“We’re encountering heavy resistance on the eighth floor, sir,” said a soldier over the radio. “Multiple X-rays.”
On the monitors, Casey saw that a firefight had erupted between the Red Eyes and the soldiers. Even though the footage was in grainy black and white, the battle looked intense. Dreyfus’s men had run smack bang into the Red Eyes’ rear-guard on the top floor of the building and the aliens were making short work of them. As the team watched, a Red Eye advanced towards the soldiers, his energy shield absorbing their bullets like a sponge.
“Look, that guy’s a shield tank just like me,” Fish exclaimed. He turned to Dreyfus eagerly. “There’s no way your guys will be able to get through that energy shield. Not with ordinary bullets. Tell them to roll some grenades under it.”
“My troops know what they’re doing,” Dreyfus said gruffly, although he was clearly disconcerted by the depth of Fish’s knowledge of alien weaponry.
Brain studied the Red Eyes’ advance. “They’re like a SkyWake squad,” he said. It was true. Each team of Red Eyes was comprised of five soldiers – assault, tank, sniper, medic and hacker – exactly like in the game.
“What is this SkyWake thing you keep talking about?” Dreyfus barked. “I’ve been seeing posters with its logo everywhere today.”
Casey could see a thin film of sweat appearing on his brow inside the biohazard suit. She looked at the boys, but none of them wanted to be the one to explain it. It was clearly down to her.
She had to convince this soldier what was happening. He was her only hope of saving Pete. She took a deep breath.
“SkyWake is a video game. It’s got guns exactly like this one and aliens just like the ones upstairs. We came here to play in the game’s first ever global tournament. But halfway through, the Red Eyes sealed off the shopping centre and started abducting the players. We think they’re recruiting us to fight for them.” Dreyfus eyeballed the boys one by one. They all nodded nervously, confirming Casey’s wild story.
Instead of belittling her theory, as Casey expected, Dreyfus was silent for a moment as he mulled it over. Then his weathered face clouded.
“You said it was a global tournament?”
“That’s right.” Brain nodded. “It’s happening in six different cities around the world: London, New York… Oh no.” His voice petered out as he realized what he was saying.
Thinking he’d simply forgotten the rest of the list, Fish picked up where Brain left off. “Plus Madrid, Johannesburg, Seoul and Dubai. They’re running tournaments in shopping centres like this one all over the world.” Fish paused, seeing the look of panic spreading over everyone’s faces. “What did I say… ?”
Dreyfus growled into his radio. “Command, this is Gold Leader. I need a sit-rep on extra-terrestrial activity in the following cities: New York, Madrid, Jo’burg, Seoul, Dubai. Same pattern of activity as London, including venue type.”
“Stand by for update, Gold Leader.”
“What’s happening?” Fish asked. “I don’t get it.”
“All your base are belong to us,” Brain muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fish demanded. “It’s not even proper English.” He clearly didn’t share Brain’s knowledge of old memes.
“It means they’re not just abducting people in London,” Casey told Fish. “They’re doing it in all those other cities, too. They must be building an army of gamers from all around the world.” She turned to Dreyfus, imploring him to help. “You have to rescue my brother before that ship leaves.”
Before Dreyfus could respond, his radio crackled again.
“Lieutenant, this is Tucker. We’ve captured a live one.”
19
I’M NOT A COWARD, I’M JUST OVERLY PERCEPTIVE OF RISK
Pete’s dad used to say his son wanted to run before he could walk. It had always annoyed Pete … mostly because it was true. He was always impatient to be more grown up than he actually was, and it often got him into trouble. He thought about this as he shuffled through the dropship’s corridors with the other miserable gamers. He wished, now more than ever, that he’d stayed with Casey. She would have kept him safe.
The Red Eyes were escorting the gamers into the belly of the dropship towards the loadout bay. As the huge blast doors slid open to admit them, Pete already knew what to expect. In SkyWake the loadout bay was where Red Eye soldiers prepped for battle, where they were kitted out with armour and weapons by huge mechanical arms that swung around in the gloom like assembly-line robots in a car factory.
Ahead of them was a moving walkway that ran like a conveyor belt between banks of machinery, slowly propelling the gamers along its length in single file until they vanished into the gloom beyond. A cacophony of industrial noise echoed all around and the air was thick with the stench of grease and hydraulic fluid.
As Pete was shoved onto the walkway, bringing up the rear behind Strike Force and the other captured gamers, he cursed his stupidity. He’d let himself get shocked just so that Xander could see what would happen – and it had all been for nothing.
The YouTuber must have felt Pete’s eyes drilling into the back of his skull because he turned around to face him and mumbled something indistinct.
“What was that?” Pete asked warily.
“I said, you showed a lot of heart back there,” Xander repeated. He tugged at his Strike Force eSports jersey, with its logo of a fist clutching a bloody heart, as if to make his point. Then he added, “How you holding up?”
Despite himself, Pete was secretly pleased by Xander’s concern. “I’m OK,” he said, even though he was feeling anything but. His body still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock he’d received, and he felt giddy and sick. “I’m tougher than I look.”
Xander sucked his teeth and nodded appreciatively. “They really fried you,” he said, tugging at the shackle around his own neck. “What do you think it was? Some kind of electrical current?”
“Possibly.” Pete shrugged. “I got a shock off a light switch once. It was like that, only stronger.”
“Do you know what conduction is?” Xander asked, one eye on the Red Eyes standing guard along the sides of the moving walkway.
“You mean how electricity flows through metal or water?” Pete said, thinking back to the experiments he’d done in science. They’d tried running an electrical current through metal, wood and even a banana.
Xander nodded. “What do you think would happen if you were touching a Red Eye when you got zapped?” he asked. “Would the shock be conducted by their power armour?”
Pete considered the question. It was as if he’d suddenly become the world authority on alien shock technology. He quite liked it.
“I think it would,” he said after a pause. It was really nothing more than a guess. Then, worrying where Xander might be going with this, he quickly added, “but I’m not gonna be your guinea pig again.”
The YouTuber nodded. “Fair enough. You’ve done your bit. And you did it better than any of these losers would have done.” He gestured towards the rest of Strike Force just ahead of him. “They’ve all bottled it.”
It was true. Xander’s teammates looked utterly broken. Seeing Pete get electrocuted and then the video kid being thrown off the building had crushed them.
Xander glanced around the loadout bay thoughtfully. “This is probably our last chance to get out of here,” he told Pete. “The guards are pretty spread out.”
“You’ll never free everyone.”
“Oh, it’s too late for that,” Xander scoffed, as if amused by Pete’s idealism. “I’m just trying to save my own skin. Someone’s got to escape. It might as well be us.”
Pete gulped, realizing the implications of what Xander was saying. They were going to abandon everyone. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“Maybe we should wait a little longer,” he suggested. “We might be able to—”
“You haven’t been paying attention,” Xander told him. “Look at the helmets.�
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Pete followed Xander’s gaze. The last stage in the production line, after each gamer had been fitted with armour and weapons, was something Pete had never seen in the game. He watched as a robotic arm placed a wire mesh cap, like a hairnet, over each gamer’s head.
The minute the cap was in place, sharp prongs jabbed into the gamer’s temples, drawing beads of blood, and the mesh lit up in a flicker of LED lights. At the same moment, another robot arm swung past and fitted a combat helmet over the top. Then, with a vicious twist, it removed the neck shackles.
Pete wondered why the gamers didn’t run the moment they were free. It took him a moment to notice the difference. As soon as they were fitted with the mesh, the gamers’ posture changed. They suddenly stood up straight, their bodies rigid, their eyes blank and glassy.
“It’s some kind of mind-control device,” Xander explained. Pete’s jaw was slack with fear. He didn’t think it was possible to feel more terrified. That was going to be their fate too, in just a few minutes.
“Before we get to the end of the walkway, I’m going to take out that overseer,” Xander said, nodding up ahead. “I need you to grab his energy sword. Can you do that?”
Pete looked up. Xander was right. There was only one Red Eye near by now, the overseer with the clicker. This really was their last chance to get off the ship before they were taken who knew where.
“I’ll take the shock this time,” Xander promised. “I need you to make the most of the opportunity. I can’t do this without you. Grab his energy sword, take him out and then help me back on my feet.”
Pete could hear the desperation in Xander’s voice. It was just the two of them now. Him and the famous YouTuber. They’d be comrades-in-arms. He imagined Xander telling his million plus subscribers about how they’d survived this moment together.
“I’m in,” Pete said.
Xander grunted, relieved.
But before Xander could say anything more, a robotic arm swung towards him and cut away his trainers with a laser beam. Another arm then swung in and replaced them with combat boots that fitted around his ankles in sections and gelled together. A second later, the same thing happened to Pete. He looked down as the boots fitted tightly around his ankles. There was a whirr above him and an armoured chest plate descended, held by two robotic arms.
The armour came over Pete’s head, causing him to panic momentarily as his vision turned black. Then it hissed and clicked across his sternum as it locked into position. Metal rods shot out and connected it to the other pieces of armour that were slowly being placed on his arms and legs.
Looking down at his new outfit, he saw it was an exo-suit, a series of interconnected rods and armoured plates. It wasn’t as fancy as the Red Eyes’ power armour, but it would protect and strengthen his body when it was activated.
“See you on the other side, kid,” Xander whispered, pushing his fringe out of his eyes so he could get a better view of the robot arm carrying the strange mesh net that was swinging towards him.
The words were barely out of his mouth before he leaped into action, ducking under the mesh net and launching himself off the walkway towards the nearby overseer. The alien, seeing him coming, reached for his clicker. Xander crashed into him, wrapping his arms and legs around the Red Eye just as the overseer hit the button.
Xander’s body jerked and stuttered as the shock shackle burst into life. He clung on to the overseer’s armoured chest with every ounce of strength in his body, refusing to let go.
For a moment, Pete thought they’d made a mistake. Maybe whatever alien materials the Red Eyes’ suits were made of didn’t conduct electricity. But then the overseer started to convulse as the volts from Xander’s body zapped into his armoured chest. Xander held on for dear life, like he was riding a bucking bronco.
With a hiss of black smoke, the alien’s suit finally seized up and they both toppled to the ground. The overseer’s energy sword fell off his belt and rolled across the ground towards Pete’s feet.
Pete stared at it.
This was his moment.
All he had to do was bend down and pick it up.
He didn’t move.
“Grab … it … kid!” Xander hissed through clenched teeth as the last of the volts from his shock shackle ran through his body. “Take … him … out!”
Pete imagined picking up the sword and skewering the overseer before fighting his way off the dropship with Xander.
He’d be a hero.
He tried to step forward, but his legs wouldn’t move. They were rigid with fear. He saw the hope dying in Xander’s eyes. As it waned, it was replaced with something else. A look of utter contempt.
There was a shout along the walkway. The Red Eye grunts had seen the scuffle and were hurrying towards them. Pete looked at the sword handle again. Picking it up would mean he’d made a choice. A choice to stay and fight and, perhaps, even to die.
His legs started to move. He took one step and then another and, before he even knew what was happening, he was breaking into a sprint. But he wasn’t running towards the sword. He was running away from it, back along the walkway.
“Stop…” Xander pleaded weakly as Pete fled.
But Pete didn’t stop.
He couldn’t stop.
He had only one thought in his head.
Hide.
20
WE COME IN PEACE, SHOOT TO KILL
Casey recognized the captured Red Eye the moment he was wheeled into the security control room. It was the one she’d named Scratch. He was lying on a gurney, one of those medical stretchers on wheels that paramedics use, steered by two soldiers in biohazard suits. They were the man and woman she’d spotted in the back of the minivan that morning.
The man’s name patch read TUCKER. He was young and eager and carried an assault rifle and backpack. The woman’s patch read WILSON. She had short hair and a pinched, serious face. She carried a bulky medical bag with a big red cross on it.
“We found it in a coffee shop downstairs,” Tucker told Dreyfus. He was out of breath. The bulky biohazard suits made moving around difficult.
“He’s the one who chased me,” Casey said. Seeing Scratch’s battered armour, she suddenly felt guilty that her first interaction with a visitor from another planet had been to blow it up. “I didn’t mean to kill him,” she added.
“You didn’t,” Wilson said, pushing her aside. “You just busted its suit.”
“Open it up,” Dreyfus commanded. “I want to see it.”
With Tucker’s help, Wilson heaved Scratch off the gurney and onto the table. It was just long enough to hold him. Wilson ran a gloved hand over the alien’s power armour, feeling its contours. From somewhere upstairs came the muffled sound of gunfire as the rest of the soldiers fought the aliens on the upper floors.
“We don’t have time for this,” Casey said, impatient. “My brother—”
“We can spare a minute or two,” Dreyfus interrupted. “Maybe this thing can tell us exactly what’s going on.”
Tucker pulled a laptop from his backpack and flipped it open. On the screen was some kind of translation software. A list of Arcturian glyphs sat side by side with a selection of English words.
“Woah, sweet app,” Cheeze said, wheeling himself over to take a closer look. “You know how to speak their language?”
Tucker turned the screen away from him. “It’s classified,” he warned. “Stay back.”
“You’ve met these things before, haven’t you?” Casey whispered, looking at Dreyfus. Her eyes fell on the purple patch on his neck. She realized it wasn’t a birth mark or a scar. It looked like a plasma burn.
“First contact was a decade ago,” Dreyfus told her, his voice bitter. “My squad was on patrol in Iraq when they ambushed us. They killed my men, abducted my radio operator. I was the only survivor. I’ve been tracking them ever since.”
“Why would they abduct soldiers?” Fish asked.
“Like I told you,” Brain said, exasperated
, “they’re trying to build an army. Don’t you see? It’s—”
A piercing shriek made everyone jump. Wilson was cutting through the alien’s power suit with a handheld angle grinder. The circular blade threw out sparks as it sliced into the strange metal.
“It’s thicker than a rhino’s arse!” Tucker shouted over the noise. He was like a big kid. A burning smell floated across the room, filling the team’s nostrils and making them choke. The soldiers, encased in their airtight biohazard suits, didn’t notice it.
Dreyfus’s radio crackled.
“Gold Leader, I have your update. Over,” said a voice. “We’re receiving multiple reports of extra-terrestrial activity. Madrid and Johannesburg have issued alerts in the last few minutes. We’re still trying to establish contact with Dubai, Seoul and New York. They’ve gone dark.”
“It has to be an invasion,” Tucker said. He sounded scared and excited at the same time, like someone on a roller coaster. “Finally, we’ll get to have a stand-up fight with these things.”
“I already told you, they’re not invading us to take over the planet,” Casey said impatiently. “They’ve come to kidnap gamers. You have to go up there and stop them.”
Dreyfus looked at her with a frown. His eyes moved to Scratch. “Let’s ask it,” he said decisively. He turned to Wilson. “Are you ready, Sergeant?”
“Almost,” Wilson replied, putting down the angle grinder. “Tucker, come and grab the other side. On my count. Three … two … one … PULL!”
The two soldiers yanked the alien’s thick black chest plate. It came away from the rest of the suit with a sucking sound.
Casey gasped as she saw the alien inside.
Scratch was about two metres tall with scaly orange skin that was wrinkled and saggy like an iguana’s and eyes that were as black as obsidian.
“God, he’s ugly,” Tucker grimaced, turning away as if he might throw up inside his suit.
“It’s not a ‘he’,” Wilson corrected him. “It’s a female.”
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