Read Boy X for Free Online

shallow breath, focusing not on the blood but on the other things that mixed with it. Isabel’s coconut, the faint remnant of peppermint, cleaning fluid, the hint of gun smoke. Perhaps he would be able to pick out something that would tell him if this was Mum.
    Aftershave.
    â€˜I think it’s a man,’ he said before he could stop himself.
    â€˜Papa?’ Isabel whispered.
    Fighting his revulsion, Ash reached out to touch the body. He felt round the shoulder, then the neck, until he touched the face.
    â€˜Does your papa wear glasses?’ he asked.
    â€˜No.’
    Ash snatched his hand away and sat back. ‘It’s not him.’
    â€˜You’re sure?’
    â€˜This man wears glasses.’ He paused. ‘Wore glasses.’
    â€˜ Gracias a Dios. ’ Isabel grasped her new friend’s arm. ‘Thank you. Thank you for—’ She stopped as if some great realization had just dawned on her. ‘It must be Paco.’
    â€˜You know him?’
    â€˜Yes. He worked with Papa.’
    â€˜I . . .’ Ash didn’t know what to say.
    Isabel cleared her throat and her words wavered when she spoke. ‘The scientists, they have a card. A key to open the door into the lab.’
    â€˜A keycard? Why didn’t you tell me before?’
    â€˜There’s nowhere else to go. I thought maybe—’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter.’ Ash stopped her. ‘I’ll check.’ He couldn’t quite believe that he’d said it or that he was actually going to do it, but he reached out again until his fingers came into contact with the dead body. ‘Where will the keycard be?’ He kept his voice down, terrified of attracting the attention of whoever or whatever had passed them in the corridor not long ago.
    â€˜On the . . . how you say? Cinturón. On the trousers there is a thing for holding them up.’
    â€˜On the belt?’
    â€˜Yes. Belt.’
    â€˜OK.’ Ash shuffled closer, feeling something wet soaking through the knee of his pyjamas.
    IT’SBLOODIT’SBLOODIT’SBLOOD! the voice screamed in his head, and the smell of blood threatened to wash over him once more. He remembered Pierce’s words and knew that this was what he had meant. Thorn had killed this man.
    Thorn almost split him in half.
    Fighting back the gagging in his throat, Ash slipped his hand along what he thought was the leg until he came to the thigh, then he moved his hand across the waist until he found the plastic holder clipped to the belt. He whipped it off, holding it tight in his fist.
    â€˜Right, let’s get out of here.’
    They joined hands once more and left the body behind them. They shuffled further into the abyss, deeper and deeper, until they came to the stairs, then they crept down several flights until, somewhere below, Ash saw a single red eye.
    â€˜What is that?’ He tried not to imagine what kind of horrifying monster might be waiting for them in the darkness.
    â€˜There’s still power to the locks,’ Isabel said.
    It took only a moment for Ash to realize what she meant – that the red light was not an eye, but the light on some kind of security lock. The card he had taken from the body would open it. He hoped.
    â€˜Papa said it’s almost impossible to turn it off. For emergencies. It has its own battery.’
    Gripping each other’s hand, Ash and Isabel continued along the corridor, the red eye coming closer and closer, until they arrived at a dead end.
    The double doors spanned the width of the corridor, but had no glass section like the others, so there was no way of looking through to see what was on the other side. ‘Try the card,’ Isabel said, and Ash took it from the plastic holder.
    The red light on the lock glowed brighter when he looked down to find the slot, and he had no trouble inserting the card.
    Beep!
    The light flicked green and the lock clunked somewhere behind the