[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Galton pointed out to her left, where two more beds rested against the wall.‘Line them up along there,’ she told the guards, and the beds immediately tumbled out of the way to create space.‘Everyone except for Luke and his mother.They’re to be disposed of.’My blood ran cold.This was it.‘No!’ groaned Montag, still pinned to the wall by the end of the bed.‘Stand down.Do not –’The bed reared back and smashed into the wall again, knocking the wind out of him.The security guards stared at each other, apparently unsure whose orders they were meant to be following.I peered out from my hiding place, searching for an escape route, eyes landing on the little side door that Montag had been trying to open.His key was still sitting in the lock.Mr Burke stood up at the back of the room.He lowered Crazy Bill onto the nearest bed and started toward Dr Galton.‘Please.There are children here.’‘Abraham,’ said Dr Galton, ‘you’re going to want to put that down.’Mr Burke’s hand shot to the side, pickaxe flying out of his grip.It spun through the air, narrowly missing Mrs Burke’s head, and clanked to the ground next to the skinny bald guy I’d seen Officer Reeve helping before.‘Please,’ Mr Burke repeated, shaken but determined, taking another step forward.‘We don’t want any trouble.’Dr Galton looked like she might have laughed if she knew how.‘Deal with him,’ she told the guards.I glanced at the door again, weighing up my chances.Two seconds to jump up.A few more to get it open.Too long.‘I have given you an instruction, officers,’ Dr Galton hissed at the guards, who still hadn’t moved.‘But – Dr Galton, the doc said –’ She clenched her teeth.‘Oh, honestly …’ The guards’ hands jerked forward, pistols flying out from between their fingers.Without even looking back, Dr Galton threw out her arms and snatched the weapons out of the air.A crazed shout from the back wall jolted my attention away.The skinny bald guy was up on his feet, hands wrapped around Mr Burke’s pickaxe, charging at Dr Galton.He got about three steps, then shot straight back the way he’d come, like he’d been hit in the stomach with a wrecking ball.The pickaxe spun out of his hands and whumped into something.A sickening cry ripped through the room.I turned my head, everything suddenly in slow motion.Jordan was lying on the floor.Hands pressed to her side.Blood dribbling between her fingers, way beyond anything her body could fix.There was a roar from across the room.Jordan’s dad, charging at Dr Galton, face like a wild animal.Galton shot him a disdainful look and the bed I was hiding under flipped into the air, wiping him out of her path.Dr Galton was walking toward me before Mr Burke had even landed.She stretched out her arms again, levelling both the guards’ weapons down in my direction.‘I’d love to know how you did it,’ she said.‘How you and your mother managed to bypass our genetic screening and get yourselves onto the candidate register.’I scrambled back from her.There was noise coming out of my mouth, but none of it was words.I could hear Jordan moaning on the ground.Dr Galton stopped, eyeing me curiously.‘You don’t know, do you? You don’t know what you’re doing here any more than I do.’And then I was rising slowly off the floor, drifting into the air like a soap bubble.I flailed around, trying to get free, but nothing I did made any difference.Galton lifted me up until we were eye to eye.‘Think of this as a mercy killing,’ she said, closing what was left of the gap between us.‘It will be far less painful than the death you would have suffered if we’d left you for Tabitha to clean up.’I shivered as she brought the pistols down against my chest.Something blurred past me.‘NO!’BLAMBLAM!I collapsed to the floor again, crying out, eyes squeezing shut.My hands flew to my chest, feeling the place where the bullets had torn through my skin.But –But there was nothing there.No pain.Not pain like there should have been.And then I heard a gluggy coughing noise from somewhere above my head.I opened my eyes.Dr Galton had turned aside at the last second, weapons pointed away to my right.Montag stood opposite her.He coughed again, two bright red circles spreading out across the chest of his shirt.And then he threw himself at Dr Galton.His hands wrapped around her neck and they fell to the ground, almost on top of me, both grunting and shouting.And there was blood everywhere, billowing out between them.Dr Galton twisted around, fighting to get out from under him, but for some reason she wasn’t doing her brain thing on him.She dropped the guns, gasping for air.Someone was screaming.Mum.Suddenly right there on top of Montag, shaking him, telling him to get up.‘Run,’ he spluttered, voice all wet.Jordan moaned again from across the room.I ran over to her, shoving the bed away.She’d dragged a sheet down from somewhere, and it was balled up against her side, bright red and sticky.I bent down, arms hovering over her, helpless.‘No, no, no, you’re not –’Mrs Burke was kneeling there, horrified, Georgia sobbing into her hair.I scanned the room, desperate.Mum was still at Montag’s side, hysterical.Dad was behind her, trying to bring her away.The guards bent down to help Dr Galton.‘No!’ she croaked, still writhing under Montag.‘He’s dead already! Take your weapons! Stop them!’Something flew past out of the corner of my eye, and I ducked.But it was nothing Dr Galton had done.It was Amy, the running girl, already over at the door, turning the key.I reached down, sliding my arms under Jordan.She groaned.‘It hurts.’‘Sorry,’ I breathed.‘I’m sorry.I’m getting you out, okay?’I looked up again.The door was open.Amy was already outside.‘Go!’ I said to Mrs Burke, who was still kneeling next to me.‘Get out! I’ve got her!’Jordan’s mum nodded.She stood, taking Georgia with her.I hefted Jordan into the air, realising I was crying.Her mum and Georgia ran out the door.I felt a hand on my shoulder.‘Give her to me.’ It was Mr Burke.‘It’s okay,’ I said, glancing past him at Crazy Bill, still unconscious on the ground.‘I’ve –’‘Give her to me!’‘No – please – You have to take him.He’s – He’s too big.I can’t –’‘Do it,’ Jordan murmured to her dad.‘Take Bill.He’s important.’Mr Burke looked down at Jordan, then back up at me.Then he reached over and hoisted Bill up onto his back again.He glared at me with a look as terrifying as anything else I’d seen tonight.‘You get her home.’I nodded, choking down a sob.‘Yeah.’Dad had finally got Mum away from Montag, and was dragging her, screaming, through the door.One of the guards had picked up his gun.He stepped in front of us.‘Hey – stop –’‘MOVE!’ boomed Mr Burke.The guard shrank back, and we kept going, past the mess of arms and legs and blood that was Galton and Montag, out the door and into the darkness.Chapter 34WEDNESDAY, JULY 836 DAYSWe were in another corridor.Another dark, steel-walled tunnel under the town.There was a light shining off to my left, streaming down from the ceiling.Officer Reeve was already up ahead, spotlighted, waiting for us.‘This way!’ he yelled.‘Hurry!’I ran toward him, my vision still blurred with tears.Jordan shuddered in my arms.The light was coming from a room above our heads, at the top of another silver staircase.I passed Officer Reeve and staggered up, trying desperately to keep Jordan steady.Her dad came up after me, lugging Crazy Bill.The room at the top was an office.Big desk, leather chair, lounges around a coffee table.I bumped into the desk, knocking over a little photo frame.It was a picture of Cathryn.This must be her mum’s office, I realised dimly.Louisa Hawking, another one of the Shackleton Cooperative heads.We were in the office complex where my mum worked.Where she used to work [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]