Z 2134 (34 page)

“I can’t fight
them,” Adam said. “Especially Morgan. Plus, my dad said you should always turn
the other cheek, and use what’s in your head to avoid using your fists.”

The smile faded
from Keller’s face for the briefest of seconds before returning.

“Your dad was
only trying to protect you, and while his intentions were good, he coddled you,
making you a victim afraid to fight back. And you know what happens to victims
who don’t fight back?”

Adam shook his
head. “No, sir.”

Keller slammed
his open palms down hard on the desk, startling Adam.

“They keep being
victimized!”

“What am I
supposed to do?” Adam asked, his voice on the verge of a whine he hated to
have. “The counselors all say no fighting. I’ll get in trouble.”

“I promise, son,
good things are happening to you now. You’re my friend, so you won’t be getting
into trouble again.” Keller leaned across the desk. “All you have to do is walk
right up to the biggest bastard — I’m going to guess it’s Morgan — and punch
him in the mouth as hard as you can. Then jump on top of him and keep hitting
him until he’s crying and begging you to get off.”

“Really?” Adam
said, excitement blooming in his chest. “Just like that?”

Keller smiled,
his widest one yet. “Just like that,” he said.

“But what if he
pulls a knife?”

“Then you pull
this,” Keller said, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling a black
cylinder from the interior. It looked like two fat pens stuck together, with
one tip.

“What’s that?”
Adam asked, leaning across the desk.

Keller slipped
the cylinder into his hand. Adam stared, his eyes widening as he moved it from
one curled palm to the other, feeling the weight in his hand; slightly heavy,
though still lighter than it looked — no reason he couldn’t carry it in his
pocket and use it when needed.

“It’s a
mini-stunner,” Keller said. “They’re highly illegal; simply carrying one on
your person can get you into a world of trouble. Then again,” he smiled, as
wide as before but darker. “Your friends aren’t supposed to be carrying knives
in the orphanage, either, right?”

Adam nodded.

“The trick is to
keep the stunner hidden in your hand and not let anyone see it until it’s too
late for them to do anything about it. My best advice, young Lovecraft, is to
sneak up on Morgan and punch him as hard as you can. If he manages to get up
from the ground, even after you’ve given him your best knuckle sandwich,
squeeze the buttons on either side of this little beauty and hit him with the
tip. It delivers a powerful shock that will knock him out for a few minutes. I
suggest you spend those minutes beating him to within an inch of his life.”

Adam was
breathing so heavily in nervous excitement that he thought he might
hyperventilate.

“You got that?”
Keller asked.

Adam nodded,
then said, “Are you sure? Maybe I should just let things go and hope Morgan,
Tommy, and Daniel forget about it.”

“They won’t
forget,” Keller said. “That’s not how bullies operate. The only way to deal
with a bully like Morgan, or his minions, is to teach them a lesson — one
they’ll never forget.”

“When should I
try?”

“Don’t try,”
Keller said. “Do. I suggest waiting until lunch, dinner, or TV Hall later
tonight. Do it soon, and I’ll discuss the situation with your counselors to
make sure everything runs smoothly and nothing stands in your way.”

Adam stared at
Keller, without any idea what to say. “Why are you doing this? You put my dad
and sister in jail. Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Because, son, I
don’t hold the sins of your father or sister against you. Plus, you remind me a
lot of my own son.”

Adam’s next
words fell out in a whisper. “You have a son?”

“I did, but he
died in a bombing by The Underground several years ago. I see much of him in
you — a quiet intelligence and kindness that stupid people mistake for
weakness. The City should look up to kids like you, helping them grow into
tomorrow’s leaders, rather than turning them into tomorrow’s troubled prisoners
and Quarters scum. Now,” he gave Adam one final smile, “get out of here and
make me proud. We’ll be talking soon.”

“Thank you,”
Adam said, then left the schoolmaster’s office feeling a foot and a half taller.

Adam held the
mini-stunner in his pocket. Like Keller’s warm smile and promises, the tiny
weapon filled him with confidence.

He waited all
day for one of the trio to mess with him, almost eager, though he’d never
sought confrontation before.

After a late
afternoon snack, with his tray cleared and the Chimney Rock gruel swirling in
the pit of his stomach, he nearly bumped into Jayla. She smiled, but only for a
second, hanging on the top of another look Adam couldn't place — sort of
afraid, but mostly confused.

Her friend — a
girl Adam had never seen before, and not one of the original three who had been
with them in the kitchen — had kept walking and called back for Jayla as they
headed to the classrooms. The half-smile fell from her face, and she ran after
her friend without a word to Adam.

He felt an odd
sort of empty inside, all shell and no meat.

The day’s
remainder passed without incident. Adam ate his rations at dinner, as alone as
he’d eaten his breakfast and lunch, feeling a fresh and horrible sort of
invisible. Sick to his stomach, he barely picked at his rations, chewing
without tasting, and swallowing without chewing. He dumped his tray, still half
full, into the trashcan. He may have been the only one in the orphanage to do
that. Even terrible, it was still food, and the only choice they had.

Adam set his
empty tray on the stack, then headed for the bathroom.

He stepped
inside, glad it was empty. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in the
bathroom alone with another boy — always so awkward, even when he was only
going number one.

Adam opened the
empty stall, then sat to pee like always, feeling the usual flutter of guilt
for not standing like his father taught him. His heart fell to his belly as he
heard the door swung open and bang into the wall, followed by the unmistakable
voice of Morgan.

“So, Freak, I
heard you were called to the office today. What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” Adam
said, his voice quivering from nerves. He still had the mini-stunner in his
pocket but was suddenly afraid to use it, especially once he heard Tommy and
Daniel were outside the stall beside Morgan.

Tommy said, “I
can smell your shit,” even though Adam was only going piss.

“Hurry the fuck
up,” Morgan said. “We’d like to kill you before it’s time for pudding.”

He couldn't use
his mini-stunner if all three attacked at the same time. Adam thought of a
hundred questions he wished he’d thought to ask Keller, starting with how many
charges the stunner was good for.

Morgan’s fist
was on the stall door as his voice echoed off the bathroom walls.

Adam prayed for
someone to come in.

“Bullshit,”
Morgan said. “You ratted us out again, didn’t you?”

Adam said
nothing until Morgan’s fist beat on the stall hard enough to scare him into an
answer. “No,” he squeaked, hating himself for feeling so small, especially with
the stunner in his pocket. “I didn’t rat you out to anyone. They took me to the
schoolmaster’s office, but I didn’t say a word!”

“Bullshit!”
Morgan yelled.

Suddenly the
stall door burst open, breaking the latch, the piece of metal flying straight
at Adam’s chest before falling to the ground.

Adam jumped,
yanking his pants up as the three boys laughed and rushed at him, pulling him
from the stall and throwing him to the ground.

Before he knew
what was happening, Morgan’s hand was deep in Adam’s hair, fingers curling into
a clump and dragging him back to the toilet by the root. “Admit you ratted us
out, freaktard!” Morgan screamed.

Adam said
nothing as Morgan shoved his head into the toilet. His nose and lips dipped
into the urine-filled bowl, getting piss all over his face, into his mouth, and
up his nose.

Adam choked,
spitting and gripping either side of the bowl with both hands, trying to push
himself back up as it felt like a hundred hands were on him, forcing him back
down, his head into the water.

Adam was certain
he was going to die.

Then he was
yanked back, choking, gagging, eyes stinging in piss, as Tommy yelled, “Admit
it!”

Before he could
say anything, they shoved him back down, laughing hysterically as he grew
certain that he was going to die right here and now without ever getting a
chance to use the weapon Keller had given him.

“Admit it!”
Tommy screamed again.

Adam wondered
why nobody could hear what was going on. Why hadn’t anyone come to his rescue?

The three
bullies continued lifting him up, telling him to “admit it” and then shoving
him back down until Adam finally realized the bastards didn’t care whether he
admitted a thing.

“Fucking freak!”
Tommy said, kicking Adam hard in the back.

The three of
them backed away, laughing as Adam sobbed, crumpled over the toilet in pain,
humiliated, wet, and reeking of piss.

Maybe it was the
horrible bray of their laughter; or the way they left him helpless, hurt, and
humiliated; or maybe it was because he had been stupid enough to believe their
friendship.

Whatever it was,
he’d had enough.

Adam found his
power and got to his feet.

As the three
boys were filing out the door, Adam yelled, “Hey, fucker!”

Morgan was the
last one through the door. He turned back, face twisted in surprise and anger.
Adam raced at him, mini-stunner concealed in his hand until the last possible
second.

He squeezed the
buttons on either side and thrust it into Morgan’s chest.

Morgan’s eyes
shot open, with his mouth, a scream trapped as he clutched at his chest and
fell to the ground.

“What the fuck
did you do?” Tommy called out, staring down at Morgan as his entire body was
caught in violent spasms.

Tommy and Daniel
looked up at Adam like they were going to kill him.

Adam thrust the
mini-stunner forward, not even sure if it had another charge in it, and
screamed, “You wanna die?”

The boys took a
step back, and then everyone’s attention was pulled to Morgan, who was shaking
worse, his eyes rolling back into his skull as pink foam bubbled from his mouth
in a river of phlegmy blood.

No one said a
word; everyone was silent with no one knowing what to do until Morgan stopped
twitching. It was a half-minute before anyone spoke.

“He’s dead,”
Tommy whispered.

Daniel dropped
to his knees and felt for Morgan’s pulse. He looked up at Adam, and his face
went from menacing to frightened child in one terrifying moment. “You killed
him!”

Without another
word, both kids ran from the bathroom.

Not knowing what
else to do, Adam waited another minute, then slipped from the bathroom, making
it a few feet before he heard Brian Bob behind him.

“Stop right
there, Lovecraft!”

Brian Bob
grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and led him back into the bathroom, where
he fell back against the wall in surprise a second after opening the door.

His giant hand
tightened around Adam’s neck as he barked into the comm on his collar. “We’ve
got a situation here — I need City Watch ASAP!”

Adam pled
through the four minutes it took for the Watchers to arrive, then through the
two minutes it took for them to roughly wrap his hands behind his back and fix
him with restraints.

“Keller said it
was OK,” he pled, over and over, more than a dozen times before they reached
the ground floor of Chimney Rock, each time followed by, “He gave me the
stunner to protect myself! Please, you have to call him. He’ll tell you it’s
true.”

The Watchers
ignored Adam, dragging him through Chimney Rock, kicking and screaming, out the
front doors of the orphanage, down the steps, then into the back of the open
City Watch van.