The Supernaturalist (18 page)

The humans fared slightly better, especially Cosmo and Stefan. Their rubber-soled boots conducted the worst of the shock away from their bodies. Nevertheless they were given a severe rattling by the power surge. Cosmo felt his eyes roll back in his head and the legs of his trousers began to smoke. Stefan’s hair stood tall on
his head and his jacket caught fire. He whipped it off, slapping it against the rocks.

Redwood was not so lucky. He had stupidly released his grip on Cosmo when he realized that Stefan was not bluffing. If he’d only held on for a few more seconds, the energy surge would have passed right through him into the boy. As it was he felt the full brunt of the charge. The effect, while not as spectacular as what happened to the Parasites, was no less permanent. The electricity ignited the viscous hair oil he slathered on his precious locks and burnt every follicle of hair from his head. Not only that, but it scorched the pores so the hairs could not grow again. Then the electricity picked the ex-marshal up in a giant fist and slammed him into the tunnel wall. As he lay there, his clothes singed and dropped off, until the man was left wearing nothing more than Bugs Bunny long johns.

Cosmo shook the shock from his system. ‘What is that?’

The room was lit by lightning bolts.

Stefan picked up his lightning rod. ‘Bugs Bunny. A 2D rabbit. “What’s up Doc?” That was his catchphrase.’

The light faded as the Parasites dropped to the ground. Their hearts were black and shrivelled like lumps of coal.

‘We did it,’ said Stefan, his smile grim in the fading light.

‘Yes. We got them.’

Stefan snapped a lumi-light. ‘Not all of them, but it’s a
start. We know it can be done. Now we need to get out of here, or
we’ll
be blamed for this and not the good marshal.’

Cosmo nodded. Redwood would take the blame for the power cut. It was a nice bonus.

One of the ex-marshal’s eyelids flickered open.

Cosmo leaned in close. ‘That was for Ziplock, Bugs,’ he said.

Fred Allescanti had taken charge, with disastrous results. So far he had managed to wrap two of his own men and allow several orphans to slip through the main doors. Lucky for the security team, the fire doors locked automatically in the event of a power cut. It had finally occurred to Allescanti to construct a barricade at the foot of the main stairs. They would hold the orphans there until power was restored.

Cosmo and Stefan approached the madness from behind. Fred Allescanti was firing shrink-wrap slugs at
anyone who poked his head around the corner. So far he had only hit things he wasn’t aiming at. The stairwell was covered with so many globs of cellophane that it resembled the inside of a handkerchief.

‘You no-sponsors better get back to bed,’ he roared, ‘or you’ll spend tomorrow in a vat; I’m not kidding you.’

Cosmo felt his temper rising. ‘Those kids will suffer,’ he told Stefan. ‘Every time something goes wrong, the guards blame us.’

Stefan handed his charred jacket to Cosmo. ‘Not this time,’ he said.

The tall Russian youth drew his lightning rod and loaded a clip of gumballs. He slimed three of the guards from behind and disabled the other three with well-placed blows. In all it took about four seconds.

The orphans came down the stairs like a tide, crashing the barricade and pooling around Stefan’s boots.

‘Any of you ever been outside on your own?’ asked Stefan.

A little kid shuffled forward, his eyes barely visible behind a hank of black hair.

‘I escaped to the streets for a couple of weeks before they bagged me.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘My street name is Fence, on account of that’s what I do.’

Stefan took his hand, then wrote a number on the boy’s palm. ‘Run south boys, past the Blockade. Fence knows
the way. When you get to the canal, call this number.’

Fence raised his free hand.

‘Yes, Fence?’

‘They got some kind of trackers on us. Last time the marshals bagged me as soon as I set one foot outside Booshka.’

‘Did you feel a shock just now?’

The boys nodded; some of them still had socket hair.

‘That was an Energy Pulse: it shorted out the power and the tracker microbeads in your pores. You’re free to go.’

The orphans were silent for a moment, digesting this momentous news. Then they burst into spontaneous cheers, clambering up Stefan’s giant frame like squirrels.

‘Hold it now,’ said Stefan. ‘You have to move before reinforcements show up. Call this number: the man on the other end is a friend of mine. He’s always on the lookout for market boys. He’ll give you work and a place to stay. The wages aren’t huge, but they’re fair.’

Fence squinted. ‘This could be another trick. How do we know we can trust you?’

Cosmo stepped forward. ‘Remember me, Fence?’

Fence swept the hair from his eyes. ‘Cosmo Hill. Wrap me if it isn’t. We all thought you were dead. What happened to your face?’

Cosmo rubbed the bulging robotix plate in his forehead.

‘It’s a long story, Fence, maybe later. Just do what
Stefan says. You can trust him. He saved my life and anyway life outside has got to be better than in here. This is the only chance you will ever have to make a clean break.’

The word spread along the stairway. Cosmo was alive and this man was his friend. If Cosmo could survive on the outside, they all could.

‘OK,’ said Fence. ‘I’ll call the number, but if you’re setting us up, I will hunt you down.’

The little boy stuck out his hand. Stefan shook it. ‘Fair enough.’

A siren sounded in the distance. Obviously news of the breakout had spread to the authorities.

‘Time to go,’ said Cosmo. ‘Now or never.’

‘Now,’ decided the diminutive Fence, leading the no-sponsors into the night, like a modern-day Pied Piper.

‘Oh all right,’ she moaned to no one in particular. ‘I’ll apologize, but only because I’m the bigger person in more ways than one.’

The lift was on the roof level, so to save time Mona took the fire escape. The elevator was so old that it still had ropes and pulleys instead of a magnetic field. By the time it reached her floor, she could have finished apologizing to Ditto and cooked a five-course meal.

Mona climbed the outside of 1405 Abracadabra Street, keeping close to the wall to avoid the acid mist that shimmered earthwards. Pretty soon that mist would turn to mothball-sized raindrops and the sound of car alarms would reverberate through Satellite City.

She arrived on the rooftop just as Ditto was leaving it. The Bartoli Baby had laid down a ladder and was crossing to an adjacent building.

‘Hey, Ditto, what are you doing?’ But the wind snatched her words away and Ditto did not turn around. Very strange. What did he think he was playing at? Mona knew that what she should do was come back later. But she also knew she wouldn’t. This entire situation was too intriguing. So, moving with catlike grace and silence, Mona followed her fellow Supernaturalist across to the next building.

Ditto had left the ladder down, so that meant he intended coming back. Mona would have to be careful. If she didn’t return before Ditto, she could be stranded on this rooftop with the rain coming.

Ditto hurried across the pig-iron surface, skirting the oily puddles that had been eating through the roof over the years. Mona clambered on top of the roof box. From there she could see everything, but from his low vantage point, Ditto could not see her.

The diminutive Supernaturalist crossed to the northern corner of the building. The Statue of Endeavour punctuated the skyline beyond him, red light winking in its hand. There was a blue light too. Closer. On the rooftop itself. Mona drew a sharp breath. A single Parasite lay in the shadow of the roof’s edge. That explained it. Ditto must have seen the creature on the Parabola and had come to investigate.

What would he do now? He never carried a weapon and Stefan had already detonated their only Energy Pulse. Mona was about to leap down from the roof box and join her companion, when Ditto did a strange thing. He knelt down before the creature and held out his hand. The Parasite, weak from lack of energy, its pulsating heart a dull blue, reached out its four-fingered hand towards Ditto’s. They were acknowledging each other. Communicating.

Mona nearly fell off the roof. This was incredible. Who was Ditto? What was he? Had he been a traitor in their midst all this time? She fumbled her phone from her pocket, calling up Stefan’s number on the speed dial. But no. That wasn’t enough. It would still be her word against Ditto’s. She needed more.

Mona’s phone was a pretty old one, without much in the way of technology. But it did have picture capabilities. Sixty seconds of video or a hundred stills. Mona selected video and pointed the phone’s fish-eye lens towards Ditto and his blue friend. Just in time to see Ditto deliberately cut his finger with a penknife and offer the wound to the Parasite. The creature wrapped four fingers around the wound, draining a silver stream of life force. In seconds its natural bright blue colour had been restored. It released Ditto and floated to its feet.

Mona checked the video to make sure she had seen what she thought she’d seen. Ditto had healed the Parasite. It all made sense now. Of course Ditto never carried a rod; of course he had argued against the Energy Pulse. He was in league with the Parasites.

‘Hey, what is that?’ asked the Bartoli Baby. ‘One of those comedy e-mails? Some of those things are hilarious.’

Stefan took the phone in trembling hands. His face was tight and pale.

‘Yes, Ditto. Do you want to take a look? It’s a real scream. By the way, what happened to your finger?’

Pins and needles erupted all over Ditto’s back.

‘I caught it on that panel, on the elevator door. You know, the one that sticks out.’

‘I know the one. Here have a look.’

Ditto took the phone, pressing the
Play
triangle. For a moment he didn’t realize what he was looking at, but then it became terrifyingly clear. He had been caught. Rumbled. Finally. After all this time, the moment of truth had come. Or the moment
for
truth.

‘OK,’ he said, handing back the phone. ‘This looks bad, I know, but I can explain.’

Stefan looked straight ahead, avoiding Ditto’s eyes.

‘Pack your gear and get out. I want you gone by morning.’

‘Wait a minute. Hear me out.’

Mona advanced on the Bartoli Baby. ‘All this time, why didn’t I see it? No wonder you wouldn’t shoot the Parasites. No wonder you argued against anything that might actually work.’

Ditto backed up a step. ‘Anything that might actually work? It wasn’t like that.’

‘What was it like then, Ditto? Every day stabbing us in the back. Stabbing humans everywhere in the back. Why don’t you go over to Clarissa Frayne and heal all those Parasites Cosmo just blew up?’

Ditto hung his head. ‘I wish I could,’ he mumbled.

The comment enraged Stefan. He picked Ditto up by the collar, standing him on a workbench.

‘You wish you could! How long have you been
betraying us, Ditto? From the very beginning? Three years?’

The accusations beat down on Ditto like hammer blows. The little man seemed to shrink even further, hunching in on himself.

Stefan poked him in the chest. ‘If I see you again, I will treat you like an enemy, and believe me you don’t want that.’

‘You don’t understand, Stefan,’ protested the Bartoli Baby. ‘You don’t see what’s happening.’

Stefan laughed in his face. ‘Oh, let me guess: another conspiracy theory? Myishi are running us for their own ends. Ellen Faustino has been lying through her teeth.’

The truth burst out of Ditto like a missile.

‘They take pain!’ he blurted.

Cosmo felt that something big was coming. Whatever Ditto said next would change all of their lives forever.

‘The Parasites take pain. Not life force, just pain. They help us. They have always helped us.’

Stefan turned his back on Ditto. He didn’t want to hear this.

‘Rubbish. You’ll say anything to save your skin.’

‘Do you remember what Lincoln asked me at the Junkyard?’

Mona remembered. ‘Your mutations. He asked, were you sensitive?’

Ditto sat on the bench. ‘Bartoli Babies often have certain gifts. I have healing hands. I can take your pain away.’

‘I knew it,’ said Cosmo. ‘After my accident, you took my headache. You said it was the medicine, but it was you.’

Ditto nodded. ‘This gift is something I have in common with the Parasites. We do the same thing; maybe that’s why I’m sensitive to them. I feel the supernatural, and they feel me. People call it second sight.’

Cosmo remembered something. ‘Back in the Junkyard, Lincoln said you had healing hands. I thought he was talking about you being a medic, but he knew taking pain was a Bartoli mutation.’

Ditto examined his own palms. ‘They’re not actually healing hands. Nothing heals faster than the body itself. I just take away pain.’

Stefan absolutely refused to believe it. ‘This is junk. All junk.’

‘Parasites are nature!’ Ditto persisted. ‘They are energy converters, just like me. Just like every other being on the planet in one way or another. All my life I’ve been able to see them. To feel them. I was afraid of them at first, until I realized they were just doing what I did. They aren’t some malignant species. They are attracted to pain. They take it and convert it to energy. The cycle of all life.’

Stefan whirled. His face was red with barely suppressed anger.

‘And what about my mother? I saw what the Parasites did to her.’

‘She was dying,’ said Ditto softly. ‘They helped her. They eased her passing. The Parasites take the pain away, when it’s too late for the body to heal itself. That used to be the case before they began multiplying out of control. Before we upset the natural order.’

‘One reason. Give us one good reason to believe you now, when you have lied to us for so long.’

Ditto sat at the table, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. ‘For as long as I can remember, the creatures have been there. We don’t communicate exactly. Not like humans, but we sense each other. I know when they’re agitated or sleepy. There was one other Bartoli Baby with the same ability. Number eighty-two. But the second sight terrified him, drove him insane. Now he lives in Booshka and wears a blindfold. Never takes it off. I didn’t go crazy because I suspected the creatures were there to help us: make the pain bearable, prepare us for the next life.’

Cosmo interrupted. ‘There’s a next life?’

‘Yes. I catch glimpses of it every now and then.’

Even Mona was interested. ‘What’s it like?’

Ditto thought about it. ‘Different.’

‘Quiet!’ yelled Stefan. ‘All of you. If this is true, why didn’t you tell me years ago?’

Ditto lifted his eyes. ‘I almost told you a million times, but I had no real proof except what I felt. For the first time ever I was part of a family and saying what I felt would have destroyed that. And for what? You would never have believed me then without proof. If anything,
you were more fanatical in the beginning. Time is beginning to mellow you, Stefan. Recently you’ve even started to worry about the troops: that’s a new development.’

‘You could have tried.’

‘I know I should have, but I decided to do what I could from within. You weren’t actually destroying the Parasites, I felt that all along, and I was able to do whatever I could for the accident victims. I didn’t know we were helping the creatures reproduce.’

‘Fight from the inside,’ muttered Cosmo.

Ditto nodded. ‘Exactly, and it would have been just fine if Myishi hadn’t got involved. Do you realize what you did tonight, Stefan? If what you say is true, you killed huge numbers of the creatures. I wish I’d had the courage to tell you the truth earlier, but I never thought this Energy Pulse scheme would work: scientifically, it shouldn’t. How many humans are in pain right now because I stayed quiet? Humans like your mother?’

Stefan began to shake. ‘Shut up!’

‘You don’t want to listen, Stefan, because for years you’ve had someone to blame for your mother’s death. This is the truth, Stefan. Accept it.’

‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s not the truth. Nothing you’ve ever told us was the truth. You wouldn’t know the truth if it popped out of a manhole and took a bite out of your Bartoli backside.’

Ditto took out his phone. ‘Just call Faustino. Tell her you have reservations. Ask her team of scientists to study
the possibility that these creatures do not drain life force, just pain. Natural anaesthesia.’

‘Why should I?’

‘Because if I’m right, thousands of people are crippled with pain who shouldn’t be. Just like your mother wasn’t, at the end. Just like you weren’t, if you let yourself remember.’

Cosmo remembered how, after his rooftop fall, the pain had disappeared the moment the creature had touched him. He remembered how all he’d felt was calm. No fear.

‘And if you’re wrong?’ asked Stefan.

Ditto stood on the bench, drawing himself up to his full height.

‘If I’m wrong, I’ll pop out of a manhole and take a bite out of my own Bartoli backside.’