Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island (5 page)

Parveen was so rapt in contemplation of the evil spectacle that he failed to notice when the robot carrying Noor set off along the catwalk, the two Grey Agents on either side of it now. He started out in pursuit as quickly and stealthily as he could.

The catwalk where Parveen stood was suspended a hundred metres above the floor below and ran the entire length of the chamber. Parveen caught up with his sister and her escort as they passed through another set
of sliding glass doors. He nipped in just as the doors hissed shut.

Once inside, he stopped dead in his tracks. Looking up into the room he had to bite back an involuntary cry of horror.

The room was big, not as vast as the one he'd just left but very large. He stood at one end of a long stone causeway. On either side of the causeway was a yawning empty space. Well, not exactly empty. The space was filled with children.

Children were suspended in rows above and below him. Like fruit from a vine of wires and cables they hung, motionless and inert. They wore pale grey body stockings that clung like a sickly second skin and made them seem even more deathly pale, their faces wan and slack, eyes closed, comatose. Wires stretched from harnesses affixed to their shaven scalps. A tube ran from each of their mouths through which a sluggish green fluid oozed slowly. Parveen felt a horrible revulsion. As he watched, several metallic creatures with multiple silvery legs scurried up and down the wires and tubes like spiders, servicing the sleeping orchard of children.
What is this place?
he asked himself. He was so horrified that he had to shake his head to clear it of the vile setting. Keeping his attention on the path ahead, he set off after his sister.

The stone causeway stretched out across the chamber, passing through the terrible orchard of children. Parveen concentrated on the back of the robot as it carried his sister's pallet flanked by the two Grey Agents in their surgical clothes. He felt terror uncoiling in his stomach like some tentacled creature at the bottom of the ocean that rarely felt the warmth of the sun. Was his sister doomed to become one of these children, hooked up to a bizarre network for who knew what purpose? He staggered along behind the party as they approached another black metal hatchway.

As the party approached the hatchway, it slid open with a soft, asthmatic hiss to reveal a dim room beyond. Parveen scooted in after them as the hatchway slid shut. After the relative brightness of the child orchard, this new place was quite dark. Parveen's goggles took a moment to adjust to the ambient light. When they did, he almost fell to his knees. He stifled another cry of horror. He thought that nothing could be more terrifying than the child orchard. He was wrong. Horribly wrong.

“Noor,” he whispered softly. “Oh, Noor, no.”

Chapter 5

HAMISH X

Hamish X lay very still. He lay perfectly still because the knife at his throat was very sharp and the young girl holding said knife seemed very serious indeed. Lying still is always the best option when someone serious is pressing a knife to one's throat.
²¹
,
²²

The boy named Thomas looked at Hamish X with cold blue eyes.

“I think we should kill him now,” he whispered. “We don't need his help and we can't trust him.”

“I want to hear his story. How did he end up on this tub?”

“Who cares, Maggie? Just kill him and let's get on with taking over the ship.”

“What are you talking about? Kill him? You wouldn't hurt a fly.”

“I would, too.”

“Well, I'm in charge, because I have the knife.”

“Right, sister Maggie, dear.”

“And I'm older,” Maggie said pointedly. Thomas made a rude noise and fell silent. Maggie turned her full attention back to Hamish X. As she pondered his immediate future, he had time to examine his captors.

Maggie was a girl of roughly eleven years of age. Her hair was dark and, at the moment, a greasy mess. She had the same luminous blue eyes as her brother, but while his face was round, hers was long and sharp. She wore a striped orange-and-blue bathing suit that looked a little the worse for wear and a matching sarong wrapped around her waist. Thomas, the bloodthirsty brother, wore jeans with holes in both knees and a T-shirt that announced
My Grandma went to Aruba and all I got was this crappy T-shirt
in blue neon letters. He held a length of metal pipe in his hand. As Hamish X looked at him, Thomas slapped the pipe into his hand in a menacing fashion.

Gathered around them was a crowd of grimy, bedraggled children, eyes wide and white in their filthy faces. They warily eyed their captive and waited for instructions from the girl Maggie.

“So, spill the beans,” Maggie demanded. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you spy or what?”

“A spy? What's there to spy on?”

Thomas thrust his face into Hamish X's. “Us. The Captain coulda sent you down here to see what we're up to. To rat us out!”
²³

“I'm not a spy,” Hamish X said, his skin crawling under the edge of the knife. “I don't know anything about the Captain. Listen, I just stowed away on this boat to steal a ride.”

“A ride? On a child-slaver? Are you kidding me?” Maggie shook her head.

“A child-slaver?” Hamish X asked. “This is a child-slaver?”

Upon hearing this news, Hamish X felt a flicker of anger ignite in his belly.

Maggie nodded. “They cruise around and snatch children, then sell 'em. At least that's what we've overheard from the crew.”

Hamish X clenched his fists and felt a surge of power flow into his boots. “Sell them to whom?”

Maggie looked into Hamish X's golden eyes, and what she saw there made the knife waver in her hand. “The Grey Agents,” she said softly. “The ODA.”

“That's enough talking.” Thomas spat and shook his head in disgust. “I'd kill 'im. It's simpler.”

Hamish X glared at the boy. “But not very nice,” he observed coldly. Something in the glare of his golden eyes made Thomas take a step back.

“Still.” Thomas shrugged.

A little girl, one of the many children in the dark cargo hold, stepped closer. Her face was smeared with dirt. She wore a ragged dress and carried a teddy bear under her arm. The bear was missing one eye and its left arm. She leaned closer and peered at Hamish X. “Hey,” she said softly. “You …” Her eyes went wide. “You're Hamish X.”

In the darkness of the ship's hold, Hamish X felt a hush descend. Thomas's eyes were suddenly wide, all suspicion gone, replaced by awe. “Hamish X,” he breathed. “
The
Hamish X?”

“I suppose so.” Hamish X shrugged. Suddenly, children were crowding in, grasping at him as if to assure themselves he was real. Grimy hands reached out and brushed his clothing, touching the black surface of his boots as if they were some kind of hallowed objects. Hamish X looked into their faces and saw that, where only moments ago there had been despair, now there was a glimmer of hope.

Maggie lowered the knife but maintained a belligerent attitude, her lip curled. “Hamish X, eh? What are you doing here on this dirty, filthy tub?”

Hamish X stood up and stretched. “An accident. A total fluke. I just needed to hitch a ride and this is the first ship I tried. How lucky for you that this is a child-slaver ship in the employ of the Grey Agents.”

“Lucky? Are you off your nut, buddy?” Thomas laughed humourlessly. “The
Christmas Is Cancelled
is the last ship you wanna get stuck on and the ODA are the last people you want to tangle with.”

Hamish X thought about that for a second. “All right, that came out wrong. Being trapped on a child-slaver ship isn't the luckiest thing in the world that could happen to you. The Grey Agents are terrible people to be mixed up with. What
I meant to say was having me stow away on the child-slaver ship you happen to be trapped aboard is lucky in the extreme, especially since the Grey Agents are my sworn enemies! … Wait a minute …
Christmas Is Cancelled?
” asked Hamish X. “That's the name of the ship?”
²⁴

“Cute, isn't it. It's the Captain's idea of a joke,” Maggie explained. “The
Christmas Is Cancelled
runs up and down the European coastline snatching kids. We were on a summer holiday in Turkey with our parents.” She jabbed a dirty thumb at Thomas. “My brother and me. We were just wandering along the beach looking for shells when we got kidnapped.”

“Our parents told us not to go out of sight,” Thomas said bitterly. “But we didn't listen.”
²⁵

“They were waiting for us behind a big rock outcrop,” Maggie explained. Her eyes glistened in the feeble light of the cargo hold. “They grabbed us, gagged us, and stuck smelly sacks on our heads. They had a boat waiting and then brought us out to the ship.” She shook her head suddenly, a quick snap that sent her greasy curls bouncing. “That was a few weeks ago. They've been picking up kids all around the Mediterranean. There's more than a hundred of us now.”

“Where are they taking you?” Hamish X asked. His heart went out to these poor kids. He had a quest to complete, but he knew he'd have to postpone his own journey until he could deal with this situation. Then he would be back on his way.

“We've been trying to figure that out. The Captain and his crew have been careful not to talk too much. From what we've managed to overhear, we're going to a place called Morocco.”

Hamish X pondered for a moment. “Morocco. There's a slave market there in a city called Marrakesh. I've been there before.
²⁶
I suppose that's where they'll meet their bosses and hand you over. Any idea when we're to arrive?”

“We arrive at dawn. I overheard Captain Ironbuttocks talking to the guards,” Maggie said.

“Captain Ironbuttocks?” Hamish X scoffed. “What kind of ridiculous name is that?”

“He isn't ridiculous,” Maggie shot back. “He's mean and he's dangerous.”

“Ironbuttocks.” Hamish X shook his head and laughed. “What is with these sea captains and their inane nicknames? Why can't they just be Captain Jones or Captain Wilson? Honestly!”
²⁷

“He isn't someone you should laugh at,” Maggie warned. “He's a pretty nasty customer.”

Hamish X stood quite still. Those closest to him took a shuffling step backwards when they saw the look on his face. A wolfish, sneering smile exposed his left incisor, giving his features a predatory cast. His fingers curled into tight fists, opening and closing slowly. A ghostly, bluish flicker skated over the surface of his boots like an echo of his growing hatred for his mortal enemies. The faces of the children in the dark, dank cargo hold reflected the faint flare of power.

“So am I,” Hamish X growled softly. He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

“I bet you are.” Maggie nodded.

I should be getting on my way,
Hamish X thought.
I have
to find the Professor.
He shifted his shoulders, feeling the weight of the book in his backpack settle between his shoulder blades. The
Great Plumbers and Their Exploits
book was the reason he was on this journey.
I have to find
the Professor, but this is a chance to strike directly at the ODA, who did this to me. For the first time since I got some of my memories back, I'm able to do some good. I can't pass up this chance.
Aloud, he said, “What's the plan?”

Maggie and Thomas exchanged a look. Maggie held up her knife. “I have a knife.”

Thomas shrugged. “And I found a piece of pipe.”

Hamish X frowned. “I was expecting more, but I suppose that's a start.”

“We haven't got a lot of options,” Maggie said defensively. “I managed to steal this from the kitchen while I was working there. Some of the other kids have done the same. Some have clubs, but mostly we're counting on numbers.”

“There are only twenty or so crew members,” Thomas added, then frowned. “Plus the captain.”

“Ha!” Hamish X couldn't help but laugh. “Ironbuttocks! I still think that's a ridiculous name. I mean, Ironbuttocks. Really!”

“Sure,” Thomas grumbled. “It sounds ridiculous! But he's no pushover. You'll see.”

“Don't worry! Leave old Rustypants to me!” Hamish X puffed out his chest. “I've handled worse.”

“Anyway,” Maggie interjected, “we're getting ahead of ourselves. First we have to get out of the hold. The hatch is battened down every night.” She pointed up into the gloom overhead. Hamish X looked up and could vaguely make out the outline of the hatch he'd climbed into hours before. It had been open then, but now a heavy wooden cover had been pulled over the opening, reinforced with steel bars.

Hamish X nodded grimly, taking in the fortified hatch with thoughtful eyes. Then he turned to the children huddled in the darkness of the cargo hold. He tried to look into each and every dirty, desperate face as he spoke.