Brainboy and the Deathmaster (19 page)

“Sorry about that,” Mr. Masterly said, striding back into the room. “Business.”

With no time to stick the notebook back into the briefcase Darryl slipped it under his rump and sat on it.

“Seems I’m going to have to make a few calls,” Mr. Masterly said. “If you like, you can go down to E and catch the end of the movie.”

“Okay, sir.”

As Mr. Masterly bussed their dinner dishes onto the cart in the dumbwaiter, Darryl coiled the notebook and slid it up his sleeve, like a sheath around his arm.

“Thanks for dinner, sir.”

“I hope it’s the first of many,” Mr. Masterly said, turning to give Darryl’s mop of hair a fond tousling.

N
ina was sitting in room eight listening to her favorite song when Darryl walked in. “Dinner must have been good,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“It was yucky,” he said, closing the door. “Fish brains.”

“Then why do you look so happy?”

He came over and sat in the other chair. “It’s my formula, Nina. Mr. Masterly could be his own son!”

“You mean he took it?”

“And it worked!”

“So you’ll be world famous,” she said, without much enthusiasm. “What’s it like up there?”

“Like this, but even fancier.”

“Can you get out?”

“I didn’t have a chance to explore.”

“Want to go train?”

“Um … okay. But first I’ve got to get some food in my stomach. What’d you guys have?”

“Pork chops.”

“Maybe Hedderly has some leftovers.’’ He changed into his cross-training shoes and, pulling something from
his sleeve, tossed it on his bed. “Meet you in the pantry.”

She had to change her shoes, too, but as she got up to follow him out the door, the spiral notebook caught her eye. She picked it up and started leafing through it.

She was still standing there rooted to the spot when Darryl came back half an hour later.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

She just stared at him.

“What’s wrong? You look like a ghost.”

“You didn’t read this thing?”

“I just sort of glanced at it.”

She held it out. He took it and sat down. As he read, the color gradually drained out of his face, so that when he lifted his eyes from the final page, he looked as ghostlike as she did.

“We’re done for,” he whispered. “And it’s all my fault.”

“You couldn’t know that.”

“That DeathMaster game. I should have put two and two together. It was his face getting younger.’’ He tossed the notebook on the table and jumped up. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here!”

“How?”

“The vent. It’s our only chance.”

“But what about the others?”

He considered this.

“It would be like murder,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re right. But they haven’t been training. How could they get up that thing when we can’t?”

“I guess we have only one choice.”

“What?”

“To take his advice.”

“What do you mean?”

“We have fertile young minds. We have to open them up to all the possibilities. Make the new connections.”

“New connections,” Darryl repeated.

“This is a think tank, right? We’ve got to think.”

A
wakened by a strange nois, Nina groped for her glasses and was astonished to see that it was five P.M. She’d slept the whole day away—all of Sunday!

Then she remembered: she and Darryl hadn’t dragged themselves into their beds till almost seven that morning. Mr. Masterly, having given them the weekend off, must have turned off his wake-up recording.

She dressed quickly and peeked out into the corridor. The sound that had woken her was Suki sobbing in the doorway to room five. Nina took her by the arm and led her back into her room and sat her in one of the chairs.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, pushing the beautiful hair off Suki’s tear-stained face.

“It’s so horrible!” Suki said with a gasp.

“What is?”

“Okasan and Otosan—Mama and Papa. I never think of them at all!”

“What happened to them?” Nina asked soothingly.

“They were flying to Japan for my grandmother’s funeral and the plane crashed.’’ Suki covered her face.
“It’s so horrible! And I never give them a thought!”

“It’s not your fault, Suki, believe me. It’s the vitamins.”

Suki dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. “The vitamins?”

“They dull your emotions. So you won’t think about the past and stuff.”

“But … but I took mine this morning.”

“That was just an aspirin with a little blue dye. I made them up in Chem last night and replaced the real ones before breakfast.”

“You did?” Suki sniffled. “Why?”

Nina handed her the MasterPlan, then went out into the corridor and knocked on the door to room six. No one answered, but she opened the door anyway. Greg Birtwissel was sitting in one of his chairs staring at the movie screen. Frozen on the screen was an image of an avalanche.

“Greg?” she said, shaking his shoulder.

He didn’t shift his eyes from the screen, didn’t even acknowledge her presence. It took her a good ten minutes to coax out of him that his mother and sister had been killed in a rock slide near White Pass. He felt so wretched at having forgotten them that not even hearing about the vitamins brought him around. When she insisted she had something for him to look at, he just
sat there, so she had to tug him to his feet and drag him back to her room. They found Suki sitting there holding the MasterPlan in trembling hands, her pretty, almond eyes glazed with horror.

“I know,” said Nina, taking the notebook and passing it on to Greg.

“What should we do?” Suki said in a hollow voice.

“We better round everyone up. I’ll check the rooms if you’ll check E and L.”

Half an hour later the whole team, except for Darryl, was gathered in room seven. They were a pretty cheerless group, and nobody’s spirits were lifted by reading the MasterPlan. Ruthie could barely decipher it because her eyes kept tearing up at the thought of her parents, both of whom had died cruel deaths from cancer.

“What’s this?” she sniffled, pointing at the CT on the trunk of the tree.

“You ought to know,” Nina said. “You say it every morning.”

“Conquering Time?” Ruthie wiped her eyes with her sleeve and pointed to the initials in the high branches of the Workforce limb. “What are these?”

“The asylums where he got the people to build this place. CWSMF. That’s Central Washington State Mental Facility.”

“What happened to them?”

“The workforce? They were expendable.”

“Expendable?” Greg squeaked.

“Except for Abs and Hedderly and Snoodles. He kept them on as staff.”

“You mean he killed the rest?” Ruthie said.

“It doesn’t say. Maybe he lobotomized them and sent them back to the loony bins.”

“And what are these?” Ruthie was pointing to the higher branches of the Brainpower limb.

“The shelters. It’s pretty ingenious, really. He picks orphans, with no family to care about them.”

“You mean we’re expendable, too?” Ruthie said.

“Once we serve his purpose.”

“But whoever discovers the way to stabilize G-17 will be more famous than Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton and Christopher Columbus rolled into one.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Nina said.

“You mean …?”

“Read the last page.”

Ruthie gave her eyes a good mopping and read the last page. When she finished, she looked as ghostly as the rest of them.

“We’ll be blown to smithereens,” she whispered. “But … but it won’t happen till … How long have you been off the vitamins, Nina?”

“Quite a while.”

“And what have you been doing?”

“Lately we’ve been training—Darryl and I. Climbing a vent in the pantry. We just wanted to escape. We had no idea what was in there.”

“Well, we’re okay as long as Mr. Masterly doesn’t have what he wants. We can plot our escape. Or plan a rebellion. I just hope Darryl’s formula doesn’t work on people as well as it does on rats.”

Nina lowered her eyes. “That’s the trouble. It does.”

“You mean it worked on Mr. Masterly?” Suki gasped.

“I’m afraid so.”

“What!” cried Ruthie.

“Where is Darryl anyway?” said Billy.

“Yeah,” said Mario. “Where’s the traitor hiding out?”

“You mean executioner,” Ruthie said grimly.

“He’s got us killed!” Greg shrieked.

“He didn’t know,” Nina said.

“Where is he?” Mario demanded.

“Sleeping,” said Nina, who’d poked her head into room eight a few minutes ago. “He and I were up all last night planning our escape.”

This news seemed to lower the anti-Darryl voltage in the room.

“What’s the plan?” Ruthie said.

“Wait here. I’ll get him.”

Just as Nina shut the door to her room behind her, the panel lit up at the end of the corridor. She barely managed to shrink behind the trophy case before the elevator door opened.

Firm steps sounded in the corridor. An amazingly youthful version of Mr. Masterly passed by her and gave the door to room eight a firm rap.

“Darryl?” The familiar voice chilled her. Mr. Masterly opened the door. “Napping, eh? I guess you need to catch up, after all your brilliant work. Listen, why don’t you come up and have a bite of dinner with me? Get dressed, I’ll wait.”

Pressed back between the wall and the case, Nina trembled so violently she was afraid the trophies would start to rattle. Had Mr. Masterly missed the MasterPlan? Was he inviting Darryl upstairs to poison him?

D
arryl wondered exactly the same thing as an oyster slithered down his throat.

Once again he was sitting across from Mr. Masterly up in the private penthouse, and once again dinner—raw Hood Canal oysters—was about as slimy as could be. But the texture of the food was the least of his concerns. It was taking all his concentration just to hide his nervousness and keep his eyes off the battered briefcase by Mr. Masterly’s chair and the vial of turquoise liquid on the table.

“Do you remember the day we met?” Mr. Masterly said after swallowing his half-dozenth oyster.

“It’s a little hazy,” Darryl lied. “At that shelter place?”

“Mmm. I mentioned adopting you as my son. I’ve been thinking. I’d really like to.”

Despite everything, Darryl felt a spark of gratification. But then he remembered:
expendable … self-destruct mechanism
…

“How would you feel about me as a father?”

“It would be … an honor.”

“Excellent. Shall we go?”

“Go? Where?”

“Home.”

“To Hunt’s Point? Is it close enough to walk?”

“I’m afraid we’ll have to fly.”

“How?”

Mr. Masterly pointed at the spiral staircase. “That takes us to my helicopter.”

“You mean right now?”

Mr. Masterly wiped his mouth and tossed his napkin down by his plate. “No time like the present.”

“But I’d have to pack.”

“You won’t need PL clothes anymore.”

“But what about … my notes. I’d need to collect my notes.”

“What notes?”

“On G-17. And some other things I’ve been fooling around with in my spare time.”

“Really?” Mr. Masterly took a thoughtful sip of mineral water. “You know, maybe morning would make more sense. I want to collect a few things myself—and to be honest, I prefer flying in daylight. Tell you what. I’ll wake you at dawn. But one thing. If you happen to run into any of the others, don’t mention you’re leaving. It’s our little secret.”

Darryl nodded.

“Now don’t stay up late watching movies in bed, okay?”

“Okay. Mr. Masterly?”

“Yes?”

“Could I have an apple to take with me?”

“Of course.”

There was a bowl of fruit on a shelf in the dumb-waiter. As Mr. Masterly reached in for an apple, Darryl snatched the vial off the table and replaced it with an identical one from his jumpsuit pocket.

“Fresh from Yakima,” Mr. Masterly said, handing the apple over. “First of the season.”

W
hen he got back down to S, Darryl went straight to Nina’s room and found the whole team there.

“Are you okay?” Nina asked anxiously.

“I’m not sure,” Darryl said. “I had to eat three oysters.”

“Ick,” said Greg, making a face.

“Did he notice it was missing?” Nina asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“What did he want?”

“To adopt me.”

“Adopt you!” Ruthie cried.

“Adopt you?” Nina said.

“He’s going to wake me up early to leave,” Darryl said.

“You’re going with him?” said Suki.

Darryl took a bite of his apple. It was tart and crisp and got rid of the lingering fishy taste in his mouth. He ate the whole thing, then dropped the core onto the floor and said: “Let’s get out of this dump.”

Without another word he headed for the door. Nina was right behind him, and the others fell over them-selves following.

“Where are we going?” Ruthie cried as they headed down the corridor.

Darryl led the procession into the kitchen, where Hedderly was sitting on a stool, peeling carrots.

“Come with us, Hedderly,” Nina said.

Grinning, Hedderly wiped his hands on his apron and followed them out to the emergency stairs. Up on E, Abs was cleaning the pool with a long-handled skimmer.

“Abs, could you please give us a hand?” Darryl said.

Nodding enthusiastically, Abs dropped the skimmer and followed the parade under the AquaFilm archway. Nina and Darryl stepped onto the escalator and motioned for the others to follow.

“You want to go to the movies when we’re about to be blown to bits?” Billy asked, getting on behind them.

“Nope,” Nina said. “We want the pods.”

“What for?”

“You’ll see.”

Thanks to the air tanks, which served as ballast in the water, the pods were very heavy. Abs was able to heft one up in his arms, but Hedderly needed help from Mario, and it took all the rest of them combined to lift a third. It required four trips to get all dozen pods down the escalator and through the gym and down the elevator to the octagon in L.