Altered Image

by Trish Moran

  ‘You’re not taking them!’ Zig shouted. She lunged at one of the guards, clawing at his arm. He knocked her aside, but she leapt up again and continued her attack. Cam and Jez were trying to wrestle Zane from the arms of the third guard.

  Angus stopped and pulled a gun from his pocket. He glared at Zig. ‘Don’t make me use this! Back away, all of you!’

  The sound of rotor blades was heard, getting louder as a bright light neared them.

  ‘I mean it! Move back!’ Angus shouted again as the helicopter began to land.

  They all stood still and watched as Liz, Jackie, Sanjit, and Takir climbed onto the helicopter.

  Zig looked Angus in the eye as he gave a slow smile of victory. He stepped onto the helicopter and signalled for the guard to hand up Zane and Shiva. In a flash, Zig pulled out the metal bar and threw it with all her might at him. He clutched his arm, screaming with pain as the gun fell from his hand. As Cam dived down and grabbed it, Jez and Zig ran forward and grabbed the two siblings, pulling them to safety as the rotor blades began to move. In the distance the sound of police sirens could be heard.

  ‘Come on! Let’s get out of here!’ Takir shouted. ‘Leave them!’

  Zig and the others threw themselves flat on the ground as the roar of the rotors and the turbulence whipped the air around them. When she could finally raise her head Zig could make out a police car screeching to a halt on the nearby driveway, a figure jumping from it before it had even stopped.

  ‘What were you both thinking of ?’ Abel shouted as he reached the children.

  Reuben ran up beside him. ‘Let’s just get everyone safely out of here first! Where are all the youngsters, Zig?’

  Zig stood up and looked around her, ‘there’s Jez, Shiva, Zane … and Rhys …’

  ‘Tony and Otis are coming over. And there’s Lynne,’ Cam added, pointing to the muddied figures approaching them. ‘Where are Brit and Tyler?’

  He breathed a sigh of relief as Tyler appeared, carrying the sobbing girl. ‘We’re all here!’

  ‘Get them all back to the Compound while I see who’s left here, Lab and Non-Lab,’ Abel said to one of the policemen.

  ‘Three of our cars are after the guards. They left in two 4x4s going in different directions,’ Reuben said as he joined them. ‘Let’s hope they catch them and can give us some answers.’

  Later that night the youngsters sat together in an apartment in the Compound. Ruby smiled as she passed around cups of hot chocolate and a plate of biscuits. She went to ruffle Zane’s hair, but his sister pulled him under her arm protectively.

  ‘It’s OK, you’re safe here,’ Ruby said quietly.

  Celia nodded in agreement. ‘No one can harm you now.’

  ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ Otis said in a quiet voice. ‘Are you going to send us back where we came from?’

  Zane froze and dug deeper into his sister’s side. Brit whimpered quietly.

  Cam stood up, shaking his head. ‘No, no! Don’t worry! No one’s going back to danger, or anything horrible. We didn’t rescue you for that.’

  Ruby looked round at the frightened faces and felt a shiver run down her spine as memories of her own past came into her mind. Her voice shook as she said, ‘Cam’s right. You’re all safe. This will be your home until we sort out what you can do next.’

  They had all fallen into an exhausted sleep by the time Abel and Isaac returned to the Compound.

  ‘They caught some of the guards,’ Abel explained. ‘The men are being questioned at Reuben’s headquarters. The other car was found abandoned. They’ll continue the search when it gets light.’

  ‘I think we all need some sleep,’ Isaac yawned, running his hands over his face. ‘I have to be in London at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.’

  Celia rubbed his shoulders. ‘You are so good, Isaac. You do so much for us.’

  ‘You give me great news stories.’ He grinned. ‘Most of which I’m unable to print!’

  ‘Maybe one day.’ She walked with him to the door. ‘And what are we going to do with all our newcomers?’ Abel said to Ruby as they made their way to bed.

  ‘It’ll be like the old days. Finding a way to make them fit into normal Non-Lab life without looking conspicuous.’ she smiled.

  ‘Reuben suggested that maybe Zig and Cam or some of the others could use their enhancements to help him locate the guards,’ Abel said. ‘I said as long as they are not in any danger it could be a possibility.’

  ‘We repeated everything you said,’ Zig told Ruby the next morning. ‘That they can all stay here until we can sort out the best thing for them. And that they aren’t to worry about anything. They all agreed they would keep their enhancements a secret from everybody else as that will be safer. But Shiva and Zane won’t tell me where their aunt lives. They’re afraid you’ll send them back to her. Shiva said their aunt was a terrible woman who beat and half-starved them. That’s why they ran away. And Brit is afraid of ending up on the streets again. She says she doesn’t know any other way to make a living because she thinks she’s too stupid.’

  Ruby shook her head. ‘Poor young things! I’ll speak to them with Celia; we’ll reassure them.’

  ‘We will not let you go to anyone who mistreats you,’ Celia told the brother and sister a short while later.

  ‘We came to the country as visitors, years ago. We don’t have papers to stay here,’ Shiva told her, her eyes cast downwards. ‘My aunt said we would be put in prison if anyone finds out. Can you just let us go? We can look after ourselves!’

  Ruby patted her arm. ‘You’re very brave, Shiva, but you can’t look after yourself and your brother. You need help, and we can help you.’

  ‘But how can we repay you? How can we make a living here?’ Shiva continued.

  ‘There are lots of things you can do to help around the Compound,’ Ruby smiled. ‘You too, Brit.’

  Brit sat with a solemn face. ‘We would have been better off if Zig had left us in the first house,’ she protested.

  ‘We had to escape. Cam was next on the list to disappear,’ Zig replied. ‘We were all disposable. Surely you see that now? Last night they were only taking Shiva and Zane because they have the most up-to-date enhancements.’

  ‘Look, you’re not going back to your old life, Brit.’ Ruby sat beside the girl and put a hand on her arm. ‘You can stay here and decide what you want to do. The house you’re all sharing is your home.’

  ‘And if you are willing, our Compound medical staff would like to find out more about your enhancements. They could use some of these developments to help other people,’ Celia added.

  Over the next few weeks, life settled into a new pattern on the Compound. While Shiva, Zane, and Brit kept to their new home, Cam, Otis, and Jez used their enhancements to help Reuben locate the guards. They were soon asked to use their talents in other investigations.

  ‘I never thought I’d be helping the police with their enquiries in this way!’ Otis joked over an evening meal.

  ‘There is no chance of any of you getting involved with drugs again, is there?’ Abel asked him.

  Otis shook his head. ‘Never! I’m way past that! This life is too good to screw up!’

  ‘Sometimes it’s difficult to remember to act like a normal person out there now,’ Cam said. ‘It’s OK here on the Compound, ’cos most people are sort of … well … not as normal as other people are, so we don’t stand out too much!’

  Ruby smiled. ‘It reminds me of the early days of the Labs, trying to get them used to living with Non-Labs, ordinary humans. Abel found it very difficult.’

  Abel chuckled. ‘I made things hard for you, didn’t I? After life in the Caves, Non-Lab life was so difficult to get accustomed to.’

  ‘What were the Caves?’ Tony asked. Otis leaned forward.

  ‘It’s a long story.’ Celia laughed. ‘I’ll get some tea and biscuits.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Zig pushed the new plant into the soil and watched as Ginny
patted the earth around it.

  ‘That’s great, Gin! You’re getting good at this. Will your mum be cross with you for getting dirty again?’

  ‘Daddy is picking me up today. I’m staying with him until Sunday afternoon,’ the young girl said, brushing the mud off her T-shirt with an even muddier hand. ‘He doesn’t mind. He’ll be too busy talking to Hugo about bone structure and other important Lab things to even notice. I wish you would come to Daddy’s house again sometimes. You’re more fun than they are!’

  Zig smiled. ‘Me and your dad don’t really get on. Anyway, I thought you were interested in those things, too. Are you still doing your research on the brain?’

  Ginny smiled. ‘Yes! Celia was really impressed with my 3D images. I’ve scanned my mum’s brain and mine, that’s a Non-Lab and a Hybrid, and next I’m going to scan a Lab. I’m going to ask Celia if I can scan hers when I see her today. Then I want to scan the same types, but male. And compare the differences.’

  ‘That sounds really interesting, Gin. You’ll have to tell me the differences between them all,’ Zig told her. ‘You’re so clever!’

  ‘With brains, but not with plants,’ she replied, as Zig leaned over to help her rearrange a lopsided beanstalk.

  The next morning, Ginny carefully resized the image on the computer and rotated it. She opened the tool menu and selected a colour. She colour-coded the new image to match the three other images she had in the file. Then she typed up notes comparing the different sizes of different lobes in each example.

  ‘Hey, is that me?’ Celia asked, coming to stand behind her.

  ‘No, that’s Mum. This is you,’ she replied bringing up another image. ‘Your frontal lobes are 3% smaller than my mum’s and 20% larger than mine. The frontal lobes are linked with behaviour; they can take 20 to 25 years to reach maturity.’

  Celia pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. ‘This looks really interesting, Ginny.’

  Hugo glanced at the screen as he walked past and stopped.

  ‘Who do the images belong to, Ginny?’

  She explained who she had chosen as her examples of Non-Lab, Hybrid, and Lab.

  ‘Hey, could you scan my brain image in too?’ he asked excitedly.

  Soon they were all peering at the images on the screen.

  ‘My frontal lobe development is only 13% below yours, Celia!’ Hugo grinned. ‘And my hippocampus is almost on a par with your mother’s, Ginny. How does yours compare? Oh, 75% of mine. That shows how quickly we develop long term memory and spatial navigation ahead of Non-Labs!’

  ‘It would be great if you could compare the brain image of a young Non-Lab of your age with your own development. I know the Compound scientists have information on this,’ Celia added.

  ‘The bigger the database you have the more useful the information will be to us, Ginny,’ Hugo continued. ‘Do you think I could have a copy of this, please?’

  ‘Of course you can have a copy, and any new stuff I come up with, too!’ Ginny beamed with pleasure. ‘I wonder if Daddy wants to see my research.’

  Some time later Celia looked at the clock. ‘I’d better get back to the Compound. Do you want a lift home, Hugo?’

  ‘Yes please, Celia,’ he replied. ‘Here, I’ll back this data up, Ginny. You go and help your dad pack up.’

  Ginny jumped up from her chair and headed off to find her father. ‘I wonder if he wants to watch the new James Bond again?’

  Hugo backed up the data onto a memory stick for Celia, and then quickly repeated the procedure with his own stick.

  ‘That was an interesting day’s work,’ Celia remarked to Ginny and Hugo as they headed for the main door of the building. She stopped. ‘Oh, I’ve left a folder in the kitchen. Here are the keys, wait for me in the car.’

  She emerged a few minutes later and was startled to hear the crunch of gravel as the car drew up by the front door with Hugo grinning at the wheel.

  ‘You can drive!’ Ginny exclaimed. ‘You must teach me how to do it!’

  ‘When you’re bigger,’ Hugo smiled as he slid into the passenger seat.

  ‘Who taught you?’ Celia asked him.

  He shrugged. ‘No one; I just watched you, my mum, other people drive. There’s not much to it really, is there?’

  She smiled as she slipped into the driver’s seat. ‘You surprise me every day!’

  Over the next few nights Hugo examined the images copied from Ginny in great detail on his laptop at home. He carefully studied each female Lab and noted that Celia’s development in most areas was higher than other female Labs. He typed up notes and comments on each of her strengths. A selection of female Hybrids had results even higher than those of Celia. The data he collected on male Labs and Hybrids repeated this pattern. He smiled as he noticed his own results were well above any of the others and then tapped his lip impatiently. How could he persuade Takir and the Radical team to accept that he was the ideal candidate as donor for a future perfect being? There had to be a way!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Abel listened to the voice on the phone, grim-faced. ‘I agree, it is better to keep things under wraps for the moment. Reuben has suggested meeting with some of the Labs working in your police department, Simon, to share information on how we can handle these new developments. Most of the Independent Lab groups we have been able to contact here in the UK have been quite hostile towards us. Somehow the Radicals are persuading them that the Compound Labs have given in to Non-Labs and their laws. They are afraid that they will not be treated fairly.’

  ‘We have found the same thing over here. The Radicals are often mentioned as the way forward for Independent Labs. They seem pretty persuasive. I wish I knew what they were planning!’

  Abel nodded. ‘If this becomes public it could make things very unpleasant for recognised Labs in all countries. Parliament has already passed a Bill to allow the setting up of a government-controlled Centre to produce Labs for childless couples. It won’t be long before the US will be thinking along similar lines. So that will be another group of Labs that could be vulnerable to Radical persuasion. The sooner we can arrange a meeting with your Lab investigation team the better it will be. Reuben has suggested that two of our youngsters with special enhancements work with your team. They’ve proved very useful over here.’

  They talked for a few more minutes before he said, ‘OK, we’ll email the details tomorrow morning. Here’s Ruby to speak to Sakura, Simon.’

  Ruby took the handset from him and sat down. ‘Oh, dear. I don’t suppose this is making things any easier between you and Simon’s parents, is it, Sakura?’

  Sakura’s voice sounded shaky. ‘No, not at all. Simon’s mother won’t even look at Simone, never mind hold her. She even told me she wished Simon had never met me the other day.’

  ‘Why don’t you come here for a break? You must be tired out with having a new baby. Come and have a rest here and let everyone spoil you both for a few days before Leon and Johnny’s engagement party,’ Ruby suggested. ‘Their fiancées are great, so easy to get on with. And Dette will be here a few days early, too.’

  ‘Simon is too busy to get away at the moment,’ Sakura answered. ‘He said he’ll probably only be there for a couple of days for the party.’

  ‘Well, you come on ahead anyway. Once you feel more rested you’ll be more use to him and the baby.’ Sakura was finally persuaded and put down the phone in a much better frame of mind.

  Ruby turned to Abel, who was staring out of the window. She put her arms around him with her head on his chest.

  ‘You can’t be responsible for all the Labs, you know, Abel. You already do so much for the Compound Labs.’

  ‘I know,’ he sighed, ‘I just find it so frustrating! Why can’t all the different Labs sit down and talk about things together? We don’t have any idea of where the Radical research is leading.’

  ‘Some of them may be at the early stages where they don’t trust Compound Labs or Non-Labs,’ she said. ‘Many Compou
nd Labs felt that way about Non-Labs at first. You didn’t trust Non-Labs for a long time, Abel.’

  ‘But in the end we wanted to become part of society and live and work together. Let’s hope the Independent Labs do, too,’ he looked into Ruby’s eyes. ‘I wouldn’t say this to anyone but you, but I am afraid of what these new Labs are planning for the future.’

  Ruby saw the fear in his eyes and pulled him closer to her.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Zig looked up as she heard her name called, her pupils narrowing into long slits in the strong sunshine.

  ‘Oh, great, just what I need! Coffee!’

  She stood up and smiled as Bailey held it out to her. ‘You have been working here for nearly three hours without a break,’ he admonished her. ‘You promised me you would slow down today, and not make me feel too bad about taking the afternoon off.’

  ‘I didn’t notice the time. I wanted to get this bed sorted out and maybe get a new line sown over by the fence. You could take that box of salad stuff over there with you to the hall. Are you sure you won’t need any help?’ she asked.

  Bailey shook his head. ‘Most of the people who live on the Compound are helping set up the hall for tonight’s party. Even the newcomers. Brit and Lynne are setting out the tables with Rachel and some of the others. Tyler, Rhys and Shiva are decorating the actual hall. The stamina of those three! Zane is entertaining Simone while Sakura has a rest.’

  ‘Fancy being invited to the engagement party of two of the biggest celebs! I still can’t believe it,’ Zig smiled.

  ‘I still can’t think of Leon and Johnny as celebrities even though they’ve played for England,’ Bailey chuckled. ‘And their fiancées are lovely, too. Don’t get too carried away here this afternoon. We need to be there by seven thirty, Zig.’

  ‘I’ll be ready,’ she replied.

  She was humming to herself when she heard someone clearing his throat behind her. ‘I know, I know, Bailey! I should be getting changed by now! Oh, it’s you, Keith!’