by A. G. Taylor
At the midpoint of the stairs, Makarov held out a hand to Balthus. “Stay,” he commanded and the metal beast stopped in its tracks. Makarov continued on up.
Leading the way, Sarah started up the stairs with her hand still in Alex’s. They stuck to the very edge, giving Balthus a wide berth. As they passed, the robowolf’s head darted round in their direction. The red slits that were its eyes looked directly at them. Sarah and Alex froze, not even breathing for a terrible moment. Balthus tilted its head slightly and raised its nose, as if smelling the air. Then the robowolf turned and sat down on its haunches with a metallic clang. Its eyes dimmed as if it was going into some kind of low power mode. Sarah and Alex moved forward again.
Nice doggy, Alex thought as they edged past.
The stairs ended at an archway that led through to another circular, windowless chamber, roughly the same size as the last. However, this room had no sleeper caskets and was empty save for a raised area in the centre upon which a beam of light shone down from the ceiling. Every part of the walls was covered with computer components: LCD readouts, drives, access terminals and ports. One section of wall was taken up by a giant world map with red lines pointing towards various locations, like arrows heading towards targets.
Makarov stumbled towards what looked like a main terminal, the tap tap tap of the walking cane punctuating every step he took. Sarah and Alex slipped into the chamber, but hung back in the shadowed area near the wall and watched as the man examined data on the screen.
“Computer,” he said hoarsely, “status report.”
“Sleepers are in perfect stasis,” the machine replied. “Psychic energy levels are stable. I detected a power fluctuation in sleeper module 22, but energy harvest has been restored.”
The sleeper we awoke, Sarah thought to Alex. I told you the modules were draining their power somehow.
“Have the pod checked for glitches,” Makarov ordered. “We cannot afford any disruption at this stage. Was the beacon affected?”
“The beacon is fully functional. No contact was lost with the meteor storm. Estimated time until first impact, 46.27 hours. Meteor trajectories remain within a 0.01% range of accuracy. All fifty meteors are on course for their targets.”
Satisfied by the answer, Makarov turned and walked to the middle of the chamber.
He’s bringing more meteorite strikes! Sarah exclaimed. Why?
I don’t know, Alex replied as he turned his attention to the map on the wall. Cities around the globe were highlighted. They look like targets! He’s going to hit the cities!
Sarah turned to the light in the middle of the room. What’s that in the beam?
They strained to see, eyes adjusting to the brilliance of the light beam. There was something floating there – a dark, irregular shaped object about two metres in length. The surface of the object was smooth, almost like glass. It rotated slowly, polished sections catching the light as it turned.
It looks like a piece of rock, she thought. Or a meteorite fragment.
Makarov stopped before the rock and went down on one knee, an operation that was clearly a strain for him. As Sarah and Alex crept closer, it was possible to see that his skin was as thin and crumpled as ancient paper. Now he really did look a hundred years old.
What happened to him? Alex asked.
I think we’re about to find out, Sarah replied as Makarov raised his head to the rock, eyes glinting in the light.
“Master,” he croaked, still breathless from the effort of his ascent to the chamber.
A deep voice sounded in reply. It resonated around the chamber, at once seeming to originate from the rock and come from all around. Sarah felt the presence of something incredibly powerful – the owner of the voice was ancient… intelligent…
Evil.
“I am the Entity,” it replied. “I am the beginning and the end. My power spans galaxies; worlds are my playthings. Who disturbs my thoughts?”
The Entity. With her enhanced mental powers, Sarah sensed that the voice came from a long distance away. It was not of the earth. The voice spoke across light years of space.
“Your servant, Nikolai Makarov,” he replied. “What is your bidding?”
“Ah, the earthling,” the Entity answered. “Are the children contained?”
“I have them at the tower, master,” Makarov said, his eyes fixed on the rotating object in the light. “Their fate is at your whim. I will have them killed before dawn if it is your wish.”
Sarah gripped Alex’s hand even tighter, resisting the urge to cry out. She thought of Robert and the others sleeping innocently at the top of the Spire.
“No,” the Entity said. “We need them alive if we are to discover the limits of their power and control it. After my meteor storm brings the virus to the entire world, there will be many more of their type. Such organisms have thwarted me before on other worlds.”
“They will not stand in your way,” Makarov assured the alien. “I sense that some of them will join our cause, given the correct pressure.”
“What of the girl who leads them?” the voice asked.
Makarov shook his head. “Sarah Williams is already powerful and difficult for me to read. I sense she will not turn. It would be better to eliminate her—”
“The girl is of interest to me,” the Entity replied. “You will not harm her yet. Her weakness is her devotion to her friends. As long you have them, she is at your mercy.”
A flicker of annoyance passed across Makarov’s face, but he bowed his head. “You are infinitely wise, master.”
“Is everything else prepared?” the Entity went on.
“The sleepers continue to power the meteor beacon at the top of the Spire,” Makarov said. “The storm draws near.”
“Excellent,” the Entity said. “You humans have proved to be an amazing source of psychic energy – one of the best I have ever found. How ironic it is that this energy will be used to guide my meteors to their final targets on earth – the bringers of humanity’s inevitable enslavement.”
Makarov nodded. “When the meteor storm hits, the virus will be carried to every part of the globe. Those infected will become your slaves. Earth will be yours, master. All humankind will be subsumed into your consciousness. No one will stand in your way.”
“You have served me well these hundred years, Makarov,” the Entity said approvingly. “But I see you grow weak again. Touch the beam and drink of my power.”
“Thank you, master.” Makarov extended his arm and placed his hand in the light. As he did so, the beam glowed red. Makarov threw back his head as he was engulfed by the light.
He’s changing! Alex exclaimed. Sure enough, the lines on Makarov’s face began to fill out and disappear. His hunched body, which had previously looked so frail and bent, now straightened and became strong again.
“To join me is to live for ever,” the Entity said as Makarov stood, young again. “Wait. I sense the presence of others. You are not alone!”
Makarov looked round the chamber in confusion. “I sense nothing.”
“Fool!” the Entity bellowed. “You have been tricked by a mere girl!”
Time to get out of here, Alex suggested, pulling Sarah back towards the chamber entrance.
“Show yourselves!” the Entity’s voice boomed from the light beam. “You cannot hide!”
Sarah and Alex, however, were already running down the stairs past the sleeping Balthus. They hit the bottom and carried on through the lines of sleeper caskets as Makarov’s voice echoed across the chamber.
“Balthus, awake!” he commanded. “Hunt them down! Bring them to me dead or alive!”
23
What was that thing back there? Alex thought breathlessly as they made it to the other side of the chamber and ran into the corridor. In their haste to get away, he’d lost concentration and they had become visible again.
Some kind of alien intelligence, Sarah replied. It’s behind the fall virus – and there are more meteorites on the way.
We have to warn the others. We have to stop this.
Behind them, a lumbering figure leaped from the sleeper chamber. The robowolf was coming after them. Hitting the stairwell door, Sarah and Alex flew through and ran to the edge. Below them, stairs stretched down vertiginously towards the bottom of the Spire.
“Up or down?” Alex asked as something slammed against the door behind them – Balthus.
“Up!” Sarah exclaimed at the sound of footsteps approaching from below. They ran up three flights, taking the steps two at a time. They stopped at the sound of another robowolf coming down the stairs.
“In here!” Alex said, pulling Sarah through the nearest door. Slamming it behind them, he shot the lock on the door and stepped back. Breathing heavily from their dash, they both looked round.
They were standing in another circular chamber, but the ceiling was even higher here – at least three storeys. The area appeared to be empty except for a single, massive shape sitting right in the middle. As they walked into the room a sensor triggered and lights set into the floor and ceiling came on automatically. Now they could clearly identify the shape in the middle – the stealth plane that had picked them up in Melbourne. It looked strangely out of place in the room, like some kind of squat, black sculpture.
“It’s the jet!” Alex exclaimed as they circled the machine. “How did it land in the Spire?”
Sarah walked to a control panel and ran her hand over the screen. “I don’t know, but we have to find a way out of here.”
She pressed a button and the entire left wall split open delivering a blast of ice-cold air into the room. As the wall continued to slide open, a wide ramp began to extend outwards off the edge of the building.
“A landing strip!” Alex marvelled with a shake of his head. He walked to the very edge of the room and looked over. The side of the Spire sloped downwards – over seventy storeys to the snow-covered ground. He looked up. Above them, framed against the night sky, he could see the penthouse levels – a sheer climb on the glass windows of the building. The landing strip finished extending with a clang. It stuck off the side of the building over fifty metres – an insane feat of engineering. Alex thought of the Entity and realized they’d found the explanation for Makarov’s incredible machines and robots – alien technology.
Robert! Nestor! Sarah called out with her mind, but immediately sensed that her message had not reached her friends. The same power that had prevented Robert from teleporting to the lower levels of the Spire was now blocking their telepathic communication. Without her link to Robert and the others, Sarah felt suddenly cut off, isolated. “We have to get out of here,” she said, looking around the chamber in desperation.
“Maybe we can escape in the plane!” Alex called over to Sarah, who had opened up a store cupboard on the far wall. She produced two heavy coats and ran across to him.
“Who’s going to fly it?” she said, throwing a coat at him. “Put that on.”
Alex slipped his arms into the coat, glad of the protection from the sub-zero breeze blowing into the room. “What are you planning?”
“We’re going to climb up to the penthouse and warn the others,” Sarah said. She walked to the edge and looked up.
“Are you joking?” Alex said. “We’ll never make it! There’s nothing to grip on to.” A blast of freezing air buffeted them back. “The wind would blow us off the side of the building even if there was.”
“Have you got a better idea?”
“We surrender and wait for another chance to escape,” Alex suggested as something thudded against the fire escape door. A second later Balthus smashed clean through the metal door. The robowolf stepped into the room, head scanning left and right, eyes glowing a deeper shade of red as its gaze fell on them. Balthus gave a low growl and advanced slowly, extended claws scratching on the floor. Its jaws fell open, revealing two rows of metal teeth like razor blades.
“Think it’s going to let us do that?” Sarah asked as the wolf approached. They retreated, until they were standing at the very edge of the landing strip. Balthus tensed its back legs as if preparing to leap at them. Desperately, Sarah looked round and down – at the sloping side of the Spire.
“Let’s jump,” she said.
“Huh?” Alex replied, looking at her as if she was crazy.
“It’s okay,” she said, grabbing his arm. “We’ll make it.”
“Sarah, no—” Alex began, but the sound of Balthus running at them had already spurred her into action. Moving forward, she went over the edge, pulling Alex with her.
For a split second they fell…
…before hitting the side of the building and sliding down. The glass was covered in a thin layer of ice that cut down resistance. Alex let out a cry as they slid, picking up more speed by the second. Before them the side of the building stretched down at a seventy degree angle, a plain of glass whizzing past ever faster.
“Grab something!” Alex yelled as they slid along side by side. He reached out a hand and tried to slow their descent, but his skin burned as it contacted the speeding ice.
“It’s coming after us!” Sarah cried.
High above them, the robowolf had gone over the edge and was also sliding down the side of the building, legs splayed to control its descent. Suddenly Alex was glad they weren’t slowing. He looked down and saw the ground growing closer. He judged they’d slid down almost two-thirds of the side of the building at that point.
“We’re slowing down!” Sarah said, grabbing his arm. At the lowest levels of the Spire, the angle of the walls changed dramatically towards forty-five degrees and then to an even gentler angle. Within a couple of seconds they came to a stop on a massive pane of glass that was practically horizontal. It formed the roof of a large open area containing vehicles that looked like small aircraft. Painted on the floor below them in massive letters – Level 10. They’d almost reached the bottom of the tower.
“I can’t believe we made it!” Alex gasped as they rested on the glass.
“It’s not over yet!” Sarah said, pointing back at the massive shape of Balthus sliding towards them at alarming speed. She pushed Alex to one side and rolled in the other direction just in time as the robot barrelled past them, carried by its own momentum towards the edge of the building. For a moment it looked as if it would shoot over the side, but then Balthus extended its claws. With a screech of metal against glass, the robowolf found purchase and came to a stop.
“It’s coming back!” Alex said as Balthus began to claw back towards them. A cracking sound filled the air as it moved across the glass. Splinters began to form all over the pane on which they were sitting, caused by the weight of the machine and the scratches its claws had made.
“We’re all going to fall through,” Sarah said urgently, looking round. A metal beam separated the pane they were lying on from the next. “Get to the support!”
They pulled themselves across the surface of the glass towards the edge of the pane as Balthus approached. The robowolf came within a metre of Alex and raised its massive front foot. A set of claws as sharp as butcher’s knives gleamed in the moonlight.
“Look out!” Sarah screamed as the claws descended, centimetres from Alex’s leg. He pushed himself back as Balthus hit the glass, shattering the pane completely. The robowolf let out a howl. At the last moment, Sarah grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him onto the adjacent pane.
Balthus wasn’t so lucky.
The robowolf hurtled down, crashing into one of the vehicles below a couple of seconds later. Its body spun in the air and went hurtling across the floor, finally coming to rest in a tangled heap. Sarah and Alex looked down, waiting for the robot to get up.
It didn’t.
“Thanks,” Alex said with relief. “You saved me.”
Sarah looked up towards the penthouse levels of the Spire, nearly half a kilometre above them now, and shook her head. “Makarov will send more of his machines when Balthus doesn’t return. We’ve got to keep moving.”
&n
bsp; “Moving where?” Alex demanded.
“Anywhere but here.”
Alex nodded and looked round. His eyes fell on the top of a ladder at the edge of the glass roof. “Some kind of access point by the looks of it.”
“Let’s get to ground level,” Sarah replied.
Avoiding the massive gap created by the shattered pane, they slid carefully along the roof of level 10 towards the top of the ladder. Alex climbed on first and started down the side of the building. Levels 11 to 153 of the Spire were made of sloping glass, but floors 1 to 10 had vertical walls. The ladder led down the side all the way to the ground. Ignoring the biting cold of the metal against his skin, Alex made good progress downwards, closely followed by Sarah.
A couple of minutes later, they both jumped down onto the snow at the side of the building. The ground level of the Spire extended away in either direction – an unbroken wall of concrete rather than glass. Wind howled along the edge of the Spire. Alex’s fingers and ears were so cold they felt as if they’d been cut with a knife.
Sarah pressed her hands against the side of the building. “How do we get back inside?”
“I don’t think we do,” Alex replied, indicating the shape of another robowolf prowling in the distance. “One of Makarov’s machines on sentry duty. We should get out of here.”
Sarah nodded, pulling her coat tight against the bitter chill of the night air. “But where?”
“No time to worry about that!” Alex took her hand as the robowolf turned in their direction. They ran into the snow, trying to put as much space between themselves and the base of the tower as possible. After some distance, they stopped and crouched down in the snow. Looking back, they saw the robowolf walk the perimeter of the Spire, seemingly unaware of their presence. Another appeared, patrolling the building in the opposite direction.
I can’t see any way back in, Alex thought to Sarah. And I bet there’s more wolves on patrol.
If we can’t get back inside the Spire, Sarah replied, then perhaps there’s somewhere we can find help. Or at least some way to contact the outside world. HIDRA needs to know about the meteor storm. It’s less than two days away! We need to find a phone or something.