by Mark Walden
‘Came here on a tour with my school once,’ Jay said. ‘Never imagined I’d be wandering around the place with a gun one day.’
‘Well, unfortunately, this isn’t really the time for sightseeing,’ Sam said. ‘If we’re going to get a really good look at what the Threat are doing around here, then we need to get up high.’ He glanced at a sign on the wall that had arrows pointing to various locations within the building. ‘Come on, follow me.’
They ran through the empty corridors, the sound of their boots on the tiled floor echoing off the walls. The rumbling noise coming from outside was now even louder.
‘There,’ Sam said, pointing at an unassuming wood and glass door set in the wall. Next to it was a sign that read ‘Clock Tower’.
‘You know, I can still remember the first time that I realised that this thing had stopped chiming,’ Jay said as they hurried up the stairs inside the tower. ‘I couldn’t tell you exactly when it stopped, just when I noticed it had. Made me kinda sad to be honest.’
They continued up the tower until they reached a door marked ‘Mechanism Room’. Walking inside, they saw the mass of black cogs, flywheels and springs that formed the mechanism for the giant clock at the ticking heart of Big Ben. It sat motionless now beneath the crossed spindles that passed through the walls of the room and out to each of the four clock faces. There were no windows in the room that would give them a view of what was going on outside.
‘Looks like we need to keep going up,’ Sam said. They climbed another flight of stairs, towards the belfry, feeling the cold night air on their faces as they stepped outside. The giant bells that had once chimed the famous tune that was so familiar to all Londoners hung inside a wire cage and Sam could only imagine how loud they would sound if you were this close to them when they rang. Assuming that actually ever happens again, he reminded himself. They passed by the bells and reached a final spiral staircase leading to the highest point of the tower, where a view of the dark city stretched out beneath them in all directions. Sam walked over to the wire mesh that surrounded the lantern and peered down at the scene directly below.
‘Oh my God,’ Jay said as he came and stood next to Sam and saw what was left of a broad swathe of central London. Where St James’s Park had once been there was now a charred crater. Within that crater tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people were working under bright floodlights to build something. It looked a lot like an impossibly large version of the transmission spire that they’d discovered at Wembley. It was the source of the deafening rumbling sound that filled the air, its central sections lit by a pulsing green light that matched the rhythm of the sound precisely. Sam pulled off his night-vision googles and retrieved the binoculars from his backpack. The construction was made up of hundreds of giant matt black slabs, with large sections missing from the outer skin allowing Sam to see the people who were working within the brightly lit interior of the structure.
He turned his attention to the crater and saw that the steep rock walls at its edges were also covered with people who were hacking away at the rock with hand tools, slowly, but relentlessly making it ever larger. Beyond the crater huge teams of Walkers were working to systematically demolish even the largest buildings, clearing a path for the expansion of the crater. Sam tried very hard not to think about the fact that any one of the countless slaves labouring to complete whatever the Threat were building might have been his sister, or one of his parents. He had never given up hope of finding them. He turned his attention back to the centre of the structure where a single black spire, taller than any of the surrounding structures, reached up towards the sky. No, not the sky, Sam thought, as he looked up for the first time. Where the sky should have been was the underside of the Threat Mothership, its surface illuminated by waves of pulsing green light. He could see dozens of the black triangular drop-ships buzzing around the giant vessel, looking like gnats in comparison to the vast scale of the Mothership. He had never stood directly beneath it before and he suddenly realised that up close like this it made him feel very small and insignificant.
‘There must be hundreds of Hunters mixed in amongst the humans,’ Jay said, taking the binoculars and scanning the city below. ‘Not to mention what looks like twenty or thirty Grendels patrolling the outer perimeter.’
‘So how do we get inside?’ Sam asked. ‘We need to find out what that thing is.’
‘Well, we’re not fighting our way in, that’s for sure,’ Jay said, shaking his head. ‘Besides which, how exactly do you plan to work out what that thing is? It’s not like we’re just going to be able to walk up and ask one of the Grendels to give us a guided tour, and somehow I doubt that they’re going to have left a set of blueprints, helpfully labelled in English, lying around anywhere.’
‘I don’t know,’ Sam said. ‘I was just thinking that if we could get a closer look and some pictures maybe it’ll give Stirling something to go on.’
‘All right,’ Jay said, holding his hands up, ‘but if this goes pear-shaped I’m throwing you at the nearest Grendel and running, OK?’
‘Sounds reasonable,’ Sam said with a smile.
Jackson walked into Dr Stirling’s lab and closed the door behind him. He crossed over to the bench and watched as Stirling carefully placed a tiny circuit board into the top of the foot long silver cylinder. He closed the hatch and it sealed with a tiny hiss of escaping air.
‘Is it ready?’ Jackson asked.
‘Yes,’ Stirling replied, removing his glasses and rubbing at his tired eyes. ‘The more important question, though, is will it work?’
‘Let’s hope so, for all our sakes,’ Jackson said, ‘because we don’t have many more cards to play. Unless, of course, you’ve found a new group of kids that you’re not telling me about.’
‘No, no new subjects, I’m afraid,’ Stirling replied. ‘None of the towers have picked up a new implant signal for months. Apart from Mr Riley, of course. I fear we must assume that the others were lost to the Threat. If only we’d had more warning. We were supposed to have had time to prepare.’
‘We’ve had this conversation a hundred times, Iain,’ Jackson said, shaking his head. ‘This was nobody’s fault.’
‘We both know that’s not entirely true,’ Stirling said. ‘Indeed, if things had worked out slightly differently, I might have been part of the problem. Instead of which I’m now the one who’s trying desperately to find a solution.’
‘That was a long time ago. If you’d known then what we know now about the Foundation, there’s no way you would have been involved. Iain, once we knew the truth, we did the right thing. You, me, we did everything we could to stop them with the resources we had. It just all happened too soon. Who knows, maybe this thing,’ he nodded towards the silver cylinder, ‘can make it right again.’
‘I just wish Daniel could have been here to see how important his work has been in making this possible, Robert,’ Stirling said. ‘Whether he intended it or not, in that boy he’s given us our best hope. It may not be enough to take back the planet, but at least it’s enough to give us hope that one day that might at least be possible.’
‘And at this point,’ Jackson said, ‘that’s really all we can ask for.’
8
‘Are you serious?’ Jay said, looking at Sam with an expression of disbelief, pacing back and forth across the office on the edge of St James’s Park that they had broken into a few minutes earlier.
‘It’s the only way,’ Sam said, handing Jay his rifle and taking off his backpack. He slid the compact digital camera that Stirling had given them into the pocket of his trousers and removed his shoulder holster, placing it on the desk next to him.
‘Look, I hear what you’re saying,’ Jay said, ‘but this is insane. You’re going to get yourself killed.’
‘You saw how many people there are down there,’ Sam said, pointing through the window at the glow from the nearby Threat construction site. ‘Do you really think they’re going to notice one more mindl
ess zombie wandering around the place?’
‘Yeah, actually, I do,’ Jay replied, ‘and when they find you they’re either going to throw you to the Grendels or brain-wipe you.’
‘I think we’ve probably established by now that we’re immune to the Threat control signal,’ Sam said.
‘Great, so it’ll be the Grendel stomping, then,’ Jay said, sounding irritated. ‘At least let me go and find a bucket so that I’ll be able to take you home with me.’
Sam heard a noise in his head, a low guttural growling sound.
‘Do you hear that?’ he asked.
‘Hear what?’
‘Like a growling sound.’
‘All I can hear is the racket that the Threat building is making,’ Jay said. ‘No growl . . .’
They both ducked as they felt a rhythmic thud through the floor and a few seconds later a Grendel walked down the street outside, just a few metres from where they were hiding. The growling got louder as it passed and then diminished as it walked away. Sam realised that whatever the sound that the Threat creatures made inside his head was, he was the only one who could hear it. It had started happening after he had recovered from the Hunter sting and he decided that when they got back he would have to discuss it with Stirling.
‘This is such a bad idea,’ Jay whispered. ‘Really, really deep down, one-of-a-kind, has-no-equal, dumb.’
‘Now you’re just being negative,’ Sam said with a grin as he stood up and unbolted the sash window.
‘OK, if you’re insisting on going in there, then I’m coming with you,’ Jay said, placing his rifle on the desk.
‘No, you’re not,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘If I don’t make it out of there, you’re the only person who can report back and tell Stirling what the Threat are up to here. If we both get caught, then all this will have been for nothing. Besides two of us are much more likely to get spotted than one.’
Jay stared at him for a moment or two before letting out a long sigh.
‘OK, you’re right, but I still think it’s a bad idea, especially without back-up. At least take this with you,’ Jay said, taking Sam’s pistol from the holster on the desk and handing it to him.
‘OK, if it’ll stop you worrying like a little old lady,’ Sam said with a smile, taking the gun and tucking it into the waistband of his trousers in the small of his back, where it was hidden by his T-shirt.
Sam turned back to the window, slid the heavy wooden frame upwards and climbed through. He landed silently on the pavement outside and watched the back of the patrolling Grendel for a few seconds as it continued up the street. As soon as the giant creature was far enough away, Sam sprinted across the road and climbed quickly over the railings surrounding the park. He landed in the bushes on the other side and waited for a moment before creeping forward through the foliage until he could peek through the leaves at what lay beyond. There were twenty metres of open ground covered in overgrown grass between him and the crater but there were also, thankfully, no Hunters hovering nearby. He took a deep breath and ran towards the edge of the crater. When he was just a few metres from the drop, he threw himself forward, landing flat on his belly in the long grass. He crawled carefully up to the edge and peeked over. Below him a group of Walkers was working at the rock face, pickaxes and sledgehammers slowly breaking up the stone and soil, while other blank-faced people shovelled the rubble into wheelbarrows and tubs, which they slowly pushed or dragged away towards the centre of the crater.
Sam heard a faint buzzing inside his head and looked around quickly. Off to his left, he saw a group of Walkers escorted by a single Hunter walking in his direction along the edge of the crater. There was no time for hesitation. He dropped over the edge of the crater, sliding on his back down the loose soil and gravel and landing in the middle of the group working to expand the crater. Just as he had hoped, none of the people paid him the slightest attention; instead they just remained totally focused on their tasks.
Sam got slowly to his feet and looked around, doing his best to mimic the blank, emotionally neutral expression that all the Walkers shared. He saw a large plastic tub nearby and slowly walked over to it. He saw a woman carrying a similar container approach a man who was shovelling up the rubble produced by the people working on the crater wall. Sam followed her, waiting patiently as the man shovelled dirt into her tub before stepping forward and having his container filled as well. Once the tub was full Sam set off after the woman, following her but maintaining a steady pace, his eyes staring ahead, desperately resisting the urge to look around. He knew if there was one thing that might alert a Hunter to his real state of mind it would be any indication of simple human curiosity.
He followed the woman deeper and deeper into the construction site as she headed towards a huge opening, ten metres tall, in the wall of one of the outermost black structures. They walked inside and entered a cavernous space lined on all sides with machines that looked like enormous high-tech furnaces – black cylinders three metres across with a large square opening in the front that glowed with a pale purple light. Hovering in the air in the centre of the area was a single Hunter, its multifaceted eyes twitching and rotating as it surveyed the activity below. Beneath the creature, dozens of Walkers queued at each furnace, taking turns dumping the soil and gravel that they carried into the glowing portals before walking back the way they’d come, presumably to retrieve another load. Sam followed suit, waiting his turn and dutifully tipping the box full of rubble he was carrying into the machine. The light within flared more brightly for a second and there was a short sharp hiss as the rocks and soil vaporised, filling the air around him with a faint, acrid odour. He turned and walked under the floating Hunter, silently praying that he had not done anything that might attract its attention. He headed back the way he’d just come and caught sight of the woman he’d been following before, on her way back to make another collection. He trailed her for a minute or so, but as he passed a dark, partially constructed section of the Threat structure he turned ninety degrees to his left and walked straight into the waiting shadows. Once he was out of sight he put the waste container on the ground and waited, ears straining for any sound of pursuing Hunters. After thirty seconds or so he let out a relieved sigh.
‘OK,’ Sam muttered to himself, ‘now let’s see if we can work out just what these alien creeps are up to.’
He crept further inside, walking down a darkened, half-finished corridor towards a dim light that was coming from round a corner. He could hear a faint tapping noise as he approached and he turned the corner to find a brainwashed man working alone, bolting a panel to the wall. Sam walked past him, heading still deeper into the structure. He walked for fifteen minutes, following the same corridor, feeling that he was now on a very gradual downward slope and the air in the corridor seemed to be getting warmer and drier.
Suddenly, he felt a buzzing in his skull and a few seconds later he heard the sound of approaching Hunters. He quickly ran back up the corridor and ducked into a gloomy side passage, crouching in the shadows behind a column of pipes as the sounds of the Hunters got nearer and nearer. From his hiding place he saw several Hunters race down the main corridor and back out the way he had just come. As the sound of the Hunters faded into the distance, Sam came out from behind the pipes. Just as he was about to walk back out into the corridor a bulkhead hissed down from the ceiling and slammed shut with a clang, blocking his path. Sam turned back towards the darkened passage behind him as the lights in the ceiling lit up one by one, creating a path for him.
‘Well, this can’t be good,’ Sam said to himself. The lights along the corridor continued to switch on just ahead of him. He hoped that it might be some sort of automated system, but he had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t. He suddenly felt very much like a lab rat trapped in a maze. He walked down the corridor for a couple more minutes. The air around was still growing steadily warmer and the persistent throbbing rumble that he had heard all night was louder. The end of the corridor cam
e into view, sealed by a heavy metal door. The bulkhead hissed open as he approached and he was hit by a wave of stifling heat and deafening noise. He walked through the door and found himself standing on a gantry running along the wall of an enormous room. Above him, mounted on the ceiling, was an enormous spherical machine, at least a hundred metres in diameter, its surface pulsing with the same green light that he had seen lighting up the exterior of the structure. Hanging from the bottom of the machine was a semi-transparent crystalline barrel that seemed to be focusing the sizzling, green beam that speared out of the machine and down into the pit below. Sam stepped up to the railing at the edge of the gantry and felt a moment of dizzying vertigo as he stared down into the vast chasm, its bottom filled with bubbling magma, hundreds of metres below him. The heat that filled the air was rising up from the vast geological wound that this machine had torn in the surface of the Earth. Sam could not help but feel a sense of awe as he tried to take in the monumental scale of the machine and the immense power that it was channelling. A movement further along the gantry suddenly caught Sam’s attention.
Standing there was a man in a white linen suit with long curly dark hair that was streaked with grey. He was staring straight at Sam and there was a cryptic smile on his face. He pulled what looked like a mobile phone out of the inside pocket of his suit and spoke into it for a few seconds, even though Sam knew that was impossible. The entire cellular network had stopped working just days after the Threat had arrived. The man finished his brief conversation and placed the phone back in his pocket. Sam turned back towards the open door behind him, but a split second later it slid shut with a solid thunk. Reluctantly, he turned back towards the mysterious stranger and the man beckoned for Sam to follow him before walking along the gantry towards a door at the far end. Sam followed the man into a tastefully decorated office, completely at odds with the alien architecture. The man sat down behind the antique desk that stood in the middle of the room and gestured for Sam to take the seat opposite.