by A. G. Taylor
Then something dark flew towards the camera and the picture went to static.
“The observation drone just got knocked out,” an officer at the far end of the table confirmed.
“I’ve seen enough anyway,” Rachel said, looking around the shell-shocked faces of her officers. “We might not be able to fight these things, but we can make sure as many people get help as possible. Prepare your teams to move out immediately: we’re going to assist in the evacuation operation.” She said to Dr. Fincher, “I need you to keep working on a way to destroy these machines.”
Fincher nodded and rose as the HIDRA officers hurried out of the room.
“What about us?” Sarah asked.
Rachel turned to her. “I don’t know. What about you?”
Sarah looked around the faces of the other kids and saw they were waiting to follow her lead. “I want to take the stealth jet to Bright’s base. If we can get Hack and May, we can shut down the hypersphere.”
“The jet will be refuelled and ready in fifteen minutes,” Rachel said without argument. “Do you want any HIDRA marines with you?”
Sarah thought of their attack on the island with Commander Craig and shook her head. “No, this is our fight. We’re the only ones who can stand up to Major Bright and the Entity.” She turned back to the others, preparing to give them a speech about how they didn’t need to come along if they didn’t want to – but they were already all on their feet.
Robert Williams lay in the intensive care unit of the HIDRA base. A heart monitor beeped a steady rhythm at his side, while other machines were connected to his body via a tangle of wires and sensors. It was all Sarah could do to stop from crying aloud as she looked at him from the doorway of the room. She flashed back to memories of her mother and her slow, painful death from cancer almost two years before. And then Daniel, lying in the sleeper casket. She didn’t know if she could take the loss of another member of her family, especially not Robert. The black mark had spread across the left side of his body – another cancer, of alien origin, attacking her brother’s body from within. Killing him…or worse, turning him into something alien – a mindless slave of the Entity.
That’s not going to happen, Sarah thought, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Is there anything I can get you?” a nurse asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“No,” Sarah replied. “I just want a minute with my brother.”
“Take as long as you like.” The nurse padded back to her desk.
Sarah went to her brother’s side and took his hand in hers. She searched his mind, but sensed only confused, dream-like thoughts. There would be no telepathic communication with him, so she spoke aloud…
“It’s going to be okay, Robert,” she said softly. “We’re going after Bright and we’re going to stop him. The Entity has the cure for the fall virus somewhere and I’m not coming back until I’ve got it for you. I promise.”
Robert mumbled something in his sleep. Sarah squeezed his hand tighter. “Do you hear me? I’m going to save you, Robert, so hold on a little longer.”
From the doorway, Alex gave an embarrassed cough to announce his presence. “Sorry, Sarah,” he said. “It’s time to go.”
They strode across the tarmac towards the waiting stealth jet as the flight crew scurried around the undercarriage of the plane, detaching fuel hoses and closing access panels. Sarah and Alex walked side by side, leading the others. For once Octavio and Louise weren’t arguing. Wei and Nestor were silent also – their faces serious as they reached the open access ramp to the jet.
“What’s that?” Sarah asked as a technician deposited a suitcase-sized metal box in the back and hurried out again.
Alex gave her a sheepish look. “Uh…uniforms…”
“Uniforms!” Sarah exclaimed. “I thought I said no uniforms—”
“They’ve been developed by Dr. Fincher,” Nestor jumped in, defending his friend. “They’re made of a super-lightweight form of Kevlar. Highly resistant to bullet and knife entry.”
“Water repellent,” Alex added. “And designed to offer maximum insulation against extreme weather conditions.”
“And they come in a choice of three colours,” Octavio sniggered.
“Whatever,” Sarah said, “I’m not wearing any stupid uniform. I told you before.”
She looked around the runway as the flight crew backed off. It was just them and the jet again – no heroes’ send-off, despite the fact they were about to take on the most dangerous force in the world…and not just theirs. Unchecked, who knew how many other planets would fall to the Entity? How many other races would be enslaved? With the odds so high, it felt as if there should be more fanfare. But perhaps this was what it was always like for people going to war, Sarah wondered. The celebrations were only for those who came back alive…and victorious. She sensed the eyes of the others on her and turned to them.
“What?” she asked. “Do you expect a speech or something?”
Their silence clearly indicated that they did.
“Look,” she said reluctantly, “the Entity has the cure for the fall virus. That means saving Robert and our families. So, we’re going to get it and shut Major Bright down in the process. Right?”
Louise grinned and cracked her knuckles. “Right.”
The others nodded too.
“Well,” Sarah said, “what are we waiting for?”
A couple of minutes later the stealth jet blasted into the morning sky, did a turn over the HIDRA base and then headed south at full speed.
30
A pall of smoke hung over London, fuelled by five major fires burning around the capital. Here and there explosions lit up amid the sprawl, whether from spiders attacking or from army resistance, it was impossible to tell.
Sarah scanned the enhanced image on the cockpit HUD and dragged a finger round the collar of the uniform she’d finally been persuaded to put on. She’d originally envisioned something like you’d see on an ice-dancing show, but had to admit that the uniforms were okay. Fincher had managed to work out their exact sizes for the creation of the dark-blue jumpsuit-like creations. As Alex had said, the material was lightweight, but clearly incredibly strong. The HIDRA logo was inconspicuously placed on the shoulder, but best of all each uniform came with a pair of very sturdy, but equally light boots. Good for running, Sarah thought. And, judging by the steel-reinforced toes, fighting. She hated to admit it, but you didn’t go to war in a pair of jeans and trainers.
“Uniforms not so bad, huh?” Alex said, slipping into the co-pilot’s seat.
She gave him a hard look. He wasn’t going to get away with organizing the uniforms behind her back, even if it had turned out to be the right thing to do.
“I look like an idiot!” Octavio yelled through from the cabin.
“You always look like an idiot!” Alex shouted back and Sarah had to laugh.
Alex turned his attention to the HUD and called up an overlay showing significant landmarks around the city. A beacon flashed in the distance, showing the location of Battersea Power Station – Bright’s base. Sarah sent the jet on an approach course from the east, following the winding course of the Thames for reference. She had grown up in London, gone to school there, but all that seemed like a long time ago. So much had changed for her since they’d left. And now the city was changed too: smoke and destruction evident everywhere along the river. It pained her to see her old home being torn apart, a place that had lived in her memory being invaded and defiled by the Entity and Major Bright. She gritted her teeth, all the more determined to drive them out.
Offensive systems online, Sarah ordered the jet and immediately began to get a stream of data. The jet had been reloaded with heat-seeking missiles and enough machine-gun ammo to tear the city in half.
“How’s it looking down there?” she asked, seeing Alex scanning satellite data of the city being fed through to the cockpit.
“It looks as if there are five major swarms in oper
ation,” he replied. “The spiders have formed a perimeter around inner London, trapping everything inside.”
“What about the military response?”
“The land-based forces are concentrating on the evacuation efforts. All local emergency services have been knocked out or aren’t responding. Reports out of HIDRA are that a battalion of marines sent in to retake the northern bank of the Thames has lost radio contact.”
“Taken by the spiders.”
Alex nodded. “And two more fighter squadrons just dropped out of the sky during a flyover. The whole city has been designated a no-fly zone until they know what’s happening, even for the RAF.”
Sarah glanced at the time on one of the control displays. Shortly before midday. How long had it been since the first attacks in the capital? Less than an hour for the Entity’s machines to take control of an entire city. How long would it take for them to subjugate the world? Months? Weeks? And could they really be fought?
As if to answer her question, Dr. Fincher’s face appeared on a section of the HUD. Sarah tapped the display to accept audio.
“Sarah, what’s your status?” he asked, sounding urgent and to the point as always.
“We’re on the approach to the power station.”
“Very good,” the doctor said. “I’m making progress with a way to shut down these machines. We managed to reactivate a small portion of one of the spiders that escaped the lab and are planning to upload a clonebot to the nanite stream.”
“A clonebot?” Alex said.
“It’s like a computer virus,” Fincher explained, “but one adapted to attack the microscopic machines from the hypersphere. The clonebot orders a nanite to replicate its program, which is to shut itself down, but not before it’s passed on the same instruction to its neighbours. This sets off a chain reaction of nanites going terminally inactive. Think of it as mass suicide for microscopic robots.”
“Does it work?” Sarah asked.
“In theory. The spiders should literally crumble to pieces without the nanites holding them together. They won’t be able to maintain their structure. There’s just one problem…”
Sarah sighed. “Which is?”
“The delivery method. Uploading the virus to a single spider could prove very difficult – let alone to millions of them.”
Sarah thought of Hack – what she’d seen herself and what Robert had recounted of the kid’s abilities. “Don’t worry about that, doctor. Just send us the…uh…”
“Clonebot,” Alex helped out.
“Send that as soon as you’ve perfected it. We’ll have the delivery method.”
As she killed the video feed, a warning light flashed on the control panel. Unidentified airborne objects, the jet rang in her head. Multiple targets inbound.
“Look!” Alex exclaimed, pointing to one of the spider swarms on the bank of the river. It seemed to split, as it had when they’d watched the Typhoons attack, and rise into the air to meet them. The HUD automatically magnified a section, revealing that the spiders had transformed – sprouting silver, mosquito-like wings. They flew into the path of the stealth jet with alarming speed.
Everyone hold on back there! Sarah warned as she sent the jet into an evasive turn. The swarm was too fast and agile, however. Suddenly, it was like being in a car driving through a mass of locusts. Metal bodies smashed against the cockpit windows. Sarah pressed the fire button on the joystick and the forward machine guns blasted through the objects flying into them.
“What are they doing?” Alex said as Sarah sent the jet in another violent turn over the city. “They can’t get in. Can they?”
There was a tearing sound from the outside of the jet. Alert signals began to flash all over the HUD.
“Sarah!” Louise yelled from the back. “They’re ripping open the walls!”
The jet rocked violently and Sarah struggled to control the stick. “We’re losing pressurization!” she said as a holo-image of the jet appeared showing multiple fracture points in the fuselage. One of the machines found purchase on the windows. Sarah and Alex watched helplessly as the mosquito began to drill into the thickened glass with a thin attachment from its jaws. On the other side of the cockpit, two more were doing the same.
“They’re going to break through!” Sarah said.
“Now we know what happened to the fighter jets,” Alex said as there was a crash from the back of the plane, followed by an explosive blast. What was that?
Wei just took care of some machines that got inside, Louise replied.
And now we’re on fire, Nestor added. This was accompanied by the sound of a CO2 extinguisher being triggered.
Sarah and Alex looked at one another. “Great,” she said. Everyone brace for landing. I’m going to ditch before we fall out of the sky.
“Ditch?” Alex asked. “Where?”
“Where do you think?” she said, sending the jet into a dive towards the Thames.
“Great,” Alex muttered as he fastened his safety harness around his body. “This mission is working out real great.”
“I thought you craved excitement,” Sarah said through gritted teeth as she pulled back on the stick, evening out the dive at the last moment. The machine on the window finished its drilling and drew back a slender leg, driving it forwards. The window shattered. Wind billowed into the cockpit, filling the air with tiny shards of glass and taking the breath from their mouths—
Whoooosh...
The jet hit the Thames, skidded off the surface once, and then ploughed into the water nose-first. Following the jarring impact, freezing water poured in through the broken cockpit window.
Sarah wasted no time in unlocking her safety harness and grabbing Alex’s arm. “Come on!” she yelled above the noise of the rushing water as she dragged him to the cockpit door. “There’s an escape hatch in the cabin.”
The others were already on their feet in the back. Water was blasting in through multiple tears in the walls of the jet.
“At least the fire’s out,” Octavio said, holding onto the side of the jet as the floor listed to one side.
Ignoring him, Sarah moved to the exit door and ripped open a concealed panel on the wall. Beneath the panel was a handle with a warning above it: Danger – Explosive Bolts, Emergency Exit Only.
“Wait!” Nestor said as she gripped the handle. “Those machines are out there.”
“Would you rather sink with the jet?” Sarah snapped back, pulling free. She looked around the others, who were standing knee-deep in water now. “When I blow the hatch, hold on and wait for the water to stop flooding in. Then swim for it. Understand? Everyone get back from the door, it’s going to fly!”
Octavio winked at Alex. “Getting bossed around. Just like old times.”
“Tell me about it,” Alex said, gripping the side of a chair as Sarah pulled down hard on the handle.
The explosive bolts triggered, blasting the exit door outwards. For a moment nobody moved as the dank, dirty river poured into the jet. Within seconds it had half-filled the cabin.
Everyone go! Sarah’s voice rang in their heads as the water raced to the ceiling.
They swam for the opening, straining to see through the cloudy water. The jet itself began to tilt around, but Louise and Wei managed to swim through the door, closely followed by Nestor and Octavio. As Alex swam through, Sarah pushed herself off the wall and followed. Although her lungs were bursting for air, she looked back at the stealth jet – the plane that had saved their lives on more than one occasion. In the water it looked like a shark descending to the bottom to die.
Goodbye, she thought, before breaking the surface.
“Sarah!” Alex called, swimming over.
“I’m okay,” she said and looked at the others bobbing in the water. Mercifully, the mosquito machines that had brought the jet down seemed to have followed it to the bottom of the river. She looked to the nearest bank and saw they had crashed just short of the Houses of Parliament. The London Eye and the Millenniu
m Pier were just a few metres’ swim away.
“We’ve got company!” Nestor called, pointing to the other side of the river. A giant swarm of spiders surged over the top of Parliament, their sleek, metallic bodies obscuring the aged stonework of the building – almost as if they were burying it. They poured down the side and splashed into the Thames, making the water churn.
“Go!” Sarah cried and they swam for their lives.
31
Sarah hauled herself over the side of the Millennium Pier, the metal-clad mooring area for tourist boats stopping at the London Eye. Alex pulled himself out of the river behind her and she turned to help him up, looking over his shoulder at the Thames. The river looked like a carp pool at feeding time – the surface bubbling wildly as thousands of spiders clawed their way across towards them. Here and there it was possible to see the machines, their bodies morphing and transforming to allow them passage through the water. They scrambled over the top of one another, forming a kind of moving bridge.
“How do we stop them?” Alex said, looking round at the others.
“Slowing them down would be a start,” Nestor said. He held his hands out and immediately a powerful blast of air emanated out across the Thames. Sarah stepped back as the air became ice-cold – colder than anything she had experienced before, even in the sub-zero temperatures of eastern Russia. The water began to freeze across the surface under the extreme chill of the wind. Within seconds the entire river for a hundred metres in either direction was frozen solid. Here and there the spiders could be seen – trapped in the ice, stuck in mid-transformation.
“Cool,” Octavio said at his brother’s shoulder. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I don’t tell you everything,” Nestor replied. “And it won’t hold them for long.”
Sarah nodded. “We need to get mobile. We’re still over three kilometres from the power station, so we’ll need vehicles.”
They ran along the covered walkway linking the pier to the Embankment. Even as they jumped the barrier at the end of the walkway, the sound of ice smashing and the clatter of metal feet against the edge of the pier could be heard. The spiders were coming.