by A. G. Taylor
Louise opened her mouth to argue, but Alex cut her dead.
“Do you think I can stand the thought of leaving her behind?” he said, turning his attention back to the Black Hawk controls – an array of buttons and switches that were oddly familiar (thanks to the information Sarah had placed in his head) and yet at the same time completely alien.
Seeing the tears forming in his eyes as he worked the helicopter controls, Louise finally accepted what he was saying. She reached out and touched his shoulder. “We’ll come back for her.”
“Yes, we will.”
In the back, Hack brushed the hair out of May’s eyes. She was lying on the floor of the helicopter, barely conscious.
“Is she going to be all right?” Wei asked at his shoulder.
“She’s going to be fine,” Hack snapped back, but he wished he could be so certain. Being plugged into the hypersphere was like a slow death, every drop of energy being drained in the service of creating the Entity’s machines. It had been bad enough for him, but in her weakened state, May had been pushed to the very edge.
Outside the helicopter, the mercs were keeping their distance while Sarah and Major Bright stood hand in hand, unmoving. Whatever was happening between them was unseen – passing between their minds. As Hack watched, he caught sight of a single figure moving along the wall of the station, bent low and keeping to the shadows so as not to attract attention.
Marlon Good.
“Look after May,” Hack told Wei, jumping out of the helicopter.
“Where are you going?” Wei protested.
Hack ripped an emergency crowbar from a bracket on the side of the chopper. “I’ve got someone to take care of.”
He moved swiftly to intercept the fleeing American, who was too preoccupied with his escape to notice. Hack swung the crowbar across the back of his knees and Good went down with a yelp of pain. As he rolled over onto his back, Hack smashed the iron bar across his protectively raised right arm.
“No!” Good cried.
Hack hit him again, and again…then jumped on him, pressing his knees into his ribcage and forcing the crowbar down across his throat. Good struggled, but it was a weak effort.
“You’re hurting me!”
“Good!” Hack exclaimed, pressing down harder with the crowbar. Marlon Good choked and flailed at his attacker with his hands, but Hack grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed his head against the concrete. Although he was no fighter, he’d learned to defend himself well enough on the backstreets of his grandfather’s village.
He slammed Marlon Good’s head against the floor again.
“Enough, enough!” Good spluttered, tears and snot pouring down his face. “Just let me go. All this killing is a mistake! I just wanted to have fun! It was supposed to be a game!”
It was supposed to be a game. Remembering everything that had been inflicted upon him and May, the words only made Hack angrier.
“What?” he spat, hitting Good again. “Your game not so much fun any more, huh?”
“I… This is wrong… I just want to get out of here…”
Repulsed at Good’s snivelling, Hack reached into the man’s shirt and ripped free the trigger on the chain – a silver rectangle with several buttons and a keypad. “Show me how to unlock the collars.”
“Uh-uh. You’ll kill me.”
Hack held the trigger in front of Good’s face and put his thumb over a red button on the side. “What happens if I press this?”
“Then your neck explodes.”
Hack held up the trigger as if he was about to press the button…
“Wait!” Good cried. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Hack bent over his prisoner so their noses were almost touching. “At this close range, the explosion would rip you apart as well. How about it?”
“Nice bluff. I don’t buy it.”
“I’ll do it,” Hack said. “If it’s the only way to stop you, I’ll do it.”
Good’s eyes widened. “What about the girl? She’s wearing a collar too. You’ll both die.”
“We’re willing to sacrifice ourselves to stop your plans. To keep our families safe.” Hack waved the trigger in front of Good’s face. “We’d die heroes. Probably make a film about us and everything. Cool, huh?”
“You’re crazy,” Good said, sounding as if he actually believed it.
“Last chance.” Hack began to depress the red button…
“435892!” Good yelled. “That’s the release code! 435892!”
Hack took a deep breath. What choice did he have? He thumbed the six-digit code into the keypad. His collar began to beep shrilly…
Hack closed his eyes, waiting for the explosion…
With a click, the collar snapped open at the back and fell into his hands. He laughed with relief.
“Now get out of my sight,” Good said, squirming on the ground.
Hack weighed the open collar in his hands. “You know what? I think it’s about time you tried out some of your own technology…Marlon.”
He placed the collar around Good’s neck, clicking it shut at the back.
“Wait!” the American cried, twisting round into a kneeling position, as Hack ran in the direction of the waiting helicopter. “Don’t leave me like this! Where are you going? We can work together! We’ll be bigger than Microsoft!”
Hack raced across the landing pad, where the rotors of the helicopter were running at full speed now. Jumping into the back, he found May sitting up – her explosive collar in her lap, open. She looked at Hack and, seeing that the collar was gone from his throat also, managed a weak smile.
“Where’s yours?” she asked.
“Marlon Good is trying it out for size,” he replied.
May nodded…and clicked her collar closed. It emitted a beep as it twinned with the other...
“Time to get out of here!” Alex yelled from the cockpit. He pulled back on the stick...
Hack looked round. “Sarah?”
Alex shook his head. Outside, Major Bright’s hand opened and Sarah’s fingers slipped from his. The major blinked like someone awaking from a sleep and looked round in surprise. Before him Sarah stood with her eyes closed still, as if in a trance. Bright looked over her shoulder and saw the Black Hawk powering up for take-off…
“Open fire!” Bright screamed at his men as the vehicle began to lift into the air. “All weapons!”
The mercs, who had been holding off, awaiting orders, now let loose with everything they had. The air became alive with flying metal. The chopper tilted to one side as Alex struggled with the stick. On the floor in the back, everyone held on for dear life as one of the walls loomed dangerously close to the blades. Bullets ricocheted off the fuselage and a few tore through the floor as mercs ran from cover and fired upon them.
They’re going to tear us apart! Wei cried as a round flew through the floor between his legs…
On the ground, Sarah Williams’s eyes opened. She looked over the mercs firing upon the helicopter and said one word:
“No.”
Every mercenary in the power station was instantly thrown back several metres. Major Bright rounded on Sarah and pulled a pistol from his belt.
“That would be a very stupid thing to do,” she said as he levelled the gun at her head.
“What are you?” Bright demanded. Sarah Williams’s outward appearance had not changed in the slightest, but her eyes… They were infinitely old and full of malice. Major Bright lowered the gun.
“You understand what I am?”
Bright waved the gun at the chopper. “Why are you letting them escape?”
“Because I made the girl a promise. Don’t worry, Major. You can kill them later.”
Bright shook his head and watched the Black Hawk pull out of the spin. Now it rose swiftly, through the open roof of the power station and into the sky.
Beside Alex in the cockpit, Louise exclaimed, You did it! The chopper cleared the edge of the power station and arced over the
Thames, putting as much distance between them and the power station as possible.
We’re not home yet, he replied. One of those bullets has ruptured the fuel line. We’re not going to make it more than a few kilometres.
As if to prove his point, the engine juddered and the rotor blades gave a dangerous screeching sound as they slowed.
Just put us down somewhere safe, Hack said. I’ll see what I can do to fix it.
“Right, somewhere safe,” Alex yelled back. “The whole city is swarming with robospiders. There’s a small army of mercs on our back. Should be easy.”
As the others began to argue about where to put down before the Black Hawk fell out of the sky, Hack moved closer to May, who was sitting against the back wall, the collar in her lap.
“We need to get rid of that,” he said. “It’s still live.”
“I know,” May replied softly. The detonation warning sounded on the side of the collar as it approached the limits of safe distance from its twin. “I’d say we’re almost a kilometre away by now, wouldn’t you?”
Her eyes met his and sparkled with some of their old life.
“I’d say so,” Hack replied. “We could just let it go off.”
May shook her head. “No. We’re better than him.”
As the beep rose to a whine, May threw the collar out of the side of the helicopter. Caught on the wind, it arced through the air like a frisbee and came to rest on the top of a building…
Inside the power station, the mercs regrouped, grabbed fresh ammo and surveyed the damage. A group of them set to work with the technicians to roll the hypersphere back onto the platform and into position. Major Bright strode past the wreckage of the second helicopter towards Kotler.
“I want them tracked down!” he ordered. “I want them dead!”
“Yessir,” Kotler replied. “I’ll lead the—”
A high-pitched yelp interrupted him. They both looked round as Marlon Good staggered into the centre of the building. His jacket was soaked with sweat. The explosive collar was clamped firmly around his neck.
The collar beeped loudly.
“Somebody do something!” he screamed. “Get this thing off me!”
“Where’s the key?” Bright asked with minimal interest in Good’s fate.
Good looked at him, wild-eyed, perspiration pouring down his face. “They’ve got the key! And they’ve got the other collar. Don’t you understand, you idiot? They’ve got the only key!”
A rare smile passed across Bright’s lips. “You only made one key? And you’re calling me an idiot?”
The beeping rose in intensity until it was almost a constant tone.
“It’s gonna go off!” Good cried, starting to run around the mercs and technicians, who stood watching in terrible anticipation. “Help me!”
People stepped back, not wanting to be close to the walking bomb. He fell against a merc, who pushed him away roughly.
“Please!” Good begged. “Somebody do something! Somebody…” He fell to his knees, closed his eyes and clasped his hands before him, almost as if praying.
The beeping stopped. Good gave a spluttering cry of relief. He opened his eyes and looked around wildly.
“I have to find the other collar,” he said manically. “I have to find it…”
Without another word, he turned and bolted towards the other end of the power station. Kotler moved forward, raising his rifle to take him down, but Bright shook his head.
“Let him go,” the major ordered.
“Why?” Kotler demanded, clearly itching to take the American down.
Bright looked at his second-in-command as if the question was stupid. “Because it’s amusing. Haven’t you ever heard of poetic justice?”
“I don’t like poetry.”
Bright sighed and said, “Prep a team to track down those kids. They can’t have got far in that chopper.”
Kotler nodded. “I’ll prepare the elite force.”
Without another word, Bright strode towards the edge of the landing pad, where Sarah Williams sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed, apparently oblivious to everything happening around. As he approached, she spoke…
“You have done well, Major Bright. You will be rewarded.”
The girl rose to her feet and looked around the interior of the power station. She flexed her fingers, as if testing them out. “Yes, this mind will be a much more suitable channel for my powers. Now I will be truly unstoppable on this planet.”
“Where’s Sarah Williams?” Bright asked. “What happened to her?”
The girl’s head turned and those evil eyes regarded him in a way that made even Major Bright shiver.
“I have sent her someplace far away,” the Entity said. “And trust me, she is never coming back.”
Sarah Williams is falling through layers of darkness… A seemingly bottomless void with only the sensation of air rushing against her skin giving the impression of descent…
She has long since given up calling out for help. There is no one here to hear her. No one to help. The memories of the battle against the Entity are fading. Her friends. Even her name. Everything is becoming cloudy, obscured…
Finally, just as she has given up hope that there is anything but herself and black space left in the universe, a light pierces the dark. A light so brilliant it’s almost impossible to look at. The light grows, becoming a single beam stretching for ever. White tendrils stretch out from the beam, reaching across the universe for her.
Unable to resist, Sarah allows the tendrils to wrap around her body, drawing her closer to the beam, which is shining more intensely than the sun…
“Sarah,” a voice says as she is drawn closer. A voice she recognizes, but can no longer remember where from. “At last. You have returned to me.”
She has the strangest feeling that she should draw away, but it is far too late for that…
The tendrils pull her into the beam and she clamps her eyelids shut to avoid being blinded. She opens her mouth to scream as the white light burns away her clothes, her hair, her skin, and everything she ever was...
36
The helicopter made it less than ten kilometres along the river before Alex was forced to put down, picking the one safe spot he could see: an open space in the midst of a sprawling scrapyard. It was a bumpy landing and the terminal-sounding screech as one of the slowing blades collided with the shell of a van suggested that the Black Hawk wouldn’t be going anywhere in a hurry.
Leaping out of the cockpit, Alex looked around the mountain of junk with a despairing expression. The wrecks of cars piled on top of one another in stacks ten high towered over them. Piles of vehicle parts, smashed computer components and broken white goods were littered all around.
“Very appropriate,” he said. “We’ve ended up with the scrap.”
Hack appeared at his side. “There must be a working vehicle somewhere in this dump. It’s only a matter of time before the robospiders find us. Or worse: Sarah.”
“What about Sarah?” Louise snapped, jumping off the helicopter and stepping into the middle of the boys. “We’re not leaving her!”
Alex placed his hands on her shoulders. “Sarah did what she did so we could get away. The Entity is just too strong now. We can’t risk letting Hack and May fall into its hands again. It’s what Sarah wanted. The professionals can take care of this now.”
“Leave the fight to the army?” she said incredulously. “You know they’re no match for the Entity. We’re the only ones who can stop it!” She looked around the others as if they just weren’t getting it. “Come on!”
Wei looked down at his feet. “Maybe they’ve got a point, Louise,” he said.
Her eyes flashed anger. “Fine. Run away. But I’m staying here. I’m not giving up on Sarah.”
Wei took a step towards her, but she turned away. At the helicopter, Hack helped May to her feet.
“What about you two?” Louise demanded.
“We’ve fought enough
for one day,” Hack said.
Louise’s head jerked round at him. “We came to save you. But I guess you’re free now you’ve got your collars off.”
Hack sighed. “Now that the Entity has bonded with Sarah, it doesn’t even need us to control the hypersphere any more. It’s over.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“I sensed it when I was linked to the hypersphere,” Hack explained. “With enough psychic energy it can become a portal. A link to the Entity’s home-world. Combined with Sarah’s power, the Entity can use it to bring a limitless number of machines through into this world. An infinite number of robot armies. And no one will be able to stop them. Not even you.” He looked around the yard. “I’m going to find somewhere for May to rest and try to find a way out of here.”
With that, he helped May walk in the direction of a mobile office. Wei hesitated a moment before following them. Alex moved closer to Louise and put his arm around her shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he said to her softly. “We won’t give up. There has to be some way to stop this.”
She nodded. But when she looked up at him there were tears in her eyes. “I’m not leaving Sarah,” she said resolutely.
The train is passing over a bridge. Sarah stands on the observation platform on the last carriage watching the rails receding into the distance. Grey painted girders fly past and she can see the odd flash of ocean beyond, but other than that, the landscape is expressionless. How long has she been standing there? She tries to remember...
Moving to the edge of the train, she cranes her head round the side. The old-fashioned wooden carriages stretch ahead, too many to count. There is no end to the bridge in sight. It seems to go on for ever.
“Nice day,” a voice says behind her. There’s something about the clipped accent that she recognizes. She looks round at the man leaning against the opposite rail. His face – short hair, firm jaw, determined eyes – is strangely familiar, but she just can’t place him…
“Do I know you?” she asks.
The man smiles. “We’ve met before. You don’t remember me?”