by C. G. Hatton
“Shit happens,” NG said, leaning in and dabbling with something inside the casing he had in front of him. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
LC walked forward.
The hammering and banging behind him was getting louder.
NG raised his eyes. “Has it really been six months?”
He nodded.
“Do I want to ask how it’s going?”
“No.” He reached the table and picked up something that looked horribly like a detonator. “NG, what are you doing?”
NG gave him a small, wry smile, reached for something on the far end of the table and carried on messing about with whatever it was.
“NG?” he tried again. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”
The voice that replied came from the shadows. “Good luck with that.”
LC backed away. It was NG’s voice but it wasn’t NG that walked forward out of the darkness. It could have been, it was his exact double, except for the piercing blue eyes.
Sebastian.
“I might have guessed,” the bastard said, derisive, “of all the creatures Nikolai held in such regard, you would be the one to find him.”
LC could feel the animosity, no, worse than that, loathing, emanating from this figure who was NG but not. He looked back at NG who was still working away, ignoring them.
Sebastian walked up and leaned on the table. He reached into the case and pulled out a handful of wires, scattering them on the tabletop.
NG didn’t react. He put down the screwdriver and picked up a gizmo that he connected up and placed inside the box, leaning closer to fidget on with something in there.
It was unnerving.
“Don’t worry,” Sebastian said, “he thinks we’re not real.”
LC walked forward, wary. The first time he’d ever encountered Sebastian direct, the bastard had tried to kill him. The last time hadn’t been much fun either.
The hammering and banging behind him was getting louder.
He glanced sideways. He didn’t want to talk to Sebastian, he wanted to talk to NG, dammit, but he couldn’t help saying, quietly as if he was in danger of disturbing some delicate process, “What’s he doing?”
Sebastian took the screwdriver and moved it to the far side of the table. “What does it look like he’s doing? He’s building a bomb.”
“But this isn’t real.”
NG didn’t look up but he said quite clearly, “It’s as real as I want to make it.”
Self destruct.
Shit.
“Why?”
Sebastian was reaching under NG’s outstretched arm for a knife that was lying there, trying to get it without touching him. He paused, mid-action. “Because they’re trying to figure out how he does what he does. And recreate it.” He retrieved the knife in a slick, delicate motion, and looked up, eyes bright blue in the candlelight. “And in his own inimicable style, our dearest Nikolai has decided he can’t let them do that. So…”
Chapter 36
Sebastian looked over the rifle into the eyes of the alien facing him. There had been no reaction in hearing that Nikolai was alive, captive, in such dire trouble.
“Nothing can beat the Bhenykhn but the Bhenykhn,” he said, realising it, realising he’d been played. The Man didn’t want information, didn’t care for Nikolai or the remnants of their precious guild. The Man wanted him.
“Well done.” The Man’s voice was a low rumble. “But don’t think I do not care for Nikolai. Of course I care. He got you this far, Sebastian. You are well within your rights to consider him your jailor, to hate him, but understand that Nikolai did far more for you than keep you imprisoned. He kept you alive.”
•
Sebastian mouthed the word, “Boom,” and made a gesture with his hands, imitating a bomb exploding.
Holy shit. “NG, no. You don’t need to do this. We’re right here. We’re getting you out.”
He wasn’t listening.
LC turned to Sebastian. “Stop him.”
“Why? He’s enjoying himself.” Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think I would if I could?” His voice might have sounded like NG but NG never used that tone, that condescending, arrogant, scathing way of speaking.
NG regarded them both, a curious look on his face as if he was making a decision. He wandered to the end of the table where a bottle and glasses appeared. He poured three generous measures and offered one to Sebastian, one to LC.
He took it, heart sinking.
NG picked his up and held it out for a clink, that wry smile on his face, as he asked, “How’s Evelyn?”
This was too weird.
“She’s good.” What the hell else could he say?
“How are you?”
LC laughed as he took a sip then downed half of it in one. “Honestly?” He didn’t know where to start. And it all felt irrelevant. “We’re right here,” he said instead. “I can use the shaman staffs now. We’re going to get you out.”
NG broke into a grin, raising his glass. “I’ll drink to that.” He drained it, set it down and turned back to the bomb, searching around to pick up the knife and getting back to work.
The banging at the door was getting louder. LC glanced over his shoulder. He felt cold. “What is that?”
“Your friends,” Sebastian said. “What you curiously call the shamans. You want to know what the Bhenykhn call them?”
He didn’t.
He looked back at the bomb. “Sebastian, don’t let him do this.”
He watched as NG set a detonator in place and secured a wire.
Sebastian moved the screwdriver further out of reach. “At some level, he knows how messed up he is. Trust me, he’s had a long time to think about this. He can’t escape from that delightful organism they’re using to contain him without them screwing him over even more each time. I must say, he has tried. I have to give him that. Stubborn bastard that he is, he has been trying. This is his latest plan. And no, I can’t stop him.”
“Don’t you die if he dies?”
Sebastian gave him a look he couldn’t fathom, waiting until NG turned aside then pulling the wire from the detonator with a deft tug and tossing it across the room.
LC angled round, trying to get NG’s attention but NG was looking away, almost wistful, smiling at something or someone LC couldn’t see, and saying quietly, “No, you know me better than that.”
“NG?”
“You know,” Sebastian said, lazily, calculating what the effect of what he was about to say would be, “I told Nikolai a long time ago that you could be more powerful than him.”
LC narrowed his eyes. He didn’t want to have to fight Sebastian.
That got a sly shake of the head. “Believe it or not, Anderton, we are on the same side. I’m not going to fight you. That is so far beneath me, it’s laughable. How did you get in here?”
He had to force his breathing to settle, stomach twisting. He didn’t want this. He wanted to talk to NG.
“I’m guessing you came in as a prisoner. I can’t imagine you would have found a way to compromise the Bhenykhn’s most secure stronghold otherwise.” Sebastian turned his back on NG and leaned back against the table, arms folded. “Let me tell you a little secret – it wasn’t your fault Nikolai got caught. The Man sent you out to Earth six months ago. And he knew exactly what he was sending you in to. What he was sending Nikolai in to. He took a calculated risk and it backfired.”
He looked so much like NG, it was hard to remember this wasn’t him. Not by a long way.
Sebastian’s expression hardened and he said, “How the hell did you manage to get in here?”
LC started to shake his head. It was NG he wanted to talk to. He wasn’t about to spill everything to Sebastian of all people.
But NG turned around, looked right at him, frowning, and said, “How did you get in here?”
LC took another sip of the whisky that wasn’t real. He’d shared intel with NG before, flash briefings, mind to mind, infor
mation overload. Full sensory detail, pain and all. He hesitated to hit him with it.
NG rubbed his eyes. “LC, I’m fine.” He didn’t sound it. “In here, I’m fine. C’mon, humour me. Tell me how you got in here.”
He wasn’t going to argue, and threw it all across, no filtering, everything that had happened since that day on Earth onwards.
“Elliott brought you here?” NG said. There was something dreadful in the way he asked it.
LC nodded. “Did you know about Spearhead?”
NG squinted at him as if he was confused, as if he was figuring out what to say.
He shouldn’t have asked. He bit his lip. “Anya’s here.”
“I know.”
“She’s controlling the Bhenykhn.”
Sebastian broke in. “We know.” His blue eyes were piercing. “Time to get back to reality, Anderton. You have three squads of Bhenykhn and a unit of UM’s finest closing in on you. Get out of here. Get Hilyer out of here. You don’t all have to die.” He sounded bored. “Go. Get the hell out.”
“Not without NG.”
“Just go,” Sebastian said, not giving NG a chance to speak. “And listen to me when I say, don’t trust Elliott. Ask Hilyer why the hell that son of a bitch was so keen for you to come to Earth. I can guarantee you it wasn’t to find NG. Now go.”
LC crashed back to real time and into the middle of a fire fight. Hilyer had hold of his shirt and was dragging him backwards. Shots were pinging off the walkway at their feet, fizzling over their heads. He slipped, rolled, turned and blasted the eight Bhenykhn he could sense closest. It felt like his own brain imploded with the feedback, the blast of dark void and the pressure of the hive hitting hard as it spun and focused its attention onto him.
He fell back, pulling in energy from anywhere and throwing up barrier after barrier as they burst through his defences, chasing him into the depths of his mind. He managed to slam a barrier in place that held and struggled to his knees.
Other squads were moving in.
A shaman appeared at the opposite end of the walkway.
They were cut off. Nowhere to go.
Hil had his gun up, firing at it, every shot bouncing off an energy shield. LC dragged in just enough power from somewhere and blasted its shield pod as it slammed its staff into the mesh walkway. It howled, drove its staff down again and sent a bolt of bright lightning flashing towards them as Hil shot it in the head.
It fell.
The lightning flared, forking right at them. LC flinched, bundled into Hilyer and sent them both tumbling over the edge of the handrail.
He tried to control his fall, screwed it up and slammed hard into the metal surface. He rolled backwards, and came up to see Hilyer already standing, the five shamans turning their heads to stare at them, smirking, as if they’d just fallen right into their trap.
LC reacted without thinking and pulled in energy fast, targeting a staff and wanting it so badly it was wrenched from the clutches of the alien and flew across the chamber. It was in his hand before he could blink, before the alien shamans could blink.
He closed his eyes, felt the staff resonate, and blasted them. He didn’t wait to hear them fall. He connected with every damn Bhenykhn in there, trashing his way through level after level and forcing his way to the overlord.
It was waiting for him.
‘Why…?’ it murmured into his mind, ‘feckless little creature, would we ever make it this easy?’
It took hold of him and he let it, nothing he could do as it drew him further in.
It spun him in a circle, squeezing his mind, his heart, holding him and opening up the entire galaxy before them. Star systems encircled them, the might of the Bhenykhn invasion forces everywhere, the fleet growing by the second as warships were built, breeder units creating millions and millions of troop carriers all crammed full of embryonic Bhenykhn warriors that grew to full strength as he was pinned there, forced to watch, ancestral memories inbuilt complete with fighting skills, knowledge, combat reflexes all pre-determined and conditioned.
‘You dare defy us?’
It forced him to turn as the galaxy spun faster, opening up so that other galaxies were spread there before them, each one conquered, the Bhenykhn forces rife in every single star system, growing, evolving, consuming, assimilating technology and devouring whole races. It was like a flood, a tsunami, never-ending, relentless, nothing standing in its way.
If he took out every Bhenykhn on Earth, in the whole solar system, in this entire galaxy, there would be more to take their place. And more incoming after that. Cold despair ate into his soul like a corrosive fluid.
They were everywhere.
Except Kheris.
‘Serve us,’ it warned, guttural and menacing, ‘or die.’
He could feel every shaman in the facility moving in to contain him, every Bhenykhn warrior raising weapons up on the walkway.
He could see the energy around him, reached for it and simply sent, ‘No,’ taking a strand of energy and turning it, spinning it, feeling the power build.
As the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck. A human finger on the trigger.
It wasn’t the first time he’d faced the end of the line.
And he’d be damned if it was going to be the last.
The human son of a bitch behind him hissed into his ear, “Drop the fucking staff.”
He let it drop from numb fingers to clatter on the ground at his feet, and opened his eyes. Anya was in there, standing by NG’s head, possessive, caressing her hand across his chin, holding a combat knife to his throat. Hilyer was on his knees, blood pouring down his face, hands up, a mercenary behind him with a gun to the back of his head.
Hil caught his eye, mouthed silently, “Three, two…”
LC braced himself, no idea what for, and flinched as a barrage of Hailstones shot vertically down around them.
The mercenary behind him died instantly, one of Hil’s tiny spheres driving straight down into the bastard’s brain, the guy’s finger twitching involuntarily and pulling the trigger. LC threw up a barrier, the massive force it took to stop the bullet hitting him almost as hard as the bullet would have done, rattling his senses to hell, knocking him forward onto his knees.
Bodies were hitting the floor all around him. More Bhenykhn were moving in. More mercenaries flooding out onto the walkway above.
His head was spinning.
He raised his eyes to see Hil twisting free as the merc behind him dropped, catching the gun as the bastard dropped it, staggering to his feet and yelling at Anya to stop, shooting at her, every bullet disintegrating against an energy shield between them and NG.
Anya looked up.
Smiled.
And sliced the knife in a jagged slash across NG’s throat.
Chapter 37
Sebastian stretched out his shoulders, feeling the power ripple through the muscles of his arms, his back.
“You wanted to know how I shapeshift?” the Man said. “You don’t need to. What you have done is magnificent. What you are is perfect. You have everything you need and everything is in place. Every sacrifice, every hurt, every convoluted twist in the road that has brought us all to this point… all enacted to perfection. It is time.” He stood. “And no, I do not need to know who has been betraying the guild. I know exactly what has been going on and what I have allowed to be. We now move forward. This war is poised exactly where I want it to be. And you, Sebastian, are exactly what I need you to be.”
•
LC grabbed the staff, pushed to his feet, and ran forward, shouting. The Hailstones were pounding the energy shield, Hil firing two guns into it.
The shockwave from the explosion that detonated behind them hit them, debris billowing, knocking them all down. The Hailstones hit the floor with a clatter. LC sprawled, blinded from the flare, deafened by the pressure, nerves on fire. He managed to lift his head and squinted through the pain.
Whatever was going on behind them, h
e could see a huge, hulking figure coming in from the opposite direction, the other side of NG, going straight for the pod structure.
Anya was on the ground, out cold.
More explosions hit, one after the other, reverberating throughout the whole structure. Thunderclouds. He’d been in the middle of one of their barrages before. He covered his head as impact after impact caused more debris to fall, blinking dust, shrugging off rubble and scraping away alien ooze to push to his feet.
The Bhenykhn warrior didn’t flinch, protected by the energy shield. It touched the pulsing alien mass of the pod, talons digging deep, and ripped away the thick knotted strands as they withered and died. NG didn’t move, non-responsive, oblivious to it all, as it dragged him free and hefted him over its shoulder, blood dripping.
LC shouted, scrambling for the staff. He ran forward, and ran headlong into the energy shield, pounding on it, and screaming at the Bhenykhn warrior.
The roar of engines descending turned into a crescendo behind him, metal beams screaming and breaking, walkways collapsing and bulkheads crumpling.
Someone was shouting.
He was vaguely aware of a hand on his arm, the Hailstones rising and encircling them, deflecting gunfire.
The huge Bhenykhn glanced back at them, smirked and walked away, stopping to stoop and grab Anya off the floor, and dragging her out with it.
LC took a step back, chest heaving, turning and flinching as a piece of wall crashed to the floor.
He was done. Totally and utterly done.
An explosion behind them brought down a whole section of the roof and walls, a ship descending into the breach, the heat and downdraft of its engines becoming unbearable.
Hilyer yelled, “We have to go,” pulling at his arm.
“We can’t leave him.”
“We can’t get to him. He’s still alive. We’ll find him. But LC, we have to go. Now.”
He turned back to look at the chamber, beyond it, as walls crashed down and buried it, the energy shield gone, the Bhenykhn warrior gone. NG gone.