The Trade (6 page)

He could sense other people around him, but he had no idea how many. They weren't talking, but he could feel them watching to see if he was awake.

Or were they? Was he just being paranoid? There was nothing else for it. He had to know. One way or another, he had to know.

Gently, like the fluttering of a butterfly's wings, Rex's eyes began to open. Light flooded in, forcing him to blink rapidly. His eyes had just begun to adjust to the brightness when a shadow passed over him.

Rex opened his eyes fully, just in time to see a massive fist come speeding towards his face.

‘Lights out,' said the familiar voice. Rex's head thudded against the floor of the armoured car, and for the third time that day, he found himself slipping silently into unconsciousness.

A
GENT
S
IX STOOD BEFORE
a large viewing screen which was displaying a map of California. Beside him, a video screen blinked into life, showing White Knight's face. The Providence leader looked unhappy at having been disturbed.

‘This had better be good, Doctor,' White Knight warned. ‘I am an extremely busy man.'

Dr Holiday bit her tongue. ‘I'll try not to keep you,
sir
,' she said. She crossed to the wall displaying the map. Noah was already there, standing to one side, looking slightly awkward.

Before Holiday could start to explain her findings, a door at the back of the room opened and Bobo strolled in. The chimp stretched, yawned, then adjusted his little red hat.

‘What's up?' he asked. ‘What'd I miss?'

‘Listen up,' Six told him, not turning from the map. ‘We're about to have it all spelled out.'

Bobo shuffled over to join the rest of the group.

Dr Holiday cleared her throat. ‘I was looking over Rex's tests results, trying to figure out what was causing his machines to malfunction,' she began.

Bobo raised a hand. ‘Uh … malfunction?'

‘Read the report,' Six said.

‘Can't you just give me the highlights?' Bobo asked. Reading reports wasn't really his thing.

‘Rex's machines malfunctioned. Rex got kidnapped. That's pretty much it,' said Noah.

‘Thanks, kid,' said Bobo.

‘No problem.'

‘Can we get on with it?' barked White Knight.

Holiday nodded. ‘As I said, I was trying to figure out the cause of the malfunctions, but was getting nowhere. By the time I got him back here, his tests were more or less normal. Well, normal for Rex, anyway.'

‘We already know this,' said Agent Six. ‘What's your point?'

Dr Holiday glared at him. ‘I'm getting to my point,' she said, coldly. ‘It was Noah who worked it out, really.'

‘Worked what out?' Six asked.

Holiday pointed at the map. ‘Worked out that
there wasn't anything wrong with Rex. There was something at the battle sites that was making his nanites act strangely.'

‘That was why he was fine whenever you brought him back in,' Noah added.

Agent Six thought about this. ‘OK, I'll bite,' he said, at last. ‘What was causing the problems.'

‘Map, zoom sector eight-alpha,' Dr Holiday said. On the wall behind her, the map zoomed in on a single area.

‘What we looking at?' Bobo asked.

‘Silicon Valley,' Dr Holiday announced.

Bobo looked more closely at the map. ‘Don't look like no valley to me,' he said. ‘It's all buildings and city blocks, far as I can see.'

‘It
is
all buildings and city blocks,' Dr Holiday explained. ‘Silicon Valley is home to some of the most high-tech companies in the world, producing some of the most advanced software and tech on the planet.'

‘Oh, yeah,' Bobo shrugged. ‘I knew that.'

‘His nanites were sent into overload because of his proximity to some video game companies?' White Knight snorted. ‘I don't buy it.'

‘It's not just video game companies!' Holiday protested. ‘There are hundreds of companies located there – factories developing nanite-powered computer chips, designers messing with tech they don't really know anything about.'

She gestured to the satellite map, and to the hundreds of buildings it showed. ‘Who's to say what else is going on there?' Holiday asked. ‘Anything could've interfered with Rex's control over his nanites.'

‘It's … possible, I suppose,' Agent Six admitted.

‘Still not buying it,' said White Knight. ‘You're clutching at straws, Dr Holiday. We need something concrete.'

‘You want concrete?' Holiday asked. She tapped a few buttons on a computer keyboard and a large red blob appeared on the map. ‘How's this for concrete?'

‘What is it?' White Knight asked. ‘Evo activity. Our scanners picked it up early this morning.'

‘Who or what is it?' Six asked.

Holiday shrugged. ‘Can't say,' she said. She looked meaningfully at White Knight. ‘Too much
interference
.'

‘Unusual Evo activity in an area of high-tech interference, close to where Rex started losing control,' Noah said. ‘We're not clutching at straws, we're holding an iron bar. With both hands.'

Everyone turned to look at him. Noah spotted their puzzled expressions. ‘Well, I know what I meant,' he muttered.

‘It's the best lead we've got,' Dr Holiday said. ‘It's our best chance of finding Rex.'

White Knight stayed silent.

‘All I ask is that you send out Six and some Agents to check it out,' Holiday continued. ‘Something's going on. Maybe they can find out what.'

‘Request denied,' White Knight replied.

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the shocked gasp of Dr Holiday. ‘
Denied?
' she spluttered. ‘You can't be serious!'

‘I appreciate your concern, Doctor,' White Knight said. ‘But with the amount of Evo activity going on of late, we're already fully stretched. I cannot spare anyone.'

‘But …
Rex
–'

‘– can handle himself,' White Knight said.

‘Normally, maybe,' Noah said. ‘But if he's malfunctioning, who knows what might happen to him?'

‘Do I really have to repeat myself ?' White Knight said. ‘Request
denied
.'

Dr Holiday slipped off her lab coat and let it fall to the floor. ‘Fine,' she said. ‘Then I quit.'

Agent Six raised an eyebrow. Even White Knight appeared surprised.

‘And so do I,' said Noah, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dr Holiday.

Dr Holiday nodded. ‘And so does Bobo.'

‘You tell him, Toots,' Bobo nodded. ‘Wait,' he added, quickly. ‘I do?'

‘So that's the choice you have, sir,' Dr Holiday said, staring directly at White Knight's face on the screen. ‘Send out the Agents, or watch us walk out the door.'

She leaned down until her nose was almost touching the monitor. ‘What's it to be?'

R
EX OPENED HIS EYES
and immediately wished that he hadn't.

The ceiling overhead spun and twirled like a fairground ride, making him feel sick. He closed his eyes again, shook his head, and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes for a second time, the room had stopped spinning. There was a large spotlight mounted on the ceiling, pointing directly down at him. The light was off, and he could see his reflection in the curved glass.

He was on a bed, like the one back in Dr Holiday's lab. He had no idea where he was, but one thing he did know – this definitely was
not
Providence base.

The room he was in was small and cramped. Paint peeled in large flakes from the walls and dust covered almost every surface. Machines and lab equipment stood all around the bed. Wires ran from the machines. Each wire was attached to some part of his body – his chest, his arms, his legs and his head.

In the corner of the room, a printer spewed out page after page of paper, each sheet covered with numbers and letters and strange, cryptic symbols. Rex was too far away to be able to read the pages properly. Even if he was closer, though, he doubted he'd make any sense of them.

Rex took another deep breath, then gave a short yelp of pain. His lungs ached. Now he came to think about it,
all
of him ached. He tried to think back to what had happened to him.

There had been an Evo, he remembered that. A nasty one with an even nastier tail. He searched his memories, but they were hazy, as if lost in a thick fog.

He'd been travelling fast, he thought. And then he'd been travelling slowly, and then he hadn't been travelling at all. Something had hit him. The Evo? The ground? He couldn't say for sure, and then … And then …

And then what? Darkness and pain, that was all that came back to him. Darkness and pain and … a big letter Y?

He remembered! He'd been taken somewhere, strapped down, unable to move. Someone had punched
him and knocked him out. Someone familiar.

Rex tried to sit up. The moment he moved, a machine somewhere near his right shoulder began to bleep. A LED display on the front of the machine flashed up “300
VOLTS
” and a powerful electric shock surged through Rex's body.

‘
Whoa
,' Rex hissed, when the shock had passed. ‘That was harsh.'

He lay still for a moment, making sure he wasn't about to be zapped again. Finally, he raised his head, just a little. ‘Hello?' he called. The door to the room was closed. It looked to be made of a thick metal. Rex hoped it wasn't sound proof. ‘Hello? Anyone there?'

There was no reply from beyond the door. ‘Great,' Rex mumbled. ‘Just great.'

He craned his neck until he could see the machine that had zapped him. It was about the size of a car radio, with an enormous battery pack attached to the base. There were a few buttons and switches on the front, and two wires ran from the front. Rex followed the cables with his eyes. They ended somewhere on his chest, too high up for him to be able to see them.

Slowly, cautiously, he moved his hands up his
chest until he found the ends of the wires. They ran down inside the neck of his t-shirt, where they were attached to his skin by two circular stickers.

His fingers shook as he carefully began to pull the stickers away. Beside him, the LED display lit up.

“500
VOLTS
”.

BZZZZZT!

Rex's back arched and his limbs went stiff. He pulled his hands away from the wires and shot the machine an accusing look. ‘Dude,
seriously
!' he said.

The machine was within arm's reach. It didn't zap him again when he positioned his hand beside it, fist clenched. ‘You just earned yourself a taste of the B.F.S.,' he told it. He concentrated on making the sword appear.

The sword did
not
appear.

He tried again, trying to form his Smackhands this time. Once again, nothing happened. Something was suppressing his nanites. He was powerless!

‘Could today get any worse?' he groaned.

BZZZZZZT!

He cried out in pain, then turned back to the machine. “900
VOLTS
” was flashing on the display
screen. ‘Ow! What was
that
for?' he demanded, but the machine didn't answer.

Rex lay his head back on the bed and tried to figure out his next move. He couldn't transform. He couldn't attract anyone's attention. If he tried to sit up, he got electrocuted. He had to admit, things weren't looking good.

Sighing, he turned his head so he was looking at the machine again. That was his main problem right now. If he could just find a way to disable it, he'd have a fighting chance at escape.

But who was he kidding? The tech stuff was Dr Holiday's speciality. A machine like that was bound to have failsafes and backup routines. Even if he could find a way of tampering with it, it'd only restart itself and …