The Boundless Sublime (41 page)

‘It’s true,’ I said. ‘I’ve seen that water, and those bathing boxes. Beyond that one there’s a jetty that sticks out into the water, and a van that sells ice-cream. Do you remember those?’

The girl’s pencil fell from her grasp, and she started to look distressed.

‘When I went there, there were lots of people,’ I said. ‘Some of them were swimming, and some of them were playing with a ball on the sand. There were kids and dogs and grown-ups.’ I looked down at her drawing. There were no people anywhere. Not so much as a seagull. ‘I think you should draw yourself on the beach.’

The girl’s brow creased in a frown, and she stared at me, baffled.

‘Go on,’ I said. ‘You could be eating an ice-cream. Or building a sandcastle. Or collecting some beautiful shells. Draw yourself.’

‘I— I can’t,’ she said, as if I had asked her to walk on the ceiling.

‘Of course you can,’ I said. ‘You’re a good drawer.’

‘I’m a Monkey. I can’t be there. I can’t draw … me. I don’t exist.’

I remembered seeing her crouching in the shadow of the warehouse, munching on snow peas.

‘You do exist,’ I said. ‘You exist because you want things. You want snow peas. You want to visit the beach. You want to escape from here.’

The girl looked back down at her drawing. ‘I can’t exist,’ she whispered. ‘Daddy will be angry if I do.’

‘Don’t worry about him,’ I said. ‘I’m going to take you to a place where he can’t hurt you.’

The Monkey hesitated, then looked up at me, her eyes wide. ‘Will Val be there?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Maybe. Do you want him to be there?’

‘Yes. I like Val. He gives me snow peas.’

‘Did you know him, before you came here?’

The Monkey shook her head. ‘When I first became a Monkey, I was very frightened. I didn’t understand, about Daddy and how he’d saved us from darkness. I tried to run away. Val found me. He was kind and he told me a story about an ogre who made friends with a princess. He didn’t tell Daddy that I’d been bad.’

I wondered how the Monkey had come to the Institute. Was her mother or father here too? Or had she been stolen from somewhere?

‘Sometimes I draw Val a picture and sneak it to him,’ said the Monkey. ‘But he has to hide them, because Daddy
doesn’t like it when we draw pictures for anyone other than him.’

‘If you leave here, you can draw pictures for whoever you like. You can draw pictures just for
you
, if you want.’

The Monkey bit her lip. ‘And you won’t boil my bones?’

‘I won’t boil your bones.’

‘Do you promise?’

‘Cross my heart.’

The Monkey nodded, as if this were enough. ‘Okay,’ she said, squaring her little shoulders. ‘What do we do?’

‘First, I have to help someone,’ I said. ‘Do you know where Fox is?’

‘Yes.’

A surge of energy coursed through me. ‘Can you take me to him?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.

The Monkey pushed back her chair and stood up. She walked over to the cupboard, dragging her chair behind her. I followed. The other Monkeys remained crouched under the table, still and silent as porcelain. The Monkey climbed onto her chair, and reached for a small metal tin on a high shelf. The tin contained a keyring with two keys. She jumped down from the chair and handed me the keys, pointing to the door at the back of the room.

‘Thank you,’ I said.

‘Promise you’ll come back,’ said the Monkey.

‘I promise,’ I said, and this time I really meant it.

The door opened out into the large storage space where I had labelled water bottles with Lib. The room was empty now, every last box cleared out.

People get thirsty
.

I crossed the room to the door that I knew led to Daddy’s laboratory, and unlocked it with the second key.

It wasn’t the gleaming, spartan facility I was expecting. I’d imagined stainless steel and glass. Glowing refrigeration units and twisting beakers and tubes.

Instead it looked like the kitchen in A Block. A tiny office kitchenette with a sink, an old fridge, some cupboards. The only evidence that it was a scientific laboratory was a small rack of test tubes and a lone bunsen burner on the bench. I opened the fridge and saw jam jars labelled with white stickers and messy biro.

What was Daddy planning? Why the water bottles? Why election day? What was the Boundless Family?

People get thirsty.

I remembered the news article about Glen Ardeer, his controversial research into sterilisation. His trial.

And I heard Daddy’s voice, as clear as if he were in the room with me.

The Scintilla will come and light the way for us. The Institute of the Boundless Sublime will rise above all. The Quintus Septum will be vanquished, along with all their pathetic meat-followers. We shall rule the planet, gods of light and science. You, my children, will receive riches and power beyond your wildest imaginings.

And I will be everyone’s Daddy.

And suddenly I knew what he was going to do.

I had to get to a phone. Why hadn’t I talked to the police earlier? Why had I let Mum fob them off with lies about healing and
not being ready to talk
?

I saw something move beside the fridge, and took a step forward, my breath catching in my throat.

23

Fox was tucked in beside the fridge, crouched over a pile of paper. He was wearing one of the white Monkey shifts, and someone had shaved his head.

‘Fox,’ I said, softly, as I approached. I noticed that he was tethered to an old pipe that ran along the wall, cable ties digging into the swollen skin of his bare ankle.

He was so thin, skin stretched so tight across his bones. His face was bruised and there was a long slash across his brow, blood clumping in his hair and angry pus weeping into his eye.

He’d been here all along. While I’d been playing blackjack and eating pillow mints. While I’d been plotting my escape. While I’d been at home, standing in the shower watching my hair swirl down the drain.

All along, Fox had been here. Suffering. Slowly slipping away into nothingness. I looked down at the paper. He was drawing Daddy, like the other Monkeys had been. Scattered around him were hundreds of pictures. All the same. All Daddy.

I hoped I wasn’t too late.

He looked up at me, his face blank. ‘Are you here to boil my bones?’

‘Fox,’ I said. ‘It’s me. It’s Ruby.’

Fox looked around. ‘Who are you talking to?’ he asked. ‘A fox? I haven’t seen a fox.’

‘I’m talking to you. Your name is Fox.’

Fox shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not a fox. I’m a monkey.’

What had Daddy done to him?

‘Don’t you remember me?’

Fox’s mouth curved in a faint smile. ‘I had a dream about you. I have lots of dreams.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘No, it wasn’t a dream. It was real. I’m real.’

‘Daddy says that good dreams are never real. Only bad ones. Are you a bad dream?’

I had to free him. I had to get him out of here.

I opened drawers and cupboards until I found the pair of boltcutters I’d used to cut off Pippa’s finger. They were still crusted with dark stains. I shuddered, but grabbed them and carefully levered the blade under the cable ties around his ankle.

‘Come on,’ I said. ‘It’s time to go.’

Fox looked down at his ankle, swollen and bruised where the cable ties had been. ‘Go? Where are we going?’

I remembered our long talks. Lying on our backs in the park. Holding hands under the table at the Red House. Our secret meetings after Family Time. I thought about the one rebel Monkey, drawing blue waves and yellow sand.

‘The ocean,’ I said. ‘We’re going to the ocean.’

A smile spread across Fox’s broken face, and it was all I could do to keep from bursting into tears.

‘I’ve always wanted to see the ocean,’ he said dreamily.

I wrapped his arm over my shoulder and helped him to his feet. He was so light, like a bird. I couldn’t quite believe that he was full of blood and bone and organs like me. There
didn’t seem to be enough of him to be more than a papery shell.

‘I think that’s enough,’ said Daddy, from where he was standing in the doorway.

I moved quickly, putting myself between Daddy and Fox. ‘Don’t come near him,’ I said. ‘You’ve done enough damage.’

‘Not quite enough, I’m afraid,’ said Daddy. ‘I should have taken care of him a long time ago. I hoped he’d come around. See the error of his ways.’

He sighed and reached behind his back, pulling a gun from the waistband of his trousers. ‘Oh, well.’

I stared at it, uncomprehending. A
gun
.

It was black and cold and solid-looking, cradled in Daddy’s hand. Where did he get it from? Had he always had it, this whole time? It didn’t seem real. Guns weren’t something that people just
had
, lying around. Guns were on television. In movies. Not in real life.

But this, the Institute, Daddy. None of it was real life.

‘Monkey,’ said Daddy, addressing Fox as if he were a puppy in need of training. ‘Come here.’

I heard Fox whimper in fear. I reached behind me and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight.

‘Monkey,’ said Daddy again, his voice firm.

‘It’s okay,’ I said to Fox, over my shoulder. ‘You don’t have to do what he says.’

Daddy glanced at me, his expression smug. He held out a hand to Fox. ‘Come along, Monkey. Come to Daddy.’

Fox’s hand fell away from mine, and my heart broke as he crept out from behind me and shuffled over to Daddy, bent almost double at the waist, hunching and scraping with fear and subservience.

Daddy patted him gently on the head, then raised his other hand, the one holding the gun, and struck Fox, hard,
across the face. Fox cried out in pain and sank to the floor, moaning softly like a broken wild animal.

‘You see?’ said Daddy to me. ‘They all come back to me in the end. Where else could he go? I’m his Daddy. Just like I’m yours. You’ll understand soon.’

My mind was whirling, trying desperately to think of a way out. But my eyes kept coming back to the gun. Daddy held it so casually, as if it were something totally insignificant. But I knew he would use it. He’d never let us leave alive.

‘Ruby,’ said Daddy, his eyes burning into mine. ‘You’re confused. You know you are. It’s because you’re the Scintilla. All this … this is your meat body rebelling against the boundless actuality, the ruby soul. Give in to it. Let it consume you.’

And I realised that I had a spark of power after all. Daddy was just crazy enough to believe in his own lies. Although he had engineered and orchestrated it all, part of him truly thought I was the Scintilla, that I held the key to his immortality. I swallowed. I had to keep him talking until I could figure out how to use my advantage.

‘If I’m the Scintilla,’ I said, ‘shouldn’t you do what I say?’

‘Nice try,’ said Daddy with a knowing smile. ‘Your toxicant brain is still in control. You must surrender it to the Scintilla.’

‘When will that happen?’

Daddy’s lip curled in a smile. ‘Tonight. It all happens tonight. Tonight your body will be consumed by the fire of the Scintilla, and your spark will set us all alight. Tomorrow morning we will be born anew, the Boundless Family.’

With a noise that was half moan, half howl, Fox suddenly raised himself from the floor and launched himself at Daddy, who staggered back against the bench into the rack of test tubes, sending them scattering into glittering shards. The
gun was knocked from Daddy’s hand and went skittering over the floor towards the corner where Fox had been bound to the wall. Daddy snarled and grabbed Fox by the neck, squeezing and pushing as Fox clawed and bit and scratched. Finally Daddy managed to wrench him away and heaved him bodily against the refrigerator. Fox fell awkwardly, and I saw his leg twist and give way, and heard a snapping noise, followed by a howl of pain.

‘This is getting boring,’ said Daddy, brushing broken glass from his tunic. ‘I’ve had enough of your games. You will go back to your cell, and tomorrow you will burn.’

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fox reaching out his good leg to where the gun lay.

‘The Boundless Family,’ I said, trying to draw Daddy’s attention. ‘I figured it out. You plan to sterilise people, right? It’s what you wanted to do when you were a scientist. Make a perfect race of people. That’s why you’re handing out the water bottles. There’s something in the water.’

Daddy smiled. ‘I always said you were extraordinary.’

I talked faster. ‘But how does that play out? Are you going to sterilise the entire human race? You know you can never do that, right? You can’t go and hand out seven billion bottles of free water all over the world.’

Daddy stretched the fingers of his right hand, as if they had been cramping up holding the gun. ‘Today is a pilot technic. Plans are in place. I have operatives poised all over the world, awaiting my instructions. Do you think it is just you? Just this pitiful handful of acolytes? No. I have chapters everywhere. The Institute of the Boundless Sublime covers the whole planet, hidden in secret, waiting for my word. People don’t only drink water from bottles, you know.’