‘Acknowledged.’ Sami responded in kind. ‘Why are we whispering?’
‘That’s a Danti.’ Realisation struck me. ‘Penderghast is in league with the Danti!’
‘Shall I alert the authorities?’
‘And tell them what? Someone breaking and entering into one of the most powerful and richest companies in the world has found a technologically superior race of aliens that wants to murder all of mankind?’ I watched the sole Danti disappear around a corner I hadn’t noticed before, the HUD Sami provided changing the threat analysis from Moderate to High, with a red outline appearing where I had seen the Danti last. ‘Can you scan for Danti life signs?’
‘Compliance.’ Sami grew silent for a heartbeat. ‘Would you like them displayed on the Heads-Up Display?’
‘No, I want to buy them all Amazon gift cards!’ I hissed. ‘Yes, put them on the HUD.’
Into my vision appeared a single red outline, roughly the shape of the Danti I had seen. Then, another joined it.
Then another.
Then another.
Then another four.
Then a display appeared showing the view behind me.
Where a Danti stood holding a lethal looking sidearm, outlined in red, snarling at me.
Chapter 20
Attack
The Danti screamed as I rolled out of the line of fire of the weapon it was holding. Igniting my Flame Foil, I winced in pain from the eruption of light in my night vision, but still swung blindly at the Danti, who let out a scream and barely dodged underneath it. I kicked out with my leg, finding purchase on the Danti’s chest, and pushed back against it, kicking it in the face with my other foot, and using my legs to perform a backflip. Landing solidly on my feet, I flexed my right fingers and ignited a fireball, throwing it straight at the stunned alien. It had just enough time to scream before the ball hit, splashing fiery gas over its features. It clutched it’s one eye, shrieking in high pitched agony, and I felt an odd twinge of sympathy before Sami interrupted me.
‘More Danti approaching. Advise evasion.’
‘You think?’ I snapped, before snatching up the weapon dropped by the Danti and headed towards the exit. The clicking noise, no doubt Danti speaking to each other, was louder and angrier than earlier. I aimed the weapon towards a bundle of red outlines and fired in bright purple blasts which burned my night vision but made the Danti scatter for non-existent cover. Blasting a few more fireballs at them, I flew backwards towards the exit, slapping my hand on the “open” button. As soon as I was able, I flew through, still firing the purple rifle blasts until the door clicked shut behind me.
‘We have to find Sammy and get out of here.’
‘Acknowledged. Calling Mr Edwards now.’
The ring tone sounded twice before Sammy picked up. ‘Jay, what’s going on? Get bored down there?’
‘Sammy, where are-’
‘Because I got bored of waiting, too, Jay! I’m sneaking around too, like a ninja.’
‘Sammy...’
‘Like a ninja, Jason!’
‘You... God, you’re annoying. What level are you on?’
‘The lift said the sub sub basement, but I can see a skylight. It’s weird down here, you need to come and see this. It’s like a giant metal room! And there’s this weird clicking noise...’
‘What?’ Suddenly more fearful than ever for my best friend, I sprinted towards the lift, jamming my finger hard against the call button. The lights above the door showed the lift was above my level.
‘Sammy, find somewhere to hide, okay? I don’t have time to explain, I’m on my way.’
‘Jay?’
‘Just do it!’ I ended the call, then pushing my fingers into the slit between the doors, pulled them open. Behind me, I heard a door open and Danti slowly lumbered out of their dark room. I saw one shielding it’s eye before spotting me, waving in my direction.
Gripping the rifle, I dove straight down the elevator shaft, flying as quickly as I was able, and before I knew it, Sami had stopped our descent, and we were hovering in front of a door at the bottom of the shaft. Opening it as I had the last, I shot through, and tore through the corridor, which part of me noted wasn’t all clean and white like the ones above. This one was dark blue, metal, and smelled earthy. It carried on for a while, before opening up into a giant cavernous room, larger than a Football stadium, and covered completely in metal. There were computer banks along the sides of the room, and some gantries higher up, with enough railings to make Sammy nervous - this room must have been five or six stories high. ‘Just how did Penderghast manage this?’ I muttered.
‘GPS tracking shows that we are not currently located within the Lemniscate building, but rather underneath the warehouse adjacent to it.’ Sami informed me.
‘Oh.’ I looked around. ‘Scan for Sammy. And Danti.’
‘Three human life signs detected, one level up and South of our position. Danti life signs are faint but recognisable.’
I turned, orienting myself to the compass on my HUD, and flew towards the blue dot Sami put on my vision. Landing neatly on the gantry, I turned as the blue dot winked out, and Sammy was crouched down, looking up at me.
‘Is that an advanced laser rifle in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?’
‘Why can’t it be both?’ I quipped, before realising the danger Sammy didn’t even know existed. I handed him the sidearm.
‘What? My own laser rifle? I’m touched...’ Sammy’s voice drifted. ‘Oh, hell no. How bad are things that you’re trusting me with a gun?’
I turned back and looked at him. Even though he couldn’t read my facial expression, he looked more panicked. Even more so when he looked over my shoulder and his eyes widened. Igniting my Flame Foil, I spun around.
Doctor Penderghast glowered at me from the shadows, his features lit up by the flames of my sword.
‘Put away your weapon. I mean you no harm.’ He nodded to my Flame Foil. I nodded warily and extinguished it, letting the hilt slide into my hand. He stepped out onto the gantry, so I could see him. His footsteps clanging on metal in the steel blue chamber, he looked somewhat ridiculous wearing his white lab coat and brown plaid shirt; he looked like the same innocent, if persistent, man I had met at the New Year’s party. Now, however, there was a glint in his eye - a glint that promised evil.
‘Dude looks insane.’ Sammy muttered next to me.
Penderghast stared at Sammy, as if noticing him for the first time, then back at me. ‘But...what? No. This isn’t possible. Something’s wrong!’
‘Yeah, you’re telling us, mate!’ Sammy glared. ‘Some psycho has a Danti ship down there! That’s definitely wrong.’
‘No, I mean...’ He pointed at me. ‘You’re supposed to be....’ He paled, turning his gaze to Sammy. ‘And you...’ He shook his head. ‘You’re... Sammy Edwards?’
‘Who the hell did you think I was?’
‘Jason Anson. The Fire Guardian.’
I turned to look at Sammy. ‘See? Every single person thinks I’m you.’ I blinked and turned back to Penderghast. ‘Wait... how do you know who I am?’
‘I know who you’re supposed to be.’ He replied, never taking his eyes of Sammy. ‘Ohh, dear. That... that may be a problem.’
‘See?’ Sammy returned, looking at me. ‘Insane.’
‘Insane is hardly accurate, Mister... Edwards,’ Penderghast supplied, still clearly shaken by his realisation, ‘but genius is often mistaken for madness by lesser minds.’
‘Oh, good. “Lesser minds.” Here we go.’ He turned to me and smirked. ‘What’s the bet he’s starting to wind up to his “Let me tell you my evil plan” monologue?’
‘No bets.’ I shook my head.
‘I am not monologuing!’ Penderghast snapped.
‘Okay then,’ Sammy took the lead again, and I was happy to let him. I was sure he had felt left out of things recently. ‘Tell us why we’re here.’
‘Gladly!’ Penderghast took off his glasses and hu
rriedly polished them against his lab coat. Nervous reaction? I wondered. ‘Let me begin by congratulating you for getting here sooner than I expected. However, I knew you would end up here.’ The evil glint was magnified as his thick black frames slipped back over his face. ‘You were always destined to end up here.’
‘Oh?’ I shrugged. ‘And why’s that?’
‘You could never understand the intricate complexities behind my secret plan!’
‘Oh. You mean Operation Chronos?’
Penderghast froze. ‘What?’
‘Operation Chronos.’ I turned to Sammy. ‘What does that sound like to you, Sam?’
‘Well, I would say that it may be something to do with...time travel?’
Penderghast’s eyes bulged. ‘How could you possibly know anything about that? Operation Chronos is a closely guarded secret! Even Miss Roarke had no idea...’
‘It’s a closely guarded secret with a dumb name.’ Sammy retorted. ‘“Chronos”? Really? It was either time travel or you were designing a new watch.’ He looked up at the ceiling. ‘Why does nobody in this damned city watch any movies?’ He turned his attention back to Penderghast. ‘Or read a damned book? Culture! Get some!’
‘What I don’t understand is,’ I interrupted, trying to get the interrogation back on course, ‘is what’s with the Danti?’
‘Danti?’ Penderghast and Sammy asked simultaneously; Sammy was curious, but Penderghast looked terrified.
‘You know exactly what I mean, Penderghast.’ I tried to inject some menace into my voice, hoping Sami would translate it. Based on his reaction, she did a good job.
‘Why are there Danti ships buried outside Capehill, in the Lemniscate construction sites?’ I took a step closer. ‘And what’s with the Danti in the shielded labs of this building?’
‘What?’ Sammy stared. ‘That’s what you found? I thought he was just reverse engineering the ships, not playing with their bodies! Why’re you messing with Danti stuff?’ He turned on Penderghast.
‘He’s not playing with the bodies, Sammy.’ I took a step towards Penderghast. ‘He’s working with them. He’s probably benefiting from Danti technology, like with the ships-’
‘I’m not!’ Penderghast snapped. ‘I designed those ships! They’re mine!’
‘How could they possibly be...’ I trailed off, and from the look Sammy gave me, we understood at the same time.
Penderghast sagged. ‘You don’t understand.’
I held out my right hand. Sami made it glow, as if I were going to throw fire at him. ‘Make. Me. Understand.’ I leaned down to look him in the eye. ‘Right now.’
‘The world was going to die.’ Penderghast began, sagging against a railing. Sammy nudged me and nodded toward the railing with a knowing smirk, but I ignored it. ‘You can’t begin to picture what it was like: whole crops dying, lakes drying up...cattle would have just lay down and given up living. Global warming was real, but we were acting too late. Some of the biggest Superpowers in the world refused to acknowledge the threat, and my projections said they wouldn’t care when it affected them - they would just have said it was everyone else’s issue.’ He smiled at us wistfully. ‘To prepare, I began to experiment on volunteers, to try to adapt the human form into something that could survive the hard environments we were going to face - the heat, the raised carbon dioxide and ammonia, the lack of available water...’
‘Oh. Oh, no.’ Something clicked in my mind. Penderghast looked at me sadly, and nodded once, saying more than words could have.
‘The Danti...they’re not aliens, are they?’
‘No.’ He sighed. ‘By my best calculations, it was going to be too little, too late. The world was going to die, and the rate the death was going to occur was speeding up at an exponential rate. I had to act, and so I developed this.’ He turned and pointed down at the lab floor, where a device sat, looking like nothing so much as a gigantic goalpost. ‘This is the portal through which I saved the world.’
‘Saved?’ Sammy peered over the ledge, keeping well back from the railing.
‘Yes, Mister Edwards. I saved the world. By nearly destroying it.’ He pressed a button, and a Danti Chitin materialised in front of the goalpost device, hovering silently. ‘I’m going to send my men...what you call the Danti...back in time. They’ll attack, kill enough people to reduce the overpopulation, and force the world to band together. This will create Capehill, which will allow me to save the world.’
‘What? How?’
‘By sending the Danti back in time!’ Penderghast sounded exasperated. ‘Weren’t you listening?’
‘I don’t get it.’ Sammy blurted, and I had to nod in agreement.
‘Without the Danti attacking, the world would be destroyed. They have to attack, and kill the right amount of people... otherwise, the world will perish!’
‘How do you even know all this?’
Penderghast shrugged. ‘Although I changed the timeline, I retained my memories of the previous iteration of the world. I never really understood or questioned why; it was enough to know what I had to do. And what I had to do was send the Danti back to complete their mission.’
‘So...’ I paused. ‘We didn’t defeat them?’
‘No, no, no.’ Penderghast actually laughed. ‘Weren’t you listening? They completed their mission. And they knew just who to kill, because the Danti had already killed them. It was a perfect plan, don’t you see? I knew it was going to succeed, because it had already succeeded!’ He gave a little hoot. ‘Pure genius!’
‘You won’t...’ Sammy trailed off and shook his head. ‘I was going to say he wasn’t going to get away with this, but... I think he already has.’
‘Yes!’ Penderghast clenched his hands into fists and held them aloft. ‘I am the greatest saviour of the human race!’
‘But...’ I struggled to comprehend. ‘Where do I fit in?’
‘You don’t. Or rather... you did. But I didn’t realise...’ He looked back at Sammy. ‘When I read that British newspaper, and saw the photo of you, I assumed that he,’ he gestured to Sammy, ‘was you.’ He shrugged. ‘So I requested an... associate of mine to put things into motion which would create Fire Guardian but keep you away. That way, you wouldn’t want to stay here.’
‘Stay here? What do you mean?’
‘Well!’ Penderghast said brightly. ‘That’s a funny story.’ He stepped closer to me and Sammy. ‘You see...’ He charged and shoulder-barged Sammy, who fell backwards over a rail and off the gantry, screaming.
‘No!’
I shoved Penderghast back and prepared to leap down after my friend, when one of the shadows above me separated from the others. As Penderghast ran off through a doorway, the shadow flew down: a giant, hulking black shadow, with a helmet that glowed from the inside, from the red eyes that peered out. The third human signal Sami had detected.
Nemesis.
He blocked my path and tilted his head slightly. ‘Guardian.’ The distorted voice still dripped with menace.
‘Nemesis.’ I nodded and ignited my Flame Foil. ‘Get out of my way.’
‘It’s too late to save that man. You can still save yourself. If you leave now.’
‘Never!’ I swung the sword, but Nemesis ducked it and kicked out, knocking me back. He came at me with a flurry of blows, most of which I blocked, but some still got through. My ears rang from the force of one that smacked me in the side of the head, making me woozy despite the force field. I stared at the section of the HUD to mute my external voice.
‘Sami, he’s kicking our ass!’
‘Noted. Would you like me to take over?’
‘Yes!’
‘Compliance!’ I instantly got an out-of-body feeling as Sami began to control the forcefield, moving my limbs along for the ride. ‘Interesting.’
‘What is?’ I asked, trying to see Sammy anywhere in my vision.
‘There is a familiar power signature coming from Nemesis...’ Sami trailed off, sounding deep in thought. ‘There. P
lease look at Nemesis’ waist.’
‘I’m kind of busy right now, Sami!’
‘Information logged. Please look at Nemesis’ waist.’
I did so, and felt my blood run cold. There, wrapped around Nemesis, was a jet black, matte segmented belt, with a black disc in the centre.
Nemesis had a Power Belt.
‘What the hell? I thought you were the only one?’
‘I am the first production line model.’ Sami corrected me calmly, as she blocked another punch and flew us into the air, spinning around and blasting a fireball at Nemesis, who backflipped away. ‘However, there was an original prototype which was believed lost.’
‘And Nemesis has it?’
‘Clearly.’
‘So anyone could be in there?’
‘Clearly.’
‘Would you stop saying that?’ I snapped as we ducked, narrowly avoiding a kick to the chin. ‘And what’s this guy’s deal with kicking people in the head?’
‘I have noticed that our opponent is using the same algorithms to fight as I am. It would appear as if the other SAMI is being used in a similar manner to myself at this moment in time.’
‘So?’
‘So neither one of us can win.’
‘Then do something unexpected!’
‘Compliance!’
I leapt into the air, somersaulting backwards. Just as my feet reached the apex of the turn, my left arm thrust out and up, and I heard a gasp and thud. A quick glance told me that Sami and I had thrust the sword directly into the black disc of the other belt. Sparing no time, I back-flipped again, the barest hint of a figure flashing through the dissipating force field that surrounded Nemesis. They turned and ran, leaping towards the exit.
‘You can still catch them, Mr Anson.’
‘Yeah, but...’ I turned. ‘Sammy!’ I backflipped over the ledge, letting myself fall over the railing to try to find Sammy. Switching my vision to Thermal, I spotted a figure, crumpled but warm, laying atop the hovering Chitin. It waved weakly at me, and I landed next to it. Switching my eyesight back to normal, Sammy smiled up at me.
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