Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 120

                We reappear in Teague’s lab and I rush to Graham’s side.

                ‘Help him,’ I command. ‘Now.’

                Teague surveys Graham with what appears to be a mixture of curiosity and disdain.

                ‘I hope you haven’t touched anything,’ he deadpans.

                ‘How is that important?’ I snap.

                Elle and Yates materialise through the door.

                ‘Oh my god,’ Elle says. ‘What’s happened?’

                Yates crosses to Graham quickly and sits beside him. ‘It looks like he’s having a panic attack,’ he says, rubbing the other boy’s back. He starts to move erratically, flailing his arms and legs and Yates holds his arms to his sides, whispering things into his ear that are too quiet for me to make out.

                ‘Well he would,’ Teague says, examining a cuticle. ‘His atoms are losing their structure.’

                I stand up, cross the room and seize the front of his jacket.

                ‘Do something about it then,’ I say.

                ‘I don’t know what you expect me to do,’ he says sounding tired.

                ‘Anything to stop him dying.’

                Elle has sat down with the other two. ‘Stop being a pain, Teague. Be a man, a human being.’ She sounds as tired as him.

                Teague lifts his laptop off of the floor, but only after I release him. He taps a few keys and stays silent for a moment. The pause is agonising. Every second feels like a second closer to my friend dying on the floor. Or worse. What happened if your atoms just fell apart? Do you even die? What if he stays alive, invisible forever, just atoms on the wind?

                ‘Would that be so bad?’ mutters Teague.

                ‘Get out of my head!’ I yell at him.

                He looks up, shocked that I heard.

                ‘The boy’s remote,’ he says.

                We all look at him.

                ‘Don’t just stand there,’ he says. ‘You trashed mine so I’ll have to work with the primitive implement your friend cobbled together.’

                Elle reaches into Graham’s pocket and pulls out the device he created. She passes it to the moleskin man.

                ‘I don’t know if this will work,’ he says. ‘But there’s nothing else I can do.’

                ‘What are you doing?’ I ask. ‘Is it dangerous.’

                ‘If I do this, you let me go,’ he says. ‘We work to find a way to end this connection, immediately.’

                ‘Yes, whatever, just help him.’

                ‘We’re going to have to kill your friend to save his life.’