by A. G. Taylor
He threw the grenade through the back window of a parked car. The explosion lit up the petrol tank, lifting the burning wreck through the window of a nearby chemist. People scattered in all directions. The mercs fired into the air and they hit the ground again.
“I’m waiting!” Kotler screamed.
Hack met May’s eyes. “No choice, huh?”
“No choice,” she agreed.
Hack rose to his feet, hands in the air. May did the same.
Mercs moved in fast, grabbing their arms and pinning them behind their backs. Cable ties were drawn painfully tight around their wrists.
“We’re not going to give you any trouble,” Hack said as they were manhandled towards the waiting chopper, but it made no difference. They were thrown down on the floor of the vehicle and told to lie still or get shot. Seconds later, Kotler jumped on board and the Black Hawk lifted. The merc leader stood over them, pure malice in his eyes.
“You don’t have to hurt us,” May said as the chopper raced over the rooftops, back towards the power station. “We’re going to do what you want.”
Kotler crouched down beside her and bent his head close. “I don’t like you freaks. You’ve caused me and my men a lot of trouble. And after the major’s finished with you, you’re going to pay for it.”
He looked round at Hack and grinned viciously.
“Both of you are going to pay.”
29
Every seat at the long table in the HIDRA UK briefing room was taken. There were HIDRA officers, Dr. Fincher and his science team, and Sarah and her friends. Rachel Andersen was on the satellite link-up again, this time from a HIDRA plane en route to the base. Everyone listened intently as the doctor spoke about the sample from the squid he had analysed – its holographic representation projected in the centre of the room.
“The material is a kind of polymer,” Fincher said. “Alien origin, of course. But close examination revealed some interesting things happening at the molecular level.” He tapped the table and the holo-image zoomed in. Magnified, it looked less like a metal, and more like the blood of an organism: circular microbes swarmed and multiplied within the substance. “We ran an electrical current through the object and things started jumping.”
“It’s like it’s alive,” Sarah said.
“Quite so,” Fincher agreed. “We’re looking at incredibly advanced nanotechnology. Microscopic robots can change the structure at the molecular level, turning it into basically any shape that the programmer dictates.”
“You’re saying this thing is active?” Rachel said.
“Well, not any more. As soon as we reactivated it, the nanites formed into a very nasty little killing machine. A kind of self-destruct mechanism. Tore apart the lab before we shut it down.”
“Then you can control it,” one of the military personnel suggested.
Fincher shook his head. “No. We have no way to interface with these machines. The technology is far beyond our present capabilities. It would be like trying to control a modern computer using an abacus, to use an analogy.”
“That’s why Good needs Hack and May,” Sarah said. “To shape and control the material in the hypersphere.”
“So it would seem,” Fincher agreed. “With the proper means, this material can be formed into any configuration…any machine that the user desires.”
“Like robospiders,” Louise said.
“Or a giant squid,” Wei added.
“And that’s just the beginning,” Fincher continued. “As we’ve seen on the video Sarah took from the island, the dimensions of the hypersphere suggest enough material to replicate a vast number of machines. The Entity must have fired the object at the earth with the express intention of releasing these robots.”
“A fail-safe,” Rachel mused. “In case the meteorite strikes failed.”
“Which they did,” Alex said.
“Tell us more about the machines, doctor,” Rachel demanded. “We need a way to fight them.”
“Ah,” Fincher said, pulling up a video hologram showing recorded CCTV footage of the lab. “This is what that single fragment managed to do.”
Everyone around the table watched the grainy footage of scientists in protective suits working on the fragment. As electrodes were attached, the materials immediately began to reform, sprouting spider-like legs. The scientists backed away as the machine split into two spiders and began tearing the table apart. HIDRA soldiers rushed in, firing upon the machines. The bullets glanced off their hard shells. There was a scream as one of the spiders jumped at a soldier’s neck. The other scurried towards the corner of the room. A second later there was a brilliant flash of white and the recording ended.
“What happened?” Rachel demanded.
Fincher replied, “One of them turned itself into a bomb. Blew out the entire wall so the other machine could escape. We cornered it at the perimeter and managed to knock it out…by firing two Javelin missiles at it.”
There were murmurs around the table.
“Those machines were the size of my hand,” Octavio said.
“And they wrecked a substantial part of the camp,” Fincher replied. “They’re incredibly resistant to all forms of conventional weaponry. And, as you saw, they can split into multiple parts to avoid capture.”
“Then how can we fight them?” Nestor asked.
“With our current weaponry?” Fincher said, looking around the table, his face deadly serious. “We can’t.”
“Well, we have to find a way, doctor,” Rachel said, turning her attention to Sarah and the others. “Think you can help out with that, Sarah?”
Sarah looked around the others and then nodded as a harried-looking HIDRA officer burst into the room.
“Colonel Andersen,” the officer said, looking at the screen in which Rachel appeared, “we’ve received a call from London. Someone claiming to know the location of Major Bright’s base.”
The Black Hawk helicopter had barely touched down on the floor of the power station when Kotler shoved Hack and May out with the butt of his rifle. Bent low, they stumbled towards the hypersphere with the mercs at their backs. Marlon Good waited at the edge of the platform. As Hack stopped before him, Good said, “You’ve caused us a lot of trouble.” He drew back his hand and slapped Hack hard across the face. “Do you know why I did that?”
Hack looked at him with pure hate in his eyes but said nothing.
“Because,” Good continued, “in a very short time there won’t be enough of your mind left to understand if I broke every finger on your hand. Enjoy the pain, kid – it’s one of the last things you’re ever going to feel.”
“You’re insane,” Hack said slowly. “And I’m going to make you pay for what you’re doing.”
Marlon Good looked at him, his face an emotionless mask for a few seconds. Then he laughed his high-pitched, giggling laugh. “Sure you are.”
The mercs grabbed the kids’ arms and led them onto the platform. May began to struggle as she was dragged towards the table on the left. Hack looked across at her as he was forced onto the other table and the restraints were strapped around his ankles and wrists.
“Just stay strong, May!” he called. “Hold on!”
She looked at him and nodded. Then a technician passed in front of her, obscuring his view. Hack turned to a technician at the side of his table.
“Why are you doing this?” he said. “Can’t you see you’re hurting us?”
The technician, a guy with thick glasses and long, straggly hair, couldn’t meet Hack’s eyes as he attached electrodes to his skull.
“I’m talking to you!” Hack persisted.
“I’m sorry,” the technician said quietly as he finished his work. “We’ve got orders. We’ve got no choice.”
One of the mercs pushed the tech away and Hack closed his eyes. The technicians were clearly too scared to disobey orders.
At the side of the platform, Marlon Good joined Major Bright at the control desks. Here, technicians overs
aw monitors showing brain-scan activity from the children on the tables. This data was linked into another scan of the hypersphere itself.
Marlon Good waved a hand over the computers. “From here we can control the hypersphere by channelling the combined powers of the two children. The tables are basically modified ECG machines, designed to manipulate brainwaves rather than just monitor them. Highly experimental stuff, of course.”
“Very impressive,” Bright said thinly. “Will it work?”
“Oh, it’ll work.”
“Then begin. Their little trip into the city will have alerted the authorities to our presence. It’s only a matter of time before HIDRA finds us.”
“By that time,” Good said, “London will be ours.” He signalled the nearest technician. “Link them up.”
The tech nodded and pressed a series of keys on the panel. The thermal image of the sphere began to change, turning from blue to yellow to red, almost as if it was heating up. The surface of the hypersphere itself had become completely reflective, like looking into a perfectly calm lake. Then a single ripple passed across the sphere, from top to bottom. As the ripple disappeared towards the southern pole, a drop of mercury-like liquid fell from the hypersphere and hit the platform with a hiss. This drop instantly reformed into one of the metal spiders – eight sharp legs, pincers, and searching red eyes. Another ripple passed down the sphere and a second spider formed next to the first. The brainwave scans of Hack and May began to show increased activity. On the tables, the two children began to cry out, as if in pain.
“It’s like it’s feeding off them,” one of the technicians said, meaning Hack and May.
Good nodded. “Using up their energy to create an army.”
Major Bright smiled approvingly. “Your machine actually appears to be working, Good. I am impressed.”
Good walked from the control panels and stood before the hypersphere. “It’s beautiful,” he said softly.
The ripples were coming at the rate of one a second now and speeding up. There were over fifty spiders on the floor of the platform. They moved forward in a kind of formation, like ranks of soldiers.
“By the end of this hour there will be millions of them,” Major Bright said, appearing at Good’s side. “All loaded with the modified fall virus and ready to infect the world. Ten times faster-acting than the original fall virus: it places the victim in a coma in seconds and allows full integration with the Entity’s psychic control within less than an hour. You have done well.”
Good beamed at the major, enjoying the compliments. Around the power station, mercs moved into position near the technicians working the computers, as if to make sure they stayed at their posts.
“When the Entity brought me into contact with you,” Bright went on, beginning to pace around Good, “and told me using your money and technical knowledge was the only way to win this war, I was sceptical. But you’ve proved yourself a most useful ally.”
Good cast a look at the hypersphere, which was now pouring spiders from its lowest point in a steady stream. On the tables one of the children screamed, but somehow it was impossible to tell whether it was the boy or the girl, the sound was so distorted by pain.
“Thank you,” Good said, looking back at the major, who had stopped his circling and now stood right in front of him. A shadow passed over the American’s face, as if he was experiencing an uncharacteristic moment of doubt. “I should really check on the readings…”
As Good retreated, Bright gave a sideways glance at Kotler, his second-in-command, and said quietly, “Of course, all alliances come to an end at the appropriate time. Usually when a partner has outlived his usefulness. Make sure you keep an eye on Good and his people.”
Kotler grinned and stalked away. On the floor of the power station, the spider army began to surge towards the giant doors at the far end of the building. As the first of the spiders reached them, the doors slid open automatically to allow them out into the city beyond...
The mapped area of the Thames upon which Battersea Power Station stood was projected large in the centre of the briefing room table. Sarah and the others listened in silence as the telephone message played over the speakers.
“That’s Hack’s voice,” Wei confirmed.
Rachel Andersen said, “The phone this message was sent from has been located just two kilometres from where he says the base is located. There are reports coming in of a helicopter attacking civilians in the same vicinity. We should assume this information is accurate and act upon it.”
Sarah nodded. Thankfully there was no messing around with suits like Wisher this time. The time for uncertainty was over – it was something they could just no longer afford.
Rachel continued, “Bright and Good need these two children. Why? To control the hypersphere?”
“That’s right,” Sarah replied. “If we take them, we take control of the sphere. Hopefully shut it down before they can release any of the machines.”
“It’s too late!” Dr. Fincher said, pulling up a new holo-window in the centre of the table. “Look what just came through!”
A live aerial view of the Thames appeared. Something was streaming along both sides of the river, sweeping between buildings and engulfing everything in its wake: a black mass, metres across and apparently unstoppable. “This is being streamed live from an observation drone over the city.”
“What is that?” one of the HIDRA officers asked, leaning across the image. “Some kind of liquid?”
“No,” Sarah said. “It’s from the hypersphere. We saw this back on the island.”
“Spiders,” Louise said. “Thousands of them.”
“Millions,” Wei corrected.
The image zoomed in to a section of the river near the Tate Modern. People were running frantically as the mass of robospiders, none larger than the size of a man’s hand, swept along the promenade towards them. The machines were so densely packed, the wave was almost a metre tall. As it engulfed people, they went down, lost in the swarming sea of machine legs. Here and there it was possible to see men, women and children being bitten by the robospiders before they disappeared.
“Just like they did to Robert!” Louise said and Sarah nodded.
There were gasps of shock around the table as people tried to take in what was happening in London. Thousands of people falling victim to the spiders within seconds.
“How can we stop it?” Nestor said quietly. “There’s just so many…”
“We’ll stop them,” Alex said. “There has to be a way.”
Sarah met his eyes and nodded, although she wished she felt more certain. The spiders on the screen constituted an army. And it would take an army to fight them, wouldn’t it?
“Those spiders are spreading the fall virus with every bite, by the looks of it,” Fincher said as he focused on another stretch of the river. Here the robospiders had passed on, leaving the bodies of unconscious people littered across the pavements. Sarah was reminded of a time when she had seen the survivors of a plane crash laid out in the desert, all victims of the fall virus. She had to look away.
“What’s going to happen to them?” Wei asked quietly.
“They’re infected with the fall virus now,” Alex said. “When they wake up, they’ll be the slaves of the Entity. First the virus puts you into a coma, then it takes control. Just like Makarov was doing in Russia. Remember the servants in the Spire? That’s what they’re going to become – servants of the Entity.”
Sarah nodded. She thought of Robert in the intensive care unit of the base. Would he too succumb to the power of the Entity? Was this new version of the virus powerful enough to turn even superhumans like themselves – who had been immune so far – into slaves?
Rachel said, “Someone tell me there’s a military response being organized.”
An officer nodded. “I’m getting reports this is spreading to multiple locations around the city. The emergency evacuation plan has been put into effect.”
Sarah turned
to Alex as the image cut to a different view of the city – spiders swarming down narrow streets, scuttling over everything in their path, leaving behind comatose bodies. “It’s going to be chaos,” she said.
Alex nodded. “And at this rate the entire capital will be infected within an hour.”
“Current status?” Rachel demanded.
“The army is setting up road blocks on all major routes out of London,” the officer replied. “The RAF has just scrambled a squadron of Typhoons.” He listened to someone speaking in the headset. “They’ve got orders to fire on the spider swarm.”
As they watched the screen, five arrow-like fighter jets zipped into view, flying low along the length of the Thames. They did a pass of the swarm moving along the river and then came round again. Lining up into attack formation, the fighters each fired two missiles at the mass of tiny robots. Yellow-orange explosions ripped through the seething black swarm, but did nothing to halt its progress.
“They’re just going to kill anyone caught inside the path of those spiders!” Sarah said.
The fighters came round for a second pass. This time, however, part of the swarm rose into the air to meet them.
“What is that?” Alex asked, but it was impossible to tell on the grainy image what was happening. All they could see was a black cloud.
The first of the fighters hit the cloud and immediately went into a spin. As it rocketed down and smashed into the river, a second fighter was caught. The pilot ejected seconds before his jet exploded in mid-air. The third and fourth jets suffered the same fate. Only the fifth escaped, by conducting an extreme evasive manoeuvre and then retreating across the city to the west.