The Hunting (36 page)

‘I can’t pay,’ Genie told him. She had less than four dollars on her. That was pretty stupid on her part. She hadn’t been thinking straight at all.

‘My pleasure. But you’ll have to eat ’em. I ain’t buying pancakes if you’re just going to stare at them.’

Genie was looking back at the accident as they finally pulled away. The horse had died, but who could warn a horse? She didn’t especially know why her visions had come back to her but she was getting used to them again now. It was like meeting up with an old friend. She looked at Ben again and nodded. Food would be good. ‘I’ll eat them, Ben. I’ll eat them all.’

‘
I
’m telling you, miss, there’s no boy called Christopher admitted yesterday.’

Genie wasn’t accepting this, or the hard-faced woman staring at the computer screen in hospital reception.

‘He had a broken arm, leg and puncture wounds. It would have been a big deal. I know he was brought here. He’s an Academy student at Cobble Hill.’

The woman stared at Genie with unspoken hostility.

‘I can only tell you what the screen says. You want me to call security? You’re beginning to be a nuisance.’

Genie couldn’t believe this. Rian had brought him. Had told her he was with him all the way to the ER. There was no other hospital.

‘What about the name of the boy who brought him?’ she countered.

‘We don’t keep that on file unless it’s a gunshot wound.’

Genie looked away a moment, refusing to admit defeat.

‘What if someone got it mixed up? Mistakes happen. It would have been an emergency. Look up his name anyway.’ It was a long shot, but what if Cary had been semi-conscious or something and given them his real name. She was sure if she was knocked down and left for dead she’d never remember ‘Rhiannon’. ‘Please. One last look, then I’ll give up. Check for Cary Harrison.’

The women puckered her lips into a nasty cat’s bottom and entered the name, getting ready her ‘I told you so’ when: ‘E Ward. But they won’t let you in – that’s severe trauma.’

Genie was already on her way to the elevator.

‘Thank you,’ she called back. The receptionist glared, almost hating being defeated like that.

On the way up Genie suddenly thought of what just happened. If Cary was registered under his own name, Rian must have known this. He was with him when he was admitted. What did he think he was doing? It put them all at risk. Cary was under eighteen. It meant they’d automatically call his parents and they didn’t even know he was alive, probably even got his body back from the Fortress and … it was devastating.

She found her way on to the ward, checked all the rooms one by one and no one took a blind bit of notice of her. Nursing staff were drinking coffee at the workstation and someone was serving tea to the patients.

His name was on a piece of card on the door. He had his own room, which surprised her until she saw he was hooked up to all kinds of machines and something that helped him breathe. It was pretty scary. His face was swollen, his right arm and left leg in plaster and she could only imagine how bad his torso was after being impaled on a tree.

Genie took off her coat and washed her face in the sink. She needed that. Drank a glass of water too. She realized that she was exhausted. Didn’t know how; all she’d done was ride in a truck and walk a little.

‘You look awful,’ Cary rasped from his bed.

Genie turned with surprise and then laughed, so happy to hear his voice.

‘You can speak?’

‘A little. Punctured a lung, but I think they fixed it already. Can’t move though. They want to replace my liver or something, damaged it beyond repair. Machine keeping me alive right now.’

‘Serious? I guess it’s too late to order a new liver from the Fortress huh,’ Genie said, moving to the side of the bed and taking his good hand.

Cary squeezed it a little. His hand was warm, his temperature very high. She could see his eyes looked really spaced. He was on painkillers, she guessed. She could see now that he was very lucky to be alive, even if he did look a weird shade of yellow.

‘I’m sorry, Genie.’

‘Hey, I’m not the one in hospital.’

‘I didn’t mean that. They got my name.’

Genie nodded. ‘It’s on the door. How did that happen?’

‘The DNA database. You, me, we’re all on it. Chris is dead. Denis stole his name from a database of dead teens. Yours too. The moment they took my blood it told them everything about me. They already …’ He coughed a little, spittle dribbling down his mouth. Genie got a tissue and dabbed his chin.

‘They already called my parents. My mother will be in shock. It’s going to cause problems for you at school too. Sorry.’

Genie looked at him and nodded. She understood. ‘It’s all going to unravel, right? They can find us now. I can’t believe Rian didn’t mention this.’

‘My fault.’

Genie smiled shaking her head. ‘No one’s fault. Hey, you invented the hover board, Mr Genius. Can’t take that away from you. I saw the video of your crash through the window. It’s probably on YouTube already.’

Cary’s face clouded. ‘Get the flash drive out of the shoebox back at the cabin, Genie. Protect it with your life. All my calculations are on there.’

‘You’ll be back soon,’ she countered, not quite following him.

Cary grew agitated. ‘No, I won’t. It’s all going to turn to crap. Get the memory stick out of the shoebox and hide it good, right? Promise me.’

‘I promise. Now sleep, you’ve set the machines off. Cary …’

An alarm began to ring and he blacked out. Genie knew nurses and doctors would pile in at any moment. She grabbed her coat and backed away from the room.

Sure enough, hospital staff came running.

Genie hovered nearby, pretending she’d just arrived.

‘Is this Cary Harrison?’

‘Not now. Wait,’ a nurse shouted at her as she ran into the room.

Genie drifted towards some chairs in the corridor.

A doctor came running and someone with a crash cart.

Genie wished she hadn’t upset him. He looked really bad. She shouldn’t have come. Rian hadn’t said he was this bad. Rian didn’t seem to notice
anything
any more.

She walked over to a patient sitting in a dressing gown reading a magazine. ‘Is there a phone I can use?’

‘Far end of the corridor, one floor down. The one on this floor is out.’

Genie nodded and looked down the corridor. She had to phone Renée and warn her. But surely Rian knew. Why hadn’t he said anything? Made no sense at all.

She couldn’t help Cary now, but she had to protect herself and the others.

The elevator took her down one floor and sure enough there was a phone, only there was an angry woman in dreadlocks shouting at someone about money she was owed. She’d have to wait.

The view was of the car park. A gusting wind had got up and snow was blowing across the cars. She saw nothing. She realized now that their secret had always been incredibly vulnerable to this. Whether Cary, or Ri, or whomever; the moment one of them had an accident, the DNA database would have thrown up their identity. And who had access? Strindberg and the Fortress, that’s who. They would have no choice now. They would have to leave Cobble Hill or face being discovered.

Poor Cary. How was he going to face his parents? How would they face him? What would he tell them? How would they cope with the idea of him being a replica? They would have buried him once already – or at least come to terms with his death. How could they face losing him twice? Would they even believe he was their son? And worse, her own mother would hear about it and then she would wonder where she was. God, it was all going to unravel fast.

At last the woman stopped screaming and slammed the phone down. Genie approached it with caution, wiping it with tissues and anti-germ gel from the corridor dispenser. Who knew what germs lurked in hospitals? She couldn’t risk getting sick, that was for sure.

Renée didn’t answer. It went straight to voicemail. Genie wasn’t sure what to say; she hated leaving messages.

‘They know Cary’s name. Tell Ri. We have to leave Cobble Hill. A day’s gone by already, Ren. Someone’s going to come for us, I know it. Cary looks bad. Going to be here a long time. They called his folks in Spurlake already. I’m at the hospital.’

She put the phone down, paid two bucks for the pleasure of the call to a cell. Now she had nothing. She shivered. She resolved to go back up, check Cary one last time and hitch back. She realized now that she shouldn’t have come. Renée should be here shedding tears, not her.

Upstairs in the ward it was quiet. She spotted the nurse who’d gone in to see to Cary and walked up to her. She looked up from writing her notes and sighed.

‘You know Cary Harrison?’ the nurse asked.

‘At school with him. He’s my best friend.’

‘You know he’s in bad shape, right?’

Genie nodded. ‘His liver …’

‘Yeah. And the rest. We need to know. Was he a suicide risk? I mean, how did he get like this?’

‘Cary? Are you kidding? Didn’t anyone tell you? He’s a genius. It was an accident. Something blew up in the lab, sent him right through the window.’

‘Through a window?’

‘He didn’t tell you? He fell like thirty metres or something.’

‘He hasn’t spoken to anyone. He can’t speak with the tubes in his mouth.’

‘But …’ That made no sense. She’d just been talking to him.

‘Look, he’s not allowed visitors. In a week maybe, but he’s in very bad shape, you understand? Critical. What’s your name?’

‘Rhiannon. Can I just see him before I go?’

‘You can look. I need to know for his notes. Any allergies? Anything you know about his medical history? We left a message on his parents’ phone, but they haven’t got back to us yet.’

‘He’s pretty well, was … always well. Never known him sick. You sure he can’t speak? I mean …’

‘Certain.’

Suddenly the alarms went off again.

‘That’s him now. You really shouldn’t be here, y’know.’

The nurse began to stand up, and down the corridor someone shot out of Cary’s room.

‘Excuse me, sir? Sir?’

The man kept on walking away from them. They both looked at each other. they knew something bad had just happened.

‘Sir!’ She pressed a button and alarms went off everywhere.

Genie stared in horror. She knew that back, that shape, that walk. She knew it very well. Her legs began to shake.

‘Stop him,’ Genie yelled. ‘Stop him.’

The man broke into a run, heading for the emergency exit.

The nurse and Genie arrived at Cary’s room. He was awkwardly collapsed on the bed, all the tubes ripped out of his body, all the monitors disconnected. Alarms were screaming all over. Genie couldn’t bear to look and began to give chase.

‘Call security,’ she yelled back. ‘Call for help.’

The emergency doors slammed open and the man raced through as yet more alarms were set off. The door slammed in Genie’s face and she had to kick them open again.

She emerged into a dark landing with the lights on the fritz. She could hear heavy footsteps running down the stairs and looked over the balustrade.

She only the saw the top of his head in the gloom, but she knew him, knew him well. Reverend Schneider had struck again. She felt sick and her legs almost gave way.

She heard his voice, that booming evil voice echoing back up the stairs.

‘One down, three to go,’ he was saying into a phone to someone.

Genie froze.
One down, three to go
. She was one of the three.

She couldn’t get back on to the ward; the doors were shut fast. She was nervous about going down the stairs, scared to death in fact. She went down the stairs a little way but none of the lights were working and she just couldn’t take a single step further. She knew she had to give chase but fear stayed her legs. She felt paralysed. Reverend Schneider had been here. He had found Cary quickly. Must have had a tag on the DNA database. Had he killed him? He’d said ‘one down’.

Genie heard a door slam from down below. Schneider had left the building.

The emergency exit doors opened behind her, the nurse and a security guard were standing there looking down at her.

‘He got away,’ Genie told them in a small, scared voice.

‘Did you get a look at him?’ the security guard asked.

Genie shook her head. ‘Just the top of his head. He’s big. At least six foot and heavy-set. He’s wearing a black ski jacket.’ She didn’t want to give his name. She didn’t want to explain how and why she knew him.

The security guard got on to his radio; he looked at her. ‘Stay here. I may need a better description. Anything will help.’

The nurse gave her an encouraging smile. ‘Come on back up.’

‘Cary?’

The nurse shook her head. ‘I’m very sorry about your friend. I’m afraid he’s gone. The shock, his liver …’

It was if someone had dropped a heavy curtain on her. She heard it fall, felt it crash on her shoulders and she went down.

Genie didn’t remember fainting. Had no recollection of being placed on a bed and she had a throbbing pain on the side of her head that had no business being there.

Someone was holding her hand and wiping her forehead.

‘She’s coming round,’ a voice said. One voice she sensed was familiar.

Genie opened her eyes.

Mrs Finney was sat beside her, looking very concerned.

She was still in the hospital. She could smell disinfectant.

Mrs Finney sighed, withdrawing her hand. Someone else walked away but Genie found it tough to turn her head to see. ‘Ow.’

‘You fainted on the stairs. In future, take a tip from me – faint when close to a sofa or bed. That’s quite a bruise you have.’

Genie nodded – even that hurt. ‘I guess there’s stuff to explain, huh?’

Mrs Finney just offered her a tight smile. ‘At least I can take you home now. They wouldn’t let me take you whilst you were unconscious.’

‘How long?’

‘An hour or so. I came just after young Chris, I mean whoever he was …’

‘Cary was murdered, Mrs Finney.’

‘So it would seem. The nurse was shocked. The police were here but they are as confused as anyone else. Your friend was already dead. So is Christopher. It might be that one set of records could be wrong – but two, I hardly think so!’