After Life (Power Reads Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  ‘Sir, I think that you should see this.’

  St John whirled. ‘We’re under attack and you want me to watch the bloody television?! I should have you thrown from…the… building…’

  St John fell silent as he heard an American broadcasting across the airwaves. The news channel had vanished to be replaced by the image of a young woman, the broadcast shifting erratically and buzzing with occasional static. She looked as dirty as she did determined, her hair lank and her neck swathed in hastily applied dressings that concealed a wound of tattered, decaying flesh. In the background could be heard the sound of raging gunfire.

  ‘My name is Kerry Hussein. I am a research biologist working for the United States Government in Louisiana, and broadcasting from the international airport outside of New Orleans. I have discovered a cure for The Falling.’

  A rush of surprised gasps rippled through the chamber.

  ‘What the hell is this?’ Kieran Beck gasped. ‘Call the broadcasting centre and have them shut this off!’

  ‘It’s not coming from our broadcasting centre,’ his aide said, gesturing to the screen that was devoid of the company logo. ‘This is a hacked broadcast.’

  St John felt his blood run cold as he heard the woman’s voice and realised that it was being broadcast not just to the government but into every single home in every surviving city on the planet.

  ‘The noise you hear in the background is our government’s troops attempting to kill us. They have been lying, to all of us, for decades. The Falling is not incurable and never has been. It is the aim of the holosaps to gain control of our government and then eradicate humanity from the face of our planet.’

  ‘No,’ St John gasped. ‘This cannot be!’

  He saw two men firing their rifles at a swarm of mechanical insects bearing down upon them.

  ‘The holosaps have built an army of robots here in New Orleans, weaponised machines, some controlled by people, others entirely automated. They are not for research purposes: they are designed to kill us. No doubt they will have similar machine armies near most surviving cities. Find them, destroy them, stand up for those of us who have survived this far, for those who might live in the future!’

  The remaining man stood protectively over her before he too was overcome, his face smeared with some unspeakable poison as the revolting drone plunging a sharp, cruel stinger into his neck until the man was able to fend it off and smash it against the ground. But it was clear to St John that the man was doomed, and as he lay shivering on the ground the woman levered herself from her chair and lay down with useless legs splayed behind her to cradle the fallen man’s head in her arms and stroke his hair.

  Moments later, troops plunged into the room and opened fire at close range upon the two young scientists. St John cried out in horror and the chamber erupted into gasps of disgust as he saw their bodies ripped apart by the bullets, blood splattering the camera lens until a stray round smashed it to pieces and the transmission cut out.

  St John stared at the blank screen, the thumps and explosions outside falling silent as the rebels breached the building. He imaged he could feel his heart thumping against the wall of his chest as the screen flickered and a reporter’s image reappeared.

  ‘… we apologise for the recent unauthorised broadcast to bring you breaking news that the Re–Volution quantum storage facility has been infected by an unknown virus in what may become the greatest single act of genocide in the history of mankind.’

  St John staggered backwards from the screen, as though by doing so he could distance himself from the calamity. His holosap was stopped at the edge of the light path as though he had touched against an invisible wall, trapped to endure the terrifying news.

  ‘Early indications are that the virus is currently dormant, but Re–Volution is struggling to contain the spread of the virus before it completely infects all data storage units worldwide.’

  St John stared at the screen, immobilised until he heard screams coming from outside the chamber. Gunfire rattled loudly. The security guards tightened their stances, the commanding officer looking up at the Speaker of the House.

  ‘Sir, permission to…’

  ‘Go!’ the speaker almost shouted. ‘Go, now!’

  The guards yanked the doors open and rushed out into the main atrium outside.

  More bursts of automatic fire that sounded much louder now and then the deafening blast of several fragmentation grenades, a cloud of dislodged stone and dust billowing through the chamber doors as several ministers used their arms to shield themselves from the debris cloud.

  The gunfire ceased to be replaced by the groans and screams of injured men. One by one, the screams were silenced either by muffled gunshots or by the horrific sound of throats being slit. St John stared at the chamber doors, willing then security guards to come back in, to say that everything was all right.

  A new fear drained him of the will to move as the chamber door burst open and a flood of armed and hooded men poured inside, heavy black rifles in their gloved hands.

  ‘In your seats, hands in the air!’

  The command was bellowed time and time again. Kieran Beck retook his seat as behind the rebels strode a single man, unarmed and yet possessed of immense presence. The man shut the chamber doors behind him and walked to the centre of the chamber, staring up at each and every politician before he reached up and lifted his hood clear of his head.

  The chamber gasped at the sight of his ruined features, and St John saw the colour drain from Kieran Beck’s face.

  ‘My name,’ the disfigured man growled, ‘is Icon.’

  ***

  50

  ‘Come on, hurry!’

  Westminster Bridge was almost obscured by rolling banks of smoke billowing from wrecked police vehicles burning nearby. Fire trucks were battling the flames with hoses drawing their water directly from the Thames, blasting the fearsome blaze as Han and Arianna struggled by, skirting the chaos with a phalanx of armed police escorting them.

  Han guided her toward the Parliament Building where Big Ben loomed above tight, nervous knots of police officers and riot vehicles that were forming a cordon around the building and fending off crowds of panicked citizens lining the streets. The entire scene was reminiscent of footage of the collapse of the country a quarter of a century before, when so many had died trying to escape the ravages of The Falling.

  ‘He’s already inside,’ Han said. ‘There’s nothing we can do to stop him now.’

  Arianna pushed on, dragging Han toward the cordon. A police officer saw them coming and raised his rifle.

  ‘Stand still!’ he ordered, recognising Arianna immediately. ‘On the floor now!’

  ‘Detective Han Reeves, eight–one–four–one–zero,’ Han called back. ‘She’s in our custody. We need to talk to Commissioner Forrester right now!’

  The officer turned and yanked the cordon up enough that they could pass through with their escort, but he kept his distance and the rifle aimed at them as he keyed a microphone earpiece and spoke quickly. Within a minute, Commissioner Forrester appeared from a surveillance vehicle nearby.

  ‘Han?’ he uttered. ‘We’re under orders to arrest you and this woman on sight!’

  ‘I know,’ Han said, ‘and it’s all false. This is Arianna Volkov and her only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Has Icon entered the parliament chamber yet?’

  Forrester blinked in surprise. ‘Yes, how did you know that he…?’

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Han cut his boss off. ‘Myles Bourne was an informer for Re–Volution and the son of Kieran Beck. He’s now dead after trying to kill both of us.’

  ‘You’re serious? Myles?’ Forrester asked, stunned. ‘He was an exemplary detective.’

  ‘The holosaps are planning to eradicate humans, and have been hiding the fact that Icon and his men are immune to The Falling.’

  ‘We know about the immunity,’ the officer replied.

  ‘You do?’


  ‘Television broadcast went out just a few minutes ago, right across the world. Some kids in Louisiana, scientists, they worked it out. Millions of people just saw them shot to death on live television.’

  Arianna sighed, the loss of so many brave patriots a weighty burden on her shoulders. She wondered how many more would be killed before the day was out.

  ‘Why is Icon doing this?’ Forrester asked. ‘The secret’s out, people know about the deception. They’re marching in their thousands on Re–Volution’s building right now.’

  ‘Maybe Icon hasn’t seen the broadcast yet?’ Han suggested.

  ‘He must have by now. What else is he doing in there?’ Arianna asked the commissioner.

  Forrester glanced across at the parliament building. ‘He’s holding parliament captive. He’s just had his people walk infected dogs on rigid leashes into the building and he’s threatening to sit back and watch them all die if he doesn’t get what he wants.’

  ‘Which is what?’ Han asked.

  ‘Control,’ Forrester replied. ‘He wants control of government and some personal time with Kieran Beck.’

  ‘The man who murdered my father,’ Arianna said. ‘He’s behind all of this, not the government.’

  Forrester blinked, trying to keep up. ‘What about the virus, the holosap one I mean? I’ve got Re–Volution tech heads screaming for help with it.’

  ‘I think I know what it is,’ Han replied. ‘You need to let us go in there.’

  Forrester looked at Arianna. ‘God only knows what you’ve gotten into. I’ll order my men to let you pass through, but Icon’s not letting the police into parliament. You’ll be on your own, and I’ve no idea what’s waiting for you in there.’

  Han took Arianna’s arm and smiled at her through his exhaustion. ‘I’ve still got your back,’ he said.

  They walked together, Han valiantly supporting Arianna by the arm but both of them virtually leaning on one another as they staggered down toward the building entrance. Loudspeakers hailed their arrival to the twitchy rebels guarding the interior of the building, and by the time they had shuffled their way along the damp stone flags to the shattered main entrance they had been granted passage by the man controlling the inside.

  Icon.

  They walked through toward the chamber, the interior of the building as opulent, polished and clean as it had ever been, but for the occasional pool of spilled blood and corpses lying silent and still. The carnage marked the path of Icon’s men to the parliamentary chamber, the doors of which stood guarded but open as Arianna and Han eased their way inside.

  ‘At last!’

  Icon’s voice boomed out above the silence as he saw them enter the chamber. Arianna saw hundreds of ministers all sitting in their seats, their faces taut with fear. Holosaps glowed above them in the Bishop’s seats. Her eyes settled on Prime Minister Tarquin St John, both the dead man’s corpse and his glowing holosap, and Kieran Beck, the man who had caused so much pain in her life.

  St John looked as though he were trying to make himself as small as possible. Kieran Beck was on his knees at Icon’s boots, a rigid leash around his neck identical to the one restraining a growling, drooling Alsatian barely three feet from him, a rebel holding the animal and barely able to stop it from attacking the cowering businessman.

  Alexei Volkov materialised silently into the holosap area in a flutter of light. With him stood Connor, and to her horror Arianna saw herself appear as a holosap alongside her son, Lynda’s likeness now vanished to be replaced by her own. The ministers saw Arianna appear both in the holosap area and on the chamber floor and a rush of whispers rippled through the crowd. Arianna stared up at her son.

  ‘What blasphemy is this?!’ boomed the sole Hope Reunion Church Bishop as he stood to point at Arianna's holosap and then at Arianna herself. ‘Have you no longer any respect for your faith?’

  Arianna reached up to her neck and realised that she was still wearing her clerical collar. She felt shame burn her skin as the entire chamber watched her.

  ‘Alexei’s here,’ Han uttered to Arianna. ‘Who’s the kid?’

  ‘My son,’ Arianna replied.

  Alexei Volkov’s voice called out to the crowd. ‘Ladies and gentlemen of parliament, I give you Arianna Anderson, the woman who would see all holosaps die this day. She has murdered a woman in order to be both alive and dead at the same time!’

  The ministers turned to look at Arianna and she managed to step forward on her own. Han let her go as she walked uneasily to the centre of the chamber, Icon staring back at her.

  ‘Or the woman,’ Icon said, ‘who would save us all?’

  ‘Have them arrested, detective!’ Kieran Beck bellowed to Han with false bravado, his limbs quivering. ‘All of them! She’s a terrorist, a murderer!’

  ‘A little late for that,’ Icon murmured softly in response, his deep voice rumbling up toward the vaulted chamber ceiling without the need for amplification as he turned to the politicians. ‘Now we can begin. My real name is Ian Connelly and I was once a soldier in the British Army. I am now a survivor of The Falling and I am immune to the disease.’

  ‘This isn’t the way,’ Arianna said to him.

  Icon continued, ignoring her.

  ‘My people are immune to The Falling. Each and every one of them carries the cure to the disease in their blood, and now we know that there are others who have discovered that same immunity and died for their troubles at the hands of governments worldwide.’ Icon looked about him at the ministers. ‘But it is not the government we blame. It is Re–Volution. It is the holosaps!’

  Beck stammered over his response, the bloodied deaths of two innocent civilians on live television having overwhelmed anything he could say in response.

  ‘This is all a fabrication, a lie! These people are terrorists! The people on the television were terrorists!’

  ‘You’re the only liar,’ Arianna shouted at Beck. ‘Holosaps are inherently unstable, psychotic in their lack of empathy.’ She turned to the ministers. ‘My name is Arianna Anderson. My father was Professor Cecil Anderson, and he was murdered by Kieran Beck when he tried to destroy the holosap program twenty five years ago.’

  The ministers all looked at Beck, who pointed at Arianna from where he knelt on the chamber floor. ‘She is a terrorist!’

  ‘She is a saviour,’ Han said weakly, one hand holding his wound. ‘We know what happened, Beck. We know how you killed Alexei Volkov while trying to find the kill–switch that Cecil Anderson created to destroy all holosaps in the event of a malfunction or failure. How you placed your son inside the police force. Myles is dead, Kieran, by the way.’

  Kieran’s fury turned to something that might have been grief as he cowered beneath Icon.

  ‘And now we know about the machines,’ Minister Hart said, standing from his seat and speaking out at last. ‘We know how the holosaps plan to take over and eradicate humanity. This was never about equal rights. This was about domination, about genocide.’

  ‘But now,’ Icon said, his voice overpowering them all, ‘parliament votes to hand power to the holosaps, regardless of the people’s wishes. Is that democracy? Is that what we fought for?’

  Icon turned and with one boot kicked Kieran Beck over onto his back, within inches of the snarling Alsatian. Beck screamed in terror, one arm up over his face and his knees pulled up against his chest.

  ‘This is what you are, Beck,’ Icon growled down at him. ‘Half a man, without the courage of a dog.’ Icon looked up at the rebel holding the Alsatian at bay. ‘Let it loose!’

  The rebel yanked the leash up and unclipped it, and in a flash the Alsation lunged toward Kieran Beck’s cowering form.

  ‘No!’ Arianna yelled.

  The dogs yellowing fangs sank into Kieran Beck’s right leg and he screamed in agony, shielding his face as Icon stepped back.

  Kieran Beck looked up the Alsatian from behind his arm and then laughed out loud as he screamed. ‘To hell with you all! You’ll ne
ver be able to stop us now!’

  With his free hand Beck pulled a small, snub–nosed pistol from his jacket and aimed it at Icon even as the dog tugged at his leg to the sound of crunching, tearing flesh. The former soldier leaped aside and kicked Beck’s wrist in an attempt to dislodge the weapon as he pulled his own pistol, but he was a fraction too slow.

  Beck’s shot hit Icon high in the chest. The big man staggered backward and then collapsed as his own pistol fell from his quivering hands. Beck’s maniacal laugh, of pain and feverish delight, strained his vocal chords as he turned his pistol on himself and pulled the trigger. His hair flew off of his head as though he had been scalped as the bullet tore through his skull in a wispy shower of blood, brain and bone that spilled down onto the politicians sitting nearby.

  Several ministers vomited as Beck’s body slumped and the dog sank its teeth into his shattered skull and began tugging and growling as it chewed. Han Reeves leaped forward, picked up Beck’s discarded weapon and turned. He fired a single shot into the dog’s head and the beast slumped over Beck’s corpse.

  Han hurried to Icon’s side and propped him up as he looked at the wound. Pink blood bubbled from Icon’s ruined lung. Arianna knelt beside them.

  ‘At least I’ll die a man and not a glorified zombie,’ Icon gasped to her.

  Beck’s holosap shimmered into life among the others high above the chamber floor and he laid his hands down on Connor’s shoulders, smiling broadly. He spoke as though nothing had happened, as though he had not just committed suicide before the entire chamber.

  ‘The infection has breached the city and the time of man has come to an end!’ he bellowed. ‘The time of holo sapiens has begun!’

  Icon looked up at Beck and shook his head, his forehead sheened with sweat but his voice still carrying far further than Beck’s ever had. ‘You’re forgetting one thing, Kieran.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Beck sneered in disgust.

  Icon turned and looked at Arianna’s holosap, still standing beside Connor. ‘You have a choice, Arianna,’ he said, speaking not to the real Arianna but to the glowing image of her. ‘To save humanity you must eradicate the holosaps.’