The Denizens looked like a typical bunch. An even mix of men and women, they were all very good-looking, but none was over six feet tall, so they were presumably not important in their civilian positions. None of them turned around as Arthur marched up.
Corporal Axeforth glanced up, though. He was also about six feet tall and stocky, and like Sergeant Helve, disfigured by scars from Nothing injuries. In his case, his entire ear and nose had been dissolved and he wore a carved wooden ear and a silver nose, both of which appeared to be glued on, as Arthur could see no other means of attachment.
‘You’re late, Recruit!’ barked Axeforth. ‘You’ll have to pick up as we go along.’
‘Yes, Corporal!’ shouted Arthur. He took a few steps to the left and joined the semicircle. As he marched around the end, he saw that there was a very small Denizen opposite, partly obscured by a weapons rack. Not even a Denizen, but a Piper’s child. A boy, who looked about the same age as Arthur, though he had probably lived for hundreds or even thousands of years in the House. He had short black hair and very dark skin and looked friendly, his mouth turned up with the hint of a smile. He winked surreptitiously at Arthur but otherwise maintained his interest in the corporal’s weapon demonstration.
If it was a weapon. Arthur found his place and looked on. The corporal was holding a large rectangular block of grey iron by its wooden handle. There was a regular pattern of holes in the iron block and as the corporal lowered it to the table, steam jetted out.
‘This here iron is the section iron,’ said the corporal, pressing down on a white collar. ‘It’s always hot and it will burn your clothes if you leave it facedown. I will demonstrate the correct procedure for pressing your number two Regimental dress uniform collars. Watch carefully!’
The Denizens all leaned in as the corporal carefully moved the iron over the collar from right to left six times. Then he sat the iron up on its end, flipped the collar over, and repeated the process.
‘Everybody get that?’
Everyone nodded, except for one Denizen, who raised his hand. He was the most handsome of them all, with finely chiselled features and bright blue eyes. Unfortunately, those eyes were rather vacant.
‘Could you do it again, Corporal?’
Arthur rocked back on his heels very slightly and repressed a sigh. It looked like it was going to be a long ironing lesson.
Eight
‘HEY, ISN’T THAT Emily’s kid? He’s supposed to be in Exclusion on Level Twenty!’
It was a doctor who shouted, pointing at the Skinless Boy, who ignored him and disappeared through the cafeteria doors. Leaf hesitated, then hurried after the Nithling. Behind her, the doctor shouted again, and hospital security guards started to move through the crowd. But they were on the far side of the main atrium and it would take them minutes to get through the throng.
The cafeteria’s serving bays were shuttered, but the room was full of people sitting around or slumped over the tables. They were nearly all hospital staff too. The Q-zone must have been clamped down just as the shift changed, Leaf realised. So all the staff going off-shift had been trapped here and were trying to rest in the public areas. There were few non-staff because visiting hours were in the afternoon. The Skinless Boy was already on the far side of the cafeteria, not using the crutch, walking faster than any human could with a broken leg in a cast. It still touched people on shoulders or backs as it went by.
Every touch would be spreading the mould, Leaf thought. In a matter of hours, or however long it took, the Skinless Boy would control the minds of hundreds of hospital workers. It would have a brainwashed army under its control.
The Skinless Boy turned left past the serving counters and pushed open a door. It didn’t bother to look behind, but Leaf slid sideways to put some people between her and the Nithling, just in case. When the door closed behind it, she ran the rest of the way across the room, listened for a second, then opened the door and went through.
Even though she’d heard receding footsteps, Leaf still feared the Skinless Boy would be there, waiting, its hand outstretched to strike her as it had struck the doctor, or simply to infect her with its mind-mould. But it wasn’t. Only an askew door at the other end of the corridor showed which way it had gone.
The door was more than askew, Leaf found when she got there. It was still electronically locked on one side, but the Skinless Boy had peeled back the other side, ripping the hinges from the wall. No alarm had been triggered and the door would appear locked in the hospital’s security centre. It was an ingenious way to evade security.
That probably meant the Skinless Boy already had access to the thoughts of some of the hospital staff, Leaf figured.