Deadly Treatment by David McLeod

the man, held the vessel up to his mouth, and helped him to take a drink.
    ‘What’s going on down there?’ Came a labored whisper from the AC duct above. Joshua ignored the question and chose instead to concentrate on helping the man under the desk. The man took a few gulps of water and began to cough and wheeze. Joshua patted him on the back until the coughing fit subsided — mimicking something his mother would have done if he been doing the coughing.
    Joshua replaced the cup in his hand with the flashlight and began to examine the man in front of him. The first thing he noticed was that the man had no hair at all on his face or head. Nothing, no beard or moustache, and strangely, no eyebrows — he looked like a bright white bowling ball. The other thing Joshua noted was how skinny the man was, almost as though someone had just stretched some plastic food wrap over his skull and sprayed it white. Images of malnourished Africans or AIDs victims filled his head and he shrank back a little.
    ‘Wait — don’t go,’ the man forced out.
    ‘I wasn’t — I …’ Joshua couldn’t come up with a suitable explanation for his retreat, so left his sentence hanging.
    ‘I need to tell you something. Come closer.’ The man struggled to speak.
    Joshua took a breath and reluctantly leaned forward.
    ‘It’s all true,’ he whispered, ‘Rife, Coley, and many more. It’s all true,’ he wheezed.
    Joshua had no idea what the man was talking about.
    ‘I have the proof too — in my pocket.’ The man tried to lift his hands to his breast pocket, but he was too weak. Joshua reached over and undid the button, fumbled inside, and came out with a tiny flash drive.
    ‘It’s all on there — you have to tell people. You, you need to let everyone know.’ The man’s words were getting slower and weaker. ‘Promise me!’ The man stared at Joshua.
    ‘I promise,’  Joshua replied as the man’s breathing wheezed one last time, and then ceased as he slumped down dead.
    Joshua panicked; he had no idea what to do. On one hand, a stranger had died right in front of him making him promise to tell the world about who knows what — but on the other hand, his mother’s life depended on him carrying out the task the two guys on the other end of the rope wanted him to do. Fear and confusion paralyzed the young boy.
    ‘What the hell are you doing?’ came the voice from the duct above.
    Startled, Joshua tugged twice on the rope and was immediately dragged back towards the table. As the rope lifted him off the ground back towards the AC duct, Joshua shone the flashlight one last time on the dead bald man.
    ‘All done?’ Scott asked as he greeted him at the end of the duct.
    ‘No, I couldn’t. There was a man...’
    ‘What do you mean you haven’t done it? Fuck!’ Scott was holding back his anger. ‘Get down there to the car, quickly — and don’t speak till I tell you to.’
    Joshua jumped back down from the car’s roof and slipped into the back seat while Scott put the outside grill back in place.
    ‘All good?’ Vince asked.
    Joshua just looked to the floor.
    ‘I asked you a question,’ Vince said menacingly.
    Joshua remained silent
    ‘Listen to me, you little shit; when I ask you a question, I...’
    Scott jumped into the car and yelled, ‘Drive!’
    They drove silently for several blocks. Vince still had no idea what was going on, and Scott was trying to let his anger dissipate before questioning Joshua — and before the inevitable eruption from Vince when he found out that the job hadn’t been done.
    Scott turned to look at Joshua in the back seat. ‘Can you please tell me what went on in there?’ Scott’s voice was calm.
    ‘I couldn’t do it; there was a man there.’
    ‘You what!’ Vince yelled and screeched the car to a halt.
    ‘Vince, let me handle this. You just keep driving.’
    ‘Told you he would fuck it up; and I told him what would happen if he didn’t do it,’ Vince spat angrily, and then set