Twenty-Three

The next morning hard gusts struck the building; air currents sighed around the eaves like someone psyching themselves up to broach bad news. Victor checked his reflection in the mirror. Tongue still coated, cheeks flushed with patches of red, dark rings under his eyes. That tenacious bug was determined to make life unpleasant for him. If anything, he longed to rest in bed for a bit longer before he started out across the island. Only he’d woken that morning with a revelation. Jay is changing. Whatever’s inside of him is getting more powerful. Before, he picked off people at random one by one. Now he has the power to destroy entire plane-loads of passengers. Or would have done if Victor hadn’t sprung that lie on him. That he planned to marry Laura. What next for Jay? Bring death to a community and what then? Entire cities. A whole nation? He steadied himself as vertigo rolled through him. This sickness tried hard to keep him at home. But he had to find Laura to share what he knew. That Jay would soon exterminate people by the dozen – then what? By the thousand? The need to speak to Laura burned with that same intensity as the fever. A moment later he flew out of the apartment, leaving the door banging in the breeze.

Mayor Wilkes cursed the cold breeze. He cursed the quarantine order that kept him on the island. He cursed the crappy signal on his mobile phone. A gusty lane was no place to conduct important business. Black clouds shot through the sky. Any second now there’d be rain. He was certain.

‘Don’t let the asbestos in the mill make you miss the completion deadline,’ he told his site manager. This was the biggest project of the year. Now his profit margins were in danger. ‘Bring the boys in at night. They’ll clear out the asbestos without the need for a specialist team. They’re too bloody expensive. What’s that? I said have the boys clear the asbestos. Ass-bess-toss . . .’ The voice in his ear spoke fractured words. ‘Did you hear what I just told you, Heggerty? The signal’s all . . . damn it.’ His frustration cranked up a notch. For some reason Heggerty couldn’t make out the word ‘asbestos’. Crap phone, crap signal, crap island! Mayor Wilkes raged at the man, ‘Get that asbestos out. Did you hear me? Make it vanish. I don’t care if it is toxic. Get rid of it. Did you get that?’

Saban Deer trotted by him into town. They regarded him with their bright blue eyes as if he was trying to amuse them as he stood there, jacket flapping, shouting into a little black box in one hand. Even the deer acted out of character. They would never normally get this close. Hell, he was near enough to kick a bristly backside. It might relieve some of this tension. As he debated clumping one with his glossy black shoe a horde of figures came round the bend. He recognized them as the Badsworth Lodge rabble. God, how they tried his patience. They weren’t like other kids (who annoyed Mayor Wilkes at the best of times), these kids were weird. They all had old-looking faces. Mostly they were quiet, peculiarly quiet, like they brooded over secret plans. Every so often, however, they’d release an outburst of anger. A kind of rage he’d never seen before. ‘Weird little beggars.’ he muttered. ‘What?’ He pressed the phone against his ear. ‘You heard that clearly enough, Heggerty, but I wasn’t calling you a weird little beggar.’ He spoke faster as the children approached. The troublemaker he recognized immediately as Jay walked apart from the group. Lou brought up the rear. They were heading in the direction of the hostel. It must be a rough time for the little swine, he thought sourly. Something that might be a voice crackled in his ear. Mayor Wilkes tried again. ‘Asbestos. Ass-bess-toss. Get the asbestos out before the building inspector arrives tomorrow. I don’t have her in my pocket yet. If the asbestos isn’t gone she’ll close down all demolition. For crying out loud, Heggerty, are you getting any of this? If that asbestos doesn’t vanish you’re sacked. Got that? Sacked.’ Random syllables came through the speaker. Dear God, what’s wrong with the phones today? But whatever happened he had to get the command through to Heggerty or he’d lose a fortune on the mill project. At that moment, however, the children arrived.

Aged between eight and mid-teens, they had been walking in silence, their faces stony, like only Badsworth Lodge kids could do. Robots without souls. Automatons marching. Right now, Mayor Wilkes wished he had a cattle prod. One of those that dealt out an electric shock. That’d put some life in them. Clockwork boys and girls! See how you like five hundred volts! Only at that precise time one of the kids decided this was the perfect location for a hysterical outburst.

‘Jay! Why’z Jay gotta come wi’ us all the time?’ The teenage girl rounded on Lou. ‘Why’nt leave him back on ya’ farm?’

Speak English, child, Wilkes fumed silently. The voice of Heggerty sounded in his ear. ‘Heggerty, I told you to get rid of the asbestos.’ Only the girl’s shrieking was so loud that he couldn’t hear Heggerty’s reply. No doubt his site manager couldn’t hear Wilkes either. Damn. Wilkes had only trudged all the way up here because he couldn’t get a signal at home. The landline was a no-no because he’d become so paranoid that the police might be listening in. Now everything had gone belly up because the kids had gone mental. Shrieking, howling, weeping.

A tiny boy with an unsettling adult-like face protested to the girl, ‘Leave Jay alone. He’s not said your name.’

‘Jay lover, Jay boyfriend, Jay kisser!’ screamed the girl.

‘Will you be quiet,’ Wilkes thundered, ‘I am trying to make an important business call.’

Lou bustled up. ‘I apologize, Mayor Wilkes. We’ll soon leave you in peace.’

‘See that you do!’ He eyed the children with distaste. ‘Any of these sick?’

‘No, sir.’

‘None from the lodge at all?’

‘We’ve all been fine.’

‘Typical,’ he seethed. ‘Three-quarters of the island are puking but all these are in the pink. And I’m a prisoner on this blasted muck heap.’ He tried to speak again with his site manager but the din wrecked any chance of communication.

‘Move along, children. Mayor Wilkes has important work to do.’

The little boy with the old face tried to block a girl’s way as she went to harangue Jay. The boy with the goblin eyes just stood there in that inert way of his. Not speaking. Not registering any emotion.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for that cattle prod, Wilkes thought again. Five hundred volts. I’ll bring the little devils into line.

‘You keep out of this! Archer the Jay lover.’ She gave the tiny child a muscular shove. Archer fell sideways to smack against the tarmac.

‘Enough of that, young lady,’ Lou chided. ‘We’re eating at the hostel today. Best behaviour, folks, let’s show them that Badsworth Lodge folk are polite folk.’

As Archer got back to his feet he realized his elbow bled from where it had struck the roadway. Eyes watering, he pulled a tissue from his pocket. Normally, Wilkes had such little respect for these children he found it easy not to notice what they did. Just then, something did catch his attention one hundred per cent. When Archer yanked out the tissue an object fell from his pocket. It was flexible, slender and glinted yellow. Archer dabbed his red graze, not noticing he’d dropped one of his possessions.

Even though the voice in the mayor’s ear now spoke with perfect clarity that gold object wouldn’t let go. For some reason it seemed important. Come to think of it, the apt word was familiar. Quickly, Wilkes picked it up. Gold links . . . a broken bracelet. Dark blobs stuck to the metal. Heart racing, he turned it over. In the middle of the links, an oblong plate perhaps an inch long; inscribed there a pair of linked names. Ghorlan~Victor.

His heart thudded in his chest as he grabbed the boy. ‘You, child. Where did you find this?’

Archer stared at the bracelet. The kid’s eyes bulged in horror.

‘Did you hear me? Where did this come from?’

‘S’mine.’ Archer glanced back at Jay. Wilkes couldn’t tell whether the look was for backup or because he was frightened of the other boy.

‘Mayor Wilkes.’ Lou advanced through the group of children, her face the picture of astonishment. ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing to the child?’

‘Nothing, he fell . . . I was just helping him to his feet. Look at the elbow. He’s skinned it, I’m afraid.’ Mayor Wilkes made light of it. ‘Worse things happen at sea, huh, young man?’

Before he could react Archer grabbed the gold bracelet from his fingers. A second later he raced down the lane toward the hostel.

‘Someone’s got an appetite.’ Although Wilkes smiled he felt nothing short of fury at the child snatching the jewellery from him. Even so, his memory had caught a perfect picture of the gold bracelet sitting there on his palm. He recalled the links speckled with brown. In his mind’s eye were those two engraved names: Ghorlan~Victor. He would remember that boy the next time they met. And there was one thing Mayor Wilkes was sure of. It would be very soon.