Acolyte (37 page)

There was a sound from behind him and another guard stepped inside. ‘They had this,' he said, passing through Jonah's holdall. Jonah saw Kendrick glance at both him and Never, registering that only one bag had been found. Andreas took it, ignoring the zip, instead pushing the fingers of his right hand
through
the bag's material, a hiss and a wisp of acrid white smoke rising from the plastic as it melted. He ran his fingers along the length of the bag and looked at the faces around him, pleased with the effect. Then he peered inside. ‘You brought toys,' he said, smiling. He started to take some items out – automatic weapons, ammunition clips. ‘Imagine what fun you would have had with all this!' Andreas pulled out a sub-machine gun, turned it over in his hands, then set it back and shook his head, his smile becoming an exaggerated frown. ‘No use to you now.'

He held the bag out for the guard to reclaim, then turned back to his audience.

‘We don't have a prison cell as such, but the room behind you can be used as a holding area.' He nodded to another guard, who stepped past them to a door at the rear wall then swiped a security card and opened it. The guard went inside the small narrow room to check it; it looked to Never like a storage room, cardboard boxes stacked against the end wall. He thought back to the David Leith
revival, and how rooms that aren't in constant use inevitably become a dumping ground.

The guard supporting Rico started to guide the wounded man towards the door. Rico cried out in pain as he took a step.

Andreas looked at him. ‘I think I know how you can serve me best, Rico,' he said. ‘Your time is almost here.' Andreas turned to Jonah. ‘I've been honouring those most loyal to me,' he said. ‘The sustenance they provide gives me the strength I'll need to become what I will become.' Rico broke into a smile that was almost one of ecstasy.

The guard who had gone into the holding room emerged. ‘All clear, sir,' he said.

Andreas nodded. ‘Get them inside. You and Wright stay here. Keep an eye on them and monitor the perimeter. The rest of us will go to Lab Two. We're not to be disturbed, understand?' The guard nodded, and Andreas turned his gaze back to Jonah. ‘I'll take my leave, if you don't mind. Enjoy the show.'

The guard called to his colleague; they took Kendrick first, patting him down carefully and taking the building schematic printouts and another handgun before pushing him hard into the room. Kendrick stood at the back, glaring. Then it was Sly; the guard found another gun and an ankle knife, before taking off a pouch strapped around her waist. He handed it all to Andreas, who opened up the pouch to reveal a field medical kit. He looked at it and smiled at Sly. ‘Interesting,' he said. ‘You actually thought you might survive long enough to treat your wounded.'

Sly just looked back at him impassively, and was pushed in to join Kendrick. Then it was Annabel's turn to be searched, then Jonah.

Being last had given Never enough time to realize something uncomfortable. When Sly had caught him and Jonah going through her weapons bag, Never's instinct had been to shove the security card he'd been holding into his pocket. The moment he had seen the guards coming down the corridor he had hidden the
weapons bag, but he'd also moved the card from his pocket to the front of his pants.

The pat-downs they were being given were thorough, and the guard was certain to find it. They needed that card if they were to have any chance at all. He had to create some kind of distraction.

Rico was being led out of the room, and Andreas turned to follow. As the guard finished with Jonah and started to pat down Never's arms, he knew he had to try.

‘Don't we get popcorn?' he said, his voice loaded with as much sarcasm as he could manage.

Andreas didn't even slow down.

‘Hey, you ugly
fucker
,' he said. ‘Surely the end of the world needs snack food? You can't think much of your little show if you won't lay on something to eat.' Andreas didn't react. In the holding room, he could see the faces of the others, all giving him a wide-eyed warning. ‘You're a shit host, anyone tell you that?'

Finally Andreas swung around, glaring at him. ‘As I recall, you weren't exactly invited.'

‘I can certainly think of places I'd rather be,' said Never. Andreas walked towards him, and Never felt his terror rise. Something about the man's eyes made Never want to scream. They seemed like a lazy approximation of human.

Andreas motioned to the guard patting him down. ‘A moment,' he said, and the guard paused, standing beside Never but with one hand on his shoulder, ready to resume. Andreas smiled again, a smile that was pure malice, and from this close Never could see every fine crack, every dark
mouth
, pulsate in ripples across his face. ‘You really are an incredibly annoying man. That mouth of yours might get you into
trouble.
I suggest you don't talk to me like that again.'

‘I guess at your age,' said Never, the tremble in his voice impossible to suppress now, ‘most things start to get annoying.' He forced a grin. If he stopped antagonizing Andreas now, he thought, the guard would just start the search again. A little more of a
nudge and Andreas would hurl him into the holding room with his own hands.

‘At my
age
?' There was pure anger in those eyes now. ‘You have no idea what
age
means to a
god.
' The rippling lines on Andreas's face were growing more agitated.

‘No offence, but you're not looking too good on it,' Never said. ‘For a god. Can't even magic up a fucking
face
that works.'

Andreas glared, the anger seeming to overwhelm him. It occurred to Never that he'd pushed enough, that he should stop now, but Andreas looked at the guard and tilted his head. The guard moved away. Andreas came close and put his hand on Never's shoulder. Inches away from him, Never was suddenly aware of the
stench
coming from those rippling lines in his face.

He felt the grip on his shoulder tighten. Andreas leaned even closer, the rank smell growing, the thin black lines quivering, thickening, flashes of something
sharp
within. Never could feel heat on his shoulder where Andreas was touching his shirt; he was aware of a charred odour, too, and hoped it was just left over from the stunt Andreas had pulled with the weapons bag.

Andreas looked Never in the eye. ‘Look at you, such a faithful little pet. Only here to watch after your friend. So loyal, but what has it earned you? Without Jonah, right now you would be at home, asleep. Safe and oblivious to what's coming. Instead, you're here to die. And look at
him.
He always gets the girl, doesn't he?' A quick glance at Annabel. ‘Almost greedy of him, wouldn't you say? Don't you deserve a share? But you're right. I'm not a god, not yet. If I was a god, I could do anything, couldn't I? Do you know what the Christian Bible says was God's first act of violence against man?'

All Never's bluster had deserted him. He could only shake his head.

‘Oh come on, you remember! Think of Adam. And think of Eve. God's first act of violence against man was the creation of
woman.
You must know how He did it, yes? All He needed was
Adam's rib, torn from the poor man's chest. Such a quaint little story. I can't help but imagine the
care
that a god would have to take. It's major surgery, after all: slicing through the skin, cutting under the bone without rupturing the thoracic wall, then severing the rib without puncturing the pleura. Not to forget cauterizing the wound, to prevent poor Adam bleeding to death. All done with the hand of a
god
.' Andreas raised his own hand and flexed his fingers, his smile widening, almost rupturing his face, and Never couldn't look away from the rippling black lines, a thousand hungry mouths opening and closing.

Andreas's smile faded. He turned to the guards by the storage-room door. ‘Lock those four in,' he said. ‘We don't want them getting in the way.' As the door started to swing closed, Never could see the look of dread on Jonah's face, on Annabel's. And while Kendrick was impassive, even Sly was looking at him with something that might have been dismay. Looking at the condemned man. The lock went red, and Jonah came to the door's window, desperation in his eyes.

‘Now then,' Andreas said to Never. ‘What say we give it a shot?'

He turned to his black-clothed escorts and nodded to the table along one wall of the control room. ‘Clear it,' he said, and they swept monitors and keyboards from the surface. The escorts and two guards pushed Never down onto the table and held him as he struggled. Andreas looked gleeful, his eyes locked to Never's, the darkness in them infinite. His hand slid underneath Never's shirt.

It was only when Never felt the pain in his chest that he cried out, the touch of Andreas's fingers at his sternum, the heat growing,
growing
, as the touch became a push that became a terrible agony and he smelled the stench of his own flesh burning. He was aware of Jonah's muffled shouts, then the sound of his flesh cook, and crackle, the crunch of bone, all underneath the noise of his own screaming. He was desperate for the escape of oblivion, but the pain had too tight a grip of his mind.

With a slow, deliberate motion Andreas slid his fingers across
and under the rib, pushing hard against Never with his free hand to keep him still, while the other hand tracked around to Never's side.

There was a final wrench, a final crack, as Andreas pulled the rib free. He held it up for Never to see, a piece of himself,
burned
out of his body: steaming gently, dripping charred blood.

Andreas held Never's shirt out of the way and examined his work, nodding with satisfaction. ‘Good,' he said. ‘Breathing seems viable, so the pleura's undamaged. Bleeding kept to a minimum. A job well done! You'll be glad to know you'll live, for a while yet. And you're finally quiet! Lesson learned! What now, I wonder? Have I got what it takes to turn this into a woman?' He held the rib up high, studying it, then shrugged, waving the wet, blackened bone. ‘Another time maybe. It's not quite marriage material, I'll grant you. A shame, but then I'm not a god, am I? Not
yet.
'

As he dropped the rib to the floor, Never's consciousness finally slipped away.

With the holding-room door locked, all Jonah had been able to do was watch his friend suffer.

Andreas walked across and looked at him through the small window in the door, looking self-satisfied. He nodded to the guards; two of them lifted Never's limp body and moved towards the door, which a third guard opened. Guns trained on them, Sly and Kendrick stepped back slowly, Jonah and Annabel following their lead. The guards laid Never down and backed out again. On the floor, Never's eyes were closed, but his mouth was moving in silence. Blood from the wound had saturated his shirt and jeans.

Andreas smiled. He nodded to the guard holding Sly's field medical kit; the guard handed it to him, and Andreas threw it into the room. ‘There. You have the option to put him out of his misery, but I doubt you have the courage. Soon enough you'll pray for death, but I'll keep you alive. I want to
feel
the despair within you.'

The door was locked again.

Sly knelt beside Never, and Jonah joined her. She examined the wound. ‘Jesus, it's a mess,' she said, shaking her head. ‘There's still some bleeding, but it's mostly cauterized.'

‘Is he going to …?' said Jonah.

Sly looked up at him. ‘As Andreas said, his breathing is sound. That makes it unlikely the pleura's damaged. He's lost blood, and he'll lose more. We need to pad and strap the wound, and there's morphine in the kit to help with the pain. Right now that's all we
can do.' She looked at the boxes that were piled at the back wall. ‘Go and see what they've locked us in with, OK? See if there's anything I can use as padding.'

‘Andreas is leaving,' said Kendrick, who was standing by the door, watching through the window.

Jonah stood. Annabel was moving over to the boxes but he found himself joining Kendrick, wanting to look at Andreas as he led his group out of the security control room and into the corridor, leaving two guards behind. One of those guards came to the holding-room door and flipped a cover down over the window, blocking their view.

Across the room Annabel had opened some of the boxes. ‘Nothing much yet,' she said. ‘Some have blank ID cards, some stationary. But there's a box of these.' She held up a white T-shirt with the ‘B2' Baseline logo Jonah had seen used in media reports, and ‘Revival Baseline Research Group' on the back.

‘Bring me a few of those and give me a hand,' said Sly. Jonah stepped towards her, but she shook her head. ‘Just Annabel, please.' Jonah looked at Never's unconscious face and knew she was right. He'd be no use to her.

‘Keep looking through the rest of the boxes,' Kendrick told him. ‘We might get lucky.'

‘You think they might have left some
guns
by mistake?' said Jonah, but he shook his head, immediately sorry. Kendrick said nothing.

The window cover was opened again. Jonah saw Kendrick tense for an instant, but then the man's eyes narrowed with interest. ‘Mm,' he said.

‘What is it?' said Sly. Jonah looked down; Sly had raised Never's shirt and pressed a folded T-shirt on top of the wound. She was holding a gauze bandage in one hand, and Annabel was kneeling with her hands on Never's hips. They looked like they were on the cusp of something critical, but the tone of Kendrick's utterance had taken precedence. Jonah looked back through the door window.

As well as the window cover being raised, the main door of the security room had been opened. Jonah and Kendrick could see all the way down to the end of the corridor, to where Andreas and his entourage now stood, fifty feet away. The two dark-suited men were by Andreas's side, with Rico standing in front.