Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows
Chapter 8

Seventeen’s body goes limp and he falls to the floor. I jump up and rush to his side straight away. He’s still breathing at least. I turn to face Five.

“Did it work?” I ask.

“I think so,” Five says. He’s clearly exhausted. I can see the swear glistening on his forehead. “Or at least I hope so. If I accidentally fried his brain then we’re screwed.”

I send him a look that could kill. Nine pulls Seventeen up and lays him on his bed.

“He looks fine,” Nine says, checking his pulse. “If it works and he’s regained some of his memories then we might be able to replace out the truth.”

“And what if we’re wrong?” I say. “What if Seventeen really did volunteer for the programme and there is a war going on? This whole thing we’re doing could get us killed.”

“It’s not going to come to that. I still have a card I haven’t played yet.”

I tear my attention away from Nine as Seventeen stirs. He lets out a small groan and opens his eyes. He sits up slowly and I back away. If he didn’t recover his memories then he may well kill us all now.

“That hurt…” he says slowly.

The life seems to have returned to his eyes – which temporarily flash blue weirdly enough – and his hair is all over the place. I reach out and brush away the strands covering his face. He looks at me and says something which makes me freeze.

“Sky.”

“What does that mean,” Nine says.

“It’s my name…” I whisper. “No-one but the Doctor knows that…”

“Well clearly he does.”

Nine grabs Seventeen and shakes him.

“So, do you remember anything?” Nine says, an irritation in his voice that I’ve never heard before.

“Ow,” Seventeen says. “Stop shaking me.”

“So?” Five asks as Nine let’s go. “What’s your name?”

“I don’t know…”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Ha,” Five says. “That's a good joke.”

“Do you remember how you got here?”

Seventeen covers his face with his hands. He seems to be struggling to think. It takes a while for him to answer.

“I don’t know… I think I was… Ah, I think I was kidnapped. The last thing I remember is someone jamming a syringe into my neck.”

With that Seventeen’s head snaps back up and he stares at us.

“Oh my god,” he says. “I killed people! Oh my god I’m going to go to jail for this! Where am I? I need to leave now!”

Five cuts off his voice before Seventeen causes too much of a disturbance. Nine turns to look at me with a smug look on his face.

“See?” he says. “I’m never wrong.”

“Fine,” I say. “He was kidnapped. That doesn’t prove anything.”

However I can already hear the doubt in my voice. This new piece of evidence changes everything. He knows my name. Perhaps it’s part of the reason he seems so familiar. Maybe that’s why I feel this strange attraction to him. I shake the thought out of my head; I don’t need any needless ideas at this moment. More importantly, he said he’d been kidnapped. This is the time to be digging more information out of him.

If he isn’t delirious, then we have to take him seriously. If he’d been kidnapped then it means that he didn’t volunteer for the programme. Does that mean the Shadow Soldier programme is all a sham? That it’s an illegal project? That it hasn’t been authorised?

“Right now we need to replace out the more important information,” I say.

“You’re right,” Five says. Five lets Seventeen’s voice sound again but slaps him to keep his mouth shut. I wince at the contact.

“Seventeen,” Nine says.

He looks up at Nine. His eyes are red and wild. He doesn’t dare say anything as he watches Five carefully, as if fearing being slapped again.

“That’s not my name…” he says.

“It is for now. Now answer my questions.”

Seventeen nods. He slowly averts his gaze to me and his face softens. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw him smile in the common room, but now I know I wasn’t. His smile takes away my breath. His white teeth which shine brightly and the tiny mole just below his eye are all I can see. I can feel myself turning bright red and I turn away. Not now. Not right now.

“Where do you live?”

“In the South-east of London. I’m an orphan, but I recently turned seventeen and left the orphanage.”

“What about the war?”

“What war?”

“The one between America and China? What about Russia and Germany against the U.K?”

Seventeen burst out laughing. It’s a strange sight, but my chest feels so warm from witnessing this scene.

“Like I said,” Seventeen says. “What war? There is no war. The only international issues right now is the struggle for Baltec.”

“Baltec?” we all say in unison.

Seventeen eyes us with a strange look. He examines each and every one of our faces until he realises we have no idea as to what exactly he’s talking about.

“Don’t you keep up with the times?”

Now I want to hit him. I can feel Five’s frustration at him so I take a deep breath.

“Tell us all about Baltec from the very beginning,” I say.

“Wow, alright. You should know this, Sky.”

“I swear if you don’t talk I’ll split your brain in two,” I say.

“Alright… Jeez. Well about a decade ago an enormous island; almost half the size of the entire continent of Europe surfaced between the North Pacific Sea and the East China Sea. This was after China colonised Japan and took control over the majority of East Asia. They named the continent Temere, the Latin word for random. It was completely uninhabited, however when the U.S and China went to explore it they found something which they call Baltec. It’s some sort of energy source which can regulate itself without producing pollution and at the same time provides a large amount of power.”

“Holy crap…” Nine says.

I’ve never seen Nine speechless. Today I’m seeing quite a few new sides to Nine. Five is listening intently as Seventeen continues.

“The U.S tried to claim the rights to Temere, however it started an international dispute between them and China. Of course other large powers like the U.K got involved. Everyone wants to get have the source of Baltec for themselves to get rich or something.”

“Hmm. So you mean there isn’t a war going on over Baltec?” Five says.

“No, of course not. This isn’t a cause for World War Three to start! Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Except -”

Seventeen’s voice cuts off and his eyes widen. Then he shakes his head as if trying to convince himself of something.

“Except what?!” Nine presses.

“Well, since about four years ago research facilities in Russia, Germany and China which have all focused on research on Baltec for use in different scientific fields have been attacked. It’s not confirmed but most people think that it is sabotage. Others are saying terrorism. However, the one thing that have people in a panic is that all the reports keep saying the attackers have been using some strange abilities or technology.”

Russia? So did we hit them after all? Argh this is so confusing! I’m pretty sure that we didn’t hit them. I think…

“Oh crap,” Nine says. He turns to look at me and Five. It takes a while but it hits me too eventually. Nine was right. But what makes the entire situation worse is that Seventeen just confirmed we’re terrorists. Even I understand the gravity of the situation. It looks as if two superpowers are on the brink of war. And we are the cause.

“Seventeen,” I say. “Do you remember anything about the past few days?”

“Yeah… I remember waking up in some sort of lab, then fighting Three and Nine…” his voice trails off. It seems like the events of the past few days are coming back to him.

“No…” he says. “I killed people didn’t I?!”

His eyes look so innocent. I can see the tears well up in his eyes as he looks into mine. I don’t know what makes me do it but I pull him close to me and hug him. It feels so natural; as if I had done this lots of times already. The warmth of his body surprises me, though he smells like orchids weirdly enough.

“What did they do to me?”

“They made you one of us,” Five replies. “An enhanced.”

“Enhanced?”

“A Shadow Soldier,” Nine says. “By using fusing specially adapted Nano-mites into our DNA and nervous system, they’ve recoded our genes. Although our bodies haven’t fully adapted to these new genes we are able to use special powers or abilities. From what you’ve told me I finally understand how they’ve done this. They must be using this Baltec somehow, otherwise this entire process would be scientifically impossible to pull off.”

“So, that’s what these strings are then?”

“What strings?” I ask.

“Can’t you see them?” Seventeen says. I shake my head. “There are these little strings of energy or something in the air connecting everything. It’s forming everything around us.”

“Must be Xerxes,” Nine replies. We all give him a strange look, not understanding what he means.

“The Doctor explained it earlier right? There must be some superior force which connects everything in the world together. Atoms and even gravity. Every force and element of nature is connected, and so are all living creatures. It’s a concept that goes beyond physics itself.”

“Oh…” Seventeen says, his eyes staring at the floor. He seems to have lost all motivation and any willpower he might have had before. I take his hand in mine.

“We need you to do us a favour,” I say to him.

He looks at me and for a moment I glimpse a small sliver of hope in his eyes.

“Anything for you, Sky,” he says.

How does he know my name though? Something smells fishy. But he makes me feel so relaxed and warm that I no longer question it.

“If you remember the events of the past few days you would know that if the Doctor or Three replaces out you have your memories back they’ll think your glitching.”

“Glitching?”

“Malfunctioning. Basically as if you're powers are going haywire. meaning they'll either drug you again or put you down. You have to act like you were acting before; as if you don’t have your memories. Can you do that?”

Seventeen nods at me and for a brief moment an image of a kid with blue eyes and jet black here reaching out to me crosses my mind, but leaves as quickly as it came.

“If you can’t do that I can kill you here,” Nine says.

I glare at him but Seventeen just nods. I don’t think he has any words left to say.

“Nine, we’ve been gone for quite a while, we should head back,” Five says. “Eight and Sixteen might be back by now.”

“You’re right,” Nine replies. “Let’s go.”

I give Seventeen’s hand a quick squeeze and let go. I turn away from him and hurry out of Nine’s room. The rest follow suit. We make our way back up to the common room. Sure enough everyone else but Three is there. No-one noticed us enter due to the commotion going on. A small dove is flying around the room. Every now and then it swoops down and pecks at Ten or Seven, much to their annoyance.

“Well, Sixteen is definitely back,” Five says with a scowl on his face. The dove notices us enter the room and morphs back into the shape of a small girl with freckles. Her short fringed ginger hair whirls behind her as she lands with her arms outstretched. She looks at us and gives us a huge grin before running and hugging Five.

I notice Seven staring daggers at Sixteen when she hugs Five but she doesn’t say a word.

“Well, did you guys miss me?” she says, twirling about as if she were the main attraction of a fashion show. Five scowls and walks past her to sit with Seven, much to Seven's delight. Nine smiles at her and pats her on the head.

“Glad to see you’re back, Sixteen. Better stop disturbing everyone, we’re all tired.”

“Ah, sorry,” she says, her face drooping. However it doesn’t last for long. She notices Seventeen trailing behind us and her face lights up again.

“Is that him?” she squeaks, her voice high and shrill. “He’s so hot, oh my goodness!”

For some reason this comment makes me flush pink and I get annoyed at her. I know if I say something it’ll only motivate her more. Instead I walk past her and join Ten; a presence I replace much more welcoming for now. Sixteen only makes matters worse by hugging Seventeen. I nearly blast her with lightning, managing only to control myself at the last second.

“Hi,” Seventeen says.

Sixteen stares at him intently for a few seconds before exchanging greetings. Then she does something which annoys me even more. She stands next to Seventeen and morphs into him. Double trouble.

I can feel the heat rising to my face; I must be completely pink right now. I turn away and face Ten who is juggling little balls of fire in the air. This manages to distract me somewhat.

“Behave yourself, Sixteen,” Nine says.

He pulls her by the arm and sits her down in a chair. She returns to her normal form, swinging her little legs back and forth.

“But I haven’t seen you guys for nearly a month,” she says. “Let me have some fun, killjoy.”

“No,” Nine says. “Now’s not the time. Have you been debriefed?”

Sixteen nods her head, but it’s clear that she’s sulking. She’s only fifteen years old but I still feel that she needs to start acting a little more mature.

Then the thought hits me. If there is no war going on what is Eight doing? She’s supposed to be on the warfront. Or that is what we’ve been told by Sanders at least. This makes me think back to Four and Six’s sudden appearance during the last mission. Knowing them they must have been there for a reason. What was it?

I think back to everything I had seen at the research facility. Was anything different? Did anything strange our out of place happen. I think back to when One brought down sub-level-three. I’m pretty sure I saw something streak across my vision.

Four.

That is the only explanation. He must have been there to get a sample of that black sludge. Was that even a chemical weapon? Sure the guy who fell in died a horrific death, but it doesn’t exactly look like they were trying to use it as a weapon. Strange. He and Six have gone rogue by the looks of things. So why does he need a supposed chemical weapon? Does he plan to use it on someone? It can’t be any of us, otherwise he would have taken us out then and there. None of us could match his speed after all; he could have taken us out by surprise. He knows he can't beat Three, Nine or Ten in a head on fight.

Something even bigger than the Doctor’s lies is going on, and I need to replace out before it’s too late.