Boy X (5 page)

‘What if he's there?' Isabel asked. ‘That man.'

‘He can't see in the dark.'

But that voice floated down from the tower in Ash's head, saying,
Maybe Thorn can see in the dark just fine.
Maybe he's watching you right now.

Isabel stepped up beside him and took his hand. Her skin was warm, her palm sweaty. She squeezed Ash's fingers and Ash squeezed back.

‘My name's Ash,' he said.

‘OK, Ash,' she replied. ‘Let's go.'

There were no sounds other than their own shuffling footsteps and heavy breathing. No feeling for Ash but the constant fear that he would step on something in his bare feet or walk into something left in the corridor.

They moved slowly and Ash put his right hand out in front of him, waving it up and down in an arc, like the fire safety guy had shown them at school. Isabel's fingers rasped along the wall to the left, sounding like something shuffling beside them – something maybe grinning with a mouth full of needle-like teeth as it waited for just the right moment to get them.

‘You live here?' Ash tried to think about something else. ‘And it's an island?'

‘Yes.'

‘Big or small?'

‘I guess . . . small. But it takes two days to get from one end to the other. There are no roads.'

Ash imagined it as a green island in the middle of a crystal-blue sea, covered in thick jungle, with this building smack in the centre. ‘And what's this place?'

‘The BioSphere. It's for special research. Papa is a scientist.'

‘Doing what? Did he ever mention something called “
Kronos
”?'

‘Papa never tells me what work he is doing. It's . . .
secreto.
'

‘Secret? You mean this place is some kind of secret research— Shh!' Ash stopped moving and his grip tightened.

‘You hear something?' Isabel whispered.

‘I thought . . .' Ash listened again, turning his head and breathing deeply. In that moment, he felt absurd; like an animal sniffing the air and listening for danger. ‘No. Come on.'

‘We came here six months ago,' Isabel told him. ‘From San Jose. It was a good job for Papa. Good pay.'

‘What about your mum?' Ash couldn't understand why he hadn't thought of it before. ‘You said you have a house. Isn't your Mum there? She'll have heard the helicopter, and—'

A gentle click came from somewhere ahead.

Terror washed over Ash like an icy breeze. He pressed tight against the wall, pulling Isabel back so she was right beside him. ‘Quiet.'

Another click was followed by the sound of soft footsteps. A tingling flooded through Ash's body, heightening his senses even further, making everything numb and alive all at once. Lights sparkled and danced in front of him as if tiny fireworks were flashing in his eyes. The smell of peppermint and new leather flooded his nostrils.

Thorn.

Ash held his breath as the slightest breeze wafted against his face; something was just centimetres away from them on the other side of the corridor. It couldn't see them, but perhaps it knew they were there, and all it had to do was reach out and it would have them. It would drag them away and do unspeakable things . . .

But then it moved. A creak of shoe leather, a waft of air, another gentle footstep followed by another until it receded into the darkness the way it had come.

Ash and Isabel waited in silence, neither of them daring to move until Ash leant over and made himself speak. ‘We need to get moving.'

‘Is he gone?'

‘For now.'

They had no choice other than to keep going, so they set off again, skin prickling in anticipation of what might be creeping up behind them. Ash could hear his blood in his ears as if the world couldn't be completely silent in the way it could be completely dark. There was the gentle
pad-shtick
of his bare feet, and the
tap-tap
of Isabel's boots. The
swish
of cotton pyjamas as Ash waved his hand in front of him, up and down up and down. And there was the
shhhhh
of Isabel's fingers on the wall. Those noises filled his head like they were trying to drive him mad, and he reached up to touch the tag round his neck, to find the strength to bring everything under control.

‘We are close now.' Isabel led Ash round the corner into a part of the building he had never seen.

They crept to the end of the corridor and eased the door
open on silent hinges. A powerful smell hit Ash like a blunt instrument, making him reel back and pull against Isabel.

‘What is it?' she said. ‘What's wrong?'

‘Something . . .' he panted, trying to rid himself of that terrible smell. ‘Something bad.'

‘What?' Her voice was tight and high-pitched. ‘What is it?'

It's death. It's DEATH!

‘I don't know.' His chest hitched and everything felt constricted, as if he were underwater.

‘Is it him?' Isabel's fingers squeezed in Ash's grip. ‘Is it Thorn?'

‘No . . .' Ash was beginning to lose control and had to stop himself. He couldn't afford to panic. They were alone and had to cope.

‘What, then? What is it?'

‘I don't know. Some kind of smell. It's like . . .'

(
Like the smell of a butcher's shop.
)

Ash put out his foot, stretching into the darkness until his toe came into contact with something blocking the corridor. Realizing straight away what it was, he lurched in horror, slipping on a warm and wet liquid. He fell flat on his backside, his hand ripping away from Isabel's, and panic threatened to crush the air out of him.

Isabel reached out, feeling across his chest with trembling fingers. She found his arm and followed it down to take his hand. ‘What is it?' Her whisper was desperate and breathless. ‘
What's there?
'

Ash opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
His lungs were tight, his throat narrow.

‘Breathe,' she said. ‘Breathe. It's OK. We are together, remember?'

Ash nodded and felt his breath return. ‘A body,' he managed. ‘I think it's a body.'

It's your mum
, said the voice.

‘
I
s it Papa?' Isabel asked.

‘I don't know.' Ash was afraid and repulsed all at once. His first thought was to get away, but he stopped and tried to be calm. They had to know who it was.

He considered all the strange things that were happening to him, wondering if he could use it to his advantage. All those different smells, heightened and overwhelming . . . Maybe he could use that.

He took a shallow breath, focusing not on the blood but on the other things that mixed with it. Isabel's coconut, the faint remnant of peppermint, cleaning fluid, the hint of gun smoke. Perhaps he would be able to pick out something that would tell him if this was Mum.

Aftershave.

‘I think it's a man,' he said before he could stop himself.

‘Papa?' Isabel whispered.

Fighting his revulsion, Ash reached out to touch the body. He felt round the shoulder, then the neck, until he touched the face.

‘Does your papa wear glasses?' he asked.

‘No.'

Ash snatched his hand away and sat back. ‘It's not him.'

‘You're sure?'

‘This man wears glasses.' He paused. ‘Wore glasses.'

‘
Gracias a Dios.
' Isabel grasped her new friend's arm. ‘Thank you. Thank you for—' She stopped as if some great realization had just dawned on her. ‘It must be Paco.'

‘You know him?'

‘Yes. He worked with Papa.'

‘I . . .' Ash didn't know what to say.

Isabel cleared her throat and her words wavered when she spoke. ‘The scientists, they have a card. A key to open the door into the lab.'

‘A keycard? Why didn't you tell me before?'

‘There's nowhere else to go. I thought maybe—'

‘Doesn't matter.' Ash stopped her. ‘I'll check.' He couldn't quite believe that he'd said it or that he was actually going to do it, but he reached out again until his fingers came into contact with the dead body. ‘Where will the keycard be?' He kept his voice down, terrified of attracting the attention of whoever or whatever had passed them in the corridor not long ago.

‘On the . . . how you say?
Cinturón.
On the trousers there is a thing for holding them up.'

‘On the belt?'

‘Yes. Belt.'

‘OK.' Ash shuffled closer, feeling something wet soaking through the knee of his pyjamas.

IT'SBLOODIT'SBLOODIT'SBLOOD!
the voice screamed in his head, and the smell of blood threatened to wash over him once more. He remembered Pierce's words and knew that this was what he had meant. Thorn had killed this man.

Thorn almost split him in half.

Fighting back the gagging in his throat, Ash slipped his hand along what he thought was the leg until he came to the thigh, then he moved his hand across the waist until he found the plastic holder clipped to the belt. He whipped it off, holding it tight in his fist.

‘Right, let's get out of here.'

They joined hands once more and left the body behind them. They shuffled further into the abyss, deeper and deeper, until they came to the stairs, then they crept down several flights until, somewhere below, Ash saw a single red eye.

‘What is that?' He tried not to imagine what kind of horrifying monster might be waiting for them in the darkness.

‘There's still power to the locks,' Isabel said.

It took only a moment for Ash to realize what she meant – that the red light was not an eye, but the light on some kind of security lock. The card he had taken from the body would open it. He hoped.

‘Papa said it's almost impossible to turn it off. For emergencies. It has its own battery.'

Gripping each other's hand, Ash and Isabel continued along the corridor, the red eye coming closer and closer, until they arrived at a dead end.

The double doors spanned the width of the corridor, but had no glass section like the others, so there was no way of looking through to see what was on the other side. ‘Try the card,' Isabel said, and Ash took it from the plastic holder.

The red light on the lock glowed brighter when he looked down to find the slot, and he had no trouble inserting the card.

Beep!

The light flicked green and the lock clunked somewhere behind the door.

‘That's it!' Isabel pushed forward and the door swung open, letting out a dull, blue glow.

Ash had never been so pleased to see even the smallest amount of light, but as they stepped into the lab, it dawned on him that they had heard a
lot
of shooting. Much more than was needed to kill the one man now lying in the corridor.

An awful feeling came over him.

Maybe everyone in the lab was dead; perhaps, other than Thorn, he and Isabel were the only ones left alive.

T
he lab was a billion miles away from the kind of thing they had at school. A clinical, icy-blue glow made everything feel hostile and alien, and the air smelt of polished metal and chemicals. Underneath that was the faint hint of another smell; like unburnt gas from a cooker.

As they ventured further into the lab, Ash saw a huge, circular corridor that made him think he was inside a giant stainless-steel doughnut, with the centre section divided into four wedge-shaped glass labs. Each lab was at least the size of a school hall, and was filled with equipment that wouldn't have looked out of place in a science fiction film. There were computers with dimly glowing keyboards, glass chambers with pipes connected to the metal ceilings, and
row upon row of shiny containers that looked like largecalibre ammunition shells.

The nearest lab had robotic arms sprouting from the floor, pincers hanging over a dental chair that was surrounded by even more medical apparatus. Along one wall was a row of twelve metal-framed, glass-fronted cubicles, each one with a digital screen.