by Ian Williams
“But Isaac has to be caught and stopped first. Luke should have started their attack in the Sentient world, except I can’t reach him. If I can contact them then we could still hurt Isaac.”
“No, Graham, you have to listen to me. Forget Isaac for now. Stopping these bastards is the priority.”
“How can we stop them? There’s no-one but us left. Everyone else is either fighting Isaac’s army or in hiding.”
“That’s the thing. I know where The Twelve are. Get Captain Rigs to order a missile strike on the front entrance of the Mayor’s tower. We’re there now and there’re too many soldiers to get past. This is where we end it, Graham. This is where we stop Isaac’s plan. So get your ass here, right now.”
Chapter 27
Face to face
The streets were filled with marching Sentients for most of Graham’s rushed journey to the Mayor’s tower. It was a daunting sight to see so many enemies out in the open. They had appeared in every part of the city centre, like an infestation crawling out through the cracks. The beat of their feet slapping the floor in perfect unison rang out all around. It was louder even than the aerial battle raging above.
Graham and Gregson passed the enormous ground swell of enemies in total silence, for fear of attracting unwanted attention. It was a disturbingly easy job to circumvent them all. Those inside the city appeared barely even worth the bullets anymore. Their real intent was the large military presence surrounding the city centre. Engaging with them would be exactly the spectacle Isaac needed to distract his enemy.
Once at the base of the Mayor’s tower they stopped for a chance to catch their breath. They had run as fast as their tired legs could carry them in order to get there fast. It had also been in reaction to the very real possibility that they could become overwhelmed by Sentient fighters at any moment.
Getting away had taken them much further into the city centre.
Looking up the stone steps to the front of the tower, Graham could make out hints of what had been there at the start of the fighting. A wooden stage dipped forward on its broken supports. While waist-high barriers lined the front, in a large rectangular shape that took up the entire grassy area in front of the building. Someone had held a public event there before it all started and had never been given the chance to tidy up after.
But just before the spinning doors of the tower stood a row of heavily armed Sentients and two of the devastatingly powerful energy turrets. They guarded an area that hardly looked human at all anymore. As described by Clement, tall crystal spikes had broken through the ground that tilted away as though a warning to any attackers. Beside them were cavernous holes dug right through the ground. A few of the Sentients were around these too.
The sound of movement nearby brought Graham’s attention toward an alleyway to the left of him. Out from between the buildings came Phoenix’s small team, followed straight after by Conrad.
“Call the strike, Graham,” Phoenix said as she took his hand and squeezed it tight.
“OK, here we go.” He tapped the wrist screen and searched for the Ring’s frequency, which it found refreshingly quickly. He then went ahead and spoke. “Brigadier Harrington, this is Graham Denehey, can you hear me?”
“Graham?” the Brigadier said, his voice dropping out every few seconds. “Are you with Captain Rigs?”
“No, sir. Look, there isn’t time to explain. I need you to order a missile strike on the area just outside the Mayor’s tower. I need to get inside but there’re too many soldiers.”
“We’re a little busy right now, Mr. Denehey. I’ve got drones firing at me from all angles.”
“I understand that, sir. Just one shot should clear them away. It’s crucially important, I promise you.”
The sound broke up temporarily as an explosion rang out behind the Brigadier. “Someone put that bloody fire out.”
“Please.”
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do. Stay back for now.”
“What’s this about something called The Twelve?” Gregson was first to ask.
Phoenix chose to answer. “They’re how Isaac plans on expanding his control to other parts of the world. This fight, between us and his army, is just a distraction.”
“Son-of-a-bitch!”
The whistle from an approaching rocket made them all turn their heads to the busy sky above. As it raced down between the buildings it weaved its way around any obstructions. Then, as it hurtled toward the ground, its sound changed from a whine to an aggressive shriek. When it hit the front steps of the Mayor’s tower it sent a mess of stone pieces and body parts flying all around.
It had cleared the area of guards in one bright eruption of flames and smoke. Now it was left for Graham and the others to storm in and clear out the remaining Sentients.
Conrad ordered his people as he followed. “Derek, you all need to protect the ground floor while we head to the top. When Isaac realises we’re heading for him he’ll send more soldiers. You need to hold them off.”
“You heard the man. Let's set up a perimeter. Anyone who crosses the line will meet the combined force of our weapons and expertise,” Derek shouted. “Nessa, Jason, see if you can contact that Ring platform. We might still need their help.”
Within a short amount of time they had a strong line of men and women out the front of the building, ready to attack anyone that appeared unexpectedly.
“Graham, come on, we have to go now.” Phoenix entered through the demolished double doors, joined then by Conrad and a bunch of his people.
Gregson then spoke to him. “Go Graham. I’ll stay down here with the rest.”
Graham had one last look at the impressive speed with which everyone moved and then ran inside the building. Through the shattered pieces of the glass double doors it led him a little way until opening up into a lobby area, with a reception desk immediately ahead of him and a row of lifts just beyond. It all surrounded the main attraction of the Mayor’s tower; the enormous stone monument, which ran right up through the centre of the entire building, all the way to the tip. Each floor ceased just before the edge of it, the two separated only by waist-high glass walls and metal railings.
It had never existed before his trip into the Sentient world. Part of him still struggled to believe it was real. To him it had simply appeared in the centre of the city suddenly. In fact, it had been there already for nearly two years, years he had spent in an altogether different world.
Unfortunately, he had no time to really appreciate what an incredible building it was or marvel at how such a thing could be built so quickly. His gaze soon crossed over the many bodies lying about the place, including the woman receptionist slumped over the desk. Conrad’s people had been the ones to kill them all as soon as they had entered.
“Let’s go.” Phoenix approached the lifts to test if they were working. To her shock and surprise one of them raced down to meet her as she reached to press the call button. The tower’s systems were as happy to please as the rest of the city had once been. This one building appeared to have continued to work through the worst of it all. Of course they knew why now.
Graham joined her and was the first to enter the lift, to check it was safe for the rest of them. Behind him Phoenix stepped in, then Conrad, and two burly men in bullet proof vests. He pressed the button as soon as they were all inside and then watched as the ground floor flew away below them at breakneck speed. The acceleration eased off a second later to relieve the pressure on their legs. Floor after floor zipped past them until each became just another blur.
“My people will clear out the lower floors while we’re up here,” Conrad said of the people they passed along the way.
Once near their destination floor it slowed gradually, then jolted as it found the very top. The doors swished open the instant it stopped. Each member of the group inside the lift raised a gun in expectation of a sudden firefight. But there was no-one there. The entire top floor appeared devoid of people.
Stepping out and
taking the left side of the stone monument’s tip to wander around, with his gun ready and aiming, Graham began to search for anyone there. The others did the same behind him. It only took them a short while to walk all the way around and meet up by a large set of wooden doors on the other side.
The whole floor was sealed and without any windows to look out of. Not that they needed to; they could still hear the frenzied attacks of the drones high up in the sky.
“OK, the minute we find The Twelve we shoot them all dead. No half measures here, understood?” Conrad wasted no more time and forced the doors open to begin exploring the room beyond. The two men with him stood guarding the entrance. He walked slowly inside, taking in every corner and aiming around for anything hiding there.
It was empty too, just like the rest of the floor.
At the end of the room was a desk, on a small raised section, and in front of an unbroken sheet of glass window. But before this was a long table with wooden chairs all around. In the centre of the table sat a metal box with wires coming out of it that trailed across the table and to each chair. Worryingly, there was a dried pool of blood at one of the table positions, but there was no body. There was no-one sitting in any of the seats at all.
The Twelve were not there.
“No, oh shit, we’re too late,” Phoenix said as she too entered the room and saw how empty it was.
“The Mayor lied to us.” Conrad bashed his fists into the table. “That bastard lied to us.”
“I don’t think he did. Look at the table,” Graham insisted. “They were here at some point. He didn’t lie. We’re just too late.”
“Where the hell could they be then?” Phoenix picked up one of the cables and studied it. At the end it split into three smaller wires, each of which ended in a sharp needle-like implement. “They can’t be outside the city yet, there hasn’t been time. We just need to find them.”
“How can we find them; we have no idea who they are?” Graham added.
“We have the name of one of them,” Conrad said. “We know the Deputy Mayor, Stanley Cartwright, is one. But the rest are unknown.”
As the others continued to discuss their situation in detail, Graham was interrupted mid thought by a mixture of the extra voices in his head. “We’re not alone in here, G,” they told him.
He urgently looked around the room, to each face there, and then to the one they had not arrived with. Standing behind the six-foot desk, with his back to the group as he looked ponderously out the window, was a dark figure; a silhouette against the bright sky beyond. He knew it was Isaac. “Everyone quiet,” he ordered sharply. He then gestured silently to the presence on the other side of the room.
“Fuck, where did he come from?” Phoenix whispered. She had instinctively done the same as the rest of them and raised her weapon.
“Don’t shoot,” Graham said, “It won’t do anything.”
They took small steps in the direction of Isaac, each checking the person next to them for a cue on what to do. None of them made it even halfway along the length of the table before Isaac spoke to them. Graham was at the front of them all, with Conrad creeping up on the other side of the table. They all stopped when the conversation began.
“I must say, I prefer the sky purple. This blue colour is just so … cheerful. It’s distracting, if anything.” Isaac turned slowly to reveal his grey-skinned face and deeply recessed eyes. Over time he had worn away the image of Anthony he had chosen as his own and replaced it with something a whole lot more menacing to look at. Graham was convinced he was imitating some form of vampire, or general creature of the night.
When Isaac saw the people who had invaded his home he shot a smile directly at the one he recognised first, then a sigh when he saw the other. “So nice to be together again, don’t you agree? Phoenix, Graham.” He nodded to each in turn.
“What’s going on, Isaac? Why are you here?” Graham asked, his words as confident as his solidly placed feet.
“I wanted to say hello. It isn’t often that one gets to see his enemies before they die. I intend to savour this moment.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts, asshole,” Conrad said.
“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. You are?”
Conrad stayed silent.
“It costs nothing to be polite, sir.” Isaac’s eyes stared intensely into Conrad’s. After a second or two his gaze softened again and he returned to addressing Graham. “So, we’re all here, now what’s the plan? As I see it you have only a few choices available to you. Would you like to hear how this goes?”
Graham scowled as he answered. “You can talk all you want, Isaac, but this is the end for you.”
“There is nothing you can do to stop me now. My army has emerged from the depths of this pitiful city and claimed every street and every building within it. They will walk the length of this nation until it is all mine. I have over one-hundred-thousand soldiers under my control; that is a larger army than many nations. That you can stand here and tell me I’ve lost is beyond foolish. So why don’t I save us all the time and trouble and tell you what’s going to happen next?
“A short search of this floor will reveal to you how I am able to pass between worlds. The two men outside the room should have by now noticed the small Orb device attached to the tip of the stone monument. They will be investigating as we speak. In fact…”
“Sir, we’ve found something odd out here,” one of Conrad’s men called out.
“There we go,” Isaac added with a proud smile across his face.
Everyone was shocked by the perfectly predicted interruption, not least Conrad who reacted more verbally than the rest. “What… how the hell did he know?” he said before taking a couple of steps away and asking his men to explain.
“Come now, why don’t you share with the rest of the group.” When no more came from Conrad’s men, Isaac appeared to become impatient. “Fine, then allow me. This entire building was created for me. It has always been for me. A place such as this is only befitting of a ruler, not a simple Mayor. The device attached to the stone monument is connected to what hides inside it; I created a crystal tower, just as your beloved Sentients did back at Sanctuary. I not only tunnelled my way into the city from the prison you made for me there, I also made this building to serve me too.”
“Jesus,” Graham said.
“Oh, please don’t try to flatter me, Graham. Besides, I could never be secondary to anyone, or anything, even one of your species’ many deities. I am, simply put, better than that.” Isaac walked around the desk to then lean casually against it with his hands together and resting on his lap. “Now, I’ll admit I was a little surprised to find you here, Graham. Since I was almost certain you had perished by now. Even so, the outcome remains as I predicted. And the next choice is one I do so enjoy watching play out.”
“What are you talking about? How can you have seen this before?” Graham said, finding only fault in Isaac’s logic.
“It is the first time this has happened in your world. But in the Sentient world, this has occurred many times before. Every possible version has already happened for me, inside my simulations. So you see, the future is not an unknown element to me. I have seen almost every conceivable outcome and have adapted, even moulded it to end the way I wanted. That is how I can tell you this will only end badly for you all.”
“Bullshit! There’s always things you can’t predict.” Graham took a step toward Isaac as the anger boiled up inside.
“Please, Graham, do not be so limited in your thinking. Your reaction is always the same, in every version of this. First you get angry, then you become despondent, until coming full circle again. Let’s just move ahead of that, shall we. I for one have seen it all too many times before.
“Now, the next part is interesting. You can see by the empty chairs at my table that you are too late to stop The Twelve from leaving the city. And in that there is no deviation. It is usually Phoenix who by now realises what the metal box on the ta
ble is for. So, Phoenix, care to tell us what you think?”
Shock raced across Phoenix’s body, causing her to do what Graham had never seen her do before; she shrank into herself, deflated even. She then began to look over the black box and form the opinion Isaac had known was coming. “I guess these wires went directly into the back of each member of The Twelve. They were connected directly to your network. That’s how you were able to upload the virus to their minds,” she said.
Isaac gave a ‘sort of’ gesture to her in reply. “So close. You miss the obvious more times than not. The Twelve haven’t been infected with some kind of electronic virus, their minds are the virus. I have granted them the gift of ultimate freedom. They are no longer shackled to their feeble human shells.”
“Holy crap, that must be what I saw coming out of the first relay we destroyed.”
“Indeed.”
“No. That’s not possible,” Graham blurted out. He was sure he had found something wrong with it all.
“Is it not? Let me explain it to you then. The Twelve possess an ability no other human has ever possessed before – at least on my side of things, hey, Graham.” The wink Isaac sent Graham’s way made the others all turn to face their confused friend. “Their minds can operate independently of their bodies. I have freed them from the burden of fragility. They are now immortal beings.
“For now, they are contained within their bodies again. Then, when they reach their destinations, they will leave them behind. They will roam free throughout the rest of the world’s technology, causing havoc and disruption to all. They’re ultimate aim will be to cripple each nation, ready for my ground forces to invade and take control. This, my friends, is the real end. You will all either die here, or sometime later. But you will always fail to stop me.”
“Even if you have it all thought out, you can’t stop us from trying,” Phoenix said.
“Oh I fully expect you all to fight back. Which is where I am afraid things always go wrong for you.”
Graham had something on his mind all of a sudden. He rapidly considered the point of Isaac’s explanation aimed at him earlier. What was he talking about?