Control (Shift) (17 page)

“Like Hamid and Hazid?” I said.

“Exactly. And I’ve had other children through here who’ve had other unusual skills. I help them come to terms with their power until entropy takes it away, and then I help them integrate back into real life.”

“Here in the UK?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes I try and take them home.”

“When there’s a home for us to return to.” A skinny girl with dry, frizzy hair in a long plait and dark, deep-set eyes walked slowly into the room. She was so pale I could make out the veins in her thin arms and it looked as if she hadn’t eaten properly in months.

“Ah, this is Ella,” Frankie said, reaching up and taking the girl’s bony hand. “She’s been with me the longest. How old were you when I found you?”

“Six.”

“Yes, six. Drug lords in Guatemala had massacred all of her family. And she was crying over the body of her mother. And even at that age I could sense she had the power to Shift.”

“You’re a Spotter?” Aubrey said.

“Oh, a little, I suppose. Although at ARES my official title was Mapper, Fifth Class.”

Fifth Class. Just like Aubrey’s dad, I thought. Had they known each other? And what had happened to make him hate Frankie so much? I couldn’t imagine this woman ever doing anything bad.

“Although after Project Ganymede those boundaries seemed to blur somewhat,” Frankie said with a wave of her hand.

“Speaking of the project, there are some questions we have. Although I think we should probably talk in private.” Aubrey looked at Ella.

“Anything you can say to me you can say to Ella.” Frankie let go of Ella’s hand.

There was something about the girl I couldn’t put my finger on. It was as if I’d seen her somewhere before. “Well, the men,” I said. “I mean the other people who were a part of the project have been experiencing some side effects. Mental issues.”

“The psychosis? Yes, I saw some of that when I was on active duty with men. Some of them didn’t take to the programme as well as the others. But what has that got to do with me?”

“We wanted to check that you’d not been experiencing anything like that and…” I looked to Aubrey, uncertain how to continue.

“We need carry out an evaluation. ARES feels it’s not safe to have adult Shifters.”

Frankie laughed. “Sir Richard is happy to trust children with this power and not adults? Come now, that seems rather silly.”

I saw Aubrey’s jaw tighten. “It’s more to do with how the power was obtained.”

“I don’t understand.”

“How much do you know about the project? About the operation you had?” I said quickly, sensing Aubrey’s increasing tension.

“Not a huge amount. I was told that they were able to stimulate the part of the brain that controlled Shifting. I assumed it worked like a pacemaker.”

I took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way of saying this, and believe me, I’ve tried lots of different ways, but I’m just going to come out and say it. You’ve had part of a child’s brain placed in yours. They cut out the bit of the brain that controls Shifting and gave it to you.”

“What happened to the child?” Frankie said, her voice suddenly dry.

“Brain dead,” Aubrey said.

Frankie’s eyes darted from my face to Aubrey’s. “I don’t believe it. Dr Lawrence. He wouldn’t.”

“He did. The files are all here.” Aubrey pulled out a brown file from her bag and passed it over. “Besides, we saw the evidence with our own eyes.”

“Did you ever meet Mr Abbott?” I asked.

“The head of the Regulators?” Frankie said distracted by the paperwork she was flicking through. Her face became paler with each page.

“Yes, he recently decided to start the programme back up again. He’d carried out the procedure on three of his men and had planned to carry it out on many more.”

Frankie pushed the folder away as if it disgusted her and placed her hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. But I don’t know what I can do about it now.” She sat up straight and fiddled with her mug, spinning it around on the table. “However I gained this power, I have used it for good. Isn’t that what matters? In the long run?”

“Maybe so, but we need to carry out a psychiatric evaluation, to make sure that you’re not suffering from the same symptoms as the others,” Aubrey said.

“Yes, I understand. But is there any way this evaluation can be done in the morning? I have a very important event to be at tonight and I have to get ready. A huge amount hangs on me being there. For the future of the charity and, well, you understand?” She smiled at me and I wondered if it was the tea causing my stomach to heat up all of a sudden.

It was a struggle to take my eyes off her. The other Ganymede men we’d interviewed had all talked about Frank Anderson like some kind of hero. A saviour. Back when we’d thought Anderson had been a man, I’d imagined some muscle-bound superhero. Frankie was slim and delicate and yet there was still something of the comic-book heroine about her. I had to try really hard not to imagine her in skin-tight Lycra.

“I don’t think…” I started to say when Aubrey cut me off.

“Sure. Tomorrow would be fine.”

I looked at Aubrey, wondering what was happening. I didn’t want to have to drive all the way back only to return in the morning.

“Marvellous,” Frankie said, standing up. “Why don’t you stay here for the night, there’s plenty of room. It will give you a chance to meet all the children.”

Aubrey stood up too. “Sounds like a plan.”

I stayed sitting and looked from Aubrey to Frankie, there was definitely something going on here and I was missing it all.

“Well, make yourself at home. Ella,” she turned to the pale girl. “Show Scott and Aubrey around, will you.”

It wasn’t really a question. I saw a look flit across Ella’s face. Uncertainty? Annoyance? Whatever it was, it was just the tiniest flicker and then her still expression was back.

Frankie readjusted the scarf around her neck and smiled at us. I could see how that smile could win over politicians and warlords alike. She turned and walked back up the stairs, her bare feet padding on the slate floor.

“We just have to get something from the van. Scott?”

Aubrey grabbed the back of my jacket and tugged at it. The bench scraped on the floor as I pushed it back to stand up.

“Yes, something from the van…” I said, as Aubrey half dragged me out of the door. “What’s going on?” I hissed as we were clear of the kitchen. “I’d thought you’d want to be well clear of this place. I know I am.”

“And miss a chance to have a snoop around? No chance.” Aubrey tested door handles as we walked back the way we’d come. Each door opened up, revealing another ornate room. Apart from one. “And what do we think is behind here?” Aubrey said, grinning as the door refused to open.

“Oh, I don’t know? A cellar where they keep all the kids who stick their noses in,” I said, looking around to make sure we weren’t being watched.

Aubrey reached into her jacket and pulled out a slim leather pouch. Inside it was a set of thin tools, the kind of things a dentist would use to inflict the most pain possible. She selected two and set to work on the door. I was too busy watching her at work, so I didn’t hear the soft footsteps behind us.

“You’re not allowed in there.”

We both jerked around, Aubrey hiding the lock-picking set behind her back. “Oh, we were just trying to find the bathroom.”

“Both of you?” Ella said, tilting her head like a bird.

“I was helping,” I said, stupidly.

“Well, the bathroom is second on the left up there.” Ella pointed a long thing finger up the corridor. “That room that you’re trying to get into is a broom closet. Maria our housekeeper keeps all her cleaning stuff in there. That’s why it’s locked up.”

If Ella thought we were up to anything strange, her face didn’t show it. It didn’t show anything.

“Right, second on the left,” Aubrey said and headed off in that direction.

Ella and I stood, waiting. I hummed uncomfortably, while she just stared at me. There really was something niggling me about her.

“Have you ever been to ARES?”

“No,” Ella said. “I received all my training here.”

“Oh, it’s just, I thought…” I thought I recognised her, but it must have been someone else. Besides, with my ability to remember past Shifts when no one else could, I was constantly finding myself thinking people were familiar when in reality, in the new reality, we’d never actually met. “Nothing,” I said. “Never mind.”

It was quite a relief when Aubrey returned from the bathroom, picks safely tucked away once more.

There was something creepy about this girl. About this place. The sooner we could get this evaluation done with and I could go back to focusing on the President, the better.

 

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

The house was enormous. Every time I thought we’d got to the end of it, another room appeared, as if had been tagged on to the one before like an afterthought. Long, thin corridors lined with flaking wood panelling led from one huge room to the next and children seemed to be hiding in every nook and cranny.

I waved at a boy who peered out from behind a green-leather sofa. He let out a squeak and scuttled away.

“Is Frankie the only adult here?” Aubrey said, watching the boy disappear through a doorway.

“There’s Maria, the cook and housekeeper,” Ella replied.

“No men?”

“Not since Mr Goodwin died, no.”

“Oh.” Aubrey sounded disappointed. And I understood why. She’d been hoping that her dad would be here. This wasn’t about tracking down the last member of Ganymede for her anymore. She was on a new mission.

Me, I just wanted to get the job done so I could start hunting for the President’s killer. Aubrey’s dad had been wrong. Frankie was the least wicked person I’d ever met.

There was another thing that still kept niggling at me. I was sure I’d seen Ella somewhere before.

“Have you lived here ever since you came to this country?” I asked her.

“Since Frankie found me, yes,” Ella said.

“And do you like it here, out in the middle of nowhere?” Aubrey said. “With nothing to do?” Aubrey wasn’t the biggest fan of the countryside.

The girl stopped and gazed up at the arched ceilings as if it was the first time she’d really looked at them. She tucked a curl of hair behind her ear that had escaped her Alice band.

“I don’t know anything else,” she eventually said, then set off again, pointing out paintings and statues on the way. We passed one wall lined with maybe a hundred frames containing butterflies of every colour. They looked as if they might fly away, if not for the brass tacks stuck through their bodies, pinning them in place. They gave me the creeps too.

It was a relief to get out to the gardens.

A bunch of kids of all ages were kicking a football around the large lawn. They were good, too, better than I’d ever been at football. Although it was clear a few of them were cheating by Shifting. One of them kicked the ball from the middle of the pitch. It went soaring over the heads of the other children and straight into the back of the goal.

“That’s Prestige,” Ella said, pointing at the goal scorer. “Our newest guest.”

Prestige had dark skin that glowed golden in the low sunlight and a delicate face, which seemed at odds with his broad and muscular frame.

“He was conscripted to a children’s army in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Ella explained. “He’d been about to kill the warlord who killed his family and kidnapped him when Frankie arrived and stopped him.”

“And killing the warlord would have been a bad thing how?” Aubrey asked.

“He’d already seen enough death. Besides, if he’d gone through with it, he would have been a killer too. No better than the warlord.”

I looked closely at him and realised what was odd. He wasn’t smiling. Even after that incredible goal, there was no celebrating, no rubbing it in the other children’s faces. He just picked the ball up, ran back to the centre, and kicked off again.

“And that’s Daniel, Klaus, Felicity…” Ella reeled off a list of names, pointing out the rest of the kids in turn. “They’ve all been here for years. And there, watching the game, is Kia.”

I followed Ella’s finger to see a slim, young girl, her enormous smile visible even from this distance. The girl had golden skin and long dark hair, which fell in front of her face as she jumped up and down, cheering the game on. The ball was kicked offside and Kia ran after it.

A couple of the kids waved at Kia to come join in. Her face lit up as she kicked the ball back and started to run towards the game. Then she stopped and looked down at her hands as if something was wrong with them.

The Shift was one of the most jarring I’ve ever seen. One second, there was a beautiful slim Asian girl standing there. The next, it was a young Asian boy, with short hair, long jeans and a Chelsea Football Club shirt. But the same attractive face. I knew that they were the same person.

I turned to look at Ella with my mouth open wide. Aubrey was just watching the football match that was going on.

“Did you sense that?” I asked Aubrey.

“That boy’s Shift. A little. What about it?”

“But she…”

Aubrey looked up at me, her brow wrinkled in confusion. “She? What do you mean?”

I looked back to the boy who was dribbling the ball across the grass. A second boy came in for a tackle, but the boy who had been Kia hoofed the ball just in time. It went just wide of the posts. He laughed loudly and ran after it.

“But a second ago…”

“You remember?” Ella asked, her expression now a mirror of mine. “You remember Kia?”

“Of course I do. She was just standing there cheering,” I said, pointing at the spot on the sidelines.

“What are you two on about? Who’s Kia? I thought you said his name was Pia?” Aubrey said.