Bionic Agent (8 page)

That was probably why Melissa Pink’s henchmen had turned so nasty. He’d seen the laboratory and they were not going to let him leave with that knowledge.

“Shouldn’t we send the police in?” Jordan had asked.

“I’ll mention it to Angel, but I know what he’ll say. It’s too late. They’ll have moved the operation as soon as you compromised it. Drug factories appear and
disappear all the time. Otherwise, they’d get caught.”

The train jerked and Jordan swayed in his seat. He looked at the girl sitting opposite him. She almost returned his smile but carried on reading her magazine. She had no idea that he could
listen to every conversation in the coach, detect passengers with bad breath, and see straight through everyone’s clothes if he turned on his terahertz vision with a single thought. He
wouldn’t try it all at once, though, because he would be overwhelmed, like a website crashed by information overload.

The train arrived only two minutes late. Jordan had time to stroll along the esplanade on his way to the tennis club.

The front had been battered by the force of the estuary blast and, in places, it was still being mended. The long pier had been mangled but emergency repairs had made it serviceable. One of the
boathouses remained out of action and a nearby block of flats was covered with scaffolding. The riverside gardens had mostly recovered. They were lined with benches in memory of people who’d
died in the explosion. Jordan stopped to gaze sadly on the memorials for a few seconds. So many benches squeezed together. There were more benches than people on the front to sit on them.

Jordan had learned the route to the tennis club but, if he got lost, he could go online and consult a map in his mind. He checked the time. It was very important for him to be precisely on
schedule. Turning his back on the seafront, he went along Chalkwell Avenue, under the railway bridge, and up to the club. He arrived at the same time as two rough men who, judging by their
physique, spent a lot of time in a gym. He stood aside to let them in first.

Jordan had also memorized pictures of Cara Quickfall’s sons. They were twelve and thirteen years old, white and fair-haired. Their upmarket clothes suggested that they weren’t short
of cash. He found them in the changing rooms. But the two beefy guys had found them first.

The brothers were pinned against a row of lockers and one of the muggers was shouting, “Come on! Mobiles, cash and iPods. Now!”

Turning on his terahertz vision, Jordan saw that the man who was shouting had a knife in his trouser pocket.

“Oi!” Jordan said. “Leave them alone.”

“Stay out of it, you.”

Jordan refused. “Pick on someone your own size.”

Angered by his intervention, both men turned and came threateningly towards him. “You’re closer to our size.” The first thug delved into his pocket, extracted the knife and
thrust it in Jordan’s direction.

Jordan dropped his sports bag. His right arm shot out and snatched the knife before the mugger could react. Jordan wrapped his fingers around the blade and bent it back on itself as easily as
folding paper. He handed the buckled knife back to its owner without a word.

The man stared at the useless thing in his palm. “How did you...?” Instead of finishing his question, he turned tail and ran away, along with his mate.

The Quickfall boys stood and stared at Jordan. Then the younger one cried, “That was awesome!”

“Thanks,” his brother said.

Jordan shrugged. “No problem.”

It really wasn’t a problem. The men were Unit Red agents and they’d staged the attack. They’d expected Jordan to step in and save the boys. The whole set-up was Winter’s
idea to give Jordan a way of befriending the Quickfall brothers.

“Look, er...” The older boy hesitated. “What’s your name?”

“Jordan.”

“I’m Brady and he’s Reece. I don’t fancy staying here. Not after that.”

Reece hesitated. “We can’t go! What if they’re waiting for us outside?”

“I’ll come with you, if you like,” Jordan said. “They won’t take on three of us.”

“Not after what you just did.” Brady shook his head in disbelief. “Is your hand okay?”

Jordan held it out. “Fine.”

“Hey. What is that?” Brady prodded it with his forefinger.

Jordan stuck to the explanation he’d agreed with Angel to avoid awkward questions. “It’s false. A car crash got rid of my real one.”

“Cool!” said Reece. “Is that how come you can bend metal – because you’re bionic?”

“I’m not bionic,” Jordan lied, “but a false arm has its uses.”

Reece seemed fascinated. “Can you take it off?”

“Not really. I don’t wear it like a shoe or anything. It’s attached.” He could easily remove individual fingers or the hand, but not the whole arm. To do that, he’d
need the help of a Unit Red engineer.

“You’d make a neat bodyguard,” Brady said with a grin.

“Yeah. You already saved us,” Reece added.

“I bet Mum’d like to thank you,” Brady said. “Do you want to come back to our place?”

Jordan hesitated. He didn’t want to appear too eager.

“Go on,” said Reece. “We’ve got some pretty hot computer games.”

“Well, they’ve got to be better for you than tennis,” Jordan replied.

“How come?”

“You don’t get beaten up while you’re getting ready.”

For a moment, Brady looked puzzled. “How did you know we were going to play tennis?”

Jordan felt a jolt inside as he realized his mistake. Trying not to show it, he shrugged. “It’s a tennis club.”

“That’s not all. There’s a gym and a pool.”

Reece groaned at his suddenly suspicious brother.

Jordan decided to take a risk. “I saw a tennis racket in your locker, didn’t I?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Brady. “A bit of a giveaway. What are you doing here?”

“How do you mean?”

“Were you going to play tennis as well?”

Reece butted in. “You’d be great.”

Jordan shook his head. “I could probably serve faster than anyone else on the planet and put enough spin on the ball to win every point. But one of the rules says, ‘Every player must
hold the racket with a real arm.’”

Giggling, Reece replied, “It’d be fun, though.”

Jordan nodded. “Sure would.”

“So, what are you here for?” Brady asked.

“The pool,” Jordan told him, picking up his bag. “I was going swimming.”

“Do you go rusty?” said Reece.

Jordan laughed. “I shower every day and it hasn’t happened yet. Swimming’s supposed to be good for my muscles.”

Satisfied at last, Brady nodded.

Reece sighed with relief. “Are you coming home with us, then?”

Jordan pretended to think about it. He wasn’t proud of tricking the Quickfall boys, but he was on a mission. That was his excuse for being devious. He glanced at his watch and then said,
“All right. But...”

“What?”

“I’m not sure I’ll be any good at computer games. Because of this.” He waved his artificial arm.

The Quickfalls’ energy-efficient house looked a bit like Unit Red’s headquarters, without the gravestones and secret network of underground rooms. The front was
largely glass and odd angles. The roof was a mass of solar panels and the gutters fed rainfall into a large tank. Standing inside, Jordan could hear the quiet rumble of a pump. It was bringing up
water from pipes buried deep in the garden, using the natural warmth of the earth to heat the house.

Jordan listened to Reece’s booming voice whilst trying to eavesdrop on the whispered conversation between Brady and his mother in the next room.

“Did it hurt?” Reece asked. “I mean, when your arm got ripped off.”

“But who is he?” Cara’s hushed voice said in the background. “You’ve got to be careful after what happened.”

“No,” Jordan answered. “I was unconscious, I suppose. More than that. My heart stopped beating so I guess I was sort of dead. Didn’t feel a thing.”

“You died?”

Meanwhile, Brady was whispering to his mum, “I know, but he’s okay. He saved us.”

“Saved you?”

Brady began to tell his mum about the incident with the knife while Jordan replied to Reece, “They resuscitated me. That’s when it hurt. When I came round it was agony. They gave me
bucketfuls of painkillers.”

Realizing that Jordan was distracted, Reece said, “It’s only mum checking up on you.” He shook his head and sighed. “She gets in a state about who we mix with.”

Just a mother taking care of her sons, Jordan thought. If only he still had a mother... But there was no point in feeling sorry for himself. He had Angel, Winter and a whole gang of Unit Red
technicians to take care of him. Yet somehow, they didn’t make up for his parents. In a way, he still felt alone.

Like any normal family, the Quickfalls probably wanted to murder each other half of the time, but they would always support each other in adversity. Jordan had neither the frustrations nor the
safety net of a family now.

Reece was setting up some games when Brady and his mum came in. Cara Quickfall had short dark hair and a pair of glasses resting on top of her head. Jordan wondered if her hairstyle had been
designed to keep her spectacles stable. Balanced there, they served no obvious purpose. They were more fashion statement than visual aid. She looked at the visitor and said, “Hi.
Brady’s been telling me what you did. I appreciate it. Very much. What did you say your surname was?”

“Stryker. Jordan Stryker.”

She nodded. “Where do you live?”

“London.”

“Oh. What are you doing here?”

“My folks have come for the day. They’re into boats. They let me go to the sports club instead.” He checked his watch. “I’ll have to go and meet them in an
hour.”

“We used to have a boat,” Reece said.

Cara Quickfall cast a warning glance at her son. “Reece...” When she looked back at Jordan, the stern expression had gone. “What about school?” she asked.

“I don’t go.”

Reece interrupted. “Lucky you.”

“I get home tuition.”

Brady stared at his mum. “Interrogation over yet?”

Cara smiled. “Just one more question. Can I get you a drink? And something to eat? Any of you?”

She didn’t have fizzy drinks, only fruit juice that tasted far too healthy. She didn’t have crisps, only wholesome biscuits that tasted of nothing. But Jordan was getting what he
needed most: the friendship and trust of the Quickfall kids. Despite his best efforts, though, he could not think his way into the family’s computer.

He looked at Reece and said quietly, “Your mum didn’t want you talking about the boat you had. What’s that all about?”

The two brothers eyed each other before Brady replied, “Sore point.”

Reece took up the story. “You know the explosion a year ago?”

Jordan nodded. “It was all over the internet and telly.”

“Well, whoever did it nicked our boat. That’s how they got out to the wreck.”

Jordan did his best to look surprised. “No. Really?”

Reece nodded. “She won’t get another one. Says it’s too dangerous.”

“As if it could happen again,” Brady muttered.

“Hey,” Jordan said, “does that mean you were all suspects?”

They nodded.

“I bet the police were all over you.”

“Mum and Uncle Henry.”

“Amazing.” Lowering his voice, Jordan said, “Do you think they had anything to do with it?”

“Not Mum,” Brady replied at once. Acting as if he needed to supply proof, he added, “She didn’t go out that night.”

“But Uncle Henry...” Reece shrugged.

“You shouldn’t say that, Reece.”

“It’s true. Uncle Henry’s into all sorts of stuff.”

“Yeah,” Brady replied. “Protests and that sort of thing, but not killing people. No way!”

In the background, Jordan heard footsteps leading to the door but no one came in. He assumed that Cara was lingering out of sight so that she could listen in secret. “What’s he got
to protest about?”

“Airport runways, motorways, burning oil and coal...”

Reece butted in, “And animals.”

“Animals?” said Jordan. “What have they done?”

“No,” Brady replied. “Cruelty to animals. You know. Experimenting on them, eating them, and wearing fur. He got done for smashing up the Animal Breeding Station in
Sheerness.”

“And for attacking the oil terminal,” Reece added. “And...”

“But he’s nice,” Brady said. “Not a mad bomber.”

“I think your uncle’s right,” Jordan replied. “Ages ago, I got cautioned at a demo.”

“Why? What for?”

“Damaging a road-building machine. It was going to rip up our playing fields. Just to make a road wider.”

“You should meet Uncle Henry,” said Brady.

Jordan suspected that talking to him would be a waste of time. If Henry Quickfall was Red Devil, he’d lied successfully to the police. If Jordan spoke to him, he’d lie again. Jordan
would prefer to listen in on a conversation between Henry and someone he trusted. Then he would tell the truth.

Jordan remembered from Henry Quickfall’s file that the authorities had tapped his telephone calls. He guessed that Unit Red could do it again. Trying to focus on two things at the same
time, Jordan logged on to Unit Red’s computer and thought a message into the system.
Get ready to record a telephone exchange between Cara and Henry Quickfall.
Then, knowing that Cara
was eavesdropping behind the door, he continued to provide her with a reason to call her brother. “He sounds pretty interesting,” said Jordan.

“For an uncle,” Reece replied, “he’s cool.”

“Has he got his own boat?”

“No. He used ours.”

“Oh dear.”

Reece frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jordan explained, “Using the bomber’s boat puts him in the frame for being the bomber.”

“Sounds like you know about these things,” Brady said.

“My mum’s in the police.” With that, Jordan thought he’d done enough. As long as Cara had overheard, she would surely want to tell Henry. “Hey!” Jordan said,
pointing at the monitor. “You beat me. I wasn’t concentrating.”

Reece laughed. “Lame excuse. It’s just that I’m better.”

Happy to let him win, Jordan put down the controller. “I’ll give you that.”