The Twisted Future (Teen Superheroes Book 4) (15 page)

Chapter Thirty-Six

The elevator slowed to a halt, opening onto a fifty
-foot-high concrete hallway. Florescent lighting lined the ceiling, but most of the tubes were dead, leaving an odd checkerboard of light and shadow to illuminate our way.

‘What is this place?’ Ebony asked.

‘I think this whole compound is an old Agency stronghold,’ Brodie replied. ‘This area must have been abandoned.’

‘It doesn’t look like it’s been used in years,’ Chad agreed.

The corridor seemed endless, but we finally reached a door at the end that opened onto a chamber with huge computers on each side. They were ancient; the type that still operated on magnetic reels of tape, like they used last century. Incredibly, they were still operational, doing...
something
.

‘This is bizarre,’ Ebony said.

She said it. Benches were everywhere, dust covering the surfaces. A coffee cup even sat on one, the liquid inside long since evaporated. The controls on the benches were ancient. Buttons and levers. Like us, they were something from another time.

‘What are we doing here?’ I asked. ‘And who sent us that code?’

‘Over there,’ Brodie said, pointing to a light flashing over a door. ‘That wasn’t on before.’

The door gave a huge squeak as I pulled it open. Beyond was another chamber, even older and bigger than the last. A row of light bulbs were set into the ceiling; most had blown over the years, but a few yellowing globes still provided a faint illumination. No-one had been here
in decades.

A massive computer several hundred feet in length dominated one side. Colored lights flashed. Hundreds of reels whirred and clicked. The machine appeared so old it looked like it had been built as part of the building. I had seen a photo of a similar device in an book; some of the early computers had taken up entire floors because of their size. This one was larger. Maybe it was the largest in its day.

A faint monitor glowed in the dark. We studied the screen. A green cursor blinked. It could have been doing that for ages. Maybe years.

‘This is a dead end,’ Chad said. ‘We have to get out of here.’

‘I agree,’ Ebony said, peering about the darkened recesses. ‘I appreciate that someone released us, but now we’ve got to escape while the going’s good.’

We started combing the room for an exit, but came up empty handed. There wasn’t even an air vent in the chamber. We were at the lowest level of a bunker set deep into the earth.

So why had someone brought us here? My eyes returned to the monitor.

‘Hang on,’ I said, staring at the screen. ‘This has changed.’

The others came over and peered over my shoulder.

The letter
W
had appeared.

A distant rumble came from far away. Chad ran from the room, returning a minute later.  ‘A bunch of Agency guards just came pouring out of the elevator,’ he said. ‘They don’t look happy.’

I turned back to the screen.

A
 

‘You’ve got to stop them,’ I told Chad. ‘Or at least slow them down.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Someone brought us here for a reason. We’ve got to find out why.’

Ebony grabbed Chad’s arm. ‘I’ll come with you.’

More letters appeared.

I

T

‘WAIT,’ Brodie read the word. ‘Wait for what?’

A massive fight erupted in the hallway leading to the chamber.

The word started flashing.

Wait. Wait. Wait.

A breeze pulled at my hair. I looked about in surprise. This room had no windows so there could be no wind. Then the current grew stronger as a tiny black line appeared in the middle of the room, growing larger as a strange hum filled the air.

‘What the hell..?’ Brodie’s mouth fell open in amazement. ‘How—’

I didn’t know how. It made no sense at all, but now the line had expanded into a circle and we could see a small silver vessel inside. Within seconds it had eased itself free from the portal in time and space.

‘It’s a time machine,’ I said.

The vessel shuddered slightly, dropping to the floor. Pieces of ice fell off and smashed. I raced over and jerked the door open. Empty. No-one was flying it. Stepping back from the craft, I saw it was smaller than the one in which we had traveled to the future. Possibly it was an earlier model.

An earlier model.

It all clicked into place.

I raced to the console. The word on the screen had disappeared and another had appeared while we examined the time machine. I barked out a laugh of disbelief.

It wasn’t possible and yet somehow it all made sense.

Ferdy. Ferdy. Ferdy.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

‘Dan?’ the voice came from a million miles away. ‘Dan?’

Dan awoke slowly, opened his eyes and saw Henry standing over him.

‘Henry?’

‘Are you all right?’ Henry asked. ‘Did the monster hurt you?’

Holding onto Henry for support, Dan pulled himself upright and peered around.
Liber8tor
lay at a crazy angle. Miraculously, a few consoles were back online, as was the emergency lighting.

‘The monster didn’t hurt me,’ Dan said. ‘But it hurt our ship.’

And I helped it
, he thought.
Because I was hopeless.

‘The monster’s bad,’ Henry said, his face crumpling into tears. ‘
He’s bad and Henry just wants to be good.’

‘I’m sure you do.’ Dan
gripped the boy’s shoulder. He had wrecked the ship, but now he had to move forward. That’s what the others would do. They would take stock and find a way to make things better. ‘We’re going to beat it,’ he promised, ‘but first I’ve got to fix our ship.’

He crossed to the navigation console. ‘Ferdy? Can you hear me?’

Silence.

Great
, Dan thought.
Ferdy’s still offline. Or broken. Or dead.

No, he couldn’t think that way.
Liber8tor
was tough and Ferdy was too. Ferdy was probably fine, but unable to communicate because of the damage. Dan manually brought up a status report of the systems, thankful for the time he had put in learning the Tagaar language. The words he couldn’t read, he was able to guess. The system seemed to be rebooting itself.

‘How did you get in?’ he asked Henry.

‘The hatch downstairs is broken.’

Hell
, Dan thought.
I’d better check the outer hull.

He retrieved a weapon from the Tagaar armory. They had not used these since they had taken over the ship; having superpowers made them superfluous. However, Dan’s last encounter with the monster had shaken his confidence. He wasn’t going outside without firepower.

Henry trailed him as Dan carefully surveyed the damage. The port side had taken quite a bang. Much of the housing was damaged, but his ability to manipulate metal would easily fix it.

The most difficult task would be to repair the engines. One of the firing thrusters was completely smashed. An oily black liquid leaked from a cracked pipe. Something Dan couldn’t even identify was completely crushed. Peering into the mess, he understood how little he actually knew about the ship. For that matter, none of them knew anything much about it. They relied upon Ferdy to keep the ship’s systems operational.

Dan promised himself he would change that. He would become an expert in every square inch of this ship, as long as he was given the chance. Although considering what he had done to
Liber8tor
during their absence, the others might permanently confine him to quarters.

Dan frowned. He was getting ahead of himself. One thing at a time.

‘This looks bad,’ he said to Henry, ‘but I think it’s fixable.’

‘So your ship will fly again?’

‘Yes, but I’ve got to get Ferdy up and running.’ He glanced down and noticed Henry still had his book tightly clenched in his hand. ‘You’re still reading your book?’

‘I read it all the time.’

‘Do you remember anything more about how you came to the island? The ship you were on? Your parents?’

‘No.’

‘What’s the first thing you remember?’

Henry creased his brow in concentration. ‘I just remember waking up on the island,’ he said. ‘I looked down and saw I was holding my book.’

That wasn’t very helpful, so Dan gripped his shoulder. ‘Everything will be all right,’ he said. ‘My friends will be back soon and we’ll get you back to civilization.’

A distant roar came from the jungle. Henry grabbed Dan’s arm in panic, his eyes filling with tears. ‘It’s the monster,’ he said. ‘We should run away.’

‘We’ll be okay aboard
Liter8tor
.’

Henry gazed dubiously at the wrecked ship.

‘I know that’s hard to believe,’ Dan said. ‘Just let me take a look at this damaged pipe and we’ll go inside.’

He examined the broken pipe more closely. It was a hydraulic system. Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he wrapped it around the break. It didn’t stop the leak, but it slowed.

‘That’s better already,’ he said. ‘Henry?’

The boy was gone.

Dan moaned in frustration, but he could understand Henry’s fear.
Liber8tor
hardly looked like a safe refuge. He did a check inside the ship anyway, but Henry was definitely gone. Returning to the bridge, Dan called out Ferdy’s name.

He was greeted by silence. Then—

‘Ferdy can hear you!’

Yes!

‘Ferdy!’ Dan cried. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Ferdy is feeling fine, but a number of the
Liber8tor
systems were damaged in the crash.’

‘Uh, yeah. Sorry about that.’

‘Dan should not blame himself. Whatever was stopping
Liber8tor
from leaving the island was a powerful force. Dan did well to stop the ship from being destroyed.’

‘Thanks,’ Dan said, embarrassed at the praise. ‘Hey, I saw Henry again.’

‘That is good.’

‘But now he’s missing again. I think he was scared about the monster returning to the ship.’

‘That is understandable,’ Ferdy agreed. ‘Also, Charles Chaplin Senior was also a famous performer long before his son—’

It sounded like Ferdy was returning to normal. ‘Henry and I shouldn’t have left
Liber8tor
,’ Dan said, thoughtfully. ‘Then he wouldn’t have heard the monster in the jungle.’

Ferdy didn’t reply.

‘Ferdy,’ Dan said. ‘Are you still there?’

‘Ferdy is still here. Is Dan saying Henry was onboard
Liber8tor
?’

‘He was on the ship when I woke up after the crash.’

‘That is not possible.’

Dan frowned. ‘Huh?’

‘
Liber8tor
tracks heat signatures of life forms aboard the ship. No new entries have been added to the log.’

‘The system must have been broken,’ Dan said.

‘That particular system has been fully operational the whole time. The only person who has been on board
Liber8tor
is Dan.’

‘That’s crazy,’ Dan said. ‘You’re telling me Henry is some kind of—’

He didn’t dare say the word.

Ghost.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

‘There must be something wrong with the system,’ Dan insisted.

‘Many of
Liber8tor
’s systems were offline, but that particular component is part of life support. It was working normally.’ Ferdy paused. ‘Is Dan sure that he didn’t imagine the experience?’

Dan felt his stomach churning. He
had
been rattled after the crash, but he was awake. He was sure of it. ‘I need to find Henry,’ he said. ‘I’m going out looking for him.’

‘Ferdy does not think that is a good idea. The entity that attacked
Liber8tor
was extremely dangerous.’

But Dan wouldn’t listen. His gut was churning. He was the only person who had actually seen Henry.
Could the boy have been a figment of his imagination
the whole time
?

Pocketing the
Tagaar blaster, he filled his backpack with metal pipes and checked his communicator was still working as he headed to the exit. ‘Can you keep repairing the
Liber8tor
systems?’ he asked Ferdy. ‘And try to find out what this island was used for during the war.’

‘Ferdy will do what he can. And one more thing, friend Dan.’

‘Yes,’ Dan said, ready for Ferdy to pass on some useless information about the life cycle of bees, or the size of the planet Jupiter. ‘What is it?’

‘Be careful.’

‘Oh. Thank you. Yes, I will.’

Dan headed in the direction of the buildings. He was afraid of the monster that lived on this island, but he was even more afraid for his own sanity. Could he have imagined Henry? No. Was Henry a ghost? Dan wasn’t sure he believed in ghosts. The sensors on board
Liber8tor
had
to be faulty. He had touched Henry. Felt him. He was real.

He remembered the wrecked ship on the beach and changed direction. Minutes later he was climbing aboard the
Morning Star
, calling out Henry’s name. No greeting came back, but he hadn’t expected the boy to be here anyway. Dan returned to the room where he had found the skeletal remains, grimacing as he examined the bones more closely. There was no doubt about it. They were the bodies of two adults. Dan continued to the next cabin. He had not come this far last time. The wild pig had scared him off. Now he pushed open a door and peered into a darkened cabin.

This was another bunk room containing four beds. Two on each side. The bedding had long since deteriorated to muck. Some of it on one bed looked like it had been eaten, probably by the pig. A white shape poked out from under a bed.

He cautiously peered under it—and grimaced. Another skeleton. A skull was mixed in with a tangle of bones and clothing. The remains were that of a small child. Presumably Henry’s brother, Charles. Dan started to rise from the floor, but then he saw something that stopped him.

‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not possible.’

Under the opposite bunk were more bones. A second child.

‘How is that possible?’ Dan asked aloud. He snapped on his communicator. ‘Ferdy, do you read me?’

‘Loud and clear, friend Dan.’

‘How many people were on the
Morning Star
when it went missing?’

‘Four.’

‘Have you found out anything more about the Japanese on this island?’

‘Ferdy is still gathering information.’ He went on to say that seventy percent of the ship’s systems were back online. The engine still needed repairs, but he had formulated a plan to make the ship fully operational again. ‘
Liber8tor
will be ready for travel within twenty-four hours.’

Stomping back into the jungle, Dan made his way to the settlement, returning to the long corridor of cells.

‘Henry?’

The small boy was back in the last cell. He raised his head over the rubble. ‘Dan?’ he said, tears in his eyes. ‘I was scared.’

‘Everything’s okay,’ Dan said, holding him tightly. Henry was as warm blooded as himself. ‘We’ll be away from here before you know it.’ His communicator crackled to life. ‘Ferdy?’

‘Hello Dan. Ferdy has discovered some more information regarding Doctor Hiroto Satou and his research.’

‘What is it?’

‘It seems his later research involved fungi.’

‘Fungi?’

‘Molds, mildew, mushrooms—’

‘Anything else?’

‘Not yet, Dan. The
Liber8tor
computer system is now fully repaired.’

Good old Ferdy
, Dan thought.
Where would we be without him?

He thanked him and signed off. Looking down at Henry, he saw the boy was still holding his book. ‘Do you mind if I see that?’

Henry handed the book to him. Dan leafed through it. The novel was a worn out volume, and quite old, dating to the middle of last century. The lines were quite close together, a strange book for a small boy to be reading. Dan supposed it was the only—

His eyes froze on a page. 

‘Henry,’ Dan said. ‘What’s your last name?’

‘Jekyll,’ Henry said, looking at him with innocent round eyes. ‘My name is Henry Jekyll.’

Henry Jekyll was the name of the protagonist in Henry’s book.

Dr Jekyll and
Mr Hyde.