Denny felt another blast of emotion, this one of disgust and revulsion. Again, she saw things from the Queen's viewpoint, but this time she was looking at herself and Frankie. What she saw were flabby, misshapen creatures with huge bulging eyes, weird flat faces, tiny pursed mouths, and mops of grotesque hair. The impression lasted only a split second, but it brought another wave of nausea.
“Good people,” Denny gasped, “good people don't harm children. Everybody knows that–”
She paused, knowing she would condemn herself as a hypocrite if she went on. The Queen was skimming her mind, stirring up memories of school shootings, terrorist bombings, every atrocity she knew.
“Okay,” Denny conceded, “we have some pretty shitty individual humans and some lousy ideologies back there. But two wrongs don't make a right!”
This time there was no response, in words or thoughts. Seconds passed, and the only sounds in the brood chamber were muffled creaks and rustles from the egg niches. Then the Queen's body began to buck and heave as her biological machinery continued its mindless, remorseless task.
“You wish to save this child? And your friend who carries the machine?” asked the Queen, after the fresh egg had been safely deposited. “Then we must make a new covenant.”
***
Jim got the text from Zoffany just as he was preparing to go through the gateway. The time agreed had not elapsed, but he felt incapable of simply waiting. Besides, news updates suggested that the Soul-Eater on the Thames Line had perished. There were no reports of people being attacked, merely chatter about 'toxic waste' or 'sewage'. A new theory gaining traction was that a cache of chemical weapons, dumped sometime after 1945, had leaked into the water table.
“Crap,” Jim growled, reading the message. “They got their tactics right.”
He reasoned that, if Forster's squad had been wiped out, the Interlopers could give their full attention to other matters. This meant that he, Denny, and Frankie were the next obvious targets. He checked his pistol and Taser and prepared to enter the gateway, hoping that the others had not ventured far on the other side.
“Davison? That you?”
The voice was familiar. Jim turned to see Davenport clambering down off the platform. After him came another man in a security guard uniform. There were other people on the platform but Jim could not make them out, just see a few legs.
“Yeah,” he replied. “What's up?”
“Bloody shambles mate,” Davenport replied, moving into the tunnel and raising a flashlight. “You heard about the raid on headquarters?”
Jim nodded.
“Why are you here and not heading home?” he asked, holding up a hand to block the flashlight beam.
“Couldn't leave my old mate Jim,” Davenport said heartily. “I rounded up a few survivors and brought them down here. Thought we could help out.”
Jim frowned, still puzzled by his colleague's change of heart. Davenport lowered the flashlight, spoke more softly.
“Look, it's up to you, but I think we should get the girls back, pronto. Unite all our forces kind of thing. Then go back to headquarters, see what we can do there.”
“Okay,” Jim said, relieved to have some backup. “Who's that with you?”
“Some of the new guys,” Davenport replied. “Not very experienced, but willing.”
Jim nodded dubiously, hefted his gun. He knew that the most competent guards had all accompanied Forster.
So I've got the trainees and no-hopers as backup. Great.
“Okay, that's great,” he said aloud. “So let's get going.”
A few seconds later, Jim was in the large tunnel looking around in vain for Denny and Frankie. As Davenport came through, Jim spotted small footprints in the dirt, leading uphill. He pointed these out.
“Yeah, they must have gone that way,” Davenport agreed.
A security guard Jim didn't recognize appeared, then another. The second stranger was followed by a man in a suit, then a couple of young women in casual clothes and overalls.
“Hang on,” said Jim, “You brought the contract cleaners? And who's this guy?”
Then another figure, far smaller than the rest, materialized and tumbled to the floor of the tunnel. It looked up as the others helped it to its feet, and Jim gaped in stunned horror. It was a little girl, dressed in adult clothes. It grinned up at Jim.
“I remember you!”
“Lucy!” he gasped.
The world seemed to tilt and reset itself as Jim realized that he was the only human present.
“Sorry, mate,” said the fake Davenport, reaching out to take Jim's gun. Already the creature's visage was losing its familiar shape. “I said we were going back to headquarters. I just didn't say whose. It's right up this tunnel. Don't make a fuss. Killing you is not part of the plan.”
***
The word covenant brought Denny up short. Then she remembered the diary of the British officer who had worn the original talisman during World War One.
“That was more than a hundred years ago,” she protested. “If your world is dying, and you with it, what's the points of making treaties?”
To underline her point, she formed a powerful mental image of her own. She visualized a group of Interlopers being hunted down by humans. The creatures were outnumbered, spotted by the air with drones using infra-red cameras. Vastly outnumbered, the creatures were cornered in a bleak, industrial landscape, then shot by black-clad troops.
“No!” screamed the Queen. “We will not perish!”
A mental counterblast swamped Denny's imaginings. Interlopers in human guise moved across a desolate landscape. The perspective shifted and Denny saw that they were in a desert. Another image, this time of Interlopers on an island, again far from civilization. Again and again, the Queen offered Denny visions of her race surviving with little or no interaction with humans.
“Naive,” murmured Frankie. “And can I just add, we're not getting any of this telepathic stuff on film.”
“All we want is to be left alone,” hissed the All-Mother. “We did not seek war.”
“But you found it,” Denny retorted. “And there's no way you could survive in our world without our agreement. You need our acceptance.”
“A new covenant!” insisted the Queen. “A truce. We offer our powers to you in return for our survival.”
“I can't negotiate for the world!” Denny responded.
There was no verbal reply. Instead, the All-Mother transmitted a bewildering series of images, all showing Interlopers co-operating with human beings in various contexts. Scientific experiments, military operations, espionage, crime-fighting. In a few moments, the end-game of the All-Mother's plan was outlined.
Denny felt the 'new covenant' as much as saw it, a blending of human and Interloper abilities to produce a kind of super-race. The first nation or alliance to achieve this, she realized, would have a huge advantage. Soldiers and spies with psychic powers, extraordinary strength and resilience, and the ability to assume any guise.
The original human race would be extinct within a few generations.
For a moment, the intensity of the Queen's vision almost overwhelmed Denny. She glimpsed a world without war, without crime, without oppression, without poverty. But it would also be a world without humanity as she knew it.
“No!” she shouted. “That's obscene. There has to be another way.”
“You must agree!” insisted the Queen. “If you were linked mind to mind, as we are, all your petty conflict would cease. See how we take care of our own.”
The creature raised a huge, flabby hand to point. Denny turned to see Jim being escorted up the tunnel behind them. Among the group of Interlopers with him limped the tiny figure of the false Lucy, intact but still showing scars of her dissection.
“Sorry guys,” Jim said. “Major back-up failure.”
“Not your fault,” Denny replied. “As you can see, we got more than we bargained for.”
“There will be no more bargain
ing!” bellowed the Queen. “The new covenant must be. Our world will soon be torn apart!”
Denny felt the sheer mental pressure from the monstrous female becoming unbearable. At the same time, however, an idea began to form. It flitted across her mind, and she quickly suppressed it, leaving just the flavor of it. She took a few steps forward, holding up her hands in a placatory gesture.
“Let Lucy Gould go free,” she said. “Let us look after our own. As a gesture of good faith.”
She formed an image in her mind of the girl being severed from the Queen's bloated body by one of the attendants. Then she focused intently on another idea, trying to drive all other thoughts and feelings out of her mind. Denny kept thinking of a pink elephant, huge and absurd, a comical cartoon animal.
She was within a few yards of the All-Mother, now. The creature was silently squeezing out another huge egg. Denny reached into her jeans pocket and took out her key ring, holding up the talisman. The hulking attendants shambled forward, then hesitated. Seizing the moment, Denny ran forward, leaped onto one of the All-Mother's huge thighs, and plunged the stone into the creature's immense torso.
The Queen screamed, shuddering, as her flesh bubbled around the talisman. Denny yelled too, feeling a piercing pain in her own side. She had expected it, but the sensation was still startling and uncomfortable. This close to the All-Mother, the monster's psychic aura was almost overwhelming. But Denny also felt satisfaction that the creature's agony was being broadcast so strongly.
Denny scrambled along the paralyzed creature and took hold of Lucy Gould. As expected, the girl was attached to the pale gray flesh of the All-Mother, and screamed as Denny pulled at her skinny body. But the destructive force of the talisman had already done some of the work, its effects spreading through the vast body and weakening its tissues.
With a sucking sound, the girl's body came free, leaving sticky trails of darkening tissue. Bright human blood splashed onto the Queen's body. Lucy squealed, fought Denny feebly, and then became still, clinging to her rescuer. Denny leaped down to the floor of the chamber. Her whole attack had taken a couple of seconds.
I was right, she thought, looking around at the other Interlopers. Hit the boss and you hurt them all.
The huge guards and the rest were thrashing wildly, some lashing out at each other, others simply lying prone, their limbs jerking. The Queen's suffering was theirs. The mental link that gave them such huge advantages was also a terrible weakness. As Denny dodged one of the Queen's hulking guards, she saw Jim grab a pistol from one of his captors and shoot the creature in the face.
Frankie had ducked into the largest of the niches and was filming the chaos, focusing on the All-Mother's agonized writhing. More gunshots sounded, along with pained screams from Jim's targets.
“Let's go before they recover!” Denny shouted. “Frankie, come on!”
She glanced back and saw that the All-Mother was plucking the talisman from her side. The huge guards were struggling to their feet, as were some of the regular Interlopers. Frankie lowered her camera and ran after Denny, dodging around the creatures that flailed at the humans. Jim was less agile, and less fortunate. A grasping claw caught his ankle and brought him down. Denny hesitated.
“Just go!” Jim yelled, firing at the Interloper to free himself. “Put the truth out there!”
One of the Queen's guards loomed over him, and Jim emptied his pistol into the massive being. The bullets seemed to have no effect. The colossal creature was still confused and in distress, but one of its flailing fists caught Jim with a glancing blow and smashed him against the tunnel wall. He fell to the floor like a rag doll, neck twisted at a sickening angle.
Denny turned and ran. As she followed Frankie along the curving tunnel she felt the pain and confusion radiating from the All-Mother dwindle. Soon the psychic link was broken, but not before Denny felt the Queen's hate. The feeling was just barely perceptible, like a glowing ember in the darkness. And there was another emotion, something Denny could not quite grasp.
“Crap!” she shouted, rounding a corner to almost collide with Frankie.
She did not need to ask what had stopped her friend from entering the gateway. The black globe was gone. In its place was a wall of darkness blocking the entire tunnel. Frankie looked back up the tunnel, her eyes wide with fear.
“Denny, what the hell?”
“It's breaking down,” Denny replied. “This must be how the big critters break through into our world – the gateway goes unstable, grows bigger. We can still go through!”
But neither woman moved. The inky barrier was advancing then receding like a black ocean breaking on a beach. Now that she looked more closely, Denny could see flickers of silvery radiance inside the darkness. She felt a pain behind her eyes as she tried to focus on the weird lights.
Reality coming apart, she thought. A whole universe collapsing.
As if to confirm her suspicion, a seismic shock-wave ran through the tunnel floor and a chunk of roof fell, striking Denny on the shoulder. At the same moment, one of the All-Mother's guards shambled into view, loping along like an ape, huge mouth gaping. Seeing the circle of shark-like teeth decided the issue. Both women ran straight into the wall of darkness.
Denny felt a sickening lurch. She was buffeted up and sideways, and then felt a piercing shaft of pain in her head. Lucy Gould clung even more tightly to her. Green and orange lights played across her vision; a sudden migraine. Then she was collapsing onto the dirty gravel that lay between the tracks of the Thames Line. At the last moment, she rolled so as not to crush the child she still held.
They had emerged not far from the original gateway. Frankie was already getting to her feet, picking up her camera. What had been a black wall across the tunnel was, in this reality, a flickering veil of silver that ebbed and flowed. Denny ran towards the edge of the platform and tried to disengage Lucy Gould.
“You've got to get up sweetie!” she urged. But the girl stuck to her like a limpet, eyes wide, face expressionless.
The massive Interloper burst through, stumbling and collapsing onto the tracks. Both women were already running as it heaved itself upright and gazed around, disoriented. Then it caught sight of its prey and began to pursue them in bounding leaps. Denny realized that she and Frankie were stuck on the tracks, with no time to climb onto the platform. Frankie turned, and hurled her camera at their pursuer's face. The Interloper knocked the camera aside as if it had been a toy, hardly breaking its stride.
Sorry, Frankie, Denny thought. I got you into this!
There was a deafening explosion and the Interloper reeled, black blood spurting from one arm. The creature bellowed in fury and turned to look up at the platform, just as another blast caught it in the face. An eye socket exploded and the entity reeled backwards, its huge arms splayed out. It lay groaning against the curved wall, blood streaming over the steel rails. Denny looked up to see Gould, Zoffany, and Davenport on the platform, the latter reloading a shotgun. Gould was already reaching down to give Frankie a hand up off the tracks. Denny stared up at the security man.
“I thought you quit?” she asked.
“I changed my mind,” he said. “It's not just a woman's privilege, you know.”
Davenport nodded at the dying Interloper.
“Any more of them coming through?” he asked.
“I doubt it, because–”
Denny stopped talking at the shimmering wall began to fade. The migraine-inducing flickers of light vanished, and the gateway returned to its familiar globe. Then, after a few moments, the globe shrank to a point of blue light, which died out.
“… because the Phantom Dimension just died,” Denny finished.
Finally, after much coaxing, she got Lucy to let go and handed the whimpering child her up to Zoffany. Gould realized at that moment who the newcomer was. He seemed frozen in shock, then went over to Zoffany and began to talk softly to the child. Lucy seemed oblivious to her older brother, however. Denny picked up Frankie's cam
era, handed it up to her colleague.
“Sometimes you get the shot,” Frankie said, examining the smashed casing and broken lens. “And sometimes you just get away.”
Epilogue: End game
While Zoffany and Gould tended to Lucy's injuries, the other survivors sat in the security control room watching news footage from around the world. In Brazil, a Black Star had appeared over Rio and crashed into the sea in front of stunned crowds. The remains of a Soul-Eater had been found at the end of a mile-long swathe of dead wheat in Kansas. Chinese state television had declared that several 'ape-like creatures' had been shot dead after appearing in Inner Mongolia.
The general tenor of reports was that some bizarre, worldwide disaster had somehow been averted, but nobody could be more specific. There was talk of experiments, propaganda, and of course, space aliens. Some serious commentators took the line that unrelated phenomena were being 'falsely blamed' on a single, paranormal cause.
“After all,” said one, “a chemical leak on the London Underground doesn't have to be connected to dead crops in America or dead apes in China.”
The committee searched the mainstream media in vain for the uploads they had put out earlier. It was only when they started looking at what Frankie called 'fringe fruitcakes' that they found some shares, re-tweets and the like.
Nobody – at least officially – was taking the Phantom Dimension seriously.
“Is there any point in uploading any more of this stuff?” Frankie asked, taking the memory card out of her camera. “Assuming we got anything usable.”
“I don't think so,” said Denny. “People believe what they want to believe, dwell in their little echo chambers.”
“If the PD is gone and the Queen is dead,” Davenport pointed out, “then it doesn't really matter, does it? I mean, the threat is gone.”
“So will Benson give us a bonus?” Frankie asked. “Productivity, you know?”
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