Free Jimmy Coates by Joe Craig Page A

of a hurricane, Jimmy’s programming swept through him. He leapt off the sofa and turned off the TV, then he dashed across the room and hit the lights.
    His head throbbing, Jimmy ran to the side of the window again and peered between the slats of the blind. It’s happening , he could hear in his head. While half of him still refused to believe that Viggo might have lost the election, the rest of him was already dealing with the consequences. If the election was over, and if the Government had won, NJ7 could attack at any moment. Jimmy could almost hear the whiz of the bullets. In his mind, he saw the glass shattering. His head was already plotting his strategy – evasion, survival. How could he escape the building?
    â€œStop!” Jimmy shouted. His voice reverberated round the room. This was madness. There was nothing to suggest that the Government was about to attack. But Jimmy’s mind swirled with doubt. He couldn’t work out whether this was his paranoia or a legitimate reaction to a genuine risk. Had he unknowingly seen something out of the window that suggested an imminent attack?
    Jimmy held his head and scrunched his fingers into his skull, as if he was digging for the answer. Then he had to find a tissue from his pocket and wipe the blood that was trickling from his nose.
    Suddenly there were noises. The corridor. Voices. Footsteps. Jimmy felt his muscles awash with power. The door burst open and the light flicked on.
    â€œJimmy?” It was his mother. “You OK? Why are you in the dark?”
    Jimmy held himself still. It took all his effort. He diverted the tissue in his hand to wipe the sweat from his face and scrunched it up to hide the spots of blood. But before he could say anything, Viggo burst in, past Jimmy’s mother.
    â€œNO!” he roared, not even glancing at Jimmy. He charged at the sofa and kicked it a dozen times.
    â€œChris, calm down!” yelled Helen Coates. From behind her came Saffron Walden, making soothing noises. She tried to take Viggo by the shoulders, but he turned away and landed a sharp kick in the centre of the TV screen. The glass cracked and the whole set toppled over.
    Jimmy heard a gasp and noticed that Felix and Georgie were lurking in the corridor, unable to stop themselves watching, but sensibly staying out of the way.
    â€œChris, stop this!” Helen shouted. Viggo stopped trying to destroy things, but Jimmy thought it was only because he’d run out of furniture to kick. “What did you expect?” Helen asked. “That you were invincible?”
    Viggo turned away, resting with his hands against the window, breathing heavily.
    â€œYou’ve done a great thing,” said Saffron softly. “You should be proud. You established an opposition… you forced them to have an election in the first place… you—”
    â€œI lost!” Viggo exploded with rage again. Jimmy had never seen him like this. All the man’s power and charisma had fractured into a burning fury.
    â€œSo you’ll keep fighting,” Helen suggested. “You have to. We’ll find a way – somehow. We’ll prove that the ballot was rigged.”
    Everybody turned to look at her.
    â€œOh, come on,” said Helen. “You all know it must have been.”
    â€œThose machines…” said Saffron, nodding. “It’s obvious. NJ7 must have got to them, or to the central computer…”
    â€œThey didn’t,” Viggo groaned, hardly audible. “Don’t you think I expected that? Don’t you think I had staff working to stop it happening? To gather proof if it was happening?”
    â€œYour staff?” Helen asked, with acid in her voice. “Where are your loyal staff now? If they were so good at their job, and so loyal… where are they now?” There was no reply. Helen marched to the window and pulled back the blind. “Look!” she ordered.
    Gradually, figures