The Shrink Program

Chapter 109

"Ah...Maddison....? Could you maybe....let go....?"

"Not until you perish." I hissed, tightening my grip on the tall boy's throat. The moment Nigel had been captured by Jack and brought up to join us, I had latched onto his windpipe, determined to have my revenge.

At my refusal, Nigel's golden eyes grew panicky.

"...You say that... But... It's sort... Of hard for me to tell... Whether or not I'm....really dying at the moment... So... Please...." Nigel managed to get out past his shallow breathing.

Of course, he had a point, seeing as Nigel couldn't feel the pain of his lungs suffocating... But it was sort of hard to care at the moment...

The decision was suddenly taken away from me as I was yanked up into the air by a giant pair of fingers.

"Enough now, Maddison." Jack scolded, his tone warm with amusement. "As fun as this is to watch, I can't very well deliver damaged goods now can I?"

I stare at him, utterly insulted.

"Excuse me?! Exactly how many times have you threaten to damage me in the last hour?!" I demanded

Jack just blinked at me innocently, setting me down on his shoulder before I could start screaming accusations at him. Probably to keep me from killing Nigel or, even more likely, to annoy me.

Gritting my teeth, I sat on the shoulder, leaning away from Jack's face as I sent a glare down at the two boys still in the giant's hand.

Artemis looked worried, watching me with the same gentlemanly sort of concern I had first seen from him when I tried to murder him at the station. As quickly as I noticed it, the gentle expression was suppressed as Artemis turned to survey the room with grim focus.

Nigel, on the other hand, kept looking at me like an anxious puppy, nervously shifting like he wanted to climb up to join me. When our eyes met his expression brightened with hope.

I punched my fist into the palm of my other hand, mouthing the words "Go Die Traitorous Bug" before stiffly turning my nose up at him.

Fuming, I crossed my arms and glared at Jack's profile, looking for vulnerable areas.

The only thing I could say for sure was that I was going to make him regret putting me so close to his face.

Reece suddenly spoke up from where he sat frozen on the floor, startling me out of my murderous thoughts.

"Do you have any intention of fulfilling your end of the bargain, Jack? Or are you just going to continue stalling for time?"

Through the drama, Reece had moved to Garmen's side, blocking our view of the dying man. With his back to us, Reece was unable to see the sly smirk that crossed Jack's face.

But I saw it.

Feeling apprehensive, I watched Jack carefully. Warily.

It was obvious that he was going to screw us over. But what choice did we have but to go along with him?

With a tilt of his head, Jacks face slid back into its peaceful mask.

All we could do was wait.

Jack shrugged at the bitter words, making me grip onto his jacket tightly. Not seeming all that concerned, Jack turned and started making his way towards the door.

"Please forgive me for looking after my own interests first, little Supervisor." He said conversationally as he walked away. "After all, the more urgent saving your Mr Garmen becomes to you, the less time you will have to spare coming after me..."

Jack reached the glass doors, turning to face Reece. The small man looked over his shoulder at us, his blue eyes wary.

At this, Jack smile grew, reassuring and kindly amused.

"Don't worry, you should still have a good ten minutes left." Jack continued pleasantly. "So long as you give him the right antidote within the next couple of minutes, your friend should pull through. He can always recover, so long as the anti-tech doesn't manage to penetrate and destroy his core."

With his free hand, Jack reached down the front of his jacket, pulling out a little packet of fine blue dust. With a smile, Jack held the bag up towards Reece for his inspection.

At the sight of the dust, Reece's eyes grew wide with understanding.

"Now. " Jack begun, giving the bag a little swing."As you may have recognised, these are unactivated nano cells. As useless to us as they are harmless to you. They don't do anything, won't react to any signal, but if placed in the liquid with the anti nanotech, they will be attacked, just like any other working nanotech."

"If I put the dead cells in with the vial of anti-tech, they will dissolve to nothing within seconds. " Reece confirmed, his eyes alight with determination.

"Correct!" Jack smiled joyfully as if he shared Reece's new feelings of hope.

Using his teeth and his free hand, Jack opened the packet.

"I promised to give you a way to tell the poison apart from the rest, and so I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. Quite fairly, if I do say so myself. Like I said before, I don't like to lie to people outright. It's unprofessional."

With a reassuring smile on his face, Jack turned the packet over, spilling the fine dust onto the floor.

"So good luck and farewell, little supervisor."