by Greig Beck
Morag pulled back from his chest and turned.
“Who …?” She stared. “… what the hell is that?”
“Our guardian angel, I hope,” Alex said and backed up. They were still corralled by the body of the worm, but it started to move its length and lump its coils to ring the small silver creature that was now attacking it.
“I will give you time.”
The worm’s head came down with a thump entirely over the slim, silver being. Its force was so great that it buried itself half a dozen feet into the slimy ground. Alex knew that was what had been in store for him and Morag before Sophia had arrived.
And given what just happened to Sophia, probably still would. Alex searched for an escape path.
The worm pulled back, its massive mouth open and the gullet, just down from its head, working as a throat. Lined with those backward pointing spikes, it crushed down the morsel it had just devoured.
But what would happen when it found that what it had just eaten was not flesh and blood, but something far less edible? Sophia would probably be excreted in days to come – unlike him and Morag.
“We’ve got to make a break for it,” Alex said.
“We’re still trapped.” Morag looked one way then the other. “Can we climb over it?”
Alex looked around. He knew he could climb up and then leap over the beast’s body faster than it could probably react. But Morag couldn’t – and he damn well wasn’t leaving her after just fighting to save her.
Above them the worm was swinging the huge head toward them again, like a crane maneuvering its digger for the next scoop – of meat.
“Get ready.” Alex gritted his teeth at the monster. “Come on!” He wanted to follow the android. He wanted to leap at it, fight it, tear at it until his fists bled and he drew his last breath. He would not go quietly.
“Yes, yes, good, I feel your fury. I need it.”
Alex heard the words in his head again.
“Sophia?”
In response, the neck of the creature exploded as something burst from within it, tearing and clawing, the slim arms punching and ripping huge chunks of flesh free. Like a monstrous birth, Sophia squirmed through the ragged hole she had made, but instead of leaping to the ground, she grabbed the huge plate-like scales of the thing and crawled onto its back.
The worm went mad with pain and fury and swung back and forth. But Sophia hung on, and began to rip away car-door-sized scales and then tear holes in its hide.
Alex marveled at the strength and speed of the android. Grey had been right when he said this silver being was strong. And he remembered him also saying it could be linked to a human being, and he suddenly realized it had been connected to him – Alex could feel every blow it delivered. And he could feel something else – the android was enjoying itself.
The worm seemed to give up, and flung its head down hard at the ocean of soil beneath it, and dove. It struck hard, shaking the earth and then pumped its body, sinking in and using a type of peristaltic motion to drive itself under the ground.
Sophia jumped free then, and strode toward them. The featureless face as emotionless as ever. But he knew inside, she was jubilant.
“It is leaving us now.”
The ground behind Sophia formed a whirlpool of slime, and then became calm. Alex turned to stare for a moment, wondering whether the robot actually experienced its own emotions or was just picking up on his residual sensations.
“I’m not a robot,” Sophia said, obviously picking the thoughts straight from his head.
And not like us either. Alex then threw up a mental wall to block it.
Sophia ignored Morag and came and stood in front of him. It stared up into his face.
“You block me.” The head tilted, still peering up at him. “But I think … we are more alike than you could ever know, Captain Hunter.”
He stared down at the two red dots.
“Like the both of you,” the android said.
Exactly what Alex feared, Sophia finding and feeding off the darker side of his Id. He reached out a hand and gently pushed her back a step. “Right now, we need oxygen and to be out of here.”
“Yes, you do,” Sophia responded smoothly. “You need to be aware that the explosive device will be dropped in exactly twenty-three minutes and forty-seven seconds. You need to be at least over the rim in twenty-three minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”
Alex was jolted. “Are you in contact? Can you delay it?”
“No. The timing is immutable,” Sophia said, deadpan. She titled her chin. “The extraterrestrial contagion must not be allowed to escape into the global atmosphere. It is the priority. The only priority. I know you know this, Captain.”
“We’ll never make it,” Morag said.
Sophia turned her featureless visage to Morag momentarily. Then back to Alex. “Leave her, she’s expendable. Captain Hunter, you can easily make it to the safe zone if she remains here.”
“What the fuck?” Morag took a step forward but Alex stopped her.
“No one is leaving anyone.” Alex picked up Morag, turned and began to run. He spoke to Sophia who easily kept up with him.
“You clear a path and run defense for us. I don’t want any surprises slowing us down.”
“Yes.” She sprinted ahead into the mist.
Morag leaned over his shoulder. “I don’t think your girlfriend likes me.”
Alex ran hard. “It’s just a tool. I think there might be a few bugs still in the software. But she, it, just saved our asses.”
Morag shuddered. “Thank god.” She slapped his shoulder. “Now pick up the pace, my air is running out, and I was never any good at being able to hold my breath.”
CHAPTER 44
Hammerson paced, but still never took his eyes off the wall screen. Sophia had damn well self-delivered and if the android had survived the drop intact, then it should have been able to get a lock on Alex – if he was still alive.
He turned to a separate screen that showed a small blip that indicated the approaching bomber. It would be there in twenty-seven minutes. It was going to be razor close.
His intercom buzzed. “Yes, Margie?”
“Aimee Weir on the line. Something about Joshua – says it’s urgent,” Margie said.
Hammerson groaned. For Christsakes, not now. He looked back at the wall screen, then opened the comm again. “Is anyone hurt?”
“Uh, not that I know of, sir,” Margie responded cautiously.
“Good. Tell her I’m in a meeting,” he replied.
“Yes, sir.” He detected a note of displeasure in the older woman’s voice. She hated it when he lied, especially to Aimee.
Can’t be helped; priorities. He turned back to the wall screen, refocusing.
He knew that as soon as Alex or any HAWC poked their head up above that mist line, they should have been able to get a message out. It still hadn’t happened.
Their evacuation chopper was on the valley floor, waiting for the word to rendezvous with the survivors. This time, it was a dark-ops bird piloted by a HAWC. He knew the risks and would fly into the teeth of hell itself to rescue his comrades.
But for now it was all up to fate, and Alex Hunter.
CHAPTER 45
They approached the crater wall, and Alex lowered Morag to the ground. Sophia pulled up beside him. It was now near-pitch darkness at the foot of the cliffs.
“How long?” he asked.
“Twenty-two minutes, seventeen seconds until drop, Captain Hunter … Alex.”
Alex’s brows knitted momentarily, at the familiarity the android used, but then refocused and looked upwards. “We can do this.”
Sophia laid a hand on his arm and turned her head back to the mist. “There is one of the mutated humanoids approaching.” Sophia turned back to him. “It has arrived.”
From the swirling clouds, the monstrous figure lumbered toward them. Alex could see the remains of the Russian uniform, and even with the monstrous visage, he recog
nized him.
“Zlatan.” He exhaled. “Oh my god.”
“Where is it? I can’t see anything,” Morag whispered.
“I can,” Alex said dismally. The evolutionary process had continued to work on the thing that was once a man. Now, long tendrils dropped from the end of its arms, and overlapping plates made it resemble something more akin to a crustacean than a mammal. Another pair of arms, or perhaps legs, was sprouting from its sides.
Would he – it – always walk upright? Or in the next iteration would it be down on six limbs, burrowing in the mud like some sort of insect or sea creature? He sensed something different this time.
“Would you like me to kill it, Alex?” Sophia asked matter-of-factly.
“No.” Alex then held up a hand to the creature. “Stop there.”
It slowed, and Alex half turned. “I don’t think it came to fight.”
Zlatan slowed in the darkness and then held out one of his arms. The finger things unfurled and waved in the air like feelers, and Alex saw there were lines of spikes on their insides. Those things were made for gripping. Alex readied himself just in case.
Perhaps he had come to claim Morag, or even seek revenge for the deaths of the others. Or just maybe there was still some remnant of humanity within the hulking body and brain that wanted to be saved.
“Nineteen minutes, 0.127 seconds until drop, Alex.” Sophia continued to watch him. “What are your orders?”
Alex kept his eyes on Zlatan, and up close the strange buzzing in his head was being overridden by something being projected by the mutated being. It wanted something. He pushed Morag toward the android. “Sophia, take her up the cliff, and prepare for immediate dust-off. With or without me.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Morag began.
“Alex, I am better able to deal with this threat,” Sophia said.
“I know, but you’ll need time to decon the team, right?” Alex glanced at her.
Sophia was silent for a few seconds, before she answered. “That is correct. I must enact priority contamination protection protocols on all surviving mission members prior to departure.”
Alex expected it. They couldn’t chance taking back any of the biological matter from the crater basin. Zlatan was proof of that.
“Proceed with the order, now.” He turned back to the approaching Morg.
“As you order, Alex.” Sophia’s voice was flat, almost disappointed. The android reached out and gripped Morag’s bicep.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Morag tried to pull away but the vice-like grip of the android would have been impossible to break. “Hey, hey wait …”
“Go,” Alex said sharply, and Sophia responded by leaping at the steep side of the crater wall and sticking. Then she began to drag Morag up in a near run.
Alex approached the monstrous being that towered over him and just stood there as if waiting for him. Alex marveled at its grotesque appearance, and if it wasn’t for its still bipedal shape, he could never have believed it had ever been a human being.
He crossed to within a few feet of the thing that had once been Zlatan. It was impossible to read an expression and tell what it was thinking, as the multiple dark glass eyes sprouting out of its head on stalks were devoid of emotion. They twitched and moved independently of each other, so he bet it could see in many different directions all at once.
Suddenly all the Morg’s eyestalks lined up, directed straight at Alex.
Alex checked his shield, hoping it had recovered from the previous beating, and was rewarded with a green light. He deployed his shield, ready for the attack, and opened his senses to try to determine if there were more of the Morg waiting to ambush him. He knew these creatures were enormously powerful, and one was difficult enough to deal with, more than that and he was as good as dead.
He waited, seconds counted now. He knew it wanted to speak, and if it could, it would have.
“I know you want something. Or want to tell me something.” He continued to wait, counting down the precious seconds.
The massive creature held out its monstrous hand and the tentacle-like fingers unfurled to display a small card. Alex kept his eyes on the beast as he leaned forward, and saw that it was a picture of a woman. She smiled shyly into the camera, had hair cascading to her shoulders, and had on some sort of laboratory smock.
Alex reached for the picture, and the long feelers wrapped around his wrist. Images exploded across his mind – a woman smiling up at him, tending to his wounds, or laughing softly. He saw them sharing intimate moments in a quiet space, and then the love came at him in waves.
The fingers unfurled and Alex looked up to the deformed face. “Your wife or woman?”
There was no neck to nod his head, and no tongue to utter a human word, so all Zlatan could do was stare back at him. After another few seconds, his lumped shoulders shook slightly. He bunched his hand enclosing the picture, and held forth the next hand. This time Alex saw the image chip resting there. Zlatan held out the other hand again, dropping the chip onto the picture.
There came small grunts, clicks and squeals, and Alex knew Zlatan was trying to speak, but there were no human vocal chords anymore, and this was the best he could do.
Alex reached out to take the chip, but the other hand whipped forward and encircled his wrist again in the sharp cable-like tentacles. The strength in the grip was enormous, but all Zlatan did was guide his hand to the picture – he was meant to take that as well.
Alex lifted it and saw there was a name written in cursive writing on the back: Come back to me safely, my love. Rahda.
“This is her; Rahda.” Alex looked up into the deformed face and nodded. “I’ll tell her you were thinking of her.”
Zlatan let his wrist go, and stood staring down at him for a moment more, before its shoulders slumped and he turned away.
Alex gripped the chip and watched the massive thing that had once been a man vanish into the mist. He continued to stare after him as the boiling smoke swallowed all trace of the Russian.
Alex then looked down at the picture again. The people who love us, and who are loved by us, define who and what we are. Perhaps Zlatan knew that the outside world and everything in it was lost to him. But he wanted someone – Rahda – to know that even though he was lost, his love had survived.
He would find her one day and tell her.
CHAPTER 46
“Heads up.” Sam Reid had one boot on the cliff edge and stared down at the thing approaching that had just lifted out of the mist line.
Casey joined him, her quad-scopes engaged as she craned forward. “What the hell?”
Sam saw the silver being scaling the near-vertical cliff face like a spider, never slowing or missing a handhold. It held Morag over its shoulder. Even though it was dark, there was starlight and a moon so he retracted his own scopes as the pair reached the rim edge.
“Hoo-leey fuck.” Casey Franks stepped back as the silver android came over the edge. She laid a hand on her knife hilt. “Did that thing come out of the Orlando, too?”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Sam raised a hand to it. “Sophia.”
“You’re shitting me – Sophia – it’s a woman?” Casey scoffed. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
Sam looked quickly back over the edge. “Where’s Alex?”
Sophia lowered Morag to the ground. The journalist rubbed her ribs. “Yeah, I’m fine too, guys, thank you for asking.”
Russell came and hugged her briefly, but then held her back a step so he could see her face. “Anne?”
Morag glanced into his eyes for a moment before shaking her head. “No, I’m sorry.”
Russell let her go. “The poor woman.” He went to turn away, but paused. “I’m glad you made it.” He didn’t sound enthusiastic.
Morag sighed. “Yep, it’s what I do.” She walked away. “And thanks,” she whispered.
The android turned to Sam Reid. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Lieutenant Samuel Reid
.”
Sam frowned. “Where’s the Arcadian, Captain Hunter?”
Sophia didn’t hesitate. “He’s still down in the crater basin. He saw one of the Morg, and surmised it might have been the Russian with the image chip. I believe he planned to retrieve it.”
“Ah, shit,” Sam said, stepping toward the edge and peering over.
Sophia quickly turned. “He ordered me to leave him, and his clear instructions were to prepare ourselves for pickup. He was most emphatic.” Her head tilted. “And we will carry out those orders.”
Sam continued to stare down into the sea of mist. “Yeah, well …”
“HAWC operative Samuel Reid.”
What the hell? Sam spun to stare at the android – did it just raise its voice to him? He glared, but the featureless face was impossible to read.
Sophia turned to the group. “In sixteen minutes and seventeen seconds a significant explosive device will be dropped into this basin crater. All life will be extinguished. We must be well over the rim by then, or you will also be extinguished.”
“Looks like they got our message.” Sam looked at the timer on his forearm computer. “Can we slow …”
“Negative. The order came from five-star General Marcus Chilton.” Sophia’s voice was maddeningly calm. “Failure to detonate on time is a significant risk to all biological life on the planet. The order is immutable.”
“Jesus Christ.” Sam put his hands on his hips, and Monroe and Casey waited on his decision.
“You must trust Alex Hunter to carry out his orders and retrieve that image chip. And we must carry out ours.” Sophia’s red glowing eyes seemed to bore into Sam.
Sam couldn’t argue with her logic. After a moment, the HAWC nodded. “Yes.”
“First we need to decontaminate before extraction. Priority one is execution of contamination protection protocols. There will be no extraction without this occurring.”