Alex Palmer: The Tattooed Man

‘Say what you like. It won’t make any difference.’

‘Falcon never reopened your operation, did they?’ she said. ‘Not even after they saw that video.’

‘They said it was a tragedy but it proved nothing. They told me I’d compromised their secrecy and if I was concerned for innocent lives, the best thing I could do was keep my mouth shut. Just to calm me down, they put me through a charade with these Ministry of Defence officials. I told them my story; they told me it would be taken seriously. Nothing happened. I realised nothing was going to happen. I told my dead companions that I’d just have to do it myself. They would have justice even if it was a rough justice.’

‘What happens now?’

‘I told you. We’re waiting for someone.’

‘Why do you want me here?’

‘I told you when I first spoke to you: you made me feel human for the first time in years. This is my last morning on this planet and I want you with me when I go. I’ll look at you and my head won’t be full of the memories I’ve lived with for the last four years. The last thing I want is to die with those thoughts in my head.’

‘What happens to me?’

‘You won’t feel anything. None of us will. No one’s going to feel the kind of pain those villagers would have felt when they died. We’ll just go to sleep.’

‘We?’

‘This building is a living thing to Elena. As long as it’s here, it’s going to produce the kinds of things that Jerome was producing. There’s only one way to stop it and that’s to kill it. We’re going to poison the entire building with gas.’

‘What about the people here?’

‘I wish they’d stayed home this morning, Grace, but they didn’t. I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do. There are more lives at stake than theirs. Life is just one long gamble and this morning all those people drew the wrong cards.’

‘I don’t understand how you can even think that way.’

‘You should understand. I’ve already told you why. I’ve been where you can never go. I’ve had all my constraints burnt out of me. I know exactly why I’m doing this. I’ve never seen anything more clearly in my life.’

‘This is premeditated. You planned how to get me here.’

‘From the time you gave me that injection. I was waiting to see if Harrigan was going to leave your flat this morning. We were fairly certain he was there. We decided if he didn’t leave before a certain time, I’d have to go without you. But he did leave and here we are.’

‘You’re no different from the people you’re fighting.’

‘Think about that statement. If that’s the case, then it doesn’t matter whose side you’re on. What matters is that you leave behind a blank surface where someone else can start again with something new and clean.’

‘That never happens,’ Grace said.

For a brief second, all the lights went out and then came on again. At the same time, there was a sound like a catch of breath in the air conditioning. In the quick blink of darkness, Grace stood up to run.

‘Don’t do anything,’ Brinsmead said, as soon as they could see each other again. ‘You see that mobile on the desk. Press the call button. Let it ring a few times, then turn it off. It’s time to go. Pick up the contract and those restraints and bring them with you.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Upstairs. Walk in front of me. Turn right at the main door. If you try to do anything, I’ll have to shoot you even if I don’t want to. For us, it’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of how and when.’

The main door to the laboratory had opened automatically and stayed open.

‘Who’s us?’ she asked.

‘Don’t ask questions. Let’s just walk. Quickly now.’

Grace held the contract in one hand and the restraints in the other. I’m being asked to walk to my execution, she thought. She and Brinsmead faced each other. Give me the gun and I’ll shoot you. I’ll put you out of your misery. Go down fighting, whatever happens.

‘Walk,’ he said.

They went out into the corridor. They’d gone a short distance along the corridor when the door to the laboratory slammed shut behind them.

‘What’s happening?’ she asked.

‘My lab is being sealed off. The building’s security system allows you to do that. Everything inside it will be protected.’

All the doors along the corridor were open. They passed a short corridor branching off to the right.

‘Elena’s office is down there,’ Brinsmead said. ‘That’s open too. Sam will need to get in there later.’

‘Sam Jonas. She’s here. She’s your colleague.’

‘She’s my friend. She’s the bravest woman I’ve ever met.’

They reached a door that opened onto the junction of the northern and southern sectors. The door leading to the south-western sector was closed.

‘Why is that door closed?’ Grace asked.

‘The entire building except for this sector is locked down. No one can get out of where they are, including the guards at the desk. Don’t worry, they have air conditioning. They can breathe. For the moment.’

‘For the moment,’ Grace repeated.

‘Up the stairs.’

They climbed the stairs. At the top, they reached another corridor.

‘Along there and in the first door,’ Brinsmead said.

This corridor had no windows. They reached the door; like all the others in this sector, it was open.

‘This used to be Jerome’s laboratory,’ he said. ‘It’s maximum security. This is where the science behind his program was researched. God knows where those researchers are now. Probably scattered all over the world, paid to keep their mouths shut. Look at it. It’s been thoroughly cleaned out. Except for that. That’s useful.’

Along one wall was a series of photographs of the most common food and cash crops in the world. Wheat, rice, barley, yams, maize, sorghum, potatoes, tobacco, cotton. They dominated one side of the room. The photographs were illuminated from behind, appearing against the backdrop of the light in silhouette. The plants seemed as if they were preserved in fluid, fixed permanently as something dead.

‘Go and sit at the bench with your back to those photographs,’ he said. ‘Put the contract and the restraints in the middle of the bench in front of you.’

She sat down on a stool with the pictures behind her. He stood on the other side, still holding the gun on her.

‘How many people are you expecting?’ she asked, looking down at the plastic ties.

‘Only two. But I like to be prepared. Now we wait. Don’t talk. All I want is silence.’

Grace looked around at the concrete shell that enclosed them. Along one wall was a row of empty cages, and there was a faint animal odour in the air, like the one she had smelt in his penthouse. It was a smell of death.

They climbed up the stairs to the second floor. The last time Harrigan had been here, the door at the top of the stairs leading to the western sector had been locked. Now it was open and the door on the eastern side was locked in its place. They walked down to an empty laboratory.

‘Jerome’s lab,’ Sam said.

‘There’s nothing here,’ Harrigan said. ‘Why bring us here?’

‘Because it’s your grave. And there are people waiting for us. Have a look.’

At the back of the laboratory, Harrigan saw Daniel Brinsmead, and sitting at a bench near him, Grace. She was staring at him. He saw the contract and the restraints on the table. What would happen was clear to him. They would be restrained sitting at the table with those ghostly pictures behind them. Then they would be photographed and the picture posted on the Pittwater website with the picture of the dead at Natalie Edwards’ house. Sam would release the gas from the canisters into the air conditioning. She would come up here to be with them. Probably she would set it up so it would go out on the net live. Everything in him refused to let this happen.