Enemy Invasion

by A. G. Taylor

  Marlon Good had moved into the centre of the square as the technicians took positions at the cameras and computers. A kind of hushed anticipation fell over the area. Even Major Bright took a step to the edge of the light and waited in silence, giant arms folded across his chest. Good brushed a speck of dust from the lapel of his jacket and turned to face the largest of the cameras. He pointed to the technician behind it.

  “Action.” Then…

  “Citizens of the world,” Marlon Good said to the camera, basking in the imagined attention, “good evening. And welcome to my secret lair somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.”

  Good laughed to himself. In the corner, Major Bright rolled his eyes, but he said nothing.

  Good snapped his fingers and held up his right hand before him, palm open. A blue-tinged holographic image of a rotating globe appeared above his hand. Hack sensed he had a mini holo-projector concealed up his sleeve. Very clever – he’s quite the showman, he thought. In addition to his money, was this why Bright needed the American? To be the public face of whatever terrible plans they had for the world?

  “Consider the earth,” Marlon Good said, eyeing the planet rotating above his hand as if it was a precious jewel. “So very fragmented. Different languages. Different governments. Different cultures. Bad for unity. And bad for progress.”

  He touched the index finger of his right hand to the image and it slowly began to turn red, until the entire globe had changed colour.

  “We intend to put an end to this disunity. We have the means to create a new world order. The old factionalism of individual countries and companies will be swept away and in its place we will install a single government.” He closed his fist over the image and the world disappeared. “By the time this message is broadcast, we will already have demonstrated the awesome power at our command by taking over a major capital city in less than a day. We call upon the remaining nations of the world that have not already fallen to surrender unconditionally. You will be treated with…mercy.”

  Good paused for a moment and clasped his hands behind his back.

  “Tonight you will be witness to the greatest technological revolution since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Let our children and our children’s children know that this is where the new world began.” Good’s face cracked into a grin and he waved his arms wildly, surprising even Major Bright with his sudden change in tone. “I know, booooring! But don’t you want to see the demonstration? Wouldn’t you like to see how we’re going to take over the world?”

  Good signalled to his people waiting in the darkness surrounding the square. “Bring in the hypersphere!” He winked at the camera. “Trust me, this is cool.”

  Technicians appeared, wheeling a huge, circular trolley before the cameras. On this trolley stood a metal frame and within the frame a black sphere the size of a small car was suspended, perhaps by some kind of magnetic field. The surface of this sphere was perfectly smooth and it was possible to make out etched patterns, almost like letters, but of a totally alien language. As the technicians backed off, Marlon Good stepped forward and tapped the sphere with his finger. It began to rotate slowly on its axis, the perfect, dark surface reflecting the studio lights.

  “An object of alien origin – salvaged from the recent meteorite storm that almost ended life on earth,” he explained. “I’m sure you all heard about it. Most of the meteors collided in space, broke into pieces and burned up harmlessly in our atmosphere. A few larger fragments did manage to survive, however. This piece was retrieved from an area of Antarctica so remote, even the penguins don’t go there. We call it the hypersphere.”

  At the edge of the area, Major Bright wound his index finger in a hurry up motion. Marlon Good took the hint and started speaking even faster.

  “This rock is possessed of amazing properties beyond the science of our time. In its natural state, it’s perfectly harmless – dormant, as you see here. But with the right catalyst, it can become one of the most powerful forces this world has ever seen. Now we have that catalyst.” Good looked round. “Major Bright, would you care to begin the demonstration?”

  Bright unfolded his arms and strode across the square. Three cameras followed his movement, but he acknowledged none of them – almost as if they were beneath his attention. He headed directly for Hack and May and stopped before them, arms held out to them.

  “Take my hands, children,” he ordered. “It’s showtime.”

  17

  The two mercs patrolling the eastern perimeter never knew what hit them. As they passed one another on their circuit of the area an invisible force grabbed them both and dragged them twenty metres into the jungle. One smacked head first into a tree and was immediately out for the count. The other skidded to his knees at the feet of a nine-year-old girl standing amid the trailing vines. His rifle was lost, so the merc reached for his pistol. Something heavy hit him on the back of the head and he went down.

  “I’m only going to ask you once,” Commander Craig hissed as he pressed the machine-gun muzzle into the merc’s skull. “Where are you keeping the boy?”

  The merc glared back at him. “Shoot me and you’ll bring the whole base down on yourself.”

  Craig nodded at Louise. “That girl can turn you inside out with a thought. Don’t make me tell her to demonstrate.”

  The merc swallowed heavily and looked at Louise with widening eyes. She smiled sweetly at him.

  “There’s a set of brick buildings to the south of the camp,” the merc said. “Cells. That’s where we’re holding him.”

  “Thanks,” Craig said, and smashed him across the face with the butt of his gun. He looked at Sarah and the others. “He should be out for a while.”

  They headed to the metal fence. Wei stepped forward and put his fingers through the chain links. His hand glowed red-hot and the metal around it began to melt. He waited until a suitably large hole had been burned in the fence and then removed his hand. He gestured for the others to go through.

  Craig grinned as he passed. “Nice work, Wei.”

  They ran to the cover of a set of crates as a searchlight swept the area, illuminating the shadows.

  “This is where we split up,” Craig said. “Go to the cells and get the kid. If anyone gets in your way, you know what to do. I’m going after Bright.”

  Robert shook his head. “We should stay together. You can’t face Bright by yourself—”

  Commander Craig laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “That is the way it’s going to be, Robert. Go and save your friend.”

  With that, he disappeared round the side of the crates.

  “Do as he told you,” Sarah said urgently. “And be careful about it. I’ll meet up with you soon.”

  “Where are you going?” Robert demanded in exasperation.

  “To help him take care of Bright,” she said over her shoulder as she disappeared after the commander.

  “Typical,” Robert muttered. Becoming aware that both Louise and Wei were looking at him for direction, he drew himself up a little taller. “Okay, let’s go rescue Hack,” he said, trying to sound more purposeful than he felt.

  “Place your hands on it,” Major Bright commanded as he led Hack and May over to where the hypersphere was suspended. He held hands with each of them, his grip like a vice. For a moment, both kids hesitated, until Bright tightened the vice painfully. “Do as you’re told!”

  Hack glanced past the major’s bulk and met May’s eyes. It’s going to be okay, he told her. Just go along with what he wants.

  May nodded and placed her left hand on the glass-like surface of the sphere. It stopped rotating. Hack did the same with his right hand. Major Bright looked at the camera for the first time.

  “Now,” he said, “let me show you real power.”

  For a moment, Hack felt nothing. The sphere felt oddly cool to the touch, but nothing more. It felt at once like a metal and a rock; a substance not of the world. Then Hack sensed it: a vibration passing up through his arm
from the rock and through his body. Suddenly, in his mind, there was another presence…

  ...A presence that is at once incredibly ancient and powerful without measure. Hack senses the intruder comes from Major Bright somehow, but it is not him. He wants to let go of the major’s hand, to break the connection, but finds that he is completely unable to move. Paralysed.

  “Yes, at last. Don’t be afraid. This is what you were born to do.”

  The alien voice in his head is at once beguiling and terrifying. Hack senses both May and the major and the alien intelligence – almost as if they are one consciousness.

  “Who are you?” he asks.

  “I am the Entity,” comes the reply. “The devourer of worlds. All things become me in time.”

  Hack wants to scream, but he has no control over his body. The world around him has receded to a pinpoint in the distance. The thing calling itself the Entity is everything – everywhere.

  “Now, do my bidding,” the voice commands.

  Hack senses May’s power being channelled into the hypersphere – although she is clearly not in control of what she is doing any more than he is. The molecular structure of the rock begins to change, shift and become amorphous. It’s as if the matter is alive and, chameleon-like, able to transform itself into any form it chooses…

  Now the Entity turns its attention to Hack, assuming his power like it’s putting on a glove. Images, schematics and coding flash through his mind at a dizzying rate: like looking at all the computer code in the world in less than a few seconds. Hack makes out instructions for machines – horrific machines of death and destruction…

  The Entity uses him to imprint these instructions into the very fabric of the rock May has just activated – like DNA in the cells of an embryo…

  The hypersphere begins to shift and change yet again…

  The Entity gives a satisfied sigh…

  And the world around Hack flooded back in as Major Bright released both his and May’s hands. The link with the alien force was broken. His knees buckled and he almost fell to the floor. He felt mentally and physically drained – as if contact with the thing…the Entity…had sucked the life force from him. He looked left and noticed something about the major. The black, scaly skin seemed to have moved further up his face.

  “Hack…” May said.

  He caught her as she fell back in a half-faint. The experience had drained him, but in her weakened state, May had clearly been pushed to the very edge by her contact with the Entity. Hack eased her down to the floor and was about to yell for some help, when he sensed movement just a metre away. He looked up and saw something happening to the hypersphere.

  The black, mirror surface of the rock shimmered, as if it had become liquid. Then a single droplet of dark matter, no larger than a tennis ball, fell from the bottom of the sphere and hit the floor. As he watched, this new fragment from the larger sphere began to change. It elongated from the bottom to the top, became more angular in shape and actually seemed to grow in size. The molecular changes that Hack had sensed while connected to the Entity were now playing out for all to see. Placing his hands under May’s arms, he began to pull her away from the hypersphere (which had once again become solid) and the tiny offshoot.

  One of the technicians removed his camera from his tripod and advanced on the smaller object, trying to get a clearer shot.

  Having retreated to the very edge of the square, Marlon Good said, “This is where it should start to get interesting.”

  The rock doubled in size. It pulsed and throbbed rhythmically and took on the appearance of the body of a squid – long and tapering to a point. Thin, tentacle-like protrusions began to extend from the base, probing the floor around it blindly. It was as if the rock had become a living organism and was feeling out its new, alien surroundings. Strange, delicate veins of light, like fibre-optic cable running through the rock, appeared all over the surface. Hack pulled May further away from the substance, which was beginning to look more and more like some creature from the depths of the ocean...

  The technician with the camera was so focused upon the scene in his viewfinder that he didn’t notice his shoe brush one of the searching tentacles…

  The squid recoiled momentarily, as if shocked to make contact with a living organism, but then moved with terrifying speed. A tentacle whipped around the technician’s midriff, lifted him clean off the ground and flung him to one side with amazing force. The technician flew across the square and was lost in the darkness. There was a sickening splat as the man hit something solid.

  Technicians abandoned their posts and started running into the dark. One of the mercs stepped forward, machine gun raised. The squid reacted instantly. Another tentacle cracked through the air like a whip. The merc staggered back, clutching his throat and was dragged away by his partner. Hack looked round at Marlon Good, who was watching the scene with a kind of wide-eyed fascination from the sidelines, as if at once thrilled and terrified by the chaos he had set in motion.

  “Do something!” Hack yelled at him. “It’s going to kill us all!”

  But it was Major Bright who stepped forward to take control. The squid threw itself at him as he approached, its eight tentacles entwining around his arms and legs. Bright fought it, muscles bulging through his uniform as if they were about to explode. With a cry of effort, he wrapped his hands around the newborn creature. Electricity danced from his fingers. The squid struggled for a moment, before the tentacles retracted. It slid to the floor and retreated under the hypersphere, like some kind of cub returning to the safety of a parent. Bright looked down at it with a triumphant smile.

  “What is that?” Hack asked breathlessly.

  Marlon Good stepped forward and joined Major Bright. “You just saw the future of weaponry, construction, engineering… Just about everything you can name. We have the power to harness this technology – turning alien matter harvested from the hypersphere into organic machinery of unlimited power. We’ll build cities like this world has never seen. Armies to protect them…” He rubbed his hands together and looked at one of the cameras that was still standing. “And for people who stand against us, prisons.”

  18

  Sarah trailed Commander Craig across the compound towards the two massive hangars. She followed his progress, sticking to the same shadows and cover that he used. Then, rounding the side of a tank covered with a tarp, she was surprised to find that the commander was no longer ahead of her. She spun round… His hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back beside the vehicle.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Craig demanded. “You were supposed to stay with the others.”

  “You’re going after Bright,” she said. “I want to see him taken down just as much as you do. If not more.”

  Craig gave her a hard look, but then shook his head, as if deciding he didn’t have time to argue. “Okay. Stick close to me. If I say run, you get the hell out. Understand?”

  Sarah nodded and looked round at the hangar, which was less than thirty metres from their hiding place. The main doors were open only a couple of metres, revealing a darkened interior. A single sentry paced back and forth across the entrance. She tried to project her mind inside the building, but found the same block as before.

  She thought, This is all wrong...

  “I have to tell you something,” she began, but Craig was already on the move. He crossed the ground between them and the hangar in a few seconds, grabbed the sentry from behind and jabbed him in the neck with a cylindrical object clutched in his fist. The guard went limp and the commander dragged him into the shadows at the side of the hangar. Craig reappeared a second later and beckoned to Sarah. She ran over.

  “Is he dead?” she asked, looking to where the commander had dragged the guard.

  Craig held out the object in his hand so she could see. It was a syringe gun, of a type she’d never seen before. “A throat-jabber,” he explained. “Delivers a dose of tranquillizer direct to the carotid artery. Knocks an
enemy out cold in less than three seconds. More accurate than a dart-gun in these situations.”

  “Cool,” said Sarah, thinking she was glad the commander had decided to let her tag along rather than knock her out as well.

  “It looks pretty dark in there,” Craig said, meaning the interior of the hangar. “That should provide plenty of cover. Stay behind me and stay low.”

  Sarah nodded and followed him towards the entrance. Sure enough, as they slipped through the doors they found themselves in total darkness except for a brilliantly lit area in the centre. She strained her eyes and made out Major Bright. A few soldiers were positioned around the edge of this area, but their attention was focused inwards. There were lights and cameras, and a slim guy in a suit who looked out of place next to Bright. She also spotted two kids: a boy she assumed to be Hack, and a girl who was lying motionless on the floor.

  “Stay here,” Commander Craig whispered in her ear. She looked round and made out the shape of the night-vision goggles on his head. “There are snipers on the walkways above. I’m going to neutralize them and then take out Bright.”

  With that, he was gone.

  Sarah crouched by the door and tried to hear what was being said in the centre of the hangar. The smaller man in the suit was speaking. The poor acoustics of the space meant that she was just too far away to hear. Slowly and carefully, she began to edge forwards in the darkness, until she had covered half the distance and could properly eavesdrop on what was being said.

  “Well, I think we can count that as a success,” the American in the white suit said.

  “It will be a success when the Ulysses is sent to the bottom of the ocean,” Bright replied. “My men have picked up the carrier headed for our location. Just as I predicted. The tracker they placed in the boy is leading them right to us.”

  “Why do you want to take on HIDRA?” the American asked. “We have our demonstration of the power of these machines. By the time the Ulysses has come within striking distance, we can be a thousand kilometres from here.”