The Vulpine, page 20
“If there are only two at a time,” Flare said, “we could take them on. There’s five of us.”
But Ivy was shaking her head. “They have these things – Tasers, they call them. They give you an electric shock. I saw one being used yesterday.” She shuddered. “If the nurses so much as take out a Taser, everyone falls in line. Whenever they unlock one of these cells – which happens every day – everyone huddles at the back, trying not to be noticed so that they don’t get picked.”
“Picked for what?”
A darkness came over her face. “To be harvested,” she said, her voice as hard as bone.
“Harvested?” The word made me feel sick. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, exactly. It’s a theory of Silvan’s. She heard the nurses use the word. Patients go through that door every day, when they come back, they have these marks on their arms, needle pricks like the nurses have taken their blood. They won’t explain what happened – you’ve seen them; they’re too frightened to talk.”
“And Silvan thinks the Hospital is harvesting their blood?”
“She was kept on the Top Floor of the Edifice before she came here. She heard things.”
“But harvesting?” Flare said with a twist of his mouth. “It makes them sound like food.”
“Maybe they are,” Ivy said darkly. “There’ve always been rumours about a monster here, haven’t there? Someone who feeds on the patients. I thought it was a myth, but look at this place – nothing would surprise me. I’ve never been chosen, so I don’t know any more than that. But maybe this monster really is sucking out their blood. Like a vampire.” She gave a ghost of her old smile, the first I had seen on her.
Eyeth shook his head. He looked from the patients, huddled in the corner, back to us and began to sign, too quick for me to follow.
“Whatever this thing is,” Flare interpreted, “maybe it’s not harvesting their blood for food – what if it’s after something in their blood?”
I looked at Eyeth. “Like what?” I signed.
He resumed signing, but from the looks on the others’ faces, I could see they didn’t understand either.
“Genetic code,” he signed, spelling the words out.
“But why?” Flare asked him.
Eyeth shrugged.
I was thinking. “Ivy, have you heard of someone called ‘the manager’?”
She nodded. “The nurses mentioned him. I think he runs this place. Why?”
“I was hiding in the leader’s office – I found him asleep, hooked up to some sort of a machine. These two men came in and mentioned him. They made out that he’s the real boss of the Edifice – that the leader is just a puppet.” I closed my eyes, trying to remember every word of their conversation. “That the leader’s genes are due to be … hacked … or something, soon.”
At this, Eyeth’s eyes grew round. “Hacked?” he spelled out to make sure he’d got it right, and I nodded. He frowned.
“What does it mean?” I said.
“Genetic hacking is altering a person’s genes,” Flare interpreted.
Of course! I had heard my mum talk about something similar. “Gene therapy”, she had called it. It could be useful, improving people’s lives. “But that’s good, isn’t it?” I said. “It could help them.”
But then I thought of the leader. Whatever they’d done to his genes, it hadn’t helped him, had it?
A soft whisper rose up from the floor, and we all turned.
Silvan had woken up.
“… modifying patients’ genes…” she murmured.
Ivy crouched down. “What?”
“In theory … the manager could be … manipulating behaviour … making the patients more biddable.”
“That cleaner in the lift!” I said, turning to Flare and Eyeth. “The girl. She didn’t even notice we were there. Could her genes have been hacked, too?”
I glanced at Silvan, but her eyes had closed again, as she was drifting in and out of consciousness.
“If it is possible, then I bet the nurses have been as well,” Ivy said. “That’s why they always do what they’re told, why they don’t seem to care for their patients.”
Flare was watching Eyeth sign. “Eyeth says, ‘The science isn’t there yet for that – it would be impossible.’”
“Yet, it looks like it’s happening,” Ivy said with a shrug.
“What if it’s the manager who’s running everything,” I said slowly. “The – the Hospital, and the Edifice?”
They all turned to look at me.
“He’s our enemy,” I said. It suddenly seemed so clear. “The manager. He’s the one we need to take down.”
“But none of this explains why he needs all this blood,” said Ivy. “You don’t need much to extract DNA, do you? Even I know that. What are they doing with all the blood they take?”
Eyeth looked blank.
“Has anyone here seen him? This manager?” I asked Ivy.
She shook her head. “Only the nurses see him as far as I know. And they’re frightened of him.”
I began to pace up and down, my footsteps echoing out into the cell, making the huddled patients flinch. “We’ve got to get these people out of here,” I said. “We could go out the way we came in…”
Flare shot a glance at me. “Are you kidding? Look at them. They’re scared of us. What do you think would happen if we just unlocked these doors?”
“They’d scatter like leaves on the wind,” Ivy agreed, “be captured in seconds.”
“And anyway, we can’t take them back through the Edifice,” Flare added. “The place will be full of workers now.” He lifted his mop, revealing the spear at one end. “I vote we get out through the Hospital – fight our way out if we have to. Then we work on a plan to come back and free everyone.”
“Didn’t you hear Silvan earlier?” Ivy said. “Leaving that way will alert the nurses.”
“We have a key card,” I said.
“No,” Silvan croaked from the floor. “Too … dangerous. They’re … on the other side.”
“She’s right,” said Ivy. “There are always nurses on shift, night and day – nurses with Tasers. If we go through there, they’ll electrocute us on the spot.”
“Well, what do you suggest, then?” Flare said, folding his arms.
She hunched against the wall, thinking. “The nurse I told you about, the one who was nice to me, she always comes in on the five o’clock shift. If we wait for her, we might have a better chance of overpowering them in here. We could force the Tasers from them, lock them in a cell.”
“I suppose that might work,” Flare said doubtfully.
“What other choice do we have?” Ivy said. The others nodded silently.
It was a grim proposition. I looked at my watch; it was eleven o’clock. Time had passed quickly since we reached the Hospital, but five o’clock was still many hours away.
“I suppose we’ll just have to wait till then,” I said, sitting down next to Ivy, the cold stone tiles sending shivers into my bones.
Flare and Eyeth walked to a corner of the cell, deep in silent conversation. Silvan had drifted into sleep again. In the shadows, I could feel the eyes of all the patients on us, their fear so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“How did you end up in here?” I said to Ivy.
She was quiet for a moment. “Ora?” she said at last, so hushed I could barely hear her. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Her face was filled with wary hesitation, and I felt my stomach tighten. I had suspected the truth, but I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I said, careful to keep my voice low. “You gave Atticus away.”
I waited, willing her to deny it, but she remained quiet. Slowly, she looked up at me, and in her eyes I saw a sorrowful, terrible guilt.
“I thought it was Casta,” I said, remorse flooding through me.
“I didn’t do it willingly,” she said. “I promise, Ora. I’m on the Vulpine’s side through and through. That’s why all this happened in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how hard I found it down there. How frustrated I was with Atticus and his plans.” She looked down at her lap. “One night, I … I went above ground. I know – it was dangerous, but it was as if my head would explode if I didn’t see the sky again.”
I felt my guilt shift. Deep down I had known, hadn’t I, that Ivy might be reckless enough to go above ground. I had thought her brave. Pioneering, even. I had been jealous of her lack of respect for the rules.
“But once I got out there, all that fresh air, all that sky, it made me feel … I don’t know … drunk with the freedom of it. I wanted to do something. Something that would make the government sit up and take notice.” She took a sharp breath. “So, I … tagged the Edifice building.”
I stared at her. “You tagged—”
“It was extremely childish, I know! ‘The Vulpine are watching you’ sprayed right across the windows and walls.” She sucked in a great, shuddering breath. “A guard caught me at it.” She sniffed, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “It turns out my mum had reported my potential Imperfect status to the government, you see. They knew who I was. Threatened me with the Hospital if I didn’t tell them everything I knew.”
“Like what? Not … not the ration run?”
Ivy bit her lip and nodded. “I thought that was it, but then they told me I had to hide some kind of recording device in Atticus’s office. They said they wanted intel on what he might be planning. I told them that Atticus had no plans to do anything, but they didn’t believe me. At first I refused to help, so then they gave me an ultimatum: do as they say and get my freedom to live above ground, plus the medication I needed, or be thrown into the Hospital.”
I stared at her, and she looked down at her hands, picking at her nails.
“I was told I should stay down there after I hid the device, so that I didn’t arouse any suspicion. But after a few days, I couldn’t do it any more. I couldn’t face seeing these people I’d lived with for months, knowing I had betrayed them, so … I left.” She sighed. “Officials caught up with me somewhere on the edge of the woods, as if they’d been waiting for me. And even though I’d done everything they asked, they brought me straight here.”
She shifted on the stone floor, and despite my anger, I took her hand in my own. Her fingers were stiff with cold.
“What happened after I went?” she said softly. “Did they arrest him?”
I studied her, trying to see if this was an act, but she looked so sincere, so sad.
“Who?”
“Atticus. They said they were going to bring him in for questioning on the day I left. That’s why I agreed to meet you in the chamber that day. I wanted you away from his office so that the Vulpine wouldn’t think you were involved. What happened?”
“You don’t know, do you?” I whispered. I glanced over at Flare and Eyeth. They were still deep in conversation.
“Don’t know what?”
“They bombed his office, Ivy.” Her face grew still. “I was in there with him. I was trapped next to his body for hours.”
“His body…” The little blood that was left in her face drained away. “He’s dead?” Shock and sadness blazed in her eyes. She began to tremble, pulling her hand from mine and pressing her palms to her face. “Oh my God, what have I done?” she said.
Beside us, Silvan jerked, as if she was dreaming. Her face had changed to a mask of sorrow, and I wondered if she was having a nightmare. But what dream could be worse than the reality we found ourselves in?
I sat back against the wall of the cell, my mind reeling. Ivy was running her hands through her hair, tears streaking her cheeks. She tried to speak, but no words came out. A small part of me wanted to put my arm round her, but something stopped me. She had never wanted my sympathy before, so why should I give it now? I watched, detached, as she got to her feet, tears flowing freely now. Head drooping, shoulders hunched, she stumbled over to join the patients huddled in the shadows. I didn’t try to call her back. Let her suffer, I thought savagely.
Eyeth came over to check Silvan’s pulse. “What was that about?” he asked me, signing.
But before I could reply, Silvan began to stir. She opened her eyes, blinking sleepily, and Eyeth tried to help her up.
“I’m all right,” she said weakly, batting him away.
She didn’t look it. She seemed even more frail than before. Turning to me so that Eyeth could not read her lips, she said in a low voice, “I heard you and Ivy talking just now.”
“Silvan, I…” I began, but she held up a hand.
“These two boys have a right to know. They are Vulpine, and Atticus was as close to a father as they have ever had.”
Flare came over to us, a puzzled look on his face. “What’s going on?” he said.
I hesitated. This was not my secret to tell, but neither did it feel right to keep it to myself.
“Ivy told me something,” I said. “About the day Atticus was killed.”
Flare and Eyeth looked at me, eyebrows raised.
“Ivy…” I faltered.
“Ivy made a mistake,” Silvan cut in, her no-nonsense voice calm and controlled, belying her weak state.
“A mistake?” Flare said.
“She trusted the wrong people, and she is only now realizing the extent of her bad judgement.”
“What do you mean?” Eyeth signed.
“I killed Atticus.” Ivy’s voice echoed out from the shadows, making the patients near her flinch.
“What?” hissed Flare.
“You didn’t kill him, Ivy.” I sighed.
Flare was peering into the darkness. “Either you did or you didn’t,” he said.
There was a shuffling sound, and Ivy came slowly into view. She looked terrible, her eye sockets so deep with grief that her face resembled a skull.
“Ivy’s actions contributed to Atticus’s death, it is true,” Silvan said. “But the government blackmailed her into getting the information they needed. She did not do it of her own free will.”
Flare was staring at Ivy, his face containing a multitude of emotions. “How could you?”
“Y-you’re right,” she stammered. “I didn’t know what would happen, but that doesn’t make it OK.”
“No, it doesn’t!” Flare yelled.
Silvan raised a hand. “Be quiet, Flare. The nurses might hear you.”
“Let them hear me! I want them to hear me.” He turned to the door. “Are you in there, hey?” he called out. “Come out here and face us. Go on, I dare you!”
Eyeth put a calming hand on Flare’s arm, signing something to him.
“Save my energy?” Flare said. “What exactly is the point? Our leader is dead, and it’s because of her!” He pointed at Ivy.
“And you’ll harm us all if you don’t quieten down,” Silvan countered angrily.
“Please, Flare,” I said. “Our only chance of getting out of here is taking those nurses by surprise when they come in at five o’clock.”
Flare levelled his gaze at Ivy for a moment longer, but gave a reluctant nod.
Silvan sat up straighter, a little colour in her cheeks. “I’ve been thinking about that. The moment they see you out of this cell, they’ll attack. Believe me, I’ve seen what they can do.”
“Then what do you suggest?” I asked her.
“We need some kind of diversion. Something to direct their focus on to.”
“Like … I don’t know, an explosion or something?” I said. “Eyeth, could you do that? Cause a diversion with something electrical?”
Eyeth looked around at the cells. “With what?” he signed.
He had a point. There weren’t even any lights in here. The door was electric, but we knew we must not mess with that.
“You can use me as a distraction,” Ivy said.
“No,” Silvan, Eyeth and me said at the same time. Flare remained silent, and we all turned to him.
“I suppose,” he added with a shrug.
“Please,” Ivy said. “I can’t make up for what I’ve done, I get that. But I can do this.”
“What exactly do you propose to do?” Silvan said.
“I’ll go out there in the corridor, right to the end near the door to the Edifice. They’ll run towards me – it’ll give you a chance to attack from behind.”
“It’s too dangerous,” I said.
She turned to me, her eyes silently pleading. “This I can do,” she said quietly.
“If we fail to overpower them before they reach you—” I began.
“Then I will deal with it,” she said, cutting me off, her mouth set in a determined line. “Please, Ora. Let me do this.” She held my gaze, daring me to object.
I was the first to look away.
“Are we all in agreement?” Silvan asked.
Reluctantly, we all nodded.
Eyeth approached Ivy. She looked at him warily, not sure what to expect, but he only lifted the bottle of pepper spray and put it into her hands.
“Be careful,” he signed.
“So,” said Flare. “What do we do now?”
“I guess we wait,” Ivy said, sitting down on the floor, her hands clasping the bottle.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
We sat waiting on the cold stone floor, stiff and shivering. Just as I was drifting into an uneasy sleep, I heard voices from the other side of the door.
“Quick,” Ivy hissed. “Get to the back, all of you. Now.”
Reluctantly, I hurried back with the others, helping Eyeth support Silvan. The edge of my hand touched someone, and I felt them whip away in terror. Ivy had already slipped out of the cell, hurrying to the far end of the room. She turned doggedly to face the door as it began to open.
Light poured into the passageway, and I felt the people in the cell behind me shrink back, ducking their heads behind knotted hair. Two nurses, a squat man and a grey-haired woman, entered, both wearing white lab coats like the kind my mum wore to work. The light filtered down the dark passage, illuminating Ivy, standing straight backed at the end, her chin raised high in defiance, and the man came to a stop in surprise. He was well built, bull-necked and burly, and as he looked at her, his lips spread into an ugly grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He started towards her, the other nurse following close behind, and I held back a whimper of fear.
