"Hold on," he said. "I recognize this place. I reckon we came up this road last time. Must be getting close." He pulled the map out again and checked it. "Now, we've gotta be real careful. We're gonna keep close to the buildings and if we see anyone coming, we'll have to get out of sight quick. If they catch us, we're goners."
"Okay."
That was her only response. Tucker smiled and allowed himself a brief eye roll. She was either hiding her fear very well, or she was, like most kids of her age, completely ignorant of how the world worked. Especially this new world. But he liked her attitude, and it made her a whole lot easier to get along with. The dog, too, was remarkably calm. It seemed they were both relying on him to keep them safe.
"Quick!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her and Dany into the gap between two buildings. They crouched beneath a sign that said Garth's Auto Repairs and waited. The rumbling noise that had first alerted him got louder until an APC appeared in their line of sight momentarily.
Luna went to get up, but Tucker pulled her back. "Wait!" he hissed as a military truck followed by a jeep followed the APC up the road they'd just walked along.
"Where do you think they're going?" Luna whispered as they waited in the gloom. "Arbroath?"
"Maybe. But that ain't our concern. I want to see if that storage place the sheriff used last time is still safe. If it is, that's where we'll go."
"Are you sure Mom will go there?"
Tucker shrugged. "I ain't sure about nothin', pumpkin. But when she finds out the preacher got captured, I reckon she'll hightail it up here as soon as she can. And if we're waitin' for her, well, maybe I'll be in for a promotion."
Luna looked at the smiling face. "Why do you call me ‘pumpkin’? It isn't my name."
"I just like it," Tucker lied. "It's easy for me to remember. Don't you like it?"
"Sure I do," she said as they stepped into the bright daylight of the main street.
As they walked along, Tucker tried to keep his mind focused on the mission at hand and the little girl walking alongside him, rather than his sad memories of another child she resembled.
The following morning they were inching their way towards the square building that overlooked the base, keeping out of sight and approaching from the rear.
Three times they were forced to duck into the shadows or blindly through open doors, to avoid patrols and work parties. Lad Melua, the militia leader, was now overseeing a much bigger operation, with groups of workers and their attendant guards, heading out in all directions.
He could see that the yard in front of the base was a maelstrom of activity with men and women in fatigues moving back and forth with military purpose. Others in civilian dress were walking in small groups, fetching and carrying. Columns of smoke or steam trailed into the air and the meaty aroma of cooking mixed with the tang of diesel oil.
They were sheltering behind a rusty metal container full of garbage when the gates opened, and a black car slid through and along the road in the opposite direction to the one they'd taken.
"Mommy!"
Marvin grabbed the girl and pulled her downwards, his hands over her mouth. Luna struggled against him, wriggling so much he was forced to tighten his grip. "I'll let you go if you promise not to call out!" he whispered. Dany began growling quietly while her head bobbed up and down as if looking for someone.
Suddenly, Luna stopped struggling and nodded. "It was Mommy! I saw her running after that car!"
"Where?"
She pointed towards the street that ran parallel to the one the car had taken.
"Are you sure it was her?"
The girl nodded. "Yes. There were two people with her. Two men, I think. I couldn't tell who they were."
Dany pulled on her lead, encouraging him to move in the direction Luna was pointing. So that was it. Outvoted by a child and a dog. In truth, he was happy to be moving—the area around the militia base was far too busy now for comfort.
He followed her, catching sight of the black vehicle as it moved along. It was traveling incredibly slowly given that the streets had been cleared, just slowly enough that he could keep it in sight. That troubled him, but all Luna could think of was finding her mother, so he allowed her to lead the way. He kept a tight hold on Dany and scanned the streets and buildings for any sign of trouble.
Two blocks along and they found it. Trouble. They were running along a tree lined road with a park on one side and a row of two story apartments on the other. Marvin had stopped to take a quick breather, much to the annoyance of Luna, when a figure in a white coverall emerged from the balcony of one of the apartments and called a warning.
"Quick, we gotta run!" Tucker said, leading them across the road towards the park.
"Hey, stop right there!" a voice called from behind them. "Stop, or I shoot!"
Tucker lifted Luna over the cast iron railings and hoisted the dog after her. He glanced behind him to see a man in olive military dress running after them, handgun leveled. He lifted his leg onto the top of the railing but couldn't push hard enough to get over.
Splinters exploded feet away from him as a round thudded into the trunk of a tree. Luna's hands grabbed the arm of his shirt and he thrust his foot down hard, finally cresting the ironwork and landing in a heap on the other side. "Thanks, pumpkin," he wheezed as he got to his feet.
He led them along the treeline, trying to keep out of sight of their pursuers. He could hear them calling and wondered how many there were.
A sudden weight thrust him sideways and, with a crack, he landed on the path. A man had jumped out of the trees and was now straddling Tucker's chest as he brought his handgun to bear.
And then the weight vanished. Dany had launched herself at his attacker and was now mauling his arm as he thrashed at her, trying to point his weapon.
Tucker got onto his knees, fighting the vise that was gripping his head and struggling to see through the red stars that were swimming across his vision. He drew his own handgun and pressed it against the man's temple.
"You can let him go now, girl," he said to Dany, stroking her head. She persisted for a while, as if to make sure Luna was now safe, before releasing him. "You two go on ahead, I need to talk to this fella."
"You're not going to shoot him, are you?" Luna called as she began to walk along the pathway. "Promise me!"
There was no time to argue with her—there was no telling how many others were following them. "Sure, I promise! Now, run along. Quick!"
As soon as she was out of sight, he looked down at the man beneath him and pushed his handgun deeper into the flesh of his face.
"I oughta kill you, just as you was fixing to kill me, but this is your lucky day. I don't break promises, especially to kids, so I ain't gonna shoot you." The man's panicked expression softened a little.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"But I can't have you followin' us," Tucker continued, as he pulled his hunting knife from its sheath. He pressed his hand against the man's mouth, ignoring the wide-eyed look of terror as he raised the knife in his other hand. With surgical precision, he stabbed it down into the thigh, being careful to avoid the femoral artery. The man convulsed in agony, biting down and grazing Tucker's hand, but he kept it there until, after a moment, his would-be attacker fell back, unconscious.
Luna had almost reached the park exit when he caught up with her. In the distance behind them he heard their attacker calling out. "We gotta run for it," he said to her, pointing across the road to a bus station. He didn't want to look at what might be inside the buses, so he kept Luna's attention on the streets beyond.
And these streets had certainly not been cleaned up by the militia work teams. Cars covered in dust and airborne debris blocked the road and it was all Tucker could do to keep Luna from seeing what lay inside many of them. Here and there, the remains of what had once been citizens going about their business lay along the street, in doorways and behind the windows of the apartment blocks.
He finally brought them
to a halt and stood, hands on his knees, panting to recover his breath. "Well done, dog," he said, patting Dany's head.
"And well done, you," he continued, turning his attention to Luna who was also breathing heavily and studiously keeping her gaze on the sidewalk.
Tucker got the map out of his back pocket and opened it up. "Well, would you look at that?" he said. "We're only a couple of blocks away." Given that they'd run blindly from their pursuers, he'd expected to have gone seriously off course but there it was: the Lee Corporation building.
They ran with renewed energy, knowing that they were nearly there. There were more walkers here and some called to them as they ran, but the sight of the big man in a deputy's uniform was enough for most to withdraw back into the shadows and they paid them no heed.
And then, quite suddenly, they were again in territory that had been cleansed, and Tucker made them move more carefully. It seemed that a corridor had been cleared along the direct road between the militia base and the Lee Corp building and he didn't want to stumble upon a work group again or, even worse, a security patrol.
They emerged right opposite the Lee building which rose, a squat black cube, in front of them. And then he heard the last sound he'd been expecting—the unmistakable whipping of helicopter blades. He pulled Luna and Dany into the parking area beneath the building opposite and pointed up. A helicopter appeared to fall over the edge of the roof, its rotors spinning but completely out of control.
Shots rang out and he forced Luna further down, then dragged her backwards so they wouldn't be hit by the blast when it crashed. And then the engine picked up and, with a whining noise, the helicopter stopped feet from the ground. It hovered there for a moment and then flew upwards, twisted around, and fired a missile at its rooftop attackers. They crouched down, protecting their heads and then, when they looked up again, the helicopter had gone.
Luna grabbed his arm. "Marvin," she said, looking up at him with an expression of wonder. "Mom was on that helicopter."
Chapter 11
If you didn't look too closely, you could convince yourself that the Long Night had never happened. Solly sat in the pilot's seat of the helicopter as Alison flew them east over Seattle. Ahead of them lay the black water of Lake Washington, but Solly was transfixed by the regular pattern of the streets below.
They were only around fifteen hundred feet up and, from this altitude he could see the cars still littering the roads here. Burned out houses sat in what must once have been beautifully kept neighborhoods. Houses with long gardens and pontoons at the end, boats still tied up and waiting for their next pleasure trip. Houses inhabited by the dead.
He saw some signs of life, however. Smoke rose in columns from several points on the ground and there were some discrete sections where the roads had been cleared of abandoned vehicles and, once or twice, he even saw moving traffic. It reminded him of the forest floor after a wildfire. There, down below, were the first stirrings of life. The first hints of recovery.
And yet he knew, or thought he knew, that the Lee Corporation wished to extinguish these fragile beginnings before they would have a chance to bear fruit. Why, though? He had wrestled with this question ever since he'd first become convinced that Khaled was more than just a conspiracy theorist.
For what possible purpose would a company destroy its customer base? By definition, the Lee Corporation was in business to make money, but how were they going to do that if they'd killed everyone? Unless … Then it dawned on him. Unless the American people weren't its customers. Then who were?
"What are you thinking about?" Paulie said, taking her gaze from the glass-like surface of the lake. "You've been sitting like a statue for ages."
Solly looked across at her, as if surprised to find her there. His first thought, as he emerged from the deep and twisting pathways of his ponderings, was that she was very pretty. His second thought was that she was also dangerous. And she didn't like him much.
"I was just thinking about the Lee Corporation," he said.
"You're wondering what their end-game is?"
He raised his eyebrows and then, very quickly, lowered them again. Too late.
"And you're surprised that I might be wondering the same thing?" Paulie said, though, unless Solly was very mistaken—and it wouldn't be the first time—without any rancor.
Solly shrugged and turned to watch the yoke moving of its own accord as if some spectral pilot was flying the aircraft. "Scott told you they're planning a second wave to wipe out everyone who's left, didn't he?"
She nodded. "Yes, though he never explained why they would want to do that."
"So, there are two questions: how and why. I mean, we know they used the BonesWare implants on the Long Night, but a lot of survivors won't be Bonesed up."
"I've got one," Paulie said. "Mine was only fitted a few months ago—the old one broke and so I got an upgrade on my insurance."
"An upgrade?"
She was watching him now, appraising him. Solly found he didn't mind at all. "Just lucky, I guess. They didn't have any of the standard models left, so I got a top of the line one. I paid for Luna and Alejandro to be upgraded, too. Nearly cleaned me out, but it was too good an opportunity to miss."
"Luna's your daughter?"
"Yes. Alejandro was my brother."
Solly glanced across at her as she gazed out over the water. "Did he pass away on the Long Night?"
"No, he was injured bringing Luna to me."
"I'm sorry," Solly said. He paused for a moment, working out whether he should follow his line of thought and then decided to go for it. "Were they the only ones, aside from you, to get the new implants? Among people you know, I mean."
She looked across at him. "Yes. I've been thinking about that—it seems to me that the upgrade might have saved our lives, though it didn't help my brother, in the end."
"There's definitely a connection," Solly pressed on. "Most of the people with implants died that night, but not everyone. The four of us survived. I had an upgrade before I took the job in New York…" His voice trailed off. "Oh my God…"
"What is it?"
"I had my wife—my ex-wife—and my kids upgraded at the same time. They might still be alive!"
Suddenly, the dull ache of grief was replaced by the agony of desperate hope. "I've got to go to Texas. I've got to find them!" His entire body exploded with sudden energy and he wanted nothing more than to step outside and begin the journey south.
He felt Paulie's hand on his arm. "Hold it, cowboy. I reckon you're right about your family, but let's just finish what we're talking about and see where it goes. We know that the Lees are planning a second wave of some sort that will finish off the survivors. That must include somehow hacking into the newer implants, and that means your family is still under threat unless we do something about it."
Solly was going to respond, but Scott Lee, who'd been sleeping when Solly had last looked at the back seat, spoke first.
"The Lees don't want to kill the survivors," he said, his voice betraying exhaustion and pain. "They want slaves."
Paulie twisted around to look at him. The makeshift bandage Ross had wrapped around his shoulder was stained with blood and he looked pale. Ross himself had clearly only just woken up and was looking at them all with bleary eyes.
"In that case, why did Khaled say that it would mean extermination?" Solly asked.
"Because the Lee Corporation isn't in charge of its own destiny. What really matters is what Annabel Lee wants."
"She's not alive too, is she?"
Scott shook his head, then winced and put his hand over his wound. "Not in the sense you or I would mean," he said. "Her organic form died that night and that event set in motion everything that happened in the following hours. But the avatar we so nearly didn't escape from is Annabel and it controls Lee Corp to a greater degree than they imagine."
"Okay, so what does this version of Annabel Lee want?"
"The death of every human being on the plan
et."
"I didn't like her," Alison said.
"That's because you're not like her at all," Scott responded.
Solly wanted to ask more about Alison and how she came to be, but he decided that this wasn't the place to do it. Scott was less likely to be honest and forthcoming when Alison could hear him. So he decided on another approach.
"Did you work at the Lee Corporation?"
Scott seemed surprised by the question. "Of course. It was started by Annabel and me, not long after we got married. I forget, sometimes, that most people associate the company with her alone, but I was there throughout. We were on a mission to heal the world. Hopelessly idealistic, probably. But we nearly made it."
"So, you invented BonesWare together?" Paulie asked.
"It was Annabel's idea," Scott said. "She was at MIT when I met her, studying for her doctorate, and she'd already achieved more by her twenties than most manage in a lifetime. She'd become obsessed with health and had worked on some amazing projects in India and China. Her mother was Chinese—did you know that?"
Solly nodded. "I knew one of her parents was from China."
"Her father was British. I was born in England, and it was that connection that first drew us together, I think. We began working on her doctorate together. She was the tech genius, my speciality is …"
"Artificial Intelligence," Solly said. "Which is why Alison calls you 'Creator.'"
"Yes. The implants don't contain AIs themselves, but the whole BonesWare system is controlled by a small community of them, or, at least, it was. Maybe just the Annabel personality."
"So, you developed Alison …" Paulie began saying.
"Perhaps this is a discussion for another time," Solly said, spotting the alarm on Scott's face.
"We're approaching the Lee Corporation airstrip." Alison said.
Solly looked at the scene below them. The lake had been replaced by residential roads arranged in military order and now they were flying over a golf course carved out of the surrounding green. Beyond that was the landing strip.
The Long Night Box Set Page 42