The Trade

by Barry Hutchison

  There was a hiss of static, and then another voice broke in. ‘Subdue the Evo,’ ordered White Knight. ‘Then you can help Rex.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Six said. He twirled his swords in front of the Evo, beckoning it closer. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

  The scorpion raised its two front legs. Six swung both swords around in a wide arc. The Evo squealed as both its legs flopped down onto the street.

  ‘That was for the suit,’ Six said, before a movement down near his feet caught his eye.

  From inside the severed limbs, hundreds of smaller scorpion-creatures were emerging. They weren’t much larger than normal scorpions, but they moved at incredible speed.

  Six stepped back as the scorpions swarmed towards him. He swooshed his sword down at the ground. Sparks flashed as the blades hit the concrete road surface and five, ten, twenty of the little creatures were sliced in half.

  But still they kept coming. For every one Six killed, a dozen more emerged from inside the severed limbs. They were pouring from the stumps on the Evo’s body, too, where the legs had been attached. In moments, the road around Six was a heaving mass of legs and bodies and little curved tails.

  Six raised a foot and slammed it down on the closest scorpion. It exploded in a spray of green goop. He looked up and met the gaze of the larger creature. ‘And now you’ve gone and messed up my shoes.’ Six raised his swords again. ‘Ugly, this just isn’t your day.’

  Back at Providence HQ, Dr Holiday was ranting at a viewing screen. White Knight’s face filled the screen. He did not look happy.

  ‘The Evo isn’t important,’ she said. ‘Saving Rex is. He could die.’

  ‘And if we let the Evo go, it could kill hundreds,’ White Knight replied. ‘Better to contain it now than risk a major incident.’

  ‘We’ve already got a major incident!’ Holiday protested. ‘Rex is undergoing some kind of … of … mutation. The nanites are doing something to him, and I don’t know what it is!’

  ‘And I’m confident in your ability to find out, Doctor,’ White Knight said, ‘just as soon as we’ve stopped the Evo.’

  ‘Let the other Agents handle the Evo! Isn’t that what they’re paid for?’

  Dr Holiday turned and snatched up the communicator. ‘Six, let the other Agents fight that thing. Concentrate on saving Rex!’

  ‘Ignore that, Agent Six,’ White Knight instructed. ‘Your orders stand. Neutralise that Evo!’

  Meanwhile, in Fremont, Agent Six was trying to do just that. He sat on the scorpion’s back, one arm wrapped around its tail, the other pulling on its armoured head. Only a few of the smaller scorpion-creatures remained. They scuttled and scurried over the crushed remains of their brothers and sisters, wondering how many of them could have been wiped out by just one pair of feet.

  A few metres away, Rex’s whole body spasmed, then went limp as he finally fell unconscious. Neither he, nor Agent Six, noticed the black armoured car creeping along the street. They didn’t notice it rolling to a stop right beside Rex, or the passenger door slowly easing open.

  And they didn’t notice the hulking Evo arms reaching out and dragging Rex inside.

  CHAPTER 8

  SIX LOOKED UP AT the sound of the car door slamming closed. He realised immediately what had happened. If he released his grip on the Evo now, though, it would either kill him, escape, or both.

  ‘Stop that car!’ he bellowed, to anyone within earshot. Fifteen Providence Agents crept out from hiding places and stood in front of the approaching car, blocking its path.

  The car did not slow.

  ‘Open fire!’ one of the Agents cried. In unison, they all hoisted their machine-guns to their shoulders and sprayed bullets at the oncoming vehicle.

  The car did not slow. Fourteen Agents dived sideways out of harm’s way. One wasn’t so lucky. The car hit him and he was tossed up onto the bonnet. He clung on tightly for a few moments, before the car screeched around the corner and the Agent rolled sideways and hit the ground with an ‘Oof!’

  Up on the Evo’s back, Agent Six cursed. Dr Holiday would never let him hear the end of this. Twisting at the waist, he fired a kick against the back of the scorpion-monster’s head. It hissed softly through its mouth, like the sound of a balloon slowly deflating, and then it collapsed, unconscious, onto the pavement.

  ‘Evo down,’ Six said into the communicator.

  ‘About time,’ Dr Holiday replied. ‘How’s Rex? We lost the video feed.’

  Six took a deep breath. ‘It’s funny you should ask.’

  ‘You lost him?’

  Six shook his head and wiped a smear of squished scorpion slime from the front of his suit. ‘No, I didn’t lose him. He was taken. Big difference.’

  Dr Holiday stepped closer, until her nose was almost touching Six’s. Her face was red with rage. ‘He was taken because you weren’t watching him!’ she said.

  ‘I wasn’t watching him because I was wrestling an arachnid the size of a bus,’ Six replied. ‘You’d be amazed how that sort of thing can hold your attention.’

  ‘This isn’t funny, Six,’ Holiday said. She chewed on her lip and wrung her hands together. ‘Anyone could’ve taken him, and anything could’ve happened. He’s all alone out there. Defenceless.’

  For a few moments, Six didn’t speak. Eventually, he gave a brief nod of his head. ‘What can I do to help?’

  Holiday turned her back on him and made for the door. ‘You can stay out of my way,’ she said. ‘And if you see White Knight, tell him the same thing.’

  She left the room, closing the door with a slam that shook the walls. Agent Six raised one neat eyebrow. ‘Well,’ he said to himself, ‘that went about as well as could be expected.’

  Half an hour later, Dr Holiday was in her lab. Spread out on the table in front of her were all the printouts of Rex’s biometric readings taken when his transformations were going haywire. She had scribbled notes on over half of the pages, as she’d tried to figure out what the readings meant.

  On a video screen beside her, the CCTV footage of Rex’s battle with the scorpion Evo was playing on a loop. It showed everything, right up until the point half a dozen of the mini-scorpions crawled over the camera lens. The feed had gone dead almost right away after that.

  There was a soft knock at the lab door. Holiday didn’t look up from the printouts. ‘Come in,’ she instructed, and the door was opened.

  ‘Hi, Dr Holiday. You wanted to see me?’

  ‘Noah, good, you’re here,’ said Holiday. She smiled at the blond-haired teen as he entered the room. ‘I need your help. Rex is in trouble.’

  ‘Why am I not surprised?’ Noah asked. ‘What’s up this time?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Holiday admitted. ‘I think he was losing control of his nanites, but I can’t say for certain.’

  ‘Can’t you just run some tests or whatever? Isn’t that how it normally works?’

  ‘I could. If I knew where he was,’ Dr Holiday said. ‘He’s been abducted.’

  ‘Abducted?’ gasped Noah, his eyes widening. ‘By who?’

  ‘That’s what we’re going to try to find out,’ she replied. ‘But first, we need to figure out what’s causing him to lose control.’

  Noah frowned. ‘Right. And you wanted me here because …?’

  ‘Because I could use another pair of eyes,’ Holiday said. She gestured down at the printouts. ‘Take a look. Tell me what you see.’

  Noah bent over the table and looked at each page in turn. After several minutes he straightened up. ‘Numbers,’ he said. ‘Lots of them.’

  ‘I was hoping for a little more than that.’

  ‘You’re the brains of the outfit, Dr Holiday,’ Noah told her. ‘Me? I’m just kind of … moral support. If there’s something out of place, you’ll find it, not me.’

  Dr Holiday’s body went stiff. ‘Wait,’ she said, ‘what did you say?’

  Noah thought back. ‘If there’s something out of place –’

  ‘Out of
place,’ she repeated, quietly. ‘Out of place.’

  Her fingers danced across the nearest computer keyboard. The screen changed to display a detailed map of California. ‘The malfunctions only happened when Rex was out on a mission. Here, here and here.’ Three red dots appeared close together on the map, showing the locations of Rex’s recent battles.

  ‘They’re all within fifty miles of one another,’ Noah commented.

  ‘Exactly! So what if something in that area was causing Rex’s nanites to malfunction?’

  Noah stared hard at the screen. ‘Something like that?’ he said, pointing to an area on the map.

  Dr Holiday followed his finger. With a yelp of delight she jumped back from the monitor. ‘Noah,’ she cried, ‘you are a genius!’

  CHAPTER 9

  DARKNESS SWAM BEHIND Rex’s eyelids, and white noise poured into his ears like rushing sand. Beneath him, the floor seemed determined to shake him awake.

  Gradually, the sound of sand faded and he was able to pick out other noises. The roaring of a car engine. The low muttering of a male voice. The unsteady crashing of his own heart.

  But he was only vaguely aware of them all at best. They were background noise, nothing more. What he was much more aware of was the pain.

  It spread out from the centre of his chest and coiled around his arms until it found the very tips of his fingers. It lay like a weight in his stomach and it burned at both of his legs. It throbbed behind his eyes, up over his head and down to the base of his skull. Every single part of him hurt, and the more awake he became, the worse the pain got.

  A burst of pure agony exploded in his right hand and it suddenly became very heavy. A voice somewhere above him grunted. ‘Watch out for his sword,’ it said.

  ‘It ripped through the seat,’ another voice said.

  ‘It’ll rip through you if you’re not careful,’ said the first speaker. Rex thought he recognised the voice, but there was too much happening for him to worry about that now.

  The Big Freakin’ Sword retracted back into Rex’s arm, but the pain didn’t ease off. The darkness behind his eyes seemed to shimmer, and Rex realised, too late, that he was falling unconscious once again.

  Some time passed. Rex couldn’t even begin to guess how much. When he woke again, the floor still felt as if it were moving, and his body still hurt. He was able to open his eyes but he didn’t, not yet. He had a feeling he was in danger, and opening his eyes meant he’d have to face that danger head-on. He wasn’t ready for that.

  He could feel straps across his arms and legs. He was lying flat, arms out to the side and slightly above his head, feet bound tightly together. In his half-awake brain, he imagined himself looking like a big letter Y.

  The surface beneath him was vibrating, occasionally bouncing him around. He guessed he was travelling inside some sort of vehicle. Not Providence, though. They wouldn’t tie him up, would they? Actually, he thought, nothing would surprise me.

  He could sense other people around him, but he had no idea how many. They weren’t talking, but he could feel them watching to see if he was awake.

  Or were they? Was he just being paranoid? There was nothing else for it. He had to know. One way or another, he had to know.

  Gently, like the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings, Rex’s eyes began to open. Light flooded in, forcing him to blink rapidly. His eyes had just begun to adjust to the brightness when a shadow passed over him.

  Rex opened his eyes fully, just in time to see a massive fist come speeding towards his face.

  ‘Lights out,’ said the familiar voice. Rex’s head thudded against the floor of the armoured car, and for the third time that day, he found himself slipping silently into unconsciousness.

  CHAPTER 10

  AGENT SIX STOOD BEFORE a large viewing screen which was displaying a map of California. Beside him, a video screen blinked into life, showing White Knight’s face. The Providence leader looked unhappy at having been disturbed.

  ‘This had better be good, Doctor,’ White Knight warned. ‘I am an extremely busy man.’

  Dr Holiday bit her tongue. ‘I’ll try not to keep you, sir,’ she said. She crossed to the wall displaying the map. Noah was already there, standing to one side, looking slightly awkward.

  Before Holiday could start to explain her findings, a door at the back of the room opened and Bobo strolled in. The chimp stretched, yawned, then adjusted his little red hat.

  ‘What’s up?’ he asked. ‘What’d I miss?’

  ‘Listen up,’ Six told him, not turning from the map. ‘We’re about to have it all spelled out.’

  Bobo shuffled over to join the rest of the group.

  Dr Holiday cleared her throat. ‘I was looking over Rex’s tests results, trying to figure out what was causing his machines to malfunction,’ she began.

  Bobo raised a hand. ‘Uh … malfunction?’

  ‘Read the report,’ Six said.

  ‘Can’t you just give me the highlights?’ Bobo asked. Reading reports wasn’t really his thing.

  ‘Rex’s machines malfunctioned. Rex got kidnapped. That’s pretty much it,’ said Noah.

  ‘Thanks, kid,’ said Bobo.

  ‘No problem.’

  ‘Can we get on with it?’ barked White Knight.

  Holiday nodded. ‘As I said, I was trying to figure out the cause of the malfunctions, but was getting nowhere. By the time I got him back here, his tests were more or less normal. Well, normal for Rex, anyway.’

  ‘We already know this,’ said Agent Six. ‘What’s your point?’

  Dr Holiday glared at him. ‘I’m getting to my point,’ she said, coldly. ‘It was Noah who worked it out, really.’

  ‘Worked what out?’ Six asked.

  Holiday pointed at the map. ‘Worked out that there wasn’t anything wrong with Rex. There was something at the battle sites that was making his nanites act strangely.’

  ‘That was why he was fine whenever you brought him back in,’ Noah added.

  Agent Six thought about this. ‘OK, I’ll bite,’ he said, at last. ‘What was causing the problems.’

  ‘Map, zoom sector eight-alpha,’ Dr Holiday said. On the wall behind her, the map zoomed in on a single area.

  ‘What we looking at?’ Bobo asked.

  ‘Silicon Valley,’ Dr Holiday announced.

  Bobo looked more closely at the map. ‘Don’t look like no valley to me,’ he said. ‘It’s all buildings and city blocks, far as I can see.’

  ‘It is all buildings and city blocks,’ Dr Holiday explained. ‘Silicon Valley is home to some of the most high-tech companies in the world, producing some of the most advanced software and tech on the planet.’

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ Bobo shrugged. ‘I knew that.’

  ‘His nanites were sent into overload because of his proximity to some video game companies?’ White Knight snorted. ‘I don’t buy it.’

  ‘It’s not just video game companies!’ Holiday protested. ‘There are hundreds of companies located there – factories developing nanite-powered computer chips, designers messing with tech they don’t really know anything about.’

  She gestured to the satellite map, and to the hundreds of buildings it showed. ‘Who’s to say what else is going on there?’ Holiday asked. ‘Anything could’ve interfered with Rex’s control over his nanites.’

  ‘It’s … possible, I suppose,’ Agent Six admitted.

  ‘Still not buying it,’ said White Knight. ‘You’re clutching at straws, Dr Holiday. We need something concrete.’

  ‘You want concrete?’ Holiday asked. She tapped a few buttons on a computer keyboard and a large red blob appeared on the map. ‘How’s this for concrete?’

  ‘What is it?’ White Knight asked. ‘Evo activity. Our scanners picked it up early this morning.’

  ‘Who or what is it?’ Six asked.

  Holiday shrugged. ‘Can’t say,’ she said. She looked meaningfully at White Knight. ‘Too much interference.’

  ‘Unusual Evo
activity in an area of high-tech interference, close to where Rex started losing control,’ Noah said. ‘We’re not clutching at straws, we’re holding an iron bar. With both hands.’

  Everyone turned to look at him. Noah spotted their puzzled expressions. ‘Well, I know what I meant,’ he muttered.

  ‘It’s the best lead we’ve got,’ Dr Holiday said. ‘It’s our best chance of finding Rex.’

  White Knight stayed silent.

  ‘All I ask is that you send out Six and some Agents to check it out,’ Holiday continued. ‘Something’s going on. Maybe they can find out what.’

  ‘Request denied,’ White Knight replied.

  There was a moment of silence, broken only by the shocked gasp of Dr Holiday. ‘Denied?’ she spluttered. ‘You can’t be serious!’

  ‘I appreciate your concern, Doctor,’ White Knight said. ‘But with the amount of Evo activity going on of late, we’re already fully stretched. I cannot spare anyone.’

  ‘But … Rex –’

  ‘– can handle himself,’ White Knight said.

  ‘Normally, maybe,’ Noah said. ‘But if he’s malfunctioning, who knows what might happen to him?’

  ‘Do I really have to repeat myself ?’ White Knight said. ‘Request denied.’

  Dr Holiday slipped off her lab coat and let it fall to the floor. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Then I quit.’

  Agent Six raised an eyebrow. Even White Knight appeared surprised.

  ‘And so do I,’ said Noah, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dr Holiday.

  Dr Holiday nodded. ‘And so does Bobo.’

  ‘You tell him, Toots,’ Bobo nodded. ‘Wait,’ he added, quickly. ‘I do?’

  ‘So that’s the choice you have, sir,’ Dr Holiday said, staring directly at White Knight’s face on the screen. ‘Send out the Agents, or watch us walk out the door.’

  She leaned down until her nose was almost touching the monitor. ‘What’s it to be?’

  CHAPTER 11

  REX OPENED HIS EYES and immediately wished that he hadn’t.