Acolyte (42 page)

He had to try
now.

Jonah thrust his hand towards it and clutched, horrified by what he was doing. He half expected to feel only air, for his fingers to pass through it, but he felt it within his grasp, wet and squirming. He pulled and it started to come away from Kendrick, still giving resistance that surprised him, but the dark fingers were coming loose, the two that had got deepest were surfacing now. With a jerk it was free of Kendrick's flesh. Jonah gripped tightly as it struggled, those long, dark fingers flailing, whipping in the air.

And as they flailed, he could feel them strike the flesh of his arms. He sensed the ragged holes being burrowed, the creature trying to root in him. The pain was intense, but the tendrils kept pulling out and withering.

That's why you're scared of me
, he thought.
I'm poison to you.

He kept hold and stood, keeping his arm stretched out far from himself and the others. Just as he was starting to wonder what the hell he was going to do with the damn thing he sensed a change within it, a sudden escalation in its desperate struggle. Then its movement slowed. The whip-like fingers stilled. The surface of the creature's shadow-flesh altered, and it began to putrefy, falling apart and dripping through his clenched fingers, the drips becoming like the smoke that had been shed by the larger creatures
under sunlight. There was a strong stench of decay, with an acidic tang that made him gag.

As he watched, it boiled away to nothing. He opened his hand suddenly. Kendrick and Sly both flinched at the movement and looked at him, hopeful but wary.

‘Is it dead?' asked Sly.

Jonah nodded. And in spite of the carnage surrounding them, he found himself smiling. Because whatever happened next, here and now he'd dug out a victory.

Even if it was the only one they'd get.

When the radio next burst into life Annabel crossed to the corner of the security room, to get out of earshot of Never.

He looked terrible.

She put the volume down as low as she could before she pressed the talk button. ‘I'm here,' she said, keeping her voice down.

‘We're ready to go,' said Sly. ‘Been a little busy. I want to run through the route we're planning to take, see what the schematics say. Are your computers having any problems with the power fluctuating? It's severe at our end.'

‘It's not so serious here,' said Annabel. ‘The lights keep dimming, but the computers are staying up.' A minute before, Never had voiced concerns about the systems being affected. But it wasn't the computers that Annabel was worrying about. ‘Sly, Never's not doing so well. He says he's too hot but he's cold to the touch. And I'm pretty sure his wound's opened up.'

‘The dressing's wet?' asked Sly.

‘Yes.'

‘Is he conscious?'

‘Just about.'

‘Is he still asking about the morphine?'

‘No,' said Annabel. The radio went silent for longer than she was comfortable with.

‘OK,' said Sly. ‘Warm him up, whatever he tells you. Get him
some water to sip or something sugary, if you can find it. Do it now.' She paused. ‘Two minutes, OK? Get back to me when you're set.'

Annabel signed off and walked back to Never. He looked up at her, and even that seemed like a struggle.

‘Hey,' he said, with a smile as weak as his voice. ‘I'm not deaf; I heard you muttering to Sly about me. What did she say? Am I a goner?'

‘Not if I can help it,' said Annabel. She looked away for a second before meeting his gaze again. ‘Try not to die, Never Geary.'

He coughed, the pain obvious in his face. ‘Sly promised me free food,' he managed. ‘All the incentive I need.' He smiled again.

Annabel made herself smile back; then she offered up a prayer to anyone who was listening.

*

Kendrick, Sly and Jonah made their way down a maintenance hatch at the rear of the pool area, into the plant room that connected with Lab Two.

It was low-ceilinged and hot, with the air-conditioning units and heating for the pool, the equipment sounding strained each time the electricity feeding it dipped in power. They crossed to the door leading to Lab Two, and Sly immediately tried unlocking it. All three let out a relieved sigh when the lock went green.

They sat waiting for Annabel to radio them again, Jonah certain that the rate the lights were pulsing at had increased. When the radio came on, the interference was even worse than before.

‘All done,' said Annabel. ‘I found a spare jacket in one of the cupboards, and a bottle of cola. He's had some, I'll keep giving it to him.'

‘Good,' said Sly. ‘I'm going to run you through the route we're taking. Check with the detailed schematics, OK?' The interference
flared, and there was something about it that unnerved Jonah. He glanced at Kendrick.

‘Building infrastructure,' murmured Kendrick, but Jonah didn't think he was as certain as he sounded.

‘Go ahead,' said Annabel.

‘We're in the plant room by the pool,' said Sly. ‘When we go out into Lab Two, we'll be on sublevel one. Corridor straight to the end, then we have two options. If we go right, it'll take us towards the circular area, where we think Andreas's machine is. It's possible all his people are inside that structure and we can just use the corridor. But the levels above ground were all in darkness when we were outside, presumably empty. I'd prefer to go up a level and along, then back down to the generator. In the site plan I studied there were offices along the north wall, and a stairwell that's the only way up to ground level at this end of the building. What do your schematics show?'

The interference grew, a loud hiss of static that made it impossible to make out Annabel's voice. Jonah still couldn't get a handle on what it was about the sound that was making him feel so uneasy.

It settled at last. ‘We lost you there,' said Sly. ‘Say again.'

‘It looks the same on this map,' said Annabel. ‘Out of the plant room, turn left at the end of the corridor, five small offices then a doorway that leads to the stairwell. Yes?'

‘That's it,' said Sly. ‘After this, don't try and contact us unless we contact you first, OK? Last thing we need is a radio barking out our position.'

Jonah reached for the radio. ‘And if the shit hits the fan,' he said, ‘you run, understand? Take a patrol car and drive.' She said nothing. ‘Promise me, Annabel.'

‘Yes, all right,' she said. ‘I'll get Never to the car and go.'

Sly took back the radio. ‘You won't have
time
to take him,' she said. ‘And if you ask him, he'll tell you the same thing. You hear me?'

‘I hear you,' said Annabel. ‘Good luck.'

The radio went silent. Sly smiled at Jonah. ‘Something tells me she'll ignore both of us.'

‘Let's go,' said Kendrick. He listened at the door for a few seconds, then led them out into the corridor.

Although the lights here were also pulsing, the corridor was bright; this whole side of the facility had the benefit of power from both generators, it seemed. Sly closed the door behind them and the noise from the plant room faded. Jonah could hear a different sound, of straining machinery, coming from further on in the building.

Kendrick strode ahead, gun ready. At the end of the corridor he slowed and took a quick look before continuing. Sly and Jonah caught up, but Kendrick was standing still. ‘Doesn't look right,' he muttered. ‘Not the way I expected, at any rate.'

Jonah could see what he meant. The corridor here was very wide, with a linoleum floor. More like a hospital than an office area, that was certain.

‘The layout is nothing like the schematics,' said Sly.

There were only three doors, all double. Kendrick shook his head and went to the first set of doors. He opened one a fraction, took his flashlight and shone the beam inside, then opened the door fully.

The dark interior looked like an operating theatre, Jonah thought – one immediately after surgery. Blood-soaked pads sat on a metal tray by an examination table, used scalpels and other utensils beside them. ‘Maybe this area was used to prep subjects for the revival research?' he said.

Kendrick raised an eyebrow. ‘Whatever this is,' he said, ‘it isn't
Baseline. Stay here, I'll be back in a moment.' He returned to the corridor.

Sly investigated the contents of the glass-fronted cupboards by the wall, which held a variety of medical gear. As Kendrick entered the room again, she opened one cupboard and took out a bag of saline. ‘This is for the living,' she said. ‘Not the dead. It could be where they prepped Andreas.'

‘The other two rooms are exactly the same as this one,' said Kendrick. ‘Blood and all. This wasn't about prepping Andreas. But we have something more urgent to worry about. There's another difference to the schematics: there's no stairwell. We need to take another route.'

Sly had taken a clean clinical waste refuse bag and was filling it with items from the cupboards. ‘Raise Annabel,' she said. ‘If there's another way up, we should try it.'

She caught Jonah looking at the bag she held. He could see what she was putting inside it – saline, cannulas, vials of medicine. She shrugged, tying the bag to her harness. ‘In case we live. Just what Never needs.'

Kendrick tried the radio and only got a loud blast of interference. ‘Shit,' he said. He turned the volume down a little and tried again, waiting for it to subside as it had before.

Jonah listened to the sounds and realized what it was that disturbed him. The hiss didn't sound like typical interference. Instead, it sounded like a hall full of whispering people, rapid and incoherent speech.

The feeling he'd had before, of a doorway opening, was continuing to strengthen. He wondered if this was the power flowing to Andreas, and if it was the source of interference.

It didn't subside. Kendrick turned off the radio. ‘Your call, Sly. I know you. You wanted Annabel to confirm, but you had a close look at the updated schematics before we left the security room, yes?'

‘Yes. But
these
rooms aren't even on the official schematics,' she said. ‘If we can't trust them—'

‘We don't have the luxury to worry about that,' said Kendrick. ‘Tell me what you remember.'

‘I focused on the area around the circular construct,' said Sly. ‘We could stumble around looking for another way upstairs, or pray everyone's inside the construct and try using the main corridor. It runs around whatever the construct is, leading to the generator.'

‘There's another way,' said Jonah. ‘The power hub on sublevel two that Never suggested.'

‘If it
is
a power hub,' said Kendrick. He looked at Sly.

‘I don't like it,' she said. ‘It's guesswork based on details in a schematic we already know is inaccurate.'

The pulsing lights grew noticeably darker, the pulse more rapid; the noise of straining machinery increased in volume. Jonah still had that sense of an opening door, and a
flow
of some kind. Whatever was keeping the door open was draining more and more power. It was an appealing thought, that interrupting the power could interrupt that flow, but time was surely running out.

‘Those are the only options we have,' said Kendrick. ‘If Andreas's people have been obliging enough to leave the corridor clear, fine, but otherwise …' He looked at Sly until she gave a reluctant nod. ‘Come on, then,' he said. ‘Keep close, Jonah.' He led the way double-time back along the corridor they'd come down, stopping just before the turn. ‘The construct is at the end of this next corridor, yes?' he said. Sly nodded. He took a quick look around the corner.

‘Well?' said Sly. ‘Is it clear?'

Kendrick winced. ‘Not exactly.' He turned to Jonah. ‘Take a look.'

Jonah nodded, but the nervousness on Kendrick's face was unsettling. Kendrick moved back from the corner, allowing Jonah to stand there. Jonah took a deep breath, gave himself a count of three, and put his head around to look.

The corridor was wide, empty and long, maybe a hundred yards or more. At the far end was another wall, with an obvious curvature. It had to be the circular outer wall of the construct, and the area around it wasn't empty. Not at all.

There were six that Jonah could see, all in the same dark clothes Andreas's acolytes had been wearing before. They faced the circular wall, hands linked, heads bowed, parts of a chain that presumably went all the way around. Jonah guessed that, given how little of the circular corridor was visible to him, it meant that there were at least thirty or forty acolytes in all.

And behind each acolyte a shadow knelt on the floor, every one of them as big as the shadow they'd faced by the pool. Jonah was fixated by the sight, the posture of the shadows making him think of supplication, the creatures prostrate before their god.

Midway along the corridor Jonah could see the gap in the wall where the stairwell to the lower sublevel must be. A long way, without cover.

Kendrick's hand came out and pulled him back. ‘A
quick
look,' said Kendrick, scowling.

Sly took her turn to glimpse up the corridor, coming back eyes wide. ‘That's quite an army they have there,' she said. ‘Even if we manage to take out Andreas, we'll have one hell of a fight on our hands.'

The mechanical whine was a scream, now; the pulsing of the lights even faster than before. The tug on Jonah's stomach, too, had increased.
Something is torn, somewhere
, he thought. The flow of power felt like darkness flooding through a rip.

‘Time is short,' said Kendrick. ‘After you, Sly,' he said, gesturing to the corridor.

*

With the mechanical whine growing Jonah wasn't worried about being heard as they sped along the exposed corridor, Sly leading, Kendrick at the rear. Being
sensed
, though, was another fear
entirely. His eyes were fixed on the dark forms, shifting and pulsing to the rhythm of the light. Halfway to the stairwell the whine increased again, the lighting dimming ever more at each pulse. The hands of the acolytes started to lift into the air. The shadows began to stand, their height immense.