Vulcan O'Malley

In a sinister seaside facility boys are progressively stripped of their identities and manipulated to become permanent extensions of a mechanical system. The custodians who supervise the house use a pervasive vibrational frequency to erode the children's memories and enforce absolute psychological compliance. Physical and chemical punishments, such as the blue drops and the surgical Three-Pronged Punch, are used to silence any unit that exhibits individual thought or "hypertrophy."  The story follows the protagonist, Unit 38, as he discovers a secret telegraphic code being sent through the pipes by a mutilated boy named Scouse.
This discovery prompts a clandestine rebellion among a small group of "loose pins" who refuse to be fully erased. They launch an in-house revolution to sabotage the controlling Invoker engine and reclaim their humanity from the house's oppressive, mathematical order.