Soul Protector (29 page)

I shivered and crossed my arms
to hug myself.

“…and she was so forgiving,
Gracie. When I’d apologise, she’d tell me she knew I could change.
She’d take me back in and she’d have this look in her eyes, all
full of hope and optimism for a fresh start. She believed in me,
and she made me believe in myself. But it never lasted. I was way
out of control. I shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near you
lot.”

He stopped for a moment and
forced a wobbly smile. Torment was painted across his features.

“I’ve been living as Terry for
years now, and for the last few years I’ve been completely sober. I
know it’s wrong what I’m doing, but I can’t help myself.”

“But how did you find us?”

“I’d been trying to find your
mum for ages and then I caught a lucky break. I sometimes go to
visit Grandma Nicholls in a nursing home. She’s got dementia now
and I have to pretend I’m an old family friend.”

I winced as I thought of
Grandma Nicholls. She belonged to a closed part of my life and I’d
mentally filed her away years ago.

“I hardly ever go there, it’s
too dangerous for me, you know in case I get spotted by other Soul
Protectors. Anyway, last time I went I bumped into Nancy, do you
remember our old neighbour?”

My eyes opened wider. “Nancy’s
still alive?”

“Yeah, she’s in her nineties
now. She’s got dementia too. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I
managed to get invited to her room for a chat. When she popped into
the bathroom I found her address book, and there was your
address.”

I thought of all the effort
we’d gone to, to keep the move confidential, and yet it had been so
easy for him to find us.

“So I turned up on your
doorstep pretending to be a salesman and when your mum opened the
door, she took my breath away all over again. She’s still as
beautiful now as the day I first met her. And we fell in love all
over again. Well I’d never stopped loving her in the first
place.”

“It’s wrong. You shouldn’t be
anywhere near her.”

“I know. But you have to
believe me, Gracie, all I want to do is make up for the past and do
anything I can to make her happy.”

“But you can’t make her happy.
Can’t you see that? You can’t live a normal life as a CSP. And
anyway, how come your red aura hasn’t been spotted by other Soul
Protectors?”

“Because I hardly ever go out…
Apart from the odd visit to the nursing home I only ever go to your
mum’s house, and we always stay in. I’m safe in the car. No one can
see my aura unless they’re in there with me. The rest of the time
I’m at the squat with Andy, Geoff, and …” his eyes flicked to the
body on the floor, “… Nick.” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep
breath. “That poor guy, he’s had his life stolen for years, and now
I’ve ended it.”

I shuddered as I thought of the
innocent man a couple of feet away.

“Before the other CSPs spotted
me and I went to live with them in the squat, I still didn’t know
what was. I certainly never dreamt I’d passed it on to you. My real
parents never had the chance to tell me about it, and when Grandma
and Granddad Nicholls unofficially adopted me, we moved away
swiftly, severing all ties with the past. I’m so sorry for
everything.”

I didn’t know what to think. I
knew he was desperate for my forgiveness, but I was torn by my
hatred of the man I used to know, and my new understanding of his
pain. I thought of how frustrated I felt when I didn’t know what
was happening to me. And although I was missing Dan like crazy, he
had answered so many questions for me. I was far luckier than Dad
had been. I wasn’t ready to give him what he wanted yet, but I had
to make a gesture to show him I understood.

I slowly reached my hand
towards his, and he grasped it, squeezing it between both palms. We
sat like that for ages, neither of us talking.

I had so many thoughts rushing
around my head. I wanted to tell Mum, but I wasn’t allowed. Even
discussing it with Michelle would help...

I jumped at a noise in the
alley. Dad and I turned our heads at the same time to witness
several men storming into the garden. There was shouting and chaos,
and my first thought was they must be the other CSPs. I was nearly
knocked over when two of them jumped on Dad and pinned him to the
floor.

I held my breath as I watched.
All of them were wearing the same black clothes and body armour.
Monitors.
I scanned their faces and spotted Tom pinning
Dad’s legs to the floor. I wasn’t switched so it was impossible for
me to tell if he was.

A monitor I didn’t recognise
was holding down Dad’s head. Another one had bent Dad’s arm behind
his back while another patted him down and found the knife he’d
shoved in his pocket earlier.

In my peripheral vision I saw
someone kneeling over the CSP Terry had stabbed. He stayed there
for a while, checking the body, before walking towards me and
crouching down. “Gracie, are you hurt?”

I looked up to see the face
that had been haunting me.

“No, I’m not, Dan. Or is it
Tom?”

“Dan,” he said gently. He
looked over at Tom who was still pinning Dad down. “We reached our
time limit so we had to switch back.”

“How did you know I was
here?”

“You rang me,” Tom piped up.
“You didn’t speak, but we managed to track the phone signal to
here.”

I thought back to when I’d
retrieved his number outside Mum’s house. When I chucked the phone
on the passenger seat, it must have triggered a call.

I looked across to Dad and
squirmed at how rough they were being with him. His face was pushed
into the dirt and one of the monitors was holding his wrist right
up near his shoulder blades.

“Dan, please tell them not to
hurt him, he just saved my life. He’s harmless”

Dan shook his head. “They’re
not hurting him. They’re just keeping him restrained. And he’s not
harmless, Gracie. This is Brian Hinton, one of the guys we’ve been
after for months.”

“Brian Hinton? His name’s not
Hinton
, it’s Nicholls,” I spat.

“It used to be Hinton,” came
Dad’s muffled reply.

The monitors eased off to let
him speak properly. “Before I was adopted, my name was Hinton.”

Dan interrupted. “Gracie, did
you say
Nicholls
? That was your old surname wasn’t it?

“Yes.”

His expression changed as the
realisation hit him. “Brian’s your
Dad
?”

I nodded.

He leaned forward, put his hand
on my shoulder and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, Gracie. I wish there
was another way…”

“To do what?”

He took a deep breath, “Brian
has been switched into Terry’s body for years.”

“And I have to give it back,”
Dad said sadly.

A vision of the Switch
Enforcement Chamber flashed into my mind.

“Oh no… No way. You can’t.”

“He has to,” Dan said
gently.

Tom and the other monitors
pulled Dad up off the floor. He was handcuffed to one of them and
his movements were restricted by leg restraints. They began to walk
towards the archway and he shuffled as fast as he could to keep
pace. The whole time he looked at me sadly, an apologetic look on
his face.

I watched in a trance.
Any
minute now I’m going to wake up and the nightmare will be
over.

I came to my senses and raced
ahead of them, standing in front of the archway to block their
exit. “Don’t do this. Please, don’t take my dad away.”

The monitors ignored me,
brushing me out of their way like a minor inconvenience.

Dan came to stand by my
side.

I grabbed his arm. “Dan, you’ve
got to make them stop.”

He had a look of pity in his
eyes. “I know it’s hard, Gracie, but they don’t have any choice.
They have to do this.”

He shook his head, “I can’t.
I’m sorry.”

“Please, Dan. I’m begging you,”
I said, my voice hoarse.

He locked eyes with me and I
could see his resolve cracking. He took a deep breath. “Wait,” he
shouted, catching the attention of the other monitors. “I know it’s
against orders, but just give her five minutes with him.”

“Alone?” I asked, pushing my
luck.

Dan shook his head. “I’ll stay
with you.”

He looked towards the monitors.
“Just hang around the other side of the alley. I’ll shout if I need
you.”

Tom and the others didn’t look
happy with the request, but they did what he said and made their
way out of the garden.

My mind scrabbled for a
solution.

“Dan, we have to get Dad out of
here fast. We can take him over the back wall, somewhere they won’t
find him.”

He looked at me in disbelief.
“Gracie, we can’t do that.” He flicked his eyes in Dad’s direction.
“What about the real Terry? He was your dad’s doctor. He didn’t do
anything wrong. We have to give him his body back.”

I took a deep breath and looked
at Dad in Terry’s body. I’d conveniently managed to push the poor
victim out of my thoughts. I knew Dan was right, but I couldn’t
bear the thought of losing Dad now I had a new understanding of
him.

Dad reached his cuffed hands
over to me and took my hand between his. I noticed the movement put
Dan on edge and he hovered by my side.

“He’s right, Gracie,” Dad said,
letting out a sigh. “You remember I got knocked down when I was
drunk years ago? I was in a bad way and Terry was the doctor who
treated me in A&E. I used every last scrap of strength I had to
make the switch with him before my primary body passed away. I
shouldn’t have done it.”

I bowed my head. I had to get
this in perspective.

“My punishment has been his
voice in my head all these years, like a tortured soul. To cope
with it, I drank even more and then with access to drugs in
hospital, well, I just developed a new habit. I stopped working and
spent all my time getting high. But when I got busted and sent to
prison, I had no choice but to get sober.”

“That’s why we couldn’t touch
him for years,” Dan interrupted. “We got informed a CSP was inside,
but we couldn’t get to him. He got released earlier than our
insider told us, and we lost him.”

“When I came out, I had to
escape Terry’s family,” Dad filled in. “So I went on the run.”

I felt sad as I thought of the
real Terry. He had family and obviously used to have a good career.
Dad had taken all that away from him.

Dan squeezed my arm again.
“We’ve got to go, Gracie, the guys outside will be getting
impatient.”

I nodded, trying to swallow
down the lump in my throat. “Just give me a minute.” I took a step
towards Dad.

“I am so sorry for everything
that happened to you.” I said leaning towards him, unable to hug
him properly because of the restraints.

“Gracie, I’m the one who’s
sorry. This is all such a mess. I’m just glad I can do the right
thing now.”

I leant up and planted a kiss
on the salty tracks of his tears.

He squeezed his lips into a
smile, and when he spoke his voice was choked with emotion. “Bye,
Gracie. Be brave.”

He gave Dan a serious look.
“You take care of her, she’s a good’un.”

“I’ll make sure she’s alright,”
Dan said. I wondered if he meant it.

Dan told me to wait where I
was, while he led Dad out through the alley. I didn’t want to watch
Dad being taken away, but not watching was even worse. I inched my
way out after them and leant against the brick archway.

The other monitors had
surrounded Dad and were manoeuvring him into a black van parked on
the roadside. A couple of monitors jumped in the back with him and
slammed the doors shut.

My vision was starting to swim,
but I saw Dan walk over to Tom and say something in his ear. They
both flicked a glance in my direction, and then Dan climbed into
the passenger seat, while Tom walked over to stand by my side.

As the van drove off, I was
unable to hold it together. Sobs wracked my body, and after an
initial hesitation, I felt Tom wrap me in his arms and hold me
tight. To his credit, he didn’t try to tell me everything was going
to be okay. He just stood silent, holding me and letting me cry
until I ran out of tears.

When my sobs reduced to mere
sniffing, he cleared his throat and held up some keys. “Where do
you want me to take you?”

“
Are those my car keys?”
I asked, reaching into my pocket for a tissue.

“Yeah, we found them on the
road outside.”

My head was thumping, and I
felt drained. My mind kept taking me to the Switch Enforcement
Chamber and I had to work hard to push the image away.

“It’s okay, Tom. I’ll drop you
off and then drive myself home,” I ran my fingertips under my
eyelashes to remove the last traces of tears.

“I really don’t think you
should be on your own right now,” he said, giving me a crooked
smile.

“So who can I be with? I
haven’t got any SP friends, I can’t tell any of my own friends what
just happened. I really want to see Mum, but…” My jaw dropped as I
thought about Mum waiting for Terry. “Oh no, Tom, what am I going
to tell her?”

He put his hand on my shoulder.
“You shouldn’t tell her anything for now. Don’t worry. Dan will
come up with something.”

Don’t worry?
She was
going to be heartbroken. I’d just lost my Dad, and this time it
really hurt, and now Mum was about to lose her happiness too.

I looked up at Tom.

“Terry will still exist though
won’t he? I mean, as
him
. Surely he’ll have memories of Mum
and being in love with her?”

Tom was shaking his head.
“They’ll erase all recent memory at the Office. Their objective
will be to get him back to his old life, before the switch.

I nodded and squeezed my lips
together. Terry’s family deserved him back.

“Come on, Gracie, let me take
you home. I’ll drive your car and get someone to pick me up
later.”