Acolyte (28 page)

‘I know what you mean,' Never said. ‘And if fluoride
is
fatal to the terrifying shadow demons, we're sorted.'

By the time they went downstairs a smell had filled the house, one that was calling to Never like piper to rat.

Kendrick was standing by the sink, plunging a frying pan into the water. On the table three places were set, the plates loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes, toast on the side.

‘Wow,' said Never. ‘He also cooks. I'm not hallucinating, am I? I can eat that, right?'

Kendrick nodded.

‘Larry, my man,' said Never, taking a seat. ‘You are full of surprises. And not just the lethal national-interest kind.'

‘I'm also hopeful,' said Kendrick, ‘that a full mouth is a quiet one.'

‘A funny man,' said Never, starting to shovel food into his eager maw. ‘Optimistic, too,' he said around it.

‘Where's Tess?' asked Jonah, taking the seat next to Never.

‘She's sleeping,' said Kendrick. ‘She needs it.' He sat and started to eat. ‘You asked me last night about Annabel. You mentioned ways to contact her. I need to know the details of what you'd agreed.'

‘What for?' said Jonah.

‘To bring her here. For her own safety. My sources tell me Andreas is very keen to locate her. It's possible he wants her as a bargaining chip, but there may be more to it than that. Whatever the reason, if I can frustrate their efforts, it'll make me a happy man. For that, I need to know what “safe” ways you've arranged to get in touch.'

‘Oh, do you, indeed?' said Never, eyebrow raised.

‘I do,' said Kendrick. ‘Or maybe you think this has all been an elaborate ruse just to find
her
?'

Grudgingly, Never shook his head. ‘OK, OK,' he said. ‘I'll tell you. We'd planned for this. Well, not
this
, exactly, because that would have been some fucking
spectacular
planning, but we'd planned how we could get in contact securely, so even if any of us was caught, their phone couldn't link back to us. I mean, if a specific phone is ever linked to you, it can be tracked, but we have a bespoke proxy server making all communication anonymous. As long as your server isn't compromised, it's impossible to trace. Ours is state-of-the-art, Annabel had a guy, a—'

‘A hacker in London?' said Kendrick.

Saying nothing, Never closed his mouth. His eyes narrowed.

‘A hacker,' continued Kendrick, ‘who had helped with Annabel's initial investigations into the death of her father, and who was again helping with her work investigating Andreas Biotech. A man distinguished by being exceptionally good at breaking the law, yet one Annabel has placed her full trust in.'

‘Yeah,' said Never, wary. ‘That's the one. Somehow I don't think I'll like what you're about to say.'

Kendrick reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of
paper. He unfolded it and held it up. A printout, small-font text filling the lower half, the image of a man's face above. An overweight, unhappy, and notably
bruised
face.

‘Terry Weald,' said Kendrick. ‘Based in London. Married with four kids. Annabel Harker was first put in contact with him a few years ago while researching a piece on hacker activists. Only ever knew him by the online alias Yaffle. Terry was arrested four days ago. I say arrested, but really it was much less formal than that. He's been
helping with inquiries
, shall we say, into a recent spate of hacking offences in this country. We have such a
close
relationship with the British. From the look of the bruising, they must have used rather basic methods of ensuring the suspect's cooperation. But it clearly did the job.'

‘Fuck,' said Jonah. He looked at Never.

‘Yes,' said Never. ‘Fuck.'

‘Indeed,' said Kendrick. ‘What was it you said, Never? Everything is fine as long as your server isn't compromised? I think you'd better tell me all you can about the server you were supposed to use. Then you'd better hope Annabel Harker doesn't use it. Because if she does …' Kendrick put the sheet of paper on the table, Terry Weald's bruised and defeated face looking up at them all. ‘Then they can locate her phone. And they'll know exactly where she is.'

Annabel was asleep before she hit the bed.

The hotel was just outside Billings, Montana. Her eyes had taken in so much asphalt that when she closed them all she saw was road.

She'd driven almost solidly for twenty-four hours. Besides refuelling she'd had only one other roadside stop – what she'd intended as a brief sleep, necessary the moment she recognized the onset of a dangerous fatigue. That had been close to dawn; as she'd long-since dumped her cell phone, she had no alarm clock, but she'd thought the light of day would wake her within an hour or so. Instead, she woke over three hours later in a haze of terror, the sensation of being hunted all that she remembered from her nightmare.

Since taking her car and leaving Sacramento she'd headed north, thinking only to put as much distance between herself and her apartment as she could. It was only when she got as far as Portland that her thoughts turned to any kind of planning, rather than just the simple urge to run. Run, and blank out what she'd heard on her phone before she'd left. Jonah, crying out in fear. An impact.

Then silence.

Of all the things she was frightened of it was her own tears that had scared her the most, streaming out of her even though she felt numb, tears that seemed entirely divorced from emotion. A purge
that her damn
tear ducts
seemed to understand better than her mind did.

She'd kept the radio on. News was still coming in about Andreas and his research effort. Any uneasiness about the repercussions of soaking up the best revivers in the country was muted. There was a palpable feel of expectation. Andreas himself was interviewed at the Winnerden Flats facility, and Annabel had to restrain the urge to switch off. It occurred to her that instinctively she'd chosen to drive north because it took her further away from the site, away from Andreas.

And then it had come: breaking news. Extremists, trying to derail Andreas's grand project. A murdered detective. A kidnapped reviver, identified as Jonah. No mention of Never, either way.

Kidnapped.

The tears began again, but this time there were emotions behind them, a confused bag of fear and hope and pain.

A plan formed, for what it was worth. Head east, back towards Richmond. She could keep her head down but at least be nearer to where the kidnapping had happened, where the investigation into it would take place. And she would be a few thousand miles away from Andreas.

Caffeine and purpose fuelled her body; gas fuelled the car. She drove, half-hypnotized by the road, barely aware of the miles as she left Oregon, then Washington, then Idaho.

By the time she'd hit Billings she could feel herself close to collapse and had known she had no choice but to stop and rest properly. She'd swung into a hotel car park, taken a room, and had aimed herself at the bed.

She woke ravenous, showering fast and getting directions to the nearest grocery store, loading up with an assortment of canned food, bottles of water and cola to keep her on the road as long as her body could stand it.

She sat in the car in the store's parking lot and ate a can of corn with one of the plastic spoons she'd bought, so damn hungry
it didn't really feel like it counted as eating. It was just something she had to do, and she might as well get it done quickly.

Then she hit town, getting just one thing: a prepay phone. She needed to get online in case she got word from Jonah or Never.

Back in the hotel she set the phone up, configuring it to her London contact's proxy server. She hunted around online for what little additional information she could find about Jonah. Still exhausted, she planned to get another few hours of sleep before she continued on the road.

And before she let herself sleep, she went to the Richmond FRS website. There, not yet removed from the staff profiles, was Jonah's picture. She looked at the smiling face for long minutes, finding herself unable to close the browser, feeling a curious superstition that if she did so, the picture would vanish from the site forever.

At last, she set the phone beside her and went to sleep.

Kendrick ventured out after breakfast with stern warnings to the others about keeping inside the safe house. With little to distract him, Jonah found himself obsessing over Annabel: where she was, whether she was safe, what she'd heard about his own disappearance.

When Tess emerged from her room at noon, she looked just as tired as she had before her sleep. She and Never stayed out of each other's way, and it was almost a relief when Kendrick returned to the house late that afternoon and told them all to sit.

‘I'm taking Jonah out to earn his keep,' Kendrick told them. ‘To understand what you're going to do, Jonah, you need to know more about Winnerden Flats. Tess has already told you there's more than meets the eye to what's happening there.' He laid out a plan on the table. Jonah recognized it as the alternative site plan Annabel had uncovered. He shared a look with Never, but said nothing.

Kendrick continued. ‘This is the restricted part of the facility – supposedly where their cryogenics work continues, but really it's the core of Andreas's plans. Now, here in this circular area: MCH. That stands for ‘machine'. They're building something, but ‘the machine' is the only way they refer to it. They're cautious in related communications, so a lot of this is reading between the lines. We assume the machine is how Andreas intends to locate and open the doorway that will let him regain his power, and we know that
it's not yet functional. We've also learned that two key components had been proving problematic, but that one of them has now been sourced.' He laid out another sheet – again, it was something Annabel had already found, the schematic of a whole-body cryogenic unit. ‘This might be it. From what we've managed to intercept, we believe Andreas will be at the heart of the machine during the process. We think this is the design for the chamber he'll be in. It might be similar to the live revival methodology, the one needed for Unity. Cool the body to the point of death, then use revival to open some kind of door. That only leaves one key component that's not ready yet.'

‘That's what we're trying to find out,' said Tess. ‘What the last component is, and where it's being developed.'

‘We've identified a company affiliated to Andreas Biotech as a likely candidate,' said Kendrick. ‘It specializes in communications technology, but a new research group was started there eight months ago. Big funding, small team. Secretive.' He took out his phone and pulled up an image of a burly, smiling man. ‘This is Lucas Silva. Key player in the research team, he's someone I've managed to get some surveillance on.'

‘Surveillance?' said Never. ‘When are you managing to fit
that
in?'

‘We're not alone in this,' said Kendrick. ‘We have people helping us. Now, if Silva carries a shadow, we'll know we're on the right track. If not him, we've got a higher-ranking target to consider next, but Silva is the first to try as he's more open in his movements and easier to monitor. He cycles to work, so we'll follow him as he leaves for home at the end of the day. Jonah, you'll be in the car with me. All you need to do is take a good look as we pass him in the road, and tell me if you see one of those things on his shoulder. OK?'

‘I don't know,' said Jonah. ‘I mean, whatever this ability is, I'm not sure if I can bring it on at will yet.'

‘Understood,' said Kendrick. ‘Do your best. The company in question is at a site outside a city north of us: Bethlehem.'

‘Hell of a location,' said Never.

Kendrick nodded. ‘From my experience of Andreas, he probably finds it amusing. Maybe he knows his Yeats.
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?'”
Kendrick's smile was almost mischievous.

Jonah glared at him. ‘Thanks for that. Makes it all seem
far
less ominous.'

*

They left Never and Tess at the house and drove out towards Bethlehem. The sun was bright. Both of them wore baseball caps and sunglasses, enough to hide their faces. Kendrick parked up across the street from the main entrance to a large car lot; Jonah could see three buildings in the complex, the nearest called Cooper Communications.

At 5 p.m., there was a steady stream of workers leaving for the day.

‘Damn,' said Kendrick. ‘That's Silva. Black jacket getting into the passenger seat of the grey Ford.'

‘Not cycling?'

Kendrick shrugged. ‘Not today it seems. We'll follow at a distance to begin with. Then I'll try and get alongside him so you can get a look.' He waited for the Ford to exit the site before he started the car, then slotted them into the traffic ten vehicles back. ‘He's heading into the city,' Kendrick observed. ‘His home's the other way.'

As they followed, Jonah tried to regain the sense that had allowed him to see the shadow on Torrance and Heggarty. He knew he was missing something.

The traffic was growing heavier as they went through the city.

‘Hold on,' said Kendrick. Ahead, the grey Ford was pulling over. Jonah saw Lucas Silva get out of the car and wave to the
occupants. Kendrick passed the vehicle and pulled over further on.

‘You see anything on him?' said Kendrick.

Jonah concentrated. Maybe there was something, but … ‘I'm not sure. Maybe I'm too far away. I don't think it's working.'

‘So get after him until it does. We need to be certain.'

‘Get after him?'

‘Get close enough to check him over, then come back. I'll stay here.'