MONOLITH

by Shaun Hutson

  Hadley fumbled in his pocket as he walked, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, drawing heavily on it before offering the packet to Jess who shook her head.

  Why not have one? The condemned were always offered a final cigarette weren’t they?

  She pulled up the collar of her jacket and walked on, glancing at the windows in the tower that were lit. Most were on the lower floors and she could only assume that there was still work going on there. Construction was ongoing and probably would be right up until the inaugural opening of the building. Her eyes moved higher, towards the floors of the building that would house residents and then beyond to where the penthouse apartment was. Where Vornonv was. Where the Golem was.

  There was a large open space in front of the building, the road curving around before the main entrances in a gentle arc. The open space had benches and several sculptures on it and was presumably meant to be an area where people could sit outside in good weather and gaze up at the imposing edifice of the Crystal Tower as they took a break from their work inside. But all that would be in the future. For now Jess could think only of this moment and if she was honest, she didn’t dare think about anything beyond this night. For all she knew there might not be anything beyond it for her.

  Again she drove that thought to the back of her mind and walked on, slowing her pace slightly as Hadley did. He glanced up again at the tower then looked at Jess, his face pale. She wondered if it was just the chill in the air and the cold white light given off by the street lamps that was making his skin seem so pallid. Perhaps he was as scared as her, she told herself.

  Hadley was about to say something when the sound of a siren lanced through the air.

  They both turned to see an ambulance speed past, blue lights spinning. They watched as it wove in and out of the traffic on the road around it, disappearing around a corner.

  An omen?

  Jess swallowed hard, shaking the fanciful thought from her mind.

  ‘You ok?’ Hadley asked.

  ‘I’ve been better,’ she told him, trying to smile but not quite managing it.

  ‘There’s still time to back out,’ he reminded her.

  Jess shook her head.

  ‘No there isn’t, Alex,’ she told him. ‘Not any more.’

  Hadley held her gaze then looked up one final time at the Crystal Tower and the gathering clouds that seemed to be forming around its pinnacle like smoke around a burning match head.

  He reached out and squeezed Jess’s arm.

  They walked on.

  RE-ANIMATION

  It moved slowly, almost ponderously. As if each step was not just an effort but taken with care in case any damage should occur if it brought its large feet down too hard.

  It had no conception of weight. It had no conception of anything because it couldn’t think. It was like a child, instructed to do something but not sure of what the task it had been told to complete actually entailed. No grasp of consequences and no understanding of circumstance. It was the embodiment of obedience in many ways. Brought to life purely to perform the tasks assigned to it by others and it carried out those tasks without question and without hesitation.

  And without conscience, remorse or delusions of morality. For it understood nothing of these concepts or any others that man functioned by. It had no conscience because it could not reason. It felt no remorse because it had no emotions. It did not trouble itself with morality because it functioned purely on something approaching instinct although scholars would have argued that it could not possess instinct either due to its form.

  In all aspects it was lifeless. A dead thing. No blood flowed through its veins. No heart beat in its chest and no brain caused it to move.

  Fashioned from clay it was as cold and lifeless as the building it now moved through, as unfeeling as the walls that supported the structure around it. It had no eyes and yet it moved with assurance, never bumping into anything and able to push doors with sufficient restraint so as not to damage them for there was such incredible power within it that anything it was told to destroy it did so with ease.

  Had it been able to comprehend the passing of time and the passage of the years then it might have marvelled at its own longevity but then clay and stone did not age like flesh and bone did.

  If it had passed a mirror and seen its reflection it would not have wondered what was staring back at it because it would not have connected the dark, blank, expressionless features it saw with its own being.

  It had no understanding. No grasp of anything other than to obey the one who gave it life. It knew no names. It had no idea who the men had been over the years who had brought it to life and commanded it. It had merely done what it was created for and then ceased to be active again. To say it had slept would be wrong because that which does not live does not need rest or sustenance.

  It was a machine with no moving parts.

  There was a perfection about it that many would have envied. And all feared.

  As the night grew darker, it walked slowly through the corridors of the Crystal Tower, moving as inexorably and unstoppably as lava pouring from an erupting volcano.

  And it would do so until instructed to do otherwise.

  Unstoppable. Unimaginable. Lethal.

  EIGHTY-EIGHT

  ‘Where the hell is all the security?’

  Jess peered into the well-lit foyer of the Crystal Tower and thought how empty it looked.

  ‘Maybe the Security men are doing rounds of the building,’ Hadley offered.

  Jess nodded without taking her eyes from the foyer.

  ‘We get a sample of clay from the Golem then we get out, right?’ Jess said. ‘When we’ve got it we call Johnson and let him take over.’

  ‘Come on then,’ Hadley said. ‘Let’s do it.’ The two of them hurried towards the main doors of the building. Triggered by the electronic sensors above and beside them the doors swung open immediately and the couple moved inside once again glancing around for what they expected to be the inevitable approach of Voronov’s men. When no one appeared they moved towards the bank of lifts but Jess shook her head, pointing instead to an emergency exit away to their left.

  Hadley followed her towards the doors and they found themselves in a stairwell that stretched upwards towards all the floors of the building. But there was another flight of stone steps that led downwards and it was towards these that Jess headed, Hadley glancing up to see if there were any closed-circuit cameras in the stairwell that might be tracking their movements. He was relieved to see that there weren’t. There were bare wires in two corners, hanging like plastic encased entrails from the stonework and indicating to him that cameras would indeed be mounted in both positions very soon but for now there was nothing and for that he was grateful.

  Jess made her way down the steps, shivering a little as she did. She knew that the lower levels of the building were still under construction and obviously, from the chill in the air, the heating certainly hadn’t been installed down here yet. There was more evidence of the work necessary in the lower levels as they reached the first floor of the underground car park. There were holes in the ceiling where strip lights were to be inserted and these also had cables and wires dangling from them. Parking bays had yet to be marked and painted and the walls were still bare concrete in most places.

  There was machinery standing around too. A generator. A forklift truck. What looked like a miniature tractor complete with tracks instead of wheels and a small digger as well as tools that had been left at various places around the lower levels as if discarded hurriedly by their users.

  ‘The last worker killed died down here,’ Jess said, lowering her voice which still seemed to echo in the confines of the darkened car park.

  ‘The last of many,’ Hadley said, quietly.

  Jess nodded.

  Away to the right there was movement. Jess spun round, her heart thudding harder against her ribs. Hadley was also looking in that direction now, trying to control his breat
hing.

  They stood motionless for a moment longer then the sound came again.

  Jess narrowed her eyes and looked in the direction of the sound, her eyes finally spotting what might have caused it. A length of wire dangling from the ceiling was waving lazily in the air as a breeze caressed it. Jess let out a breath, feeling her heart slow a little.

  ‘What the hell are we looking for down here?’ Hadley wanted to know. He glanced around him anxiously.

  ‘I’m not completely sure myself,’ Jess said, almost stumbling over a chisel that was lying in her path. She ducked down and picked the tool up, turning it over in her hand, looking at the sharp end for a moment. Then, as Hadley watched, she pressed the end of the chisel against the nearest wall until it scratched the concrete.

  Something moved behind them.

  There was a low hissing sound that reminded Hadley of water dropping on a hot surface. He squinted in the gloom, his attention caught by the nearest light fitting. The wires that had been dangling from it were moving slightly as if disturbed by a breeze and yet there was no breeze.

  ‘Do that again,’ Hadley said, motioning to Jess but keeping his eyes fixed on the wires.

  She scraped the wall with the chisel.

  The wires moved again, waving limply for a second.

  As Hadley watched, they seemed to slide further from the housing, lengthening and stretching like the tentacles of an octopus.

  Jess saw them too.

  Where there had been six inches of wire dangling from the ceiling before there was now at least two feet.

  ‘Alex.’

  Hadley turned to see where Jess was pointing at the wall. The concrete that she had gouged from the wall was now dripping with a dark liquid, the fluid welling up in the marks and then trickling down the wall.

  ‘What did you say about the entire building being a living entity and not just the Golem?’ Hadley murmured, softly.

  ‘The building was made from the same materials as the Golem itself,’ she said, quietly. ‘It has a consciousness, a spark of life the same as the Golem.’

  Hadley looked at her evenly but she could still see the disbelief in his eyes.

  Jess scraped the chisel across the wall once more and this time more of the dark fluid coursed out from the deep scratch.

  The wires descended another foot or so from their housing nearby and Hadley grabbed Jess by the arm, urging her away from the scene. He could smell something in the air and he thought it might be useful. Jess now sniffed the air and detected the odour too.

  ‘Petrol,’ she said, following Hadley’s pointing finger.

  There were a dozen large cans of the fuel piled against another wall.

  There were more tools lying around too and Hadley picked up a screwdriver, pushing it into the side of one of the petrol cans. The liquid inside immediately began to pour out and he walked backwards spreading the pungent liquid over the floor of the underground car park, the fumes making him light-headed. When the trail was twenty or thirty feet long he hurried back to where Jess waited and emptied the rest of the petrol over the stack of other cans then he tossed the empty one aside, wincing when it landed with a loud clang in the gloom.

  ‘Give me your lighter,’ he said and after a moment of hesitation, Jess handed him what he sought. ‘We’re about to ignite petrol in a confined space,’ Hadley reminded her. ‘Inside a building that you think has some kind of consciousness, that could attack us.’ He paused. ‘Do you still want to put your theory to the test?’

  Jess nodded.

  They locked stares for a second then Hadley bent and held the lighter flame to the stream of petrol. It went up immediately.

  There was a low whoosh as the fuel ignited, the blue and yellow flame speeding along the trail towards pile of other petrol cans.

  ‘Come on,’ Hadley snapped and they ran for the ramp that led up to the next level.

  They barely made it.

  EIGHTY-NINE

  The blast as the petrol exploded sounded like a muffled roar higher up inside the Crystal Tower.

  Deep within the subterranean car park the sound was like a high pitched shriek as the petrol ignited but the higher up the building the sound became more subdued.

  Such was the power of the explosion it still caused a slight shudder to run through the building as high as the fifteenth floor. Windows rattled in their frames and several on the lower floors cracked but didn’t break.

  High up in the Penthouse apartment Andrei Voronov did not hear the blast but he was alerted to it only moments after it happened.

  Two dark-suited security men hurried into the apartment, causing Voronov to look up irritably from the large wooden writing desk where he sat gazing at some papers and a laptop.

  ‘What is it?’ he snapped.

  ‘Someone is in the building,’ the first security man said. ‘There is a fire in the underground car park. It looks as if it was set deliberately.’

  ‘Is it contained?’ Voronov wanted to know.

  The first man nodded.

  ‘Find whoever set it,’ Voronov said, flatly.

  The two men hesitated.

  ‘And when we do?’ the second asked.

  ‘Deal with the problem,’ Voronov said, returning his attention to his laptop. ‘Do you understand me?’

  They both turned and left, passing the man with the goatee beard who was on his way into Voronov’s room.

  ‘We have visitors,’ Voronov said. ‘Someone has started a fire in the underground car park.’

  ‘We should call the police,’ the man said.

  ‘We don’t need the police,’ Voronov told him. ‘Besides, are you going to explain to them what is happening?’

  ‘What if those who started the fire have already escaped?’

  ‘Then we will find them but I don’t think they have left the building. I don’t think they want to. Not yet.’

  He looked evenly at the other man then hit one of the keys on his laptop. The screen was immediately filled with images, streamed from the dozens of security cameras on each floor. The floor Voronov had selected was the second floor and clearly visible in one panel were two figures. A man and a woman. Voronov hit another key and the image grew larger. The man with the goatee moved nearer, squinting at the pictures.

  ‘The journalists,’ he said, quietly.

  ‘In search of their story,’ Voronov said. ‘I knew they would come. Well, if it is an ending to their story they want they will find it is not a happy one. Not for them anyway.’ He glanced at the other man who nodded. ‘Tell security to isolate the second, third and fourth floor and then keep clear. For their own safety tell them to keep clear.’

  The man with the goatee understood and nodded.

  ‘I want the building shut down,’ Voronov went on. ‘Close and lock every exit door, shut down the lifts too. No one comes in and no one gets out. No one. And turn off all the security cameras on every floor. It will save destroying the discs later in case anything is caught on film. These journalists will be dealt with tonight, once and for all.’

  Again the man with the goatee nodded.

  Voronov turned his attention back to the image on the laptop, a slight smile on his lips.

  NINETY

  Jess ducked involuntarily when she heard the blast, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the stairwell from which they’d both just emerged.

  She and Hadley found themselves in a long corridor that stretched away from them and then turned at a ninety degree angle about fifty yards further on.

  It was from around this corner that the first of the security guards appeared.

  Jess spun around, dragging Hadley with her and headed back into the stairwell, all too aware of footsteps pounding after them. She sprinted for the stairs and hurried up them, almost stumbling on more than one occasion but pulled upright by Hadley who jabbed a finger at another emergency door as they reached the next floor up. Jess shot a quick glance behind her and realised that the security men hadn
’t reached the stairs yet. Then, like Hadley, she crashed through the doors to her right and onwards into another seemingly endless corridor.

  ‘In here,’ Hadley said, breathlessly, grabbing at the handle of the nearest door and tumbling into what seemed to be an office. Or would be one day. There was very little furniture inside it other than a couple of desks, some piles of boxes and some filing cabinets. Nowhere to hide, Jess thought, her heart thudding against her ribs.

  Hadley obviously had the same thought because he glanced frantically around the room then looked despairingly at Jess and pointed at a pile of boxes stacked high against one of the far walls. They both moved towards it, ducked down behind the inadequate rampart and waited in silence.

  Long moments passed then Jess took a couple of steps forward.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Hadley hissed, keeping his voice low.

  Jess waved a hand before her then moved slowly towards the office door. She paused for a second then opened it a crack and peered out into the corridor beyond.

  The corridor was empty.

  Jess ducked back into the room and scuttled across to Hadley who was still crouched down behind the boxes.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ Jess whispered. ‘They were right behind us but there’s no sign of them now.’

  ‘Unless they know we’re in here and they’re just waiting for us to come out,’ Hadley offered. ‘Was this part of the plan?’

  ‘We never had a plan did we?’ Jess asked, raising her eyebrows.

  ‘Well, to get out of this without getting killed might be a good place to start,’ Hadley said, joining her as she moved back towards the office door.

  He moved in front of her also easing the door open wide enough to see out into the corridor beyond.

  It was still deserted.

  He moved his head a little way out, glancing both ways, his attention caught by a security camera that was mounted at one end of the corridor. Hadley was about to duck back into the room when he noticed that the red light which had been blinking on the camera was now off. He stepped out into the corridor and still the light did not come on, neither did the camera move and track him as it would normally have done. He frowned then motioned for Jess to join him which she did.