Fugitive

by Chris Bradford

  The Director acknowledged Mr Grey with the faintest of nods, then turned her predatory gaze upon her captives. She directed a viper’s smile at Charley. ‘Yet again I’m grateful for all your help.’

  Connor shot Charley a spiteful look. How could I have been so wrong about her? He’d believed Charley with all his heart when she’d said that she hadn’t willingly betrayed him or Buddyguard. In that moment he thought he’d seen into her soul, glimpsed her true and pure nature. But her actions had proved her to be a deceiver of the cruellest kind. A traitor without a heart or a soul. Someone, if it were possible, even more evil than Mr Grey.

  ‘I didn’t help you!’ Charley protested, a fierce and desperate expression on her face, her eyes blazing at the Director. ‘I never helped you!’ She turned imploringly to Connor and the colonel. ‘You must believe me. I had no control over what I was doing. I would never help Equilibrium.’

  The Director waved her objection away. ‘You may not have wanted to help. But you’ve been crucial to this operation’s success. During your surgery you gave up all Buddyguard’s secrets. You’ve helped lure Connor here, even lent your voice to his entrapment. But, most beneficial of all, you’ve enabled my scientists to perform the first human trial with the neuro-chip. A resounding success, I would say.’

  The Director turned to Connor. ‘Did Charley explain her miraculous surgery to you?’

  Connor glared at the imperious woman. ‘It’ll allow her to walk,’ he said bitterly.

  ‘Oh, it does a lot more than that,’ replied the Director with a smirk. ‘The neuro-chip in her brain communicates via wireless signals to the graphene receptors in her lower spinal cord. Wireless signals that can be intercepted and overridden.’ The Director fished out a small handheld device from her jacket pocket, the size and shape of a smartphone.

  ‘What’s that?’ Charley asked breathlessly.

  ‘My technicians call it a neuro-controller,’ replied the Director. ‘Not very imaginative, but accurate.’ She ran her forefinger across the device’s screen. Charley’s arm involuntarily shot up in the air and stayed there.

  The blood drained from Charley’s cheeks. ‘What have you done to me?’

  ‘Given you the chance to walk again,’ said the Director. ‘So don’t be ungrateful. Your rehabilitation has to come at a price, though. That price is control. And I’m your master.’

  She tapped another command into the device and Charley stood up, stiff and sharp. Connor saw the sheer terror in Charley’s eyes at being physically manipulated against her will. He now understood that Charley had never been a traitor. That her attack on him and the colonel had been engineered by the Director and her technicians. All his despair, sorrow and anger at Charley disappeared in an instant. Instead he was flooded with guilt that he’d doubted her. He realized that the only one to be betrayed in all this was Charley herself – betrayed by her doctors who’d made her a lab rat for Equilibrium’s biomechanical experiments.

  Charley stood looking down at her legs. Legs that were no more hers than when they were paralysed. ‘If that’s the price for me to walk again, then it isn’t a price worth paying!’ she spat.

  The Director sighed. ‘It’s a shame you feel that way.’ She swiped her finger across the device and Charley collapsed to the floor – just like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

  Connor ran to Charley’s side and helped her back into her wheelchair. He could feel her body trembling with shock. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

  Charley shied away, looking at him as if scared she might harm him again. ‘Connor … I’m sorry,’ she murmured, her voice hitching. ‘I tried to stop myself, but I couldn’t. I thought I’d killed you …’

  ‘No need for tears, Charley,’ said the Director. ‘You’re the cutting edge of technology now, the first in a generation of enhanced humans under Equilibrium’s control. You’re the future! Unfortunately, your friends here don’t have so much of a future.’

  Pocketing the neuro-controller, the Director tossed a tiny transmitter on to her desk. ‘We found your pathetic little surveillance device. You really should tidy up after yourselves. It was disappointingly sloppy work, especially after such a bold and daring infiltration into our headquarters. To be honest, I was surprised that you decided to return. Don’t get me wrong. It was a valiant attempt to rescue Colonel Black. But would you have risked all if you really knew him?’

  Connor stiffened. ‘What do you mean?’ He looked sideways at the colonel, who was struggling to stay standing.

  ‘Have you never questioned Colonel Black’s motives?’ asked the Director.

  ‘Why should I?’

  The Director drummed a finger on the armrest of her steel chair. ‘Well, he’s recruiting young teenagers like yourself to be bodyguards. To act as shields to the offspring of the rich and famous. That would seem morally questionable to most people.’

  ‘Depends upon your point of view,’ Connor shot back. ‘Terrorist organizations like yours make us a necessity.’

  The Director shrugged. ‘But who’s to say your life is any less valuable than that of a spoilt rich kid’s?’

  ‘They’re not always spoilt,’ argued Connor. ‘Often they’re victims of their family’s situation, of circumstances beyond their control.’

  ‘That doesn’t change the fact you’re risking your life for another. That makes you a victim too. Can’t you see what the colonel’s doing here is wrong?’

  ‘No, what we’re doing is right!’ Connor insisted, becoming angry at the Director’s line of questioning. ‘Protecting the innocent from the likes of you. Saving lives.’

  The Director tutted and shook her head at his naivety. She pointed at Colonel Black, who appeared to be on the verge of collapse. ‘This man has exploited you. Profited from you. Deceived you. Tricked you!’

  Connor took the colonel’s arm, doing his best to hold him up. ‘The only one into deception here is you,’ he replied. ‘I wasn’t forced to become a buddyguard. I chose to.’

  ‘Did you?’ The Director stood up and strode round her metal desk, her steel-tipped heels clicking on the polished glass floor. ‘What if I told you that the colonel searches for talented yet vulnerable teenagers. Ones without strong family ties. Ones with nothing to lose. Ones with death wishes. Or weaknesses that can be exploited.’

  ‘I wouldn’t believe you,’ said Connor. ‘He selects us on our natural instinct to do good, to protect others.’

  The Director gave him a sympathetic yet pitying smile. ‘I bet he used your late father to entrap you. Perhaps he even set up a fake incident to convince you of your aptitude for such dangerous work.’

  Connor didn’t reply. But the silence was answer enough. That was exactly what the colonel had done.

  Colonel Black rallied himself and glared at the Director. ‘Connor, don’t listen to her. She’s trying to manipulate you. Turn you against me! She’s –’

  The guard at his shoulder struck him in the lower back with the butt of his gun and the colonel dropped to his knees, wheezing.

  ‘No, you’re the manipulator, Colonel Black,’ continued the Director, circling the weak and battered colonel. ‘Connor, this man gambles with your life for his own profit. The clients who engage Buddyguard pay a small fortune for your services.’

  ‘And we’re well rewarded for our work,’ Connor defended, thinking of the thousands of pounds that had been spent on medical care for his mother.

  ‘Not nearly enough!’ barked the Director. ‘In truth, you’re nothing but walking targets. Bulletcatchers for the sons and daughters of the high and mighty.’

  ‘We’re trained for the job!’ Connor argued. ‘Equipped with the most advanced self-defence gear. We have full support too. The risks are minimized.’

  ‘But not eliminated! When you get injured on an assignment, the colonel awards you with a pat on the back and a gold badge?’ The Director bent her gaze towards Charley. ‘Is a badge really worth such personal sacrifice, Charley? Can that badge eve
r replace your legs?’

  Charley kept her mouth shut, but stinging tears crept into the corners of her eyes.

  ‘Of course not! So why should either of you show loyalty to Colonel Black? Especially when he’s hiding darker secrets from you both.’

  Connor felt his breath catch in his throat. ‘What secrets?’

  The Director stopped circling the colonel and approached Charley. ‘Have you ever wondered where the recruit Blake disappeared to?’

  Charley flinched in her chair at the mention of her former boyfriend’s name. Connor’s attention was caught too.

  ‘Blake didn’t disappear. He went home,’ said Charley.

  The Director gave a pitying shake of her head. ‘No, Blake died on a mission. Killed in action.’

  Charley’s eyes widened in disbelieving shock. Connor swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry.

  ‘Of course, you wouldn’t know about that, because it would be bad for morale,’ continued the Director. ‘Recruits don’t die. You’re told they’ve gone home, been relocated or are on a long assignment. To date three recruits have lost their lives on Buddyguard missions. More than ten have been injured, four seriously and one –’ she looked at Charley – ‘permanently.’

  Both Connor and Charley were stunned into silence. Then Connor asked the colonel, ‘Is this true?’

  Colonel Black hung his head. ‘Yes.’

  Connor felt a knot tightening in his stomach. Charley’s cheeks flushed with anger.

  ‘But that’s not the secret I’m really talking about,’ said the Director, a sly smile spreading across her lips as the first seeds of doubt were sown. ‘I bet Colonel Black told you that Buddyguard is highly classified. That you couldn’t inform anyone in the interests of national security. That his organization is tied to your government’s security and intelligence service.’

  ‘Yes, he did,’ said Connor. ‘So what?’

  ‘Well, your precious colonel isn’t exactly being truthful.’

  Connor turned to Colonel Black for an explanation, but he refused to meet his eye.

  ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, Colonel,’ the Director said. ‘Buddyguard was originally sanctioned by the British government’s Department for National Security, but the project was shelved. Too great a political gamble if the media got wind of it. However, you revived the project on a private-contract basis.’

  Connor stared in shock and disbelief at the colonel. ‘You mean it’s unauthorized?’

  Colonel Black cleared his throat. ‘Officially, at least.’

  ‘Officially, at least!’ cried Connor, his fists clenched, his eyes burning holes into the back of the colonel’s head. Had his whole world been built upon shifting sands? Had Buddyguard been sold to him on a lie? The fate of their fellow recruits buried alongside the truth? If so, then everything he’d believed Colonel Black to be – honest, loyal and honourable – was a sham.

  ‘It was for everyone’s protection,’ insisted the colonel. ‘It kept us under the radar.’

  ‘You lied to us,’ said Connor, distraught. ‘You lied about our recruitment. You lied about the fate of our friends. You lied about Buddyguard being sanctioned by the British government. What else have you lied about?’

  Colonel Black looked up at him from where he knelt on the floor, his face a battlefield of injuries, the ragged scar across his throat like a rope round his neck. ‘I didn’t lie. I was economical with the truth.’

  Connor was stunned into silence. He no longer knew what to think.

  Her expression taut and pale, Charley appeared to be in equal shock. ‘You told me Blake had returned home,’ she said accusingly.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ replied Colonel Black. ‘I thought it for the best. You were still recovering from your fall at the time.’

  Charley looked daggers at the colonel. ‘We trusted you with our lives. Our friends died and you didn’t tell us!’

  ‘In war, soldiers die. That’s just the luck of the draw. You didn’t need to know the body count. It would’ve distracted you from your own assignments. Put you at greater risk. But I never took any of you for granted. I spared no expense in your training or equipment. I did everything in my power to reduce that risk. My recruits’ welfare and safety has and always will be my number one priority.’

  ‘You deceived us,’ said Connor. ‘You recruited us under false pretences.’

  ‘No, Connor, I saw the potential in you. Made you the man your father was.’ He looked up at Connor, his flinty eyes rimmed red. ‘Yes, I admit that I used his legacy to draw you in. But you can’t deny that you wanted to follow in your father’s footsteps. That you wanted to become a bodyguard.’

  ‘There he goes again, exploiting your grief,’ interrupted the Director. She was perched against her desk, arms crossed, watching the scene unfold with malicious delight.

  The colonel dragged himself to his feet and lurched forward. ‘You cannot let this weasel of a woman twist your minds! She is a master manipulator! She –’

  The guard hit him again, this time in the back of the head. The colonel buckled and slumped to the floor, blood spilling across the polished glass. Mr Grey seemed to observe the spreading pool with pleasure, then glanced sidelong at the guard. ‘Careful not to kill the colonel. I haven’t finished his dental work yet.’

  The guard laughed, but Mr Grey didn’t – he was serious. Connor felt sickened and furious. Whatever Colonel Black had or hadn’t done, he didn’t deserve that brutal treatment at the hands of such sadists.

  The Director unfurled her arms and, like a vulture looming over the body of a mortally wounded lion, stood beside the colonel. ‘I ask you again, Connor, why be loyal to this man? This charlatan who sacrifices you like lambs to the slaughter, who considers you expendable …’

  She turned to her desk, picked up a super-thin tablet computer and inputted a command. An electronic screen was activated on the wall and Colonel Black appeared: his face ashen, eyes dilated, but all his teeth still present and his nose yet to be broken. He was talking to the camera. ‘I use them for human shields … They’re expendable! So what do I care what you do to them?’

  The colonel lay unconscious on the floor, unable to defend himself. Connor knew that he shouldn’t believe what he saw and heard, especially after Charley’s forced betrayal. Still the words and sentiment stung. Charley exchanged a heartbroken look with him. She was as devastated as he was. She’d previously questioned Colonel Black’s integrity. Prior to Connor’s assignment in Russia, she’d supposedly overheard the colonel saying: That’s what we train them for. The size of the contract is worth the risk of a buddyguard or two. Colonel Black had, of course, denied those were his exact words, insisting he’d said it was never worth the risk. Still Charley had been deeply concerned at the extreme risks of the operation. And, in hindsight, rightly so. Now, in light of what they knew about the colonel, it seemed her suspicions had been well founded. He was mercenary and dishonest.

  Having delivered the final nail in the coffin, the Director settled behind her desk and smiled. ‘Now, let’s get down to the business at hand. Surrender the flash drive, Connor, and we can put all this sorry mess behind us. You and Charley can walk free.’ She looked at Charley in her chair. ‘And I mean that literally, Charley.’

  Connor narrowed his eyes distrustfully at the Director. After everything Equilibrium had done in their attempts to hunt them down and eliminate them, the last thing he’d anticipated was a deal on the table. Not that any agreement was likely to be honoured by the Director. He wasn’t that naive. Nonetheless he decided to play her game in the hope of a true opportunity to escape. ‘What about our friends?’ he asked.

  ‘You mean the ones on the ship?’ The Director pursed her lips. ‘I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.’

  ‘Don’t … give her … the drive,’ groaned Colonel Black, slowly coming round. ‘You know … what’s at sta–’

  Mr Grey stood on the colonel’s hand, grinding the bones with the heel of his shoe. ‘Don’t in
terrupt, Colonel.’

  Trying to ignore Colonel Black’s gasps of pain, Connor made his demands. ‘Tell me the ship’s location and container number. Once I’ve had confirmation they’re free, I’ll give you the drive.’

  The Director smiled. ‘I’m afraid, Connor, in this negotiation I hold all the cards. Drive first, freedom second.’

  Connor clenched his jaw, fighting the impulse to simply leap forward and throttle the woman. ‘How can we trust you?’

  The Director spread her hands. ‘How can you not? Your friends are fast running out of food and water. The longer you take, the shorter their lives will be. Besides, you don’t owe Colonel Black anything. So why hold out? Why put your own life at risk for something he stole from us?’

  Connor looked the Director square in the eye. ‘Because Equilibrium killed my father!’

  Only the slightest flicker of surprise registered on the Director’s face before the mask came down again.

  ‘That’s unfortunate, Connor,’ she said, her tone briefly sympathetic. ‘But I assure you it wasn’t personal. So, unless you want to be responsible for the deaths of your friends, I’d advise handing over the drive right now. Otherwise I’ll be handing you over to Mr Grey. And I can promise that he won’t be as considerate as I’ve been.’