THURSDAY, JUNE 4
70 DAYS
Noah Shackleton.
The man behind the freak show. The man who wanted to put seven billion people through the same torturous, flesh-boiling death that we’d watched Craig and Laura suffer on Crazy Bill’s DVD. And Calvin was right behind him.
Shackleton stood there, hands folded neatly in front of him, looking completely unfazed by the sight of Luke using his communications equipment.
Smiling.
It wasn’t the cold, dangerous smile that Calvin was giving us over Shackleton’s shoulder, or the fake, dopey, pasted-on smile that we were always getting from Pryor. This was a polite, genuine, old-man smile. Almost like he was happy to see us. And somehow that was creepier than anything else.
Calvin stepped forward. He drew his gun and levelled it at the three of us.
‘No! Please!’ I said desperately, holding my hands up in front of me, like that was going to stop a bullet. ‘Wait! Let’s – Let’s just –’
‘Out,’ Calvin boomed.
Shackleton stood aside to let us past, stretching a hand out into the main office like he was inviting us in for a cup of tea.
Calvin pointed to a door marked ‘Conference Room’. He marched us inside, grunting along on his crutch, which – I noticed for the first time – he barely seemed to need anymore, never lowering his gun for a second.
The fear was incredible. All consuming.
I tried to dream up an escape, imagined myself whirling around, grabbing Calvin’s gun out of his hand, and turning it on him. And then I imagined how that scene would actually play out; me on the floor with a bullet in my head.
My feet lurched forward, one after the other, like a lizard’s tail that keeps moving even after it’s ripped off the body.
Into the conference room. Giant windows overlooking the town. Long wooden meeting table. Nine leather chairs. Computers. Data projector flashing a Co-operative logo onto the wall.
Nothing useful.
There were no two ways about it this time. We were dead.
‘Please,’ said Shackleton, coming in behind us, ‘take a seat.’
We did as we were told, pulling out the closest three chairs and sitting down at the table.
‘Sir,’ said Calvin impatiently, standing right behind me, ‘can we just get on with this?’
‘Now, now,’ said Shackleton, taking his seat at the head of the table. ‘Patience, Bruce. We’re not in any hurry, are we?’
‘No, sir,’ Calvin said. But he didn’t sit down or holster his gun.
Shackleton clasped his hands together on the table and leant towards us.
Jordan was closest to him. I reached over to squeeze her hand under the table. She squeezed back and I thought that even if I was going to die tonight, at least that was something.
‘I’m afraid we have a slight problem,’ said Shackleton. He paused, as though expecting us to respond. When none of us did, he said, ‘From what I heard of your telephone conversation, it appears that you three have discovered the true nature of the work we’re undertaking here in Phoenix.’
‘Slaughtering billions of people?’ Jordan snapped. ‘That work, you mean?’
‘Yes, that,’ said Shackleton, as though we were discussing the weather. ‘As you can imagine, this information is not something we can afford to have getting out into the public sphere. Not for a couple of months, in any case.’
He leant back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling for a moment as though turning something over in his head.
‘Of course, we can quite easily trace the location of the man you were just speaking to,’ he said, leaning forward again. ‘So, within a few hours, he will no longer pose a problem to us.’
‘No!’ Luke shouted. ‘Mr Shackleton, please, you can’t!’
‘I think you’ll find I can,’ said Shackleton casually. ‘Which means that the only question remaining is what to do with the three of you.’
‘Just do it, then,’ said Jordan. ‘If you’re going to kill us, drop the theatrics and get it over with.’
I almost broke her fingers under the table.
‘Yes,’ said Shackleton, nodding slowly, ‘that is starting to seem like the best way forward, isn’t it?’
He sounded so offhand. Like he could’ve gone either way. Deciding to end our lives with about as much thought as he would put into deciding what to have for lunch.
‘You’re insane!’ I said, rolling back in my chair.
‘Easy,’ said Calvin, stopping the chair with his hand and bringing his weapon around again.
‘Do you think so?’ said Shackleton. ‘Your father said the same thing, and he doesn’t know the half of what you children have uncovered. Then again, I suppose such accusations are the price one pays for trying to bring about a better world.’
Jordan actually laughed. ‘Seven billion people dead. That’s your better world?’
‘Oh, I agree, that part is quite regrettable,’ said Shackleton. ‘But I’m afraid it’s necessary.’
‘Necessary for what? ’ Jordan shouted. ‘What could possibly justify that kind of evil?’
Shackleton let the question hang in the air for a minute.
‘Is it evil?’ he asked. ‘Is it not humanity’s prerogative to determine for itself what is evil and what is necessary or good?’
‘You think this is what humanity wants?’ spat Jordan.
I put my head down on the table.
This was not the ideal time to be getting into an argument.
‘Perhaps not yet,’ Shackleton conceded. ‘However, in seventy days, there will be a new humanity. And it is my hope that they will see things quite differently.’
‘Sir,’ said Calvin, finally running out of patience, ‘enough of this. Let me take care of them.’
My head snapped back up again.
Shackleton glanced at Calvin, brow creasing in frustration. He was enjoying the conversation and clearly didn’t appreciate being interrupted.
But eventually, he breathed another sigh and stood up from the table.
‘Yes, very well,’ he said. ‘But do it over in the corner. You know what a nightmare it is getting stains out of these chairs.’
Calvin grabbed hold of my seat again and spun it around. ‘On your feet.’
‘Officer Calvin, please –’
‘Do it!’ he ordered.
I stood up. The others got up too.
Calvin herded us into the corner of the room.
‘Please,’ I stammered again, falling back against the wall. ‘No, no, please. Don’t do this. Please don’t do this.’
My fingers clawed the glass behind me, and suddenly it was like someone had flipped a switch in my brain, like all the terror I’d felt so far had just been the warm-up. Nausea flooded my body and I doubled over.
I could feel Luke shaking next to me, cowering.
Not Jordan. Even now, she was refusing to drop eye contact with Calvin.
‘The girl first,’ said Shackleton easily. ‘Let’s be gentlemen about this.’
No.
Adrenaline exploded through me and a second later I was standing in front of her, blocking Calvin’s path.
‘Peter!’
Whump!
Calvin slammed me back into the glass wall, pinning me by the throat with his messed-up arm. His good hand swung around, pointing his gun at Jordan’s head.
I squeezed my eyes shut again, grinding my teeth, struggling against the weight of his body and the weight of the rage and terror swirling through me. I heard the click of Calvin’s weapon, heard one final thump of his crutch as he braced himself against me, ready to fire.
Don’t do this.
Don’t do this.
Please –