by Kim Curran
I approached the checkpoint at the north side of the bridge. Three armed soldiers raised their guns at my approach.
“Report!”
I slowed my pace, holding my hands out from my side to let them know I wasn’t a risk. I turned away from the spotlight they were pointing in my direction. “Commandant Tyler. SSS.”
They lowered their guns but kept the light on me. “S3, hey?” one of them said. He had a broad forehead and a thick Yorkshire accent. “We’ve heard about you lot.”
“I need to get through.” I didn’t have time for this. Slate was expecting me.
“No can do, sir.” The sir was delivered with an ironic sneer. “We’ve had our orders. No one gets in or out.”
“I appreciate that, Lance Corporal,” I said, letting my eyes linger over the single stripe on his arm before returning to stare at him. I outranked him. “But I have official business on the other side of this bridge.”
“Of course, you could always magic the barrier away. That’s what you lot do, ain’t it?” He shared a wink with his colleagues.
I took a step forward, getting out of the full glare of the spotlight. “I’m going to say this one last time. I need to get through.”
“Is he gonna get his wand out?” one of the other soldiers said, with a giggle.
“Go on,” the lance corporal said. “Show us what makes the S3 so bloody special.”
Four minutes left. Three of them. One of me. It was hardly a fair fight.
I took the private who’d made the joke about the wand down with a jab to the throat with my right hand, at the same time kicking out with my left foot, causing the other private to double over in pain. In a blur of movement, both of their weapons clattered to the floor. That left the lance corporal. He fumbled with his rifle, trying to bring it up to point at me. I grabbed hold of it and broke his nose with the butt before looping the strap around his neck and pulling him to the ground.
The three men were on the floor, groaning and disarmed. And I hadn’t even needed to Shift.
I crouched down over the lance corporal, who was nursing his bleeding nose. “How’s that for a little demonstration?” I hissed, spittle covering his face.
He mumbled something. “What’s that?” I said, grabbing hold of his shirt and pulling him closer to me. “Did you have something more to say?” He shook his head vigorously. “Good.”
I let go, taking a small pleasure in the sound his head made as it hit the concrete, stepped over him and walked through the barrier.
Maybe that would teach them to show the S3 a little more respect.
A sheet of plywood blocked the doorway into the arch. I could see from the cracks and loose nails that someone had been here before me. I pulled the board aside and squeezed myself through the gap. The dark was all-consuming. I could hear the gentle drip drip of water overhead and the rustle of rubbish under my feet. I knew I wasn’t alone.
Flick flack. A light flared in the darkness. I should have known.
“Ladoux,” I said.
The head of the Red Hand smiled at me, her face warped in the glow of a flame.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
She brought her lighter towards a lantern, transferring the flame. It gave out a weak blue light by which I could see the space we were in. Curved ceilings of black-painted brick were slick with damp. On three of the walls were large paintings of abstract figures that danced in the wavering light.
Ladoux lit a second lantern, then flicked the lighter closed with a snap that echoed around the arches. “I wasn’t sure you would come. I thought you might have changed your mind after the lab. Lost the faith.”
I’d believed Ladoux was a loyal member of my squad. I was right. But I was wrong about who she was loyal to.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I stepped further into the room.
Once, the trains coming and going from London Bridge’s fifteen platforms would have shaken these walls every few minutes. Now there was nothing but the steady drip of water and the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.
“You are.” Ladoux turned her back to me and looked up at the largest painting on the wall, a painting of a man’s head surround by swirls of red and blue. “And are the rest of the squad going to be bursting in through the doors? Or am I still right to believe?” She turned to face me. I don’t know if the fire in her eyes was a reflection from the lantern or something burning from within. Her chin was held high, as if daring me to take her.
“It’s just me.”
She visibly relaxed, her shoulders slumping. “I was so angry with you after the lab.” She wagged a finger at me as if scolding a child. “We had it all so perfectly planned. I was willing to sacrifice myself in order to expose the British government and turn the Chinese Emperor against them so this sham of a peace treaty could be stopped before it started.” She spat on the floor, as if her tone wasn’t enough to express how much hatred she felt towards the government.
“And releasing the virus would kill all the Shifters within a thirty-mile radius,” I said.
Ladoux shrugged. “Better the virus is released that way than let it become another of the government’s nasty little secrets, hidden from the world. And as my mother used to say, ‘Faire d’une pierre deux coups.’”
My French was rusty at best. But I understood the meaning. Two jobs. One stone.
“But I see now you were following higher orders,” Ladoux continued, the flame in her eyes burning even brighter.
Orders? Did she mean from Vine? As she raised both hands up to the cracked ceiling, I understood. She meant orders from God. Zac had told me the Red Hand were a new religion, doing what they believed their God wanted, which seemed to involve killing a lot of innocent people.
Ladoux disgusted me. Her blazing eyes and crazy mind. My hand twitched next to my holster. It would be so easy to put out that light. Only, my gun wasn’t there. I must have left it on the rooftop.
“So, what were your orders?” I said, hoping to keep her talking.
She smiled as if I were teasing her or testing her. “He has guided your hand, Scott. As he has mine. ‘Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.’”
Now I understood why “shine” had been scrawled on walls around the city. It had been a message from Ladoux and her followers. I also understood that she was insane.
“Did He speak to you? Did He tell you to take the virus back to the Hub?” There was a hungry jealousy in her voice. As if she wanted to be the one that her God spoke to.
I was getting sick of the pretence. Sick of her wide eyes and madness. “No one said anything to me, Ladoux. I did my duty. As you should have done. And now it’s over. Or, at least, it will be in less than an hour when the Emperor signs the treaty. The killing will stop. Isn’t that what your God wanted?”
“My God?” she said. “What happened to our God?”
I’d never believed in God. But did he? Had he really believed in the Red Hand? Had he found some light in the darkness? I searched inside of myself and saw the truth staring back at me. He’d not believed any more than I had. He’d lied and used Ladoux and the Red Hand, just like he had everyone else. But for what?
“I’ve had a change of heart,” I said finally.
Ladoux’s expression changed from hope to disgust; her painted lips curled up in a sneer. She spun away, unable to look at me any longer. “You said I might have to walk this road alone,” she said. And I knew she wasn’t talking to me any longer. “That others would fall by the wayside. But I won’t fail You.”
“Come on, Ladoux,” I said, tired and uncomfortable with her fervent faith. I’d known people who were believers. Kind, patient people, who found their religion a comfort. But for Ladoux, her faith was a hot brand she wanted to burn everyone with. “I’m going to take you back to the Hub, where you can stand trial.”
She laughed. “You think I have been through
what I have been through, done the things I have done, to give up now?” She looked down at her hands, her nose wrinkling in revulsion, as if they were dripping in something foul. “The sacrifices I have made, Scott, all in His name. The lives I have taken. Going through with that evil operation, even though I knew it would make me an abomination like you.” She rubbed at the scar with the heel of her hand as if she could wipe it and what it represented away. “I had to become the very thing I despised. I had to become a monster. His monster. We were never meant to have this power. The power to change His plan. We should be faithful to Him. Surrender ourselves to His will.” She lifted her face as if basking in the sunlight, even though it was dark and gloomy in here. It was the same expression I’d seen on the face of plenty of Shifters when they were trying to change a decision and bring about a new reality. A mix of focus and hope, that whatever world they found themselves in would be better.
I didn’t know if she was trying to Shift or not. It was irrelevant. She wasn’t going anywhere.
Her eyes snapped open. The fire was white-hot now. “Plans and backup plans, I have been working towards this day for years. And I will not stop till every Shifter is destroyed.”
I didn’t need a psych eval to know that Ladoux was having a psychotic attack. Like the man I’d seen on the Tube, calling everyone sheep, moments before his head blew up. Like Glenn, the cage fighter I’d brought down. I sighed and reached for my cuffs. It was just like bringing in the remaining members of Project Ganymede all over again.
“Starting with me?” I said.
Ladoux’s face split into a grin. “I thought you were a believer, Scott. I thought He had brought you to us. The most powerful Shifter fighting for us.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.” I unclipped my cuffs. “Now, are you going to come quietly?”
I don’t know why I was even bothering saying it. They never came quietly.
Ladoux threw a lantern at me and it went crashing to the floor, spilled oil instantly catching. I leaped over the pool of fire and grabbed Ladoux’s arm. She twisted out of my grip and followed through with a punch aimed for my head. I blocked it with ease, grabbing her arm again and twisting it around her back. I kicked the back of her knee and drove her down onto the floor. She cracked her head against the cold floor and it was over.
I slapped one cuff around her wrist and fixed the other to a water pipe running up the wall, then pulled off my jacket and used it to douse the flames.
“It’s over, Ladoux,” I said, throwing my ruined jacket to the floor. “The Emperor will be signing the treaty any moment. You failed your country and now you’ve failed your God. You’re too late.”
She lay on the floor, her blood mixing in with the puddles of water. “You are the one who is too late,” she said, laughing.
“What do you mean?”
“The Emperor won’t get a chance to sign the treaty! He will be trapped in the Hub along with a virus designed to kill everyone there. It’s perfect. It’s His design!”
“But the virus was destroyed. Frankie destroyed all of the twenty vials.”
“There were twenty-one,” Ladoux said, cackling now like a crazed witch. “Twenty-one!”
I stepped away from her, racking my brain. Hedges had carried the vials for Frankie.
Phrases swam around my head.
The two of them are always sneaking away together.
They’ve turned a loyal member of S3.
Hedges. It was his information that led us to X73 in the first place. We’d been so disturbed by his scars that we’d not even stopped to think whether he was still loyal to us.
And now he was back at the Hub, waiting for the arrival of the Emperor. With the last vial.
I checked my watch. I had fifteen minutes till the Emperor arrived at the Hub. Fifteen minutes to stop Hedges from killing everyone in S3.
“It’s too late,” I heard Ladoux call out as I ran for the door. She rocked back and forth, the steady clanking of her cuffs on the pole like a slow clap. “You’re too late.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Outside, I tried to calm my breathing and work out what to do. You knew, didn’t you? I thought to myself.
Not this. I thought the Red Hand could be controlled. I was wrong.
“You were wrong?” I shouted, my voice echoing between the arches. “That’s all you have to say?” I hated him. Hated myself. How was it possible that we were the same person? With the same parents and same childhood? But we are not the same person, Scott.
There was no escaping him. You could never make the choices I have had to.
“You sound like Ladoux, you know that?”
She understood the nature of sacrifice. I respected that. Towards the true way, that’s what it’s always been about. Every choice I’ve made, I’ve made it for the greater good. You say those words, but you never really understood what they meant.
God, I hated myself. I was so righteous. So right.
Screw you, I thought. Screw you and your patronising know-it-all bullshit. You know what? You’re right; I’m not you. And I never want to be you. I’ll never be as certain as you are. I’ll always doubt myself, but that’s what makes me the better person. I would find my own way.
I had less than fifteen minutes to get back to the Hub and stop Hedges.
“Captain Black,” I said, pressing the button on my collar and waiting to be connected.
“S’up?” Zac replied.
“How quickly can you get to London Bridge?”
I heard Zac cough over the radio. “Actually, I’m already there.”
“What?”
“Aubrey sent me after you. She saw Katie at the Hub and knew you were up to something. But if she’d come after you herself, it would make her look like a stalker.”
“Where are you?”
Headlights flared in the dark. “Opposite you.”
I ran over to Zac’s car and wrenched open the door. “Back to the Hub. Now!”
My expression must have been all the explanation Zac needed. He hit the accelerator, turning the car in a tight circle and speeding off towards the bridge.
“Captain Jones,” I said. I was hoping to hear Aubrey’s voice – so I could warn her and explain why I’d lied – but all I was getting was static. The panic rose in my chest.
“Yeah, the network is down,” Zac said. “Must be a glitch at base.”
This was more than a glitch. It was Hedges putting his plan into action.
“Oh, you have to be kidding me.”
I saw what had caused Zac to slow down: the army roadblock up ahead. Three soldiers were on guard. I didn’t need to look at my watch now. The countdown ticked in my head as if the digits had been burned into my brain. We had less than fourteen minutes. I considered what to do for a moment, then decided.
“Go through it.” Zac opened his mouth to protest. “Go through it!” I said again.
He slammed on the pedal. The engine roared in response, like a caged animal wanting to be let loose. The soldiers barely had time to react before we crashed through. The barriers shattered under the impact, bouncing off the windscreen and cartwheeling away. Through the rear-view mirror I saw the soldiers get to their feet and raise their guns.
“Zac…” I said in a warning tone.
“I know.” He downshifted into third and the car lurched forward, just as the pops of gunfire sounded behind us.
Bullets slammed against the rear window like someone performing a drum solo on the car. But the glass held.
“Come on, baby,” Zac said, willing the car on like a jockey might his horse.
The gunfire slowed. The car rolled on. We’d escaped. I looked to Zac and we shared a moment of victory. But then I checked the rear-view mirror again and my smile faded. I saw one of the soldiers running out of the guard box, carrying a rocket launcher. He raised the launcher to his shoulder and…
Everything became heat and noise and pain. The car was thrown into the air, spinning once, twice
before crashing back down on the concrete. I reached out for the last decision I’d made. And the world flipped.
We were still at the checkpoint. This time, I’d told Zac to stop. We still had thirteen minutes till the Emperor was scheduled to arrive. There was still time.
One of the soldiers tapped on the window. I nodded to Zac and he wound it down.
“Can’t you read?” the solider said, leaning forward. “You can’t come through this way.” I recognised the Yorkshire accent. It was the lance corporal from earlier. The one I had left with a bloodied nose. I detected a certain muffle in his voice that suggested it was still causing him trouble.
I turned away, hoping he wouldn’t see me.
“We’re on S3 business,” Zac said, leaning his arm out of the window so that the lance corporal could see his S3 tattoo.
It was probably the worst thing he could have done. These guys did not like S3.
“Get out the car,” the jance corporal shouted.
Zac’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think you heard me. I am Captain Black of the SSS. I suggest you let us through.”
The barrel of a rifle appeared at Zac’s temple. “Easy, now.” Zac raised his hands slowly away from the steering wheel, opened the door, and stepped out. They’d be coming for me next. And if they recognised me, it would all be too late. I stared at the digits on my watch as if I could fix them in place as easily as I could a Shifter. But time was something I had no control over.
I heard the exchange of loud voices: Zac trying to reason with the soldiers. One of them walked around to my side of the car.
Before he had a chance to bend down, I slammed the door open, knocking him onto his back, rolled out and came up holding his rifle. It was an LMT sharpshooter’s rifle. Heavier than the ones we were issued at S3. Older and less reliable, too. I could see why the army resented us so much. Tough.