll come and break some plates as well?”

  Trooper Dan grinned at her. “Oh, I’ll do more than break plates.”

  She let out a cry of pain as he tightened his grip on her arm.

  “What’s going on?” Henry said, pushing open the door and stepping out behind the counter.

  The cop released Fox’s arm and she ran round the counter beside him. Henry stepped forward so he was between her and the cop.

  “Well, I might’ve known you wouldn’t be far away,” Trooper Dan said.

  Trying to disguise the fact his heart was beating as fast as a racing car, Henry said, “You were harassing her. I saw it.”

  “Then perhaps she’d like to file a complaint,” the cop answered, his voice deadpan. He looked at Fox. “Do you want to make a complaint, miss?”

  Henry looked at Fox, who shook her head imperceptibly. “No. I don’t want to make a complaint.”

  Trooper Dan gave Henry an arctic smile and walked back across the cafe. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you both, you can be sure of it.”

  With that he turned and walked out of the door, slamming it so hard it seemed the glass in the window would shatter.

  Alone in the cafe, Henry and Fox breathed sighs of relief.

  “You shouldn’t have come out like that,” Fox said. “Now he knows we’re together in all this.”

  Henry gave her an exasperated look. “He was twisting your arm half off!”

  “I’m used to Mallory’s men coming round and breaking the crockery every month. It’s their way of letting us know we’re not welcome in Newton.”

  “If you made a complaint…”

  “Complain to who? Mallory? The town councillors? They’re all in Malcorp’s pocket.” She paused, biting her lip. “It is interesting though.”

  “What is?”

  “Well, if there’s nothing funny going on at the medical centre,” she said, “why do you suppose Trooper Dan showed up here to hassle me about the break-in?”

  Henry leaned back against the door frame, rubbed his forehead with his hand and groaned.

  “What’s the matter?” Fox asked with concern.

  “You’re the matter,” he s
aid and then waved his hand around the shop. “This whole place…Newton and Malcorp is the matter… I really wanted to believe that nothing was going on here. So my mom could have a good job and be happy here. I wanted to believe that Gabrielle Henson was fine and that Trooper Dan was just a normal small-town cop. And that the kids in my school were just…really, really clever… And that Mallory wasn’t…” His voice trailed away.

  “Say it,” Fox pressed.

  “Experimenting on the brains of local kids,” he said. Out loud it sounded insane. But despite his efforts over the weekend to believe otherwise, everything he’d seen – the kid with his head cut open, the weird behaviour, the lies, the threats – pointed to one conclusion. He’d read a Sherlock Holmes book once where the detective had said that when you eliminate all the rational explanations, whatever’s left is the truth, no matter how crazy it sounds. Which was just a fancy way of expressing what Coach Tyler had been saying about listening to his gut.

  “So,” Fox said, all businesslike, “the break-in didn’t help us. Christian has disappeared and they’ve still got Gabrielle. We need a new plan. More evidence.”

  Henry nodded. “My mom’s going to be watching me like a hawk and so is everyone else in the Malcorp complex. Sneaking around isn’t going to be easy.”

  Fox thought for a moment before saying, “You keep your meeting with Gabrielle. See if you can find out where they’re holding Christian while you’re in the medical centre. And maybe you can get Gabrielle to tell you what happened to her.”

  “I already tried – she doesn’t remember.”

  Fox reached into her pocket and withdrew the photograph of Gabrielle and Blake she’d shown him the other day. She handed it to him.

  “Give her that. Perhaps it will jog her memory.”

  “What about you?”

  Before Fox could answer, her cell phone vibrated and she pulled it from her pocket. She looked at Henry and grinned as she read a text message.

  “It’s my missing reporter. He wants to meet me outside town.”

  Henry frowned. “Why?”

  “Sounds like he had a run-in with Trooper Dan. Says he wants to meet this afternoon. Somewhere discreet.”

  “I should come with you.”

  Fox shook her head. “No. Go and talk to Gabrielle. Find out where Christian is. I’ll deal with the reporter – see if I can get him to hang around long enough for us to get some real evidence.”

  Parked in the shadows of an alleyway across the street, Trooper Dan watched as Henry Ward emerged from the coffee shop, took a look around to make sure he wasn’t being followed and headed off up the street. He fought the urge to follow the kid. He would be dealt with later. His orders were for the girl.

  Through the glass-fronted door he saw her shoot the bolts, as if she believed that a few locks would stop him if he really wanted to get in. Then she disappeared inside, no doubt to get ready for her meeting with the reporter. He smiled to himself and sat back to wait.

  Soon his prey would come to him.

  “So, you’re playing hooky?” Gabrielle said.

  Henry smiled at her turn of phrase, which seemed strangely old-fashioned. It reminded him of the way Blake spoke. He laid a card down on the sheet and took another from the deck, slotting it into his hand. They were sitting on the bed in Gabrielle’s hospital room, playing a game called rummy that she’d been trying to teach him for the best part of thirty minutes. His trip back to the medical centre had been uneventful – barely a nod from Hank on the main gate. Upon entering the centre, snooping around the corridors for any evidence of Christian’s presence was curtailed by a nurse who insisted on escorting him to Gabrielle’s room. And she was now waiting outside to make sure he didn’t take any unscheduled trips around the facility on his way out. So much for that plan.

  “What makes you think I’m playing hooky?” Henry asked as she examined her hand and exchanged two cards of her own.

  “Well, you’re here at 2 p.m. on a school day.”

  “You got me.”

  “You’re right I got you,” she said, laying her hand down. Four aces and three kings.

  “I’m no good at card games,” Henry said, scratching his head. She’d beaten him four times in a row.

  “Neither am I normally!” Gabrielle exclaimed, scooping up the cards and shuffling them. “I mean, I used to get beaten every time before…” Her voice trailed away and she was silent for a moment. Her hands stopped shuffling the cards.

  “Before what?” Henry asked.

  Gabrielle looked at him in confusion.

  “You said you used to get beaten all the time before something,” Henry pressed. “Can you tell me what you meant?”

  Gabrielle gave a little giggle. “I don’t know what I’m talking about.” She looked down at the cards in her hands and started shuffling furiously.

  “What do you remember before you came here?” Henry asked. “To the medical centre, I mean.”

  She shrugged and started dealing the cards. “I was pretty crazy, I guess. I ran away. Took drugs. Shall we play?”

  Henry picked up his cards and examined his hand. “What kind of drugs?”

  “Huh?”

  “What kind of drugs were you taking? Where did you get them from?”

  Gabrielle’s face darkened. “Why do you want to go asking me nasty questions like that? I thought you came here to make me feel better…”

  “Did you ever meet my friend Christian?” Henry asked quickly, changing the subject as the door opened a crack and the nurse peered in, checking on them.

  “Christian?” Gabrielle said, brightening again as she organized her cards. “I think I met him once or twice. Kind of an outsider, don’t you think?”

  The door creaked closed. Henry smiled and exchanged a couple of cards. “You could say that. He disappeared.”

  “Disappeared?” Gabrielle laid down a six and picked up another card.

  “After Saturday night when we broke in. He hit his head on some glass and I haven’t seen him since.”

  Gabrielle watched him as he laid down another card. “Perhaps they brought him here.”

  Henry looked at her sharply. “What makes you say that?”

  “Well, he was injured, wasn’t he?”

  “You’ve seen him here?”

  “No, I haven’t seen him,” Gabrielle said, a note of annoyance rising in her voice. “My, you ask some persistent questions! I thought you were coming here to make me feel better, but all these questions are just making me feel upset.”

  Henry reached out and touched her hand. “I do want to make you feel better. But I just want to know what happened to my friend. And to you. You seemed so terrified the first time we met…”

  “When I was on drugs.”

  “What drugs?”

  She sighed in annoyance. “Well, if you must know…” She laid her cards face down on the bed. “You know something? I really don’t remember.”

  “And I bet you don’t remember where you got them from, right?” Henry said, sensing he was onto something. “Or what you did when you took them?”

  Gabrielle shook her head slowly, eyes fixed on him. “Can we talk about something else? Please?”

  “Okay,” Henry said. “Tell me about Fox.”

  Gabrielle brightened. “Oh, we’ve been friends since kindergarten. She’s great. Do you know her?”

  Henry nodded.

  “How is she? How’s her mom?”

  “She’s good,” Henry said. “Her mom is still sick.”

  “It seems so long since I saw them. Not since…”

  “Not since you ran away,” Henry finished for her. “Do you remember why you ran away?”

  “No, I…”

  Henry took the photo Fox had given him from his pocket and laid it between them, where the cards had been.

  “Oh,” Gabrielle said, her voice small as she reached down and picked up the photo of her and Blake and the others. “That really seems a long time ago.”

>   “You were all friends.”

  “Yes, we were.”

  “But something changed,” he pressed. “Blake didn’t want to talk to you any more. So you started asking questions around Malcorp.”

  Gabrielle shook her head. “I don’t remember…”

  “And that’s when you started to get scared. Fox told me you were scared.”

  “That was just the drugs making me crazy. I started believing some strange things.”

  Henry said carefully, “Gabrielle, I think you’ve been told that you had problems you didn’t really have. I think you found out some things about Malcorp that made you frightened and that’s why you ran away.”

  “But everyone says…”

  “They’re lying to you.”

  “My mom and dad?” she said incredulously. “The doctors? Mr. Mallory? You know, for someone I only just met, you claim to know an awful lot about me and my family.”

  “Think about it! Do you remember anything about what happened while you were on the run? Do you remember—”

  “No,” Gabrielle said, cutting him dead. She collected up the cards and laid them on the bedside table. “I don’t want to talk about these things.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they make me feel bad, Henry! Confused! And I don’t want to be confused any more. I just want to be normal – like everyone else. My mom says I’m going to get good grades now and be able to go to college, just like she always wanted me to… I think you’d better just leave.”

  Henry didn’t move. “I need to know, Gabrielle. I’ve been here just over a week and this place is starting to drive me crazy. Almost to the point I don’t know what to believe. But I know one thing.”

  Gabrielle met his eyes. “What?”

  “We’re all in danger,” he said seriously. “Mallory and all the rest of them are lying to us about something. Christian has disappeared and I have to find him. You got close to the truth – perhaps closer than anyone. That’s why they had to catch you and bring you back here.”

  Gabrielle shook her head. “Trooper Dan rescued me. Drove me back here. Mr. Mallory was waiting to see me with that doctor…”