2041 Sanctuary (Genesis) (20 page)

A final shriek of terror lingered in the air and the beast evaporated back into the half-light.

‘Sarah, what is that thing?’

She looked at Riley and gave a shake of her head. ‘We don’t know.’

Jason scanned the misty terrain. ‘Ask your boss.’

‘Where’s it gone?’ Jefferson said, inching towards them.

‘Everyone, turn off your torches,’ Riley said.

The lights on their Deep Reach helmets blinked off and the glow of the surrounding forest of plants shone brighter.

The sounds of nature crept into her perception and Sarah could hear insects buzzing and the silvery burble of flowing water. Senses on high alert, she continued to hold her breath, waiting for the inevitable return of the light.

More time passed in tense vigil before Locke spoke again. ‘We need to move back to that gate and trap it in here.’

Riley left Sarah’s side and approached his leader. ‘How long have you known? How long have you known this thing was down here?’ Riley grasped Locke’s jacket. ‘How long?!’

Locke grabbed Riley’s wrists, his eyes fierce. ‘I’ve always known!’ He broke Riley’s grip and thrust him away.

Jefferson held Riley back while Locke straightened his jacket.

‘You’ve been sending us out for years,’ Riley said, ‘and said nothing!’

‘Nothing? Nothing?! Without me you wouldn’t have a job,’ – he looked round at those left – ‘none of you would. I pushed through the reforms that made the SED what it is today. They wanted to shut us down, turn it into a military operation. I made the deals that kept us going, kept us in the game – kept us safe. I did what I had to do for all of us and I’d do it again!’

Sarah moved to Riley’s side. ‘We need to get out of here, he’s right, if we can trap it somehow …’

A distant rumble of noise reverberated through the alien landscape. Clusters of bright insects flew into the air before the sound came again.

‘Is that thunder?’ Trish said.

Jason looked up.

A gust of wind ruffled the leaves around them and Jefferson pointed behind them. ‘It’s coming!’

Sarah turned to see a shimmering form moving at speed towards them, the plants parting before it.

‘Go!’ Riley shouted, helping Jason back into a run.

Behind, the green-blue light grew brighter as it arrowed towards them.

One by one people broke away, each heading off in their own direction.

But the light didn’t deviate.

A river appeared before them and Sarah found herself running on her own on the opposite side to her friends.

‘Sarah!’

Sarah glanced right.

Trish pointed in panic. ‘It’s right behind you!’

Adrenaline flooded her system and she surged forward.

Legs pumping, heart racing, mind screaming, Sarah ran from the light.

A tree loomed before her and she angled left. Cresting a rise, she tripped and fell, tumbling down a steep ravine.

After falling end over end, she regained her feet and looked back over her shoulder.

The light had slowed, but still followed. A deep penetrating growl emanated down towards her and she ran on.

A shimmer of light appeared ahead and her eyes widened in terror. There were two of them!

Her legs slipped from under her as she skidded to a stop.

The shimmering form towered over her and the beast closed in behind.

The air distorted and a man in chrome armour materialised from the ether. Leaping over her, he plunged a rod of gold into the ground.

The light ploughed towards him and then reared up as electricity engulfed it.

More chrome-clad warriors emerged from nowhere to contain the light within a circle of electrified probes.

The creature screeched in fury and Sarah scrambled to her feet and ran.

Chapter Twenty Seven

Ophion Nexus watched the monster struggle in its prison of crackling energy. He’d been tracking the Pharos ever since they’d picked up Morgan’s trail. It was fortuitous, as the secondary objective had helped keep the primary from noticing their presence – that was until it was too late.

Ophion strode round the trap’s perimeter. ‘Stage two!’ he said, over the noise of the thrashing beast.

On his command, S.I.L.V.E.R. deployed more devices. Wire cables lanced out to form a net that wound tight, forcing its victim to the ground.

‘Shall I go after the woman?’ Zhang Bai said, through the radio.

He glanced back as Morgan fled. ‘When we’ve secured the Pharos for transport.’

As if on cue, the creature let out a roar and redoubled its efforts to escape. The cables stretched to breaking point and one snapped. Ophion ducked as it whipped past his head.

Six more cables arced out and the Pharos was forced back to the ground.

Ophion anchored his second cable and jumped back before the electricity could flow up his arms.

Zhang Bai approached and opened her visor to gaze at the shimmering form that writhed before them. ‘Will it hold?’

Ophion didn’t know. There were too many variables. ‘Move to stage three,’ he said, looking into the distance with his visor. ‘Retribution draws near.’

Chapter Twenty Eight

Sarah made it to the top of a hill and looked back at the silver soldiers surrounding the light in their midst. Electricity flowed over the creature’s massive form and flashes of light rippled through it, like a cuttlefish. The beast roared in pain and glimpses of translucent skin appeared as its shroud weakened.

Sarah almost felt sorry for it … almost.

She saw one of the warriors look in her direction and she took that as her cue to run on. Reaching another ridge top, she scanned the area looking for signs of Riley and the others.

Movement to the right drew her focus and relief flooded through her. Running down through a field of fluorescing flora, Sarah waved at her friends.

‘Sarah!’ Trish’s voice came through her helmet’s speakers. ‘You’re alive!’

‘They captured it,’ Sarah said, watching as her friends and the remnants of Alpha Six changed course towards her. ‘They captured the light!’

‘Who captured it?’

Sarah went to reply but another clap of thunder rumbled through the chamber and a flicker of distant light lit up the land.

Riley separated himself from the group and ran up the hill towards her. Sarah ran to meet him and they shared a fierce embrace.

‘Are you okay?’ he said, holding her close.

She nodded, looking into his eyes.

‘I thought …’ he said, searching her face.

‘Those soldiers saved me.’

‘Soldiers?’

‘Chrome armour.’

Riley’s expression hardened. ‘We need to get back to the SED. As much as I hate to admit it, Locke was right, we need to—’

Something whizzed past her head.

‘Get down!’ He shoved her to the floor as bullets peppered the ground around them.

Sarah saw Trish and Jason take cover with Locke and Jefferson.

The barrage stopped and Riley dragged her to her feet. They looked back the way they’d come. An armoured figure stood atop a distant hilltop.

He raised a glowing sword in the air.

A swell of noise made the ground tremble and hundreds of soldiers, green eyes glowing in the shadowlight, appeared over the rise. The man held his pose before dropping the blade to point at her. A roar went up and the soldiers surged down the slope.

♦

Colonel Samson followed his men down into the valley as Morgan and Orton fled before them. Behind, his battalion continued to pour in through the massive gateway. There would be no escape. He secured the sword onto his back-plate as he ran, then picked up the pace, his heavy shod boots eating up the soft ground.

Topping another gradient, a strange vision made Samson slow. A few hundred yards to the north-west Ophion and his assassins surrounded a …
what is that?
he thought.

Stopping, he zoomed in his visor to see something seethed and fought beneath a blanket of electricity.

One of his officers drew alongside him. ‘Shall we engage S.I.L.V.E.R.?’

Samson hesitated as he stared at the beast struggling in torment. A sudden flood of emotions swamped him and visions of restraint and torture tore apart his mind. Samson staggered as pain lanced through his head.

‘Colonel, what’s wrong?’

Samson grasped the man’s breastplate and dragged him towards him, as a vision of Malcolm Joiner swam before his eyes. ‘
Let him go, Colonel
,’ Joiner said, ‘
don’t forget your daughter!
’

‘Sir,’ another soldier said, ‘there’s an opening ahead, Morgan and Orton are heading for it, if they get to it …’

‘
The best course of action will be for you to find this woman and return the pendant to this base
,’ Joiner’s vision said. ‘
Harming Ophion will be counterproductive to your cause
.’

Samson pulled the officer closer and stared into the man’s visor. ‘Forget S.I.L.V.E.R., I want Morgan.’

He let the man go and removed his pills from his utility belt. Opening his mask, he knocked back the whole bottle. Chewing them down, he resealed his helmet and refocused on his fleeing prey.

Samson took an unsteady step forward, followed by a stronger one and then another after that.

‘
Tear Sanctuary apart if you have to
,’ Malcolm Joiner’s voice whispered in his mind, ‘
whatever it takes, whatever the cost, that pendant must be retrieved
.’

Samson’s walk turned into a jog, and the jog into a running lope.

The woman?
he thought.

‘
Secondary
,’ the voice said, ‘
alive is better, dead will do
.’

Samson switched up a gear, his mighty legs eating up the ground faster and faster. Arms and heart pumping, the thrill of the chase coursed through his veins as he overtook his men to retake the lead. All he had eyes for were the two figures in the distance and a single thought filled his mind …
KILL SARAH MORGAN!

Chapter Twenty Nine

Sarah looked over her shoulder at the horde of soldiers swarming over the hills towards them. Five hundred yards closer, Trish and Jason ran before them while Dresden Locke and what remained of Alpha Six angled away to the east.

Sarah slowed her pace, but Riley pushed her on. ‘Keep going!’

‘My friends!’ Sarah said.

The whiz of stray bullets made her duck.

‘They’ll have to take their chances!’ Riley pointed above them. ‘We’re nearly there, look!’

Sarah looked up as she ran. A small mountain loomed above them and at its peak a dark opening led to another chamber.

More ragged seconds passed and they reached the bottom of a huge staircase carved out of the rock. Sarah felt her adrenaline falter as she looked up at the climb and she stopped to catch her breath.

Riley mounted the first oversized step and held out his hand. ‘Come on!’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ She looked back at her struggling friends in despair.

Riley came back and grasped her by the shoulders. ‘Sarah, look at me. The man leading those soldiers is out of his mind. If they catch us, he will kill us, do you hear me?’

She looked back to see a single armoured figure running ahead of the rest. ‘We have nowhere to go.’

‘Your pendant,’ he said, as he touched the chain at her neck. ‘It has power, that’s how you got into Sanctuary, isn’t it? That’s how you planned to get out. You still can.’

‘No, we need a transportation device.’

‘Then we’ll find it!’

She looked into his eyes with lost hope. ‘We?’

He touched her face. ‘I’ll come with you.’

She looked at him, her heart breaking. ‘After everything I’ve done? I betrayed you, I betrayed you all – Cora – she died because of me.’

He glanced back with anxious eyes. ‘I know you didn’t kill her and you did what you had to do, I get that.’

‘The SED, Sanctuary, you’d leave all that for me?’

Bullets zinged off the stones around them. ‘Yes, now MOVE!’ Riley hauled her forward and she found herself climbing up as her mind swam.

More seconds flashed by and with each passing step Sarah felt her strength returning

They passed halfway and another glance back revealed Trish and Jason had made it to the base of the mountain, although the soldiers behind had narrowed the gap.

Riley grunted in pain and faltered.

‘What’s wrong?!’

‘I’m okay.’ He carried on climbing, but Sarah saw blood on the step behind.

She clambered up after him, the stairs getting steeper and steeper. ‘You’re shot!’

‘It’s just a scratch,’ – he gestured ahead – ‘look, not much further.’

She looked up to see the void above was close. Breathing hard, more moments of exertion passed before they found the steps narrowing as the staircase angled up into a vertical ladder. Steps were now rungs and Sarah felt precarious as they reached the final stone and …

… a dead end.

The stone ladder had fallen short of its destination, the last few rungs having collapsed eons past.

Sarah gazed up in panic at the large stone slab that had recently swung down from above and the dark opening beyond. ‘There’s no way up!’

‘I’ll boost you up.’ Riley braced himself against a ledge and interlaced his fingers.

She looked down to see Trish and Jason getting closer and the maniac behind bearing down on them. ‘They’re not going to make it!’

Riley glanced back. ‘They might. But we need to get out so we can help them up.’

Sarah looked back up. ‘It’s too high!’

‘Sarah, look at me.’ He turned her chin towards him. ‘Remember who you are, you’re Deep Reach. You can do this!’

Sarah stared into his eyes, took a breath and placed her foot into his hands.

‘On three,’ he said. ‘One – two – three!’

Riley forced his arms up and Sarah pushed out with her legs to propel herself up into mid-air. Reaching out a hand, the split second of weightlessness ended as her fingers grasped an outcrop above. She gritted her teeth, reached out with her other hand and found another point of purchase, before wedging herself into a vertical crack. She felt the weight of the orb slip from her coveralls. With lightning reflexes, Riley caught the artefact just as Trish and Jason rejoined them.