by Gary Gibson
‘Who killed those guards next to the stage?’ Greybeard demanded. He stepped up close to me, eyes bright with anger. ‘Which of you murdering bastards is responsible?’
‘There was panic,’ I said. ‘A lot of people crowded onto the stage to try and get away. Your men tried to chase them off, but some of Herr Frank’s guards shot them before escaping with the rest.’
‘And you just stood and watched all this, did you?’ said Greybeard.
‘Yes,’ I said, then flexed my shoulder. ‘I got hit in the crossfire. You see?’
His eyes studied my wounded shoulder for a moment, then he gave me a narrow-eyed stare before moving his attention to Casey. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked, still speaking in Russian.
Casey stared down at him and said nothing. My lungs felt as if they had turned to stone.
‘And you?’ the guard repeated, addressing Jerry this time. ‘Are you mute or something?’
‘I told you,’ I said, ‘we’re technicians. These people only just arrived from the Twelfth Republic – that’s why they don’t speak any Russian.’
‘Wait a minute!’ shouted one of the other men. ‘Sergeant, they’re prisoners, or some of them are, anyway. They were locked up in there.’ He gestured at the interrogation block. ‘This woman was helping operate the stage. I don’t know who the hell the rest of them are, though.’
‘All I care about,’ said Greybeard, looking around all of us, ‘is if one of you people knows how to program a stage so we can get the hell back home. Well? Anyone?’
I held my tongue, afraid to say anything. I did not want them to take us back to the Novaya Empire. I especially did not want them to take the Hypersphere back.
‘Those things are getting very close,’ said one of the other guards, looking up.
A black shape swooped low over the terrace’s rooftops, close enough that I could see it resembled nothing so much as an airborne manta ray. Its skin was jet black.
‘Tell your friends to keep together,’ Greybeard said to me. ‘If any of them try and run away, we’ll shoot them down. Sergei, Ensel, take up the rear and keep an eye on them. We’ll head for the admin building past the stage. Move!’
I relayed the message to the Pathfinders. Greybeard took the lead, and we dashed around the corner of the interrogation block, past the stage and in through the open door of a building.
Inside was an office space that looked as if it had been hit by a whirlwind. Paper was scattered everywhere, and chairs lay toppled on their sides. Desks had been pushed up against walls, and ancient-looking computers had been dumped in a haphazard pile in one corner. Shift schedules were still pinned to a notice board beside the door.
One of the guards slammed the door shut, then peered through the window beside it. Greybeard kept his machine gun trained on us as we backed into the rear of the office.
Just that short run across the courtyard had taken its toll on me: my skin felt slick and hot, and my bandaged shoulder had transformed into a mass of burning and itching. I wanted little more than to lie down and rest for just a few minutes; but unless I could persuade these men we were on their side, all was lost.
An idea was forming in my mind.
I pushed the sickness down, even as it clawed at my senses. I composed myself as best I could and stepped back up to Greybeard.
‘Your friend was right,’ I said. ‘Yes, I was a prisoner. But I am also a member of the science staff here on the Crag. I was there with the Tsar and his entourage when they transferred over to that new alternate.’
‘That’s true,’ said one of the other guards. ‘She came with us.’
‘Shut up, Sergei,’ said Greybeard, glowering at me. ‘If you’re part of the science staff, why were you locked up with those others?’
‘For acts of insubordination,’ I lied. ‘Look, you said you wanted someone to program that stage – I can do it.’
Greybeard’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’re lying,’ he said. ‘Not about operating the stage, but the rest of it. There’s something here I don’t like.’
‘For God’s sake, Sergeant!’ shouted Ensel. ‘You saw what happened to Yakov – we need to get out of here!’
‘What happened to Yakov?’ I asked.
‘Taken,’ said Ensel, ‘by one of those things. It swooped down and he just . . . vanished.’ His hands holding the machine gun shook. ‘Others, too.’
‘Ensel, shut up,’ bellowed Greybeard.
‘Katya,’ Nadia said in a very low voice from just behind my shoulder, ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re all saying, but I sure as shit hope you know what you’re doing.’
Greybeard turned back to me. ‘You can get us back home?’
‘Believe me, I’m quite expert with transfer stages.’
He studied my eyes, then nodded with approval. That much he believed. ‘We have orders to get that truck out there back to the First Republic at any cost. If we go home without it, we might as well have just stayed here. Do you understand?’
‘I understand,’ I said.
‘All right. Sergei here will take you to the control rig once we’re sure it’s safe to go back out there. Ensel, you’ll head for the truck at the same time. Get it up the ramp and onto the stage.’
Ensel nodded.
‘Your name?’ Greybeard asked me.
‘Katya Orlova.’
‘Tell your friends as soon as you’ve initiated the transfer and I give the signal, they’re to come out and join us on the stage. Will you have time to run over and join us?’
I nodded. ‘You don’t need to have your man escort me to the control rig. There’s no need to risk anyone else’s life.’
‘I wasn’t asking for your opinion,’ he snapped. ‘Sergei? You have the coordinates?’
Sergei nodded and handed Greybeard a piece of folded paper. He opened it up and I saw a set of coordinates neatly printed on it.
‘You’ll enter these coordinates,’ said Greybeard, showing it to me before passing it back to Sergei. ‘I don’t know just what your game is, but he’ll be keeping a close eye on you. Is that understood?’
I nodded, my heart sinking. My plan had been to program the stage with a null sequence – a set of random coordinates – and send the Hypersphere into oblivion. I was at a loss for what to do if I had an imperial guard looking over my shoulder while I did my work.
Greybeard pushed the door open and ducked his head out for a moment before just as quickly pulling it back in. ‘There are a few of those things circling up above the courtyard, but they’re pretty high up. It’s risky, but we can’t stay in here forever. Sergei, soon as I say, get Miss Orlova to the control rig.’
‘Tell me right now what the hell is going on,’ muttered Nadia from behind me.
I summarized everything Greybeard had told me. ‘That’s going to leave just this old guy guarding all of us,’ Casey said quietly.
‘There’s no way we’re going back to that fucking Empire of yours,’ said Nadia. ‘I hate to say it, but Casey might have a point.’
‘Yeah,’ said Chloe, ‘and he’d mow most of us down before we got anywhere near him. You need to think of something better.’
‘All you need to do,’ I said, ‘is when he tells you to join them on the stage – don’t.’
Which of course left the more immediate problem of how to keep them from transporting the Hypersphere back to the Empire. I thought furiously, but nothing would come to mind.
‘But if we stay put,’ Chloe insisted, ‘they’re going to know we’re up to something for sure.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Randall. ‘They’ll still be gone.’
Sweat trickled down the small of my back. Was there any way I could persuade them not to take the Hypersphere back? However I ran it through my mind, I felt certain it would only make the imperial guard even more suspicious of us.
‘What the fuck are you saying to them?’ Greybeard shouted, staring at the Pathfinders, who all gazed sullenly back.
‘You said
to tell them what to do when we’re ready to leave. I did.’
Greybeard cast a contemptuous glance at us, his lip curled. I had the feeling he was wondering whether it might just be easier to kill them all.
‘You ready, Ensel?’ asked Greybeard, still staring hard at the Pathfinders. ‘Don’t take any chances. Check the sky before you make for the truck.’
Ensel – who was clearly in a state of barely controlled panic – eased the door open and leaned out to take a look. ‘Coast is cl—’ He stopped, then began to wave frantically. ‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘Over here!’
‘Who is it?’ said Greybeard, grabbing his shoulder.
‘There’s someone else still alive!’ Ensel shouted in glee, moving aside so that Mikhail Borodin could enter.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Borodin was breathing heavily, as if he’d run a long way. There was a wild look in his eyes, and his breath, even from a distance, stank of alcohol. He stared speechlessly at me and at the Pathfinders gathered around and behind me.
‘Sir,’ said Greybeard, ‘these are—’
‘I know who they are,’ he said, clumsily wiping a hand across his mouth. ‘Yakov. Where is he?’
‘Dead, sir,’ said Greybeard. ‘One of those . . . things took him, and some others.’
‘What’s been going on here? Who killed your men outside?’
He pointed at me. ‘This woman says they were killed by the Crag’s own guards.’
Borodin turned bloodshot eyes on Greybeard and examined him closely. ‘And where were you, Sergeant, when all this was going on?’
‘Down on the lower terraces, sir, helping to clear them out under General Yakov’s supervision. When those things appeared in the sky, we started to make our way up here. Out of more than a dozen of us, it’s just me and my two men left.’ He nodded at me. ‘This woman says she can program the stage to get us home.’
‘She does, does she?’ His gaze, when it fell on me, was hard and unblinking. ‘Back to the Empire?’ he asked me in Russian. ‘Or did you have somewhere else in mind?’ he added, switching to English.
‘Sir?’ said Greybeard, ‘the Tsar’s artefact is still out there. General Yakov’s last orders were to get it back home at any cost. Ensel here can drive the truck onto the stage while the girl sets the coordinates under Sergei’s supervision.’
‘I’ll decide what we do here, Sergeant.’
‘But General Yakov—’
‘Is dead,’ Borodin finished, glaring at him. ‘I believe you mentioned that already. As the senior officer present, I am taking command.’
Greybeard, however, persisted. ‘I’m aware, sir, that you were relieved of your command by the General. And frankly, sir, I can smell your breath and don’t believe that you’re fit for duty.’
‘Do you want to get out of here or not?’ Borodin screamed at him. ‘If Yakov is dead, you imbecile, authority automatically reverts back to the next most senior officer present, does it not?’
Greybeard’s face coloured. ‘Sir, I—’
‘Shut up,’ Borodin seethed, ‘until I need you.’
Greybeard fell silent and ducked his head down.
‘Mikhail,’ I said to him in English, ‘listen to me. You’ve seen those things out there. You know we can’t let them take the Hypersphere back to the Empire.’
He glared at me sullenly, swaying slightly. He must have been sitting alone for hours, I thought, steadily drinking himself into a stupor. ‘Damn you,’ he said, his voice low. ‘Don’t tell me what to do.’
My temper started to get the better of me. ‘You idiot,’ I jeered at him. ‘None of this would have happened if you’d damn well just listened to me in the first place.’
‘Easy, Katya,’ said Nadia. She turned to Borodin. ‘Mikhail, we need your help.’
‘I cannot prevent them taking the Hypersphere back,’ he said to her. ‘They will kill all of us, me included, if we try and stop them.’
‘No,’ I said, thinking harder than I ever had in my whole life, ‘there is a way.’
They all looked at me.
‘You can end this, Mikhail,’ I said, ‘and save yourself in the process.’
Borodin stared at me. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
Something inside me recoiled from the idea of helping save the life of the man I hated more than any other, but I could see no other way. ‘Maybe you can’t stop them trying to take the Hypersphere back,’ I explained, ‘but you might be able to persuade them to let you into the back of the truck where it is. Then all you need to do is open its cage and take the Hypersphere for yourself.’
‘No!’ Casey shouted. ‘You can’t—’
‘Shut up,’ said Chloe from beside him. ‘Not one more damn word from you, or we’ll leave you here to rot.’
Borodin stared at me with a perplexed expression. ‘Are you insane? Steal the Hypersphere? And go where?’
‘Back to the healing pool, where else? You did everything Nicholas asked of you, and he threw you away like a used tissue. You can cure yourself, then use the Hypersphere to get away to some remote and preferably unpopulated alternate, before the Portal-Monoliths can come looking for you. But you can’t ever use it to return to the Empire, or billions will die.’
‘They’d shoot me before they’d let me anywhere near the Hypersphere,’ he said in a hoarse whisper. ‘There’s only so far they’ll follow my orders, believe me.’
‘Then we need to think of something,’ I said. ‘Do you still have the code for the Hypersphere’s cage?’
He nodded. ‘I do.’
‘I need some answers,’ said Greybeard, his tone increasingly belligerent. ‘Are you just going to stand there bickering with each other all day?’
Borodin squared his shoulders and gave me a look before turning to face the imperial guard.
‘Don’t question me, Sergeant,’ he shouted in Russian. ‘Take your men back down to the main comms room on the next terrace down from this one. You should be able to contact every other part of the Crag from there. Look for other survivors. I’ll take the truck onto the stage while Miss Orlova programs the control rig.’
‘Three of us aren’t needed for that, sir. Ensel is good with trucks, and Sergei can reconnoitre the comms room on his own – as per your orders.’ I saw his finger tighten just very slightly around the trigger of his machine gun. ‘I’ll remain here to render whatever support you require.’
He knows, I thought, feeling a sudden uprush of panic. Or at least suspects.
‘Very well, then,’ said Borodin without missing a beat. ‘I’ll escort Miss Orlova to the stage controls and watch out for danger while she programs them.’
Greybeard stared hard into Borodin’s eyes for several long moments before finally giving his men their orders. ‘And radio in when you get to the comms room,’ he told Sergei.
Ensel went first, tensing in the moment before he dashed towards the truck. Sergei first gave the coordinates for the First Republic to Greybeard, who in turn handed them to Borodin. Sergei ducked out of the door, his pale face drenched with sweat.
Then only Greybeard was left, standing between us and the exit with his machine gun.
Borodin glanced at me. ‘This won’t be easy,’ he said in English. ‘We’re going to have to improvise once we’re out there.’
‘Just do your best,’ I said.
‘Your name, Sergeant?’ he asked Greybeard.
‘Podolski, sir.’
Through the window, I could see Ensel inside the front cabin of the truck. Its headlights came on, and the engine roared into life. My skin prickled as he drove it up the ramp, then came to a halt in the middle of the transfer stage.
Podolski pulled out a walkie-talkie. ‘Ensel?’
‘Here, sir,’ came a crackly voice. ‘Ready to go.’
‘Good work, Ensel.’ He switched to another channel. ‘Sergei, report in. Are you at the comms room yet?’ He waited several seconds and tried again. ‘Sergei? Call in.’
‘
There might just be the two of them left,’ I said quietly to Borodin as Podolski tried yet again to make contact.
He nodded minutely, then moved past Podolski and towards the door. ‘Miss Orlova,’ he said in Russian. ‘We’ll make our move now. Sergeant, perhaps you should go and wait with your man in the truck.’
Podolski shook his head. ‘Ensel can handle himself, sir. I think it’s best that I stay here and keep an eye on these others. You should hurry.’
I stepped up beside Borodin. He seemed to have sobered up entirely.
He opened the door and looked outside. ‘Now, Katya.’
We ran, skirting the stage and heading for the control rig. I made the mistake of looking up, and faltered when I saw that the sky was now almost entirely black with winged shapes. There must have been tens of thousands of them – perhaps even millions. There were so many that they spread from one horizon to another, like a great cloud of locusts blackening the sky. The Portal-Monoliths were still coming apart, like a black tide threatening to swallow the whole world.
All my strength fled. How could we possibly fight against such things? Then Borodin came back and grabbed hold of me, tugging me towards the control rig. We dropped down next to it in a low crouch.
‘We’ll die out here,’ I said, overwhelmed by panic. We were entirely exposed. If one of those things saw us and dived for us . . .
‘We’ll die for certain if you don’t program this stage,’ he said. ‘Not for the Empire – set it for the Authority.’
‘But what about the Hypersphere?’
‘I’ll make a run for the back of the truck,’ he said. ‘That guard in the front cabin won’t see me coming unless he happens to look in the rear-view mirror.’
‘But Podolski . . . !’
‘There’s nothing I can do about him,’ he said. ‘But he can’t watch me and your friends all at the same time now, can he?’
A shadow passed just above the stage. I shrieked, pressing myself flat against the cobblestones. Borodin crouched over me, staring upwards.
‘Get in the seat,’ he snapped, pulling me back upright. ‘Now, Katya – hurry!’
I pulled myself into the seat facing the rig console. It lit up automatically as I sat before it. Borodin reached past me and tapped at its keyboard, bringing up a list of stored coordinates. He selected one, and the screen blinked in response.