The Trade (3 page)

Down on the ground, the severed head was already withering to dust. Up on the monster's shoulders, the other heads twisted their faces in rage.

‘Nice Evo,' Rex said, stepping backwards. ‘Good Evo.'

The creature began to advance. As it did, two large, bone-like blades grew from its forearms, stretching out until they almost touched the ground.

Rex smiled, nervously. ‘Look, can't we just talk about this?'

SWISH!

One of the blades sliced through the air. Rex
ducked and rolled, just avoiding being sliced in two.

When Rex leapt back to his feet, his Smackhands were gone. In their place was the enormous blade of the Big Freakin' Sword. The blade's orange metal glinted in the sunlight.

‘Not the talkative type, huh?' Rex asked. ‘Well, it's your loss.'

He swung his sword-arm around in a wide arc. The Evo raised its twin blades, only to see them be chopped cleanly in half. The bones shattered as they hit the ground.

‘Hey,' Rex smirked. ‘I did warn you.'

Screeching, the Evo lunged once more, but Rex was ready. The butt of the sword crunched against one head, then the other. With a low groan, the monster sunk to its knees, then fell, faces first, to the ground.

‘About time,' said Six, who was suddenly standing right behind Rex. ‘Now do your thing so we can get out of here.'

‘What? No “good work”?' grumbled Rex. The Big Freakin' Sword retracted back into his arm. ‘No “congratulations on a job well done”?'

Six tried not to smile, but a twitch at the corner
of his mouth gave him away. ‘Good work,' he said. ‘Now fix him up and let's get back to the Keep.'

‘OK, OK,' Rex sighed. ‘But what's the rush? The sun's shining, the sky's clear. I'm sure we flew over a beach about thirty miles back. We could swing back there and –'

‘We're on a mission, not a day trip,' Six reminded him. ‘But … we'll see. For now, though, get curing.'

Rex grinned. Six could be pretty stern, but he did have a sense of fun buried deep inside his designer suit. A trip to the beach was just what Rex needed to forget about the pins-in-the-face experience.

But first things first. Pressing his hands against the unconscious Evo's heads, Rex felt the nanites flooding into him. In moments, the figure on the ground began to change. The claws became more like fingers. The extra head slowly sunk back towards the shoulder. The transformation was halfway complete when things started to go wrong.

‘Not again!' Rex cried. His Smackhands had appeared where his feet should have been. He wobbled unsteadily, then both legs slid in opposite directions and he thudded down onto the road.

There was the sound of machinery moving and the Punk Buster legs wrapped around his arms. Rex stared down at his limbs. He'd never been able to call up the Smackhands and Punk Busters at the same time before, but now here they all were. Just in completely the wrong places.

Agent Six touched the communication device in his ear. ‘Evac team,' he barked. ‘Rex is in trouble and we've got an Evo stuck mid-transformation. Clean up needed.
Now
.'

‘What's happening?' Rex gasped. The machines suddenly felt tight on his arms and legs. ‘It … it hurts.'

‘In that case, you can thank me for this later,' said Six. He summoned an Agent to his side and, with a brisk nod, took from him an extremely long needle. Six flicked the anaesthetic inside the needle and before Rex could protest, slipped the point into what was left of Rex's right arm.

For a moment, Rex saw the world go fuzzy at the edges, and then everything slowly faded to black.

‘I
KNEW IT WAS A BAD
idea letting him out,' Dr Holiday said. Rex was lying on another hospital-type bed. He was more or less back to normal, aside from the bruise on his upper arm where Six had poked the needle into him. A number of machines were connected to him by thin wires. Every few seconds, one of the machines would go
bleep
.

Dr Holiday shook her head angrily. ‘He should never have gone out. He needed more tests.'

‘More tests,' Rex groaned. ‘
Yay
.'

‘What, would you rather go through all that again?' Holiday snapped. ‘Your transformations going out of control every time you use them?'

‘Well, no, but –'

‘Anything could've happened to you out there, Rex,' she continued. ‘You could've been badly hurt. Or worse.'

Rex shrugged. ‘I know, it's just … do you
have
to stick more pins in my face?'

Dr Holiday rolled her eyes. ‘I stuck
one
pin in your face
one
time to test for nerve damage.
One
.'

‘It felt like more,' Rex muttered. ‘Anyway, one pin in your face is one too many, that's what I always say.'

‘No more pins, Rex, I promise,' Holiday said. She glared pointedly at Agent Six. ‘But maybe I'll be allowed to finish the other tests this time, so we can figure out what's happening to you.'

Agent Six turned to Holiday. ‘I understand you were unhappy with us taking him out,' he said, ‘but the mission required Rex's input.'

‘The
mission
?' Holiday spluttered. ‘What about Rex? Did you stop to think what
he
“required”?'

A frosty silence hung in the air for a few moments. Finally, Six asked: ‘What have you found out?'

Dr Holiday gave a sigh. ‘Nothing. Well, not much.' She handed Agent Six a bundle of paper. Numbers and symbols covered the pages. ‘I've been monitoring him since you brought him back in. These are the readings.'

‘They're all over the place,' Six frowned.

‘You can say that again. Now turn to the back pages.'

Agent Six flipped through the bundle. ‘Normal,' he said.

‘They levelled off quickly,' Holiday nodded. ‘Holding steady now.'

‘So, what you're saying is, he's fine?' said Six.

‘Look at those charts!' Holiday said. ‘He's normal for now, but he's far from “fine”. Whatever happened to him out there could happen again.'

‘
Could
happen again,' said Six. ‘
Could
.'

While Six and Holiday were arguing, Rex quietly slipped down from the bed. Carefully, he peeled back the tape holding the wires against his body. He had almost removed them all when one of the medical machines began to beep loudly.

‘Back on the bed, mister,' Holiday told him. She gave him a stern look. ‘I'm not done with you yet.'

Agent Six and the doctor watched him until he had reattached every one of the wires and climbed back up onto the bed. ‘Hey,' he said, ‘worth a try, right?'

‘Nanite overload,' said Six, quietly.

‘Excuse me?' asked Holiday.

‘Nanite overload,' Six said again. ‘Happened before, remember? Too many nanites. Sent his whole
system crazy.'

‘I remember,' Rex nodded. ‘My face was a sack of metal pus. That's not something you forget in a hurry. But this isn't like that.'

Holiday nodded. ‘He's right,' she said. ‘This is different. The readings are nothing like they were then. Something else is causing Rex's … problems.'

‘What then?' Six asked.

‘I wish I knew. I'm going to have to run –'

‘More tests,' groaned Rex, finishing her sentence for her. ‘OK then, Doc, do whatever you have to do.' He glared at Agent Six. ‘But do not even think about coming near my face with anything sharp.'

‘White Knight wants him match-fit in two hours,' said Six, ignoring Rex and talking instead to Dr Holiday. White Knight was Agent Six's boss, and the leader of the Providence organisation.

‘Two hours?' Holiday yelped. ‘That's nowhere near enough time. We need to keep him out of action until we've figured out exactly what's going on. No matter how long it takes.'

‘I can't see White Knight agreeing to that,' Six said. He met Holiday's eye and gave a curt nod of his head.
‘But I'll see if I can buy you some more time, at least.'

The others watched him leave the lab. Once he was gone, Dr Holiday turned to Rex. ‘Now,' she said, picking up a long syringe with an even longer needle on the end, ‘don't worry, this isn't going to hurt.'

R
EX WAS BORED
.

He was in his own room, lying on his own bed, flicking through the channels on the TV. There was nothing on but soaps and makeover shows. He jabbed a button on the remote and clicked through another half dozen channels, each one more terrible than the last.

With a final press of the remote control, the TV screen went dark. Rex lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head. He was bored. Really bored.

Bored.

Bored.

Bored.

It wouldn't have been so bad if Bobo or Noah had been around. His friends were always good company, even if one of them
was
a talking chimp. Even Agent Six would be
someone
to talk to, but Dr Holiday had made it clear that Rex had to be kept in isolation. ‘For observation,' she'd said.

Rex looked over at the CCTV cameras mounted
in the corners of the room, watching his every move. Still, at least they weren't being secretive about it – the cameras were almost impossible to miss.

Swinging his legs down onto the floor, Rex turned to the closest camera and waved. ‘Hey, Doc,' he said. ‘How long did you say I have to stay in here?'

Dr Holiday's face appeared on a screen on the wall. ‘Twenty-four hours,' she said. ‘That's all.'

Rex nodded. ‘Right. And how long have I been here for?'

Dr Holiday looked at her watch. ‘Eleven minutes,' she told him.

‘
Eleven minutes
,' Rex groaned. ‘Seriously?'

‘It'll be over in no time,' Holiday smiled. ‘Why don't you watch some TV to take your mind off it?'

‘I already tried that.'

On screen, Holiday shrugged. ‘Try again.' With that, the screen went dark.

‘Try again,' Rex muttered. He picked up the remote and switched the television on again. A glamorous soap opera actress sobbed hysterically in close up.

Click
. He changed channel. A bearded man was planting seeds in a garden.

Click
. A middle-aged woman was having her hair done by a man in a yellow shirt.

Click
. A scorpion-like Evo was smashing police cars with its deadly tail.

Click
. A man in dungarees was painting the outside of a house.

Rex blinked.
Wait
. He clicked back a channel and the scorpion Evo filled the screen again. A news reporter's voice was explaining that the monster had appeared from nowhere, and had already destroyed half a city block. The text at the bottom of the screen identified the location as “Fremont, California”.

Rex turned back to the CCTV camera. ‘Uh, Doc,' he began, ‘are you seeing this?'

There was a pause as the camera moved to take in what was happening on the TV. Dr Holiday's face appeared on the wall-mounted screen again. ‘I see it,' she said, ‘but it's not your problem.'

The door to Rex's room opened with a
swish
. ‘On the contrary,' said Agent Six, looming in the doorway. ‘It's very much his problem.'

Rex stood in the Providence aircraft hangar, listening to Dr Holiday and Agent Six argue. He had been standing there listening to them for almost ten minutes now, and they still didn't seem any closer to reaching an agreement.

‘You can't take him out,' Dr Holiday snapped. ‘Anything could happen.'

‘I've done all I can,' Six replied. ‘White Knight wants him out in the field. His readings are still fine. Chances are it was a temporary glitch.'

‘And chances are it might not have been!'

Rex whistled quietly. He nodded to a group of Providence Agents, who were boarding the aircraft beside them.