Boy 23
Jim Carrington
I nod. ‘Well, that’s good.’
Huber sighs. ‘Yes, but knowing New Dawn, it won’t be long before they run tests on him to see why he’s different from other people. And as soon as that happens, they’ll come knocking at our door.’
I nod. ‘Of course.’
‘We’ve run out of time,’ Huber says. ‘We need to deal with Boy 23 immediately.’
‘It’s already taken care of,’ I say. ‘I paid Markus half of the money and told him to do it at the earliest opportunity. I told him the remainder would be payable on completion.’
‘Good,’ Huber says. ‘Let’s hope he succeeds, and soon. Otherwise we’ll need to get in there and take care of this ourselves.’
Carina
As I follow Father Frei through the corridors in silence, I think of my father and give thanks.
Because being the only child in the home who can speak both English and German fluently has secured me the job of being Jesper’s German teacher, which in turn has got me out of working at the landfill this morning.
We stop outside Jesper’s door. ‘Remember, you’re here to teach him to speak and understand German. I expect to see a noticeable improvement in his language.’
I nod.
‘Otherwise you’ll find yourself sorting rubbish again.’
Father Frei puts the keys in the lock and pushes the door open. Inside, Jesper sits on the edge of his bed, staring at me and Father Frei as we enter, eyes darting from one of us to the other.
As Father Frei leaves us, I sit down beside Jesper on his bed and right away I see his nose wrinkle. He shifts away from me. The smell of the landfill lingers on me.
I put down the book and pencil that Father Frei gave me.
‘How are you?’
He answers with a shrug and an ‘OK’.
‘I saw you and Father Frei walking through the corridors last night.’
He looks at me, confused. ‘Did you?’
I nod. ‘Where did you go?’
‘The town hall.’
‘What for?’
‘Father Frei wanted me to meet his friends.’
The thought of Father Frei’s friends brings a sudden and unwanted image into my head. ‘Who did you meet there?’
He shrugs. ‘I can’t remember most of their names. But there was someone called Commander Brune . . .’
The name just about stops my heart dead. I see my home . . . I see Dad . . . I see Greta . . . before I manage to force the thoughts from my mind.
‘Do you know him?’ Jesper says.
I nod. ‘He’s the head of the militia. New Dawn.’
Jesper nods.
‘Why did Father Frei take you to meet him?’
Jesper shrugs. ‘He wanted to see my miracle.’
‘What do you mean?’
He looks down at the floor. ‘They wanted to watch me heal. Commander Brune took me to a room and two New Dawn men hit my arm so it broke. They all stood and watched me heal.’
‘My God. Really?’
He nods. He rolls up the sleeve of his shirt on one arm and shows where a small, raised pink scar has knitted his skin back together. I reach out my fingers to touch it, but he flinches before I even get close.
‘There were some people who said they were from My Place as well. The Huber Corporation.’
‘My Place is where you come from, right?’
He nods.
‘That’s good news, isn’t it? Are they going to take you back there?’
He shrugs, then shakes his head. He looks like something’s troubling him. ‘They tried to. But I didn’t let them.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Because of something The Voice said. He told me never to go back. He said they wanted to kill me.’
We’re silent for a moment. I hear footsteps outside in the corridor and I’m reminded of Father Frei’s threat to send me back to the dump. ‘So, I’m meant to be teaching you to speak German. Do you want to learn?’
Jesper nods and smiles. ‘Yes, please.’
‘We can start by learning some of the words for family,’ I say.
Jesper nods.
‘Mother is Mutter.’
‘Mutter,’ he repeats.
‘Father is Vater.’
‘Vater.’
‘Sister is Schwester.’
‘Schwester.’
‘And brother is Bruder.’
‘Bruder.’
I can tell from the way he looks at me, the expression on his face, that he’s got something else on his mind other than German.
And after a while he opens his mouth and he says. ‘Do you have a family?’
I nod. ‘Yeah. Well, I did. They’re dead now. That’s why I’m in this place. That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? Because we have no one to look after us.’
Jesper nods.
I remember what he said to me before, about not having a mum or dad. ‘How about you?’ I ask. ‘Who looked after you before you came here?’
‘No one,’ he says. And then he thinks and adds, ‘Except, there was The Voice.’
‘The Voice? The person who left you in the woods?’
He nods. ‘He was the person that told me what to do.’
‘So you lived with him?’
‘No. I didn’t live with anyone.’
‘I don’t understand. You must have lived with other people. Someone must have been with you. You can’t just have a voice without there being a person.’
He shrugs.
‘You lived completely alone?’
He nods. ‘I never met another person till a week or so ago.’
For a moment I say nothing, because I don’t understand how what he’s saying can be true. And I’m not sure Jesper understands either. ‘So what was he like? The Voice?’
‘I never met him. I just heard his voice. He was kind and clever and he looked after me.’
I raise an eyebrow. Maybe he’s one of those people who hears voices inside his head. Maybe he’s mad. ‘So where did you live?’ I ask him.
‘My Place.’
‘You said that. But where is that?’
He shrugs. ‘I don’t know.’
‘So you lived in a place where you were alone and you don’t know where it was?’
He nods. ‘I lived alone. In one room. Just me and my pet squawk. I never met anyone else. I never heard of New Dawn or Huber or Marsh Flu. Not until I was left in the forest.’
I raise my eyebrows. It’s astonishing that there’s anyone who had never heard of New Dawn or Marsh Flu. And if anyone else told me a story like this, I probably wouldn’t believe them; I’d think they were trying to hide something. But Jesper’s different. ‘So how did you end up here, in St Jerome’s?’
Jesper thinks for a moment before replying. ‘The Voice took me from My Place because he said I wasn’t safe there any longer. He said there were people there who wanted to kill me. The people I saw at the town hall last night. The Voice left me in the forest and told me to head north-west, to find the Spirit of Resistance in the Low Countries.’
My spine tingles. ‘The Spirit of Resistance? Really?’
He nods. ‘The Voice told me to stay away from people and buildings. He said he’d come and find me when he had completed everything he needed to.’
Jesper pauses. I say nothing.
‘Except when I was in the forest I found a road. I got hit by a car with New Dawn officers in it. They hit me over the head and I woke up here.’
I nod. What he says sounds far-fetched. But he looks like he believes every word.
And then in the corridor outside I hear footsteps again and keys jangling and we pretend to get back on with the German lessons.
Jesper
The lights have just gone out and my eyes are closed, ready to drift into sleep, when I hear a sound coming from the corridor. A scratching, rattling sound at my door.
I open my eyes, sit up. I squizz through the darkness, wondering what’s happening.
The loc
k clunks.
The handle turns.
The door opens.
And then a dark figure steps into the room, stands in front of the doorway, filling the space up. And even though I can’t see the eyes, I know that whoever is there, they’re squizzing directly at me.
And I don’t know what else to do, so I hide under my bed sheets, peeking out, as the figure moves silently closer. And I see that whoever it is, they’re dressed head to toe in black, with even their face covered. They move quietly towards me.
And I know that this isn’t right.
I can’t just cower in bed; I have to do something.
I jump from the bed and make a run for it.
Only the black figure stands in my way, blocking my escape route.
‘Time to die, Jesper,’ the figure says. Male. English words, German voice. He pulls something shiny from a pocket.
And it’s a knife, isn’t it?
It’s my knife.
Moonlight flashes off the blade.
‘This is for Sabine,’ he says. ‘From Huber.’
I squizz from the knife to the figure and back again, looking for a way out. But there isn’t one. All I can do is lunge at him, try to knock him over before he gets me. So that’s what I do.
BLAM. I crash into the figure.
And that’s when I feel a sharp pain in my guts.
Cos I’ve been stabbed.
I collapse to the floor, leaking blood, a puddle forming around me on the floor.
The figure gawps at me for a second, and then turns and flees.
Carina
The lights went out a while ago. I lie in bed and close my eyes.
And what I see is Commander Brune – his heavy brow and his massive shoulders and his big bristling moustache. I see his shiny black boots, splattered with blood. He stands in our kitchen, where I hide, aged seven and terrified. I see Brune lower his gun, pass it to Father Frei.
Though back then he wasn’t Father Frei. He was Officer Frei – a militiaman. Dressed in black New Dawn uniform, he grabs hold of the gun.
And then Brune grabs Greta and she squeals. And I see me, aged seven, saying a silent prayer.
I force myself back into the present and open my eyes. I don’t want to remember what comes next. I leave the dorm and walk through the still, silent corridors.
And as I walk, the bad memories clear and I think about maybe paying a visit to the kitchens to get myself something decent to eat.
But as I descend the steps from the girls’ corridor, I hear a noise that makes me stop still. I hear the sound of footsteps squeaking along the boys’ corridor, sounding like someone’s running.
I hurry down the rest of the steps and then over to the boys’ stairs. I climb the staircase. The footsteps rush in my direction, getting close, so I look around for somewhere to hide, find an open doorway and slip inside. And then, in a flash, someone dashes past, dressed head to toe in black. They’re gone in a second.
I stay where I am for a few seconds more, wondering who that was and what they were doing running around the corridors at night. And I decide to investigate. I walk the boys’ corridor, creeping nervously along, thinking that maybe whoever just ran past will come back.
But as I turn a corner near to where I hid last night, I see something – someone is slumped on the ground. As I rush closer, I realise that the someone is Jesper and there’s a pool of blood forming all around him.
Panic consumes me. I race over and kneel beside him, check his pulse. And with relief I realise he’s alive.
‘What happened?’
He can’t answer though. He looks at me, eyes pleading for help. He holds his stomach and I see that’s where the blood’s leaking from.
I look around us at the empty corridor and I think a hundred thoughts, trying to figure out what to do first.
‘HELP!’ I shout. ‘HELP!’
I turn back to Jesper and see that his blood is everywhere. ‘Did someone do this to you?’
He nods, slowly, pain etched on his features.
If I don’t stop the bleeding, he’ll die. I take off my dressing gown, rip at the sleeve until it comes free. I move Jesper’s hand away so I can look at the wound, but the light’s too dim and all I see is a slash in his clothing and blood seeping on to his pyjamas. I hold the torn-off sleeve to the wound.
And still the corridor around us is quiet and empty. Where is everyone?
‘HELP US, PLEASE!’ I shout. ‘JESPER’S HURT.’
Jesper watches me, gritting his teeth, saying nothing.
‘Who did this to you?’
He doesn’t answer.
‘I saw someone in the corridor,’ I say. ‘Someone dressed all in black.’
He nods, grimacing.
I’m just about to turn and shout for help again, when I hear footsteps. I turn. Little Ralph stands in the corridor and stares, eyes wide and terrified.
‘Go and get help, Ralph. Wake Father Liebling or Father Lekmann. Say someone broke into Jesper’s room and stabbed him.’
Ralph nods and he runs away down the corridor.
Jesper
There’s a gaping hole in my belly – I know cos I felt it with my fingers. Carina holds the bandage to it, trying to stop the blood from leaking out. And all the time, she’s whispering to me.
Only my head feels so light and empty that her words just float around me and I don’t hear them properly. I force myself to look straight at Carina, to listen to what she’s saying.
‘. . . was in the corridor last night.’
‘Uh?’ I say.
‘Markus. He was in the corridor last night, looking for your room. Did he do this to you?’
It happened too fast. It was dark, and I couldn’t see a face. But it was my knife, wasn’t it, and . . . I adjust my weight and that sends a surge of pain from my belly around my body. I grit my teeth, close my eyes.
‘It must have been Markus,’ Carina’s saying. ‘He asked me at . . .’
Only I don’t hear the rest of what she’s saying, because all of a sudden I’m getting that feeling – my body telling me to move, to sit up. Pain surges through me as I force myself upright. But I have to do it, don’t I?
‘Jesper, no,’ Carina’s saying. ‘You must stay still.’
But my body’s telling me to do it.
So I sit up. I move Carina’s hand away from the hole in my belly. And then it begins – blood seeping back inside me, skin knitting itself together, healing. It takes little more than a minute.
Carina gawps at me with her mouth open, squizzes at where the hole was, at the floor where the blood was. She shakes her head.
‘I don’t understand,’ she says.
I say nothing.
‘It all went back inside you. How did that happen?’
I shrug, because I can’t explain it. It just happens, doesn’t it?
‘Let me look at your stomach,’ she says.
I lift my nightshirt up. I run my fingers over the place where the knife went in and the hole isn’t there any more. In its place there’s just a raised, tender bump. Carina reaches out and touches it, and I watch the look of disbelief on her face.
‘It’s healed. That’s not possible. How do you do that?’
Only before I can answer, there are footsteps along the corridor. And then the boy that Carina sent to get help and Father Liebling are standing over me.
Carina
‘What’s going on?’ Liebling asks. ‘Why are you out of bed?’
‘Jesper’s been stabbed,’ I say. ‘But the wound just healed before our eyes.’
The colour drains from Father Liebling’s face. He makes the sign of the cross in front of his face and whispers some words, as though God had anything to do with what happened. He bends down to Jesper’s level. ‘Oh no. Jesper, are you OK? How did this happen?’
Jesper nods his head.
‘Are you sure you were stabbed?’
Again he nods.
‘Show me where.’
‘You feel OK?’
‘I’m OK,’ Jesper says.
Father Liebling brings his fingers away from Jesper, eyebrows raised. ‘Fascinating. He’s completely healed,’ he says in German. ‘You’re sure he was stabbed?’
‘Certain,’ I say. ‘I saw someone running through the corridor and I came to investigate. When I got here, I saw Jesper collapsed in a pool of blood. He had a big knife wound in his stomach, where the scar is now. I tried to stop the bleeding with the sleeve of my night robe.’ I show him the improvised bandage.
He takes it from me, looks at the blood that’s soaked into it. Then he hands it back and walks past Jesper, through the doorway into his room. Liebling looks at the door, at the blood-stained floor where Jesper must have pulled himself along, out into the corridor.
‘This door was locked,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘I locked it an hour ago. How did anyone get in here?’
Nobody answers. I put my arm around Ralph, who’s staring at Jesper, looking scared.
‘Jesper, did you see who did this?’ Liebling asks in English.
Jesper shrugs. ‘He had my knife – so I think it was Markus. He took all my stuff. I didn’t see his face though.’
Father Liebling stands where he is, thinking, sighing, still looking around at the floor and at Jesper and at the door.
‘Jesper, I think it’s best if you come with me, for your own safety. We’ll go and speak with Father Frei and find you somewhere safe to sleep.’ He turns to me. ‘Carina, take Ralph back to his dorm and then go and get some sleep. I’ll make sure nobody suspects you were out of bed.’
I start to guide Ralph along the corridor, while Father Liebling helps Jesper to his feet.
Blake
Markus checks around him before hurrying across the street and down the side road to where we’re waiting in silence. As he gets close, Henwood lowers the driver’s window. Markus checks around him again before coming to the window.
‘So?’ Henwood says.
Markus nods. ‘It’s done. I went to his room last night.’
