by Kim Curran
The corporal’s eyes widened in angry recognition. “You!”
“Yes. Me. Place your weapons on the ground and there’s a chance this won’t go as badly for you as it did last time,” I said.
His eyes tightened in defiance. I clicked off the safety, just to make sure he knew how serious I was.
“The future of this country depends on what you do next, Lance Corporal. Make the right choice.”
He lowered his weapon and laid it on the ground, muttering obscenities as he did. His fellow squaddies did the same, without the swearing.
“Zac, can you reach into the guard box and remove the rocket launcher they have in there?”
“The what?” Zac said. But didn’t bother to ask again. He walked into the box and came out holding the launcher in his arms like a baby. “Now, what are you boys doing with a big gun like this?”
“Protecting the motorcade,” the lance corporal said through gritted teeth.
As if on cue, I heard rumbling engines and saw flashing lights as a line of black cars streaked past on the opposite side of the river. The Emperor and his escort.
“We have to go!”
Zac threw the launcher onto the back of the car and leapt into the driver’s seat. I ejected the clip from the rifle and dropped in on the chest of the solider who still lay on the ground.
“This ain’t over,” the lance corporal shouted, as we burned away.
I only hoped he was right.
Seven minutes. We were racing behind the last car of the Emperor’s escort as it headed for the Hub.
“Overtake them,” I said.
“Not a good idea.” Zac pointed to a helicopter overhead. It was bristling with weapons, covering the motorcade from the sky. He was right. If we tried to get ahead, they’d blow us away before we had a chance to say “Trap!”
I pushed the button on my throat mic. “Captain Jones,” I said. Still nothing but static. “Sergeant Cain.” Nothing. Did they know, I wondered, that they were already under attack? “Shit,” I said, slamming my hand on the dashboard.
“You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Ladoux was working with the Red Hand.”
“Ladoux! I don’t believe it. She saved my life.”
“Ladoux and Hedges, too. And he’s got the X73 virus and he’s going to release it in the Hub when the Emperor arrives.”
Zac blinked. “But they tortured him. I saw the scars.”
“They turned him,” I said. “And we have less than six minutes to stop him.”
Zac’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “And the network?”
“I think he’s got to it.”
Zac nodded. “It’s the first thing I’d do. OK, try to intercept the Emperor’s security channel.”
I pulled out my tab and tried scanning for a different frequency. I picked up old radio channels broadcasting propaganda messages and music, but nothing in Chinese.
The escort pulled off the road. We were nearly at the Hub. The front car pulled to a halt outside the bunker. I jumped out before Zac even had a chance to slow the car down.
“Stop!” I shouted, running forward. “It’s a trap!” But my voice was drowned out in the thump of helicopter blades.
I headed for the middle car, the one I assumed the Emperor Tzen and his Shifter guards – the Banjai Gonsi – would be travelling in. When they saw me, they would do what they were trained to do: Shift and get the Emperor out of here.
Car and van doors opened. Men wearing black and carrying large weapons piled out and pointed everything at me. I held my hands up, to show I wasn’t a threat, while I scanned the vehicles, looking for Tzen. Neither he nor his Little Guards were anywhere to be seen. I heard a low groan of machinery and turned to see the large doors to the Hub close with a booming slam.
“Where’s the Emperor?” I shouted at one of the bodyguards, a thick-necked man with a shaven head.
He grinned. “He is already inside. So, if you planned on harming him, you are too late.”
“The motorcade was a diversion,” I heard Zac say, from behind me.
The big man nodded, proud of himself and his work.
“You have got to get him out,” I said. “It’s a trap!”
The bodyguard looked unsettled, unsure of what to do. And my panic wasn’t helping things.
“This is Commandant Tyler of the S3,” Zac said. “We have intel that someone inside the Hub is planning on…” He turned to me, unsure if he should continue.
I finally calmed down enough to take charge. “Planning on assassinating the Emperor and everyone else inside there. So we have to get those doors open.”
The man lowered his weapon, his face pallid and tight. It was his job to protect the Emperor, and if I was to be believed, he had just failed.
I ran toward the doors, where two S3 soldiers stood looking confused and uneasy. “We have to get the doors open.”
“No can do, Com. They open from the inside only. And we’ve been told they’re on lockdown till the treaty is signed.”
I slammed on the metal sheets. Ten inches thick and capable of withstanding a bomb strike. But there had to be a way of opening them. Any minute now, Hedges would release the virus. A virus that tore straight through the brain faster than anyone would have time to Shift. The images of Frankie’s slideshow flashed through my mind. But instead of the faces of strangers, I saw Aubrey and Katie. Their eyes bleeding. Their bodies giving up. Their mouths crying for help.
“What can we do?” the Emperor’s guard said, laying his hand against the metal.
“Step aside, please.”
I turned around to see Zac with the rocket launcher we’d taken off the men at the roadblock readied against his shoulder.
I nodded and pulled the guards out of the way. I waved at everyone to get back. We took cover behind the row of cars and waited.
It took Zac an infuriatingly long time to work out how to operate the launcher. I was almost about to take it off him and do it myself when there was a whoosh and the rocket blasted out of the barrel, throwing Zac off his feet.
It exploded on impact with the doors, creating a fireball ten-feet high. Metal blackened. Stone shook. But when the flames died down, the doors were still intact.
I ran back to the door. The metal was too hot to touch, and when I tried, my hand came away covered in soot. I looked around for something, anything, that I could use to pry the doors open. There was nothing but rubble and dying fires. I ignored the heat and clawed at the hair-thin crack between the doors with my fingernails. Some of the guards tried to help, all of us tugging and banging on the doors, trying desperately to get in.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. One of the guards spoke to me. I didn’t understand what he was saying, but I understood the gesture. A hand to his ear. Listen.
I stopped banging and leaned in, closer to the door. There was a noise coming from the other side. Thudding and screaming. I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against the still-hot metal. I didn’t care about the pain. It was nothing compared to what my friends inside were going through.
There had to be something I could do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
This time, I didn’t even bother calling Zac.
I’d run out of the arch, leaving Ladoux rocking and laughing inside, and I’d kept running.
I had two miles to cover in fifteen minutes. When I used to run home from ARES HQ before… before all of this, the best I could do was an eight-minute mile. But I was stronger then – I didn’t have a body that had grown up on rations or gone through week after week where I was lucky enough to grab a couple of hours’ sleep at a time. Not to mention the bullet hole in my leg. But I’d also never had something driving me like this.
I ran, jumping over burned-out cars and through the rubble of buildings. Under precarious bridges and over the ruins of roads.
You can make it. You can make it, I kept hearing him, over and over, pushing me on. Faster and Faster. For the fi
rst time since I’d woken up in this reality with his voice in my head, we wanted the same thing.
I’d ignored the screaming of my muscles, the vomit rising in my throat, and I ran. As I had done when Frankie commanded me to. Only this time, I was the one in control.
I’d thought of Frankie, down in the Hub, an innocent doctor doomed to die with all the other Shifters. Had it been her screams I’d heard through the doors?
If only I was able to undo the choice I’d forced on her that night, I wouldn’t be here – the broken landscape of London blurred around me – none of this would be here. Then why was I still fixed in this place, in this reality? Why couldn’t I just give up and go back to the world I knew – the safe, peaceful world?
Because you have a job to do.
I thought it at exactly the same time as I heard his voice say it. I almost laughed at the irony of us being on the same side for once. Because I knew there was still a chance I could stop this. And as long as there was a chance, I would see this though.
I’d pounded past a road sign, which hung by one screw from a wall. I was near the Embankment. If I kept up the pace, I could still make it. But my limbs were starting to scream in revolt.
It’s just pain.
To my right, I’d seen the Emperor’s motorcade gliding past. Hedges might already be getting ready. I had to make it this time.
I dug deep within me, to a place I’d been trying so hard to block out and found strength. His strength. I put on a burst of speed.
I raced across the street, past a plain car parked to the left of the doors. And somehow I knew the Emperor was already here. The doors were already closing. They were a quarter closed. A half. I threw my feet out from under me, ignoring the warnings from the sentries, and skidded under the closing gap, scraping my back off the rough ground as I slid inside the Hub.
The door clanged closed behind me. Whatever was going to happen next, I was locked in here with everyone else.
“Commandant?” I looked up to see a solider standing over me. “Are you OK?”
I pushed myself to standing. “Get a message out, we’re under attack,” I shouted, racing through the hangar, past the row of vehicles and for the lift. I placed one hand on the keypad and slammed on the wall with the other. “Come on!”
It seemed to take forever for the lift to arrive, and even longer for the doors to close once I was inside. In the agonisingly slow seconds it took for the lift to descend one hundred feet, I paced inside the silver box, like a caged animal.
When the lift doors finally opened, I ran out and scanned the Hub. It was packed with S3 officers and support staff. They’d all come out to see the Emperor arrive.
“Emperor Tzen,” I shouted, pushing people out of the way.
At last I saw him standing on the far side of the hall, surrounded by his Shifter guards. They all turned to me, their bodies poised for a fight. Tzen just smiled at my approach. But the smile didn’t last long.
“Get out!” I’d shouted, staggering towards him. My legs were finally giving up. “It’s a trap!”
I saw a look of concentration begin to form on the faces of the Banjai Gonsi. They were going to Shift and at least they would be safe. And without the Emperor here, maybe Hedges wouldn’t go through with the plan.
“Stop,” Tzen said, resting his hand on the shoulder of one of the Little Guards, who was about a foot taller than him. “Commandant Tyler, I would say it is good to finally meet you. But judging by your expression, this does not seem to be the case.”
“I don’t have time,” I said, scanning the gathering crowd for Hedges. “You have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”
The boy next to Tzen started pleading with him in rapid Chinese, his face tight with concern.
Tzen held his hand up and the boy stopped. “This treaty is more important than me.”
I rolled my eyes. This was not the time for honour. If he got out of here, the treaty could be signed tomorrow. Or the day after. If he stayed here, he would die with the rest of us.
I pushed him aside, to the outraged grunts of his guards. If he wasn’t going to leave, I only had one choice. Find Hedges.
I didn’t need to look for long.
Hedges stood in the middle of the room, a look of beatification on his scarred face. He was a man at peace, a man ready to embrace his destiny. What had happened to him? What had turned him from loyal S3 solider to holy warrior? I would never know. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and something flashed purple in the light. He raised his fist to shoulder height and lifted his first finger.
I patted my belt for my pistol. I’d forgotten it was missing.
I saw Aubrey push her way through the crowd.
“Scott, what’s going on?” She took hold of my hand, trying to get my attention, but I didn’t take my eyes of Hedges. He lifted his second finger.
I yanked Aubrey towards me, grabbed the gun from her belt and raised it. Time seemed to slow as the bullet cut its way across the room. Hedges had time to lift his third finger from the vial before the bullet punctured his forehead, just above his left eyebrow. Blood sprayed out as the bullet drilled deeper into his skull. His eyes widened in shock. His last act before his brain shut down was to raise his last finger.
The vial spiralled to the floor as he toppled backwards. It bounced once, twice, three times on the hard, tiled floor of the Hub and rolled away towards the shocked onlookers. Cain stopped it under the toe of his boot.
No one in the Hub moved. They just stared from Hedges’ dead body, pooling blood, to me, the gun still pointed straight ahead, to the vial under Cain’s foot. For a terrible moment, I wondered if Cain was part of Ladoux’s plan. All he needed to do was tip his weight forward onto the vial and it would all be over.
Cain bent down, lifted his foot a fraction of an inch at a time, as if removing his foot from a landmine, and picked the vial up from the floor.
There was a small crack in the glass. But the vial was still sound. The virus hadn’t escaped. We were saved. Cain looked up at me, his face filled with questions, as my legs finally gave way.
Aubrey helped me to my feet. “You’re bleeding,” she said, nodding to a widening patch of blood on my thigh. I must have torn my stitches running. But it didn’t matter; everyone was safe. I wrapped my arm around Aubrey, on the pretence of letting her take my weight, but really, I wanted to hold her in my arms. If the whole of S3 hadn’t been watching us, I would have kissed her and not stopped till I ran out of breath.
“What in the name of sweet baby Jesus is going on, Tyler?” Cain shouted. “And what was Hedges doing with this?” The vial lay in his open palm, as if he was frightened to close his hand around it.
“He was working with the Red Hand. Ladoux, too.”
I explained to the room about their plans for the X73. There were gasps and mutterings as they realised how closely they’d all come to dying. The reactions from the Banjai Gonsi had a slight delay, as the boy Tzen had spoken to earlier quickly translated what I was saying.
“We’re lucky you made it in time, Tyler.” Cain’s face was a picture of open pride and admiration.
“Only on the third try.”
“What do you mean?” Aubrey said.
“Twice. I didn’t make it twice.”
The shock of understanding passed through the crowd. I heard my name being whispered over and over.
CP made her way through the crowd, dragging a crate. “You look like you could use a sit-down, sir.”
I nodded in gratitude and collapsed onto the upturned crate.
“The doctor should see to your leg,” Aubrey said.
“In time.”
Tzen walked forward. With me on the crate, we were eye to eye. He looked so much older than the last time I’d seen him, even though I knew it was only a few weeks ago. The grief of losing his father and the weight of being the leader of his country had hardened his once-soft features. He had the haunted look that I recognised from looking in the mirror. He’d
seen terrible things, and yet I also saw hope in his eyes.
He placed one fist into the other and bowed. I copied it as best as I could.
“It appears you have saved my life, Commandant Tyler.”
“You should have got out when I told you,” I said.
Tzen pursed his lips, trying to stop himself from smiling. “I am afraid I am not very good at being told what to do. For example, my advisors said that I should not have come here today. I told them that wherever Commandant Tyler was, I would be safe. I am glad to have been proved right.” Tzen threw a look at the tall boy behind him, who bowed his head in apparent contrition. “I hope we will get a chance to speak later, Commandant. I think we have much to discuss.”
I remembered Vine’s warning. Could Tzen really want me to lead Britain as he led China? If so, he was going to be very disappointed.
“But now,” he continued, “if you will excuse me, I have a treaty to sign and a war to end.”
Cain stretched out one hand. “The Minister is this way, Your Majesty.”
Tzen nodded at me and turned to follow Cain, ignoring the body of the man who had attempted to assassinate him.
The crowd closed in around him.
Aubrey crouched down next to me. Her eye was wide with concern and more, a light I’d seen in the eyes of my Aubrey.
No, I corrected myself. This was my Aubrey. When the choice came, I made it. To stay here and die with her if necessary. And soon, the war would be over and we could build a new life for ourselves. Just like we’d always promised each other.
“We need to get you to the doc,” Aubrey said.
“She’s not going to be too impressed I messed up her stitches.”
“I think she’ll forgive you.” She helped me to my feet and I staggered towards the infirmary.
Frankie was changing the bandages on the girl with one arm when we walked in.
She turned and looked at me, an eyebrow raised in mild irritation “And what have you done to yourself now, Commandant?”
“Run two miles. In fifteen minutes.”
“On that leg?” She snorted in exasperation. “Well, better let me look at it, then.”