Soul Protector (11 page)

Dan moved nearer to him,
speaking quietly. “But it’s not about what you want. What you’re
doing goes against everything we stand for.”

The man took a step back from
Dan, as far as the restraining monitors would let him, and had a
good look at Dan’s badge.

“You’re not so perfect,
Dan,
” he spat out the name part, “I bet if you were in my
shoes,
you’d
do the same, and you know it.”

Dan’s jaw muscle flexed and he
fixed the man with a stare. “You’re wrong, sir. No matter what
position I was in, I would never take someone else’s body. You’ve
done okay... You’ve lived a decent amount of years. Now you think
you can just switch into someone else and carry on with their
quota. Well you’re right about one thing, life is precious. And you
have no right to take away anyone else’s.” Dan took a deep breath.
“Anyway, like I said, it’s out of our hands.”

The Operations Director looked
at the crew. “Right, get on with it lads. Take him to the SEC.”

The detainee’s eyes widened. He
began breathing faster and panic took over again. “No… no…”

The monitors grabbed him and
flanked by the Director, they took him kicking and protesting
towards a door across from where we were standing.

I was unable to move, and stood
watching until they disappeared inside a room opposite. They closed
the door behind them and I turned to look at Dan.

“Wh-what’s going to happen to
him now?”

“Come on, Gracie, let’s walk,”
he said, reaching out to grab my arm. “I’ll tell you on the
way.”

I was about to turn round and
follow him when I heard the man’s protests growing more frantic. I
spun round to the direction they’d come from, and was surprised to
see him. The light had been turned on in the room and the dark wall
had become a two way mirror. I could see he was being strapped into
a large leather chair, while another monitor applied electrodes to
his head. He was clawing and kicking at them, but they quickly
strapped his flailing limbs by his side, rendering him
defenceless.

“
Dan
, what are they
doing to him?” I asked, my voice sounding shrill.

“Don’t look. Come on, Gracie,
turn away.”

He put his hand on my shoulder,
and tried to manoeuvre me away from the SEC and whatever was
happening inside it, but I couldn’t move. I stood rooted to the
spot. Above the mirror I could make out some words;
Switch
Enforcement Chamber
.

I looked up at Dan with hot
tears springing to my eyes. “Where’s his primary body? They can’t
switch him without his primary body.”

Dan put both his hands on my
shoulders and forcefully turned me round so I couldn’t face the
room any longer.

“There’s no point, Gracie,” he
said gently. “Once your aura goes red, there’s no way to survive a
switch-back.”

Burning acid rose from my
stomach, and I thought I was going to be sick.

“I know it’s harsh,” Dan
continued, “but his primary body will expire the same time his mind
is extracted from that man’s body.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying
to force his tormented features to leave my mind. It was pointless
though. I knew his face would haunt me for a long time. I shook
myself. I just wanted to get registered and get out of there as
fast as possible. I allowed Dan to lead me away and after we’d
taken a few steps, I heard the pitch of the man’s protests change,
and it chilled me to the core.

When we were a safe distance
from the SEC, Dan stopped walking and pulled me over to one side.
He rested his hand on my shoulder and looked at me.

“I’m really sorry. You
shouldn’t have had to witness that. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said quietly. “I
know he was in the wrong. It’s just, the look in his eyes. He was
so frightened.”

“He knew what he was doing,
Gracie. What about the guy who was violated? He’ll have been
missing for a while, and his family and friends will be beside
themselves wondering what’s happened to him. Remember, the face
that’s haunting you is actually
that
guy, not the face of
the CSP.”

I took a deep breath. I knew he
was right.

“So what will happen next for
the man who owns that body?”

“He’ll be okay. They’ll be
erasing all recent memory now, and then he’ll be deposited near a
hospital. One of the monitors will stay with him, posing as a kind
stranger who just happened to find a bewildered man wandering
around with amnesia. We’ve got SPs working in all the local
hospitals and they’ll be made aware, and there’s SPs on the outside
who’ll help him pick up the pieces of his life once he’s
released.”

I felt slightly better as I
thought of this man getting his life back. I hadn’t really thought
about that side of it.

“Right, let’s get this over
with shall we?” I said, trying to put it out of my mind and speed
up the whole Office experience. “Where do we need to go?”

Dan pointed at the door we were
standing in front of.

“This is it. Are you
ready?”

I took a deep breath and
nodded.

Dan knocked on the door, and
without waiting for an answer, he opened it and walked into a large
room. I followed close behind, taking in the clinical looking
surroundings.

A long strip-light suspended
from the ceiling buzzed away, illuminating the white tiles on the
floor. The walls were also painted white, and the overall effect
was so bright it took a while for your eyes to adjust. There were
several steel benches scattered around with surgical looking items
on each one. They varied from small instruments to large,
sophisticated-looking machinery.

In the far corner a
bespectacled middle-aged lady sat behind a desk. Her hair was dyed
an unnatural shade of red and she was wearing lipstick in exactly
the same shade. As soon as she saw us, she jumped up beaming and
hurried over, her lab coat flapping with the motion. I watched in
astonishment as she unhooked her glasses from her ears and chucked
them on the floor. They clattered to the ground, and Dan stooped
down to retrieve them.

“Oh my goodness, I keep doing
that,” she said, laughing as Dan picked them up and inspected them.
“They’re usually attached to a chain round my neck, but I’ve broken
it. I just can’t seem to get out of the habit.” She bit her bottom
lip, grinning at the same time. I warmed to her immediately.

“All in one piece, Kath,” said
Dan, handing the glasses back to her.

“Thanks love,” she said, and
revealed a blob of red lipstick which had smudged onto her tooth.
She turned and looked in my direction. “So, is this the new
one?”

“Yes, this is Gracie Reynolds.
Gracie, meet Kath, she takes care of all our records here.”

“Hello, Gracie. Welcome to the
Office. You’re the first Reynolds we’ve ever had. It’s always
exciting to meet a random Soul Protector.”

“Oh, have you met others then?
Random ones, I mean.”

“Yes dear. Randoms are quite a
curiosity in the SP World, but you’re certainly not the only
one.”

I smiled at her. Since
discovering I was a Soul Protector I already felt like a freak
compared to my normal friends. I didn’t want to be the odd-one-out
in this new world as well.

An inner door clicked open, and
out stepped a small man in his fifties, wearing a smart grey suit.
He had short greying hair, a neatly-trimmed beard and moustache,
and a face that conveyed no emotion. He somehow managed to
intimidate me without even opening his mouth. I noticed Dan and
Kath instantly slip into a more formal mode.

Mr Matthews nodded in our
direction. “Daniel.” His voice was without warmth.

“Good evening Mr Matthews, this
is Gracie Reynolds,” said Dan, flicking his eyes towards me.

Mr Matthews looked in my
direction. I met his gaze and smiled weakly, but before I could say
anything he looked away and pointed to a chair which was pulled up
next to one of the steel benches.

“Come, Miss Reynolds, sit
here.”

I looked up at Dan; he smiled
and gave me a small nod.

I took a deep breath and walked
over to the chair. I swept my hair forward, over my ears, and then
plonked myself down.

“Place your chin here,” Mr
Matthews said, indicating a contraption that reminded me of the one
my optician used.
No please or thank you
? He’d obviously
gone to the same school of charm as Camille.

I cleared my throat, “um,
what’s going to happen?”

“Iris scan,” he said, without
looking up.

I leant forward and put my chin
on the little plastic platform. Trying hard not to blink I looked
ahead towards a small black circle, and braced myself for a flash
of light, or a blast of air, or something.

“Iris scan complete,” said Mr
Matthews. When he spoke it was in one tone and at one pace only,
virtually robotic.

“Oh, that was fast,” I said,
relieved I hadn’t felt anything. I was just getting up, when he
spoke again.

“Stay where you are Miss
Reynolds. We need to take a Mind Image next.”

I was startled to see Kath
approaching me, holding sticky pads in each hand. I flinched as she
smoothed my hair back at the sides. She tucked it behind my ears
and began pressing a pad onto each of my temples. An image of the
detainee in the Switch Enforcement Chamber sprang to mind, and I
tried to swallow down the panic rising up my throat.

I looked towards Dan, hoping
for reassurance.

“Relax, Gracie, You won’t feel
a thing, I promise. Everyone has this done. It’s just so they can
tell who you are, even when you’re switched.”

I took a deep breath and wiped
my sweaty palms on my top.

“Close your eyes Miss Reynolds
and empty your mind completely.” Mr Matthew’s monotone demands
certainly didn’t help me relax.

I shut my eyes and tried to
clear away all thoughts from my brain, but it’s easier said than
done. All I could see was the man from the SEC, and his terrified
face.”

After a while Mr Matthews
stopped fiddling with the machine and stood up.

“Your mind is full of activity,
Gracie. Clear it now, please.” Although he hadn’t raised his voice,
it was very clear he was losing patience with me.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m trying as
hard as I can.”

Dan stepped towards me and put
his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay, Gracie. Nothing bad
is going to happen, I promise. Just breathe deep in through your
nose and slowly out of your mouth.” His voice was calm and
reassuring. “Now I want you to think of a black spot and imagine it
slowly growing and filling your mind.”

I looked at Dan and nodded. I
closed my mouth, taking in a deep breath through my nose. I had
only known Dan for a couple of days, but I already trusted him with
my life.

I breathed out through my
mouth, closed my eyes and pictured a black spot. I focussed on it
getting bigger like Dan had instructed, until there wasn’t room for
anything else. All the time I focussed on breathing slowly and
deeply, in through my nose and out through my mouth.

The next thing I was aware of
was a tug at the skin of my temples as Kath pulled the sticky pads
off. I quickly lifted my hair from behind my ears, and smoothed it
back into place.

“There, all done,” she said
breezily.

I looked towards Mr Matthews to
see if he was satisfied, but he was already disappearing through
the door he had come out of.

“Please come this way,” Kath
said, and we all walked through the same door as Mr Matthews. It
looked much like the offices where I worked. There was a desk with
a computer and printer sitting on it. Positioned next to it in a
t-shape was a bigger table with a few chairs dotted around. Mr
Matthews sat down and Kath pulled up a chair opposite him. Dan sat
round the other side next to Mr Matthews, so I pulled out the chair
next to Kath.

Kath cleared her throat and
slid some sheets of paper across the table towards Mr Matthews. He
retrieved a pair of glasses from his pocket and placed them across
the bridge of his nose, before scanning the paperwork in front of
him. I used this opportunity to give Kath a slight nudge and
pointed towards my tooth. She looked confused for a moment, so I
curled my tongue towards my top tooth to give her a hint about the
lipstick on hers. I saw recognition dawn on her face just as Mr
Matthews spoke.

I looked across to see him
peering over the top of his glasses in my direction.

“Miss Reynolds, is something
the matter?”

I shot a look at Dan, and saw a
smile playing on his lips.

“Um, no...”

“Good. Let’s carry on then
shall we?”

I nodded in my most humble
manner.

“We already have some
information on you,” he said in his robot tone. He pushed the
glasses back up his nose and scanned the papers in front of him.
“After extensively researching your background it has been
confirmed that you are indeed a Random Soul Protector. I just need
to clarify some details about how you first found out you could
switch into other people.”

I smiled at him and nodded, but
I knew he wouldn’t reciprocate.

“When was the first time you
switched into someone else’s body?”

“Erm, just a few days ago.”

“And how many times have you
actually switched since finding out?”

“Twi...”

Too late, I noticed Dan
frowning at me. I was so nervous I’d forgotten he wanted to answer
the questions.

“Just the once,” he cut in
quickly.

Mr Matthews looked at Dan and
his eyes narrowed. Then he looked back at me.

“Please describe what happened
immediately before and during the switch.”

I glanced at Dan for help, but
he didn’t make eye contact and his face remained blank.

“I, err, it happened by
accident. I was a bit shocked to be honest,” I said laughing
nervously. Kath and Dan smiled politely, but Mr Matthews remained
tight-lipped. I swallowed hard and carried on.