‘Fuck.’
‘And Zana doesn't exactly look human anymore, just… just incredibly beautiful.’
‘Double fuck!’
I covered my head as a shot shattered the overshelf, showering us both with a rain of glass and bits of spotlight.
‘Coop says it's not our guys… they're yours, Zana.’
She gasped. ‘No, that can't be. Why?’
‘Your team leader? Wasn't exactly keen on you and me remember… and I guess it didn't help you remodelling his face. You've been betrayed.’
Another flash, from the bedroom doorway. I hung over the bar top and fired back, heard a cry. I wasn't sure how much of him I got, but as I dropped back down I could see the corner of the bar had been destroyed.
‘We can't hold out here forever Zana,’ I groaned. ‘Even if they don’t hit us it’ll be death by glass!’
She looked horrified. ‘My people wouldn't do anything this public. Unless…’
Two shots this time, one hitting the wall behind the bar, the other making the thick glass just in front of us shudder and crack. I caught sight of a shadowy figure ducking down behind the sofa.
‘I have to get to my bedroom.’
‘Are you serious?’ The door to her bedroom was a good five metres away. I fired again, through the sofa back. The man screamed, it was a safe bet he wasn't in one piece anymore.
Two down, two to go.
‘I'm stark naked, Madeline. My clothes and my communications disc are in the bedroom. I need to find out what's going on.’ She nodded to the weapon. ‘And I've got one of those too.’
Then, in the distance, the sound of wailing sirens. ‘For fu... as if things couldn't get any worse.’
‘Shoots the lights out.’
‘What?’
‘Shoot the light-switch, over there.’
‘But…’
‘Do it!’
I fired at the light-switch. The incredible power of Arik’s weapon took out the light switch. And a metre of wall surrounding it. We were in darkness.
‘I'm at a disadvantage again here, Zana!’
‘Cover me!’
‘No!’
She was gone, running barefoot across the broken glass towards the door. I fired quickly, once at the corner of the wall by the kitchen, once into the doorway of the second bedroom. I saw the flash of a weapon, fired at the source. And I watched as bits of flaming body momentarily lit up the room as they fell to the ground.
Now it was better odds. One to one.
Zana was in the bedroom. The one guy left was in the kitchen area. I called out to him. ‘Just you and me now, alien. Except that in three minutes the cops will be all over the place. You want to come and get me while you still can?’
I groaned at my own words. Right then no one in the apartment, alien or human, needed a visit from the law. My adversary seemed to agree; with a kamikaze scream he began to run towards the bar, firing wildly as he went. I dove to one side as the bar finally shattered around me, aimed my weapon at the running figure as I hit the floor, but I was a fraction too late.
The man's body slumped to the floor. His head was somewhere else.
The bedroom light flicked on. Zana stood in the doorway with the smoking weapon in her hand.
‘You owe me one,’ she said simply.
The wail of the sirens sounded really close. I picked the rest of my clothes from the floor, glanced around. The apartment reminded me of a bombed-out village in Afghanistan.
‘We've got to get out of here, Zana. Cops here in one minute.’
‘I know. The cops aren't the only reason either.’
‘Meaning?’
‘I've just tracked the position of the ship. They lied to me, Madeline. We've got to get to Dawson's Hill. My people are almost here.’
‘Now you're really scaring me.’
Then I realised what she'd said. ‘Ship?’
‘Yes, Madeline. In three hours there will be a great big alien battle-cruiser parking itself over London.’
Act 4
Ryland Cooper killed Madeline's call, shoved the phone in his pocket and headed down the stairs from Scott's office.
And in his haste he made a fatal error of judgment.
Still close to the top, he lost his footing. Crashing to the floor, he swore more than once at himself as he struggled to sit up. Several bits of him hurt, but a searing pain was coming from his left ankle. He lifted his trouser leg, already it was swelling up.
He managed to get to his feet, but he could put no weight on the ankle. It felt broken. He knew instantly he'd never be able to drive the van, the clutch pedal hardly the lightest on the planet.
He pulled the phone out again, called Miles. He doubted he was back from Warwickshire, but he was running out of options. After thirty seconds a sleepy voice answered.
‘Coop?’
‘Please tell me you're back in London, Miles.’
‘Sorry mate, tucked up in bed in the Stratford-upon-Avon Hilton. Too late to travel back tonight. And it was a stupid waste of time… nothing more than 'A Comedy of Errors' if you ask me.’
‘Who are you, Shakespeare's brother?’
‘What's up, Coop?’
‘Things are spinning up here and I gotta get somewhere. Just gone ass-over-tit down the stairs and broken my ankle. Can't drive the fucking van.’
‘Heck, sorry mate. I can come now but it'll take me at least three hours.’
‘Ain't got three hours, Miles.’
‘I spoke to Carl earlier. He said he was working late, he might still be there.’
‘What, that over-excitable, under-intelligent moron?’
‘He may be all you've got.’
Coop hobbled and hopped across to the side wall of the operations floor, groaning to himself. Carl was up to speed with most of the developments, but he and Miles tried not to make too much use of him if they could avoid it. He got a bit too over-enthusiastic sometimes.
He reached the door to his office just as it opened and he came walking out, throwing his jacket around his shoulders. ‘Hell Coop, you been in the wars?’
‘Just fallen down the stairs and done my ankle. It's Madeline in a war right now. She needs back-up, and I need someone with two good legs. You up for it?’
Carl grinned. ‘Hell yeah!’
I could hear fast-moving vehicles screaming up the driveway.
‘We've got to go, now Zana!’
She was dressed, the red cape around her shoulders. She grabbed her bag from the bed. ‘Where's your car?’
‘Back at my apartment.’
‘Seriously?’
‘It's not far, but we'll have to get there on foot. We can't leave here by the main entrance though, the cops are here.’
‘Fire escape, at the end of the walkway.’
She began to head for what was left of the door, I pulled her back. ‘Zana, you're still… alien. Change back to human, quick.’
She dragged me roughly through the doorway and along the walkway as she spoke. ‘You got five hours to spare, Madeline?’
‘But… but you changed into yourself in ten minutes earlier.’
She thrust both hands hard against the fire escape door handle. It flew open, and the rain lashed into us as we stepped onto the metal staircase. She shouted through the wind. ‘Reverting to my natural state takes no time. Becoming human again takes a lot longer.’
My heart sank. ‘There'll be people everywhere with all this shit going on.’
‘Got a big hood,’ she grinned as she pulled it tight around her head.
As we made the bottom flight of steps, we could hear the sound of running boots. I grabbed Zana's arm, shoved her unceremoniously into a space between two blocks of garages, as three armed SWAT officers appeared. Two began to climb the steps, one stayed on the ground.
The only escape possible was backwards to the rear of the garage block. It would have to do. Quietly we side-stepped away from the guy with the gun, who didn't know it but was standing
in exactly the right place to see all the way down the narrow space between the blocks, if he’d turned round to look.
I put myself between the guy and Zana; a red cape wasn't exactly the best camouflage. We turned the corner of the block, now at least we couldn't be seen. It was muddy here, the ground sloping steeply up for three metres or so. It was our only way out.
Through the rain we could hear men shouting. Behind us, the flashes of a multitude of blue lights lit up the sky, diffused slightly by a slight mist that now accompanied the rain. Someone’s voice echoed through the murk, speaking through a voice-amplifier, calling to those inside to surrender their weapons and come out with their hands in the air.
I grimaced as we began to make our way up the slippery bank. Given the address the officers were attending, very soon they wouldn't be the only ones to know there was no one in the apartment.
No one alive and in one piece anyway.
Act 5
We hurried through alleyways and side-streets, Zana with her hood close around her face, both of us watching furtively for prying eyes or any signs of danger.
Close to the war zone there were plenty of people we had to avoid, but all eyes were on the action we'd left behind. Nobody was interested in two ordinary people hurrying by.
Thanks to the heavy rain, as we drew close to my apartment the streets were almost deserted. We turned a corner, and as the block came into view it brought the dread back.
‘Do you think your people know where I live?’
Frightened eyes looked back to me. ‘Nothing would surprise me with Arik.’
I swallowed hard. Just popping in to grab the car keys might prove harder than I thought.
The rain was easing now, replaced with a thicker mist, rising from the dampness around us. It was starting to look spooky. We slipped into the grounds through a rear alley, hugged the walls of the building to reach the foyer. We used the stairs, deciding the elevator was too risky.
‘I hope you made him suffer,’ Zana whispered through the hood of the cape.
I knew who she meant. ‘Oh, I made sure he got a little hot under the collar before he lost his head completely.’
At the door to his apartment I hesitated, moved Zana aside a little and turned the key in the lock. A slightly-shaky finger pushed the door open a little, but I didn't enter the room. Instead an even-shakier arm eased around the frame and found the light-switch, flicked it down.
No lights came on.
Quickly I pulled my arm back, grabbed the weapon from my pocket and fired randomly into the apartment.
Whatever it hit, it would do a lot of damage. Hopefully to whomever it was in there waiting for us. I didn't care about anything else, the apartment was no use to me now.
I followed my trigger-finger and moved around the doorway into the dark apartment. Someone fired at me. It missed, slammed into the wall a metre away and blasted a huge hole in it.
A hole that let in just enough light from the walkway for me to see a dark figure moving hesitantly across the living room floor. It looked like my random shot had done some damage.
I didn't hesitate, fired a second time, and the guy made even more of a mess of the carpet.
I checked he was my only guest, grabbed Zana and pulled her into the apartment. The sound of voices wasn't far away, residents of the block starting to panic with the sound of weapons firing.
Yet again, in the second apartment within the hour.
Grateful now I'd slipped the car keys out of sight into a kitchen draw, I grabbed them quickly and hauled a shell-shocked Zana roughly out of the apartment. People were gathering at the far end of the walkway, I pulled her close to me like she was hurt, flashed the badge quickly at a guy who asked in a frightened voice what was going on, and told him the cops would be here in a few minutes and they weren't in any danger.
This time we did take the lift, walked as quickly as we dare to the BMW, and drove down the driveway. As we turned onto the main street my heart sank yet again. A white Iveco van had pulled out onto the road with us.
At this rate we were going to be too late even getting to Dawson's Hill.
I watched as the white van drew closer.
‘I thought you said there were only seven of you?’ I asked Zana. ‘Seems we've got company again.’
She looked at me, her beautiful green eyes filled with fear. ‘They must have sent a shuttle on ahead… like we did when we first came.’
‘Shit. Do any of your people know about Dawson's Hill?’
She shook her head. ‘I kept that one to myself. All they know is I was supposed to set up a beacon to guide them in to exactly the right position if it was heavy cloud.’
I gasped. ‘So… so is that all the suitcase contains?’
‘Oh no. There's something else in there. They don't know about that either.’
The Iveco was filling the rear-view mirror. Then I couldn't just see it, I could feel it too. It didn't stop coming, rammed the back of the car.
I floored the throttle, the power of the BMW pulling it clear of the van. I tried to think; it was now gone two in the morning and the traffic was light. Somehow I had to lose the van, but with few vehicles on the road it was near impossible to use heavy traffic to help us part company.
It was going to take something drastic.
‘How long, Zana?’ I cried out. Up ahead the lights of Waterloo Bridge loomed through the murk. I slowed the car a little, allowed the van to catch up.
Zana lifted the big titanium pendant around her neck and began pressing tiny buttons hidden in the intricate pattern. The centre lit up, a blue display screen flashing out information.
I had to smile at the irony. No wonder we couldn't find anything in Zana's apartment. Everything she needed was built into the pendant.
‘Less than two hours, Madeline,’ she said shakily.
I nodded grimly. It had to be the bridge, there was no other way.
As we began to cross the misty river we were rammed again, the alien driver realising that shoving us into the Thames was the perfect way to bring about endgame. This time I kept our speed steady, allowing the van to push us along, faster and faster. One of us was about to say hello to a watery grave, whatever the outcome. I peered desperately through the fog. There were no vehicles travelling in the same direction as us.
But then I saw it, coming towards us. A forty-ton articulated truck.
‘Take a deep breath, Zana,’ I said grimly.
This was drastic, no doubt about that. But there was no other way. Silently I begged whoever was up there to protect the driver of the lorry, knew forty-ton artic's were pretty safe these days.
I wrenched the steering wheel to the right; the BMW veered across the narrow central reservation and was now heading directly towards the oncoming truck. My sudden action caught the van driver out, he didn't follow.
The truck driver was quicker to react. The bridge that only had one lane in either direction left him nowhere else to go. He slewed across the central reservation, smacked into the side of the van. Zana screamed, I slammed on the brakes, and watched the action in the rear-view mirror.
The truck started to jack-knife, but the driver was skilled and caught it in time. It came to a stop, looked like he was ok. The fast-moving van didn't stop. Smacked violently in the side, only the nearside wheels were on the ground as it headed at a crazy tilt for the low white-painted railings that weren't designed to stop big out-of-control vans.
The Iveco met the railings at a forty-five degree angle. They offered no resistance, and crumpled instantly as the van tipped over the edge and hit the river twenty metres below.
I shoved my foot to the floor, and the slightly-shorter BMW drove rapidly off the bridge and headed quickly south.
‘Remind me to take the bus next time,’ said Zana shakily, forcing her shattered nerves to pull themselves back together.
‘Aw c’mon you... Thelma and Louise ride again!’ I grinned.
‘Just don’t drive us off the ed
ge of the Grand Canyon.’
We'd only been driving for two minutes when my phone rang. I groaned, realising I should have called Coop to bring him up to speed.
‘You trying to give me a heart attack, Maddie?’
‘Hell Coop, I should have called you. Where are you?’
‘Where the fuck do you think? You seen that movie, 'Demolition Man'? We's just put all the body-parts back together and realised none of them belong to you or Zana.’
‘Sorry, big man. We've had a bit more unwanted attention from unfriendly aliens since then. Guess you should know... there's a great big spaceship about to come and visit us.’
‘Now I am having a heart attack. You want me to inform the powers-that-be?’
I glanced to Zana. I'd routed the conversation through the car speakers, so she was hearing every word. She shook her head. ‘Not just yet, Coop. Zana's got it covered. She’s going to stop them… somehow.’
‘You sure about that, Maddie? She’d better not fuck up, I'm panicking now.’
‘She is. She's listening in to this.’
‘Sorry Zana, we's all rooting for you. Where are you guys anyhow?’
‘Heading to Dawson's Hill.’ Zana threw me a horrified look, I smiled reassuringly back. ‘That's where this is all going to end, Coop. Maybe you should get your ass there too.’
‘Would if I knew where the fuck it was.’
‘I'm assuming my phone is tagged?’
The voice hesitated a fraction. ‘Yeah it is.’
‘Then follow my signal. You might like to see the show.’
‘On my way.’
I could feel Zana's frown as I ended the call. ‘It's ok, Coop's a good guy. He's been there for me since day one, even though I didn't know it to begin with. He should be there at the end too.’
The Final Act
I stuck a screwdriver into the clasp of the padlock keeping the rear door of the café closed, wrenched it away. We slipped into the forbidding darkness, and my stomach screwed itself into a tangled mess of emotions.
RED MIST FALLING Page 20