‘The Vore?’ Will asked. ‘What were you doing in Scotland?’
‘Finding this thing,’ Sam said, gesturing to the gleaming white ship behind him. ‘Although it might be more accurate to say that it found me. The real question is, why is everyone looking at me like I’ve got a second head?’
‘Erm . . . well . . . when we last saw you, you didn’t look like that,’ Anne said.
‘Right,’ Sam said. ‘Bit more like this?’
His features shifted, once again assuming their now more natural Illuminate appearance.
‘Yeah,’ Jay replied, gripping his rifle even tighter, ‘that’s a bit more like it.’
‘I suppose I’ve got a bit of explaining to do then,’ Sam said with a sheepish half-smile, his features smoothly returning to their familiar, human appearance.
He led the others into the common room and spent the next few minutes explaining to his friends as much as he understood about the transformation he had undergone. They occasionally interrupted with questions but they mostly just stood and listened as he talked, their faces a mixture of confusion and concern.
‘Why didn’t you tell us all this sooner?’ Jay asked as Sam finally fell silent.
‘I kept telling myself I was just waiting for the right moment,’ Sam said, shaking his head, ‘but that wasn’t really true. The truth is, I was frightened. Not just about how you would all react, but more because I didn’t understand what was actually happening to me. Suran . . . my dad, did something to me in Tokyo, and even now I’m not entirely sure what that actually was. What happened yesterday was exactly what I’ve been worrying about, that somehow this change might not be complete yet and I might end up hurting people, especially the people I care about.’
‘You told Mag, though,’ Nat said with a slight frown.
‘No, I didn’t,’ Sam said. ‘She figured it out. She’s got a few advantages over the rest of you guys when it comes to spotting when something’s not quite right.’
‘Actually, smelling when something’s not quite right, to be a bit more precise,’ Mag said.
‘I asked her not to tell anyone,’ Sam said. ‘She told me I was being stupid and that I should just explain what was happening to you guys, but I ignored her. Turns out that she was right all along.’
‘You know you’re a bloody idiot, don’t you?’ Jay said. ‘I’m assuming I don’t actually have to explain why?’
‘No, I get it,’ Sam replied, his head dropping as Jay placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No more sucker punches, then?’ Jay asked with a lop-sided grin.
‘Yeah, sorry about that,’ Sam said, smiling back at his friend.
‘Not a problem. Good to have you back.’
Jay gave Sam a brief hug and then turned back towards the others.
‘Right, so we’ve got our little lost puppy back; how about we figure out a way to use this ship to try and stop whatever it is the Voidies are doing to the Sleepers.’
‘It would be extremely helpful if you could undo whatever it was that you did to the Servant,’ Stirling said, ‘then I would like to take a much closer look at this new vessel.’
‘Of course,’ Sam replied. ‘Whatever you need.’
Jay watched Sam follow Stirling outside before walking over to Mag, who had retreated to one of the chairs on the other side of the room. She looked up at him with a weak smile as he approached.
‘Listen,’ Jay said, ‘I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I know keeping Sam’s secret wasn’t your decision. I was just angry.’
‘You don’t need to explain, Jay,’ Mag replied. ‘You were right. We should have told you what had happened to Sam. If it had been up to me, we would have done. You have to believe that. I don’t want you to think you can’t trust me.’
‘I do,’ Jay replied with a crooked smile. ‘It’s not like I’ve never encountered the Riley stubbornness before. Still, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my head, y’know. We shouldn’t fight each other – that’s what the Voidborn are for.’
‘Agreed,’ Mag said. ‘So we’re both sorry.’
‘Yeah,’ Jay replied.
‘Want to hug it out?’ Mag flashed her cheekiest smile.
‘Maybe later,’ Jay said with a grin. ‘Come on, let’s go see what the Doc and Sam are up to.’
‘You’re definitely right about one thing, though,’ Mag said as they headed out of the common room and across the compound towards the lab building.
‘What’s that?’ Jay asked.
‘You and I should definitely never fight.’
‘Yeah? Why’s that?’
‘Because you’d get hurt,’ Mag replied with a smile. ‘Badly.’
Eyes that burnt with an endless fire stared down at the shining blue curve of the Earth’s surface far below. The entity that controlled the massive ship hanging in high orbit above the planet felt a sensation that it had not felt for the longest time. Somewhere in the southern quarter of the tiny island that it was studying, something had burst into life, something it had been seeking for countless eons. The Illuminate were here, that much was certain, but the entity had assumed that they still rested deep in the dreamless sleep that had hidden them from it for so long. Now something, some remnant of their technology, had awoken on the same land mass that was home to the child of Suran. It knew that nothing could stop the final stages of the plan that had been set in motion so long ago, but still there was no reason to tolerate the continued existence of this threat.
The entity turned from the view-port and issued a silent mental command. Moments later a series of massive black cylinders detached from the hull of the giant vessel, their leading edges flaring with the glow of burning plasma as they speared downwards through the atmosphere, heading for their targets far below.
‘I’m not even sure what I did to her, to be honest,’ Sam said, looking down at the pile of dull gold-coloured dust heaped on the tray in front of him. Stirling and the others had filled him in on the details of what he had done when he had left the compound the previous day, but it had not helped to clarify what had actually happened in Sam’s head. His first memory was of waking up in Scotland with a pack of Vore hunting him.
‘I have not been able to detect any residual energy signatures,’ Stirling said, gesturing at the flat-lined readings on the nearby monitor. ‘It would appear that the nanites that compose the Servant’s physical form are completely inert.’
‘The rest of the Voidborn are still wandering about, though,’ Mag said with a frown. ‘Aren’t they made of the same stuff?’
‘Yes, whatever Sam did to the Servant appears to have affected only her,’ Stirling replied.
Sam reached out and placed his fingertips on top of the pile of dust; the individual microscopic machines that it was composed of were far too small to be able to make out with the naked eye, but they were still the root of all the Voidborn technology. A moment later a pinprick of light appeared on the surface of the pile and started to spread across the dust in a glowing web.
‘Something’s happening,’ Sam said, stepping back from the lab bench as the dust began to flare with an even brighter light and rise into the air, forming a swirling cloud above them.
‘Stand back,’ Stirling said, gesturing for Sam, Mag and Jay to move further away from the glowing cloud. The cloud moved to the centre of the room and started to coalesce, a shape forming within its core. A few seconds later the Servant stepped from the cloud. After a moment standing in silence as the last glowing specks merged with her body, her head suddenly snapped towards Sam.
‘Seek immediate cover,’ the Servant said calmly. ‘We are under orbital bombardment.’
Sam barely had time to open his mouth in reply before the first shock wave blew out the windows on the other side of the laboratory and sent him flying across the room. His head slammed into the side of a lab bench as he hit the ground with a crunch amidst the scattered debris. After a few seconds, he pu
shed himself up on to his knees with a groan, raising his hand to his hairline and pulling it away wet with his own blood.
‘Mag! Jay! Are you OK?’ Sam croaked as he staggered to his feet. The air in the room was thick with dust to the point where he could barely see more than a couple of metres in front of him. He spotted the glowing form of the Servant and rushed over to where she was standing immobile, her head tilted slightly to one side.
‘Help me!’ Sam yelled, but the Servant didn’t move or even show any sign that she was aware he was there at all. He turned around, surveying the room as the dust slowly began to clear. There was a clatter from off to his left and one of the piles of debris began to move as Jay forced himself up from the ground. Sam ran over and helped his friend out from under the metal shelves of a toppled equipment rack.
‘What the hell was that?’ Jay asked.
‘I have no idea. Are you hurt?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Jay replied. ‘Where are the others?’
‘Not sure,’ Sam said quickly, helping him to his feet. ‘Help me look.’
There was a low moan from the other side of the room. Sam and Jay hurried over. As they approached they saw Mag lying under a pile of breeze blocks from the collapsed wall behind her.
‘Give me a hand,’ Sam yelled as he started to clear the debris away. Mag winced and gave a pained hiss when they dragged her out from the rubble, but other than a few cuts and bruises she seemed OK.
‘Where’s Stirling?’ she asked as they heard the sound of alarmed shouting from the compound outside.
‘There!’ Jay yelled, running across the debris-strewn lab towards a crumpled figure in a blood-stained lab coat, lying face down on the floor. Jay gently rolled Stirling on to his back with Sam and Mag’s help. He was unconscious and his breathing was very shallow; several dagger-shaped shards of glass were embedded in his chest just a few centimetres from his armpit.
‘His heart rate is decreasing,’ the Servant said matter-of-factly. ‘He requires immediate medical attention.’ Whatever it was that had frozen her systems a few seconds before seemed to have passed.
‘We’re standing in all that’s left of the medical facility,’ Sam said, looking around at the scattered beds and smashed equipment. There was an ominous groan of moving metal from somewhere above them and a large chunk of the ceiling at the other end of the room collapsed with a crash, kicking up fresh clouds of dust.
‘We can’t stay here,’ Sam said. ‘This whole building could come down on top of us at any moment. We have to move Stirling. Try and find a stretcher or something else we can use to carry him.’
‘Allow me,’ the Servant said, walking over and kneeling down beside Stirling, before gently sliding her arms under his back. She stood up effortlessly with the wounded man in her arms. ‘This will be quicker.’
They hurried out of the lab and through the shattered remains of the door leading outside. The scene that met them in the compound was one of utter chaos. Debris littered the area and smoke was billowing from the shattered windows on one side of the accommodation block. The Scythe sat in the middle of the devastation, apparently undamaged despite the chunks of masonry and twisted metal that lay scattered around it. Suddenly a voice on the far side of the compound screamed for help. At first Sam couldn’t tell who was calling out, but then the dust filling the air cleared slightly and he saw Nat kneeling on the ground on the other side of the compound, cradling Liz in her arms. Sam and the others sprinted towards her.
‘Help me!’ Nat sobbed. ‘Something hit her in the head. We have to get her to the medical bay.’
Sam knelt down beside her and looked at Liz’s bloodied face, trying to ignore the horrendous wound in the side of her skull. Her eyes were wide open, but there was no light behind them. He placed his fingers on her neck, searching for a pulse that he already knew he would not find. Finally, he gently closed her eyelids and put a hand on Nat’s shoulder, looking into her tear-filled eyes.
‘She’s gone, Nat,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘There’s nothing we can do for her. We have to find the others.’
‘We can’t just leave her here,’ Nat said angrily.
‘What did Jackson teach us?’ Sam said softly.
‘The living first,’ Nat said, her voice little more than a whisper.
She hugged her best friend’s limp body for a few seconds before carefully laying her on the ground.
‘What happened?’ Nat snapped, her grief suddenly replaced with anger. ‘Who did this?’
‘That’s what we have to try and find out,’ Jay said, ‘but first we need to get everyone to safety.’
‘Safe from what?’ Nat asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Mag said, pointing behind the others, ‘but I’m guessing that it might have something to do with that.’
They all turned to look and saw a massive shape appear from behind the slowly clearing curtain of dust that still hung in the air. At first it was difficult to make out exactly what the towering black object was, but a few seconds later it started to become horribly clear. A huge black cylinder, hundreds of metres high, jutted up from the London skyline roughly a mile away, the buildings around it now little more than burning shells, their shattered facades continuing to crumble as they watched.
‘What the hell is that?’ Sam asked as the Servant approached, still carrying the wounded Stirling.
‘I do not know,’ the Servant replied. ‘Its configuration does not match any object or technical schematic stored within my systems.’
Sam did not need to know exactly what the thing was to be able to hear the primal voice at the back of his skull telling him to get as far away from it as possible as quickly as possible.
‘Have you guys seen Anne or Will?’ Jack yelled as he ran across the compound towards them, his eyes wide with shock. He had a gash on his chin, which was bleeding on to his shirt, but otherwise he looked intact. ‘I thought I saw them . . . Oh God, no . . .’
Jack trailed off as he saw Liz’s lifeless body lying on the ground.
‘Where, Jack? Where did you see them?’ Sam said, turning his friend away from the body and forcing him to look him in the eye. They couldn’t afford to give in to grief now. That could come later.
‘They headed out on patrol about half an hour ago,’ Jack said.
‘Where were they going?’ Jay asked. ‘We need both of them. They’re the only ones who have extensive medical training, and with Stirling out of action they’re all we’ve got.’
Sam glanced over at Stirling, who was still lying limply in the Servant’s arms. He felt the sudden crushing weight of expectation as the others looked to him for a decision.
‘OK,’ Sam said, taking a long, deep breath and turning towards the Servant. ‘You take Stirling, find somewhere safe and see if you can stabilise his condition. Nat, you know where the trauma packs are. Do what you can. The Servant will help you.’
Nat gave a quick nod and gestured for the Servant to follow her towards the accommodation block.
‘Jay, can you actually drive that thing?’ Sam asked, pointing at the armoured four-by-four on the other side of the compound.
‘Yup,’ Jay said with a nod.
‘Really?’ Mag asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Let’s just say that I liked driving other people’s cars before the Voidborn came along,’ Jay said, ‘not always with their permission, strictly speaking. But, yeah, I can drive it. Why?’
‘Because we need to get out there and find them as quickly as possible,’ Sam said.
‘They could be anywhere,’ Jay said, shaking his head. ‘We’d be better off just waiting here for them to get back.’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Mag said, looking nervously at the giant cylinder in the distance. ‘Whatever that thing is I’ve got a horrible feeling that it’s not finished with us yet.’
‘OK, so how on earth do we find them?’ Jack asked.
‘The same way Stirling found us,’ Sam said. ‘Come on.’ r />
Sam turned and jogged back across the compound and into the damaged laboratory. The others followed him towards Stirling’s storeroom, picking their way through the debris. Sam opened the door and looked around the gloomy space, lit only by a narrow window. He tried the switch next to the door, but it was no good; the power was out. He quickly moved between the shelving racks, looking for the device that he knew Stirling had kept there. It took him a couple of minutes of searching in the semi-darkness, but he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders when he finally spotted it. It had a boxy body, with a screen mounted on the top and a pistol grip below. He flicked the switch on the side of the box and was relieved to hear a high-pitched whine as the screen came to life. A display appeared with a single red dot at the centre and two more just to the side of it; at the edge of the screen were two more faint red glows.
‘That’s us,’ Sam said to Jay and Jack, pointing to the three dots in the centre, ‘and those two are Nat and Stirling.’
‘What is that thing,’ Mag asked, ‘and why am I not on it?’
‘This is the scanner Stirling used to find us,’ Jay said. ‘It’s only short-range, but it can track the implants in our heads that block the Voidborn signal.’
‘How short is short-range exactly?’ Mag asked.
‘About fifty metres,’ Sam replied, ‘which is why we need to take the truck instead of a drop-ship or the Scythe.’
‘The Scythe?’ Jack said with a puzzled frown.
‘That big white hot rod out there,’ Sam replied. ‘That’s what the Illuminate called it anyway. We’re never going to find them from the air; we need to stay down at street level.’
‘They’re probably already on their way back,’ Jay said. ‘There’s no way they missed those things landing. That might make them easier to find.’
‘I’ll have a drop-ship shadow us too,’ Sam said. ‘As soon as we find them, it can pick us up and bring us back here as quickly as possible.’
‘Sounds good,’ Jay said with a nod. ‘I’ll go and get the truck fired up.’
‘Can you grab us some weapons from the armoury?’ Sam asked Jack. ‘You’ve only got a couple of min-utes.’