The Trade (5 page)

‘We've already got a major incident!' Holiday protested. ‘Rex is undergoing some kind of … of …
mutation
. The nanites are doing something to him, and I don't know what it is!'

‘And I'm confident in your ability to find out, Doctor,' White Knight said, ‘just as soon as we've stopped the Evo.'

‘Let the other Agents handle the Evo! Isn't that what they're paid for?'

Dr Holiday turned and snatched up the communicator. ‘Six, let the other Agents fight that thing. Concentrate on saving Rex!'

‘Ignore that, Agent Six,' White Knight instructed. ‘Your orders stand. Neutralise that Evo!'

Meanwhile, in Fremont, Agent Six was trying to do just that. He sat on the scorpion's back, one arm wrapped around its tail, the other pulling on its armoured head. Only a few of the smaller scorpion-creatures remained. They scuttled and scurried over the crushed remains of their brothers and sisters, wondering how many of them could have been wiped out by just one pair of feet.

A few metres away, Rex's whole body spasmed, then went limp as he finally fell unconscious. Neither he, nor Agent Six, noticed the black armoured car creeping along the street. They didn't notice it rolling to a stop right beside Rex, or the passenger door slowly easing open.

And they didn't notice the hulking Evo arms reaching out and dragging Rex inside.

S
IX LOOKED UP AT
the sound of the car door slamming closed. He realised immediately what had happened. If he released his grip on the Evo now, though, it would either kill him, escape, or both.

‘Stop that car!' he bellowed, to anyone within earshot. Fifteen Providence Agents crept out from hiding places and stood in front of the approaching car, blocking its path.

The car did not slow.

‘Open fire!' one of the Agents cried. In unison, they all hoisted their machine-guns to their shoulders and sprayed bullets at the oncoming vehicle.

The car did not slow. Fourteen Agents dived sideways out of harm's way. One wasn't so lucky. The car hit him and he was tossed up onto the bonnet. He clung on tightly for a few moments, before the car screeched around the corner and the Agent rolled sideways and hit the ground with an ‘
Oof!
'

Up on the Evo's back, Agent Six cursed. Dr Holiday would
never
let him hear the end of this. Twisting at the waist, he fired a kick against the back of the scorpion-monster's head. It hissed softly through its mouth, like the sound of a balloon slowly deflating, and then it collapsed, unconscious, onto the pavement.

‘Evo down,' Six said into the communicator.

‘About time,' Dr Holiday replied. ‘How's Rex? We lost the video feed.'

Six took a deep breath. ‘It's funny you should ask.'

‘You lost him?'

Six shook his head and wiped a smear of squished scorpion slime from the front of his suit. ‘No, I didn't lose him. He was taken. Big difference.'

Dr Holiday stepped closer, until her nose was almost touching Six's. Her face was red with rage. ‘He was
taken
because you weren't watching him!' she said.

‘I wasn't watching him because I was wrestling an arachnid the size of a bus,' Six replied. ‘You'd be amazed how that sort of thing can hold your attention.'

‘This isn't funny, Six,' Holiday said. She chewed on her lip and wrung her hands together. ‘Anyone could've taken him, and anything could've happened. He's all alone out there. Defenceless.'

For a few moments, Six didn't speak. Eventually, he gave a brief nod of his head. ‘What can I do to help?'

Holiday turned her back on him and made for the door. ‘You can stay out of my way,' she said. ‘And if you see White Knight, tell him the same thing.'

She left the room, closing the door with a
slam
that shook the walls. Agent Six raised one neat eyebrow. ‘Well,' he said to himself, ‘that went about as well as could be expected.'

Half an hour later, Dr Holiday was in her lab. Spread out on the table in front of her were all the printouts of Rex's biometric readings taken when his transformations were going haywire. She had scribbled notes on over half of the pages, as she'd tried to figure out what the readings meant.

On a video screen beside her, the CCTV footage
of Rex's battle with the scorpion Evo was playing on a loop. It showed everything, right up until the point half a dozen of the mini-scorpions crawled over the camera lens. The feed had gone dead almost right away after that.

There was a soft knock at the lab door. Holiday didn't look up from the printouts. ‘Come in,' she instructed, and the door was opened.

‘Hi, Dr Holiday. You wanted to see me?'

‘Noah, good, you're here,' said Holiday. She smiled at the blond-haired teen as he entered the room. ‘I need your help. Rex is in trouble.'

‘Why am I not surprised?' Noah asked. ‘What's up this time?'

‘I'm not sure,' Holiday admitted. ‘I think he was losing control of his nanites, but I can't say for certain.'

‘Can't you just run some tests or whatever? Isn't that how it normally works?'

‘I could. If I knew where he was,' Dr Holiday said. ‘He's been abducted.'

‘
Abducted?
' gasped Noah, his eyes widening. ‘By who?'

‘That's what we're going to try to find out,' she
replied. ‘But first, we need to figure out what's causing him to lose control.'

Noah frowned. ‘Right. And you wanted me here because …?'

‘Because I could use another pair of eyes,' Holiday said. She gestured down at the printouts. ‘Take a look. Tell me what you see.'

Noah bent over the table and looked at each page in turn. After several minutes he straightened up. ‘Numbers,' he said. ‘Lots of them.'

‘I was hoping for a little more than that.'

‘You're the brains of the outfit, Dr Holiday,' Noah told her. ‘Me? I'm just kind of … moral support. If there's something out of place, you'll find it, not me.'

Dr Holiday's body went stiff. ‘Wait,' she said, ‘what did you say?'

Noah thought back. ‘If there's something out of place –'

‘Out of place,' she repeated, quietly. ‘Out of place.'

Her fingers danced across the nearest computer keyboard. The screen changed to display a detailed map of California. ‘The malfunctions only happened when Rex was out on a mission. Here, here and here.'
Three red dots appeared close together on the map, showing the locations of Rex's recent battles.

‘They're all within fifty miles of one another,' Noah commented.

‘Exactly! So what if something in that area was causing Rex's nanites to malfunction?'

Noah stared hard at the screen. ‘Something like that?' he said, pointing to an area on the map.

Dr Holiday followed his finger. With a yelp of delight she jumped back from the monitor. ‘Noah,' she cried, ‘you are a
genius
!'

D
ARKNESS SWAM BEHIND
Rex's eyelids, and white noise poured into his ears like rushing sand. Beneath him, the floor seemed determined to shake him awake.

Gradually, the sound of sand faded and he was able to pick out other noises. The roaring of a car engine. The low muttering of a male voice. The unsteady crashing of his own heart.

But he was only vaguely aware of them all at best. They were background noise, nothing more. What he was much more aware of was the pain.

It spread out from the centre of his chest and coiled around his arms until it found the very tips of his fingers. It lay like a weight in his stomach and it burned at both of his legs. It throbbed behind his eyes, up over his head and down to the base of his skull. Every single part of him hurt, and the more awake he became, the worse the pain got.

A burst of pure agony exploded in his right hand
and it suddenly became very heavy. A voice somewhere above him grunted. ‘Watch out for his sword,' it said.

‘It ripped through the seat,' another voice said.

‘It'll rip through
you
if you're not careful,' said the first speaker. Rex thought he recognised the voice, but there was too much happening for him to worry about that now.

The Big Freakin' Sword retracted back into Rex's arm, but the pain didn't ease off. The darkness behind his eyes seemed to shimmer, and Rex realised, too late, that he was falling unconscious once again.

Some time passed. Rex couldn't even begin to guess how much. When he woke again, the floor still felt as if it were moving, and his body still hurt. He was able to open his eyes but he didn't, not yet. He had a feeling he was in danger, and opening his eyes meant he'd have to face that danger head-on. He wasn't ready for that.

He could feel straps across his arms and legs. He was lying flat, arms out to the side and slightly above his head, feet bound tightly together. In his half-awake
brain, he imagined himself looking like a big letter Y.

The surface beneath him was vibrating, occasionally bouncing him around. He guessed he was travelling inside some sort of vehicle. Not Providence, though. They wouldn't tie him up, would they?
Actually
, he thought,
nothing would surprise me
.