The Mermaid's Revenge Page 14

  “Why would anyone do that?” Ms. Harper asks.

  Mr. Randall doesn't reply. Instead, he's still tapping at the computer.

  “Could it be Flemyng's men?” Ms. Harper continues, and I can tell that she's starting to panic. “What if that asshole decided he doesn't want to spend half a billion on the mermaid? What if he's decided to just take her?”

  “No, I trust him implicitly,” he replies. “Flemyng has more than enough money to do things by the book. This has to be -”

  Suddenly he falls quiet.

  “Who?” Ms. Harper says after a moment. “What has to -”

  “Listen!” he hisses. He comes out into the corridor and stops, and then we stand in silence for a moment.

  Just as I'm about to turn and run, I realize I can hear a faint tapping sound in the distance. At first I don't know what it could be, but then I spot Mr. Randall heading toward the door in the corner and I realize he's going to the emergency stairwell. At that moment, I understand that I can hear somebody hurrying down from the security platform on the roof, and then there's a faint clicking sound on the other side of the door. I don't understand why anyone would be up there, however, because there's only a small security panel and a helipad.

  And then, slowly, a thought hits me.

  What if it's her?

  What if somehow the mermaid has dragged herself out of the tank and now she's escaping? I can't deny that the thought fills me with hope, and I start imagining her somehow dragging herself all the way out of the building and back to the river. After all, she showed me those little red eggs in her body, and Mother always told me that mothers will do anything to protect their children. For a moment, I actually feel a swell of hope at the thought that the mermaid might be on her way to freedom.

  “Who is it?” Ms. Harper asks. “Michael?”

  Ignoring her, Mr. Randall reaches out for the door that leads into the emergency stairwell, but he doesn't turn the handle. It's almost as if he's nervous.

  At the same time, there's another faint bumping sound from the stairs.

  “Who is it?” Ms. Harper asks again. “For God's sake, who -”

  Before she can finish, Mr. Randall slams the door open and I hear a pained grunt. In a blur of action, he drags a figure through, shoving the man down against the ground and kicking him hard in the back. Then, as the figure lets out a pained cry, Mr. Randall rolls him over, finally revealing Doctor Collier's terrified face.

  “Don't hurt me!” Doctor Collier cries out, covering his face with his hands. “Get off me, you monster!”

  “What are you up to?” Mr. Randall asks. “Don't even begin to deny that you tripped those alarms. Did you think you could double-cross us and take all the money?”

  “I don't give a damn about the money!” Doctor Collier spits back at him as he starts slowly, cautiously getting to his feet. “I've ignored my principles for long enough, but now I'm doing the right thing. I won't let that poor, wounded creature get sold off like some kind of sideshow freak! She deserves to be free! You don't care about her at all, either of you! You only care about the money!”

  “What have you done?” Mr. Randall asks.

  “I'm getting her out of here!”

  “And how exactly are you planning to do that?”

  “She's going to be free!”

  “Details, man!” Mr. Randall shouts. “What have you actually done?”

  “She's going to -”

  Suddenly Mr. Randall punches him hard, sending him slamming into the wall.

  I flinch and take a step back. I was planning to do the same thing as Doctor Collier, to save the mermaid. If I'd been caught, would I have been beaten too?

  “Never mind,” Mr. Randall says as the doctor slithers down to the floor. “I can figure it out myself. I get the distinct impression that this little plan hasn't got very far.”

  “We have to let her go!” Doctor Collier gasps. “She's an intelligent creature, not a piece of meat to be sold to the highest bidder!”

  “Says the man who's been paid handsomely to keep her contained so far,” Mr. Randall replies.

  “I was wrong! I thought I could do it, but I can't! I thought I could ignore my concerns and just keep my head down, but I refuse to be party to this butchery!”

  “Now you're getting a little hysterical. What were you going to do, lock us in here and then sneak her out of here in a wheelbarrow?”

  “I was going to seal you in the apartment and then call for help! I was going to inform the proper authorities, even if it meant going to jail! I can't live with myself if we go through with this! The eggs -”

  “The eggs are not your property,” Mr. Randall says firmly.

  “They belong to her!” Doctor Collier shouts.

  “Why are you talking about her eggs?” I ask, before looking up at Ms. Harper. “What are they doing to her?”

  “We all deserve to rot in hell for what we've done!” Doctor Collier spits. “We all have blood on our hands!”

  “But then you tripped the alarm instead,” Mr. Randall replies, “which strongly suggests to me that you hadn't got to the calling for help part of your dumb little stunt just yet. All you've actually done, Doctor Collier, is draw attention to yourself. And frankly, that's not just a half-assed plan, that's a downright stupid one.” He turns to Ms. Harper. “Get Sylvia into her bedroom.”

  “No!” I yell, even as Ms. Harper grabs my arm. “I won't go!”

  “Now!” he continues. “I'm not messing about, Jenny!”

  “Come on, Sylvia,” Ms. Harper says, pulling on my arm. “It's late and you should be in bed.”

  “No!” I snap, pulling away from her. “I want to leave right now!”

  Sighing, Mr. Randall hurries over and grabs me. I scream and try to get free, but he carries me into my room and throws me on the bed, before grabbing Ms. Harper and pushing her in after me.

  “Keep the kid in here!” he shouts, before slamming the door shut.

  I start clambering off the bed, but then I hear several loud thuds, accompanied a moment later by cries of pain. Sitting completely still, I listen as the horrible sounds continue, and I realize finally that Mr. Randall must be doing something to Doctor Collier. Something mean.

  “Don't listen,” Ms. Harper says, suddenly putting her hands over my ears.

  I pull away.

  “Sylvia, don't!”

  She tries again, but again I pull away, and this time she lets me listen to a series of loud, splitting impacts.

  “He's not hurting him too much,” Ms. Harper says after a moment, although she sounds uncertain. “He just... I think he just needs him to stay quiet until this is all over. Trust me, Sylvia, eventually you'll realize that we're doing the right thing.” She pauses, as the crashing sounds get a little further away. “We're not bad people,” she continues finally. “I know this might all seem bad, Sylvia, but you have to believe me. The mermaid will be fine, she'll be looked after, and the fact that we'll make some money out of this is just a side thing. Really, it's our reward for doing the right thing.”

  “Do you really believe that?” I ask.

  “You don't understand,” she replies. “You're too young. You'll understand one day, but right now -”

  “If Mother knew that this would happen,” I say, interrupting her, “she'd never have brought the mermaid here.”

  “Yeah, well maybe your mother wasn't such a saint after all,” she replies, before leaning closer to me in the darkness. “You're sounding pretty grown-up right now, Sylvia, but part of growing up means accepting that our parents aren't always perfect. I don't know about your father, he died long before I showed up, but Catherine Sykes used her money to get what she wanted, when she wanted. She was a typical rich bitch, she didn't care about the little people, and do you know what? I think it's only fair that people like me get a chance to live the high-life for once. It's like Michael says, you have to take your chances when you get them!”

  She pauses, and then a moment
later the door opens.

  “I sorted him out,” Mr. Randall says, sounding a little breathless, “he won't cause us any more trouble. Jenny, I need you to leave the kid in here for a few minutes while we sort out this mess. We need to see exactly what that idiot managed to achieve before his little plan fell apart.”

  She heads over to the door.

  “Are you sure he didn't call anyone?”

  “I'm not sure of anything,” he replies. “I'm going to get in touch with Mr. Flemyng's representatives and see if we can accelerate their acquisition. I'm sure they won't want anything to complicate the program. I'm going to go up to the helipad and check that everything's in order. While I do that, I need you to go to downstairs and make sure that there aren't any problems.” He glances at me. “And take the kid with you.”

  “Can't you come down with us?” Ms. Harper asks, and she sounds scared again.

  “I'll be two or three minutes behind you,” Mr. Randall replies. “Call me if there's anything wrong, but otherwise just check things out.”

  “But -”

  “I need you to stay calm here,” he adds, placing a hand on her arm for a moment. “Jenny, this is all nearly over. Don't freak out on me now.”

  She hesitates, before nodding, but I can see that there are tears in her eyes. A moment later Mr. Randall turns and hurries away, leaving Ms. Harper alone in the doorway. She hesitates, and then she turns to me.

  “Come on, Sylvia,” she mutters. “You heard him. We have to go downstairs.”

  Staring at her, I try to think of some way out of here.

  “Sylvia, move!” she shouts, suddenly losing her temper and hurrying toward me. Grabbing my arm, she pulls me out into the corridor and pushes me against the wall, before equally suddenly pulling me close and hugging me. “I'm sorry,” she continues. “I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get mad. Sylvia, you're being really good and brave, and you just have to be good and brave for a little while longer. Everything's going to be okay, for all of us.”

  “Is it true what Doctor Collier said?” I reply. “Do you only care about the money?”

  She pauses, before letting go of me and taking my hand.

  “Let's just go and check that the mermaid is alright,” she says, sniffing back tears as she leads me along the corridor.

  I open my mouth to ask again, but then I spot Doctor Collier in the study, slumped in the chair behind Mother's desk. He's leaning to one side, and I let out a horrified gasp as I see that his face is bloodied and broken, and his eyes are wide open in an expression of frozen shock.

  “Is he okay?” I stammer.

  “Huh?”

  Ms. Harper stops and looks into the study for a moment, and then she pulls the door shut before turning to me. I instantly see the horror in her eyes.

  “He's fine,” she says, but I don't believe her. “He's totally fine.”

  “But -”

  “Move!” she snaps, pulling me toward the elevator. “Stop asking so many questions, Sylvia! Just keep your mouth shut until this is all over!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “What the hell was he doing down here?” Ms. Harper whispers a couple of minutes later, as we step into the main room on the lower floor. “Was he insane?”

  Peering around her, I'm shocked to see that the mermaid has been removed from her tank. She's slumped on the ground, on some kind of large sheet, and she isn't moving.

  “Stay behind me!” Ms. Harper hisses, stopping just a few feet ahead as if she's too scared to get close. Fumbling in her pocket, she finally pulls out her mobile phone and brings up Mr. Randall's number, and I can't help noticing that her hands are trembling as she waits for him to answer. “Come on,” she mutters under her breath. “Answer your goddamn phone!”

  As she waits, I step around her and try to get a better look at the mermaid. She still hasn't moved, and I'm scared that Doctor Collier might have hurt her. All the water has been drained from the tank, and I'm pretty sure he must have sedated her again, but I don't understand why he then lifted her out of the tank and put her on the floor. There's a harness hanging from the ceiling, which I suppose was part of the system that got her into the tank in the first place, but I'm scared she might find it hard to breathe when she's not in the water.

  “We have to help her,” I whisper. “She's not -”

  “She's out of the tank!” Ms. Harper blurts out as soon as Mr. Randall answers the call. “He took her out of the tank! I don't know why! She's unconscious on the floor!”

  I hear Mr. Randall's voice, but I can't make out what he's saying.

  “Are you serious?” she splutters. “What if she wakes up?”

  She listens to him for a moment longer.

  “I never agreed to this,” she continues. “You said it'd be easy. You said no-one would get hurt and it'd all be harmless, and we'd just get the money and leave. It's all spiraling out of control, Michael!”

  She listens again, and this time she stays silent for a minute or so. I can hear Mr. Randall's voice speaking to her over the phone, but I can't stop staring at the mermaid. I want her to wake up, or to at least do something that shows she's alive, but right now she's simply slumped on the floor and I'm getting more and more scared. I don't want Mother's mermaid to die.

  “Please be okay,” I whisper, with tears in my eyes. “Please...”

  “I hate you!” Ms. Harper says suddenly. “After this is over, I never even want to see you again!”

  I turn to her just as she cuts the call, and then she stares at the mermaid with a growing sense of fear in her eyes.

  “Mr. Randall is coming down now,” she says finally, her voice sounding more and more tense. “Sylvia, I need you to wait here while I... I have to...”

  She takes a deep breath, and then she steps past me.

  “I just have to go and check on her,” she continues. “I have to make sure she's...”

  Again, her voice trails off, and I watch as she starts making her way slowly toward the mermaid. She looks absolutely terrified, and after a moment I realize that I'm accidentally holding my breath as she gets closer and closer to the slumped figure. Still, I know the mermaid won't hurt her, although after a moment I spot various tools on a nearby table. There are saws and blades and syringes, and I start worrying about what's being going on down here since the last time I was allowed down.

  “Please be okay,” I whisper, watching the mermaid as Ms. Harper gets closer. Tears are running down my face now, and I'm getting more and more scared by the fact that I haven't seen the mermaid move once since we got down here. What if Doctor Collier accidentally hurt her?

  “Are you okay?” Ms. Harper calls out, slowing as she gets closer. “Hey, mermaid, can you hear me? Come on, bitch, give me a sign!”

  She waits, and then she turns to me and I see the hopelessness in her eyes.

  “I don't even know what I'm looking for!” she continues. “I can't see her breathing, but maybe they don't breathe! Not like we do, anyway. I don't have a clue!”

  “Is she okay?” I whimper. “Please say she's okay!”

  “I don't know!” she snaps. “Why don't you come over and take a look, see if you've got any ideas?”

  I take a step forward, but then I turn as I hear the door opening behind me.

  Mr. Randall steps into the room, but he stops as soon as he sees the mermaid on the floor.

  “Is she okay?” he asks.

  “I don't know!” Ms. Harper shouts. “For God's sake, can you come over and help? I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing!”

  “Where's the sedative gun?” he mutters, heading to one of the tables and searching through the various saws and knives. “I'm not going near that thing until I've got some protection.” After a moment he holds up a small metal device with some kind of trigger, and he checks it for a moment before making his way toward the mermaid. “Flemyng's men are on their way. Everything's going to be fine. What was that idiot Collier thinking, though? Was he planning to scoop her up
in a sheet and -”

  Suddenly the mermaid turns and hisses at them both.

  Horrified, I watch as a small barb shoots from her mouth and hits Ms. Harper in the wrist, causing her to scream as she falls back.

  Mr. Randall aims the sedative gun and fires twice, hitting the mermaid in the chest with both shots. She turns to him and hisses again, but then she slumps down and rolls onto her side.

  “Help me!” Ms. Harper screams, holding up her hand to reveal the barb still stuck in her skin. “What do I do? Is it poison?”

  Mr. Randall rushes over, but I can already see weird black lines starting to spread from the site of the barb, moving slowly up Ms. Harper's arm toward her elbow like oil-slick veins. A moment later, some of the lines start forming black bubbles beneath her skin, some of which begin to pop through the surface.

  “Get it out of me!” she shouts, scrambling away from the mermaid, coming closer to me before slipping and falling back down. Crying out, she holds her hand up again, and I take a step back as I see that more of the black bubbles are bursting all over her hand, sending blood dribbling to the ground.

  Mr. Randall races to the table and grabs the largest blade, then he rushes to Ms. Harper and grabs her shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” she sobs. “What's it going to -”

  Before she can finish, Mr. Randall raises the blade high and then brings it crashing down against her elbow, severing her arm with one quick blow. Her blackened hand and forearm spin across the room, spraying blood as they go, and Ms. Harper screams again as she falls back with more blood gushing from her severed stump. At the same time, Mr. Randall grabs a cloth and starts wrapping it tight around the wound.

  “You'll be okay,” he stammers, tossing the bloodied blade aside. “I'll fix it. I couldn't let it spread to the rest of you. It's a violent poison that'd kill you in seconds.”

  Trembling with shock, I look over at Ms. Harper's severed arm and see that it's spitting and jerking on the floor as more and more of the blackened spots burst all over the skin. It's almost as if the arm is still alive, but a moment later I hear another scream and I turn to see that more black lines are creeping up across one side of Ms. Harper's face.