“This is one of the terminal points of the difference chimney,” said Geoca, “and just over there is our landing place.”
They set down on a wide ledge set into the wall. It had obviously seen much use over the ages, and the rock was worn smooth. The area was littered with artifacts and rubbish.
“But this doesn’t exactly get us back to the surface, does it,” said the Senator, who was becoming less and less keen on this underground stuff.
“Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” replied Geoca. “We’re underneath one of their cities. Believe me, this is the safest place for the ship at the moment. Once our mission here is done, you can take to the skies again.”
There was a stairwell leading away from the landing area. They climbed upwards, and after a few minutes came to a small, very ordinary looking door set into a brick wall. “We use this route frequently,” said Geoca, producing a key. “It’s perfectly safe.”
On the other side of the door, which Geoca carefully relocked after they had gone through, was a small room. It was empty, apart from another door, and lit by a small grate high in one wall. A barely adequate amount of sunlight filtered through the cobwebs that covered it. Geoca used another key to open the second door, and led them into a much larger room that looked as though it was a storehouse of some kind. It was lit by large, dust-encrusted arched windows. Crates and boxes were stacked in untidy piles everywhere. At the edges of the room, racks of clothes and other props covered in drop sheets hulked in the gloom like ghosts.
“Our dressing rooms,” said Geoca. “This is where we disguise ourselves for the surface world. Most of you are all right, of course. But you’ll understand if I take a moment to attend to my appearance. My little friends would not be as readily accepted up here as they would like.”
He went to a rack and chose a long overcoat and a hat. The coat covered Geoboy and Geogirl, but from the murmuring sounds that came from beneath it, they weren’t too happy about it. Looking at Geoca’s face, which settled quite comfortably under the hat’s wide brim, Sahrin realized that he was good looking, in a quiet sort of way. He had an air of competence about him.
“Pig,” Geoca said. “What are we going to do with you?”
“There’s no advantage in me coming along with you,” the boar replied. “I’d stand out like dog’s balls.”
“True enough. It would be better if you were to wait here. We’ll be as quick as we can.”
Shortly afterwards, they emerged from a door in the side of an old theater in the downtown part of New York.
* * *
Interlude
The UN observation base on the moon
LIEUTENANT SIDER was approaching two points of completion.
The first was the end of his shift, which would be welcome enough, and the second would occur in one Earth week, when his tour of duty would end.
He would be going back on the next shuttle, to blue skies, real warmth, and real air, not out of a bottle, and fresh food. Of course he knew that, as always, after a few weeks he would get impatient with the people down there, with their trivial preoccupations and their circuses, and that would be the beginning of his yearning for the stark, unambiguous beauty of the empty lunar landscape. And then he would apply to return to where he felt most comfortable, to his friends in this sealed microcosm on the moon. To the United Nations forward observation base.
The center of a network of satellites and unmanned observation posts, they were the Earth’s eyes. They kept watch, waiting and observing. They kept their superiors on Earth informed about what they saw, and kept the data feeds operating.
They had seen only fleeting glimpses on their banks of monitors and scanners, but it was enough to tell them that there was something going on. Whatever was coming from the new planet was somehow shifting through frequencies as they came out of space and headed towards the Earth.
Sider had tried to think it through, but lacking any hard facts, he had only come up with conjecture. That was all that anyone on the station had done. It had begun about a year ago, when one of them had seen it coming, heading inwards, past the orbit of Pluto and heading their way. It was too big to be a comet, or an asteroid.
They contacted Earth, and were asked whether it was a planet. It probably is a planet, they said, and you’ll find it’s coming to life, unless we’re very much mistaken. Keep a careful eye on it, Earth said.
Of course they were going to keep a careful eye on it.
The new planet was about the size of Earth, and it had an atmosphere that was heating up as it approached the sun. They started picking up EM waves and what seemed to be communications or broadcasts. They made recordings, and sent them down to Earth, and never heard anything, except when they were told to keep sending information.
It was going to pass close to Earth. The authorities told the population that it was a comet, and most people never heard any suggestion that it was anything else. Someone leaked something into the newsgroups, but that leak was quickly found and stopped, and Aussie Bloke disappeared so quickly that no one missed him.
But the crew on the station knew that it was no comet. As it came as close to Earth as it was going to get, the EM activity became more intense, and then during one rest period, as Sider slept, dreaming of the plains and mountains that surrounded the base, whoever was on duty at the screens hit the alarm. Bleary-eyed, Sider went down to the control center and joined the others who were gathering there.
A fleet of objects had left the planet and was heading for Earth. During the next twenty four hours they watched as the objects drew closer. There were hundreds of them, arranged in an armada. Like a swarm of locusts, someone described them in a dispatch to Earth.
The authorities on Earth wanted to know everything, and kept a channel permanently open, taking all the images and data the base could send. In return, they told the base nothing.
In no time at all the fleet was upon them, and they could see in their telescopes the light glinting on the flanks of ships. Some of them where as big as the largest UN aircraft carriers that patrolled the seas on Earth. Some of them were bigger.
They tried to communicate with the ships, but there was no reply, or if there was, they didn’t know how to receive it.
It was almost a beautiful sight.
Sider and a few of the others were standing in one of the viewing domes, a small transparent hemisphere joined to the rest of the complex by a narrow passageway. They were looking at the fleet, wondering, when they saw three pinpricks of light leave one of the ships.
It was soon obvious that they were heading their way, and they kept coming and coming, and one of the others said we’re going to get some visitors, we’re going to make contact, and Sider said maybe, but they’re not slowing down, and they’re getting pretty close.
They stood and watched, spellbound, as the three points of light traced achingly beautiful arcs down towards them, unerringly targeting the complex.
When the missiles hit, they destroyed most of the domes and underground structures instantly and the air exploded out of the others almost as quickly. The side of the hemisphere in which Lieutenant Sider was standing was ruptured by a piece of flying metal, and the last thing that he thought, as the blood boiled from his eyes and the cells in his body began exploding and freezing and he turned into something that was hard and dry and inside out, was that it was a pity that he hadn’t met the aliens.
* * *
PART 3
Deep shit
THE GENERAL HAD CHOSEN one of the tributaries off the main shaft, and was flying around in a maze of tunnels, looking for a way out.
Thead could tell that things weren’t going well for the General. The bitch Sahrin had wasted a helicopter, and with it a squad of his boys, and the pursuit of the freak ship had been a total disaster. Three more helicopters gone, and thirty men, minus the couple of live ones they’d pulled out of the vortex.
The General’s face was a ghostly white, and it wasn’t just from th
e reflected glare of the searchlights.
Thead had his own concerns. For a start, he’d realized in the shaft that, like the locals, he couldn’t see his old ship any more. And the feeling of being in two worlds at once, the familiar impression of being in a state of continual transference, was gone. He felt totally, undeniably physical. He’d undergone some sort of shift.
The General had turned the radio down, to get some respite from the torrent of abuse that was coming from the Gore twins. “What the fuck do you think you’re doin’ you little fuck I’m goin’ ram your head up your ass old man just you wait till the SG hears about this you are fucking history old man that’s what you are history and as for following those Nefilim freaks up here you have got no brains you piece of crap I’m gonna…”
“No one forced you to come with us, Vice-Secretary. You could have stayed on the island and finished your movie.” The General flipped the switch on the torrent of abuse, which had just intensified by another degree.
“Not the best time for everyone to get edgy, General,” said Thead. “We’re in trouble here.”
“Do you like the Gores, Thead?”
“That’s irrelevant, General. I’m a scientist. And a philosopher of course, dedicated to the truth.”
The General grunted. “Crap. You’re a nasty little piece of work who would probably be quite happy with those idiots over there.” He nodded towards the Gores’ helicopter.
“You don’t understand me, that’s all,” sniffed Thead. “Apart from which, no, I have no particular feelings for the Vice-Secretarial personalities, one way or the other.” But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that they are more likely to be of use to me than you are, General, he thought. The General had been under a dark enough cloud before they had set out on this ill-fated mission, and things would be worse, not better, after this.
They were flying above an underground river. The stink of sewage permeated everything, making them gag and stinging their eyes. Their searchlights fell on a wall of cascading water ahead of them. It was a waterfall, issuing from a great vent at least fifty feet wide, high up in a rock face.
“What is it?” asked Thead, immediately forgetting their recent animosity.
“It’s not natural. Judging by the smell, I’d say it’s a sewer outfall.”
They flew into the sewer’s mouth, the General not caring whether the Gores followed, but they did.
They soon regretted their decision. Their path narrowed and the roof became lower, until finally they were forced to set the helicopter down. When they climbed out, the General, Thead and six soldiers were standing knee-deep in raw sewage.
“Aw, shit,” said one of the soldiers, holding his hand over his mouth. No one laughed.
The Gore twins arrived. As they landed, the wind from their rotors sent a slurry of sewage flying, covering everyone.
“Gas masks,” the General ordered, but he was too late. They were all dripping slime.
The Gores emerged from their helicopter, fully outfitted with orgone breathers, waist-high waders, and portable halogen searchlights.
“A lovely evening for a stroll, Theo.”
“I think so, Alexis. Very fine. And such bouquet.” They were happy, relishing the General’s predicament. They shone their lights down the tunnel. It was long.
“Hmm.”
“Yes. Hmm. Shall we?”
They started walking, trudging through New York’s shit.
How fitting. His career, once bright and hopeful, had sunk to a new nadir. He’d lost men and helicopters. Two of the top Nefilim were dead and the strangers on the ship had escaped him again.
“Where are we?” asked a soldier.
“Shut up!” The Gore brother fired into the water and laughed as the soldier jumped.
“Jesus,” said the General, “don’t shoot at my boys, please, Vice-Secretary. We might need them.”
“Awfully sorry, General,” replied Alexis. “I’ll try to restrain my brother’s exuberance. But you must surely appreciate a certain… frustration…” Her icy blue eyes blinked behind her gas mask.
They walked for hours, entering passageways and making turns without having any idea where they were going. Finally, just when Thead was beginning to wonder if they would ever get out, a light came into view, beckoning to them from the distance. It was a welcome sight; even the Gores breathed sighs of relief behind their masks.
Shortly afterwards, they emerged from a stormwater drain into bright sunlight. They were standing in the bottom of a viaduct, surrounded by buildings. The water was cleaner here, a fact for which they were all supremely grateful as they washed themselves as well as they could.
The General tried his radio, but it had stopped working. With no choice, they started walking again, until they found a way up onto a street. They stopped at a pay phone. They would have to get someone to come and pick them up.
The skyline told them that they were in New York. Ironic, the General thought. There was a good chance that the SG would be in town. The perfect end to a perfect day. Pedestrians walking past held their noses and kept their distance.
He searched through his wet pockets for change for the phone and found none.
“Who’s got a quarter?”
One of the soldiers handed him a coin. The Gores sniggered. The General dialed.
Half an hour later, unmarked vehicles arrived and collected them.
* * *
New York
THE GROUP BLENDED INTO NEW YORK WELL. The streets were a sea of humanity in which there was no danger at all of them standing out. If anything, they were underdressed. The anonymity was reassuring.
Geoca knew the city well. He navigated their way through the streets and to a subway, where they descended into the maelstrom of the city’s subway rush hour. They couldn’t move in the crowded carriage. It was hot and claustrophobic, and the air was hardly breathable.
Finally, after what seemed like several hours but which was actually only one, they were walking through one of the poorer neighborhoods. It felt like a different city, with its narrow untidy streets and dilapidated buildings. Most of the shop windows were covered with metal grills, and the streets were watched over by surveillance cameras.
Reina had always supposed that of all cities, New York was the one to visit, and despite their mission, she was feeling like a tourist. For Bark, Sahrin and the Senator, it was just another large city, with the same frantic energy found in large cities in any place or any time.
It was raining, a gray drizzle that had been going on long enough to fill the gutters, causing the blocked drains to overflow, and turning the newspaper hoardings into an untidy pantheon of soggy, disintegrating newsprint.
“COMET APPROACHES NEAREST POINT,” said one. “H-19 BEST SEEN TONIGHT,” another proclaimed above a grainy blown-up picture of a hazy white object set in a field of black.
“What’s going on? What comet?” asked Reina. They had turned down a side street, and were walking along a row of small shops that sheltered precariously beneath a freeway.
“There is no comet,” replied Geoca. “It’s a lie. It’s Marduk, the Nefilim home planet. Which means that the photon belt is near.”
They came to an antique shop. Geoca pushed the door open and went in. He waited until the others had followed, then locked the door behind them. It was a typical musty and overcrowded junk shop; shelves and displays were piled high with old ceramics, metalware and things made of old wood.
Behind the counter, which was as crowded as any other part of the shop, sat the proprietor, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper. “COMET FEVER GRIPS CITY,” the headline read. He looked up and smiled as he recognized Geoca.
“Well, well. I’ve been expecting a visitor, but little did I expect that it would be you! How are you?”
“Tired, but well enough, old man. And you? How is life here on the surface?”
“I can’t complain. Well, I could, but who would listen?” The shopkeeper came out from behind the co
unter and embraced Geoca. “It’s good to see you. As for life here, I’ve grown used to it. It has qualities about it that grow on one. But I still miss the underworld.” He surveyed the group over the top of his glasses and seemed satisfied with what he saw. “Of course, I never lose sight of my real purpose here. You have the crystal?”
“Of course,” Geoca nodded. “It’s taken some effort and a few lives to get it here.”
“I see. Well, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But we should proceed. There isn’t much time.”
“Are we close, then?”
“Yes. Very close.” He led them through a narrow door out to the back of the shop, into a small and surprisingly neat living room, furnished with as tasteful a selection of items as the shop’s stock could provide. From there they passed through another door, and down a flight of stairs to an alley behind the shops.
The place was shared by rubbish and rats that scurried away into the corners, and someone’s makeshift bed; an old mattress in a lean-to of cardboard boxes at the end of the lane.
The old man knelt down beside an iron grating set into the wall. “Here it is.”
“Here’s what?” asked Bark and Reina together.
“The node,” replied Geoca.
“This space here,” said the shopkeeper, moving the grating aside. “It’s been watched over for many years. And this is the moment I’ve been waiting for, all that time. Now, if I can have the crystal…”
Sahrin reached into her coat, searched among the grenades she still had there, and produced the crystal. With a sense of relief, she handed it over.
“My, but it’s beautiful.” The shopkeeper admired it for a moment, allowing the antique dealer in him a few seconds of indulgence. His fingers traced its finely cut surfaces.
The Day of the Nefilim Page 14