by Nick Cook
She turned to face me again. ‘Just like you, Jake. Always there, looking out for everyone else, but often forgetting about yourself in the process. I know you probably don’t have much headspace at the moment, but can I give you one piece of advice?’
I avoided her searchlight eyes that seemed to bore into my soul. ‘Go on.’
‘You need to let those who love you help sometimes. You can’t do it all.’
I started to answer but she pressed her fingers to my lips. ‘No words right now – it’s too raw, too much everything.’
And before I could respond, Gem leant in and kissed me gently. Her warmth, her love spread through me and I felt the walls crumbling inside.
The grief came in a hot torrent that bubbled up from deep within me. There was no fighting it any more as I let the tears stream down my face, salting our lips as the kiss lingered.
Gem pulled away, and stared over my shoulder. ‘Oh, dear god, no…’
I turned to see the shimmering stasis field starting to collapse. Holes had begun to open up across it and the dark fog was leaking out again.
‘Ethan…’ I whispered.
Gem wrapped her arms round me from behind, her chin on my shoulder. But even surrounded by her love, I couldn’t help but imagine the thousands of shadow crows now swarming around him. I saw the Void tearing the atoms of his body away, Ethan screaming with pain as his body, his mind, his soul were destroyed…
‘We need to go,’ Gem whispered. She pulled me by the hand towards the museum.
I felt dead inside, a chasm of nothingness. On autopilot, I raced with Gem back into the museum to see Chloe closing up a control panel on the side of the Waverider.
‘You need to get it online now – the stasis field is collapsing!’ Gem shouted.
‘Just thirty seconds more,’ Chloe replied, as she started to punch a sequence of buttons on the control panel. One of Gem’s Panda squad already had his hands on the chrome sphere.
‘Initialising systems,’ Sentinel said in our eBuds. The L3 hummed into life, green lights illuminating its panel.
Another of the Pandas rushed over to the seat and placed her hand on the smaller sphere.
‘Here goes nothing,’ Chloe said. She slammed her hand down on a green button on the control console.
A golden sphere of energy burst out from the massive sphere and raced through everyone in the room. As it surged through me, I felt a tickle of energy before it rushed out past the walls. All except the Awoken with her hand on the sphere rushed to the window to look out at the curtain of golden light that raced out from Ellis Island.
‘Keep your fingers crossed,’ said Chloe. ‘This is the first serious test of our new generation of Waveriders,’ Chloe said.
Gem’s fingers found mine and tightened round my hand as the energy wave rushed away across the bay. It surged through the fleeing helicopters and ferries, towards the bank of dark energy that was quickly smothering the land around it. A battle of light versus dark.
The Waverider field reached the edge of Long Island and began to slow to a stop, a giant balloon of golden shimmering energy that was now as large as it was going to get. It formed a glowing lattice over New York, encompassing the whole city. I just prayed Ethan’s idea of it acting like a bio dome was right. If this didn’t work…
No one spoke, our tension filling the room as the tsunami of dark fog crashed into the Waverider energy. Could this really work against something so powerful? But then, like a lava field hitting something it couldn’t melt, the Shadowlands flowed around the energy dome and not through it.
A moment’s silence was followed by people clapping and cheering.
Chloe rushed over to hug Gem and me. ‘It’s only gone and worked! But now we’re going to need to prioritise getting the other L2 and L3 systems shipped to the areas that are in immediate danger from the expanding Shadowlands.’
An awful thought hit me. ‘But once New York is surrounded by the Shadowlands, we won’t be able to teleport out. Ethan and I only just discovered it screws with our ability to for some reason.’
‘Then we have to go now…’ Chloe said. Her eyes shot to Gem and the girl with her hand on the sphere. ‘Oh shit.’
Gem stepped forward. ‘We have no choice – the Pandas will stay behind so we can keep the L3 running here.’ She blinked rapidly at me. ‘Which means this is goodbye, Jake. The two of you have to teleport out now while you still can.’
Outside, the fog was rolling up the sides of the Waverider sphere and over it into the sky. The golden light became a dusty circle of brown as dark vapours swirled across.
I looked deep into Gem’s eyes. ‘It wasn’t meant to be like this.’
‘I know it wasn’t, certainly not in my head.’ She leant in and held me to her, her lips finding mine again. In those few seconds, our kiss said everything – the chance of future happiness stolen from us.
Gem finally pulled away, her eyes glistening. ‘Be strong, Jake.’
‘You too. You know you mean everything to me, right?’
‘I do.’ Gem placed her fingers over my heart. ‘I’ll always be there inside you, Jake, and you me.’ She stepped back, her hand raised, tears streaming down her face. ‘Goodbye and good luck, both of you.’
‘What about Ethan?’ Chloe asked.
‘He’ll be waiting to meet us back at Culham,’ I said just holding her gaze. How could I, when I’d told her such a blatant lie?
Chloe nodded, but my heart twisted as I caught the uncertainty in her eyes.
As I fought the grief roaring inside me, Gem locked her eyes on mine. Chloe and I began to teleport, the world soon blazing with white light. The next moment, Gem and her team vanished from view.
Chapter Nineteen
For the last hour, my heart had felt like a dead weight in my chest, growing heavier by the minute. As though losing Ethan and saying goodbye to Gem wasn’t enough for one day, things were far from over…
I crossed the production floor in the fusion research plant towards Chloe and her team. Everyone was working flat out to get as many Waveriders deployed as fast as possible to the areas in immediate danger from the expanding Shadowlands.
Dozens of L2 and L3 Waveriders were stacked around us as they neared the final stages of their construction. There were even some L1 Waveriders that we were hoping we’d have time to roll out to the smaller towns with significant populations. I’d always known the importance of these machines that we were building, but what I’d just witnessed in New York slammed home how critical all this effort was. Each and every one of these Waveriders would be the difference between life and death to billions of people around the world. But despite the horror of what would happen if we failed, that felt like nothing compared to the conversation that I was about to have with Chloe – a conversation I’d already delayed as long as possible.
Chloe was supervising her squad around an L3 that had been loaded onto a container with London stamped on its side. The Goose team would soon be heading to the city with the Waverider, since the British government had decided to bring the deployment forward. At least that meant our capital would be in the best possible hands.
Sentinel and I had already briefed Dad and Claire about what had happened in the States, including the awful news about Ethan, which had left them looking as though someone had just stamped on their hearts. After that, I’d agreed with them that I’d talk to Chloe before we announced what happened in New York to rest of the team. The one positive, if it could be called that, was that she’d been so flat-out busy that she hadn’t realised Ethan wasn’t with us yet. But the longer I left it, the more likely she was to suss something was wrong and she deserved to be told by me.
Ellie, the Welsh recruit who’d been assigned to the Goose team, spotted me approaching and said something to Chloe, who had her back to me.
Chloe turned round. ‘Hey, where have you been hiding yourself away, Jake?’
‘Things to do, people to chase,’ I replied. I gently took
her by the arm. ‘I need to talk to you alone for a moment.’
A question mark filled her gaze. ‘OK…’
I led the way through the large rolling doors where a container with a completed L3 was being moved outside towards a Chinook ready to transport it to Brize Norton. From there it would be airlifted to somewhere threatened by the ever expanding Shadowlands.
Chloe cast me sideways glances as we walked past the numerous military vehicles crowding the car park, the question mark in her eyes growing larger. We headed towards a picnic bench under a cherry tree.
We sat down and I looked anywhere but her as I picked at a piece of wood on the table. Chloe might have been my oldest friend, but despite all our history I knew this would be the hardest conversation we’d ever had.
Chloe tipped her head to one side. ‘What’s this about, Jake?’
In the way of a reply, I pulled at a splinter until I had a strip of wood four centimetres long between my fingers.
‘Your silence is really starting to freak me out now, Jake. What’s bloody wrong?’
How could I tell her that the man who meant everything to her was gone?
I balled every gram of courage into that moment and brought my eyes up to hers. ‘The only way Ethan could create that time bubble was by entering the Shadowlands and expanding it from within…’
Chloe’s eyes narrowed. ‘So shouldn’t Ethan be telling me all about what a big hero he’s been?’ She looked around. ‘Hasn’t he arrived yet?’
‘No. And the thing is, Chloe, he won’t…’
Chloe grabbed my arm, her lips thinning, eyes widening.
I pushed on. ‘Ethan entered the Shadowlands and kept his time bubble going for as long as you needed to get the L3 online. But when the time bubble collapsed, millions of shadow crows would have attacked him.’
Her eyes were as hard as diamonds. ‘Are you trying to tell me –’ she took a sobbing deep breath – ‘that the guy I love is dead?’
‘I’m so sorry, Chloe.’ I tried to reach out to her but she slapped my hands away.
‘Why the hell didn’t you try to stop him doing something so reckless, Jake?’
‘Ethan pulled a fast one on me before I knew what he was up to. The next thing I knew, he was inside the Shadowlands behind his time bubble where I couldn’t reach him.’
Her features became sharp, her eyes daggers. ‘So in other words, you left him and literally ran away?’
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘Really? Because from where I’m sitting you sound like a coward who left my man to die.’
Her words punched deep into my soul. I didn’t reply, because what could I say to that? Sorry? I didn’t want it to happen? I agree? No words would make this right between us.
Chloe put her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking.
‘I’m so sorry, Chloe. I would have taken his place in a moment if I could have.’
She spun round, tears flying from her eyes. ‘But that’s the problem, Jake. You’re standing here and he isn’t!’ She rushed off back to the building, her arms clutched round herself and her head down.
I felt like howling, shouting, smashing the bench to a thousand pieces for the unfairness of all this. Instead, I stood like a statue and did nothing as I watched her go. And then the one thing that Ethan had asked me to do flashed into my mind…
Tell Chloe just how much I love her…
My sense of despair only deepened… I couldn’t get even that one small thing right.
The roar of a Merlin helicopter drowned out my thoughts as it came into a rapid descent to land. A few moments later, the door was pulled open and General Hammond jumped out, Williams right behind him. They started straight for the fusion plant.
I angled towards them to head them off. ‘Why are you here?’
‘We’ve received the latest news about New York and need to brief you,’ Hammond said. ‘Can you gather Martin and Claire together with all your key people? I need to get you all rapidly up to speed with what our experts are telling us. It’s bad, really bad, Jake.’
I hung my head for a moment. Just how much worse could things get?
Everybody was talking over each other in the meeting room. General Hammond, Williams, Dad and Claire – plus several dozen senior Awoken team leaders – had gathered together. The squad leaders would then brief their own teams in turn.
But Chloe was missing, and I’d had to resist the urge to go hunting for her. Despite how serious the situation was, I knew she needed time to get herself together.
Hammond had suggested I brief everyone about my experiences first, which had of course freaked out most of the squad leaders. They’d fired question after question at me, and I hadn’t fielded them very well, my mind still half on Chloe and Ethan.
Dad finally held up his hands. ‘I know you’ve got hundreds of questions you want to ask Jake, but the critical takeaway is that each working Waverider is being allocated to a city to act as a defensive shield against the expanding Shadowlands, especially those nearest to the Brookhaven Laboratory. Everything else is secondary to that.’
Hammond turned to me. ‘I’d like to talk to everybody about the latest news, if that’s OK, Jake?’
Although I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear whatever it was he had to say, especially not in my current mental state, I gestured to him to take the floor.
The general stood to face the people in the room, his hands clasped behind his back. ‘I need to brief you about what’s been happening since the Shadowlands began to expand from Long Island.’ He turned to the screen behind him. Williams picked up the remote from the desk and, with a button click, a satellite image of the New York Bay area appeared.
Several people gasped as we all took in the image. The dark oil slick of fog was spreading out like a black stain across the landscape. The golden dome of the Waverider field was just visible – poking up through the dark mist within the area already swamped.
‘As you can see, New York has now been totally engulfed by the Shadowlands,’ Hammond said. ‘All communication with that city has been lost. However, the energy of the deployed L3 is stable and confirms that a Waverider can indeed protect a whole city and its population. However, this next image, taken twenty minutes ago and centred over the singularity itself at Brookhaven, shows the rapid expansion rate of the Shadowlands.’
William clicked the remote button again and a new picture flashed up. ‘This is another satellite image, but this time a wider one of the entire New York Bay area. The Shadowlands will have breached the boundaries of the surrounding states in less than a day. The image before you was taken one hour after the first and our experts have surmised that the Shadowlands is expanding outwards at fifty miles per hour. Current estimates are that there are –’ he took a long breath – ‘already around twelve million dead.’
People gasped, many cupping their hands over their mouths, all eyes disbelieving – including my own – as we stared at Hammond. Way more people had already died than from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
‘That many?’ Claire said.
General Hammond gave her a grim nod. ‘I wish with all my heart it wasn’t true, but that was despite the US authorities doing everything they could to get as many people out of its path in time. To prevent widespread panic, they are about to release a cover story to the world’s news media that I’ll show you now. There’s been a deliberate news blackout till now.’
Williams clicked the remote once more and this time a video started with a CBS logo at the bottom of the screen.
A female reporter behind a desk in a studio spoke to the camera: ‘A government spokesman has just informed us that a major terrorist incident has occurred on Long Island. It seems that a toxic cloud of some sort has been released and is killing people on contact. This gas cloud is now expanding rapidly out from Long Island, and all citizens in danger of being affected will be notified. If you receive an evacuation notice, you must head towards
your nearest designated location where preventative measures are being taken to protect everyone from the toxic effects. Local news outlets will advise about specific arrangements within your state, but everyone notified must evacuate immediately as time is of the essence. Meanwhile, as a short-term precaution, President Whitlock has been transferred to Air Force One. All news, radio and social media outlets will be repeating this message.’ The reporter looked down at the desk for a moment before staring back into the camera’s lens. ‘God help us all.’ The video faded to black.
‘That’s quite the cover story, but why not tell people the truth?’ I asked.
‘It might not be the truth, Jake, but it’s what people can cope with hearing,’ Hammond replied. ‘It’s far easier to say this is a terrorist attack than trying to convince them that this is an invasion from beyond our reality.’
Williams clicked the remote again and a series of bar graphs appeared on the screen. Down the left-hand side was a list of major US cities with their population in millions beside each.
‘What you’re looking at here is the projected number of people who can be saved if we manage to get all the necessary Waveriders online,’ General Hammond said.
My gaze flicked to the total at the bottom of the screen. Seventy-five million. ‘Hang on, I thought the population of the United States was somewhere in the region of three hundred million.’
‘Three hundred and thirty-six million to be precise,’ Hammond replied, ‘which doesn’t even take into account all the people in Canada – who are going to be affected in the same time frame, along with other neighbouring countries.’
Claire stared at him. ‘You’re not trying to tell us that over two hundred million people are expected to die, even if we get all the L2s and L3s shipped out?’
Hammond closed his eyes for a moment as he slowly nodded. ‘I’m very much afraid that I am.’
Stunned silence descended over the room as we soaked in the information. All those people killed, destroyed by shadow claws and teeth. It felt as if we’d lost before we’d even begun.